MSNBC’s Joy Reid opened her interview with Charlamagne Tha God on Sunday morning by congratulating him on his interview this past week with former Vice President Joe Biden—even if all anyone wants to talk about are the final few seconds.
Biden came under swift fire on Friday when he pushed back against the popular radio host’s suggestion that he might still have “questions” for the candidate before the 2020 election. “You’ve got more questions?” Biden asked. “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Shortly after that interview, Biden apologized for his remarks on a conference call with the Black Chamber of Commerce. Reid played Charlamagne a portion of his apology, in which Biden admonished himself for being “so cavalier” and said, “No one should have to vote for any party based on their race or religion or background.”
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Asked if there’s a “risk” that Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole take the black vote for granted, Charlamagne said, “I know that's the attitude. That's why I don't ever care about the words and the lip service and the apology is cool, but the best apology is actually a black agenda.”
“They’ve got to make some real policy commitments to black people,” he continued. “We’ve got to stop acting like the fact that blacks are overrepresented in America when it comes to welfare, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, drug addiction, crime, coronavirus—that’s no accident. The whole function of systemic racism is to marginalize black people.”
On one side, Charlamagne said he sees “whites telling us to stay in our place” and on the other, “black people saying, ‘Oh, stop, now is not the time, you're going to get Trump re-elected.’” He said, “It has to come to the point where we stop putting the burden on black voters and start putting the burden on Democrats to show up for black voters.”
Charlamagne made clear both in his interview with Biden and on MSNBC Sunday morning that Biden picking a progressive black female running mate would go a long way towards demonstrating his commitment to that community. So Reid asked him what he will do if Biden picks someone like Amy Klobuchar instead.
“On top of possible Russian interference and voter suppression, they have to worry about voter depression,” he replied. “And that’s people staying home on election day because they aren't enthused by the candidate. You can’t act like this is the most important election ever but run a campaign from your basement and not make some real policy commitments to the black community and not listen to some of the demands that the black community are making. I think people are sitting around hoping that Trump loses instead of going out there and actually beating him.”
