It’s no secret Samantha Bee isn’t a fan of Donald Trump. The “Full Frontal” host often calls out the president and his administration on her show, which no doubt elicits some passionate responses on social media.
In a new interview with Vulture, the late night host got candid about dealing with social media haters, especially following Trump’s election.
Bee admitted she “very, very seldom” looks at her mentions these days, noting “it’s not healthy to do that.”
The comedian said she saw a drastic difference in the types of comments she was receiving post-election versus before.
“To the moment that they called the election, the moment, my mentions changed completely. There was a shift — it’s B.C. and A.D.,” she said. “In the moment, it was just a tsunami of hatred from all of these different people. It was crazy. It was very affecting. It surprised me. Like at 10 p.m. it happened, and it was just a big shift.”
As we’ve come to learn, the internet can be an extremely mean place, especially for someone, like Bee, who’s in the public eye.
“You know, people say the worst things,” Bee said, noting that among the hateful tweets was one that included a photo of her hanging from a tree. “You just get the worst stuff humanly possible. The tone got more violent. The tone got more aggressive. But also the volume increased exponentially.”
At one point, it got so bad, Bee revealed her assistant took her password away from her. The Canadian-American said she “had to be treated like a toddler for two weeks.” Now, she manages her account herself again and tries not to look at her comments too much.
“It’s sad, really, because people are trying to communicate with you who have something to say, and the vast majority are probably lovely people who just want to say hi,” she said. “I really miss that direct connection. But you really have to protect yourself, mentally.”
Bee previously spoke about dealing with Trump trolls online in an interview with Lena Dunham published by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week.
“I could not believe what I was seeing in my mentions,” she told Dunham. “I could not believe it. And the days following the election were very hard. There were a million reasons why it was difficult, and it’s been really difficult ever since.”
This weekend, Bee will host “Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” a counter event to the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Bee’s event will take place the same day as the White House gala in Washington, D.C., with celebrities like Rachel Bloom and Keegan-Michael Key expected to be in attendance.
To read her full interview, head to Vulture.
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