Because we’re living in a simulation, this year it seems that the Kardashians are physically incapable of keeping their sticky, messy hands out of politics. So naturally, during Kim Kardashian’s interview with David Letterman for his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, the host had to bring it up.
Kardashian kicks off the third season of Letterman’s show on her 40th birthday (October 21), and during the interview, the KUWTK star touched on all the hot-button topics: OJ Simpson’s trial, which she said “tore [her] family apart,” Caitlyn Jenner, her infamous sex tape with Ray J, her 2016 Paris robbery, and her law aspirations.
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Kardashian said that though she was "oblivious to other people's problems” growing up, she was inspired to become a lawyer (she isn’t enrolled in law school, but studying via an apprenticeship) and prison reform advocate. It started in June 2018, when President Donald Trump granted clemency to Alice Marie Johnson — a 63-year-old Black woman behind bars for life because of a nonviolent drug offense — after Kardashian met with him. She's since helped commute the sentences of more than four other people since then, and told Letterman that she praised the Trump administration for what "they've done in prison reform."
Though Letterman acknowledged the strides made with her help, he noted that "it doesn’t make me feel any better about the current administration."
While she kept tight-lipped about her political leanings when pressed, she did divulge that she was actively discouraged from working with the White House back in 2018. "Everyone called me and said, 'Don't you dare step foot in that White House or your reputation is done.' And I said, 'I have to step foot in there or these people's lives don't have a chance.'"
Letterman responded by saying that Kardashian's work is a "positive force that diminishes what I consider to be unacceptable behavior by the President."
It should be noted that all of this was filmed for My Next Guest Needs No Introduction earlier in the year, before Kardashian's husband Kanye West contracted COVID-19 and before he announced his bid for the presidency, which would have probably made for a very different conversation. West, who was interviewed on season 2, was in the audience watching alongside Kris Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, and Khloe Kardashian.
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The current tension in the Kardashian household will set this all in a much weirder light — Kourtney has been low-medium-key supporting West's campaign to have people write him in for president, while Kim is doing what she can to encourage people to vote in very non-specific ways that deliberately ignore the elephant (her husband's antics) in the room.
This season of Letterman's show also boasts intimate interviews with Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle, and Lizzo. Catch Kardashian dancing around the politics topic and teaching Letterman what "airdop" is on October 21.