However disappointed Full Frontal With Samantha Bee was with Donald Trump’s presidential victory, the show has remained skeptical of just how much the #Resistance that’s sprung up since his inauguration will accomplish. And in its July 19 episode, the show took aim at one Resistance goal in particular: impeachment.
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee confronts liberals who #resist by fantasizing about impeachment
“You know being a dick is not an impeachable offense, right?”
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
In a segment taped at a recent march for impeachment in Los Angeles, Full Frontal correspondents Mike Rubens and Ashley Nicole Black talked to some of the outraged liberals protesting the Trump administration by advocating for their wildest dream of getting the president kicked out of office.
“What was the day you decided that Trump should be impeached?” Black asked one woman, who immediately insisted that she was certain on day one that it needed to happen. “So it’s not so much that you wish for impeachment,” Black responded, “as it is that you wish for a different outcome to the election.”
Outlining exactly how hard the road to impeachment is — especially given that the process relies on broad bipartisan support — Rubens then provided a handy reality check by pointing out that “more presidents have been removed from office by cholera than impeachment.”
“You do realize that being a dick is not an impeachable offense?” Black asked a different protester, who countered, “It should be.”
It’s not exactly that Full Frontal disagrees that Trump is unfit for office; it’s more that the show doesn’t believe marching in support of impeachment is actually going to solve anything. “Maybe the allure of an impossible dream was much easier to get behind than the reality of fighting for incremental change,” Rubens mused in his voiceover, his tone joking even as his words were grounded in palpable frustration.
Rubens and Black therefore attempted to guide protesters’ efforts toward a more practical approach with signs like “Go Vote!” and “Pay attention to local elections!” — a strategy that falls right in line with Full Frontal’s demonstrated insistence of pointing out the power of local politics to shape America’s policies.
