Ana Kasparian
Role at the time: Executive producer and host, The Young Turks
Statement summary
Ana Kasparian said Robert Kraft's own conflicts of interest, including past ties to Jeffrey Epstein and AIPAC donations, made his decision to bar Macklemore unsurprising and worse than anything Macklemore had said.
“While it's true that he owns the stadium and gets to decide who can and can't be there to perform, the fact of the matter is he also has all sorts of conflicts of interest that led to the decision he made in the first place. He had some pretty deep ties to Jeffrey Epstein... He's a huge donor to AIPAC and in fact has even received some sort of award from the state of Israel. So it doesn't surprise me that Robert Kraft is going to Robert Kraft. I think that his whole being is far more disgusting than anything I've ever heard Macklemore say.”
Full 1:03:44 episode published to the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel on September 16, 2026. The episode description lists the panel as Ana Kasparian, Wajahat Ali, Joe Walsh and Luai Ahmed, with former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Naftali Bennett appearing later. Morgan hands to Ali at 23:30; Ali speaks without interruption until 26:12, moving from a defence of Macklemore and criticism of Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran into the argument that the episode marks a generational and cultural turn against Israel. Morgan replies at 26:14 that Israel's popularity has been "consistently plunging." The quoted wording is our transcription of the video audio. Ali's characterisations of Israel's conduct and of public opinion are his own.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Kasparian explicitly says Kraft's conduct is 'far more disgusting than anything I've ever heard Macklemore say,' and separately argued Macklemore's on-stage comments were comparatively tame -- an explicit defense of Macklemore's conduct in this case.