Andrew Yang on SNL Cast Member’s Racial Slurs: We Need to Move Beyond ‘Vindictive’ Response to Offensive Remarks

Democratic 2020 candidate Andrew Yang gave an interview to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, during which, he elaborated on his view that one of Saturday Night Live’s newest cast members should not be fired over past racial slurs.

Comedian Shane Gillis has been hot water ever since it was revealed that he has a history of using anti-Asian slurs, not to mention the fact that he called Yang a “Jew chink” during a podcast in May. As Gillis fended off public outrage over these accounts, Yang said on Twitter that he’d be willing to speak with Gillis, and that “I do not think he should lose his job.”





As Tapper raised the topic on State of the Union, Yang spoke of the pain he has experienced from anti-Asian racism, which he described as “not taken as seriously as slurs against other groups.”

“At the same time,” Yang continued, “I believe that our country has become excessively punitive and vindictive about remarks that people find offensive or racist and that we need to try and move beyond that, if we can, particularly in a case where the person is – in this case – a comedian whose words should be taken in a slightly different light.”

Watch above, via CNN.