Samantha Bee’s Latest Monologue About the Republican Meltdown Is Must-Watch TV

Their “alt-right-channeling demagogue” might not be such a stand-up guy after all.


Samantha Bee roasted the Republican Party following Friday’s leak of Donald Trump’s obscene hot mic tapes. She said Republicans are now having to grapple with the sudden “discovery” that their “alt-right-channeling demagogue” might not be such a stand-up guy after all. Several prominent Republicans, including Trump’s running mate Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, issued statements condemning Trump’s lewd remarks in the wake of the tape’s leak, explaining their outrage by references to female relatives.

Bee didn’t take too kindly to the men who had to justify why lewd comments about women are wrong. “Trump’s comments are not wrong because you have female relatives,” she explained. “Trump’s comments were wrong because women are human. And if you hadn’t stood cravenly by while he insulted them for a year, you wouldn’t be in the pile of elephant shit you’re in today.”

But her best roast of the night was dedicated to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who also blasted Trump’s newly surfaced remarks but fell short of withdrawing support for the Republican presidential nominee.

“Your petri dish of a political party allowed America’s misogyny and racism to coagulate into a presidential nominee,” Bee says of Ryan.

“In the past year you’ve condemned Trump’s disgusting stance on Muslims, the KKK, Gold Star families, Latino judges, and now women without ever withdrawing your support for his presidency,” Bee continues after showing a clip of Paul Ryan addressing a crowd at a fall fair he hosted in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, over the weekend. After lambasting Ryan for not having the courage to un-endorse Trump, Bee concludes: “You were smart to disinvite Trump from your Fall Fest. He wouldn’t have been able to resist grabbing a pussy like you.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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