AceShowbiz - Kanye West making anti-semitic comments isn't surprising for Van Lathan Jr. The media personality discussed Ye's controversy in the latest episode of the Ringer podcast "Higher Learning", noting that the rapper/designer made similar comments during his infamous interview with TMZ back in 2018.

According to Van, Ye professed his "love" for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during the interview, in which he also enraged people by saying that slavery was a "choice." The comments, however, were edited out of the final video.

"I already heard him say that stuff before at TMZ," Van told co-host Rachel Lindsay. "I mean, I was taken aback because that type of anti-semitic talk is disgusting. It's like, I'm taken aback any time anyone does that, right? But as far as [Kanye], I knew that that was in him because when he came to TMZ, he said that stuff and they took it out of the interview."

He went on to say, "If you look at what I said at TMZ, it goes from me saying like, 'Hey Kanye, there's real-life, real-world implication to everything that you just said there.' What I say after that-if I can remember, it's been a long time-was, actually, '12 million people actually died because of Nazism and Hitler and all of that stuff,' and then I move on to talk about what he said about slavery."

He also noted that the "12 million people" part was taken out of the final cut. "The reason they took it out is because it wouldn't have made sense unless they kept in Kanye saying he loved Hitler and the Nazis, which he said when he was at TMZ," Van explained. "He said something like, 'I love Hitler, I love Nazis.' Something to that effect when he was there. And they took it out of the interview for whatever reason. It wasn't my decision."

Kanye has been making headlines for his anti-semitic comments that got him banned from Twitter and Instagram. He first made such statements in an Instagram post while responding to Sean "P. Diddy" Combs pleading with Ye to stop promoting the "White Lives Matter" T-shirt. "This ain't a game. Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me," the 45-year-old emcee wrote to the fellow hip-hop star.

Ye doubled down the sentiment in a tweet which read, "I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE ... The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also ... You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda."

Unsurprisingly, his antics drew backlash from people, including celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Grande, Mandy Moore, Michael Rapaport, Meghan McCain, Sarah Silverman, Maria Shriver and Jack Antonoff.