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Joe Madison Loses 25lbs From Hunger Strike Against Voting Rights Violations | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Dec 17, 2021
Sirius XM radio host Joe Madison, is on a hunger strike over what he has called a "politically and morally wrong" attack on voting rights. He is well over 30 days into his protest and it doesnt plan on stopping until he sees results.
Madison's comments come as Democrats, who hold the majority in both chambers of Congress and control the White House, have been pressured to pass legislation on voting rights reform. But Senate Republicans, who hold 50 seats in the chamber, have repeatedly blocked the legislation, and Democrats on the left have increasingly called on their party's senators to gut the Senate's filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to advance most legislation.
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Joe Madison Loses 25lbs From Hunger Strike Against Voting Rights Violations | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
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0:00
bills gets passed
0:03
ladies and gentlemen wow
0:05
he is our fearless leader here at sirius
0:08
xm if it wasn't for him it would be no
0:10
spit serious xm if you ask me
0:12
this is the world
0:14
record
0:15
holder
0:17
breaking the marathon broadcast record
0:19
and he talked for 52 hours on the sirius
0:22
xm talk show
0:23
this man is the freedom of speech award
0:26
talkers magazine recipient
0:28
this man is a pillar in the community 10
0:30
toes down all we say when i mention his
0:32
name he's the reason why i got inducted
0:35
into the radio hall of fame because he's
0:37
the one that nominated me and i gave him
0:39
nothing but powerful respect when i went
0:41
out there to speak um and receive that
0:44
award he's known as the black eagle or
0:47
you could call him madison i'll call him
0:49
our leader welcome him back to the show
0:51
the one and only joe madison is here
0:52
ladies and gentlemen joel
0:55
madden
0:57
hey
0:58
joe how you feeling like i know
1:00
physically this has to be a toll on you
1:02
you've been on this hunger strike since
1:04
november the 8th
1:06
well
1:07
you know uh first of all man i love you
1:10
dearly and and your whole crew i i mean
1:13
you you got the
1:14
you got the hottest show on town i i you
1:17
just uh
1:19
amazed me to to answer your question
1:22
they you know if there are good days and
1:26
there are bad days now yesterday
1:29
uh i got to be honest a
1:32
little dizzy and
1:34
headaches and uh and and i just had to
1:38
lie down and
1:40
i ended up uh
1:42
popping down like about two in the
1:44
afternoon didn't wake up till 7. but
1:47
that's a that's uh that's expected
1:51
um
1:52
and and then you know
1:54
you you have days like this when you get
1:57
to talk to
1:59
people like you and
2:01
and most people have been
2:03
uh
2:04
encouraging
2:06
and then there is some good news
2:09
uh
2:10
and and that is that there is
2:12
movement
2:13
okay um
2:14
and and here's why i'm so glad that i
2:17
got a chance to to talk with you and
2:21
and and that is
2:23
uh we're we're being told that one thing
2:26
republi the gop the republicans have
2:30
made it clear
2:32
all 50 of them in the united states
2:34
senate
2:35
have made it clear that they are now the
2:38
party of voter suppression
2:41
no none of them are going to vote for
2:44
the john lewis uh
2:46
bill or for the people's act
2:49
however
2:50
the the democrats there were
2:53
approximately 13 of them
2:56
not just mansion and from
2:59
west virginia and cinema from arizona
3:01
who were holding out
3:03
but there were 13 of them who didn't
3:06
want to change
3:08
the
3:09
filibuster rule or which
3:12
or to carve it out
3:14
and and put it aside so that they could
3:17
pass these two bills
3:19
well they they did just that
3:23
last week
3:24
for the
3:26
debt ceiling bill in other words to keep
3:28
the bills paid until
3:30
2023. so you know real quick
3:34
the argument is now out the window if
3:37
you can
3:39
carve out the filibuster bill in other
3:41
words put it aside
3:44
for the for the uh
3:46
debt ceiling paying the bills of the
3:48
country then lord knows
3:50
you can put it aside for voting rights
3:54
because that is fundamental and senator
3:57
warnock
3:58
from georgia
4:00
went on the floor of the senate
4:02
uh yesterday and made that point
4:07
then
4:08
i've heard from the senators who have
4:10
said what because i asked them what do
