On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump relied on claiming that Trump’s hush money payment “got him the election” and that’s unclear, and the case should have been brought at the federal level.
Maher began by saying that many reactions from the right seem to ignore that the ruling was handed down by a jury and “I don’t get this stuff about dictators and we’re losing our way of life. This is our way of life. This was a jury. Does that not have any resonance, any meaning?”
Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) responded by pointing out that Bragg took an approach of, “I’m going to hold Donald Trump accountable.” And that prosecutors targeting one person is dangerous.
After Maher wondered what’s wrong with holding someone accountable, Buck answered, “You and I and David have all committed crimes, if we want to take a magnifying glass –.”
Maher cut in to joke that marijuana is legal now.
Later, Maher stated, “[I]t’s a convoluted case. I brought in what we had said, I did an editorial about this way back, saying, I don’t know if they should bring this case, … people are just going to see it [as] a sex case. … I always thought it should have been brought federally by Merrick Garland, because it is — that’s really the case. And that’s the weird thing, it was a falsifying business records case in the state, and yet, the closing argument was all about, hey, this is what got him the election. This is what — and it — did it get him the election? I don’t know. Did Russia get him the election? I don’t know. And you can’t relitigate all that stuff. I never thought the Democrats were right to be talking about, he’s an illegitimate president. He got the votes.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett