White House slams election conspiracy theories, but won’t talk about Taylor Swift

(NEW YORK) — The White House said Wednesday it wants protecting democracy — not conspiracy theories — to be a key message heading into the general election, mentioning the recent conspiracy that alleged Taylor Swift was part of a psyop plot to help President Joe Biden win reelection.

Asked about the Taylor Swift conspiracy during the White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House is “always going to be concerned” about these types of conspiracy theories and the impact they can have, mentioning some voters’ belief that the 2020 election was stolen, which ultimately led to the Jan. 6 attacks at the U.S. Capitol.

“We have a concern about our democracy and where it’s going and protecting our democracy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Ahead of the Super Bowl, some Republicans circulated a baseless conspiracy that Swift — along with her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce — were part of a scheme to rig the Super Bowl and use the moment to endorse President Joe Biden in the 2024 contest. While the Chiefs did win the big game, neither Swift nor Kelce made a political endorsement.

“The Taylor Swift conspiracy, that’s for others to speak to. I’m not going to speak to that from here,” Jean-Pierre said.

This comes as a new national Monmouth University poll found that just under one in five Americans think that Swift is tied to an undercover government plot to help Biden win the 2024 election.

The poll, which was conducted from Feb. 8 to Feb. 12, called 902 U.S. adults to ask their thoughts on the pop star. Among the questions asked was, “Do you think that a covert government effort for Taylor Swift to help Joe Biden win the presidential election actually exists?”

Eighteen percent of respondents said they believe such a conspiracy involving Swift exists; 73% said that it does not exist. Nine percent said they didn’t know.

“The supposed Taylor Swift PsyOp conspiracy has legs among a decent number of Trump supporters. Even many who hadn’t heard about it before we polled them accept the idea as credible,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a release about the poll’s findings.

The poll also found that 68% of those Americans support Swift’s get-out-the-vote efforts among her fans. Twenty-five percent disapprove of those moves while 7% don’t know what to think of them.

Last year, Swift posted on her Instagram story urging her fans to register to vote. That led to a more than 35,000 bump in registrations and record-breaking traffic on the Vote.org website, the group’s CEO said.

The majority of Americans — 65% — said in the poll that they are not fans of Swift. Just 22% said they are fans and 6% said they are “Swifties” or super fans.

The polls has a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.