Talking to The Daily Beast, Jimmy Kimmel opened up about his recent interview with Kanye West, in which he asked the rapper if he believes Donald Trump cares about black people. When West hesitated to answer, Kimmel cut to a commercial break, prompting criticism when the subject wasn’t returned to post-commercial.
“I think Kanye is kind of in a perpetual state of being interviewed and he shares his thoughts constantly,” Kimmel said. “So the idea that he needed to come up with the answer right there on the spot isn’t necessarily something I agree with. I think he doesn’t feel the same type of pressure that most people feel in a situation like that. And I think it’s a question that I hope he will answer eventually. But to force an answer out of somebody isn’t necessarily the way to go.”
Explaining the cut to the break, Kimmel said, “I went to commercial because the segment was supposed to be eight minutes long and we were already at 10 minutes. I didn’t have time to pick another leg of the conversation up there.”
He later added, “I felt that his silence answered the question in some ways. And I also know that if Kanye wanted to continue on a subject, then he is not shy about continuing on that subject. I also had a lot of areas I wanted to cover. I didn’t want to spend the whole interview on one thing.”
West himself commented on the matter on Twitter after the show, explaining he “wasn’t given a chance to answer the question.”
Read the full interview over at The Daily Beast.
In other news, Kanye recently gave fans their first look at the YEEZY 700 V3.
