Samantha Bee isn't letting Democrats off the hook for North Carolina's 'trans-phobic' bathroom law

North Carolina and the Justice Department are suing each other over North Carolina's controversial law that tries to force transgender people to use the bathroom of their birth sex, and North Carolinians are paying the price in other ways, from boycotts to lost business to looming cuts in federal education funding. Like a lot of liberals, Samantha Bee is opposed to the law. "Boycotts are a powerful tool, but you know what's an ever more powerful tool?" she asked on Monday's Full Frontal. "Not electing a bunch of trans-phobic numbnuts who are going to wreck the state economy to catch a nonexistent predator. Oh yeah, I told you we weren't done with 2010."

In March, Bee called the 2010 midterms "the most important election of your lifetime" and on Monday she returned to the theme, and the culprits. "Let's take another look at the election moderates and liberals slept through and its effect on the Tar Heel State," she said. When Republicans took over the North Carolina legislature in 2010, for the first time in almost a century, they passed a bunch of laws that liberals hate. "But it wasn't the only state ravaged by Hurricane Voter Apathy," she said. "No wonder Democrats are so hung up on appointing the next Supreme Court justice. They need him to strike down all the shitty state laws that might not have passed if they'd bothered to vote in 2010."

But Bee wasn't just lecturing liberals and moderates, she was also pleading with them. "Look, I know state elections aren't fun," she said. "They don't have cool concerts or 'dank memes.' But voting in them is important," like getting a mammogram: "Early prevention hurts a lot less than late-stage treatment." Watch below — and yes, there is NSFW language. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up