Kanye West announced that he would run for president 2020 at MTV Video Music Awards.
The political announcement came just after he mulled onstage his decision in September 13, 2009, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards while Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video for “You Belong with Me”, West went on stage and grabbed the microphone to proclaim that Beyoncé’s video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”, nominated for the same award, was “one of the best videos of all time”. He was subsequently removed from the remainder of the show for his actions.
Swift presented West with last night’s Vanguard Award. “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award — because it got them more ratings,” West said, demonstrating a very good understanding of awards shows.
He said, “I don’t know what I finna lose after this. It don’t matter, though; It’s not about me. It’s about ideas. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth,” West said. “And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”
The announcement generated 2,286,585 tweets between 8 PM and midnight ET. Negative tweets started coming at 10:47 PM as they summed up to 15,291, according to Amobee Brand Intelligence’s Twitter data. Positive tweets peaked at 9:21 PM, when there were 35,492 tweets around the VMAs as fans responded to the musical performances.
“I’m not no politician, bruh,” West said, remarking on the decision to have Swift present him with the award this year. “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award. Because it got them more ratings. Listen to the kids, bruh!” West said.
It was not clear whether he was serious or not with the announcement. He told the “Did he smoke something before he came out here,” then “the answer is ‘Yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off.’” He also vowed, “I will die for the art, for what I believe in. The art ain’t always gonna be polite.”
The Democratic Party tweeted “Last night @kanyewest declared his candidacy for president in 2020. Welcome to the race, Mr. West. Glad to have you.”
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