Cornel West Slams ‘Neo-Fascist Gangster’ Trump and ‘Neo-Liberal Hypocrite’ Biden

TAPPER: “In our 2024 lead, the field is growing in the 2024 presidential race, with former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum entering the race. The total number of Republican candidates now stands at 12. This comes as two Democrats are challenging President Biden for the White House in the Democratic primary — that’s RFK Jr. And Marianne Williamson. And just this week, a third-party candidate jumped into the race, Dr. Cornel West, who launched his bid as a member of the People’s Party. And Dr. West joins us now. So, Dr. West, let me start with the obvious question: How — are you running to win? Are you running to get your issues of importance that you think Joe Biden is not paying enough attention to to the forefront?”
WEST: “Well, I mean, one, my dear brother, you always have a calling to win. You want to bear witness at the highest level of quality, integrity and honesty that you can. So, yes, I’m trying to push toward the finish line. Why? Because I want to reintroduce America to the best of itself, and it’s fairly clear that brother Trump, neo-fascist gangster, not the best. Brother Biden, neo-liberal hypocrite, not the best. I want the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Edward Said, and Chief Joseph, and Grace Lee Boggs, and Luisa Moreno. These are those fighting for poor and working people. Both parties stand in the way of the impoverished and poor and working people. Both parties are tied to Wall Street, militarism, Pentagon, tied to Silicon Valley. What about the 60 percent oppressed Americans of all colors who are struggling every day and month to put food on the table and are hardly doing it while the one percent is simply tied to their quest for the luxurious life. American democracy not just is at stake, the whole planet, brother Jake. You know that, with fossil fuels, and look at the debt ceiling agreement. We can make a deal with brother Manchin in terms of his pipeline that we’ll do in not just working class people’s spaces but ecological collapse given what’s going on on the East Coast, but we can’t make a deal with him in terms of voting rights when you go out to the filibuster, that’s brother Biden. We need something better. Where’s the best of the country?”
TAPPER: “Yeah.”
WEST: “Not just the working people here but around the world, because the militarism abroad is something that I’m deeply concerned about, be it in Latin America, be it in Africa, be it in the Middle East.”