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First of All with Victor Blackwell

Trump Slams Democratic Senate Candidate Angie Nixon At Florida Rally; Arab Americans Voters In Spotlight Ahead Of Midterms; CNN Poll: 20 Percent Of Hispanics Approve Trump's Job Performance; Howard And Google Aim To Improve AI Tech For Black Users. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 24, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:07]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: First of all, are Democrat donors being stingy with their money because they think Florida might be racist? A Florida Democratic Senate nominee, Angie Nixon, seems to think so. We'll get to that in a moment.

But first, let's take a step back. We are now 10 days away from Election Day and you can tell both parties are bringing out their superstars this weekend. For Democrats, former President Obama will be in Michigan and Ohio. Former Vice President Kamala Harris will make a stop in New Hampshire.

President Trump starts his day in Florida. Then he heads to Georgia. Yesterday, President Trump made clear what his strategy will be if Republicans lose power. Say no to everything. The President says he'll veto every piece of legislation that Democrats come up with to force them to negotiate with Republicans.

During a rally in Fort Myers, Trump went hard at Angie Nixon. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: In this election, the Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme anti-American radicals ever to seek office, including far left lunatic. I mean, I couldn't believe that she got the nomination. The Sunshine State is not going to send a Marxist maniac to the Senate on November 3rd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Well, joining me now is Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon. Good morning and thank you for being with me. I see you laughing here. When you heard from the President, what's your response to what the President said?

ANGIE NIXON (D) SENATE CANDIDATE: You know, it is so ridiculous what him and in my opponent, Ashley Moody keep saying. They're saying I'm reciting things and I haven't even read the stuff that they're talking about. I'm reciting. But it just goes to show you that all they have right now in this moment is fear mongering and divisiveness and spewing hatred to try to dog whistle to a base.

But look, at the end of the day, we have momentum on our side. We're running a grassroots people power campaign. I was just at FAMU's homecoming yesterday. I'll be at Edward Waters University's homecoming today.

We have young people that are turning out in record numbers. We have Republicans and Libertarians that are crossing party lines and Independents are breaking our way. So they are running scared. And I look forward to each and every one of them calling me Senator on November 3rd.

BLACKWELL: All right, so let's talk about the latest poll. This is from the University of North Florida. It is a four point race, much closer than many people expected it would be. Ashley Moody at 49, you're at 45, just outside the roughly three point margin of error.

What's your closing message in these last 10 days?

NIXON: My closing message is that if folks want the government to work for them and not against them, they'll vote for me instead of Ashley Moody. Look,

Ashley Moody has worked less and less and less and gotten richer while she was a U.S. senator. She's traded stocks in the tune of upwards to $2 million and increased her net worth by that. And she's sitting on committees where she possibly has insider information.

And not only that, just thinking about the fact that this hurricane recently hit us two weeks ago and there are still people who have yet to rebuild in the Tampa Bay and the Pensacola panhandle area. And FEMA was cut by 50 percent, which Ashley Moody totally supports.

Also knowing that she was the Attorney General while these previous hurricanes hit us. And she did nothing to hold them accountable, to pay out claims, but instead she took millions of dollars from them for her campaign.

And so if people want to end this culture of corruption, they'll vote for someone who has always stood up and fought for them and pushed back against this rise in authoritarianism and its rise in dictatorship.

Look, I hear what the polls say, but that is they're only polling likely voters. We're not only just going after likely voters, we're going after new voters. Voters who have sat on the sidelines for way too long. And I know there's this notion that we were the little engine that could.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

NIXON: I want to be perfectly clear. I have been on the ground for over two, nearly two decades, you know, campaigning, organizing, building diverse coalitions. And that's how we were able to win. And we'll win in November as well.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about President Obama. He'll be in Michigan and Ohio today rallying for the Democratic candidates there.

Have you had any conversations with the former president or his people about a joint appearance in these last 10 days?

[08:05:05]

NIXON: Listen, we are happy to let y'all know that something is going to pop up shortly. Not saying what it is or who it is, but I think folks will be pleasantly surprised.

