Taylor Swift—who described herself as a “childless cat lady”—announced who she would be endorsing just minutes after the presidential debate on Tuesday night between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Swift, a global superstar who endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, announced via Instagram that she would be endorsing Harris.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift said in the post, adding that she’s voting for Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
Swift said Harris “is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” noting that she was “so heartened and impressed by her selection” of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate due to his support for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and “a woman’s right to her own body.”
Swift concluded her remarks by saying that she had done her homework and “made my choice,” adding that she had watched the debate on Tuesday night and encouraged her supporters to learn more about the candidates and problems.
“Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make,” Swift said.
Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said Swift’s announcement came as a surprise.
“We’re very very proud to have her endorsement. The vice president obviously respects her a lot,” he said. “…Obviously Taylor Swift speaks to a huge audience of people in this country and frankly around the world, who find her story and songwriting resonant to them. The fact she did it tonight, she said it in her post, it speaks to the commanding nature of the performance the vice president had on the debate stage.”
Asked if Swift would hit the campaign trail, he said, “We would be happy for Taylor Swift to do whatever she would like to do in this campaign.”
During an interview Wednesday morning on Fox & Friends, Trump responded to Swift’s announcement by saying he prefers the endorsement he got from Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany. “I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” Trump said. He called her a “very liberal person” and said she will “pay the price for it in the marketplace.”
Trump called into the show and blasted ABC News, accusing the first debate moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, of ganging up on him while giving Harris a pass all night on her arguments.
Host Steve Doocy asked Trump if he would accept Fox’s offer to host a second debate with Harris on Fox News in October.
“Mr. President, I know when we started the interview, you said that you felt that you won the debate last night. Your best,” Doocy said.” I think before the debate happened last night, the Kamala Harris people said that they would actually like to do another debate in October. And I know that last night Fox News offered — sent letters to your campaign and her campaign offering three dates of debates moderated by Martha and Bret. One is October 9th in Arizona.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to have Martha and Bret,’ Trump replied. “I’d love to have somebody else other than Martha and Bret. I’d love to have, frankly, Sean or Jesse or Laura. You know, somebody else. Let’s give let’s give other people a shot.”
Trumpthen explained why, adding, ‘But I didn’t think Martha and Bret were so good last night. Yes, he was. Jesse was fantastic last night. What he said, Jesse. Really got it. Jesse said to Trump once that debate that was we won that debate by a lot. And I wouldn’t want Martha involved.”
Trump then suggested he may not do a second debate.
“But look, here’s a story. When two fighters fight and one loses, the first thing they do is ask for a debate or they ask for a fight. So in this case, a debate. So we had two people. They lost very badly. The first thing they did is ask for a debate, because that’s what when a fighter loses, he says, I want a rematch. I want a rematch. They always the losing person, the fighter, the debater, they always ask for a rematch. I won the debate according to C-SPAN, by a lot, according to every single I think we had 14 polls that we said to you everyone had been winning the debate,” Trump declared.
Doocy followed up, saying, “So you don’t know if you want to do another debate. It sounds like you’re in. No.”
Trump said he’s not currently inclined to do a second debate.
“Well, I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night. We won the debate. We had a terrible, terrible network. I think they were terrible. They should be embarrassed. I mean, they kept correcting me and I said what I said was largely right or I hope it was right. But what they said was absolutely wrong. The other you know what what she said. And they refused to,” Trump said.
“Correct. I even complained a couple of times. Why aren’t you correcting them? Look, they should have corrected 6 or 7 times. She told an outright lie. Another one is Project 2025. They know it has nothing to do with me. She mentioned it all night long and they refused to correct it. And everybody, you know, I haven’t I have nothing to do with Project 2020. I would just say one thing, but I am not inclined to do it because I won the debate by a lot. But I think we let it settle in and let’s see what happens,” Trump added.
Brian Kilmeade stepped in to defend his colleagues, saying: “I will say this. I think that Bret and Martha would do a phenomenal job, and they wouldn’t be bringing up Obamacare when and not talk about inflation,” he said. “And I think you would find them extremely fair. And I know you’ve dealt with both of them before.”
WATCH:
