NBC’s Today wasn’t popping the proverbial champagne bottles on Wednesday like ABC’s Good Morning America did following the latter’s presidential debate marred by the partisan election interference of moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir for Vice President Kamala Harris against Donald Trump. NBC was more concerned about one person’s endorsement of Harris: Taylor Swift.
After chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander tagged on a mention of Swift’s endorsement as having been “perhaps as important or at least getting as much attention”, co-host Savannah Guthrie giddily invoked it alongside Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker and senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson.
“Can we talk about Taylor Swift just briefly? I mean, look, these celebrity endorsements, I guess it’s a question of whether or not they matter, but as far as they go, this is the biggest one out there,” she swooned.
Jackson was pumped about Swift’s “huge platform” and “very loyal followers” and how tens of thousands reportedly registered to vote when she shared a link on how to do so.
Guthrie then fangirled with Welker if Swift will even campaign for Harris and running mate Tim Walz (click “expand”):
GUTHRIE: Well, it would be interesting to see how far this endorsement goes because there are celebrities who put out a tweet and then there are celebrities who go out and try to register voters —
WELKER: That’s right.
GUTHRIE: and do all that kind of thing, do performances for the campaign. How much is she going to be involved?
WELKER: Undoubtedly, there will be pressure on her to go out and campaign and perform. I would just say that this all comes down to those young voters right now. Kamala Harris has a lead, but not as much as Biden had in 2020, so part of this is about ginning up support with that critical group.
NBC even gave this endorsement a full segment in the second half-hour. Guthrie teased it by promising a look at “[w]hat that endorsement could mean, especially for young voters in a race that is a dead heat this morning right after this.”
Correspondent Joe Fryer called “the surprise late-night endorsement” something “the campaigns and voters are watching very closely” to the point that “they were definitely ready for it.”
NBC's 'Today' was VERY excited about T-Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris and touted how the Harris-Walz campaign just so happened to have friendship braclets ready to sell.... pic.twitter.com/jNathFMA4C
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 11, 2024
In between excerpts of her lengthy endorsement (including touting her signing it a “childless cat lady” alongside a picture of her cat, Benjamin Button), Fryer cheered Walz’s hilarious acting job of being surprised when he was told of the endorsement live on MSNBC and hoped her “massive presence and appeal to younger women” could swing the election.
Fryer also reminded viewers of how “[i]n Swift’s Netflix documentary Miss Americana, she admitted she wished she had expressed her political opinions for the first time back in 2016 to help defeat President Trump.”
Fryer closed with one huge final swoon: “And the endorsement came by surprise with the Harris campaign reportedly having no idea about it before the post, but the campaign is already jumped on it, announcing the sale of Harris-Walz’s friendship bracelets overnight.”
As far as the debate itself, Alexander had a few moments of his own and started his lead-off report by touting the Harris campaign as “feeling very good about the Vice President’s performance last night” with “a senior Harris campaign official telling NBC News, we have an embarrassment of riches, too many moments to amplify.”
Alexander made sure to tout Harris as having placed “Trump on the defense” and “deliver[ed] on on her strategy to try to get under Trump’s skin” as, in one case, she “referenc[ed] his refusal to accept the 2020 election results” and “mock[ed] his obsession with crowd size.”
“Trump seeming to take the bait...and then, in the same response, veering from an attack on Harris’s record in a debunked conspiracy theories about immigrants in Ohio that have grown on the right in recent days,” he added.
Alexander gave Trump some credit on the economy by acknowledging he “link[ed] Harris to President Biden, targeting their administration’s handling of the economy...and it’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan”.
As for Jackson and Welker, both conceded Harris didn’t explain what she actually believes on policy and the latter emphasized “Harris threw out the bait repeatedly throughout the evening, and he took it over and over again.”
To see the relevant NBC transcript from September 11, click here.
