Conspiracies erupted Thursday night after literally no special guests turned up at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Social media exploded(ish) shortly after the DNC wrapped Thursday night with conspiracies that the event organizers teased a “special guest” who never showed just to get people to stay to watch Harris. Apparently folks online were expecting Taylor Swift or Beyonce to make an appearance after the likes of Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Pink showed up, all of who are pretty small fish compared to Swifty and Bey.
Part of the rumor seems to have been started, or at least fueled by White House political director Emmy Ruiz who simply tweeted an emoji of a bumble bee, following up an hour later saying, “Sorry guys my 6 year old took my phone.” The Bee is often seen as a symbol for Beyonce, so Ruiz’s comments went manic. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Caps Off DNC Without Releasing Policy Platform)
“Emmy, hey diva. You seem lovely so I just wanna say please don’t be baiting the hive cause if that lady ain’t coming, your notifications gonna be blowing up like fireworks on the 4th of July sister,” wrote one person in Ruiz’s comments. Most followers seemed to assume the same.
🐝
— Emmy Ruiz (@emmyruiz) August 22, 2024
Sorry guys my 6 year old took my phone
— Emmy Ruiz (@emmyruiz) August 22, 2024
TMZ was one such outlet that suggested Bey might show face. “To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong,” the outlet wrote Friday on Twitter. (RELATED: Kamala’s First Unscripted Comment Since Becoming Nominee Is Unmitigated Word Salad)
“I believe you did that on purpose [TMZ] so that people would tune in to watch,” The Calvin Coolidge Project accused. The comment was liked more than 500 times and accompanied by plentiful retweets and comments agreeing with the conspiracy. Another user compared TMZ to CNN, implying the outlet is nothing but a stooge for the DNC. But as an entertainment outlet, TMZ’s job is to report news from viable leads. With “multiple sources” making the false claim Beyonce would appear, can we really blame TMZ for doing their job?
The DNC deliberately put out the rumor that Beyonce was gonna perform at the #DNCConvention2024 so that people would tune in.
Knowing that she was never booked to perform. pic.twitter.com/0wrfUKxJDZ
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) August 23, 2024
The Harris campaign fraudulently leaked that Beyoncé would perform at the DNC and she never showed up.
It was just a fraudulent ploy to get ratings.
Absolutely pathetic.
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) August 23, 2024
Greg Gutfeld seemed to echo this sentiment in a clip shared on social media, accusing the DNC of lying about Beyonce “so people would stick around for Kamala.”
If this is the case, I hope it was worth it for the Harris campaign because they may have just lost all credibility with TMZ. And that is the last outlet I’d want to piss off in an election year — those guys hold the keys to mainstream pop culture gossip in America. And as we just learned, not all rumors have to be even slightly true to be publishable. (RELATED: Scientists Tried To Find A Solution To America’s Political Divide. It Didn’t Go Great)
Beyond the conspiracy theories, let us not forget that Harris uses two of Bey’s songs for her campaign, so the singer’s decision not to attend is pretty damning. She’s performed for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in various political contexts but wouldn’t appear for Harris.
It sort of feels like a sad repeat of Clinton’s 2016 campaign where she seemed to only hang with celebrities to boost her reputation, a plan that backfired. Harris’s plan to appear cool and popular seems to be doing the same … And she can’t even get any cool celebrities to chill with her.
Perhaps uber-celebs are smarter than we’ve been giving them credit for. Only a clown would anchor herself to a political candidate with no successes to show within her entire career other than job title bumps.
