Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” slammed Democrats who made bad faith attacks against House Minority Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) recently over remarks that McCarthy made about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Maher’s remarks came during a segment where he defended actor Matt Damon from the “woke police” over the latest incident that landed Damon “in cancel culture quicksand.”
“You know, I’m so tired of bad faith arguments, and it’s all we do now on both sides of our divide,” Maher said toward the end of his “new rule” segment, which lasted around seven minutes. “Two weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi called Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy a moron. That’s not the bad faith part of the story. That’s the true part.”
“But a few days later, McCarthy was speaking to a group of Republicans and said jokingly, but he is Kevin McCarthy, he said that if Republicans took the House in 2022, ‘I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel, it will be hard not to hit her with it,’” Maher said. “Pelosi’s office called it a threat of violence. Hakeem Jeffries said violence against women is no laughing matter. And Eric Swalwell said McCarthy was a would-be assailant who must resign. Shut up. Shut the f**k up.”
“This is what bad faith is,” Maher added. “You don’t really think it was a threat of violence or that anyone thinks such violence would be a laughing matter, or that Kevin McCarthy is a would-be assailant any more than anyone thinks Matt Damon’s a homophobe.”
WATCH:
Why is Matt Damon always in the doghouse with the online hall monitors of righteousness? He is one of the most likable guys in Hollywood, with impeccable liberal credentials. Yet always flailing around in cancel culture quicksand. #BureauOfWokeness #Wokeatraz pic.twitter.com/B9xdqqqbZO
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) August 14, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
BILL MAHER, HBO HOST: And finally new rule, someone has to tell me, why is this guy always in the doghouse with the online hall monitors of righteousness? It is a phenomenon that truly fascinates me that every couple years Matt Damon, one of the most likable guys in Hollywood with impeccable liberal credentials, is again flailing around in cancel culture quicksand. It happened again this month when Damon revealed that he used to use a gay slur, I won’t say the word, but it’s the one your teenage son greets his friends with when they meet up at Chipotle. It’s not always meant as a slur, but it’s wrong. Yes, of course. And Damon owned up saying that while coming of age in Boston in the 70s and 80s, that word was thrown around without any thought put into it. And now, now he’s put some thought into it. And he’s going to stop using it. One might say he became woke. Okay, he was late to the party to which we could say welcome, glad you could make it.
Or we could say, you came later than I did, die! There are too many people in this country who are motivated not by what they really believe, but by what will get Twitter to react to them with likes and retweets. That’s called bad faith. It’s why every couple years I’m reading headlines like USA Today, ‘I wish I could cancel Matt Damon.’ Washington Post, ‘Matt Damon has more Damonsplaining to do.’ Daily Beast, ‘Shut up, Matt Damon.’ Vox, ‘Matt Damon isn’t a terrible person, he’s just ignorant.’ Really? That bad is he? We’re talking about Matt Damon. I don’t know he’s got a clean water charity and delivers food to Haiti. What have you done Vox headline writer?
And yet, he is always getting pulled over by the woke police for something. He’s got a woke rap sheet as long as your arm. On the reboot of the Project Greenlight series, he was booked on obstruction of social justice for maintaining that a director should be chosen on merit first. But merit first is not synonymous with racism. Thinking that it is, that’s kind of racist.
In 2015, Damon did hard time in Twitter jail on two counts of accessory to homophobia, for saying that actors do well when they keep their private lives private so that audiences can watch the character on the screen without thinking about the caricature from the tabloids and that includes your sexuality, which is true. One of the reasons I love Daniel Day Louis is I’m not sure he even exists off screen.
But in wokeville, somehow that became gay actors should go back in the closet, which is not what he said. But the verdict was in and he was sentenced to appear on Ellen.
Here’s how unhomophobic Matt Damon is, he f***ed Liberace. 2016, the movie The Great Wall opened and Damon was brought up on charges of white washing in the third degree. White washing, being when filmmakers cast white actors for parchment for people of color, which is exactly what he was not doing. His role was never meant for a Chinese actor. In fact, it was a Chinese made movie targeted primarily to the Chinese audience that was purposefully using his white ass so the movie would have crossover appeal here. Nevertheless, when I heard about this, I immediately replaced Matt’s poster over my bed with Chris Evans. 2017, in the early days of the Me Too movement, Damon was locked up in wokecatraz on a charge of aggravated mansplaining during a reckoning and was sentenced to not less than one year of having to shut the f*** up. See what happened was during an interview where Damon called the Me Too movement wonderful and a watershed moment, he added that sexual misconduct involved a spectrum of behavior and that there was a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape. True, undeniable, and unforgiveable even though the legal system has always differentiated degrees for crimes, even murder, oh Matt, always getting in trouble for saying perfectly reasonable things.
And now now he’s done it again by breaking Liam’s law. Yes, that’s the law that refers to the time a few years back when actor Liam Neeson recounted a story of personal growth involving racist thoughts he had as a young man, but then realizing the error of his ways, expunging the race element from his anger. But of course, in so doing, he committed the cardinal sin of admitting he was not born perfect and did not emerge from the womb completely enlightened like Buddha. And now Matt’s done, done it with his gay slur admission, committed the crime of not always being the person you would become. You know, I’m so tired of bad faith arguments, and it’s all we do now on both sides of our divide.
Two weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi called Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy a moron. That’s not the bad faith part of the story. That’s the true part. But a few days later, McCarthy was speaking to a group of Republicans and said jokingly, but he is Kevin McCarthy, he said that if Republicans took the House in 2022, ‘I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel, it will be hard not to hit her with it.’ Pelosi’s office called it a threat of violence. Hakeem Jeffries said violence against women is no laughing matter. And Eric Swalwell said McCarthy was a would be assailant who must resign. Shut up. Shut the f**k up.
This is what bad faith is. You don’t really think it was a threat of violence or that anyone thinks such violence would be a laughing matter, or that Kevin McCarthy is a would be assailant any more than anyone thinks Matt Damon’s a homophobe. And Matt, my advice to you stop hunting for goodwill. You’re not going to find much in this country.