It’s no secret that Cardi B has used her massive platform to spread her political beliefs in the past, whether that’s urging AOC to run for president, chatting about the minimum wage with Bernie Sanders, or even announcing her own desire to run for Congress. When Republican politicians and conservative commentators have fired shots back at the rapper, she’s also proved she isn’t afraid of holding her ground.
However, Cardi has been relatively quiet on the political front in recent months, and it’s not just because she’s hard at work on “WAP” part two. Asked why she no longer speaks out about “politics and political matters” by a fan on Twitter, she’s revealed that it’s largely down to the bullying she encountered from both sides of the political aisle.
“I was tired of getting bullied by the Republicans,” she writes, “and also getting bashed by the same people I was standing up for.”
Some of the criticism that Cardi B has received from Republicans includes comparisons to Melania Trump, and claims that she was a “pawn” for the Biden campaign. In the latter case, she responded to the likes of Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and Fox News with evidence that she had denied payment from any political campaign (AKA destroying them with facts and logic).
Last year, Cardi also opened up about the harassment she’s suffered from Donald Trump supporters online and how it spilled out into the real world, saying that a teenage boy attempted to dox her home, prompting her to hire a private investigator.
She has previously spoken about the difficulties of being a role model outside of politics as well, and the obligation to perform a certain set of ideals that come with label. “For these past two years I been watching what I say and I haven’t been myself,” she wrote in 2019, discussing self-censorship in response to a fan’s claim that she sends a harmful message to young girls.
In late 2020, she addressed the role model question once again, saying that expectations for female artists’ behaviour are too high. “They want you to be Mother Teresa, they want you to put out music, and they want you to look a certain way,” she wrote at the time. “I want to show people that you can do positive things. But you can also be yourself.”