Sean “Diddy” Combs announced this week the launch of Our Black Party, followed by an endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday.

In a video shared by his network RevoltTV, Combs discusses with Charlamagne Tha God the need for a Black political party that will be designed with an agenda focused on the African-American community’s needs.
“It’s time for us to have our own Black political party, unapologetically,” Combs says in the video. “If you look at the debates, we’re not even a part of the conversation. We don’t have any political power. We don’t have any political leverage. So we started Our Black Party with some young fearless Black activists, elected officials and I’ve stepped up and put the money behind it.”

Initial goals for Our Black Party include decriminalizing poverty, defunding the police, addressing racism in healthcare, growth of Black businesses and guaranteed income for all.
On Friday morning, Combs tweeted his endorsement for Biden while writing, “The NUMBER ONE priority is to get Trump out of office. HE HAS TO GO. We can’t allow this man to continue to try and DIVIDE US. The people that have the most responsibility and should be SCARED TO DEATH of this man are white people. WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF A RACE WAR.”

“We need to get Biden in and hold him accountable. Trump has taken things too far,” Combs added in a thread on Twitter. “As Black people, we aren’t even a topic of real discussion. We can no longer stand for doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. That’s insanity! It’s time we unify.”
In his RevoltTV discussion, Combs also touched on his “hold the Black vote hostage” statement in the video, President Trump’s “stand back and stand by” comment during the first presidential debate, and how his current political views further his 2004-created VOTE OR DIE initiative.

In April, Combs faced backlash after a conversation with Naomi Campbell for her web series No Filter with Naomi, in which he told the supermodel that “the Black vote is not going to be free.” He added that Black Americans should demand more from their presidential candidates, and Black voters should have clear information from them on how they aim to improve their lives. “It’s business at this point,” he told Campbell. “We can’t trick politicians. So we want to know very clearly, just like Trump made it clear that he wanted to build a wall, Biden needs to make it clear that he wants to change the lives and quality of life for Black and brown people or he won’t get the vote. I will hold the vote hostage if I have to.”
Charlamagne asks in the video if Combs still stands by that “hold the vote” comment, adding “you want people to go out there and vote?”
“It would be irresponsible of me to have us hold our vote hostage,” Combs says. “But it would also be irresponsible of me to just let this moment go by — the world is watching — and not do everything I can to make sure that going forth that we are a part of the narrative.”