Kanye West, Evidently Still Running For President, Heckled At First Campaign Rally

Kanye West, evidently still running for president after reports that he had ended his campaign circulated last week, held his first campaign rally last night in South Carolina. West, who has missed the deadline to get on the ballot in several states but has successfully gotten on the ballot in Oklahoma, needed 10,000 signatures by noon on Monday to get on the ballot in the state (he missed the deadline).

Speaking with a protective vest and "2020" shaved into his head, West told the crowd he had a Percocet addiction after plastic surgery, would walk away from Adidas and Nike if they don't put him on the board and advocated against porn. He grabbed headlines when he stated "Harriet Tubman didn't free slaves," eliciting groans and heckles from the crowd. Tubman is an American icon who risked her life over a dozen times making trips on the "Underground Railroad," a network of safe houses that she used to bring slaves from the American south to the North in the 1800s.

Kanye West at his “campaign rally” in South Carolina: “Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people.”

Loud groans from the audience, “come on man” can be heard pic.twitter.com/Q9g92UvZ27

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 19, 2020

West was attempting to make a larger point about race in America, arguing that slavery never really ended in the country and that Tubman did not liberate slaves so much as help "work for other white people."

Kanye adds: The Harriet Tubman thing is…I'm sick of this Black iconography being used by white people for us to look up to and say this is us https://t.co/Aa1R6DTLwD

— Nolan D. McCaskill (@NolanDMcCaskill) July 19, 2020

At one point, West got choked up speaking about abortion. West is pro-life, and mentioned how his own father wanted his mother to get abortion when she was pregnant with him. He also said he wanted his wife Kim Kardashian to get an abortion when she was pregnant with the couple's first child, North. West stated he would keep abortion legal but incentivize carrying children to term by giving everyone who has a baby $1 million.

Despite having little chance to grab the Presidency, it's clear that West will continue to grab headlines so long as he's running for President.