Real Time took a step backfrom controversial guests this week, inviting Chelsea Handler back on the show and giving Bill Maher a chance to make sense of the U.S. missile strike against Syria. But to kick off the show, Maher took a few shots at Bill O’Reilly and the continuing storm over his Fox News program due to sexual allegations against the host. And Maher doesn’t hold back, drawing comparisons to Bill Cosby, mocking O’Reilly’s defense, and connecting the obvious dots stemming from the New York Times report on the settlements from the network and O’Reilly himself:
“Bill’s other defense is that he says over at Fox News they had a sexual harassment hotline and nobody called it. Well, nobody knew it was there…Also, it wasn’t a great one. They would answer the phone, ‘Fox News sexual harassment hotline—what are you wearing?’”
Maher concludes that the one constant between all of O’Reilly accusers boils down to one fact: “no one wants to f*ck Bill O’Reilly.”
President Trump received plenty of criticism too, mostly for his style of governing outside of Thursday’s events. The president and his Conservative backers ended up the focus of Maher’s “New Rules” segment where the host points out that they aren’t making decisions based on their political beliefs and are choosing spite instead. As Maher puts it, they’re asking “What would a dick do?” and going with that decision.
He points to newly confirmed EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s baffling support of asbestos or Trump doing his best to pull back any decision and idea pursued by the Obama administration. Lead in bullets, school lunch programs, and carbon emissions are all issues that seem to be common sense decisions that are being derailed by spite, at least in Maher’s eyes. As he puts it, “they know carbon is killing the planet, they don’t care.” If it’s a dagger in the side of their opponents, they’re for it.
Handler’s appearance on the show focused on the folks Trump has surrounded himself with in his administration. She’s clearly a bigger fan of Ivanka Trump than Steve Bannon, if only for the belts and shoes, and seems confused by Mike Pence’s adherence to the Billy Graham rules that confused many people in past weeks. She wonders what would happen if Trump were to replace Steve Bannon with a woman and if Pence would be able to operate. It could lead to few odd situations, but he could always just Skype in to those NatSec meetings. If they’re using tents at Mar-a-Lago for secure conversations, all bets are off.
Overtime and the rest of the show revolved around Trump’s decisions over China, North Korea, and his strike against Syria. Maher wants to know what happened to “destroying” ISIS and now sees us bombing both sides of a civil war in an effort to “help.” He also wants to know what this means for Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, prompting Rep. Ted Lieu to call it a distraction.
Evan McMullin was also on the panel, noting that it could be a year before we fully know the extent of Russia’s connection to the Trump administration, at least from the FBI. He does call the information being combed through “bad news” for Trump, though.
(Via Real Time)
