Rapper and fashion mogul Kanye West slammed Joe Biden and the Democratic Party establishment in an eye-popping interview with Forbes in which he held forth at length on his planned run for president, saying that he is “taking the red hat off” in a reference to his past support for President Donald Trump.
Kanye West spoke to Forbes for four hours, covering such disparate subjects as the Chinese coronavirus, Planned Parenthood, and the Marvel superhero movie Black Panther. As usual, he didn’t hold back, revealing that he has never voted in his life and that he was sick with COVID-19 in February.
On Saturday, West made the surprise announcement that he is running for president, saying in a tweet that Americans must come together “by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future.” His announcement was met with surprise and skepticism, with some speculating if it is merely a publicity stunt for his new album or a ploy to draw black votes away from Democrats.
In his Forbes interview published Wednesday, the rapper didn’t deny that he wanted to lure black voters away from the left.
“I’m not denying it, I just told you. To say that the Black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy,” he said.
West also spoke candidly about President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Biden.
“I’m not saying Trump’s in my way, he may be a part of my way,” West said. “And Joe Biden? Like come on man, please. You know? Obama’s special. Trump’s special. We say Kanye West is special. America needs special people that lead. Bill Clinton? Special. Joe Biden’s not special.”
West gave President Trump a mixed review, criticizing him at one point but laterr pivoting to compliment him.
“It looks like one big mess to me,” he said about the Trump administration. “I don’t like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker.” He added later: “Trump is the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.”
West was less ambiguous about this antipathy for the Democratic 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.” (West was referring to Biden’s comment in May that if black people don’t vote for him, then “you ain’t black.”)
West revealed that he had COVID-19 in February but has since recovered. He said he remains skeptical about a future vaccine.
“So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven,” he said.
The hip-hop mogul also reaffirmed his pro-life stance. “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work,” he said. “I am pro-life because I’m following the word of the Bible.”
In one of the wackier moments in an already unconventional interview, West used the movie Black Panther to describe how he would run things if he became president.
“I’m gonna use the framework of Wakanda right now because it’s the best explanation of what our design group is going to feel like in the White House,” he said. “Like in the movie in Wakanda when the king went to visit that lead scientist to have the shoes wrap around her shoes. Just the amount of innovation that can happen, the amount of innovation in medicine—like big pharma—we are going to work, innovate, together.”
Kanye West revealed that his presidential campaign will be called “The Birthday Party” — “cecause when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.” He also said his vice presidential running mate will be Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.