From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Could Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Help America Finally Break the Matrix?

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

A new rumor that a "break-up contract" exists between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce has spread across social media like wildfire — and the internet is divided between those who were heartbroken, those who claimed it was false, and those who have said the Hollywood romance was a stunt since Day 1. Though Kelce's team has come forward calling the documents in question "entirely false and fabricated," how could this potential scandal further weaken people's trust in the media, Hollywood, and other high-profile figures?   Today, Rachel sits down with her daughter Evita Duffy-Alfonso to discuss how this fake relationship debate may further wake Americans up to the fact the media & other powerful institutions don't always prioritize the truth. Follow Sean & Rachel on X: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Mejuri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Mejuri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Mejuri has something for everyone. Mejuri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials.

So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Mijeri.com today. Hello, everybody, and welcome to From the Kitchen Table. Today, we have a special guest, Sean. He's stuck on a show. I think he's on Martha McCallum. He's on hold over there and can't get over to the podcast. But it doesn't matter because we were going to have Evita come on anyway.

So the two of us are going to handle it until he gets on, if he does get on. But in any case, Evita, it's so great to have you. Your show, The Bontino Report, the early edition with Evita Duffy is doing fantastic. So we're happy to have you. And I know you were talking about this hot topic on your show this week as well. And that, of course, is the topic of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. Is this a PR invention or is this the real thing? I got some papers, some contracts were supposedly leaked. They're denying it.

No one knows what's going on. But you're suggesting on your show that maybe this could have some wider implications outside of Hollywood world and the gossip rags that this might have some political implications. So why don't you lay it out for us? Well, I mean, so to be fair, right, the PR firm that this document saying that the relationship was fake has said it's all fabricated. It's not real. Travis Kelsey is getting his lawyers involved. So are we saying that this is a real... Can you stop, Evita, for one second? Just tell me what the contract supposedly says

that they are supposed to do as the actors in this fake relationship. Yes, so I believe the contract that was allegedly leaked says that the relationship is projected to end on September 28th. And when it ends, it sort of lays out how it will end. What will Taylor Swift say in her statement? What will Travis Kelsey say in his? How will they handle the media and the public? So it's sort of it's real. It was a real it was a PR document saying, how will we how will we handle the end of this fake relationship? And like I said, Travis Kelsey has said this is fake. His lawyers are getting involved.

The PR company that this allegedly came from, a Los Angeles based PR company, says it's fake, too. But people are interested in it and a lot of them think that it's real. And I'm not saying that it's real. We have no evidence that it's real. And I'm not saying that it's real. We have no evidence that it's real. But what I will say is, if it does turn out to be real, yeah, I think it could be a breaking point because there's been so many lies. And I like to call you a conspiracy theorist for saying this, but it's true, right? The COVID vaccines, they don't work. Masks, they don't work.

The 2020 election, supposedly the most secure election in American history. And then it was full of all of these irregularities and problems, starting with the FBI and intel officials suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. So I'm trying to say is the the government and the media have been waging information campaigns, influence campaigns on the public forever. Propaganda has always always existed and this could be a turning point potentially a wake an awakening moment if it turns out to be true so like if you were skeptical about all those other things being true or not right but this if you're like a pop culture person or you love taylor swift or you love travis kelsey or you love the idea of them being together this could break your world and potentially break the matrix right because if this turns out not to be true then what else are they lying to us about is sort of your point

but let me get back let's roll this back a little bit because I guess I hadn't really thought about it before this happened but it's obviously true which is that Hollywood has been kind of faking these relationships to, you know, increase the PR attention on their clients for a long time. In other words, there have been fake PR generated relationships and contracts between stars in Hollywood prior to this. This isn't a new idea. Oh, of course. I mean, it's the oldest trick of the book, right? I mean,

there's actually even a whole sub genre of rom-coms about fake relationships and then maybe not necessarily PR wise with a, with a celebrity couple, although that exists too in the, in the, in the movie realm, but just fake relationships to show everybody in high school that so-and-so is with so-and-so for a different alternative means. This is very normal. What was the movie? I'm now forgetting, but it's the one that we watched that had all these real-world references to it, Mom, if you remember. Oh, was that Reality Bites? No, no. I'll think

of it later. Next come next time on the podcast i'll remember what it is but the point is this is a genre this is a theme and this is actually something that hollywood wages all the time it makes sense if you have a rom-com say or or a romance movie and you have two leads if they're actually in love that will boost the ticket sales yeah and so the so i think the question that we should be asking right now, mom is what could potentially be the upside for Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift to have a fake relationship? Why would they do that?

