(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Leftist activist and philosopher Cornel West is running for president on a third-party ticket in a development that could potentially drain votes from Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
Former Bernie Sanders advisor West, 70, is the candidate of the fledgling People’s Party, which has a steep hill to climb to get enough petition signatures to qualify for the general-election ballot in each state.
Plus, it is highly likely Democrat lawyers will put the legal paperwork under a microscope in an attempt to prevent that from happening.
West, the former Harvard and Princeton professor (he received a PhD from the latter institution) is a familiar voice on cable news channels. He currently teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
In an approximately 2-1/2-minute announcement that has received 18-million-views on Twitter so far, and with a caption that details his basic left-wing populist/socialist platform, Dr. West explained, in part, the following:
“I 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, what I’ve been trying to do all of my life.”
He added that “we’re talking about empowering those who have been pushed to the margins because neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech…do we have what it takes? We shall see…let’s do it together.”
The video also contains a clip from the Bill Maher show in which the Ivy League icon described former President Trump as a “neofacist” and President Biden as a “milquetoast neoliberal.”
In a long Substack interview published on Monday, Dr. West championed an ideological realignment that incudes bringing the MAGA constituency, which he described as “the losers of corporate globalization,” over to his side.
He also continued to level criticism at the two presumptive major party 2024 presidential candidates.
“Trump is mendacious. Everybody knows that he’s a criminal. Everybody knows that he’s a gangster,” West claimed.
“Yet at the same time, the best that the Democratic Party can put forward is mendacity and hypocrisy. The Democratic Party has an arrogance against working and poor people of all colors. We’re a laughing stock. Is Trump versus Biden the best the country can do?”
Back in 2013, West characterized Barack Obama as a “war criminal” for authorizing drone strikes in the Middle East.
In the meantime, some Democrat operatives are reportedly becoming concerned about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s challenge to Joe Biden for the Democrat nomination.
To date, the Democratic National Committee has ruled out any debates between Biden and any announced or future rivals within the party.
According to The Hill, however, RFK Jr.’s “relatively decent poll numbers, as well as his media-ready image as an heir to the famous political dynasty, have caused some to worry he could gain steam and potentially distract from the task of reelecting Biden in 2024.”
The news outlet also noted that “Discontent over Biden and Trump is also reflected in some polls showing high voter appetite for a potential third-party candidate.”
