Fox News host Jesse Watters on Tuesday became perhaps the most visible right-winger to suggest that pop star Taylor Swift could be a government operative. (Watch the video below.)
He gave the wacky conspiracy theory plenty of airtime in sharing a clip falsely attributed to a Pentagon official.
“I like her music,” he said of Swift on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“She’s all right. But, I mean, have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Watters continued.
“Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A PSYOP for combating online misinformation.”
Watters then played the clip of the purported Pentagon representative at a 2019 cyber conference. The woman used Swift as an example of a public person who could combat incendiary misinformation in a “peaceful information operation.”
“I include Taylor Swift in here because she’s a fairly influential online person,” the woman said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard of her.”
Watters then declared: “Yeah, that’s real: the Pentagon PSYOP unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online.”
Only the woman was not a Pentagon representative. She was Alicia Bargar, then a research engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Watters later eased off his assertion about the singer.
“So is Swift a front for a covert political agenda?” he said. ”‘Primetime’ obviously has no evidence. If we did, we’d share it.”
He then attempted to reignite suspicion.
“But we’re curious because the pop star who endorsed [now-President Joe] Biden is urging millions of her followers to vote,” Watters said. He also noted that Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end who is dating Swift and recently appeared in a vaccine commercial, is “sponsored by Pfizer.”
The conservative host asked former FBI special agent Stuart Kaplan if the operative theory was “feasible.”
Kaplan speculated on how Swift’s massive popularity could be utilized covertly and overtly to sway voters in Biden’s favor in the 2024 election. “So the answer is yes,” Kaplan said.
HuffPost reached out to representatives for the singer for comment.