(WASHINGTON) — Charlamagne tha God says President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 race and Vice President Kamala Harris’ replacement at the top of the ticket has Americans more “energized in the Democratic Party” than they’ve been “in a long time.”
“Oh, there’s definitely a lot of main character energy on the Democratic ticket,” Charlamagne told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “We know who Kamala Harris is. Like she has super main character energy.”
Karl first sat down with radio personality Charlamagne, also known as Lenard McKelvey, in February. At the time, Charlamagne was critical of Biden’s candidacy, calling him “uninspiring” and urging him to exit the race.
Charlamagne, a co-host of iHeart Radio’s “The Breakfast Club,” told Karl on Sunday that there’s less voter apathy now, but “if I’m the Democrats, I’m not spiking the football yet.”
“The job is not done,” he said. “You know, you still have to bring this thing home in November.”
In the three weeks since Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, the Harris campaign has mobilized at lightning speed. But Harris is facing criticism for not yet having held a formal press conference or sitting for any interviews with local or national media yet.
“She does need to do more interviews,” Charlamagne said on “This Week.”
“It’s striking that we really haven’t seen her answer questions yet,” Karl said.
“I mean, it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, right?” Charlamagne replied. “Like, I feel like she should be any and everywhere, you know, having these conversations.”
Charlamagne told Karl that Harris should take a page from former President Donald Trump’s playbook because he’s “everywhere.”
“He’s [Trump] always calling into conservative talk radio, which is one of my biggest issues with the Democratic Party,” Charlamagne said. “They don’t use the media that supports them the way the right uses the media that supports them.”
At the end of July, Trump dominated headlines for his interview at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Chicago, where he falsely questioned Harris’ race.
“What did you make of the way she responded to his comments about her ‘just turning Black?'” Karl asked Charlamagne.
“I don’t even think that she should have responded,” Charlamagne said. “I don’t think she should have dignified that with a response.”
Harris, who announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate last week, has also faced criticism centered on her race from some Republicans claiming she was a “DEI hire.”
Charlamagne said that if anyone on the Harris-Walz ticket is a “DEI hire,” it’s not Harris, who is both the first Black woman and Asian American to be a major party’s nominee. She is only the second woman to be at the top of the ticket.
“We knew she needed a DEI hire,” Charlamagne said. “She needed a white male to make America comfortable. It is what it is. No need for us to, you know, act crazy about it. We know what it is.”
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