Multimedia mogul Charlamagne Tha God offered a blunt assessment of whether President Biden has earned the black vote if he is seeking re-election in 2024: He hasn’t yet.
In an exclusive interview with TBEN News Digital, Charlamagne was asked to revisit his infamous 2020 “Breakfast Club” interview with then-presidential candidate Biden when he told them “you’re not black” if they were hesitating between and President Trump. Biden later backtracked on the comments.
“The only thing I took out was he took a page out of Trump’s book, and he said the quiet part out loud, you know?” said Charlemagne. “Because whether he said it in jest or not, I’m sure a good portion of the Democratic Party feels that way. They’re like, ‘Hey, black men, black women, they’re our most loyal voting bloc and they’re showing up for us no matter what.’ And I think that’s something he probably said because he heard other people around him say that… It may have been shocking to hear, but he didn’t say anything that people didn’t already know or people didn’t already feel. like hey, the Democratic Party takes the black vote for granted.
He continued, “That’s something I think a lot of people are realizing there are black conservatives out there. Sorry! You know what I mean? All black people are not part of the Democratic Party, the people who could vote for a conservative at the local level. I bet if you go to Georgia and dig into some of the people who voted for Brian Kemp you’d be surprised, you know? Probably the same in Florida.
“So I think it’s just something that I don’t think the Democratic Party can take for granted anymore because everyone wants tangibles. Everyone wants something that specifically benefits their community. People vote their interests, nothing more and nothing less.”
When asked if Biden deserved the black vote in his 2024 reelection, Charlamagne responded with a resounding “no,” citing failure to pass things like the George Floyd Policing Act.
“Listen, I need to see how the next two years go, you know?” said Charlemagne. “Personally, I mean damn almost everything they promised black people that I haven’t seen come true… I still think they could have gone much further with the marijuana thing. Hey, it’s cool to pardon anyone who’s in prison on a federal level for simple possession. But guess what? There’s no one in prison on a federal level with simple, simple possession. You are still the president. If you really wanted to, you could have erased so many different records with the stroke of a pen and released as many people at the federal level as you really wanted to take it there.
“They volunteer these lies. I say this all the time. They volunteered to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this. We will do that.’ And then they come into office and they can’t get things done. Well, why lie voluntarily, you know? he added.
During the interview, Charlamagne complained that Biden is the Democrats’ “safest bet” for 2024, but he wasn’t confident enough to say he would beat Trump in a rematch.
“I think it could go either way. Like, I don’t think it’s for sure, which is sad, right?… It’s sad that we say it’s still a toss-up between [Trump] and President Biden,” Chalamagne said after pointing out the many investigations plaguing Trump. “I think that’s more indicative of what the Democrats aren’t doing. And for me, I just don’t see the bank that the Democrats have. I personally don’t see the person they could put in 2024 that could really empower and empower people. I mean, the fact that Biden is still their safest bet, ugh. I regret that too.”
On a recent episode of his Comedy Central show “Hell Of a Week,” Charlamagne said the Democrats have “no one” to run against Trump, who ran for office last month, or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. R., who is quickly becoming a favored GOP alternative to the party’s current standard bearer.
When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential prospects, the “Breakfast Club” co-host quickly turned sour.
“No, I don’t think the vice president stands a chance against Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis unless something magically changes in the next two years, and they pivot hugely, but based on what we have so far seen, no,” said Charlamagne. said.
He was equally pessimistic about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, despite praising him as “great” and crediting him with being the only Biden administration official to consistently appear on his radio show.
“He is part of the LGBTQ community. So I think that gives him a lens of empathy that a lot of people may not have, so he’s going to be able to see a lot of different people’s things, but I just don’t know if America will embrace him because of the same reasons,” he said .
While Charlamagne watches the Democrats struggle to find the best presidential nominee, he also views DeSantis as a “very formidable opponent.”
“I think people are sleeping on Ron DeSantis,” Charlamagne said. “I can’t even believe the conversations I hear with people saying, ‘I don’t think he can win the national election.’ Why not Why do they think he can’t win a national election Sorry to break it to you guys I’m from the South I’m from South Carolina More of the country is more like Florida than we might want to believe .”
Charlamagne told TBEN News Digital that his “gut” says Florida governor would walk away victorious in a primary fight, but he emphasized how celebrity has a “stranglehold” on American consciousness, particularly a figure like Trump who “has the country set it in motion” when it ran for the first time in 2016.
“But I think what gives DeSantis a good advantage is that he seems more stable… We don’t want to go through that cycle of every day in the news, everyone is talking about Trump. I mean, it just leads to too much division. It leads to too much anxiety,” Charlamagne said, adding that he didn’t want to see him every five minutes on the cable news. “And I think that non-stop media coverage helped him the first time around.”
