During Friday’s edition of Real Time With Bill Maher, the eponymous host engaged in quite a bit of hyperbole as he attempted to convince America’s youth to vote in Tuesday’s midterm elections. In a stream of consciousness lasting less than five minutes, Maher compared the Trump family to the Hussein family, described the Trump Presidency as a “slow-moving coup,” and suggested that President Trump might actually be worse than Adolf Hitler.
After mentioning that President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner described the President as a “black swan,” in other words, “something we’ve never seen before that defies all previous expectations,” Maher described the President as a “black swan with a mushroom penis.” Invoking a well-worn comparison of President Trump to a dictator, Maher insinuated that President Trump has a lot more in common with Saddam Hussein’s family than the Clinton family. Maher warned of horrors to come, trying to compare modern-day America to the latter days of the Roman Empire: “Rome didn’t fall and didn’t fall and didn’t fall...and then it fell.” Maher acknowledged that incivility has been “bad at other times in our history” before declaring a code red: “This is a slow-moving coup. This is the head of the federal government calling the American citizens that make up the free press the enemy of the people.”
At this point, Maher began directly appealing to millennials, telling them “[W]e need you…not to protest or to post something…we need you to vote because historically, you are the least likely to.” Maher continued: “[W]e need you to turn out in unprecedented numbers, and we know you can. Look at the March For Our Lives…that’s how you should approach voting this year, as a march for your life.”
Maher eventually got around to the typical liberal fear-mongering, predicting that a victory for Republicans in the midterms would mean the end of “reproductive rights,” “legalized pot,” “possibly gay marriage,” and “what’s left of the environment” before telling 18-year-olds “[Y]ou stand a very real chance of not living in a western-style democracy for part or all of your adult life.” For the record, two of the items he described as the hallmarks of “western-style democracy,” “reproductive rights” and “gay marriage” were decided by the Courts, which both sides argue is the least Democratic branch of government. Maybe he forgot that more than thirty states voted in favor of Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, only to have the Supreme Court declare it a “Constitutional right.”
As he showed pictures of Nazi rallies in New York City back in the 1930s, Maher warned “yes, it can happen here” before asserting that he was not comparing President Trump to Hitler, because “Hitler volunteered for the army.” He called President Trump a “wannabe dictator” and urged the members of “generation Instagram” to mark Tuesday on their calendars like they were “Brett Kavanaugh about to get shit-faced,” warning that “Tuesday is win or go home for democracy.”
Maher joins a long list of celebrities urging young people to support Democrats in the midterms and an even longer list of celebrities and media figures comparing President Trump to Hitler. Time will tell if their efforts bear fruit or if they go down in flames, a la what happened in 2016.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s Real Time With Bill Maher is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Real Time With Bill Maher
11/02/18
10:55 PM
BILL MAHER: But stop trying to calm us down right now. You know when it’s okay to yell fire in a theater? When it’s on fire.
(APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Last week, last week Trump’s son-in-law said of Trump: “He’s a black swan.” A black swan is something we’ve never seen before that defies all previous expectations. That’s what we’re dealing with…a black swan, with a mushroom penis. And when I look at the Trump family, it feels a lot like it has a lot less in common with this family, than with this family. This attitude that “America’s like a cat…it always lands on its feet”…I don’t buy it. I don’t buy that just because something didn’t happen before it can’t happen now. Rome didn’t fall and didn’t fall and didn’t fall…and then it fell. Gonorrhea has been around for a long time and we could always kill it with penicillin, but now there’s drug-resistant super-gonorrhea and we can’t. Was incivility bad in other times in our history? I’m sure it was; I’ve heard the anecdotes. I know that during a brawl in the House chamber in 1798, Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont tried to beat Roger Griswold of Connecticut with a pair of iron tongs. I don’t give a shit, this isn’t two gentlemen slapping each other in the face with gloves. This is a slow-moving coup. This is the head of the federal government calling the American citizens that make up the free press the enemy of the people. And that’s why, here on our final show before the election, I want to talk directly to the millennials and to generation Instagram, or whatever they’re calling you.
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: We need you. We need you like you need your anti-anxiety meds.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Not to protest, or to post something…we need you to actually vote because historically you are the least likely to. I get it, you’re young, and young people aren’t big on planning for the future. That’s why we have laser tattoo removal.
(LAUGHTER)
MAHER: But we need you to turn out in unprecedented numbers, and we know you can. Look at the March For Our Lives…that’s…
(APPLAUSE)
MAHER: …that’s how you should approach voting this year, as a March for your life. It’s your future, not mine. But to paraphrase the Farmers insurance guy…I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: And, to paraphrase the Allstate guy, you’re not in good hands.
MAHER: Getting this moment wrong and not participating will be just like your student loan debt, it will haunt you for the rest of your life. Getting this moment wrong, you can say goodbye to reproductive rights, to legalized pot, possibly to gay marriage, and definitely to what’s left of the environment. If Trump wins, he will cast it as a complete endorsement of his most undemocratic behavior. If you’re 18 and that happens, you stand a very real chance of not living in a western-style democracy for part or all of your adult life. Yes, it can happen here. If historians want to look at an example of “we’ve been here before,” look at this picture. This isn’t Nuremberg in 1934, it’s Madison Square Garden in liberal New York City in 1934. And here’s the Garden in 1939, after Hitler had already done some pretty awful things and yet 22,000 Americans were cheering him on. I’m not saying Trump is Hitler. Hitler volunteered for the army.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Trump is a wannabe dictator and he does have a knack of getting what he wants to be. So mark Tuesday, November 6th down; mark it on your calendar like you’re Brett Kavanaugh planning to get shit-faced.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MAHER: Because Tuesday is win or go home for democracy.
