Comedian Dave Chappelle criticized the Republican Party for “weaponizing” his transgender jokes to fit their agenda.
Dave sat down with “NPR’s Newsmakers” host Michel Martin for a wide-ranging interview.
He called out the Republicans for campaigning on his trans jokes and exploiting him for political gain.
“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,” Dave told Michel Martin. “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 asked. I didn’t ask how they vote or what their voting record is.”
He continued: “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… Just instantly, like, weaponized or politicized.”
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Lauren posted the photo on X.com along with the caption, “Just three people who understand that there’s only two genders.”
Dave got caught a lot of heat for that photo on social media.
He later confronted Boebert at his show. “So I got to the arena, and I lit her ass up for doing that. And she should never do that to a person like me.”
