Noel Vasquez/Getty Images, Elite Images / AKM-GSIChrissy Teigen and John Legend are in a war of words with Piers Morgan.
The supermodel, 30, and the musician, 37, got into a spat with the journalist, 51, over a tweet he wrote about the late Muhammad Ali. "Muhammad Ali said far more inflammatory/racist things about whites than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims," Morgan wrote Sunday. The backlash was inevitable, and as he's done on previous occasions, Morgan decided to defend his views via his Daily Mail column Monday. "I didn't intend to disrespect Ali with my tweet, as many claimed," he explained. "Why would I when just 24 hours earlier I had written a heartfelt tribute to him as the greatest superstar icon of my lifetime? But I did intend to offer the anti-Trump brigade some historical perspective about their own hero as they vented their collective spleen. Of course, that spleen then promptly vented itself on me, but I make no apology."
"It is a fact that Muhammad Ali said a lot of very inflammatory, racist things after he joined, in the '60s, the Nation of Islam, a virulent organization run by Elijah Mohammed. Frankly, Ali's statements during his 10-year status as the group's most famous 'frontman' were not just outrageously racist but also anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic," Morgan wrote, later telling his readers, "Let's cut the absurd, deluded pretense that Muhammad Ali wasn't a man who spewed a lot of very hateful, racist claptrap when he was young, because he indisputably did."
According to Morgan, Ali "grew up, matured and in the process changed dramatically in his views and beliefs." The champion boxer, who died over the weekend at age 74, "didn't waste a day, morphing from angry firebrand activity to public advocate for global peace and harmony."
Both Ali and Trump are "both bombastic, supremely cocky showmen with a love for belittling opponents, talking up their own genius, fighting with everything that moved and skillfully manipulating the media to fuel their personal and professional brands," Morgan argued. "As Trump prepares to take on Hillary Clinton for the presidency, he may wish to take a leaf out of his old friend Ali's book and dial down some of his own race-charged rhetoric."
After the column was published, Legend and Teigen sounded off:
Legend backed off, but Teigen was just getting started.
In the midst of the Twitter war, Teigen attended a Clinton fundraiser at The Greek in L.A. Monday night, in which she called Trump a "racist." She also joked about Trump's belief that Clinton has only prevailed politically because she is playing the "woman's card" in the media. "This woman card has been awesome," she joked. "It's been so good at getting us equal pay."