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As he works to enter his vice president era, Tim Walz is invoking the power of Taylor Swift.
At the VP debate Tuesday night (Oct. 1), Kamala Harris’ running mate gave the pop superstar a big shout-out and wore Eras Tour-inspired friendship bracelets while facing off against JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for his second-in-command. After 90 minutes of back-and-forth — during which strings of beads occasionally peaked out from Walz’s shirt sleeves — the Minnesota governor ended his performance by marveling at the vast array of people supporting the Democratic ticket in 2024.
“I’m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built, from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift,” Walz said, staring into the camera to directly address the American people. “They don’t all agree on everything, but they are truly optimistic people. They believe in a positive future of this country, and one where our politics can be better than it is.”
The 60-year-old politician was standing too far away from the camera to give a clear shot of his bracelets, but it’s very possible he was sporting an official Harris-Walz accessory on his wrist. The duo’s campaign began selling the beaded pieces in September, almost immediately after Swift endorsed their cause with a lengthy post on Instagram signed “Childless Cat Lady.”
“I think [Harris] is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” the 14-time Grammy winner wrote in her message, which went live moments after the presidential debate concluded Sept. 10. “I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Though her support has arguably been the most impactful, Swift is just one of dozens of celebrities who’ve endorsed Harris and Walz ahead of election day on Nov. 5. Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Jon, Bon Iver, John Legend and Pink have all performed at campaign events this summer, while Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Carole King, Katy Perry, Kesha, Barbra Streisand and more have all spoken out in the Democrats’ favor.
Watch Walz give Swift a shout-out at the VP debate below.
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With just over a month until Election Day, vice presidential candidates Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz will debate for the first time airing live on Tuesday (Oct. 1).
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The debate will take place at CBS News studios in New York City.
Read on for details on where and when to watch, and stream from anywhere.
Vice Presidential Debate: Time, Where to Stream Without Cable
What time does the debate start? CBS will broadcast and stream live coverage of the vicepresidential debate beginning at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Debate coverage starts at 4 p.m. ET on CBS.
Additionally, the debate will stream live on Paramount+ and simulcast on ABC, NBC, Fox, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, BBC News and C-SPAN, which you can access on DIRECTV Stream, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and ExpressVPN to stream internationally.
DIRECTV Stream lets you stream ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox in addition to cable networks. Live TV streaming plans start at $80.
Fubo and Hulu + Live TV offer live, local channels along with several cable channels. And you can join either platform for free, however Fubo offers a free trial for a week and Hulu + Live TV’s free trial lasts for three days. Both streamers offer plans under $80 per month.
Join Sling TV and watch cable channels and local networks such as CBS and ABC in select regions. Sling’s streaming plans start at $20 for the first month.
Even though Amazon offers same-day delivery on select items, you might not have enough time to purchase a digital antenna, but it’s a decent option for streaming live channels without subscribing to a streamer. The vice presidential debate will also stream live on Prime Video’s Freevee channel.
To watch CBS on Paramount+, you’ll need to subscribe to the Paramount+ with Showtime. Plans start at $7.99 for the basic package and $12.99 for Paramount+ with Showtime, CBS and more. Start your free trail here.
Debate Rules & Moderator Details
CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell, will moderate the debate alongside Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
According to CBS News, each candidate will have two minutes to answer each question and one minute for rebuttal. Mics will not be muted while the other candidate speaks, but moderators can mute the candidates if needed.
The debate will include four commercial breaks.
New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams made somewhat of a cameo in The Notorious B.I.G.‘s video for the rapper’s debut single “Juicy.” According to a resurfaced tweet from New York Times reporter Jesse Drucker, his eagle-eyed son spotted the now-mayor as he was watching the video. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See […]
Randy Rainbow is back in his election era, and he’s using the music of pop superstar Taylor Swift to ridicule former president Donald Trump.
In a new parody video posted on Monday (Sept. 30), Rainbow created a “Donald’s Version” of Swift’s hit 1989 single “Blank Space,” switching up the lyrics to openly mock the Republican nominee’s latest statements in a divisive campaign for the White House.
Rainbow started off his new clip pretending to be the moderator at the presidential debate earlier in September, using clips of both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris to underline his jabs at the former president. “Mister former fake president girl sir, you have been critical of your opponent’s immigration record. Would you care to elaborate by making up some crazy-a– bulls–t?” Rainbow asks in the introduction before replaying clips of Trump making the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were kidnapping and eating pets.
