Musician, businessman and Kardashian family member Kanye West visited President Trump at the White House Thursday and his televised monologue in praise of the president left many conservatives cheering and many liberals fuming.
But why are people so invested in this story? Why did this presidential meeting trigger shock waves throughout the media landscape?
Longtime syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock is also a founding member of the Project 21 black leadership network and thinks the meeting is very significant, and that's why the criticism of West was less about what he said and more about the fact he was there at all.
"People didn't come out and say, 'Kanye is mistaken, He has his facts wrong. Gee, he should have thought about this and he didn't.' The attacks are so much more personal, so much more deep, so much more profound, calling him a token negro, 'this is what happens when negroes don't read.' Don Lemon at CNN said his appearance at the White House was like a minstrel show. I mean these are awful, horrible words," said Murdock.
Murdock says we never the same vitriol when white commentators say controversial things.
"They'll explain the disagreement but they won't say, 'Oh, you're a bad white person,' or 'You're letting down the Caucasian race,' or "You're white trash.' You never have that. They just disagree with your ideas. In this case, the concept was to eviscerate Kanye West completely, from head to toe and inside out," said Murdock.
West can be a loose cannon to put it mildly. In 2005, he stood on national television during a Hurricane Katrina relief special and declared, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." The intervening 13 years have involved interrupting awards shows, comparing himself to Jesus Christ, and other bizarre statements.
Even on Thursday, West offered ideas ranging from "time is a myth" to declaring his statements are not sound bites and must be appreciated like fine wine.
So is Kanye West really the person conservatives want to hitch their wagons to? Murdock says that's not the issue.
"I don't think you need a full alignment. I don't think anybody says that Kanye West needs to become chairman of the Republican National Committee. I'm not recommending that.
"I do think it's perfectly fair for Republicans and people on the right to say he has a right to speak his mind without being attacked the way he was and being so personally disemboweled by the left," said Murdock.
But what's behind the fierce denunciation? Murdock is convinced the Democrats fear West could cause many black people to reconsider their political loyalties and that is an existential threat to the Democratic Party.
"If eight out of ten black Democrats stick with the Democrats and two out of ten switch over and vote for the GOP, it's absolutely curtains for the Democrats. They cannot afford to lose that large a share of the most loyal part of their base," said Murdock.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Deroy Murdock's analysis and why he thinks just a small defection of black voters next month could make a huge difference in the midterm elections.
