"Real Time" host Bill Maher had some fun at the expense of former President Donald Trump while drawing attention to the political rise of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Maher was in good spirits on Friday after predicting last week that democracy would "lose" in the midterm elections, pointing out how "unprecedented" it is that the party in power has lost few to no House seats, noting the only other exception in recent years was in the 2002 midterms following 9/11.
"So basically Trump is as scary as 9/11 to people, that's really the message — I think that's the takeaway," Maher said during a panel discussion.
While talking about the GOP-infighting that has taken place since the midterms where some in the party have blamed Trump for endorsing candidates that resulted in various defeats, Maher wasn't ready to cheer that "the Wicked Witch is dead" since he's seen "Jason come back from the grave too many times," though he did say "it does seem closer than ever" that Republicans will abandon the former president.
"Time. Time is such a great ally when the enemy is something that exhausts you. He's exhausting. And now it's like election after election after — it's finally, finally, maybe," Maher said.
CBS News correspondent Robert Costa wondered "who" within the Republican Party would take on Trump, who many expect will launch his 2024 campaign next week, suggesting someone as young as DeSantis would not want to "risk" his career getting in the mud with him.
"Risk? Why is that a risk?" Maher asked.
"He goes after you personally, he goes after your family — a lot of people don't want to get into the arena and get bloodied up," Costa responded.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., piled on DeSantis, suggesting he's gone further than Trump in attacking the First Amendment, pointing to his "bullying" of Disney and claiming Florida's new abortion law is too extreme.
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"I think one reason he did well in Florida because didn't he have a 15-week rule, which is similar to what they have in Europe? I don't — he did not go as far," Maher said.
"He's not been clear," Khanna told Maher. "He's not been clear whether he opposes an abortion national ban, does he oppose what Lindsey Graham said."
"Well, he certainly didn't do what a lot of very conservative people did in conservative states which would say, this is like… moment of conception," Maher defended DeSantis. "I mean, I understand what you're saying about DeSantis. The reason why I think DeSantis is so strong is because he can do both things. He can do the performance art, that seems to have you so exercised, to the base, most of which I don't really know if it's that damaging — he picks a fight with Disney, does it really affect anybody?"
"I mean, I read the 'Don't Say Gay,' which is not the name of the law. They call it the ‘Don’t Say Gay' law. It could have been called the 'Let's Do Things in Schools the Way We Did Five Years Ago' law," Maher continued. So what I'm saying is, he can do both that… yes, he knows how to rile up the base. I agree. He's a politician, but he also can be a normal governor. In other words, after the storm, he can stand with President Biden like a normal governor does and work with him and then send some migrants to Martha's Vineyard. And that's a very powerful thing, to have both those elements."
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Khanna continued attacking DeSantis, accusing him of having "no economic vision" or "foreign policy vision," which received pushback from Maher.
"He's a governor — what's a governor's foreign policy positions supposed to be?… It's Florida. Florida is not in the U.N.! Jesus Christ," Maher exclaimed.
The HBO star later circled back to whether Republicans will dump Trump, invoking the former president's famous campaign promise of "You're gonna be so tired of winning."
"No, we're tired of losing. You're a loser and you keep losing," Maher told the former president. "I mean Georgia — how many elections has he now f----- up in Georgia?… Not since Sherman has anyone caused this amount of damage in Georgia than he has caused to the Republican Party."
"It's funny, the deniers didn't do well and the defiers did well… Brian Kemp defied him," Maher added.
Later on, while discussing how Biden should sit out of 2024, Maher said the president would "definitely beat Trump again" wasn't so certain about DeSantis.
"It's gonna look weird because he will be, like, literally twice as old as him… and DeSantis has, like, three little kids. You know, that always plays well in America. America likes new. It likes strange. We want some strange."
He then said to Costa, "You said DeSantis shouldn't run. DeSantis should run now and quickly. This is the problem Chris Christie had."
"Yeah, he could have run in 2011, 2012," Costa said about the former New Jersey governor. "Sometimes in politics, you have one chance."
"The longer you stay at the fair, the more you get beat up," Maher said. When Obama ran, they said, "‘He has no record,' and he went, ‘Good, great, I’m glad I have no record because people don't give a s--- about me not having a record.'"
