Dave Chappelle Regrets Defending Trump When He Asked Americans To Give The President A Chance

Comedian Dave Chappelle apologized Monday during a dinner benefiting “Robin Hood,” a non-profit organization that fights poverty in New York, for suggesting that Americans should give President Donald Trump a chance after he took office.

After Trump won 2016 U.S. presidential elections and was elected 45th president, Chappelle hosted a Saturday Night Live (SNL) show in November where he requested his viewers to give the new president a chance to prove himself.

During dinner Monday, Chappelle told his audience he was wrong and said "I was the first guy on TV to say, 'Give Trump a chance.' I f---ed up. Sorry," according to MSNBC and "Today" co-host Willie Geist, who was also present during the event.

Chappelle made his hosting debut on SNL in November where he spoke about Black Lives Matter, Trump and Hillary Clinton during his 11 minute-long monolog.

Chappelle started his show by criticizing Hillary Clinton and her role in leaking tape of a recorded conversation between the then Republican nominee Trump and TV personality Billy Bush. “What I heard on that tape was gross,” Chappelle said. “But the way I got to hear it was even more gross. You know that came directly from Hillary," he added.

He mentioned that this incident put him off a candidate (Clinton) he already knew was “not right.” He compared voting for her to a hypothetical situation of actress Halle Berry breaking wind in his face during sexual interactions. “I’m still going to go for it,” he said. “But I wish she hadn’t done that thing.”

Chappelle then went on to talk about Trump and approached his win with hope. “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. Thank you very much,” he said while ending his show.

To the audience’s surprise, Chappelle also defended Trump and spoke about how media twisted the whole issue about leaking of tape where Trump had admitted to committing sexual assault in the recorded conversation.

“Sexual assault? It wasn’t. He said, ‘And when you’re a star, they let you do it.’ That phrase implies consent. I just don’t like the way media twisted that whole thing. Nobody questioned it,” Chappelle had said during his show.

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He also praised Trump for not reacting to the allegations made against him. “That would have devastated anybody else,” he said.

The comedian also said he was impressed by Trump’s handling of the debate that followed the leak controversy.

Chappelle’s comment during the event Monday night came as a surprise for many as he had defended his SNL remarks only a month ago in April in a profile for “T: The New York Times Style Magazine.” He defended the comments he made earlier and disagreed with critics who said he was going soft on Trump back in November.

“I said we demand he gives us a chance,” he said. “I didn’t softball ’em. 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.”