Former 2020 Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang defended Dave Chappelle on Friday after some at the comedian's high school, Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., took issue with his recent stand-up special "The Closer," Fox News reported.
Chappelle angered people, including the woke and LGBTQ+ community, with the recent Netflix special in which he criticized the fragility of the progressive left and defended J.K. Rowling, according to NBC News.
Rowling has been accused of being a TERF, or trans-exclusionary radical feminist, for "transphobic" comments while continuing to identify as a leftist and feminist.
During his latest special, Chappelle declared that he was a TERF in defense of the "Harry Potter" author, causing controversy at his former high school. One 16-year-old deemed him a "bigot," per Fox.
Yang, who Chappelle backed in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, reaffirmed his support for the comedian during the Ellington fundraiser backlash.
"I was endorsed by a number of celebrities. Dave Chappelle is the only one who came to Iowa and South Carolina to perform on my behalf - with proceeds going to the campaign - and even made phone calls and hung out with staff. He did it because he wants to help people. Great guy," Yang said in a Nov. 26 Twitter thread. "The press hit job on his visiting his high school is awful," he added.
After an unsuccessful bid for the New York City mayoral Democratic nomination earlier this year, Yang left the Democratic Party and formed the Forward Party PAC to create a moderate political coalition for disaffected liberals and conservatives.
"We can see that the current system is not working, that we're losing a lot of common sense, that there should be a common-sense, middle-ground party," Yang told Fox News last month.
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