As with so many things involving Donald Trump, the collusion and criminality is in plain sight. Always. And I always think “if this is what we can see with our own eyes, how bad is it behind the scenes?” What’s the collusion this month? It’s the Kanye West presidential “candidacy.” Kanye West announced that he’s running last month, then did one “campaign event” in South Carolina where he said Harriet Tubman didn’t really free the slaves and that he wanted Kim to have an abortion when she was pregnant with North. He was in the throes of a manic episode, and some people assumed that when his manic episode was over, so too would the presidential candidacy stop. Not so much. Even though Kanye has been absent from the “campaign,” it has continued across a dozen states. The campaign is being run by various Republican operatives, all of them Trump supporters, blatantly looking to siphon votes from Joe Biden. While federal election laws are ever-changing, the whole “two campaigns colluding with each other” thing is still illegal. So… why are Jared Kushner and Kanye West meeting up in Colorado?

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met privately last weekend with Kanye West, the rapper who has filed petitions to get on the November ballots for president in several states.

The meeting took place in Colorado, where Mr. Kushner was traveling with his wife, Ivanka Trump, those familiar with the meeting said. Mr. West had been camping in Colorado with his family, and afterward flew to Telluride to meet with Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, but was not accompanied by his wife, Kim Kardashian West, those with knowledge of the meeting said.

After an inquiry, Mr. West tweeted Tuesday evening: “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared,” adding that they had discussed a book about Black empowerment called “PowerNomics.” He did not elaborate on his meeting with Mr. Kushner in a brief follow-up interview. He instead expressed anger about abortion rates among Black women and said he didn’t reflexively support Democrats.

A White House spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The meeting came at a notable time. Mr. West recently criticized Joseph R. Biden Jr. in an interview with Forbes. He did not deny that he is acting as a spoiler to damage the Biden campaign with his effort to get on several ballots in states like Colorado, where he will appear. It’s less clear that his name will be on the ballot in Wisconsin, where his signature petitions are being challenged.

[From The NY Times]

It’s not that I’m worried that dipsh-ts will go to the polls and vote for Kanye in droves. The strategy at play is to make Kanye into a Jill Stein-like candidate, meaning the Trump campaign wants Kanye to pull a few thousand votes in what they think will be the tightest swing states. The problem is that there are not that many tight swing states – Biden is leading by significant margins in nearly all of the states deemed “battlegrounds.” Still, it’s a strategy and it’s something on which Republican operatives are clearly colluding with Kanye.

Forbes is also reporting that their sources – I would assume someone Kanye-adjacent – say that Kanye and Jared are speaking “almost daily” and Kushner has been telling Kanye that he can win the race. Kanye has apparently been telling people: “Jared’s scared and doesn’t want me to run because he knows that I can win.” Kanye’s people know that Kushner is working Ye, with one source saying that Kanye “is just like a kid. The more you tell him he can’t do a thing, the more he’ll do it… he has a tremendous drive to prove people wrong.” Kanye regularly refers to Jared as “my boy” and when Kanye was being interviewed by Forbes he apparently referenced things Kushner had told him recently. It’s gotten so bad that there are people in Kanye’s orbit who are concerned that Kushner is just manipulating and exploiting a mentally ill man. Duh.

PS… I also think it’s kind of interesting that Kim Kardashian hasn’t given People Magazine another diary entry in several days, basically ever since she and Kanye returned from the Dominican Republic. Judging from her IG, I think she’s back in LA? Did she drop Kanye off at the Wyoming Dome on her way to file for divorce in California? Also: LMAO Kim did not want to spend any time with Jared or Ivanka.

I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared where we discussed Dr Claude Anderson’s book Powernomics

— ye (@kanyewest) August 12, 2020

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.