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Learn more at edwardjones.com. Good morning and happy Independence Day weekend. Jane Pauley is off today. I'm Lee Callan and this is Sunday morning, introduced this morning on the Piccolo by Laura Benning of Laytonsville, Maryland. For much of the country, this 4th of July has been less red, white, and blue than normal, with few fireworks or big barbecues, which makes it really difficult to follow the crowd, as Susan Spencer will report in our Sunday morning cover story. Country music superstar Alan Jackson recently played to the largest American concert crowd since the pandemic, sitting in and on their cars. But you could feel the energy from the audience.

Oh, it felt just like a regular show. From concerts to movies to sports, the future of fun, later on Sunday morning. Our Tracy Smith has a round of questions and answers this morning for Jim Carrey, a man of many talents and strengths, it turns out. Even in this weird summer of 2020, a chat with Jim Carrey is an experience. And there we go, nothing is real.

And all of it is true. A peek inside the mind of Jim Carrey, ahead on Sunday morning. Why would you do that? We lost comedy legend Carl Reiner this past week, but his work will surely keep fans laughing for many, many years to come. Mo Rocca will remind us why. Really sincerely, and you can ask anybody, I have always said that I like you so much better without your... Carl Reiner brought laughter to generations.

And you end up cockeyed. This may be a little hokey, but what do you think kept him going so long? The same thing that keeps me going so long.

We both like getting up in the morning. He missed it today. He missed it today. We remember Carl Reiner later on Sunday morning. Ted Koppel hails a taxi and hears the woes of a new naturalized citizen. Christine Johnson visits with Grammy-winning singer Gary Clark Jr. Kelefa Sané remembers a 4th of July speech from Frederick Douglass 168 years ago. Plus, thoughts from Nancy Giles, Steve Hartman, Jim Gaffigan, and a lot more. Stay with us this Sunday morning, July 5th, 2020.

We'll be back in a moment. Holiday weekends and big gatherings usually go hand in hand, but not this year. It's hard to follow the crowd when most celebrations are canceled. But that doesn't mean you can't celebrate apart.

Our cover story is reported by Susan Spencer. How y'all doing out here tonight? Country music superstar Alan Jackson has sold 60 million albums worldwide. But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. But last month, he did something perhaps even more remarkable. We're just glad to get out of the house and have a good time, I think, y'all, down here in Alabama. On back-to-back nights in Alabama, Jackson played to the largest American concert crowd since the pandemic took over our lives. Some 12,000 fans in total, all desperate for a break.

Honestly, you could have sung Jingle Bells, you know, that they would have been so excited to see you. I heard rumors that people drove from all over the country to come to a couple of shows. His drive-in style shows took place in vast open fields with fans sitting in and on their cars, pickups, and SUVs. It felt just like a regular show and people were, I could hear them and they were loud and having fun.

Concert goers were told to social distance their vehicles and protect themselves. But it's not always easy when you're having fun. I think we're going to see a lot of creativity, a lot of innovation in the way that people are getting their entertainment.

Dr. Dhruv Kullar is a health policy researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. He says Americans may have to start redefining the meaning of fun. Whenever I think about large gatherings, there's a few kind of risks that I take into account. The first is, is the gathering going to be inside or outside?

We know that outdoor gatherings are much safer than indoor gatherings are. As for events that can't be moved outside, would you feel comfortable today going to a movie? I would not feel comfortable today going to a movie theater, and I wouldn't recommend that my patients do that at this time. Would you go to an indoor concert? An indoor concert is even more dangerous than a movie theater. In a concert, you're usually cheering or yelling or singing along.

That means a lot of those droplets, even microscopic droplets, are flying out of your mouth and they're flying out of the mouth of the person next to you. You're really being quite a killjoy here. I'm the first to tell you I wish there were ways right now that we could flip a switch and for life to go back to normal. Normal these days is anything but, and you may as well get used to that mask. Most public health officials would say that anytime you have a large gathering, masks should be mandatory. Even outside?

Even outside. How do you see college sports returning? In a very complicated way. As commissioner of the America East Conference in Division I college sports, Amy Huchthausen has a front row seat to this new world. It's been difficult and there's still no clear answers or direction, candidly, about where we're going to end up this fall.

I don't envy you, your job. Big arenas could see big changes. Limited seating capacity, staggered entry points, compulsive cleaning. The only thing off the table is your lunch.

The days of going up and grabbing food and exchanging food probably looks a little bit different as well. So you don't stand in a long line waiting for the hot dog? You're probably not getting a hot dog that's just sitting on a tray. That hot dog is open for things to fall on it. It's not happening.

