Just a week after giving a lecture on the importance of student loan forgiveness, supposed comedian Samantha Bee devoted her opening monologue to giving a lecture on gun control during Wednesday’s edition of Full Frontal. The host expressed her desire to “get rid of the guns” before dismissing the idea that mental illness was a contributing factor in the El Paso mass shooting: “Being a racist monster isn’t a mental illness...in fact, you can be one and be a very stable genius.” Bee was obviously implying that President Trump, who once referred to himself as a “stable genius,” was also a “racist monster.”
The TBS host rejected the idea that mental illness played a role in the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. According to Bee, “painting mass shooters as mentally ill is unfair to the vast majority of mentally ill people who aren’t stocking up on killing machines.” After describing the mental illness argument as a “lazy assumption,” Bee put up pictures of President Trump and Fox News’s Steve Doocy and said that “it would be like if I assumed that you were all feeble-minded scrotes who could only manage an erection while stroking a gun.”
Bee later directed a message at President Trump: “We know what causes mass shootings and you do too. It’s the guns, stupid…those weird metal thingies that have controlled every decision you’ve made your entire political career.” Bee also complained that President Trump “found another scapegoat in his speech, citing people who immerse themselves in a violent fantasy world where they’re constantly being attacked by enemies.” At this point, the Fox News logo appeared in the background, signaling her effort to portray the network as “a violent fantasy world.”
Not surprisingly, Bee was not impressed with President Trump’s offer to “expand background checks if Democrats would agree to tighten immigration laws.” Bee described the idea as “a compromise that gives everyone a win, including the El Paso shooter; who called for tighter immigration laws in his manifesto. This was one of the deadliest hate crimes against Hispanic people in our country’s history, using it to give our xenophobic President a win would be a slap in the face.”
In addition to slamming President Trump as “xenophobic,” the alleged comic also took a shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; slamming him for refusing to “let the Senate vote on a bipartisan background checks bill that was passed in the House.” Bee proceeded to inform her audience that “the only way around Mitch is to win back the Senate; either that or sink a bunch of patios on him,” making light of McConnell fracturing his shoulder in a patio fall.
Bee closed her monologue by urging politicians to “get rid of the guns,” adding “if not, come November 2020, we’ll just get rid of you.” It looks like Bee will be devoting every single episode of Full Frontal between now and the election to promoting Democratic talking points and trashing Republicans.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of Full Frontal is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
08/07/19
10:30 PM
SAMANTHA BEE: Welcome to Full Frontal, I am Samantha Bee. It’s been three days since the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, and people are very tense. Our nation’s butthole is clenched so tight it could hoist a bowling ball. Last night in Times Square, a motorcycle backfired and the crowd stampeded, thinking there was a gunman loose. Gentle request to the automobile industry: could you please make vehicles that don’t make gun sounds? Any other sound would be fine, make it so backfiring cars sound like DJ Khaled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: DJ Khaled. Another one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEE: See, that’s not scary and now you know that car doesn’t go down on his car wife. And if that’s not practical, here’s a better idea: Get rid of the guns. People…
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BEE: …should not have to stampede through Times Square for anything but free samples at the M&M store. We are so sick for living in fear for no God damn good reason. It is aging us. When the show premiered 3 ½ years ago, I looked like this. Oh, God. Can you believe that outfit I’m wearing? What was I thinking? It’s very clear what the problem is. Despite the usual attempts by the President and others to pin the blame elsewhere like this…
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEE: Right, the gun didn’t pull the trigger because that is physically impossible; unless maybe it had one of its ribs removed. But the gun did put the bullets into people, mental illness did not. As far as we know, the El Paso shooter wasn’t mentally ill at all. Being a racist monster isn’t a mental illness. In fact, you can be one and be a very stable genius.
(APPLAUSE)
BEE: Painting mass shooters as mentally ill is unfair to the vast majority of mentally ill people who aren’t stocking up on killing machines. It’s a lazy assumption. It would be like if I assumed that you were all feeble-minded scrotes who could only manage an erection while stroking a gun. Stop trying to make this problem more complex than it is. We know what causes mass shootings and you do too. It’s the guns, stupid. You know?
(APPLAUSE)
BEE: Those weird metal thingies that have controlled every decision you’ve made your entire political career? But Trump found another scapegoat in his speech, citing people who immerse themselves in a violent fantasy world where they’re constantly being attacked by enemies. No, not that violent fantasy world, this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEE: Video games are not to blame for shootings or assaults or hate crimes. They are not that influential. My college boyfriend played “Mortal Combat” all the time and he never learned how to finish me. Even the Supreme Court has called bullshit on the link between video games and violence but the entertainment industry has always been an easy target for politicians trying to blame someone for violence. In the 90s, it was action movies. In the 80s, it was heavy metal. In the 50s, it was comic books. And obviously, the Civil War would never have happened if it wasn’t for those violent chess sets. For those who still somehow don’t get the link between guns and gun violence, a review by the Harvard School of Public Health found that, surprise, where there are more guns, there is more homicide. That research was the biggest waste of Harvard-educated minds since the writers’ room at Two and a Half Men. It’s so painfully, stupidly obvious that guns cause gun violence yet Republicans keep trying to find any other cause, no matter how nonsensical.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WBNS-TV REPORTER: Representative Candice Keller from Middletown posted this now-deleted message on Facebook blaming the recent shootings on gay marriage, drag queen advocates and recreational marijuana. She also appeared to point blame at former President Barack Obama and football player Colin Kaepernick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEE: Those don’t cause mass shootings although they would cause a hell of a party; best bar mitzvah ever. Our political leaders are like those idiot Wheel of Fortune contestants who have most of the puzzle revealed but still keep guessing the wrong answer. It’s guns, you ***heads, just say guns. Trump’s speech did make a few worthless nods toward curbing gun violence. He endorsed red flag laws, which would allow the confiscation of guns from people deemed to pose a threat. But those are state laws. The proposed federal legislation would only provide grants to states that choose to enact them. Trump also offered to expand background checks if Democrats would agree to tighten immigration laws; a compromise that gives everyone a win, including the El Paso shooter; who called for tighter immigration laws in his manifesto. This was one of the deadliest hate crimes against Hispanic people in our country’s history. Using it to give our xenophobic President a win would be a slap in the face. It would be like if we passed reparations for slavery but only paid them to Mel Gibson. And background checks aren’t even a concession to the Democrats anyway. 92 percent of Republicans want them. Almost everyone supports them except Mitch McConnell, who’s refusing to let the Senate vote on a bipartisan background checks bill that was passed in the House. Unfortunately, the only way around Mitch is to win back the Senate; either that or sink a bunch of patios on him. Republicans can’t even consider gun legislation because they’re afraid the N.R.A. will attack them, which is a really horrible reason to let innocent people die. They are endangering all of America to appease a group that has fewer than five million members; which sounds like a lot but that’s only 1.5 percent of the U.S. population keeping us from having sane gun laws. By comparison, 12 million Americans own Kenny G’s “Breathless” album and we don’t let those assholes tell the rest of us what to do. Trump and the Republicans have laid out a clear solution to end gun violence. First, cure the mental illness they invented, then get rid of video games, the internet plus transgender people, same-sex marriage, drag queens, marijuana, kneeling athletes and Barack Obama and while we’re at it, I’ll embrace Jesus Christ as our savior. It’s just that simple. Well, how about this? Get rid of the guns. If not, come November 2020, we’ll just get rid of you. We'll be right back.
