Trump takes heat for dinner with Ye, Nick Fuentes Transcript

First backlash directed towards the rapper previously known as Kanye West and former President Trump tonight following their dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Ye recently announcing his second bid for the White House. News Nation’s Joe Khalil joining us live from DC. Joe, where is this outrage coming from?

Well, it really centers around one person who was at this dinner, Nick Fuentes. And if you’re familiar with him you know there’s a history there of antisemitic and white supremacist language. Former President Trump described this whole thing as impromptu that Kanye West called him and said, “Hey, I’m coming to dinner and I’m bringing three friends.” But today he’s getting a lot of heat for that decision, not just from his critics, but also from some allies. Concern and confusion rippling through both sides of the aisle. Former President Trump getting criticized for hosting a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home with the artist formerly known as Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a far right commentator with a history of espousing and promoting white supremacist and antisemitic ideas.

I think the thing that Trump was most perturbed about me asking him to be my vice president when Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose. I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history?

Ye posting this video to Twitter titled Mar-a-Lago Debrief, explaining he asked if Trump would be his vice presidential running mate at the dinner after Ye announced his own presidential bid on social media. Ye also said Trump was “really impressed with Fuentes,” prompting responses like this. Republican, Chris Christie, a potential Republican challenger to Trump calling the meeting with Fuentes “just awful, unacceptable conduct.” And a Trump ally, his former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman said, “To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this.” He says, “Visits from antisemites like Ye and human scum like Fuentes are unacceptable.” And when asked about it president Biden said, only this.

Mr. President, what do you think of Donald Trump having dinner with a white nationalist?

You don’t want to hear what I think.

Trump himself confirmed the dinner happened, but distanced himself from Fuentes posting to truth socials saying, “Ye was asking me for advice. We discussed to a lesser extent politics where I told him he should definitely not run for president.” Ending the message with, “Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.” Last week Trump spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference saying as president he worked to combat antisemitism.

And I just grew up with a great fondness and a great feeling for Jewish people and for Israel.

The backlash comes at a time when organizations that track antisemitic violence and threats say they’re seeing a spike. FBI director Christopher Wray, said last week…

About 63% of religious hate crimes overall are motivated by antisemitism, and that’s targeting a group that just makes up about 2.4% of the American population. So it’s a community that deserves and desperately needs our support.

Trump now facing multiple layers of headwinds after many of his handpicked candidates underperformed in the midterms. And his main GOP rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to rise. New Twitter CEO Elon Musk, just the latest influential figure to say yes, he’d support DeSantis in 2024. Now, to be clear, Musk never said that he wouldn’t support former President Trump. Only saying when asked yes or no if he would support Ron DeSantis and he said yes, he would. Of course, that presumes that Ron DeSantis becomes the GOP nominee and to do that he would have to go through the former president who has already announced his candidacy for 2024. Natasha.

Appreciate the clarification. Joe Khalil live for us in DC. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Go to newsnationnow.com to find News Nation on your television provider and don’t forget to click the red subscribe button below to get more of News Nation’s fact driven, unbiased coverage.