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Madonna dropped three f-bombs during her remarks at the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday. The singer’s remarks aired uncensored on C-SPAN, CNN and MSNBC.
The Queen of Pop began her remarks by addressing the crowd of an estimated 500,000 women (and men) in the nation’s capital and alluding to Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States, saying “Welcome to the revolution of love, to the rebellion, to our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny, where not just women are in danger but all marginalized people, where being uniquely different right now might truly be considered a crime. It took this horrific moment of darkness to wake us the f— up.”
She later said, “To our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything, f— you.” She then repeated the expletive for a third time.
Both CNN and MSNBC quickly cut away after Madonna’s third f-word, with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin apologizing for the expletives that they aired.
But C-SPAN stuck with their ongoing coverage of the march.
The moment came as Trump looks to name Ajit Pai as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, succeeding Tom Wheeler. It’s unclear how Pai would police indecency on the airwaves.
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Madonna insisted, as many of the speakers at Saturday’s star-studded demonstration did, that the protest was “the beginning.”
She suggested that during the 2016 presidential election, “It seems as though we had all slipped into a false sense of comfort, that justice would prevail, that good would win in the end. Well, good did not win this election, but good will win in the end. So what today means is that we are far from the end. Today marks the beginning, the beginning of our story. The revolution starts here, the fight for the right to be free, to be who we are, to be equal. Let’s march together through this darkness and with each step know that we are not afraid, that we are not alone, that we will not back down, that there is power in our unity and that no opposing force stands a chance in the face of true solidarity.”
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She later added, “It is the beginning of much needed change. Change will require sacrifice and many of us to make different choices in our lives. But this is the hallmark.”
After leading the crowd in chants of “Yes, we’re ready,” Madonna added, “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, and I know this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair.”
Instead, she said that she would “choose love.”
Madonna then performed “Express Yourself” and “Human Nature,” dedicating the latter song to President Trump, but she said she couldn’t even say his name, merely stating that the performance went out to “the new DT in the White House. ‘D’ could stand for dick. I don’t know.”
The Queen of Pop was just one of the many Hollywood stars who participated in the D.C. demonstration. America Ferrera, Michael Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Ashley Judd and Van Jones addressed the strikingly large crowd. And many other celebrities documented their experience going to the rally and march via social media. Similar marches also occurred in New York, L.A., London, Berlin, Amsterdam and at the Sundance Film Festival.
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A number of entertainment industry figures, including CNN and MSNBC contributors, chimed in on Madonna’s language, with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell suggesting that she shouldn’t have been censored.
If Trump’s “grab them by the pussy” didn’t offend you, you don’t get to complain about people telling Trump to fuck off.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 21, 2017
Retweet if you don’t need TV networks to protect your ears from @Madonna using words we all use.
— Lawrence O’Donnell (@Lawrence) January 21, 2017
If Madonna’s F-bomb offends you, I just hope you were also offended when Trump bragged about “p***y grabbing.” pic.twitter.com/w0OHANINCA
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 21, 2017
What I will remember from the last two days. Vividly. People smashing up downtown DC and Madonna talking about blowing up the WH.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) January 21, 2017
Madonna just said she wants to bomb the White House.
Any ordinary person who said that would be arrested, charged & jailed. #WomensMarch— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 21, 2017
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