Kanye West’s controversial statements from Saturday’s ‘Drink Champs’ interview may have him facing defamation charges at the hands of George Floyd’s family. Senior Editor James R. Sanders reports.
Famed civil rights attorney Lee Merritt posted a statement on Sunday via social media, “While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.”
This is in direct response to the comments that West made on Saturday’s airing of his third appearance on RevoltTV’s Drink Champs podcast. During the interview, West said that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose. This has of course been proven to be false. Floyd’s case was ruled a homicide and his murderer, ex-police officer Derek Chauvin remains in prison.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out… They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” West said.
The podcast is hosted by rapper N.O.R.E and DJ EFN.
West is never not making headlines, but his most recent moments of contention have involved the drops from his Yeezy fashion line which included a White Lives Matter tee shirt — which he casted a few Black models to wear down the runway. Candace Owens, too, donned the shirt in a now viral image.
West made several antisemitic remarks during the interview which is a continuation of a series of social media posts he released last week. During the podcast, he said that the manufacturer of the white lives matter tees, Dov Charney, who is also Jewish refuses to release the shirts after West’s “Death con 3 on Jewish People” tweet. Charney, according to West, encouraged him to go to the Holocaust Museum to which West responded, he should visit Planned Parenthood, “our Holocaust Museum.”