We all knew this was the whole “point” of Kanye West’s “presidential run,” but it is still pretty stark to see it all out in the open. Kanye West is a Donald Trump supporter. He’s said in multiple (manic) interviews that he still supports Trump and that he’s doing whatever he can to ensure that Joe Biden doesn’t get elected. And Kanye’s presidential run is just an extension of that – a cheap and tacky attempt to “siphon” Democratic voters away from Biden:
The effort to get Kanye West on the ballot as a third-party candidate in several states is increasingly looking like an operation run by President Trump’s allies and Republican activists that is aimed at diverting votes from Joseph R. Biden Jr. The move, which comes as Mr. West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, has said her husband is struggling with mental illness, underscores that this will be an unusual, and unusually bare-knuckled, presidential election.
The strategy became overt on Tuesday, when Lane Ruhland, a lawyer who has worked for the Trump campaign, delivered ballot signatures to Wisconsin elections officials on behalf of the West campaign. Ms. Ruhland worked for the state Republican Party during Wisconsin’s recount in the 2016 presidential election. She has been representing the Trump campaign in a lawsuit filed this year against a Wisconsin television station for airing an advertisement criticizing the president’s coronavirus response.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported that at least five other people connected to Mr. West’s Wisconsin bid are active in the Republican Party or are Trump supporters. Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman, said there was no legal conflict with a Trump campaign lawyer’s involvement in the West operation. “We have no knowledge of anything Kanye West is doing or who is doing it for him,” Mr. Murtaugh said.
Several other people active in the party are connected to Mr. West’s candidacy. One operative, Mark Jacoby, is an executive at a company called Let the Voters Decide, which has been collecting signatures for the West campaign in Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas. Mr. Jacoby was arrested on voter fraud charges in 2008 while he was doing work for the California Republican Party, and he later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
From the Republican party, this is what I expect. I don’t think this breaks any campaign/election laws, and so be it. But from Kanye and his people… Yesus, this is disgusting. And don’t even start with “he’s mentally ill, he’s just being used!” These are his politics, no matter his mental health status. This is who he is and he’s shown us that hundreds of times over the past five years.
Meanwhile, TMZ has a story about Kim Kardashian and Kanye’s island getaway and how “politics is off the table.” Sources tell TMZ that “Kim and Kanye aren’t going to hash out any political differences while working out their family issues… In fact, we’re told the couple hasn’t talked politics in a long time.” Kanye has made it clear that “he’s continuing his bid for The White House” and it’s a “non-negotiable issue” for him. Which is pathetic.
Even John Legend called out Kanye:
Anyway…. Anyone reckless and/or misinformed enough to fall for the okey doke probably wasn't voting for Biden (or voting at all).
— John Legend (@johnlegend) August 5, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
yeah, Republicans clearly think that black people will just vote for another black person. I feel like Kanye would take both away from Trump at this point, not Biden.
No, not black women. They are going for black men. And all they need to do is shave a bit off the fringe, they got other tools and in that combo pack we get Trump. It worked last time, voter suppression, Jill Stein, Bernie’s sour pickle face at the convention, Comey, Putin. Bam.
Most Black folks view this as entertainment or case of he needs medical help. I really doubt this is gonna work.
Black people are not going to vote for Kanye. It’s disgusting that the GOP is so out of touch with people of color that they actually think this will work.
The Bernie Bro camp is already stirring up trouble. Go Google the latest news about delegates.
I don’t think it’ll be black people voting for him (unless it’s black trolls). I think it’ll be the Bernie Bros, trying to start trouble. Because they are safe no matter the election. And that’s bs.
Yep, Kayne West could definitely end up being one of many tools used to reinstall Trump which will result in so much more death and I personally will either leave or kill myself, and I don’t let Kim off the hook I hate them both with the fire so hot you don’t want to be near it. You don’t want to step into it. If this was my husband I would divorce him solely for this so sell the Kim normalizing walking. They all play their role. They’re not the ones who die though. Or suffer.
I could feel sorry for Kim if she wasn’t with someone who is actively working to put lives in danger and who’s actions WILL kill us.
They aren’t separate people. They are married and in this TOGETHER. If she’s not working to out her husband just like John Legend, she’s complicit just like Nagini.
Omg… please no one be this stupid to fall for this shit, please!
