Bill Maher said "woke" ideology has helped former President Trump's popularity in recent years.
During a Sunday interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival, journalist Tina Brown compared Trump's supporters to cult members and questioned the former president's rising popularity after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Maher countered Brown's remarks by saying liberals needed to "own" part of Trump's popularity.
"They are aggressively anti-common sense," Maher said. "The Democrats keep running on this one idea, saying to the American people, ‘You can’t possibly think you can do worse than Donald Trump.’ And they keep saying, ‘Yes, we can. Yes, we can.'"
The comedian noted his personal friends had complained about "uber woke" kids that were "driving their parents crazy."
"‘You don’t get it, mom. That’s old thinking.’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t get what? Abolish the police, tear down statues of Lincoln, maybe give communism another shot, get rid of the Border Patrol, get rid of capitalism, white supremacy has never been worse, gender is always just a social construct," the comedian continued. "'It’s OK to have penises in the women’s swimming pool, in women’s prisons.' No, it’s not that I’m old, it’s that your ideas are stupid."
Maher then noted many conservatives similarly take issue with the former president.
"They just hate the other stuff more," Brown added, to which Maher said he didn't blame conservatives.
"A lot of it is closer to their own home. Like the things you hate about Trump, democracy, I understand why that’s the biggest issue. But a lot of people, it’s kind of vague," the comedian continued. "Ukraine is very far away. But you know, the stuff about family and race and gender, it’s very close to their own home."
The comedian then commented on tomorrow's first presidential debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, suggesting it would be "less interesting than we think."
"First of all, Biden, we're just looking for proof of life," he said. "He is benefiting from low expectations."
Maher said he believed Biden could "do the job," but couldn't "run for the job."
"And Trump is going to be Trump, and I think we're going to come away and nobody's mind is going to change," he added.
Over the weekend, Trump panned Maher and his long-running HBO program Real Time in a Truth Social post.
"Bill Maher, the highly overrated 'Star' of the ratings challenged show with the Fake, Loud and Obnoxious laughter pouring out of your set every few seconds, even when nothing was said that was funny (which is most of the time!), suffers from a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS," the former president wrote. Bill Maher, the highly overrated “Star” of the ratings challenged show with the Fake, Loud and Obnoxious laughter pouring out of your set every few seconds, even when nothing was said that was funny (which is most of the time!), suffers from a terminal case of Trump Derangement… pic.twitter.com/5qwKVs3Jfp
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 22, 2024
"Republicans should stop using him as a reference point, his show is dead!" Trump added.
