The View Says Kanye West ‘Mental Health Issues’ Aren’t a ‘Pass’ for Antisemitic Behavior: ‘It’s a Cop Out’

One of the Hot Topics on Friday’s show was West getting dropped by his talent agency after a Super Bowl commercial promoting his Yeezy website … which was selling nothing but swastika t-shirts. The ad came after disturbing posts to X in which he said he was a Nazi and professed his love for Adolf Hitler.

Kicking off the discussion, moderator Joy Behar pointed out that he’s been making “vile” comments like this for years, before wondering why there hasn’t been more outrage over him in the past.

“There should be and I’m glad we’re talking about it on this show because I feel like, for some reason, Kanye’s been given a pass,” said conservative panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin.

“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, who aren’t saying bigoted, racist, antisemitic things,” she continued. “I think it’s a cop-out.”

“I think he needs to be called out, especially on the heels of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust on October 7 … There’s a rise globally in antisemitism,” said Griffin, who then pointed out how West has “more social media followers than there are Jews in the world.”

That, she said, was particularly dangerous because it does “he does have influence, there are people who are looking to him — especially young people. He should not be normalized, he needs to be called out.”

Sara Haines, meanwhile, said she doesn’t understand “how he’s allowed to walk red carpets,” calling out his recent appearance at the Grammy Awards alongside a basically-naked Bianca Censori.

“You keep seeing him pop up and it’s not crazy fringe things, it’s literally at the Grammys,” she continued, before accusing him of doing nothing but sowing division.

“That’s what I don’t understand. There’s something really wrong going on here with Kanye West,” said Sunny Hostin, who added that “the African American community and the Jewish community have always been tied because both communities have been so oppressed.”

“Oppressed people must fight together,” she continued. “So the fact that a Black man would be so openly vile and antisemitic, it’s just so jarring to me.”

Like Griffin, she also didn’t want to “blame it on mental health issues,” agreeing with her cohost’s reasoning. “As you mentioned, there are plenty of people with mental illness who aren’t saying bigoted things,” Sunny concluded.

The conversation ended with Ana Navarro saying West clearly “doesn’t want to be helped” and only “wants to continue being who he is” — prompting Haines to add, “And we need to continue to call it out because it’s completely hate filled awfulness and I don’t care who you are, you don’t get away with it.”

Former fellow cohost Meghan McCain also slammed West on X, calling him a “repugnant, vile piece of garbage.” While she deleted the post, a rep confirmed to EW that it “was an accident” and she still thinks “he’s a vile pig.”

West recently opened up about his mental health in an interview with The Download podcast, in which he said he was misdiagnosed as bipolar, when he actually has a form of autism. He then explained how that can have an impact on his behavior and why it sometimes seems like he digs in on controversial stances or pivots in new directions spontaneously.