BARKLEY’S TOUGH LOVE FOR DEMOCRATS

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Charles Barkley calls out Democrats after the 2024 election loss.

Charles Barkley didn’t hold back when dis­sect­ing the Democ­rats’ crush­ing defeat in the 2024 elec­tion. On his pod­cast The Steam Room, co-host­ed with Ernie John­son, the NBA Hall of Famer offered his blunt assess­ment of why Kamala Har­ris and the Democ­rats lost to Don­ald Trump.  

“I wish him [Trump] noth­ing but the best, but we lost,” Barkley said. “And I just want to say this to the Democ­rats: I’m an Inde­pen­dent who vot­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic. Do me this favor—shut the fck up! When you win, you get to say what you want. When you lose, you need to shut the hell up.”  

Barkley point­ed to a lack of strat­e­gy, not Trump’s polar­iz­ing rhetoric, as the rea­son for the Democ­rats’ down­fall. “We lost because we had no game plan,” he stat­ed. “We still haven’t solved the immi­gra­tion prob­lem. Nev­er addressed infla­tion. And bring­ing out celebri­ties to ral­ly votes? What was that? I love Bey­on­cé, but that ain’t gonna make me vote a cer­tain way.”  

Known for his direct approach, Barkley dis­missed the notion that all Trump vot­ers are racist and urged the Democ­rats to focus on real issues. “I’m not a fan of [Trump], but he’s the pres­i­dent now, and I’m going to respect the office. Peo­ple want solu­tions. They want mon­ey in their pock­et. They want the bor­der secure.”  

Barkley’s frus­tra­tion extend­ed to crit­ics of Auburn bas­ket­ball coach Bruce Pearl, a vocal Trump sup­port­er. “The next one of you fools sends me an arti­cle about Bruce Pearl sup­port­ing Trump, I’m gonna punch you in the face,” he quipped. “Bruce Pearl can vote for who he wants to. He’s got two jobs—win bas­ket­ball games and grad­u­ate play­ers.”  

Despite his left-lean­ing stance, Barkley has fre­quent­ly crit­i­cized Democ­rats for rely­ing on iden­ti­ty pol­i­tics and fail­ing to con­nect with vot­ers. “They only care about Black peo­ple every four years,” he said ear­li­er this year, high­light­ing a recur­ring issue he feels has cost them elec­tions.  

For Barkley, the mes­sage to Democ­rats is clear: leave the excus­es behind, focus on solu­tions, and get a real game plan before the next elec­tion.