Judd Apatow and many more called out Kanye West after he made a series of antisemitic remarks, including praising Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler, during an appearance on controversial right-wing personality and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars podcast on Thursday, December 1. On the show, the host told Kanye he was “not a Nazi,” but the rapper proceeded to praise the dictator. “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,'” he said.
Kanye on Alex Jones:
"Well, I see good things about Hitler also." pic.twitter.com/9zXjtCVqdQ
— Blaze Music (@blazemusicmedia) December 1, 2022
Wearing a black mask, which covered his entire face, Kanye continued to share antisemitic conspiracies about Jewish people and incorrectly credited Hitler for inventing highways and the microphone, and offered praise for him. “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” the rapper said.
Later in the interview, Kanye took his comments a step further and chimed in after the host said he doesn’t like Nazis. “I like Hitler,” he said in a video. At another point, Jones referred to Nazis as “thugs” and Kanye appeared to defend the hate group. “They did good things too. We got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time,” he said on the podcast. “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”
After the controversial statements, a number of celebrities spoke out against Kanye and antisemitism, denouncing his harmful rhetoric and his appearance on the podcast.
Judd Apatow
Kanye literally became an asshole. https://t.co/9i1BTb5DQD
— Judd Apatow 🇺🇦 (@JuddApatow) December 1, 2022
Comedy icon Judd Apatow retweeted a few posts denouncing Kanye and his antisemitism. He also quote-tweeted someone who had shared a screenshot of Kanye and Alex Jones, seemingly taken from the desk at the podcast. “Kanye literally became an a*****e,” he wrote.
Meghan McCain
Fuck Kanye and everyone who keeps giving him a platform.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 1, 2022
Conservative commentator and former View co-host Meghan McCain also called for people to stop giving the rapper a place to spew hateful rhetoric from. “F**k Kanye and everyone who keeps giving him a platform,” she tweeted.
Josh Gad
It’s not what Kanye West says that scares me. It’s that he has 30 million followers who listen to his insanity on top of a cheerleader in the form of the current owner of this platform. No one who says “I love Hitler” should be allowed any oxygen on any social platform (period).
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) December 1, 2022
Actor Josh Gad echoed the fears of the rapper being able to have a platform to spread his beliefs, making a small jab at Twitter owner Elon Musk for allowing him to have access to the social media site. “It’s not what Kanye West says that scares me. It’s that he has 30 million followers who listen to his insanity on top of a cheerleader in the form of the current owner of this platform. No one who says ‘I love Hitler’ should be allowed any oxygen on any social platform (period),” he wrote.
Alyssa Farah Griffin
On the one hand: I don’t want to hear/read/ see another thing about Kanye/ Jones/ Fuentes.
On the other hand: Ye has more twitter followers than there are Jews in the world. He must be called out, denounced, & we must speak up for the Jewish people he’s antagonizing.
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) December 1, 2022
The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said that while she wishes she could ignore Kanye and the other figures he’s been spending time with, she does think it’s necessary to speak out against antisemitism. “Ye has more twitter followers than there are Jews in the world. He must be called out, denounced, & we must speak up for the Jewish people he’s antagonizing,” she tweeted.
Alyssa called on people to speak out against antisemitism during a “Hot Topics” discussion on The View on Friday, December 2. “Kanye West has 32 million Twitter followers. There are only 14 million Jews in the world. To put a finer point on it, 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and there’s only 7 million Jews in the U.S. We have to denounce this. We have to speak out, because that kind of horror could happen again, if these morons have platforms,” she said.
Joy Behar
During The View, Joy Behar also took the time to share a message for Kanye to explain that Hitler didn’t only target Jewish people during the Holocaust. “Hitler also killed many Black people, mentally ill people, homosexuals, people who were physically disabled. He wanted to clear everybody out except Aryans,” she said. “I assume the Kushners aren’t having him over for Hannukah.”
Sunny Hostin
Sunny Hostin also accused the different figureheads whose podcasts the rapper has been appearing on of “exploiting his mental illness,” and called for limitations on what platforms he has access to. “Kanye’s clearly a sick person,” she said. “I believe in the First Amendment, and I believe you should be allowed to espouse your beliefs, but there has to be some sort of limitation in place.”
Ana Navarro
After Sunny spoke about the rapper’s mental illness on The View, Ana Navarro chimed in to say that bigotry is not excusable. “I cannot stand conflating his mental illness with his antisemitism and his bigotry,” she said. “He’s got a whole bunch of people around him all the time who should stop taking the eggs from the golden goose and do something about his mental illness.”
She continued and said that Kanye should get help, because he has access to resources. “There’s people who do excuse his antisemitism and his bigotry and the hateful things he says, including about his own race, because of his mental illness. Listen, you’ve got money. You’ve got people. You’re mentally ill; go get help, but I’m not excusing the horrible things you say,” she said.
Celebrities are not the only ones speaking out against Kanye’s unacceptable rhetoric. Roz Rothstein, CEO and co-founder StandWithUs and a daughter of Holocaust survivors, told HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE statement, “Kanye West has once again shown his true feelings in this unfathomable interview with a deranged person like Alex Jones. Kanye clearly doesn’t understand that Hitler targeted and killed black people while he planned and executed the murder of the Jews in Europe. We commend Elon Musk for taking a stand against hate by removing Kanye from the Twitter platform. There must be no room for such vile and dangerous expressions of bigotry.”