Superstar stand-up comic Jim Gaffigan recently weighed in on his previous anti-Trump social media posts from 2020, saying he regrets that supporters of President-elect Donald Trump took his criticism personally.
Gaffigan, who recently played former Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., on "Saturday Night Live," discussed his negative feelings surrounding the old tweets in a new interview with "The Daily Beast."
"I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention. I regret – someone said like, now I can’t follow you anymore and I kind of said ‘F you’ to them," the comedian stated.
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP'S VICTORY SENDS HOLLYWOOD INTO TAILSPIN
Gaffigan lashed out at Trump in a series of tweets back in 2020, when X was still Twitter and Trump was running for re-election. In one, he wrote, "Look Trumpers I get it. As a kid I was a cubs fan and I know you stick by your team no matter what but he's a traitor and a con man who doesn't care about you. Deep down you know it. I'm sure you enjoy pissing people off but you know Trump is a liar and a criminal."
In another, he bashed Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, writing, "You know Trump just creates enemies. You know you can't trust him. You know he been incompetent during this crisis. You know all those people didn't need to die. Trump talks about the Space Program and you can't safely go to a movie. Wake up."
Four years later, Gaffigan told the outlet his regrets about how the posts were taken by some people, but insisted he doesn’t regret posting them.
"But it’s weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children," he said, adding, "For me, I don’t regret it, but I also do acknowledge that there are true die-hard Trump fans who probably enjoyed my comedy, but because they feel so passionately will never forgive me."
Gaffigan went on, acknowledging that alienating people in such a way is just part of being a comedian.
"But also, something I’ve noticed in doing stand-up for so long is, you’re going to lose people. You’re also going to attract people. But there are going to be people who are like, you know, ‘I don’t have kids, I think he’s funny, but I don’t get this.’"
When asked if he felt as if he had lost many fans following those posts, he replied, "I wouldn’t say it was measurable. But there were definitely comments on social media, and there are still some. My son, who’s so funny — I posted something, and my 18-year-old son commented, ‘I liked him until he went on his Trump rant.’"
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
The outlet also asked the comedian how he felt about the flak he got for performing at the recent Al Smith Dinner in New York City. During his set, Gaffigan took shots at Trump, who was in attendance that evening, and at Vice President Kamala Harris, who declined the invite.
He remarked on being slammed by liberals who accused him of making light of Trump in the routine.
"I was ‘normalizing a fascist,’ right? I knew going into it that I was going to get criticism from both sides. I’m not a roast comedian. I mean, I love politics, but I just don’t talk about it," he said.
"So I knew that if I did jokes about either side that there was going to be some blowback. But I also thought it was worth it."
