Vice President Kamala Harris responded forcefully after TV and radio personality Charlamagne Tha God asked her if President Biden is the ‘real’ president, The Hill reports.
“I want to know who the real president of this country is — is it Joe Biden, or Joe Manchin?” Charlamagne — whose real name is Lenard McElvey — asked Harris during her Friday appearance on his Comedy Central show Tha God’s Honest Truth, Fox News reported.
“It’s Joe Biden — and don’t start talking like a Republican!” Harris snapped in response to Charlemagne’s question. “It’s Joe Biden. And I’m vice president, and my name is Kamala Harris.”
The Biden administration suffered a significant loss of face Thursday when, as POLITICO reported, the president was forced to admit that his signature Build Back Better bill would not pass the Senate before Christmas as he had hoped. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is almost single-handedly responsible for this delay. Manchin, a moderate Democrat, met with Biden last week to discuss what it would take for him to vote for the president’s $1.75 trillion spending bill, but negotiations went “very poorly.”
Because the Senate is evenly divided between the two parties and every Republican opposes the bill, it cannot pass without Manchin. Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote in the event of a 50-50 split.
Harris continued her answer to Charlamagne with an impassioned defense of the Biden administration’s policy agenda, touting the expanded Child Tax Credit, police reform, increased funding for public transportation, and other proposals. “I hear the frustration, but let’s not deny the impact that we’ve had,” Harris said to Charlamagne. This fiery version of Harris is “the one I like,” Charlamagne responded.
In 2019, Harris made a more amiable appearance on Charlamagne’s radio show The Breakfast Club. During that interview, she admitted to Charlamagne that she had smoked marijuana in college and said she enjoys the music of Tupac Shakur and Cardi B.