Dave Chappelle Explains Why He Feels Misused by Republicans in New Interview

Dave Chappelle set the record straight with the members of the Republican Party. In a conversation with “NPR’s Newsmakers” host Michel Martin, the comedian revealed the reason why he disliked the Republicans so much. Since 2021, Chappelle has made headlines for being transphobic after his Netflix special, “The Closer,” aired.

The comedy show highlighted jokes that came under the magnifying glass for being somewhat transphobic. In the wake of mounting criticism, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos defended the special and Chappelle at the time by citing “artistic freedom.” His insensitive comment led to trans employees and allies at the company walking out in protest.

During the interview with NPR, Chappelle said that he held a grudge against Republicans over how weaponized his jokes and used his content as a prop to spread “transphobia.”​

“I did resent that the Republican Party ran on transgender jokes. You know, I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. That’s not what I was doing.”

He further explained that his content had nothing against transphobia. However, Republicans like Lauren Boebert used him to spread their conservative ideology.

​

Chappelle continued, “I’ll give you an example, before I learned the phrase, ‘I respectfully decline,’ I was on Capitol Hill, and everybody ran up to take pictures with me from every congressional office. And I just take pictures with whoever asks. I didn’t ask how they vote or what their voting record is.”

According to him, his photo was posted by a Republican without his consent and with a caption he never approved of.

“At first, it was CBC people. Then here comes Lauren Boebert, and she said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ And I had already taken 40 pictures. I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody, but I didn’t know the phrase ‘I respectfully decline.’ So I just took the picture. And then she posted the picture before I could even get from there to the show and said something to the effect of, ‘Just two people that know that it’s just two genders.’”

Chappelle expressed frustration, “Just instantly, like, weaponized or politicized. So I got to the arena, and I lit her a** up for doing that. And she should never do that to a person like me.”​

The backlash stemming from the Netflix controversy follows Chappelle to this day. On his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast, the actor and comedian shed light on the resistance he had faced. Comedy clubs such as Minneapolis’ First Avenue have reportedly canceled his scheduled shows to distance themselves from him. That venue apologized to the trans community in 2023 for even booking Chappelle.​

“I guess apparently they had made a pledge to the public at large that they would make their club a safe space for all people, and that they would ban anything they deemed transphobic. This is a wild stance for an artistic venue to take, especially one that’s historically a punk rock venue,” he said.