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Up until taking on Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live, Jim Gaffigan tended to stay away from politics in his comedy.
But the Emmy-winning comedian doesn’t regret the times he spoke his mind, including a 2020 tweet in which he called Donald Trump “a liar and a criminal,” despite losing some Trump supporters as fans.
“I regret that people think that I was criticizing people that support Trump. And that was never the intention,” he explained on The Daily Beast’s The Last Laugh podcast. “I regret—someone said like, now I can’t follow you anymore and I kind of said ‘F you’ to them. But it’s weird because I think authenticity is really an important thing, not only as a comedian, but also with your children.
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“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. 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,” added Gaffigan.
Ahead of President Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 election against Trump, Gaffigan spoke out against the MAGA candidate.
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.
— Jim Gaffigan (@JimGaffigan) August 28, 2020
“Look Trumpers I get it,” he wrote on Twitter. “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.”
Although Gaffigan might have lost some fans from the tweet, he didn’t notice much of a change. “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,’” he said on the podcast.
Gaffigan’s podcast appearance comes after he portrayed Walz earlier this season on SNL, alongside Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Dana Carvey as Joe Biden and Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff.
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