Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was left flabbergasted by Charlamagne Tha God on Friday after “The Breakfast Club” host told him that black Americans are skeptical of the Democratic Party.
“You do realize Pete, a lot of black people feel like Democrats have kept no promises since they’ve been in office,” Charlamagne told Buttigieg during Friday’s edition of the hit radio show.
“Really?” responded the former South Bend, Ind. mayor, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
“Yes,” host responded. “Reverend Al [Sharpton] said that a million times.”
“Look I get it, because the work is not done,” Buttigieg said. “But the reason I say ‘Really?’ is we just passed one of the biggest pieces of infrastructure legislation in American history. It was a promise — and it wasn’t just a promise that the Biden-Harris administration made or that Democrats made in 2020 — this is a promise that every president and Congress has made in some way, shape, or form since I’ve been an adult. We actually did it.”
“But those are big, broad things,” Charlamagne pushed back. “And that’s great but I’m talking about things you campaigned on, like the George Floyd Policing Act.”
Charlamagne also raised the issue of GOP-backed election reform bills that have been enacted in states like Florida, Georgia and Texas and have drawn the ire of Democrats.
“The only strategy Democrats are going to have is, ‘We got to go out there and vote in mass numbers to fight it,'” the host said. “That’s not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy.”
“That work has to get done and it is not acceptable where we are right now,” Buttigieg agreed before shifting blame to state and local leaders.
“In this country, a lot of the power and a lot of the decisions are actually at the state level — what’s happening in our schools, even the way our elections are run, that plays out at that level,” the secretary said.
Later in the interview, the host expressed frustration at the lack of progress on a slimmed-down version of President Biden’s Build Back Better social spending agenda.
“It just feels like it takes Democrats so long to fix things, but Republicans f–k things up quick,” Charlamagne said. “They take bold steps to do whatever they want fast and furious but with Democrats, it’s, like, slow. Why? I don’t understand it.”
“It’s always quicker to break things than it is to fix them or build them, but we’re about building,” Buttigieg said. “And yeah, that takes time, and that makes us impatient and that can make us frustrated but that’s what we came here to do.”
Charlamagne Tha God, real name Lenard Larry McKelvey, has been a persistent critic of Biden and the White House from the left. In May 2020, then-candidate Biden blurted out near the end of an interview in which Charlamagne had challenged the former VP over his record on race relations: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Biden later apologized for the comment, calling it “cavalier” and insisting that he had “never, never, ever taken the African-American community for granted.”
Late last year, Vice President Kamala Harris lashed out at the host during an interview on his Comedy Central show: “Tha God’s Honest Truth.”
“I want to know who the real president of this country is — is it Joe Biden, or Joe Manchin?” asked Charlamagne, referring to the West Virginia senator’s opposition to the multitrillion-dollar version of the Build Back Better bill.
“C’mon, Charlamagne,” she said, talking over the host. “No, no, no, no, it’s Joe Biden.”
“And don’t start talking like a Republican, about asking whether or not he’s president. … And it’s Joe Biden,” she added irritably. “It’s Joe Biden and I’m vice president and my name is Kamala Harris.”
In an interview days later, Harris said the exchange was rooted in “frustration.”
