President Joe Biden denounced antisemitism and took a veiled jab at Donald Trump days after the previous president dined with rapper Ye, who has made a string of recent antisemitic comments, and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
“I just need to make a number of things clear,” Biden posted Friday on his official Twitter account. “The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And as an alternative of giving it a platform, our political leaders ought to be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”
The message comes a day after the rapper, formerly generally known as Kanye West, told right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones “I like Hitler” during an antisemitic rant on Jones’ InfoWars show. Ye also tweeted out a swastika in a Star of David, prompting a suspension from Twitter.
Trump, the presumptive frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, had dinner last week with Ye and Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago club, sparking widespread condemnation. Ye’s comments have only turn into more inflammatory for the reason that meal, and Trump has not yet disavowed his reference to the rapper.
“I like Jewish people, but I also love Nazis,” Ye told Jones on the show, also praising what he considered Hitler’s contributions to society. Fuentes, who the Department of Justice labeled as a white supremacist last 12 months, was also a guest on the hate-filled program. Jones, a noted conspiracy theorist, filed for private bankruptcy Friday following a lawsuit won by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which he spent nearly a decade calling a hoax.
Ye’s comments were offensive enough for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to delete a tweet they posted on Oct. 6, which read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” The committee members received pushback on the post for weeks after billionaire Elon Musk allowed previously banned right-wing figures including Trump and Ye to rejoin Twitter.
Ye was once more booted from Twitter on Friday after he posted a picture of a swastika, a logo synonymous with the Nazis, inside a Star of David, a outstanding symbol of Judaism. Twitter had suspended Ye’s account in October, prior to Musk’s purchase, after he posted that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” Musk announced the corporate had restored Ye’s account on Nov. 20 and welcomed the rapper back to the platform, tweeting, “Don’t kill what ye hate, save what ye love.”
Ye’s net price dropped by tons of of hundreds of thousands of dollars after Adidas announced it’s ending its partnership with the rapper and Gap, Foot Locker and others said they’d not carry his products following his antisemitic tweet in October. Major Hollywood talent agency CAA dropped him as a client, as well. Three weeks before his “death con 3” tweet, Ye sparked controversy — and praise from some conservatives — for showing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week.
The “silence is complicity” a part of Biden’s tweet is an apparent criticism of Trump and other outstanding Republicans. Trump has not yet condemned the boys he had dinner with at Mar-a-Lago, and he claimed to not know who the white nationalist Fuentes was.
Republicans including former Recent Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence condemned Trump’s dinner. Others, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, denounced antisemitism without mentioning Trump’s meeting.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who’s trying to be the following House speaker, said Tuesday he doesn’t think anyone should spend time with Fuentes and that he “has no place within the Republican Party.” McCarthy added: “Well, I condemn his ideology. It has no place in society. In any respect.”
But most Republicans have avoided criticizing the dinner. PBS News asked 57 current Republican lawmakers to sentence the meeting, and the bulk didn’t respond. Those that have denounced it, akin to McCarthy, have focused their ire on Fuentes quite than Trump.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told Politico he hopes Trump will condemn Fuentes “because I do know [Trump’s] not an antisemite. I can let you know that for a proven fact that Trump isn’t, but [Fuentes is] evil … only a nasty disgusting person. He’s an ass clown, and he’s attempting to legitimize himself by being around a former, possibly future president.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Politico he would not dine with Fuentes. But he added, “It is a free country, [Trump] can do whatever he wants.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s seen as a possible 2024 challenger to Trump, has notably remained silent on the meeting, which took place in his home state.
