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First of All with Victor Blackwell

Trump Takes Midterm Campaign Blitz To Ruby Red Georgia; Secoriea Turner's Family Calls On Jackson To Stop Using Her In Ads; Family Says Wounds Reopened By Use Of Daughter's Death In Ad. Aired 8- 9a ET

Aired October 17, 2026 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: First of all, what should be off limits in politics? We're two and a half weeks from the midterms. President Trump is on a blitz through deep red areas to limit some of his party's losses in November. He'll be in Kentucky today.

He'll go through Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Florida over the next few days. Yesterday he was in Dalton, Georgia, in a county he won by 44 points in 2024, telling voters again to vote like he is on the ballot.

Now Rick Jackson, who's locked in a tight race for governor against former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, joined the president on stage. Now for weeks, Jackson has outspent Bottoms, flooding radio and television and digital with ads attacking his Democratic rival.

One family, though, says Jackson is exploiting their grief to score political points. Secoriea Turner was eight years old when she was shot and killed while riding in a car with her family in 2020. Now, over the objections of her family, the Jackson campaign has continued to air an ad using her name and image. Here's a portion of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eight-year-old Secoriea was killed when a group of vigilante gunmen shot into her family's car.

CHARMAINE TURNER, MOTHER OF SECORIEA TURNER: Secoriea should be here. We're forced to live through this day by day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leading up to the death of Secoriea Turner, the city and the mayor were aware of a very dangerous set of circumstances outside of the Wendy's. They were aware. They knew that there were armed vigilantes blockading a public street and they took no action.

Even more disturbing, there were memos sent to the police department not to provide police services in that area. And because of the negligence, the recklessness, and the omissions by Mayor Bottoms, Secoriea Turner, an eight-year-old, was murdered.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: Well, joining me now is Secoriea's mother, Charmaine

Turner, and her attorneys, Mawuli Davis and Sean Williams. Thank you all for being here. All three of you were in that advertisement. I want people at home to know you heard it.

We did not play it in Charmaine's earpiece. We didn't give her earpiece because we didn't want to have to her hear it again. But when you saw that for the first time, what did you feel? Not knowing it was coming?

TURNER: I was emotionally overwhelmed, hurt. It just wasn't okay. I felt like my pain was being used.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I don't have children. I'm not a parent. But I've done this job long enough to know that closure is a myth, that you never close the chapter on something like this.

And so, having this brought back to you as often as this ad is running here in Florida. How is this changing this moment for you? Having to face that grief almost on a daily basis.

TURNER: It's tough. I'm fighting battles every day that most of the time, I can't even put into words. But I'm determined.

BLACKWELL: Mawuli, you reached out to the Rick Jackson for governor campaign. Talk to me about what the specific request is.

MAWULI "MEL" DAVIS, ATTORNEY: Stop running the ad. We were very clear you do not have her permission. This started as a mailer. So the very first thing we received was a photograph.

Mom sent it to me and said, oh, my God, they have my baby on their campaign material. A picture of her. And so, we said, stop doing that. Instead, he doubles down and starts running this commercial every day so that her, her children, her family, they have no peace.

They can't turn on the television at all because he continues to run this. And so, we sent a formal letter. We've reached out to him. We said, this is not acceptable. You are exploiting her pay for your political gain, and you're harming her.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Sean, and listen for people who don't live in Georgia when I tell you this ad is on television. It is on digital. When you go and watch a video on YouTube, it's on often.

Is it all of the ad? Because some of this was in a news conference. The two of you were speaking in a news conference where you asked people to come and share your message. Now, the screams from the 911 call, the photos, that's different.

But all of that, you want pulled out of off air.

SHEAN WILLIAMS, ATTORNEY: I want all of it. The purpose. When we did the interviews, we were doing a fighting for the justice for the life of Secoriea Turner. And the message was about that. This message is totally different. [08:05:08]

The purpose of this message and that commercial and that ad is about a political motivation. This young lady died tragically. She was a child. She was a daughter. She was a sister that should be honored, not manipulated for political gain or political football in this competition for governor.

It is -- it's humane. And the reality of it is what we, Attorney Davis, were doing at that time was fighting the cause for her justice and her family. That is not what Rick Jackson campaign is doing. This has nothing to do with justice for this family.

And the proof of that is the fact that they've never acknowledged or ever offered any condolences. And instead of doing that, they've doubled down and ignored her -- her request.

BLACKWELL: And so, we reached out to the campaign. They've not responded to our questions on this. And you say you've not heard anything from them, or have they given you even confirmation of receipt of your request?

DAVIS: They released a statement. When we found out that they were turning this into an ad, they released a statement on that morning. We did a press conference. And Charmaine, she didn't have the strength to even come to that press conference after being bombarded.

And so, what they said was, you know, we think that the mayor should be apologizing a bunch of --

BLACKWELL: Politics.

DAVIS: -- politics without -- without any compassion. Who could lead -- who -- why would we want this kind of person to lead our state in this moment in history when he can't show the common decency for this mother?

BLACKWELL: What options do you have, more than a request? Is that all legally that you can do is simply ask for it to come down?

WILLIAMS: Yes. We've obviously checked our legal options. But the best thing and the most productive thing we can do is get the community behind us and to show what type of person Rick Jackson is campaign is and to use it, hopefully to their detriment.

We've made requests. We've also made requests to the media. We've asked local media stations not to take this money because we believe it's blood money. The honor and dignity of this young child should not be used for political gain.

BLACKWELL: Charmaine, what do you want to say today about your daughter? So many have heard her name and seen her face in the context of her death and now this campaign. What do you want to say about her and her life?

TURNER: Secoriea was loved. She loved life. She was always happy, very smart. She had goals. She had a future.

And it's just devastating because every day I have to encourage myself to get up, keep going, go to work, live. I have to remember how to live again.

Some days are good. Most days are hard. But I keep going and try to hold on some good memories of my -- of Secoriea.

BLACKWELL: Well, Charmaine Turner, Mawuli Davis, Shean Williams, thank you all for being here. Again, we reached out to the Rick Jackson campaign, waiting for a response there. And of course, I should also say that you all have filed a lawsuit against the City of Atlanta on behalf of Charmaine Turner, her family as well. Thank you all for being here.

DAVIS: Thank you.

WILLIAMS: Thank you for having us.

BLACKWELL: Next on First of All, Florida's tightest midterm races are putting black voters in the spotlight. Candidates are trying to win them over. But will that attention last beyond election day?

Plus, a man once on Alabama's death row will get the chance to fight for his freedom after he discovered that his defense attorney once defended the KKK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:14:09]

BLACKWELL: It is a defense attorney's responsibility to put on the best defense for the client, right? But a black man in Alabama convicted of murder said that did not happen for him because his court-appointed attorney once defended the Ku Klux Klan.

Rocky Myers has spent 30 years in jail. He was convicted for the 1991 murder of his neighbor. Only circumstantial evidence tied him to the crime, and one witness later recanted their testimony.

A nearly all-white jury recommended life without parole, but the judge overrode them and sentenced him to death. But on appeal, new attorneys found what they describe as a trial of failures. They also say Myer's own defense attorney, John Mays, helped turn the nearly all-white jury against him.

In his opening statement, Mays described Myer's neighborhood as the very pit of hell. He told jurors, "You're people who are not used to being around criminals. You're people who are not used to being around crackheads." That dehumanizing tone carried through the sentencing.

[08:15:11]

Listen here to Meyers describe how he felt as the judge handed down his sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN "ROCKY MYERS: I am not who they say I am. You know, I'm not, I'm not no killer. I am not a threat. You know, when the judge told me when -- when -- when he sentenced me that I was a threat to society, and it broke my heart.

I mean, I literally cried over that, you know, because I'm not. I never have been, you know, a threat to anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Alaa Elassar spoke with Rocky and has been following this case for us at CNN. Alaa, good morning to you. And this week, Meyer's attorney filed an appeal. What can you tell us about it?

ALAA ELASSAR, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Victor. Thank you so much for having me on the show to talk about such a serious story.

So, Rocky has been fighting for his innocence for decades now. And in 2025, right before he was set to be executed, the governor granted him clemency, saying that she had questions, lingering questions about his guilt.

Then his attorneys have still fought to overturn his life sentence. Fighting that again. His representation, as they argue, was not fitting because his attorney defended the Ku Klux Klan. However, unfortunately for Rocky, the state has denied the petition.

The judge agreed with the district attorney, saying that because this is his third petition, it's just not valid and they're not willing to hear their argument. So again, they are filing yet another appeal requesting for the conviction to be overturned. And all Rocky wants is just another chance for the story to be heard from beginning to the end.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I mean, it is remarkable when you hear the headline that this man finds out that his defense attorney wants defended the KKK and the questions about the adequate defense. You also spoke with a friend of Myer's attorney who denied that the attorney, John Mays, is a racist. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD JAFFE, FRIEND OF JOHN MAYS: I've seen all the newspaper articles, and John denies being in the Klan. But assuming that he was, yes, those were racist comments then. But when he went to this trial and when he defended every other black person he's ever defended, he was anything but a racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: How significant is the evidence about his original defense attorney's relationship with the KKK?

ELASSAR: Yes, well, to Rocky and his legal team, this evidence is extremely relevant. I mean, we're talking about a black in the South. It's bad enough as it is today. Imagine during those days after Jim Crow.

So for you to find out that your attorney defended the Ku Klux Klan. I mean, it has been a shock. And I'm going to start off by saying that I did speak again to John Mays' friend, and he denies being in the Ku Klux Klan. He told me through his friend that he never wore the KKK robe.

He did apologize for saying the N word. Rocky was, you know, shocked to hear that he was using that type of language and was hurt as he used as he said. Again, Mays denies it. However, he does admit that he did attend a KKK rally when he was defending Robert Shelton, a KKK leader who was involved in some really horrific things.

The Rocky's legal team is using this evidence of the KKK involvement to suggest and argue that a black man being defended by the KKK deserves, at the very least, another chance for his trial to be heard all over again from the beginning to the end, all the evidence, which, again, as the governor who granted him clemency said is she has lingering doubts about his guilt.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I mean, I'm sure there are a lot of people watching who would agree with that request for a new trial. You spoke with Rocky Myers and his son Leandrew. What stood out most to you about those conversations?

ELASSAR: Yes. So Rocky's son Leandro is 47 years old, and he still calls his father Daddy. He cries. You know, he cried on the phone call.

He wants his dad home. 15 minutes in a prison phone call, which is what I had with Rocky, that is not enough time. The line clicks before you can even get into anything. Rocky wants to be with his family.

He holds no anger, he told me, towards John Mays or any of the legal team during those days. He just wants to be with his family. As you can see with the photos, he is a family man. And at the end, he wants freedom and his family.

BLACKWELL: All right, we'll see where this goes. Alaa Elassar, thank you so much for the reporting. We will follow this story. All right.

ELASSAR: Thank you.

[08:20:02]

BLACKWELL: All right. Several families are closer to getting answers after they say the Alabama prison system illegally harvested organs from their loved ones while incarcerated. Now, this week, a judge set a trial date of December 2027 for their lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

They say they accuse the medical staff of removing the organs of their loved ones and keeping those organs without getting permission. In fact, some families say they only learned about the missing organs after turning the bodies over to funeral homes. It's a story that CNN has been covering for years. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA KENNEDY, FAMILY MEMBER OF INMATE WITH MISSING ORGANS: He said, did y' all realize he came back without his organs? And I'm like, what do you mean came back without his organs? Liver, heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had nothing.

KENNEDY: all of your major organs, they were gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just insane. It's like a horror movie that I can't wake up from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We reached out to the university for comment. They said, in part, "Pathologists follow standard medical and pathology procedures in performing autopsies. A panel of medical ethicists reviewed and endorsed our protocols regarding autopsies conducted for incarcerated persons."

We also reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections. They have not yet offered comment.

Well, after serving more than seven years behind bars, a former Dallas police officer has been released from prison. Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years for the 2018 murder of Botham Jean, a black man she had faced up to life in prison. Guyger said that she mistook Jean for an intruder when she mistakenly entered his apartment after working what she says was a long shift. In 2024, a jury ordered Guyger to pay Jean's family nearly $100 million in a federal civil trial.

Candidates are competing for black voters in Florida's tightening midterm races. But will that campaign attention translate after Election Day?

Also, the strategies to approaching winning these voters? We'll talk more about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:33]

BLACKWELL: The midterm elections offer historic choices for Florida voters. Two marquee races, Governor and Senate. If elected governor, Byron Donalds would be Florida's first black governor. Polls show that black voters, though, seem to be siding with the Democratic candidate, David Jolly, who's white.

And the black vote may be key. For Donalds, there are concerns about his support among white voters in the most conservative counties. He lost 17 Florida counties to white opponents in the August Republican primary.

The other big race is for U.S. senate. Democratic state representative Angie Nixon is running against Republican senator Ashley Moody. And Nixon is hoping to become Florida's first black senator.

Earlier this month, she discouraged black -- discouraged black voters from voting for Donald's because of the historic nature of his campaign. She says there's no point in making history if that person is going to return us back to the worst chapters of our history.

Joining me now to discuss our opinion writer for the Washington Post, Ted Johnson, and Sean Freeder, director of the Public Opinion Research Lab at the University of North Florida.

Gentlemen, welcome to you both. And I have you both on here because you both wrote and were quoted in some really smart pieces on these races this week. And Ted, I want to start with you and just kind of go through some of the history now that Representative Donalds is leaning in to.

He's got a new ad up talking about the possibility of being the first black governor. And then I'm going to play a portion of a conversation he had with Politico this week. He says that that's surreal and humbling, but there's more. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As the first black governor in Florida history, Byron will create jobs, fight for our families, and make Florida affordable.

Byron Donalds for Florida. Make history for our future.

BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): I think what it says more about is the people of Florida. You know, this place is a meritocracy. Our people just want to know if you're going to get the job done. That's really all they care about.

I think they don't really care about your race. I wholeheartedly believe that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And so, Ted, he -- in one ad is saying, let's make history as the first black governor. And then in the -- in the podcast says, but people don't care about race. How does he walk that line?

THEODORE JOHNSON, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: Yes, he's speaking to two different audiences when he says that. I mean, when he says race doesn't matter, he's trying to put forward this colorblind meritocratic society that the Trump and MAGA crowd have suggested that's what they're after, even though their actions show that's not true. And then when he talks about being the first black governor, he's a FAMU graduate. He's been in barbershops and such recently.

He's leaning into the identity in hopes of two things, frankly. One is to sway just the right number of black voters to help him, get him over the finish line, but also to signal to those who are Republicans that you're not racist if you're voting for a black guy for governor. So, the things they're saying about you are incorrect. So he's trying to speak to two different audiences, but he's speaking

to the same microphone when he does it. Both audiences hear both messages, and he's going to have to choose how much of his identity is. He thinks it's crucial to his victory. And I'll tell you, history suggests his best bet is to turn out more Republicans because he's not going to be able to win over enough black voters to make a significant dent in the outcome, in my view, and frankly, in history's view as well.

[08:30:04]

BLACKWELL: And Sean, so here's the question. It seems like, you know, for the persuadable black Democrats or independents who are inclined to lean into the history to vote for Byron Donalds might be off put by the other message of race doesn't matter. And for those people who need to be convinced that race doesn't matter, who, when they hear him play up race, then they're off put by that.

How does he balance those two messages?

FREEDER: That's true. It's a very difficult line to thread. As you said, he has to worry about white rural voters who are ostensibly the bread and butter base for the Republican Party in Florida. At the same time, he has to worry about not turning off the black voters that he's trying to reach. So it's a difficult line to thread.

You know, when it comes to the voters he's trying to reach, black voters are some of the most reliable Democrats. This is not an even field he's playing with. And he's doing it in a difficult environment where most voters in the midterm, they think about the president, they think about their approval of the president.

Trump's ratings with all folks, you know, demographics across the country are fairly low. They're particularly low with black voters. And Donald's really leaned into his Trump endorsement for most of the primary. So he has to kind of overcome that as well in order to win with black voters.

And I think that that's difficult for him, particularly because older black voters particularly difficult to move. Younger voters may be somewhat easier to move, but they're the least likely of any demographic group being young to pay attention to that call. So he's trying to reach an audience that might not be hearing him.

BLACKWELL: Sean, there's also the James Fishback element here. He came in, I believe it was third in the primary, 10 and a half percent of the vote. And this is someone who made some racist, racially tinged, some might say, comments about Donald saying he was a slave to his donors, started calling him Byron, said he was a DEI Republican. I mean, and he got 10 percent of the vote.

And now Fischback is saying that he's going to -- some of his supporters are going to support David Jolly. He may not even get those 10 percent. FREEDER: That's right. I mean, it's a difficult thing for him because again, if we look at where sort of youth enthusiasm was for Republicans, it was actually with the Fishback campaign. And as you said, the Fishback campaign used racialized language to talk about Donalds, the Collins campaign. The other runner up also used videos that had some racialized imagery to talk about Donald.

So you know, he needs to make inroads with the crowd of people that already have some reason if they are still loyal to the candidates they voted for back in the August primary that he's going to have a difficult time with them.

So again, you know, making a persuasive move to try and bring in black Democrats is very difficult. It's easier to lean into the white voters, but it's much harder when Fishback and Collins has already poisoned that well a little bit.

BLACKWELL: So Ted, the President is going to Florida I believe it's Friday and you say that the play for Donalds has to be to get those Republicans to come out. So if the President goes there, is he a net negative or is he net positive for the Donald's campaign?

JOHNSON: Yes, he'll be a net positive. Those rural white voters that are a little hesitant, those folks that were supporting Fishback and others, they'll listen to Trump before they listen to a Donalds' pitch. So having Trump come in as the co signer allows Donalds to appeal to white Republicans that he's going to need to win.

Also, political science shows that when minority candidates especially like black Republicans, in order for them to have a shot at really winning, not just the primary but the general, they have to lean more into their partisan identity more than anything else. If they prove that they're a better Republican, if they're more MAGA than the white competition, then the penalty that they're raised, usually that -- usually comes with their race, can be muted a bit.

So between that leaning into his MAGA credentials and then having the President show up and campaign for him will help him with those voters he's going to need to win. It will hurt him with those black voters that he's trying to court, you know, in his off time.

BLACKWELL: Ted Johnson, Sean Freeder, thank you both. Of course, we'll be watching. Two and a half weeks till election day.

Senator Marsha Blackburn has fought against unauthorized AI deepfakes. Well now she's facing backlash over her own AI campaign video mimicking Kendrick Lamar.

She says it's a funsy. And remember First of All is also available as a podcast. Just scan the QR code below for more information. You can follow and listen wherever you get your podcast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:34:23]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Have you seen this new AI generated video from Senator Marsha Blackburn?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, what are we doing here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican Marsha Blackburn is a sitting United States Senator who is currently running for governor in the state of Tennessee. Marsha just posted this video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her lip singing Kendrick Lamar using AI.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the Kendrick Lamar performance Halftime show performance at the Super Bowl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Wrestler Kane Representative Tim Burchett.

[08:40:00]

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: No, Marsha. It's a no for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They not like us. Really Marsha.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just an embarrassment. This is the most cringiest I've seen. I don't know what she thought she was doing, but, Kendrick, go ahead and do your big one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't tell me Alexis Cole shall it when you just bombed the guy who actually performed it at the Super Bowl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But here is what really, really stinks about this. In 2007, there were congressional hearings on the, quote, unquote, negative impact of hip hop on youth. Marsh Blackburn, in that hearing, said to those artists in attendance, quote --

SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN, (R-TN): Where and how did society fail you to the point that you would choose to write such filth?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's quite amazing how certain music is considered vulgar and it's a bad influence on a certain community. Well, that is until another group of people wants to use it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the time, using black music while demonizing us at every drop y'all get.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope Kendrick Lamar sees this and sends her a little message asking her to take it down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to take AI away from these people. AI should not be used in politics whatsoever at all. Oh, my God.