That minimally will be modified. As for the action on the field, can you imagine a world without high fives, without hugs? Yeah, I find it hard to believe. I'm sort of glad I'm not playing because I don't know that I could control myself. Yeah, no spitting in baseball?

How do you control that? How do you have baseball? But Major League Baseball, there will be. A shortened 60-game season starts in a few weeks. The NFL is targeting a September kickoff and the NBA intends to play without fans. Some events may be without fans, even if fans are allowed.

Suppose I came to you and said, look, I have front row seats, Madison Square Garden, your favorite performer. Are you in? I don't think so. Not today.

Not today. A lot of this is how do people feel? Do they feel safe? Do they feel like they're going to be able to keep their friends and their families healthy if they go out?

But I think a lot of people will have second thoughts about that and understandably so. Then again, these folks seemed pretty happy. So what was the community reaction when you announced, yes, there will be baseball? They were ecstatic.

Darren Musselwhite is the mayor of South Haven, Mississippi, where the annual youth baseball tournament on hold since March started up again in May. The number one thing was public safety. We studied the data. When we got to the point, we felt like that it was safe to go back out.

That's when we proceeded for it. What about fans who might be afraid to attend an event like this? I think it goes back to, you know, this is America. Everyone gets to make their own decisions. If you don't feel safe going, don't go. The hundred or so fans who showed up followed protocol. Families together, socially distanced, with limits on seats and on the number of players in the dugout.

In Mississippi that same week, our governor opened casinos. So just being a logical person, if it's safe enough to go into an indoor casino, it's certainly safe enough to play baseball outside. But as we've learned, in a pandemic, circumstances can change in an instant. Well, I suppose individual teams would have to decide what they would do if one of their players is positive. It's a monumental task. There's no way to paint that picture nicer.

You know, if a player on a team tests positive, the first step, I think, is to self-isolate the player and then to test everyone else on the team to make sure that it hasn't spread to others. Yet despite such dire scenarios, Dr. Kullar holds out hope that one day our carefree old normal will be the new normal again. Look back at, you know, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. After that, you had the Roaring Twenties. And so you can envision something like that happening again.

In Alabama last month, it was easy to envision. Alan Jackson has no more concerts scheduled, but for a couple of nights, it felt a little like good times. For just about all of his 98 years, Carl Reiner made people laugh. He died this past Monday. Tributes have been pouring in all week, which brings us to this one from our Mo Rocca. First thing in the morning before I have coffee, I read the old bits.

Seriously? Yes, if I'm not in it, I'll have breakfast. Even when discussing something grim.

I think about how I'd like to go, what a show this would be if I was talking to you. Carl Reiner, who died last week at 98, couldn't help but sound sunny. He was rare in that I can't remember him being in a bad mood. Or him telling me about a bad mood.

Legendary TV writer and producer Norman Lear, now 97, was close friends with Reiner for more than 50 years. This may be a little hokey, but what do you think kept him going so long? The same thing that keeps me going so long.

We both like getting up in the morning. He missed it today. He missed it today. Carl Reiner didn't miss a lot. One of television comedy's founding fathers, Reiner first came into our homes as a featured player on Your Show of Shows. There is one thing I've learned being superintendent of this hospital for the last 16 years.

It's this, that this is a hospital and not an experimental laboratory. On Your Show of Shows, he was the second banana to Sid Caesar. I understand that Jews is a reporter. Look boy, we don't like reports. What made him so good in that role?

Carl had no need to be the principal in anything. A lot of comics do. And so he could be very funny as a sidekick and a straight man. The Dick Van Dyke Show. Reiner is probably best known for creating The Dick Van Dyke Show, which began airing on CBS in 1961. It starred Dick Van Dyke as the head writer of a fictional TV program. He's the head writer of The Alan Brady Show. Oh, sure.

Is that still on? Reiner played the blowhard host. Hi there, remember me? A mensch, the greatest human being I ever met in my life. Unique, irreplaceable man. For some reason, Carl had a deep understanding about human behavior and what motivated people to do what they do. At the very end of the show, I didn't handle myself too well when that's Patrick Rapp.

Oh, he got you to say something embarrassing, didn't he? That Alan Brady is bald. I found myself going to his office for answers about life, about my raising my kids, about family, and I learned so much from him. He kind of created me along with creating Rob Petrie.

Finders keepers, losers weepers. And because that's true, you're mine now. And because that's true, you're mine now.

You've won for you. Why did you mess up my hair? I like to. So you think that you've got trouble? Well trouble's a bubble. So tell Mr. Trouble to get lost. Dick Van Dyke graced us with some of the little known lyrics to the show's theme. A frown, smile is just a frown that's turned upside down.

So smile on that frowny floss and don't forget to keep your fingers crossed for doo doo. Robbo. That's not the faucet, honey. Rob, I don't care what you call it.

My big toe is stuck in it. Carl understood there's no such thing as an adult. An adult is his costume and mannerism that a kid puts on in order to make his new wife. There was no venue where Reiner didn't kill. On stage.

In this razzle dazzle world of television, each new season sets the networks in a spin, after many years I have a strong suspicion, it's a weird weird weird weird weird weird wiz we're in. As a film director. And action. I'm a jerk.

And sometime actor. At my age, I think I'm in the right to be selfish. Oh and remember comedy albums?

He and Mel Brooks had one of the biggest with the 2000 year old man with Reiner once again playing the straight man. All right, what should I do? Give me a boost. A boost, yes. Double somersault.

Okay. Never leave your eyes off your face for this. And one, and two, and wait, let's reconsider. That's a hundred percent Carl Reiner. And that's why he worked so well with Mel.

Because Mel will tell you himself, he needed to be up front and Carl was a champion from the sides. Carl and Mel were a match made in comedy heaven, but Reiner's lifelong co-star was his beloved wife Estelle. I had a lot of hair in those days, black hair, wavy. The couple reminisced about their first meeting back in 2007 with Tracy Smith. Really good looking, but typical.

I said tall, dark, and handsome. Ten years later, after Estelle had passed away, Reiner reflected. Having a good marriage and good children. A good life is what you send out to the world. I have three children, non-toxic children.

All have done great things and are continuing to do great things. And I had a marriage of 65 years. That's the only thing that really defines me.

There's a stereotype about comics being dark. Carl Reiner was all light. A few days ago, Norman Lear's son-in-law, our own Dr. John Lapook, sent us this video clip of Carl Reiner greeting Lear at a party in 2000. It's strange to say it in this season of coronavirus, but he was a great hugger. You know, it's a gem, that little bit of photography of him hugging you. That, in a sense, is the essence of Carl also. It sounds like he loved being with his friends. There was never a better friend. The LA Times a bit talked about pure joy, and that's what he brought to everything.

Pure joy. Like so many musical artists, Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. won't be touring anytime soon, but Christine Johnson reminds us just what his fans have been missing. There's a certain confidence when he takes the stage. And from the first riff, it's clear why.

This is Gary Clark Jr., and he wields his guitar like a man possessed. I'm not like a religious person. I quit going to church a long time ago, but like music is my religion, I guess you could say. It's calming. It can hype me up.

It's everything to me. His mastery of the six-string won him a Grammy in 2013, and has earned him three more this year. He's played the White House, even toured with the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton, who, by the way, said that he's never seen a flow like yours. A flow like mine. He says, I haven't seen someone like that since Jimmy. Oh damn. Pressure.

Jimmy, as in Hendrix. This 36-year-old is still allowing comparisons like that to sink in, as he told us when we sat down with him at his ranch in Texas. It doesn't really resonate until I'm at home, and I'm going, wow, this is real.

You know what I mean? Like, all those dreams and hopes and aspirations I had as a kid, and I thought were silly, and I was scared to share with people because they might think that I'm out of my mind. Gary Clark Jr. is from Austin, Texas, the son of Gary Clark Sr., a car salesman, and his wife, Sandy, an accountant. Mom still does his books, and says her son's life changed forever at age 12. He got the guitar for Christmas, and then checked out a couple of books, and it's just totally self-taught. You know, he was upstairs in his room playing, and I told her, I said, come here, come here, listen to this. Got up the stairs a little closer, opened up the door, and there he is. He's hitting note for note.

Is that the day you realized? He's got a gift. Yeah, and he said, Sam, he's really good. The very next year, Clark was good enough to play gigs in the city, on school nights, no less. I used to feel guilty having him in the nightclubs, and I'd look around, why do I have my 13-year-old kid in a bar? Why did you? Because he wanted to be there.

I was raised real religious, Baptist, go to church every Sunday, and the fear of God was very present in the house, you know what I mean? We caught up with Clark on the set of his music video, Pearl Cadillac. The song is about leaving home to go on tour for the first time, and understanding everything his mother had done for him. I didn't realize what it took to be a parent. Well, I won't let you down, I won't make you proud, yeah. I was like, wow.

