Comedian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bill-maher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Maher</a> said during an interview this week that Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is the only candidate that can beat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, but that if too many other Republican candidates enter the race, they will end up helping Trump secure the nomination.
Maher made the remarks when CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper asked him on Tuesday about former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley entering the race and the likelihood that others, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence, could also enter the race.
&#8220;Do you think any of them can take him out?&#8221; Tapper asked.
&#8220;No,&#8221; Maher responded. &#8220;But I think what they will do is ensure him the nomination. &#8230; The only way Trump doesn&#8217;t get that nomination is if it&#8217;s just him and DeSantis.&#8221;
&#8220;So, I despair about that, because I think when politicians smell the White House, they don&#8217;t care about the repercussions for the country,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;They just want to go for it. DeSantis against Trump, I think, could get it.&#8221;
Tapper later asked Maher what his analysis was of DeSantis.
&#8220;Do you think that DeSantis is part of the old-school Republican tribe?&#8221; Tapper asked. &#8220;Or do you think he&#8217;s more of a Trumper 2.0?&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s the great question,&#8221; Maher responded. &#8220;The reason he&#8217;s so effective is he does two things at once. He can be a real old-school Republican who just takes care of business. COVID, the hurricane, stuff like that, he just goes about his business. He doesn&#8217;t do crazy stuff. But then, when he wants to throw red meat to the base, he&#8217;s a performance artist.&#8221;
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&#8220;But I get it that that&#8217;s where the party is. If you want a big future in that party, especially if you want to take on Donald Trump, you got to ride both those horses at once,&#8221; Maher continued. &#8220;Everybody keeps saying to me, &#8216;But he has no personality.&#8217; I don&#8217;t think people care. Like, a lot of politicians don&#8217;t have personality. Nixon had no personality. I mean, I could name some politicians who have absolutely no personality. It&#8217;s not a prerequisite. &#8230; I mean, I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s going to hold Ron DeSantis back.”
Tapper said that he met a couple from Florida who were liberal Democrats who told him &#8220;how much they loved Ron DeSantis&#8221; because of his competency at &#8220;governance.&#8221;
&#8220;Also, while the rest of the country was overdoing COVID, flor&#8211; I was there during COVID. It was night and day from this place. And I am not one who is ever on the page with COVID paranoia. So, I thought it was a breath of fresh air,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;And it turned out a lot of what Ron DeSantis did was smarter than what the people who were criticizing were saying. I mean, he kept the beaches open. Yes, you&#8217;re not going to get it outside. In fact, it&#8217;s good. Get some fresh air and some sunshine. That would be better for you. And he also protected the elderly. It was much more targeted. It was sort of the opposite of what happened in New York State.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bill Maher – who has made numerous correct predictions on Trump – says that only Ron DeSantis can beat Trump and that he will beat Trump if there’s a small number of candidates running. 
He says Haley, Pence, Pompeo, and others will hand the nomination to Trump if they all run. <a href="https://t.co/TTZCuqQ6xY">pic.twitter.com/TTZCuqQ6xY</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1631067793566187522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>TAPPER: If Donald Trump is challenged for the nomination &#8211; I mean, he&#8217;s obviously already being challenged by Governor Nikki Haley, and then there&#8217;s talk of other people.
MAHER: Right.
TAPPER: Governor DeSantis.
MAHER: Right.
TAPPER: And Mike Pompeo and others, Vice President Pence. Do you think any of them can take him out?
MAHER: No. But I think what they will do is ensure him the nomination.
TAPPER: By splitting all the alternates?
MAHER: Absolutely.
TAPPER: Same thing that happened before? 
MAHER: Yes. The only way Trump doesn&#8217;t get that nomination is if it&#8217;s just him and DeSantis.
If it&#8217;s a bunch of people in there, yes, they&#8217;re going to split the anti-Trump vote, because, Trump has a very hard-core following. I mean, it&#8217;s a cult. And cults don&#8217;t ever go away. Look at Christianity!
So, I despair about that, because I think when politicians smell the White House, they don&#8217;t care about the repercussions for the country. They just want to go for it.
