Kanye West Storms Out of Interview After Tim Pool Lightly Defends Jews

Kanye West’s first extended interview since his meeting with former PresidentDonald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week lasted about 20 minutes.

The artist now known as Ye stormed out of a sit-down with the reactionarysocial-media performer Tim Pool, after the host lightly pushed back on Ye’smeandering, paranoid, and yet largely uninterrupted antisemitic rant thatopened the show.

During that 20-minute stretch, West offered a sprawling, aggrieved commentaryrailing against those he believes had harmed him, including but not limitedto: a designer at Adidas who Ye is convinced was a CIA and somehow also a“Zionist” plant; Jamie Dimon; Hollywood executives; the Gap; his formertrainer and also, in Ye’s mind a Canadian deep-state agent; and, of course,the fictional Jewish cabal in charge of both banking and media. “It was like_American History X_ , like my head was on the side of the curb, and the exactpeople that I called out kick my head,” said Ye. The rapper also appeared toback Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who similarly posted antisemiticmaterial, and talked about the true “bloodlines” of Black people.

“Rahm Emanuel was right next to Obama, and then Jared Kushner was right nextto Trump,” Ye added, ending with a “da-da!” musical flourish to punctuate hisantisemitic talking point about Jews being puppet masters.

During a brief pause in his near-monologue, Pool told Ye, “I think they’vebeen extremely unfair to you.” When asked by Ye to clarify who he meant by“they,” Pool replied: “The corporate press.” That didn’t satisfy Ye. “Who’s’they,’ though?” he shot back. As Pool stammered, one of the evening’s otherguests chimed in: Nick Fuentes, the 23-year-old white nationalist andHolocaust denier, who had taken on an undefined role in Ye’s largelytheoretical 2024 presidential campaign. “It’s them, though, isn’t it?” Fuentessaid, again referring to Jewish people.

Evidently, because Pool refused to play into one of the oldest antisemitictropes around, Ye considered it a bridge too far. Before Pool could getanother word in edgewise, West rose from out of his chair and silently marchedout of the studio.

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Fuentes left as well, as did the evening’s third guest, Milo Yiannopoulos, thefar-right troll and former Breitbart tech editor who was drummed out of theconservative movement in 2016 for his seemingly blithe attitude towardsrelations between adult males and minors.

Like Fuentes, Yiannopoulos also joined Ye’s campaign team in some capacity.Earlier in the show, he’d praised Fuentes to the hilt, calling theCharlottesville marcher, “Stop the Steal” pusher, and pro-Hitler pundit the“most extraordinary, brilliant political commentator of his generation.”Yiannopolous at times has claimed Jewish lineage himself, but that self-identification has apparently been dropped after he tumbled farther to thefringes of the conservative media ecosystem, along with an insistence thathe’d cured himself of his homosexuality and posted threats about harminganother far right personalities dog. Yiannopoulos did not immediately respondto The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

In between Ye’s rambling, the trio did provide some new information. The mealwith Trump originally was scheduled to take place in October, but the formerpresident postponed it after announcing his own 2024 run. During that sametime period, Ye was involved in a series of bizarre public appearances andbegan making more explicitly antisemitic statements, including a tweetedpromise to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” and blaming the “Jewish media”and “ Jewish Zionists” for his troubles. Though it didn’t make the final cut,he also implied during an interview with Tucker Carlson that fictionalchildren were being placed in his home.

Whether those incidents gave Trump reason to delay their meeting, West didn’tsay. He brought Fuentes along with him because, “He was rolling with me,” saidYe. “I was impressed with Nick. And I was like, just come to the dinner.”Yiannopoulos was also in favor of Fuentes’ presence at the meal. “He’s beentreated just about as badly as anybody,” he said. “So I thought he deserved tobe in the room too.”

Pool made his name in conservative media by bringing in similarly far-rightfigures and whitewashing their extremist beliefs before an audience ofmillions, as The Daily Beast previously reported. As recently as last week,Pool hosted a pundit affiliated with the hard-right Groyper movement, whichFuentes ostensibly leads. At no point during their conversation did he mentionhis guest’s prior extreme rhetoric, and at times he seemed to agree withhim. On Mondaynight, some of Pool’s viewers on YouTube shared their own anti-Semiticbeliefs.

How ‘Coward and Phony’ Tim Pool Became One of the Biggest Political YouTuberson the Planet

Though Pool pushed back more on Monday than he normally does—and after Ye andhis campaign staff walked out in a huff, Pool did forcefully denounce anti-Semitism on air—he still tried to find common ground. “Nick, they call you awhite supremacist,” he said, addressing Fuentes. But “you’re here working withor for, you know, one of the most powerful Black men.” (Pool did notimmediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.)

Apparently the tweeted announcement Pool made earlier Monday about Ye,Yiannopoulos, and Fuentes’ appearance had spurred some of Pool’s “goodconservative friends,” as he put it, to reach out, telling him that givingunreconstructed bigots a platform as big as his was a mistake. “Tim, don’thave these people on. They’re bad people,” Pool claimed he was told.

From Pool’s point of view, though, the show served its purpose, partly becausethe trio refused to engage in a lengthy debate and unpack their beliefs forthe scheduled two-hour broadcast.

“I think you should all invite them on,” Pool insisted. “I think if anythingis bad for their ideas, it’s exactly what just happened.”