Shane Gillis, who was hired — then fired — by “Saturday Night Live” in recent days, reached out to accept an invitation from Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang to talk.

Soon after SNL announced it had hired Gillis, he came under fire for a Podcast in which he mocked Chinese culture, poked fun at Jews and expressed homophobic sentiments. On Monday, SNL announced Gillis would not be joining the cast after all.

Yang, the only Asian-American running for president, jumped into the fray by criticizing Gillis’ jokes and his apology, but also calling for forgiveness for the comedian and offering to “sit down and talk.”

"Shane Gillis reached out,” Yang wrote in a Tweet on Monday. "Looks like we will be sitting down together soon.”

Yang’s actions, including his defense of Gillis and his opinion that Gillis should not lose his job, suddenly threw him into the center of an ongoing national conversation about racism.

But the national attention that Yang is getting may not bode well for him in the end.

"For more than a year, Mr. Yang, 44, has built support from outside the political establishment by purposely staying above the political fray, posting videos of himself having fun playing basketball and preaching “humanity first” as a central tenet of his campaign,” the Times wrote. "His response to Mr. Gillis over the weekend echoed those inviting approaches.”

In addition, the Times suggested that Yang may have offended his own community the most.

“Perhaps the most pointed criticism has come from the Asian-American community itself, where some have expressed a mix of incredulity and weighty disappointment at the way Mr. Yang has talked about race throughout his campaign,” according to the Times.

The report quoted Jenn Fang, the created of a long-running Asian-American advocacy blog, Reappropriate. Fang said she thought Yang took “a position that’s very much at odds with the Asian-American community.”

“He’s trying to let Shane Gillis off the hook so he can cater to other voters that he needs to get to the White House,” she wrote.

Yang’s Tweet received over 1,500 responses as of Tuesday afternoon.

“As forward thinking as this is, it’s sad to see that Andrew Yang will continue to ignore the Black population but welcome a racist’s pow wow,” Patrick Edmonds wrote. “I’m now not likely to vote for Yang or continue supporting him. #HumanityFirst includes African Americans and other minorities. #YangGang”

Former “S.N.L” cast member Rob Schneider aired his disapproval of the way Gillis was fired, amid a firestorm of character complaints, the Times reported. Schneider called Gillis a “casualty of an era” when “comedic misfires are subject to the intolerance inquisition of those who never risked bombing on stage themselves."

Schneider’s tone changed slightly early Tuesday morning.

"Last thought on this @Shanemgillis,” Schneider wrote. “There’s a difference between exposing truths through Free Speech and just being ugly. It’s not okay to say racist things under the guise of comedy. Just because you have a mic in your hand doesn’t make the racist things you say any less racist.”