Despite a brutal dragging from people on social media, news correspondents, and White House officials, Nicki Minaj has found some form of support following a bizarre anecdote on Twitter about the COVID vaccination and a heated exchange with television host Joy-Ann Reid.
Conservative pundits Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have come to the defense of the rapper, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, for “standing up against” media figures who blasted her for spewing misinformation about adverse reactions to the vaccine.
On Monday, the “Seeing Green” emcee wrote in a Twitter post that her “cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent.” She added that his “testicles became swollen,” and his wife allegedly “called off the wedding.” She advised her fans not to be “bullied” into deciding on whether to get the shot.
Her native country of Trinidad and Tobago shut down those claims in a news conference. People like Reid and Meghan McCain also slammed the Grammy winner for using her “platform to encourage our community to not protect themselves and save their lives.” Nicki later fired back, calling Reid a “lying homophobic coon.”
The confrontation caught the attention of many, including Carlson and Owens, who discussed the blowback during a Tuesday episode of Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Owens credited the 38-year-old for showing people “in real time what these elitists actually think of them.”
She continued, “Look at the way they spoke down to her. ‘She’s stupid’ — the headlines were insane. The headlines were like, ‘She’s so dumb, she thinks it’s gonna make your testicles fall off.’” She also claimed that the Democratic Party thinks “people are stupid” and that they “like to come around every four years for the votes.”
“But at the end of the day, they think Nicki Minaj and all rappers are very stupid. And Nicki Minaj, right now, is proving them otherwise. She’s not afraid,” she added. “No, she’s definitely not afraid. She’s a savage, actually! I’m not on Twitter. It made me wanna get on Twitter. It was just so good,” Tucker chimed in.
“It’s not even about if the vaccine works, or whether it’s good for you, or her cousin’s friend’s testicles. It’s about whether you have dominion over your own body, whether you’re a free person, whether you’re a citizen and a human being,” he added.
The recent show of support has many people worried about the future of the rapper’s career including, one Twitter user who wrote, “So I see Nicki Minaj has basically turned into Kanye West LOL saying crazy stuff and now watching the right support her.”
They added, “When you have Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens supporting you you need to reevaluate your life.”
Owens showed the rapper further support in a nearly 10-minute video posted to her Instagram.
On Wednesday, Nicki announced that she would not be on Twitter following the backlash, claiming she was blocked. However, a spokesperson for Twitter told senior front page editor Phil Lewis that “Twitter did not take any enforcement action in the account.
