Candace Owens and Don Lemon have both addressed what Dave Chappelle had to say about them in his new Netflix comedy special, “8:46,” about George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests, and neither of them are too upset about his comments. In his new special, which premiered at midnight on Friday (June 12th), the comedian discusses the police killing of George Floyd and everything that came after, all the while putting a few public figures on blast for how they’ve handled the situation. One of the targets of Dave’s ire was right-wing pundit, Candace Owens, who sparked outrage recently after making disrespectful comments about George Floyd.
“Candace Owens, that rotten b*tch, she’s the worst. I can’t think of a worse way to make money. She’s the most articulate idiot I’ve ever seen in my f*cking life,” Dave said, among other critiques he made about her. Candace heard that Dave had brought her up in his special, and insisted on Twitter that she wasn’t offended at all.
“To every Democrat tweeting me the clip of #DaveChappelle insulting me: I’m not a leftist. I have a sense of humor & I think comedians SHOULD make fun of people,” Candace tweeted. “Dave Chappelle is one of the greatest comedians of all time and I made it into one of his specials. That’s POWER!”
“We’ve arrived too suddenly into a culture where people can’t laugh at themselves, or want to restrain comedians,” she continued. “I will never be a part of that culture. Dave Chappelle—you are legend and I’d love to meet you and challenge you to say any of that to my face! All love!”
Dave also went after Don Lemon in his special for publicly naming celebrities who had yet to speak out on George Floyd’s death at the time. “Do you want to see a celebrity right now?” Dave asked, in response to Don’s plea. “Does it matter about celebrity? No, this is the streets talking for themselves, they don’t need me right now…Why would anyone care what their favourite comedian thinks after they saw a police officer kneel on a man’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds?” Don responded to Dave’s comments on-air, indicating that, “I actually agree with Dave Chappelle.”
“I agree that I think the establishment has been a bit behind—and I consider myself part of the establishment because I am over 40 years old,” Don said. “They think that part of the world that we created and what we did, maybe we didn’t move fast enough and we weren’t strong enough and so they are out there fighting…I think they’re not only speaking to the white people in this country, but also to all of us in the establishment. I think it’s a moment we should all be using our platform to do whatever we can.”
Elsewhere in his Netflix special, Dave took aim at Fox News host Laura Ingraham for her hypocrisy in supporting Drew Brees speaking out on politics but telling LeBron James to “shut up and dribble” back in 2018.