That's a great question. So to your earlier point, I also in the past in old Hollywood stars who were married and had kids, but were considered, I also, in the past, in old Hollywood, stars who were married and had kids, but were considered, you know, sex symbols, were instructed by PR firms to not let anyone know they had a family, not even know they were married, because the idea of them being available and accessible in some way to the fans was more appealing. So in this case, though, it's having them together has some PR benefits. So that's your point. Let's talk about that.

I would say for Travis Kelsey, I'll take myself. I had no idea who that was. I knew who Taylor Swift was. I never thought about the Kansas City Chief. They never entered my brain. I'm a non-sports person. Suddenly I knew who their quarterback was. I knew who Taylor Swift was. I never thought about the Kansas City Chief. They never entered my brain. I'm a non-sports person. Suddenly, I knew who their quarterback was. I now know that this quarterback, Travis Kelsey, has a brother who's not as good looking, but he does a podcast with him. I now know that the Kansas City Chiefs have a really rich family that owns it. And they have a daughter who's really good looking.

It's like all of a sudden all this information has come at us because Travis Kelsey is dating the pop superstar Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. So if I was Travis Kelsey and I was his PR firm and I was the people that are making money off of selling his jerseys, I see the total upside for this. Of course. And he has a podcast, right? I mean, like apparently it's very popular, but I'm sure it's exploded in popularity when his relationship with Taylor Swift started. I mean, women are huge consumers of podcasts, specifically, you know, the conversational type and knowing that this is the boyfriend of Taylor Swift is going to bring in a huge audience. If you're trying to sell a product, right. These, these, uh, sports guys, anybody that's famous, really they're known for doing all these brand deals. I mean, it's,

it boosts your, your stardom power immensely with Taylor Swift. And actually, believe it or not, I remember reporting from his podcast, like information from his podcast, which was that Travis Kelsey, before he started dating her, went to her show when she came to Kansas city and had a friendship bracelet and wanted to go backstage to see her. And he talked about it on his podcast and his brother did. And that was sort of the beginning of this romance. I remember we reported it on Fox and Friends, you know, all that hard hitting news we do on Fox and Friends. And so now, you know, that brought up the podcast, like suddenly people were like, oh,

and then from then they actually did meet and then they supposedly hit it off. So that's the upside for Travis. What could be the upside for for Taylor? Because she was already like globally famous. So that's a little trickier, right? Because I mean, Taylor's the it girl. Taylor has everything. Taylor is as famous as as you can be. But, you know, you brought up you brought this up before we we talked about this, this story last night. And it's a great point that Taylor Swift is deeply insecure about the fact that she's had many relationships and that they've all ended very poorly. She's had countless boyfriends. She writes tons of songs about them anytime.

And we know that she's insecure about this and that people sort of rail on her for it. She likes to say, oh, I'm a woman empowerment. I'm a strong female, whatever. But the reality is that she's actually deeply hurt when people comment about the fact that she's had so many failed relationships and she'll accuse you of sexism. And even feminists have come out and say it's not sexist for us to discuss that taylor swift has been in a lot of relationships and she's actually hurting feminism by labeling that sexist because there's actually sexist things out there and that's not it so she's deeply insecure about it she's written a song shake it where she says, I go on too many dates. At least that's what people say.

Right. It's obvious that it's an anti-gay. I can't make them stay. I know the line. Right. And I can't make them stay. She goes, I can't make them stay. That's what people say.

Yes, you're right. It's enough of a thing that she's heard said about her that, you know, in the public that she's actually written about it. So you're saying she wants to seem like me you know and here's here's another thing that i i uh she's had some recent sketchier relationships i think the man that she was in a relationship before i don't remember the details but he had gotten in trouble on social media for saying things that were not pc so perhaps she wanted to rehabilitate her image as a dateable woman

and somebody who can keep a boyfriend and have a long, meaningful relationship and also date a guy who is not going to ruffle feathers, essentially. Right. Like he's definitely, he checks off all the like super masculine things in terms of like muscles and facial hair and all, you know, he's huge and he's athletic.

I mean, he's like Mr. Pfizer boy too. Let's not forget. He's the spokesperson for Pfizer. So he, he's definitely, you know, corporate approved, if you will. Also I would say that her boyfriends in the past were a lot of musicians, sort of more beta, more feet. And this guy is like, you know, it's like when you see their romance on, you know, the screen, you know, the shots that they take, you know, at the NFL of her, you know, wearing his jersey, it looks like the quarterback and the head cheerleader, right?

