{"id":317190,"date":"2026-06-23T19:42:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317190\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:42:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:42:48","slug":"rick-scott-starts-petition-to-cancel-tampas-kanye-west-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317190\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Scott Starts Petition to Cancel Tampa\u2019s Kanye West Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">FLORIDA \u2013 Florida\u2019s senior senator has started a petition to try to cancel Kanye West\u2019s concerts in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of Monday morning, a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/change.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Change.org;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Change.org&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Change.org<\/a>\u00a0petition created by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, had 8,401 signatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cKanye West\u2019s concerts in Tampa scheduled for June 26th and 28th should NOT take place in Raymond James Stadium \u2014 a venue supported with public funds,\u201d the petition reads. \u201cThere\u2019s no place for antisemitism in Florida, especially at the expense of the taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Scott, who has previously labeled the hip-hop artist an \u201cantisemite,\u201d called for the Tampa Sports Authority to cancel his concerts at a press conference last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe should never allow antisemitism anywhere, and we have to stand up against it,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">West has made public antisemitic comments in recent years, including posting \u201cI am a Nazi\u201d on social media, selling shirts with swastikas on them, and releasing a music video titled \u201cHeil Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In January, West apologized for his antisemitic statements in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier this month, Scott penned a letter to the Tampa Sports Authority, the organization that owns the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa where West is supposed to perform June 26 and 28, urging them to cancel the concert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWest\u2019s remarks are vile and a slap in the face to our state\u2019s Jewish community. It is troubling that a stadium supported by taxpayer dollars would openly subsidize an event led by an artist known for pushing this dangerous, hateful rhetoric, especially with Florida having one of the largest Jewish populations in our country,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A statement released by the sports authority stated they \u201cdo not condone\u201d West\u2019s remarks but \u201cwe follow the principles of free speech in operating our venue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mypanhandle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLORIDA \u2013 Florida\u2019s senior senator has started a petition to try to cancel Kanye West\u2019s concerts in Tampa.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[63134,11708,3856,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-317190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-kanye-west","tag-raymond-james-stadium","tag-rick-scott","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317190","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=317190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}