‘Anti-fracking activist’ Lady Gaga and the Pennsylvania vote

Lady Gaga, that well-known “anti-fracking activist”, has made her way into Donald Trump’s mentions.

The 34-year-old, who is also known for being a pop superstar with several Grammy awards and one Oscar, is set to join Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday.

For the record, she is not famous for being an anti-fracking activist but that is how she was described in a tweet by Donald Trump’s communications director Tim Murtaugh.

“Nothing exposes Biden’s disdain for the forgotten working men & women of PA like campaigning with anti-fracking activist Lady Gaga,” he wrote.

The Trump campaign statement on Lady Gaga’s forthcoming appearance with Joe Biden links to an October 2012 post on Lady Gaga’s official Facebook page, which posts without comment a link to the website Artists Against Fracking. Mr Trump also tweeted his outrage.

Lady Gaga responded, glad “to be living rent free” in their heads and asked “also, what is fracking?”

Fracking is the process of drilling into the earth to release natural gas and oil. The Trump campaign has identified it as a critical election issue in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, which has a booming natural gas industry.

The Biden campaign says it does not have a policy to ban fracking but it would seek to end fracking leases on federal land. The Democrat has been under particular pressure on the issue since speaking about a “transition” away from oil in the final TV debate., which his team later said he didn’t really mean.