White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cracked up when confronted about a report that President Joe Biden’s camp is desperately seeking singer Taylor Swift’s endorsement.
According to a New York Times report, Biden’s multi-pronged “Anti-Trump Battle Plan” aims to make attacks on the ex-president a central theme, along with a heavy focus on abortion rights, and promotion by celebrity influencers like Swift.
The Monday articles states that “Biden aides are drafting wish lists of potential surrogates, including elected officials, social media influencers and the endorsement of their wildest dreams: the global superstar Taylor Swift.”
The outlet reported that the idea of getting Swift to endorse Biden is so prominent amongst Biden aides and surrogates, that campaign hiring managers had had to put the kibosh on applicants vying for social media roles from pitching their “Taylor Swift strategy” during interviews.
Taylor — Thanks for your support and for speaking out at this crucial moment in our nation’s history.
Election Day is right around the corner — are you ready for it? https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB https://t.co/TLHRYSjbTx
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 7, 2020
Not because their ideas weren’t interesting, but because they are inundated with them.
One of the current plans, which the Times admitted was “a bit in jest,” was sending the president to see one of Swift’s “Eras” tour shows.
The Biden campaign understands that with 272 million followers, Swift is wildly influential over potential voters, as was proven with a single social media post in September.
“I’ve been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my U.S. shows recently,” Swift wrote on Instagram Stories.
“I’ve heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are,” she continued.
“Make sure you’re ready to use them in our elections this year!”
Taylor Swift & Joe Biden: a love story pic.twitter.com/MaFQt5dlFT
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 30, 2024
The post included a link to register with nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org, which saw a 1,226% increase in voter registrations within an hour of her post.
In total, a single post from Swift generated 35,252 new registrations, with the number of 18-year-olds who registered as a result more than double their age group’s cumulative registrations in 2022.
Now that she’s dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who is on the way to Super Bowl LVIII with his team, Swift has become even more of an all-American influencer.
It’s All FAKE. Taylor Swift EXPOSED as a FED OP To RIG 2024 Election for Biden | Pentagon ADMITS It pic.twitter.com/20a4hr8t6D
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 29, 2024
According Front Office Sports, the singer has generated $331.5 million in “brand value” for Kelce’s team and the NFL as a whole.
From her first appearance at a Chiefs game on Sept. 24, through the team’s divisional-round triumph over the Buffalo Bills, the NFL has seen the highest regular-season female viewership on record.
The Biden campaign is reportedly desperate to harness her power, particularly after she supported his 2020 run.
However, Jean-Pierre laughed off the Times report during an interview with “CNN News Central,” anchor John Berman on Monday.
“So what would Swift’s support give the president?” Berman asked about the article. “Any plans? Any plans to go on tour?”
The White House Press Secretary pointed out that she had to be “really mindful” about speaking about anything related to the upcoming election, due to the Hatch Act, which legally prevents her from doing so.
“So going to be super, super mindful obviously,” she stated.
“There are a lot of I know, in my shop in the press office shop, there are a lot of Swifties,” Jean-Pierre noted.
“If you were, if you will, fans of Taylor Swift. And so I’m just going to leave it there.”
The Swift fans within the administration were reportedly “alarmed” about a series of artificial intelligence generated nude images of the “Cruel Summer” singer that cropped up on social media recently.
“We are alarmed by the reports of the circulation of the — false images,” the White House press secretary remarked on Friday.
“While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people,” she stated.
The AI images depicted Swift in Kansas City Chiefs-themed sexually explicit photographs.
“Sadly, though, too often we know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls, sadly, who are the overwhelming targets of online harassment and also abuse,” Jean-Pierre concluded.
In response, X, formerly Twitter, CEO Elon Musk committed to hiring 100 full-time employees to enforce the platform’s content and safety rules.
X has also tackled the issue by recently disallowing all searches for Swift on the platform.