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Janet Jackson questioned Kamala Harris’ race in an interview published by The Guardian on Saturday (Sept. 21).
The interview touched upon the singer’s Together Again Tour, how she’s recorded “a lot of music that’s just sitting on the shelf,” and being a parent. It also shifted to the topic of the upcoming U.S. election, with the reporter noting Americans could elect their first Black, female president: democratic nominee Harris.

“Well, you know what they supposedly said?” Jackson chimed in. “She’s not Black — that’s what I heard, that she’s Indian.”

Added Jackson, “Her father’s white, that’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched the news in a few days. I was told that they discovered her father was white.”

She didn’t elaborate on where she’d heard this information, which is false.

Harris is both Black and Indian. Her father, Donald J. Harris, came to the U.S. from Jamaica. Her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan, came to the U.S. from India. They both moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California, Berkeley, which is where they met in 1962.

The Guardian approached the topic again with Jackson, asking if she thinks America is ready for a president who is a woman of color.

“I don’t know,” Jackson said. “Honestly, I don’t want to answer that because I really truthfully don’t know. I think either way it goes is going to be mayhem.”

The singer’s quotes about Harris trended on social media, where many fans expressed disappointment in one of their idols repeating misinformation.

“You had the chance to stand with a Black woman loud and proud and you didn’t. This is hard for a lifelong fan,” says a top comment on Jackson’s most recent Instagram post, which was taken over with reactions to what Jackson said about Harris.

On X, formerly Twitter, a post read, “Janet Jackson is one of the most influential people in music history. It was simply irresponsible of her to repeat something she ‘heard’ regarding the very thing that they use against Kamala! Her own race. We are less than 50 days away from the election. We gotta talk smarter!”

Over the summer, Donald Trump brought up Harris’ racial identity at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, where he claimed, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

At the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump said, “All I can say is I read where she was not Black … And then I read that she was Black, and that’s OK. Either one was OK with me. That’s up to her.”

Harris later responded, “Honestly, I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president, who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.”

Jackson, according to the reporter behind the The Guardian article, was not feeling well on the day of the interview. She had a cold.

Hayley Williams didn’t hold back her feelings about Donald Trump at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival.
On Friday (Sept. 20), the Paramore singer took a moment during the rock band’s performance of “Big Man, Little Integrity” as Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena to make it crystal clear how she feels about the Republican presidential nominee, who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

“Project 2025 is Donald Trump’s playbook for controlling and punishing women, poor people, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community,” Williams said while looking into a camera that was livestreaming the event on Hulu. “It is time for all Americans to band together and finally defeat the Trump agenda. And the only way to do that is by confronting him at the polls. Do you want to live in the dictatorship? Well, show up and vote.”

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This isn’t the first time Williams has spoken out against Republican politicians over anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Last year, the “Ain’t It Fun” singer lashed out against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a performance at the Adjacent Music Festival in Atlantic City, N.J.

Trending on Billboard

“If you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re f—ing dead to me. Is that comfortable enough for anyone?” she told the crowd.

Earlier this year, Paramore also declined a Tennessee resolution honoring the group for its Grammy win after the state’s lawmakers blocked a similar resolution honoring Allison Russell.

“This week, Rep. Justin Jones put forth resolutions to honor my band, Paramore and another local-to-Nashville artist, Allison Russell, on our recent Grammy wins (as far as I can tell these resolutions have no legal weight to them. They’re like a big high five or when the whole restaurant joins in to sing you “Happy Birthday”),” Williams told The Tennesseean. “House Republicans only let the measure that acknowledged Paramore’s win pass. They blocked Allison’s.”

The Paramore singer added, “The blatant racism of our state leadership is embarrassing and cruel. Myself, as well as Paramore, will continue to encourage young people to show up to vote with equality in mind.”

Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site this week to repost a doctored image of Kamala Harris that implied she attended one of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sexual “freak off” parties. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The photo, shared by TMZ, shows the Vice President and […]

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NY Mag reporter Olivia Nuzzi is in the midst of a scandal after an alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was revealed, and social media observers were left stunned.

