Seth Meyers has discussed countless culture wars in his decade behind the Late Night desk, but he says that the one currently being waged by conservatives against Taylor Swift is “easily their most deranged.”
“The conservative movement is so rotted and intellectually bankrupt that they have found themselves in a place where they are somehow enraged about a popular singer dating a football player,” Meyers said on Wednesday, before sharing a barrage of clips of various Fox News hosts railing against the “All Too Well” singer.
While most on the network seemed terrified of the prospect of Swift voicing her support for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, Jesse Watters went full Regina George, claiming that Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce “has all the true love of an arranged marriage” and that their relationship “was probably cooked up in a lab.”
“Allow me to quote a Taylor Swift lyric when I say: You people are out of your fucking minds,” Meyers retorted, before clarifying that that was “(Seth’s Version)” of a Swift lyric.
“Also, she’s dating a guy named Travis,” a very worked up Meyers noted. “How can you be mad about a Taylor and a Travis? I don’t even know who you are anymore, Republicans.”
To Meyers, “this is such an innocent, all-American thing: They’re kissing on the field after he wins the big game and she’s celebrating with his mom and dancing along with fans. How can you be mad at that?”
What really seems to be perplexing Meyers though is just how mad Republicans are at the amount of influence Swift could have on the 2024 presidential election—despite the fact that, again, she has said nothing about it.
Yet Republicans have “somehow spun themselves into an elaborate conspiracy theory where mysterious forces are manufacturing her fame in order to set up her endorsement of Joe Biden,” Meyers said. “Because only a grand conspiracy would explain why she might prefer Joe Biden over a man who everyday behaves worse than any man in a Taylor Swift song—which is saying a lot!”
Meyers is also highly amused by the contention that Swift’s popularity has been “manufactured.” Because he believes it would be impossible to “magically manufacture that kind of popularity, otherwise Joe Biden would be onstage at SoFi Stadium in front of 70,000 people telling a long story about Amtrak while wearing a bedazzled leotard.”
Meyers saved the bulk of his ire for Brian Kilmeade, who prattled on about how Swift endorsing Biden would be “the single dumbest thing a mega-superstar could ever do” and warned her to “stay out of it.” His comment led Meyers to ask the million-dollar question: “Whose instincts do we think are sharper? The 12-time Grammy-winning artist who has sold over 200 million records, staged the highest grossing concert series of all time, produced and distributed her own record-breaking concert movie, and was TIME’s Person of the Year or the dingus whose main talent is staring blankly at the camera every morning like a sock with button eyes?”
