"The First African American Attorney General in Nevada"

Welcome to our Brothers in Conversation podcast, powered by Jesse and Shondell.

Shondell, you are from Bed Stuy do or Die Brooklyn. That little town.

That's a little town that's nothing like Hawthorne, Nevada, population 5,000 cats and dogs. Okay. With that being said, we're going to go ahead and get started. Then I want to welcome to our special edition of Brothers in Conversation podcast by. This is so fun and is powered by Jesse Ann.

John Dale.

John Dale it is. This is going to be less than.

The five minute hour.

We're going to spend about 40 to 45 minutes connecting with some great energy. The first African American Attorney General in Nevada, Aaron ford. Today is March 18, 2021 is episode number 43. And I love where we're going with this. This is. We've got some just organic questions we want to share with you and talk about what it's like to be in that current role. Just, just as you think about that, you've ascended to this place. Aaron, welcome to the program. Tell us just organically, how does it feel to be in the space that you're in?

Well, first off, thank you so much for including me in this conversation. Brothers in Conversation is a, a great topic, a great title, and it's important. It's, I think, reflects the important need that we have to come together as brothers and have conversations around important topics. So thank you for having me. Shondell, my good friend. I've known this cat probably, jeez, over a decade at least, probably 15 years, maybe 20. And it's good to see you again and thank you so much for reaching out. But you know, to your question, listen, I bask in the blessing of being in this position all the time. It is a, it's a job that, as I say, keeps me up at night, wakes me up in the morning. I dream about it. But I'm blessed and highly favored to be in this position right now, especially during these most recent tumultuous times to help shepherd our state through those conducts. It's not lost on me that I'm the first black American to become a statewide elected constitutional officer here. You know, I have to pay homage to justice, former Chief Justice Michael Douglas, who first ran statewide and was able to win in the justice seat, but I'm the first to win in the constitutional seat, as we call it.

Wow.

It's not lost on me as I've indicated. I recognize as I tell my sons all the time, and if you were to ask it, either my three sons or my nephew that we raised A simple question. Who do they represent? They will tell you all the exact same answer. And it's the mentality that I have in this position. I represent myself going forward, the individual who stands before you. I remember a commercial I put out during the campaign cycle. There was some tough hits coming at me. I'm sure we'll talk about some of those things in my past. And I look in the screen and I said, people will tell you that I'm things that I am not, but I'm Aaron Ford, and I will always look out for you. And I recognize I represent myself. So if I mess up Aaron Ford, that's just how he is. But the next thing I represent or the next entity is my name, the forward name. Nice. Period. Point blank. And whether it's fair or not, the extrapolation from me being me doing something positive or negative, generally is negative. Right. Will be extrapolated to the entirety of the Ford name. So I represent myself. I represent the Ford name. And again, fairly or unfairly, it's a burden that the three of us on the screen carry, whether we like it or not, is we also represent the black race.

Yes.

Because a lot of times people will immediately extrapolate, especially if it's negative. They will say, well, that's just how black people are. And I recognize that. So I try to do my best to represent, well, not only my name, myself and my name, but our people. And I've learned from my international travels that oftentimes, if you act a fool overseas, they'll say, that's just how those Americans are.

Right. Right.

So I represent Americans as well. So recognizing that I represent at least those four different categories, I try to put out myself as an individual worthy of this position. You know, again, I'm blessed in how the fable to be in the position, obviously, and quite dependent upon the electoral process and the people put me here, and I love to serve.

Well, what you just rolled out is actually very, very powerful. I love the hierarchy of the way you rolled that out. I want to go back and forth, and Shondell's going to just tune right in on this because he. What I'm about ready to say, it's Chandel's story before I even knew Shondale. In the first of anything, being the first of anything can be very, very, very difficult. And when you come from a space where. Where, let's say as a minority being the first, that's. That comes with such a load and such a weight, and I cannot relate to where you're at with Yours. I can hear it, and I can understand it. I can't fully relate because when Shondell and I did what you're doing, we did it on such a. What we thought it was a big scale at the time. And it's a tiny scale compared to the scale that you on. When. Back in the day, when Chandel was in hospitality, I was also in hospitality, and I was actually the first person of color in a position as an executive director at the. In the Flamingo Hilton. It was at the Flamingo Hilton. In the Hilton chain. Ever. They never had. And I'd never seen anybody like that. There was nobody in the organization that was at my level or higher. And quite frankly, just a quick short story on that, and I want Shondel away and then want to spin it back to you, Aaron. We're saying. I'm saying, Sean, dental. I have a smidge of what you. Because yours is much more on a much bigger scale. And I remember sitting across the boardroom, and I was the lowest ranking member in the room. And it was. So as executive director, there were vice presidents, senior vice presidents, and then the president we were waiting to command, and one of the vice presidents reaches across the table and says, hey, do you realize you're the only black person in this room? Okay. Is that what this meeting is about? I thought we were. I thought this was about economics and finance and all that sort of stuff. I saw. How do you answer that? So I said, well, no, not until you mention it, but. So my point is, we carry the heavy load like that, Shawn. Can you relate to that? What I'm. What I'm sharing there?

