“Tell me, what’s your main interest in this election?” Biden asks after a playful introduction about their families. “I have whole list of things that I want, I wish and I desire for our next president to do for us,” Cardi says. “But, first and first, let me keep it a buck. I just want [Donald] Trump out,” she admits, explaining that the current 45th President of the United States bites off more than he can chew, per se.
“I just feel like his mouth gets us in trouble. I don’t want to be lied too,” Cardi says before discussing the ongoing COVID-19 global health crisis. “We’re dealing with a pandemic right now, and I just want answers, I want to know when this is over, I want to go back to my job. I want to be able to go outside and not feel like I’m trapped in my home,” she continues, adding, “I don’t want someone to lie to me and tell me it’s OK to go outside, it’s OK not to wear a mask, that everything is going to be OK.”
As for what Cardi desires in our next president? — “I want a timeline of when things are going to get better. I want a president to tell me what are the steps to get better, besides you know, taking precaution with our masks and quarantine,” she says, explaining, “I need someone to tell me this is going to be over when we find this cure, this is why it’s taking so long, this is why other countries are doing better than ours when it comes to this pandemic. I need somebody to tell me the truth, the hardcore truth.”
The mother of one then dives into her desire for free Medicare, free college tuition and justice for the Black community, following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. “Also, I of course, want free Medicare. This is why I support free Medicare: Look what’s happening right now, you see why we should’ve had free medicate for a long time. I of course think that we need free college education, that’s second,” she declares. “And, I want Black people to stop getting killed and no justice for it. — I’m tired of it. I’m sick of it. I just want laws that are fair to Black citizens and that are fair for cops, too. If you kill somebody who doesn’t have a weapon on them, you go to jail. You know what? If I kill somebody, I’ve got to go to jail. You gotta go to jail, too,” she says, adding, “That’s what I want.”
Following Cardi’s explanations, Biden admits, “There’s no reason why we can’t have all of that.”
“Presidents have to take responsibility. I understand one of your favorite presidents is Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt said the American people can take anything if you tell them the truth,” Biden says, explaining, “Sometimes the truth is hard. But right now, we’re in a position where we have an opportunity to make so much progress. The American public has had the blinders taken off.”
Cardi goes onto admit, “It’s so sad that a pandemic had to happen so people could open their eyes and see what type of person they are dealing with. [Trump is] really confusing everyone,” she says, noting that “one day he’s telling them this is nothing, that people need to stop getting tested. Next thing you know, [he has] a mask [on his] face. [He’s] really playing games. And it’s crazy that all of this had to happen so they could open their eyes to the past four years,” Cardi says.
Biden replies, “Well, it doesn’t have to happen. In 2016, if 18- to 24-year-olds had voted in the same percentage as the rest of the population, there would have been 5.2 million more votes. We wouldn’t have [Trump]; we would have had Hillary Clinton. The vote matters,” he urges. “That’s why you keep talking to people about the need to vote. Your generation can own what happens in the next election. They can change things dramatically if they show up and vote.”
At one point, Biden throws in a dig about Trump’s constant efforts to “divide” the American people. “And let me tell you something: The American people have never, ever, ever let their country down. They’ve been battered by this president and the way he continues to divide [our communities],” he explains, adding that Trump “appeals to their prejudice. He spews hate. We’ve gotta stop it.”
Toward the end of the conversation, Biden tells Cardi, “I’ll make mistakes as president, but I’ll admit to the mistakes I make, and you’re never going to have to wonder whether I’ll keep my word.”Cardi replies, “I would like to see [that]!”