Cardi B got Twitter in an uproar after sharing details of her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. The furor began after the famously candid rapper wrote about her holiday gathering on Twitter, posting, “Twelve kids and 25 adults over the holidays. It was lit.” The tweet then sparked outrage, with fans expressing frustration that the singer hosted a large gathering despite the soaring number of cases of the coronavirus.
On Sunday evening, the “WAP” rapper shared an apology message. Replying to a now-deleted tweet that pointed out the insensitivity of her actions, Cardi apologized and offered an explanation about her holiday plans.
“Sorry, my bad, wasn’t trying to make nobody feel bad,” she wrote. “I just had my family in my home for the first time and it felt so good and uplifted me. I spent so much money getting everyone tested but it felt worth it. I wasn’t trying to offend no1.”
In a follow-up tweet, Cardi said she took precautions to stay safe prior to the November holiday, sharing that she regularly got tested for COVID-19, and paid for testing for those around her.
“ME specially and everyone that works around me get tested literally 4 times a week,” she tweeted in response to a fan. “Im In the middle of work and Everytime we clock in we MUST GET TESTED !”
However, despite Cardi’s response and explanation, many pronounced their love for her music, while still disagreeing with her decision to host the event.
Another tweeted, “This virus also doesn’t give the right for the wealthy to flaunt their wealth. Many of us would like to have large family gatherings, but we respect our older family members too much to do so, no matter how much money we do or do not have!!!”
The onslaught of responses then caused Cardi to backtrack on her apology, tweeting, “People be trying tooo hard to be offended,” she wrote. “I wonder how they survive the real world.”
Before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Centers for Disease Control urged Americans to stay home and avoid gatherings as new cases of COVID-19 continue to soar throughout the country as hospitals run out of space.
Citing the “more than 1 million COVID-19 cases” reported in the U.S. earlier this month, the federal health agency advised Americans to avoid gathering with relatives outside their households.
In a related article for PEOPLE, a CDC official spoke about the uptick in numbers. “The tragedy that could happen is one of your family members, from coming together in a family gathering, could wind up hospitalized and severely ill and could die. We don’t want to see that happen,” said Dr. Henry Walke, a COVID-19 incident manager at the CDC. “This year we’re asking people to be as safe as possible.”