Renowned broadcast journalist Gayle King and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley are quite a pair, literally representing the yin and yang of their new show on CNN, “King Charles.”
During a recent episode, while discussing former President Donald Trump’s comments at a mixer in Columbia, South Carolina, about his perceived popularity among Black people due to his mugshot, the veteran journalist had to calm her co-host and friend down.
After hearing the comments, the former 76er threatened to ‘punch’ a Black Trumper if he caught them wearing campaign merchandise he deemed racially offensive. She warned him that if he followed through with his threat, he too would end up with a mugshot. Barkley didn’t seem to mind.
“I got indicted the second time … and a third time … and a fourth time and a lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” Trump said at the Black Conservative Federation annual gala, at which he received the “Champion of Black America” award. “They actually viewed me as being discriminated against.”
He added, “The mugshot. We’ve all seen the mugshot. You know who embraced more than anybody else? The Black population. It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mugshot – you know they do shirts.”
This narrative has been floated by conservatives and Fox News pundits since the embarrassing mugshot was released to the public.
Barkley was swift with his candid remarks, saying, “I’m just gonna say this… if I see a black person walking around with Trump mugshot, I’mma punch him in the face.”
Immediately, King jumped into damage control mode and replied, “Charles, you really can’t say that because you don’t mean that.”
“Oh, I mean that sincerely,” he continued.
Logically, King reasoned that if he were to hit a random Black person for wearing the shirt, he would “be arrested for assault.”
She asked, “Then what.”
“I’mma bail myself out and go celebrate,” clapped back the retired baller, who has an estimated net worth of $60 million.
Many on social media cheered TNT analysts on.
One X user even checked King for interrupting him while he was on a roll.
“Stop talking Gail!! Let the man speak and stop trying to correct him!” the person wrote. “Dam! I agree and thought it was disgusting of the orange to compare or think black people like him.”
One person wrote, “Shut up @GayleKing ‘Still in the court system’ Plenty of judgements completed already, pay attention. Let Charles speak his truth.”
Shut up @GayleKing
— CurlyCat4UK 💙 (@CurlyCat4UK) March 5, 2024
"Still in the court system"
Plenty of judgements completed already, pay attention.
Let Charles speak his truth
Others were just cracking up at how candid Barkley was in his comments.
“Seems like Charles isn’t holding back his punches, both literally and figuratively!” one person tweeted.
Barkley explained his frustration with Trump’s comments and said that if he was at the conference he would have gotten up and left, saying his remarks were “an insult to all Black people.”
“To compare Black history, where we’ve been discriminated against, to his plight [is wrong]. Well, first of all, he’s a billionaire and they’re prosecuting him for stuff he did wrong,” he continued.
Adding, “It’s not a fair comparison. You know he’s a billionaire. He’s had a great life. He’s been president United States. To insult Black people who have been discriminated against all these years … to put them in the same category … I was just offended.”
During his speech, Trump said more things that might have offended the retired basketball player, who grew up in the South.
“I’m being indicted for you, the American people. I’m being indicted for you, the Black population. I am being indicted for a lot of different groups by sick people, these are sick, sick people,” Trump said during his speech.
The former president spoke for two hours at the event, where he was accompanied by other Black Republican politicians, including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, as well as Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Byron Donalds of Florida.
Also in attendance was Ben Carson, who previously served as Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary.
