Dave Chappelle Apologizes For Strange Comment About Trump

Dave Chappelle, after being accused by many fans of misogynistic, homophobic banter in his most recent Netflix special, has only one regret as of late: giving Donald Trump a chance. While hosting Saturday Night Live just four days after Trump won the presidential election, Chappelle said, to the surprise of viewers, “I’m wishing Donald Trump luck, and I’m going to give him a chance, and we the historically disenfranchised demand that he give us one too.”

Since then, Chappelle has come to regret that vote of confidence, telling an audience at the Robin Hood Gala in New York City recently that he regretted taking that optimistic stance. According to MSNBC’s Willie Geist, who was in attendance at the event, Chappelle said, “I was the first guy on TV to say ‘Give Trump a chance. I fucked up. Sorry.”

But as Erika Harwood points out in Vanity Fair, Chappelle defended his initial position mere weeks ago in an interview with T: The New York Times Style Magazine. In the interview, which was published on April 19, Chappelle told journalist Kevin Powell he disagreed with critics who thought he’d been soft on Trump in the first few days after his shocking win. Chappelle went as far as to say his opening monologue “felt bigger than Trump winning the election. I said we demand he gives us a chance. I didn’t softball ’em,” Chappelle told Powell.

And while he didn’t vote for Trump, he saw Trump’s win as a way to say, “Welcome to the world, this is how it goes—tyranny of the majority, or tyranny of the minority in this case,” adding, “I feel like a lot of people in America understand what the political process felt like for disenfranchised people.”

So far, he’s given no indication as to what specifically caused the comic to change his tune.