It’s difficult for people to give Kim Kardashian credit for anything. She does a lot of shady, dumb stuff, of course, but even when she does something good, or even when she’s legitimately the victim of a crime, people still find a way to criticize her, blame her, yell at her, whatever. Of course the issue of presidential pardons should NOT work this way, where a celebrity goes to the White House to personally lobby the president for one particular person to be pardoned. On the governmental side of this situation, of course it’s awful. But on the celebrity side of this, I find it very telling that so many people still don’t want to give Kim Kardashian any credit for anything. Because of Kim’s interest and actions, a woman is now free.
Kim spoke to CNN’s Van Jones about the process of getting a commutation for Alice Marie Johnson. Van Jones took her seriously, and Kim answered the questions seriously, about the process of setting up meetings and calls with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and then personally lobbying Donald Trump. He even called her on her cell phone to tell her that he was signing the commutation for Johnson. Jones asked Kim if she feels like Trump was using her, or will use her. Her answer was interesting:
Speaking with CNN’s Van Jones in an interview that aired Thursday, Kim Kardashian, 37, responded to criticism that she now endorses the president after he accepted her months-long campaign for Johnson’s freedom.
“I think Kanye’s already given him legitimacy in that way,” Kardashian West said, referring to her rapper husband’s public support for Trump, even calling the commander-in-chief his “brother” in April. “I was working on this before. I don’t think I would be used. At the end of the day, he heard me out. We got the job done. What could he really use me for?”
I think that’s naive, but in other ways, she’s right – what would he use her for that he isn’t already using Kanye for? Trump brags to his Deplorables that Kanye is helping him with black voters, but that’s all it is: a dumb brag from a thin-skinned narcissist. Kim’s politics were and are well known – it’s no secret she voted for Hillary Clinton, that she supports reproductive freedom and gun control, and standing next to Donald Trump does not mean she’s suddenly going to vote straight-Republican. She used Trump more than anything else. Here’s the CNN video. Superficial note: her lips are really messed up.
Photos courtesy of Trump’s Twitter, WENN.
She and Kayne both are being used and they are too dumb to see it.
THIS! ^
Totally. What a naif.
I don’t think they are dumb. Kim and Kanye are very manipulated in everything they do. They played dumb to make the orange one and family feel clever.
Exactly their actions are calculated.
Kayne yes but Kim, am not so sure – she’s quite manipulative herself and it seems to me that she made him (EZ) think he was using her. She played on the notion that EZ has that Kayne is helping him win over black voters – its not true but don’t him him that.
Plus he’s desperate to have celebs ‘kiss the hand’, given that most avoid him like the plaque and none would come to his inauguration.
Meh, Kim and Donald used each other to mutually benefit from the situation. I’m sure Kim wanted to help the woman, but something needed to be done for their brand post- slavery is a choice meltdown. Even Kanye admitted Kim was freaking out about losing their fortune because of his rants and pro trump raves. Donald can always use a tabloid headline and now act like tackled prison reform. So no, it’s not exactly like Kim was used here out right cause she was using the situation too to benefit.
People who exist in this mindset and go through life this way are among the most harmful types of people. It’s creepy. Gaslighting, all forms of abuse and worse arise from this … creepy manipulative daily life.
I think they’re all horrible.
Anything is possible for a price. The kardashians will never turn down $
“I think Kanye’s already given him legitimacy in that way,” Kardashian West said, referring to her rapper husband’s public support for Trump, even calling the commander-in-chief his “brother” in April. “I was working on this before. I don’t think I would be used. At the end of the day, he heard me out. We got the job done. What could he really use me for?”
That paragraph right there proves how dangerously stupid she and her husband are.
“I don’t think I could be used” Well I guess that’s the end of the story Kim! He almost kind of did the thing you wanted, so now all is right with the world and you can start heading up to the WH to hang out with your new buddies all the time. What a f*cking moron.
PS. You might have been working on this before, but a TON of people have been working on it for YEARS and neither of you felt compelled to bring that up because really, how could you get sole credit otherwise?
Preach, Grabbyhands.
I will never understand the pass this awful, venal woman and her awful, venal family get on here.
Praising your words, both of you
@grabbyhands: Well said, and I entirely agree! I find it daunting and confounding that people are actually giving Kim CREDIT for this, when she is *not* the only one whose worked for it by a long shot, just the newest and, of course, the most famous. She’s not about to now concern her vapid, self absorbed self with prison reform, other individual prisoners wanting pardons, or with anyone except herself and her “brand.” This simply made her more relevant–THAT is what was in this for Kim, a raised profile. I doubt she gives a damn about this woman, it was, as it was with trump, all self promotion. That she doesn’t even think to give Alice Johnson’s other allies/ advocates credit is, of course, no surprise. After all, being Kim, she basically pretends to have gotten the woman’s sentence commuted single handedly. She’s a dim witted narcissist just like Trump (though not as cruel) and I’m sure they are both very pleased–for themselves.
EXACTLY.
Plus who can take her seriously when she can’t even describe “her work” or the work that OTHER people did for years prior.
Her response is like any other reply she has to routine questions asked about her baby/sisters/mom/Kanye: “the stars were aligned” “liiiike waiting” “i said omg babe i have to call you back”.
And …”I was literally starstruck by the oval office”?
Omg.
And she already had great lips. Now they’ve veering towards Pete Burns territory.
I think people are transferring a lot of their anger at Trump onto Kim in this case. I mean a reality star that became famous on the back of a sex-tape basically swanned into the White House and had a meeting with the President on an issue that she never before advocated for and has not worked for in any way. And she achieves what legitimate organizations have been working diligently for for years because the President likes the attention.
That’s not on HER. That’s on this President.
She spoke to his narcissism and his childish need to preen in front of cameras with any celebrity that is available. She used HIM and he let her.
Alice Johnson is free. Let Kim have the fucking credit, it’s not like it matters in the big picture. President Trump was never seriously going to consider prison reform – he was always only going to do a splashy publicity stunt like this. Kim just got there first.
That’s my thinking too. She basically took advantage of his pathetic need for attention and he ate it right up with a bigly huge smile. That makes HIM look bad, not her. A good thing was done because of Kim and she can take credit for that.
But it’s fucked up that years of work by “nobodies” mattered nothing until a famous woman waltzed in and played up to Bigly’s weaknesses. That’s not how the system is supposed to work. Pardons aren’t supposed to be dished out to whoever can bat their eyelashes and tell the president how wonderful he is the best.
Exactly. You put it so much better than I did!
I really think that getting lost in the discussion over wether Kim deserves any credit loses sight of the fact that the President is not interested in meaningful reform and thinks that clemency for one person is somehow a great thing.
I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who is frothing at the mouth over Kim’s role in all of this while ignoring the Bigly problem in the White House.
So this has nothing to do with the primary elections coming up in a few months or with the midterm elections that just happened in several states?? Sorry but this is not just about Trump being a vain narcissist. What ever anyone thinks of him, he knows how to play hard and dirty to gain any advantage. His life depends on Republicans staying in power in congress. If pardoning one old, grandma is the trick to garner him more popular approval outside of his base than he’ll easily do it with a smile. He knows his base won’t abandon him and that he’s got to this for survival.
Exactly. It’s all about media ratings and he knows that this will cement his run for a second term. Watch and see. And deplorables from all walks of life, rich and poor, will be able to say, see, he did something good for “prison reform.” It’s all about calculated optics. We can appreciate that she used the tools at her disposal to finesse this and be thankful for Johnson’s release while also recognizing that it could have a disastrous fallout in upcoming elections. Save one person but at what cost? What happens next and in the coming months will reveal…
This!
So this.
And quite honestly one day we should admit that Kim is not dumb about the media game, quite the opposite, like it or not, probably it’s hard to admit.
Oh she’s not dumb about working the media. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s a pro.
And although she did a good deed for one woman, there’s a much, much bigger picture here in which her “win” is helping Trump to further hurt many poc with contemptuous, restrictive laws and incarceration policies. As he fully intends to expand for profit prisons rather than reform them.
So in the big picture of national politics, the effects of Kim’s good deed is still naively self serving.
Of course he used her. He used her and the whole situation to show how “reasonable” and “generous” he can be. He got pictures with a celebrity in the Oval Office – and it wasn’t Ted Nugent.
In this whole thing I’m on the side of “Kim did a good thing but lets not act like she is a political mastermind playing Trump.” I don’t think trump is a political mastermind either. I think they are two people who love attention and in this situation, their love of attention worked to the advantage of someone else.
I have no problem with Kim. She seems like a sweet person and her kids are beautiful. If she would rein in the selfies, she would be alright by me. Using is par for the course in politics, Hollywood and even in our everyday lives at our everyday jobs. It isn’t always a bad thing. I would say in this case they used each other and in the end it benefited Ms. Johnson. Regardless, I’m sure M’s. Johnson is just glad to be free. Oh, Kim’s lips look ok. I’ve seen worse.
DSM … any version really would be the best way to answer this.
