Comedian Bill Maher has no grasp on the concept of “be careful what you wish for.” For the past three weeks in a row, the extraordinarily wealthy host of HBO’s “Real Time” has openly hoped for a recession as a means to get rid of President Trump come 2020.
Speaking on his program Friday night, Maher tripled-down on his call for the U.S. economy to tank beyond recovery prior to the next election so that Democrats would control the White House again.
“I’ve been saying for about two years that I hope we have a recession and people get mad at me,” said Maher, according to Fox News. “I’m just saying we can survive a recession. We’ve had 47 of them. We’ve had one every time there’s a Republican president! They don’t last forever. You know what lasts forever? Wiping out species!”
Maher then pointed out that certain species of plants and animals face extinction due to the Trump administration curbing some of the Nixon-era Endangered Species Act.
“So yes, a recession would be very worth getting rid of Donald Trump and these kinds of policies,” Maher reiterated. “A recession would definitely knock him out of office.”
As is always the case with Maher, not everything on Friday’s show attacked Republicans. At one point, he shifted attention over the BDS movement, referring to it as a “bull***t purity test“:
It’s a bulls*** purity test, BDS is a bulls*** purity test by people who want to appear ‘woke’ but actually slept through history class,” Maher said. “It’s predicated on this notion … I think it’s very shallow thinking that the Jews in Israel are mostly white and Palestinians are mostly brown, so they must be innocent and correct and the Jews must be wrong. As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this ‘completely peaceful people’ found themselves occupied. Forget about the intifadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and how many wars.
Maher supported his argument by sharing a quote from BDS founder Omar Barghouti: “No Palestinian – rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian – will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
“So that’s where that comes from, this movement,” Maher continued. “Someone who doesn’t even want a Jewish state at all. Somehow this side never gets represented in the American media. It’s very odd.”
Maher called for a recession just three weeks ago and then doubled-down on his call last week, even finding an ally in NBC News correspondent Richard Engel.
“We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term,” Maher said.
Conservative guest Tom Nichols disagreed with Maher, despite also being a noted critic of President Trump. “I’m not wishing for a recession,” he said.
“Well, you should wish for a recession,” Maher replied. “Cause that will definitely get him unelected.”
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci tried to be the voice of reason, but Maher would not back down from his untenable position.
“But Bill, you don’t really want a recession,” said Scaramucci.
“I really do,” Maher insisted. “We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term.”
Richard Engel agreed with Maher. “Short-term pain might be better than long-term destruction of the Constitution,” he said.