Nikki Haley Is Completely Done With ‘Bizarre’ MAGA Taylor Swift Conspiracies
The presidential hopeful says she can’t believe the issue has “overtaken our national politics.”
CNN
Conservative conspiracy theorists want answers about Taylor Swift. Is she a part of a government psy-op? Or maybe involved in a nefarious plot to rig the Super Bowl as a way of boosting a hypothetical endorsement for President Joe Biden? Whatever conclusions conspiracists come to, Nikki Haley is absolutely not interested.
“To have a conspiracy theory of all of this is bizarre,” the GOP presidential candidate said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday. “Nobody knows who she’s going to endorse. But I can’t believe that that’s overtaken our national politics.”
Tapper asked Haley about the recent theories surrounding Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, that the “MAGA world seems rather obsessed with.” The CNN host cited an X post from Vivek Ramaswamy—Haley’s former rival for the 2024 Republican nomination who is now endorsing Donald Trump—in which he seemed to float a theory that the Super Bowl could be fixed in order to hand the Chiefs and Kelce the win so as to maximize the impact of a later endorsement from Swift for Biden.
Tapper also noted a meme reposted by Trump attorney Alina Habba on her Instagram asking if the U.S. needs “a lot more women like Alina Habba, and a lot less like Taylor Swift.”
Why are we talking about conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend when the world’s on fire? Make America normal again. pic.twitter.com/Bew5NeWhVG
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 2, 2024
“I’m not gonna lie—I don’t know what the obsession is,” Haley said in response. “Taylor Swift is allowed to have a boyfriend. Taylor Swift is a good artist. I’ve taken my daughter to Taylor Swift concerts before.”
The former South Carolina governor added that “nobody knows who she’s going to endorse.” Swift has not publicly backed any candidate in the 2024 race but she did endorse Biden in 2020. While Trump is reportedly going around telling people he’s “more popular” than the most popular artist currently making pop music, Haley doesn’t seem particularly concerned about who—if anyone—Swift decides to endorse.
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“I can’t believe that that’s overtaken our national politics,” Haley said of the speculation. “I mean, right now you’ve got 60 percent of American families living paycheck to paycheck, we’ve got a border that’s out of control, we’ve got wars happening around the world—the last thing I really think we need to be worried about is who Taylor Swift is dating and what conspiracy theory is gonna have her endorsing a person for president.”
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