Samantha Bee deconstructs Trump's Muslim ban, the 'HealthCare.gov of Islamophobia'

On Friday evening, "the time when the government always rolls out the best ideas that it's most proud of," President Trump issued his executive order barring travel and refugees from seven majority Muslim countries, Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal. The rollout was... less than smooth; many used the word confusing. "Confusing?" Bee asked, unimpressed. "Give Trump's ban some credit: It was the HealthCare-dot-gov of Islamophobia, the Ford Pinto of intolerance, a big fat cocktail of New Coke and Zima poured onto a Microsoft Zune playing an endless loop of the Star Wars prequel's Jar Jar Binks scenes."

Bee took apart Trump's executive order piece by piece. "Look, we learned years ago that using national origin as a basis for exclusion didn't work, and it pissed off our allies," she said. "You know what does work to prevent terrorist attacks? When presidents pay attention in their security briefings." But hey, at least "this is in no way a Muslim ban — wink," Bee said. And didn't Obama ban Muslims first, like Trump allies insist? (No.)

Trump, being Trump, slapped back at his critics, including Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Chuck Schumer, whom Trump accused of crying fake tears. "Oh, what a refreshing rejection of political correctness," Bee said. "The president of the United States is calling the Senate minority leader a lying sissy-boy. I'm sorry, who's the bigger sissy? The Holocaust victim's great-grandson who teared up over families being torn apart or the guy who's afraid to walk down stairs?"

Subscribe to 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

In the follow-up segment, Bee gave a primer on refugees, who are not immigrants (like herself). "Immigrants are people who leave their country hoping for a better life," she said. "Refugees are people who flee their country hoping just to stay alive. Also, refugees don't get to pick where they go. They wait patiently for any country to take them." Countries accept them in order of preference, and the U.S. prefers "women and children." Look, Bee said, after citing the statistics, "Trump's not slamming the door on asylum-seekers to keep us safe, he's doing it because he said he would." She flipped the rhetorical middle finger to FDR for rejecting Jewish refugees in World War II, then told Trump to man-up and just call his Muslim ban a Muslim ban and take the legal consequences like a big boy. Only more NSFW. Watch below. Peter Weber