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January 16, 2017 17 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, here we are on this very special Martin
Luther King Day Show as we honor the great man
that was Dr Martin Luther King. We say this is
a day of service. Um. You know, a lot of
people are doing uh community type things today, working in
the community. There will be a lot of parades in
the community to honor Dr Martin Luther King. Uh. We

(00:21):
here on the Steve Harvey Morning Show are also doing
something very special. As you may know, as you may
have heard, our very own leader or Captain Steve Harvey,
had a meeting with President elect Donald Trump on last Friday,
and Steve is here too. Uh. Well, actually you called

(00:41):
in Steve to tell us about that meeting. You've had
an interesting last couple of days, to say the least,
un Steve, it's been. It's been a little bit more
than interesting. Uh. What I'm gonna do, Shirley, Because I've
been getting so many requests for interviews, But since I
at my own platform that reaches so many I decided

(01:04):
to make my statement here on my morning show, which
has been so relevant for so many years as to
getting out messaging. So I'm gonna make my statement on
it and it will be my final statement, and it's
directed and aimed at the majority of my listening audience

(01:26):
and people everywhere. So, uh, I'm gonna make my statement
concerning my meeting with President like Donald Trump. Um. First,
i want to say thank you to all the people
who have reached out and shown me so much love
and support. But I'm also very aware of the anger

(01:51):
that so many people feel, and these voices will continue
to be heard as they should. But I have an
obligation to take a seat at the table when invited.
You know, change can only happen when we sit at
the table. If we sit at the table, then we

(02:13):
can have a say soul onto what's to be eaten
on the menu. If you're not at the table, you
can't even refuse the menu or suggest what we should
be eating. And so therefore, it was very important for
me to take the meeting. Okay, all right now, Steve,

(02:36):
let's get into it. How did this meeting come about
in the first place. Well, several conversations were had prior
to the meeting, but I didn't know if it was
really real or not until I received an email through
my TV show And uh it was an email through

(02:58):
uh some people from the Trump side, and and it
gave me an opportunity to meet the president. Let Donald
Trump and President Trump did not request this meeting personally,
as I understood it, but it was set up by
members of his team. And I didn't even know if

(03:21):
it would happen until I got an email from an
assistant who gave me a time and a day, and
and sure, I want to be clear here. Mr Trump
didn't ask me for any advice or help. And people
should know that. I'm assuming that the transition team thought

(03:45):
this would be a great meeting between the two of us.
And and where we met, Uh, it was a very
cordial meeting. He was he was very warm, uh friendly
and I'm a sleep When we talked, he was very sincere.
You know. We talked about golf, we talked about favorite

(04:07):
golf courses, we talked about the election, and it started
as just a meet and greet. I'm not ignorant here,
I'm pretty sure and his team is pretty smart. They
know who's in that room. Uh clearly, Uh, they know
what side I was on. Now, Steve, let me stop

(04:28):
you right there and just ask you. I'm sure you
had to be conflicted to some degree about the phone
call about actually meeting with him. What was the determining factor,
What were you trying to do? What was your goal
in meeting with him? I know you mentioned something in
your opening statement about a seat at the table. Why
did you decide that it was important for you to

(04:50):
meet with him? Well, I thought it was important because
the only way we can heal the divide in this
country is through conversation. I don't think that we will
ever unify this country or begin a healing process until
we talked to one another. When I listened to President

(05:11):
Obama's final speech in Chicago, one of the things he
said to stuck out of my head where he was
asking people to get from behind the computers and get
out and get involved. Well, I don't text and tweet,
and I don't blog, but I have a microphone, so
I form my standpoint being a person that I am

(05:35):
and the person that God has made me to be.
I took that and said, okay, well, let me step
from behind the microphone and take a seat at the table.
When invited to discuss I didn't know what it would
be about exactly, but to my surprise, it turned out really,

(05:57):
really interesting because after the beating Greek section of the conversation.
To his credit, he asked me what did I want?
So you're saying Donald Trump, president elect, asked you what
did you want? Yeah, because I'm assuming that people who

