The Politics of the 50th CMAs: Brad Paisley Says He Can't Avoid Talking Clinton and Trump

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ABC/Bob D’AmicoEven as the Country Music Association celebrates a half-century of its signature awards show Wednesday night, host Brad Paisley promises he won’t shy away from tackling the highly-charged political situation in the country right now, as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are locked in a fight to the finish for the presidency.

“I don’t know how you ignore [it],” Brad says. “I mean, you know, we won’t take a side in this.”

“And I think we do a really good job of keeping things equal…” co-host Carrie Underwood chimes in.

“It’s scary times if you look at it from a certain point of view,” Brad observes, “but if you’re trying to be comedic, it’s awesome, you know! There’s a lot of things that are funny no matter what side of the fence you might be on. I mean, they’re just funny right now.”

Country music’s consummate comic believes successfully tackling such a touchy topic is all in how you approach it. 

“There’s a way to do it, and that’s why we take so long getting this right,” Brad says. “You weave through things. You can actually take what’s happening on our news stations right now and work that into how you talk about the nominees, if you want. You can write a parody that is an old country classic, sung about what’s happening now. You know, that’s sort of what we’ve always tried to do and this is no different in that sense. This year it just so happens that we’re trying to also sort of do it wearing tuxedos.”

“I’m not gonna wear a tuxedo!” Carrie jokes.

You can check out Brad and Carrie’s take on the political situation Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, as The 50th Annual CMA Awards air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.

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