Samantha Bee And Glenn Beck Unite To Stop Trump

Since leaving Fox News in 2011, right-wing personality Glenn Beck has built a substantial media empire with his website, The Blaze, radio show, recent books (Liars: How Progressives Exploit Our Fears for Power and Control, It IS About Islam: Exposing the Truth About ISIS, Al Qaeda, Iran, and the Caliphate). But Beck put it all on the line this year by refusing to back Republican nominee Donald Trump for president. While Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity kowtowed to Trump, Beck called him a “frightening sociopath.”

Monday, Beck took things a step further by appearing on liberal Samantha Bee’s show Full Frontal to unite people on the left and right to stop Trumpism. “I think that our future is going to require a broad coalition of nonpartisan decency,” Bee said. “It’s not just individual people against Donald Trump, it’s all of us against ‘Trumpism.’ I actually think it’s important to reach into places where we wouldn’t normally reach.”

At the onset of their discussion, the two polarizing political figures first acknowledged the 800-pound gorilla in the room. “My audience hates your guts,” Beck said. “My audience hates your guts more, “Bee replied. As someone who spent most of his career riling up his audience with right-wing sensationalism, Beck admitted that he was part of the problem. “I, as a guy who has done damage, I don’t want to do any more damage,” he told Bee. “I know what I did, I helped divide, I’m willing to take that. My message to you is please don’t make the mistake that I made.”

Beck and Bees’ decision to take on Trump together shows that for many on both sides of the political spectrum, Trump is a threat that goes way beyond partisan bickering. If Americans of all political stripes who have a problem with Trump’s ties to white nationalism, support of Vladimir Putin, and rampant xenophobia stand together and defeat him, we can return to the to the innocent days of petty bickering and be all the better for it.