CNN’s Brian Stelter says controversial comments from hip hop mogul Kanye West are a “gift to racists.”

“Kanye West has been a brilliant entertainer,” Mr. Stelter said Wednesday on “CNN Money with Maggie Lake,” “but right now he’s acting like a gift to racists, because he is saying comments, he is saying these sorts of ridiculous things that are usually promoted by white nationalists, by fringe groups, by fringe individuals mostly on the internet that promote racist ideas.”

Kanye must not realize it, but his rants are a gift to racists. https://t.co/kekh17iAIt — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 2, 2018

Mr. West has come under scrutiny recently for posts on Twitter that appeared to support President Trump and conservatives.

He was pictured wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, tweeted his support of African-American conservative pundit Candice Owens and said the mob “can’t make me not love” Mr. Trump.

Then in an interview with TMZ on Tuesday, Mr. West said black Americans made a “choice” to remain enslaved.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years,” he said. “For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”

In a series of tweets that were later deleted, he said he was talking mental slavery.

“My point is for us to have stayed in that position even though the numbers were on our side means that we were mentally enslaved,” one tweet read.

“They cut out our tongues so we couldn’t communicate to each other,” he said in another post. “I will not allow my tongue to be cut.”

“[I]n school we need to learn how magic Johnson built his business not always about the past,” he said in another tweet, which was not deleted. “Matter fact I’ve never even heard of a high school class that presents future ideas.”

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