Veteran news anchor Katie Couric balked at comedian Bill Maher’s assessment of former President Donald Trump’s town hall on CNN — specifically the claim that Trump was “killing it” — complaining, “He’s not a stand-up comedian.”
Couric and Maher clashed over the Trump town hall — and Maher’s assessment of the media’s failures when it came to covering Trump and his supporters — during a recent episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast.
WATCH:
Bill Maher telling Katie Couric why he is bored with the 'negative view' on Trump, and why he wants to represent the Trump voter's viewpoint as well:
"Not to defend Trump, but to defend the people who still vote for him. Because what they see on the other side, to them is even… pic.twitter.com/l24hPXicCo— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) April 14, 2024
Maher brought up the CNN town hall — which was supposed to have an audience made up of both Trump voters and independents — and noted that the audience had been very receptive.
“The audience loved it. The audience loved it,” he said.
“It was stacked with Trump supporters,” Couric complained.
Maher pointed out the fact that it was supposed to be an audience of Republicans and independents – and said that if CNN had failed to properly vet them, that was their issue to handle.
“Here’s what people saw in America. They saw Trump killing it. Killing it with the crowd! Then you cut to a panel of six people who all just do nothing but dump on him and call him a liar and America goes, ‘Oh, didn’t you just see that we like him?’ And now —” Maher continued.
“He’s not a standup comedian!” Couric protested.
“What?” Maher asked.
“‘He’s killing it.’ He’s not a standup comedian,” Couric said.
“No, but popularity. Doesn’t matter. The people loved him and what he was saying,” Maher pushed back. “And then you cut to a panel of six know-it-alls in Washington who just do nothing but talk about the neg — and I’m all in on the negative, no one’s been harder on Trump than me, but I get it and I’m bored with it, and there’s a different way to do this, I think.”
“Not to defend Trump, but to defend the people who still vote for him. Because what they see on the other side, to them is even more dangerous. Because it’s very — closer to home: My kid is coming home from school and he thinks he’s a racist? He’s five, what have you been telling him? My son thinks maybe he’s not a boy and maybe that’s true, that happens. Those kind of things are what they say ‘That’s why I’m voting for Trump’,” Maher explained.
“A backlash to the pendulum swinging so far to the Left,” Couric said.
Maher concluded by saying that there were some Trump voters who loved him and some who didn’t but still voted for him because they believed he was the only thing standing between them and “madness” — and he argued that their position should at least be presented in media coverage.