Comic Jim Gaffigan Strikes Back With 1 Simple Test For Trump Voters
Comic Jim Gaffigan is explaining his surprising Twitter rant against President Donald Trump that went viral last week ― and he’s not backing down.
“Honestly, I feel I had no choice at this point,” Gaffigan wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. “I think Trump is ruining and possibly has already ruined my country.”
As the Republican National Convention concluded last Thursday with a marathon acceptance speech by the president, Gaffigan spent an hour firing off tweets aimed at Trump supporters. He urged voters to “wake up” and call out Trump for the “con man and thief” that he is.
Gaffigan, known as a clean comic, even dropped some choice four-letter words.
After spending a few days collecting his thoughts, Gaffigan said he has no regrets.
“It felt liberating,” Gaffigan wrote, saying he was tired of censoring himself for the pro-Trump crowd, and believes many others hold their tongue for the same reason.
“It’s like after Thanksgiving 2016 we all decided to let the crazy relative decide the discourse and context of every argument,” he wrote. “It was refreshing to let four years of frustration boil over and offer some straight talk on what Trump has done to our country or our democracy.”
Gaffigan also revealed that he found a lot of bots in his replies, that even Trump’s “ridiculous” talking points work on his supporters and that many people believe the QAnon conspiracy theory.
“That isn’t as much of a fringe belief as you might think,” he wrote. “Pizzagate wasn’t a one-off. It was the tip of the iceberg.”
And, Gaffigan said, Trump supporters were all about Trump.
“It doesn’t matter that Trump and his folks are breaking laws, trying to kill Obamacare, pre-existing conditions or that his handling of the pandemic was disastrous,” he wrote. “To Trump voters he is THEIR guy. More importantly he’s ‘THEIR president’ and disagreeing with them is a personal insult.” Gaffigan called the notion “not only weird but kind of scary.”
Gaffigan wrote about the responsibility he feels to his children as well as to future generations.
“I didn’t want to explain to my grandchildren that I didn’t fight to stop Trump,” he wrote. “Maybe they will see that I stood up for decency, rule of law and equality.”
Gaffigan also urged Trump voters to apply that same test to their own actions ― specifically to who they vote for in the coming presidential election.
“If you are still on the fence I encourage you to vote not for who I want you to vote for but for who your grandchildren would be proud you fucking voted for,” he wrote, followed by an apology to his wife, Jeannie Gaffigan, for his use of profanity.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
