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On July 16, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a joint press conference.

In their two-hour meeting in Finland, the two apparently discussed a wide range of topics, from the conflict in Syria to the annexation of Crimea.

But it was Trump's response to a question about 2016 election meddling that raised the most eyebrows stateside.

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

When pressed about the Kremlin's cyber attacks and disinformation campaign during the presidential election, Trump avoided criticizing his Russian counterpart — and, in doing so, seemingly backed Putin's claims that Russia did not interfere.

"My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others saying they think it's Russia," Trump said. "... President Putin ... just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia] ... I have confidence in both parties.”

Both parties?

"I have great confidence in my intelligence people," Trump continued, "but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."

Putin gave Trump a soccer ball from the recent World Cup played in Russia. Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images.

This ... is not good. Whichever way you spin it.

And TBS's "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" spun it in quite the interesting fashion.

Using altered past presidential quotes with the hashtag #BothSidesHistory, "Full Frontal" illustrated just how absurd Trump's remarks on Russian meddling truly are.

"A house divided is actually just fine," the first fake quote from Abraham Lincoln read. "Both sides are great! Excellent people on both sides."

Why is everyone so upset about the #HelsinkiSummit? Our greatest presidents did exactly what @POTUS did today.… https://t.co/6GvkfOlnlV
— Full Frontal (@Full Frontal) 1531765525

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for our dear friends in the Soviet Union," John F. Kennedy could've said (but didn't).

#BothSidesHistory https://t.co/ibXIUGwsIu
— Full Frontal (@Full Frontal) 1531765526

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that the King of England treats us real good and the whole tea mess is our fault," our Founding Fathers definitely did not say.

#BothSidesHistory https://t.co/No4H8tND5E
— Full Frontal (@Full Frontal) 1531765527

"This is a day that will live in normal-famy because I talked to Japan and they said they didn't do it IDK," Franklin D. Roosevelt said. (Not really, but you get how this works.)

— (@)

"Mr. Gorbachev, this wall is so cute!" Ronald Reagan said. (Nope.)

#BothSidesHistory https://t.co/3cBC5pykgS
— Full Frontal (@Full Frontal) 1531765529

"Full Frontal's" lighthearted spin on the Trump-Putin press conference may be a little too flippant for some to get on board with ("Funny but too soon for me, gut is still churning" one user commented in the replies). And that's understandable.

But the sobering point being made — that the moral equivalency of "both sides" is a dangerous one to promote — is resonating with many Americans.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle condemned Trump's answers at the Helsinki press conference.

"It's difficult to overstate the damage done by Donald Trump's shocking and disgraceful show of weakness on the world stage," Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth tweeted. "The strong global alliances and global belief in American leadership that he has taken just days to tear down over the last [week] will take generations to rebuild."

"Trump flattered Putin who attacked our democracy and insulted the brave men and women of our Intelligence Community," fellow Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris wrote. "It is disgraceful."

Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain also blasted Trump's refusal to condemn Putin with the world watching.

I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President… https://t.co/qwqtrGT6pU
— Jeff Flake (@Jeff Flake) 1531757642

— (@)

Whether it's funny fake quotes from past presidents or terrifyingly real ones from present-day senators, they both make one point crystal clear: Cozying up to — and, potentially, colluding with — authoritarians who murder journalists and rig elections in order to win is not the American way.

Heroes

An evangelical scientist shows 'Full Frontal' how to talk to climate change doubters.

Fewer than half of Americans think climate change will pose a threat to their way of life within their lifetimes.

They should hear about Tangier Island.

The island, located in the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Virginia's mainland, is quite literally sinking into the sea. Since 1850, its land mass has decreased by two-thirds, and scientific estimates suggest that within the next half century, it'll be completely uninhabitable.

Tangier Mayor James Eskridge insists that the real issue is erosion. Appearing at a CNN town hall with former Vice President Al Gore, Eskridge asked why he hadn't noticed any signs of rising sea levels — even as his island sinks into the sea.

