The Kanye Concert Controversy Raises a Bigger Question About Forgiveness

[00:00:00]Republican Senator Rick Scott is leading a charge to stop Kanye West from performing concerts in Tampa at the end of the month. Let's actually just take a little bit of a listen here to Senator Scott talking about this effort earlier in the week.

[00:00:15]>> If we don't stand up and vocally reject the hate that Kanye West pushes, if we don't stop this concert, we're telling everyone that anti-Semitism is okay.

[00:00:24]No, it's not okay. As long as you we make some money and somebody somebody said that to me always if they cancel the oh they'll they'll lose money. So what? You made a bad decision, fix your bad decision.

[00:00:36]This puts an even greater target on our Jewish community. More than anything Kanye West could say or do himself. If they allow this, then what's the next event?

[00:00:45]And if they're not held accountable, if you're Jewish in this city, in this state, how do you feel?

[00:00:51]You feel like a second class citizen that people don't give a damn.

[00:00:55]We have a clear moral duty to reject hate at every level.

[00:00:59]>> So Senator Scott is again leading this charge. He actually himself put up a change.org petition that I'm going to pop up on the screen here.

[00:01:09]This is a change.org.org petition from Senator Rick Scott created June 16th, 2026, so yesterday. He writes, "Kanye West concerts in Tampa scheduled for June 26th and 28th should not take place in Raymond James Stadium, a venue supported with public funds.

[00:01:26]There's no place for anti-Semitism in Florida, especially at the expense of the taxpayer." Goes on to say, "Kanye West is an admitted and prolific anti-Semite who has slandered Jews, praised Adolf Hitler, called himself a Nazi, and sold swastika merchandise on his website among his numerous other anti-Semitic remarks and actions." So, that is all true. The things Kanye West has said about the Holocaust, about Hitler, about Jews are utterly disgusting, abhorrent, absolutely bigoted, and anti-Semitic.

[00:01:59]Interestingly, note the tense.

[00:02:02]Kanye West is an admitted and prolific anti-Semite.

[00:02:06]That is actually factually not true at all.

[00:02:09]At all. And TMZ TMZ asked Senator Scott about this.

[00:02:14]Shout out to Jacob Wasserman who approached Senator Scott, looks like here in the Hart Building on Capitol Hill.

[00:02:21]Um and that was today, earlier today. He approached Senator Scott and said, "Kanye West took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal to apologize for his anti-Semitism in January. A full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal.

[00:02:40]What do you want to see Kanye West do to prove that he is no longer anti-Semitic?" Rick Scott said, "He could have gone to a Holocaust Museum."

[00:02:50]Then he said he needs to do something.

[00:02:53]It seemed like Rick Scott was entirely unfamiliar with the fact that Kanye West had completely apologized for all of this.

[00:03:01]Kanye West in November met with Rabbi Pinto, was embraced by Rabbi Pinto, asked for forgiveness for the way he talked about Jewish people.

[00:03:22]This is the full-page advertisement that Kanye West took out in the Wall Street Journal on January 26th.

[00:03:31]He talked about, I think very movingly, whether or not you believe it. I think that's actually a legitimate question, whether or not [clears throat] you believe it.

[00:03:39]But he talked very movingly and in great detail about how his mental health stemming from a car accident 25 years ago that created an injury the right frontal lobe of his brain was not fully understood. He he wasn't fully under in he didn't have a full understanding of how that had affected him.

[00:04:07]He says quote, I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some people I loved the most I treated the worst. You endured fear fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who is at times unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self. In that fractured state, I gravitated towards the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold t-shirts bearing it. One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type one are the disconnected moments, many of which I still cannot recall that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that often times feels like an out-of-body experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an anti-Semite. I love Jewish people.

[00:04:56]Rick Scott once again has a change.org petition. He is speaking out in front of podiums on this issue asking for two concerts on the 26th and the 28th of this month that will likely I'll say go on, probably, although this is really the pressures are really ratcheting up on uh Raymond James Auditorium.