On Thursday night (September 19), NYMag political reporter Olivia Nuzzi was placed on leave by the masthead’s leadership after it was learned that she engaged in a “personal relationship” with “a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign,” the publication announced. That former subject was revealed to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the information was disclosed by another reporter, Oliver Darcy via his Status newsletter. “Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign,” NY Mag’s statement said. “An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.”
The news caught many by surprise, as Nuzzi has been caught up in controversy for her attacks on former president Barack Obama as well as President Joe Biden, being one of the early voices demanding that he stop running for re-election.Nuzzi would offer her statement through Brian Stelter of CNN, saying: “Earlier this year, the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal. During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source.” Nuzzi would state that the relationship was “never physical”, but did go on to say she should’ve disclosed the situation to eliminate a conflict of interest. “I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York,” she concluded. According to Darcy, the alleged affair took place after her profile piece on Kennedy was published in November 2023 – two months after Nuzzi became engaged to Politico’s Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza.

Darcy’s report also went on to claim that Kennedy (who is married to actress Cheryl Hines) and Nuzzi were apparently “sexting” after Nuzzi had flown out to interview him at his Brentwood home for the profile. A rep for the third-party presidential candidate, who’d go on to endorse Donald Trump last month, sent out a statement claiming: “Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.”

1. Mike Beauvais

2. Laura Chapin

3. Alex Young

4. Dash Dobrofsky

5. Elie Mystal

6. Speechboy 71

7. Salome Strangelove

8. Miss Aja

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dissed Nicky Jam and Anuel AA when the subject turned to Donald Trump at a recent congressional hearing. 
While questioning Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the far-right Center for Immigration Studies, during an Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing Thursday (Sept. 19), the Bronx representative asked him whether he remembered the Donald Trump administration’s rumored desire to “sell” the island of Puerto Rico.  

“I don’t even remember that one,” Krikorian replied, to which AOC countered, “I suppose that puts you and Nicky Jam and Anuel in the same boat.” 

Nicky Jam was born and raised in Massachusetts, but has lived in Puerto Rico most of his life; Anuel is Puerto Rican. Billboard has reached out to reps for Ocasio-Cortez, Nicky Jam and Anuel AA for comment.  

The hearing was dubbed “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” It came with 46 days left to go before the 2024 presidential election, in which both Latin music stars mentioned by AOC are championing Trump.  

Anuel formally endorsed the Republican candidate at the former president’s rally in August, appearing on stage alongside fellow reggaetón star Justin Quiles. “The best president the world has seen, this country has ever seen, his name is President Trump,” the “China” musician said at the podium. “I personally spoke with him, he wants to help Puerto Rico grow and succeed as a country. He wants to keep helping Latinos in the U.S. Let’s keep doing things the right way and let’s make America great again.” 

The following month, Jam appeared at Trump’s rally in Las Vegas, where the twice-impeached ex-POTUS mistakenly referred to the “X” singer as a “she.” “Do you know Nicky? She’s hot. Where’s Nicky?” Trump said while introducing the artist. 

Despite the faux pas, Nicky Jam gave a passionate endorsement of the billionaire upon taking the microphone. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. President,” he told Trump. “We need you. We need you back, right? We need you to be the president.” 

He and Anuel are two of several musicians who are backing Trump’s re-election bid this year, alongside Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, Kodak Black, Lil Pump, Sexyy Red and Billy Ray Cyrus. Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, however, also has a litany of A-list artists on her side, from Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, John Legend and more. 

Watch AOC call out Nicky Jam and Anuel AA below.

Taylor Swift is the celebrity endorsement of Kamala Harris‘ wildest dreams.
In a WIRED video posted 10 days after the pop star broke her silence on the 2024 presidential election, emphatically backing the Democratic politician’s campaign against Donald Trump, Harris reacted to Swift’s endorsement. “I am very proud to have the support of Taylor Swift,” she said in the autocomplete interview.

“She’s an incredible artist,” the VP continued. “I really respect the courage that she has had in her career to stand up for what she believes is right.”

There is, however, one cause on which Harris says she disagrees with the 14-time Grammy winner. “We were on different sides of the Super Bowl last year,” she said with a smile, referring to Swift’s support of boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs, who won against Harris’ home team, the San Francisco 49ers, in February. “But who’s mad at anyone for being loyal to their team?”

