Behar admits she holds back criticism of Biden, Maher tells her that's how ‘you lose all credibility’
Bill Maher locked horns with the hosts of ABC’s "The View" on Tuesday, expressing how refusing to criticize President Biden risks sacrificing one's integrity with their audience.
"I’m nervous about saying anything against Biden, because I feel as though - not that I have so much power, and you have some more than I do, obviously - but are you afraid that you might, you know, influence the people who are on the fence?" co-host Joy Behar asked Maher.
"I think you lose all credibility," Maher replied. "I do. My bond with my audience has always been I don’t pull a punch. My bond with my audience is you’re not going to like everything I say but you know I’m saying what I really think is true."
Despite being an outspoken liberal, Maher has criticized his own side with regard to woke ideology, managing COVID-19, and Biden’s electoral viability.
Maher noted that Biden may only be a few years older than former President Trump, but acts like he's much older.
"I saw him yesterday making that speech," Maher said. "I mean, I’m sorry, he’s cadaver-like."
When Behar pushed back, "but his brain is good, he’s still great," Maher compared Biden to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was criticized by Democrats for not resigning at a time she could have been replaced when a Democratic president was in office.
"When I came back from the strike in September I said he should get out," Maher said. "Because he’s just lost the faith of people. It’s not fair. He’s actually done a pretty good job, but I said he’s going to be ‘Ruth Bader Biden’ is the term I used. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she stayed too long at the fair."
"I remember Obama had her over to the White House like in 2013 to hint, y’know, ‘Hey, spend more time with the grandkids, would that not be a good idea, Ruth?’ And she didn’t take the hint, and she was not in good health, and she stayed too long, and she ruined her legacy and got the Supreme Court now to be a pretty right-wing organization," Maher added.
"I said Biden shouldn’t do that, but y’know? Ego. He’s Dracula. He has crossed oceans of time to be here, and he’s not going to give it up now."
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Later in the same segment, Maher objected to an earlier comment from Behar when she had suggested that Trump supporters "might as well put a swastika" on their MAGA hats.
"I’m not going to defend Donald Trump ever, but I would never say that we should put the swastika on the cap because I think you can hate Donald Trump, you can’t hate everybody who likes him. It’s half the country. I don’t want to live in that country, I don’t want to live in the country where I hate half the country - and I don’t hate half the country," he said.
"How dare you disagree with me," Behar said, laughing.
Maher suggested Trump supporters see him as a bulwark against policies like children being secretly socially gender transitioned at school.
"What’s going to get him elected is this woke stuff," he said.