No, I definitely can't. And. But, you know, I. I don't know if I was the first. I think it was just in that I'm. I've always been in spaces. Let me say this. I've always been in spaces where I am the.

The.

The minority, if. If you call it that. I would. I never like to use that. But I'm just not in numbers, right? I wouldn't say in anything else but numbers, because I was told by a good friend, especially when I joined the board of the Vegas Chamber, said, you know, you walk in a room like you all. Like you own it, you have this arrogance in a nice way. They said it was a nice arrogance that. And I think I've always felt that way because I've never felt excluded in a lot of ways. And, you know, Aaron and us, we do go a long way back. I mean, we went back to the days when we were at the Hundred Black in the Urban Chamber, he was, he was on the board for the Urban Chamber. And one of the things that we were always attempting to do is represent our name, represent our church. So when he talks about all these different things that we have to represent, you know, people know we go to victory. So everybody's like, oh, there's Shondell and Aaron and Stephen Horsford and all these folks that go to that attend victory. And one thing, when he was a state senator, you know, we go up and they say, hey, you know, you know Senator Ford, he's. He's now, he's representing the state of Nevada. So you have all. And even me, you know, I, I tell people all the time that I'm representing. I feel, and this is self appointed, but I feel like I'm representing all, you know, small businesses because I believe that small businesses is an integral part of, of, in the fiber of our, of our community. And Senator Ford, I mean ag Ford knows that now because when he was Senator Ford he was very, very adamant about the fact that we're gonna make sure that we turn the tide. He gave a lot of his great stories. He has an incredible wife, Berna Rhodes for it. She was my attorney doing a lot of my, she actually did my branding stuff for some new amazing woman Nevada State College. And so there's a lot of things that we represent. We represent our wives, we represent our kids, we represent. So for us it's endless of representation. And being the first is, you know, it's a burden nonetheless, but it's an important, but it's an important burden. And what I love about what I, what I love about this guy Jesse is his humbleness, but also he's not afraid to tell it like it is. And I think that's what makes us bond so well because we're very active in social media and people criticize what we say and how we say it and what we do. They don't criticize everybody like that, but they criticize us. And guess what? We're unapologetic. Bottom line, because we're, we, we are who we are. Like Newsom. Some. New is newsome. It's just flipped around. Right? Right thumb new is newsome. And so when I represent something new, I'm still representing Newsome. And that's the change that my father wanted to see. So that's what we're doing. So.

Right.

And that's, and that's a whole lot of angles, right?

Yeah. And that echoes back and Aaron, I Love the fact. What I like best about everything that you said is anybody listening to this program right now or watching this program. The best part of what you said is that you are representing yourself. Yes. You have all these other contingencies. You have all these other responsibilities. As Shonda is also mentioned, you all have all these other points of representation, but if you don't do it spot on at the foundational level, all those other things are threatened if you don't have a foundation. So when you, when you talk about you, when you start out by saying you're representing yourself to me, I think that's really good for people to hear because a lot of times when they see people like you in positions like yours, they kind of spend a lot more time on the position and the weight and span of the position, not realizing you're still a person.

My, you know, last statement, I'm still a person. It just brings a lot of emotions to me relative to something. You combine what you've just said with what Shondale said about our representation being unabashed about taking on tough issues on Twitter and on Facebook and in public and on whatever the case may be. I am still a person. And here's what's interesting. A lot of people, in fact, last week, last week I went to just get a quick bite to eat right down the street here at a local restaurant. I had a meeting at 3 or something, so I went down for a late lunch at 2. I sat down and a young lady says to me, are you a lobbyist from across the street? And I says, no, actually, I'm your attorney General. She says, oh, okay. And she says, because they're across the street, you know, just taking our rights. They got the door all closed and you can't get in, and they just taking our rights. And so, you know, I was sitting away from her, so I was able to have my kind of back turned to her. And then she corrected me. She said, by the way, you're not my attorney General. I said, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you weren't from Nevada. So are you from California or something? And she says, no, I'm from here. I just don't recognize you as my attorney general. And she went off and she started, you know, bashing me and saying whatever she wanted to say as if I wasn't a child of God. And instead of me engaging that, I started to excuse myself. I started to walk out of the building. And then she said, why don't you tell us about your grand Larceny charge. And at that point, I looked back at her and I said, ma', am, if you ever really want to have a real conversation, feel free to come down to my office. And I'm happy to have that. But you will not take my humanity from me in the midst of a restaurant. I am still a person. And you know, we all have histories and backgrounds and some of us have overcome those. And please be to God for that. It wasn't a grand larceny in the first place. But in any event, the point is she was trying to attack me and I'm still a person. And just because I run for office, just because I am in particular position of power, doesn't mean that I have forfeited my right to be talked to as if I have humanity. And that's something that I bring to my interactions with folks. I do not tolerate abuse, either of myself or of folks with whom I work or otherwise. And so it's an important notion for folks to recall and to remember that we're all just human and there's nothing wrong with interacting with us on a cordial basis. So, yes, that wasn't your question, but that's what immediately came to mind when you said you're still a person. I am.

But you know, I gotta tell you, that's why I always, I make it a point some and I try every month or every quarter at least to text those guys, you know, to Aaron Ford, the many representatives in that public facing space. The reason why I do that and I, you know, I sometimes is just as simple as, hey, you know, I'm praying for you. Keep up the great work. You know, because I realize that being a public figure like that, that those things happen and people expect you to be, you know, to take it like you could spit, like they feel like you can spit in their face and they supposed to go, oh, well, okay, you know, I'm attorney general for it now, I can't say anything back. And remember when we were in gaming and hospitality, and I'll tell this quick story because there was a guy who did not want me in the boardroom and he was, you know, 20 something years in gaming and hospitality. Jess, you know the guy that started from the, you know, he started as one of the accountants and then he made it up to director of finance and he didn't one, one first thing he didn't like because I was a marketing guy, right? And finance people don't like marketing guys because they think we're frivolous and we're Just throwing money away. So that's the first thing. Then I was only 30 years old, so he was really hitting me too, because he had been in there 20 years, and I got there in three years and got to that same table and. And then, you know, and then he had issues with. He had some issues with thinking that I got there by way of affirmative action. And one thing that happened is my general manager made it clear to him that he served in the United States Air Force. But that's not why we got him, but because he knows new technology and where we're going next in technology and gaming. That's why we want this guy. So I think a lot of times people try to bring up different things, whether it's your. Your background or your past or what they, what their assumptions are, or they read something and they don't fact check it and they try to put you in that box. And I, and I think we always have to correct people. And I'm glad that my general managing president did it at that time, but I had to, you know, I had to show people that I wasn't there just to check a box.

I like that. I like that. And I like. And, and relating back to what you just said, Shondell, to an Aaron. Aaron, one of the most brilliant things I've heard you share with us so far. You're doing it naturally, natively, and you don't even know. I. I don't say you don't even know. I'm not so sure even know you're doing it. There's a thing called tact. And that story that you shared, the last story you just shared, that Shondell connected with. To me, tact is the ability of making a point without making an enemy.

Yeah, it was interesting. My mama used to say every once in a while, it ain't always what you say is how you say it.

Yes.

And exactly. Very real. Right. I mean, I talk about speaking truth to power from wherever position you're in. And I've been in a position of power for a few years, whether it's in the Senate or in, you know, this current position. And I recognize that, but that doesn't mean again, that I can say what I want to say. Offensive. What I endeavor to do is to try to do so diplomatically. And I tell folks to speak truth to power, but do it in a way that they can receive it.

Exactly.

And you know, sometimes you're gonna be successful at it, sometimes you won't be. To tell the truth, sometimes you won't. Be able to connect with folks. And, you know, I didn't connect with her, frankly. When I walked out, she said, cry me a river. Right? You know, so we didn't make the connection, but she got my point. You won't talk to me like. Like I'm anything but a human right and nice. You know, it is what it is. You know, you're going to be upset with some of the decisions that we make in government. And I get it. I understand of that is part of the job description.

Sure.

And I have not forfeited my humanity. I'm still a child of God and I will be treated and respected as such. At least I will demand that. Whether you do it or not, I guess is up to you. And so you know, that that's, that's an important note. And you know, Shondell, you mentioned affirmative action. And let me tell you something. I am a product of affirmative action. Proudly.

Nice.

I don't run from that. I don't run from my past. I don't know from my background. Here's what I can tell you right now. If it wasn't for affirmative, I would not have received a scholarship at Texas A and M University and been able to matriculate into. But not just matriculate, but graduate.

Right.

University. And I just graduated from Texas A and M, but go on to have five college degrees.

Wow.

Two master's degrees, a law degree and a Ph.D. if you work for affirmative action. The Presence Achievement Award, scholarship that looked at people, black and brown, folks who were qualified but who otherwise didn't have means or opportunity to attend. I wouldn't be where I am today. And so I don't run from that fact. I highlight it, I mention it, and you know, it is what, what it is. Some people are going to agree with it, some are going to disagree with it, but it's my story. It's part of who I am, where I'm from, and it helps me get to. It helped me get to where I am today. And I live by it. Nonetheless.

