Samantha Bee on the Women’s March, Moving Forward Post-Trump, and Why She Has No Advice for You
On Saturday, Samantha Bee and her Full Frontal team will be at the Women’s March on Washington without cameras or microphones. The show has rented a bus so the staff can travel together, but once they get to Washington, D.C., they plan to mingle in the crowd and participate in the day’s events as citizens. “I just want to enjoy the moment and be present,” said Bee during an interview with Vulture at the Television Critics Association press tour. “I would just like to add to the numbers and be there with all those great women. Add my little voice to the voices. I’ve been traveling around a little bit in the last while and people are making great pains to go there. I hope it’s big, and I hope it feels great. I think it will.”
As America has come to know, Bee’s liberal feminist voice is anything but little. In its freshman season, the show soared to the top of the comedy heap with its ability to make viewers laugh, cry, and think at the same time. Her blistering post-election analysis, delivered the day after November 8, focused much of her rage on white Americans, and especially, women. Bee spoke with Vulture about how she’s feeling two months after her candidate lost, and what she’s doing to move forward.
You mentioned you’re going to the march to be in a community of women. In your post-election rant, you criticized Democrats, white people, and white women in particular, for their role in electing Donald Trump. Inauguration Day is almost here. What is your perspective now on the election, and the role women played? Have your feelings changed?
I think my perspective is the same. The information is just settling in. On Monday [January 23], I think the penny is going to drop for a lot of people. I don’t know what that’s going to feel like. I guess we’ll all find out.
Have you accepted it?
Well, you have to accept it — it’s reality. Yeah, of course, I have.
You hear a lot of people still saying “I haven’t gotten there yet.”
This is the world that we live in, and we have to accept it. We actually have to. It doesn’t mean we have to be okay with it, but we have to accept that this is where we’re going to live for a long time.
Are you still upset with women?
I’m trying not to be. It’s 2017. I’m just trying to look forward….