Along with their repeated playing of the race card during MSNBC’s Hardball, HBO host Bill Maher offered an eyebrow-raising defense on Wednesday for Hillary Clinton and her e-mail scandal by suggesting that she didn’t intend to do anything “nefarious” but rather “needed a private server to get her work done cause Democrats do work.”
Discussing her ideology earlier in the show, Maher assisted Matthews in touting Clinton as “not some far-left person” but rather “a centrist” that could be seen as “far right on some issues like war” that deeply concern the Real Time host.
The Clinton defense kicked into high gear as Maher lamented that “she has been demonized more than anybody else for the entire last quarter century” and began his e-mail spin by chalking it up to Clinton’s age “so I think she probably just didn't understand that much what she was doing.”
Matthews later responded that he didn’t buy his argument and reminded him that “the law is the law,” but not before Maher dropped this train of thought about Clinton having “needed a private server” so she could be an effective secretary of state but couldn’t with the State Department’s resources:
I think the important thing is what was the intent with the e-mail? Was the intent something nefarious? Of course wasn't. In fact, most of the people in the State Department used a private server because the government server was not efficient. She needed a private server to get her work done cause Democrats do work. Government work. They don't hate the government. They actually want to get it done. She’s a wonk who needed something that worked.
In two other comments that drew this writer’s ire during the hour-long taped affair, the duo were discussing President Obama’s use of drones to take out specific terrorist targets in the Middle East when Matthews blurted out his dismay that, “for all these years since the first Iraq War, we've been killing Muslim people on international television.”
Maher had his own miscellaneous quotable line as he smeared the late former President Ronald Reagan as someone who wasn’t mentally competent while in office when discussing the mental fitness of older politicians like Bernie Sanders: “We're all individuals. Some people are very, very there and completely together at 80 and some people aren't. Reagan was in office and he wasn't. I'm sorry. That's just the truth.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 13 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
July 13, 2016
7:20 p.m. Eastern
BILL MAHER: Let her have the ball. She's not really that horrible to them when you think about it. She is not some sort of far-left person.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: On that point —
MAHER: She’s a centrist.
MATTHEWS: — do you worry somewhat that she may be far right on some issues like war? Is she hawkish?
MAHER: Well, she’s too much of a hawk on some issues, absolutely, I don't blame her for the Iraq vote because I think people forget that was a vote to give George Bush a badge and a gun. It wasn't a go ahead and go in there shooting and blazing and also, you know, we had just been attacked and blah, blah, blah. It was wrong country. A little thing like that. But she is too hawkish. I worry about. That one reason why it was great to have Bernie Sanders in the race, or Rand Paul if he had followed what his father used to say, was that you at least had a voice in the debate saying we should not be in all these countries. I mean, the President talks about how well, if you stay wrong words, when you’re referring to Islamic terrorism. That’s what’s going to stir up trouble.
MATTHEWS: How do you explain it to a guy like that?
MAHER: Probably, it's droning. It is probably droning that is causing more of the hatred around the world and. I'm not even sure if that program is worth it.
(....)
7:22 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: You wonder about, you know, for all these years since the first Iraq war, we've been killing Muslim people international television. That’s what we’ve been doing.
MAHER: And also —
MATTHEWS: I don't know if we do it to any other group.
MAHER: We've also been saving many. We also did it on behalf of them, like in Kosovo.
MATTHEWS: That's the argument.
MAHER: But look, we would just probably be better off not to be so involved. I mean, one thing I will miss about the Obama administration is no new wars. I wish we could have gotten out of ones we were in a little faster and more completely. But at least we didn't ramp up and they were trying on egg him on to go into Syria.
(....)
7:30:21 p.m. Eastern
MAHER: We're all individuals. Some people are very, very there and completely together at 80 and some people aren't. Reagan was in office and he wasn't. I'm sorry. That's just the truth.
(....)
7:33 p.m. Eastern
MAHER: But it is also true that she has been demonized more than anybody else for the entire last quarter century. As far as the e-mails go, I think mostly what that is is an elderly person and again, we're not bashing the elderly here. They have every right to run for president.
MATTHEWS: Bernie for reelection! You’re saying it.
MAHER: But as far as technology goes, they're not great at it. I'm not great at it, so I think she probably just didn't understand that much what she was doing..
MATTHEWS: Do think that’s the reason why that she has a low number there?
MAHER: I think the important thing is what was the intent with the e-mail? Was the intent something nefarious? Of course wasn't. In fact, most of the people in the State Department used a private server because the government server was not efficient. She needed a private server to get her work done cause Democrats do work. Government work. They don't hate the government. They actually want to get it done. She’s a wonk who needed something that worked.
