A 20-Year-Old Is Helping John McAfee's 2020 Campaign Team By Teaching Him How To Shitpost About Anime

"It's a changing world. Anything goes. This absurd future may not be the one you want, but nothing is out of the question anymore," said Zoe Nawar.

By
Ryan Broderick
by Ryan Broderick

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

John McAfee, a one-time antivirus entrepreneur who has become a cult figure for internet libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, is gearing up for a 2020 presidential run.

The British American computer programmer announced over the summer that he was going to run in 2020. McAfee lost the Libertarian Party nomination to former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson in 2016.

McAfee is best-known for creating and selling McAfee antivirus software. He was then accused of murder — which he denies. He then rebranded himself as the CEO of a cryptocurrency firm, which he severed ties with.

On Thursday, McAfee tweeted the words "McAfee 2020" written over a picture of Spike Spiegel, the main character from the anime Cowboy Bebop.

Twitter: @officialmcafee

The response on Twitter was pretty immediate. One user replied, "ANIME IS BAD."

McAfee's Twitter activity is pretty erratic. Earlier this week, he tweeted about having sex with whales, writing, "Some call me 'Whale Fucker'. Alright. There's a private club of a few dozen Maori men and one butch woman - that meet in Molokai each year to fuck a whale. True. Men on paddle boards herd the whale while one tries to fuck it. Wouldn't let me in the club. Tried it alone. Epic fail."

McAfee's Twitter shitposting is currently being guided by his campaign team's new "millennial outreach coordinator," a 20-year-old named Zoe Nawar in Atlanta.

Twitter: @yungkitty404

Nawar, who is taking some time off from college, told BuzzFeed News that she got the job a few days ago.

Twitter: @yungkitty404

"I joked in his reply and asked to be part of his campaign," she said. "By 9 p.m. that night I was on the phone with McAfee himself. The next day I spoke to his campaign manager."

Twitter: @yungkitty404

Nawar said that advising McAfee on how to pick out an anime Twitter avatar was one of her first projects.

Twitter: @yungkitty404

"I gave him options," she said. "He chose Spike because he's a cowboy."

Twitter: @yungkitty404

She said that she plans to incorporate other anime characters in McAfee's campaign posts. "Spike his gonna be /his/ character but I'm planning on doing campaign posts with other characters," she said.

In the course of interviews for this article, however, McAfee changed his avatar again, this time to Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Nawar said it was because he wanted a character closer to him in age.

As to why McAfee is doing any of this, Nawar said it's all part of an "all press is good press" social media campaign.

"Just get attention by being weird, different, controversial," she said. "Everything from anime to niche references to just general hype stirring."

Nawar said that McAfee's team plans to give her seven "regional millennial outreach volunteers" within the month.

Twitter: @officialmcafee

Nawar also said she's been invited to meet with McAfee at his headquarters in December.

"I believe he takes the campaign more seriously now in 2018 than Trump did in 2016," she said.

She said that she doesn't have the same politics as McAfee — she identifies as a communist — but is excited about the work.

"It's a changing world. Anything goes. This absurd future may not be the one you want, but nothing is out of the question anymore," she said.

McAfee and his team didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter: @officialmcafee

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