Launching into his song, Rainbow donned his best Taylor Swift drag and immediately went after Trump’s increasingly strange public comments at both his rallies and the Sept. 10 debate. “Pushin’ garbage, playin’ games/ Got more tall tales than bankruptcies,” Rainbow jabbed in his first verse. “Hey girl, you OK? Do you believe a word you say? Can’t believe a word you say, ’cause we’ve been tryna ditch you for damn near a decade.”
On the song’s choruses, though, Rainbow opted to sing directly to his audience, urging them to get to the polls on Nov. 5. “Soon it’s gonna be November, and we’re gonna get the final say/ Better get your act together, or he’s gonna take your rights away,” he sings. “Got our foreign rivals rooting, he’d be their Christmas gift/ ‘Cause he loves Kim Jong and Putin, but hates Taylor Swift!”
The pop singer made news shortly after the debate when she publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, stating that the vice president “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” Swift also made it clear that she would not support Trump’s election bid, despite AI-generated photos (shared on social media by Trump) that claimed to show her lending him her support. “It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
Closing out his parody video, Rainbow dressed up as Swift in her endorsement post to deliver one final string of insults at the former president, calling him a “narcissistic weirdo,” a “low-IQ, hot-headed nutjob” and even an “orange fecal stain.” For his final punchline, Rainbow called up Swift’s classic lyric to taunt Trump: “He’s got a blank space, baby/ And it’s in his brain.”
Watch Randy Rainbow’s parody of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” above.
Sabrina Carpenter copped to possibly having a role in last week’s first-ever indictment of a sitting New York mayor. During her headlining show at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday night (Sept. 29), Carpenter took a moment to respond to the historic news from Friday that N.Y. Mayor Eric Adams had pleaded not guilty to five felony charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery after officials accused him of taking more than $100,000 in illegal gifts in exchange for allegedly helping out the government of Turkey.
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According to fan video of the moment, she joked, “Damn, what now? Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted?” pulling her face away from the mic as she laughed while the crowd clapped and yelled. Carpenter was referring to reports earlier this month that tied the filming of her blood-soaked 2023 “Feather” video to one of the voluble Mayor’s friends.
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Carpenter made headlines last Halloween when just weeks after filming the visual inside Brooklyn’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish Church in Williamsburg led to the demotion of Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello. The Church leader was relieved of his administrative duties after it emerged that he’d approved the shooting of the clip in which Carpenter, 25, bloodily offs former boyfriends and winds up in a skimpy black dress posing and wriggling on the altar in the ornate 130-year-old church next to a bedazzled coffin emblazoned with the message “RIP B–ch.”
After the video’s release, Bishop Robert J. Brennan said he was “appalled at what was filmed” at the church,” noting that the parish did not follow “diocesan policy regarding the filming on Church property, which includes a review of the scenes and script.” The song was featured on Carpenter’s 2022 Emails I Can’t Send album.
Carpenter’s name popped up earlier this month when reports said that federal investigators were also in the midst of an investigation into the relationship between Gigantiello and Adams’ former chief of staff, Frank Carone. The church was reportedly subpoenaed by federal investigators last week seeking information about possible financial and business tied between longtime friends Gigantiello and Carone, in an investigation allegedly tied to the filming of the video that has racked up more than 100 million views to date.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further on that review, which is still ongoing,” diocese officials said in a statement. “The Diocese is fully committed to cooperating with law enforcement in all investigations, including conduct at individual parishes or involving any priest.”
Adams plead not guilty last week on federal charges alleging that he accepted expensive travel and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and other foreign dignitaries in exchange for political favors.
See fan video of Carpenter’s comment below.
One day after Chappell Roan announced she was pulling out of 2024’s All Things Go Festival to “prioritize [her] health,” MUNA paid tribute to the Midwest princess during their set at the music fest on Saturday (Sept. 28) night.
“We acknowledge that somebody very special is missing tonight,” said Katie Gavin, the band’s singer, from the stage at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. “We just want to say that we love Chappell so much. We started as a queer band in 2014, and we’ve really been given the time and the grace that we needed to be nourished as artists. We wish nothing but that times a million for her.”
Roan, who had been scheduled to play All Things Go NYC on Saturday and All Things Go D.C. on Sunday, explained she was feeling “overwhelmed” in a statement on Friday (Sept. 27) and would be canceling her All Things Go appearances to focus on her health. Prior to the cancelation, Roan had received flak from some fans and pundits for refusing to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, though Roan explained she would be voting for Harris in the 2024 election.
The rock band – made up of Gavin, Josette Maskin and Naomi McPherson – went one step further than just talking about Roan, too, performing a “tribute” to the pop supernova that they pulled together at the last minute. Guitars in hand, the trio delivered a gorgeous, stripped-down cover of Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, which currently sits at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Prior to MUNA’s set, a coterie of drag performers (including RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Yvie Oddly and NYC queen Beaujangless) led the crowd through a joyous Chappell Roan dance party during what would have been her time slot.
Roan wasn’t the only one MUNA dedicated a song to. Prior to “Kind of Girl” from their self-titled 2022 album, Gavin said, “We’re gonna dedicate this song to all the trans cuties that are here with us tonight.” Nor was it their only cover, with MUNA leading the Forest Hills Stadium in a sing-along to Vanessa Carlton’s 2002 smash “A Thousand Miles.”
Near the end of their set, MUNA got explicitly political, with Gavin reading a pre-written statement.
“We are staunchly against the American far-right, and we’re terrified of the way that an anti-queer and anti-trans attitude has manifested itself in our current political climate,” Gavin said. “On top of this, we want abolition. We want the wellbeing of people and animals and land to be prioritized over the wellbeing of the global market. And we want total disarmament and world peace now. And there should be nothing f–king controversial about saying that.”
As her bandmates nodded and the crowd cheered, Gavin continued. “We want to say ‘f—k fascism’ and very importantly we continue to say, ‘Free free Palestine.’” Gavin then started a brief “free free Palestine” chant that some of the crowd participated in.
Gavin’s comments dovetail with what Roan said in a TikTok video that posted on Wednesday (Sept. 25). “Obviously, f–k the policies of the right — but also, f–k some of the policies on the left. That’s why I can’t endorse. There is no way I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views,” Roan said. “F–k Trump, for f–king real, but f–k some of the s–t that has gone down in the Democratic Party that has failed people like me and you, and more so Palestine, and more so every marginalized community in the world.”
MUNA’s comments arrive almost a year after a terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, including around 360 people killed at the Nova Music Festival, according to officials. During the attack, more than 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, with around 117 of them being returned and eight freed by Israeli troops since then. The bodies of 37 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli troops. Israel’s retaliatory military strikes in Gaza have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, including more than 10,000 children, according to health officials in the territory. More than one million people have been displaced, leading to widespread famine and an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Elsewhere in New York City on Saturday night, Doja Cat also addressed the ongoing wars from the stage at Global Citizen Festival in Manhattan’s Central Park. “Right now, millions of men, women and children in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, the Congo and all across the world are suffering. In times like this, it is important to remember that together we have the power to bring change, love, light and hope to those that need it most,” the rapper said. “Please keep using your voice to help those fleeing violence get the food, shelter and education they need and deserve.”
50 Cent has been one of the only rappers to be vocal about the alleged sexual misconduct of Diddy. He’s trolled the fallen mogul with baby oil memes and has been talking about making a documentary about his alleged accusations since earlier this year, when he posted a mock poster for a docuseries entitled “Diddy […]
HYBE has reopened an investigation against Min Hee-jin, the former CEO of its subsidiary label ADOR, with whom the K-pop conglomerate has been in a monthslong legal battle regarding her position at the company.
On Sept. 24, HYBE confirmed to Billboard that ADOR launched an investigation into whether Min improperly interfered in the company’s initial investigation into a sexual harassment claim and violated confidentiality obligations. ADOR also began a re-investigation of an ADOR VP involved in the situation. HYBE declined to comment on how long the investigations have been underway or when they plan to share their findings. Min and a representative tell Billboard she was never formally informed of the investigation through external or internal company means.
Min is pushing back on HYBE’s handling of the case, which was initiated by its sub-label ADOR, which houses NewJeans, calling the company’s internal investigations biased due to an alleged conflict of interest with the executive who replaced her as label CEO overseeing the case.
Sources tell Billboard that the investigation involves allegations that Min had covered up an incident involving a male VP at ADOR, where a female employee reported feeling harassed and bullied during a work-related dinner.
The controversy dates back to February 2024, when the ADOR VP allegedly pressured a female employee to attend a dinner with a client, claiming it would be beneficial to have a young woman present, according to an internal report shared with Billboard. During the dinner, the VP left abruptly, leaving the employee alone with a client, creating an uncomfortable situation that the report says “seemed orchestrated.” The employee reported the incident to HYBE’s internal compliance system, citing sexual harassment and workplace bullying. While an internal HR investigation was conducted, it ultimately recommended only a stern warning for the VP, as harassment claims could not be definitively proven, with the case dismissed.
Min Hee-jin’s role in the aftermath of this complaint is what has come under scrutiny. According to the report, Min doubted the credibility of the employee’s complaint and organized an all-hands meeting with both the complainant and the accused, violating the company’s standard HR procedures. An audit of the situation added that Min had coached the VP on how to respond to the allegations.
When the Korean tabloid site Dispatch first reported the incident, Min responded to the claims with a media statement and shared information about the employee on her social media, including the employee’s salary. HYBE has said that the employee filed lawsuits for defamation and privacy violations, but a representative for Min tells Billboard she, as well as the VP, are only facing a defamation suit. The rep adds that the VP has also sued the employee for defamation and claimed damages, which had not been previously shared with the media.
At the time, Min stated that the issues stemmed from poor work performance and that the employee left the company after a salary cut. Min tells Billboard the salary information she revealed through an Instagram Story post did not identify the individual and says it was HYBE, not herself, who publicly disclosed the private parties’ identities in media statements throughout their dispute.
In a phone interview last week, Min questioned the legitimacy of HYBE’s ongoing investigations and directly addressed the appointment of Ju Young Kim, ADOR’s new CEO, who replaced her and led the initial investigation that dismissed the harassment claim. During her time as ADOR’s CEO, Min claims she was not in a position to “conceal” sexual harassment cases nor in charge of such decisions.
“The one who actually made a final decision after reviewing all the statements, all the evidence and reporting, is Kim Ju Young, who is currently the CEO of ADOR,” Min says. “She made those final decisions by herself within HR of HYBE, but then later on, she brought up this issue again and accused me with different charges to try to re-open an investigation.”
Min adds, “I have been telling HYBE, ‘If you want to do an investigation or re-investigation, you need to make it formal and official by not having any investigating done by those involved in previous cases. They could hire a third party to investigate, but instead, they’re going into another internal investigation by the same person who actually made the final decision.”
The final results of the audit are expected in the coming days.
HYBE declined to comment on whether the company has spoken with or plans to speak with NewJeans directly, but Billboard learned that the NewJeans members and their parents met ADOR’s current CEO Ju Young Kim on Sept. 24 to solidify each side’s position.
Despite the ongoing investigation, ADOR shared its decision on Sept. 25 to allow Min back to the subsidiary as an internal director and producer for NewJeans, but would not honor the request to reinstate her as its CEO.
“The board has resolved to convene an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to reappoint Min Hee-jin as an internal director,” ADOR said in an official statement (per The Korea Herald). “However, the board cannot accept the request for her reinstatement as CEO at this time. Min Hee-jin’s role and authority as the producer for NewJeans are fully guaranteed, and further discussions on specific terms will take place in the future.”
Min Hee-jin issued a press statement in Korea rejecting the proposal and requesting again to be reinstated as CEO.
Indicted hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with yet another civil lawsuit, claiming that he repeatedly drugged and sexually assaulted an unnamed model over a four year period.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York state court, the accuser – identified only as a Florida model under the pseudonym Jane Doe – says that Combs abused her on multiple occasions from 2020 to earlier this year, often after giving her drugs and using other coercive tactics.
The allegations from the woman – at least the twelfth victim to accuse Combs of sexual abuse of over the last year – echo claims made by federal prosecutors in a sweeping indictment unsealed last week, which detailed elaborate, drug-fueled “freak off” performances involving numerous victims.
“Combs would make her ‘perform a show’ for him and would ply her with alcohol and substances until she passed out,” her lawyers write. “Throughout the four years, defendant Combs would consistently pressure Jane Doe adding other men and women into the bedroom despite Jane Doe being clear that she did not want others involved.”
The accuser says Combs and others used “coercive and harassing language” to force her to agree to his demands, including making “threatening jokes” to her that caused her to “fear for her safety if she did not comply.” She says he and others even tracked her location and monitored her conversations.
At one point in 2022, the accuser says she became pregnant shortly after a sexual encounter with Combs. After she shared the news with Combs, her lawyers say one of his associates “harassed Jane Doe by repeatedly calling her and telling Jane Doe to have an abortion.” She says she later suffered a miscarriage.
Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. But over the past year, he has faced a flood of civil abuse lawsuits, starting with a high-profile case filed late last year by his former longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura. That case quickly settled, but it was later corroborated by a widely shared video of Combs assaulting her at a hotel, and it was followed by numerous other cases with similar allegations.
Then last week, federal prosecutors unveiled a sweeping indictment, accusing Combs of operating a criminal enterprise centered on a “pervasive pattern of abuse toward women.”
