During the “Overtime” segment of Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that media outlets that accused 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump called for the execution of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) were lying and what Trump said “is exactly what hippies always said.” And “the spirit of it is something that if someone with a blue hat said it, people would nod along on the left.” And Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) agreed that Trump’s words were distorted.
Maher said, “I woke up today to the headline that Trump had called for a firing squad for Liz Cheney. And this is what I really don’t like about the media, no, he didn’t. You don’t have to move me to not like Donald Trump more than I already [do].”
Maher added that Trump was criticizing Cheney on foreign policy and “Now, of course, he expresses himself horribly, he has to add she’s a stupid person, because he’s a moron.”
After Raskin cut in to sarcastically quip, “Well, Trump knows what it’s really like from Vietnam.” Maher responded, “Okay. But, just to be clear, this is exactly what hippies always said. This is exactly what peaceniks always said. This is ‘Fortunate Son’, the song. It’s like, you know what, it’s very easy to sit in your building and send young men to die — apropos of Ukraine, because, I don’t know, that war does not look like it’s going in the right direction. But just so — just don’t lie to me. I don’t like Donald Trump. Don’t lie to me and tell me she was in — he wants her in front of a firing squad. He was saying something that, by the way, if it came out of the mouth — some of it, not the stupid part — again, sounds like what hippies used to say about not sending people to–.”
Raskin then cut in to say, “I agree with you on the lying. That is ridiculous and absurd and counterproductive” and to argue that Trump never criticized war hawks before and Maher responded that he’s not defending Trump and is just saying, “don’t lie to me.”
Raskin responded, “I agree with that. That’s just a distortion.”
Maher added, “And, again, the spirit of it is something that if someone with a blue hat said it, people would nod along on the left.”
Raskin added that he agrees with the criticism of the media coverage, but there has been violence and threats.
Maher further said that talking about guns being pointed at someone’s face isn’t what we want a president to say and there is too much obsession with mainstream media coverage since the influence of mainstream media is lower due to the increase in the number of media outlets.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett