Blake Shelton is clarifying his comments praising U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, insisting his statement was not an endorsement for the controversial Republican.
In a new interview with Billboard magazine, the country singer was asked about his political leanings, and while he didn't say outright who he's planning to vote for this November (16), Blake did commend Trump for his unashamed frankness.
He said, "I'm not going to have the political conversation with you about Trump, or about Hillary 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."
After the article was released on Thursday (28Jul16), many critics took The Voice mentor's comments as an endorsement for Trump, who is running against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Even actress Debra Messing, who performed at the Democratic National Convention the night before (27Jul16) in support of Clinton, wrote about her shock on Twitter, and called on Blake's girlfriend Gwen Stefani to help convince him to lean towards the left.
"Omg. How?" Debra wrote. "@gwenstefani please talk to your man to not vote for the person who will STRIP you of your rights."
But Blake also took to the microblogging site shortly after to help calm the firestorm of tweets, and clarified that he never said he was voting for Trump.
Blake wrote, "Hey before this gets going like it always does... I haven't enforced (sic) ANYBODY for president. And I not going to (sic). I don't do that s**t. My comment about 'wish there was another option but there's not' is across the board... period. Now go dig up another story."
The Will & Grace star later apologised for getting in the middle of the mess, tweeting, "Ok - I regret commenting. My passions got the better of me. Sorry. @gwenstefani @blakeshelton. He (Blake) is a spectacular man!"
Blake accepted her apology and responded, "Thank you sis... I don't endorse anybody. For this very reason!!"
