Charlamagne Tha God Tells Nikki Haley He ‘Hated’ The Media’s Focus On How Black Men Voted

Charlamagne Tha God tells Nikki Haley that he “hated” the media’s focus on how Black men voted on SiriusXM’s “Nikki Haley Live”.

Tomorrow’s new episode of “Nikki Haley Live” features an interview with media personality Charlamagne Tha God, who discusses his reaction to first hearing his own voice in a campaign ad for Donald Trump, and how he feels about media and political figures focusing on how Black men voted in this election.

Explaining his thoughts when he first heard the commercial featuring his radio commentary, Charlamagne said that there was “nothing we could do about it” and then added that Harris’ team dropped the ball on how to combat it:

“You know, the biggest thing that I had a problem with was, number one, you know, them just using it without permission. Just on some like, oh, like, don’t use it without permission, right? That’s number one. But number two, they didn’t combat it. Like Kamala’s team didn’t combat it. And there was ways they could’ve combated it. I would’ve ran the same commercial because it was a piece of legislation that existed under Trump. I would’ve ran the same commercial saying, ‘Donald Trump wants to use your taxpayer dollars for gender reassignment surgeries.’ Just to, if anything, just to confuse the market. Or since they’re using me in Trump ads, how about use Rogan in yours? Rogan has said things like, he thinks Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. He had said things like he thought, I think Donald Trump was unhinged, or he might be a psychopath. So I can’t remember exactly what the exact wording was, but use Rogan in your ads the way that they’re using me in theirs. I just felt like, you know, strategy-wise, they just dropped the ball on how to combat those.”

He also discussed that he “hated” that the media and politicos focused on how black men voted in the aftermath of the election:

“And the reason I hated it, ’cause I knew it wasn’t gonna be real. There was nothing that I was experiencing in the street amongst people, on my radio show, that made me think that there was going to be this, you know, extraordinary amount of black men that went out there and voted for Donald Trump or just black people. And look, the numbers came out and it was about the same. It was like 85% of black people voted for Kamala Harris. They were so focused on us and what we weren’t going to do that they weren’t paying no attention to Latinos, clearly. Especially Latino men. And I had been telling them over and over, you gotta go out there and talk to white women. 52% of white women voted for Trump in 2016, I think 55% in 2020. I think this year it was like 53%. They didn’t do any of that. Like that was what, in an era where people are talking about women’s reproductive rights and Roe v. Wade is being overturned, that’s who you should be trying to tap into. They were attacking a base. They were attacking a group of people in their base that didn’t need to be attacked. Like, what did black men need to be attacked for? We showed up and always show up.”

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD SAYS HE DIDN’T GIVE TRUMP CAMPAIGN PERMISSION TO USE HIS AUDIO IN THEIR ADS

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: My reaction is a real reaction. I’m sitting at home watching football and I hear “Kamala Harris wants to spend your taxpayer dollars.” I’m like, “Whoa!” And so immediately my mind goes, “Hell no. I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that.” So I come on the radio the next day and I’m explaining that to my listeners. I’m explaining what the commercial was, right? And what we saw, and how your initial reaction would automatically be, hell no, I don’t want my taxpayer dollars going to that. And somebody on Trump’s team picked it up and ran with it, and there was nothing we could do about it.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: But you know what I think was so amazing about that is, you know, the whole point of podcasting, or the whole point of having radio shows, is you’re talking about what you think. You’re talking about what you feel. You’re saying it in real time. You don’t do it knowing it could get picked up.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: No.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: And so now, do you think that’s going to change the way you talk on your podcast in an election year where they could pick it up and take it? Are you now going to be paranoid that that could happen?

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Nah, I can’t think about stuff like that.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: I don’t think so either.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Yeah, I still gotta speak truth to power. I still gotta speak how I feel. You know, the biggest thing that I had a problem with was, number one, you know, them just using it without permission. Just on some like, oh, like, don’t use it without permission right? That’s number one. But number two, they didn’t combat it. Like Kamala’s team didn’t combat it. And there was ways they could’ve combated it. I would’ve ran the same commercial because it was a piece of legislation that existed under Trump. I would’ve ran the same commercial saying, “Donald Trump wants to use your taxpayer dollars for gender reassignment surgeries.” Just to, if anything, just to confuse the market. Or since they’re using me in Trump ads, how about use Rogan in yours? Rogan has said things like, he thinks Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. He had said things like he thought, I think Donald Trump was unhinged, or he might be a psychopath. So I can’t remember exactly what the exact wording was, but use Rogan in your ads the way that they’re using me in theirs. I just felt like, you know, strategy-wise, they just dropped the ball on how to combat those.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD “HATED” HOW THE MEDIA FOCUSED ON HOW BLACK MALES VOTED

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: How did you think about the fact that all of a sudden, in all the analysis and the polling, everybody zoomed in on minority males?

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: I hated it. And the reason I hated it, ’cause I knew it wasn’t gonna be real. There was nothing that I was experiencing in the street amongst people, on my radio show, that made me think that there was going to be this, you know, extraordinary amount of black men that went out there and voted for Donald Trump or just black people. And look, the numbers came out and it was about the same. It was like 85% of black people voted for Kamala Harris. They were so focused on us and what we weren’t going to do that they weren’t paying no attention to Latinos, clearly.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: Right.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Especially Latino men. And I had been telling them over and over, you gotta go out there and talk to white women. 52% of white women voted for Trump in 2016, I think 55% in 2020. I think this year it was like 53%. They didn’t do any of that. Like that was what, in an era where people are talking about women’s reproductive rights and Roe v. Wade is being overturned, that’s who you should be trying to tap into. They were attacking a base. They were attacking a group of people in their base that didn’t need to be attacked. Like, what did black men need to be attacked for? We showed up and always show up.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: But if you talk to, if you listen to conservative media, they are talking about the fact they won black men. They are talking about the fact that –

CHANEY DENTON, CO-HOST: Well, they moved it enough.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: They moved it enough.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Yeah. They moved it.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: And why do you think that was? Now when you look back, you know, I can talk about, you know, where I think women were, but where do you think, what do you think shifted minority men away from Kamala Harris to Donald Trump? Is it true they didn’t want a female president of the United States, or was it something else?

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: No. I don’t agree with the, you know, they didn’t want a woman president because, you know, you look at Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. I think she had 65 million people vote for her in 2016. This year, the vice president had 74 million. I read something yesterday, she had the most votes of any Democrat, the second most votes of any Democratic president ever. Right. I can’t remember the number of black men that voted for her, but black men did go out there and vote for her. I don’t think it has anything to do with her gender. And I think that we also fail to realize that there are black conservatives that exist. Since Ronald Reagan, 8 to 15% of black people vote conservative. Like the numbers were about the same this year. So I don’t know why people are so surprised that there’s Black conservatives out there.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: And why is it if you’re Black, you’re considered a liberal? If you’re white, you’re considered a conservative.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: That’s right.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: And honestly, I think that’s why you’re seeing more and more Independents is because they feel like politics has become about a label. You know, politics is only talking to this kind of person or that kind of person.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: That’s right.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: Or you have to say it one way when the reality is everybody cares about the cost of their groceries.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: That’s right.

NIKKI HALEY, HOST: Everybody cares about illegal immigrants coming across the border, and why do our taxpayer dollars have to pay for their education, their healthcare, and increase law enforcement? Everybody cares about whether there’s wars around the world. That doesn’t matter what color or gender you are or how you have sex. That is literally something that everybody thinks about. But if you listen to media, you would not get that.

Tomorrow’s show will air from 8-9am ET on SiriusXM’s Triumph channel 111!!!