Taylor Swift‘s name was brought up during a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday morning (March 25).
Much of the meeting was focused on the national security lapse earlier this week when national security officials for President Donald Trump were accused of accidentally including the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in a group chat discussing plans for military strikes in Yemen.
During the hearing, Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner spoke about the dangers of alienating allies to the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and FBI Director Kash Patel. He used an August 2024 incident involving Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as an example, as the Grammy winner’s shows in Vienna were abruptly cancelled following the arrest of three suspects who reportedly planned to unleash a terrorist attack on the shows.
“That sharing of information saves lives, and it’s not hypothetical — we all remember, because it was declassified — last year when Austria worked with our community to make sure to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals,” Warner said of the benefits of shared security information among allies. Watch the clip here.
According to Austrian authorities, the main suspect for the foiled plan was an unnamed 19-year-old Austrian man who had reportedly been inspired by the Islamic State terror group. They said he planned to attack the estimated 30,000 Swifties expected to gather outside the Ernst Happel Stadium with knives or homemade explosives.
After the shows were called off, the singer’s fans flooded the streets of Vienna for impromptu sing-alongs and spontaneous celebrations of their devotion to the pop star, who later spoke out about the “devastating” incident.
