The internet is rumbling after radio personality Charlamagne Tha God called out what he sees as a double standard in how the media is covering the 2024 presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Charlamagne had an awkward exchange with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper Thursday evening while discussing the election.
The host of “The Breakfast Club” sidelined Cooper’s question about whether she should join Trump in being interviewed by conservative podcaster Joe Rogan. Instead, Charlamagne put the attention back on Trump.
“I think that [Harris] should keep calling Donald Trump a fascist. And I think that Americans need to keep looking at the rhetoric of Donald Trump,” he told Cooper.
Pointing out the dangers of a second Trump administration, the radio star continued, “I don’t know why we’re even thinking about electing somebody who’s talking about putting people in camps.”
He added, “I don’t know why we’re talking or why we want to elect somebody who’s talking about mass deportations. I don’t know why we’re having this conversation about somebody who wants to terminate the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election.”
Charlamagne appeared annoyed that Cooper asked him about a Harris and Rogan interview rather than discussing Trump’s anti-democratic and authoritarian rhetoric.
Noting Trump’s threat to “jail his political opponents,” Charlamagne asked, “That rhetoric doesn’t scare people?”
This week, Harris joined former Trump White House officials in calling Trump a “fascist.” The damning of Trump came after Trump’s former chief of staff divulged that the former president wanted generals like Adolf Hitler’s and that the Nazi leader “did some good things.”
As theGrio previously reported, Trump has a history of embracing authoritarian and fascist ideology, which poses a particular threat to Black Americans.
Charlamagne argued that rather than using their airwaves to sound the alarm about the implications of Trump returning to power and potentially enacting his alarming proclamations, networks like CNN are spending their time dissecting Harris.
“I feel like I heard more on this network about is Kamala Harris Black than I do about, you know, Donald Trump being a fascist,” he said.
Cooper, a 30-year journalism veteran, slightly pushed back on Charlamagne’s critique, saying, “Honestly, that’s bullshit. I’m sorry.” The longtime CNN anchor emphasized that he believed it was “important to get people different viewpoints, as long as they’re willing to have a legitimate conversation.”
“I think no network has honest conversations about Donald Trump … nobody’s had honest conversations about Donald Trump since 2016,” Charlemagne pushed back. The double standard “always existed,” he said, whether it was when Trump ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
Charlamagne isn’t alone in his assessment. Democrats have long griped about a double standard in the media’s coverage of Trump and his political opponents.
In a previous interview with theGrio, Ashley Allison, CNN commentator and CEO of Watering Hole Media, called out criticisms Harris received when she conducted her first interview as the Democratic nominee with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Allison said it’s important to “not allow bad behavior, bad faith attacks as well as just like an unequal standard to be applied to [Harris].”
She added, “Let’s hold her to the same standard … it’s the responsibility of media, I think it’s the responsibility of elected officials, I think it’s the responsibility of anybody who wants to consider themselves a leader.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW,” Symone Sanders also slammed the double standard of Trump and Harris.
“Donald Trump gets out here, doesn’t talk policy. He’s in these interviews … not talking policy, seems a little jumbled on what he’s talking about, canceling interviews,” said Sanders. “I just think the level of scrutiny about what he is doing and not doing and what he is saying is not being adequately applied across the board.”
Another panelist argued that Harris is under more scrutiny because “the world America knows Donald Trump,” but “we do not know Vice President Harris.”
Sanders, a former chief spokesperson and senior advisor for vice president, countered that it’s “not an excuse” to not have the same level of scrutiny on Harris.
She added, “After the election, one of the analyses is going to be about how he hasn’t undergone the scrutiny because everybody’s like, ‘Oh, people know him.”
