Photo Credit: Marc Piasecki/GC Images
Kanye West Goes Back and Forth With Chris Cuomo Over Anti-Semitic Comments
During a 20-minute segment, Ye appeared on NewsNation to talk with Chris Cuomo about his recent antisemitic comments and more.
On Monday night (October 18), Kanye West appeared on NewsNation for an interview with anchor Chris Cuomo. In the 20-minute segment, West responded to Cuomo's questions remotely from a vehicle. During the conversation, Ye spoke about his plans to purchase "free speech" social media platform Parler, his controversial 'White Lives Matter' t-shirt and allegations of being anti-Semitic.
“I don’t like the term antisemitic,” he said. “It’s been a term that’s allowed people, specifically in my industry, to get away with murder — sometimes literallyn— and get away with robbing and doing bad [to] people. … You’re saying it’s antisemitic, but I don’t believe in that term. One thing is, Black people are also Jew. I classify as Jew also, so I actually can’t be a antisemite. So the term is actually, uh, it’s not factual.”
\u201c.@ChrisCuomo questions Ye if it's possible that antisemitic comments he's made violated social media apps' community guidelines. "I don't believe in that term\u2026 I classify as Jew also, so I actually can't be an antisemite," Ye says.\n\nWatch #CUOMO: https://t.co/s8z9kDZInW\u201d— NewsNation (@NewsNation) 1666053956
\u201c.@ChrisCuomo counters Ye's antisemitc comments: "I know you are intelligent and understand that when you target people because of their faith, other people may do so the same\u2026 We don't want to tolerate that.\n\n#CUOMO\u201d— NewsNation (@NewsNation) 1666053956
When Cuomo attempted to interject, Ye cut him off and continued, “Everyone wants to shoot the messenger. … ‘You have to understand’—but the thing is, the Jewish people that I’m talking about don’t have to understand. And that is that privilege that I’m not going to allow.”
Kanye West then claimed that he's been targeted by the "Jewish underground media mafia" after wearing the 'White Lives Matter' t-shirt.
"They canceled my four SoFi Stadium shows, they had the press—the same people, the…outlets that when I was arguing with Pete Davidson and Trevor Noah, they called me an abuser for arguing with people about my ex-wife and my family, and when I get to see my kids and when I don’t," he said. "And they just immediately disrespect me, they keep the ‘crazy’ narrative going, they never call me a billionaire. We never talked about, even on this one right here, hey: tycoon, billionaire, visionary, inventor. These are never used.”
Cuomo then shot back that “there is no Jewish media cabal mafia.”
Ye's allegations about Jewish people have been circulated during the past two weeks, leading to the multi-hyphenate artist being pulled from an unaired episode of The Shop and his Twitter and Instagram accounts being temporarily deactivated. He last appeared on REVOLT talk show Drink Champs on Saturday (October 15) for a three-hour conversation, which has also been pulled offline. Earlier this month, Ye was a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight where, in leaked footage, he theorized that Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, formed the non-profit organization with the KKK to "control the Jew population."
