Samantha Bee Says She Regrets Using ‘C–t’ As a Slur: ‘I Never Intended To Hurt Anyone Except Ted Cruz’ — Watch
Samantha Bee opened Wednesday night’s “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” by offering up another apology for calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c–t” on last week’s show. But the TBS host also expressed frustration that the media spent the week focused on that slur, rather than on the subject of migrant children being ripped from their families.
Before joking that she was “sorry for breaking America,” Bee appeared in a cold open with this statement (full video is below):
“A lot of people were offended and angry I used an epithet to describe the president’s daughter and advisor last week. It is a word I have used on the show many times, hoping to reclaim it. This time I used it as an insult. I crossed the line, I regret it and I do apologize for that.
“The problem is that many women have heard that word at the worst moments of their lives. A lot of them don’t want that word reclaimed, they want it gone. And I don’t blame them. I don’t want to inflict more pain on them. I want this show to be challenging and I want it to be honest but I never intended it to hurt anyone except Ted Cruz.
“Many men were also offended by my use of the word, I don’t care about that. I hate that this distracted from more important issues. I hate that I did something to contribute to the nightmare of 24 hour news cycles that we’re all white-knuckling through.
“I should have known a potty mouth insult would be inherently more interesting to them than juvenile immigration policy. I would do anything to help those kids. I hate that this distracted from them, so to them I am also sorry.
“If you are worried about the death of civility, don’t sweat it. I’m a comedian. People who hone their voices in basement bars while yelling at drunk hecklers are definitely not paragons of cilvility.
“I am really sorry I said that word, but civility is just nice words. Maybe we should worry a little about the niceness of our actions. Thanks for listening.”
After the opening, Bee jokingly pointed to a panel of old men who were “the show’s new mandatory censors who will be with us for now on… they used to censor old movies on cable!”
The controversy came after Bee, on last week’s episode of “Full Frontal,” pointed out that the First Daughter is posting photos of herself and her son at the same time that immigrant children are being separated from their parents, and called the White House employee a “feckless c-nt.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded in a statement, “The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious.” TBS removed the clip in question from YouTube, and Bee issued an apology, which read in part, “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
Last Thursday, at a Television Academy Honors event in Hollywood, Bee added, “Our show is steeped in passion. Every week I strive to show the world as I see it, unfiltered. Sometimes I should probably have a filter. I accept that. I take it seriously when I get it right and I do take responsibility when I get it wrong.” She also noted that the controversy obscured the point of her report: The government’s admission that it had lost track of 1,500 migrant children.
“We spent the day wrestling with the repercussions of one bad word, when we all should have spent the day incensed that as a nation we are wrenching children from their parents and treating people legally seeking asylum as criminals,” she said last week. “If we are OK with that then really, who are we?”
Here’s the video of Bee’s response on Wednesday night’s show:
