Clash Of The Titans? Charlamagne Tha God On Biden Vs. Trump CNN Debate, Power Of Political Plain Speaking On ElectionLine Podcast

Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson

27 June 2024 at 10:08 am·3-min read

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 will be the first face-off this year between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. Stay tuned; later today we will be following the debate with breaking news and 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, it 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.

More from Deadline

“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 presidential 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.

“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.

Robert Costa Q&A — Donald Trump and President Joe Biden

“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 bullsh*t 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, (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 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 low expectations for 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 newser: 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.

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.

Best of Deadline

The Telegraph
Donald Trump is going to turn Starmer’s Britain into an international laughing stock
Grandfather Robert Blackstock, a retired engineer from Nottinghamshire, became the “Brenda from Bristol” of this election campaign when he asked Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer during Wednesday night’s TV debate: “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?”
The Telegraph
Did Nigel Farage blow himself up in the BBC Question Time election special? Our writers react
It was finally Nigel Farage’s time to appear before a BBC Question Time audience this evening, more than a week after Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer had theirs. The Reform UK leader took the podium in the same hour as a Green Party representative, Adrian Ramsay. Yet only one of these men has excited reaction from our writers.
The Telegraph
Labour vote share falls to lowest in more than two years
Labour’s vote share has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years ahead of the general election, new polling shows.
Business Insider
A grinding Russian assault appears telling about Putin's plan to defeat Ukraine
ISW's conflict experts warned that the West must "challenge Putin's belief that he can gradually subsume Ukraine."
HuffPost
Critics Clown Trump's 'IDIOTIC' Electric Planes Remarks: 'Dumb As A Box Of Rocks'
"What happens if the sun isn’t shining while you’re up in the air?” the former president asked at a rally in Virginia.
The Telegraph
A Labour landslide would leave the UK unrecognisable
Until now, Sir Keir Starmer has carefully hidden the Labour Party’s radical, hard-Left agenda from the public. But on the brink of the largest majority in nearly a century, his mask has slipped.
The Telegraph
‘Trillion dollar trainwreck’: US super stealth fighter is eating the next generation
All of a sudden, the US Air Force is considering cancelling a multibillion-dollar effort to develop a new stealth fighter. Citing the high cost of the so-called “Next-Generation Air Dominance” programme and the competing demands of other projects, USAF leaders have warned they may have no choice but to cancel NGAD – and find other ways of winning control of the air in future wars.
The Telegraph
Jill Biden has the fate of the world in her hands
Now might be a good time for Dr Jill Biden, the First Lady, to have a rummage around in the back of the wardrobe for one particular item of clothing. When Joe Biden opted against running for president in 2004, his decision was underlined by his wife’s decision to wear a halter top with the word “NO” scrawled on her stomach.
The Daily Beast
Obama Rode to Biden’s Rescue—but Intervention Could Yet Come
On Friday afternoon, in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump, private murmurs and public calls for an “intervention” ricocheted through Democratic circles. But then a hold-up emerged.Some 17 hours after Biden botched his big debate moment, his former boss came to the rescue.For many high-ranking Democrats, a single tweet from former President Barack Obama appeared to nix any chance of the 44th president meeting with the 46th and urging him to drop out.Rea
Sky video
France election: Marine Le Pen on the brink of power, as Emmanuel Macron's big gamble looks set to fail
In France, politics is happening at a ferocious pace.
Manchester Evening News
'My mortgage has doubled... the country's gone to pot': The Greater Manchester neighbourhood where people want change
'I was born and bred here... I've never known the place be as big of a dump as it is'
Business Insider
Hezbollah has the weapons to carry out its threat against Cyprus
Hezbollah may be using Cyprus as a "stand-in" to threaten a nearby NATO country, a regional expert said.
The Telegraph
The Conservatives are paying the terrible price for Britain’s lockdown amnesia
On Tuesday, the BBC led with a report about personal protective equipment (PPE) worth nearly £1.5 billion going unused. It was, we were told in scandalised tones, rotting away in warehouses.
The Telegraph
Germany couldn’t afford to bail France out even if it wanted to
The “nein”, “non” or just a plain old “no way” has already been uttered. As France prepares for its most significant election in at least a decade, with its leading parties committed to increasing the government’s already lavish spending, Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, has made one point clear: France is not going to get a bailout, and certainly not from its close neighbours.
HuffPost UK
Gillian Keegan Suggests Sky News Presenter Doesn't 'Understand Economics' In Extraordinary Spat
The pair clashed over whether or not Liz Truss caused of the jump in inflation.
The Telegraph
How Biden’s disastrous debate could end up benefiting the Democrats
Donald Trump’s allies were like Cheshire cats as they celebrated in the spin room backstage at the TV debate in Atlanta on Thursday night.
The Independent
Ukraine strikes inside Russia disrupting the ability of Putin’s forces to use drones, MoD says
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal also announces that military pledges outlined in 20 security agreements Kyiv has signed with its allies total $60 billion annually for the next four years
HuffPost
Trump Uses 'Palestinian' As A Slur For The Second Time In A Week
The GOP presidential frontrunner referred to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish, as a "Palestinian" during a rally on Friday.
Cover Media
Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand lead celebrity reactions to Trump-Biden debate
Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand led the celebrity reactions to this week's Trump-Biden debate. The divas, and others, took to their social media accounts to express their views after the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden ahead of this year's election. "All my friends are taking their blood pressure medicine now, preparing for the debate," Bette, 78, wrote on X/Twitter, ahead of the face-off. "I wonder how many TV screens are going to be broken tonight?" As the televi
AFP
Putin hints Russia to start making previously banned missiles
Russia should start producing previously banned midrange missiles, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, as Moscow warned the United States that drone reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea risked a "direct" military clash.The United States routinely carries out drone flights over the Black Sea, which it says are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law.

Latest stories