During his opening monologue on Friday’s edition of Real Time, host Bill Maher weighed in on Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin’s refusal to concede, dismissing Bevin’s concerns about “irregularities” by sarcastically agreeing with him: “there were reports of black people who have been screwed out of their voting rights voting anyway.” Earlier this year, Maher hosted Andrew Gillum, who lost his race for governor of Florida in 2018, and claimed he and Stacey Abrams lost by "rounding errors." Maher didn’t mock that.
Maher did bluntly crack wise that it was “worth a little blackface” for Ralph Northam’s Virginia Democrats to take over the state legislature in Virginia:
MAHER: Virginia, okay? Six months ago they wanted to drum out the governor, a lot of Democrats were calling for this at the time because there was pictures of him in his yearbook in the 80s wearing black face. Now, white voters in Virginia wanted him out more than black voters because black voters don’t have that kind of luxury, they want the person who’s going to actually do things that will help them.
Now that there’s a completely Democratic legislature in Virginia, he’s going to…he signed the ERA…the Equal Rights Amendment. There’s going to be gun control legislation, abortion rights legislation, climate change legislation, expansion of Medicaid.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: This was worth it. This was worth a little blackface, right? It’s like President Obama said, it’s a messy world.
Maher implied Republicans haven’t helped black people. Black unemployment is at an all-time low, and Maher’s saying the “help” they really need is gun control and abortion and climate-change policies.
At the beginning of his monologue, Maher declared that “all the people Trump supported got their asses kicked like a dog.” The idea that “all the people Trump supported” lost is not based in reality. While the Trump-backed Bevin appears to have narrowly lost re-election, every other Republican running for statewide office that the President supported in Kentucky and Mississippi won their races.
Maher spent his opening monologue as well as the panel discussion praising the results of Tuesday’s elections and expressing concern that President Trump would follow in Bevin’s footsteps and refuse to leave office if he loses re-election.
After discussing the Democrats’ victories in Virginia, Maher reverted back to discussing the election results in Kentucky. A concerned Maher described Bevin’s refusal to concede as “a dry run for what’s going to happen about a year from now” and predicting that Trump will operate from the same “playbook” if he loses in 2020.
At this point, Maher echoed the concern of Washington Post writer Paul Waldman, who expressed concern that Trump would refuse to leave office if he lost re-election: “if you think this is going to get better in 2020, do you really think that if Trump loses...he’s just going to leave a…scented note for Mayor Pete? He’s not leaving.”
A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s edition of Real Time is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Real Time With Bill Maher
11/08/19
10:01 PM
BILL MAHER: It’s exciting. It’s exciting to see me, I know, but there’s other reasons to be happy.
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: We had…I know why Democrats are happy, they…we had a few off-year elections on Tuesday, and Trump’s guy…
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Yeah. All the people Trump supported got their asses kicked like a dog…
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: …like a dog. It’s never anything like what a dog does when he says that. But what killed Republicans was the suburbs, anybody live in the suburbs? Suburbs are coming to our rescue here; the suburbs are turning on Trump. Remember when Trump said “you have to vote for me, you have no choice?”
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: And soccer moms said “hold my juice box.”
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: So, it’s interesting, Trump has never had the cities, right? Now, he’s lost the burbs. He still polls well in hamlets, whistle stops…
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: …one horse towns, bum fucks and wide areas of the road.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: But look, you know, I’m the guy who keeps saying if he loses, he’s not going to leave? Well, we had a little dry run for that, Kentucky…Kentucky elected a Democratic governor but the previous Republican governor is saying he’s not accepting it. Losing now is just fake news. Get ready for this, people. This is what we…we have one year until the election, get ready for this, losing his now fake news. This guy is fighting it, he said there were irregularities. Yes, there were reports of black people who had been screwed out of their voting rights voting anyway.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(…)
10:43:35 PM
MAHER: Virginia, okay? Six months ago…
RAHM EMANUEL: Yeah.
MAHER: …they wanted to drum out the governor, a lot of Democrats were calling for this at the time because there was pictures of him in his yearbook in the 80s wearing black face. Now, white voters in Virginia wanted him out more than black voters because black voters don’t have that kind of luxury, they want the person who’s going to actually do things that will help them. Now that there’s a completely Democratic legislature in Virginia, he’s going to…he signed the ERA…the Equal Rights Amendment. There’s going to be gun control legislation, abortion rights legislation, climate change legislation, expansion of Medicaid.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: This was worth it. This was worth a little black face, right? It’s like President Obama said, it’s a messy world.
EMANUEL: No, I think…
MAHER: Okay, all right.
EMANUEL: No, no. Here…
MAHER: Moving on…
EMANUEL: No, Bill…
MAHER: …to the next issue.
(LAUGHTER)
(…)10:45:25 PM
MAHER: The other election that really scared me and I said this in the monologue, I think we just saw a dry run for what’s going to happen about a year from now because I think the election is about a…exactly a year away. Kentucky…now Tuesday, it’s interesting, Trump, he’s like a comic. When he finds a hunk that works…JUDD APATOW: Yeah.
MAHER: …in front of his rally, he keeps doing it and he had this hunk about me, “this nut job who says I’m not leaving,” and now he does it every time. This is what he said Monday in Louisville. “You have one nut job on television, he says ‘you know he’s never leaving office, don’t you? He’s never going to leave.’” I don’t…first of all, I didn’t say that. I said he’s not going to leave when he loses this election and I…and this thing in Kentucky now? I’m right. Look at this, this is the playbook. This governor in Kentucky has no reason to contest this, he’s just saying “I’m not leaving, make me.” And if you think this is going to get better in 2020, do you really think that if Trump loses, he’s going to…because he’s known for magnanimity, he’s just going to leave a…a scented letter for Mayor Pete? No.
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: He…he’s not leaving.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
STEVE SCHMIDT: You know, I don’t know, but we’ve seen it, you know, for four years now, right? The delegitimization of all the norms and…and democracies function on norms. So, it goes back that during the campaign, constantly questioning the legitimacy of the election when it appeared that he was going to lose. You have this governor in Kentucky, says “hey, the election isn’t legitimate.” In this country, beginning with the concession call, we recognize the legitimacy of the election, we understand that sometimes your side wins and…
MAHER: That…
SCHMIDT: …sometimes the other one does.
MAHER: That’s gone.
SCHMIDT: You’ll get them next time.
MAHER: It’s just…
SCHMIDT: Dangerous.
MAHER: Losing is just fake news.
SCHMIDT: Dangerous.
STEVE BULLOCK: I think even that we’re having this conversation underscores that this election demands more than squeaking out a narrow victory.
MAHER: I don’t think it matters to these people. It’s, it’s not…it’s not like you can…
BULLOCK: If we solidly win Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and…
MAHER: No.
BULLOCK: …half the popular vote…
MAHER: “Fake news.”
BULLOCK: …it does matter.
MAHER: “It was raped.”
EMANUEL: Bill, here’s…
MAHER: “There were…”
EMANUEL: First of all…
MAHER: “…irregularities.” Are you kidding? You’re whistling past the graveyard.
EMANUEL: This is a…this is a high-price problem. Number one, all our energy, first, win. Number two, number two…
MAHER: Yeah.
EMANUEL: …remember what the leader of the Republicans in Kentucky said in the State House? Because of the way the governor treated him, he said no, he lost. And the fact is the Republicans in the House and Senate, even though they’ve made a Faustian bargain right now, they’re going to be really happy to get rid of this guy.
