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Hip-hop star and independent presidential candidate Kanye West was put off by some of his interviews with the New York Times, the reporters covering him divulged Wednesday. The reporting came from Danny Hakim and Maggie Haberman, who engaged in calls and texts with the billionaire rapper beginning in mid-August, when the two first reported about …
Hip-hop star and independent presidential candidate Kanye West was put off by some of his interviews with the New York Times, the reporters covering him divulged Wednesday.
The reporting came from Danny Hakim and Maggie Haberman, who engaged in calls and texts with the billionaire rapper beginning in mid-August, when the two first reported about his meeting with President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
At the time, West was upset with the reporting and had tweeted, “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time [sic] about my meeting with Jared.”
Kushner and West have defended their friendship and that infamous meeting, with Kushner telling Fox News last month, “Unlike others, I’m able to keep friendships across the aisle.”
West also still appears to support Kushner’s work for the Trump administration, tweeting on Tuesday, “Jared Kushner will have done more for peace in the Middle East than anyone in 30 years,” alongside a news alert that read, “AFP: President Trump expects Saudi Arabia will join move to recognize Israel.”
On the day he tweeted about his meeting with Kushner, West called one of the reporters, insisting that he be given a live interview on Zoom and that the Times’ editor be present, the paper reports.
West was told no by the reporter, to which he remarked, “I’m Kanye, who are you? I’m the head of everything.”
At one point, according to the Times, the rap superstar asked, “Does anyone at your magazine believe in Jesus?”
The paper then reported that West had sent a series of follow-up texts with one of the journalists.
At first, the billionaire sneaker mogul sent a video of online commentator Mike Cernovich discussing his candidacy and denounced Margaret Sanger, a Planned Parenthood founder, as “an avowed racist.”
Sanger had been disavowed by the organization recently over her connections to the eugenics movement.
West had previously brought up Sanger during his Nick Cannon interview, when he read from his phone, “Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was an avowed racist whose goal was to reduce the black population in America and she succeeded. Eighty percent of abortion clinics in America are in minority neighborhoods.”
In his texts with the Times reporters, he also sent statistics about abortion rates among black women.
“Do you see abortion as the main reason you’re doing the presidential campaign?” he was asked in a text reply by the reporter.
“How do these facts make you feel? As a person,” West texted back, adding three question marks afterward.
When asked by the newspaper what he saw “as the purpose of the presidential campaign,” he replied by asking if the reporter had children.
“One of them has many of your albums on vinyl and plays them very loud,” the reporter told him.
“Lovely,” the music icon replied.
West has made abortion a central component of his campaign, but told the paper he does not want to ban the practice, just prevent it.
“You can’t do that. I don’t want to ban or stop or point fingers at anything.” Instead he pledged “stipends for families that need support, creating orphanages that are really high-level desirable for people to go to, and the redesign of communities and cities in general to be supporting of families,” West told the paper when speaking by phone.
The rapper is so committed to reducing abortion rates that he asked his campaign staff to refrain from “fornicating” outside of marriage, people aiding his candidacy told the paper.
The rapper has a generally broad campaign platform, with more goals than specific policy initiatives. Police reform, reducing household and student loan debt and bringing prayer back into school are some of his initiatives.
