American rapper and presidential hopeful Kanye West stormed out of an interview on journalist and YouTuber Tim Pool's podcast on Tuesday after West was challenged by Pool about his claims that Jewish people control the media.
West, who goes by the name Ye, appeared on Pool's Timcast with his political advisers far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos and white nationalist Nick Fuentes. West quickly broached the topic of antisemitism and ended the discussion after just over 20 minutes when it was disputed whether Jews control the press.
"They [the corporate press] have been extremely unfair to you," Pool said to West.
"Who is 'they' though?" asked West. "We can't say who 'they' is can we?"
"I don't use the word as I guess you use it," Pool responded.
Fuentes interjected, asserting "It is them though, isn't it?"
When Pool disagreed, West stormed out of the studio. Pool lamented West's insistence on discussing antisemitism before the news, such as his meeting with former president Donald Trump and the "Ye24" political platform, as the journalist had intended.
"We can see that Rahm Emanuel was right next to [former president Barack] Obama and then Jared Kushner was right next to [Donald] Trump."
Kanye West
Kanye West implies Jewish political influence on Trump and Obama
"I just gotta go right to the heart of this antisemitism claim that is happening, this is something if you read the definition it says you can't claim that there's multiple people inside of banks or media that are all Jewish or you're antisemitic, and that's the truth," West had said. "I've been labeled antisemite. There's different beliefs about our bloodlines, like the documentary that Kyrie [Irving] posted, and in general, America has been left ignorant and history has been changed.
"So when we start questioning things, that question the indoctrination, then you immediately get...demonized, demonetized. And what's so beautiful about this time is everyone got to see what's really been happening, and now we can really understand. We can see that Rahm Emanuel was right next to [former president Barack] Obama and then Jared Kushner was right next to Trump."Emanuel had served as Obama's chief of staff; Kushner as a senior advisor to his father-in-law. Both men are Jewish.
West, who was emotional at times — even on the verge of tears —discussed his financial difficulties due to cut business ties and financial de-platforming since his initial comments regarding Jews and other political issues. He asserted that Zionism had been involved in his strained relations with the fashion industry, which were provoked also by a CIA agent planted within the industry.
"This morning I found out that there were trying to put me in prison," said West, who explained how he had been informed of freezes on his account over owed taxes, and his attempts to start his own bank.
West's statements were at times difficult to follow and disjointed but made multiple mentions of lawyers, managers and contractors who interfered with his use of his finances.
"When I would work on homeless shelters and idea, I'd have a contractor — we won't say what race — they'd be tearing down the contracts. It's all about position, it's not about the amount of money that you have," said West. "Coming here, I feel like it's a setup to be like defending, I'm going to walk the F off the show if I'm sitting up here having to talk about 'you can't say it was Jewish people that did it' when every sensible person knows that."
West also blasted his personal trainer, Harley Pasternak, for allegedly misdiagnosing and him and prescribing him medication that would have greatly inhibited his cognitive abilities. West had previously shared a private text message on social media sent to him allegedly from Pasternak, who is Jewish, threatening to heavily medicate him over his outbursts.
"I'm going to walk the F [sic] off the show if I'm sitting up here having to talk about 'you can't say it was Jewish people that did it' when every sensible person knows that."
Kanye West
West's dinner with Trump
Pool said that he had received messages telling him not to host West and his entourage because they're antisemitic, white supremacist and racist, but he wanted to understand what they were thinking and why, and so as to cover what he described as the biggest news stories of the past week.
West had taken Yiannopoulos and Fuentes with him to dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last Tuesday night.
"I went to the trenches for Trump."
Kanye West
In a video he published on Twitter, West said that Trump was impressed with Fuentes, but on Pool's podcast confirmed Trump's position that he had not previously been aware of the controversial figure.
Yiannopoulos, who had been put in touch with West through conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's staff, suggested he speak to Fuentes.
"I was impressed with Nick," said West, who explained that Trump had invited only the rapper, and the others had joined him without warning to the president.
Fuentes, whose meeting with Trump has sparked condemnation of both presidential candidates, has expressed views in line with white supremacism and Holocaust denial.
At the dinner, West had asked Trump to be his vice president, which angered the host, who told him that he would lose. West told Pool that Trump had told lies about him.
"I went to the trenches for Trump," said West, who went on to explain to Pool that he was the best candidate for president because he had lost money over freedom of speech, and "that's what makes me the only American we know who can run the country," because other candidates were going to "blame the game."
The rapper has been in the spotlight since a mid-October tweet in which he threatened he would go "death con 3 [sic] on Jewish people." He continued to elaborate on his views in subsequent social media posts and podcasts, casting Jewish people as a whole to blame for various misfortunes and malicious actions against him.
West and Fuentes's "mass generalizations"
After he departed from the studio, Pool and his guests criticized West's generalization of a group based on the actions of a few members, as well as the rapper's unwillingness to calmly discuss his views.
"These are mass generalizations that don't really help anyone in my perspective, they just kind of sound like their opposition, they sound [like] what they're going against, the woke mob that's always saying 'white men, white men are responsible for everything'," said long-time Timcast guest Luke Rudkowski. "When I see people use generalizations it kind of cheapens the conversation, it cheapens a dialogue that we could have here."