Actress and former Fox News pundit Stacey Dash revealed she is quitting politics, saying that being a Trump supporter has put her in a “box” and she regrets her “angry” commentary. She now seeks to rebuild her acting career.
“I’ve lived my life being angry, which is what I was on Fox News. I was the angry, conservative, black woman. And at that time in my life, it was who I was,” Dash said in a recent interview with Daily Mail.
“I realized in 2016 that anger is unsustainable and it will destroy you. I made a lot of mistakes because of that anger,” the actress added.
Dash went on to apologize for the “arrogant, prideful, and angry” comments that she made while she was a contributor at Fox News.
“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,” Dash said. “They were very arrogant and prideful and angry. And that’s who Stacey was, but that’s not who Stacey is now. Stacey’s someone who has compassion, empathy.”
“God has forgiven me, how dare I not forgive someone else,” the actress continued. “I don’t want to be judged, so how dare I judge anyone else. So if anyone has ever felt that way about me, like I’ve judged, that I apologize for because that’s not who I am.”
Dash also acknowledged that she was responsible for her own comments on Fox but claimed that it was what they were paying her to do.
“‘I’m not a victim of anyone,” she said. “Working for Fox at the time, that was my job. I did my job from the place I was at. Stacey now would never work at Fox, would never work for a news network or be a news contributor.”
The actress, who has been an ardent Trump supporter, added that backing the former president has put her in a “box.”
“Being a supporter of Trump has put me in some kind of box that I don’t belong in. But he’s not the president,” Dash said. “I’m going to give the president that we have right now a chance.”
“I think the Capitol Riots were appalling,” the actress added. “When that happened I was like, ‘Okay, I’m done. I’m truly done.’ Because senseless violence of any kind I denounce. What happened on January 6 was just appalling and stupid.”
The Clueless actress — who says that she is blacklisted in Hollywood due to her conservative views — still hopes to rebuild her acting career.
“I’ve been basically blacklisted. Being a black conservative is not easy,” Dash said. She acknowledged that she still holds conservative viewpoints.
“I have my values and my morals. My position on abortion is because of my own personal experience. I was on the abortion table with my son,” Dash said. “They were about to wheel me into the operating room because I was four months pregnant. I said, ‘God, please, you have to tell me what to do. And I don’t want a sign, I don’t want a whisper. You have to tell me.'”
“God spoke to me like thunder, and he said, ‘Keep your son.’ He even told me it was a boy. I ripped the IV out my arm, jumped off the table, very dramatic,” she added. “But my son’s 30 years old today. I’m just so grateful that I took that time and I listened to God. That’s why I’m pro-life from my own personal experience.”
Dash also told Daily Mail that she is “not a feminist.”
“Right now I feel like women need to support men, lift them up, love them and respect them,” Dash said. “On the other hand, it’s a two-way street. If men want us to do that, they have to respect us, cherish us, adore us, love us. We can’t do one without the other. We need each other.”
The actress also said that she finds “identity politics” divisive.
“I don’t believe in identity politics,” she said. “I don’t walk around looking at someone and saying, ‘oh this is the color of your skin so therefore you are this,’ or, ‘you’re straight or gay so therefore you are this.’ I don’t judge people the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. That’s not who I am.”
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