Bill Maher was invited by Trump to have dinner with him at the White House and afterwards said that privately Trump was different from the way he presented himself in public, that he was ‘gracious and measured’ and had a sense of humor.
Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher praised President Trump after their late March meeting at the White House, describing him as “gracious and measured.”
…The talk show host emphasized that he did not turn “MAGA” and “to the President’s credit, there was no pressure to” do so during their March 31 meeting.
“Just for starters, he laughs. I’ve never seen him laugh in public, but he does, including to himself, and it’s not fake, believe me. As a comedian of 40 years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it,” Maher said.
…The longtime comedian said he felt like he did not need to walk on “eggshells” while speaking to Trump, something, in his view, would be unlikely around former Democratic Presidents Obama and Clinton.
“I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days,” Maher said, later telling his viewers that Trump is different in public compared to his persona in a private setting.
…“Trump was gracious and measured. And why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know, and I can’t answer, and it’s not my place to answer.”
Maher is of course one of those people who calls himself a liberal even as he increasingly moves rightward, claiming smugly that he is being sensible and has not changed but that it is liberals and Democrats who have moved too far to the left and are going crazy.
Larry David was having none of this. In a hilarious New York Times op-ed titled My Dinner With Adolf, he skewers Maher without mentioning him by name.
I will not quote from David’s piece because one should really read the whole thing.
Adolf was a vegetarian, something Trump will never be. He would be more into the fried goat diet of Bin Laden.
He means he could let his bigotries hang out with Trump.
My take on Maher: I used to enjoy his schtick but a few years ago he said a few really nasty things -- perhaps someone recalls exactly what he said -- and he was rightly criticized. Instead of asking himself if his critics had a point, Maher started whining about the ‘woke mob’ and the ‘woke mind virus’. He has gone downhill from there.
He was always kind of a quack -- the kind of quack who claims he respects science -- but I felt his oddities were harmless. Little did I know.
I don’t know what happened to Matt Taibbi (does anyone have any inside info?) but he now kowtows to the maga cultists as well.
joelgrant @#3,
I had a post three months ago about how Taibbi (and Glenn Greenwald ) went off the rails. See also the comment by Andrew Wade who gives an informative link.
Maher is using the same argument that people used about Hitler and Mussolini, they weren’t all bad so we should forgive them their actions. I could say the same thing about Maher, we should forgive him for being a stupid anti vaxxer because he was nice to someone.