On Tangier Island, however, Esktridge's view is far from uncommon.

— (@)

"Full Frontal With Samantha Bee" correspondent Allana Harkin recently traveled to Tangier Island.

Along the way, she learned a few techniques for having productive conversations with climate change doubters.

Many of Tangier's residents are evangelical Christians, a group that is made up of some of the statistically least likely Americans to believe in man-made climate change. Some residents interviewed rolled their eyes at Harkin when she stated that she believed in things like climate change and evolution, and others suggested that even if climate change is real, it's fine because they'll be raptured away.

A Tangier resident named George has no interest in hearing what Al Gore has to say about climate change. All images via Full Frontal With Samantha Bee/YouTube.

Unable to get through to residents using conventional arguments, Harkin turned to Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist and evangelical Christian, for help.

"Just saying, 'Oh, God will take care of it' or 'It doesn't matter,' is actually a profoundly un-Christian perspective," said Hayhoe — who has a positive track record of getting through to doubtful evangelicals on this subject — in the segment. "In the Bible, it says God will destroy those who destroy the Earth."

When Harkin asked what steps she could take to convince those who dispute climate science on the basis of religious grounds, Hayhoe highlighted the importance of listening, not just lecturing, and asking for their stories.

"Rather than coming and in and saying, 'I know,' 'I'm gonna tell you,' 'You listen to me,' the place to start is by sharing from the heart: What is it that we have in common?"

Katherine Hayhoe delivers a talk on rebutting climate change denial among evangelicals.

With Hayhoe's advice in mind, Harkin revisited the first group, and, well, it went sorta kinda OK!

This time, instead of challenging their entire worldviews, Harken tried a different tactic. "Let me throw this out there, and we'll let it land. We won't even have to discuss it," Harkin said. "What if climate scientists are actually doing God's work?" The room was stunned into silence. You could practically see the exact moment the walls of distrust started to come down.

Addressing the question in a way that made sense with their view of the world elicited a stunned, thoughtful silence and some nods from the group. "He works through everybody," said one man. "Yeah, He can work through them," said another, nodding.

Harkin moderates a discussion among Tangier residents.

Though the segment ends without any converts to the side of truth, science, and not standing by as their island disappears forever, Harkin and the Tangier Island residents had an important conversation that could signal the first steps in saving the island from the effects of climate change.

Watch the "What's Happening to Tangier Island" segment from "Full Frontal With Samantha Bee" below.

Samantha Bee hasn't given up on America. Here's what's keeping her hopeful.

Over the weekend, Samantha Bee stopped by Ozy Fest in New York's Central Park to talk about running for office ("Never! God, no!"), creating an internship program for female ex-convicts, and the restorative power of connecting with other people.

Upworthy caught up with Bee to ask how she balances being late night's most formidable player with the increasingly challenging task of staying hopeful and optimistic.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Ozy Fest 2017.

Upworthy (UP): Speaking not as the host of "Full Frontal" but as a person who has to work in news every day, how’re you holding up?

Samantha Bee (SB): Terrible! Terribly! How are you holding up?

UP: I’m doing pretty good.

SB: Oh, you are? OK. OK.

UP: How are you coping with things?

SB: I don’t think very well. I mean, as a citizen of this country, I’m reasonably worried. The news is coming at us pretty fast. Still, I’m trying to lead a happy life.

UP: You were at "The Daily Show" when Jon Stewart left. He gave an interview around that time in which he said, "I’m in a constant state of depression. I think of us as turd miners. I put on my helmet, I go and mine turds, hopefully I don’t get turd lung disease." Are you getting turd lung disease?

SB:[laughs] Oh my gosh. I forgot that he said that! I’m totally getting turd lung disease. Yeah, I have that. I’m getting turd COPD.

UP: So what do you do to manage that, to draw boundaries around that?

SB: Well, the one thing — this doesn’t really make it totally better, but — we only make a show once a week. So we do get a tiny pause at the weekend. I mean, news never stops. There’s no getting around it. But at least we have a little bit of space between shows to breathe for a half second. And I get to go off and travel around and do things that get me really excited.