😄
Oh please God help me.
I don’t think Kim is all that sweet because she’s a chronic liar, and liars hurt people. She is also very self-absorbed, which is a harmful trait in a mother.
But in this case, I would give her some slack about not explicitly sharing the credit because it always hinges on the interviewer. If the interviewer didn’t directly ask her about who else worked on the project, then it won’t appear in the interview. Or she could be asked but the interview gets trimmed.
The people working on the project wanted Kim to be up there in front for a very good reason, so I doubt that they care. She’s the story, not them. That’s her role, to attract media attention. It’s most likely actually better for the rest to stay in the background.
She was used by various men & her mother for money soooooooo, yeah, she’s out of her depth here. I’m not saying that the outcome didn’t help the person involved, but she’s no Angelina Jolie and we all know it.
This^^
And she’s loving every second of it!
Front page of Washington Post this morning has article that sucking up to Trump never works. The other shoe will fall for KK and KW. Trump did this because they are celebrities and reality stars and I’m happy for Ms. Johnson. However, the appearance of trying to help a criminal justice system that unfairly targets AA with a justice department that has reinstituted harsh penalties for minor offenses is a non starter. Both got their photo op, she likes rich and Trump like porn stars, just leave it at that.
I saw this interview.I don’t know if she’s naive or just not very bright.
Lets please not forget that Alice was given CLEMENCY and was not pardoned – meaning that she will still be considered a felon, not be able to vote – etc. This was strategic on Trump’s team. I think we can agree they both used each other.
Also, I mentioned this in yesterday’s thread but the problem with celebs (only famous for reality tv and selfies) being at the forefront of this is that actual conversations about prison reform, what clemency means, etc. is being lost. Kim should get credit for this but she share the spotlight with someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.
Well, she did do the crime…
Yet he pardon Arpaio who also did the crime. So why not grant Arpaio clemency and not pardon him? Oh, yeah, rich, white man who believes in everything Trump believes in.
Listen, not that it matters, but I’m a black woman. Drugs have been the death of the black community, so I’m fine with her maintaining her felony status. The issue with her is the amount of time she received, no one is arguing that she shouldn’t have received time. She’s free. That’s what she wanted. I’m sure she can work for some non-profit helping to get people in her situation free.
I understand. My point is that either she should have been pardoned or Arpaio should have been granted clemency. Just seems unfair to me as Arpaio didn’t even have to do any time and Alice was harshly punished.
Are we going to give the same kudos to Dennis Rodman if something good comes out of the NK talks? He’s supposedly going to be there also. Good for her, here’s a cookie for helping, but I don’t believe it was totally because of her that Alice was released. Still waiting for Trump to pull the “See I released a POC, I’m not a racist” card (even though he did not pardon her). Trump can also brag how a Hillary supporter is now on his side. This: “I think Kanye’s already given him legitimacy in that way,” Kardashian West said,”. Kim seems to have no problem with Kanye giving Trump some legitimacy.
Well, Kim can’t do anything about the Kanye/Donald love feast anyway. Might as well accept it for what it is.
I imagine she knows she needed to tread carefully while working to release the great-grandma. This would not be the time to denounce Donald in public. She needed to play it neutral right now.
I believe that Kim Kardashian’s support for the cause of the Armenian community has been sincere and well-informed. I don’t believe this action for Alice is the same thing. I think it signals that she is involved in some bad business that will be exposed once we peel back the layers of Kanye’s involvement with Trump and the mob.
Wow, I want to hear more about this.
No one wants to give Kim credit for anything more than she deserves. She spoke to trump, he decided to commute Alice’s sentence after that (and I’m sure with other advisors who told him it was a great way to score brownie points), Alice is now free. Plenty of people gave Kim credit for that, but that’s where the praise ends understandly because that’s. all. she. did. I don’t see why people want others to extrapolate this one incident into now crowning her the bestest activist to ever was and absolving her of all her current, past, and future actions by her becoming a good person™️, but frankly it’s insulting to everyone else’s intelligence.
It’s also hard to see this as completely altruistic from her, because when has she ever done something completely altruistic in the past? Everything is quid pro quo with her. Everything. This is also not the first time she’s used a serious issue to deflect family actions, and it’s always rather convenient how she seems to remember these same issues whenever she personally is in trouble, but crickets whenever she’s personally fine.
To be honest I really don’t expect much after this in the way of real activism from her, and definitely not in the way of actual education on the topic because that would require sharing the stage and deferring to the groups that do know what they’re talking about. Donda’s House incident over the weekend showed her true colors on that. As for whatever this is now I expect PMK will now transition her into doing more of these “end justifies the means” social work, because it works for the people they care about most: themselves.
As for her not thinking she was used it’s already happened with the whole “trump pardoned alice cuz of Kim vs. trump commuted Alice” narrative right wingers are spinning. It’ll happen again when he signs off on some DOJ order Sessions will send to his desk decreasing rights for the wrongfully imprisoned/about to be even more. It’ll happen when he does something so absolutely foolish that’ll people will turn to her in anger and ask “Why weren’t you influential enough to stop xyz?” and then her reputation will end up taking the hit instead of his. Kanye’s Rep has been slowly poisoned ever since that photo op, and look where it is now meanwhile trump’s grinning his head off thinking that he’s definitely in with the blacks now. He’s used much smarter people he’s worked with there’s no reason to suggest why he wouldn’t do it to her.
Lynnie, it’s still so, so telling how some people were unable to see the racism and classism in her tweets toward Rhymefest and about the situation.
This.
Anyway….I see Trump is going to leave the G7 summitt early and miss the presentation about climate change because of course.
Good outcome, bad optics. Anyone but Trump? Par for the course. With Trump? What’s in it for him. He has shown himself to be without sense, thought, logic with almost all decisions, except how it directly affects him and his reputation. There is no sympathy for the actual person he just shoved into the spotlight. He is using this as an opportunity, and he’ll milk it, probably stupidly, and it will blow back into his ugly mug. This action showed he still is himself enamoured of celebrities and wants to be considered in their circle. Instead of a world leader. So he cherry picked a group of spoiled and entitled losers, and threw Alice in? Please. Give him no credit. She’s lucky. Like getting hit by lightning in my opinion. US prisons are overflowing with Alice Johnsons. Will they be given the same consideration? Would Johnson have if not for the KK spotlight? Nope. Nope nope nope.
This reads so cynical. But that’s what I am. Trump has done it to me. And in my beloved Canada, our largest most influential province just voted a Trumpwannabee into power as premier. Bourdain is gone, and I’m reeling. Yes, I’m so happy Alice Johnson is now free. But we mustn’t fool ourselves that this paves the way for anything good. It’s a blip on the radar.
Thanks for being here, Celebitchy. You’re a place to let out a little steam, into the ether.
I live in Toronto and I’m so worried. It’s going to take 20 years to clean up the mess the Conservatives about to make. I remember Mike Harris and this will be worse. Pride is on this month and since Rob Ford didn’t go, Doug won’t go either which sets a bad tone. We know white supremacist groups from Canada & the US funded that campaign and I’m worried about hate crimes. I have no idea what is going to happen.
I’m scared for our province as well. Unfortunately we had no good choices this time around.
In BC we are run by the NDP who can’t make a move without clearing it with the Green Party first. If they don’t agree, it won’t happen. Leadership is a joke here right now but afaik Premier Horgan isn’t a fan of Trump policies. As LAK said the other day, “gird your loins” the next few years are going to be tough.
Ugh.
But good for the great grandmother who got out. The only silver lining in this dubious association.
The second the camera snapped the photo you were being used.
And yeah, Kim used him to get this woman out. A woman who should be out of prison is out, that’s great.
But I think it’s pretty clear that what he’s using this picture for far outweighs that one good deed.
Agreed. Not a fair exchange. Pardoning ONE person is no sweat off his brow. He’s passing them out like they’re candy. Signing policy reforms is a whole other story.
Sorry folks. This is not about hating on Kim. The fact is She’s done NOTHING for actual prison reform. This one pardon for optics is not going to make his administration do an about face on the policies they’re pushing through.
TMZ has the letter Alice wrote to Kim (hmmmm wonder how they got that !). In it she compares Kim to Rosa Parks !!!! Why is Kim getting all the credit. There were countless people working on this case for years.
She is now on her 7th face change.
Trump already had plans to pardon or give Alice clemency.
He used her for the media attention, she use him for the media attention, it was mutual.
She did not provide him with any new information that his sizable staff didn’t already have access too.
Trying to win some African American approval…..
Oh honey…do you really think we are dumb enough to believe you truly don’t think Trump used you for publicity? Kim is the queen of publicity and knows full well what his intentions were.
What I hate is Kim saying nice things about Trump and seemingly supporting him now (probably because her husband does). This one good deed does not make up for all the other horrible, awful things he has said and done.
Side note – why is her skin color so off? Bad tan? Bad makeup?
it’s funny to me how incredibly average she is when she’s not in control of lighting and editing.