Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, dear reader, and there is plenty of misery to go around these days. That led Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee to extend an invitation across the aisle to the strangest of bedfellows, Glenn Beck, on her show. “My audience would like to stab you relentlessly in the eye,” Beck told Bee. “My audience wants to kill me for normalizing a lunatic like yourself,” was Bee’s reply. Great start, everybody.
While the two hold opposing views, the sit-down between Bee and Beck was unlike the far more contentious one Trevor Noah hosted earlier this month, debating some serious issues with ultra-conservative Trump supporter Tomi Lahren (whose show, it should be noted, is part of Beck’s empire, the Blaze). Beck himself, once known for scribbling anti-Obama conspiracy theories on chalkboards on Fox News, has recently had a very public—and some have suggested, calculated—change of heart, calling for empathy for Black Lives Matter and telling the New Yorker that the president has made him “a better man.” Though still a conservative, Beck has been vocally opposed to President-elect Trump, which means he and Bee have at least one thing in common.
Beck’s main message for Bee was a warning, from one catastrophist to another, not to repeat his mistakes. And though Bee was appalled by the comparison, Beck has a point. “Do you believe there’s a chance we fall into a dictatorship under Donald Trump?” he asked her, pointedly. “Do you believe there’s a chance we lose our freedom of speech and press?”
That certainly gave her something to think about as the two held hands and ate versions of each other made out of cake.
