TBS late-night host Samantha Bee apologized again Wednesday for hurling a vulgar slur at Ivanka Trump last week, adding she should have known the press would be more interested in covering her "potty-mouthed insult" than child immigration policies.
Bee touched off a media firestorm when she called Trump a "feckless c—t" near the end of a "Full Frontal" segment railing against the Trump administration's border policies. Media figures piled on Bee for the remark. President Donald Trump suggested she should be fired, and the White House called her remarks "vile and vicious."
"A lot of people were offended and angry that I used an epithet to describe the president's daughter and advisor last week," Bee said. "It is a word I have used on the show many times, hoping to reclaim it. This time, I used it as an insult. I crossed the line. I regret it, and I do apologize for that."
She quipped that she never intended to hurt anyone with the remark, except Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), one of her frequent conservative targets on the program.
"Many men were also offended by my use of the word," she said. "I do not care about that."
She went on to say she hated it "distracted from more important issues." The left-wing comic's routine last week focused on the administration's "zero tolerance" policy of separating illegal immigrant children from their parents at the border.
"I hate that I did something to contribute to the nightmare of 24-hour news cycles that we're all white-knuckling through," she said. "I should have known that a potty-mouthed insult would be inherently more interesting to them than juvenile immigration policy. I would do anything to help those kids. I hate that this distracted from them, so to them, I am also sorry."
She concluded by saying "civility is just nice words."
"Maybe we should all worry a little bit more about the niceness of our actions," she said. "OK, thanks for listening."