“I just pray that nobody gets seriously hurt”: Scooter Braun posts appeal to Taylor Swift, says his family’s receiving death threats

Walt Disney Television/Paula LoboLess than a day after he finally commented publicly about his ongoing feud with Taylor Swift, Scooter Braun has posted a online message to Taylor herself, all but begging her to sit down with him and work out their differences — for the sake of his family’s safety.

“Since your public statement last week there have been numerous death threats directed at my family,” Braun’s lengthy Instagram message begins.  “I came home tonight to find my wife had received a phone call threatening the safety of our children as well as other threats.”

Braun goes on to tell Taylor, “I assume this was not your intention but it is important that you understand that your words carry a tremendous amount of weight and that your message can be interpreted by some in different ways.” 

After declaring, “[A]ll I have wanted to do is rectify the situation,” and that he’s “open to ALL possibilities,” Braun writes that he’s attempted to have an “open discussion” with Taylor “over the last six months” but that she’s “rejected” his overtures, despite efforts by “some on your team and many of our mutual friends…to get you to the table.”

“It almost feels as if you have no interest in ever resolving the conflict,” writes Braun.  “At this point with safety becoming a concern I have no choice other than to publicly ask for us to come together and try to find a resolution.”

Taylor’s very public feud with Braun began this summer after he purchased her original record company, Big Machine, and became the owner of her master recordings.  Taylor posted online that this was against her expressed wishes, in part because she felt Braun had disrespected and bullied her in the past.

The feud heated up recently after Taylor claimed Big Machine wouldn’t allow her to perform her old hits on Sunday’s American Music Awards, and called upon her fan base and fellow artists to tell Braun and Big Machine how they felt about that. 

Big Machine later issued a statement denying Taylor’s assertion, and Braun further says as much in his Instagram post, writing, “As the world now knows you can and should perform any song you would like at the AMAs.  I have never and would never say otherwise.”

There’s much more to Braun’s message, but it ends with, in part, an appeal to “find a resolution. I will make myself available whenever works for you.  …But if you would prefer to make large public statements while refusing to work towards resolving things amicably then I just pray that nobody gets seriously hurt in the process.  I continue to wish you the best and hope we can resolve this.”

Lastly, to emphasize his message’s urgency, Braun posts a screenshot of what appears to be a text message or online comment, apparently directed to him or a member of his family, that reads, “Hi, why don’t you just die withyour [sic] children???  I will buy a gun tmr and them [sic] shoot you allin [sic] the head.”

As of Friday morning, there was no public response from Taylor to Braun’s post.

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