Though the last thing anyone needs right now ahead of a presidential election that's taking place during a global pandemic is more of this type of nonsense, we are once again tasked with discussing Kanye West's much-maligned presidential campaign and how it fits into his continued embrace of Trumpism era tactics.
Early Wednesday, the New York Timespublished a report by Danny Hakim and Maggie Haberman in which readers are given a behind-the-scenes glimpse at West's campaign, which—as we learn in more detail here—indeed has a serious fixation on religion. In the opening moments of the piece, for example, it's said that campaign staff was asked to "refrain from 'fornicating' outside of marriage."
Per the report, the topic West brought up the most during his discussions with NYT (and this has also been seen in West's public comments as of late) was abortion. And while West claims he isn't a supporter of any efforts to "ban or stop or point fingers" regarding women's right to choose, his recent comments (as well as those mentioned in the Times report) show that he's still in the business of dangerously demonizing the medical procedure.
West claims he wants to create "stipends for families that need support" and "orphanages that are really high-level desirable for people to go to," as well as "the redesign of communities and cities in general to be supporting of families." Furthermore, West mentioned something called Birthday Lake, which is described as an "eco-village" where visitors are said to "safely experience pregnancy and birth."
The Times piece also includes a breakdown of the campaign's beginnings, which included the help of the since-dismissed consulting firm Mercury Public Affairs, as well as a number of additional comments from West and observations on his POTUS push that further reinforce the idea that the whole thing is quite a mess.
At one point, it's said that West was "upset" after publicly calling for a live Times interview regarding a meeting he had with Jared Kushner. West, per the report, demanded that the Times editor be part of a live interview with him on Zoom.
"I'm Kanye, who are you?" West is said to have asked. "I'm the head of everything." During the same Zoom session, West is said to have asked if "anyone at your magazine" believes in Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere, music manager and West advisor John Boyd is quoted as stating that West "doesn't look at time" in the same way that everyone else does, while West is said to have responded to questions about his campaign's poor timing and the argument that he's being "exploited" by Republicans with word that he would be unable to answer due to finishing up a new album.
However, per West's latest public comments, the release of new music is on pause amid his dispute with Universal Music Group over contracts.
