What’s up?
It’s Sussan Mourad here with Clevver News and we hope you all had a nice and safe long
weekend.
In case you were soaking up the sun while hopefully being socially distant, you might’ve
missed the big news of the weekend…
Kanye West announced on Twitter that he’s running for president this year.
Seriously, you guys, just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any weirder, Kanye West
chimes in.
On the Fourth of July he tweeted saying quote, “We must now realize the promise of America
by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future.
I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION”
And before we get into all the reactions to Kanye’s big announcement, in case you aren’t
super familiar with how politics work, we did some research for ya.
If Kanye does indeed plan to run in the November election, it would be a bit of an uphill battle.
According to People Magazine, Kanye would have to run as an independent and has already
missed a number of deadlines to make it onto state ballots.
They reported that he will not be eligible to appear on the ballots in Indiana, Maine,
North Carolina, New Mexico, and Texas.
And for all other states, the process of getting on individual ballots can be complicated and
varies state-by-state.
For example, in Arizona, candidates have to get a number of signatures that is equal to
3 percent of all registered voters in the state.
And in Michigan, candidates need a minimum of 30,000 signatures, with at least 100 of
those signatures coming from at least half of the state’s congressional districts by
July 16th.
Additionally, it does not appear that Kanye has registered as a candidate with the Federal
Election Commission.
And while he could run as a write-in candidate, there are still rules that say whether or
not those votes would actually count on Election Day.
According to a 2016 report from the Washington Post, 32 states require write-in candidates
to file paperwork ahead of election day in order to be considered official candidates.
So there you have it, seems like a pretty long road ahead for Kanye if he does really
decide to run, though he hasn’t specified if he has taken any of the steps to get onto
any ballots or register with the FEC.
We just got that one tweet.
But that tweet did stir up a lot of controversy over the weekend amongst both fans and other
celebs.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk replied to Kanye’s tweet saying quote, “@kanyewest
You have my full support!”
Mark Cuban chimed in saying quote, “If there was Rank Choice voting available and @kanyewest
was on the ballot with @JoeBiden and @realDonaldTrump, I would have @kanyewest ahead of @realDonaldTrump.”
And Kanye’s wife Kim Kardashian simply re-tweeted his post with an American flag emoji.
Other people started making memes like these ones and Kanye quickly started trending on
Twitter.
And soon enough other celebrities started poking a little fun by saying that they too
were running for president, like Tiffany Haddish who tweeted using Kanye’s verbiage saying
quote “We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision
and building our future.
I too am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION”
Paris Hilton threw her hat in the ring with “PARIS FOR PRESIDENT”
And Bob Saget asked, “Should I run for President too?
I don’t much about anything…” before announcing John Stamos as his running
partner.
And some people were really excited by Kanye’s tweet.
But others weren’t as thrilled with Kanye’s announcement tweeting things like “I think
@taylorswift13 should declare her candidacy ASAP!”
And “Imma let you finish but no.”
As well as, “He must have a new album coming and wants free publicity”
And The Bachelor’s Wells Adams wrote quote, “Everyone: 2020 can’t get any worse.
Kanye: hold my beer.”
But many others brought up their concerns with Kanye’s announcement like this person
who wrote quote, “Kanye just announced he is running for President in 2020.
The goal is to take away black voters from Biden, handing Trump a victory.
This is by design.
Also note, Elon Musk was very quick to endorse him”
This fan added quote “OBVIOUS “PLAN” West is a Trump supporter.
This stunt is likely a pact between Trump & West to try to pull votes from Biden.
Who is the likely focus?
Black voters.
It’s an insult to black voters to think they would automatically vote for West solely
based on race.”
And this Twitter user said quote, “good morning a vote for Kayne is a vote for Trump
please don’t fall for it y’all.”
And many people know that Kanye does have a relationship with Donald Trump, as he’s
not only met the president on multiple occasions, but he’s worn his red Make America Great
Again hat as well.
It’s unclear exactly where Kanye stands at this moment when it comes to whether or
not he still supports Trump because he’s both supported and retracted his support over
the past few years.
So who knows what Kanye’s intentions were with his tweet and if he actually plans to
run for president or if he was just trying to distract voters as some people believe.
If you want more on Kanye’s relationship with Donald Trump, click right over here for
another Clevver News video.
And please let us know down in the comments below what you think of all of this and if
you think Kanye would actually run for president.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, bye guys!