We have a bunch of pieces coming up where I went to — [laughs] as the words are coming out of my mouth, I’m like "What am I talking about?" But I went to Iraq, and that actually gave me great joy! [laughs] So we’re gonna roll out the Iraq pieces in the next couple of weeks, and that type of thing makes me, I love going out. The freedom to go out in the world does make it a little easier.

Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TBS.

UP: Do you find that looking people in the eyes is a little bit better than reading about it in the news and hearing it recorded?

SB: A hundred percent. Yeah.

UP: What do you think is the value of that connection?

SB: I mean, just learning on the ground. I don’t think it’s just valuable from a news perspective. It’s just a good exercise as a human being, to go somewhere else and check out the scene.

UP: A lot of people are struggling with this feeling of being fatigued. But on your show, you encourage civic responsibility and you encourage people to stay engaged.

SB: It’s hard to do. People do get fatigued. I did have a feeling that once the warm weather hit, people would lose that feeling of fervor but I actually don’t think they did. I don’t think people are slowing down. When I see that, it does lift my spirit. I love it. Killing that health care bill — it felt good. Those small victories.

UP: The Democrats are having a pretty hard time coming up with a slogan to unite the party. If that was your responsibility, what would you write?

SB: Oh my gosh. I don’t know what I would write. I’m afraid to say anything because I’m afraid they’ll use it. I’m sure they’ll land on something. In 2019.

UP: Obviously the script of your show is very sarcastic, but you seem to be less jaded than most. How do you stay hopeful?

SB: You know, just that. Meeting people, witnessing people’s engagement — they really care. They’re very alive. That makes me feel hopeful. And if that’s all we have to feel hopeful about — that’s actually a lot.

In eight states, schools treat active shooter situations like natural disasters. What?

Fire drills, earthquake drills, and tornado drills are common in schools around the country (and world, really). They represent response to an unpredictable, unstoppable natural disasters.

And it's good to be prepared in these types of situations. Whether that means crouching down under desks or filing out the door, it's important to have a plan in these scenarios.

Duck and cover. GIF via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

In response to near-weekly school shootings, educators in eight states now practice another kind of emergency plan with their students: active shooter drills.

Since 2013, there have been more than 170 school shootings. While it seems like the obvious focus should be on figuring out how to prevent shooters from accessing guns in the first place, we've kind of accepted this as the new normal, a disaster as unpredictable as a fire.

Image via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

Last night's episode of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" gave viewers a look at these drills and the industry behind them.

Bee met with Alon Stivi i, a former Israel Special Forces Op, to better understand what these drills mean. Essentially, it's a lesson in how to turn classroom items into weapons.

Stivi shows Bee how to use a pencil to stab someone. Seriously. Image via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

It's kind of terrifying.

Do active shooter drills do anything to stop the ever-rising number of school shootings?

No, and that's why they're not enough. All but two of the eight states (Illinois and New Jersey) have especially lax gun laws with wide loopholes that allow people to sidestep background checks in certain situations. In one of the states, a bill was proposed that would have made it a felony for lawmakers to even try to enact gun control.

Family members of gun violence victims gather before the second anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

If lawmakers are serious about stopping school shootings, it's time they stand up to the gun lobby and the NRA.

Many politicians shy away from working on gun control legislation out of fear that they'll get a failing grade from the National Rifle Association and will lose their funding as a result. But maybe what they need to do is adopt the same type of bravery they're asking of kids in these situations and stand up to the organization.

If they, as a legislative body, stand up to the lobby and pass common sense reforms like background checks, waiting periods, and limits on the number of bullets a gun can fire before needing to reload, they can effectively strip the organization of its power.

"Full Frontal" demonstrated this with a brilliant children's theater production about why lawmakers are scared into voting against gun control legislation.