BLACKWELL: So is that the former president coming at all? Let me ask you this. Let me change the question a bit, because you obviously aren't going to tell me if the president's coming, because you would have answered in that question.

Have you spoken with the president since the primary? Because he's recorded ads for others. There are mailers for others. What have been your communications? Has he at least called and congratulated you on the primary win?

NIXON: Victor, I'm not going to give you my insider information. We have some good stuff coming out that's about to roll out in the next, you know, 10 days. And I just want people to, you know, be shocked and excited when they see it.

BLACKWELL: OK, we'll look for that. Let me play something that you told Dasha Burns at POLITICO about money and fundraising. You outraised Ashley Moody in the third quarter, but I believe she has far more, according to reporting, cash on hand. Here's what you said about why you believe some Democratic donors are reluctant to go big on investing and supporting your candidacy in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIXON: It may be playing a role in the sense that people are saying, I don't think she can win in the south because people are so racist. And like that is the race. Like, that is the level of it, right? Like, I don't think it's something nefarious or that Democratic donors are, like, racist towards me. I would say it's that -- they think that the state is racist and they're just hesitant to, like, donate because of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, when I watched that, it made me think of Val Demings in 2022. She raised $80 million for her campaign for Senate. So they have -- Democratic donors have backed a black woman statewide financially.

Why is this about race and not about you?

NIXON: So, yes, so, I mean, there's been a ton of conversations statewide, and a lot of people are saying it, oh, she can never win that state because it's racist. They've said it based on what happened with Congresswoman Demings. They said it based on what happened with Vice President Harris, and that the margins just got greater and greater and greater.

And so what I am telling people is that they should not believe the hype. What we now have is momentum on our side. We have a failed administration. That is --

BLACKWELL: But Representative Nixon, I want to get to the point -- the question was, you say that maybe people aren't supporting your candidacy with donations because they think Florida is racist. They didn't think that when they donated to Val Demings. Why is the assumption --

NIXON: Right.

BLACKWELL: -- that it's based on race and it's not based on you or your affiliation with DSA or some of your points, or that they may not know you to the degree that they knew Val Demings?

NIXON: Because honestly, that's what some of the donors have told me, that they're concerned about race here in the state of Florida. And you know, Victor, I've lived here. You've lived here as well. And there is a level of racism here.

But the way in which we counter that is by turning out people, turning out our people, turning out our base, turning out unlikely voters. I mean, There's a reason JD Vance came down here and said that I needed to get out of this country and that I don't belong here. There's a reason that they're constantly fear mongering.

There's a reason that Ron DeSantis said when he was running against Andrew Gillum, let's not monkey this up. There's a reason why there has been a attack on wokes. Stop woke. Right. Like that is what the underlying issue is.

And so, you know, they feel as though since those two women, those two strong black women were unable to carry this state, that it would be tough for another black woman to carry this state. And so -- but I'm pushing back on that and letting folks know that we are activating people who haven't been activated before.

We're going to meet people where they are again. Like, the polls are tight and folks --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

NIXON: -- didn't even think that they would be this tight. And that is because we have a winning message. I've built diverse coalitions all across the state and, you know, folks are sleeping on me. But we're looking forward to bringing the W.

BLACKWELL: Yes. It would be naive to suggest that race plays no role in politics in Florida or anywhere else. Right. But let me ask you, flip this way. What do you believe about the state of Florida? Do you believe the state of Florida is racist? To what degree does it play in your race?

NIXON: So I believe that the state of Florida is a beautiful place and it is filled with people who are diverse, who have Southern charm and who are just working harder than ever and right now just struggling to stay afloat.

[08:10:10]

What I believe is that Donald Trump, Ashley Moody, JD Vance, Ron DeSantis have created an environment where they are trying to actively pit people against each other and trying to make folks operate in a scarcity mindset. And so that is why there's been so much tension.

