Marsha Blackburn deepfake video — Oct 2026

On October 13, 2026, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn posted a 12-second AI-generated video to the social media platform X. The video featured Blackburn and several fellow Tennessee Republican politicians, including Rep. Tim Burchett, Sen. Bill Hagerty, state Sen. Brent Taylor, and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, lip-syncing and dancing to Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 diss track, "Not Like Us."

What happened

The video, which Blackburn captioned "Tomorrow. Ready to roll" in reference to the start of early voting in Tennessee, utilized AI to depict the politicians as backup dancers in a recreation of Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance. In the clip, Mayor Jacobs is shown wearing his former WWE wrestling outfit from his time performing as the masked character Kane.

The post drew immediate backlash from various political figures and commentators. Tennessee Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerri Green cited the video as an example of why she has asked supporters to refrain from using AI in campaign materials. Former Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger criticized the post, and other social media users noted the irony of the politicians using a song that many right-wing pundits had previously condemned following the Super Bowl.

When asked about the controversy by WZTV on October 14, Blackburn defended the post, stating that a county commissioner had created the video and that she and others had simply reposted it. She characterized the video as a "funsie" intended to encourage voter turnout.