They point to Republicans — like New Mexico's Nate Gentry — who've stood up to the NRA as examples to follow. In 2013, Gentry pushed to close the "gun show loophole" that allowed some people to sidestep background checks. Even though the NRA was opposed to the bill, Gentry was reelected.

The dreaded F rating from the NRA! GIF via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

School shootings are not natural disasters, and we don't need to just accept this as the new normal. It's odd that there's only one country where this happens again and again, right? Let's change that.

So while there's nothing wrong with students being prepared for the worst-case scenario when it comes to active shooter situations, we need to do more to prevent those events from even taking place.

Right? It's pretty easy to understand. GIF via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

Watch Bee's segment on active shooter drills below.

Samantha Bee just can't with Texas' ridiculous new abortion law.

Lawmakers from around the country are so concerned about women's health, they've gone out of their way to make sure clinics that offer abortions are as "safe" as possible.

These laws — which regulate everything from the sex segregation of changing rooms in a facility to the width of the hallways — are so strict that dozens of clinics across the U.S. have been forced to close.

Between 2010 and 2013, more than 50 had shut their doors.

Samantha Bee spoke to one of the authors of one such law — Texas' HB2 — which currently is being challenged at the Supreme Court. To hear him tell it, he's just a sweet old guy who's concerned for everyone's safety. How considerate!

As funny as Bee's segment was, these laws are no joke.

Unable to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents have resorted to a sort of slow chipping away of abortion access at the state level. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights advocacy organization, states have enacted 231 abortion restrictions in just the last four years. After Texas' HB2 was passed, more than half of Texas' clinics were forced to close.

Areas like Texas' Rio Grande Valley — home to many poor and immigrant women — have seen their last clinic close in the last several years, forcing those seeking abortions to travel 240 miles to the nearest facility. As a result, reports of illegal abortions or people crossing into Mexico for the procedure are on the rise.

Even before HB2 was passed, a Texas Policy Evaluation Project report found that an estimated 100,000 Texans have tried to self-induce abortions. Many of those surveyed in the study cited lack of affordable access to reproductive health services as a reason.

As part of the Supreme Court case against HB2, real people who have chosen abortion have been sharing their stories with the justices. And they're critically important.

One woman:

\n\n

"I often tell people — and I believe it to be true — that access to a safe, legal abortion saved my life. If I had not had an abortion, I would have never been able to graduate high school, go to college, [or] escape my high-poverty rural county in Oregon.

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Another:

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"I was living in a three-bedroom house with nine people in an economically struggling area of town and I had no child care options available, besides dropping out of school. ... However, once I had my abortion, I was registered back in school three weeks later and went on to earn the highest grade-point average (GPA) in my high school, earning the opportunity to speak at graduation."

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Another:

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

"[A]t the age of 18, I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer and did not want to follow in the footsteps of my mother, my grandmother and my great-grandmother in becoming a mother by the age of 18. Taking control of my reproductive freedom gave me the ability to be the first person in my family to graduate from high school, the first person to graduate from college, and the first person to achieve a post-graduate degree."

Many court watchers expect the justices will deadlock 4-4 on the case, which would leave the lower court ruling upholding Texas' law in place.

Should that happen, millions of Texas women will continue to have poor access to safe, reliable reproductive health care.

Relying on the courts to strike these restrictions down is no guarantee. If we want to get rid of them, we need to elect lawmakers who won't pass them in the first place.

Not just presidents and senators, but congressmen. State senators. State legislators. County executives. Mayors. Look up who supports the right to safe, affordable abortion services, and support them in turn.

\n\n

Not just this year, or every four years when there's a huge presidential election, but every election year, no matter how boring or insignificant. (Bee ran a pretty terrific segment on why this is so important in the same show.) Small elections can have big consequences.

\n\n\n\n\n\n

Vote.

From Your Site Articles

Samantha Bee's infuriating segment on sexual harassment is required viewing.

Cruise ships: For passengers, they're a chance to see the world without having to give up constant access to the cheese that makes America so great.

Many of the women who work on board these cruise ships, however, report getting a raw deal.

