One of the very real concerns the Republican party has this election is that they will lose out on the youth vote.
They need to draw millennials to their cause and, last week, with the spotlight on them in Cleveland, they thought they had the perfect plan.
Get the Bieber to play. Kids love the Bieber. If kids see the Bieber in town for the convention, singing for Republicans, they’ll vote Republican. As the kids would say, hash tag no doy.
But Bieber wasn’t there. The reason? LeBron James. According to TMZ, Bieber was approached by a promoter to play at an event bankrolled by GOP donors and offered $5 million to do so. Five fucking million dollars. I would do that, politics be damned.
Bieber was into it, too. His manager, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was less so.
We’re told Scooter [Braun] wasn’t heavy-handed at first, and talked to Justin about putting Black Lives Matter banners up in the venue. We’re told Braun was told he could not display BLM banners, but the donors would accept banners that read “All Lives Matter.” The donors also made it clear … Justin could say nothing disparaging about Trump or the GOP.
We’re told Scooter told Justin it was up to him if he wanted to do the show, but he said he couldn’t continue to represent the singer if he did, out of principle.
That said, Bieber was still considering it. It’d have been his biggest payday ever. But then Bron got involved.
Well, after the people whose idea the concert was lied to the Biebs.
Our sources say the promoter told Scooter … LeBron James himself was also going to attend an event in Cleveland, welcoming the GOP without taking a political stand. The sources tell us Justin’s people got in touch with LeBron’s people, and they were told LeBron would actually not be in Cleveland for the convention and urged Justin not to go as well.
Shit. That might be LeBron’s second-biggest block ever.
HEY, MAYBE: Justin Bieber Really Is Sorry?
[Via Esquire]