Blake Shelton Clarifies His Donald Trump Comments On Twitter
Published on July 29, 2016.Photo by Picture Perfect/REX Shutterstock
Blake Shelton is never afraid to voice his opinions on social media, but yesterday things got a little politically heated on his Twitter page.
The 40-year-old country singer took to Twitter on Thursday to clarify some comments he had made to Billboard in an interview while speaking about the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Shelton claims his comment was taken out of context to make it look like he was a Trump supporter.
In the article, The Voice coach said: “I’m not going to have the political conversation with you about Trump, or about Hilary Clinton, but I will tell you this: Whether you love him or hate him, he says what he thinks, and he has proven that you don’t always have to be so afraid. A lot of people are pulling for him, no matter how much Hollywood fights it. I see people who don’t like him go and beat up people that do like him. You tell me, who’s crazy here? I probably wish there was another option, but there’s not.” The quote makes it sound like Shelton is not only a Trump supporter, but that he’s telling people they have no other option with their vote.
When former Will & Grace star, Debra Messing, heard about Shelton’s alleged endorsement of Trump, she jumped on Twitter to persuade him against it. Surprisingly, she called on Gwen Stefani, Shelton’s girlfriend to “talk to her man.” She tweeted, “Omg. How? @gwenstefani please talk to your man to not vote for the person who will STRIP you of your rights.” But Stefani made sure not to get involved in the political drama.
In a previous interview, Shelton had told Billboard that he would be voting in November, but he wasn’t throwing his support behind any particular candidate. When this story came out he was forced to reaffirm his opinions. He defended himself against Messing and others by writing on Twitter: “Hey before this gets going like it always does…I haven’t endorced ANYBODY for president. And I not going to. I don’t do that shit.” He then clarified his comments by writing, “My comment about ‘wish there was another option but there’s not’ is across the board…period. Now go dig up another story.”
Messing later apologized for her tweet and wrote, “Ok- I regret commenting. My passions got the better of me. Sorry. @gwenstefani @blakeshelton.” The issue was diffused fairly quickly when Shelton responded with, “Thank you sis…I don’t endorse anybody. For this very reason!!!” He then directed his anger at the media for causing the problem in the first place and twisting his words. He said, “They can spin it however they want but it’s right there in plain English.” He also added, “When y’all what the news about this stuff watch ALL the channels…Read ALL the articles. Make YOUR mind up. And then vote.” Shelton then finished it off by writing, “It’s crazy that in this moment in time…With everything going on in the world that spinning my words is so important to the media.”