Last month, Samantha Bee held the world’s most disturbing focus group in an attempt to understand Donald Trump voters. So it’s only fitting that the night before the New York primary, she did the same for Bernie Sanders.
“You know, it’s easy for dried-up old crones like me to dismiss Bernie fans as naïve kids who believe in wizards and unicorns,” Bee said. “But I wanted to hear from actual Sanders supporters themselves.” Her “impossibly diverse panel” included a new citizen, a Native American, and a “stereotypical Bernie bro with his backwards baseball cap, just oozing with ’tude.”
The group was exceptionally confident about Sanders’s chances of winning the Democratic primary race, accusing the media of being “unfair” to their candidate. “I’m not here to bash Bernie,” Bee insisted. “I’m just here to understand your optimism, stick my fingers in, roll it around in my hands and restore myself to the person I used to be.”
Asked to describe Hillary Clinton in one word, the group came up with “dishonest,” “inauthentic,” “uninspiring,” and “Wall Street,” which the host had to point out was actually two words. “Do you think she’s too much in the pocket of realistic expectations?” Bee asked them. Wondering aloud about the traits that unite them, Bee listed off “passion,” “justice,” and “a secret desire to live under a Ted Cruz presidency.”
Everyone in the room voted for Obama in the previous two elections, inspired by his message of “hope and change,” but admitted that he was not able to accomplish as much as they had hoped due to brutal opposition from Congress. “So all of these conservative representatives in their safe gerrymandered districts are going to wake up and say, ‘You know what, I like what this socialist Jew is doing?” Bee asked.
They immediately pushed back, explaining why Sanders different, causing Bee to ask, “Are you literally saying that the difference between Obama and Bernie Sanders is that the people of America are going to continue to be motivated within the political process and they’re going to keep putting pressure on our elected leaders to make change?”
When the group responded with a resounding, “Absolutely!” Bee asked, “Have you met people?”