If TBS Punishes Samantha Bee, Trump Also Must Be Fired

The White House is outraged that comedian Samantha Bee used the same language President Trump has used about women.

Read About Ivanka Trump's Plotting To Return To The White House On THE DAILY

Here is comedian Samantha Bee on Trump adviser Ivanka Trump.

Bee said, “Ivanka Trump, who works at the White House, chose to post the second most oblivious tweet we’ve seen this week. 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! He listens to you. Put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to fucking stop it. Tell him it was an Obama thing and see how it goes, OK?”

Here is what White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had to say:

There are many problems with the White House’s outrage.

Not only did Donald Trump brag about grabbing women by the p*ssy, but Republicans wrote off the Access Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about doing this as “locker room talk.”

And additionally, Trump has repeatedly called women the c-word.

For example, Jennifer Lin, a former financial correspondent in New York City for The Philadelphia Inquirer, told CNN about Trump calling her a c*nt. In the 1980s, she wrote an article about Trump’s casinos that he didn’t like. Trump called the paper and called Lin a “shit for brains” who worked for “a shit newspaper.” The now President also called her a c*nt.

Here she is talking about it:

This came to light as Trump was making headlines for his misogynistic abuse of the winner of 1996’s Miss Universe Pageant, Alicia Machado. It gets worse, as all Trump hypocrisy stories do, because Trump never even read the story he went ballistic over:

First Trump called Lin and screamed at her, peppering her with the word “sh*t” to describe her writing. (It turned out he had never actually read her story so he was calling it “sh*t” for no reason.)

“Then he called my editor in Philadelphia, Craig Stock. Now it was Craig’s turn to “Hold for Mr. Trump,” Lin wrote in Billy Pen.

“Craig was treated to the same Trumpian wordplay but got an added treat. Trump referred to me as ‘that c*nt.’”

And the gold, “Craig, a calm Iowan, asked Trump what was wrong with the story. He explained that The Inquirer would run a correction if the paper had made an error. Trump snapped that he didn’t read the story.”

Journalist Selina Scott had to threaten Trump with a lawyer in order to get him to stop harassing her after she rebuffed his advances. Trump aimed such hatred at NBC’s Katy Tur that she had to be escorted out of a Trump rally by the Secret Service.

Stabbing women in the back by implying that they are to blame if they are sexually harassed, Eric Trump said Ivanka wouldn’t be the victim of sexual harassment at work because she’s strong. Then candidate Donald Trump explained his solution to sexual harassment would be to tell his daughter to get a new career.

bottom line: When you justify grabbing women by the p*ssy, you don’t get to be offended by Samantha Bee’s use of the c-word. And almost the entire Republican Party did justify this or came around to justifying/enabling it. Is sexual assault against women such a small issue that we can play games and allow the Trump administration to play outraged victims over a comedian’s word, while dismissing the many lawsuits against Donald Trump and accusations of sexual assault in addition to his own admission and his own ex-wife’s recounting of his abuse in her book? Sexual assault is a crime. Name calling is not.

Sexual assault is worse than using the c-word. Always will be.

While I am personally not a fan of using language like this about women in the public sphere and have defended many conservative women from sexist assaults, it is also clear now that the much larger problem we have in this country is that our President does use this kind of language in the public sphere, and it has emboldened others to do so. Trump has lowered the civility bar so low it is non-existent. Republicans and conservatives have enabled this, they have excused Trump’s vulgarity and vile public language as proof that he is “authentic.”

Sexism and misogyny are not okay, but it is much more dangerous that we continue to hold comedians to higher standards than our own President.

At some point, enough is enough and the media needs to stand up to Republican hypocrites. To back down on this issue when this President and his administration have such a history of sexual abuse and violence against women is to treat women like they only matter when their father is Donald Trump.

Ivanka is not the same as the daughters of other presidents; she is an adviser to Trump. She sits in his chair. She is, although unqualified to do so, ostensibly negotiating for the U.S., but also walking away with trademarks being approved with those with whom she “negotiates.” She put herself in the limelight, and now a comedian called her out for posting a picture of herself with a child as her father rips immigrant children away from their parents and loses them.

What about this story bothers you?

If it’s only the name calling of Ivanka Trump, you’re not doing this right.

Update: Samantha Bee has apologized:

We’re still waiting for Trump’s apology.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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