The interview with Carlson did air Ye’s defense of a T-shirt he wore at Paris fashion week that had the Left already hopping mad at him, given that the shirt read “White Lives Matter.” So perhaps it’s not surprising that on the Left, high-profile Democrats lambasted the artist over his remarks about the Jewish people. But the criticism coming from the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) were rather rich, considering her association with Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who have both made anti-Jewish statements.
Meanwhile, on the Right, you saw the same penchant for circling the wagons when one of their own is on is being called out.
In their response to the episode, few conservative influencers have issued full-throated condemnation. Instead, they have ranged from being silent on the matter to issuing milquetoast condemnations to outright defending West’s comments. The response that garnered the most attention came from the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, who claimed his statements were not bigoted.
“If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic,” she insisted. “You did not think that he wrote this tweet because he hates or wants to genocide Jewish people. This is not the beginning of a Holocaust.”
“If you were an honest person, when you read this tweet, you had no idea what the hell he was talking about. I had no idea, when I read this tweet, what the hell he was talking about,” she added. “This tweet inspired questions, not answers.”
Owens went on to speculate that West meant to write “Deafcon 3” in his tweet, which is an alert ranking used by the military that she claims “would be a military defense position—not an offense position for those of you who are offended.”
“It’s like you cannot even say the word ‘Jewish’ without people getting upset,” Owens complained.
As conservative podcaster Ian Haworth aptly noted, “the issue is not ‘Kanye West said anti-Semitic stuff,’” he wrote. “The issue is “conservatives are embracing Kanye West after saying anti-Semitic stuff.”
From where I sit, Owens’ defense of West’s tweets doesn’t hold water. The notion that we “don’t know what the hell” he was talking about is absurd on his face. The rapper was quite clear in his tweet and the text messages with Diddy: He believes Jews control Diddy and the entertainment industry more broadly and that they are behind cancel culture—a tweet he wrote that is still up.
I do not believe West was attempting to incite anti-Jewish violence, as some have suggested. But his words were clearly bigoted. And I highly doubt Owens, or anyone else on the right, would be as charitable if someone like Lizzo or another celebrity who does not align with conservatives had made them.
But beyond Kanye and his drama, much of it no doubt related to his bipolar disorder, this story is the latest to illustrate the sad reality that too many view these situations purely through a political lens. We will defend foul behavior from those on our team that we would be quick to excoriate from someone on the opposite side.
Since politics has become so vitriolic, this tendency to defend our teams no matter what is probably here to stay.
Jeff Charles is the host of “A Fresh Perspective” podcast and a contributor for RedState and Liberty Nation.
The views in this article are the writer’s own.
