Kanye West, the hip-hop husband of reality TV’s Kim Kardashian – and the man who was famously called out as a “jackass” by President Obama – has now rocked national headlines once again, telling an MTV Video Music Awards audience to get ready, he’s running for president in 2020.
It’s not clear if he was serious.
But among his statements, during a rambling acceptance speech for the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, was this, Politico reported: “We the millenials, bro. This is a new mentality. We are not going to control our kids with brands. We are not going to teach low self-esteem and hate to our kids. We are going to teach our kids that they can be something, we’re going to teach our kids that they can stand up for themselves. We’re going to teach our kids to believe in themselves.”
And his segue to the presidential announcement: “I don’t know what I stand to lose after this, it don’t matter though, because it ain’t about me, it’s about new ideas, bro, new ideas. People with ideas, people who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”
Prior to announcing his eventual presidential campaign, West had admitted to smoking “a little something” to “knock … the edge off,” Politico reported.
West, 38, is famous for grabbing the eyes of the media with his public remarks. In 2005, he said at a benefit concert that former President George W. Bush “doesn’t care about black people,” while referencing Hurricane Katrina. And in 2009, West grabbed the microphone from singer Taylor Swift during her award acceptance speech at MTV’s Video Music Awards to say Beyonce should have won it.
For that, Obama called West a “jackass,” various media reported. He doubled down on that assessment of the rapper in 2012, saying in a May issue of The Atlantic: “[West] is a jackass. But he’s talented.”
