Kanye West meets with Jared Kushner amid White House bid: report

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner met recently with hip hop artist Kanye West as the latter has stepped up his efforts to be on the November ballot as part of an independent bid for the White House.

Kushner recently met with West while traveling with his wife and fellow White House aide Ivanka Trump in Colorado as part of a camping trip, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.

West, who was a vocal supporter of President Trump before throwing his hat into the 2020 ring, tweeted about the meeting following an inquiry from the Times, writing: “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared where we discussed Dr Claude Anderson’s book Powernomics.”

I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared where we discussed Dr Claude Anderson’s book Powernomics

— ye (@kanyewest) August 12, 2020

According to its publisher, “PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America” offers “a five-year plan to make Black America a prosperous and empowered race that is self-sufficient and competitive as a group.”

The meeting will likely further speculation that Republican political operatives are assisting West’s bid, which he first announced last month, in an effort to handicap presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

“I don’t think there’s any question about that,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said of the possibility on MSNBC on Friday. “We saw what was going on in Wisconsin where he was getting help getting on the ballot. But African Americans, most especially, know what this campaign is all about.”

In an interview with Forbes on the same day, a reporter pointed out to West that he will not be on the ballot in enough states to secure the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House. 

“I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King,” the rapper responded. 

When the Forbes interviewer pressed West on the possibility that he could siphon votes from Biden, he replied, “I’m not denying it.”

President Trump, who hosted West in the Oval Office in 2018, has praised him in recent weeks but denied any connection to his presidential ambitions when questioned by reporters last week.

“I like him. He’s always been very nice to me,” the president said, adding, “I get along with him very well. I like him. I like his wife.”