Rapper and designer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was spotted in Frederick on Monday. It was the same day he appeared on a podcast hosted by Western Maryland YouTuber Tim Pool, whose show is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “soapbox for the anti-democracy hard right.”
Ye arrived in Maryland on Monday with far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, as well as Nick Fuentes, described by the Anti-Defamation League as a Holocaust denier and a “white supremacist leader and organizer” behind the livestream show “America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes.”
Ye, Fuentes and Yiannopoulos flew in to Frederick Municipal Airport before heading to Pool’s studio in Knoxville, Maryland, according to a reporter with Spectator World — an American offshoot of the conservative U.K. publication — who was present at the taping of the interview.
Ye was also photographed at Matsutake Sushi & Steak on Monday, and was there around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m., a hostess at the restaurant confirmed.
Former President Donald Trump recently hosted Ye and Fuentes at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, which prompted widespread criticism from people including top Republicans and some Jewish Trump supporters, such as right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, according to The New York Times.
Ye recently announced he will run for president in 2024, despite the ongoing controversy over antisemitic comments he made online and a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt he wore during Paris Fashion Week. He announced Yiannopoulos as his campaign manager, according to Vice.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday outside the White House, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday, “I don’t think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes. He has no place in this Republican Party.”
After he falsely claimed Trump had condemned Fuentes following the Mar-a-Lago dinner, McCarthy went on to say that Fuentes’ ideology “has no place in society at all.”
Ye’s time on Pool’s YouTube show, “Timcast IRL,” lasted about 21 minutes. The rapper walked out after Pool pushed back on some of the rapper’s antisemitic sentiments.
At the beginning of the interview, Ye, referring to antisemitism, said that “if you read the definition, it says you can’t claim that there’s multiple people inside of banks, or in media, that are all Jewish, or you’re anti-Semite. And that’s the truth. It’s the truth. What are we talking about?”
Ye returned to the sentiments throughout the interview, with Pool at times pushing back.
“There are a handful of people that you see are Jewish in a certain place, and then you associate Judaism with the power, whereas I view that as not relevant to it,” Ye said.
At the end of the interview, Ye talks about “getting hosed down every day” by businesses and the press.
“I think they’ve been extremely unfair to you,” Pool said.
“Who is they though?” Ye responded. “We can’t say who they is, can we?”
When Pool pushes back, Fuentes tries to chime in briefly before Ye walks out.
