Kanye West is a Ben Carson fan — from the moment, the rapper told Vanity Fair in a new interview, he heard words come out of the pediatric neurosurgeon’s mouth.
Carson is at 16.3 percent in the latest Real Clear Politics national poll average, behind just Donald Trump at 24 percent.
“As soon as I heard Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him,” West said. “I was like, this is the most brilliant guy.”
“And I think all the people running right now have something that each of the others needs,” he added. “But the idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help and the world needs all the people in a position of power or influence to come together.”
West announced at the recent MTV Video Music Awards that he wants to run for president in 2020.
He told Vanity Fair those plans are still “definitely” in the works.
“I want everyone to win. When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like ‘I want to work with you,'” West said.
He does think the public sentiment is working in his favor of his presidential run, though, after “the six years of this misconception or the six years I went through of ‘We don’t like Kanye.’”
“And then as soon as I said that, it was like, ‘Wait a second, we would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he’s extremely thoughtful. Every time he’s ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He’s probably the most honest celebrity that we have.’ I didn’t approach that because I thought it would be fun. It wasn’t like, Oh, let’s go rent some jet skis in Hawaii. No, the exact opposite. I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do,” West said.
“My dad has two master’s degrees. My mom has a PhD, she used to work at Operation PUSH. Somehow the more and more creative I get, the closer and closer I get to who I was as a child. When I was a child, I was holding my mom’s hand at Operation PUSH. I think it’s time. Rap is great. It’s fun. It’s fun to be a rock star, and I’ll never not be one I guess, but there’ll be a point where I become my mother’s child. With all the things I’ve done that people would consider to be accomplishments, what’s the point where I become the person that Donda and Raymond West raised? My parents’ child.”
But Kanye admits: “I hate politics.”
“I’m not a politician at all,” he said. “I care about the truth and I just care about human beings.”
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