West wasn’t stumped by Kimmel’s question about Trump
EVERYONE, Kanye West is trying this new thing: It’s called thinking before you speak.
The rapper, who is as wellknown for his occasional social media rants and always-quotable interviews as he is his musical genius, sought to clear something up on Twitter on Saturday.
A few days before, West had appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to apparently bury the hatchet in a years-long feud that most people probably forgot about.
During their on-air, hug-it-out session, Kimmel and West talked about everything from Yeezys and art school, to his wife, Kim Kardashian, being alone in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, to West’s own politics. Of course, that’s when things got tricky. Although he claims to not have voted in the last presidential election, West has professed his support of his fellow “dragon energy” wielder Donald Trump and has the MAGA hat to prove it. But just a week earlier, during her own appearance on Kimmel’s show, Kardashian said the rapper isn’t “political” and doesn’t “dig deep” into policy.
Kimmel tested that theory Thursday when he asked West - who said that critics of Trump should “try love,” and end divisiveness “by thinking of everyone as our family” - about the president’s actual policies.
“That’s a beautiful thought,” said Kimmel, before pointing out that families were being separated at the US-Mexico border as a result of Trump’s immigration policies. “Whether we like his personality or not,” Kimmel continued, “his actions are really what matter.”
Then the late-night host dug even deeper: “You so famously and so powerfully said ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?”
West took a long pause. Kimmel threw to commercial break, and the rapper never ended up answering the question. The moment led most to believe that West was unable to confront his own contradictions. The next day, Trump even thanked the rapper via Twitter for supporting him.
But West told a different story Saturday. His silence wasn’t because he was stumped or didn’t like the question: West was thinking and then got hit with the TV equivalent of a shot clock. He tweeted:
“On Jimmy Kimmel we had a great time having a dialogue. I’m reading that I was stumped by a question. Let me clarify the click bait. I wasn’t stumped. I wasn’t given a chance to answer the question.
“The question was so important I took time to think. And then I was hit with the let’s go to commercial break. That interview showed strong personalities with different opinions having a civil conversation.
“I was so happy when I saw Jimmy walk out in the Yeezys. That was an olive branch. He lead with love. I appreciate Jimmy and his team. You guys are Jedi’s. much love.”
But instead of answering the “important” question he wasn’t given the opportunity to address on live air, West’s final tweet on the subject (for now) simply thanked the late-night show’s team, and shouted out his own shoe line. So the world still has to wait a little bit longer for more clarity on that clickbait.