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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

While Taylor Swift arrives in Australia for the biggest shows of her career, she’s found herself at the centre of conspiratorial fantasies sweeping American right-wing politics.

Some view her relationship with American footballer Travis Kelce, which sounds like the plot of an American fairytale, as evidence for a nefarious scheme to re-elect Joe Biden.

So, how did a baseless theory capture America to the point that the President himself has responded?

Today, political reporter for Rolling Stone, Nikki McCann-Ramirez, on how right-wing conspiracies are rotting American politics.

It’s Thursday, February 15.

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Audio excerpt – TikTok Host:

“Game or commercials?”

Audio excerpt – Joe Biden:

“Game.”

Audio excerpt – TikTok Host:

“Game or Halftime show?”

Audio excerpt – Joe Biden:

“Game.”

Audio excerpt – TikTok Host:

“Jason Kelce or Travis Kelce?”

Audio excerpt – Joe Biden:

“Momma Kelce I will say. She made great chocolate chip cookies.”

Audio excerpt – Host:

“Deviously plotting to rig the season so the Chiefs would make the Super Bowl or the Chiefs just being a good football team?”

Audio excerpt – Joe Biden:

“I’ll get in trouble if I told you.”

ANGE:

Nicki this week, the President of the United States posted a TikTok that references a conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl.

And to be honest, I don't think I ever expected those things to ever come together, let alone be something that needs to be taken seriously or be something we'd make an episode about. But can you tell me about where this all started?

NIKKI:

I would love to. And I'm about to feel like Vladimir Putin talking to Tucker Carlson. In the sense that I could take you on a historic journey spanning decades and potentially centuries of context. But I'll summarise for good.

ANGE:

Okay.

NIKKI:

This is, at its core, the worst parts of sports culture running face first into the worst parts of American political culture.

And, it began shortly after the summer when Taylor Swift began her relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Audio excerpt – NFL Reporter:

“And it's caught by Kelce for the touchdown, with Kyle Hamilton”

NIKKI:

He is a three time Super Bowl champion and is considered one of the best players in his position of all time. And Travis Kelce was somewhat of a long time Swiftie.

Audio excerpt – Host:

“Talking about Taylor Swift, I know you went to Taylor Swift’s concert. How was it?”

Audio excerpt – Travis Kelce:

“Yeah, well I was disappointed that she doesn't talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs.”

NIKKI:

He went to one of her concerts, shot his shot later on when he said he wanted to give her a friendship bracelet.

Audio excerpt – Travis Kelce:

“But I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it. Now. Right man.”

Audio excerpt – Host:

“Your number as in 87 or your phone number?”

Audio excerpt – Travis Kelce:

“You know which one.”

NIKKI:

And now they've been dating for a few months.

Audio excerpt – NFL Host:

“On NBC's Sunday Night Football.”

NIKKI:

It started becoming a problem for people. And to be clear, I do not agree with any of these people. When Taylor Swift started attending Travis Kelce and the Chiefs games.

Audio excerpt – NFL Host:

“Taylor is in the house.”

NIKKI:

And at first it was resentment. It was annoyance about why she is being shown so much at the games?

Audio excerpt – News Reporter:

“That's a battle we've seen play out every time the Chiefs play. Cameras cut to Taylor and fans become enraged.”

Audio excerpt – Angry fans:

“Hey, Taylor, you're ruining football.”

Audio excerpt – Unknown:

“Taylor Swift has ruined the integrity of the NFL as long as she's dating Travis Kelce.”

NIKKI:

And then it devolved into full blown conspiracies alleging that Taylor Swift was in this relationship in order to sway the results of the 2024 election, which will happen in November.

Audio excerpt – Jack Posobiec:

“They're using Taylor Swift right now. They're gearing up for an operation to use Taylor Swift in the election against everything against Trump for Biden. They're going to get her and all. You know, they call him the Swifties. They're going to turn those into voters. You watch.”

NIKKI:

And it's devolved now to the point that the President of the United States is tweeting about it.

ANGE:

And can you explain a bit more about how this went from some people, you know, in the crowd and fans being upset at seeing Taylor Swift at NFL games and maybe sort of stealing a bit of the limelight in a way, to becoming a full on conspiracy about a plot to influence U.S. politics.

Like, where did that did someone start saying things? How did that all begin?

NIKKI:

It was a fast slide. It, it is the timeline I would give. I think it's important that to understand that Taylor Swift has an immense amount of cultural capital in the United States and around the world, and she has this huge trove of influence at a time when American conservatives are really trying to make inroads as a force within the music and entertainment industry.

And she's been everywhere. She had one of the most successful tours in the history of the music industry. She's dropping a new album. She just won album of the year, and now she's dating an NFL player.

Like I said, and a lot of people, particularly men's minds, in dating Kelce. She inserted herself into a space that's supposed to be a sanctuary and a space where conservatives, especially in the United States, feel that they're the ones who were holding a lot of the cultural capital.

The spectacle around it typically is very pro-military, pro patriotism, the cheerleaders, the beer, all that.

And all of a sudden, this woman with declared liberal politics who's an entertainer, who's sort of very outside of the league, is dominating discussions of the sport.

And I think that's where the conspiracy theory begins as a twisted response to the, in my, in my opinion, misplaced belief that Taylor could only have violated this unspoken line of demarcation between her realm and our realm because of some nefarious force or plot, because some other machination is at work.

Audio excerpt – Unknown:

“Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?”

NIKKI:

They were calling her a psyop, which is shorthand for psychological operation.

Audio excerpt – Unknown:

“Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon's psychological operations unit floated, turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting.”

NIKKI:

They were ginning up all of these fantasies that the season had been rigged so that the Chiefs would make it to the Super Bowl. And then once the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Taylor and Travis would endorse Joe Biden and it would swing the election.

Audio excerpt – Benny Johnson:

“And the way you do that is by taking the most braindead low information voters. Of course, I'm talking about Swifties, Taylor Swift fans sort of worship this artist.”

NIKKI:

They were claiming that her popularity wasn't organic, that it was all manufactured, which is just insane, right?

Audio excerpt – Benny Johnson:

“Like just out of the blue. Suddenly Taylor Swift's most famous person on earth. Now she's at every NFL game with her boyfriend.”

NIKKI:

Basically, it all boils down to this notion that Taylor Swift is being propped up by the NFL, supported by all these communities, not because she's a successful entertainer in her own right, but because she's a pawn in order to influence an election.

Audio excerpt – Charlie Kirk:

“If I wanted to create an OP, if I did, I would have the most popular woman of the year singer. Date, date a popular Midwestern tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. It just, it's a it's an op made in heaven.”

NIKKI:

For the first real chunk of her career, up until about 2018, Republicans projected a lot of their own beliefs onto her. You know the image she presented, a blonde, blue eyed country music star with a very wholesome image still embodies a lot of the things that they wish for themselves in their influencers, in right wing, conservative aligned celebrities.

Conservatives in the United States regularly accuse the left of all forms of degeneracy, particularly when it comes to the entertainment industry.

Taylor is none of that. She's a successful model in a wholesome relationship with a stellar career, with very little negative PR that the right can latch onto to kind of make dents in the cultural and political capital that she potentially has. When they try and lob attacks at her, there is very little room they can work with.

And I think that informs a lot of the fear that she may not be on their side, that she probably isn't on their side. And if she endorses someone, it will probably be Joe Biden. And she is so big right now, so ubiquitous, such a like beacon within the culture that they know any endorsement she makes is going to get extremely widespread coverage.

ANGE:

After the break - why is Joe Biden paying attention to this conspiracy theory?

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ANGE:

Nikki, we've been talking about this conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift's fame has been kind of manufactured to influence politics. And obviously there's something ridiculous and kind of funny about that.

But theories and culture wars like this clearly resonate. Why do you think these ideas gained so much traction among Americans?

NIKKI:

Oh my goodness. If we all, hahaha, I get this question a lot. I think right now in the, in the United States, there's a lot of political, economic, social instability. And I think that was largely engineered by the pandemic.

It's hard to overstate how badly the pandemic and the 2020 election in the United States broke a lot of people's brains in terms of generating a baseline impulse towards conspiratorial thinking. You gather all those things up, you throw in one of the world's most successful entertainers, a splash of misogyny and a football player from a team poised to create a dynasty. And apparently, what you get is the steaming pile of nonsense we're talking about today.

It's, I think when there's so much uncertainty, people start looking for the explanations, start looking for the why. And in the absence of a clear answer, a conspiracy can seem like a really convenient thing to give order to that chaos.

