Samantha Bee explains how Brexit won't doom America to President Donald Trump


"While the Brits were waking up in the ruins of their nation and saying, 'Oh god, what have we done?'" said Samantha Bee on Monday's Full Frontal, "a lot of Americans were looking over and saying 'Oh god, what are we about to do?'" The warning rant from Van Jones about how Brexit equals President Trump was a little over-the-top for Bee, but she saw where he was coming from: "The Brexit vote was driven by angry, less-educated white voters who feel screwed by globalization and the establishment, and have been fed a chip buddy of xenophobia slathered in slogan sauce."
Bee told America to calm down. "America shouldn't be complacent, but you also shouldn't panic and move to Canada — Canada asked me to say that," she said. "America is not Britain. Being not Britain is pretty much central to the whole America brand." First, America has been doing immigration for centuries, while Britain, until the late 20th century, hadn't really dealt with a big influx of foreigners since 1066. Second, Britain is much whiter and more homogenous than the U.S. "And you know the other thing America has that Britain lacks?" she asked. "A butt-ton of evangelical Christians. Thank God! Yeah, you heard that right."
"So take heart," Bee said. "I mean, we can still wreck everything if we forget to vote — it wouldn't be the first time — but Trump's brand of right-wing, racist, anti-immigrant demagoguery isn't American, it's a European import. And if we're smart, we'll stop it at the border and send it back where it came from." And it's important that America arrest this now, and definitively, she added, noting the uptick of racist bullying in Britain after the Brexit vote. "That really is the worst outcome of Brexit — not the breakup of the EU or the fact that you can now use the British pound as loo paper; it's that the vote made these hateful morons think that over half the country agreed with them," Bee said. "This is why it's not enough for Trump to lose. It has to be a f—ing landslide, 50-state repudiation." Watch below. Peter Weber
The Week
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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