“While we’re all trying to do the most to stay sane during the pandemic, the president is doing literally the least,” Samantha Bee says at the top of her latest episode of Full Frontal from the woods behind her house.
In this exclusive clip from the late-night show, which will air in full Wednesday night on TBS, Bee turns her focus to one group of essential workers “who really need our protection right now”: the U.S. Postal Service.
“Look, I know, it’s hard to get excited about the Postal Service, because it’s just like always there, quietly doing its job,” Bee says. “Unfortunately, as badly as the government is neglecting other frontline workers, it saved the biggest ‘fuck you’ for the Postal Service.”
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So why is Trump refusing to bail out America’s mail system? Turns out it has a lot to do with Amazon.
“Last week, President Trump threatened to block coronavirus aid for the U.S. Postal Service unless it hikes its prices immediately,” Bee explains. “Specifically, the president thinks the post office is undercharging Amazon for deliveries, something his own administration has debunked.”
“Trump is obsessed with Amazon and hates Jeff Bezos,” she continues. “And not for all the good reasons to hate Jeff Bezos. It’s because he owns the Washington Post. Being mad at Jeff Bezos for owning the Washington Post is like being mad at George Bush for painting wrong.”
But the larger issue at hand, Bee argues, is that with the pandemic expected to continue through the fall, the Postal Service “may be the only thing that could save our democracy.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump and the Republicans are against universal vote-by-mail proposals because they worry it will help Democrats. “But there’s no evidence to confirm that,” Bee says. “Mail-in voting helps everyone: old people, young people, late-night TV people who would have liked being invited to Zoom with Lady Gaga but are fine that didn’t happen.”
Because the post office has “become a desperately needed lifeline” during the coronavirus crisis, Bee announces near the end of the segment that her show is doing its part by producing its own custom stamps and giving them away to viewers, for free, starting at 10 p.m. ET on her website.
For more, listen to Samantha Bee on The Last Laugh podcast.