And I'm even thinking about some of the things that people have stated like about Byron Donalds, even some of the Republicans talking about Byron Donalds and, you know, you know, saying some really racist things towards him. And you know, this is the deep South. But again, the overwhelming majority of people, they love people, right? They love this state. And I'm happy to live here, which is why I'm fighting so hard to better.

BLACKWELL: All right. Representative Angie Nixon, Democratic Senate nominee there in Florida. We will be watching over these next 10 days. Thanks so much for starting the show with me.

NIXON: Thank you so much, Victor. Have a good day.

BLACKWELL: You too. Still ahead, Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is again fighting accusations that he has ties to Islamic extremism as President Trump steps up his attacks on. Are Trump's gains with Arab Americans at risk in that battleground state?

Plus, do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Do you know that line? Of course you do. If you're black. AI chatbots might not. How Howard University and Google are teaming up to try to fix that. And the red flag some experts say, this partnership presents.

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[08:16:27]

BLACKWELL: President Trump made pretty big inroads with Arab and Muslim American voters in 2024. But his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and the aggressive immigration policy since then have deflated some of that support. And now this, in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, is running against Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

President Trump has called El-Sayed a jihadist. Republicans, including Rogers, have tried to link him to Islamic extremism. El-Sayed has faced that accusation head on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: If you're asking the question about my allegiance to the Constitution, I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I am interested in serving the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: But don't let the facts get in the way of a good sound bite. Here's the president yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I look forward to Michigan. I can talk about a man who's a Muslim Brotherhood person, who's a jihadist, and who can't be in our Senate. Can you imagine this guy? He was a member, probably still is, of the Muslim Brotherhood. We can't have him in Congress. We can't have him in the United States. We can't have him in the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: New polls suggest the perception that the president is unfriendly to Arab Americans may be pushing them toward Democrats. A Washington Post poll found that 58 percent of Arab American registered voters support Democrats for Congress this year, while 34 percent support Republicans. That same poll found more than a quarter of 2024 Trump voters were now supporting the Democratic candidate.

Joining me now is Bishara Bahbah. He founded Arab Americans for Trump in 2024, which he has since changed to Arab Americans for Peace. Bishara, welcome back to the show.

I want to play more of President Trump and some of the things he said about Dr. El-Sayed before I get your reaction. The president has said he's a jihadist. He's a violent extremist. He's also done this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know this guy, I call him Mohammed Al-Fayed. Some people call him Abdul. I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, why? I said, I don't know. I feel like it. Mohammed El-Sayed. He said, my name is not Mohammed. I said, I'm the president of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want.

You know, if you're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say Mohammed. You had about a 65 percent chance. Hello, Mohammed. I've done it for years now. I've never been wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: I've been watching you in the preview monitor here, and you appeared to recoil during that sound bite. What's your reaction to what you're hearing from the president?

BISHARA BAHBAH, CHAIRMAN, ARAB AMERICANS FOR PEACE: I am sorry to say so, Victor, that these types of comments are downright racists. It is not befitting a sitting president or any individual in the United States to be making those type of comments. I don't care who they are and I don't care what responsibilities they have.

But these racist remarks are turning off the Arab and Muslim communities and I'm sure it's turning off like with your previous guest, you know, black Americans in this country and Latinos as well, mocking people because of who they are is just downright stupid and racist.

[08:20:09]

BLACKWELL: Bishara, I'm sure there are voters who are watching this and wondering, where have you been? You founded Arab Americans for Trump after the president called for a ban on non-American Muslims coming into the country after the president made many comments that were racist against minority groups.

Is this a new realization? Have you come to some epiphany or is it now problematic because the racist comment is about an Egyptian American in Michigan?

BAHBAH: Victor, I'm a realist. You know, in 2024, we had a choice between bad and worse. President Biden at the time disregarded it completely with regard to the genocide that was going on in Gaza. And Trump came up intelligently and said, I'm going to stop that war. I'm going to put an end to that war. I am not a man of wars. I'm going to be a man of peace, and so on and so forth. And we bought it, OK?

