Podcast: Harlem in the House – An interview with Charlie Rangel, Part I

There’s not much to say about Charles B. Rangel that hasn’t already been said. When Rangel first assumed his congressional seat in January 1971, Richard Nixon had not yet been stained by the Watergate investigation, the Beatles had only just broken up and Barack Obama was a nine-year old child in Honolulu.

Fast forward 46 years, and Rangel, 86, will retire from Congress at the end of the year – at the same time that the first black president of the United States will conclude his final term in office. 

Over those four-plus decades representing Harlem and parts of the Bronx, Rangel has seen eight presidential administrations, nine speakers of the House of Representatives, and seven mayors of New York City. He was also the driving force behind landmark legislative achievements, such as the Empowerment Zone Act and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

Rangel hosted Gerson Borrero and me in his district office in Harlem – surrounded by a veritable museum of Rangel memorabilia and photographs – to discuss his career and legacy for The Slant Podcast. In part one of the podcast, we couldn’t resist asking Rangel his thoughts on the presidential race and Donald Trump’s racially-tinged rhetoric, but we also touched on his career in the House and asked his thoughts on the increasingly polarized political atmosphere in Washington.

You can download, review and subscribe to this week's Slant Podcast on iTunes or stream the episode via Stitcher. Stay tuned for part two of our Rangel podcast next week.