Kanye West: Ye clashes with Piers Morgan in new interview, admits antisemitic comments caused ‘hurt’

Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer, who is married to conservative commentator Candace Owens - an outspoken supporter of embattled Kanye West - welcomed the rapper’s acquisition of the right-wing social media app.

“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” said Mr Farmer in a statement on the artist, now known as Ye, making an agreement to purchase the social media platform.

“Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again. Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honored to help him achieve his goals.”

Mr Farmer has been married to Ms Owens since August 2019, when the pair of conservative figures married at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Ms Owens, who was photographed alongside Ye earlier this month as the pair stepped out in the controversy-stirring “White Lives Matter” t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week, has continued to bat for the rapper, who continues to make headlines with a recent string of antisemitic remarks aired both online and in interviews.

Kanye West acknowledged that his antisemitics posts online did not mean that he intended “harm” for Jewish people, but he remained steadfast in defending his remarks, telling Page Six that he was “happy to have crossed that line”.

West’s response to the ongoing fallout that was trigged by his recent comments shared on social media earlier this month came while he was leaving the premiere of Candace Owens’s documentary in Nashville on last week.

In the video footage captured by Page Six, the 45-year-old rapper can be seen leaving the Woolworth Theater when one of the photographers can be heard asking him if he wished “harm on Jewish people?”

West immediately responded by saying, “no, no way,” and then went on to couch that response by claiming how “in Hollywood” if you call someone out for “bad business” that’s, in his view, often characterised as being “antisemitic”.

“Hey, if you call somebody out for bad business, that means you’re being anti-Semitic. I feel happy to have crossed the line of that idea so we can speak openly about things,”he said to Page Six.

Catch up with the full report from The Independent here.

Kanye West made a string of antisemitic comments that were edited out of his interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News earlier this month, according to a report.

The rapper, who is currently banned from Twitter and Instagram for a string of separate antisemitic posts, also made bizarre statements that “fake children” had been put in his home to manipulate his own children. The controversial fashion mogul also talked about having visions of “kinetic energy” that he is sent by God.

The footage never made the two-part interview between West and the right-wing TV host, but was obtained by Vice’s Motherboard.

In the interview, West told Carlson that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, whom he described as a “known eugenics,” created the organisation with the KKK “to control the Jew population.”

Graeme Massie has more about the edited out clips from the Fox News interview here.

In the hours after it was announced that Kanye West had made an agreement to acquire Candace Owens’ husband’s alt-right social media platform, Parler, online commentators began to ask if the rapper, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, was being taken advantage of in the midst of a possible breakdown.

“It’s beyond sad to see them use Kanye’s mental break/illness to manipulate and use him. Kanye needs immediate help/counseling,” tweeted one user, while others pointed how it seemed unfair to make such a large deal when someone was potentially unstable.

“He is not mentally stable. I feel like he’s gonna back out of this. He really needs help. It’s painful to see he hasn’t been of his own mind in a long long time,” tweeted one user after the news broke.

Others expressed complete incredulity at the news, with Lincoln Project co-founder, Rick Wilson, simply writing, “Seriously, what timeline do we live in?” while others were seemingly unsurprised by the news.

“Kanye West buying Parler was pretty much the only logical answer to the question, ‘What stupid thing could he possibly do next?’” tweeted Christian Christensen, a Professor of Journalism at Stockholm University.

Kanye West’s acquisition of Parler, which has struggled amid competition from other conservative-friendly platforms like Truth Social, could breathe new life into the platform.

Though no price was revealed in the announcement of the purchase, Parlement Technologies, which owns the platform, said that West, legally known as Ye, would complete the takeover in the fourth quarter.

Parlement Technologies said the agreement includes the use of private cloud services via Parlement’s private cloud and data centre infrastructure.

Parler, which launched in August 2018, didn’t start picking up steam until 2020. But it was kicked offline following the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. A month after the attack, Parler announced a relaunch and last month, it returned to Google Play.

Parler CEO George Farmer appeared on Fox Business News to celebrate Kanye West’s acquisition of his social media platform, while defending the rapper by saying that he’s “fallen victim to the cancellation narrative”.

“I wonder what you think about what Kanye West was tweeting about last week, of course it unnerved many people when he started talking about the Jewish community,” said host Maria Bartiromo, conceding that “some say it was antisemitic”, before asking what his thoughts were on the remarks.

The Parler chief executive began by acknowledging how West had said during a podcast taping over the weekend that he had said those remarks were a mistake, but during the same taping he also went on to attack the “Jewish media” who he claimed he had been “blocked” by.

“He’s obviously wanting to have a conversation that plenty of people want to have and I think that he is trying to engage in the free speech environment,” he said, noting that he wasn’t in a place to comment about West’s personal opinions. “But I would like to say that he’s in a place where he’s fallen victim to the cancellation narrative.”

“In all worlds, the only cure for wrong ideas is more ideas, is more speech not less speech ... so censorship in any format is never a good thing,” he added.

Watch the full clip below here:

Stephen Jackson has slammed Kanye West for his comments about George Floyd.

The former NBA player posted a video on Instagram on Sunday, calling West’s remarks “clout chasing”.

In a short clip, Jackson indirectly criticised West, among others, for taking advantage of Floyd’s death by “dissing” him.

“It’s all noted,” he captioned the clip. “To say u a Legend in music @kanyewest it’s sad that u still gotta talk about other people lives to be relevant is wack. Its really sad u doing all this over some ‘P***y.’”

Parlement Technologies, the parent company of the right-wing social media app Parler, announced on Twitter that the company’s acquisition by Kanye West will ensure its “future role” as a pioneering uncancellable free speech platform.

“Parlement Technologies is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement in principle for Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to acquire the Parler platform. The acquisition ensures Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome,” the company wrote in a tweet shared early on Monday morning.

Co-host of the YouTube show Drink Champs and rapper N.O.R.E. insisted during a morning radio talk show interview that he conducted a “great interview” with embattled Kanye West over the weekend, but continued to issue an apology for his guest’s comments about George Floyd’s death.

“I support freedom of speech, I support anybody not being censored, but I do not support anybody being hurt. I did not realize that the George Floyd statements on my show were so hurtful. And you gotta realize, it was the first five minutes of the show, when he walked in, he told my producer, if they stop filming, he’ll walk out,” said the co-founder of the Drink Champs YouTube series, which aired an episode with the rapper on Saturday where he sparked fresh controversy by claiming that the 46-year-old Black man died from fentanyl and that a police officer’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

“But I apologize to the George Floyd family, I apologize to anybody that was hurt by Kanye West’s comments,” N.O.R.E. added during his Monday morning call-in to The Breakfast Club.

Hosts of morning program, which includes DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne tha God, pushed back against the rapper’s characterisation of the interview, arguing that it wasn’t an issue of free speech if West was blatantly spreading “misinformation” and “lies” about Floyd’s death.

In response, the YouTube host said that, outside of the Floyd comments, “I thought I conducted a very great interview.”

The hosts then specifically zeroed in on West’s antisemitic comments, which he made more of during the Saturday night interview. N.O.R.E., in response, had this to say: “[There were] four Jewish people in the room” and “[I] looked at them to tell them, like, ‘Yo, tell me whenever he’s going across the line.’ And they’re looking, and they’re saying, ok, we understand where he’s coming from.”

“But none of it, I don’t support none of it. The George Floyd comments, I don’t support the antisemitic. That’s all I have is Jewish friends, that’s all I have is Black friends. That’s it,” he insisted.

Watch the full clip here below.

Kanye West is buying Parler, the right-wing social media app that’s been banned by Apple and Google multiple times and was used to coordinate the January 6th riots.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” said West.

“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech. Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again. Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honored to help him achieve his goals”, said George Farmer, the chief executive of Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies.

Parler has not disclosed how much West will purchase the platform for or whether any policy changes are expected.

Adam Smith has the full report with The Independent here.