Earlier this week, Twitter went into an uproar after Katrina Pierson, a Tea Party activist and consultant for the Trump administration, thanked Ice Cube for aiding the president and his administration with its “Platinum Plan.” People were vocally disappointed that Ice Cube sided with Trump’s administration, and the legendary rapper tried to explain himself, to no avail. On Friday night he tried again, appearing on Chris Cuomo’s CNN show, Cuomo Prime Time, to claim that he wasn’t working with anyone in the administration in particular. Instead, he said he simply offered his resources to “whoever is willing to work with me.”
Cube claimed that a lot of the reporting on his role in the initiative was not quite right:
Your lead-ins are a little misleading. The Platinum Plan is not my plan. I came up with Contract With Black America [CWBA]. I didn’t run to work with any campaign. Both campaigns contacted me. Both campaigns wanted to talk to me about the Contract With Black America … I didn’t run to nobody, so that was real misleading to me. You said I ran over to the Trump team instead of the Biden team and that’s just not true. I’m willing to work with both teams. I’m just working with whoever is willing to work with me.
He also said his only interest was in helping people. “I’m going there for Black Americans, the ones who are the decedents of slaves, and that’s what I’m going to talk to anybody who’s in power,” he said. “If anybody has a problem with that, it seems like a personal problem.”
Cube added that he does not trust Democrats or Republicans, and, thus, is not siding with either party.
I’m not trusting any of them. I’m just going by action. That’s all I’m going by. I’m not going by words, rhetoric, media spin — I’m not going by any of that. I’m not on nobody’s team. I’m not on team blue. I’m not on team red. I’m an independent person and I believe that’s what Black people need to do is become independent and we need to get something for our vote … I’m working with whoever’s in power. Whoever wins, they’ll hear from me.
Cube also said he believe in bringing more money into the community, which he thinks will help improve the lives of Black Americans in the long run. “Once we get some capital, we’ll be treated better,” he explained. “This is a capitalistic society and if you ain’t got no money — you see how people are treated on the street. Bottom line is, dollars bring dignity… we need to close this wealth gap[…] Black people have no capital. We own half of a point when it comes to all the wealth in America — 13.5 percent of people living off half of a point. We can’t survive in America for another 100 years living like this.”
Excellent dialogue between Don Lemon & Chris Cuomo about Ice Cube meeting with Trump about the Black Contract & how the Trump campaign are targeting BLACK MEN. Black women are considered unattainable by their campaign… pic.twitter.com/pl7WAqWgeh
— Anthony Alford (@AnthonyWTAM) October 17, 2020
— Anthony Alford (@AnthonyWTAM) October 17, 2020
After Cube’s appearance, fellow CNN host Don Lemon joined Cuomo, saying that Cube should be careful about who he works with After hearing Lemon’s comments, Cube took to Twitter and said Lemon’s comments were “some punks ass sh*t.”
Thank you Chris @CuomoPrimeTime you’re a man of your word. @donlemon that was some punks ass shit you just did. If you have any balls. I need to be on your show Monday night at 10pm. I’ll be ready.
— Ice Cube (@icecube) October 17, 2020
“Thank you Chris @CuomoPrimeTime you’re a man of your word,” Ice Cube said in his tweet. “@donlemon that was some punks a*s sh*t you just did. If you have any balls. I need to be on your show Monday night at 10pm. I’ll be ready.”
You can watch Ice Cube’s sit down with Chris Cuomo in the video above.