Perhaps the biggest news around Tuesday night’s U.S. presidential debate came not from anything said on stage, but from what Taylor Swift posted to Instagram afterwards. The pop superstar (and girlfriend to Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end Travis Kelce) put out an endorsement of the Democratic ticket current vice president Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz, signing it “Childless Cat Lady” (a reference to comments from former president Donald Trump’s Republican ticket running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance):
The Taylor Swift endorsement has landed. pic.twitter.com/anCll8NR5z
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) September 11, 2024
That endorsement, especially with the “Childless Cat Lady” signoff, drew a lot of discussion. Indeed, it drew even more talk than that seen around some other elements of the debate. And, interestingly, some of that came from prominent ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith, who had nothing but good things to say about Swift’s timing:
Talk about gaining momentum. @taylorswift13 timed this perfectly, revealing her endorsement right after the debate. Nearly 2 million likes in 21 min. If @DonaldTrump wasn’t in trouble, he sure is now. He should certainly want a 2nd debate, https://t.co/Fi2NzLkyVC
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 11, 2024
Strangely enough, on that second debate question, the early reports were that Harris’ camp wanted that. And they even put out an official statement on that:
NEWS: Harris campaign is calling for a second debate pic.twitter.com/APYIk3EkWw
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) September 11, 2024
Even well after many of those reports, though, Smith’s take (39 minutes after the above report) was wondering if Harris might accept a second debate:
……but should @KamalaHarris want to give him one? She clearly won the debate, and has him reeling! Who knows! We shall see! https://t.co/c9B1PMt6ZT
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 11, 2024
Thus, it seems like Smith’s political commentary might be as well-informed as some of his football, baseball, and hockey commentary. And despite his repeated expression of desire to pivot to political and/or late-night work, he could maybe use to do a little more research before spouting takes.
But it is interesting to see Smith weigh in so quickly on the Swift endorsement. And that’s something that’s certainly going to have sports impacts, especially given the ongoing and never-ending debate over how frequently NFL broadcasts of games she’s at should feature her. And we’ll see if Stephen A. brings Swift’s presidential debate up on any of his ESPN or podcast platforms, or if his thoughts there are for X/Twitter only.
[Stephen A. Smith on X/Twitter]