It doesn't just. It doesn't just help you get to where you are today. It helps others to hear what you just said. Because a lot of times people look at you and think that you just had it all. Well, you didn't have it all. You came from a challenging space. You built it all. You didn't have it all or you're building it all. Not that. So that's really, really huge. And I, I really commend you on that because that's a. That's a graceful and authenticity that' shared. In fact, with that being said, what inspired you to ascend to such levels? What was your inspiration to say, you know what, beyond these five degrees, I've got to do something with this education. I can't just house it now. How do I give it back to the world?

You know, I don't know if I have a concrete answer to that. My mom has always said to me that I've always been in, you know, in the public service space. You know, she remembers me tutoring young kids when I was a young kid, helping them with math. And, you know, she just always remembered me being. Trying to. Trying to be engaged and help folks, whether it was in student council, in middle school or whatever the case may be. And so maybe it's innate in my personality to simply want to get engaged and get involved and try to help folks, you know. And my conception of what government is about is based on how government has helped me get to where I am. It's helped, not hindered me. And a couple of examples that I give is a program called Project Upward Boundaries. It was a program for people like me whose parents didn't go to college. My dad dropped out of high school in 11th grade. He told my mom. He graduated. We found out later that wasn't true. But anyway, he graduated. He went to, dropped out in 11th grade. My mom graduated high school but didn't go to college. We didn't have a lot of money. Project Up Abound was for folks like me, first generation college students who didn't have a lot of money or who didn't have a lot of money. I happened to qualify under both prongs to help us get ready for college. So I spent three and a half years of high school going to Saturday school at Southern Methodist University, taking extra classes, getting an additional education. I spent six weeks, four summers in a row at SMU taking practice, SAT tests and extra classes to help me matriculate again into Texas A and M University. It was a government program. The federal government funded this program to help folks move from their current station in life, to help achieve the ultimate realization in life. That to me was my first concept of what government can and should do. You know, a second exposure to that was something that happened to me and Shondell and I have this in common at some level. I think Shondell beat me by a couple of years, but I became a parent in college. In my junior year in college, I became a parent. Six months later, I became a single parent. My baby's mother and I split up and I took custody of my son, almost dropped out of college, but thank goodness for a government yet again, that was willing to help me. I got on welfare, I got on Section 8 housing, I got on food stamps, I got on, I think it was called AFDC back in the day. You know, whatever it was that I could, you know, the government could offer me to help me take care of myself and my son in order to graduate, I was able to take advantage of. And that's again, government helping people get to the next station in life. So I take that experience and I, and I apply it in my current position. I try to utilize the office of Attorney General to ensure that I am edifying people to try to get them to their next station in life. Not putting up barriers and blockades and roadblocks and not removing programs that are helpful to folks. It was the same that I had when I was in the state Senate. Shonda will come and testify on bills that I would sponsor to help ensure that small and minority and women owned businesses got their fair share of opportunities relative to loans and things of that sort, to expand their businesses. Again, utilizing government to help people. And so, you know, that's, that's the philosophy that I have on, on what government should be doing for folks. And again, I'm unabashed about my efforts in that regard.

So, yes, imagine this, you laying on the couch, right? You know, you know those nights when you've been working on a proposal and you just, you just fall asleep, right? You got the coffee sitting there and you wake up on the couch and, you know, I'm still stuck on cnn. And then I hear Aaron Ford, oh, my God. And I tell you what's crazy, man, is listening to him really educate folks on what his responsibility is as Attorney General. And this had to be one of the most challenging elections. If not. I know, I saw the whole series on Lincoln and what happened then when he was going for reelection or something like that. But this had to be one of the craziest elections that I've ever seen in my lifetime. And I can tell you what I saw from Aaron was everything that he just said, like, he's gonna stick by his integrity. And, you know, the Air Force has a couple of, you know, the Air Force core values are service before itself, excellence in everything that you do, and integrity. Integrity first, right. I saw all of that come out of him. And I knew he didn't serve in the Air Force, but he had the same values. And like you said, being A single parent that changes your views on things, how you have to, how you have to navigate through different waters in being a single parent, but also having to utilize some of these programs to help your business or help your family. If people have never experienced that, they don't understand. And it cracks me up because, you know, I don't want to. I'm not getting political, but I'm saying this because I've seen other people get on to, on, on, on TV and they don't connect. They don't connect and, or they ordered talking out of two sides of their face. What I like about him is he's very consistent. You know, Mitch McConnell, the, the Senate Majority leader, you know, he sits and talks about.

Minority leader.

A minority leader, right? Yeah, minority leader. So he's very, you know, he's. On one hand he's saying, well, why do these people need this money? Or why do these people need this? And why do you need this? And then on the other hand, he's saying, well, you know, Donald Trump was responsible for the insurrection and blah, blah, blah, blah. But then on other hand, he's saying it's like all over the place. What I like about Aaron Ford is that he's always consistent. I know what's going to come out. And watching him on cnn, MSNBC and these different platforms, his consistency just blows my mind because he's never waffling. He knows what he's talking about and he articulates it well. But he stands firm on, on what the law is. Right. It's not even your beliefs, it's the law. Yeah, I love that when people do that and they stay firm on what they believe in.

