'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown has deleted his Twitter account amid backlash following his comments a
- "Queer Eye" star Karamo Brown came under fire earlier this week for his comments regarding former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer — and Brown has now deleted his Twitter, seemingly as a result.
- The Fab Five member called Spicer "a good guy" in an interview earlier this week, and said in a since-deleted tweet that he was "excited" to "engage in respectful conversations" with the ex-press secretary.
- Numerous people on Twitter, including writers Ira Madison and Roxane Gay, have questioned Brown's approach to politics.
- Brown's cast mate Bobby Berk also come to his defense on Twitter, but subsequently deleted his tweets.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Karamo Brown from "Queer Eye" deleted his Twitter account Thursday night, seemingly in response to the backlash he faced for calling former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer "a good guy" and "really sweet."
Brown's decision to delete his Twitter comes after he did an interview with "Access" earlier this week. In the interview, the "Queer Eye" star said unprompted that he was "excited" to meet Spicer, who will appear on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" along with Brown.
"Sean Spicer and I have been talking," Brown told "Access" when asked who he thought his competition would be on the show.
"The thing is, people would look at us and think that we're polar opposites, but I'm a big believer that if you can talk to someone and meet in the middle, you can learn about each other and help each other both grow."
"He's a good guy, a really sweet guy," Brown added, before going on to answer the interviewer's actual question.
The decision to cast Spicer on the show has garnered a lot of backlash on social media, with the hashtag #BoycottDWTS trending earlier this week.
Brown, who's slated to appear on the show along with Spicer and numerous other celebrities like Christie Brinkley and Lamar Odom, received a lot of criticism on social media for his stance on Spicer.
—Ira thee Third (@ira) August 22, 2019—Access (@accessonline) August 21, 2019—Klaudia Amenábar 🇨🇱 (@kaludiasays) August 22, 2019—Tony Choi (@tonykchoi) August 22, 2019—Ashly Perez (@itsashlyperez) August 22, 2019—Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) August 21, 2019Some even urged Brown to consider his status as an unofficial advocate for the queer community (due to his role on the hit show) when making comments about conservative politicians.
—Lisa Ann Paul (@lapshaffer) August 22, 2019—noah michelson (@noahmichelson) August 22, 2019—Scott Nevins (@ScottNevins) August 22, 2019From there, things got a bit messy. Brown's "Queer Eye" costar Bobby Berk was quick to jump to his cast mate's defense, apparently posting a series of sympathetic tweets that he subsequently deleted. Screenshots of what appear to be Berk's original tweets remain online.
"I'm very saddened by what my cast mate Karamo is having to deal with today," Berk appeared to write in the since-deleted tweets.
He apparently attributed Brown's comments about Spicer to "media training."
"We've been trained over and over to not talk smack about anyone in an [sic] interviews and to try to be as nice as possible," the screenshots show Berk writing.
"When being backed in a corner about voicing his opinions about Sean Spicer, Karamo's media training kicked in as we are trained to do."
—michael blackmon (@blackmon) August 23, 2019
It's worth noting once again that Brown brought up Spicer of his own accord in the "Access" interview, and wasn't asked directly about his opinions on the former press secretary.
In screenshots, Berk appeared to blame ABC for the "s---ty" situation and said they "should be ashamed of themselves for having put the cast in the position of having to take a political side on a f------ dance competition."
However, it appears that Berk has since deleted the tweets defending Brown.
—michael blackmon (@blackmon) August 23, 2019For his part, Brown reportedly started blocking some of his followers who were criticizing his comments about Spicer, before deleting his Twitter account Thursday night.
—Starts with G 🇪🇺🏳️🌈 (@thismuchyellow) August 22, 2019—Marti Gould Cummings (@MartiGCummings) August 22, 2019—Mario (@mariodice) August 23, 2019—Lynn Meek (@tempsanity77) August 22, 2019This isn't the first time Brown has received criticism for his seemingly ambivalent stance on conservative politics. In June 2018, Brown visited the White House to meet with Vice President Mike Pence's wife's chief of staff to discuss funding for the arts — in addition to LGBTQ issues.
Brown shared in an interview with Vulture shortly thereafter that he thought they were "receptive."
"I've always been taught that if you want to see effective change, you have to be in rooms with people who tell you you're not welcome there," he said.
Brown's own "Queer Eye" cast mate Jonathan Van Ness criticized him for visiting the White House in a video interview for Vulture.
"She doesn't like you, girl. She don't like us," an irritated Van Ness told Brown, referring to the Pences' controversial stances on LGBTQ rights.
And in October 2018, Brown appeared on an episode of writer Ira Madison's podcast "Keep It."
"I can't cancel Trump and Pence. I might not have voted for them, but I must go in there and try to advocate and try to change some hearts and minds," Brown said to Madison of his White House visit.
Later on in the podcast, Brown said he wanted to see Trump do well in office.
"Though I did not vote for President Trump, I do need him to succeed at this point," Brown said.
"He's still the president of our country," he added, saying that Trump needs to "succeed for all of us."
These comments, in addition to the more recent ones, have led some to denounce Brown as a "super annoying centrist."
—fiona 💞 (@neonfiona) April 6, 2019—Exhausted but Angry (@FluteNerd73) August 22, 2019—🌙 taylor moon #SaveTheOA (@quinzelalderson) August 23, 2019
Representatives for Brown didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
- Read more:
- Karamo Brown clapped back at raging 'Queer Eye' fans who turned on him after he called his 'Dancing With the Stars' costar Sean Spicer a 'good guy'
- 'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown thinks 'Call Me by Your Name' is 'problematic' because it glorifies 'predatory behavior'
- 'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown admits that he 'hates' the title of culture expert
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