It’s almost inarguable to think that there is a bigger pop star in the world than Taylor Swift right now. One could argue Katy Perry, Ariana Grande or even Justin Bieber, but Swift’s fame is even bigger than Britney Spears in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The MTV Video Music Awards happened on Monday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. where she performed her new song “Lover,” and of course, she needed to get political.
And the White house responded to Taylor Swift’s political statement the very next day.
Taylor Swift used to avoid politics like the plague and that was a huge reason why people endeared the pop star. Why alienate some, or even a big part, of your fan base if you don’t have to. Standup comedian Kevin Hart operates in a similar capacity.
But Swift finally decided to speak out against Republicans in the lead up to the November 2018 Congressional General Election.
The ten-time Grammy Award winner is from Tennessee originally and she endorsed Democrat Phil Bredesen instead of incumbent Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn in an Instagram post.
She wrote, “These two Tennessee women voted for the candidate who has proven himself to be reasonable and trustworthy. We want leadership, not fear-based extremism. Early voting goes til Thursday and Election Day is November 6. Please don’t sit this one out.”
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She was also a vocal adversary to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Congressional hearings.
On Monday, Swift took it to the MTV Video Music Awards stage where during performing her new song “Lover,” where the words “Equality Act” were shown over the performance. This is a reference to the Equality Act legislation that would prevent discrimination based on either sexual orientation or gender identity.
The White House responded with a statement that read, “The Trump Administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”
After winning the top prize, Video of the Year, Swift and a number of cast members from the video appeared onstage to accept the honor.
Swift said during her speech, “Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition – and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law.”
The petition has already received more than a half-million signatures so far. And the government must respond to petitions that gather 100,000 signatures in its first 30 days, which is probably why they responded swiftly to Swift’s message.
Swift concluded her speech reference a watch saying, “And, I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half-a-million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House.”
Well, they did. They didn’t do it because of Swift’s pop star status. They did it because they were required to.