Yeah, that's solid, Shondell. I agree. And I also like the fact that the humility is there, the truth is there. Where you've come from and where you're going is there. Your intentions are there. And like Shondell saying, they're very, very consistent. I love the fact that you, that you're talking about the early days because again, people, they may not know that about you, and they see you at such an elevated space as attorney General. They, they have no idea the obstacles, the walls, the roadblocks, the hurdles, the challenges, the setbacks, the knockdowns that you've gone through. And you're talking about using a system that's, you know, that's available out there if you reach out and look to seek to discover it. Like you, I started out with Upward Bound as well. For the university. Yes. Unr University of Nevada, Reno, as A sophomore. You did three years. I did two years. My. Well, actually, I started as a sophomore, and then I did junior, senior year going to Upward Bound at unr. If I don't go to Upward Bound, I don't Even at age 17, I think, how can I afford to go to school? I can't afford to go to school. I have seven brothers and sisters.

Wow.

I had an older brother that was a supreme athlete that could have gone to any school in the nation on scholarship for sports. I wasn't. I wasn't at that level. But Upward Bound taught me to reach out and see.

Yeah.

Reached out to University Nevada, Las Vegas, and said, hey, do you have any art scholarships? They said, yes, we do. I said, what are the parameters? They sent me the parameters I fulfilled. Send it to them. Gain a full. Right. Fine arts scholarship to unr. I'm sorry, unlv. Because of being at unr, Upward Bound got me thinking, like, what about the future? Because In Hawthorne, Nevada, 5,000, as Chandell says, populated cats and dogs. 5,000. That's it.

Yeah.

But you gotta count the cats and dogs in Hawthorne or we won't get to 5,000. We want to get to 5,000. So it was a smaller community, and that wasn't prevalent in that community so much. But Upward Bound, every Saturday, going Upward Bound, start to prepare me to figure out how to prepare for my life and then so forth. So I love that you're sharing that Upper Bound experience. You're sharing those scholarship experiences because people need to know. Luther Vandross said it best. Beautiful singer. I thought Luther Vandross came out of the womb with those pipes.

Yeah.

And I thought he was just golden and platinum right away. Luther said on bet, everyone needs someone else to help champion their cause.

Yeah.

I don't care how great you are, you need that. So you are right now. And Sean, don't want you to weigh in on this to me. Aaron, you are inspiring so many people. You are setting them up to have someone else realize that someone else can help champion their cost. What about you, Shonda? What do you think about that?

You know?

Yeah, I think.

I think he does. And I think that, you know, like, when we met and we talked in many. On many occasions, he was destined for leadership. I. You know, it's interesting because most people think I was destined for leadership, but I was like, I didn't want it.

Right.

Every time somebody asked me to run for office or run for something or chair to chamber or. And so I always found myself in the spot where I was There. And then it was like, okay, let me see what I'll do at that point. Like, I didn't go to the Urban Chamber to be chair of the chamber. I went to serve. But then everybody kept saying, let's do this, let's do that. And if Ken Evans didn't come in as the full time president, I still wouldn't be chair today because I felt like I didn't like the role the way that they had it. Where, and Aaron remembers this, is that the chair was actually, or it was actually the president back then, the president of the chamber. So, yeah, I tell you that the journey that you take is sometimes not a journey that you want to take. But our late pastor used to tell me all the time, when God calls you, you don't say no, and then you ask him for guidance and direction and he'll give you the COVID And in most cases you need that coverage. Similar when we went up to the legislature and he, you know, again, I give him a lot of credit. Jess, I don't know if you noticed, but when we got the 15% for small businesses for the to participate on the stadium project and to participate in the Las Vegas Convention center expansion, that was a huge piece of legislation that included more of our smaller businesses. That today there's legislation going out now in the books to try to be even more inclusive. But you got to have a starting point. And like Aaron said, he pushed even for the funding, making sure that there were funding sources with the Opportunity Fund for small businesses. So there's a lot that we are champion that don't necessarily get the headlines, but it's something that we're all involved in because we're asked or we're chosen to do that.

Well, let me ask you this. Thank you. A segue, Aaron, if you could look into that crystal ball or that brilliance that you've trained yourself for, what can you share with other minorities that may be battling challenging matters? What can you share with them in terms of pulling together and having hope and faith that doing the work can get them there.

So a couple things come to mind. And trying to see what order I want to go with this. So you talked about robots and setbacks and whatnot. There's a key phrase I use, though, that a lot of people don't, you know, fess up to and that's just purely bad decisions. Bad decisions that you've made. I don't call them youthful indiscretion. I don't call them mistakes.

Right.

