Throughout her career, Cardi B has faced criticism for her participation in political conversations, but the musician has always maintained that regardless of her platform and celebrity, she shares the same concerns about the country as any other citizen. Now, Kamala Harris’ plan to secure the Democratic nomination has emboldened the rapper to once again speak up.
The vice president has received a wave of misogynistic criticism since kicking off her 2024 presidential campaign. In a recent Spaces session on X, Cardi took aim at people taking aim at Harris’ gender. “I always knew how people are when it comes to women, but the disrespect?” she said. “Listen, if you don’t like her as a politician, that’s you. But if you disrespect her because she’s a woman? It’s very disgusting.”
On Sunday, President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. She has since proven to be a fundraising powerhouse, bringing in more than $125 million in donations in less than a week. The numbers have been impressive and social conversations online have bolstered support for Harris by any memes necessary.
The rapper reminded the audience tuning into her Spaces that Harris only “has 70, 80 days to change people’s perspective of her.” Already, the vice president is being criticized for her past relationships (which date back decades, prior to her marriage to Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff) and for not having biological children of her own, despite helping to raise her two stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff.
“The way that y’all disrespect her, makes me like her,” she explained, noting that women can often be the toughest critics. The rapper added: “It’s crazy because four, five days ago, I was like, ‘Yo, I feel like I’m not a feminist.’ I’ve been feeling like a lot of these women are your worst enemies … But then, the natural self of me is like, ‘Damn, maybe I am a feminist.’”
Cardi also pointed out that not only is this type of gender-based criticism outdated — the lowest of low-hanging fruit — it also generally sounds ridiculous. “Men are always gonna blame your success on her pussy. People are blaming her success on her pussy,” she said, referencing baseless conspiracies that she was romantically involved with Biden and other lawmakers. “I hate that narrative because I feel like women work harder than men.”
In her recent Rolling Stone cover story, Cardi expressed that she would be stepping back from involving herself politics on any level. She stated that she wouldn’t vote for Joe Biden or Donald Trump, rejecting the less-of-two-evils narrative that requires citizens to turn a blind eye to political pitfalls. “It’s just like, damn, y’all not caring about nobody,” she said. “Then, it really gets me upset that there is solutions to it. There is a solution. I know there’s a solution because you’re spending billions of dollars on any fucking thing.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone published last month, Harris spoke to the ways in which a lack of representation has informed the current state of American politics.
“The reality is that representation matters. To have people making decisions that will directly impact lives, [it matters] that they have some sense of how that will actually impact people’s lives. Especially when you’re talking about matters of — as I like to think — the home and heart,” she said. “Because on some level, we should all agree: These people sitting up in some state capitol, what right do they have to come into your home and presuppose they’re in a better position than you to know what’s in your best interest? My goodness. The gall!”