Sara Haines says she once hid Donald Trump from her kids to protect them from his presidency. During a discussion about right-wing media peddling Taylor Swift conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 election, The View co-host confessed that she would much rather have her children look up to Swift than to Trump, who was in office when her three kids were very young.
Haines — who shares 4-year-old Caleb Joseph, 5-year-old Sandra Grace and 7-year-old Alec Richard with her husband, Max Shifrin — confessed to the table that she went to extreme lengths to keep her kids from Trump’s influence when he was in the White House.
“As a parent of young kids, I want people that my kids can watch,” she said. “Taylor Swift is indisputably a great role model. She’s a woman that when you watch her music, all the things, my child can watch them.
“Do you know what my child can’t watch? News,” she continued. “When you turn it on, I literally had to hide news for four years while Donald Trump was in, because as they’re learning what a president of the United States is, I didn’t want to say, ‘Yeah, and that’s him right there.”
Haines told the panel, “I couldn’t even announce the president until Biden and Vice President Harris won. That is a role model, and that’s what the Republicans should be focusing on.”
Elsewhere in the segment, noted Swiftie Alyssa Farah Griffin urged right-wing commentators to “calm down” in a nod to Swift’s 2019 track off her album Lover.
“This is my Roman Empire; this is all of the things I love coming to a head: politics, Taylor Swift, all of it,” she said, before cautioning, “I cannot think of a dumber political fight to pick than one with the Swifties. We are a force of nature. We create earthquakes when we go to her shows.”
She added, “You’re creating conspiracy theories about a pop star because you can’t win an election!”
The Swift panic has been bubbling up on the right after reports of Biden’s camp hoping for an endorsement from the pop icon. While Swift shared her support for Biden in 2020, she has yet to officially endorse him again in 2024.
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.