Kim Kardashian has denied being used by Donald Trump in his shallow attempts to come across as a competent, compassionate president instead of an incompetent, racist asshole.
In an interview that aired Thursday night, CNN’s Van Jones spoke with Kardashian about her role in Alice Johnson’s commuted sentence. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a non-violent first-time drug offense in 1996. Kardashian retweeted a Mic article about Johnson in November 2017, and since then has petitioned the White House to pardon Johnson. On Wednesday, Trump granted Johnson clemency.
“We cried, maybe, on the phone for like three minutes straight,” Kardashian said, voice breaking as she recalled giving the good news to Johnson. “Everyone was just crying.”
Jones presented Kardashian with the idea that Trump is using her as a “political pawn,” that Kardashian inadvertently endorsed him and he’s using her to give himself legitimacy.
Kardashian paused, then: “I think Kanye’s already given him legitimacy in that way.” She continued: “I was working on [the Alice Johnson] case before so I don’t think I would be used. At the end of the day, he heard me out, he got the job done, so what could he really use me for?”
The commutation was an act of compassion in a presidential sea of racism and policies that will punish more women like Johnson, trapping them in the same system. Still, Kardashian seems genuinely perplexed by how her good deed could be used for Trump’s ends. That part seems clear enough for those of us watching at home; she is, after all, now doing a round of press to celebrate the president’s benevolence, isn’t she?