Ex-TMZ Staffer Says Star Praised Hitler, Podcast Kills Interview

Topline

New allegations about Kanye West’s history of anti-Semitic remarks surfaced amid a cascade of recent statements from the rapper about Jews, with a former TMZ staffer claiming that West said he loved Hitler and Nazis back in 2018 on a visit to the news company’s studio.

Key Facts

Van Lathan Jr.—who confronted Kanye West during his infamous 2018 rant at TMZ’s office when West said 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice”—alleged Tuesday on his podcast, Higher Learning, that West also said he loved Hitler and Nazis, but those remarks were edited out.

Lathan, who previously worked for TMZ, said he wasn’t surprised about West’s anti-Semitic posts on Instagram and Twitter over the weekend because he knew about West’s alleged beliefs from their interaction at TMZ.

Lathan said West “said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis,’ something to that effect. And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason—it wasn’t my decision,” after some sort of conversation with West.

Lathan claimed that one of the producers at TMZ’s offices stood up and confronted West, like Lathan did, and said, “I’m Jewish and that is offensive to me, what you just said.”

Lathan also claimed TMZ’s videos showing his confrontation with West was edited; producers allegedly took out Lathan’s mentioning of people who died “because of Nazism and Hitler” because “it wouldn’t have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis.”

West does reference Jewish people and the Holocaust in his chat with TMZ, equating the Holocaust’s association with Jews to slavery’s association with Black people, and claiming that “prison is something” that unites “Blacks and whites as one race.”

Forbes has reached out to TMZ and West for comment.

Tangent

Late on Tuesday, talk show The Shop said it would not air a recently taped episode with West, who allegedly used it “to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes.”

Key Background

West, who wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt at his Yeezy fashion show last week, had his Instagram account restricted when he posted a screenshot of a conversation with Sean “Diddy” Combs, in which he accused Combs of being controlled by Jewish people. On Twitter, he said he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” On Thursday he gave an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, and Vice’s Motherboard reported Tuesday that several claims made by West were edited. Clips obtained by the site showed West saying that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger worked with the KKK to “control the Jew population,” and asked for other anti-Semitic remarks he made to be cut before being aired.

Further Reading

Kanye West Social Media Restrictions: Here’s Where Ye’s Still Posting After Lockout For Anti-Semitic Posts (Forbes)

Kanye West Made Troubling Claims In Leaked Unaired Interview Footage (Forbes)

Twitter Locks Kanye West’s Account After Post About Jewish People (Forbes)

Musk Welcomes Kanye West Back To Twitter After He’s Blocked By Instagram Over Apparent Antisemitic Post (Forbes)

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/10/12/kanyes-troubles-deepen-ex-tmz-staffer-says-star-praised-hitler-podcast-kills-interview/