4:13
you want
4:14
our audience to do
4:16
and they said hold their feet to the
4:19
fire
4:20
please
4:22
tweet call
4:24
march demonstrate um whatever app you
4:28
use
4:29
um
4:30
you know i've i've made the point
4:33
that it and and you know this is i'm i'm
4:36
i'm old school so i'm calling and
4:38
marching and all that but i you know i
4:40
said to myself
4:42
you know if if somebody put a video out
4:46
on social media of a cat scratching its
4:49
ass
4:50
um if he'd get a million hits you would
4:53
um
4:53
[Laughter]
5:02
but you know man let me tell you if a
5:05
million
5:07
people
5:08
uh
5:10
you know who use know how to use social
5:12
media especially young people
5:15
man
5:16
they they're saying right now they're
5:18
talking right now they believe that they
5:21
can get all 50 democratic senators
5:25
uh to do what they did for the the
5:28
country's budget and
5:30
let's get this these bills passed
5:33
can let me give you an example what i
5:35
found out
5:36
that in in new hampshire and maine
5:40
that you actually
5:43
have to
5:44
register your car
5:47
if you are a student
5:49
and want to vote in new hampshire or
5:51
maine in order to register to vote
5:55
um
5:56
in in some of these states they're
5:58
passing
6:00
laws that they're going to get rid of
6:02
absentee balloting in michigan uh suede
6:07
they they actually tried to pass a law
6:09
that if grandma
6:11
is in a nursing home
6:13
she in order for her to get an absentee
6:16
ballot you can't take it to grandma
6:19
she has to get leave that nursing home
6:22
and go to the city clerk's office
6:25
in order to get an absentee ballot
6:29
yeah this is this is what's going on
6:32
and this is the kind of the freedom this
6:34
is joe madison by the way um our
6:36
fearless leader who's been on strike a
6:37
hunger strike
6:39
since november the 8th uh until congress
6:42
passes the president biden
6:44
signs the freedom to vote act or the
6:46
john lewis voting rights advancement act
6:48
and this bill will protect our elections
6:50
from voter suppression partisan sabotage
6:53
as we're seeing gerrymandering
6:55
and dark and dark and dark money
6:58
and you've been doing this you've
7:00
actually lost what have you lost like 20
7:02
pounds like it oh
7:04
it's it's now down to 20 25. uh you know
7:08
and i and i always
7:10
hesitate to tell you that
7:12
that uh it's not about me
7:15
yeah as i said
7:17
but answer your question uh i you know
7:20
my my wife insisted
7:23
that if i was going to do this
7:25
and and and i told her i was i didn't
7:28
ask permission but i just thought i was
7:30
going to do it because it has to be done
7:32
then she insisted i go to the doctor and
7:35
and i so i got a baseline when i started
7:39
to so the day
7:40
sway is uh
7:42
the 30 uh 38 days
7:45
um
7:46
i was
7:47
194
7:49
uh i'm down now to
7:53
169.
7:55
okay
7:58
yeah that's that that's the weight but
8:00
you know there's there are easier ways
8:02
to lose weight
8:05
yeah yeah man yeah it's a couple i could
8:07
think of a few but that that's how
8:09
important this is you literally are
8:10
putting your life on the line and i saw
8:12
you had a chance to speak with eric
8:14
holder who was the 82nd u.s attorney
8:15
general
8:17
um
8:18
what was his what were his thoughts like
8:20
about this act actually well
8:23
his
8:24
i eric said eric was
8:28
said keep doing it
8:30
yeah and i got to tell you
8:32
um eric was like man
8:36
uh
8:37
you're doing you i understand why you're
8:39
doing it
8:40
he never discouraged me
8:42
uh he he is now on board
8:46
uh his he's got a couple organizations
8:48
that are trying to fight gerrymandering
8:52
uh uh and they're going state by state
8:55
uh but the two bills would address this
8:59
whole problem of gerrymandering where
9:01
they're carving up districts
9:03
and and and and uh
9:06
and and they're doing it under partisan
9:09
so that they create a district where a
9:11
republican will automatically win or by
9:14
that matter a democrat will
9:17
automatically
9:18
uh win
9:20
um
9:21
i have had a conversation
9:24
with uh majority leader uh
9:28
uh chuck schumer
9:30
who has been encouraging
9:32
uh we were able to to flip senator mark
9:37
warner of virginia who at first was
9:40
reluctant to
9:42
uh change the filibuster rules he now is
9:46
is is on board
9:48
along and we're hearing from many of
9:50
those 13
9:52
senators the target appears to be
9:58
uh cinema from arizona and i don't know
10:01
if you heard
10:03
