In the waning hours of the 2024 election, Donald Trump was holding the last of his prolific rallies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, while Kamala Harris was hitting the stage with some of her A-list supporters (think: Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga) in Philadelphia.
The contrast was stark enough for Van Jones to warn on CNN that it was giving 2016 Hillary Clinton vibes in the worst possible way. And as it turned out, the star power supporting Harris at her rallies, in her ads (i.e. Julia Roberts), and on social media (here’s looking at you, Taylor Swift) was not enough to push her over the finish line. In fact, it may have done more harm than good.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by on Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of The Fifth Column – Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch – to discuss how Hollywood factored into the 2024 campaign.
Harris’ Hollywood
Hollywood overwhelmingly breaks for Democrats, this is nothing new. After George Clooney helped mastermind the effort to push Joe Biden aside with his scathing op-ed in The New York Times in the wake of the disastrous CNN debate in June, celebs lined up in formation behind the Harris-Walz ticket.
There was Beyoncé’s appearance (sans the rumored performance) in Houston, and Lizzo in Detroit. Jennifer Lopez attempted to capitalize on Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial joke about Puerto Rico in Las Vegas last week. Earlier in the cycle, Winfrey moderated a cringey town hall with Harris and plenty of famous faces. And there was also that poorly timed glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles as Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States.
All of that culminated in Monday night’s rally in Philly, which included performances and remarks from Lady Gaga, Winfrey, Perry, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan, Fat Joe, Ricky Martin, Andra Day, and more.
The Celeb Factor
Megyn said if anything is clear from Trump’s massive victory, it is that celebrities “have no power” and “do not have any control over this electorate.”
Instead, she believes the star power artificially boosted the perception of Harris’ popularity by getting people to her events. “The reason her rallies were big is because Beyoncé was there. The rallies with just Kamala Harris were not big,” she noted. “The celeb factor doesn’t help and, I would argue, it hurts.”
Moynihan agreed, especially given the political realignment underway in the U.S. “The realignment… we are talking about [is] working class voters. What really resonates with working class voters,” he asked. “[It is not] billionaires like Taylor Swift, billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, or multi, multi, multi, millionaires like JLo.”
He said those celebrities do not resonate because voters “don’t think they have anything to say about their own lives,” and they stand in sharp contrast to the endorsements and support Trump cultivated from a myriad of sectors.
As Foster explained, the right is actually appealing to “the cultural firepower” that matters at the moment. “The fact that you can appeal to a Dana White, to a Joe Rogan, even to an Elon Musk at this point… they actually have power where it matters at the moment, which is on YouTube and on the various podcasts,” he said.
In his view, Trump’s appearance on Rogan and sit-downs with the likes of Theo Von, Shawn Ryan, and Andrew Schulz actually had the power to move the needle in a way Bruce Springsteen and Cardi B could not for Harris. “All of this stuff actually resonated with people,” Foster concluded. “The Joe Rogan interview was something that you actually hear people referring to.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 937 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.