Larry the Cable Guy made the media rounds today to promote his new Netflix special with Jeff Foxworthy, but even before noon, the comedian made waves when he jokingly told FOX & Friends that he wasn’t voting for Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 because she’d be “the end of the country.”

Jokes!

Or as his character would say, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.”

“Hillary will be the end of the country.” -Larry the Cable Guyhttps://t.co/qRzwZA23yv — FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) August 30, 2016

Well, he quickly became a topic of conversation on and off Twitter, and by the time he crossed the street to visit with SiriusXM (where he has his own comedy channel with Foxworthy, Jeff & Larry’s Comedy Roundup), the comedian born and breathing as Dan Whitney broke character to explain himself to “The Raw Report” on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog channel.

He said most people who reply to him on Twitter, “anybody who sends me something is 99.9 percent all good. But when you just punch in your name, just to look up what conversations you’re in, those pricks (devolves into laughter).”

As for his Clinton comments this morning, he said he’s not voting for her, sure, but “do I honestly think she’s going to destroy our country? We’ll still be a country. We’ll still be America. But I think she’s going to hurt it a little bit. But we’ll still be around.”

When people criticized him for being as fake as Trump, Whitney told SiriusXM, “OK, Larry the Cable Guy is a character. He’s not real. I breathe life into him but I have a whole ‘nother life, so basically the whole protest of your Tweet is completely abolished, because you don’t make any sense, because you’re comparing Donald Trump to SpongeBob. Like I said on the Roasts, it’s not real.”

So what does that make Larry the Cable Guy, exactly, then?

Whitney explained.

“I think the thing that gets me into trouble with the character…Number One, I’m always in character all the time when you see me, because I’m working. I’m doing a show. I’m doing a commercial. I’m promoting a gig. When I’m at the house, I’m normal. When I’m shopping, I’m normal. When I’m hanging out at a restaurant, I’m normal.”

He said The Huffington Post had complained about him staying in character, and then later praised Stephen Colbert for doing the same thing. “I was thinking, wait a second! I never break character! Why am I an asshole and he’s a genius?! But I think the difference is, obviously, The Huffington Post leans very left. And Stephen Colbert is playing, he’s a left-winger playing a right-wing character. And they love that. I’m a conservative, country kid. I grew up in the country. I’m a conservative guy, playing a far-right conservative guy.”

“Kind of a village idiot,” one of the SiriusXM jocks, Aaron Hodges, interjects.

“Yes, I’m not a village idiot. The character that I created is that Archie Bunker-ish. The guy that makes pretty good points sometimes, but he just says it in an offensive way. That kind of guy.”

He illustrated it with a guy who approached him once outside a radio station to agree with his commentary on keeping prayer in public schools, yet kept using profanity and the Lord’s name in vain to support “Larry” and his points.

“That’s the guy that I portray. His heart is in the right place, but he has no clue what’s he saying and sometimes he just says nutty stuff. Kinda like Trump. You can tell Trump really has his heart in the right place. You would think that — he kinda comes across to me like he really wants to be the best, do a good job — but he comes across, he says things the wrong way. So I portray that character. In real life, I’m different than that. I think that’s what confuses people. I guess if I would’ve went the completely opposite direction, but I’m not. My thoughts and my views and the way I operate my life are a conservative way, just like my character, except, you know, I’m not an alcoholic, and I don’t run around on my wife, and I don’t do stupid stuff in public, and that kind of thing.”

Whitney said he doesn’t think celebrities influence him, so why would his comedy character influence the election? “I mean, I’m fricking telling fart jokes!”

Hear the full segment here: