President Joe Biden on Friday called on political leaders to step up by “calling out and rejecting antisemitism” after disgraced rapper and prominent Donald Trump supporter Kanye West praised Adolf Hitler and declared himself “a Nazi” during an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Writing on his official Twitter account, Mr Biden said he wanted to “make a few things clear”.
“The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides,” he said.
“Silence is complicity,” he added.
Mr Biden’s comments came roughly 24 hours after West’s shocking interview, during which he left Jones – himself a notorious figure with a history of courting controversy – flummoxed by declaring that he sees “good things about Hitler” while sitting alongside Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes on Jones’s Infowars programme.
“Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” the musician said before later calling himself a Nazi.
West’s bizarre comments came one week after he, Fuentes, and notorious far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos broke bread with Mr Trump at his Palm Beach, Florida country club.
The twice-impeached ex-president, who last month declared himself a candidate in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, has not made any public statement about his longtime friend’s praise of the genocidal dictator.
