Noted radio host Howard Stern did not mince words while criticising rapper Kanye West for the anti-Semitic comments that he had made on the show NewsNation hosted by Chris Cuomo. Stern, while also criticising West’s defenders who claim mental illness is the reason behind West’s comments, said, “I almost don’t want to give any energy to this Kanye West character”.

Stern’s co-host on his SiriusXM podcast, Robin Quivers, immediately said, “So was Hitler”, “but somebody elected him to run a country.”

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Stern later said, “A lot of media organizations are giving him attention with it,” adding that it is important to “expose” West. Referring to the Cuomo show, Stern remarked, “you gotta hear the sh*t this guy’s into and f**k this mental illness, self-defense thing that he’s into, you know, like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s just mentally ill. Don’t worry about it’”.

The 68-year-old radio host went on to play a clip from the show where West is heard speaking about the “Jewish underground media mafia”, whom he criticised for not using the adjectives “tycoon, billionaire, visionary, inventor” while referring to him.

Cuomo, who was the host of the interview, also did not accept West’s theories, and called his remarks “ugly” and “demonstrably false”. West, who is now legally known as Ye, had also said, “Every celebrity has Jewish people in their contract — this is not hate speech, this is the truth,” further adding, “And these people, if you say anything out of the line with the agenda, then your career could be over”.

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This is not the only criticism that the rapper has been facing in recent times. He was chastised by a number of celebrities for debuting a “White Lives Matter” shirt at the recently concluded Paris fashion week.

In another podcast, Drink Champs, West had claimed that George Floyd died because of fentanyl use, and not because former police officer Derek Chauvin choked him with his knee. The episode has since been removed from YouTube. However, Floyd’s family is now planning to sue West for $250 million.