Charlemagne, God, took no prisoners during an appearance on CNN AC360 Thursday night, condemning the network's coverage of Donald Trump and overtly fascist statements and tendencies, and the double standards applied to Kamala Harris in an impassioned truth-telling that left host Anderson Cooper reeling.
In a clip that went viral on social media, Charlamagne, a popular podcaster and co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show The breakfast clubis asked by Cooper about Trump's plan to appear on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and whether Harris plans to do the same.
“I think he should continue to call Donald Trump a fascist,” Charlamagne responded tersely to the rather nonsensical question.
He continued: “And I think Americans need to continue to look at Donald Trump's rhetoric because I don't know why we're thinking about electing someone who talks about putting people in camps. I don't know why we're talking, why we want to elect someone who talks about mass deportations. I don't know why we're having this conversation about someone wanting to repeal the constitution to overturn the results of an election. Shouldn't we be a patriotic country? Every time someone like Colin Kaepernick takes a knee in this country, everyone says, “oh, that's so unpatriotic.” But a guy can say he wants to abolish the constitution to overturn the results of an election and no one cares?”
Addressing Cooper, Charlamagne, “Now, you brought it back to Kamala and Joe Rogan, Anderson, who cares?”
A clearly shocked Cooper tried to steer the conversation back to why Trump appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast is important in terms of the election, but Charlamagne was not to be intimidated. “[We’re talking about whether a] The president is a fascist, he talks about putting people in camps, he talks, once again, about abolishing the constitution to overturn the results of an election. It's about jailing his political opponents. Doesn't that rhetoric scare people?”
Charlamagne was referring to Trump's repeated incendiary comments and threats against opponents, or the “enemy within” as he describes it, as well as his continued glorification of authoritarians and dictators at rallies and interviews. John Kelly, Trump's longest serving chief of staff and former Marine general, said in a New York Times interview that, based on his experience and what he had heard and seen, the former president met the definition of “fascist”.
Returning to the interview, Cooper tried to claim that CNN did, in fact, cover up Trump's dangerous rhetoric. “I don't think you'll have enough conversations about it.” Charlemagne replied. “I feel like I've heard more on this network about 'Kamala Harris Black?' of me that Donald Trump is a fascist. Am I wrong?”
“This is bullshit,” Cooper retorted. “I'm sorry, I'm a big fan of yours. But to say we're sitting around debating “Is Kamala Harris black?”…
“It's bullshit, Anderson, that you say you don't have those conversations,” Charlamagne said.
Cooper then did his best to explain that perhaps there may have been some “crazy people” who said things on meaningless CNN panels that questioned Harris' ethnicity, but overall the network tries to “convince people with different points of view as long as they are willing to do so.” have a legitimate conversation.
Charlamagne responded: “I think no network is honest about Donald Trump. You haven't had, no one has had honest conversations about Donald Trump since 2016. I saw last night they were talking about the double standard that exists between Donald Trump and the vice president. But there is always a double standard with Trump, both with Hillary, and against Biden. Now, with Kamala, let's talk about [Trump] being a threat to democracy, but we don't treat it as such.”
In fairness to CNN, there appears to be a belated realization of the double standards applied to coverage of Trump and Harris. After CNN's town hall with Harris on Wednesday, Jake Tapper had a sudden moment of clarity on the air when he said, “You know, it strikes me, what's interesting about the moment we're in right now, is that we in the media are treating the vice president Harris as we treat a normal politician, and we're criticizing her answers, and we're talking about, “Well, she could have said it differently.”
“Meanwhile, the Republican candidate literally talks about liberals as the 'enemy within,' and talks about using the military to hunt down these people. His defenders say, “oh no, he's talking about chasing illegal immigrants” or “he's chasing mobs on the street,” and Trump will say, “no, no, no.” I mean, going after Pelosi, going after Adam Schiff, going after the Democrats, and these campaigns are in two different universes.