In her first televised appearance since her “inappropriate and inexcusable” comments about Ivanka Trump, Samantha Bee said she was trying to “reclaim” the c-word when she used it as an insult.
“The problem is that many women have heard that word at the worst moments of their lives. A lot of women don’t want that word reclaimed, they want it gone and I don’t blame them. I want this show to be honest and I never intended it to hurt anyone, except Ted Cruz. Many men were also offended by my use of the word. I do not care about that. I hate that this distracted from more important issues,” she said in the opening of Wednesday night’s episode of “Full Frontal.”
“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 that a potty-mouthed insult would be inherently more interesting to them than children and immigration policies. I would do anything to help those kids and I hate that this distracted from them, so to them, I am also sorry.
“Look, 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 back at the hecklers are definitely not paragons of civility. I am really sorry that I said that word but you know what, civility is just nice words. Maybe we should all worry a little bit more about the niceness of our actions.”
During last week’s show, Bee called out the First Daughter for her “oblivious tweet” about her son while families were being torn about by immigration policies.
“Let me just say, one mother to another, ‘Do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c — t. He listens to you,” she said.
“Put on something tight and low cut and tell your father to f — king stop it. Tell him it was an Obama thing and see how it goes, okay?”
The slur was blasted by both sides of the aisle, particularly White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who called it “vile and vicious” and asked TBS to pull “Full Frontal” from the schedule.
“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,” Sanders said Thursday.
President Trump also questioned why TBS hadn’t fired “no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show.”
Bee apologized the day after her show amid backlash.
“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 said. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
TBS said Bee’s comments, which were bleeped on TV but not online, “should not have been aired.”
“It was our mistake too, and we regret it,” the network said in a statement at the time.
On Wednesday’s episode, Bee also jokingly introduced the show’s “mandatory new censors,” who she claims have also been responsible for censoring old movies, including “Scarface,” “The Departed,” “Casino” and “Snakes on a Plane.”
“Unfortunately, this is what we have to do from now on, but thankfully I don’t think we’ll be having this controversy ever again,” she said as her censors bleeped out seemingly harmless words.
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