Entertainment executive Scooter Braun is set to host a "fireside chat" with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) Saturday, an event Harris's campaign is promoting even as Braun faces a torrent of criticism over his feud with pop artist Taylor Swift.
Swift publicly accused Braun of mistreating her for years after his recent acquisition of the master recordings to all six of her chart-topping albums.
Braun’s company purchased the recording studio that holds the rights to Swift’s albums this summer. When the news broke, Swift blasted Braun, who counts a star-studded Rolodex of clients including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
"All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years," Swift wrote online when she found out about Braun’s ownership of her recordings. "Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy."
"Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter," Swift added. "This is my worst-case scenario."
Swift’s issues with Braun seem to stem from his work with Donald Trump supporter and hip hop artist Kanye West during West’s promotion for his 2016 album, The Life of Pablo. On that album West released a song entitled, "Famous," which referenced Swift and included a nude likeness of her in the accompanying music video.
At the time, Swift denounced the song and the music video as misogynistic but a video later released by Kim Kardashian showed West asking permission from Swift to include her in the song with Swift agreeing to West’s request. In her Tumblr post, Swift claims Braun orchestrated the whole ordeal and pushed his clients including Bieber to bully her online over it.
Braun has generally remained quiet on Swift’s Tumblr post besides a cryptic Instagram post this week but clients such as Bieber and Demi Lovato have publicly defended him since Swift’s attacks.
The fireside chat with Sen. Harris is not Braun’s first engagement with the surging presidential candidate’s campaign. According to Variety, Braun attended a February fundraiser in Hollywood for Harris’s campaign and later donated a maximum $2,800 that same month to her presidential campaign.
Harris is not the only Democratic presidential candidate Braun has contributed to this year. He also donated the maximum contribution to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s campaign and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s Big Sky Values political action committee.