Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is not backing down after comedian Dave Chappelle publicly criticized the Republican Party for turning transgender humor into a political instrument, and called out Boebert specifically for using a photo of the two of them without his implied consent.
In a recent interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Chappelle stated, “I did resent that the Republican party ran on transgender jokes,” he told Inskeep. “I felt like they were doing a weaponized version of what I was doing. It’s not what I was doing.”
For Chappelle, there is a distinction between working through provocative material in front of a live audience and a political party deploying that same material as a campaign tool.
The comedian’s grievance became more personal when he described a visit to Capitol Hill where members of Congress from multiple offices lined up to take photos with him. Having already posed for roughly 40 photos, he found himself in a position where declining one more request felt socially difficult.
“Here comes Lauren Boebert,” he recounted. “She said, ‘Can I get a picture?’ I’d already taken 40 pictures. I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody, but I didn’t know the phrase ‘I respectfully decline,’ so I just took the picture. And then she posts a picture before I could even get from there to the show and says something to the effect of just two people that knew. It’s just too generous. She instantly weaponized it, or politicized it.”
Chappelle made clear his response was immediate. “I got to the arena and I lit her up for doing that. She should never do that to a person like me.” He framed his reaction not as a political statement but as a matter of basic good faith, adding: “You do whatever it is you do, but don’t get me out of the splash zone of your…”
Boebert pushed back without apology. Asked about Chappelle’s comments during an interview, she challenged the premise that she had borrowed anything from his act.
“I don’t think I used his joke though, I think transgenderism is a joke,” she said, before elaborating on why she sees the issue as something far more serious than material for a comedy set. “I mean, to say that children can be mutilated and castrated, I mean, it’s beyond a joke, it’s disgusting.”
When pressed on the caption she posted alongside their photo, Boebert rejected any suggestion that it was meant as a dig at the transgender community.
“There was no jab, I was just stating facts, there are two genders. Like, I was just stating facts.” She also bristled at the idea that her position on gender is a political stance rather than a statement of truth. “No, that’s just a fact, not a stance,” she said flatly.
As for Chappelle’s frustration at being used as a prop without his blessing, Boebert offered little sympathy. “Aw! I mean, come on, you’re a comedian, be a little tougher, right?”
She went on to draw a comparison to her own experience with relentless online criticism, suggesting that life in the public eye requires developing a certain resilience.
He said, “People say things about me all the time. Like, go in my comments section. Do you think I sit at home and cry about it and just wait for NPR to show up and have a counseling session with them?”
When asked directly how she manages the weight of that kind of sustained negative attention, Boebert said she simply does not let it anchor her sense of identity. She stated, “Well, I mean, that’s not what defines me. That’s not where I get my value. And my work from. I don’t really sit in the comments and read all of that all day.”
