Kanye West wants marijuana to be free, and everyone who has a baby to get 'a million dollars'
Rapper Kanye West held a political rally Sunday night in North Charleston, South Carolina, sharing his thoughts on everything from abortion to Harriet Tubman.
West announced earlier this month that he is running for president, and while he has qualified to appear on the ballot in Oklahoma, he still needs to collect thousands of signatures to get on the ballots in other states, including South Carolina.
In order to gain access to the event, attendees had to sign a COVID-19 liability release form, wear a mask, and practice social distancing. West packed a lot into the hour-long rally, which included a brief question-and-answer period. At one point, West claimed that Tubman — who escaped slavery and went on to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad — "never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people." This elicited jeers from some in the audience, The Associated Press reports.
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West said he believes marijuana should be free, and grew emotional when discussing abortion. While it should stay legal, there needs to be support for women who are considering the procedure, West said, with one example being that everyone who "has a baby gets a million dollars."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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