{"id":308635,"date":"2026-06-16T01:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308635\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T01:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:14:16","slug":"charlie-crist-joins-calls-to-cancel-ye-concert-in-tampa-over-antisemitic-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308635\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Crist joins calls to cancel Ye concert in Tampa over antisemitic remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Crist<\/a> is joining calls to cancel Ye\u2019s upcoming concerts at Raymond James Stadium, adding a prominent local Democratic voice to a bipartisan push against the Tampa performances over the artist\u2019s history of antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n

Crist, a former Governor and a current St. Petersburg mayoral candidate, appeared at a news conference at the Florida Holocaust Museum alongside U.S. Sen. Rick Scott<\/a>, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, Jewish community leaders and other officials calling for the Tampa Sports Authority<\/a> to block the shows.<\/p>\n

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is scheduled to perform at Raymond James Stadium<\/a> on June 26 and June 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is right versus wrong,\u201d Crist said. \u201cMy friend, Rick, is right. We need to call it out. We need to show up. We need to stand up and be there to stand up for what\u2019s right, what is fundamentally true, and what we know is evil and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s adds another voice to calls first raised by Scott, who previously sent a letter to the Tampa Sports Authority Board of Directors<\/a>\u00a0urging members not to \u201cplatform a hateful person pushing evil ideologies\u201d using taxpayer money and calling Ye\u2019s antisemitic comments \u201can affront to the values of the people of the Hillsborough community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott also cited the artist\u2019s more recent conduct that includes a 2025 Super Bowl ad directing viewers to merchandise featuring swastikas. He doubled down Monday, bringing a bipartisan group of elected officials and community leaders together to call on Tampa officials to cancel the concerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust do the right thing,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThis is so simple. We should never allow antisemitism anywhere, and we have to stand up against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay NOW<\/a> has also called for the cancellation of the concerts, urging the Sports Authority Board, Hillsborough County Commissioners, state lawmakers, Raymond James Stadium and local officials to \u201cimmediately cancel all support for this concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group argued that allowing the performances to move forward would send the wrong message at a time of heightened concern over antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Sports Authority has been caught between the public backlash and contractual concerns surrounding the scheduled performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TSA Chair Patrick Manteiga<\/a> previously told Florida Politics that Scott\u2019s letter triggered a wave of public emails<\/a> to the authority, including form emails and more personalized messages from residents. But he also warned that canceling the contract based only on objections to Ye\u2019s past statements could expose the authority to legal risk, indicating that they are \u201cprobably close to selling out 100,000 tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crist\u2019s involvement adds fuel to the fire, particularly as he campaigns in neighboring St. Petersburg. His appearance alongside Scott, who defeated him in the 2014 Governor\u2019s race, Moody and other officials also show that calls to cancel Ye\u2019s concerts over antisemitic remarks are bipartisan.<\/p>\n

The concerts remain scheduled for later this month.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Ed. Note: Michelle Todd Schorsch is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Crist is joining calls to cancel Ye\u2019s upcoming concerts at Raymond James Stadium, adding a prominent local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3853,3347,63134,124412,11708,3856,202,204,203,199,201,200,11187,121361],"class_list":["post-308635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-ashley-moody","tag-charlie-crist","tag-kanye-west","tag-patrick-manteiga","tag-raymond-james-stadium","tag-rick-scott","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-sports-authority","tag-ye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}