Controversial designer and rapper Kanye West didn’t realize that Hillary and Bill Clinton were a “cell-phone away” from his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner.
In a bombshell interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday night, the Yeezy CEO said that he didn’t know that his ex-wife was close enough to the Clintons to “tell Kanye to say this,’ or close enough to use our platforms to push vaccinations.”
He recalled that a friend told him that Kardashian and Jenner called to “get him to influence people to take the vaccination,” because the unnamed friend had “had influence inside the black community.”
“And I don’t have opinion on that I just wanted to state that as a statement. It was wild that I didn’t know how close my own wife was to the Clintons — I didn’t know, I didn’t realize it at the time,” West detailed.
The “Flashing Lights” rapper said it felt like liberal politicians “attempted” to manipulate him through Kardashian while they were married for six years. “Me not saying I liked Trump was a form of manipulation,” he pointed out.
West said he wore his infamous red MAGA hat because he “liked” Trump and felt the “need to express” himself, while the former president was running for office.
“And every single person in Hollywood, from my ex-wife to my mother-in-law, to my manager at that time, to my so-called friends/handlers around me, told me if I said that I like Trump, that my career would be over, my life would be over,” he shared.
“They said stuff like, ‘People get killed for wearing a hat like that.’ They threatened my life … they basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat,” West continued.
The “Gold Digger” artist said that his controversial fashion statement to wear an “All Lives Matter” t-shirt at Yeezy’s ninth outing at Paris Fashion Week has already resulted in death threats.
“I had someone call me last night and said, ‘Anybody wearing a White Lives Matter shirt is gonna be greenlit, and that means they’re gonna beat them up if they wear it,” he remarked. “And I’m like, ‘OK, greenlight me then.'”
Kanye told Carlson that he decided to rock the shirt based on a “feeling” he had. “I just channel the energy. It just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, connection with God and just brilliance,” he detailed.
Longtime friend Sean “Diddy” Combs said that West’s fashion choice is “not a joke” to him. “I’ve always been there, and I will always support my brother Kanye as a freethinker. But the ‘white lives matter’ t-shirt, I don’t rock with it, you know what I’m saying? I’m not with it,” he said on Instagram.
“Right now, all America has planned for us is poverty, incarceration, and death,” the Sean Jean designer continued. “So before I can get to any other lives matter – which all lives matter – but that Black Lives Matter, don’t play with it. Don’t wear the shirt. Don’t buy the shirt. Don’t play with the shirt. It’s not a joke.”
West told Carlson that his former activist father was amused by the shirt. “My dad is an educated ex-Black Panther and he put a text to me today, he said ‘White lives matter, hahahaha,” he relayed. “And I said ‘Dad, why do you think it was funny?’ And he said, ‘Just a Black man stating the obvious.'”
Longtime Yeezy partner Adidas reevaluating their affiliation with the brand after West’s latest stunt.
“The adidas Yeezy partnership is one of the most successful collaborations in our industry’s history,” the company said in a statement on Oct. 6. “We are proud of our team that has worked tirelessly throughout our collaboration with Ye and the iconic products that were born from it.”
“We also recognize that all successful partnerships are rooted in mutual respect and shared values,” the brand concluded. “After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review.”