DeSantis against Trump, I think, could get it.
Somebody said to me once, a conservative guy, he said, &#8220;The thing you guys don&#8217;t understand about us is we don&#8217;t really like Trump.&#8221; Now that doesn&#8217;t speak for all the Trumpers. He definitely has some real fans.
TAPPER: Oh sure.
MAHER: But there&#8217;s a lot of people who voted for him, and that&#8217;s their little secret, &#8220;We don&#8217;t like him either. We just vote for him because the stuff that you guys are doing on your fringe is scarier to us than what he&#8217;s doing,&#8221; which is saying a lot. And I&#8217;m not quite with them, but I get it.
TAPPER: Yes.
MAHER: I get it.
TAPPER: I think it&#8217;s also that he hates the same people that they hate, even if they don&#8217;t agree with Trump&#8211;
MAHER: Yes.
TAPPER: You know what I mean?
MAHER: And they love it that he sticks his thumb in their eye.
TAPPER: Yes.
Do you think that DeSantis is part of the old-school Republican tribe? Or do you think he&#8217;s more of a Trumper 2.0?
MAHER: That&#8217;s the great question. I don&#8217;t know if he&#8217;s playing a part or if that&#8217;s really him. He&#8217;s &#8211; the reason he&#8217;s so effective is he does two things at once. He can be a real old-school Republican who just takes care of business. COVID, the hurricane, stuff like that, he just goes about his business. He doesn&#8217;t do crazy stuff.
But then, when he wants to throw red meat to the base, he&#8217;s a performance artist. And he does a lot of really outrageous stuff.
But I get it that that&#8217;s where the party is. If you want a big future in that party, especially if you want to take on Donald Trump, you got to ride both those horses at once.
Everybody keeps saying to me, &#8220;But he has no personality.&#8221; I don&#8217;t think people care. Like, a lot of politicians don&#8217;t have personality. Nixon had no personality. I mean, I could name some politicians who have absolutely no personality. It&#8217;s not a prerequisite.
I mean, it&#8217;s great if you have one, like, Obama had a great one and Kennedy had a great one. But Biden is not, you know? I mean, James Brown at the Apollo exactly!
TAPPER: (LAUGH).
MAHER: I mean, I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s going to hold Ron DeSantis back.
TAPPER: You know, it&#8217;s interesting. I met this couple from Florida, liberal Democrats, and then they told how much they loved Ron DeSantis.
MAHER: Really?
TAPPER: Loved him. And it&#8217;s for the governance.
MAHER: From Florida?
TAPPER: Yes. They were from Florida.
MAHER: The people in Florida like him.
TAPPER: Well, he won reelection with almost 60 percent of the vote.
MAHER: Also, while the rest of the country was overdoing COVID, flor&#8211; I was there during COVID. It was night and day from this place. And I am not one who is ever on the page with COVID paranoia. So, I thought it was a breath of fresh air.
And the people there, when they would visit me here sometimes they would say, &#8220;Oh my God.&#8221; In the middle of the pandemic, what &#8211; what do you&#8211; &#8220;Do you people live like this? It&#8217;s so unnecessary. We don&#8217;t live like this.&#8221;
TAPPER: Right.
MAHER: And it turned out a lot of what Ron DeSantis did was smarter than what the people who were criticizing were saying. I mean, he kept the beaches open. Yes, you&#8217;re not going to get it outside. In fact, it&#8217;s good. Get some fresh air and some sunshine. That would be better for you.
And he also protected the elderly. It was much more targeted. It was sort of the opposite of what happened in New York State.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-maher-defends-ron-desantis-against-left-wing-attacks-desantis-should-run-now-for-president" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Maher Defends Ron DeSantis Against Left-Wing Attacks: ‘DeSantis Should Run Now’ For President</a>

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Bill Maher: Only DeSantis Can Beat Trump In Primary; Haley, Pence, Pompeo, And Others Help Trump If They Run

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Bill Maher: Only DeSantis Can Beat Trump In Primary; Haley, Pence, Pompeo, And Others Help Trump If They Run