“Real Time” host Bill Maher said Friday his upcoming dinner with President Donald Trump at the White House could be a small step in the right direction for the country.
After years of criticizing him and his policies, Maher made headlines when he accepted Trump’s invitation for a private dinner at the White House. The liberal comedian spoke about the meeting in an interview with journalist Chris Cuomo.
Cuomo praised the move, saying he is totally in favor of it, but asked Maher about his motivations for doing it in the first place.
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“I’m doing it because, first of all, it was presented as…” Maher began.
“A dare?” Cuomo joked.
“Not a dare, no… Just, like, maybe this is a beginning to heal America,” the comedian said. “Now, I don’t have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America. I can’t, okay, let’s get that clear, I’m not going to be healing America.”
Maher praised the idea of such a meeting nonetheless, arguing, “It’s kind of a Nixon-to-China thing.”
“There was nobody who was harder on Trump or more prescient about the fact that he wasn’t going to leave office voluntarily. I have the credentials,” he said. “But they also respect me because I’m honest about the woke train to crazytown, and I don’t shrink from that, and I’ve also lost a lot of fans for that. The woke people have left the building, and I’m willing to make that sacrifice. But it does give you a certain credibility.”
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“It’s an honor to be invited to the White House,” Maher said, noting his humble beginnings as a kid from suburban New Jersey.
“I’m impressed by it a lot,” he said of his life bringing him to this moment, “I’m impressed the f— out of it. I get to go to the White House.”
However, rather than being impressed, the first thing people say to him is “How dare you talk to him?” which Maher takes as a “backhanded compliment.”
Maher praised the upcoming occasion as an opportunity to talk face-to-face rather than trading barbs from afar, but said both sides should have reasonable expectations.
“If they expect me to be leaving in a MAGA hat, they’re gonna be very disappointed,” Maher said. “But I know they don’t. It probably will accomplish very little, but you gotta try, man, you gotta try.”
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