Kanye West Calls Matt Lauer Abusive in Concert Rant

Kanye West’s tweets are free-associative enough, but when he’s not limited to 140 characters, things get wild. During a concert in New York Tuesday night, West compared Today show host Matt Lauer, whom he had a controversial interview with earlier this month, to a child abuser. “Matt Lauer’s not a bad guy, I’m sure,” the rapper said to the backing of organ chords. “But if you are a child that's being abused by your parent… or you are a girl being abused by your boyfriend… the greatest win that you could ever have is for that person to hit you in public. You see! You see! I told you!" West also defended his apology to George W. Bush, saying, “There is no leader in history that… didn’t get villainized that way who didn’t get killed at war or commit suicide. So any man that lives through it deserves one moment of redemption.” And in regard to Taylor Swift and the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards scandal, West said, “Taylor never came to my defense in any interview… and rode it and rode it."