A day after rap mogul and aspiring politician Ye went on a disturbing tirade proclaiming he “loves” Nazis, admires Adolph Hitler and believes the Holocaust was a hoax, President Joe Biden condemned such hateful speech and those who give it a platform.
“The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure,” Biden tweeted Friday morning, adding that “our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides” ― a jab at Republicans who’ve allowed the rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, to become a messenger for right-wing causes.
Ye, who has declared plans to run for president in 2024, made the horrifying comments during a Thursday appearance on the alt-right outlet Infowars. The host, prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, attempted to tamp down Ye’s history of antisemitism.
“You’re not Hitler, you’re not a Nazi, you don’t deserve to be called that and demonized,” Jones told Ye.
But the rapper and fashion designer proudly responded: “Well, I see good things about Hitler.”
It wasn’t a one-off remark. Throughout the interview, Ye also declared about Hitler: “I love him,” and “He seems like a cool guy. He had a really cool outfit and stuff, and he was a really good architect.”
When Jones told Ye it sounded like he admired Hitler’s “look” and not his dark role in history, the rapper corrected him again. “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler. A lot of things,” Ye said.
In another moment, Ye falsely posited that Hitler “didn’t kill 6 million Jews. That’s, like, factually incorrect.”
In the middle of these remarks, the Twitter account for the House Judiciary GOP deleted its tweet from October that read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” ― which seemed to frame the rapper, new Twitter owner Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump as pillars of the Republican Party.
Trump dined with Ye and white supremacist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago last month. While some Republicans criticized the ex-president for the dinner, many remained silent.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, one of the most influential right-wing figures in media, also promoted Ye and tried to give him cover by editing out antisemitic comments the rapper made on his show in October, Vice found.
“Silence is complicity,” Biden concluded in his tweet on Friday.
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