Radio host Charlamagne Tha God criticized former President Barack Obama on Friday for the laughter he shared with President-elect Donald Trump during a conversation at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
Obama and Trump were seated next to each other at the Washington National Cathedral, where they engaged in a conversation that lasted several minutes and included visible laughter from Obama. Charlamagne, on “The Breakfast Club,” suggested that Obama’s actions exposed the performative nature of politics, especially after years of Democrats portraying Trump as a danger to democracy.
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“I just think politics is all WWE [World Wrestling Entertainment], and meanwhile, we out here cutting off family and friends and business relationships because of who somebody chose to vote for,” Charlamagne said. “Like, stop running to kick that football, man. Cut it out. Politics is all WWE. It’s really just that simple for me … After you went so hard calling somebody a threat to democracy and calling somebody a fascist and now you just chummy chummy with the man? You told us he was a threat to democracy. To me, that’s just terrible political optics.”
“They was calling him a fascist, just like his VP called him Hitler. Would you giggle with Hitler? Meanwhile, Republicans demonize Democrats every chance they get … But you got the last real leader of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, laughing and giggling with Trump, looking like, yeah, he’s kissing the ring,” he added. “That’s what it looked like. It did.”
Co-hosts DJ Envy and Jess Hilarious pushed back against Charlamagne’s characterization of the interaction as Obama “kissing the ring.”
“All I’m saying is it just looks like terrible political optics after you’ve used such crazy-ass rhetoric against him,” Charlamagne said. “And by the way, I’m a person that’s called him a fascist too, but not because of what Democrats said, but because of what I heard coming out of his mouth. But if you going to use that type of rhetoric and then sit there and [laugh] with him after the fact, that’s terrible political optics.”
Envy suggested that Obama’s laughter might have been appropriate depending on the context of the conversation.
“I don’t care what you talking about if you showing all your teeth after you said that he was a threat to democracy,” Charlamagne retorted.
“Come on, man. Knock it off,” he added. “That’s not regular political rhetoric to use against a person and then just sit there and act like it’s all good after the fact.”
In a 2020 documentary, Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said Obama called Trump a “fascist” on a phone call during the senator’s 2016 campaign with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to NBC News. Obama also labeled Trump “a wannabe king” and “wannabe dictator” who would seek revenge on his political opponents during an October 2024 campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris also said during an October CNN town hall that she believed Trump is “a fascist.” President Joe Biden repeatedly characterized Trump as a threat to democracy when he was still campaigning against him.
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