President [Barack] Obama's pick of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education was abysmal.

This was in 2004, and it told me that President [Barack] Obama intended to be very careful and noncontroversial in addressing race matters. I

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

I serve on the Institute of the Black World's National Commission on African-American Reparations, and we have asked the President [Barack Obama] to, by executive order, establish a commission to study reparations. He can do this without Congressional approval. While I am not optimistic, I do hope that President Obama considers this in these waning months of his Presidency.

Bernie Sanders has the momentum, and I think that that's something that we can't ignore.

As I write in the book, I do not regret either of my votes for President [Barack] Obama, nor my support of him when he ran for the Senate before that. I get excited as I ever did when I see that black man on Air Force One. But I won't settle for symbolism, and our President's record should be open for analysis.

We have a very large military community - veterans and others - who basically do believe in the militarism.