Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher triggered “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin during Tuesday’s broadcast of the ABC midday talk show, sparring with her over his use of the term “woke” and the Left’s rapid descent into anti-Semitism.
Maher appeared on the show in part to promote his new book — titled “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You” — and he also joined the co-hosts in their conversation about current events and politics.
Maher mentioned issues like schools helping students with social gender transitions without the permission or knowledge of their parents and pointed out that in cases like that, the “woke” far Left was doing the heavy lifting when it came to driving moderates toward voting for former President Donald Trump in November.
Hostin pushed back then, not to refute his point but to complain that he had used the term “woke” to mean something she didn’t like.
“I just — the term ‘woke’ has been, in my view, co-opted by the Right and weaponized and bastardized,” Hostin began. “So I was surprised to hear you use the term because historically as you know, because I think you’re quite brilliant, that woke is a word used by the black community to note that we must be aware of social injustices — why is that a bad thing?”
“But words migrate,” Maher pushed back, noting that the term has taken on a very different meaning over time, but added that it certainly was not a bad thing to be “alert to injustice.”
He went on to say that he would use a different word if that one was “triggering,” but reinforced his point about words changing meaning over time: “I think we agree about the danger of the super far Right, and I can’t say it enough, I think they’re the bigger threat, but don’t tell me that the Left hasn’t changed. I mean, I’m old enough to remember when it was the conservatives who hated the Jews … that was a joke.”
He said then that if he’d had any doubt that the Left had changed, seeing the recent campus protests would have been enough to convince him as students marched and chanted the slogans of the terrorist organization Hamas.
WATCH:
Maher calls out anti-Semitic liberals like Hostin who support Hamas’s attacks on Jews. He tells them to try living under the oppression of radical Islam and get back to him.
Hostin tries/fails to box him in on supporting the deaths of civilians in Gaza, “it’s a war” he says. pic.twitter.com/ez3AtQvmOL— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 21, 2024
“It’s astounding to me that they can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys … morally,” Maher continued. “Let me tell you, if you’re for Hamas, just live in Gaza for a day — and I’m not talking about while the war is on, I mean before the war. Trust me, you would go running and screaming and begging to live in Tel Aviv.”
Maher explained that under Hamas rule in Gaza, women had no rights, referring to the government as a “gender apartheid.”
Hostin objected then, asking, “Are you at all concerned about the innocent civilians that have been collectively punished and murdered? Largely children and women? Aren’t you at all concerned about the fact that the International Criminal Court just today issued a subpoena for Bibi Netanyahu?”
“Well, that’s — that’s ridiculous, but it’s a war,” Maher said. “Because it’s a war. And they were attacked, and they’re defending themselves. Now, this is a war. Do you think Hamas needs to be destroyed? This is the question.”
“Yes,” Hostin agreed.
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“All right, so Hamas needs to be destroyed because they are a terrorist organization who have, who say openly that they want to commit genocide on the Jewish people, on the state of Israel. That’s what ‘from the river to the sea’ means. Okay? And they say it very openly. They said, ‘We did this attack.’ They’ve attacked Israel five times. They’ve started five wars since they were given that land back,” Maher said. “They could have chosen to turn that place into any place they wanted to. And they took a lot of money that they took from the international community, and they spent it on bombs and guns and building tunnels. So, if they need to be destroyed, how do we do that? It’s a war. I don’t know how to do that, and you don’t know how to do that. I assume the Israeli Defense –”
“But are you concerned about the innocent lives?” Hostin asked again.
“Of course, everybody is, but that’s what happens in a war. Here’s a way to stop that: stop attacking Israel,” Maher shot back.
“And stop calling for the annihilation of Israel and all the Jews. They’re calling for the annihilation of the Jews. And so you can’t really defend that on the other side very easily,” co-host Joy Behar added.