Is Taylor Swift the Reason Scooter Braun Won't Enter Politics?

"Recently I was attacked very publicly by someone I don't know, someone who refused to have a conversation with me"

BY Allie GregoryPublished May 11, 2020

Ithica Ventures chairman Scooter Braun has discussed about giving up his dreams about going into politics, leading many to believe the root cause is his very public dispute with Taylor Swift.

In a new interview with British GQ, the record executive explained his reasons for deciding not to run for office, saying he needed to think about his family first. He also stated, "I was attacked very publicly by someone I don't know." And as multiple publications on have pointed out, many are drawing the conclusion that someone is Taylor Swift.

An excerpt from the interview reads as follows:

Public office is something I've thought about in the past, but only because I get very frustrated by a lack of leadership. The reason I have shied away from it is because I have young children and I have to be careful... Recently I was attacked very publicly by someone I don't know, someone who refused to have a conversation with me, and I wish that person nothing but the best and hope that one day a dialogue is had, because I think it all could have been avoided with proper dialogue, but what it did teach me was that if my children were teenagers, if they were a little bit older, this could have been very hard for them. And I don't know if I'm comfortable being in public office knowing the amount of ridicule and exposure you get and I don't know if I want to put my children through that.

While it's unclear exactly who Braun is referring to when it comes to the mentioned public dispute, he wrote an open letter addressing Swift back in November, claiming that he and his family had received death threats as a direct result of her separate, equally scathing open letter, which accused him of stopping her from performing at the American Music Awards. 

At the time, he wrote, "I came home tonight to find my wife had received a phone call threatening the safety of our children as well as other threats," adding, "We are living in a time of pointless violence and as a husband and father I am concerned."

Swift and Braun have been in a seemingly endless, very public dispute over the ownership of Swift's music since early 2019. Most recently, her former label Big Machine Label Group stoked the flames of the feud by releasing an unapproved live album. Previously, Swift had lost her master recordings after Braun's company acquired her former label from Scott Borchetta in June of 2019.

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