Clash Of The Titans? Charlamagne Tha God On Biden Vs. Trump CNN Debate, Power Of Political Plain Speaking On ElectionLine Podcast
Charlamagne Tha God The Tyler Twins
Editor’s note: It’s Debate Night in America and the Deadline ElectionLine podcast is kicking off our dawn to dusk coverage today of what is the first face-off this year between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump tonight on CNN and simulcast everywhere. Stay tuned, later today we will be following the debate itself with its breaking news and our analysis.
Running until the final general election results come in, the podcast spotlights the 2024 campaign and the blurred lines between politics and entertainment in modern America. Hosted by Deadline’s political editor Ted Johnson and executive editor Dominic Patten, the podcast features commentary and interviews with top lawmakers and entertainment figures. At the same time, you can follow all the news in the latest twists and turns in the Biden & Trump rematch and more on the ElectionLine hub on Deadline.
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“I feel like we don’t know how to have big conversations anymore,” Charlamagne Tha God says just hours before Joe Biden and Donald Trump face-off in their first live primetime debate of the 2024 election. “Only thing we know how to do is make these small micro-conversations macros,” the Breakfast Club co-host adds on the Deadline ElectionLine podcast – as you can hear above.
“Nowadays, it seems like everything is on the same scale, so you don’t know what’s heavy and what’s not.”
With emphasis on nuance and the power of narrative, Charlamagne explores the notions of conversation, the toxicity of social media, performativity and politics in his new book Get Honest or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks. “Remember when the parents used to talk in Peanuts and all Charlie Brown would hear was ‘wah, wah, waaaa,’” he notes in the opening of the book’s ‘The Language of Politics Is Dead’ chapter. “Well, that’s what all Americans hear when politicians open their mouth these days.”
On the podcast, Charlamagne takes that POV directly to tonight’s debate in Atlanta.
(L-R) Donald Trump and President Joe Biden Getty Images
“I think that being that we live in an era where nobody cares about the truth when the lie is more entertaining, when you’re watching that debate, President Biden can go out there …say things that have substance,” Charlamagne says. “He can lay his record out, you know, quite flat, he can talk about the things him and the administration have done over the last four years.”
“And on Friday morning, the sound bites are going to be whatever bullshit Donald Trump said,” the author and host says bluntly. “Like whatever, whatever funny quip he said about Joe Biden, whatever insult he says to Joe Biden, whatever insult he may say to Biden, his family, whatever insult, he may say to Democrats, the media is going to amplify those times a hundred.”
As well as discussing the culture, Get Honest or Die Lying, the “United States of Anxiety,” and the debate with Charlamagne Tha God (including a nod to Warren Beatty‘s often underrated 1998 satire Bulworth, as well as Chris Rock), we also go into the mechanics and the expectations of tonight’s potential fracas.
The CNN Presidential Debate is unusual in many different ways, but one thing has remained the same this cycle: Trump’s attacks on the moderators. The former president’s efforts to game post-debate analysis follow months and even years of efforts to set very low expectations for Joe Biden.
It’s also important to note that as well as being a clash between two old political foes, tonight’s debate is a masterclass in branding for the now Mark Thompson-run cable newsers.
CNN’s debate stage features no less than seven depictions of its logo. Simulcast on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News (that must hurt over in Murdochland) the branding is a reflection of how the network sees this event as an opportunity for a reset on a dwindling audience and declining relevance of traditional television — take a listen.
Stick with ElectionLine all the way through today’s live debate and up to Election Day itself: Subscribe to the Deadline ElectionLine podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, iHeart, and all podcast platforms.