A go-to radio host for Obama
President addressed Baltimore riots in a familiar forum — Steve Harvey’s show.
Steve Harvey is the popular host of his own daily radio and TV show, as well as the face of the widely syndicated TV game show “Family Feud.” The 58-year-old comedian is also a bestselling author and has starred in his own TV sitcoms.
But this week the White House came calling on Harvey to discuss a serious and urgent matter — the rioting in Baltimore. On Wednesday, President Obama sought out Harvey and his loyal, largely African American syndicated radio audience to deliver a blunt condemnation of the violence, sparked by the death of 25year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody.
“As always, whenever I’m contacted by the White House, I’m just humbled,” Harvey said Thursday in a phone interview. “I think, ‘Wow, how did I get here from where I started?’ I do honor the fact that he respects me — the White House obviously knows what our ratings and demographics are, and the tone of the message of our show, so the president knows he can come on and talk so personally.”
The interview marked the 12th time since 2010 that Obama has appeared on
Harvey’s radio show. At the core of the bond between Obama and Harvey is a mutual respect that goes beyond politics, Harvey said.
“He respects my authenticity and the concerns I have for the community,” Harvey said. “He doesn’t have to worry about me blindsiding him. He knows I won’t make fun of him when he gets off the air. He knows my authenticity with my fan base and that I have a genuine affection for everyone, not only for African Americans, for overall. I take my brand very seriously.
“I’ve delivered a vote of confidence for him on so many levels. And he respects me as a family man — we talk about our families. He told me how he feels about his daughter getting ready and going out looking at colleges, and how he felt about that, asking me how I felt when I faced the same situation.”
The White House also believed that Harvey would have a special understanding of the often-tense historical relationship between police and the African American community. That issue has often proved delicate for Obama to navigate.
“How many times have you ever heard a president say, ‘Our community’?” Harvey said. “That comes from his background as a street organizer from his days in Chicago. It’s in his grassroots nature — at heart, he’s a grass-roots guy.”
During his interview with Harvey, Obama spoke of Gray’s death within the context of a number of highly publicized deaths of African Americans at the hands of police.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen these police-related killings or death too often now, and obviously everybody is starting to recognize that this is not just an isolated incident in Ferguson or New York, but we’ve got some broader issues,” Obama said on Harvey’s show.
The president also scolded rioters who had burned down businesses and attacked police officers:
“The kind of violence that we saw from a handful of individuals in Baltimore — there’s no excuse for that. That’s just criminal behavior.... People who engage in that type of violence, it needs to stop.”
Harvey offered his own take on the violence in Baltimore and what caused it.
“This problem is not going away, and it was there long before he became president,” said Harvey. “Black people have known about this for a long, long time, but because of technology, we actually get to see it. And it’s not going away until non-African Americans get fed up with it. We’re starting to hear that now.”