Sadly, a glance at his Twitter page shows people are that stupid
Twitter is not real life. Never confuse the two.
If we’re lucky, the Black republican voters will vote for Kanye instead of Trump. Because who the hell in the right mind who is voting for Biden because they hate Trump (not to mention because of the social, cultural, political, economic considerations) would vote for сlearly MAGAT Kanye?
Watching Jeopardy (College) on Netflix, the eventual winner said he was in love with Kanye and would be voting for him. That comment should have disqualified him. But saying, smart, college age students are falling for it.
So I guess the Reps are thinking your vote for Kayne is better vs. your vote for Biden.
Biden 2020. Trump.Must.Go.
It does make sense when you think about it that America should be brought down, and American lives slaughtered, by a gaggle of reality tv show hosts right? Man that is some karma. We earned it.
I read that his “campaign” has also been forging petition signatures, so he actually is committing fraud.
I just read that this morning too. In one state, registration signatures were tossed because multiple (Like 100) signatures listed the same address that was not a multi-family dwelling and the WI signatures are raising the same concerns. That’s fraud.
Ugh. Just once it would be nice if these jerkwads ever got punished for their crimes.
I saw a headline similar to that last night and it made me consider the legal aspects to Kanye’s stunt. The kind of legal aspects that could potentially end with Kanye in prison for breaking all sorts of campaign laws, which he’s probably already done multiple times. Trump era shenanigans are so sloppy so I doubt anything done with Kanye’s campaign is legit or legal in any way. Because of all this MAGA nonsense Kanye is now just another name on the list of people who would go to jail if we had a functioning justice system. Big difference with Ye is that he is still a black man and the people exploiting him are still wealthy, powerful white men, so he might actually go to jail while all the other criminals get away with it. Shame Kanye refuses to see any of this for what it is.
“Shame Kanye refuses to see any of this for what it is.”
my hope is that he does have a moment of clarity, agrees to start taking his meds and, between those things and his wife making it clear to him what 45 and his camp are after, he changes his mind and decides he needs to get better before he can take on something like running for office.
and not that it’s Kim’s job to make him see the light but she DOES have influence with him and maybe when he’s not in an episode, he’ll listen to what she has to say.
He’s such a bigly Trump supporter, why would any Democratic voter or any left-leaning voter, really, vote for him in the first place?
The GOP has a condescending view of African American voters and believes that they will pick whoever is black, every time. Every time they talk about black voters being on a “Democratic plantation” as they did with the Clarence Thomas film recently, they can’t help themselves and say something along the lines of “if we could peel away just 10% of the black vote then Democrats would never win again” showing openly that they don’t care about challenges that black Americans face and are only about manipulating elections.
It’s a little like the way that they picked the criminally underprepared Sarah Palin for VP claiming that it would attract Hillary voters just because of a woman on the ballot.
There are no words for how much I hate that his famous, wealthy, male privilege is allowing him to potentially take votes from Biden in what is the most important election in our history.
He is a clown and not nearly as clever or “genius” as he thinks he is by half. Go away Kanye, please. And take your ugly clothes with you
From someone who isn’t American perspective maybe he will split The Trump votes and that’s a good thing right ?
It certainly is a weird mixture of voters that he could pull!
He can use this video of Obama calling him a ‘jackass’ to give him credibility among Trump voters lol
https://youtu.be/078BGtKNL1o
How insulting and demeaning. Just cause Kanye is black the thought process is black people will vote for him over Biden regardless of the issues at stake. Voter suppression and intimidation, and gerrymandering still isn’t enough for the Rethugs…they’ve got to add another poison pill to the mix. Says it all about how the black voter is viewed by the GOP.
Thankful at least John Legend called those deluders out.. I’m so disgusted of Kanye political views, I hope this’ll turn into a major flop and make him rethink how “great” he is.
Between his anti-choice abortion rants, newfound anti-sex before marriage stance, and gross gender role stuff, I really think he’s more likely to pull religious right votes from Trump. But then again Bernie/Trump voters exist, so maybe some of those geniuses too, sadly.
He’s not pulling votes from Trump or Biden. His candidacy is a joke and the only people who will vote for him are selfish Bernie Bro’s who weren’t going to vote for Biden anyway.
Agree. If anything this will pull from the GOP pool of voters. Otherwise why file in red-state Oklahoma? But OTOH this is for attention and me-me-me so I guess it gives him that.
