So help me god. So help me god. Congratulations, mr. Speaker. Thank you. [cheers and applause] the historic nature of my speakership is not lost on me. This will be the first time in the history of the commonwealth of virginia that we have had a speaker who is as intelligent as this and as handsome as this [laughter] what you are laughing at . Its true [laughter] [laughs] no, let me stop. But its an honor and a privilege to be elected by my peers as the first black speaker of the house of delegates, 405 years after the founding of the longest, continuous democratic elected body in the western hemisphere. Also, coincidentally, 405 years after the first enslaved people arrived here. Not far from where we stand, down the road in hampton roads. Host virginia speaker don scott, january 10, 2024, what was that they like for you . Speaker scott it was amazing. Exhilarating. It felt like the combination of a lifetime of working hard finally coming to fruition. It was a day of pride. I was proud of not only of my family and myself, but everyone that worked with me and work for me along the way, so it was just an amazing day. One of the greatest days of my life. Host 58 speaker of the Virginia House of delegates. First black speaker. Speaker scott it is breathtaking. Amazing. I think about all the people that came before me and who allowed me to be in this place. I think about the pain and the trauma that those enslaved people had to endure to get me where i am. That trauma and pain birthed the opportunity that i have right now to serve as speaker, so i dont take that opportunity for granted. I am very proud and i feel a sense of responsibility and obligation to make sure i live up to the dreams and goals of those people who came before me. Host you were first elected to the house of delegates in 2019, and five years later you are speaker. How does that happen . Speaker scott a whole lot of praying. Faith. Being in the right moment at the right time. And sometimes the wrong time. I have a strong faith in god. I know i wouldnt be here if not for that favor, a very short of that. I know that to do it, even to do it in a long period of time, you have to have some favor, but to do it in the short amount of time that i did, its a gift, a gift from god. A lot of people prayed for me to be in this position. I dont want to let those people down, i want to do a good job, not just be the first black speaker, but to be a great speaker. To me being a great speaker is to make sure we are efficient, we get things done in a timely fashion and we keith that stability the house of delegates has always been known for, while also having a very heated discussion about how we need to go forward, the ideas we have in the country. Host some quick math. When we set up this interview looking at the 40year history of the house in virginia, half the speakers were slave owners is that important to note that . Speaker scott wow, i didnt know that. Its amazing and important to know that. It lets you know how far we have come not only as a commonwealth, but as a country. Its important that we always reflect on that history, if we dont, we are doomed to repeat it. Its important that we highlight that and understand that the ideas that these men had, even though they were flawed themselves, the ideas last forever. They are internal. Ideas around life, liberty and the pursuit of happyness. These ideas were internal. They are gifts from god, they came through men and enter that even though these men were imperfect, these ideas last forever and we have an obligation opportunity to continue that prosperity and our prosperity out to posterity, that makes sense. Host two of the last three speakers of the house of delegates were not raised in virginia the first woman, the first black speaker. Not being raised in virginia, what does that say about the commonwealth . Speaker scott they are openminded. Folks then come can come to the commonwealth and make a life for themselves and have an impact. If you want to work here and do things that help move all our wealth in, and moving forward, then you get the opportunity to lead. It says a lot about virginians in general and a lot about what we need to do, how welcoming kstate we are. A lot of folks come to virginia that are transient, folks from the military like myself, and others who come here for our great educational system and state or they are coming for great job and stay. Because of that, virginia is very welcoming and we need to keep it that way. Its the reason virginia was the number one state to do business in a couple of times in a row a few years ago, because we are so welcome and inclusive compared to some of the other states. Host lets go back to january 10, 2024 a bit more of your speech. Speaker scott i got to honor her today. She was orphaned as a child. She raised six children. [voice breaks] by herself. I used to tell her, dont worry, god is my father and he will take care of us. So, i know i am a little soft right now, but i am really tough. [laughter] speaker scott [laughs] and i got got that toughness from her. I was struggling. Some of yall know my story. I had come out of jail. Real talk. She looked at me and didnt see anything that the world sees. She looked at me and saw her aspiration, her husband, her friend. Her confidant. Thank you. Thank you. When i was at my lowest [tearfully] you looked at me and you saw me exactly where i am standing right now. Thank you. [applause] host speaker scott. You were talking about helen and mellanda, and the Washington Post clued u. S. C. , or wrote about you saying, he never realized how much his mother struggled until, as an adult, he saw a Social Security document that suggested she never earned more than 13,000 a year. Speaker scott my wife mellanda scott and my mom helen, and a lot of other women have always nurtured me and pushed me. It was amazing to me to see that. So like many other mothers, black and white, we dont have all the resources they need, to try to make ends meet. I dont know how she did it, i really dont. I look back. I do pretty well now, and sometimes things can still get a little dicey. But she did what she had to do raising six kids. I am grateful for that. And my wife, you know, she saw something in me that a lot of folks will be wouldnt see after experiencing what i have, the adversity that i have. She saw me as i was and said, you know what, maybe one day he would be somebody. She fell in