Charlamagne tha God joins Angela Rye on CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip for some verrrry reluctant cleanup in the wake of his recent, explosive Politico interview wherein he infamously said that “in 2024, it’s a race between the cowards, the crooks, and the couch”.
Watch as Charlemagne calls Joe Biden a “shitty elected official”, before reluctantly affirming that he’ll vote for him anyway, because “democracy”:
ABBY PHILLIP: I want to just ask you, Charlamagne, I mean, you made some waves in a recent interview saying that you regret endorsing Joe Biden. Why?
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: It's not that I regret endorsing Joe Biden. It’s just that, you know, I think that we can all get burned, you know, by politicians. Because when I say endorsing, like, you know, I put my name and reputation on the line with my listeners, and when my listeners feel like he didn't deliver they come back to me, and they say “Hey, man you’re the one who told us to vote for Joe Biden. You’re the one who told us to vote for Kamala Harris.” So I care about my listeners and, you know, what my listeners think. But I do wanna say that, you know, I think that President Biden historically, has been a- lack of a better word, a shitty elected official. But, you know, Donald Trump is the end of democracy as we know it.
PHILLIP: So you’d vote for Biden again?
CHARLAMAGNE: I'm not saying either or. But I think, you know, since you all ask answers, ‘cause that's what y’all do on CNN. You like to ask answers, like you ask
PHILLIP: What I mean, it’s…
CHARLAMAGNE: What I’m saying is, you ask is- if Donald Trump was black, you know, would he get locked up? You know the answer to that.
PHILLIP: But I mean, I don’t know the answer to tha-- so you are gonna vote for Joe Biden?
CHARLAMAGNE: I think it’s simple and plain. Like, you know, if you know, um…Donald Trump is the end of democracy as we know it. I mean, I don't know what to tell people. And I know it sounds, when you say that now, in 2024 you’ve heard it so much because every time, you know, there's a Republican candidate people say “oh, it’s the end of democracy, you know, uh- he’s the anti”- people go so far as to say “oh, he's the anti-Christ”. But this is one of those times where, you know, it really, actually, positively is true.
The Politico interview triggered a slew of news reports and thinkpieces on Biden’s slipping grasp of the black vote, a cornerstone element of the Democrat coalition. Which leads reasonable people to conclude that Charlamagne got a call. Most notably, the phrase “the end of democracy as we know it” is uttered precisely zero times during the Politico report.
The segment is twelve minutes of this- uncomfortable backtracking by Charlamagne, being worked over by Phillip and Rye until they extract an admission of intent to vote for Joe Biden as a matter of a binary and because “democracy”. Really, the segment resembled a hostage video. Blink if they’re hurting you, Charlamagne!
In between Charlamagne’s confessions of voter intent are repeat assertions of how “the language of politics is dead”, the need for people to “talk straight” (!), and lamentations that Vice President Kamala Harris became more of a politician than she did when she appeared on The Breakfast Club with Charlamagne and pandered to his listenership about hip-hop and casual marijuana smoking.
In addition to Biden and Trump, there were shots taken at Nikki Haley and Tim Scott. Before wrapping up the interview, Rye promoted a new podcast, a joint venture with Charlamagne hosted by Andrew Gillum and Tiffany Cross. All in all, this was a cleanup effort.
Exit question: did Kamala Harris call this in?
