President Biden Talks to Seth Meyers About That Taylor Swift Conspiracy and His Age
Biden was on Late Night with Seth Meyers' first episode—and returned last night during Amy Poehler's interview to celebrate Meyers' show turning 10.
On February 26, Late Night with Seth Meyers celebrated a major milestone: Its tenth year on the air, after debuting in February 2014. As promised, Amy Poehler—Meyers' good friend, former "Weekend Update" co-anchor, and his first-ever Late Night guest—made her return to the show.
But that wasn't the night's only full-circle moment: President Joe Biden, Meyers' other guest on his 2014 premiere episode, arrived in person at 30 Rockefeller Center to mark the occasion as well. After "interrupting" Poehler's interview, Biden spoke to Meyers about a range of topics, from concerns about his age to far-right conspiracies about Taylor Swift and why he's hopeful for America.
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Ahead of Biden's walk-on, Meyers and Poehler launched into a brief bit about how the Commander in Chief—who was Vice President at the time of his first appearance—actually couldn't make it that night. (Meyers had already teased Biden's presence during "A Closer Look," pretending to peer backstage dramatically from his desk).
"Oh you couldn't get him?" Poehler said. "I can get him: Hey, Mr. President?"
Biden walked out to the 8G Band playing an upbeat "Hail to the Chief," and he strode over to resident drummer and SNL alum Fred Armisen to shake his hand.
Seth Meyers interviews Joe Biden: What's with that Taylor Swift Super Bowl conspiracy?
After reminiscing about the Parks and Recreation episode in which Poehler's Leslie Knope met her idol Biden, Meyers moved on to a topic of interest to some political observers who are extremely online: The "Dark Brandon" conspiracy meme, in which the Biden administration turned a mildly confusing conservative joke about the President on its head to celebrate his accomplishments.
"Do you enjoy playing around with the Dark Brandon meme?" Meyers asked Biden.
"No, I resent the hell out of it," he replied, though the sunglasses he slipped on while he said it suggested otherwise.
The meme was recently deployed to poke fun at the conspiracy that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Super Bowl moment was rigged; Meyers shared poll data revealing that a minority percentage of Americans think he's "in cahoots" with the "Karma" singer. "Can you confirm or deny that there is an active conspiracy between you and Miss Swift?"
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"Where are you getting this information? It's classified!" Biden joked, while reminding Meyers that Swift did endorse him in 2020. (Meanwhile, Poehler shared that the one conspiracy she knows to be true is that "an octopus is an alien, and the bottom of the sea floor is actually the top of the earth." Seems legit!).
Biden addresses concerns about his age vs "the other guy" on Late Night
"Some classified documents recently leaked, and isn't a 'gotcha' show, but I do want to ask you about it: It says you are currently 81 years old," Meyers said.
"Who the hell told you that?!" Biden joked. All jokes aside, Meyers pressed, how does Biden plan to address the "real concern" that voters have, according to polls?
"Well, a couple things. Number one, you got to take a look at the other guy," Biden said, meaning former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump, who turns 78 this year. "He's about as old as I am, but he can't even remember his wife's name." (On February 24, some observers of a speech claimed that Trump struggled to remember his wife Melania's name before saying "Mercedes" instead.)
"Number two," Biden continued, "It's about how old your ideas are. Look, I mean, this is 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've been solid American positions."
"Our democracy is at stake," Biden added. "It literally is."
Watch President Biden's 2024 interview with Seth Meyers above.
