As Vice President Kamala Harris ramps up her presidential campaign, the media will turn to controversial and unexpected voices. For Black people, one of those voices is “The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne Tha God. While we can’t question his influence and popularity, we don’t always agree with his takes. However, while appearing alongside Angela Rye with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, he took the journalist to task for a “weird” question about Harris’ experience as a prosecutor.
Tapper asked Rye about the vice president’s possible campaign strategy of focusing on her past as a prosecutor, while also highlighting Donald Trump’s criminal convictions. Rye explained that America needs a prosecutor to make the case against Trump. Meanwhile, Charlamagne had some thoughts on Tapper’s question.
“Jake, I don’t even know if that’s the right question, asking if America is ready for a prosecutor,” Charlamagne said. “I mean, is America ready for somebody with all of the criminal charges that Donald Trump has? Most convicted felons can’t even get those kind of jobs that Donald Trump is currently campaigning for. They barely can get jobs at McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. It’s weird to have to say, ‘Is America ready for a prosecutor?’ No, is America ready to elect a criminal?”
Though he was extremely reluctant to endorse President Joe Biden, Charlamagne said that he would be ready to endorse Harris, noting his support for her in 2020.
According to Deadline, as the segment continued, Jake wasn’t the only one the media personality had words for. Tapper read a quote from Charlamagne’s new book, “Get Honest or Die Lying,” wondering how honesty fits in the current election. The radio host replied that he thought “the media lied to themselves for a week” following the attempted assassination of Trump. He also explained that the Republican presidential nominee has a long history of “dangerous rhetoric” that needs to be addressed.
“You can’t talk about Trump without telling the truth,” he said. “He absolutely led an attempted coup of this country. His followers were chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ [Trump] did suggest that Second Amendment supporters do something about Hillary Clinton. You can’t even begin to have conversations about dangerous rhetoric that leads to political violence without talking about Trump.”
Charlamagne went on to explain that Trump “created an environment that’s not safe for any politician, including him.”
“I think media is lying to themselves all last week by not addressing that issue in its whole totality,” he said.
In this instance, the host/author makes some solid points about the media’s responsibility and its ability to ask more meaningful questions. However, it’s also important that we open up this discussion beyond the usual voices, because they’re not going to be the best choices for every situation. We need to expand the conversation beyond the predictable list of pundits.