We had a choice. And it is always wise to make a choice between a bad situation and a worse situation. And so let me --

BLACKWELL: Go ahead, finish.

BAHGBAH: So with that regard, the situation in Gaza has improved, as you well know. I spent most of last year in the Middle East. You know, I was the one who was able to convince Hamas to release the American- Israeli hostage that they held. And they released it. They released him as a goodwill gesture for the president in order to lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

We now have a semi-ceasefire in Gaza whereby we don't have two to 300 people getting killed on a daily basis. We have maybe four to 10 people, which is still a lot of people getting killed on a daily basis. That was our major achievement with regard to -- that's why we supported President Trump. It was to stop the war in Gaza.

Now --

BLACKWELL: Bishara, let me ask you this, because we're low on time, but I want to play what you told me on your first appearance on this show. This is May 25, 2024, because while you were going through all of the details of the Israel-Hamas war, there's now a new war. So here's what you told us that you believed about President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAHBAH: President Trump during his presidency did not engage in any wars overseas on behalf of the United States. He does not like wars. He does not want to spend our children and grandchildren's monies and future on sending armaments to countries overseas. I'm talking here about Israel and Ukraine, for example. He wants to put an end to those.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, in February, he launched a new war with Benjamin Netanyahu and now has endorsed him for reelection in the general election on Tuesday. Let me ask you this, because we're almost out of time. Considering what you call the racist comments about El-Sayed and what's happening now with the new war, what's happening in Lebanon as well.

Do you still count yourself as a Trump supporter or even a Republican because you weren't one before the 2024 cycle?

BAHBAH: You know, I am a Republican, but I put my community's interests and my interests, the views that I have first and foremost. So those come before party and the country comes before the party. So with that regard, I believe that the war on Iran was a mistake. Look at the mess that we're in right now in the United States. And the president clearly misled everyone with regard to his desire to see peace around the world.

BLACKWELL: Bishara, final question here. Final question here. The president -- the president wants people to vote like he is on the ballot. If you're voting like he is on the ballot, does he have your vote? Are you still a Trump supporter?

BAHBAH: If he is right now on the ballot, I would not vote for him.

BLACKWELL: Bishara Bahbah, former the -- founder of what is the former Arab Americans for Trump now Arab Americans for Peace. Thanks so much for being with me.

Still ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hispanic voters have been great to me, but I've been great to them, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: President Trump says he's been great to Hispanic voters, but what do they say?

[08:25:02]

What we're hearing from that key voting group. That's next.

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BLACKWELL: Latino voters helped send President Trump back to the White House in 2024, but they may be on the verge of kicking a lot more Republicans out of Congress this time around. The president is now underwater with that key voting bloc on nearly every issue. Election integrity, health care, foreign affairs, immigration, the economy, inflation.

Texas could be the state where that political realignment is felt the most as Texas Republicans kicked off last year's redistricting wars, creating a congressional map to net Republicans five additional seats.

[08:30:02]

But they drew the map under the assumption that they could keep Latino voters who Trump won in 2024. Joining me now is Ence Morse, political data reporter for the Washington Post. Thank you so much for being with me.

Let me first say I learned so much from your analysis of the new map and the demographics. Let me put up one here about these redrawn battleground districts in Texas. 14 percent of the adult citizens in battleground districts across the country are Hispanic. 70 percent are Hispanic adults in these districts in Texas, and that was by design.

Talk more about why the GOP thought this new, new drawing of the map would play to their benefit.

CLARA ENCE MORSE, POLITICA DATA REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Absolutely. So in 2024, of course, our across the country, especially in South Texas, which borders Mexico, Latino voters swung towards Trump in extraordinary numbers. Right. In some communities, this is the first time maybe they've ever elected a Republican for president.

But at the same time, many of these voters also back their Democratic congressmen. In some counties, like in Henry Cuellar's district, right, 30 or 40 percent of voters voted for Trump and then went down their ballots and voted for Cuellar, who's a Democrat, to represent them in Congress.