And it's become a very convenient form of thinking for a lot of these right wing influencers who are looking to establish themselves to create alternative spaces within media. It has created a lot of incentives for right wing creators to boost engagement, no matter what the cost.

And you see how a lot of these right wing influencers who were pushing these really absurd claims about Taylor Swift, they're also the same influencers who are pushing misinformation about vaccines, about the 2020 election in the United States, about a myriad of other issues that do have much more serious implications for American life in politics.

ANGE:

And I guess these conspiracies are so sprawling and they intersect specifically this one, into things like culture and politics and sport that it provides such good fodder for the media. And you can understand why the media would sort of indulge this and run with it, because someone like Taylor Swift does drive a lot of interest in engagement.

But why is the Trump camp? And in turn, you know, President Joe Biden actually paying attention to this theory and giving it oxygen?

NIKKI:

Well, on Trump's side, it's because the man cannot ignore criticism. He's physically incapable of it. Rolling Stone actually published a piece where we learned that sources around the president were saying that Trump was very upset about the notion that Taylor Swift might not endorse him, and was kind of promising to level a quote unquote, holy war against her if she didn't.

And it's, like it's absurd. What does the former president of the United States, what reason does he have to be beefing with a musician who has done nothing more than appear at a couple NFL games, and has not even endorsed anyone for the 2024 election?

In terms of Joe Biden tweeting about it. I don't necessarily have a problem with it. I, I kind of think it behoves him. It's in his interest to point out how ridiculous some of these claims being made about him are, and I do think I understand the impulse to not treat this kind of conspiracy theory with any sort of seriousness, because fundamentally, the claim that Joe Biden got Taylor Swift to date Travis Kelce to win him votes is, is ridiculous.

I also think Joe Biden is really trying to appeal to young voters. And it's a little bit of pandering, but politicians pander, that's what they do. If they weren't trying to earn your votes, it'd be a whole other story.

Like I said, it's a clash of the worst things about sports and entertainment culture coming together with the worst things about political culture.

ANGE:

And I guess a conspiracy, like the nature of a conspiracy, means that staying silent kind of feeds it. It's like, why aren't you talking about the thing, you know, it kind of further entrenches the, the conspiracy. If you don't address it because it seems like you're hiding something.

NIKKI:

Yeah. If you're going to respond, at least make a joke about it.

ANGE:

And Nikki, to sort of go back to where we started and, you know, talking about President Biden leaning into this theory and posting a meme about it, you know, over recent years, we've had such kind of big conversations about the importance of countering misinformation with things like civilised, sensible conversations, like taking it really seriously.

So is it kind of the end of the road for that high minded approach? When we see someone like the US President join in and kind of be part of all the fun of it?

NIKKI:

I wouldn't say this in this particular situation indicates like an abandonment of the principles of statehood. I think part of the reason Biden, Biden and his team, because I do not think he came up with that on his own, felt comfortable posting that meme in that TikTok is because even some conservatives thought that the Taylor Swift stuff was going way too far. Several influencers, really prominent right-wing influencers, tweeted stuff along the lines of you're making us look crazy.

And I think coming from the standpoint where, you know, even some on the right were telling people to pull back, to tone it down. There's a certain level of safety. And then coming in and being like, yes, the Kansas City Chiefs won just like I planned it.

And you kind of have to read the room if it's something like QAnon or Pizzagate or the conspiracy surrounding the 2020 election. Well, I think most politicians and Joe Biden have taken those things quite seriously.

But every once in a while, in a fun moment when everyone's just kind of baffled by what's going on, I think a bit of levity is allowed, particularly given the state of American politics right now.

ANGE:

Nikki, thanks so much for your time today.

NIKKI:

No, of course.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today

More than 170,000 homes in Victoria were without power yesterday, due to outages caused by powerful storms on Tuesday.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen said Emergency Management Victoria was working to clear roads and restore power following the severe weather, which was only the second time since Black Saturday that a weather event reached a ‘catastrophic’ rating.

And..

Lisa Wilkinson won in a court case that will force the Channel Ten network to pay her legal fees in the defence of the defamation claim brought by Bruce Lehrmann.

Wilkinson took Ten to court over its refusal to pay more than $700,000 in legal costs that she faced over the matter.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

Thanks so much for listening.

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