Kanye West announced that he was running for president last weekend and has now revealed some details regarding this recent bid during new interview with Forbes. During the interview West stated that he was running under a new political party called The Birthday Party and announced Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming as his running mate.
West’s politics appear to be a mishmash of progressive and conservative ideals, with some of them being taken on extreme sides of the political spectrum. During the interview he states that he does not support the death penalty, a typical left-wing position, nor abortion, a typical right-wing position.
He also called for an end to police brutality and adding educational requirements which would elaborate on the history of Black disenfranchisement. His educational policies are also controversial as he stated that he would want to bring back “God” in schools.
“Reinstate in God’s state, in God’s country, the fear and love of God in all schools and organizations and you chill the fear and love of everything else, so that was a plan by the Devil to have our kids committing suicide at an all-time high by removing God to have murders in Chicago at an all-time high because the human beings working for the Devil removed God and prayer from the schools,” West stated. “That means more drugs, more murders, more suicide.”
During the interview he also had a few policies which are difficult to sum up, saying that he wants the fictional Black Panther country Wakanda to serve as the framework for the country. He also said he was skeptical of a COVID-19 vaccine, promoting a debunked conspiracy theory stating that micro-chips are being developed within the vaccines and also referenced another debunked conspiracy regarding chemtrails.
While West will be running against Donald Trump and Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, he shared more praise for Trump and more disdain for Biden during the interview. West stated that he would’ve run as a Republican if it weren’t for Trump, while also calling the president ” the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.”
He also discussed his reasons for wearing the red Make America Great Again hats he wore, which are made in support for Trump’s campaign, calling them a “a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community.” West also explained that he was a fan of Trump’s hotels and the saxophones within their lobby.
His discussion regarding Biden was far less sympathetic, when referencing other presidents, such as Trump and former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he called them “special,” while stating that Biden wasn’t “special.” He also railed against the Democratic party for a variety of reasons, accusing them of segregating Black votes, while referencing Biden’s controversial “you ain’t Black statement” made during his interview with Charlamagne Tha God earlier this year.
“That is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all Black people need to be Democrat and to assume that me running is me splitting the vote. All of that information is being charged up on social media platforms by Democrats,” West explained. “And Democrats used to tell me, the same Democrats have threatened me…. The reason why this is the first day I registered to vote is because I was scared. I was told that if I voted on Trump my music career would be over. I was threatened into being in one party. I was threatened as a celebrity into being in one party. I was threatened as a Black man into the Democratic party. And that’s what the Democrats are doing, emotionally, to my people. Threatening them to the point where this white man can tell a Black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not Black.”
Outside of the politics West also stated that he was releasing his upcoming album God’s Country for free. His company Yeezy, which is valued at over billion dollars, caught some controversy after it was revealed that it received $2 to $5 million in funding from the Payment Protection Program.
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