Kanye West says he wants to bring Trump and Colin Kaepernick together
FOLLOWING a much- discussed appearance on this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live,” Kanye West sat down with TMZ’s Harvey Levin on Monday and discussed a wide range of topics: the 13th Amendment; the reaction to his “Make America Great Again” hat on SNL; and the fact that his next album will be delayed until November. Then, Levin brought up West’s plans to move back to Chicago, his hometown.
“What you are doing in Chicago is undeniably great and inspiring. . . . A lot of the African- American community there is in trouble, and you are there to help,” Levin said, before making his segue: “So I’m all for free speech. But when you wear that hat, which is a symbol of Donald Trump, I don’t understand why that isn’t a mixed message? Because Donald Trump has not been a friend of the black community.”
West, wearing his red MAGA hat, listened as Levin ticked off Trump’s actions, such as criticising the intelligence of Rep. Maxine Waters, D- Calif., CNN anchor Don Lemon, basketball star LeBron James and former president Barack Obama. “I get the free-speech issue, but doesn’t that work against what you are trying to do?” Levin asked.
West (above) responded that in the hip-hop culture, artists can take “anything that someone considers to be negative and make it positive.” Levin wasn’t convinced.
“How do you make Donald Trump’s statements positive when he talks about embracing white nationalists, embracing people like David Duke, coming down on Colin Kaepernick, saying these ‘sons of bitches’ should be fired?” Levin asked. “I don’t see he’s done anything good for the black community, and frankly nothing but harm. I don’t under s t a nd how it’s not a mixed message?”
At this point, the interview started to echo another recent TV appearance by West. In August, he sat down with ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who asked about West’s forceful statement after Hurricane Katrina (“George Bush doesn’t care about black people”) and compared it with West’s support of Trump. West paused, Kimmel cut to a break, and they never returned to the question. West got lots of criticism for his lack of response; but the rapper shot back on Twitter that he was never “stumped,” he just wasn’t given time to answer.
This time, West took another long pause, but the camera didn’t cut away. “Do you feel people can grow?” he asked Levin. “Yes,” Levin said. “For someone to grow, they need to know that they got love, that someone loves and someone is leading with love or a group of people are leading with love,” West said.