In a lengthy Instagram Live appearance, the fired "RHOSLC" star says she takes "full responsibility" for the racially insensitive posts, but supporting law enforcement doesn't make her racist.
One day after getting fired from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" for past racially insensitive posts, including one calling Black Lives Matters protesters "rioters" and suggesting running them over with a car, Jennie Nguyen is speaking out.
The posts were recently resurfaced from her since-deactivated Facebook account from 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and led to public outcry from Bravo fans, her "RHOSLC" cast-mates and even Andy Cohen.
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View StoryIn her response video, Nguyen suggested several times that it may not have even been her that made the offensive posts, reiterating several times that she had a social media team working for her and insisting she doesn't remember. Nevertheless, she takes "full responsibility."
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"I just want you to understand my point of view and where I come from, and what's going on during that time, I mean it's an old post on my account, it's in 2020," she said in her video. "I just want you to understand, during that time I had a team of people that were helping me. Whether they post it, I post it, it doesn't really matter at this point. For me, it's on my account, and I take full responsibility and accountability for what was posted."
Later in the video, she noted, "Whether I remember the posts in 2020, I don't remember whether it's on my account or not. We don't remember what we ate yesterday, let alone two years ago. But like, again, I take full responsibility."
It was a recurring theme throughout her video, with Nguyen taking moral responsibility for the content posted on her defunct account while actively distancing herself -- or creating doubt as to whether or not she was literally responsible for putting up the posts herself.
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View Story"I just want to let you know that I am taking full responsibility and accountability for the things that were posted on my account, whether it was me or somebody else," she said at another point. "It's on my account and I'm big enough to understand that those posts are very sensitive and inappropriate, to the point where it is disgusting."
In the same breath, Nguyen was adamant in saying that she stands by her "political stance" unapologetically. "I am very proud to be a Republican. I am proud to be able to say I have the freedom of speech to choose and to have an opinion. I respect your opinion, I respect your political stance. We are different. But we need to respect each other and we need to understand that we live in this country, where we have the freedom to speak our mind, as well as we have a freedom to choose."
Nguyen went on to explain exactly what her stance is when it comes to Black Lives Matter and the protests of 2020, saying that while she supports the protesters' message and intent, she can't support any violence that erupted. At the same time, she supports law enforcement, while acknowledging that "with every profession, there's good and there's bad."
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View Story"I don't support the bad. I don't support the brutality of Black people or with any race, but I do support my law enforcement. But that doesn't make me racist," she said. "To support my political stance, that does not make me a racist."
"I understand that Black people have suffered a lot and went through a lot and dealt with a lot, more than any race on this planet," she conceded. "You have done nothing wrong to deserve pulling over, getting a speeding ticket and end up risking your life."
Nguyen again tried to show both sides of the issue conceding that "police brutality is a very, very big topic," while adding, "But again, you have policemen out there signing their life away every day, to make a commitment to protect the community. What about showing that appreciation?"
"I did show that appreciation. I don't support bad ones," she said before pivoting to BLM protesters. "I don't support people that are out there burning buildings, because there are workers there. My friends [have] gone through their business being destroyed, they didn't do anything."
"We are getting abuse for things that we didn't do and that's not fair," she said, inadvertently summing up one of the arguments of the BLM movement pretty well, actually.
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View StoryNguyen argued that her stance doesn't make her racist, it instead makes her "compassionate for the people that are suffering." "And I know a lot of people are suffering without being involved in the movement," she said. "Mentally, physically, we all are dealing with it."
At another point in the video, Nguyen said, "We're all human, we make mistakes. ... I made a mistake. And to say, this is the only mistake I made, no I make tons of mistakes in my lifetime. Am I going to continue to make a mistake? Of course. Am I going to learn from it? Absolutely. Am I going to learn and adapt and teach? Of course I am, but I'm still human, we're all human."
"What matters is that I hurt people, I hurt my fans, I hurt the people that are out there supporting me, and I feel really, really, really awful for that," she added. "I hope you understand that I will continue to change and learn and improve myself. From your point of view, from my friends' point of view, from my fans' point of view, I will take that to heart and learn and adapt."
On Tuesday, Bravo confirmed that it had officially severed ties with Nguyen with a statement. "Bravo has ceased filming with Jennie Nguyen and she will no longer be a cast member of
'The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.' We recognize we failed to take appropriate action once her offensive social media posts were brought to our attention. Moving forward, we will work to improve our processes to ensure we make better informed and more thoughtful casting decisions."
You can see how Nguyen's former co-stars, and Andy Cohen reacted to the resurfaced posts below: