American rapper Kanye West praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and denied the Holocaust in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his Info Wars show on Thursday night.
“I like Hitler. ... I’m not trying to be shocking, I like Hitler. The Holocaust is not what happened, let’s look at the facts of that and Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities,” West said while wearing a full black face mask.
Kanye 'Ye' West: “I like Hitler. ... I’m not trying to be shocking, I like Hitler. The Holocaust is not what happened, let’s look at the facts of that and Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities.” pic.twitter.com/UwCu2ZJfid
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 1, 2022
West added that Hitler did not kill 6 million Jews. "He had a really cool outfit and he was a really good architect ... and he didn't kill 6 million Jews."
Kanye "Ye" West on Hitler: "He had a really cool outfit and he was a really good architect ... and he didn't kill 6 million Jews." pic.twitter.com/BP2xrAQURG
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 1, 2022
Jones, who rejected the pro-Nazi statements by West, offered the presidential hopeful opportunities to explain how he had been misrepresented in the past, but West had turned the conversation in a dark direction.
West, who goes by the name Ye, explained how Hitler had positive qualities.
"Well, I see good things about him," he said. "I love everyone. The Jewish people are not going to tell me 'you can love us and or you can love what we're doing to your contracts, but this guy (Hitler) that invented highways and invented the very microphone that I use as a musician - you cannot say out loud that he ever did anything good.' I'm done with that. I'm done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they bring to the table, especially Hitler."
"Every human being has something of value that they bring to the table, especially Hitler."
Kanye West
"I don't like the word 'evil' next to Nazis," he added later in the show. "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis."
West then compared himself to Jews in the Holocaust, saying that "there are Jewish people basically hiding me under their floorboards right now. It's like a reverse version of the Holocaust."
The microphone and highways, which West said were good things that Hitler created were not invented by Hitler. Highways existed as early as 1906, and there is no consensus on who was the inventor of them, but it definitely wasn't Hitler. The invention of microphones has been attributed to inventors such as Alexander Graham Bel and Thomas Edison, and the patent is held by James West.
West and Jones were joined by white supremacist Nick Fuentes who is well known for his Holocaust denial. Donald Trump sparked much controversy earlier this week when he hosted West and Fuentes for dinner at his estate in Mar-a-Lago.
West claimed that Trump loved Fuentes when they had dinner together and asked West where he "found this kid."
West mocks Netanyahu and Jews
Later in the show, West pulled out a net on a stick and a bottle of Yoohoo and said that together, they made up Netanyahu, pretending that they were incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Posing the net as Netanyahu, West put on a high voice and had the stick say antisemitic stereotypes.
"I'm the head of the Mossad," he pretended that the Netanyahu stick was saying. "I'm going to kill you and take your children away from you. We control the history books and we control the banks, and we always kill people."
West attended the show in a full face mask that didn't have holes for the eyes or mouth.
Responses
Israel's Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog said that he is "sickened by the conversation that Alex Jones had with avowed antisemites Kanye West and Nick Fuentes.
"They engaged in hateful incitement, which could lead to violence and the death of Jews in horrifying incidents. Free speech does not extend to incitement of violence and demonization of the Jewish community, which faces the highest levels of religious-based violence in the United States."
The interview with Jones comes on the heels of a turbulent appearance on journalist Tim Pool’s podcast.
West stormed out of the Timcast studio after Pool pushed back against West and Fuentes on their claims that Jews controlled the corporate press.
The show only lasted 20 minutes. According to Pool, he had intended to speak about the news about their dinner with former president Donald Trump when West immediately veered into a discussion of antisemitism.
Pool said in a subsequent podcast on Wednesday that he believed the incident has been planned by West and his entourage of alt-right activists Milo Yiannopoulos and Fuentes.
West's antisemitic tirades
After tweeting that he would go "Death con 3" on Jews in October, West has seemingly escalated his antisemitic diatribe and made it a central part of his identity.
West has also claimed that a "Jewish doctor" tried to have him killed and has repeated tropes about Jews controlling the media, banks and more.
Adidas, Balenciaga and other firms have severed ties with the performer since his discriminatory rants.
West also brought Fuentes and Yiannopoulos to Mar-A-Lago for a meeting with Trump in late November where he proposed that Trump become West's running mate for a 2024 campaign. West has teased a run at the US presidency in 2024 after his 2020 presidential campaign fell flat.