Former radio host and Republican Presidential candidate Larry Elder said Joe Biden’s comments during a 2020 appearance on 105.1 FM’s The Breakfast Club should have been a “wake up call” for radio host Lenard Larry McKelvey, known professionally as Charlamagne tha God.
Elder appeared on the program Thursday and was asked by host Charlamagne if he had heard of the term “n—a wake up call.”
The host explained the term as “an incident where a person of color forgets that they are of color and are reminded, rather brutally, by an unexpected act of racism.”
“Oh brother,” Elder said, taking a sip of water. “I’m acutely aware that I’m a black person, Charlamagne, just as you are a black person.”
The Republican presidential candidate referenced President Biden’s May 22, 2020 appearance on the program in which the former vice president of the United States appeared to suggest host Charlamagne wasn’t black if he supported then-President Donald Trump’s re-election bid.
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden told the radio host.
The then-Democratic presidential candidate later walked back the comment saying he “should not have been so cavalier” during the interview, per the Washington Post.
“That should have been a wake up call on your part,” Elder told Charlamagne. “How dare this guy come in here and insult you, a black man, and tell you you’ve gotta think a certain kind of way.”
Elder said he was “amazed” The Breakfast Club host wasn’t mad about Biden’s comment.
Larry Elder completely clowns Charlemagne in this clip@larryelder @cthagod
— Alex Stein #99 (@alexstein99) August 18, 2023
Charlamagne said he “[doesn’t] tend to get upset over things like that.”
“You just talked about a n—a wake up call,” Elder countered adding he believed Biden’s comment should have been a wake up call before referencing Biden’s 2012 comment suggesting then Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was going to “put you all back in chains” in reference to black voters. “Biden has lied for decades about [his] Civil Rights record claiming that he desegregated movie theaters and restaurants in Wilmington, Delaware when he didn’t do any of that.”
Elder also referenced Biden’s claim of visiting activist and politician Nelson Mandela during apartheid in South Africa.
“He came in here and told you you aren’t even black unless you think a certain kind of way,” Elder said. “It seems to me that should have been a n—a wake up call for you, but it wasn’t apparently.”
The Breakfast Club host responded saying he wasn’t a Democrat or Republican, adding he believed both parties were “trash.”
“I didn’t say you were. I never even asked you about your party affiliation,” Elder said. “But you are black, and to have a white guy come in here and tell you you have to think a certain kind of way otherwise you ‘ain’t black’ — wow.”
When Charlamagne asked how he should have responded to Biden, Elder said, “How dare you insult me and tell me how I ought to think as a human being, let alone as a black person.”
“I don’t tell you how to think, Joe Biden. How dare you come in here and tell me how I should think,” Elder continued providing an example response for The Breakfast Club host. “I’m gonna vote for Donald Trump if I wanna vote for Donald Trump, and if I wanna vote for Donald Trump it does not make me not black.”
Elder said 20 percent of black voters supported Trump and asked if they weren’t actually black.
“How insulting is that? How condescending is that?” Elder asked.
Charlamagne conceded Elder was “probably right,” though said he “didn’t take it in that way.”
“Well, I did,” Elder shot back, to which The Breakfast Club host said he wanted to know how then-Presidential candidate Biden was going to “atone” for “[his] people.”
“This guy has made all sorts of insulting [comments] to black people,” Elder said, citing Biden’s 1977 comment that de-segregation policies would have his children growing up in a “racial jungle.”
“His policies right now are hurting black people,” he said, referencing inflation and lax border control policies. “This guy has done monstrous things to black people, and then for him to come in here and tell you how you ought to think as a black person?”
“That blew my mind.”