Bad decisions. You have a choice to make. Something that's right, something that's wrong, something that's good, something that's bad, and you choose the wrong thing or the bad thing, and there is a consequence, right? That consequence may not manifest itself immediately. It may manifest itself 25 years later when you are running for the Office of Attorney General and you are reminded of things that, frankly, you had forgotten about. And the prime example I offer is myself. You know, I made some bad decisions when I was a freshman in college and over the course of my college career. This is 27 years ago at this point now, right? But the truth is I made some bad decisions. And I'll give you some examples, one of which was I was 18 in Texas, Texas A and M University. And the drinking age in Texas is 21. But I don't want to wait till 21. I'm 18, and I'm going to drink. So I'll be drinking on campus, on one side of campus, and I need to get to the other side of campus, having been drinking that night. And I was walking, walking, not driving, walking home on campus, from one side of campus to the other side of campus, and I get stopped by campus police. Campus police can tell I had been drinking. And they had a few options at that time. One option was to follow me home to ensure that I didn't fall in a ditch, hurt myself, you know, bust myself in the head or whatever, let me get to the fourth floor of Crocker hall, lay my head on my pillow and go to bed. That's one choice they had. Another choice they had was to put me in the back of their squad car and drive me to the north side of campus and so I can get to my dorm room and go to sleep. Or another choice they had was to put me in the back of the squad car, having charged me with public intoxication, take me to a jail cell, a holding cell, have me sleep it out overnight, have to wake up the next morning and call one of my college friends to come get me out of jail and give me a record at 18. And a record that requires me to answer, depending upon how the question is asked. Have you ever been arrested for anything other than a minor traffic violation? The answer is yes. I got arrested for public intoxication when I was 18 years old. Now, I remember that one. And I talked about that. And that was a bad decision. Bad decision. That wasn't a mistake. That wasn't a youthful industry. That was a bad decision. And, you know, that's something that came up 25 years later as an example of the reason why I should not be able to be the top law enforcement officer in the state because I got arrested for being drunk in public when I was 18 years old. Wow. This time I'm 46, remember now? So in any event, that's, that's one, that's one, you know, bad decision. There are a couple of others that I made. One of which was two of which were speeding. Speed limit 65. I should be driving 65. Bad decision. I decided to drive 70 miles an hour. I broke the law, and that's a bad decision. And another bad decision I took was when I got those tickets, I didn't pay them. I was pouring, broke. Shouldn't have been, I shouldn't have been dropped. Should have been speeding in the first place. Right? You get a ticket, you should pay it. That's another bad decision. And in Texas, when you don't pay your ticket, it goes to a warrant for your arrest with a summons date to show up in court. And if you don't show up in court, there's another one that issues called failure to appear. So I got two failures to appear in court for traffic tickets that I didn't pay. Bad decisions. I should have showed up in court. Should have paid, should have paid the tickets. Shouldn't have been speeding. Bad decisions. But those also were brought up as examples of reasons why Aaron Ford is a criminal, a thug who should not be allowed to be the top law enforcement officer in the state because he got arrested for public intoxication and, and got too faced to appear for not paying speeding tickets. But there was another mistake that I made, and this is one that occurred after a blessing in my life. And I talked about that already. And that was in the summer of 1993, June 29th to be exact, when my son was born. Six months later, you know, I was a single parent and I applied for welfare. But before my welfare came in, some of y' all know what I'm talking about. Before my welfare came in, my son lived with my mama down in Dallas. And I would go home on the weekends to visit. Wow. And trying to be a responsible parent. And I would go home on the weekends to visit him. And I was gonna drive home one day, probably was gonna speed that day too. But I had, I had a slow leak in my tire. So I went to a tire shop with a couple of bucks in my pocket and I asked him if he could patch the tire for me so that I didn't have a flat on a 180 mile drive right he looked at the tire. He says, no, I can't patch this because the leak is in a part that I can't patch. I know you don't have any money, though, and so I will give you this tire, and you can pay me off in installments over time.

Wow.

Bad decision. I didn't pay him off timely. And. And so what did he do? He filed a theft charge against me. And. And I got arrested for stealing a tire when it really was just a payment dispute. But as soon as I paid the tire off, the charge was dismissed. But those four arrests, those four bad decisions arose out of decisions that are, you know, consequences that rose out of decisions that I made early in life. And the reason why I share those is because your question is, what do I tell folks about, you know, overcoming obstacles? The word that comes to mind is resilience. A lot of people don't know what resilience means. And so I use Big Sean as an example. Big Sean has a song out, and I bet you YouTube, maybe y' all might be too old. You might not know it, but some. Some of these young cats to be able to finish this. This verse. He has a song, and he says, last night I took an L, but tonight I bounce back. Y' all heard that song before, Bounce Back. The young folks know what that means, and that's what resilient means. It means you got to bounce back. You're gonna take some L's every once in a while, right? Bad decisions, there will be consequences associated with it, but it's about bouncing back. And so that's one of the lessons that I'll provide, folks. Yeah, and the second lesson I provide, folks, is biblical. Okay. That's something that. That I frankly would have thought about earlier in my. In my life. But, you know, Pastor Fowler, God rest his soul, and Shondell will recognize this would always tell us to think about a life scripture. And the life scripture that I have come up with for myself is Ecclesiastes 7 and 14. And I'm going to read from the NIV. It says that when times are good, be happy. But when times are bad, consider this. God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. What does that mean? It means God's in control.

