Former FBI Director James Comey admitted in a video that he is a Swiftie, and that Taylor Swift has been his source of life advice on handling bullies. He slammed Donald Trump while bragging about a family “Swiftie” group chat, and revealed that he has been to two concerts of Swift, and helped some relatives afford tickets too. “I’m in a family’s Switie group chat. I know all her music and I listen to it in my headphones when I cut the grass,” Comey said.
Comey has two favorites: the 10-minute ‘All Too Well’ and ‘Exile’ with Bon Iver.
“Taylor Swift has grown up with my family and provided us a soundtrack, really, as we’ve grown ourselves and learned and adapted and dealt with adversity and celebration,” Comey said, adding that millions of family members probably feel the same.
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Comey went on to say that at every stage of the singer’s career, she has shown a way that has resonated with kids. He said this felt right to him as a parent, adding that Swift has continued to do so as an adult artist too.
‘She’s made clear that she sees Donald Trump for what he is’
Comey said Swift’s example has helped him fight “bullies” without becoming like them. “But I gotta be honest, it also leaves me with a strange feeling at times, because I don’t want us to become like Trump and his followers,” he further said. “There are far more decent, honest, kind people in America than there are mean jerks. And don’t get me wrong, we have our jerks, millions of them.”
“I am not an advocate for weakness. Of course, we need to stand up to jerks and defend what matters, but I think we have to try to do that without becoming like them, which is what makes me think about Taylor Swift,” he said. “She’s made clear that she sees Donald Trump for what he is. Last year, she urged Americans not to make the serious mistake of electing him.”
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“Of course, we’re now living with the consequences of that mistake. But while our elderly makeup-covered president is posting about whether Taylor Swift is still hot and declaring that he can’t stand her, what’s she doing? Living her best life, producing great music and, as she urged all of us to do during the podcast, not giving the jerks power over her mind,” Comey added.
Comey went on to cite Swift’s advice to treat personal energy “like a luxury item.” He then linked this to some research that found rudeness makes people less happy. “We can’t stop people from being jerks. What we can do is stop it from hurting us, from changing us,” he said.
Comey opened up about the second time he saw Swift at a concert in Hartford, Connecticut 14 years ago. He recalled that Swift sang a song asking bad people “why you gotta be so mean.”
“I bet you got pushed around. Somebody made you cold. But the cycle ends right now, because you can’t leave me down that road,” Comey said, reciting Swift’s lyrics for ‘Mean.’ “You’ll be glad I didn’t sing that. That’s right, because down that road of unhappiness, nobody should have that power over us.”
