Tuesday on CNN, syndicated radio host Charlamagne tha God called presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden’s legislative history in the Senate “racist.”
On Biden’s Tuesday speech on the death of George Floyd, Charlamagne said, “He did very well today in Philadelphia, you know, he said a lot of things that I wanted to hear, and I know its dream selling season and politicians say what they need to in order to get elected, but I really enjoyed it. But I need some action like I need him to really lean into blackness now.”
He continued, “To me, it’s like this; if Barack Obama was JFK, then Joe Biden needs to be Lyndon B. Johnson. You know, he has the opportunity to be as progressive as Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon B. Johnson may have been labeled a racist, but his record doesn’t reflect that. LBJ’s record showed that he had, like, the most effective progressive record on race and class of any Democratic president of the past 80 years. I think, you know, Biden’s record in the Senate actually reflects very racist legislation, but he has a chance to correct that by doing right by black people.”
On the 2020 election, Charlamagne said, “It’s not a sure thing at all. We still don’t know how Donald Trump won in 2016. A lot of people will say Donald Trump is the illegitimate president. Just like Joe Biden is leading in all the polls, Hillary Clinton was doing the same thing in 2016. That’s why it’s very important for Joe Biden to really lean into blackness. He needs to announce one of these overqualified sisters as his running mate, whether it’s Senator Kamala Harris, Val Demings, Keisha Lance Bottoms, Stacey Abrams. He’s already committed to putting a black woman on the Supreme Court, which would be his Lyndon B. Johnson, Thurgood Marshall moment. If this country wants to get its soul right, like he said the soul of the country is at stake, he really has to lean into the black community. He has to be the white guy who is willing to relinquish some of that power privilege allows him. As long as there is a system of white supremacy, there is always going to be oppression. If we don’t have elected officials who are willing to dismantle the mechanism of white supremacy if we don’t have elected officials who are willing change legislation that disproportionately impacts black folks, it won’t matter, and he will have trouble in November.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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