After a fiery anti-Trump speech at this weekend’s Women’s March in Washington that ignited controversy and reportedly prompted a possible Secret Service probe, Madonna is backing down from a statement that she thought about “blowing up the White House.”
“I am not a violent person,” Madonna wrote in the Instagram post. “I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in it’s entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context.”
“I spoke in metaphor and I shared two ways of looking at things — one was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger and outrage, which I have personally felt,” she continued. “However, I know that acting out of anger doesn’t solve anything.”
The Instagram post has over 100,000 likes and over 7,000 comments — and not all those comments are supportive. “Hope they throw your a** in prison,” wrote one commenter, while others suggested Madonna was only backing down as a result of the unverified Secret Service investigation.
British TV commentator Piers Morgan, who had previously criticized the Women’s March, is among those who think Madonna should be taken to task for her comments.
You don't speak for real feminists @madonna, so stop making women look vile, stupid & violent. https://t.co/I3tiGQHxDN #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/M6UdWtfvpu
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 23, 2017