“For decades, Sean Combs … abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” reads the indictment, which was obtained by Billboard. “To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multi-faceted business empire that he led and controlled.”
Even after the criminal charges, new civil cases have continued to be filed. Earlier this week, a woman named Thalia Graves filed a case claiming that Combs and another man another man “viciously raped” her New York City studio in 2001 – and that they filmed the encounter.
Combs is currently behind bars after a federal judge refused to grant him bail, ruling that he would pose a flight risk and might seek to intimidate witnesses and victims if released. The criminal case is pending, with a trial likely still months away.
A few days after the Sept. 16 arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, a book said to be based on diaries and notes from his late girlfriend, Kim Porter, became a best-seller on Amazon. (It was a best-seller within a certain category, which probably means it sold well but not hardcover-bookstore-best-seller well.) What’s really impressive is that the book did so well despite the fact that Diddy and Porter’s children say she didn’t actually write any of it.
The 60-page book, Kim’s Lost Words: A Journey for Justice, From the Other Side, was self-published under the name Jamal T. Millwood by Chris Todd, whose real name is apparently Todd Christopher Guzze. Todd has said the book is based on the contents of a flash drive, which he allegedly received from two people close to Porter and Combs, but he “didn’t ask too many questions about how they got it,” according to Rolling Stone. “If somebody put my feet to the fire and they said, ‘Life or death, is that book real?’ I have to say I don’t know,” said Todd, who says he’s a producer and journalist and hopes the book will lead other sources to come forward. (Journalists generally tend to ask too many questions.) “But it’s real enough to me.”
It would be hard to find a more ridiculous quote to describe the very serious problem that big media platforms have created. I have no idea how the book was written, of course, but Todd knows that’s not the point and presumably so do readers — it’s real enough to me, he says, so it’s real enough for them. (The story behind the book actually sounds more interesting than the book itself.) This sounds harmless enough until you realize that — wait a minute — that’s basically what Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance says about the claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. He heard it, then justified it as a way to call attention to a problem. (There is no evidence that anyone is actually eating pets, and the whole idea sounds racist.) Like Todd’s book, it certainly went viral. It was real enough for people — to the point that it has become an actual political issue.
Stories about scandals, real and exaggerated, are hardly new. (Diddy faces unrelated criminal charges; Porter died in 2018 of lobar pneumonia.) What is new, though, is the way online platforms create incentives to create and spread them. Amazon now sells more than a dozen books about Porter, including a “Kim Porter Coloring Book” and several books that use “lost words” in their titles. The speed and ease of selling books on Amazon’s open system has made Porter’s death a cottage industry. It’s gross — does anyone want to be memorialized by a coloring book? — and you can’t blame her kids for being upset. There’s money in it, though.
It’s a useful metaphor for streaming fraud. The problem isn’t that Amazon or online music services stand behind conspiratorial books or useless music with streaming numbers pumped up by bots — it’s that they don’t stand behind anything. Open platforms like these let people distribute their own art, which is promoted as a feature but might more often be a bug — a lot of what’s online is neither professional work nor hobbyist creations but rather get-rich-quick schemes of various kinds. Which is funny until it could affect an election.
The most common argument against this in the music business is that fraud takes money from artists, which is true, but it can be hard to get horrified about schemes to steam millions of fractions of pennies from thousands of artists. (Most of the book business works very differently, but dubious books do take money and attention that more legitimate books need.) Another argument is that low-quality material undermines the integrity of the system — consumers who hear lousy music and read dubious books might be less inclined to spend more money on such legitimate products.
The argument that ought to get more attention is that these kinds of products simply aren’t good for the overall experience platforms offer. Streaming services used to promote their vast selection, but at this point some of what’s uploaded just makes more popular music harder to find. The same applies on Amazon. A search for “Kim” and “Lost Words” brings up a half-dozen books — and even those who find and buy the one they want may be disappointed. Kim’s Lost Words has 98 reviews, which average out at three stars. Others have none at all. This doesn’t affect the value of other books, of course, but it could make them harder to find.
Any serious solution to this will involve changing the incentives. The current level of curation and enforcement won’t work once AI is more widespread. It’s one thing to sell a book that may or may not contain Porter’s words, but Amazon already sells 12. Are we ready for 12,000?
Making platforms easier to use will mean making tough choices, then pushing them down to distributors who will in turn push them down to individual uploaders. There are options, however: Platforms could hold uploaders responsible for content that hurts the user experience or pay out more to companies who have a better ratio of content users engage with compared to their total. That’s what I think — unless this all came from a flash drive someone gave me.