(06:18):
have been meeting when he wanted certain things, and so
we after we exchanged all the pleasantries and everything, he
asked me, well, Steve, what do you want? And that's
when I took the opportunity to say that I wanted
to help aid in any way I could to help
improve the housing conditions in the inner cities. I was

(06:41):
aware that he had appointed uh doctor being cautious the
head of Housing and Urban Development or heard and if
I could be of assistant in helping him move that
initiative along, that I would be of service in that regard.
And I felt that I could get the voice of
the people in those communities and was my reaching these

(07:02):
communities could possibly get some positive things done. Now here's
what was amazing to me, and I have to tell
you what he did while we were talking. He said
that sounds great. He immediately got Dr Being Carson on
the phone and he said, Steve, who wants to help

(07:27):
with any heart initiatives? And that through because I'm sending
a picing. I've never seen anybody jump into action so
quickly at a at a request. You know, I'm not
a politician, so quite naturally, I'm thinking it's a turn
of red tape. You gotta go there. This man on
the phone immediately and Dr being Carson and I talked

(07:50):
for the first time. He talked for several minutes over
the speaker. He's very receptive to me and aiding him
in that area. And that was the beginning of it.
But I tell you what the part was that I
also had a chance to say. Was I said to
the President elect, And we had some facilities provided in

(08:11):
these inner cities, in the cities that could provide a
place where young boys and girls could come for hope
and vision with some type of training component to it
to help curve I knew it wouldn't alleviate, but it
would help curve some of the problems that's plagued in
our inner cities. And I don't have all the answers,
but I do know that mentoring and guidance has changed

(08:33):
for the young people's lives. So Dr Carston and I
talked briefly about Chicago as a place we talked about
his hometown of Detroit. I mentioned that I was from Cleveland,
and they were very receptive because they want to do
something with these inner cities. And I didn't expect him

(08:55):
to respond so quickly, but he did. And Sharon, I'm
gonna tell you, when I walked away feeling that there
might be a real chance for some positives to come
out of what so many things is all doom and gloom. Yeah,
and that's an opportunity you could not have missed. Now,
let me ask you this, Steve, were you surprised? I

(09:16):
know you mentioned at the top that there was there
was a lot of love that you got, But were
you surprised at the backlash from the very people you
felt you were representing and trying to help with having
a meeting with the president elect? On a personal note,
a lot of y'all hurt me, You really did. I

(09:37):
didn't expect the black the backlash to be sulficious, and
you know, but also understand that if I'm gonna keep
getting stabbed at now, I'm still Steve Harvey. So please understand.
If I'm gonna keep getting stabbed at, then at least

(09:57):
who are you stabbing me? Should understand my intent for
even taking the meeting in the first place. See when
I'm in there and in this, in this table, I'm
sitting in these meetings with people who make policy decisions
and decide what the media is. When I'm sitting at
the table, it gives me an opportunity to say what

(10:19):
we would like to have on the fire and so
as far as hood going and better housing and conditions
in the inner cities, See, Steve Harvey ain't got a
dollar invested in rental property. I don't have any money
being made in the housing industry. I've never had uh

(10:41):
a renovated apartment or house or anything so in It
ain't about me and my personal games. It's only that
I care about the inner cities. I'm from the hood.
I've been trying to do my part for years for
boys and girls. Look, man, I don't want to have
to sit here and y'all y'all know who I am,

(11:02):
but don't going to Hey man, this Steve Harvey Hire.
I've been putting in the work for years. These are
not my children. I care about Charles kids. I care
about these inner cities because that's where I'm from. I
love kids. That's not mine. And so when I got
the chance, surely I don't need housing. I got the house.

(11:27):
You know, I got seven kids to mentor. My kids
ain't in trouble. Oh, they made bad decisions because they're
growing up. They're trying to get it, because they've got
it and made some bad decisive But you know, I
just love children who need a chance. I've been fighting
to help single mothers with their boys all this time.

