Less than a week after Kanye West praised Adolf Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, West – flanked by white supremacist Nick Fuentes – sat down with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes to demand that Jewish people “forgive Hitler.”
The 45 minute episode titled “Saving Ye” on the alt-right video platform Censored.TV, opens with McInnes at an airport spouting off his desire to “prevent Ye West from becoming an antisemite or a nazi” and to “talk him off the ledge.” In the same breath, McInnes voices his hopes to show West that “our problem is liberal elites of all races,” then proceeds to name two black leaders, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, as a “major problem.”
McInnes, the co-founder of Vice who left the media company in 2008, was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram in 2018 for promoting content related to violent extremist groups and hate speech. In 2020, his YouTube account was suspended for violating the platform’s policies on hate speech. His timely interview with the rapper coincides with a storm of media attention stemming from a Yeezy fashion show in October in which West displayed “White Lives Matter” shirts. While McInnes’ Censored.TV Twitter account has just under 16,000 followers, West had millions in comparison – before getting banned – and currently holds over 18 million followers on Instagram.
Before meeting with West and Fuentes, McInnes says he’s meeting them at a secure location in Los Angeles. The camera cuts to the 45 minute interview with West and Fuentes, which McInnes points out is taking place just two days after the InfoWars debacle. West, whose face is covered with a mask, begins by saying the backlash from his previous interview has been “awesome for a presidential campaign” before blaming Jewish people for Hitler’s “reputation” and comparing abortion to “eugenics,” “genocide,” and the “Holocaust.” West then reiterates his claims that “Jewish people control the majority of the media, along with banks, along with real estate, along with malls.” He adds, “They can control the narrative. History is written by the winners.”
The rapper also addresses his mental health and says that Ben Shapiro “is running this narrative that I’m going to kill myself.” West then says that if “they” do attempt to “kill” him, like they did “Michael Jackson or JFK… or Aaron Carter,” then they could say it “was Ye’s mental health.”
Midway through the interview, West claims “that there is a collusion of Jewish attorneys and managers and everything else you can think of” that “give America porn.” West continues to say that porn is “the gas chamber, it’s a silent killer” to “dumb us down.” He also cites his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, who he claims is used to “sell it.” West – who recently settled his divorce with Kardashian – comes back to this point later on, saying that porn “destroyed” his family and that women in porn are the “products of pedophilia.” Then, in a move that throws out female empowerment in favor of body shaming, West says that women on Instagram “showing their bodies” in their 30s and 40s are freezing their eggs because they haven’t “lived the dream of having a husband and kids.”
West then calls on people to “pray for Instagram” and says anyone who likes a photo of a “woman that’s half-naked” is a “sexual predator.”
Perhaps sensing an opportunity to give his male ego a much needed boost, McInnes goes on to call “spinsters who don’t pay attention to the time” the “new journalists” who are out to “cancel” and “sabotage family men.”
At one point, McInnes gives West a hypothetical question. “So you’re president of the United States,” says McInnes. “It’s day one and someone walks in and they go, ‘So what are we going to do about these Jews?’ What do ya say?” West replies, eliciting laughs from Fuentes and McInnes: “Jews should work for Christians. I’ll hire a Jewish person in a second if I knew they weren’t a spy and I could look through their phone and follow through their house and have a camera all in their living room.”
Further into the interview, McInnes Fuentes repeats an earlier claim that “ethnomasochism” is a “genetic white thing,” which Fuentes counters by saying “liberalism has poisoned the well for white people.” Fuentes then takes the opportunity to nosedive into a thread about his childhood, claiming that “kids love Hitler” and that there is something compelling about the videos, propaganda, and symbols. When McInnes questions Fuentes’ claim, the Holocaust denier clarifies that he is referring to kids on 4chan and the internet.
Fuentes – who has been labeled a “white supremacist” by the Anti-Defamation League – praised Hitler during an America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in February. Before introducing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the crowd, Fuentes said, “And now they’re going on about Russia, and ‘Vladimir Putin is Hitler’ — and they say that’s not a good thing … Can we get a round of applause for Russia? Yes!”
West ends the interview by saying he “loves everyone” and says that “the rules of the country will be based on the bible.”
“Jewish people can’t tell me who I can love and who I can’t love,” he continues. “You can’t say, you can’t force your pain on everyone else. Jewish people, forgive Hitler today.”