Lorne Michaels Said ‘SNL’ Is ‘Nonpartisan’ and ‘You Can’t Be Samantha Bee.’ She Now Claps Back: He’s ‘Built a Career Out of Elevating the Loudest Guy in the Room’

Samantha Bee is clapping back at “Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels, who makes a diss at her in his upcoming memoir “Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live.” The former “Daily Show” correspondent and “Full Frontal” host appeared on “The Daily Beast Podcast” and weighed in on Michaels’ criticism, saying: “It’s never exciting to be referenced in a negative way in someone else’s biography that’s gonna do really well.”

Michaels’ biographer, Susan Morrison, spoke to the “SNL” boss two weeks before Donald Trump was first elected president in November 2016. That was a year after Trump hosted a 2015 episode of “SNL” to much controversy from viewers as well as the show’s writers and cast members.

“It’s the hardest thing for me to explain to this generation that the show is nonpartisan,” Michaels says in the book (via The Daily Beast) in response to the outrage over Trump’s hosting gig. “We have our biases, we have our people we like better than others, but you can’t be Samantha Bee.”

Morrison adds in the biography that Michaels “meant one-sided and strident” when he cited Bee’s name, to which the real Bee now responded to by saying she is proud to have those qualities.

“I mean, literally—imagine calling anyone strident when you have built a career out of elevating the loudest guy in the room,” Bee fired back.

“I get referenced in the book as being someone that [Michaels] does not want to emulate in any way,” Bee added. “I concede the point. He’s right. I am one-sided. And I am strident, and proudly so.”

While Bee took issue with Michaels’ diss, she has no hard feelings against “SNL.” She called the sketch comedy show “a delicious treat” to watch as a kid aspiring to be in comedy.

“As a young kid, it felt like an illicit pleasure,” she added. “It’s just all in my consciousness and I love it. I love the performers, I love the writers, I love the writing” she added. “I don’t watch it every week but I certainly have admired it through the years.”

“Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live” publishes Feb. 18.