Kanye West wears bulletproof vest at 1st presidential campaign rally
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Rapper Kanye West wears a bulletproof vest on stage at his first presidential campaign event Sunday in North Charleston, S.C. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo
Rapper Kanye West wears a bulletproof vest on stage at his first presidential campaign event Sunday in North Charleston, S.C. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo
Rapper Kanye West wears a bulletproof vest on stage at his first presidential campaign event Sunday in North Charleston, S.C. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo
West debates a member of the audience Sunday at his first presidential campaign event in North Charleston, S.C. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo
West wipes away tears during the event Sunday while speaking about abortion. The rapper needs to collect 10,000 signatures in South Carolina to appear on the state’s presidential ballot in November. Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo
July 20 (UPI) — Rapper Kanye West, who has said he will enter the 2020 presidential race, staged his first presidential campaign rally Sunday in South Carolina.
West staged the rally at the Exquis Event Center in North Charleston and hundreds attended. He’s running under the self-described Birthday Party.
Wearing a bulletproof vest onstage, West touched on a number of issues at the rally, opposing abortion, critical of social media, marijuana and civil rights icon Harriet Tubman.
The entertainer needs 10,000 signatures to get on the presidential ballot as an independent candidate in South Carolina. The deadline is Monday.
West paid a $35,000 registration fee last week to get on the ballot in Oklahoma and will need to make ballots in several more states to make it mathematically possible to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
While some in the audience shouted and applauded in support, others took issue with his long-winded, profanity-laced speech. Some shouted, “What’s your point?”
West’s most pointed comments Sunday targeted the historic abolitionist Tubman.
“[Tubman] never actually freed the slaves,” he said. “She just had the slaves go work for other white people”
West also said abortion should be legal and that every woman having a baby should receive about $1 million and marijuana should be available nationwide at no cost.