Heather Cox Richardson, "Letter from an American, December 1, 2022":
Today, Ye, also known as Kanye West, appeared with right-wing white supremacist Nick Fuentes on Alex Jones’s show InfoWars, and was so vile even Jones began to push back. Eventually, Ye praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Then, and only then, did the Twitter account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee delete its tweet of October 6, 2022, that read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
Charlie Sykes, "Kanye Clarifies a Few Things":
Alex Jones: "You're not Hitler. You're not a Nazi."
Kanye West: "Well, I see good things about Hitler… I love everyone, and Jewish people are not gonna tell me ‘You can love us and you know what we’re doing to you with the contracts, what we’re pushing with the pornography.’
But this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone I use as a musician. You can’t say out loud this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that. I’m done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
Especially Hitler.
And Nazis?
"They did good things too. We have to stop dissing the Nazis all the time.
"The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world."
As the interview moved forward, Kanye said he doesn't like the word "evil" associated with Nazis, adding: "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”
So, how the hell is your week going?
Historians will note that all of this occurred while the dinner companion of the former President of the United States was appearing on conspiracy monger Alex Jones’s InfoWars show, wearing a black stocking face mask.
In other words, the guy is barking mad. But it was, nevertheless, a clarifying moment. The House GOP decided that, on second thought, it was unwise to celebrate this bizarre bigot as a giant of the New Conservatism.
Philip Bump, "The GOP’s bet on Kanye West has gone very bad":
[T]he Twitter account of the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican caucus — an account weirdly focused on engaging in culture war fights — quietly deleted the tweet it had offered in October praising three men then seen as important anchors of the political right.
“Kanye. Elon. Trump,” that tweet said, referring to Ye, the then-new owner of Twitter and the former president. The goal of the tweet, very obviously, was to claim the popularity of those individuals as their own.
Peter Baker, "Trump Embraces Extremism as He Seeks to Reclaim Office":
Analysts and strategists see Mr. Trump’s pivot toward the far right as a tactic to re-create political momentum that the former president may be losing, with at least some polls showing him trailing Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for the Republican nomination in 2024. ...
Mr. Trump has long flirted with the fringes of American society as no other modern president has, openly appealing to prejudice based on race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation, among others.
Aaron Rupar and Noah Berlatsky, "The Trump/Ye dinner suggests the GOP primary will be worse than you think":
The buffoons, the neo-Nazis, and the narcissistic grifters aren’t easily denounced, because the buffoons, the neo-Nazis, and the narcissistic grifters are a significant chunk of the GOP. Trump is their creature, but he didn’t birth them. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that he can’t necessarily control them.
Jonathan Chait, "Trump Brought Nazis Into the GOP. DeSantis Won’t Expel Them. White nationalism is not just a Trump problem":
Trump’s most passionate supporters include many white nationalists and people who feel solidarity with white nationalists. If DeSantis attacks them, he loses the support of a vital faction within the party.
His supporters wish to pretend this isn’t the case, and reliably depict any criticism of DeSantis as a bad-faith plot to prop up Trump. This is how they rationalize DeSantis’s courtship of every far-right faction: the election deniers, the anti-vaxxers, the white nationalists. The need to win justifies anything. Working from that premise, they project their own bad faith onto DeSantis’s critics. They must maintain Trump’s authoritarian and racist coalition intact, and they must have a story to tell themselves about how this choice was forced upon them by the liberals.
Thomas Zimmer, "Far-Right Extremists Assemble":
The American Right will not break with Trump over this – nor will the Republican Party, even though some GOP elites have come out with critical statements. Just like Trump himself, they understand that this would alienate a good chunk of the base. As always, it is really worth listening to what Republicans think animates the conservative base, what drives their coalition. Whatever else we want to say about the current state of the Republican politics: The GOP is a party in which white nationalism and white supremacy are such powerful forces that hanging out with Holocaust-denying, leading white power activists will not get you ostracized.
Francine Prose, "Trump had dinner with two avowed antisemites. Let’s call this what it is":
A 2024 candidate broke bread with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist, and Ye, who has praised Hitler. Don’t normalize this.
