The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Monday that Garth Brooks will perform during the swearing-in ceremony at Joe Biden’s inauguration. He joins Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez who were previously announced as performers.

It wasn’t the Presidential Inaugural Committee, though, that contacted Brooks and asked him to perform, it was Jill Biden. I don’t imagine she had to push too much for him to accept the invitation. He says he has performed at every presidential inauguration since Jimmy Carter, except for Reagan’s and he (conveniently) had a scheduling conflict during Trump’s inauguration in 2016. He’s all about unity, baby. He joked that he’ll be the only Republican there but his presence is to deliver a message of unity, not politics.

On a zoom call announcing the news, Brooks told reporters that he found the recent violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to be “disturbing and sad.”

“I’ve played for every president there is, since Carter, with the exception of Reagan. This is an honor for me to get to serve… and it’s one of the things that, if my family is around, no matter who the president-elect is, it’s an honor to be asked,” he told reporters, according to Entertainment Tonight.

I can’t vouch for the accuracy of his statement that he’s performed at presidential inaugurations since Jimmy Carter except to say that a quick internet search shows that Garth Brooks is 58 years old and Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977. According to my calculator, that means Brooks would have been age 14 that year. According to his biography on biography.com, “Garth Brooks signed with Capitol Records and released his self-titled first album in 1989.” I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Garth Brooks was joking but he’ll be far from the only Republican to attend the Biden inauguration. There will be plenty of them there, I’d even wager that most Republican senators will be there and likely a number of Republicans in the House. Even Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley say they’ll be there. So will newbie Senator Tommy Tuberville.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) tells the Hill pool he will attend Biden's inauguration after objecting to Electoral College certification on Jan. 6 and voting to throw out some states' votes.

"He's our president," Tuberville says.

(h/t @igorbobic)

— Lindsay Wise (@lindsaywise) January 19, 2021

This shows the insincerity of the actions of those Republicans who created the false narrative that the election could be delivered to Trump by objecting to confirming the electoral votes. Sure, there were plenty of irregularities to make note of and most have to do with not letting the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic go to waste, but the GOP lawmakers knew better than to lead Trump voters on with their rhetoric. It was political theatre and lots of people got caught up in it. Now they will just go back to normal and pretend like nothing happened. If they sincerely believed Biden is an illegitimate president, they would take a pass at attending the inauguration ceremony.

It is nothing new for entertainers to flock to Democrat presidents. President Trump, a union member in show biz, was unable to attract big-name performers for his inauguration and that is what has happened to all recent Republican presidents. Garth Brooks hasn’t been a performer to talk about politics so I take him at his word that he is both a Republican and performs at inaugurations out of a sense of duty. When a president calls upon him, he answers the call. That’s how it used to be, by the way. At least at the beginning of new administrations, voters on both sides of the aisle were willing to give the new president a honeymoon period, give him a chance. Those days are long gone and now Garth Brooks is receiving both praise and criticism from his fans.

Liberal fans were excited.

Apparently, Garth Brooks has some friends in high places too! Looking forward to his performance during our virtual inauguration celebration, for our very real President, Biden and Vice President, Harris.

— Michael Mattoch (@MMattoch) January 18, 2021

Awesome. Love Garth!

— Progressive SLP 🌹☮️ (@progressiveSLP) January 18, 2021

And there are fans who are not so excited.

garth brooks playing the biden inauguration as a republican, putting a new spin on “friends in low places.”

— jocelyn romo (@theeroamer) January 18, 2021

🤢 unfollowed and all music deleted from phone. Traitor

— Mandy Bates (@MandyBates1983) January 19, 2021

It’s a nice message from Garth but no one’s really ready to accept talk about unity. The truth is that Biden talks a big game of uniting Americans but he, too, spews forth with ugly rhetoric. Soon he won’t have Trump to kick around and he’ll have to make good on his word to work with both sides of the aisle.

There are plenty of opportunities for those who want to watch inaugural activities to do so. Celebrities have been lined up for about five days worth of online events. Suddenly after four solid years of trashing Trump and his supporters, in the worst language possible, the liberals in Hollywood are all about unity. We can look forward to four years of non-resistance. It will be just like the Obama years.