Karamo Brown of Queer Eye has deleted his Twitter and switched off comments on Instagram, after copping a backlash for his comments about Sean Spicer.
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For those just catching up with this whole saga, Brown is set to compete on the upcoming season of the US Dancing With The Stars alongside the former White House press secretary.
Spicer was already a controversial casting choice for the warm and fuzzy show, given his track record of attacking and outright lying to journalists when he worked for the Trump administration.
When a fan Tweeted Karamo to say that they were “disappointed” he’d be sharing a platform with and lending legitimacy to a figure like Spicer, he responded tweeted:
“First, I have no say who is on the cast and didn’t find out till this morning that he is on! But I’ll tell you this … I’m excited to sit down w/ him and engage in respectful conversations. Only way things get better is if we try to educate those who have different POV than us.”
Later in the day, Evan Ross Katz posted a video of Brown calling Spicer a “good guy” and a “really sweet guy” in an Access Hollywood interview.
Here’s Karamo Brown calling Sean Spicer “a good guy; a really sweet guy” cause what’s morality, really? pic.twitter.com/WQVgfVVkFc
— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) August 21, 2019
He responded angrily, saying:
“I honestly can’t stand people like you who post things like this and you reposted some bs about a comment Jonathan [Van Ness] said … just to flame the fire and get a reaction.”
The discussion got more heated from there, with many criticising Karamo for cozying up to Spicer, given the Trump administration’s track record on LGBTQ and minority issues.
At a certain point, Karamo must have gotten tired of fielding angry replies and blocking the various celebrities and activists who criticised him, and his Twitter disappeared entirely.
On Saturday, fellow Queer Eye guy Bobby Berk posted a series of Tweets defending his cast-mate and criticising ABC, the network that airs Dancing, for planting a “land mine.”
He wrote:
“It’s frankly a really [shitty] situation to be put in and @ABCNetwork should be ashamed of themselves for having put the cast in the position to take a political side on a fucking dance competition … Shame on you ABC for now making this beloved show political by casting one of the biggest liars who has ever been. It’s called ‘Dancing with the STARS’ and the fact that you’re calling him a star is disgusting.”
Berk’s Tweets later disappeared, but there are still screengrabs floating around:
https://twitter.com/blackmon/status/1164926786939101184
Dancing With The Stars host Tom Bergeron has also criticised the casting of Spicer, saying that the show ought to be a “joyful respite” from politics.
He went on to make it clear that he does not support the “divisive” casting choice but that he will “agree to disagree” with producers and leave them to answer further questions.
https://twitter.com/Tom_Bergeron/status/1164199118165729281
During his tenure as Press Secretary, Spicer was famously portrayed by Melissa McCarthy on Saturday Night Live:
