Twitter dubbed the results “manipulated media.”
On Tuesday (Oct. 13), Kanye West tweeted out invalid election results that appeared to show him leading both Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Pres. Trump, as well as what appears to be his new campaign theme song, cued to last weekend’s viral knockout from a UFC fight. The false information from West came in the form of a screenshot from a Lexington, Kentucky, TV station, which showed the rapper in third place in that state with 19% of the vote, ahead of former two-term Vice President Joe Biden (14%) and Pres. Trump (2%).
West included a wide-eyed emoji along with the tweet, which was fitting since Twitter labeled it as “manipulated media,” a fact-checking designation it gives to photos or videos that have been edited or transformed in a way the service thinks is likely to cause harm; Twitter has applied the tag to a number of Trump’s misleading tweets over the past few months, including one in September in which is appeared that Biden was playing N.W.A.’s “F–k Tha Police” (he, in fact, played Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito”).
The problem with West’s excited announcement is that the presidential election is still 19 days away, which is why Lex 18 News apologized a short time later for the erroneous post. “Someone discovered a cached web link that we used during June’s primary election to post Associated Press election results,” the station explained in a tweet. “The old link was still populating current AP data and showed test results, which is part of the preparation the AP does in advance of elections.”
The tweet continued, “The results were not valid. The were simply part of a test. We regret the discovery of the cached web link and have removed the data from that page. We apologize for any confusion.” A Lex 18 reporter, Nancy Cox, further explained, tweeting, “Despite what @kanyewest is tweeting, he is not leading the race for President in KY… Sorry viewers. Sorry Kanye.”
Though early and mail-in voting has begun in many states around the country, no results will be revealed until after the polls close on Nov. 3. That didn’t stop independent Birthday Party founder West from celebrating early in another set of tweets, in which he wrote, “PEOLE TRIED TO TALK ME OUT OF RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT… NEVER LET WEAK CONTROLLING PEOPLE KILL YOUR SPIRIT” and “GET THE WEST WING READY !!! … this is how I felt when I saw that Kentucky pole result,” the latter accompanied by a video in which West excitedly shows off the erroneous information on his phone while suggesting that it’s time to prep the White House for his move-in.
West, who released a Hype Williams-directed campaign video on Monday, is on the ballot in Kentucky and 11 other states, as well as being listed as the Vice Presidential candidate for the American Independent Party in California. The rapper, who has only held one in-person campaign event to date and has not made any other public appearances to promote his run, also posted an example of how to write his name in on a ballot and dropped a bizarre video for what appears to be his campaign theme song, “Nah Nah Nah.”
“THE WHOLE TEAM IS SO ENERGIZED THAT I HAD TO RELEASE THEME MUSIC NAH NAH NAH,” he wrote alongside the 2:20 video that mostly consists of footage of UFC fighter Joaquin Buckley’s spectacular spinning kick knockout of Impa Kasanganay from last weekend’s UFC Fight Night 179 in Abu Dhabi, a clip that has become a viral meme this week. Over a trap beat West raps, “Doing everything they didn’t allow/ Overthrow, send the drones in/ All the maneuvers, feelin’ closed in/ I don’t need to strike back/ I let God fight my battles/ Next time you text ‘can it wait?’/ You are talking to a presidential candidate/ I know you think I be more getting tired now/ Don’t jump Anakin I got the higher ground.” The latter features a brief clip of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker’s deadly duel from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
Check out the video and West’s tweets below.
