Stacey Dash Is Sorry For Being A Republican

Stacey Dash is very sorry for supporting former President Donald Trump, she says, joining a number of Trump supporters who recently denounced the former president following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former Clueless actress-turned-Republican talking head made a public apology during an interview with Daily Mail TV on Wednesday, during which she said that she had “lived her life being angry” but “that’s not who Stacey is now.”

In the interview, Dash explained that her opinions were “arrogant and prideful and angry,” adding that she is no longer that person. Instead, “Stacey’s someone who has compassion, empathy,” she declared, talking about herself in third person. Dash also said she felt she played a role at Fox News as “the angry, conservative, Black woman,” until she realized “that anger is unsustainable and it will destroy you.” 

Dash later added that when she watched what happened at the Capitol, where Trump supporters made a final effort at overturning the 2020 presidential election by violently storming the building, that was the end for her. “When that happened I was like ‘OK, I’m done. I’m truly done,’” she said. “Because senseless violence of any kind, I denounce. What happened on January 6 was just appalling and stupid.” 

But people online are not exactly accepting of Dash's apology, with many noting that she is likely struggling to find work in Hollywood after associating herself with Trump. Dash endorsed Trump early on in his 2016 presidential run, with a donation to his Great America PAC. Over several years, she made a number of racist and misogynistic comments as a Fox contributor. For example, she suggested ending Black History Month because there wasn't a white history month. She also suggested ending the BET awards and the NAACP Image Awards. In 2015, Dash claimed that former President Barack Obama “didn’t give a shit” about terrorism, at which point Fox suspended her and later decided not to renew her contract for the following year. 

Dash has also made transphobic and anti-feminist comments, stating that feminism is ruining men and masculinity. In 2018, the actress defended Trump’s comments that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where an anti-racist protestor was killed and many others were injured. 

In her apology, Dash noted that she’s no longer the same angry person she was in 2016, adding, “what people don’t know is that I made a lot of mistakes because of that anger.” She went on, “There are things that I am sorry for. Things that I did say, that I should not have said them the way I said them.”

Despite her apology and her acknowledgement that she would like to give the Biden administration a chance, it just might be too little too late.