It's work. He put up with a lot, like a lot of lot. And I was like, dang, thank you. For example, his parents put up with him borrowing the family car without their permission. That earned him the nickname, Hotwire. I would steal my parents' car, start the thing up, and then I'd go to the hospital.

Just go wherever I wanted from, till whenever my dad fell asleep watching Star Trek, when they woke up to get everybody ready for school. And today we're joined by Gary Clark Jr., guess we could say local blues phenom. In 2001, Gary, just 17, was featured on the local news. Well, you can judge me all you want to, I ain't gonna worry no more.

That same year, Austin's mayor proclaimed May 3rd, Gary Clark Jr. Day. How do you measure success? I got a beautiful family. I got an amazing supportive wife who was like my backbone. I think that's success to me.

His success has also allowed him to buy his own piece of Texas Hill Country. This is my peaceful zone. This is my serenity. It's so different than when you're on stage.

You've got your screaming fans up there, and you've got your guitar going. My life is so loud and noisy, and I like to hear crickets. At heart, I'm kind of a country boy. I like to be around nature and nothing. Clark's ranch outside of Austin is where he lives with his wife, Australian model Nicole Trunfeo, and their children.

Until I'm gone, yeah, I'm gonna love you just a little bit longer, baby. It's also where he records music when he's not out touring the country. And it was this land that gave Clark the material for the title track on his latest album. This land is mine, this land is mine.

The song is about a confrontation with a neighbor who couldn't believe a black man could own this land. Yeah, he said, I didn't speak to the owner of the house. And I'm like, dude, you're talking to me. You know, I'm 35.

I've been dealing with this since I was in elementary school. You know what I mean? That's a sad statement.

Yeah, it is. But it's a reality. A reality Clark's parents couldn't shield him from. Dog feces in the mailbox and the N-word written on our fence.

And what was the discussion in the household when those things happened? You just can't let that get to you. That's that other person's issue. It's not about, that doesn't speak to you as a person and what kind of person you are. That's someone else with the problem. I was born this way.

And I love it, you know what I mean? And so for somebody to judge me based upon this and not ask any questions, not even try and get in here, it just made me upset. It made me sad. It made me curious about the future. Kids and family, they tap into your emotions. So it's not all about you anymore.

Yeah, they unlock things that I think I didn't realize I was holding on to. Gary Clark Jr. He's considered one of the greatest guitarists in a generation.

But don't tell him that. I'm not special. I'm just a simple dude. Simple dude from Austin, Texas.

He picked up the guitar and... This pared down 4th of July holiday has been tough on everybody, including Jim Gaffigan. I'm sure it wasn't your most social 4th of July celebration, but at least you got to participate. I learned a long time ago that I don't need to be in a group of people to eat too many hot dogs and hamburgers.

And if you aren't social distancing with fireworks, you're going to get hurt. I would say 4th of July is probably my least painful calendar notification I've received during the pandemic. Like many of you, I have notifications on my computer of upcoming events. Back in March and April, many of those events had to be canceled because participating in them would mean death for someone. Unfortunately, I didn't remove those events from my calendar.

As a result, every couple days, I receive a reminder of what my life could have and should have been like. Ding! I was going to perform at Radio City Music Hall. That's not happening. Oh, well, my career is over. Ding!

Oh, that's right. I was going to fly to LA to work on a movie that would have changed my career. Well, that's never going to happen. Ding! Oh, our family was going to do our annual summer beach vacation. Well, we had to cancel that. Since it was Corona, even the insurance we got didn't cover the cost of the rental.

I ate the whole thing. That's a reminder. I'm definitely going broke. Ding! It looks like we're not attending the family reunion this year. Well, I guess it's not all bad news.

This is The Takeout with Major Garrett. This week, Steven Law, ally of Mitch McConnell and one of Washington's biggest midterm money men. List for me the two Senate races where you think Republicans have the best chance of taking a Democratic seat away. Nevada. New Hampshire. Not Georgia. Well, Georgia's right up there, but New Hampshire is a surprise.

In New Hampshire, people really just kind of don't like Maggie Hassan. For more from this week's conversation, follow The Takeout with Major Garrett on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It was 168 years ago today that Frederick Douglass spoke in Rochester, New York, on the subject of the Declaration of Independence.

He had a decidedly different take on what it meant, as Keala Fasani is about to tell us. Mr. President, friends, and fellow citizens, the task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. It's considered one of the greatest speeches in American history. It is the birthday of your national independence and of your political freedom. Delivered at an Independence Day event by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The distance between this platform and the slave plantation from which I escaped is considerable. Today, across Massachusetts, communities come together to read the speech aloud during the July 4th holiday.

Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice extended to us? The tradition started 11 years ago. What surprised me the most about people's reactions is the sheer delight that many of our residents show when reading the address. Kedric Roy, a Ph.D. candidate in American studies at Harvard University, leads the readings in Somerville, a suburb of Boston. The conviction with which they read Douglass' words, it's inspiring.

It's infectious. Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838 and fled north, becoming a leader in the fight to abolish slavery entirely. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice.

I must mourn. If Independence Day was a time to throw a parade, he would be the rain. He says, what to the American slave is your 4th of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham. When Douglass points to the injustice and the cruelty to which they were subjected in 1852, I couldn't help but draw an immediate line to our present day. When I turn on the TV, I see people of color still being subjected to injustice and to cruelty. The Civil War was still nearly a decade away, and slavery remained firmly in place. Douglass wanted to make it clear this was an emergency. Do you think that people hearing this speech in the audience in Rochester in 1852 would have been surprised or shocked by any of it? I think they might have been surprised or shocked by Douglass's boldness, but they would have been awed by his eloquence. Fellow citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men.

The speech begins with Douglass being very congenial and chatting with the crowd, getting the crowd interested in what he's about to say. You boast of your love of liberty. And then he levies a searing critique of the United States.

While the whole political power of the nation is solemnly pledged To support and perpetuate the enslavement of three million of your countrymen. Though he does say that the Constitution, for instance, is still a glorious liberty document. And then toward the end, he gives us a sense of hopefulness of America achieving what it could become. Notwithstanding the dark picture I have to this day presented to the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. Frederick Douglass did see the abolition of slavery in 1865.

I therefore leave off where I began with hope. And Keidrick Roy says the people of Massachusetts will keep sharing his words and learning from his example. He seems convinced not only that the country can do better, he seems convinced that the country will do better.

Douglass is very convinced. He believes to his core that this country will do better. He is advocating for change. And he sees progress being made. But he doesn't lit up. That's one of the key messages that his speech has for us today.

We also can't lit up in our desire to agitate to change the country. Big naturalization ceremonies for new American citizens are a 4th of July tradition, a tradition that needed some adjusting this 4th, as Steve Hartman discovered. In America, you can get almost anything in a drive-thru, including now this very happy spiel. You're going to raise your right hand. The oath of allegiance to become a U.S. citizen. Congratulations, you're an American citizen. Want fries with that?

Here you go. Crazy as it looks, this is how the American dream now starts. Immigrants who've completed all the requirements of citizenship are pulling into parking lots from San Diego to Des Moines to Detroit for socially distant naturalization ceremonies. On Thursday in Albany, New York, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services minted 59 brand new Americans, and all from the cabins of their cars.

This is Sashikala Suboya. So what is different now, the five minutes that you've been a citizen? She emigrated from India.

The feeling of elation and delight and happiness. We're going to swear you in with the oath of allegiance. Kwame Asante came here from Ghana in the 1980s. So you've been waiting 38 years for this moment?

Yes, just for this. Which explains the suit and tie and reverence for his new country. Just to be an American is like close to paradise. Wow.

It's given me so many opportunities. Kwame works as a respiratory therapist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. He's in the thick of this pandemic, but he says he's not scared. Not now. Congratulations. Now that he's a proud American. You're a U.S. citizen. Even if I die today, I'm okay. Now that you're a citizen.

Oh my God, yes. Coronavirus has changed so many of our routines. Unfortunately, there's no ruining moments of love and pride, acceptance and gratitude. That's why not even a drive-through ceremony can dampen the joy of being here to stay. Congratulations. Thank you so much.

God bless America, all, always, always. Imagine what it might be like to sit down with the unpredictable comedian Jim Carrey for a few questions and answers. If you can't imagine it, well, don't worry. Tracy Smith is here to show us.

And the one and the two and the. Even in times like this, a chat with Jim Carrey can be just a bit surreal. I should just be quiet and just let you go. Yeah, I'm sorry.

You had a little while ago. And it seems like he's just as quirky as an author. Carrey's memoirs and misinformation is out this week, a memoir slash novel that he's worked on for eight years with co-writer Dana Vachon. What's the process been like? Been different at different phases.

Let's say the last two years was deeply intense and the two of us in a room really getting it right, getting, getting it perfect, sweating, sweating, sweating every line. I know it's fiction, but you really put yourself out there. I slice myself in two and lay on a rock and let the gulls pull my entrails out. Is it my hair bill or my teeth not white off or like the great falls is the bedrock of my life eroding beneath me. Carrey's memoir doesn't fit into a neat category, but it does share a few themes with some of his movies. He casts himself as a flawed leading man. You can call me Bruce.

