‘This is disgusting’: Radio host Megyn Kelly slams Taylor Swift for endorsing Kamala Harris

A prominent American radio host has unleashed on Taylor Swift for publicly endorsing Kamala Harris over Donald Trump.

A prominent American radio host has slammed musician Taylor Swift for publicly endorsing Kamala Harris over Donald Trump ahead of the country’s presidential election in November.

Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News television host who now works for the radio network SiriusXM, has called Ms Swift’s endorsement “disgusting”.

She appeared to take particular issue with Ms Swift’s support for LGBTQ rights, specifically relating to young transgender people.

“I’m allowed to criticise Taylor Swift, and I don’t give a s*** who gets upset,” Ms Kelly told her radio audience.

“This is disgusting. If she wants to vote Harris-Walz, she can do it all she wants, but to say the reason she is doing it is because of Tim Walz’s stance on LGBTQ?

“F*** you, Taylor Swift. And f*** all of the people who want to see these children have body parts chopped off and watch them (be) sterilised under the age of consent and then will ride off into their multi-gazillion dollar mansions, never to think of them again.”

Broadcaster Megyn Kelly. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via AFP

Singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards yesterday. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Mr Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, is the Democratic Party’s nominee for the vice presidency. Ms Swift cited his support for LGBTQ rights in her endorsement of Ms Harris, which was posted on Instagram shortly after Tuesday night’s debate against Mr Trump.

She did not specifically mention transgender issues but did focus on Mr Walz’s support for IVF and abortion rights.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight,” the musician wrote to her 283 million followers on Instagram on Tuesday night.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and (Democratic vice presidential nominee) Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election. I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.

“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.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.

“I also want to say, especially to first-time voters: remember that to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates.”

Kamala Harris in North Carolina today. Picture: Win McNamee/Getty Images via AFP

Ms Swift directed her followers to the official US government website vote.gov, which walks Americans through the registration process.

According to the General Services Administration, which runs vote.gov, by 2pm on Wednesday – not even 24 hours after Swift’s Instagram post – 338,000 people had visited the site via the custom URL she had provided.

‘Elite snobs’

During her radio show, Ms Kelly went on to deride Ms Swift and her boyfriend, the NFL player Travis Kelce, as “snobs”.

“This pair, Taylor and her boyfriend Travis Kelce, are the epitomes of elite snobs,” she said.

“They both have gazillions of dollars. She doesn’t care what happens to these kids, just like he doesn’t give a s*** what happens to all the young men who take the Pfizer booster he has been pushing on them.”

She was alluding to Mr Kelce’s appearance in an ad, last year, promoting Covid booster shots.

The Covid-19 pandemic killed more than 1.2 million Americans, the world’s worst death toll by far – though not all nations’ statistics can necessarily be trusted.

Aside from a spike in January of 2022, the American death rate has fallen dramatically since vaccines for the virus became widely available, in large part thanks to Operation Warp Speed, an initiative of the Trump administration.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at the US Open this month. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

Ms Kelly famously drew Mr Trump’s ire early in his political career when he was considered an underdog candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2015.

Back when she was a Fox News host, Ms Kelly moderated one of the early Republican primary debates of that cycle. She confronted Mr Trump, then a real estate mogul and reality TV star, with his previous remarks about women he didn’t like, pointing out that he’d called them “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals”.

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” was his response on stage.

Mr Trump subsequently claimed Ms Kelly’s questioning was “ridiculous” and “off base”.

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,” he said at the time, in comments that were widely seen as an allusion to menstruation.

Ms Kelly has become more partial to Mr Trump in the years since.

Originally published as ‘This is disgusting’: Radio host Megyn Kelly slams Taylor Swift for endorsing Kamala Harris