Andrew Yang Talks 'SNL' Shane Gillis' Bigoted Comments

“Saturday Night Live’s” new hire Shane Gillis was fired because he made some bigoted comments that hurt many Chinese Americans. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang himself was hurt but unlike many, he thinks the comedian should still be allowed to keep his job.

A Taiwanese-American, Yang told CNN that his views are unchanging about this. He said that no matter how hurtful the comments were, firing Gillis was not the correct response.

"You know, I've been public about my comments," Yang said. "I think that he deserved another chance to keep his job, but the folks at NBC obviously felt differently,” he explained.

He claimed that it is apparent that society has become too punitive of people making offensive or undesirable comments these days, even though forgiveness can do so much more. “As a society, we have become unduly punitive and vindictive about people making statements that some find offensive or distasteful,” he said.

He claimed that Gillis should be forgiven because the comments were made in a gray area as well. “As the person who was personally called out in this case, I thought that if I could set an example that we can forgive people, particularly in an instance where, in my mind, it was in a comedic context or a gray area, that I thought it would be positive. Obviously, it is in NBC's hands and they made the decision they made," he added.

Apart from making these controversial comments, which made him face some backlash too, he also invited Gillis to “sit down and talk.” It appears that the comedian is not letting this offer to correct the situation somehow because Yang said Gillis actually reached out to him to take the offer. Yang tweeted this positive development.

On Monday, CNN released a statement explaining the action they have taken against their new hire after the clips of him making bigoted and racist comments, which was to put him out of his job.

"We want 'SNL' to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for 'SNL,'" the statement read. "We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."