Reacting on Thursday morning’s CNN Newsroom to Samantha Bee’s jumbled apology the night prior on TBS for calling First Daughter Ivanka Trump the c-word, CNN political commentator and HLN host S.E. Cupp took Bee to task for her apology being “couched in like a dozen different codicils” and, worst of all, “virtue-signaling” without a heartfelt apology to Ivanka herself.
Cupp appeared opposite comedienne Heather McDonald, who thought the apology “was really good.” The other part of McDonald’s response left Cupp wearing looks of confusion, which was that it’s the fault of “the censors and her producer and the people at TBS” who didn’t stop her from making the misogynistic slur.
“What it did you think of her — I see it on your face, okay no, but tell us,” fill-in co-host Brianna Keilar half-jokingly said to Cupp.
Cupp conceded that Bee runs “a comedy show,” but “there’s nothing funny about calling a mother the c-word as an insult, as a misogynistic slur because she posted a picture with her kid, so those are sort of incongruous.”
The HLN host explained that “[t]he apology was fine, but it was couched in like a dozen different codicils”:
One, I'm a comedian, don't look to me for civility and also, you should be more civil in your own actions and I’ve used the word before. And I've been using it to reclaim it. Also, I'm not sorry to Ted Cruz and to men and, also, I was talking about these innocent immigrant children.
“So, somewhere in there was an apology, but when you have to stuff all that other stuff around it, the apology kind of gets lost. Look, I'm ready to move on and let Sam Bee go back to her job of being funny, I guess, but...there is still a conversation, I think, to be had about whether the left gets let off the hook a bit more easily than the right,” Cupp astutely added.
Later, Cupp emphasized the Roseanne Barr’s racist, ugly tweet about Valerie Jarrett was far worse, but in terms of apologizing, she asked viewers to imagine if Barr used Bee’s approach:
Do a mental exercise, close your eyes, and imagine Roseanne saying, and I'm not equating the two, what Roseanne said was worse, but imagine Roseanne saying about her racist slur, against Valerie Jarrett I'm a comedian, don't look to me for civility. Also, you should be more civil in your acts. I’ve used Planet of the Apes as a reference before. I mean, no one would buy that as a sufficient apology.
Cupp concluded that “what Sam Bee did was a whole lot of self-rationalizing, some virtue-signaling as well, in the midst of an apology and I’ll note, not a real apology” or “heartfelt” mea culpa “to Ivanka Trump, who she slurred for no reason and if she was trying to make some political point, that was lost.”
When this Bee controversy first erupted, Cupp declared on May 31's CNN Newsroom that, for Bee, it’s “welcome to the misogyny club” alongside similarly repugnant figures such as newly-rehired ESPN personality Keith Olbermann.
“Here’s the deal. I predict today, Sam Bee, Keith Olbermann, Joy Reid stay right where they are. Why? Because liberals generally get immunity. It’s that simple,” Cupp stated hours later on HLN’s S.E. Cupp Unfiltered.
To see the relevant transcript from June 7's CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow, click “expand.”
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow
June 7, 2018
10:39 p.m. EasternBRIANNA KEILAR: Comedian Samantha Bee returning to her show Full Frontal last night for first time since she called Ivanka Trump the c-word. She did apologize again, but then she used the time to go step further, questioning the outrage over her comment. Take a listen.
SAMANTHA BEE [on TBS’s Full Frontal, 06/06/18]: 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 drunk hecklers are definitely not paragons of civility. I am, I'm 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.
KEILAR: Joining me now, comedian Heather McDonald, with us, and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp as well. Alright, I was — starting with you, Heather, what did you think about the apology?
HEATHER MCDONALD: I thought it was really good. You know, it is a comedy show, though it is extremely political and it’s definitely her point of view. So if you weren't watching it before, maybe now you've discovered it or you probably don't like her because it is not your point of view. So as far as she's saying — using the words, yeah, I mean, it is a comedy show and I said this before that I just kind of — I think the censors and her producer and the people at TBS are the ones that kind of failed her in that situation. They should have thought a step ahead of her and edited it, but now that it is out there, I thought she handled it well.
