Samantha is sorry and not sorry. The Full Frontal host spoke with the Daily Beast about her controversial statements, and even more controversial apology. Back in June 2018 — yes, it feels like a lifetime ago for us too — Bee made headlines for calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c---,” and was swiftly criticized by talking heads on all sides of the political spectrum.
The question of taking it too far is one that Bee takes seriously. In addressing the controversy, she splits a very fine hair: she was not apologizing to Ivanka Trump or the MAGA stans. “The apology was not offered to the right,” Bee says. “There is literally nothing that I can do to please loud voices on the right and I don’t expect to try anytime soon. It really wasn’t for them. I don’t really care what they think of me.”
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Still, she acknowledges that her apology felt like the right course of action. “It was offered in a very specific manner and I don’t regret putting it out there,” said Bee. In her televised apology, she regretted that her statement obscured her greater point of separating migrant children from their families.
President Donald Trump and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders both called for Bee’s firing, a moment she calls “surreal.” It’s not normal to have the president of the United States call for a private citizen to lose their job. Bee doesn’t want this fact to go unnoticed, or to become normalized. “Honestly, it’s the most ridiculous feeling. It’s so unpresidential in every possible way,” she said.
Generally, social etiquette dictates that the children of politicians are off-limits to both social and political commentary. But in this administration, a daughter of the president of the United States works in the White House as a senior advisor, ostensibly to further her father’s agenda, making Ivanka Trump fair game for political criticism.
It’s a thorny issue, but Bee is not backing down for what she said — she’s just putting a finer point on how she said it. Her critics, she says, should also look in the mirror. “A lot of the loudest voices that came out to speak about me should be embarrassed by their own conduct these days. I could not give a single fuck what they think of me.”
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