It goes without saying that conservatives don’t listen to Bill Maher except to get mad at him. The longtime liberal commentator and TV host has been a thorn in Republicans’ sides for years.
But whatever your feelings about the man, he’s rarely wrong in his predictions about the way an election is going to go.
Back in 2016, Maher predicted Trump had a very good chance of winning, even after the Access Hollywood tapes were released. People called him a “Trump alarmist” at the time. In fact, the prevailing sentiment of MOST people back then was that Trump would fail.
After all, he was facing a seasoned veteran and he was already publicly known as a bit of a villain. He’d been sued by the Justice Department back in the 70s and lost, over a case of him refusing to rent to Black people. He’d once bulldozed an old woman’s house that her husband had built in Atlantic City so he could build a parking lot for limousines going to one of his casinos.
A casino that failed.
The man had everything going against him, but when the infamous “grab ’em by the p*ssy” tape came out and his numbers barely suffered a blip, he proved himself right: He could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not lose a single voter.
When Bill saw that, he knew Hillary was in trouble.
But that was then and this is now. Maher sees something entirely different after Trump spent the last 8 years showing everyone who he really is.
In a recent segment of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO/Max, the host told a panel of guests “I’m not even worried about it.”
“You’re not even worried about it?” asked guest Fran Lebowitz. Fran is no slouch in political commentary herself, as a highly sought-after speaker on the state of the country.
“No, not at all,” said Maher. “He’s definitely going to lose. You just feel it.”
Maher and Trump have gone back and forth quite a bit, of course. Well, not back and forth. Each has talked about the other, without ever speaking to one another.
But what is it about this campaign that makes Bill “feel” like Trump’s done for? Well, he could be feeling the fact that this time around, Trump is running as a felon. Maybe Bill’s noticed the way that, since 2016, Trump has made a fool of himself around the world.
He’s been impeached twice. He ignored a pandemic for a year, driving the economy into the ground and killing thousands of people with ridiculous suggestions like injecting disinfectant to fight it.
Since 2016, Trump has been adjudicated a rapist. It’s no longer about him saying that he COULD grab women wherever he wanted. A jury found that he DID grab at least one woman, exactly where he bragged about being able to.
That could be what Bill is feeling about this election.
But Trump knows what Bill’s been saying. Just a week ago, he posted on his Truth Social about an episode of Real Time where he came up in conversation again:
“The ratings challenged Bill Maher, on his increasingly boring show on HBO, is really having a hard time coping with TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. He is a befuddled mess, sloppy and tired, and every conversation, with B and C list guests, seems to start with, or revert back to, ME! This week he had “dumb as a rock” bimbo Stephanie Ruhle, from MSDNC, on the show, along with a Trump hating loser, Bret Stephens, who seemed totally confused and unsure of himself, very much like Maher himself. Steven’s should find himself another line of work because I am driving the FAILING New York Times absolutely crazy, and it is very hard, perhaps impossible, for a writer to write well of me without suffering the wrath of the degenerate editors who, with a push from the top, have gone insane. They apologized to their readers in 2016 for their complete and total MISS, and they’ll do it again in November. The FAILING New York Times is a badly run “newspaper” that has totally lost its way. Put it to sleep!”
If there is such a thing as “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” I don’t think it’s a term that should be used to describe people who talk about Trump. I think that should be reserved for the apparently deranged Trump himself.
The post is riddled with things that Bill Maher could interpret as reasons not to worry about the election.
It took Trump three sentences to call a woman a “dumb bimbo.” It took him one more sentence to spell a name wrong that he’d gotten right in the previous sentence. In that same sentence he declares the New York Times is failing, despite the fact that their net income went up more than 40% since this time last year.
In short, Trump is desperate. He looks desperate, he sounds desperate, and his behavior reeks of desperation.
Maybe conservatives ought to listen to Bill Maher for a change, and get on the right side of history, like almost everyone who ever worked for Trump while he was president.
I can’t say that, like Bill, I’m “not worried” about Trump winning. I lived through a few years of his presidency and was affected by it in ways that a rich and famous dude like Bill probably didn’t even think about.
But I do feel pretty confident this time around, because Trump is an absolute disaster.
“I’m not even worried about it.” Bill Maher says Trump is “definitely going to lose”. (Video: HBO) pic.twitter.com/KEhp3YCuEi [1]
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 28, 2024 [2]