Swift is one of many musicians who has given Harris their seal of approval this election, with Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and more speaking out in support of the Democratic ticket over the past few months. The “Anti-Hero” singer’s endorsement, however, has objectively been the most talked about, with her Sept. 10 post calling the former prosecutor a “steady-handed, gifted leader” earning praise from Hillary Clinton, Stevie Nicks, George Clooney and more while sparking backlash from conservatives such as Trump’s running mate JD Vance, Megyn Kelly and Lil Pump.

Trump himself weighed in shortly after Swift said her piece, telling Fox & Friends that the singer would “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.” Later, he posted on Truth Social, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT.”

Watch Harris react to Swift’s endorsement above.

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Mark Robinson, a Trump acolyte and candidate running for Governor of North Carolina, is having a bad day. A CNN investigation found that the conservative Republican nominee made dozens of egregious comments on the message boards of the “Nude Africa” pornography website over 10 years ago—including referring to himself as a “black NAZI.” 
Of course, Robinson is saying that he is a victim of artificial intelligence and that this is a digital lynching. Also, he needs more people, respectfully.

As for the CNN KFile investigation that had the GOP scrambling to maybe find another candidate and Robinson dropping a message to say don’t believe what we’re about to hear, the receipts are salacious.
Reports CNN:
Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a “perv.”
The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.
Many of Robinson’s comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012 on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic website that includes a message board. The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online.
CNN didn’t post all the comments since they were so salacious, but they did share a graphic that points to the comments coming from Robinson
Source: CNN / CNN
Among his commentary was his relaying an affinity to transgender porn. This stands in contract to his anti-LBTQ rhetoric that he is known for remains steadfast in broadcasting. “I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s f*cking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in!” Robinson wrote, per CNN. “And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”
Despite the evidence that it was indeed him typing the words, Robinson is in full denial. “This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson told CNN, after being presented with the evidence. He added, “I’m not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies.”

Robinson is currently the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, and a Trump homie. He is also getting absolutely cooked on social media. Peep the best of the slander in the gallery. A bunch of GOP legislators are sprinting to delete their photos with Robinson, but we got those saved, too.

South African artist The Kiffness has taken his viral, Donald Trump-inspired track to the stage. The Kiffness (real name David Scott) shared a video to social media on Thursday (Sept. 19) in which he’s seen performing his viral “They’re Eating the Cats” track in Munich, Germany. “‘Eating the Cats’ live in Munich last night. Only […]

The White House race between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris continues to be incredibly tight. With less than two months to go before Americans cast their votes, both candidates are doing everything they can to lock in their core constituents, amidst a desperate scramble to rope in crucial undecided and uninspired voters who could tip the scales in their favor.
And while the GOP has long hewed to the old saw that celebrity endorsements don’t move the needle on election day, this year has already shown how the right A-list seal of approval could be one of the decisive factors in the battle between twice-impeached convicted felon Trump and 11th-hour Democratic candidate VP Harris.

The proof is in the immediate impact felt by Taylor Swift throwing her hat into the ring two weeks ago with a strongly worded endorsement of Harris and VP pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. After Swift encouraged young voters to register at Vote.gov following the Democratic National Convention, more than 405,000 people clicked through in strong example of Swift’s potential impact on the outcome in November, easily besting the site’s early September daily tally of 30,000 visitors.

Trending on Billboard

A week later, Trump lashed out at the megastar, who has been selling out stadiums around the world for the past year on her culture-dominating Eras Tour, while also getting weekly high-profile, multi-demo screen time during NFL season thanks to her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” the candidate raged on his Truth Social platform over the weekend.

According to a YouGov poll conducted last week, more than 53% of Americans — including 31% of Republicans — think Swift’s endorsement will help Harris; 4% thought it might hurt Harris. That poll came on the heels of a February survey by Change Research that found that 65% of Democrats had a favorable view of Swift, while 29% of independents and just 17% of Republicans felt the same. For now, though, it’s still unclear if Swift’s endorsement will actually help Harris — based on a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, in which 81% of voters surveyed said Swift’s support for the VP will not influence how they vote. Only six percent said they are more likely to vote for Harris since Swift’s post, with 13 percent saying it makes them less likely to do so.

With the Nov. 5 election just 47 days away, Billboard spoke to a group of academics, political consultants, pollsters and music managers to see if they think Swift’s endorsement — and Trump’s lashing out — could help push Harris/Walz over the top, or turn the tide in Trump’s favor.

“People Will at Least Listen to Her”

“This election will be decided by a few thousand votes in three or four key states, so everything matters,” says veteran pollster and communications analyst Frank Luntz. “Will this be the deciding factor? Probably not. But will it have an impact? Most definitely.”

Luntz, who has done a series of stories asking the same group of young, undecided voters about the election for the New York Times since August, says before President Biden dropped out to make way for Harris, he polled voters about who would have the most influence on their vote. In first place was Trump at 38%, with Biden at 34% and Swift not far behind at 25%.

“I was really shocked by that,” he says. “At the time, Biden was so weak among younger women, and they are among the Democrats’ most reliable voting group — and [Swift] matters significantly, because she’s not seen as a politician and she’s not seen as a partisan. So people will at least listen to her.”

In addition, Luntz says, he thinks Swift handled the wording of her endorsement “quite well,” with language that explained “with some sophistication” why she did what she did. Among the reasons Swift cited for speaking out was her fear and anger over an incident last month in which Trump platformed fake AI-generated images of the singer falsely claiming she was supporting him.

Brilliant Corners Artist Managment (Death Cab For Cutie, Postal Service, Best Coast) co-founder Jordan Kurland knows a bit about speaking out during crucial elections, thanks to his time serving on the Entertainment Advisory Committee for both former two-term Democratic President Barack Obama and the unsuccessful 2016 Clinton presidential campaign against Trump. He also was impressed with the way Swift made it more about voting than herself.

“I appreciate that she talks about doing her research and encouraging people to not just vote for the candidate because your favorite pop star said so, but to really get to know the issues,” says Kurland.

“The icy peak of dumbf–k mountain”

While an older generation of artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand, have been reliable democratic party boosters and endorsers in the past, Luntz and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson (author of Everything Trump Touches Dies) say that Swift is a new kind of political force — with a massive, multi-media reach that could rope in sometimes unreliable, unmotivated young voters.

“Taylor Swift represents a different category of celebrity than almost anyone under the sun,” says the former Republican and political strategist Wilson, who co-founded the Lincoln Project Super PAC in 2019 in an effort to prevent Trump from being re-elected. “She’s sui generis in terms of the reach she has and her impact on young women, not to mention their fathers and mothers.”

Swift not only rules the Billboard charts on an almost constant basis, as well as having a culture-dominating Eras Tour and accompanying movie, but also makes headlines every weekend from the sky box as she cheers on Kelce. NFL games averaged 17.9 million viewers each in 2023, a year when 45 NFL games were among the 100 most-watched prime-time telecasts, with the league hogging 14 of the top 15 slots.

Add in 4.35 million tickets sold for her 60 Eras Tour U.S. shows in 2023, and Wilson says you have an artist whose reach — and influence — is virtually unmatched in modern pop history.

“Some of those girls who first loved her are now young women whose mothers took them to see Swift 10-15 years ago,” says Wilson. “And she has a relationship to those women and girls that Republicans are trying to make fun of — [they say] ‘her music is about bad choices, that’s why this is a bad choice’ — but her candor about her life, and the way it plays through her art, makes her relatable and engages people and makes them feel connected to her beyond her music and entertainment.”

In addition to being major pop culture moments and serious financial boosters for every city Swift visits, Wilson wryly notes that “nobody leaves a Taylor Swift show early or cranky, which is exactly the opposite of a Trump rally. They stay until the last minute and come away feeling happy and empowered.” (Wilson says he joked on MSNBC last week that he’d devised a new spin on the traditional warning about the historically biggest mistakes a politician can make: invading Moscow in the winter, launching a land war in Asia… and screwing with Swifties.)

As for Trump’s “HATE” tweet, Wilson came up with a new description of what he said was an unfathomably stupid self-own targeting a potentially crucial group of voters. “It wasn’t just a stupid idea,” he says. “If there was an Olympian level of stupidity, a mountain in the far distance of stupid ideas, it’s the very pinnacle, the icy peak of dumbf–k mountain.”

