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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has avoided answering questions from the press but was happy to make time for an interview with rapper Cardi B.
Biden, who was criticized last week by Fox News host Chris Wallace for his “basement strategy,” spoke with the “WAP” singer about campaign issues and her dislike of President Donald Trump during an interview for Elle magazine’s September 2020 issue.
(Source: Elle/YouTube)
“Oh, snap. Is this real?” the 27-year-old Bronx native quipped at the beginning of the interview that covered topics ranging from healthcare, free education and “equity” along with racism in America.
The former vice president, who insisted that Cardi B call him “Joe,” thanked her for her “generosity in dealing with people suffering from COVID” after a cringing admission that his daughter, apparently a fan of the singer, had nicknamed him “Joey B.”
“I have a whole list of things that I want our next president to do for us,” Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almánzar, said. “But first, I just want Trump out. His mouth gets us in trouble so much.”
She claimed the president is “confusing” and said she wants a leader “to tell me what the steps are for us to get better,” referring to the coronavirus pandemic. She also asked the Democrat about free college tuition, free Medicare and “laws that are fair to Black citizens and that are fair for cops, too.”
“There’s no reason why we can’t have all of that. Presidents have to take responsibility,” Biden said. “I understand one of your favorite presidents is Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt said the American people can take anything if you tell them the truth.”
“I feel like this country is so hurt, to the point that this year, a lot of people couldn’t even celebrate July 4th, because not everybody feels like an American,” the married mother of a two-year-old daughter said. “A lot of people feel like [they’re] not even part of America.”
“One of the things that I admire about you is that you keep talking about what I call equity — decency, fairness, and treating people with respect,” Biden said, agreeing with the singer’s comments.
Cardi B, who also sat down with Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders last year, recently made headlines when she defended her latest music video, a raunchy visual with rapper Megan Thee Stallion, after being slammed for including model and reality star, Kylie Jenner.
Petition to cut Kylie Jenner from Cardi B’s raunchy new video for being white has over 40k signatures https://t.co/azc6mRGbnz
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) August 8, 2020
“When you see the taxes coming off your check, you don’t understand, because you feel like you’re putting in so many hours,” Cardi B told Biden at one point. “People want to know, can you provide college education, this [health care] plan, without a big chunk of taxes coming out of our checks?”
“Yes, we can,” Biden replied.
“And the way we can pay for all of this is doing practical things, like making sure that everybody has to pay their fair share. [For example] no corporation should pay less than 15 percent tax,” he added.
“If I get elected president, anybody with a family [that makes] less than 125 grand, you’re going to get free education,” Biden said. “And everybody gets free community college.”
The 77-year-old Democrat made it clear that the younger vote, and the generation that the Grammy-winner represents, are vital for the November election.
“In 2016, if 18- to 24-year-olds had voted in the same percentage as the rest of the population, there would have been 5.2 million more votes,” he said. “We wouldn’t have [Trump]; we would have had Hillary Clinton. The vote matters. That’s why you keep talking to people about the need to vote. Your generation can own what happens in the next election. They can change things dramatically if they show up and vote.”
Biden gave Cardi B more than 15 minutes of his time but has refused to do major media interviews despite the impending start of the Democratic National Convention.
“I don’t understand what’s going on here. This is the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Wallace, the anchor of “Fox News Sunday” said last week.
“The Biden campaign isn’t putting anybody out. And this just is of a piece with the vice president not doing really any serious interviews, not answering any questions since the rollout,” Wallace continued. “He continues to lead with what I’ll call the basement strategy.”
“I don’t think you can hide from now until Election Day. I just don’t think it’s possible,” Wallace said.
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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