Has Taylor Swift said that she wishes she could take back endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential election cycle? No, that's not true: The singer has made no such statement and her endorsement Instagram post is still up. The website that reported on the comment has a satire disclaimer and is known for publishing made-up stories, something the site openly admits on the "About Us" page, which says "Everything on this website is fiction."
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by The Dunning-Kruger Times on September 18, 2024. The headline of the article read:
'I Wish I could Take it Back' - Taylor Swift Regrets Endorsing Harris and Walz
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: The Dunning-Kruger Times screenshot taken on Sat Sep 21 20:01:32 2024 UTC)
Taylor Swift has not retracted her endorsement
Swift initially expressed support for Harris and Walz in a post (archived here) on her official Instagram account on September 10, 2024. At the time of writing of this fact check, Swift had not taken down the post.
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google, visible here (archived here), which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim.
The article making the claim about Swift admits that it contains fake information. The end of the article says:
We honestly don't know what else you might have expected from an outlet called The Dunning-Kruger Times, patriots. But we applaud your efforts in hoping and praying this was true. It is not.
God bless you. Please click an ad before you go.
The Dunning-Kruger Times
The Dunning-Kruger Times is a satirical website with an about page (archived here) that has following disclaimer:
About Us
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the 'America's Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with 'comedy':
sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
The website is named after the Dunning-Kruger effect, a term from a psychology experiment that describes the phenomenon of being ignorant of one's own ignorance. (That experiment has been disputed by a math professor.)
It is run by self-described liberal troll Christopher Blair.
Other Lead Stories fact checks
Lead Stories has previously debunked several claims related to Taylor Swift and the 2024 presidential election.
