‘Dancing With the Stars’: Karamo Brown Responds After Being Slammed for Sean Spicer Comment

Queer Eye‘s Karamo Brown is responding to fans critical of him calling former Donald Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer a “good guy” after the two were revealed to be competitors in Season 28 of Dancing With the Stars Wednesday.

Brown came under fire on Twitter after calling Spicer a “good guy, really sweet guy,” during an interview with Access that same day, with one social media user comparing it to Queer Eye co-star Jonathan Van Ness calling Mitt Romney “sexy” in the past.

“I honestly can’t stand people like you who post things like this … just to flame the fire and get a reaction,” Brown responded.

The Netflix star went further into how he’s squared his conscience starring alongside Spicer after another Twitter user said they were “disappointed” he was “lending his celebrity to” the politician’s resurgence.

“First, I have no say who is on the cast and didn’t find out till this morning that he is on!” Brown replied. “But I’ll tell you this… I’m excited to sit down w/ him and engage in a respectful conversations. Only way things get better is if we try to educate those who have different POV than us.”

Brown isn’t the only DWTS star speaking out about Spicer being cast. Host Tom Bergeron took to Instagram Wednesday with a lengthy note distancing himself from the move, saying when he met with the show’s new executive producer before the season, he was under the impression that it would be “a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”

“I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement,” he wrote. However, “a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.’”

Making it clear he doesn’t support Spicer’s hiring, Bergeron noted, “It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise. We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.”

“For me, as host, I always gaze into the camera’s lens and imagine you on the other side, looking for a two hour escape from whatever life hassles you’ve been wrestling with. That’s a connection, and a responsibility, which I take very seriously, even I occasionally season it with dad jokes,” he continued. “Hopefully, when [co-host] Erin Andrews and I look into those lenses again on September 16, you’ll be on the other side looking back, able to enjoy the charismatic pro dancers, the unpredictable judges and the kitschy charm that has denied DWTS since 2005.”

Dancing With the Stars Season 28 kicks off Sept. 16 on ABC.

Photo credit: Santiago Felipe/Getty Images