BLACKWELL: Now on the artificial intelligence of it all, Senator Blackburn is an original co-sponsor of the No Fakes Act. It was introduced in the Senate in April of last year. Now, it's not yet come up for a vote, but it, quote, creates a federal intellectual property right to protect individuals from unauthorized digital replicas of their voice and visual likeness.

At the time, Senator Blackburn said, songwriters, actors, and our incredibly talented creative community deserve the right to own their name, image, and likeness. This legislation is a good first step in protecting our creative community, preventing AI models from stealing someone's NIL and ensuring that those rights are given primary consideration under the law.

CNN reached out to Senator Blackburn's campaign with questions about the video, but they have not responded. But here's what Senator Blackburn said about that video on Wednesday.

BLACKBURN: There is a county commissioner that made the video and put it up, and I think Congressman Burchett reposted it. We reposted it, and it's a -- it's a funsy. Everybody get out and vote.

BLACKWELL: So when it comes to Senator Blackburn and her "They Not Like Us" video, what do you think?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Grand opening, grand closing. President Trump fires his press secretary after just five days on the job. What went wrong for Katie Zacharia? We'll discuss that with a longtime White House correspondent next.

And we continue to watch these protests out of France. Hundreds of thousands of people expected to take part in demonstrations across the country. We've already seen tear gas being deployed by police. We'll keep an eye on these and update you throughout the day here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:11]

BLACKWELL: Former White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said that working for President Trump was an honor. She lost that job after five days. The president fired her on Friday after her first press briefing Tuesday was panned. She also seemed to struggle in Fox News appearances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE ZACHARIA, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm standing here and I was able to travel with him through all of the midterm convention, or, excuse me, the midterm rallies. And I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The debut was rocky, but sources say the president initially told her that she did a good job. But after it was clear that she never passed the bar exam, despite calling herself a lawyer, she was let go. And her exit leaves the White House without a press secretary fewer than three weeks from the midterms. Joining me now is White House correspondent for the Contrarian and

host of the Tea with April Ryan, April Ryan. She's also the author of a new book, "Notes on a Blacklash: When a Black Woman Goes Viral."

April, thank you for being with me. We'll talk about the book in just a moment. But first, you are the longest serving black White House correspondent. And so what's your reaction here to five days in, she's out.

APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOSUE CORRESPONDENT, THE CONTRARIAN: She broke a record. And going back to the Apprentice days, you're fired. Bottom line is this president and the administration can do what they do and have questions about their truths or lack of truth, but the press secretary cannot be that person you question, because the press secretary is the mouthpiece for the president.

Victor, the press secretary is the one who's supposed keep the even tone and make people believe the truth, whether it's true or not. This woman came to the podium with questions of if she's a lawyer, if she's an attorney, digging in the weeds about that, if she's telling a lie about who she is and her positioning and her degrees and her certificates on day one, how do we believe her in anything? How do we believe anything she says with an administration that does everything they want without following the laws, and there's no bottom.

So that was a problem for President Trump. We knew going in that there was going to be a problem. But she beat Anthony Scaramucci's time of 11 days. I knew day one, day two, I said, this is not going to last.

BLACKWELL: Well, the administration says they'll find something else for her. They've not said what that is. Let's talk about the book, "Notes on a Blacklash." Now, let's start there with that term, because I know from reading it you've held onto the term blacklash for a while, introduced it as part of the title of this book. What is it?

[08:50:00]

RYAN: So, Victor, I held onto this term since the beginning of my time at the White House, almost 30 years in. And blacklash is when people go viral, particularly black women go viral for their authenticity. And then once they rise to the level of viral nature, it hits all social media. TV goes all around the world. There is this effort to undercut, to knock them down.

