Host Samantha Bee calls Ivanka Trump 'feckless c---'
‘Full Frontal’ host Samantha Bee is slammed for calling Ivanka Trump a 'feckless c---' on her show.
TBS laid to rest a late-night show this week that delighted media liberals with over-the-top denunciations of their political foes but never made serious headway in the ratings.
The cable network announced on Monday that "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" was not returning in the fall, citing the pursuit of a "new programming strategy."
Bee, who hoped to break into the "late night sausage party" in 2016 as the only female host, drew an impressive 2.2 million viewers for her first episode but went on to limp through roughly six years until her untimely final episode in June, which drew only 463,000 viewers. Bee's rage-fueled style of commentary, coupled with an obsequious attitude toward Democrats, led to her fair share of controversial moments.
With "Full Frontal" no more, Fox News Digital looks back at some of her most memorable rants and infamous moments.
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Liberal comedian Samantha Bee lasted over 12 years as a correspondent on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" but less than seven years as host of the now-canceled TBS show "Full Frontal." (Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.)
Samantha Bee calls Ivanka Trump a ‘feckless c---’
Perhaps the most controversial "Full Frontal" moment was in May 2018 when Bee attacked then-first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump for tweeting a photo of herself with one of her children during the uproar over the Trump administration's child-separation migrant policy that was being enforced at the southern border.
"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 c---," Bee exclaimed, triggering audible gasps and cheers from her audience. "He listens to you! Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to f---in' stop it. Tell him it was an Obama thing and see how it goes, OK?"
Bee's comments sparked intense backlash as sponsors began pulling their ads, forcing her and TBS to apologize.
Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a "feckless c---" during a monologue in 2018. (Reuters)
"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," Bee said at the time. "It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it."
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However, during an appearance on "Today" in 2019, Bee admitted she "didn't learn much" from the fallout except that she learned she "can really take it," adding, "I learned that I can walk through fire and emerge on the other side alive."
‘Full Frontal’ mocks cancer patient with ‘Nazi hair’
"Full Frontal" landed itself in hot water while mocking attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2017.
"This year, the bow ties were gone, replaced by Nazi hair, Nazi hair, Nazi hair," the video narrates while showing multiple young men with buzzed hair on the sides of their heads.
One of them was 20-year-old student Kyle Coddington, who had undergone treatment for brain cancer.
Coddington's sister shamed the TBS program at the time, tweeting "When @iamsambee makes fun of your brother for having ‘Nazi hair.’ He actually has stage 4 brain cancer, but whatever floats your boat."
Bee tweeted an apology, replying, "We deeply apologize for offending you and @_that_kyle. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece."
Damage control for praising Eric Scheiderman following surfaced abuse allegations
Samantha Bee affectionately called then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman a "hero" in November 2017 for presenting himself as a legal adversary to then-President Trump, featuring the Democrat in a bubbly interview suggesting he's a modern-day Superman.
At least until he was revealed to be an abuser of women.
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A bombshell New Yorker article in May 2018 alleged that Schneiderman sexually and physically assaulted four women. He immediately resigned in disgrace.
A clip of Schneiderman's appearance on Bee's show has now been renamed "Former AG Tricks Sam Into Thinking He Was Decent" on YouTube. (TBS)
The chummy sitdown that was shared on YouTube was quickly retitled "Former AG Tricks Sam Into Thinking He Was Decent."
The video's description was updated to say, "We taped this segment before the allegations against Eric Schneiderman came to light, and we sincerely apologize for characterizing him as a hero when, to so many women, he was the vilest villain...Also, if you're a f--king disgrace, please consider not coming on our show."
Bee went on to address the scandal to her viewers following her lavish praise for the former AG, telling Schneiderman "F--- you!"
Human Rights Foundation accuses Bee of whitewashing Rwanda's dictatorial regime
Bee was the subject of a scathing letter written by the Human Rights Foundation over a segment she did in Rwanda in 2021 praising its treatment of refugees, specifically for offering them COVID vaccines.
"We are writing to express concern about how Rwanda’s dictatorial regime will likely exploit your segment ‘Rwandans and the UNHCR Are Treating Refugees with Empathy,’ to whitewash its long history of grave atrocities against refugees and refugee camps in the region following the country’s 1994 genocide, as well as its ongoing deadly repression against Rwandan dissident refugees living outside of Rwanda," the Human Rights Foundation wrote.
