NBC’s Matt Lauer Agitates Kanye West With Questions

Matt Lauer is holding his ground against Kanye West -- claiming he stands by his recent interview with the rapper ... despite Kanye's allegations that Matt manipulated him into showing remorse for George W. Bush.

A posting at tmz.com  reports Kanye flipped out on Twitter Wednesdasy -- after "Today" aired a clip of the interview -- claiming Lauer "tried to force" his answers during Tuesday's sit-down ... in which the rapper said, "I would tell George Bush, in my moment of frustration that I didn't have the grounds to call him a racist."

But Lauer stood by his interview -- which addressed the rapper's famous post-Katrina remark that Bush "doesn't care about black people" -- airing the entire segment this morning to prove that nothing was taken out of context.

During the pre-taped interview Tuesday on the Today show set, West said he “empathize[d] with the idea of being pegged as a racist.” But Lauer wanted more. He asked West to “look at his face” as he played video of the President speaking out against what West had said. West didn’t like the whole exercise, and while he expressed why, his head started darting around the studio, getting agitated.

Kanye is scheduled to return to "Today" for a performance on November 26th -- and sources at the show tell us they're still expecting the rapper to show up.

Read more here.