Source: Aaron J. Thornton / Getty

It appears that a few recent polls that suggest a significant number of Black male voters will be shifting to Donald Trump in November has lit a fire under the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who, on Monday, unveiled a series of policy proposals targeting Black men, such as business opportunities and loan forgiveness. Then, on Tuesday, Harris sat down with Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God for a town hall, during which the two discussed a range of issues, including her perceived lack of popularity with Black male voters.

Charlamagne opened the discussion by offering reasons why some people, particularly Black men, might be lacking in enthusiasm for her candidacy.

From Deadline:

“Folks say you come off as very scripted,” he said to Harris at the outset. “They say you like to stick to your talking points. Some media says you have –”

“That would be called discipline,” Harris interrupted.

He noted that Saturday Night Live has parodied her for it.

“What do you say to people who say you stay on the talking points?”

“I would say, you’re welcome,” she said, adding that “there are certain things that must be repeated to ensure that I have everyone know what I stand for and the issues that I think are at stake in this election.”

CNN simulcast almost the entire iHeartRadio hour, while MSNBC carried a portion of it. Fox News referred to it during The Five.

It’s kind of an odd complaint to level at Harris when you think about it. Just because Trump goes off-script (if there ever was a script, to begin with) far more often than Harris doesn’t mean, he’s not also repeating the same rhetoric over and over again. When Trump gets on stage, he rifles through the same handful of talking points: Immigrants are bad, the economy is bad, I won in 2020, Biden is bad, immigrants are really bad, Harris is bad and dumb and stupid and “mentally impaired,” Black people love me (and if they don’t they should “have their head examined“), and, by the way, in case I forgot to mention, immigrants are bad, their genes are bad, their blood is bad and America is bad with them here. 

Trump and his supporters are also always claiming Harris doesn’t talk about her policies, but it is Trump who, when it comes right down to it, only has “concepts of a plan.”

Harris has talked about her policy proposals in every recent interview that she has done. Her talk with Charlemagne was no different.

More from Deadline:

Noting that the election is a “margin of error” race, Harris used the hour to talk a bit about her background and religious faith, while re-emphasizing her economic agenda and how that would help the Black community in particular. That includes proposals to boost assistance for down payments on homes and expanding the child tax credit. A more recent proposal provides $20,000 in forgiveness to small-business loans.

Still, during the town hall, Harris was pressed about her commitment to Black people, which is fair since she’s out here campaigning for our votes.

One caller asked her what her stance was on reparations, adding: “Black Americans are heavily asked to vote Democrat in every election for half a century, with very little in return. What are your plans to address these very important issues and change that narrative?”

Harris answered: “Yes, I am running to be president for all Americans. That being said, I do have clear eyes about the disparities that exist and the context in which they exist, meaning history.” She said that reparations had to be “studied, there’s no question,” before going into an extended, five-minute answer on her background and agenda.

Yeah — Harris is going to have an uphill battle positioning herself as a president who will stand up for Black liberation and reparations while still having to make sure everyone knows she’s “running to be president for all Americans.” That rhetoric starts to feel very “All lives matter”-like really quickly.