Going out with a bang! The Sunday, December 9, season finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians was jam-packed with drama as Kim Kardashian juggled Kanye West‘s TMZ Live appearance, a meeting with President Donald Trump, and the Met Gala.
The episode began with a heartbroken Kim explaining how she became moved and inspired by one prisoner’s story. Alice Johnson, Kim explained to sister Kourtney Kardashian, was a woman who’d been in jail serving a life sentence for 21 years over a nonviolent first-time offense. Kim became involved in the case after reaching out and offering to help. Kim told Kourtney, “The only person who can grant her clemency … would be the president.” In a testimonial, Kim explained her plan to help Alice involved a White House visit. “My first phone call was to Ivanka [Trump]. … She connected me with her husband Jared [Kushner],” Kim said. “They’ve asked me to go and talk to Trump about why Alice should get out.”
Kim also revealed, “I’ve been so straightforward with Jared that I have different views. I was at Hillary [Clinton] fundraisers. This might not be a popular opinion, but I’ll talk to who I need to talk to to get things done.”
In the midst of planning her White House visit and traveling to New York for the Met Ball, Kim was hit with a curveball: her husband Kanye’s controversial TMZ Live appearance where the rapper stated, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … for 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”
Momager Kris Jenner was slated to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show shortly after the statements were made. Backstage at the talk show, she told boyfriend Corey Gamble that Kim had told her, “You’re not the person who’s qualified to talk about Kanye. You’re just gonna make it worse.” Kris, who refused to cancel her TV appearance, added that despite the nature of Kanye’s comments, “My loyalty really lies with Kanye.”
Later, while getting ready for the Met Gala in her New York City hotel room, Kim opened up to Jonathan Cheban about Kanye’s actions. “Everyone thinks he’s having a breakdown,” she said. “When I saw the clip, I rushed home, I was hysterically crying. So I go home, he’s totally fine.”
“When he gets ramped up, he can’t control what he says. He can’t let it go. But he loves getting ramped up,” she continued. “As a wife, it’s really frustrating to see the media take everything and run with it.”
As the Kanye controversy roared in the background, Kim was all business as she traveled to the White House with attorney Shawn Holley, the lawyer who famously represented Lindsay Lohan during her 2013 legal battle. Holley described the meeting with Trump, saying, “It was a lot of chit-chatting. They talked a little bit about Khloé [Kardashian] on The Celebrity Apprentice.”
There was also “a lot of Kanye talk. [Trump said,] ‘Oh, I love Kanye,'” Kim added. “Jared had said Kanye speaking out and reaching out had been very positive for this.”
The meeting resulted in a positive outcome when, a few days later, Kim, in the middle of a photo shoot, was able to break the news to Alice Johnson that she’d be released from prison. Alice, who later appeared in the episode as Kim flew to Tennessee to meet her, cried and called Kim an “angel.”
As for her meeting with Trump, Kim later told Shawn, “This has nothing to do with politics. I don’t really know anything. This just has to do with getting in front of the person that is the only person in the world that can make this decision and try to change their mind.”
Keeping Up With the Kardashians airs on E! Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
