It’s been a week of news, from the impending indictment of Donald Trump to the Nashville school shooting. Or as Bill Maher put it on Friday realtime“March came in like a lion and went out with Trump on the run.”
Maher was obviously pleased that Trump, one of his favorite targets, was having a really bad week. He noted the irony that “the most boastful man in history is being accused by a man named Bragg.” Also ironically: “He spent his whole life stiffening people and the one time he paid them…”
Maher was ready to save on Friday, and for once he had panelists ready to hit back. The show began with Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu admitting that the impeachment against Trump was “an absolute circus.” Sununu, while a loyal Republican, has expressed that he doesn’t think Trump will be the GOP nominee in 2024 and said he “can’t win” the general election.
He did, however, push back Maher’s support for Trump’s downgrading over January 6 and Trump’s claims that it was not a fair election. Sununu agreed that Jan. 6 was one of the worst days in U.S. history, but pointed to the failures of Democrats that followed, including the “loss of energy independence.”
Sununu noted that he lived in San Francisco for three years and challenged Maher to defend the city’s decay. “They tell me the Democrats are winning (there),” he said, calling it “a humanitarian crisis.”
The guest tiptoed around the possibility that he would run in the GOP presidential primary, but would not commit until things develop more.
The panel discussion included journalist and author James Kirchick and Winsome Sears, the latter the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Virginia and the first woman of color and Jamaican-born American to hold state office in Virginia history.
After some back-and-forth about Trump, the conversation turned to school shooting in Nashville and its connections to gun proliferation.
Sears said she’s a Marine and has no problem admitting she would use a gun if someone broke into her home. She said black women are the fastest growing demo to arm themselves.
“I don’t like guns,” Maher admitted. “But I’m glad they exist.” He noted that his short stature resembles some women and that having a gun “levels the playing field.”
Maher said it wasn’t unreasonable to make gun acquisition more difficult. But he claimed opposition was a conservative tactic against the crazier liberals. “You want to go crazy? I’m going crazy too And I have bullets.”
Maher’s usual mid-show break played a section of the new J6 choir song in which Trump said the pledge of allegiance. The usual path of a hit followed by an album is likely, Maher said, holding up a mock album cover of “Appetite for Insurrection,” which includes such tracks as “I Guess That’s Why They Call It Fake News,” “The Kids Are Alt-Right” and “Midnight Call to Georgia”.
The panel ended with a discussion on the thorny issue of Nashville’s trans shooter and deadnaming issues.
Kirchick noted that the trans community strives for “equality, dignity and respect” and is already covered in those areas by a 1964 amendment to the Civil Rights Act, and that most of the controversy involves children. “This is where the conflict comes from”
Maher said that trans activism “sometimes seems like a power play with them.”
Sears said that she controls all aspects of her children’s lives and doesn’t want a drag queen to give them a lap dance at school.
“We need to go back to a place of sensitivity,” she said. “You want to live a certain way and I will do what I do. Let’s be okay with that.”
Maher’s New Rules editorial spoke of the need for a special holiday for atheists. See monologue above.