Yes.

It means that you should not be too complacent when things are going good and think that things are all great. Right. But you should also not be in such despair when things are going poorly.

Right.

God is in control. Right. So at the end of the day. What I advise folks of is my head was in the fog, y'. All, in Texas A and M during that time period, I was so distraught. I was in despair. My head was in a fog. Some of that stuff I didn't even remember, frankly, the tire dispute, until the Review Journal posted it as part of the headline four times in the 90s. But it came back to me. My recollection was refreshed, so to speak. And I just recall, and I reflect back about how much despair I was experiencing at that time. You know, I was going through some tough times. Parents, you know, figuring out where life was going and what I was going to do. This, that and the other. But God. And so those are the two things that I would offer. Be resilient. And remember, God's in control.

I love it. Hey, Red. Jess, you know, remember I told you that story about my grandmother, Right?

Yeah.

Because I was.

Yeah.

I tell you, Aaron's right. I was. I never considered myself making a mistake. I was a teenage father. And I remember, you know, sulking about it when my ex. Wife left. And my. My grandmother, you know, she. She remember that Jesse, that baby.

Yeah.

Out of all the women's, you know, she was from south, so you gotta give her that one. Out of all the women's in New York City, you had to pick the one that's gonna leave you with four children. And I never forgot that.

You.

You're absolutely right. Like, the resiliency. And that's why today I. I say that is like. And if the. And if the Review Journal got a hold of my past and Bed Style, do or Die and my early years in the military, boy, hey, they could write a whole novel on some of the mistakes and. Or things that I have done that. Not necessarily mistakes. They were things that I knew. I mean, we knew about in the 80s. We knew about putting on condoms and doing all that kind of stuff. But, you know, I chose to still ignore that and say, hey, you know what? Let's roll the dice, right? Because at a young age, we are thinking we're invincible. We are thinking, hey, you know, nothing's gonna happen to me. I'm all good. And. And quite frankly, you will forget a lot of those things. So, you know, resiliency is one of those things. And I'm. I'm open with my past. Like, if I. If I do remember, I'll be honest. And that's what I appreciate about you, is your honesty and your openness. Where a lot of these guys still hide stuff and they they wait until they are, they are subpoenaed, they're up against the wall and then it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll tell. You know, but you, but you openly, you didn't have to tell all that story, but you, you openly told that story, which I think helps a lot of people.

I totally agree. And so, so tell me again, Aaron, Resiliency. What's the second thing that you said?

God's in control. Ecclesiastes 7 and 14.

God's in control. See.

In his hand, he got nowhere.

Yes.

You gotta sing, man.

But I don't know, I don't know that song so well. But here's the thing. This is very powerful. Sharing, this is amazing. I, I love the resiliency piece. I love the goddess control piece. If you're not into God, you don't believe in God, it'd be good for you to believe in something bigger other than yourself. That's on you. That's not on us. I'm with you. I'm, I, I agree with the, the God concept, but the most powerful thing, the powerful thing that heard you say, honestly you didn't say the words, but you told a brilliant series of stories. It's conduct. You kept talking about your conduct in those situations and how you dealt with that. And I'm thinking of Johnny Cochran. The only thing you have left at the end of your, at the end of a crisis is your conduct during. The only thing you have left at the end of a crisis is your conduct during. During. And that's what you're talking about. You talk about Aaron. Your conduct during the speeding, your conduct during the tire situation, how you behave, how you forgot, how you just let it off like no big deal. Well, that was your conduct. Well, that was a lesson, I guess. What, I bet you carry those lessons now. I bet you those that conduct then have taught you lessons that you do not duplicate today.

Oh, you're right about that. And here's what's interesting. You know, 25 years after that conduct, when this has been plastered all over the review journal and used by my opponents trying to say that I'm some thug again who should not be allowed to run for this office. I had a 25 year old son. That son I had in College was 25 at that time. And he was able to see, dang, these consequences have come back 25 years later.

Right.

He'd be conscious and cognizant of what I do right now.

Chills.

And so that's what my now 20 year old thinks about in college. That's what my now 15 year old thinks about in high school. They lived through this through their daddy getting attacked in the media unfairly, oftentimes in terms of the way that it was being categorized. And so they've been able to vicariously experience my experiences, and they're going to learn from that. And that's important. You absolutely have to fess up to your conduct. And by the way, that child I had when I was a junior in college is now a medical student at Georgetown University and he's the president of his class. Understand this. Your. Your conduct does not have to define what happens with your future either. Right. At the end of the day, my sons are, are doing very well. And God, you know, God is in control 100 over that. They get it from their mama.

