Comedian Samantha Bee apologized Thursday for using vulgar language to describe Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s elder daughter and a top White House aide.
In a tweet, Bee said she “crossed a line” when she used the expletive on her TBS comedy show, “Full Frontal,” calling it “inappropriate and inexcusable.”
@iamsambee: 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.
The incident comes on the heels of ABC canceling “Roseanne,” after Roseanne Barr compared black Obama aide Valerie Jarrett to an ape. While the actress later apologized for her remarks, Barr also retweeted messages supporting her tweet that led to the cancellation of her show.
On Wednesday night, Bee called the president’s daughter a “feckless c—” during her show. The comedian used the slur as she urged Ivanka Trump to talk to her father about immigration policies that separate children from their parents.
“Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c—! He listens to you,” Bee said. “Put on something tight and low cut and tell your father to f—ing stop it. Tell him it was an Obama thing and see how it goes, OK?”
TBS said in a statement that it regrets airing that language.
In the fallout, AutoTrader.com said it was suspending its sponsorship of “Full Frontal” after Bee’s use of “offensive and unacceptable language.”
@AutoTrader_com: Thank you to those who reached out regarding our sponsorship of Full Frontal. The comments expressed by Samantha Bee were offensive and unacceptable and do not reflect the views of our company. As a result, we have suspended our sponsorship of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.
First lady Melania Trump also ripped the media, accusing the press of an “astounding” double standard.
“Time and again the Trump family and members of this Administration are subjected to false reporting, hateful rhetoric and outrageous lies all in the name of freedom of speech or comedy, yet the main stream media stays silent,” she said in a statement.
Over the years, Donald Trump has rarely apologized for his use of derogatory and crude remarks in describing women. Trump said then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her whatever” when she challenged his language toward women during the first Republican primary debate.
He did apologize, however, for crude comments he made in 2005 to Billy Bush about groping women after a tape of the conversation was made public during the final stretch of the 2016 campaign.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Bee’s language was “vile and vicious.”
“The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling. 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,” Sanders said in a statement.