SerpApi.Org
Hey, you know when it's time to maybe leave your party? When Bill Maher is radioactive but "globalize the intifada" isn't.
Maher seems to have discovered this problem of late. In an interview with ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, he noted that Democrats were too "cowardly" to come on his HBO show and that if he criticizes Republicans -- especially President Donald Trump -- at least they're willing to take their "beating like a man" on air.
The interview was, in part, a valedictory lap after he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the highest U.S. prize for humor, from the Kennedy Center.
Maher's tendency toward what gets derided (not wrongly) as "claughter" -- laughter disguised as clapping along with the host's views -- has never precisely endeared him to me. But at least he's willing to deliver claughter-tastic punchlines that his liberal base won't laugh along with, because it illustrates a truth they're not going to clap for.
And if he manages to score points on Republican hides, at least it's because elected Republicans are willing to show up.
While Maher did knock President Trump for various things -- including Trump chiding him for being a hater even after a White House dinner went well -- he saved his harshest words for the Democrats, noting that Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on the show without any guarantee he'd be treated with kid gloves.
"The first thing I said to him is, it's so odd, isn't it, that I didn't vote for you, and yet you guys come to the show and take your beating like a man," Maher said.
"The Democrats don't come, and yet they got my vote. It's just odd, isn't it?"
"Yes, why is that?" ABC's Jonathan Karl asked. "So what is that all about? I mean, and by the way, you get some Democrats, but--"
"Democrats are cowardly," Maher said.
"Their party is being taken over now by -- you know, every day I hear about a new very radical," he continued. "I feel very good about -- like, 10, whenever years ago -- like, I did lose fans because I wasn't going to go along with some of this crazy stuff on the left, too."
"I didn't change really on what I thought about the right, but just, I can't sit and just not notice stuff, which people seem to want to do because it's all about my team or your team."
And then, words that no Democrat should have to say, but must in the current environment: "You know, when we're cheering for the Intifada, God, I'm out."
The full interview is here, for the curious:
https://youtu.be/dx_5W0DgJJM?si=HBx5DEjrMssnG05b
And this is accurate. By the by, you have multiple candidates -- including the mayor of New York City, for the love of Pete! -- who want to act as if "globalize the intifada" is acceptable stuff. It's not.
I could have told you it wasn't before 9/11. I could have told you it wasn't before Oct. 7, 2023. This shouldn't be hard for anyone over the age of 18 -- or even under it. It's not hard for Maher, for heaven's sake, who got fired from ABC over his comments on 9/11. (Which were stupid, but at least now seem like they're within the window of reason, strange as that is.)
When Bill Maher is the voice of reason, it says a lot. It says more when that morsel of reason is "Hey, intifada is bad."
Don't get me wrong, he's not a right-winger. But the way things are going, Maher is proving there's no future for him on the left, either.
