Charlamagne Tha God pressed on 2020 regret: Biden 'a sh---y elected official,' but Trump is 'end of democracy'
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God was pressed during a Tuesday night interview on his recent comments about regretting his 2020 endorsement of the Biden-Harris ticket.
CNN host Abby Phillip asked Charlamagne about his admission. "It’s not that I regret endorsing Joe Biden," he said.
"When I say endorsing, 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, you know, I care about my listeners and what my listeners think. But I do want to say that, you know, I think President Biden, historically, has been a – lack of a better word – a sh---y elected official, but you know, Donald Trump is the end of democracy as we know it."
Phillip asked if he would vote for Biden again.
"I'm not saying either or," he responded. Phillip asked him again, "So you are going to vote for Joe Biden?"
"I think it's simple and plain. Donald Trump is the end of democracy as we know it, 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 there’s a Republican candidate, people say, ‘Oh, the end of democracy, you know, he’s the Antichrist.’ This is one of the times where you know, it really actually, positively is true," he said.
Phillip also asked Charlamagne about Vice President Harris, who he said "disappeared" when she got to the White House during an interview with Politico.
He said that the Biden administration wasn't allowing her to be "who she is willing to be," and suggested she's become too much of a "politician."
"I’ve learned my lesson from doing that," he told Politico, referring to his 2020 endorsement and Harris, during an interview. "Once they got in the White House, she … kind of disappeared."
"Democrats suck at messaging, period. We know this already," he added, arguing that Biden and Harris have done some "great things," but do not know how to message.
Podcast host Angela Rye pushed back on his comments about Harris.
"She does need to be empowered, and she has that power to walk in that power. She has owned and requested a lot of what is in her portfolio. I think what is unfortunate is the way that she sounds alarm, a lot of the folks on her team sound the alarm, it is not being echoed by folks in the White House," she argued.
Rye cited Harris' trip to Atlanta and her efforts with voting rights organizations. She said she was "talking to a base that they need."
"Why wait for President Barack Obama to come out in light a fire under the campaign?" Charlamagne said, arguing she should have been doing it for months.
He also brought up Biden's speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, and his trip to a soul food restaurant afterward.
"That is the thing Democrats have been doing for years. That is not effective anymore. Just showing up to Black church and going to a soul food restaurant," he said.
Charlamagne also questioned how Biden was losing in the polls to someone like Trump, someone with "91 indictments."