It was a far more subdued week for Bill Maher on Real Time. After getting a week off thanks to the holidays, Maher returned to get a few final shots in at Bill O’Reilly, discuss Trump’s eventual conflict with North Korea, and come to the defense of his friend Ann Coulter. As he says, they may not always agree on the issues but they are friendly. It also covers one of his favorite ongoing topics: the need for “liberals” to stop people from speaking in public. This primarily covers college campuses and comes as a response to Berkeley canceling a planned speech by Ann Coulter later this month.
Berkeley has been the location for several violent events in past months, including a similar cancellation for former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. For Maher, it’s an example of this disconnect from what happens on college campuses and the rest of the nation:
“Berkeley used to be the cradle of free speech, and now it’s just the cradle for f**ing babies…
I feel like this goes on all over the country on campuses — they invite somebody to speak that’s not exactly what liberals want to hear and they want to shut her down. I feel like this is the liberals’ version of book burning. And it’s got to stop.”
Coulter has vowed to appear on campus to speak during on the original date of her speech, declining an invitation by the university to speak at a later date.
Maher also brought up censorship a bit during the Overtime segment, touching on Tomi Lahren’s ongoing fight with TheBlaze after losing her job. For the host, it is an example of how both sides like to lean on censorship when things don’t play into their hands. S.E. Cupp, on the other hand, feels there’s a lot of cat fighting at TheBlaze. She also has the show’s other memorable moment, showing this face when Maher presses on the environment at Fox News with Bill O’Reilly:
(Via HBO)