One day after Kanye West claimed, “I adore Hitler,” disputed that the Holocaust occurred, and displayed a swastika on Twitter, President Joe Biden strongly condemned antisemitism.
In the tweet, posted Friday afternoon, Biden stated, “I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened.
He went on: “Hitler was a devilish character. And our political leaders ought to expose and denounce antisemitism wherever it lurks, not give it a voice. Silence is complicity.”
I just want to make a few things clear:
The Holocaust happened.
Hitler was a demonic figure.
And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides.
Silence is complicity.
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 2, 2022
Due to his antisemitic comments, West has been in the news for more than a month. Adolf Hitler was lauded and the Nazis were said to have “done good things,” according to him, in an interview on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show on Thursday. (Hitler killed at least five million prisoners of war and about six million European Jews.)
In another section of the interview, West again praised Hitler while denying the existence of the Holocaust “I don’t mean to come off as startling, but I adore Hitler. Look at the facts; the Holocaust did not occur, and you will see that Hitler had many admirable traits.”
Even mainstream Republicans have come around to the rapper and fashion designer in recent weeks, some of whom have refused to condemn his most recent racist remarks, despite the fact that he made the remarks on an extreme, far-right program.
Just last week, West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes attended a private dinner hosted by former president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump recently announced his bid for the presidency in 2024.
The U.S. Justice Department has classified 24-year-old livestreamer Fuentes as a “white supremacist.” Fuentes garnered media attention in 2017 after participating in the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right protest. His YouTube channel was indefinitely suspended in February 2020 due to a violation of the organization’s hate speech policy. Since then, he has persisted in promoting antisemitic and Holocaust denialist ideas.
Following the dinner, which occurred last Tuesday, Trump made a number of statements, claiming to “know nothing” about Fuentes but refraining from denouncing the white nationalist or his views.
“Kanye West contacted me last week and we had dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Soon after, he abruptly arrived with three of his friends, who I had no prior knowledge of “Trump posted an initial statement on his Truth Social platform. “On Tuesday night, many members joined us for dinner on the back patio. Dinner went by quickly and without incident. Once at the airport, they departed.”
Trump then amended his remarks, but he continued to support Fuentes and West, stating that he was aiding the rapper after he had been “decimated in his company and practically everything else.” Trump branded the musician “a profoundly damaged man, who just happens to be black.”
The president said in a third statement that he “had no notion what [Fuentes’] ideas were, and they weren’t communicated at the table in our very fast dinner, or it wouldn’t have been approved.”
Trump has failed to respond to West’s anti-Semitic remarks with a response.
Prior to the rapper’s most recent comments, the White House condemned Trump for hosting both West and Fuentes. Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates issued the following statement: “Antisemitism, bigotry, and intolerance have no place in America, not even at Mar-a-Lago. Holocaust denial must be vehemently rejected because it is offensive and harmful.”