We're seeing the blacklash right now. And the examples to Tish James, Lisa Cook, Ilhan Omar, Angie Nixon in Florida, also the Monica McIver and even Joyce Beatty with the Kennedy Center. That is what the blacklash is when you serve and go viral for your authenticity or when your authenticity makes you rise to the occasion of going viral. And then there's that undercut because --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

RYAN: -- you are doing what, you're supposed to do, and they don't want it.

BLACKWELL: And so let me say this. I remember I sat on your back porch and we had blue crabs. And you told me about --

RYAN: Yes, we did.

BLACKWELL: And you told me about some of the things that you faced. I'm not going to say it here, but for the people who believe or will hear this and say, well, everybody goes through that, not just black women. What the book is, is not just a story about you. It's about the context.

And so what do you say to those people to say, yes, you named the black women who faced the vitriol, but it's not exclusive to black women. What's the difference?

RYAN: It's not exclusive to black women. However, black women are significant because we hold communities together. We are the base of the Democratic Party. We are in the church house, the schoolhouse. We're in our own house. We are rising in number as head of household. We're rising in number as breadwinner.

And when they tried, they've already gone after our black men. And once you knock down the black woman, what's left for the black family? What's left for the community?

So when it comes to black women, we have had to stand strong from the time we were savagely brought here to this nation, when they took our men away in slavery, when they made us bedwinches, when they made us the wet nurses, we have stood for every community. But now it's time for us to expose the fact that our strength has been what this country has relied on. And yet you still want to knock us.

BLACKWELL: Yes. You write in this that holding yourself together in public while managing harm in private, and the difficulty of this, we've run out of time. But there's one passage I want to share here from page 217 that you write for black women. This kind of endurance is often mistaken for strength. We are praised for it even as it drains us. We learn early how to compartmentalize, how to function through discomfort and delay, tending to ourself and because others are always watching, always waiting for us to falter. That trap of the strong black woman trope.

April Ryan, always good to have you. The book is "Notes on a Blacklash: When a Black Woman Goes Viral." Thanks so much for being with me. Next.

RYAN: Come back on the porch.

BLACKWELL: Oh, I will. I will come back for those crabs. All right, next. Art is Life. We look at how contemporary artists are turning the Stars and Stripes into a canvas for pride and protest and promise.

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[08:57:33]

BLACKWELL: In this week's Art is Life, we've seen so many patriotic displays this year for America's 250th birthday. But a new exhibition in Baltimore examines the symbolism of the American flag and the complexities of patriotism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYRTIS BEDOLLA, FOUNDER, GALERIE MYRTIS: Hello, I'm Dr. Myrtis Badola. I'm the owner and founding director of Galerie Myrtis that is located in Baltimore, Maryland.

KIM RICE, COTEMPORARY ARTIST: I'm Kim Rice and I'm a contemporary artist based in Baltimore.

TAWNY CHATMON, PHOTOGRAPHER: I'm Tawny Chatmon, a photography based artist in Maryland.

BEDOLLA: The title of the exhibition is Stars and Pride, Protest and Promise. And it's an exhibition that examines the American flag as a symbol of patriotism and freedom and moments of content. The 18 contemporary artists that are part of this exhibition are examining the flag not as a static icon, but as an evolving symbol of who we are as a country.

RICE: My work has been looking at the construct of race for over a decade now. Family values, and it is the American flag with the hand cut will of my great, great, great grandfather who had enslaved people. And so this is his will where he is bequeathing humans to his family. So you see that plunder of the black family happening in real time.

CHATMON: So my work overall is a celebration of the beauty of black childhood, the beauty of the black family, and also confronts erasure, sabotage, subjugation. A nation divided. And on one side, it's speaking of the parts of us and the group of us who are trying to propel forward and move forward. And then there's another side of this country who are trying to move us backwards.

BEDOLLA: We invite people in not to change their minds, but to open their minds.

CHATMON: Art has a way of staying with us. The powers that we also know that writing, art, all of those things are important.

[09:00:00]

And so I find that creating art to tell the truth about who we are and just speak truth in general is so much more powerful --