Radio host and podcaster Charlamagne tha God has publicly broken with comedian Dave Chappelle after Chappelle told a Madison Square Garden audience that he felt “better” since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Chappelle made the remark during a sold-out run of shows in New York last weekend. “I feel fucked up saying this. It’s scary being a public speaker. And I mean look, ever since that guy Charlie Kirk got murdered … and I shouldn’t say this publicly but, I feel better,” Chappelle told the crowd. “I know I shouldn’t say that but, it’s just a feeling,” he continued. “I didn’t ask to feel this way. I just be driving around like, ‘why am I in such a good mood? Oh!'”
The comment drew sharp backlash, and on Monday Charlamagne addressed it on his show, The Breakfast Club.
“Yeah, I don’t find the humor in people getting clapped,” Charlamagne said. “Any of us can be shot, and I don’t want anybody getting shot because somebody disagrees with their opinion.”
“So yeah, you have the freedom to joke and talk about whatever you want to joke and talk about; but personally, I don’t want to deal with the energy of that. Like, I don’t wish stuff like that on my worst enemy,” Charlamagne added.
Chappelle has criticized Kirk in the past, dismissing him as an “Internet personality” and faulting his supporters for treating the Turning Point USA founder as “this generation’s Martin Luther King.”
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, condemned Chappelle’s remark in a post on X on Sunday. “To see leftist podcasters, comedians, and commentators laugh about political assassination as though it’s entertainment and the destruction of a human life is a punchline, is beyond disgusting,” she wrote.
At least one attendee at the Madison Square Garden shows said members of the audience walked out after hearing Chappelle’s comment.
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