Walt Disney Television/Lou Rocco(NEW YORK) — After the Dancing with the Stars season 28 cast was announced Wednesday morning, host Tom Bergeron took to Twitter to share his thoughts on one particularly divisive contestant: former White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

In a lengthy message, Bergeron says he was hoping this season “would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”

He says he made this known to the show’s new executive producer and was convinced they were in agreement. But ultimately, the producers decided to “go in a different direction.”

“We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call,” Bergeron writes. “I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.”

He continues that as a host, he always imagines the audience on the other side, “looking for a two hour escape from whatever life hassles you’ve been wrestling with.”

“That’s a connection, and a responsibility, which I take very seriously, even if I occasionally season it with dad jokes,” he adds.

Bergeron ends his message on a positive note, writing, “Hopefully, when Erin Andrews and I look into those lenses again on September 16, you’ll be on the other side looking back, able to enjoy the charismatic pro dancers, the unpredictable judges and the kitschy charm that has defined DWTS since 2005.”

Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.