Biden’s Breakfast Club problem

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have lost the support of Charlemagne Tha God, host of the culturally influential hip-hip radio show The Breakfast Club. Charlamagne, who endorsed the Democratic ticket in 2020, told Politico that he has no plans to repeat his mistake in 2024. 

“I’ve learned my lesson from doing that. Once they got in the White House, [Harris] … kind of disappeared,” Charlamagne said. “‘Damn, you told us to vote for [them].’ Do you know how many people say that to me all the time?”

Why does it matter? The Breakfast Club boasts 8 million listeners a month and Charlamagne is a well-respected voice in the black community, particularly among young, progressive listeners. Charlamagne’s defection feels like a long time coming. It was on The Breakfast Club that President Biden said that if you can’t decide whether to vote for him, then “you ain’t black.” Vice President Harris later appeared on the show as the administration attempted to pass the Build Back Better bill; Harris pretended not to hear the question and her communications director attempted to cut off the interview when Charlamagne pointedly asked who the real president was: Joe Biden or Joe Manchin? It was Larry Elder, the black conservative who ran in the California gubernatorial recall against Gavin Newsom, who finally pointed out the mismatch between Charlamagne’s “support” for Biden and Biden’s actions toward the black community. Wasn’t it a “wake up” moment when Biden “insulted you?” Elder questioned. 

Charlamagne’s official revocation of his support also comes at a time when Biden seems to be losing black and hispanic voters and hemorrhaging approval among young progressives who oppose the way the Biden administration has handled the Israel-Palestine conflict. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll of registered voters released Wednesday shows Biden winning just 67 percent of black voters — down from 87 percent in 2020 — and actually losing hispanic and young voters to former president Donald Trump. Charlamagne’s disillusionment with the Biden administration isn’t happening in a vacuum and might signal serious problems for Biden’s ability to turn out the progressive base in 2024. 

-Amber Duke

On our radar

TRUMP APPEALING Former president Donald Trump officially appealed a decision by Democratic secretary of state Shenna Bellows to remove him from the Republican primary ballot in Maine. Bellows cited the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause to justify the removal. 

MENENDEZ DOUBLES DOWN New Jersey senator Bob Menendez was hit with a superseding indictment this week that alleges he accepted bribes and gifts in exchange for helping the Qatari government. He was already charged in relation to a similar multi-year corruption scheme with the Egyptian government. Menendez’s lawyer says the charges “stink of desperation.” 

EPSTEIN’S BUDDY SYSTEM Court documents from a civil case against longtime Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell will be unsealed today, revealing the names of more than 150 individuals associated in some way with Epstein. 

Don’t stay, Gay

The latest saga in Harvard’s GayGate? President Claudine Gay announced that she was resigning but expressed no remorse for either her career of plagiarism or her disastrous testimony in Congress.

Unsurprisingly, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has taken a victory lap after Gay’s announcement. Stefanik, a graduate of the embattled university, exposed a group of college presidents, including Gay, as they failed to say that calling for the genocide of Jews violates campus policy. Outside of the criminally unfunny Saturday Night Live skits defending the presidents, Stefanik’s simple questions received praise from across the political spectrum — and gave the New York congresswoman some revenge after the school removed her from its Institute of Politics advisory committee following her vote against certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Gay’s reluctance to resign, and Harvard’s initial embrace of her, made them apples taste all the sweeter for many. When asked for comment about Gay, Congressman Kelly Armstrong simply sent the iconic monologue about plagiarism from Good Will Hunting. The scene has a poignant reminder for the diminishing pool of Harvard applicants: “One: don’t do that [plagiarize], and two: you dropped 150 grand on a fucking education you could have got for $1.50 in late fees at the library.”

Not everyone in Congress was thrilled with Gay’s resignation. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, a former middle-school principal, claimed that “this isn’t about plagiarism or antisemitism. This is about racism and intimidation. This makes no one safer. The only winners are fascists who bullied a brilliant & historic Black woman into resignation. 2024 will be a battle for truth, democracy and our shared humanity.” Bowman is on the House’s Education and Workforce Committee.

Across the aisle, Congressman Tim Walberg, who is also on the Education Committee, said that Gay’s “long overdue” resignation can’t be enough. “It shouldn’t have had to take the exposure of a litany of plagiarism to make this happen,” the Michigan Republican said to me. “More importantly, this issue is much larger than Claudine Gay; this issue is about how hatred is allowed to permeate college campuses under the guise of DEI initiatives and Congress must continue to keep this issue in the spotlight.”

–Matthew Foldi

To the border they go

To the border they go

House Speaker Mike Johnson and sixty other Republicans traveled to the US-Mexico border on Wednesday in a clear attempt to bring immigration to the forefront of the party’s platform ahead of this year’s presidential election.

Texas congressman Chip Roy, however, skipped the field trip, telling Fox News that Texans are tired of empty press conferences and that Republicans have to “put up or shut up.” Roy did blunt his barbs a bit, praising Johnson for his leadership and arguing that it is time for Washington to focus more on passing bills that address the issue.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that Republicans have an “anti-border security record.” He argues that the GOP has focused on optics while obstructing President Biden’s border security proposals. Former acting ICE director Tom Homan countered on Fox Business on Wednesday morning that the Biden administration is more interested in more rapidly processing illegal migrants as opposed to actually securing the border, adding that Biden doesn’t need a single additional dollar to change his border policy. 

–Juan P. Villasmil

From the site

Charles Lipson: The effort to keep Trump off the ballot has been a century in the making
Peter W. Wood: Harvard will reap the damage caused by Claudine Gay