Nicki Minaj says critics are trying to ‘assassinate my character’ over vaccine tweets

Spitfire rapper Nicki Minaj insisted Wednesday that she was invited to the White House to talk about COVID-19 vaccinations. Biden administration officials, however, say they extended only a phone call to the rapper, who made tidal waves this week with tweets about her COVID-19 vaccine theories.

“As we have with others, we offered a call with Nicki Minaj and one of our doctors to answer questions she has about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” a White House official said in an email to The Times Wednesday.

Minaj says that’s not what went down.

“Do y’all think I would go on the internet and lie about being invited to the f—ing White House? Like what? Do you guys see what is happening right now?” Minaj said in a 14-minute Instagram Live video posted late Wednesday.

The narrative, mercifully, turned away from the ridicule of her cousin’s friend’s swollen testicles story but waded deep into race relations and real questions she had about healthcare. The “Super Bass” artist accused her critics of trying to “assassinate” her character.

She also touched on multiple facets of the viral controversy — from her bizarre alliance with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, alleged betrayal by MSNBC’s Joy Reid, involvement of the Trinidad health ministry and social media activism.

Minaj’s responses also moved from Twitter — where the 38-year-old has more than 22 million followers — to Instagram, where she has a much larger following of 157 million, after she claimed Twitter locked her account late Wednesday. (A Twitter spokesperson disputed that, telling The Times that the platform “did not take any enforcement action” on her account.)

“Y’all gotta stop pretending to love people with backbones,” she wrote in an Instagram Story late Wednesday. “If Malcolm X were here, he’d be asking questions & most of y’all that holler ‘black lives matter’ & ‘protect black women’ would be telling him to shut-UP & fall in line. Y’all say these ppl’s names but embody the spirit of a coward.”

In her video, Minaj said that her management and publicist were on the phone call with Biden administration officials, who she said invited her to the White House to speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

The rap star, who skipped the Met Gala earlier this week and said she recently contracted COVID-19, said she told them she’d rather not travel and would prefer to do some sort of livestream.

“And they said they’re open to me choosing a platform to do [an Instagram] live. But they had never taken that off the table for me to come to the White House,” she said in Wednesday’s video.

She also opted to have a public conversation about it because “it would not feel genuine if it was something that I discussed with them only, privately, because then it would come off disingenuous to my fans because it would sound like I was kinda, like, selling them the vaccine. And everyone agreed.”

She noted that some officials told her management and publicist that they weren’t happy about her tweeting about the White House, but insisted she wouldn’t make something like that up and slammed those who went on Twitter to “try to make a fool” of her.

Minaj’s publicist did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Thursday.

The artist also unleashed her fury on the Democratic party and liberals affiliated with it, bashing anyone telling her she can’t agree with a Republican. She argued that since her critics could no longer make fun of her cousin’s friend’s story, they would now “have to attack her personally” instead.

“Eighty percent of the artists that y’all following right now feel like I feel about the vaccine and are too afraid to speak on it,” she said, “And guess what they’re doing right now? If they assassinate me and assassinate my character and make me look crazy or stupid, guess what, no one else will ever ask questions again. Don’t you see what’s happening?

“It’s disgusting that a person can’t speak about just questions or thoughts they’re having about something they’re gonna have to put in their body, that this attack is this hateful and purposeful. You see, they have to get people who just get up there [and] make women of color look f— dumb. They can’t deal with smart women. Whenever a smart woman challenges anything, they’re called a b— or crazy. Pick one or both.”