Late-night TV host says ‘I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers’ for her expletive-filled tirade
Samantha Bee apologised on Thursday for an “inappropriate and inexcusable” remark about Ivanka Trump on Wednesday night. On her TBS show, the late-night host savaged the president’s daughter for her role in her father’s immigration policy – but Bee’s expletive-filled comment drew condemnation, particularly among conservatives, and a rebuke from the White House.
In her apology, Bee said: “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
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Samantha Bee: ‘We’ve had awful immigration practices since always’
Bee began her show by saying: “We are going to talk about racism: I just popped an Ambien, so buckle up, everyone.”
Bee showed a news segment about migrant children being taken into government custody at the border, and the Department of Justice’s plan to prosecute 100% of people crossing the border illegally, including asylum seekers and undocumented workers.
Bee said: “Tearing children away from their parents is so evil, it’s the inciting incident in almost every movie we’ve ever cared about. According to haunted marionette Jeff Sessions, these babies are actually baby criminals.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bee’s comments, which include strong language.
In a clip Bee played, Sessions, the attorney general, said: “If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally. It’s not our fault.”
Bee continued: “Don’t worry. The Trump administration has a really good explanation for why they’re treating migrants like animals. It was all Obama’s idea!” She then showed pundits claiming that it was the Obama administration that instituted the policy of separating migrant children from their parents.
Bee replied: “They’re half right. We have had awful immigration practices since, well, always, even under presidents we like seeing shirtless. A recent report from the ACLU describes hundreds of abuses of migrant children while in custody of the US government during the Obama administration. And just last week, this image circulated of children being kept in an Arizona holding facility in 2014.”
Bee said: “No, Donald Trump didn’t invent this issue – he’s just making it so much worse. Now everyone who even approaches the border is treated like a criminal.
She continued: “So now, after decades of ignoring the issue, Americans are finally paying attention. Well, most of us. Ivanka Trump, who works at the White House, chose to post the second most oblivious tweet we’ve seen this week.”
The language used by Samantha Bee is vile and vicious. Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast Sarah Sanders
Bee, showing a photo Trump posted of her and her son, addressed the president’s daughter directly: “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless cunt.”
Bee added: “He listens to you. Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fucking stop it.”
On Thursday morning, many conservative media figures denounced her language and asked that the host be held to the same standard as Roseanne Barr, whose sitcom was canceled by ABC after a racist tweet that compared Valerie Jarrett to an ape.
“The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in a statement. “The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling.”
Sanders added: “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”
NBC’s Megyn Kelly, once a primetime anchor at Fox News, compared Bee’s comments to Barr’s. “This is disgusting. How is this acceptable?” Kelly tweeted. “And how are we expected to take any of these publications seriously if they gleefully repost something like this at the same time they (rightfully) condemn Roseanne? You know the saying Love is Love? Well Hate is Hate.”
Early Thursday afternoon Bee, 48, in a statement issued by TBS, which airs Full Frontal, said: “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
TBS issued its own statement. “Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” the network said. “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”
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Meanwhile, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah discussed the cancellation of Roseanne Barr’s sitcom.
Noah said: “By now, we all know that Roseanne was fired for tweeting that former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was the birth child of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes. Many people applauded ABC for reacting swiftly and cancelling Roseanne. Personally, I think ABC could do more. I think they could go one step further and reboot Family Matters with a super-woke Steve Urkel.”
He went on: “Roseanne getting fired wasn’t a shock because, let’s be honest, comparing a black person to an ape is what I like to all ‘shit-your-pants’ racism. Even the anti-PC brigade agreed Roseanne had gone too far.”
The host then showed coverage of Roseanne’s remarks on Fox News, where she was condemned by Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters and the hosts of Fox & Friends.
The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) "Comparing a black person to an ape is what I call 'shit-your-pants racism.' Everyone can smell it, everyone can see it, and nobody wants to help you clean it up."
Trevor on Roseanne’s racist tweets: https://t.co/y7QeTGyOQ1 pic.twitter.com/3N6HXIpr9j
Noah said: “After this, Roseanne apologized on Twitter and said the reason she tweeted those racist things was because she was on Ambien and it was Memorial Day. In Roseanne’s defense, tweeting stuff that is racist while you’re on Ambien I do understand, because if you listen carefully to their ads there is a subtle warning about just this thing.”
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The host then showed a mock advertisement for Ambien, “for a good night’s sleep and potential racism”.
Samantha Bee has apologized for describing First Daughter Ivanka Trump by using a crude euphemism for a female body part, saying her comment on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was “inappropriate and inexcusable.”
“I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it,” Bee said in the statement shared on Twitter.
The apology came hours after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke out out the comment. “The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious. The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling,” Sanders said in a statement to TheWrap.
Bee, who hosts Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS, was referring to a photo that Ivanka Trump tweeted on Sunday showing her cuddling with her toddler son Theodore. Bee juxtaposed it with a U.S. immigration policy that allows border security officials to separate children from their parents if they are caught crossing over into the U.S. (The policy itself had been the subject of rancorous confusion following a misleading viral news story.)
“Y’know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another: do something about your dad’s immigration policies, you feckless c***,” the comedian said Wednesday during a monologue on her show. “He listens to you. Put on something tight and low-cut and tell him to stop it.”
In her statement, Sanders went on to suggest that the executives responsible for Bee’s show should take action about the matter.
“Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”
TBS did not immediately return TIME’s request for comment.
Sanders is far from the only one upset about the episode. Just hours before Bee’s monologue, ABC had announced that it was canceling its reboot of Roseanne after its star, Roseanne Barr, posted a tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, an advisor to President Barack Obama, to an ape. Commentators on the right were swift to suggest a double standard among television networks.
UPDATED: Samantha Bee apologized on Thursday for a vulgar insult she directed toward Ivanka Trump on Wednesday’s edition of “Full Frontal” on TBS, in which she called her a “feckless c—.”
“I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night,” she tweeted. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it. — Samantha Bee (@iamsambee) May 31, 2018
Moments later, TBS also apologized on Twitter, noting that “it was our mistake too.”
“Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” the network wrote. “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”
Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night. Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it. — TBS Network (@TBSNetwork) May 31, 2018
In the segment, Bee took aim at President Donald Trump’s daughter and White House adviser for posting a photo with her children on social media after a week of reports that federal authorities had lost track of 1,500 migrant children, and after Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that those trying to come into the U.S. without documentation would be separated from their children.
Bee, while acknowledging that migrant parent-children separations happened during the Obama administration as well, urged Ivanka Trump to try to influence her father. “Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c—,” she said. “He listens to you. Put on something tight and low cut and tell him to f—— stop it. Tell him it was an Obama thing and see how it goes, OK?”
Many, especially conservatives, slammed Bee’s insult as sexist and drew comparisons to Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet about Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett, which got Barr’s hit ABC sitcom revival “Roseanne” canceled earlier this week. Some called for “Full Frontal” to also be axed in response.
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called Bee’s comment “vile and vicious” and urged Time Warner, which owns TBS and CNN parent Turner, to take disciplinary action.
“The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling,” she said. “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.”