And so while there was this swing towards Trump, which the maps were based on, of course, there was also this. You know, these are not people who have been voting Republican for generations. They're very willing to split their tickets. And if they're not happy with the way that the Trump administration is going for them, they are very likely to come back and back Democrats, which we've seen in some of these polls in these districts in Texas.

BLACKWELL: So Republicans in Texas drew these new districts to try to spread around some of that Latino support in 2024 to gain those seats in South Texas that now appears to be backfiring because of the president's unpopularity there.

Do Republicans in Texas acknowledge that it's backfiring?

MORSE: I think for the candidates in these districts, certainly they feel, you know, that they are not running in a district that they have the lead in by 10 points or in some cases by 17 points. Right. Which is the margin that Trump won some of these districts in. You have people saying things like, I'm an underdog here. You know, there aren't very many Republicans in this part of Texas. And people who, you know, realize that, like, these maps were drawn by

a political consultant who was not looking at the House vote, who was not looking at the way that people vote in these congressional races and on the ground, certainly this is why you're seeing battleground polls and Republicans pulling advertising from districts that Trump won by 10 points or more.

BLACKWELL: You talked about the ticket splitting. Also learned that for the five counties with top ticket splitting in the country were there in South Texas. What does this portend for the statewide races? Beyond the congressional discussion, what does this mean for the Talarico, Paxton and the Hinojosa, Abbott races?

MORSE: Absolutely. So, I think what we see is that the presidential election really is different for a lot of these voters. There was a recent Post poll that showed Talarico and some of these districts, Texas 34 and 35, performing even better than the Democratic Congressional candidates. And so there may be some appetite for those statewide races, depending on the candidate, depending on how people are feeling, to perhaps be even more Democratic than the congressional election in some of these districts.

BLACKWELL: Ence Morse of the Washington Post, thank you so much for this reporting, giving us an insight into what now is the fruit of the redistricting from 2025 there in Texas.

Coming up, the former head of Arab Americans for Peace says he wouldn't vote for President Trump again. Florida Representative Angie Nixon promised us a surprise in the next few days. She says maybe people aren't donating to her campaign because they think Florida is racist.

We have a lot to talk about and my panel weighs in. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:48]

BLACKWELL: A lot of political headlines made this hour. Joining me now, April Chapman, host of the "Unshakeable with April Chapman" and LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. Welcome to you both.

So I've watched a few episodes of Unshakeable now, and you were celebrating the redistricting across the country, the Calais decision, dancing, literally, because you said this is the shot for Republicans now. You said Democrats could not win once their racial gerrymandering was ended. You heard the conversation about what happened in Texas.

APRIL CHAPMAN, HOST OF "UNSHAKABLE WITH APRIL CHAPMAN": Yes.

BLACKWELL: What happened to that?

CHAPMAN: Well, I think my celebratory dance that I was doing had more to do with the fact that I believed that these majority black districts needed to be broken up. If you haven't proven to improve the lives of the constituents that you claim that you represent and you assume that if you put all of us together there, we're all going to vote for you, which we have been.

My thing was just break it up and let's see. Well, Texas is proving that breaking up these districts could have necessarily not benefited the GOP, which is fine. My argument was we should break up the districts and we shouldn't have had the districts based off race.

[08:40:00]

BLACKWELL: But isn't that exactly what the Republicans in Texas did to put Latinos in specific districts based on the strength in 2024, thinking that would boost them five additional seats. What they did not count on was the rejection from Latinos of the president and Republican policies that now seem to be putting even incumbents in jeopardy.

CHAPMAN: Right. Well, there was no guarantee that breaking up these districts was going to automatically guarantee more GOPCs. The issue was and Texas is a little different because you do have the Latino factor there. You've got other states, though, where if you well, South Carolina didn't count. But in Tennessee and other states where those black districts were broken up, the whole purpose of doing that was to break up the hold that the Congressional Black Caucus, in my opinion, has had and assumed that those votes would belong to them.

BLACKWELL: LaTosha.

LATOSHA BROWN, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK VOTERS MATTER: So this isn't about the whole of the Congressional Black Caucus. This is really about black political power and literally diluting black political power. And what we're seeing is ultimately we're seeing a backlash on that. It is not working in their favor that they over what you can depend on racists to do is always overshot.

And so part of what it has also done is even Republican incumbents have not necessarily saved, so they're making competitive. When you're looking at the south right now, the south is in play in areas that should be Republican strongholds. What you're seeing, you're seeing a -- in Georgia, a state that was a Republican stronghold where someone even on the gubernatorial level where the candidate was outspin that Keisha Lance Bottoms --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BROWN: -- Rick Jackson has outspent -- spent her 10 to 1. You're looking at in Mississippi, a state like Mississippi, right, that now you have a competitive U.S. Senate seat race that is happening. You're looking at Florida, where you have a competitive U.S. Senate seat. You're looking at some of the Senate races throughout the south that traditionally with strongholds, I think we're seeing a backlash.

BLACKWELL: LaTosha, let me play for you. This is the president of the National Democratic -- Democrats Redistricting Committee. You say a lot of what Republicans have done. Here's what he's saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BISOGNANO, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE: If Republicans choose to go down that path and do what they have been claiming they're going to do, start redrawing seats across the south again, there will be Democratic states that are prepared to respond and I think that's necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And so another round of this. When should this end? Should Democrats be done with redistricting too? Mid cycle, I should say.

BROWN: You know, I think at the end of the day, let's talk about what was the precursor for doing this. This really was about diluting black political power. And I think that there's, it is insane for us to think that black people, that ultimately it's around -- if more Democratic districts, then ultimately that's the issue around party. This was about participation -- participation.

And this has been even as he's talking about this redistricting, black voters are responding because we say it's our choice that even in district, you look in Alabama and Alabama district where you have Shomari Figures, that district was 48 percent African American. That wasn't even a majority black district in the way that it's been framed. Now it's 40 percent. So this idea of taking power away to loot -- to dilute black political power, it's backfiring on them.

BLACKWELL: April, let me ask you about the comments from the president, also from Mike Rogers about Abdul El-Sayed suggesting he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, that he is a violent jihadist that has no place in the government.

Do you think this works? I mean, Donald Trump was introduced to many politically by claiming Barack Obama was not an American. And then he won twice. Do you think that works?

CHAPMAN: I think it works when you have a country that lived through 9/11 and people are very concerned about the Islamification of America. And so when you have someone that's radical, in my opinion, as someone as Abdul El-Sayed and who is very hesitant to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, whose sister has gone on --

BLACKWELL: We just played record. We just played it.

CHAPMAN: Eventually he did it. But Americans are still very concerned about possible sleeper cells. People are legislative being taken over by Islamic extremists or outsiders who don't really love America, particularly when they have a lot of anti-American rhetoric.

BLACKWELL: LaTosha?

BROWN: Yes, I don't think that -- I think that that's an old take that has run its course. The truth of the matter is what people, what Americans are really concerned about is gas prices right now.

CHAPMAN: We are concerned about gas prices. BROWN: What Americans are really concerned about right now is that there's fairness, that what Americans are concerned about right now is the cost of living. So let's center what it really is about and what we're seeing. And there is this -- there is a backlash and I think we're seeing it across the board around this idea of demonizing people, this behavior of this overt racism.

BLACKWELL: What's your concern?

CHAPMAN: Well, it's really the policy.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you this. The concern that many in the party have about Abdul El-Sayed support among black voters, President Obama is going there today to stand on stage with him in Detroit.

[08:45:02]

Is that a warranted concern? Because this was the same question was asked in 2024, will Black people show up for black men show up for Kamala Harris? Is it warranted that there should be concern about El- Sayed?

BROWN: Yes, you know, I think that this election cycle is going to be determined. I think that black voters are particularly energized in a different kind of way because all that is happening. I think independent voters will make a difference. I think Latino voters will make a difference.

