Dave Chappelle may have backed off of his earlier defense of Donald Trump over a year ago but that doesn’t mean he thinks America’s race woes are all on the commander-in-chief.
During a sit-down with CNN set to air Tuesday, Nov. 6, the stand-up comedian explained that the rhetoric Trump has espoused since taking office nearly two years ago is reflective of feelings that have already existed in the country.
“I would not even name the era after him. He’s getting too much credit,” Chappelle said as he sat alongside Jon Stewart, with whom he’s on a joint world tour. “He’s not making the wave, he’s surfing it. All he does is sing those people’s greatest hits. ‘Build the Wall,’ all these things we’ve heard before, he just sings all the songs. He’s the only one that’s been brash enough to do it.”
Chappelle also discussed the allegations that Russia tampered with the 2016 presidential election saying, “it’s kind of like, Is Russia making us racist? Is that who’s doing it? Oh, OK, oh my God, thank goodness — I thought it was us. … If they kill the country that way then we’re the murder weapon.”
And the actor, who stars in “A Star Is Born,” didn’t let himself off the hook either. He acknowledged his widely panned plea for Trump on “Saturday Night Live” in 2016 telling viewers to “give him a chance.” Chappelle told CNN it was the “right thing at the right time” to say.
Now, he explains, “I’m a black American, so we’ve — these feelings that people felt right after the election, we’ve felt them, many elections consecutively. And to some degree, people overreacted. The alternative to giving him a chance was storming the street.”
“Is he doing a good job? Am I happy with what he’s doing?” he goes on. “No, it’s been very difficult to watch the last couple of years.”