love with the aspirational don, not the don she saw at that moment. Host childhood in houston . Speaker scott yes. Part of my childhood. A lot of it in jasper, texas, too. That is where my mother and father are from and i spent a lot of time growing up there. I was a little bit too country for the city another bit too urban for the country. I tell people a lot of the time, i was already a multilingual, because i could speak country and city at the same time. [laughs]. And in tech says that is a very valuable. Growing up in houston and in texas that is very valuable. Growing up in houston inspired much before i am today. I have a brother that is two years younger than i and we had some older brothers and sisters there was a larger gap, probably eight years older than us. My mom had to work a couple of jobs. In the mornings she would drop us off. We would be waiting at the Public Library for them to open the door. Stayed in the library until close, it would be 7 00, and we would be there when they locked up in a little while after she would come and pick ourselves. At that time we had a lifelong love of reading and learning. She probably knew what she was doing, but it was also a safe place to be. Its no mistake that i love to read even to this day. She instilled that love in me. My mother never had a college degree, but she loved reading herself so she instilled that love of reading and all of us. Host what kind of books did you gravitate to . Speaker scott when i was young i loved all the detectives. Pp longstocking. The hardy boys. Nancy drew. Any of those detective, mr. Brooks. That as i got older, i started reading fiction. He loved great storytelling. As i got a little older, i started to get more into nonfiction, history and biographies. I am reading some stuff now. I am always reading something just to make sure i stay abreast. You have to constantly be challenging your mind and learning new things and reading about i am reading about a great texan right now, lyndon b. Johnson. They think politics are rough now . Its nothing compared to how it was back then. [laughter] those guys were tough. Host i was snooping on your desk and i saw muster of the senate. What do you think of that . Speaker scott i just think we live in a different time. Those people, maybe i am naive, that they seemed more manipulative than than they are now. And Lyndon Baines johnson was the best at it at the time. I read the book and i am, like, wow, i didnt know he was doing some of the things he was doing. He probably wouldnt be accepted now. Metoo would have ate him up before he ever got out of texas. But at the end of the day he ended up being successful and got away with it. He had a lot of things that were overtly racist, but he was still beloved by a lot of folks in the black community. Even to this day, i tell him some of my friends, as much as they loved, he was the greatest president for his time. Even though my idol is barack obama. But linda lyndon b. Johnson passed the civilrights legislation that put me where i am today. I was born in 1965. Talk about this nifty eighth speaker of the house, i am 58 years old. 1965 that the Voting Rights act was passed, the year that the selma, alabama march across the bridge, pettis bridge, happened with john lewis and it led to the voting rates act being passed. In my mind, that is when america became what we view as america, and multicultural, multiethnic country that began to become what it was supposed to be. We have only been doing this american experiment the way i think it was intended to be 58 years since voting rates. And we are still fighting to make sure we continue to implement and progress with the voting rates act. Host another book on your desk, basic brown. Speaker scott the story of willie brown. I have been nibbling and reading to him as well. He was a character. Very charismatic, dashing but also very strategic. Very brilliant, very intelligent. That is one of the things i want to be as a speaker. I not only want to be the first black speaker, i want to continue to be strategic in which the goals and objectives of not only my family, but our commonwealth. I want every child to have the same opportunity my children and my family have. And i want the legislature to really operate in an efficient and effective way. And he did it for a long time. So i am looking forward to continuing to learn more about mr. Brown. Host author denise gicham, politics for people who hate politics. Speaker scott the book was a gift from a fellow republican delegate tata. Its a pretty good book. The lady who wrote the book actually ran as a republican in california. Then she figured out it wasnt for her so she wrote this book about, you know, how do you still be yourself and you still want to be engaged about, not have to be as nasty, as partisan, as argumentative as politics have become now . As toxic as politics are now. Its a good book to remind us there are people on the other side of the aisle of goodwill, who want to work on big problems together. And we dont have to always be at each others throats. That is kind of why i keep that book. I didnt even know you were going to do the interview in, this room without we would do it at the capitol, but i keep the books when i have those moments. I touch each one and i am always listening to other books, because i am always trying to learn and become better and understand how different people think. I like to challenge myself. I like to talk to republicans and democrats. I think you have to talk to different people or otherwise you will just get confirmation bias, only talk to the people that think like you, you dont learn anything knew. Anything new. Host host the Abraham Lincoln statue. Speaker scott he is my third favorite president behind barack obama and lbj. He made some courageous i think people try to revise, especially in the times that we, live in now some of the things he said. He had to Say Something back then that were strategic, that he had to say to continue to move the ball. He said things like, if we would be slaves in the state union, i would be a slave. If we wouldnt have slaves and keep the union, then we would be free. He said things to keep the country moving forward. But i think he had other motives and those motives were always for emancipation. So i have a lot of respect for him and obviously, dr. King is a hero, a giant. I am always reminded and humbled that a lot of people that talk about dr. King today, they like to use his words in his speeches, but they dont like to use his actions. He was a man of action, not just a man of god and who gave flory speeches, he actually put his body on the line which led to his assassination. He was in memphis getting ready to go and march with striking workers. He put his body on the line, which is why i have a lot of respect for him. I hear so many people today that try to just use a clip of the speech, but they dont share anything in common with his philosophy towards dealing with human beings and giving every person the opportunity to move forward in this country and to eradicate racism and hate. I think that is what he stood for. Host . Host i want to quote you from january 10, 2024. I remember my mother in the courtroom. I can hear the little yelp that she made when a judge that 10 years, i still hear that sometimes. What are you talking about . Speaker scott i am sitting in the courtroom and standing up now at the defendants table and the judges about to pronounce my sentence, and i am hopeful that i might get some, a little bit more mercy . I had never been in trouble before, i had served my country and i was hoping that i would get a little bit more grace and may be the judge might have given me a little time. He couldve given me more time than he did. I remember my mother when he said 10 years. She could not believe it. That yelp of pain always stays with me. It is always motivating and always lets me know how fragile our freedom is and how powerless it is and if you make one wrong move sometimes, it could literally be the end of your life as you know it. Host host how did you end up at the defendants table . Speaker scott well, i was in my third year of law school, my final semester at lsu law school. And a person had reached out to me to ask me to go pick up some proceeds, drug money. I knew what it was. But i didnt think i was selling drugs, and at the time, even though i was in law school, it didnt click that i could be put into a cocaine conspiracy which i never sold any. But i want down to alabama to meet someone who gave me, 20 something odd thousand dollars in a bag of drug money. So i was sitting in the ihop or dennys restaurant and they remember seeing, wow, there is a lot of police out there. [laughs] i didnt know they were there for me. They came in and arrested me and the 90, i am in a crack cocaine conspiracy with two people i didnt know. One of them i knew a little bit and had met before. The other i didnt know at all. They both were testifying against me and he took they took pleas. So i pled nolo contendere, which is no contest, and ended up getting 10 years. One night, one bad day and one bad decision. I tell people he could have been worse. It could have been somebody with a gun. I could have been meeting somebody i didnt know who would have shot me. Everything works out for good at the end of the day, and that is why my faith is so strong, because i dont even know if i would be here but for that experience. Sometimes god tells you know, or not yet god tells you no or not yet. Host seven years in prison. You talk about two things, being anointed as you were going in, and pain and purpose. Speaker scott yeah. My mother had a friend named b. Simon. When this case was going on, i was fighting it. She is deceased now, but my mother called her over to her house, she had worked with her at a high school, my mother had been an Administrative Assistant at the school and b came over, and, ms. Simon came over and prayed over me and she put this over my head and prayed over me. I am not lying, everybody was in tears. She basically told me look, you will be ok. You may have to go through some stuff, but you keep your faith in god, stay grounded, you will be available to endure this and you will be ok. And i believe that. So even though i was disappointed in what the judge said that day, after i was sentenced, i went to the back to be fingerprinted. The judge told me, i will let you go home and turn yourself in which is amazing to me. Host he had finished law school too havent you . Speaker scott prior to that, i had already graduated. I went to the back and that the people, could i kneeled down pray . I did and i said what ms. Simon told me, not your will, but your will be done not my will, but your will be done. I tried to stay in that moment the entire time when i was in prison. I call it that nevertheless principal. Not my will, but your will be done. I didnt understand what my purpose would be but i knew that out of this pain would come purpose. I dont try to appoint myself like a christlike figure, by no means, but in my mind i thought the punishment was harsher than what i thought i deserved. But i think there is some merit in what i perceive as undeserved suffering. And i think there is some opportunity to move forward and grow when you feel like this is not right and you could have done better and that you know you are also responsible for putting yourself in this position. So i said, i am going to turn this pain into the purpose i need it to be to be able to help other people, working really hard. Taking the bar exam 12 years after i got out of prison i had never studied again, i went to jail in 1994. I took the virginia bar in 2014 and i passed it the first time. Nothing but god. I was working fulltime and i was studying basically online for the bar on the laptop, was on the plane most of the time working, so new [sighs] i know it was a miracle for me. I dont know about other folks, but it was a miracle for me. Host how do you get to virginia from prison . Speaker scott when i got out, i went to wilmington, delaware. I had an uncle, his name was warren. He was a pharmaceutical executive, specialty chemical company. He told me, when you get out my father had passed when i was in prison. Didnt get to go to his funeral was always gnawing on me. I am named after my father. People tell me to use don scott, jr. , because i am junior. But i only wanted to use don scott because i want his name. Even though he didnt raise me, later on in life, we became close. And i want his name. [voice breaks] i want his name to be exulted. I want him to know that i loved him even though he was not there. I understand relationships are hard. I understand. But i want everybody really see that name, because he was a brilliant man, he just was not there when i was growing up. But as i got older, when i went to jail,