Like the one in Bruce Almighty. Oh, and in case I don't see you. Good afternoon.

Good evening and good night. And in the book, he lives in a Truman show like world where it's often hard to tell where the fantasy ends and reality begins. Even though this is fiction, do you think we emerge with a clear idea of who Jim Carrey is? I think it's the best way to get to know me is to get to know my mind.

I'd like to go way back now. And what a strange place his mind seems to be. Even before Jim Carrey became a big name comedian, he'd make his family howl at their home north of Toronto, often as a sidekick to his father, Percy. One of the parts of the book that feels more memoir to me is when you talk about your childhood and your parents. You talk a lot about your dad. Was he your hero?

My dad, I wish the whole world could know my dad, but maybe they know him a little bit through me. He was there for me. He was my chip. He was an absolute champion.

Percy Carrey was the one who helped young Jim write his first jokes and drove him to his first club gigs. You said he basically saved you because he brought you to this comedy club and you kind of saw. You're not going to be happy until I'm sobbing openly. That's not the plan, I swear. You think I want to get stuck in this dead-end job?

No, sorry, not me! Jim's dad helped him put together a stage act. I want to do something wonderful. And found him a place to let it fly. I want to be one of those gospel singers on the PTL Club. And he said, you know, there's these places called comedy clubs.

You know, maybe we should go check it out. Hey, baby! Early on, Carrey's career was a mixed bag.

He killed in the clubs. Come here for a second. But failed an audition for Saturday Night Live.

It didn't crush you? I've always had a nonsensical belief in myself and the universe. I didn't make it on Saturday Night Live. Basically what happens to me is there is an automatic reset that my brain goes into where I say I might not be able to make it through the front door like everybody else, but I'll make it through the basement window. I'll make it through the back door.

I'll find a way to parachute in on the roof and climb down into a window. I have faith. I think faith is better than hope. Hope walks through the fire and faith leaps over it.

And talk about a leap of faith. In 1990, he was cast on the Wayans family's groundbreaking sketch comedy show, In Living Color. I'm white and I'm capitalizing on a trend that's currently rising, mix it with Curly and Larry and Mo. I'm here because of In Living Color and the incredible talents in the African-American community that supported me and allowed me to grow in their world that they created. The Wayans gave me my big break. You know, I can't ever thank them enough. This is your brain on drugs.

Any questions? Kerry also writes about another big influence in his life. That's destroying my life. No respect.

You've got to get no respect at all. Legendary comedian Rodney Dangerfield. To you, he was a mentor. He was a friend. He just loved me. He loved me and he encouraged me.

And I'd get off stage and he'd say, trying some new stuff, huh, kid? Then I say, yeah, you know, he said, good stuff, good stuff. That's great.

Keep it up. He was completely encouraging to me. And when Dangerfield lay dying in a hospital in 2004, Kerry was with him. There's a moment we talk about in the book where I saw him just before he passed. And I joked with him and I laughed with him.

And suddenly the machines lit up in the room and all the doctors and nurses ran into the room and said, what happened? What happened? What are you doing? I said, I don't know. He seems like he's trying to speak to me. They said, this hasn't happened for a while.

There's been no activity at all. And I just knew, I just knew he knew I was there. I kind of wonder what Rodney would have said about these.

For a while now, Kerry's been trying out other media, like painting and political cartoons. And for advice, he says he listens to his daughter, Jane. My daughter is one of the most brilliant counsels of my life. Honestly, she's so wise and so loving. She's brought me back from the brink a couple of times.

What do you mean? She just has chimed in with a few words that have really like opened my heart and settled me down and made me feel like everything's all right. She's just wonderful. And she's also made him a grandfather. Hold on, I'm going to take my teeth out. It's always great to go swimming and stuff like that on a beach and you'd be screaming grandpa! Grandpa! So I'm like, hey, cool it, kid, just chill, grandpa!

And maybe he had his grandson in mind for his latest movie. That's brilliant, sir. Thanks.

You're lovely. You poke fun at big studio family films in this book. And yet you just made Sonic the Hedgehog. Yeah. I'm fully aware of the hypocrisy that I am living in. And I mean to celebrate it.

There's occasional times when I go, you know, there's nothing wrong with doing something family friendly as long as I'm not in complete sellout mode when I do it. This guy is something else entirely. I guess you might say Jim Carrey the actor is no different than Jim Carrey the comedian or even Jim Carrey the author. My grasp on sanity remains absolute. Even ridiculously funny. Isn't that right, Agent Stone?