Why Oklahoma? Some say because of his late mother’s ties to the state, but to be crass, it’s because Oklahoma is one of the few states you can just buy your way onto the ballot instead of working on signature gathering. For some reason OK charges by far the most for this ($35k) despite being a lower cost of living and smaller population state.
Great look for Kanye, blowing 35k on a vanity campaign in Oklahoma alone at a time when millions are out of work and getting evicted from their homes. Great look.
I think they’re just filing anywhere that they can still get on the ballot to make it seem more legitimate. He’s on the ballot in Colorado too
If Kanye loves Trump so much why is he running against him instead of campaigning for him?
Too bad he couldn’t just be MAGAt’s new running mate. Ugh.
Trump’s narcissism and toddler level of attention-craving wouldn’t permit this. The Kanyashian family is perhaps the only one in America that farms attention as much as he does. The press would start focusing more on Kanye and weird things from Kanye’s past than on Trump and Trump would get angry enough to have (another?) stroke. People could tell from body language that even in the brief time Kanye was in the Oval Office buttering up Trump, Trump’s shit-eating grin was hiding his irritation and impatience with Kanye doing all the talking.
The question is really to what extent Kanye West is a willing puppet in this process, and to what extent he is an unfortunate dupe. If he actually believes he can win, he is in deep delusion. If he’s cynically running to help Trump, his actions are despicable.
Personally, I believe this schmuck knows exactly what he is doing. Nobody should get it twisted 😉
He’s not an unfortunate dupe. He’s more like a dope!!!!!
Oh. He totally knows what he’s doing. He’s been doing this for years.
He’s not a dupe, he’s an narcissistic asshole.
BTW he is on the Oklahoma (red state) ballot. You think that will defeat Biden? haha No. Oklahoma is stupid and always votes against itself so filing here wasn’t about pulling votes.
However, this is why when this story broke, I was never on the poor Kim-Kanye train. These narcissists do real damage, just like Trump.
They think black people will vote for Kanye because he’s black? Wow *shakes head*
People know about his comments on slavery, his sucking up to trump and that he’s mentally ill. He’s not a good candidate for the highest office. He’s only doing this to give votes to Trump and take votes away from Biden.
It’s the same thought process behind putting Sarah Palin on the McCain ticket thinking it would attract Hillary supporters.
People really need to stop acting like this will pull Black voters from Biden. It’s insulting. It reminds me of the Bernie folks who insulted Black voters in SC for backing Biden. Black voters are not the problem. Black people know who Kanye is. As we saw from the other post today, it’s the white people who are still willing to vote for Trump due to white supremacy.
So it’s looking more and more like Kanye has been making his multi-millions from helping with election fraud and not sneakers after all.
I dont think kanye use his own money for this. Someone must paying him to do this shit. The kardashian is known for not using their own money and houses when filming. They will not be parting from their own money and wont allow kanye to do so either.
Nope, ain’t nobody falling for this trick. DT better worrying about Texas about turning blue. A lot of Texans is going early vote. Here in Texas early voting starts on Oct 13.
Washington lobbyists and political consultants are always gonna be ready to line up for dumb money clients.
It’s really VERY sad and insulting that the GOP thinks that there are a good number of POCs–AAs in particular–who will mindlessly vote for Kraz-nye just because of his race alone. Little do they realize (whether they do, don’t or just don’t plain give a damn to care) that there are many AAs plus other POCs who will not fall this shiesty-damness which is covertly organized by the Republi-thugs so that Take-A-💩 and his minions will still have a win-win.
Can people of unsound mind (as KW certainly is when not on his medication) actually run for political office? Is it legal?
If he just has bipolar issues, can you say he is of unsound mind? Can we say that Trump is of unsound mind?
I’ve seem some images that makes it look like several of the signatures are forged. I wonder if Trump will sound the alarm on that fraud.
And I hope people are smart enough not to waste a voice on Kanye. Even if you like his music, can you really want him in the White House? Also – I think this would split maybe the anarchistic vote – not left Antifa , actual people who like disorder – people like my brother who voted for Trump because he thought he was funny. Who knows, it might pull people from Trump. I just hope people don’t vote for him at all.
Kanye needs help. But if he won’t get it and is actively working against our Democracy, he needs to be canceled in the common parlance of the term. I just wish he would go away and take the Kardashians with him.