In the wake of Kanye West's praise for Hitler, Biden calls on political leaders to condemn anti-Semitism: 'Silence is complicity'
- President Joe Biden targeted antisemitism on Friday after Kanye West, known as Ye, praised Hitler.
- The president tweeted that politicians should reject antisemitism "wherever it hides. Silence is complicity."
President Joe Biden spoke out against antisemitism on Friday after Kanye West, the rapper who goes by Ye, praised Adolf Hitler, the mastermind of the Holocaust that killed more than six million Jews and millions of others.
"The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure," Biden tweeted from his presidential account and retweeted from his political account. "And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity."
The tweet did not mention Ye by name. Asked about the tweet during a gaggle aboard Air Force One on Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also wouldn't name Ye directly. She reminded reporters that Biden decided to run for president in 2020 following the white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"I don't think it matters who in particular," she said. "I think what the president is trying to say is that being silent is complicit, and when we see this type of hatred, when we see this type of antisemitism, we need to call it out. We need to be very, very clear and condemn that."
The message stands in contrast to the actions of former President Donald Trump, who was widely condemned for hosting Ye and white nationalist and anti-semite Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner.
The former president, who announced his 2024 presidential bid last month, wrote after the meeting on Truth Social that Ye "expressed no anti-Semitism" during their dinner.
Biden's message comes after a day in which Ye ramped up his antisemitic outbursts. He was suspended from Twitter by its owner Elon Musk, who said Ye "again violated our rule against incitement to violence."
Among the tweets Ye posted was an image of a swastika superimposed over the Star of David, a Jewish symbol. Ye's Twitter account was restricted for two weeks in October after he posted antisemitic remarks, but his account was restored after Musk took control of the platform.
Also on Thursday, Ye repeatedly talked about his appreciation for Hitler and the Nazis during an appearance with Fuentes on the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' "Infowars" show.
"I like Hitler," Ye said at one point, adding, "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis."
This story has been updated with comments from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.