Pres. Joe Biden gets it. The commander-in-chief stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday night (Feb. 26) to help the show’s host celebrate his show’s 10th anniversary, and to keep stoking the fires of right-wingnut conspiracy theories about his alleged devious plot to secure the most important endorsement in this year’s presidential campaign.
“Can you confirm or deny that there is an active conspiracy between you and Miss Swift?,” Meyers asked Biden about the allegations from conservatives that the President is working behind the scenes with Taylor Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce to boost his campaign against expected challenger Donald Trump by locking in the power couple’s endorsement.
“Where are you getting this information? It’s classified. That’s classified information,” Biden said with a smile in a rare late night appearance. “But I will tell you, she did endorse me in 2020.”
Meyers was as relentless as a White House pool reporter in his questioning, wondering if the Swift thumbs up might “come around again.” Biden still wouldn’t bite, joking, “I told you it’s classified.”
Before this month’s Super Bowl, conservatives got spun up about a made-up theory that Swift and Kelce had cooked up a plot with the White House to have the pair officially endorse Biden after Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII.
At press time Swift, who just wrapped a run of Eras Tour stadium shows in Australia, has not announced any endorsements in the 2024 presidential race.
The visit by Biden — his first as a sitting president — marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of Late Night. Biden, then Vice President, and the night’s other guest, Amy Poehler, were the inaugural guests on Meyers’ first broadcast on Feb. 24, 2014.
Biden, 81, also had jokes, noting that Trump, 77, is “about as old as I am but he can’t even remember his wife’s name,” in response to a question about concerns related to his age; Biden is the oldest sitting president and would be the oldest president to ever serve if he wins a second term. “It’s about how old your ideas are,” he added about Trump, the twice-indicted, one-term president who is facing 91 felony counts in four different cases as he mounts his third run for the White House. “This about a guy who wants to take us back, he wants to take us back on Roe V. Wade, he wants to take us back on a whole range of issues that for 50-60 years they have been solid American positions.”
The president — who was sporting a flag pin on his lapel featuring the American and Ukrainian flags in the midst of a fight in Congress over further funding for the war in Ukraine — also sat on the couch with Poehler to reminisce about his guest spot on Parks and Recreation. Meyers asked Biden about his seemingly playful adoption of the “Dark Brandon” right-wing meme, to which Biden responded, “no, I resent the hell out of it,” as he slipped on DB’s signature dark aviator shades to wild applause from the studio audience.
Check out Biden on Late Night below.
