In an interview with actress Emily Blunt on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie downplayed the celebrity’s recent swipe at Republicans with an anti-American joke: “You recently became an American citizen....You made a joke the other day, saying you watched the Republican debate and you joked, ‘What was I thinking?’ And some people took that the wrong way.”
Blunt apologized for the remarks: “...it was so not the intention to hurt anybody or cause any offense. So I really apologize to those that I caused offense. It was just an off-hand joke. I think I'll probably leave the political jokes to late night or something.”
Guthrie reassured her: “But if you took the citizenship test, I think you probably have better knowledge of our country than a lot of middle schoolers right now.”
Blunt replied: “Yeah, I mean, there was a lot I learned about the Constitution and American history.”
Here is a transcript of the September 17 exchange:
8:42 AM ET
(...)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: You recently became an American citizen.
EMILY BLUNT: I did.
GUTHRIE: What did that mean to you? What was that like to stand there and take the oath and go through that?
BLUNT: It's really meaningful. You know, I mean, my two favorite people in the world are American, my husband and my daughter. And it was kind of a special day, yeah. It was great.
GUTHRIE: You made a joke the other day, saying you watched the Republican debate and you joked, “What was I thinking?” And some people took that the wrong way.
BLUNT: Right.
GUTHRIE: I know you kind of wanted to say your piece about it.
BLUNT: Yeah, I mean I just – it was so not the intention to hurt anybody or cause any offense. So I really apologize to those that I caused offense. It was just an off-hand joke. I think I'll probably leave the political jokes to late night or something.
GUTHRIE: But if you took the citizenship test, I think you probably have better knowledge of our country than a lot of middle schoolers right now.
BLUNT: Yeah, I mean, there was a lot I learned about the Constitution and American history. I think I know more about American history than I do about British history, which is interesting.
(...)