The segment in question featured the "Full Frontal" host visiting Rwanda, where she fawned over the country’s coronavirus vaccination process. She gave a quick recap of the nation’s history of accepting refugees and implied that Americans are racist because they feel Africa only creates problems for the rest of the world.
Samantha Bee poses backstage the 72nd Writers Guild Awards at Edison Ballroom on Feb. 1, 2020, in New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Writers Guild of America, East)
The Human Rights Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that aims to promote and protect human rights across the globe, informed Bee that Rwanda is "ruled by the brutal dictatorship of Paul Kagame — a former warlord who achieved the stability and development accredited to him by committing grave atrocities" which United Nations investigators have labeled "war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide."
"While celebrating the people of Rwanda for their positive and welcoming attitude toward refugees is commendable, praising the government of Rwanda for its policy toward refugees lends Kagame’s murderous regime undeserved legitimacy and provides it with the false appearance of humanitarianism, openness, and tolerance," the foundation added. "Rwanda’s regime is actively attempting to distract the international community from the extensive crimes that it has committed both in the past and present, including those against refugees."
"Given your status as a public figure who advocates for social justice, especially for refugees, we believe that you have a responsibility to take a moral stand — that which is against Kagame and his brutal government… Your viewers and supporters in the United States and across the world look to you to provide truthful and contextual reporting and entertainment on some of the most current and pressing issues," the letter concluded. "We urge you to deny Kagame’s regime the opportunity to use and manipulate your global influence, in order to whitewash its extensive crimes against refugees and others in the region.
Bee suggests Hope Hicks is going to hell, says ‘You helped burned down democracy, b----!’
In March 2018, just two months before calling Ivanka Trump a "feckless c---," Bee unleashed on then-outgoing White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, saying she is what it would look like "if Zooey Deschanel joined the alt-right."
"Hope Hicks, thanks to your force field of bland pretty whiteness, you’ll probably escape this nightmare presidency unscathed," Bee told Hicks. "You’ll disappear into a nice wealthy anonymity in a nice town somewhere. And someday you’ll go to the gates of the nice white protestant heaven where St. Peter will laugh in your face and say, ‘You think you’re getting in here? You helped burn down democracy, b----! Get your a-- downstairs!’ See you around the baking aisle, Hopie."
Samantha Bee accepts the award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information at the 32nd annual Television Critics Association Awards on Aug. 6, 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
‘Full Frontal’ special calls Second Amendment ‘outdated and useless’
Bee's "Full Frontal Wants to Take Your Guns" special last year took aim at the Second Amendment, enlisting musician Richard Marx to call it "outdated and useless."
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She compared guns to a van stripped of all safety measures and equipped with spikes and other dangerous add-ons, with the sole purpose of killing others. She also suggested only "fragile men" want guns.
"Gun manufacturers are masters of disguise when it comes to hiding how dangerous their weapons really are," she said. "They add gadgets like lasers to create the illusion that this deathtrap is a video game or toy … They try to emasculate those fragile men who are drawn to guns."
Bee urges viewers to make the lives of Alito, Republicans ‘hell’ for the overturning of Roe v. Wade
The liberal comedian has long been hostile towards Republicans and the conservative Supreme Court justices when it comes to abortion.
In 2019, Bee blasted then-President Trump for urging Congress to ban late-term abortions during his State of the Union address, calling his stance "worrying" in spite of polls showing generally popular support for such a move.
"My ovaries just tried moving back to Canada," Bee said. "All Republicans try to restrict abortion rights, but Trump might have the Supreme Court to do it… You know, I always knew someday a Republican president would manage to take away my right to choose, I just didn’t think it would be the kind of president who’s definitely tried to go Dutch on an abortion. Oh my God, this should not be your thing!"
In 2021, following the Supreme Court decision to uphold Texas' strict abortion law, Bee referred to the conservative justices as the "anti-p--sy posse" and called them "f---ing cowards" for not putting their signatures on the one-paragraph majority opinion.
"If you’re taking away our reproductive rights, at least own that you are gutless monsters," Bee scolded the justices.
In May, following the leaked majority draft opinion signaling the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Bee sounded the alarm that women who are unable to obtain abortions would become the "real victims."
