As the Senate Judiciary Committee held its hearing Tuesday on last year’s Ticketmaster meltdown, lawmakers came “Ready For It” with their best Taylor Swift references.
The panel’s hearing, aimed at tackling “consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries,” was held in response to November’s Swift concert snafu by distributor Ticketmaster, which left millions of fans unable to purchase tickets.
In addressing the controversy on Tuesday, senators doled out plenty of quips about the 33-year-old Grammy Award winner likely to satisfy any Swiftie.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was first to drop some Swift-inspired legislative prose, saying, “You can’t have too much consolidation — something that unfortunately for this country, as an ode to Taylor Swift I will say, we know ‘All Too Well.’”
Then it was Sen. Mike Lee’s turn. The Utah Republican, a ranking member on the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, quipped about the subcommittee’s chairwoman, Klobuchar, using a line from Swift’s 2008 mega-hit, “You Belong With Me.”
“To be honest, I had hoped as of a few months ago to get the gavel back,” Lee said, “but once again, she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) opted for a line from one of Swift’s more recent chart toppers: “Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the problem, it’s me.'”
Lee ended the hearing suggesting that he had some “Bad Blood” with Ticketmaster over the fiasco.
“I have to throw out, in deference to my daughter Eliza, one more Taylor Swift quote,” Lee said. “’Karma’s a relaxing thought. Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?'”
A Swift representative didn’t respond to ITK’s request for comment about the music star’s shoutouts from lawmakers.