Charlamagne rips Nicki Minaj for bashing Kathy Hochul, but not Trump

Charlamagne tha God is calling out Nicki Minaj, and his argument isn’t simply about her political support for New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman . It’s about whether the moral standards she demands of others are standards she’s willing to apply to the politicians she supports.

Here’s the backstory. On Wednesday, Minaj took aim at New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, posting a series of tweets questioning her character and religious standing.

She wrote, “Kathy Hochul is an evil woman. The Democratic Party should forfeit her seat because even if she wins, she will be of great consequence to them. Downward spiral for her. She will not escape God’s wrath.”

Minaj also challenged Christians who would vote for Hochul saying how dare they .

Where is that same religious indignation when it comes to President Trump? His record includes serial infidelity, derogatory remarks about women, racially charged rhetoric about immigrants and Muslim Americans, and a civil jury finding him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. He also declared, “I HATE MY OPPONENT” at a funeral.

But I’ll let Charlemagne break it down :

“Listen, Nicki’s words, her statement — it just lacks moral consistency. That’s selective outrage, if you ask me. Because you can have whatever political belief you want, but you need to hold everybody to the same moral standard, Nicki.”

He continues: “Like, you support Donald Trump. And you can support Trump — that’s your thing. If you want to support him, support him. But when you start using words like ‘evil’ and telling people God is going to punish them, accusing other people of failing to condemn wrongdoing, now I start to look at you crazy, because do you know who you are even supporting?”

“I don’t want to hear nothing about morals when it comes to Donald Trump,” said Charlemagne. “You can’t condemn nobody’s morality when you support a person who is like Donald Trump. Who has had more moral controversies than Donald Trump?!”

Oh I forgot to mention how Trump was recently talking about Minaj. Take a look :

“By the way I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before, Nicki Minaj,” said the president. “That’s hard to miss!”

Is that the standard of respect and character we want to normalize? And why does moral accountability seem to become less important when the person being scrutinized belongs to your political team?

Policy is a whole other issue here. Politico reports that Blakeman, who wants to replace Hochul as governor, still had no policy section on his campaign website . Instead of offering detailed proposals, he has largely focused on attacking the incumbent. When asked in August about reining in housing costs, for example, a major concern for New Yorkers, Blakeman pivoted and said “It’s not through socialism.”

I’m down to be critical of Hochul — she should face scrutiny, and Minaj has every right to criticize her. But if the core argument is about morality, Christians and divine punishment, then the standard has to be consistent.

Nicki Minaj is entitled to her politics, but moral authority requires more than condemning the people you oppose. I’m going to need her to explain why the same scrutiny doesn’t apply to the people she adamantly supports.

Lindsey Granger is a NewsNation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.