Samantha Bee railed against the leaked Supreme Court draft memo during the May 19, 2022, episode of her TBS show "Full Frontal." (Screenshot/TBS)
"If you’re like me, you’re just a few weeks away from having fewer human rights. Fun!" Bee began her monologue. "While the opinion isn’t official yet, it’s basically a trailer for how f-----g horrible life is to become for a lot of people."
"Our broken, corrupt Supreme Court cares more about a cluster of cells than it does about the actual people who live and breathe and exist in our country," Bee continued. "We know abortion rates won't drop. The only difference is that people, especially people of color, especially people living in poverty, will die."
Last month, in what ended up being her final episode of "Full Frontal," Bee preemptively vowed vengeance against Justice Samuel Alito, who authored both the leaked draft and final opinion, as well as Republicans over the seismic ruling, which was officially made the day after her show aired.
"We have to raise hell, in our cities, in Washington, and every restaurant Justice Alito eats at for the rest of his life. Because if Republicans have made our lives hell, it's time to return the favor," Bee concluded.
Her call to "raise hell" for Alito and others came just days after the assassination attempt of his colleague Justice Brett Kavanaugh; a man was arrested near Kavanaugh's Maryland home and told police he had flown there from California with the intention of killing him before changing his mind.
Bee admits to going easy on Biden, refusing to challenge ‘hero’ narrative about Cuomo
A promo released ahead of the "Full Frontal" debut vowed that Bee would be "bringing the tough questions" to late night along with "smart, unflinching commentary."
By her own admission, she didn't actually ask the tough questions and she indeed flinched, at least when it came to two prominent Democrats.
During an April 2021 with left-wing veteran journalist Dan Rather, Bee was asked if she ever found herself "at least tempted to kind of pull [her] punches," particularly when it comes to President Biden.
"I can’t deny that that has happened, I think that’s probably true across the board," Bee responded. "You’re like, ‘OK, well, we could be making jokes about the infrastructure plan,’ but in general, I’m like, ‘Wow, this is great.' Why would I purposefully undermine something that seems to be a great idea, pretty much across the board?"
"I like to make really targeted jokes," she later said. "There are more worthy targets right now."
Samantha Bee admitted she pulls punches against President Biden and did not want to challenge the "hero" narrative against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo before his downfall. (AP/Getty Images)
Then in an October 2021 interview on the "Sway" podcast, Bee revealed she'd conduct "show-wide conversations" throughout the coronavirus pandemic about how to "handle" now-ousted Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who she previously referred to on her show as "America's favorite ‘Teen Beat’ cover gov."
"So it’s not like — I was not a Cuomosexual, particularly," Bee said. "And there were many, many times, actually, during the pandemic, where we had big, you know, show-wide conversations about, how do we handle Cuomo? Because he’s super problematic. But the story about him out in the world was like, he’s a hero. And he’s the only person speaking about the pandemic in a fatherly way. And he is our dad and whatever."
"And so it felt [like] a place where it wasn’t quite the time to be like, hey, just like, check it out, he’s actually an a--hole," she continued. "We felt like we would just miss completely with our audience. And people weren’t really there to hear that at that moment, so —"
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Bee refrained from offering any criticism of Cuomo until his political scandals reached a boiling point in March 2021.
Bee also drooled over Democrats who appeared on her show like former President Obama, giving him a fist bump and joining him in mocking those who doubted Hillary Clinton in 2016, telling Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., she "desperately" wanted to vote her for president in 2020, and asking Kamala Harris if she could be both vice president and attorney general in a Joe Biden administration.
Meanwhile, she wasn't hesitant to go after Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, going after him as early as November 2018 and declaring him "one of the worst governors in Florida's history" over his handling of COVID.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, DeSantis has consistently prioritized keeping businesses open over protecting people. Even now he's still committed to ignoring science going so far as to ban all businesses from requiring that patrons be vaccinated. His s----y posturing in the form of leadership has helped contribute to Florida's more than 2 million cases," Bee said in June 2021. "Look, Ron DeSantis isn't exactly a genius, but even a slightly less dumb, more competent version of Trump could be very dangerous. Whether his agenda is passed or not, DeSantis still wins by signaling his MAGA values to a base that may be eager for a Trump 2.0- minus some of the bugs of the defective first version."
Fox News' Brandon Gillespie, Cortney O'Brien and David Rutz contributed to this report.