House Judiciary Republicans delete ‘Kanye. Elon. Trump.’ tweet as rapper praises Hitler
Kanye #Kanye
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee deleted their Oct. 6 tweet that appeared to support Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, after months of controversy over his antisemitic remarks.
“Kanye. Elon. Trump,” read the tweet, which held up Ye alongside Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, who has been bringing back right-wing figures who were once banned, and former President Donald Trump.
The tweet was deleted Thursday as Ye was launching a lengthy antisemitic tirade on the show hosted on Infowars by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who is known for promoting falsehoods around events like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
“I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis,” Ye said on the show Thursday. He also repeatedly expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the deleted tweet. The GOP, currently in the minority, won control of the House in November’s midterm elections.
A now-deleted Tweet from the House Judiciary GOP.@JudiciaryGOP via Twitter
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called the interview “disgusting” and “unbelievable” Thursday. He told NBC News that it was incumbent upon not just Republicans but “the entire nation” to condemn Ye’s remarks.
“He must have a mental issue. No one can believe what he said,” McCarthy added.
Ye began to grab increased attention among some conservatives in early October when he staged a show at Paris Fashion Week that included a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt.
The day after the tweet by the House Judiciary Committee Republicans, Ye posted a since-deleted post on Instagram saying he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people.
The tweet stayed up then, and since, when Ye doubled down on his antisemitic remarks in other interviews. In that time, Ye also lost lucrative deals with companies like Gap and Adidas.
On Nov. 22, Trump agreed to have dinner with Ye at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. What was supposed to be a quiet dinner between the two men exploded into a public relations nightmare for Trump, who recently announced his 2024 run for president, when Ye brought along white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Trump has said he didn’t know Fuentes or his views when he met with him, but he hasn’t apologized for meeting with him or Ye.
In a statement Thursday, the leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition called Ye’s Infowars appearance “a horrific cesspool of dangerous, bigoted Jew hatred.”
“Conservatives who have mistakenly indulged Kanye West must make it clear that he is a pariah,” the organization’s national chairman, former Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement. “Enough is enough.”
CORRECTION (Dec. 1, 2022, 9 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the name of the show Ye appeared on. It is “The Alex Jones Show,” not “InfoWars.”
Sahil Kapur contributed.