That's an image thing that we can't get out of our head. It feels like we're rooting for high schoolers, even though these people are in their 30s. So there's that. Okay, so could the NFL be benefiting from this? We talked about jersey sales and people like me who aren't into sports who suddenly, fitting from this we talked about jersey sales and people like me who aren't into sports who suddenly the the kansas city chiefs are on my radar simply because there's so much press around this relationship um anything else that the nfl could benefit from this a lot for the nfl but i but i just i also just wanted to mention something that could be a slight some evidence that perhaps

this isn't as real as as we've been told that it is sure there was a video that went sort of viral where they asked all these one of the players uh and i i'm sure if i listened and paid attention to football i would know which one it was but he went around the locker room he's a kansas city chiefs player and asked all the guys who wouldn't you be okay with your sister dating and overwhelmingly everyone said travis kelsey but he's not all the other his teammates said we aren't okay with him dating my sister because you know presumably he's not that great of a guy so right this would also be really rehabilitating for his image as sort of a player and a you know uh in an f boy if you will if he's in a committed relationship with taylor

swift um and also could be evidence that it's not real because again he has a track record of like taylor not having lasting relationships and so then the nfl they can make a lot of money off of this. They've clearly been loving this. They, you know, again, they panned, even though a lot of like super football fans, even my co-workers, my co-workers, Will and Pete are like, enough with the Taylor Swift. We're so say these people, you know, focusing on Taylor Swift. We actually want to focus on the game. But, you know, that's still good. I mean, you're bringing in young girls who would never buy a football jersey. We're buying football jerseys. And now all of a sudden, if they're watching the game, Evita,

unlike me, they might actually decide they like football. So, you know, you're reaching this whole new fan base. Right. No, you know, you're reaching this whole new fan base. Right. No, they are. And again, I think that they've come out of a time where the NFL has been very divisive. Yeah. During the 2021. Right. This is after George Floyd died. They had end racism on the field. All of the all of the athletes had put their fists in the air and taken a knee during the national anthem supposedly because america is an inherently racist country and they were boycotted to vita a lot of people were like i i'm so sick of all the politics and all the you know institutional racism that nfl wants to be obsessed about i just want to go to a game and not think about politics

and a lot of people were boycotting the nfl and i remember even sean saying i'm not watching the nfl i'm like and yeah you were right that was around what 2021 yeah 2021 we had end racism on the field we had the players taking a knee and putting their fists in the air during the national anthem so i think a lot of them a lot of a lot of fans were feeling alienated and suddenly they did something this this last year that not only brought in a whole bunch of women right to listen to the to the and pay attention and tune into the sport but you also had a very patriotic messaging during that during the whole show right you had you had america the beautiful with post malone who was sort of dressed in a cowboy-coated outfit. And you had Reba McEntire singing and Luke Combs, sort of a country singer. It was very, it felt like a real tonal shift.

And then you also had Bud Light prominently featured with Shane Gillis trying to rehabilitate itself after it had featured Dylan Mulvaney in an ad. It felt like they were trying to win back middle America. And of course, Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift were prominently displayed during the entire Super Bowl. I mean, pants and Taylor Swift and them kissing at the end. And I think that seeing a very cute, hetero, normal couple that seeing a very cute, hetero, normal couple was also, I think, drew in a lot of normal Americans. And it felt like the NFL, perhaps corporate America in general, trying to buy back

the people that it's lost because we all have woken up to the fact that they actually hate us, Bud Light, they hate us. The NFL, they hate us. Even Kamala Harris, right? This is a woman who says America is semically racist, but she's running a campaign on patriotism, which I think there's a real parallel there to people trying to win back this large cohort of Americans who have been alienated and turned off by the anti-American, anti-white,

anti-hetero messaging that we're constantly being inculcated with by corporate America and the Democrats. We'll be back with much more after this. This episode is brought to you by Mejuri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Missouri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Missouri has something for everyone. Missouri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials. So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Missouri.com today.

Yeah, I mean, that's why you had the white dudes for Kamala campaign, which was so awkward, but it was a clear sign that that party knew they were losing the Democrat party. They were losing white men with these woke messages. And men were just like, oh, enough. I can't even anymore. And they wanted to look like they were appealing, which is so interesting that you're you kind of see that corporate America and the Democrat party actually move very much in the same direction, whether it's moving to the left with other woke ESG policies and then overcorrecting with, oh my gosh, now we need to, these white, these white males, they like the national anthem. They like country music.

