Rapper Cardi B suffered through an awkward minute-and-a-half on stage at Vice President Kamala Harris’s rally in Wisconsin Friday due to a malfunctioning teleprompter — frantically looking, pointing at the screen, and saying she was “nervous” before finally beginning her speech when someone handed her a cell phone with her script.
The “Wet Ass Pussy” songstress was met with a round of applause from the crowd before she said, “One second guys, one second,” while waving her finger in the air towards the teleprompter:
A look of dismay crossed her face as she realized that the teleprompter was not displaying her remarks before she attempted to begin.
“Okay… so I don’t take lightly the call…” she said before stopping again.
The rapper appeared to cringe at herself, then said, “Sorry guys, I’m a little nervous.”
When the crowd did not react, Cardi shouted, “I’m a little nervous guys! I’ve been waiting for this moment this whole life!”
Harris’s audience then began cheering her on and shouting, but Cardi still could not start her speech.
“I need Patience over here,” she said with an awkward grin, possibly in reference to a specific campaign staffer. “Patience, where are you, girl?”
The audience once again fell silent, while Cardi shouted in a sing-songy voice, “I need Patience over here!”
About seven more seconds of silence went by before she decided to ask the crowd, “Hold on, hold on, hold on, how you guys doing tonight?” to receive more cheers.
“How you guys doing tonight?” the rapper asked again. “Are we ready to make history? Are we ready to make history? Are we ready to change these four years? No — are we ready to change these next eight years because we gonna make sure we have Kamala Harris in office for eight years!”
Finally, about one minute and 22 seconds after Cardi took to the podium, an aide climbed onto the stage to deliver a phone with the script on it.
During her speech, the performer said she was not planning to endorse a candidate until Harris replaced Biden.
“I believe every word that comes out of her mouth,” she said.
“I did not have faith in any candidate until she joined the race and said the things that I wanted to hear, that I wanted to see next in this country.”
Democrat Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler shared a picture of the celebrity endorsement on X — in which Cardi was staring at the phone:
“Looks like a ransom speech to me,” one X user replied:
“Could she not have just said that without a script in her hand?” another commenter said:
