Tim Walz apparently found out that he and Kamala Harris had received Taylor Swift’s endorsement while he was in the middle of a live television interview Tuesday night.
The Minnesota governor was on MSNBC reacting to Harris’ first debate with Donald Trump when host Rachel Maddow said she’d just been handed something as they were talking. “I don’t think you know about this,” Maddow said. “But this was just posted online by a woman you might have heard of whose name is Taylor Swift.”
Maddow then proceeded to read the statement Swift had posted on her Instagram account along with a picture of her holding Benjamin Button, one of her three cats. The pop music icon wrote that she’d been concerned by AI-generated images purporting to show her endorsing Trump’s campaign, clarifying that she would actually be casting her vote for Harris.
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Swift also used the post to say she’d been “heartened and impressed” with Walz—highlighting in part his support for “a woman’s right to her own body”—while taking a shot at Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance, by signing off the message with: “Childless Cat Lady.”
As Maddow began to read the text, Walz beamed as a chyron flashed on screen reading “TAYLOR SWIFT ENDORSES HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT.” He also put his hand on his heart in a gesture of gratitude when Maddow read the line which made it clear that Swift would be voting for him and Harris.
“I have to get your response to that, Mr. Governor,” Maddow said when she’d finished reading the statement.
“Wow!” Walz said. “All those things—I am incredibly grateful, first of all, to Taylor Swift. I say that also as a cat owner, a fellow cat owner.”
“Look, Swifties, you heard it,” he continued. “We know that it’s there. That was eloquent and it was clear. And that’s the type of courage we need in America, to stand up. We’ve seen it out of those Republicans who were at the DNC. We’ve seen it out of women who would like to have their own personal lives kept personal, but are forced to go out there ’cause they nearly died because they can’t get abortion services in a pregnancy.”
“And now you have somebody like Taylor Swift coming out, making that very clear,” Walz said. “This’d be the opportunity, Swifties. Kamala Harris dot com—get on over there, give us a hand, get things going!”
