Topline

Vice President Kamala Harris, in a last-minute push to strengthen her support among Black voters, will take questions from local voters in a Detroit town hall hosted by Charlamagne Tha God, host of “The Breakfast Club,” as polls suggest she lacks the high amount of support enjoyed in 2020 Joe Biden, and Barack Obama before him.

Key Facts

What Do Polls Say About Harris’ Appeal To Black Voters?

Though Harris holds an overwhelming advantage with Black voters, polls show Black men are more likely than Black women to have a favorable view of Trump. In an AP-NORC poll released this week, 21% of Black men surveyed said Trump would make a good president, higher than the 11% of Black women who said so. Some polls, including a late September CNN poll, found her advantage among Black voters is smaller than President Joe Biden’s in 2020.

Why Was Harris’ 2019 “breakfast Club” Appearance Controversial?

Harris, who was then running for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election, appeared on “The Breakfast Club” in February 2019, in which she largely discussed her policy positions and how they would impact Black voters. Several of her answers sparked controversy, including a claim she appeared to make that she listened to artists including Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg while smoking marijuana in college. Fox News hosts criticized Harris, stating she doesn’t “remember what she was listening to when she was smoking,” because neither artist had released an album yet when she was in college in the 1980s. Harris’ campaign later denied she meant she listened to those artists while she was in college, as she was asked about her music taste more generally. Host DJ Envy defended Harris on MSNBC days later, clarifying she was responding to his original question, not Charlamagne Tha God’s interjection. Harris also stirred controversy for her admission she had smoked marijuana and supported legalization, particularly an explanation referencing her heritage: “Half my family’s from Jamaica, are you kidding me?” Her father Donald J. Harris, from whom she is estranged, said in a statement to Jamaica Global Online that he objected to his daughter’s portrayal “jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker.”

What Other Politicians Have Appeared On “the Breakfast Club?”

Candidates have long stopped by “The Breakfast Club” in efforts to reach out to Black voters, though some of these candidates made widely mocked missteps. Biden appeared on the show during his 2020 campaign, and sparked controversy for his closing plea: “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t Black.” Biden later walked back the remark and clarified he didn’t mean to take the Black vote for granted. Many other candidates who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, also appeared on the show. Hillary Clinton appeared on the show in 2016 during her presidential campaign, in which she fielded questions about her record on race, including her controversial use of the term “superpredators” in the 1990s to refer to criminals with “no conscience, no empathy,” which was criticized during her campaign as racially charged. In an oft-mocked moment from her “Breakfast Club” interview, when asked what item she always carries with her, Clinton immediately responded, “Hot sauce.” Just months before, Beyoncé had released the song “Formation,” with the lyrics, “I got hot sauce in my bag.” Charlamagne Tha God warned Clinton viewers would hear her answer and say “she’s pandering to Black people,” to which Clinton joked: “Okay, is it working?”

Further Reading

Obama Says Black Men Should Stop Making ‘Excuses’ And Support Harris (Forbes)