Amen. But amen to burn them.

You're 100 right?

You're 100 right? Aaron, your conduct doesn't define you. And where you come from doesn't define you. Where you come from can be a point of reference, not a residence.

You don't have to stay in the.

Space of which you come from, but you can draw from that like your son is drawing from those experiences, going, oh, my God. It's a wake up call for him.

To say, wait, I need to take a look.

So this is, this is really, really powerful stuff.

I'm just.

You just gave me goosebumps.

Just listen.

I know Chandelle knows.

I get the chili bump when you.

Say something like that.

We got that in common.

I got a couple people want to say hi to. To Aaron Ford. So Mike says on Facebook. I truly enjoy listening to Aaron talk about the road he has traveled and the successful person that he has become. It is a pleasure and honor to know him. I'm very proud to have him as our Attorney General for the state of Nevada.

That was Mike. Amy, you said Mike.

Amy.

What's up, Mike? I appreciate that, man. Thank you.

Mike retired from MGM.

Yeah, yeah.

Little shout out.

100 together. Yeah. We go back. Yeah.

Go way back. And then Ron Busby, the president of the U.S. black chamber, like, like, like the Post.

Awesome, awesome. Appreciate that, Shonda. Well, listen, Tim, we're about ready to wind down here, so think about this, Aaron. What do you believe you have to do in order to remain successful on this journey that you're on? What. What is it that you believe you have to do to. To do that? That's going to help a lot of.

People to hear that. Well, that's part of this. That's part of the, you know, I could have given a third piece of advice when you asked, what do I tell folks about. Okay, what do I have to be my true authentic self? Yes, I, I, you know, Shonda pointed this out. I'm Aaron Ford today, tomorrow, right now, I'm not going to change, you know, I know, I think I know how to communicate in a way that can be received well, you know, and so I try to communicate issues of importance as they are appropriate. So in the state senate, I spoke on a racial base, on racial justice issues. I spoke up on voting issues. I spoke up on issues that some would say you shouldn't talk about that if you want to be reelected. And my response is simple. You should always be willing to speak truth to power, especially from a position of power, because otherwise it's a waste.

Nice.

I was a majority leader in the state senate, a black man who was able to utilize that pedestal, so to speak, to speak truth to power on issues of import. Black History Month was an opportunity for me to show in the state senate Black history. Right. And to be the guy overseeing their programming and to expose folks. Because a lot of people, they just don't know. They just don't know what your experience is. They don't have, you know, they don't have the same background, clearly. And so exposure sometimes is a good opportunity to change people's minds and thoughts. Sometimes it doesn't. And that way you can tell when you are moving folks from what I call ignorance, but not in the negative sense of pejorative sense, to intentionality. Right. If you do something that offends me and I tell you that's offensive and you say, oh, I didn't know that was offensive. I'm sorry. Good. So now you are no longer ignorant on that. But if you do it again, then I know that you are. You can't blame ignorance. Now you intend to offend me and then I can place you from a categorization perspective where I want to place you and know how to interact with you. So my suggestion would be be yourself. I'm going to be myself in this capacity as attorney general. I spoke out on election issues against the previous administration. I spoke out on the disenfranchisement and the veiled attacks on black and brown voters this last go around. I continue to speak out on criminal justice reform issues because of a system that from an objective perspective people have to should acknowledge has been unfair to segments of its population. I'm going to continue to be me, speak on those issues and at the end of the day, recognize that that's my job. And the last thing I'll say on this, Jess, is, you know, I've often shared the story of once being told, you should be careful with pursuing this particular item because so and so and so and so pursued something like this last go around and they lost their re election. That was pretty much what they said to me. And they were trying to tell me, be careful because you'll have a tough reelection. My response was, in essence, I have a wife and sons at home that I love. And if the worst thing you're going to do is send me home to my wife and kids, you're doing me a favor. So you don't scare me by telling me that I shouldn't do this because you know I'm going to do what I need to do. And you know, the chips will fall where they may. So that's the answer. I'm be myself. That's what I'm gonna. That's what I need to keep doing.

That is so solid. Chandel. Were you gonna say something?

Oh, no, I just, I just love that so much, you know, that is really how I feel about a lot of things is like, you know, at the end of the day, do I please God, do I please my family, am I doing the right thing and I can sleep at night? Some, some people ask you that question too. How can you sleep at night? I said, oh, easy. I just put my head on the pillow, maybe give me a swig of scotch or red wine and read and go to sleep. It doesn't, it doesn't. You know, I think people feel like they're, they're hurting your feelings when they come at you in a certain way or, or, or they try to define you. That's one thing that I believe that I, I appreciate about this guy is he doesn't let anybody else define him. Right. And all the way through, I mean, even, even.