Kim Kardashian recklessly put First Lady dreams before Kanye's health by endorsing 2020 run, Piers Morgan says
Piers Morgan has slammed Kim Kardashian's emotional defense of her husband Kanye West, saying she doesn't deserve to be called "brave" as she was "selfish" when she endorsed the billionaire rapper's bid to run for president.
In a scathing op-ed for the Daily Mail, the British journalist and TV presenter recalled how the beauty mogul had lashed out at the media for "trying to demonize my husband" after he fired his manager and lawyer and professed his love for President Donald J. Trump.
"So quick to label him as having mental health issues for just being himself when he has always been expressive is not fair. Mental Health is no joke and the media needs to stop spitting that out so casually. Bottom line," she wrote at the time.
But according to Morgan, there was a stark difference in Kim's reaction after her husband's latest outburst at his South Carolina rally and later on Twitter.
"First, let me acknowledge that it was good to see her finally speaking about Kanye's mental illness," Morgan began. "I urged her to do something about his humiliating public self-implosion, in a column I posted on Monday, and she did. It even emerged that she had tried that same day to get Kanye the medical treatment he so clearly needs, something I specifically urged her to do."
The 'Good Morning Britain' host also agreed that being bipolar could potentially cause huge stress to any family with a member suffering from it. "And she's right that Kanye is a sick man who deserves our compassion and empathy, even if there's something vaguely ridiculous about a Kardashian asking for privacy given how cynically and ruthlessly they've commercialized every aspect of their private lives for the past decade," he noted.
However, Morgan said none of Kim's "eloquent words" yesterday gave her a pass for her "complicit behavior" after Kanye declared his candidacy on July 5, adding that it was "obviously the very last thing anyone suffering from bi-polar should be doing."
Morgan recalled how Kanye had himself described what he experienced during a bipolar "episode" in May last year. "When you're in this state, you're hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone now is an actor. Everything's a conspiracy," Kanye told David Letterman on his Netflix show 'My Next Guest Needs No Introduction' at the time. "You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you're being recorded. You feel all these things. You feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don't trust anyone."
Morgan said anyone "suffering such episodes should not be President of the United States". He argued that Kim was complicit after having enthusiastically endorsed her husband's bid on the same day of his announcement, and later retweeting a video of the Yeezy founder explaining how to register to vote for him.
"These were both very significant contributions to his campaign, given that Kim has 65 million followers on Twitter alone," he wrote, before alleging that "they were also an outrageously irresponsible act by a woman who put the gleeful thought of possibly becoming 'First Lady' above the country's national interests."
Morgan said he agreed with Kim when she said her husband's bipolar disorder shouldn't "diminish or invalidate his dreams, no matter how big or unobtainable they may feel to some," but said it doesn't mean he should run for president.
The TV presenter said he was not perpetuating any "stigma" around mental illness and that he sincerely hoped Kanye got the help he needed. However, he proceeded to attack his wife nonetheless. "So before everyone goes overboard with their cheers for Kim Kardashian's 'inspiring courage' in speaking out about her husband's mental illness, remember that she vilified the media as liars for saying the same thing two years ago, and she was prepared to put her own chilling ambition before Kanye's health and America's interests to back his presidential run," Morgan wrote.
"Sorry, but that's not something I feel like cheering," he concluded.