KEILAR: And S.E., as part of the apology, she said, like, she uses that word before in her show, which we have reported, to sort of reclaim the word, right? But in this case, she said she — essentially she was saying that's not the use that she gave it in this case, and she apologized. What it did you think of her — I see it on your face, okay no, but tell us.
S.E. CUPP: Well, I mean, to Heather’s point — to Heather's point, it’s a comedy show and there’s nothing funny about calling a mother the c-word as an insult, as a misogynistic slur because she posted a picture with her kid, so those are sort of incongruous. The apology was fine, but it was couched in like a dozen different codicils. One, I'm a comedian, don't look to me for civility and also, you should be more civil in your own actions and I’ve used the word before. And I've been using it to reclaim it. Also, I'm not sorry to Ted Cruz and to men and, also, I was talking about these innocent immigrant children. So, somewhere in there was an apology, but when you have to stuff all that other stuff around it, the apology kind of gets lost. Look, I'm ready to move on and let Sam Bee go back to her job of being funny, I guess, but — but that conversation can be over now, but there is still a conversation, I think, to be had about whether the left gets let off the hook a bit more easily than the right.
MCDONALD: Well —
KEILAR: And — to the — sorry, Heather, go on.
MCDONALD: — I was saying, you know, as a comedian in the last -- especially the last five or six years, especially — there has been words that, suddenly, as you know are no longer appropriate, that people have had jokes for a long time, the r-word, which is, if I can just say it, is retarded, you cannot say that word in comedy acts anymore, you really shouldn't. We know about f-a-g, you know, obviously, the n-word was ten years ago. So, if this is a word now that probably shouldn't be used directed at a specific person anymore, I think that's okay. We can change our vernacular. You know, like, I think that's the lesson to be learned. I don't think it is worth it and I think now we know that it did offend the majority of people and when you're dependent on advertisers and a big network keeping your show going and paying your bills, then take it out of your vocabulary and I don't think she'll say it again if she's smart.
KEILAR: But, S.E., she was — she said it while she was trying to make a point about immigration, which I mean, like, who even pays attention now to what she was saying?
CUPP: Right.
KEILAR: She really sort of shot herself in the foot when it came to making her point, right? She’s used the word before and it is — there is something about this that was different. Different to advertisers too, but
CUPP: Yeah.
KEILAR: — you say it’s not fair treatment and —
CUPP: Look, just do an exercise, right? Do a mental exercise, close your eyes, and imagine Roseanne saying, and I'm not equating the two, what Roseanne said was worse, but imagine Roseanne saying about her racist slur, against Valerie Jarrett I'm a comedian, don't look to me for civility. Also, you should be more civil in your acts. I’ve used Planet of the Apes as a reference before. I mean, no one would buy that as a sufficient apology. Again, I'm not equating them, but at the same time, what Sam Bee did was a whole lot of self-rationalizing, some virtue-signaling as well, in the midst of an apology and I’ll note, not a real apology to Ivanka Trump, who she slurred for no reason and if she was trying to make some political point, that was lost. So she used her to join the misogynist club and call her the c-word which may have been funny for comedians has never been appropriate for individual women, and didn't really — really heartfelt — in a heartfelt way apologize to Ivanka.
KEILAR: Heather, Heather, final word to you because I saw you nodding your head.
MCDONALD: Well, I was just going to say, I didn't mean to offend anyone. Yes, you did. You wanted to offend Ivanka and that administration. So, yes, you did and then when you realized not the whole world agreed with you, which sometimes these people, in their show and with the staff and the point of view of their show believes the whole world agrees with them and everything they say, once she got that backlash, she realized, no, I hurt a lot of other women in the process of that and I think that’s what she was apologizing to.
KEILAR: Heather and S.E. I appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much, Heather McDonald, S.E. Cupp with us.
CUPP: Thanks.
