If you thought Bill Maher exhausted his reserves of Trump hate with his Facebook special earlier in the week, Friday’s Real Time would prove you wrong. Maher was a firebrand for the entirety of the show — at least when he wasn’t talking to President Obama — and turned up the drama for voters throughout. It was to the point that Maher actually apologized for some of the things he said back during the Bush, McCain, and Romney campaigns, the latter being a guy he donated $1 million against in an effort to save the nation.
Now it’s Trump, a real threat in the eyes of Maher and many others. Those others were just cry wolf moments and now we’re facing the real thing with a hanging threat that it might not ever go away. “Once fascists get power, they don’t give it up. You’ve got President Trump for life.” You might not get a more dramatic appeal before election day.
There were hints of this in the monologue too, with Maher railing on the media to “do your f*cking job” in reference to what he calls a “right wing coup” on the government. Most of this is aimed at the FBI and the dance with Death that has been the Clinton email investigation. The investigation that never seems to want to end — right next to the Benghazi investigation — now seems to be fueled by a right wing, Trump supporting faction of the FBI that may or may not have connections with a very wild Rudy Giuliani.
If this were a novel or television show, it’d likely be called pretty boring. Scandal has already done worse and it’s not even Christmas yet. But that doesn’t mean the entire thing doesn’t smell like fiction and couldn’t easily be molded into a top ten political thriller starring Ryan Reynolds and Margot Robbie. Just change the faction of Trump supporting FBI agents to “rogue powers looking to topple the American government” and we’re off to the races.
Maher even got a chance to roast his favorite targets on the Religious Right on Friday, calling them out for being “the shameless hypocrites they’ve always been” with their support of Trump. Evangelicals still support Trump despite his long list of offenses that would make your typical Christian searching for the express train to Hell or some Hell-like place.
We also get to celebrate the fact that religion wasn’t brought into the debates as they have been in past years, unless you count Trump’s abortion stance. Following the release of that Access Hollywood tape, it’s hard to defend Trump or access him on a “faith” level. They saved most of that for his supporters before and after the debate.
This is also a reminder that Ben Carson has a painting featuring Jesus and himself hanging in his house. A very weird Jesus that looks like his head was left in a vice too long.
The overtime segment kept the Trump hate going strong, discussing how his voice is far more grating than anything coming out of Hillary and how she has been facing more criticism than Trump throughout the entire campaign despite some obvious facts. There’s also a good discussion on the media, going back to Maher’s line in the opening monologue asking them to do their job. While there might be some failings on the media we see on television, there’s also great work coming from journalists like David Fahrenthold with The Washington Post that sparks a good discussion with the panel. Worth the extra time.
(Via Real Time)