[00:05:18]He didn't actually seem to be aware of this. He said that Kanye West should do something, he should go to a Holocaust Museum. Quote, do something. The man sat down and asked for forgiveness from a rabbi, a prominent rabbi, and took out a full full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing, explaining, and saying he loves Jewish people.

[00:05:44]Rick Scott genuinely did not seem to be aware of that.

[00:05:47]And so, this brings us to the question of is Kanye West serious? I have no idea. He's not still selling these t-shirts, obviously. Rick Scott mentions he is selling the t-shirts. No.

[00:05:58]I'm not sure whether Kanye West is sincere. It's really hard to know when Kanye West is sincere. That's kind of a lesson of dealing with Kanye West over many, many years.

[00:06:08]But that then puts people in the government, senators, in this position where they are now being the arbiters of whether an apology is real or not. Like you have to What more do they need to see that would make it okay, right? Like honestly, what more does Rick Scott need to see that would make it okay?

[00:06:32]Cuz he didn't even seem to be aware of the full-page Wall Street Journal ad, the apology with a rabbi, recorded, published.

[00:06:43]Which some American Jews accepted.

[00:06:48]And felt like it was a good explanation.

[00:06:53]And so now the government is stepping in and saying Rick Scott is stepping in as a representative of the government, leading a charge, literally a change.org petition, to say no, not enough.

[00:07:08]You can't do art anymore at Raymond James.

[00:07:15]Just reminds me of how poorly equipped our public square today is for grace, to function as a true, useful court of public opinion.

[00:07:30]It's so polluted by bad bad incentive structure. Of course, that's not a surprise to anybody, but again, I don't think Rick Scott even knew this.

[00:07:39]It seemed like in that TMZ confrontation, he didn't even know this.

[00:07:44]But Kanye West can apologize and it's still not enough for people who say he can never perform in the state of Florida again?

[00:07:53]Or does Rick Scott just say because it's a taxpayer-supported uh taxpayer-supported um stadium because of that it's a it's a venue quote supported with public funds, he wrote in the change.org petition, that Kanye West can never perform in one of those?

[00:08:15]I mean if anything there should be a by people who are trying to stand up against anti-Semitism, which is a virtuous and worthy cause there should be a an embrace of Kanye West. When people apologize and you spurn them and try to get them their concerts canceled it sends this message of well, you can't apologize cuz it it won't be accepted. I won't believe it.

[00:08:49]That's not a good message to send either. And it's certainly not a good message to send if you don't even know the apology happened.

[00:09:00]Now it would perhaps be a bit different if Kanye had never apologized, let alone yeah, met with a rabbi, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal.

[00:09:11]A bit different. The public funds, I do think are relevant. Rick Scott I was just in a a pen and pad with Rick Scott a couple of weeks ago, is a champion of of free markets and he's saying, well, people shouldn't be able to make money off of this in a venue supported with public funds.

[00:09:25]Um fine.

[00:09:28]He might also in another circumstance argue that if people don't like it, they just won't go.

[00:09:35]But that's not even the debate right now.

[00:09:39]The guy has said he loves Jewish people.

[00:09:41]He said that what he did was wrong.

[00:09:43]And he's trying to make amends.

[00:09:46]Whether it's sincere or not.

[00:09:49]To spurn that sends a message of total intolerance for forgiveness and an anti-forgiveness culture.

[00:09:55]In my opinion. So I don't like to see this. Um absolutely detested what Kanye West was devolving into of course as many people did.

[00:10:06]Of course.

[00:10:08]But there also of course has to be room for forgiveness and for grace.

[00:10:12]Especially as more and more people are suffering serious mental illness as Kanye West appeared to have been suffering from. So no, most mentally ill people do not go full Kanye.

[00:10:23]Don't do it. Fullyay, I guess I'm supposed to say.

[00:10:28]But we also do have to have room in the court of public opinion for grace and forgiveness. Those are virtues too.

[00:10:35]And it's good when somebody changes their mind. It's good when somebody apologizes. Those are those are positive things. Those are good things.

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