that there were there are now
10:05
20 plus young people
10:08
uh in arizona that decided that they're
10:12
going on a hunger strike to put pressure
10:15
on senator
10:17
cinema and they actually got on a plane
10:21
and flew here
10:23
uh
10:24
this earlier this week and as we speak
10:28
they are protesting every day this week
10:31
in front of the uh
10:33
in front of the white house and
10:36
and and and and and encouraging
10:40
president biden to
10:42
speak out
10:44
and and call on uh the senate to to uh
10:48
to do the right thing so
10:50
we're now saying
10:52
that we you know i know that the
10:54
buildback better bill is important
10:58
just like the the
11:00
debt ceiling bill was important but
11:03
nothing is more important than this
11:06
fundamental right
11:07
to vote and it can't wait until next
11:11
year
11:12
it has to be done by the end of this
11:14
year so that you can put it in place
11:18
to stop
11:20
these voter suppression
11:22
uh laws that state capitals
11:26
you know there are
11:27
450 of these antiquated voter
11:31
suppression
11:32
manipulation laws
11:34
that have been introduced in 49 states
11:38
and several of the states have already
11:41
uh uh passed the laws and been signed
11:45
uh by um
11:47
by uh governors
11:49
so that's where that's where we are so i
11:52
i'm like i said i'm
11:55
your your
11:56
our discussion is so
11:58
timely
12:00
uh because this really is about
12:03
future generations yeah uh and and
12:06
that's what i said earlier and you know
12:09
that two things one
12:11
that i remember history has
12:15
told me i know what happened at the end
12:17
of the first reconstruction
12:20
the first thing they did
12:22
to end the first reconstruction
12:26
was to go after the vote
12:28
and and and they they took the vote away
12:31
they and they and those votes that they
12:33
couldn't take away
12:35
they assassinated elected officials
12:38
they terrorized the
12:41
black organization i mean you know black
12:43
officials and communities that tried to
12:46
hold on to the vote well the same thing
12:49
is now happening
12:50
in what i refer to
12:53
today many of us as the end of the
12:56
second reconstruction
12:58
here we are where we've elected a black
13:00
man as president a black woman as vice
13:03
president we've we we've had governors
13:07
mayors
13:08
you know you name it and and now
13:11
the attempt is to
13:14
suppress
13:15
our vote because
13:18
we were the margin of victory
13:20
that gave joe biden the pin
13:23
to sign all these important pieces of
13:26
legislation
13:28
and and and it and and i've said to
13:33
schumer and i've said to biden straight
13:36
up
13:36
if you don't do this
13:38
you're not going to win
13:40
you're going to lose congress
13:42
you're going to lose the senate next
13:44
year
13:45
and you're going to you and you're gonna
13:47
create a clear path
13:50
for donald trump
13:51
to run for president of the united
13:53
states
13:55
and maybe get elected
13:59
wow uh we got joe madison here joe i
14:02
want to thank you too i think this
14:03
conversation is timely this is a
14:05
conversation we have often on our show
14:07
with mike muse who does our our
14:09
political news i got mike on the line
14:11
right now mike you there
14:14
yo what's that man yeah man two legends
14:16
on the line joe madison and mike muse
14:18
mike just you know real briefly what did
14:20
you think of some of the things mr
14:21
madison was saying
14:23
well what i just want to say uh joe
14:25
madison is always a pleasure to be in
14:27
conversation with you you are an
14:29
incredible legend and what you have done
14:32
uh to educate the people in america and
14:36
society
14:37
is is incredible
14:39
um i love what you're doing in terms of
14:42
bringing awareness to this important
14:45
um most critical point of our time
14:47
really an inflection point of our
14:49
democracy
14:50
and for you to be so selfless with it in
14:53
terms of literally giving up your body
14:55
in order to make sure that other bodies
14:57
can be protected in a metaphorical sense
15:00
is is an impressive um i've been a fan
15:03
of yours i love your daughter mo we talk
15:06
very often
15:07
um and you are a legend i was actually i
15:11
had a uh i was at a gathering recently
15:14
um and someone really dear to me from
15:16
lansing michigan uh she's a huge fan of
15:18
yours and she kept raving
15:21
of how she had the opportunity to call
15:22
into your show
15:24
and so you just you you make her day
15:26
