Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Off To Rocky Start, Twitter Stats Show
Kanye West was the dominant figure at the VMAs last night, generating 2,286,585 tweets between 8 PM and midnight ET. But negative sentiment around the VMAs then peaked at 10:47 PM with 15,291 Negative Tweets around the West announcement that he plans to run for President in 2020, according to Amobee Brand Intelligence’s Twitter data.
(Positive sentiment peaked at 9:21 PM, when there were 35,492 Positive Tweets around the VMAs as fans responded to the musical performances.)
West’s announcement he would run for the White House came at the end of his 13-minute acceptance speech for the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award (aka Lifetime Achievement Award) at last night’s MTV trophy show. The candidate did not indicate his position on building walls at either the country’s southern or northern border, or when he plans to step down from making occasional appearances on NBCUniversal reality series. But he did announce his campaign would be “about ideas bro, new ideas bro. People with ideas. People who believe in truth.” He also vowed, “I will die for the art, for what I believe in. The art ain’t always gonna be polite.” And he acknowledged that before making his campaign announcement, “I rolled up a little something to knock the edge off,” and that, “I still don’t understand award shows.”
West’s political announcement came not long after he mulled onstage his decision in 2009 to grab the microphone from VMA trophy winner Taylor Swift in protest of her win. 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.
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