Host of NewsNation Chris Cuomo criticized a comedian Dave Chappelle for making a joke about Israel during a stand-up comedy special on Tuesday, arguing that Chappelle should inform viewers “he converted to Islam” before making such jokes.
Regarding Chappelle’s recent comedy special on Netflix — which ended with the comedian making a joke about Israel and dropping his microphone — Cuomo complained that many of the issues Chappelle joked about were “absolutely no laughing matter, and depending on your perspective, a lot of this special probably wasn’t funny.”
Cuomo criticized Chappelle for making transgender jokes in Saudi Arabia, “a society that is notoriously repressive,” before targeting the comedian’s Muslim faith and accusing him of “spreading anti-Semitism.”
In response to Chappelle’s mic-drop joke about Israel, Cuomo said:
I believe he should have grabbed the mic right back because it was a terrible way to end. You can never say, “I am with Israel,” because you never believe it? Because you never see any value in supporting the existence and survival of a state and people who are surrounded by people who want their destruction and act on it on a regular, if not cyclical basis? I don’t think it’s funny, and as someone who asked us to believe that he does not wish ill on trans or other people he jokes or targets, he should be more aware of spreading antisemitism, especially now. And he should probably tell you that he converted to Islam going on 20 years ago.
I think it’s probably relevant to him. Why? We have to learn that there is a big difference between being a Muslim and caring about Islam and being an extreme Islamist, okay? And I can’t judge from Dave Chappelle’s behavior how devout a Muslim he is. I mean, he’s smoking and drinking. I mean, I’m not saying he lives it to the letter, am I? But his understanding of faith clearly affects his politics.
Cuomo and his brother, former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomoboth have been accused of making Islamophobic comments over the years.
The NewsNation host received criticism in 2014 after suggesting that Muslims were “unusually violent” and “barbaric”.
“The Muslim world is responsible for a really large part of religious extremism right now, and they’re unusually violent, they’re unusually barbaric in the places where it’s happening,” Cuomo said at the time. “And it’s happening there more than in other places. So you want to generalize? Of course not. But you want to call a situation what it is.”
He continued, “It’s no coincidence that ISIS starts with an ‘I’. I mean, this is what’s happening in that part of the world.”
Watch above via NewsNation.
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