“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. I’m going to give the president that we have right now a chance,” Dash said in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV. “We have a new president,” she added.
Dash, 54, who made her name playing Dionne Davenport in the 1995 teen movie “Clueless,” worked as an on-air contributor at Fox News until 2016. During her time as a paid contributor, she sparked criticism when she said that there was no longer a need for award shows or television networks that honor the Black community.
Dash had also said she thought Black History Month should be abolished because there isn’t a white history month.
Dash was suspended from Fox for cursing on air while discussing a speech former President Barack Obama gave on terrorism. Her contract was subsequently not renewed.
“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 told DailyMailTV.
But, she said, “I’m not a victim of anyone. 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.”
“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. 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,” she continued.
In February 2018, the actress-turned-conservative political commentator filed paperwork to run for a congressional seat in Southern California but withdrew her bid a month later, telling Cosmopolitan magazine that holding an elected office would be “detrimental to the health and well-being of my family.”
In the very beginning of her run, Dash said on MSNBC that Trump was “absolutely right” when he said that there were “very fine people on both sides” at the deadly Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.
“You also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You have people in that group — excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures as you did — you had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very very important statue, and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name,” Trump had said.
In defense of the then-president, Dash told Ari Melber: “Do I know every person on the neo-Nazi party — if they have a good heart or not? No, I don’t, I’m not here to judge.”
But Dash does not defend the recent uprising at the Capitol.
“I think the Capitol riots were appalling,” she said. “When that happened I was like ‘Ok, 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.”
While Dash said she doesn’t “believe in identity politics,” her particular politics have left her without acting work, she said.
“I’ve been basically blacklisted. Being a Black conservative is not easy,” Dash said.
She recently played a doctor in the anti-abortion movie “Roe v. Wade.”
She said her position on abortion stems from her “own personal experience.”
“I was on the abortion table with my son,” she said. But “God spoke to me like thunder, and he said, ‘Keep your son.'”
“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,” she concluded.
And on another hot topic: “I’m not a feminist,” Dash declared.
“Right now I feel like women need to support men, lift them up, love them and respect them. 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,” Dash said.
Following the DailyMailTV interview, Dash’s publicist, Claudia Greene, told NBC News that the actress is “looking forward to her journey ahead.”
“She wants to live a life of abundance while inspiring others to do the same. To be a source of God’s light and love,” Greene said.
“Her goal right now is to take an active role in making the world a better place,” in part through her work with Victor Marx All Things Possible Ministries, which rescues women and children from sex trafficking, Greene added.
Dash is also auditioning for “big films,” and working on shows, one of which will tell her own story, Greene said.