Last month, Jezebel reported that, since November 2015, Norwegian Cruise Lines no longer offers employees access to emergency contraceptives (the morning-after pill) unless they've been raped or sexually assaulted, forcing many women who either get pregnant or fear becoming pregnant to quit their jobs if they want to access family planning services.

On an episode of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee," Bee decided to interview several female former cruise ship employees to find out what was really going on behind the scenes.

What she found was disturbing and, sadly, all too real.

All the women she spoke to reported being subject to frequent sexual harassment on board and said that, when they reported it — surprise, surprise — many found their supervisors completely indifferent to their complaints.

\n\n

(The cruise ship section starts about 1:45 in, but the whole video is worth a watch.)

This problem doesn't just happen on cruise ships, unfortunately.

Bee also mentioned park rangers at the Grand Canyon, who reported facing withheld meals and intimidation when they rejected sexual advances from colleagues, and female comedians in Los Angeles, who have started online discussion groups to trade stories of harassment — on stage and off — as well as sexual assault.

There are, obviously, depressing statistics about this.

A Cosmopolitan survey of women in the workplace from 2015 found that an incredible 1 in 3 respondents had been harassed on the job. An ABC/Washington Post poll from four years earlier puts the number at 1 in 4.

Can anything be done about it?

While workplace harassment isn't currently on the congressional docket, a bill that seeks to add new protections against sexual assault and violence on college campuses is currently making its way through the House and Senate. There's not much movement on it, however, and unfortunately, a similar bill that sought to make it easier to prosecute rape crimes in the military recently failed.

\n\n

Our representatives won't feel the need to support these (or similar) measures unless we call them on it — and only vote for the ones that do. So let's do that.

And of course, the obvious...

Men (and women) can just ... stop sexually harassing and sexually assaulting their colleagues.

It's that simple!

In the United States, the line from ... certain politicians ... on Syrian refugees has mostly been this: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Some guy. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

But how afraid should we be? Just how terrorist-y are these refugees after all? Most Americans have never met any, so it's hard to know.

Two Syrian refugee friends in Turkey. Photo by Bulent Kilic/Getty Images.

In just the second episode of her (pretty excellent) new TBS show, "Full Frontal," Samantha Bee traveled to Jordan to find out.

Photo via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

Bee spoke to some actual refugees and asked them actual questions, including what they think about ISIS.

Based on what she found, we ... shouldn't be afraid at all (unless you're afraid of Alec Baldwin fans).

First of all, they hate ISIS.

This is what you say if you hate ISIS. GIF via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

Beyond that, they're basically just regular people caught in a terrible situation.

They watch TV. They go to school. They want to live in peace.

Many were big fans of the United States and completely unaware of the contentious debate in the U.S. about their status. Just shocking!

Wait a minute — what if this is just a ploy to get us to drop our guard?

"Mwah ha ha ha. I have you now" — Not this guy. Photo via "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.

Thankfully, it isn't!

Contrary to Donald Trump's suggestion that the vast majority of refugees are "strong young men," suspiciously traveling alone, Bee found plenty of women, children, widows, and families in the camp. And unlike people who travel on, say, a tourist or student visa — which are easy to come by in comparison — refugees have to endure a grueling, potentially years-long vetting process that involves multiple agencies before ultimately being resettled in a random country not of their choosing (unless they have family or another compelling reason to go somewhere specific).

Bottom line: If a terrorist were looking to sneak into the U.S., it would be pretty dumb to try and do it as a refugee.

"They are personally interviewed and thorough background checks are performed by Homeland Security and the FBI," former chief counsel of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Stephen H. Legomsky wrote in a news release. "No competent terrorist would choose the U.S. refugee process as a preferred strategy for gaining entry into the U.S."

So cheer up, America! Syrian refugees are just like you and me, and it's OK to welcome them.

It's the right thing to do, and it doesn't cost us anything.

Except possibly, the one thing they want above all else.

GIF by "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"/YouTube.