Taylor Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine, clapped back at Kim Kardashian by re-posting the statement she initially gave in 2016 regarding Taylor and Kanye West’s phone call about the song “Famous.” Her decision to share the statement again came after Kim made references to it in a series of tweets on March 23. “I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement,” she wrote. “Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing.” The second part of her tweet is in reference to Kim claiming she never “edited” the video of Taylor and Kanye’s 2016 phone call when she posted snippets of it on Snapchat that July. Meanwhile, this entire feud was reignited because the FULL version of the phone call leaked on March 21, and in her tweet, Tree added, “PS who did you guys piss off to leak that video??” with crying laughing emojis.
Kim’s March 23 tweets claimed that Taylor “lied through her publicist” when this drama began in 2016. Kim claimed that Tree’s statement said, “Kanye never called [Taylor] to ask for permission” to rap about her on “Famous,” so Tree re-posted her initial message to show what she really said: “Kanye did not call for approval, but to to ask Taylor to release his single “Famous” on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, “I made that b***h famous.”” Tree’s statement never denied that a phone call took place, like Kim claims. Rather, the statement said that Kanye’s phone call was never about approval, but about wanting Taylor to promote the song herself, which the full version of the video of the phone call (which was illegally recorded) proved.
When the full version of the video leaked, Kim was slammed on social media for editing the clips that she initially posted on Snapchat in 2016. “I never edited the footage (another lie),” Kim said, while defending herself in her March 23 tweets. “I only posted a few clips on Snapchat to make my point and the full video that recently leaked doesn’t change the narrative.”
I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement. Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing.
P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video? 😂😂😂 https://t.co/AtMGUp3t24 pic.twitter.com/EjGDwAdL6O
— Tree Paine (@treepaine) March 24, 2020
Meanwhile, Taylor also commented on the full video leak on March 23, and said that it “proved that [she] was telling the truth the whole time.” She also slammed Kim and Kanye for illegally recording the call, then editing it and using it to manipulate her publicly, which “put [her], [her] family, and [her] fans through hell for four years.” Taylor has publicly spoken about how the fallout from her 2016 drama with Kim and Kanye was part of what led her to “go into hiding for a full year” in 2017.
Taylor has always maintained that her issue with this entire situation was that Kanye never told her he was going to call her “that b****” in “Famous.” However, Kim’s viewpoint is that the singer initially tried to lie about a phone call taking place at all via Tree’s statement, which, as Tree made clear by re-sharing the message, is not the case.