They like, you know, the quarterback with the cheerleader. I mean, it's just so comical how they're, and it's hard to believe that people buy into it and believe this stuff is real. And it goes back to our original point that so much of what we're experiencing, whether it's in Hollywood, in sports, or in politics is this PR invention. And that's why the story matters. I mean, I don't really give a crap whether, you know, this is a real relationship or not for Kelsey and Taylor, it's not going to rock my world. But it is you bring up such a fascinating point that if this most basic relationship, you know, that we've been like,

millions of dollars have gone behind selling us on the Taylor Travis, Kelsey, Travis, you know, that we've been like millions of dollars have gone behind selling us on the Taylor Travis, Kelsey Travis, Taylor Swift romance. If that breaks down, will the normies out there who are maybe apolitical, don't really care about politics, aren't following all the conspiracies, maybe don't even know about the Hunter Biden laptop or know that it was debunked by the FBI a year before they said it was false and Russian disinformation. Maybe all those people might suddenly be open to the idea that we are being manipulated through media, through propaganda, through millions of dollars put into social media companies to change the way we think, to alter our reality so we no longer know what's real and what's not.

And so, Evita, tell me what that would mean for politics today, maybe specifically to this election. You know, I think people are already waking up. We already know that there are manipulation campaigns. We already know the government lies to us. So what I think could happen is you start to see confidence disintegrate so severely that we just stop believing things immediately, right off the bat. And that's going to be really damaging because they rely on on false narratives to win.

I mean, that's really what they did in 2020. This is why in Brazil you have our own government influencing the Brazilian government to have these disinformation apparatuses to get rid of X because our government doesn't export freedom anymore. It exports tyranny. It exports speech policing. This is what they want, not just here at home, but worldwide. So it could be truly damaging to their ability to control the populace, which is actually a really great thing. Well, yeah. And there was already, like you said, a lot of questioning of our institutions anyway following 2020. I mean, I don't think, I don't think, Vita, you can tell me if I'm wrong, I don't think they'd be able to pull what they pulled again on, you know, with the pandemic.

I don't think that we can get a COVID-19 virus, some sort of virus spreading, 19 virus, some sort of virus spreading, and everyone's going to agree again to mask their toddlers, you know, for a year and a half or two and, you know, stay in their house or believe them when they say two weeks, you know, to stop the spread or believe that we, you know, can't congregate for Thanksgiving or we can't open our businesses. So I just think that that would be really hard to pull off again. I just, good. We already know that it's not working. I mean,

the Biden administration announced that, you know, all Russia's interfering in our election and we're very concerned about it. And everybody laughed at them. Nobody's taking it serious. Immediately, everyone was like, this is the silliest thing ever. You're going to blame Russia again.

And then you had this interesting story yesterday where the DOJ came out with a report saying that there was a media company with certain right-wing influencers that are a part of it who are potentially taking money from Russia. We don't know if it's true yet this is the doj report and irrespective of whether it's true or not everybody rightfully

responded by saying you guys are jokes the federal government interferes in our election more than as much or more than russia right this is what was the hunter biden laptop story what was the russia confusion hoax? So this really has no bearing on whether this DOJ report is true or not. It might be, it might not be. I don't know. We'll see.

Let the evidence speak for itself. But the point is that the people who are interfering in our election are coming out and saying, oh no, Russia's interfering in our election, paying off journalists. And you think, oh my goodness, wasn't that exactly what you guys had been doing for the last I don't know how many years.

So it's already falling apart and people have already immediately responded in a way that is truly distinct from even back in 2020. Yeah, I went to the doctor's office not long ago, doctor's office not long ago. And the doctor was a doctor was telling me that, you know, vaccination rates for children have just limited that, you know, once they got lied to about COVID-19, they just don't trust the system anymore. And they're seeing people who might have normally gone through the vaccine schedule for their kids are now going, I don't trust pharma anymore. I'm not going to do this. And so that's one implication. I want to ask you about the election. What kind of impact could this sort of, could mass distrust have on the results? I mean, in November, I'm worried about what's going to happen to the

country because it just seems to me like there are forces that don't want to let Donald Trump win. And if he does win, what will happen? Or there are forces that don't want Donald's really powerful voice. I wanted to win. If he doesn't win, will people accept that result? Will we ever know if they're true or not? The election results? I just feel like it's just no matter what, it's going to be a big mess. Just for example, like you said, you have people not vaccinating their children and people start getting the shingles potentially from it. The experts and the institutions will come out and say, oh, my goodness, these conspiracy theorists. And the only person to blame really is them. It's you guys. You guys are the ones that have lied and destroyed, eroded any kind of trust that we had in you.

Now, what do I think is going to happen in November? I think no matter what, there is going to be chaos, which is not a reflection of the American people who are good, spirited. I mean, I think that this is a really unique populace. We just have leadership that is horrible. They don't deserve us. They don't deserve us. They don't deserve us. And I think Alexis de Tocqueville talked about this.

He's a French philosopher who walked all throughout America in the early republic. And he just observed that the people were unique and special, particularly that they were moral. There was something about this group that had taken a chance and come to this country despite all of the potential financial or even mortal death that they could face. They did it anyways. And we've really been destroyed and I think corrupted by an administrative state that's gotten out of control. And so if and when this country does end in the chaos in November, we know who to blame. Yeah, it's such a good point. It's such a good point.

And who knows, Evita, maybe Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift might break the matrix for those who haven't woken up. It's a fascinating idea. We'll see what happens. It certainly doesn't seem far-fetched to me. I'll need the evidence, just like everybody else. But it is interesting. like everybody else. But it is interesting if they'll lie to us about something as stupid as that, you know, relationship. There's no doubt they're lying to us about things that are a lot more consequential. And as you so eloquently pointed out, we've lived through it. I think

the last, I don't know, six years have been absolutely traumatic for America. Absolutely traumatic. And it's all playing out before our eyes. And we only have how many days left before the election, Evita? Oh, I don't know. Maybe like, I don't know, 60 days, 60 some days. It's not very long. And we'll see the results of this. But I love your podcast. It's, you know, five topics, four or five topics a day, the topics you should think about. Not necessarily always what's, you know, front page news. It's what's front page, but also the stuff that the media doesn't want to talk about. You break it down in about 20, 25 minutes brilliantly, beautifully.

It's a fantastic podcast. Again, it's the bongino report early edition with evita duffy and i appreciate you indulging me in this um in in in this potential scandal well and can i just can i just also mention before we go that i i believe i was i believe it was vox i think it was vox that was ran an article about how preppers are really prevalent now. And people are at an insane rate investing in home, underground, safe areas, and canned food, preparing themselves. When the populace feels that uncertain, I think you really know that something is coming.

Something is coming. By the way, it's not just like the crazy Mormons or the crazy trad Catholics who are prepping and trying to hoard a little bit of cash and ammo. There were incredible articles written about Mark Zuckerberg and the fortress and compound he's building on his Hawaiian island. He is also anticipating something and he's seeing himself and himself increasingly in the crosshairs of the censorship industrial complex that our government runs because he's not cooperating the way he used to quite the way he used to. And again, he's built this compound. It's underground. You can Google it. It's it's elaborate. compound. It's underground. I mean, you can Google it. It's elaborate. I mean, I think he could live on that island, you know, for a decade without, you know, having to resupply. It's crazy. So, you know, it's not just crazy Christians, you know, crazy gun owners, crazy religious zealots. It's woke tech overlords who also sense that something is afoot and we just don't know what that is.

And all we can do is speak the truth as we know it. I always say, and you know this, I will not let a lie pass through me. You know, I'm not saying I always get everything right. I've been wrong. But if I know something to be the truth, I will not lie about it on air, on a podcast, in a conversation with my kids. I speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may. And I think more and more people are getting to that point where they realize these little lies that our government, our media, our Hollywood, everyone wants us to sort of, you know, retell and pretend like they're real. You know, these little lies are what have led us to the state that we're in

and this disillusionment we have with the system that we're living in. And that's why there are so many people willing to vote for somebody like Donald Trump, who has, you know, RFK Jr. and Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard behind him, all of these sort of people who are willing to break the system. That's why people are rallying. And it's not going to be easy. The people who want to keep the matrix in place, the people who want things to be business as usual, where this deep state, this, you know, elite administrative state runs everything instead of the people, a government by and for the people, they are not going to let go of power easily. It's going to be hard. And democracy is hard. And and so I think that's the place that we're in right now, Vida. It's interesting. Something as trivial as, you know, Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift is sort of like a little bit of a window into all the lies.

And maybe we'll be able to break through, maybe, in November. Vida Duffy, great talking to you always. Again, the podcast is The Bongino Report, early edition with Evita Duffy. You can get it on Rumble. You can get it wherever. You can get it on Apple. I listen to you on demand, but a lot of people listen to you live and they're commenting and chatting with you as you go along, but it's a growing podcast. And again, it's a great place. If you don't like those two-hour podcasts, this is like 20, 25 minutes. Get your news on the way to work. And I love it. So, Evita, thanks for joining, and we'll talk to you later.

I got to go feed your brothers and sisters. Okay. All right. All right. For having me. Listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to the show ad free on the Amazon Music app.