"The View" co-hosts attempted to pry an endorsement of President Biden out of radio host Charlamagne tha God on Wednesday during an interview.
"The View" co-hosts demanded Charlamagne tha God endorse President Biden several times during a Wednesday interview and received pushback from the radio host.
"You endorsed Joe Biden back in 2020, but this time around you say you're not going to endorse anybody. Charlamagne, now is not the time, in my opinion, to sit this one out," Hostin said at the beginning of the discussion. "Why not endorse Biden?"
The radio host said he liked to focus on issues, rather than individuals and clarified that he was planning to vote in November. Charlamagne also said he's seen the hosts try to pry a Biden endorsement out of other guests, specifically rapper Killer Mike.
"I’ve seen y’all do this on ‘The View’ before," Charlamagne said. "I saw y’all do this to Killer Mike when he was on ‘The View,’ and Killer Mike literally sat here and said, ‘Hey, I supported Keisha Lance Bottoms, I supported Ralph [Raphael] Warnock, I supported Jon Ossoff … that’s your opportunity to say, ‘well clearly he’s talking about President Biden.’ Why do y’all need us to say this if we don’t feel comfortable saying it?"
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg pushed back and said other people needed to hear him say it.
"One of the things we’ve been talking about, is the fact that getting facts out through the media seems to be very difficult," she said.
Hostin told Charlamagne an endorsement would carry significant weight. Goldberg said his viewers needed him to help break through the difficulty with the media and suggested a Biden endorsement might help.
"The reality is I think both candidates are trash, but I am going to vote in November, and I'm going to vote my best interest, and I’m going to vote for who I think can preserve democracy," Charlamagne said. "So if I think both candidates are trash and I don’t feel like endorsing one, would you rather me endorse an individual or endorse the fact that, hey, we need to go out and protect democracy."
Killer Mike joined "The View" in February and was asked why he was hesitant to support Biden. The rapper responded by calling on voters to focus in their local elections.
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Charlamagne said whoever energizes their bases more will win November's presidential election.
"It feels like his base is pretty pissed off at him," he said of Biden.
Hostin jumped in and said, "Help him out, help him out!"
The radio host laughed and said, "help him out by doing what?"
Charlamagne sounded the alarm on former President Trump several times. He said he frequently tells his listeners that the presumptive GOP nominee is a threat to democracy.
"I’m sitting here telling my listeners that you have somebody out there who is a threat to democracy, you have somebody who said they want to suspend the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election," he said. "You saw this person try to lead an attempted coup of this country, and I’m telling people that this guy’s a threat to democracy."
"There’s only two candidates out there, so if I’m saying that about this individual, the choice is clear, right?" Charlamagne added.
