U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday urged the country’s political class to «denounce and reject anti-Semitism» in response to comments made by rapper Kanye West, who said the day before that he loved Hitler.
«I just want to make a few things clear: the Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving him a platform, our political leaders should denounce and reject anti-Semitism wherever it hides,» he said on his official Twitter profile, adding that «silence is complicity».
These statements come after the rapper’s account on the aforementioned social network was suspended after posting an image of a swastika to reiterate what he said Thursday during an interview on the Infowars program, hosted by U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
«Of this guy (Hitler) who invented highways and invented the very microphone I use as a musician you can’t say out loud that he ever did anything good and I’m sick of it. I’m tired of the classifications,» he said.
West, also known as Ye, asserted that «every human being has something of value,» «especially Hitler.» «He didn’t kill six million Jews. That’s factually incorrect,» he remarked elsewhere in the interview with Jones.
He also said there were «many things» he liked about Hitler and added phrases such as «I don’t like the word ‘evil’ next to Nazis» and «I love Jews, but I also love Nazis».
The singer’s comments have prompted major brands long associated with him with his music, fashion line and business to decide to cut ties, a move Ye says has cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
