Charlamagne Tha God discusses identity politics and 2020 presidential hopefuls
2020 Democratic presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang is making waves on the campaign trail with claims that identity politics are a “kind of stupid way to try to win elections.”
“I think the Democratic Party needs to try to gravitate away from identity politics towards things that would actually bridge the gap,” he said.
Charlamagne tha God, co-host of “The Breakfast Club” radio show, says he doesn’t have a problem with identity politics because certain people can relate to certain struggles more than others, but that there should be more to a candidate than just their identity.
“If you’re like a Mayor Pete, and you know, you’re a part of the LGBT community, you understand what oppression is, you understand what marginalization is,” he said. “But I’m not going to vote for you solely because of that reason…You still have to let me know what type of legislation, what type of laws, you know, you plan to implement to make the world a better place. Not just saying, ‘Hey, I’m oppressed too!’”
Charlamagne made headlines recently when he repeatedly questioned 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren about her longtime claim of Native American ancestry. He even compared Warren at one point to Rachel Dolezal, a former NAACP Spokane chapter president who falsely claimed to be black for years.
“People acted like that comparison was so off, but I mean, if you were saying that you were Native American and you got some type of benefit from that,” he said. “And she said she didn’t, but how does she know – how does she know she didn’t?”
Critics of America’s criminal justice system have long held that it negatively affects communities of color in a disproportionate way and multiple 2020 candidates are facing questions about their tough-on-crime pasts.
FOX Business’ Kennedy asserted that 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and California Senator Kamala Harris developed a “sketchy track record” during her time as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California. Charlamagne pointed out that other candidates need to answer for their involvement in a 1994 crime bill that many criminal justice reform advocates partly blame for America’s mass incarceration.
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“Joe Biden wrote the ’94 crime bill, so he got a lot of people locked up too,” he said. “And Bernie Sanders voted for the ’94 crime bill. So my thing, is, who’s willing to say that they were wrong?”
The first round of Democratic debates will be held on June 26th and 27th, and these candidates will be questioned further about it.