Samantha Bee used her show Wednesday night to highlight the Trump administration’s questionable treatment of undocumented children, at one point calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c**t” for her inaction on the issue.
The comments prompted outcry, with the White House deeming them “vile and vicious.” By Thursday afternoon, “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” had begun to lose sponsors, as Autotrader and State Farm bowed to pressure on social media and pulled their ads.
“The comments expressed by Samantha Bee were offensive and unacceptable and do not reflect the views of our company,” Autotrader said in a statement. “As a result, we have suspended our sponsorship.”
Autotrader declined to elaborate on its decision in a statement to HuffPost.
Insurance company State Farm shortly followed suit.
“We have asked TBS to suspend our advertising in the program and are reviewing any future placements,” the company told The Wrap. “We constantly review programs to ensure alignment to our programming guidelines and brand values.”
Bee apologized to Ivanka Trump and to her viewers for the remarks shortly after Autotrader announced its decision, calling her use of the expletive “inappropriate and inexcusable”:
TBS, which airs Bee’s show, also offered an apology, saying in a statement, “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.”
Bee isn’t alone in having lost the backing of an online car dealer. Last May, Cars.com pulled its advertising from Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News after he pushed a debunked conspiracy theory about a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer.