Did President Joe Biden cunningly rig the Super Bowl so the Kansas City Chiefs would win?
“I’d get in trouble if I told you,” Biden joked in his campaign’s inaugural post on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that has 170 million U.S. users but few high-level U.S. politicians.
The video then cut to an image of the “Dark Brandon” meme — another attempt from the campaign to flip a right-wing conspiracy theory on its head.
Biden’s arrival to TikTok, and the lighthearted nature of his post, pointed to his ongoing attempts to rebuild his support among young voters. After weeks in which aides had floated that he would join the platform, his campaign pushed the button on its first video during the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
The 30-second clip featured the president dodging questions from an off-screen inquisitor.
Who would win the big game? (He dodged and noted Jill Biden’s fandom for the Philadelphia Eagles.)
Which Kelce brother did he prefer? (Again, a diplomatic response: “Mama Kelce.”)
Joining TikTok is a sharp pivot for the Biden reelection campaign, which had officially maintained that it didn’t need its own TikTok account to reach voters and that it would work through influencers instead.
The move also carries some degree of risk: TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and is banned on government devices in most states and at the federal level.
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