The artist formerly known as Kanye West sat down for an interview with Piers Morgan and said he doesn’t regret his recent string of antisemitic remarks.
In previews from his chat with the British broadcaster, Ye was asked if he was “sorry” that he said he planned to go “DEFCON 3 on Jewish people.”
“No. Absolutely not,” he replied with a smile, to which Morgan suggested he should be. “That is as racist as anything you say you’ve been through, and any pain you’ve experienced, it’s the same thing,” said Morgan, to which Ye responded, “Yeah, obviously, that’s why I said it.” Morgan asked, “So you said it knowing it’s racist?”
“Yes,” said Ye. “I fought fire with fire. I’m not here to get hosed down, it’s a different type of freedom fighter.”
He then proceeded to apologize to “the people that I’ve hurt,” and the “confusion” he caused with his remarks. “Hurt people hurt people, and I was hurt,” Ye said.
In a second clip from the interview, he reiterated his desire to apologize to those he hurt. “I really want to give you guys a big hug,” he said. “I want to word it, in not like a political way but a presidential way. Which means what I knew a president to be when I was growing up.”
Elsewhere in the interview, West turned to ableist language to trash President Joe Biden, stipulating in the video below that he has “the right” to use any words he chooses.
“Biden doesn’t listen to Elon Musk. The President of the United States does not have meetings with Elon Musk. That is fucking—hey, here, come, come, come get me—that’s fucking r*****ed,” West said with a big smile. “I know I’m not supposed to say that Biden, but that’s fucking r******d, Biden. And, and, you know, it’s, um…and obviously because I’ve been deemed with mental health, all this, I have the right to use whatever words that I like to use.”
The clips come from the latest installment of Morgan’s show Piers Morgan Uncensored. In a since-removed tweet shared earlier this month, Ye said that he was “going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He’s since stopped posting on the platform, and has had his Instagram account restricted. In the weeks that have followed, he’s been showing up on a number of other platforms to address the situation.
He notably appeared on Drink Champs, where he continued to share antisemitic rhetoric and also falsely claimed George Floyd died from fentanyl. The episode has since been removed, and Drink Champs host N.O.R.E. has apologized for failing to strongly push back against Ye’s comments. Ye also stopped by for an interview with Chris Cuomo at NewsNation this week, where he suggested he doesn’t “believe” in the term antisemitic, and identified as Jew himself.
