A pair of upcoming concerts by Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – at Raymond James Stadium has created a firestorm of protest from elected officials over the rapper's antisemitic statements.
At the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg on Monday, Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody led a bipartisan group of officials, Holocaust survivors and local Jewish leaders in condeming a decision to book the performances at the publicly owned Tampa facility.
They spoke during a news conference in the museum's lobby, between a boxcar used to transport European Jews to concentration camps and a boat used by Danish fishermen to rescue Jews from the Nazis.
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"Kanye West has been an outspoken antisemite and has even called himself a Nazi," Scott said. "That's not something we support in Florida, and it's certainly not something worthy of supporting by our tax dollars. Raymond James Stadium is a publicly funded venue. Taxpayers should have a say in what happens. It's actually their money."
Scott, speaking behind a podium that read "Don't. Fund. Antisemitism," said Ye should not be given a platform in the stadium, which is owned by Hillsborough County and operated by the Tampa Sports Authority, a state-designated public agency that receives funding from the county and city.
"If they allow this, then what's the next event? And if they're not held accountable, if you're Jewish in this city, in this state, how do you feel? You feel like a second-class citizen, that people don't give a damn," Scott said. "We have a clear moral duty to reject hate at every level."
The sports authority issued the following statement in response to the news conference: "We condemn antisemitism from any source. However, we also respect free speech rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, even when we disagree with that speech. In addition, no taxpayer money is being used for staging the Ye concerts. To suggest otherwise, is false."
Ye is scheduled to perform at Raymond James Stadium on June 26 and 28.
In response, the museum will have free admission from June 26 to 28.
Moody said there's a fine line between free speech and hate speech.
"When the Tampa Sports Authority came back to the concerns that were raised in the midst of this hostile climate, in the midst of attacks against Jewish Americans, when they came back when the concerns were raised and said it's free speech and it's contractual obligations, and that's it," she said.
"They hid behind free speech and contractual obligations. The citizens of Tampa Bay, the taxpayers of Tampa Bay deserve so much better."
"It is wrong for Kanye West to use a public facility as a platform, knowing his hatred toward Jews. It is wrong, and that's why we are here today."Leo Terrell, an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice
Also speaking was Democrat Charlie Crist, the former Florida governor and congressman who is running to be mayor of St. Petersburg.
"Is this somehow right versus left?" Crist said. "Absolutely not. This is right versus wrong. We need to call it out. We need to show up. We need to stand up for what is right."
Scott defeated Crist in the 2014 gubernatorial election.
“We’re here standing together because this is bigger than politics,” said Scott, who began pushing the sports authority to cancel the concert in letter earlier this month.
ALSO READ: Sen. Rick Scott urges Tampa Sports Authority to cancel Ye shows at Raymond James Stadium
Scott was also joined by Leo Terrell, an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. He chairs the federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which is in the midst of a 15-city National Awareness & Action Tour.
"It is wrong for Kanye West to use a public facility as a platform, knowing his hatred toward Jews," Terrell said. "It is wrong, and that's why we are here today."
"TSA chose to book someone who didn't make just an off-hand comment. He built a brand around antisemitic rhetoric. He has apologized, but apology alone is not the same as demonstrated change, and we're not there yet. "Joe Probasco, past president of the Tampa Jewish Community Center
Tampa is the next U.S. stop on the Ye Live Concert Tour since playing at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in April. Ticket demand for the original June 26 show was strong enough that a second performance was added.
In recent days, tour dates were also announced for the Alamodome in San Antonio and Soldier Field in Chicago.
Since L.A., the tour has been overseas, where it played before more than 100,000 fans last week in Istanbul. However, it has faced strong resistance in Europe, including numerous government interventions and cancellations over his antisemitic statements and a track titled “Heil Hitler.”
The British government recently barred Ye from entering England for a performance. Ministries and stadium hosts in France, Switzerland, Italy and Poland also canceled performances, emphasizing that antisemitism cannot be dismissed as entertainment in a region scarred by the Holocaust.
ALSO READ: Ye, formerly Kanye West, apologizes for antisemitism in Wall Street Journal ad
Among the most cited examples of Ye's antisemitic statements was in an October 2022 tweet that said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” which was widely condemned as echoing harmful conspiracy theories about Jewish influence and control.
During an interview a month later, he praised Adolf Hitler and said he “liked Hitler.” Around the same period, he shared Nazi-associated imagery and described himself as a Nazi, leading to suspensions on social media platforms and canceled partnerships and shows.
Ye, who legally changed his name in 2021, apologized for such statements in January in a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal, stating that his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”
Joe Probasco, past president of the Tampa Jewish Community Center, said the concert was not a First Amendment issue, but one of "timing and tone deafness of the moment we're in."
"TSA chose to book someone who didn't make just an off-hand comment. He built a brand around antisemitic rhetoric," he said of Ye. "He has apologized, but apology alone is not the same as demonstrated change, and we're not there yet.
"So the question isn't whether TSA can bring him here. The question is whether now is the right time to book him, and whether waiting for real sustained change would have been the better choice for this community."