“They got Kid Rock and you have Taylor Swift”

Renowned political consultant and pundit James Carville, the lead strategist for Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 campaign, maintains that the evidence that celebrity endorsements have a significant impact on voting behavior is “pretty thin.” But, he adds, at the very least Swift’s endorsement will “drive [Trump] crazy” — as evidenced by the billionaire real estate mogul’s all-caps tweet and running mate JD Vance’s (somewhat) tempered double-down on Fox News last week. “We admire Taylor Swift’s music — but I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music, are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans,” opined the former venture capitalist, multi-millionaire Ohio senator.

In addition to her endorsement potentially distracting Trump, and his hate in response turning off many 18-34 young female voters who could be crucial to a win in November, Carville says Swift’s urge to register to vote could definitely make a difference. “It’s impressive that people did an affirmative act [in registering to vote], and he knows that,” says Carville. “They got Kid Rock and you have Taylor Swift. How is that gonna work out?”

Despite political veteran Carville’s on-the-fence status about celebrity endorsements, Penn State University associate professor of political communications and gender Dr. E. Michele Ramsey says that there is “all kinds of research” showing that the “perceived authenticity” of a celebrity’s thumbs-up does move the needle for “either a product or a candidate.”

Ramsey, who teaches the “Taylor Swift, Gender and Communication” course, says Swift’s action could make a difference among low-information voters, a crucial demo this year. She says we’re a moment now where women’s stories are loudly taking center stage on playlists, in the movies and on social media thanks to massive exposure for projects from not only Swift, but also such pop culture juggernauts as Beyoncé, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish, and even last year’s billion-dollar Barbie movie. And while Swifties are generally more likely to vote for Democrats according to a recent YouGov poll, she is so hugely popular that it’s likely she has fans across a broad political, and geographic spectrum.

“We’re in a unique moment in history where women’s stories are at the top of the food chain, where all these performers are speaking in a very vulnerable situation and expressing feelings that I think many women [and others] can relate to,” Ramsey says about an era when a woman’s right to choose has taken center stage. That state-by-state battle of course follows the overturning of Roe V. Wade two years ago, thanks to Trump’s elevation of three new conservative Supreme Court justices ,who helped overturn a woman’s federally protected right to abortion.

So far, in addition to Swift, a raft of other musicians and stars who appeal to the young female demo have endorsed Harris, including Beyoncé, Eilish, Roan, Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Charli XCX, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Kesha, Megan Thee Stallion and P!nk. Trump has gotten endorsements from a less pop-culture-relevant group: one that includes Kid Rock, Billly Ray Cyrus, Kanye West, Lil Pump, Jason Aldean, Kodak Black and Azealia Banks.

“I’ve never seen a political party that just wants to poke the bear as much as they can,” Ramsey adds about the GOP’s decades-long drive to make abortion illegal, as well as attempts to limit the availability of IVF treatments and contraception, and Vance’s now-infamous put-down of Harris (and other Democrats) as “childless cat ladies.” (Swift sharply signed her endorsement as a member of the latter group, while posting a picture of her holding one of her cats.)

Ramsey notes that while young voters don’t tend to trust dusty institutions or traditional politicians, they do put faith in idols they want to emulate — as evidenced by the quickly formed Swifties for Kamala group that pulled together the day Biden dropped out. “If I was a campaign consultant to Republicans, I would tell them to stop saying anything about Taylor Swift,” he counsels.

At the end of the day, Luntz thinks “everything” makes a difference when you’re talking about an election measured in inches, not miles. He points out the Harris campaign’s potential to lean into Swift’s pop culture pull, as they already have with Taylor-themed campaign friendship bracelets and political ads. “You’re seeking any kind of momentum, any kind of edge,” he explains.

In Luntz’s mind, if the singer doubled-down against Trump’s childish “if you don’t like me, I don’t like you more” “HATE” post and turned his ire against him, it could be a key brick in Harris’ firewall: “She [Swift] could easily turn that into, ‘you don’t like me, WE don’t like you and we’re gonna have the last laugh!’”

At press time spokespeople for the Trump and Harris campaign had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.

George Clooney is loving Taylor Swift‘s style. Following the pop star’s recent emphatic endorsement of Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign, the actor praised her for getting involved in the 2024 election during a red carpet interview with the Associated Press Wednesday (Sept. 18).  “It was beautiful,” Clooney told the news agency at the Los Angeles premiere […]