ABC/Fred LeeCountry music superstar Shania Twain rankled part of her fan base by saying she would have voted for Donald Trump if she were American.
Twain, who’s Canadian, was asked by the UK newspaper The Guardian if she would’ve voted for Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She responded, “I would have voted for him because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest. Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both.”
She added, “If I were voting, I just don’t want bull****. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?”
Following online backlash from a portion of her fans, Twain explained her comments and apologized.
“I would like to apologise to anybody I have offended in a recent interview with the Guardian relating to the American President,” she tweeted. “The question caught me off guard. As a Canadian, I regret answering this unexpected question without giving my response more context.”
She went on, “I am passionately against discrimination of any kind and hope it’s clear from the choices I have made, and the people I stand with, that I do not hold any common moral beliefs with the current President.”
Shania continued, “I was trying to explain, in response to a question about the election, that my limited understanding was that the President talked to a portion of America like an accessible person they could relate to, as he was NOT a politician.”
In closing, she wrote, “My answer was awkward, but certainly should not be taken as representative of my values nor does it mean I endorse him. I make music to bring people together. My path will always be one of inclusivity, as my history shows.”
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