Former vice president Joe Biden called radio host Charlamagne Tha God a “wise guy” for pressing him on his record with African Americans during an interview last week, which led Biden to claim that undecided black voters “ain’t black.”
Biden, speaking in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, said his comments — which went viral last week — were a “mistake,” but said Charlamagne Tha God “was being a wise guy, and I responded in kind.”
“I was smiling when he asked me the question. I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy with him. He was being a wise guy, and I responded in kind. I shouldn’t have done that. It was a mistake,” Biden stated, adding that he has “never taken the African American community for granted.”
Joe Biden just blamed radio host Charlamagne for his "you ain't black" remarks: "He was being a wise guy, and I responded in kind,” Biden says. pic.twitter.com/WlBaL6HXvd
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) May 26, 2020
During his appearance on The Breakfast Club, a radio program, last week, Biden appeared flustered when Charlamagne asked him about his role in authoring the 1994 crime bill. The radio host pressed Biden on his putative reluctance to admit that the law “was damaging to the Black community.”
At the end of the interview, Charlamagne told Biden to come to his New York studio in the future, saying “we’ve got more questions.”
“You’ve got more questions? Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden retorted, to which Charlamagne replied “it don’t have nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with the fact I want something for my community.”
After widespread backlash, Biden apologized, despite his team first playing off the remarks as a joke. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier. I’ve never, never, ever taken the African American community for granted,” Biden told African-American business leaders on a Friday call.