“The Breakfast Club” co-host Charlamagne Tha God called out President Biden on Monday for butchering a famous rapper’s name at a public event and referring to him as a “boy.”
President Biden made headlines for multiple gaffes at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual Legislative Conference over the weekend. As Biden praised “two of the great artists of our time, representing the groundbreaking legacy of hip-hop in America,” he referred to LL Cool J as “LL J Cool J.” The situation worsened when Biden pivoted and tried to praise the rapper-actor by saying, “By the way, that boy has got — he’s got — man has got biceps bigger than my thighs.”
The term, “boy” has historic, racial connotations when used by a White person to refer to adult Black men, as Charlamagne noted, which was part of what led him to dubbing Biden the “donkey of the day” as a result.
“Donkey of the Day for Monday, September 25th goes to the 46th President of the United States of America, Joe Biden,” he said.
“A lot of people are upset that Joe Biden referred to LL Cool J as a ‘boy,’ as you can hear he corrected himself on the spot, you know why Joe Biden corrected himself because he’s 137 years old,” Charlamagne said. “He fully understands the word ‘boy’ in a racial context around a White man referring to a Black man as ‘boy,’ You see, ‘boy’ is absolutely a White racist word when used in a certain context.”
However, Charlamagne pivoted to argue that the part of the incident he truly “found egregious” was “the fact that Joe Biden got LL Cool J’s name wrong to begin with.”
The host asked why the audience laughed at Biden stumbling over the famous rapper’s name, suggesting they should have corrected him immediately. He added that Biden shouldn’t need a teleprompter to know LL Cool J’s name.
“LL Cool J is a man who has been rapping since President Joe Biden was my age, literally. Joe Biden was 44, I’m 45, but Joe Biden was 44 when JJ Cool J dropped his debut album ‘Radio,'” he said.