Samantha Bee Issues Defiant Apology For Calling Ivanka The C-Word

Sorry-not-too-sorry. Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer June 7, 2018

The host of TBS’ “Full Frontal” floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, but how does she apologize?

Defiantly, viewers learned last night, when Samantha Bee issued an on-air apology for calling first daughter and advisor to the president Ivanka Trump a “feckless c—t” last week.

“It is a word I have used on the show many times hoping to reclaim it,” Bee said at the top of her show. “This time, I used it as an insult. I crossed a line, I regret it, and I do apologize for that.” That sentence, spat out quickly, seemed entirely coerced. But without taking a breath, Bee went on to explain with much more apparent sincerity that the word she used is one “many women have heard at the worst moments of their lives.” With seemingly great remorse, Bee added, “I don’t want to inflict more pain on them…I never intended it to hurt anyone. Except Ted Cruz.” She went on to say, “Many men were also insulted by my use of the word. I do not care about that.”

Bee also apologized for the controversy to the children who were the focus of the segment that included the slur against Trump — immigrant children who are horrifically separated from their parents by the US government. She focused her next segment on an update about those children and the policies that place them in dire straits.

“Sorry for breaking America,” Bee added. Then she got back to business.

Jenny Singer is the deputy Lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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