In an interview with CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, R&B artist R. Kelly yelled, cried, and paced the room when discussing sexual abuse allegations against him.
Late last month, R&B artist R. Kelly was charged with multiple accounts of criminal sexual abuse of a teenager, and the interview with King was his first since posting bail. It was a hot mess, but King was unflappable.
I strive to be as unbothered as Gayle King is in this photo #muterkelly pic.twitter.com/hyodDPPaS7
— Jamira Burley (@JamiraBurley) March 6, 2019
That sort of poise is especially impressive given Kelly’s erratic behavior. Check out some of his stranger moments.
Have you ever had sex with anyone under the age of 17? — @GayleKing
“No. No.” — @RKelly
Never?
“No!” https://t.co/u4AENVsfAE pic.twitter.com/OGjRzY1P2t
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 6, 2019
In this clip, King does a great job calling him out for playing the victims and tells him to stop ranting at the camera.
“Stop it. You all quit playing! Quit playing! I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my f***ing life! Y’all killing me with this sh*t!” @RKelly told @GayleKing, standing up. “I gave you 30 years of my f***ing career!”https://t.co/u4AENVJQsc pic.twitter.com/jLF7l8etYh
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 6, 2019
Check out this rationale.
WATCH: R. Kelly addressed his current relationship with the two young women who live with him at his home in Chicago, 23-year-old Joycelyn Savage and 21-year-old Azriel Clary. Their parents believe Kelly has brainwashed their daughters.https://t.co/pPZcw2pbmc pic.twitter.com/IbH3PjbSVx
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 6, 2019
Watch Kelly show no grace, then show zero ability to reflect on his own behavior (even the stuff he admits to, like being with multiple women at once and women the age of his own children).
If your daughters came to you and said, “Look, this guy is doing to me what the allegations are against you.” — @GayleKing
“Then I would have to arrest myself after I did what I had to do.” — @RKelly https://t.co/o5wfERQxnZ #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/B8Xkq1QJMj
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 6, 2019
Doesn’t look like he’s going to get help, either.
When you say that you need help, do you think you need to go to therapy? Have you been to therapy? — @GayleKing
“Absolutely. At this point, I’m definitely talking about that.” — @RKelly
About going?
“Oh, absolutely.” https://t.co/o5wfERQxnZ pic.twitter.com/zFg0h0FHcn
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 6, 2019
Oof.
Some tried to politicize Kelly’s behavior, comparing it to that of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
I absolutely think he is guilty. Absolutely.
That said, I am wondering how the people who were moved by Brett Kavanaugh’s emotional defiance and defense of his character will be similarly moved by this here. https://t.co/ZyE0h3fdrQ
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) March 6, 2019
I can only speak for myself, but that’s a hard “no.” A key difference is evidence. There’s a mountain against Kelly, and there was pretty much none against Kavanaugh.
You can watch the whole interview here:
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