On paper, the nation’s late-night comedians should be sitting pretty with Donald Trump in the White House. After all, virtually the only thing that makes Trump even remotely bearable is seeing him sent up before we go to bed.
But even comedians have their limits. Alec Baldwin, for instance, gave some serious thought earlier this spring to ending his trolling of the Donald on “Saturday Night Live” because Trump has proven to be even more of a monster than expected. Well, another late-night Trump gadfly, Samantha Bee, was close to the end of her tether as summer began. Fortunately, she decided to get a pep talk from one of the Donald’s biggest tormentors on Capitol Hill–Elizabeth Warren.
The interview aired on Wednesday night’s edition of TBS’ “Full Frontal.” Watch here.
Bee found herself in a “bunker funk” over the nearly daily outrages from Trump, so she ran to Warren’s office for some advice. She told Warren that at the six-month mark of Trump’s so-called presidency, she is “exhausted” and “personally broken.”
That’s understandable. After all, Bee is from Canada, where the political climate is much more civilized. Several of my friends from north of the border confirmed a suspicion I’ve had for some time–if Trump had been in Canada, he would have been bounced out of the campaign, and out of his party, long before Election Day.
Bee has had a number of people come up to her and ask, “What do I do? What do I do? Help me.” When Bee asked Warren for her advice, Warren didn’t hesitate.
“You get in the fight, and then you fight as hard as you can.”
Bee wasn’t sure what that meant, prompting an incredulous Warren to reply:
“It means that when you’re told to be quiet, you don’t sit down and be quiet! You stand back up!”
The reference was obvious–how Mitch McConnell shut down her attempt to read Coretta Scott King’s 1986 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing Sessions’ appointment to the federal bench. As most of us know we now, McConnell’s explanation for silencing Warren has become a battle cry for Democrats and progressives nationwide.
“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
Warren has been standing up ever since, in part because she believes we will come out of the Trump years better than before–“because we don’t have a choice.” When Bee wondered why Warren continues to make it her life’s work to fight for the working class, Warren said it was personal for her.
“This is who I am. This is my family. This is how I grew up. And yeah, Donald Trump lied to them. Lied to their faces. But the answer is–point it out, hold him accountable, and offer them something better.”
Warren was still incredulous at how McConnell used Senate rules to gag her. It made Bee wonder if she could use some of the nastier insults she’s gotten in the same way.
Bee then asked Warren what she would say if someone called her from “the ledge of the death of democracy” and wanted to talk her off of it. Warren told Bee that we’re strong–especially when “we put our voices together.”
Truer words were never spoken. They’ve tried to warn us, but if we put our voices together, we will not only drown out their feeble attempts at explanations, but show them that we will persist.
(featured image courtesy Department of Labor, part of public domain)
