Kanye West’s surprise 2020 White House bid has certainly caused reactions — but perhaps none as fiery as between these two.
Debra Messing and Nina Turner have been going at it on Twitter, the former branded the racist leader of the Karen coalition, the latter being branded bitter and partially to blame for violence, abuse and murder of Black people.
The drama all kicked off on July 4, when the “Will & Grace” star, replying to a tweet theorizing Kanye’s recently declared presidential run was a ploy to get Donald Trump reelected, agreed the rapper was attempting to take young Black voters away from Joe Biden, branding the move “disgusting”:
The following day, the former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair took notice, and said the actress’s suggestion Kanye could influence the Black vote was racist.
But Messing clapped back, accusing Turner of trying to grab the spotlight, doubling down on her assertion Trump and Kanye were in cahoots, adding: “I thought you were smarter than than [sic] Nina.”
A follower then waded in supporting Messing, claiming “Nina Turner trashing Hillary right up to election day knowing Donald Trump was the alternative is all you need to know about her. Full Stop.”
Messing then took the fight to the floor, accusing Turner of helping “ensure the increased violence, abuse, and murders of blk ppl by trashing the only alternative to Trump.”
She then tagged Turner in another Tweet that suggested that anyone who didn’t see Kanye’s move as racist “needed to recalibrate their own worldview”:
With that, Turner went off on Messing, branding her the “leader of the Karen coalition”, trying to play the “Black manager friend card”, and accusing her of attempting to create conflict between two female black leaders.
She concluded: “Lastly, Don’t You Ever Fix Your Mouth to Question My Love for My People. I have been a Black Woman All My Life!”
But Messing wasn’t even nearly done. She lashed back, claiming Turner’s “historical bitterness” over Bernie losing the election had skewed her reading comprehension, calling her accusations “laughable”.
“I am not interested in supporting this bit of drama you have constructed,” she tweeted. “I sure hope you have learned from 2016, and will put our country and the safety of her most marginalized, first, this time.”
Then on Wednesday, Turner went all out and point blank called Messing a racist, posting a long Twitter thread in the voice of the actress.
“Now I’m a bitter Black woman who can’t comprehend, @DebraMessing you are well out of your depth baby. You need to read this moment, but you can’t even do that. Stop using other people to cover for your ineptness”
“Repeat after me: I @DebraMessing am a racist and I need help. I use my white privilege and stereotypes as attributes for Black women I don’t agree with. For Black women I like, I use the ‘Black friend card’ and demand that they go check another Black woman.”
When one of Turner’s followers posted a link to an essay entitled “I support strong women of color unless they are politically to my left” and tagged Messing, Turner retweeted with: “OMG Truth!!”, before retweeting several attacks on the actress.
Even Susan Sarandon, a long-time Bernie Supporter, and almost-as-long-time sparring partner of Messing’s, retweeted Turner’s post calling the “Will & Grace” star the “leader of the Karen coalition”.
Debra seemed to close her side of the argument with a quote attributed to Kanye himself appearing to back up her argument:
Then, five days after the bitter scrap began, she posted what may, possibly, could be, might be interpreted as an olive branch (although she didn’t tag Turner): a clip of Bernie Sanders praising Joe Biden.
“THIS is something to CELEBRATE! #ProgressiveWave2020 #Biden2020,” she wrote.
