Madam Secretary checked off a couple of different boxes for a future Hillary run. In an episode titled “You Say You Want a Revolution,” we open with a scene where an apparently harmless Chicago traffic stop in the late 70’s turns violent. Because the cop started it, obviously:
Man 2: This is going down. He's gonna kill us, you know. He's gonna kill us.
Woman: Be cool, TRE. Hands on the wheel.
Officer: Evening.
Woman: Be cool.
Officer: You know you're driving with a busted taillight?
Woman: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Jesus! Tre, we got to get out of here. Tre!
So, there you have it. The cop was clearly right for pulling his gun because the occupants of the vehicle were armed, communist militants. But as we will see, the blame will be put back on the cop, America, white people, and basically Western Civilization.
You see, in this episode, Madam Secretary (Tea Leoni) makes plain her desire to see the lifting of the embargo on Cuba. Small problem though, a Senator representing Illinois who is also the key vote Madam Secretary needs to make this work, decides to withhold his vote unless Cuba releases the woman who was in the back of the car that night in 1977, Afeni Rahim, who fled to Cuba to seek asylum.
Madam Secretary then goes to Cuba to talk to Rahim. It goes badly:
Madam Secretary: Afeni Rahim. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Secretary...
Afeni: ...Of State Elizabeth Mccord. I'm aware, and you're here because my revolutionary brothers in Havana told your government to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Madam Secretary: Something like that, yeah. Can I have a moment of your time?
Afeni: White folks are always taking my time.
Madam Secretary: I have an opportunity to lift the U.S. Embargo, but I need your help. There are people who want you to come back to the U.S. To serve your sentence. What if I could ensure that you would be at a minimum-security prison close to your daughter in Connecticut? You have a grandson you haven't met. And you would be eligible for parole in three years.
Afeni: Wouldn't that be convenient for you? I simply turn myself over to the Feds, and you get whatever it is you want.
Madam Secretary: Not just me. Don't you think you owe the Cuban people something for taking you in? You could singlehandedly improve their lives.
Afeni: The shooting of Officer Burke? The Chicago cops and the FBI had targeted us, declared us enemies of the State. They killed my friends, wounded me, arrested me, planted evidence, intimidated witnesses. I did not shoot that cop. Never even raised my gun. I'm sorry that he died, but two of my comrades died, too, and nobody is talking about that. He pulled his gun first. We weren't looking for trouble, but that has never stopped a cop from shooting black folks on sight.
Daisy: The all-white jury that sentenced you only took 30 minutes to give you life in prison. That wouldn't happen today.
Afeni: We might have terrible Internet, but we get news. So you tell me-- was it different for Trayvon Martin, or Eric Garner? Is it any different in Ferguson, Missouri, or Charleston, South Carolina? No? I didn't think so.
Good to see no one is holding grudges. Also interesting that Rahim seems to think a black person enjoys more freedom in a police-state like Cuba, as opposed to the United States, which is of course evidenced by the thousands of black people who board overcrowded dinghies and brave shark infested waters to escape to Cuba.
Or, not.
In the end Madam Secretary convinces Rahim to come back to the United States and face trial after providing her with proof that the FBI buried evidence that would have exonerated her and appealing to her revolutionary sensibilities by reminding her of the media platform she’ll have to spew her anti-American screed and denounce the United States of America.
So, in the end, Madam Secretary not only demonstrated Hillary’s sympathy with the anti-police Black Lives Matter movement, but uses her sympathies with that group to give them an opportunity to trash America, solve an international crisis, and broker a deal that ends the U.S. trade embargo.
All in an hour.
