Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, came under fire on Thursday after doubling down on antisemitic comments that also saw the musician give praise to Adolf Hitler while appearing on the Infowars program with host Alex Jones.
The musician appeared on the program sporting a fully hooded mask and carrying a bottle of Yoohoo and a insect net. Alongside him was Nick Fuentes, an outspoken white supremacist who recently made headline news after dining with former President Donald Trump.
“You’re not a Nazi, you don’t deserve to be called that and demonized,” Jones told Ye.
“Well, I see good things about Hitler also, I love everyone and Jewish people are not going to tell me, ‘You can love us, and you can love what we’re doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we’re pushing with the pornography', but this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone that I used as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person never did anything good and I’m done with that. I’m done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” responded West.
Just as the show headed to commercial break, Ye told Jones that he "likes" Hitler. The comment came in response to Jones' remark that he has a "Hitler fetish."
Jones has dealt with his own critical media coverage this year when he was sued by the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims for defamation after he encourage conspiracy theories insinuating that the 2012 shooting was a hoax. Jones has been ordered to pay $49 million after the judge in the case opted not to apply the $750,000 state cap because what Jones had done was “horrible.”
As Jones appeared to push back against Ye's statements that there were "a lot of things" he "loved" about the Hitler, the appearance also saw the artist at one point attempting to do prop comedy with a Yoohoo bottle and an insect net he referred to as Netanyahu, in reference to Israeli figure Benjamin Netanyahu.
Shortly after the interview streamed, social media were quick to react to the chaotic interview, some even pointing out their own shock to seeing Jones appearing uncomfortable during the segment.
One Twitter user wrote: “Honestly I’m not sure what to do here. I cannot tell you how unbelievably antisemitic this Kanye West Infowars interview is.”
Some users on the social media site chose to make light of the dark interview, with one user joking: “He’s about to change his name to Yedolf” in reference to West’s celebrity name “Ye”.
“People are gonna joke about Kanye. People are gonna blame his mental health,” warned Twitter user @JoshuaPHilll, referencing West’s struggles with bipolar disorder. “But the truth is that he’s normalizing Nazism for a whole lot of people. I know that word is overused but folks will be googling Hitler tonight. It’s so incredibly dangerous.”
The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned Thursday’s interview, calling the three men “a disgusting triumvirate of conspiracy theorists, Holocaust deniers, and anti-Semites.”
"Given his praise of Hitler, it can't be overstated that Kanye West is a vile, repellent bigot who has targeted the Jewish community with threats and Nazi-style defamation," a statement from the coalition said. "Conservatives who have mistakenly indulged Kanye West must make it clear that he is a pariah. Enough is enough."
In the wake of the interview, the Republican House Judiciary Committee also appeared to remove a viral tweet it issued in October that read:"Kanye. Elon. Trump."
No stranger to controversy, Ye more recently began making headlines in mid-October after multiple companies moved to split ties with him following earlier antisemitic remarks. Alternative social media platform Parler also reiterated Thursday that a deal for Ye to purchase the site had been terminated in mid-November.