Video: Kanye West's Awkward Pause When Jimmy Kimmel Asks Why He Thinks Trump Cares About Black People
When Kanye West appeared on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday night, he was so blindsided by a killer question that the host had to cut to a break during an awkward pause.
West had spoken about coming out as a supporter of Donald Trump and the backlash it prompted because many people believe the president is racist, accordng to polls. The rapper and music producer described regaining the confidence to wear the Trump campaign's red "Make America Great Again" cap.
"What it represented to me is not about policies, because I'm not a politician like that, but it represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt, no matter what anyone said, in saying, you can't bully me," West said. "Liberals can't bully me, news can't bully me, the hip-hop community, they can't bully me."
Later in the interview, Kimmel referred to West's infamous outburst against President George W. Bush during a TV appeal for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and posed a question that left West struggling for words.
"You so famously and so powerfully said, 'George Bush doesn't care about black people.' It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does. Or any people at all."
West paused, arms folded, in thought. Kimmel rescued him from the awkward moment by cutting to a break. "Ah, yeah," West said, smiling.
Kimmel also asked West about his wife Kim Kardashian West's successful lobbying of President Trump to pardon 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson, an Alabama grandmother of six serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction in 1996.
She was released from prison after Kardashian West's intervention, which included a meeting with Trump at the White House.
"Were you ever concerned about her being alone in the Oval Office with President Trump?" Kimmel asked. West laughed and replied: "Well, he is a player."
Trump has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault and harassment over the years, though he denies any wrongdoing. He was also recorded in 2005 on the set of Access Hollywood admitting that he was "automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them," and that he tried to sleep with a married woman. He also boasted of being able to grab women "by the pussy" because he is so famous.
Kardashian West spoke to CNN's Van Jones after she secured Johnson's release. She was asked if she thought Trump had used her as a "political pawn" and that her meeting with the president gave him "legitimacy."
"I think Kanye has already given him legitimacy in that way," Kardashian West replied, referring to her husband's support for the president. "I was working on this before. I don't think I would be used. At the end of the day, he heard me out. We got the job done. So, what could he really use me for?"
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star told CNN that Trump was the "last person I thought would have done this, but he did, and he pulled through.
"When I got the meeting, I knew there would be tons of backlash, I knew people wouldn't understand it," she said.
"And at that point, I had to make the decision that this was bigger than me. So, I'm worried about my brand and a woman's been in jail for 22 years almost? It wasn't even a question. I would have taken the backlash, no matter what the outcome would have been, just to try for her."
CNN's Don Lemon recently accused Trump of being a bully and a racist after the president targeted him and the basketball player LeBron James. Lemon interviewed James, who has criticized Trump, saying he used sports to divide America by race.
Trump tweeted: "Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn't easy to do."
"I would just like to note that referring to African-Americans as dumb—remember, this is America—referring to African Americans as dumb is one of the oldest racist canards of America's past and present; that black people are of inferior intelligence," Lemon said in a monologue on his show.
He added: "This president constantly denigrates people of color, and women too.... Let me not mince words here: This president traffics in racism and is fueled by bullying."
