Hypocrites don’t deserve our sympathy or our admiration.
Samantha Bee: Republicans aren’t brave for disavowing Donald Trump. They created him.
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
That was Samantha Bee’s message to anyone who feels a slip of empathy or gratitude for Republicans who are just now jumping off the Donald Trump bandwagon.
“A whole lot of Republicans were grappling with the discovery that their Muslim-banning, Mexican-insulting, race-baiting, disability-mocking, alt-right-channeling demagogue might not be such a good guy after all,” Bee quipped during Monday’s episode of Full Frontal, pointing out that Republicans — and everyone else — should have called out Trump and disavowed support for him when he was exhibiting his cruel behavior in many previous instances.
She also pointed out how many male GOP members have trotted out the shopworn strategy of invoking their female family members (“As a father/husband/brother/son...”) to qualify their disagreement with Trump’s sexual assault brags.
“Trump’s comments are not wrong because you have female relatives,” Bee said. “Trump’s comments were wrong because women are human, and if you hadn’t stood cravenly by while he insulted them for a year, you wouldn’t be in the pile of elephant shit you are in today.”
Bee then dedicated a special portion of the segment to Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House and the conscience of alleged Republican sensibility and leadership. Ryan put out a clunky statement in the wake of the leaked audio saying how women should be “championed and revered.“
“You’re the last person we wispy little spiderwebs of womanhood would want to champion us,” Bee said. “In the past year you’ve condemned Trump’s disgusting stance on Muslims, the KKK, Gold Star families, Latino judges, and now women, without ever withdrawing your support for his presidency.”
Then she landed what may be the most punishing blow dealt to Ryan in recent memory.
”You don’t have the courage of a single one of your convictions, but you were smart to disinvite Trump from your Fall Fest [a fundraising event in Wisconsin],” Bee said. “He wouldn’t have been able to resist grabbing a pussy like you.”
By Tara Golshan and Sarah Frostenson
