Kanye West reportedly drops out of presidential race

Just as quickly as he entered the 2020 presidential race, Kanye West is out. After announcing his plans to run for president in a July 4 tweet, it now appears as though West will not be making a play for the White House. Good, but overall, totally unnecessary.Steve Kramer is a political advisor who specializes in helping get candidates on the ballot. According to Ben Jacobs of the New York Times' Intelligencer site, Kramer was hired by West to help the rapper get this name on the ballot as a third candidate next to President Trump and Democratic party candidate Joe Biden. Kramer hired a team of 180 employees and volunteers to help gather enough signatures for West to get his name on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina. Kramer told Jacobs “we had overwhelming support to get him on the ballot,” and added “whether anybody is going to vote for him or not is up to them.”It’s unclear how close Kramer’s team was to gathering the necessary 132,781 signatures to get West’s name on the ballot by the July 15 deadline, but after several unsuccessful attempts to contact West’s PR team this past week, Jacobs reported that he finally reached Kramer, who provided an update. “He’s out,” Kramer told Jacobs, adding that he would provide more of an explanation once the large team of employees and volunteers were notified and released.On July 9, West shared a video of himself registering to vote in his new home state of Wyoming. Speaking to a government worker, West demonstrated how easy it is to register to vote. He also discussed the disenfranchisement of convicted felons who are unable to vote in many states, a legislation that acts as voter suppression and disproportionately affects Black voters. So, there was some good that came from West’s political aspirations, but couldn’t he have released this video without announcing his bid to run?

To vote click below https://t.co/LRJ8hC5rGi#2020VISION pic.twitter.com/MJOVGYYYvQ

— ye (@kanyewest) July 9, 2020

Following West’s July 4 announcement, the rapper gave a controversial interview to Forbes, where he said he would run the White House like the fictional country of Wakanda from Black Panther. West announced Wyoming preacher Michelle Tidball as his running mate, revealed Birthday Party as his official party name and said he was taking off his MAGA hat and withdrawing his support for Trump, whom he called “the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.” Oh, Kanye. No.But the most troubling parts of the interview included West’s pro-life and anti-vaccine comments. Saying that “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work,” West also told Forbes that vaccines cause paralysis and added that he was ‘extremely cautious’ about a COVID-19 vaccine. “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,” said West.Last week TMZ reported that West’s family, including wife Kim Kardashian West, were concerned about the Yeezy fashion designer’s mental state. West has previously stated that he doesn’t take medication to treat his bipolar disorder because he feels it inhibits his creativity. On July 9, TMZ quoted sources close to West who said that his family was concerned he was in the midst of one of his bipolar episodes, which typically take place once per year.[video_embed id='1978317']Before you go: Kanye West is launching a Yeezy cosmetics line[/video_embed]