The rap superstar formerly known as Kanye West has finally and begrudgingly offered up a kinda-sorta half-apology over his shocking antisemitism, telling British tabloid TV host Piers Morgan that he’s “sorry for the people that I hurt” while blaming his bigoted comments on the “trauma” he’s been through.
West, who has been all over the media landscape the past week defending and justifying his promise to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” sat down with Morgan for a lengthy interview to once again discuss the ongoing controversy.
“I just finished an extraordinary, fiery, passionate, funny & shocking 2-hour interview with @kanyewest - in which he makes full apology for his anti-Semitic comments about ‘going death con 3 on Jewish people,’” Morgan tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
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He also noted that segments of the sitdown would soon air on his show Piers Uncensored, which is broadcast on British network TalkTV and Fox News streaming service Fox Nation, both of which are owned by the Murdoch family.
The first clip released, however, did not suggest that there was any “full apology” offered by West for his remarks.
“My question for you is: Do you now regret saying ‘death con 3 on Jewish people’? Are you sorry you said that? Do you think it matters?” Morgan asked West.
“No! Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” a smiling West retorted as Morgan repeatedly said “you should be.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Morgan pointed to West’s comments and said they are “as racist as anything you say you’ve been through and any pain you’ve experienced” as the rapper-turned-fashion mogul chuckled.
“It’s the same thing! Racism is racism,” Morgan continued. “And you know that, I think. Don’t you?”
After pausing a few seconds, West replied: “Yeah, obviously. That’s why I said it.”
Asked if he made those remarks knowing they were racist, West affirmed that was the case because he was “fighting fire with fire” and he’s a “different kind of freedom fighter.” Eventually, at one point in the conversation, West leaned into the celebrity trope of apologizing to anyone who may have been hurt or offended by his actions—all while suggesting people were just “confused” about him spending the past week-plus unleashing an antisemitic tirade.
“I will say I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the ‘death con’—the confusion that I caused,” West declared. “I feel like I caused hurt and confusion and I’m sorry for the families that had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through.” He added: “And that I used my platform where you say ‘hurt people hurt people’—and I was hurt.”
Morgan, for his part, tweeted out the clip and claimed that West apologized “eventually.”
Since getting locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts for firing off blatantly antisemitic posts, West has tripled down on his remarks while tossing out even more hateful rhetoric. West has responded to his social media bans by agreeing to purchase the fringe-right platform Parler, which is currently run by the husband of conservative provocateur Candace Owens, who has reportedly been advising West recently.
During a podcast appearance, he peddled conspiracies about “Jewish Zionists” controlling the media and owning Black entertainers. He also pushed the false claim that George Floyd was killed by a fentanyl overdose, which has prompted Floyd’s family to threaten a lawsuit.
And in a recent interview on Chris Cuomo’s cable news show, the rapper insisted that the “Jewish underground media mafia” is after him and that he doesn’t believe the term antisemitism is real.
