‘How DARE You!’ CNN’s Chris Wallace Slams Taylor Swift Person of the Year Cover — Gets Stripped of Swifty Bracelet Live On Air

CNN anchor Chris Wallace caused a revolt when he slammed TIME Magazine’s Taylor Swift “Person of the Year” cover — and was ceremonially stripped of his “Swifty” bracelet by a guest.

This week, TIME awarded Swift the honor that has been given to figures as diverse as Adolf Hitler and Pope Francis. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote that “Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. Swift is the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story.”

Journalists Kristen Soltis Anderson, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Reihan Salam, and Kara Swisher joined Wallace for this week’s edition of CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show on Saturday morning, during which Wallace planted his flag with those who criticized the selection as a way to cash in on Swift’s fan base.

Swisher and Garcia-Navarro did not take it well, demanding he return his Swifty bracelet:

CHRIS WALLACE: Let me be clear from the jump. I like Taylor Swift, although I prefer her earlier songs like You Belong With Me to some of her more recent stuff.

And I understand she has a huge cultural and economic force. But when TIME magazine this week named her its Person of the Year, I thought, oh, please. First of all, hasn’t Taylor received enough well-deserved coverage this year? And how about some of the other finalists like Xi Jinping or Sam Altman of Open AI?

But then TIME wouldn’t have gotten the Taylor cover and it wouldn’t have gotten the interview with Taylor, who doesn’t do interviews.

To me, it sure looks like a pure marketing play for a magazine that used to have a circulation of more than 4 million and is now down to a little more than 1 million.

And I am sure that some of my colleagues on this panel fell for it. And I know there is a chorus of you to tell me why I’m wrong. Kara, I’m going to start with you and be gentle! I am wearing the Swifty bracelet that you gave me.

KARA SWISHER: What is it? What is the issue? It’s. It is all men. I have to say, with this woman. Who’s she? $5 billion in economic benefits to the United just in the United States. Huge social phenomenon. Brought people out to concert sites and out in the public. We had Jeff Bezos’s head in a box as the TIME person of the Year many years ago. He’s a big business person. Big impact.

What is the issue with her? They do this all the TIME. And the last thing is media trying to attract audience. You’re kidding me. Of course they’re trying to attract audience. And she is someone lots of people really like and have consumed a lot of her content.

CHRIS WALLACE: Wait a minute. In my defense, and this is not about Taylor, it’s about TIME. Here is some of the breathless language that TIME magazine used in its article with the interview that it got about Taylor Swift. “To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather. A language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world.”

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: I do not think it was a good article that said, I do think you need to give your Swifty bracelet back to Kara!

KARA SWISHER: I agree.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think you.

CHRIS WALLACE: How dare you!

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think I’m so sorry. I think it’s over.

CHRIS WALLACE: For you to not think that language is maybe a tad overheated.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: When you criticize the magazine. But I don’t know that you should be criticizing Taylor. That’s all I’m saying.

REIHAN SALAM: Look, honestly, I do think that she is a single millennial woman. Cultural phenomena. I get it. I see the case.

CHRIS WALLACE: I do, too!

REIHAN SALAM: But I will also say that, you know what? Olivia Rodrigo’s music is way, way better. And you know the song Ballad of a Home School girl? Guys, listen to it. It’s dynamite. I’m 100% Team Rodrigo, but I’m okay with Taylor for Person of the Year as a cultural phenomenon.

KARA SWISHER: And economic.

Watch above via CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show.