HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher argued that the incident with Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, and former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was “nothing” and “stupidity” on Friday.
Maher said the tape of the incident was “like the Zapruder film, if nothing had happened.” And another example of liberals attempting to “mimic the stupidity of the right. They had to get on team, he almost killed her.”
Maher also reacted that Fields’ comment that the event was, “[A]side from my father’s death, the worst experience [that] I’ve gone through. The hate that I’ve received, the email messages.” He replied, “What a charmed, lucky, clueless white girl life you have lived. If that’s the worse thing that happened to you. And do we have to politicize everything? … That’s not assault. If I pick a hair off your sweater, is that assault?”
Demos Action President Heather McGhee disagreed with Maher’s statement and said that the charge was technically battery, which is unwanted touching, that Fields had a bruise.
Trump supporter Andy Dean then said, “That tape was released by Donald Trump and the campaign. It was from our ballroom at Trump Jupiter. We wanted people to see this tape, because after the event, she said she almost fell down. This is also a reporter who said she was abused by the NYPD, and groped by a war hero, Allen West.” Comedian Kathy Griffin then responded, “I hear her skirt was too short. Don’t even start that perspective.” Dean responded, “She has a history, like Brian Williams, of inserting herself into the news.”
After the discussion briefly pivoted to other events at Trump rallies, Maher stated, “If you cut in line in a bathroom at a nightclub, and somebody did that to you, would there be an assault charge?” McGhee responded, “But this man wants to be the leader of the free world and his number two — this is not a concert. That’s the point. We have to hold these people to a higher standard than a guy in a concert line.” Dean then stated, “He redirected her.” Maher concluded the discussion by stating, “No one can take someone’s arm anymore in America? That’s assault?”
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