Kamala Harris got into a heated exchange with TV host Charlamagne Tha God on Friday after he asked her, point blank, who the nation's "real" president was.
"I want to know who the real president of this country is — is it Joe Biden, or Joe Manchin?" asked Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard Larry McKelvey, on his Comedy Central show, "Tha God’s Honest Truth".
The TV host had weighed in on the fact that West Virginia moderate Democrat Joe Manchin was "holding up progress" on President Biden’s sweeping spending legislation being debated on Capitol Hill.
In response to the prodding from the TV host, Kamala Harris replied that President Biden was the nation's leader. As Charlamagne quipped “I can't tell sometimes, Symone Sanders, Harris’ aide, appeared to be saying off-camera that the interview should be cut short.
“They're acting like they can't hear me,” continued Charlamagne. However, an increasingly livid Kamala Harris insisted she could hear him. Wagging her finger at him, the VP, who was recently referred to as "President Harris" yet again by gaffe-prone Biden himself, reiterated, “C’mon, Charlamagne! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it’s Joe Biden."
"And don’t start talking like a Republican, about asking whether or not he’s president. … And it’s Joe Biden, it’s Joe Biden and I'm vice president and my name is Kamala Harris," she added with emphasis.
The $1.75 trillion social spending and climate change bill, legislation has been passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives after it passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but faces opposition in the Senate. As Democrats have only 50 Senate seats, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie, Biden needs every Democratic Senator to support the legislation.
Manchin has raised multiple objections to Joe Biden’s landmark Build Back Better legislation, originally opposing its $3.5 trillion price tag, which has since been whittled down to $1.75 trillion and excluded paid family leave in its framework. He has since doubled down on opposition to child tax credit, saying that rather than extending it for one year, it should be extended for 10 years.
In the interview, Kamala Harris also pointed to the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the Senate and accused the Republicans of being united in their opposition to the President’s signature legislation.
"I think it's a mistake to try and think about this only through the lens of Democrats versus Democrats, when the fact is Republicans are consistently and unanimously standing in the way of progress," said Harris.
According to the VP, one of the aspects of the plan, such as the child tax credit, would lower "Black child poverty by 50%." As she reiterated that there was more effort to be made and she “would not give up" on the legislation, Charlamagne said Americans need Harris to be the "superhero who saves democracy."
"That Kamala Harris — that's the one I like," he said, referencing her testy response to his question about who was in charge in the country.
On social media, users were unimpressed with the VP’s response to the “trick question” lobbed at her by the TV host.