Bill Maher eventually got to the “big news this week” on the latest episode of HBO’s Real Time — Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The host appeared amazed at the pop superstar’s influence on the 2024 presidential election, as it was previously reported that her endorsement drove more than 400,000 people to Vote.gov, a voter registration resource that refers people to their local state election websites.
“Taylor Swift finally told people who to vote for,” Maher said. “Of course, immediately the response from the other side was, ‘Celebrity endorsements don’t matter.’ People are always so behind on these things, you know. That’s the conventional wisdom for a long time, many celebrity endorsements don’t work… not in this case — I mean, just the number of people who were immediately registered from that tweet.”
The comedian continued, “And I’m sorry, but we live in Starfucker, America. George Clooney is the one who got Biden to step down. I wrote the exact same editorial he did, and so many other people did too. Nobody cared. As soon as George Clooney said it, he’s gotta go.”
Maher was later trying to wrap his head around a “surprising” statistic regarding the demographic of Swift’s fanbase, according to a May poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek.
“This was the most surprising part of it, was who she influenced,” he said. “Swift, it says, would have more influence over male voters — 27 percent of male voters said they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift. I must have this phenomenon gauged all wrong. I thought it would be women.”
Following the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris earlier this week, Swift took to her social media to give the vice president her highly influential endorsement.
“I’m voting for [Kamala Harris] because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” the Grammy-winning singer wrote in part. “I think she 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. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate [Tim Walz], who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Friday’s episode of Real Time featured guests Alex Karp, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Al Franken.