(11:47):
And if I can get an opportunity to say to
the man that's about to become the forty first president
of the United States, who wanted to talk to me,
who was cordial to me, who talked to me with respect,
and actually be something instantly, why would I not take
the opportunity to say some of these things? And then
he responded immediately I had to give a cutter for that.

(12:11):
All right, Steve, you know we have to take a break,
So hang on, we'll get back to this. You're listening
to show. Alright, we're back with Steve Harvey, the captain
of our ship. Steve, let's continue. Uh, A person in
your position, you know, just like any other powerful man

(12:32):
or woman that's in a powerful position such as yours
or um you know that that has a voice for millions.
They're going to have to make hard decisions, tough decisions.
And I'm sure you anguished about the decision a little bit,
but uh, you know before and after. But I mean,

(12:52):
you know, you do. A person does what he has
to do. And in this instance, like you said, you
weren't in it for yourself. You were in it for
the people that you are trying to help. And you know,
from my perspective, all we can do is salute you
for that because you didn't make the call. They called
you and they asked you, what can we what do
you want? What do you you know what? Surely that's

(13:14):
that's true. You know. Um. But I'm gonna be clear,
and and everybody hearing me clear, I'm gonna continue this
fight at this new level that God has placed me
in it. See I've often said, and this is true,
that your career is what you paid for. But you're

(13:37):
calling is what you made for. See. I didn't ask
for this. It's landed in my lap. So you know,
there's a poet when I pledged, and a lot of
people who pledged will understand. There's a line in Invictus
that helps me so many times. Nothing helps me more
than my heavenly father. But there's a line in the

(13:59):
poem and invictors to said, my head is bloody, but unvowed. See,
I still love my people, even the ones that don't understand.
I'm gonna keep on fighting for you until more of
us do understand that all the fights ain't in the streets.
Some of these fights is in the boardroom. Some of

(14:20):
these fights is in the vote. And that's what our
president has said. It's in the vote. It's in the boardrooms.
And when you consider these tables, we can't be mad forever. Okay,
So what am I gonna say now, Shirley on behalf
of people that I respect in love across this country. No,

(14:42):
we don't want better housing. No we don't want no facilities.
No we don't want none of that because we're mad
at who president. Well, he is the forty fifth president
on the twentieth. Now, we ain't got to like that,
but that's what it is. But if this man was
willing to talk and hear anything and then reacts so swiftly,

(15:05):
I just have to get him to credit to that.
I will. If they ever asked me to talk again,
I have to do it again. I wish everybody understood,
I really do, but I get it. You don't. You
have to stay in the game. You have to continue
to look at the big picture because that's who you are.
And you know, I wish I could talk to you

(15:27):
forever for this, but you know we have to go.
You know I'm always on you about going to commercials
and all of that. But um, your takeaway as we
close this, this will be your final question, your takeaway
and your thoughts in the future. Well, my takeaway is simple,
what God is leaving me in my life. I've often
not cared about the route that You've chosen to send

(15:51):
me on. I ain't been crazy about some of the
trips out of the hand to take to get to
the destination. I wasn't happy with miss universe. I didn't
like that, but I did ask God to increase my
global presence and persona to say things that would help others.
Now Here I am, and so this is where I'll stay.

(16:14):
I thank everybody surely. I love you. I love the people,
I love my listeners, I love the people I represent.
I love people around the country who supported me. I
love people around this world who sometimes don't get it,
but it's okay. But it's okay. I'm gonna keep fighting
and fighting. I love y'all, Thank you very much. All right,

(16:35):
you're welcome, and hey, listen, happy birthday tomorrow. We'll say
it again, but happy birthday. Enjoy yourself. Tomorrow we're gonna
get back to the Reggord ship. I ain't gonna mission.
There's no moment tomorrow. I'm hoping enough to do and
start bowing sick. All right, Steve, love you too. You're listening.

The Steve Harvey Morning Show News

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Hosts And Creators

Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey

Shirley Strawberry

Shirley Strawberry

Thomas "Nephew Tommy" Miles

Thomas "Nephew Tommy" Miles

Carla Ferrell

Carla Ferrell

Kier "Junior" Spates

Kier "Junior" Spates

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