Radio host Charlamagne tha God on Sunday revealed that he hears blowback from the White House when he publicly criticizes President Biden, calling it the “stupidest shit ever.”
Speaking with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday, the “Breakfast Club” radio personality called Biden an “uninspiring candidate” and urged the commander in chief to lean more on Vice President Harris, whom he called “more charismatic.”
“Well, he’s, he’s just an uninspiring candidate, like … there’s nothing about … Joe Biden that makes you want to listen to him,” he said.
“He should be leaning on people who have — are more inspiring than him, who are more charismatic than him. And he should just be, I guess, if you want to call it ‘the brains’ of the operation behind the scenes. Like, that sounds crazy that we’re saying that about a president of the United States of America, but … he has no ‘main character’ energy at all. None.”
Asked if his opinion relates to the president’s age, Charlamagne said, “I don’t think it has anything to do with age … I think it has just everything to do with him. Like Donald Trump is, what? Four years, three years younger than President Biden? But he just comes off a lot more youthful. He comes off … like he has a lot more energy.”
Biden is 81 years old, 4 years older than former President Trump, who is 77. The incumbent has faced repeated criticism for his age and doubts about his ability to carry out a second term. These concerns were thrown into the spotlight earlier this month in the midst of a special counsel report on Biden that included a harsh assessment of his memory.
When pressed on whether he gets blowback from the White House for airing his feelings on Biden publicly, Charlamagne said, “Yeah. And I think that’s the stupidest shit ever, because I think that … because I feel like you should be able to criticize whoever your elected official is, right?”
“And even [if] I do criticize them, I’m criticizing them because of what I see coming up in November. I see what we’re facing. So what I’m saying to them, ‘Where is the sense of urgency?'” he continued. “You can’t keep saying that there’s a, a threat to democracy, and democracy as we know it is going to be, be gone, but not act like it.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Charlamagne, who rarely makes appearances on Sunday morning political shows, gave his remarks just months after he called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race, pointing to low polling numbers for the former president.
Charlamagne further dug into the the narrative set around Republican candidates, claiming GOP presidential candidates are “demonized” in every election by the Democratic Party.
“They, they will demonize the Republican candidate. And now that there’s an actual legitimate threat right there in our faces, they’re like, they’re like the party who cried wolf. Nobody believes them,” he said.
Earlier in the interview, Karl pointed out Charlamagne endorsed Biden in 2020, but mostly because Harris was his running mate.
Charlamagne said Harris has not met his expectations, while noting there is still time for a change in course.
“I think that right now, you know, historically vice presidents have always kind of played their role,” he said. “Their role is to just basically parrot the president, you know, speak, you know, on behalf of the president. But I think, man, we’re in a new era, right? Like, like for new jack problems. We need new jack solutions. And she serves a unique purpose, right?”
“Because she is the first woman of color in that position. So, it’s things that she could talk about. There are things that she could say that I feel like, you know, he can’t,” he continued.
He pointed to her work in Senate hearings and quipped he wants to see her “prosecute the case” against Trump.
Charlamagne maintained he will not endorse anyone, while noting “these people are threats to democracy, this person is a threat to democracy,” in a likely reference to Trump.
“That sounds like an endorsement. I mean, it sounds like you’re saying endorse, not Donald Trump, which, as you’ve said, it’s going to be Biden,” Karl said.
Charlamagne responded, “Well, I don’t think that’s an endorsement. You know, I’m just simply telling people what is going on out there because I’m gonna speak the truth about Democrats, too, because I feel like if you lie to people about Democrats, they won’t believe you when you tell them the truth about Republicans.”