Rapper Kanye West holds his first rally in support of his presidential bid in North Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. July 19, 2020. REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo

US President Joe Biden on Friday issued a harsh condemnation of antisemitism following rapper Kanye West’s Thursday appearance on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-laden talk show InfoWars.

“The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “Silence is complicity.”

In the course of a nearly three hour long interview conducted entirely in a black hood, West, who now goes by the name Ye, made a series of antisemitic rants including saying, “I like Hitler” and “the Holocaust is not what happened.” Jones, who filed for bankruptcy Friday citing the $1.5 billion court judgment against him for lying about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, at times appeared uncomfortable with West’s embrace of Hitler and Nazism. “Well, I have to disagree with that,” Jones said in response to Kanye saying, “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”

West’s embrace of antisemitism has taken on national political significance following West’s Thanksgiving-week dinner at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump. Trump’s decision to have dinner with West and Holocaust-denying alt-right figure Nick Fuentes has drawn criticism from both political parties. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday said that there is “no room” for antisemites in the Republican Party. “And anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” he said.

New York City Council Minority Whip Inna Vernikov (R), whose 48th District has a large Orthodox Jewish population, on Thursday singled out Trump by name. “[Donald Trump] we look to you to condemn [Kanye West] in the strongest terms. Same way you lashed out at him ‘cuz he’s running for Pres., you must call out this madman, who just praised Hitler. Your silence on this as candidate for President of the United States is not an option!” she said, using the Twitter handles of both figures.

Trump last week posted on his Truth Social platform that he and West had a good time at the dinner. “We got along great, [West] expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’ Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?” He has so far refused to condemn the rapper.