Republicans Go All-in on Kanye West Campaign as a Way to Sink Joe Biden

[Nevilledog]

https://time.com/5877482/republicans-kanye-west-campaign/

The most offensive thing about Republicans with ties to President Donald Trump’s re-election efforts openly working to put rapper Kanye West on swing states’ ballots isn’t that they’re trying to pull votes away from Joe Biden. It’s that they’re doing so with very little effort to hide their true intention: to chip away at Biden’s support among Black voters.

Reports are coming in fast and shameless about GOP efforts in places like Ohio, Wisconsin and Colorado to get West’s name on the ballot in what can only be seen as an exploitative campaign to suppress the votes of those who may see the 43-year-old celebrity’s name and think, ‘Why not?’ It’s a cousin to Trump’s roll-the-dice pitch four years ago, when his main offering to Black voters was, “What do you have to lose?”

The GOP effort isn’t even trying conceal its desired effect. Biden won the nomination with tremendous help from Black voters who have known him for decades, but will also be counting on support from younger voters who may now see West’s name on the ballot and flip. Trump himself retweeted an article saying a West candidacy is designed “to siphon Black votes away from Biden” and added that “Corrupt Joe has done nothing good for Black people!” And West is saying he doesn’t care if he costs Biden the White House and seems fine with that if it helps his pal Trump. “I’m not denying it; I just told you,” he told Fortune.

The Trump campaign professes no knowledge of West’s efforts or who is behind them.

*snip*

[wryter2000]

1. They obviously have no respect for African American voters

As we said when McCain chose Sarah Palin, "You do get that it's not just any woman, right?"

Black voters aren't stupid.

[hlthe2b]

4. Nor does Kanye it would appear.

[Freddie]

6. I thought the exact same thing

African Americans will vote for Kanye in huge numbers just like women who were angry that HRC was denied the nomination flocked to Palin. Right.

[geardaddy]

2. I heard yesterday that Illinois kicked Kanye off the ballot.

[Firestorm49]

3. That's because they've always been a cheesy party. Nothing has changed.

[TlalocW]

5. They do this with women and minoirty voters

Even when they're serious about winning. They think that women and minority voters will automatically vote for "one of their kind" (to be blunt) because surely those silly women and ignorant [insert race here] people don't actually have deeply-held political opinions, and then they're surprised when they don't win. Oh, and if the polls leading up to the election aren't showing support from the female/racial group from democrats then we're anti-feminist or racist or race-traitors if the candidate running against theirs is white. It's why they ran Sarah Palin in 2008 because they figured that democratic women upset about Barack beating Hillary for the nomination would automatically support the ticket with the woman on it. "See, democratic women? The GOP are the REAL pro-woman party. Just ignore all our policies."

Are some people going to vote for Kanye because he's Kanye? Yes. Just like in any group, there are people who will only vote their race, or you're going to have someone vote for him as a goof, or because they're disaffected and don't like the other candidates, but I think the GOP are once again underestimating people's intelligence.

TlalocW

[magicarpet]

7. What a diabolical racist assumption for the GOP to conjure up.

Thinking Black voters have no conception of patriotism and being careful who is placed in the White House with complete abandonment and totally devoid of the well being of society and this country.

Fascist racist white supremacists gleefully placed a nincompoop in the White House for 4 years. Black voters young, old, male or female would not subject this country to such danger as to throw away their vote for Kanye West. They take the well being of this country far more serious than that.

[cheezmaka]

8. Kanye is most likely going to get black voters that planned on NOT VOTING anyway...

like P. Diddy, Nick Cannon, and Charlamagne tha God (who won't vote unless Biden picks a black female VP...smh). I doubt many serious "independents" (black or white) will vote for a person who had a "mental break down".

[Baked Potato]

9. Poor Kanye lettin' all them Whiteys juke him.

If he could only say NO some way...

[EleanorR]

10. The framing needs to be around the fact that republicans obviously cannot run on the issues

A spoiler candidate
destroying the post office
voter disenfranchisement
getting help from the russians
even getting the US Attorney General to lie about the safety of mail-in voting.

Anything but talking issues because they're all politics, no policy.

[octoberlib]

11. The Lincoln Project went after him Saturday. #KanyeConJob was trending on Twitter for hours and

they had an attorney who specializes in election law write a post. Kanye won't be on Wisconsin's ballot either.

In fifteen years practicing election law, I have never seen anything as craven and shameful as the Kanye con job Donald Trump and his sycophants have attempted in Wisconsin.


After combing through two challenges to Kanye West’s nomination signatures at the behest of The Lincoln Project, I have come to two conclusions: not only should Kanye be kept off the ballot, but law enforcement should investigate and prosecute several individuals involved in the effort.

Nevermind that West cannot qualify for enough state ballots to actually win the presidency.


Nevermind that the fundamental assumption – that black voters will vote for a black man based solely on the color of his skin – is a profoundly racist position.


Get through all that and you still have nomination papers submitted on behalf of West rife with lies, fake signatures and criminal conduct. In a lengthy filing submitted Friday evening, four Wisconsin electors challenged more than half the 2,422 nomination signatures submitted by West on Tuesday. A second, shorter complaint made similar allegations.


The complaints include a laundry list of claims that should discredit enough signatures to reduce West’s nomination papers below the 2,000-signature threshold and disqualify him from Wisconsin’s ballot.

First and foremost, West’s operatives bungled the timing. Current Trump attorney and former Wisconsin GOP counsel, Lane Ruhland, turned the nomination signatures in shortly after 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The deadline set by statute was 5:00 sharp. That may not seem like much, but Wisconsin courts have been clear that adherence to the statute requires “strict compliance.” Any deviation automatically invalidates the entire submission.


There is a very good chance that the Wisconsin Elections Commission doesn’t even address the rest of the complaint, choosing instead to declare the entire nomination void and the rest of the claims moot. After such a boneheaded mistake, West – or whatever Trump shell-game pawn paid Ruhland – may want to ask for a refund.

https://www.marionicolais.com/post/the-kanye-con-job

[crickets]

12. +1

[jorgevlorgan]

13. Anybody have a poll on how kanye will fair among black voters?

I have a feeling that trump supporting narcissist wouldn't garner more than 2% against the guy who was vice president to the first African American president, who also happens to be the most popular president in modern American history.