The president protested after Bee apologised for ‘inappropriate and inexcusable’ remarks about Ivanka Trump on her TV show

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump effectively urged the firing of political comedy show host Samantha Bee on Friday morning after the break-out TV star used extreme profanity to describe the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Samantha Bee had apologised on Thursday for an “inappropriate and inexcusable” remarks about Ivanka Trump on Wednesday night.

But on Friday the president protested directly for the first time, alluding on Twitter to “double standards” because Bee was still in a job with her TBS TV channel while ABC canceled the Roseanne sitcom revival after eponymous star Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama administration senior aide Valerie Jarrett.

“Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show? A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!” Trump tweeted.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show? A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!

On her TBS show, the late-night host savaged the president’s daughter for her role in her father’s immigration policy – but Bee’s expletive-filled comment drew condemnation, particularly among conservatives, and a rebuke from the White House.

In her apology, Bee said: “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”

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Bee began her show Wednesday by saying: “We are going to talk about racism: I just popped an Ambien, so buckle up, everyone.”

Bee showed a news segment about migrant children being taken into government custody at the border, and the Department of Justice’s plan to prosecute 100% of people crossing the border illegally, including asylum seekers and undocumented workers.

Bee said: “Tearing children away from their parents is so evil, it’s the inciting incident in almost every movie we’ve ever cared about. According to haunted marionette Jeff Sessions, these babies are actually baby criminals.”

In a clip Bee played, Sessions, the attorney general, said: “If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally. It’s not our fault.”

Play Video 0:44 Samantha Bee's comments about Ivanka Trump – video

Bee continued: “Don’t worry. The Trump administration has a really good explanation for why they’re treating migrants like animals. It was all Obama’s idea!” She then showed pundits claiming that it was the Obama administration that instituted the policy of separating migrant children from their parents.

Bee replied: “They’re half right. We have had awful immigration practices since, well, always, even under presidents we like seeing shirtless. A recent report from the ACLU describes hundreds of abuses of migrant children while in custody of the US government during the Obama administration. And just last week, this image circulated of children being kept in an Arizona holding facility in 2014.”

Bee said: “No, Donald Trump didn’t invent this issue – he’s just making it so much worse. Now everyone who even approaches the border is treated like a criminal.

She continued: “So now, after decades of ignoring the issue, Americans are finally paying attention. Well, most of us. Ivanka Trump, who works at the White House, chose to post the second most oblivious tweet we’ve seen this week.”

The language used by Samantha Bee is vile and vicious. Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast Sarah Sanders

Bee, showing a photo Trump posted of her and her son, addressed the president’s daughter directly: “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless cunt.”

Bee added: “He listens to you. Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fucking stop it.”

On Thursday morning, many conservative media figures denounced her language and asked that the host be held to the same standard as Roseanne Barr, whose sitcom was canceled by ABC after a racist tweet that compared Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

“The language used by Samantha Bee last night is vile and vicious,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders in a statement. “The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling.”

Sanders added: “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.”

NBC’s Megyn Kelly, once a primetime anchor at Fox News, compared Bee’s comments to Barr’s. “This is disgusting. How is this acceptable?” Kelly tweeted. “And how are we expected to take any of these publications seriously if they gleefully repost something like this at the same time they (rightfully) condemn Roseanne? You know the saying Love is Love? Well Hate is Hate.”

Early Thursday afternoon Bee, 48, in a statement issued by TBS, which airs Full Frontal, said: “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. It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”

TBS issued its own statement. “Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” the network said. “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”