HBO host Bill Maher says the “defund the police” movement being pushed by liberal Democrats is a “terrible idea” and will prompt more Americans to vote for President Trump in November.
“Liberals want to take police money, police funds and divert it to community services, which sounds like a very good thing, good idea,” Maher said Friday during the opening monologue of his show “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“But they’re calling it ‘defund the police,’ which sounds bad!” he said.
“That is so Democrats for you,” Maher said. “They must have meetings to be this f****ing stupid about politics. ‘Hey, guys. We’re making some headway here. Um, how can we turn this into something that makes people have to vote for Trump?'”
Maher also said that Democrats might be moving too far left, which could be bad on Election Day.
“I worry that Democrats are wandering into another purity test that’s not going to serve them well,” Maher said. “And it’s going to be about how much you want to get rid of police altogether.”
Trump has been teeing off on the “defund the police” slogan. “However, top Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), quickly distanced themselves from the phrase,” The Hill reported.
“The slogan may be misleading without interpretation,” Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this past week, adding that he understood the phrase to be more about deep-rooted reform efforts. “I don’t think anyone other than the far extremes are saying we don’t want any kind of policing at all,” he said.
But the need to explain the meaning behind the wording comes with its own set of critics. “If you’re explaining, you’re losing, and there’s a lot of explaining going on,” Meghan McCain, a right-leaning commentator said on ABC’s “The View.” “If you mean reform, say reform. If you mean defund, say defund. People are confused,” she added.
Maher has warned that Americans had better put aside their political differences or “there will be blood.”
“This year, just celebrate Thanksgiving. Don’t try to win it. And never forget the single shining truth about democracy: it means sharing a country with ***holes you can’t stand,” Maher said in November.
Maher said politics have gotten ugly, especially with the explosion of social media.
“It’s no longer enough to just make a point,” he said. “You have to destroy. You have to own people. Except the person who gets owned doesn’t change their mind. They just make a mental note never to interact again with DM_Me_Your_T*tties.”
“Lately we’ve been hearing more and more about a second civil war, which sounds impossible in this modern, affluent country. It is not,” Maher said. “We talk about Trump as an existential threat, but his side sees Democratic control of the government the exact same way. When both sides believe the other guy taking over means the end of the world, yes, you can have a civil war.”
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