According TMZ‘s sources, organizers behind a Republican event really wanted Justin Bieber to perform in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention — so much that they offered him $5 million. And according to what those sources (from CAA, the talent agency where the Biebs is represented by Scooter Braun) told TMZ, the pop star “seriously considered” it, as it would have been the highest paying concert he’d done, and because of the whole Canadian thing.
Apparently, the agency had been contacted by promoters and offered the money for the GOP donor-sponsored event, at which he would have played a 45-minute show in an undisclosed space near the Quicken Loans Arena, the site of last week’s bigotry bash. The event in which Bieber would have partaken itself was said to be apolitical, and wouldn’t have required an explicit endorsement of any candidate from the pop star. However, when Braun allegedly asked whether they could post Black Lives Matter banners around the space, TMZ says the people behind the event naysaid the idea, instead suggesting that “All Live Matter” banners be shown, and emphasized that Justin couldn’t vocalize negative opinions about the GOP during the show.
It was apparently at this point where Braun, a Hillary supporter, told Bieber that if he wanted it he could do it, but that he’d consider quitting as his manager. It wasn’t until they reportedly contacted LeBron James’s people, hearing that he was going to be involved in a similarly “apolitical” event that — but it turned out that LeBron wouldn’t be participating, and his people supposedly also emphasized that Bieber should likewise decline the offer.
“Scooter felt the GOP was using Bieber as its tool,” TMZ writes. Gawker points out that Bieber has been pretty quiet and vague about his overall political views, but that in 2011, when he was 17 (so it’s obviously quite possible his opinions have changed), he’d told Rolling Stone that his stance on abortion was: “It’s like killing a baby.”