Taylor Swift’s post endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House on Tuesday drove at least 337,826 users to visit the site vote.gov, a sign of the potential effect her decision to speak out could have on November’s election.

Vote.gov is run by a federal agency known as the General Services Administration, in partnership with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The site includes information about how to register to vote and cast a ballot, and directs users to state sites where they can register.

In an Instagram post after the presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, Swift wrote that she would be voting for Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, her Democratic running mate. She urged her fans to do their own research and make their voices heard in November.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early,” she wrote, sharing a custom link to vote.gov in a corresponding Instagram story.

A spokesperson for the GSA said 337,826 users had visited vote.gov through Swift’s link as of 2 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday. The spokesperson noted that new voters must ultimately sign up to vote through their own state-specific website.

Harris’ campaign quickly embraced the support of one of the world’s most influential pop stars. The campaign soon began selling Harris-Walz friendship bracelets, the fashion accessory that millions of Swift fans have worn to her Eras Tour around the world. The bracelets sold out by Wednesday.

Swift has demonstrated an ability to get her supporters to register to vote in the past. In 2023, she urged fans to sign up at vote.org, and more than 35,000 people answered the call.

The Pennsylvania native first waded into politics in 2018, when she endorsed the Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen for Senate in Tennessee. “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote at the time. Bredesen ultimately lost to Republican Marsha Blackburn.

In her endorsement of Harris, Swift wrote that the vice president “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” and called her “a steady-handed, gifted leader.” 

She signed her post “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” a reference to comments by Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate. In a 2021 interview, Vance said that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives.”

On Fox News on Wednesday, Vance questioned the impact of Swift’s endorsement.

“We admire Taylor Swift’s music, but I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music or are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans,” Vance said.

contributed to this report.

The search for the suspect in last weekend’s Kentucky highway shooting has taken authorities into a massive, dense forest that’s been compared to a jungle in the southeastern part of the state. The manhunt for Joseph Couch, 32, has been going on since Saturday, when authorities say he shot and wounded five people who were traveling on Interstate 75.

The shooting happened near London, Kentucky, a city of about 8,000 outside Daniel Boone National Forest, which has “some of the most rugged terrain west of the Appalachian Mountains,” according to the U.S. Forest Service. The terrain includes “steep forested slopes, sandstone cliffs and narrow ravines,” according to the agency.

“It is like a jungle,” Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington told reporters Monday, “and we have cliff beds, we have sinkholes, we have caves, we had culverts that go under the interstate. We have creeks and rivers and the dense brush. I mean, it’s not something I can just take my dog for a natural walk through.”

The forest spans more than 2.1 million acres, including state and privately owned land, according to the Forest Service. The agency manages over 707,000 acres of the area and Pennington said it’s been assisting with the search.

In addition to the Forest Service, multiple law enforcement agencies are also helping with the search effort, including the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, local police forces, sheriff’s departments and the U.S. Marshals Service, Pennington said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also provided boats to navigate rivers in the forest.

Pennington posted a video to social media Tuesday showing the dense brush that search teams are combing through with the help of dogs.

He noted that while investigators are looking for the suspect, they’re also gathering anything he may have left behind.

“Our ground teams, you know, they’re like snails, they’re going very slowly to make sure they don’t leave anything unturned,” he said. “It might be a tree that’s knocked over, and it doesn’t look right the way it’s knocked over or something, a piece of trash on the ground, a candy bar wrapper, anything like that. I mean, we have to collect those because that might be part of the evidence.”

Meanwhile, helicopters and drones have been searching from the air, with the helicopters able to track heat sources on the ground.

As difficult as the area has been to search, Pennington said he hopes a lack of resources in the forest helps drive the suspect out of hiding.

“I hope he doesn’t have water, I hope he doesn’t have food, and I hope he’s just, he’s wore out, and eventually he’ll walk out of them woods,” he said.

Authorities are also looking for signs that the suspect may have died in the forest, like buzzards circling overhead.

“We’re going to stay in the woods till we find him, and, you know, that’s our job,” Pennington said. “If he’s dead or alive, it’s our job to try to find him, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Bodycam footage of D.C. police fatally shooting a 26-year-old man from Southeast D.C. was released Monday, prompting calls for justice from the community.

Justin Robinson was killed by two police officers on Sunday, Sept. 1 at approximately 5:30 a.m. in Southeast D.C. after authorities responded to a report of a crash, according to police reports. 

Two bodycam videos and a “community briefing” explaining the shooting were published Monday evening by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police. The first two videos – approximately 20 minutes each – show the incident from two different police body cameras. 

Footage shows armed police surrounding Robinson’s car, which appears to have crashed into a McDonald’s.  Robinson was unresponsive when officers arrived, the police report says, and officers said they saw a firearm inside of his car.

 “We got movement” one of the officers can be heard saying in the video, followed by “sir, keep your hand off the gun.”

Officers approach the vehicle with their guns drawn, footage shows, one starts yelling repeatedly at Robinson to put his hands up. The officer then thrusts his gun into the window of the driver’s seat threatening to shoot Robinson in the face. Robinson then appears to reach up towards the gun and the officer opens fire, shooting several rounds at Robinson.

Police said in a statement officers approached Robinson with their service weapons drawn and he grabbed one of the officer’s guns. 

Brandon Burrell, the family’s attorney, confirmed to CBS News that Robinson “naturally attempted” to move the gun away and said in response police fired 10 bullets. He said police continued to fire even after they moved out of reach, “this was police brutality.”

Robinson was a violence interrupter for Cure the Streets, a program run by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General “aimed at reducing gun violence,” Burrell said. CBS News reached out to Cure the Streets but has not heard back.

“His family is devastated and grieving,” Burrell said. “The community wants justice for Justin and that’s what Justin deserves.”

The release of the footage Monday night sparked outcry on social media and on the ground in the nation’s Capital where people gathered to protest on Tuesday as documented by CBS affiliate WUSA9 and The Washington Post.  Users shared the hashtag #Justiceforjustin on X to call attention to the shooting.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police Department posted on their website says seven people were arrested in the department’s seventh district in southeast D.C. as of 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police said they continue to maintain a presence in the area “out of an abundance of caution.” An MPD spokesperson did not clarify the status of the protests, how big the protests were, or if they are still ongoing when asked by CBS News.

Robinson’s family reviewed the bodycam after he was killed and originally said they did not want the footage to be released, according to Chief Pamela Smith, who spoke Monday night at a press conference. Robinson’s sister Tralicia told local CBS affiliate WUSA9 that they were reluctant because they found out the footage would be redacted. 

Burrell reached out Saturday to inform police they would like the videos to be released, according to Smith. Police said that the shooting remains under investigation and the two officers involved have been placed on administrative leave. 

Smith said Monday that MPD’s internal affairs division will also conduct an administrative review of the incident to see if there were any violations of policy.