On Friday, Bill Maher told his HBO Real Time audience he was worried that Donald Trump was "not losing" and was looking like he might get re-elected. He has incumbency, "gerrymandering," and a propaganda department: He has "basically Pravda in Fox News, in Breitbart, in Drudge."
BILL MAHER: Here's what I'm worried about -- this is the Cassandra effect I am worried about -- that Donald Trump is actually not losing. When you talk to people who are like you who are in our studio and the people I hang out with he's a clown and he's a loser and the tweets and all that stuff. He had a fundraiser this week -- for 2020. He's not fucking around. He's running again already.
And, you know, I made a little list of his assets. Incumbency. He's got the power of the government behind him now. He didn't have that before when he was just a clown. The Republican party is still with him. Including those state legislatures. Gerrymandering. He has basically Pravda in FOX News, in Breitbart, in Drudge. He went back on his pledge about the DREAMers last week. None of those outlets even mentioned it because they're not in the news business; they're in the Donald Trump promotion business.
Bill Maher was certainly in the Barack Obama promotion business: He donated a million dollars of his HBO money to his re-election. But he should try Googling his claims -- put an intern on it -- before claiming Breitbart hasn't mentioned DACA recently. Or Fox News.
Richard Clarke cracked, "And he has the KGB." Maher picked that up: "And he has Russia hacking with him. And the Supreme Court." Maher claimed these resources provide Trump with more than enough ammo to carry him to reelection in 2020, not to mention the “Teflon Don” persona that seems be impenetrable even during controversies.
Maher complained "Democrats are lame. The media is lame." He added Trump "hasn't even played his war card yet," and "could start a war and get a lot of support" from that. He's ignoring that Trump has approved several bombings and has ISIS on the run.
BBC’s Katty Kay agreed with him "I think if you look at the things that he has done that has satisfied conservatives. The fact that he still believes that he is their guy and then add to that the fact that Democrats don't have any sign of a competent effective leader that can marry their cultural left and the economic left going into 2020, I think Donald Trump stands a pretty good chance of being reelected.”
Mediaite founder Dan Abrams was also on Maher’s panel and told them 2020 was still a few years away: “You’re talking about more big picture. This idea that there's going to be no way around a sort of general Republican majority. 2020. We have no idea who is going to be running.”
