Kanye West faced blistering criticism from The View co-hosts after airing a Super Bowl LIX commercial that directed viewers to a website selling items linked to Nazi ideology.
The panel denounced his ongoing stream of anti-Semitic remarks and made it clear that mental illness cannot serve as a justification.
Alyssa Farah Griffin called out what she sees as a troubling pattern of leniency toward Kanye West, voicing her frustration over excuses made for the rapper-designer.
“I feel like for some reason Kanye’s been given a pass, and I know there’s a perception that he may have some mental health issues, but there are tens of millions of people around this country who have mental health issues and are not saying bigoted, racist, anti-Semitic things. I think it’s a cop-out.”
Griffin noted the scale of West’s influence, warning that his social media reach extends far beyond what many may realize.
“This man—get this—he has more social media followers than there are Jews in the world. He does have influence. There are people who are looking to him, especially young people, and he should not be normalized.”
Ana Navarro referenced a recent plea from Friends star David Schwimmer urging Elon Musk to ban Kanye West from X, formerly known as Twitter, stressing the real-world harm that rhetoric like his can cause.
Sara Haines expressed disbelief over West’s continued presence on high-profile red carpets despite his pattern of incendiary comments.
“I don’t know how he’s allowed to walk red carpets and do all the things because you keep seeing him pop up. And it’s not crazy fringe things—it’s literally at the Grammys, walking the red carpet.”
Haines made it clear that no public figure should be allowed to spew hate without consequences.
“We need to continue to call it out, ‘cause it’s completely hate-filled awfulness. And I don’t care who you are—you don’t get away with it.”