And completely unpredictable. I challenged my audience all the way along. Why don't you get a head start? I've been rather brutal about it and I've asked them for a lot and they've given me a lot. Now I'm a political cartoonist and an author now and maybe because I know how beautiful a gift that is and I'm very grateful for it.

I seem to be gaining acceptance in those places, which is just incredible. What a life I'm having. It happened this past week. News of the death of Hugh Downs. Born in Ohio, Downs started his broadcasting career in radio. His smooth voice and his unruffled delivery boosted him up the ladder to ever bigger stations, finally landing him at NBC in New York in 1954. While at the Peacock, he performed in a number of roles, including sidekick to Jack Parr on The Tonight Show and eventually host of The Today Show alongside Barbara Walters. Years later, he and Walters were reunited at ABC this time. Good evening, I'm Hugh Downs. And I'm Barbara Walters and this is 2020. In a memoir, he referred to his 10,000 hours on television. 10,000 hours. An amount of airtime, which for years held the Guinness World Record, Hugh Downs was 99.

Remember, we're in touch, so you be in touch. I'm Hugh Downs. As Steve Hartman showed us earlier, the swearing in of new American citizens is a July 4th tradition. But citizenship is no guarantee of a smooth road ahead for even the hardest working of immigrants.

Our senior contributor, Ted Koppel. We may tell our children in years to come that there was a time, especially if it was during rush hour on a rainy day when you couldn't get a cab in New York City for love or money. These days, the streets are mostly empty. It's estimated that 90% of the taxi business has dried up.

That's part of the reason why the city, with help from the National Guard, started this program, paying cab drivers to deliver food to low-income, housebound residents. Hello. Good morning, guys.

It's 4.45. Mohamedou Aliyou, a yellow cab driver of many years standing, gets up before dawn to participate. He knows there's a health risk.

But this is my home, and yellow is what I do. Right now, there is a pandemic. Our people, they are suffering. The city call us.

We are answering the call. Drivers earn $53 a route. Each route entails about six deliveries, and it means waiting in line for hours to get fully loaded, lugging boxes of food up into crowded apartment complexes, and then cleaning up for the next one. It's very hard. It's very tough, very challenging.

Nine hours, most of it waiting, two delivery runs, $106 for a day's work, not even close to the amount he needs to pay even a fraction of his monthly expenses. But we're still hopeful. We're New Yorkers. We don't give up. As a young immigrant from West Africa back in 1994, Mohamedou saw Manhattan through rose-colored glasses.

I came here with nothing, nothing at all. This was my dream. As a yellow cab driver to hold a medallion, it's like being on top of my game. This is where I want to be. This is the American dream.

In 2003, he became an American citizen. By 2004, Mohamedou had learned that you don't get rich just driving a cab. To make money, he was told, you need to own the taxi. And to own it, you need a special license, a medallion.

Deciding to own a cab was the best decision I ever made. It was the city that paid for the ad, promoting the deal as essentially risk-free. And it was New York City that has made literally billions of dollars selling these medallions at auction. When there are more buyers than medallions, the price goes up. That, in theory, is where even an immigrant cab driver could get rich.

So I said, why not? But in order for me to place a bid to go for the medallion, I had to raise $20,000. How much?

$20,000. But I had only $7,000. So I applied for a credit card. I got approved.

I called them. I said, can I use it for anything I want? They said, yes, it's your money.

You can do whatever you want with it. Then you had $13,000 that you had on your two credit cards. Correct. $20,000 cash down. Correct. On a $331,000 bid. Yes, that will be a loan. And you have to pay for the car, gas, maintenance, all that. But still, life was good.

Even if we say life was great. Within about a year, Mohamedou's medallion had appreciated more than $100,000. And remarkably, the value kept rising. And luckily, I was able to buy a house here in the Bronx, a three-family house.

So things was good. And then moving forward, the medallion value was going up. In 2013, the city auctioned material at $1,350,000.

You heard correctly. Seven years ago, in theory, on paper, Mohamedou Aliou was a millionaire. The only reason that it was worth over a million dollars was that there was some other immigrant who could be taken advantage of to pay that amount, and not really even pay that amount, but be trapped in a loan that would shackle them in debt for the rest of their lives. Brian Rosenthal, a reporter for The New York Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for his series exposing the taxi medallion scam. There was the city which sold the medallions, the brokers who collected commissions, and the bankers who wrote the loans and sold some of them for profit. And what we found in our reporting was that the value of the medallion went from $200,000 to over a million dollars when the revenue that the cabins were bringing in did not change at all. I've been investigating— As Brian explained in The New York Times documentary series The Weekly, those medallions were moneymakers, just not for the drivers. Eventually, you realized that this wasn't by accident. Many insiders knew that the whole thing was a house of cards.

