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The hosts of The View brought one of the more controversial figures in talk media into the fold of their “Hot Topics” discussions on Tuesday, welcoming Real Time host Bill Maher to the table to talk about his coverage of the 2024 presidential election cycle so far on his HBO late-night series.
“You’re a comic, but you basically go up against Trump and Biden, both of them, and a lot of people are not happy about that,” Joy Behar said at the start, to which Maher clarified, “Well, not equally.”
“Well, not equally,” Behar agreed, “Because you know that Trump is more of a danger.”
“Of course!” Maher conceded. “I don’t think anybody was more out front on that danger than I was. I was talking about how he was never going to give up power long ago when everybody was laughing at me and said, ‘You smoke too much pot,’ and I said, ‘I smoked just the right amount.’ I was using the term ‘slow-moving coup’ before he was elected the first time. ‘Cause this guy was never going to concede power. It was impossible to imagine him going, ‘Oh, I lost!’ That’s just not in his nature.”
While Behar said she refrains from criticizing the sitting president for fear of turning swing voters away from him, Maher explained his reasoning for doing so, saying, “I think you lose all credibility. My audience has always been [aware] I don’t pull a punch. My bond with my audience is, ‘You’re not going to like everything I say, but you know what I’m saying is true.’”
From there, Maher went on to criticize Biden as “presenting as old” and comparing his decision to run for reelection to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Some Democrats criticize Ginsburg for staying in office too long so that she died while Trump was president, resulting in her being replaced by a Trump appointee rather than someone chosen by former President Obama.)
“When I came back after the strike in September, I said he should get out because he’s lost the faith of the people,” Maher said. “It’s not fair. He’s actually done a pretty good job, but he’s going to be Ruth Bader Biden.”
When asked to extrapolate on that record and why some people might still choose Trump, despite the mountain of allegations against him contrasted with Biden’s achievements, Maher said, “Donald Trump benefits from people not taking him seriously because he’s both stupid and crazy, right?… They don’t care. They don’t take him seriously. It’s the greatest advantage a politician could have.”
The View, weekdays, check local listings