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George Bush scoffs at Kanye West’s plans to run in 2020

When self-declared demi-god Kanye West announced his run for President in 2020 back in August, it sent shockwaves out into the political world. Was he serious? Would Kim Kardashian become the first lady? Or was this just another one of Kanye’s self-aggrandisement tactics he was so fond of? However, West himself has confirmed that he is definitely running in an interview with In Camera with the simple affirmation of ‘Yea’.

Despite the initial dubious fanfare around the controversial announcement, West has slowly garnered support for his potential candidacy, including a vote of confidence from current President Barack Obama himself.

Demonstrating his uncanny ability for keeping up with the times, Obama effortlessly drops many a Kanye-related pun into his comments on West’s goal to become president. Perhaps his most irreverent and politically savvy comment came in the form of this:

“Do you really think this country is going to let a black guy from the south side of Chicago with a funny name be President of the United States?” The President said sarcastically.

However, West hasn’t won the support of all the presidents, both past and present. Former POTUS George Bush has made it pretty clear of what he think of West’s plans for presidency.

When asked by a TMZ reporter, “What do you think of Kanye running for president?” during a few autograph signings, the Republican basically does a politician’s version of ‘lol wut?’ and just laughs. 

It should be noted that West doesn’t exactly have a favourable view of the former President either. Almost exactly 10 years ago, West accused the then-sitting president of ‘hating black people’ during what was supposed to be a carefully rehearsed charity telethon between him and Mike Myers for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The visibly take-aback Myers manages to main his composure and even West himself seems shaken by the enormity of what he’s said. It was a pivotal moment in the political discourse surrounding Hurricane Katrina that would come to represent Bush’s lowest point as President. NBC later distanced themselves from the events, stating, “his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks.”   

Despite the focus on West’s comments about Bush’s alleged racism, the larger part of his segment was highly critical of the disparity between coverage of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“I hate the way they portray us in the media,” said West. “If you see a black family, it says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They’re looking for food.’ And you know that it’s been five days because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite — because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before, even giving a donation. So now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what’s, what is the biggest amount I can give, and, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the set-up, the way America is set up to help the, the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, this is — Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

Hopefully West can translate his tendency for inflammatory comments into a becoming a competent political orator in time for his 2020 run.