Talk show host Bill Maher shared his thoughts on President Joe Biden’s speech from earlier in the week in which the president condemned the MAGA movement.
“I got to say — Joe Biden is an old dog that can learn a new trick,” the host said during his TV show Real Time on Friday.
“He came into office — ‘I’m going to reconcile with Republicans, the old Republican Party’ — he finally got it through his head. No, they’re not — you cannot negotiate with election-deniers,” he said.
In Biden’s speech, the president compared the MAGA movement to a type of “semi-fascism” during a speech at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser event in Bethesda, Maryland.
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“So 59% of the people agree with him in this speech about MAGA is a threat to this country because they don’t believe in democracy,” Maher said of the public reaction to the speech. “But 58% of the people said this speech was divisive. I get this because I feel like it’s kind of analogous to Afghanistan. That he did it? I like. The way they did it? Not good.”
Biden would attempt to distinguish Republicans from MAGA Republicans by defining the latter as those who deny the election results and support candidates who do the same, approve of Jan. 6 rioters, and favor political violence. Biden claimed he continued to have respect for those outside those categories.
“No one heard this!” Maher said of Biden’s definition of a MAGA Republican. “They didn’t watch this speech. All they heard was he attacked us. He attacked our side. That’s where his big mistake was. People are not good enough to appreciate nuance in this country.”
Instead, the talk show host suggested that the president similarly criticize those fringe characters among the Democrats who “have to own other crazy s***.”
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“There’s something every day that Biden could have picked out and said, ‘And my side has gone too far on this,'” Maher said. “And yes, it wouldn’t be equivalent, but the country could then — the people in the middle and the people who don’t want to feel like you’re just attacking my team would be, like, ‘Yes, finally.’ And then, he could not have to run again.”
Maher has hosted Real Time since 2003.
