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

George Floyd’s family is also considering a lawsuit against Kanye West after he spoke about how the 46-year-old man died over the weekend, according to their lawyer

Kanye West claims George Floyd’s killer didn’t really have knee on his neck

Kanye West has pologised for causing “hurt and confusion” with antisemitic comments he made last week.

Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Wednesday (19 October), the host asked the rapper whether he regretted threatening to go “DEFCON 3 on Jewish people”.

West initially doubled down on his comments, replying: “No, absolutely not.” Morgan then asked if he knew the comments were racist, to which West confirmed: “Yes, that’s why I said it... I fought fire with fire. I’m not here to get hosed down.”

Elsewhere, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter has sued Kanye West for $250m in the wake of his controversial comments about Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer.

And now Floyd’s family has issued a cease-and-desist letter to West for the comments he made on the Drink Champs podcast, which has now been taken down.

In the lawsuit filed by Roxie Washington, the mother of Gianna Floyd, lawyers said West made “false statements about George Floyd’s death to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates.”

Earlier, The Drink Champs interview was pulled from YouTube, Rolling Stone reports.

The YouTube show’s host, N.O.R.E., apologised for the contents of the interview that he said “hurt” people during a Monday morning radio show appearance. Hours later, the video had been made private on YouTube while the podcast version of the conversation was removed from both Spotify and Apple Music earlier in the day.

Late in the night on Monday, Tesla billionaire and potential Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared to tease a possible business collaboration with West after he tweeted out a meme - and then deleted -that hinted at a team-up with the rapper and Parler, the right-wing social network he is in the process of acquiring.

Key Points

• Kanye West apologises for ‘hurt’ he has caused
• Kanye West calls Piers Morgan a ‘Karen’ in interview about antisemitic comments
• Mother of George Floyd’s daughter sues Kanye West for $250m
• Kanye marched for George Floyd and paid daughter’s tuition – now he’s being sued by his family. What changed?
• Kanye’s ‘Drink Champs’ interview removed from YouTube, Revolt

[20 October 2022 07:54 · Graeme Massie]

Kanye West’s team hands out ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirts on Skid Row

ICYMI: Kanye West’s team seemingly handed out ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirts on Skid Row in Los Angeles, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

Stylist and Wets associate Ian Connor posted a video of the Sunday night event on Instagram.

“Courtesy of Kanye West” a voice can be heard saying in the short video, which is entitled “Load 1 - Skid Röw”

[20 October 2022 09:02 · Graeme Massie]

Kanye West asks Piers Morgan how much money he is worth

During their TalkTV interview, the rapper asked the TV host how much money he was worth.

When Morgan replied, “not as much as you” the billionaire entertainer dismissively replied, “why would I Iisten to you?”

(TalkTV)

[20 October 2022 10:03 · Graeme Massie]

White House condemns Trump comments on American Jews as ‘antisemitic’ and ‘insulting’

ICYMI: The White House has slammed former president Donald Trump’s claim that American Jews should be more like evangelical Christians and appreciate him more because of his policies towards Israel.

The ex-president made the widely condemned comments on his Truth Social website over the weekend, writing: “No President has done more for Israel than I have” and claiming it was “somewhat [surprising] that “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the US”.

Asked about the twice-impeached former president’s remarks, White House Press Secretary told reporters the comments were “antisemitic” and “insulting both to jews and to our Israeli allies”.

Andrew Feinberg has the full story here.

[20 October 2022 11:38 · Johanna Chisholm]

Kanye West live blog closed

This ends the live blog of The Independent’s coverage on Kanye West.