Lupe Fiasco has announced that he will be supporting Dr. Cornel West as he prepares to run to become the next U.S. president in 2024.
On Monday (June 5), the Chicago rapper took to Twitter to let his fans know that he wants to see Dr. West in the Oval Office for the next four years, while also revealing that this will be the first â and last â time he votes in a presidential election.
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âCornel West For President,â he wrote. âThis will be the first and last time I vote. [sunglasses emoji] @CornelWest 2024.â
The 70-year-old scholar announced his bid for presidency in a pre-recorded video on Monday, which he posted across social media. In the clip, West stated that heâs looking to eradicate issues such as poverty, mass incarceration, housing insecurities and health care inequities, to name a few.
âIn these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for President of the United States as a candidate for the Peopleâs Party,â Dr. West said. âI enter in the quest for truth, I enter in the quest for justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice â what Iâve been trying to do all of my life.â
Cornel West For President
This will be the first and last time I vote.
đ@CornelWest 2024
â âDRILL MUSIC IN ZIONâ Out Now! (@LupeFiasco) June 5, 2023
I am running for truth and justice as a presidential candidate for the Peopleâs Party to reintroduce America to the best of itself â fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for⊠pic.twitter.com/u3NYGUbG1S
â Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 5, 2023
Dr. Cornel West has had a storied career as a political activist, award-winning author and college professor at Harvard. He resigned from teaching at the prestigious institution in 2021.
Lupe Fiascoâs support for Dr. Cornell West isnât too surprising considering he has been outspoken about politics and the circumstances that surround it through his entire career.
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In 2011, Lupe appeared on The Colbert Report and criticized the aftermath of Osama Bin Ladenâs assassination, which took place under former President Barack Obamaâs first presidential term.
âWe got one guy,â the Food & Liquor MC said. As for his thoughts on what many pundits dubbed the âWar on Terror,â Lupe said: âI donât see an end to it. Itâs not like itâs a war of attrition.â
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That same year, the âKick, Pushâ rhymer made controversial remarks about Americaâs first Black President during an interview on Power 99 FMâs Mina SayWhat show.
âOne hand, you have someone who is a great speaker, but kills little children â our president,â he said of his fellow Chicago native. âIâm not talking about an accident. Iâm talking about ordering a drone attack. Ordering drone attacks that go and kill mothers, innocent bystanders, children. Militants too, but the collateral damage. Youâre responsible for that, too.â
Lupe Fiasco also called Obama âthe biggest terrorist,â which drew criticisms from Bill OâReilly and others.
More recently, after Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, Lupe sought to offer his followers hope amid the âdoom and gloomâ via an âunbiasedâ and thought-provoking Twitter thread.
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âTo my fans who look to me for guidance in world & intellectual affairs who see Trumps victory as a loss for humanity i offer this POV,â he wrote.
âWill some straight up unfiltered racists feel empowered? Yes. Will that empowerment congeal in2 a new Nazi party checking muslims papers? No.â
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He added: âWhilst I do not believe itâs all doom & gloom I do empathize with your concerns. But I will ask you to rethink the reality of your concerns.
âNow is not the time to run & hide. Now is the time to educate yourself on the mechanics of fear, on the fears that we have & fears of others.â