every time you take her call mrs like
15:28
um so i just wanted to say uh thank you
15:30
we love you uh and thank you for all
15:32
that you're doing to educate and bring
15:34
awareness uh and what's at stake for our
15:36
democracy
15:37
well and i and
15:41
[Applause]
15:44
i i have the utmost respect
15:47
for these um
15:49
for the young people who are
15:52
who are are stepping up as you know as
15:55
someone said
15:57
you know sway and and others and all
16:01
you are the general
16:03
and and i mean this sincerely
16:05
you are the generation of great
16:08
expectation
16:10
we
16:11
are
16:12
that's a great expectation
16:15
and
16:16
you know i'm going to tell you i i
16:19
25 30 50 years from now i don't want my
16:23
children and grandchildren and
16:25
great-grandchildren asking
16:28
well what happened and and what did you
16:31
do about it
16:33
because i know what happened after the
16:35
first reconstruction
16:37
we caught hell in the supreme court
16:40
we we we in we we had lynchings we had
16:44
we we had black codes
16:47
jim crow
16:49
and and now what these folks are trying
16:52
to implement
16:54
is is is what i call
16:56
uh jim crowe's sophisticated cousin
16:59
james crowe esquire
17:01
i mean
17:04
i mean
17:05
that that's what they're doing in maine
17:08
and in new hampshire because really it's
17:10
it amounts to a poll tax
17:14
it means it's just like it used to be
17:17
in in in the south it's amounts to the
17:20
poll tags
17:21
uh so that so i i i and these young
17:25
people that are protesting and marching
17:28
and demonstrating but then i'm old
17:31
school because i'm i'm thinking maybe we
17:33
need to just hit the streets again well
17:35
i agree we do but now
17:38
you in the comments
17:40
yeah yeah it's just social media it was
17:43
a social and that's exactly right like i
17:47
said if
17:49
if beyonce or jay-z or whoever that some
17:53
athletes
17:55
if they
17:57
man if they can get a million hits and
17:59
they don't have a vote in congress
18:02
uh
18:03
you better you better understand
18:05
the imp impact that you that all of us
18:09
have
18:10
at our fingertips yeah and
18:13
that's what i'm hoping will take place
18:15
um
18:17
a lot of people are skeptical but i did
18:20
tell uh senator schumer
18:22
um
18:23
i'm not gonna stop
18:26
and and and let me tell you folks have
18:28
sacrificed a lot more than food but just
18:32
as food
18:34
is the necessity is essential
18:37
and a necessity for life
18:40
the vote is a necessity
18:44
to maintain democracy
18:47
joe madison the black eagle thank you
18:49
joe um listen thank you for all your
18:52
all that you do uh give them a big round
18:55
of applause for all that you do and
18:56
continue to do
18:58
and and let's keep having these
19:00
conversations
19:01
cause joe is still on strike mike news
19:03
he's still on this hunger strike
19:05
citizens
19:06
and i want you guys to listen to him
19:08
like you listen to us he's monday
19:09
through friday 6 to 10 a.m on syria
19:11
section of urban butte channel 126
19:14
follow him on social media support him
19:17
uh and we'll continue the conversation
19:19
as we have um joe madison and please
19:22
send my love to your family your wife
19:24
the kids
19:26
stay strong man hey stay strong love you
19:28
back and contact your senators right now
19:32
please contact them all right now they
19:35
love you back thank you
19:36
thank you man joe madison the black
19:38
eagle there he goes man there it is and
19:40
then um
19:42
mike news
19:43
thank you joe uh mike muse
19:47
mike muse thank you for when he brought
19:48
up michigan i knew i knew you sat up
19:50
straight in your chair
19:55
i know your ears perked up
19:57
uh but it's powerful what he's doing you
19:59
know um it's really powerful what he's
20:01
doing and he's
20:02
catching the attention of a lot of
20:04
people and and
20:06
but it only matters with those senators
20:08
right mike
20:09
at the end of the day
20:11
that that the people we voted into
20:13
office
20:14
um or allowed or someone else voted into
20:17
office for us
20:19
is why we always talk about voting and
20:21
the privilege of voting and um we were
20:23
going to go in a totally different
20:25
direction man is it possible to tap back
20:27
into that friday mike
20:30
uh for sure absolutely
20:32
okay cool all right uh so i want to
20:34
thank mike muse for coming on board
20:35
talking with joe madison
20:39
[Music]
20:49
[Music]
20:51
you
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