Watch Tim Walz React to Endorsement From ‘Fellow Cat Owner’ Taylor Swift

The Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reacted to Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and himself shortly after the singer made her announcement on Tuesday night. Walz happened to be in the middle of a live TV interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, discussing the presidential debate between Harris and Donald Trump, when the host stopped to read out Swift’s endorsement.

As Maddow read out Swift’s statement, Walz could be seen touching his hand to his heart and smiling. He had an especially strong reaction to Swift’s sign-off of “childless cat lady.” He could be seen laughing and mouthing “oh wow.” Swift’s sign-off was in reference to controversial comments made by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in 2021, whereby he said the country is effectively run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”

“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift. I say that also as a cat owner—a fellow cat owner,” Walz said after Maddow was done reading the endorsement. “That was eloquent and it was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up. We’ve seen it out of those Republicans who were at the DNC. We’ve seen it out of women who would like to have their own personal lives kept personal, but are forced to go out there because they nearly died because they can’t get abortion services in a pregnancy. And now you have somebody like Taylor Swift coming out and making that very clear. This would be the opportunity, Swifties. KamalaHarris.com. Get on over there. Give us a hand. Get things going.”

Swift took to Instagram on Tuesday night, after the presidential debate, and shared her Harris-Walz endorsement with her 283 million followers.

Addressing her audience, she wrote: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

To accompany her endorsement, Swift used a picture of herself and her cat, which was taken by photographers Inez & Vinoodh during her TIME cover photoshoot when she was named Person of the Year 2023.

Within her social media post, Swift also addressed AI-generated photos, which circulated over the summer, that falsely depicted the singer as a supporter of Trump. "It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Trump responded to Swift’s endorsement when he called into Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, saying that he had expected Swift to support Harris and that it had been “just a question of time.”

“She seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” Trump said of the musician.