The loans were never stable, they were never sustainable, and they were always going to be a burden that was unpayable after this bubble popped, and that's what happened. My name is Mohamedou Aliou. Last summer, the New York City Council held a hearing on what was called the owner-driver crisis.

Mohamedou Aliou was one of the witnesses. Every single day, every single hour, I think about taking my own life, I think about suicide. The only thing that stopped me is my four kids.

If I do so, what's going to happen to them? I'm supposed to be a millionaire today, and I'm proud of it. And you guys, I try to take that away from me. It's not acceptable. I'm calling on you. Please, please, have mercy on us.

Help us. He speaks rather plaintively of his status as a millionaire. I'm a millionaire. He's never going to see that day again, is he?

No, he's not. He deserves it. He works very hard. I've met hundreds of these cab drivers, and they all work extremely hard.

Many of the drivers are convinced that ride-share companies like Lyft and Uber ruin their business. And without them, though, says Brian Rosenthal, the medallion bubble had to burst. How about the value of the medallion?

Just six months ago, what was... This month ago, the medallion is less than $100,000. Less than $100,000?

Correct, sir. What Mohamedou still owes on that medallion, however, is more than $600,000. The chances that he'll ever be able to pay that off, slim and none.

One slim array of sunshine, New York State's attorney general is preparing to sue the city of New York to the tune of more than $800 million for misleading medallion owners. It could take years, and even that sum wouldn't make the drivers whole again. And then, of course, there's the pandemic. Still over 50 cab drivers have died from the virus since March.

These are some of their faces. Most drivers these days are staying home. The few available fares just aren't worth the health risk. There is no more sleep. There is no night.

At night, we chat on the WhatsApp group. We so worried. If nothing is done, when this pandemic will be over, the Eurocab industry will be over, too.

We'll be finished. If you watched last week's broadcast, you may have had some pretty strong feelings about our opinion essay on so-called Karens. Well, you weren't alone.

Our Nancy Giles certainly did. The last few weeks have felt like one gut punch after another. From the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd to that crazed 911 call by Amy Cooper. And all three events were, thankfully, captured on cell phone video for millions of people to see. Undeniable proof of the racist acts that some of us have lived with for a long time. So last week, when our broadcast aired an opinion essay on the term Karen and Karen shaming, I thought, really? Okay, here's the thing. When it comes to the Karens, Becky's, even Ken's of the world, who don't like being called out for their gross behavior, always privileged and sometimes incendiary.

She calling police on an eight-year-old little girl. You can hide all you want. Yeah, and illegally selling water without a permit. You know what?

Tough. There's something called consequences, and they need to face theirs. Are you sure it's not because you don't want black people being out here? It has nothing to do with their race. The social media shaming is not more important than the horrific behavior itself. Calling someone a Karen isn't about sexism. It has to do with specific behavior and actions.

A person who weaponizes their privilege. My tax is paid for this place, yep. Oh, okay. Just so you know. Black lives matter.

Yeah. Not to me they don't. And by the way, calling someone a Karen is not the worst thing you can say. People of color in this country have been called a lot worse for a lot less. They are the real victims here. We've seen this Karen connective tissue throughout our history when false accusations led to the murder of Emmett Till, the conviction and imprisonment of the Scottsboro Boys, and were used as a diversion for Susan Smith to name just a few examples. If you don't know their stories, look them up.

That's the culture I'd like to cancel. Stop with the lies. That boy whistled at me. He was black. It was a carjacking. And then he kidnapped my children. 911? I'm being threatened by an African American man.

And while we're at it, let's cancel the microaggressions too. Here are a few that have been tossed my way. You don't sound urban. Do you live in this building?

The ultra sheen auditions are down the hall. Now my white friends are finally seeing it for themselves on video. And they're starting to understand that they can never understand what it's like to be on the receiving end of this insanity. Black people have lived with this for 400 years. So it's white people's turn to deal with themselves. Time for the Karens, Beckys, and even the Kens to stop whining, take a beat, and try listening. It'll be messy and awkward, but if they're willing, they might just learn something. And that's worth it for all of us. I'm Lee Cowan. We hope your fourth was memorable in its own unique way and that you'll join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Stay safe and stay healthy. Now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.