Biden's campaign gives in and joins TikTok. Blame the youngs

President Biden's reelection campaign is going somewhere that his White House has feared to tread.

During the Super Bowl on Sunday evening, "BidenHQ" posted its first-ever TikTok, with the caption: "lol hey guys."

It's a sign of just how badly Democrats want to court young Americans ahead of the election. The social media platform is disproportionately popular with that demographic.

The White House has stayed away from TikTok because of privacy and national security concerns related to the app's owner, Chinese company ByteDance. The app is banned on government devices, and the powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has been reviewing its ownership structure.

Until now, the campaign had followed that lead. But not anymore.

Why the campaign changed its mind about going on TikTok

The video features Biden answering questions about the Super Bowl and makes fun of the viral conservative conspiracy theory alleging that the NFL rigged the season so Taylor Swift could come out on the field and endorse Biden.

"I'd get in trouble if I told you," Biden said when asked if there was a plot to rig the game. His response follows a quick cut to the 'Dark Brandon' meme.

The timing of the launch was surprising to Democratic digital strategist Annie Wu Henry, who helped lead social media strategy for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in 2022 and has since done work for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.

"We had been paying attention to the Super Bowl, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, everything else that was going on that night," Henry said.

But Biden joining the platform wasn't a shock, she said. "I assumed that this inevitably would happen at some time during this election cycle. Because I do think that people are