There is this history that there are black people in Michigan that are upset with what happened to Dearborn in the last election cycle. I think what we're seeing now, if you go from Sayed -- if you see his support from the summer to now, he has been gaining ground. I also want to remind people of what happened with Mamdani that initially black voters were not supporting him and they came out in record numbers.

So I think it's a matter of connecting the dots. And I think Obama being there and other black elected officials, I think it's going to help connect the dots.

BLACKWELL: All right, LaTosha Brown, April Chapman, we've got to wrap it there. We have had a packed show. Thank you so much for weighing in.

Still ahead, Google and Howard University are teaming up to train chatbots to better understand black voices. Why some advocates are raising concerns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:23]

BLACKWELL: AI and data centers have become villains in these midterm elections, but people are still using them to help the midterm elections. There's this new Pew Research poll that finds a small but growing number of people used AI to find where candidates stand on issues, fact check something they read or found info about candidates life or their career.

Chatbots can be a powerful tool, but too often communities of color are left out of the conversation when these technologies are developed and that can lead to bias. Take this experiment at Stanford University.

Researchers found that for every 100 words, voice recognition systems made 19 errors for white speakers compared to 35 errors for black speakers. That's why Howard University and Google have teamed up to launch Project Elevate Black Voices to improve voice recognition software for African Americans.

Joining me now is Gloria Washington, a professor at Howard and a co- principal investigator of Project Elevate Black Voices. Professor Washington, thank you for being with me.

Let me first ask what is the problem you're trying to solve? Is it simply the recognition eliminating the need for code switching? Start there.

DR. GLORIA WASHINGTON, RESEARCH PROFESSOR, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: Yes. In a nutshell, black people deserve to use their natural voice when using voice assistant technology like speaking to Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant or anything that in their car. So just speaking a natural tone and without code switching, we deserve to speak in our natural voice.

BLACKWELL: So you're collecting 600 hours of voices of black people across the country for this partnership with Google. Bo Young Lee, who is the former chief of DEI at Uber Technology, she published some thoughts on LinkedIn in which she said that 600 hours is just enough data to help AI mimic African American English, but not to combat biases.

She wrote this, the problem really isn't that AI struggles to understand speakers of African American English. That's just a superficial problem that impacts commercial usage of the tools and thus impacts the profit potential of AI within the black community.

That this is just enough to help the companies make money off black people, but not to really get to the greater problems of black users. What do you say to that?

WASHINGTON: I say that the key difference is we own this data set. So this is not about Google. This is about Howard University. I'm a computer science researcher and so we own this data set and we are working with the black community, HBCU communities around this data set in developing fair uses guidelines.

And we're keeping them in mind. We own the intellectual property and work -- we're working with the community to design the things that they want to see.

BLACKWELL: And so once they get this information from you, you own the data set. Correct. But the question that --

WASHINGTON: Yes.

BLACKWELL: I'll put this up from Dr. Janice Gassam Asare who wrote in Forbes, in the wrong hands though, this type of data could be used in nefarious ways, furthering the use of black AI influencers, digital blackface training, AI products without the compensation or credit, in some cases the knowledge of those whose data was used to train these products and expanding use of surveillance technologies.

How do you prevent exploitation? Because y yes, you own the data, but there must be some interest for Google to be involved.

WASHINGTON: Yes. So we do own the data, but we started with the community first and foremost. We didn't design this project in mind with Google. We designed this project in mind with a black community that owns the data.

We developed these fair uses guidelines behind what we can do with the data. They spoke up and spoke up loud and clear about where they want to see their data used. So, we created these products and projects for actually helping the black community. So, this is not about Google, it's about Howard University.

And the black community wants to see this technology do better with black and so the true differences. But we also are working with the community. We're also transferring it back to the community. Yes.

BLACKWELL: All right. Gloria Washington, a professor at Howard University, who's the co-investigative lead of this Elevate Black Voices. Thank you so much for being with me.

[08:55:04]

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