Two weeks ago on “Real Time,” Bill Maher said if a recession happens, it would be “worth it” if it got Donald Trump out of office. Friday night, Maher doubled down, saying: “A recession is a survivable event. What Trump is doing to the country is not.”
After his comments on the June 8 episode, conservative media figures accused Maher of everything from wishing harm on America to outright hoping for people to die. To that, Maher said Friday that “democracy is about to go the way of the dinosaurs because we’ve been taken over by a dodo bird. So let me repeat: recessions are survivable events. We’ve survived one every time a Republican is in the White House.”
Maher said that every Republican president since Roosevelt has presided over a recession, some of them multiple recessions, arguing that since 1900, America has endured 47. “Another recession is coming. Not because I’m rooting for it, but because someone” — at this point a photo pf Trump appeared onscreen — “passed a giant tax giveaway to the rich that added trillions to the debt, and started a trade war for no reason… those are actual policies, from men with real power. As opposed to me, a guy who just made a wish.”
“This accusing me of wanting people to starve and die is pretty rich coming from the party of people that have never been shy about actually enacting policies that starve and kill people,” Maher continued.
Maher concluded by comparing a good economy under a bad president to putting up with a bad relationship because the sex is good: “I just want America to say about Donald Trump what everybody in a relationship says when the hot sex wears off: what the f– am I doing with this person?”