miss my conversation with comedian, sam joe. welcome to the show. i m mehdi hassan. three months ago, russia launched its war on ukraine and we all thought it might be over in a few days. u.s. intel predicted kyiv would fall quickly to russian paratroopers. that didn t happen, thankfully. not only have the ukrainians defend themselves over the last few months, with the help of the western world, but they ve gone on the offensive. ukrainian troops, this, week two we took land around the area of kharkiv, ruining russian plans for a blitzkrieg offensive. in fact, ukraine s defense ministry put out a video russian border, pushing russian invaders back on to their own turf. nbc news has not confirmed where or when that video was shot. according to the u k depends ministry, russia sacked two generals. one of who was responsible for kharkiv. meanwhile, the pipeline of the remains open, and more european nations are seeking to join the alliance itself. most recently, finl
i, wonder is there a point when you draw the line and say, this opposing viewpoint is so out there, so extreme, so dangerous, it is not worth giving a platform to? for example, i have said that i will not have election deniers on this show. i do not want to amplify that nonsense. is there a line for you where you say, no, we are not going to do that? i am sure there is, i don t know if i fit it yet. everything that we are talking about as of right now, there is not been anything we felt, like this person s thoughts or too old. but i m sure there is. i just have not hit the threshold for myself yet. and sam, tv comedy, late night shows, snl in particular, have been criticized over the years for a lack of diversity. for example i believe you are the first black lesbian writer in the show s 50-year history. and i wonder, do you think that hollywood, tv comedy, in particular snl has made progress in terms of diversity, especially in the world of
the apprentice over his comments about mexican immigrants. this is business. this is how it s played. so we know that it s only ratings that matter? i think for at the end of the day it s how they are going to bring in money to the america. when you look at snl in particular, lorne michaels calls the shots and brings in the people he wants to bring in. and they are going to find an easy a to play ball and if they want to get donald trump they are going to donald trump. this is the way business is. take the feelings out of it. it is what it is. if there is hypocrisy it s that trump is agreeing to go on nbc which he is bashing and suing and all the rest. for him doing that, now you are calling me back. it s a business transaction on both sides and mutually