Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has defended Kanye West’s right-wing politics while rebuking him for his “disturbing” antisemitic remarks.
The podcast host, himself a practising orthodox Jew, took to Twitter on Wednesday in the wake of the rapper’s antisemitic comments that have seen him banned from the social media platform.
“Back from the Jewish holiday now. As usual, two things can be true at once: Kanye’s moves toward pro-life, faith, and family conservatism are encouraging; his ‘death con ‘ posts and Black Hebrew Israelite language are clearly anti-Semitic and disturbing,” tweeted Mr Shapiro.
West’s latest round of controversy started after he wore a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt at a Paris fashion show.
He then took to Instagram where he posted screenshots of messages in which he stated that rapper Diddy was being controlled by Jews.
After his account was locked he went to Twitter and posted that he was tired and when he woke up he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”, which saw his account there also locked.
West then conducted an interview with right-wing host Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
Unaired footage was then leaked to Vice in which West made a string of antisemitic comments as well as bizarre conspiracy theories.
In one comment, West said that he preferred his children with Kim Kardashian to learn about Hanukkah rather than Kwanzaa because “at least it will come with some financial engineering.”
Shapiro’s comments were quickly slammed by social media users.
“‘Two things can be true at once’ is the new, sophisticated way of saying, ‘My hypocrisy is showing, and I’m comfortable with being nakedly unprincipled,’” said one Twitter user.
And another added: “Wow, who could have guessed that becoming more right-wing might be accompanied by antisemitism? Is there any historical precedent for this?”
Shapiro’s tweet came days after Candace Owens, who works at his Daily Wire company, defended West and said that no “honest person” thought he was being anti-semitic.
