Samantha Bee Hits Bill O’Reilly in His Sanctuary City
On Wednesday’s Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, the host ventured beyond the seemingly hourly tweets and executive orders signed by President Trump to devote a segment near and dear (and fear) to Bill O’Reilly’s heart: sanctuary cities. Bee’s news peg was Trump’s threat to withhold federal funding from cities that decline to deport undocumented immigrants — cities such as Boston, San Francisco, and New York.
Bee supplied clips of a number of city officials, including a formerly sane Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York, saying that it was not only humane to allow such people to continue living in the city to avoid breaking up families, but that forcing the police to act as deportation agents was a waste of time that could be spent chasing down more serious lawbreakers. This was contrasted with a montage of Fox News talking heads, most prominently O’Reilly, saying that sanctuary cities create “anarchy” and “lawlessness” and “complete chaos.” Sanctuary cities are a particular bee in O’Reilly’s skin-cancer-preventive bonnet — he brought up the subject to President Trump in the precious few minutes he had with Trump during his Super Bowl Sunday interview, and has devoted numerous “Talking Points Memos” to the subject.
Bee pointed out the flaws in the anti-sanctuary cities arguments. As for Trump’s threat to withhold funds to cities that provide America with a huge amount of its GDP (gross domestic product), she had a two-word response, one sacred to the hearts of conservative politicians and pundits everywhere: state’s rights — the feds can’t trample on ’em. The segment reminded us that Bee is continuing the fine journo-humor tradition of the golden age of The Daily Show, while transcending her roots to establish on every Full Frontal her own unique take — her own comic vocabulary — each week. In this segment, I particularly liked the way she has given White House press secretary Sean Spicer the nickname “Sorry Spice.” Also, bonus points for Bee sneaking in a falafel joke about O’Reilly that only a fraction of her audience probably noticed.
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on TBS.
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