Comedian Bill Maher talks dumping Biden, the RNC and his weekend appearance in Milwaukee
What is a longtime liberal like Bill Maher doing in Milwaukee just hours before the start of the Republican National Convention?
To hear him tell it, Maher will be exactly where he wants to be this weekend, mixing it up with people on the left and the right while delivering jokes and his unique brand of political analysis.
Standup comedy is one way for an "old school liberal" like himself to bring people together, Maher said.
"That's one of the secrets of how this country can ever get back on track. We have to start sitting together even when we don't agree with each other," Maher told the Journal Sentinel. "We have to stop hating each other. I don't want to hate half the country, and I don't hate half the country."
Maher, host of "Real Time With Bill Maher" on HBO, will be in Milwaukee for a show at 8 p.m. Sunday as part of his "The WTF? Tour."
It will not be his first time in Brew City. The controversial figure has a long association with the city.
But Maher said he was not surprised when it was reported that former Republican President Donald Trump said Milwaukee was a "horrible city." The veteran standup comedian said Trump can say whatever he wants and get away with it with the Republican base.
"When he says something like Milwaukee is a terrible city, they just brush it off," Maher said. "They didn't care when he lost the Iowa caucus (in 2016), he said, 'How stupid are the people of Iowa?' Everyone still voted for him in November."
As for the GOP convention in Milwaukee next week, Maher — who began airing political talk shows on TV beginning in 1993 — said it will be little more than a "huge pep rally" for Trump, with little real news, except for Trump's announcement of his vice presidential pick.
The real event will be the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month, given the number of Democrats calling on Democratic President Joe Biden to step aside after his disastrous performance at his recent debate with Trump.
Biden has defiantly brushed aside suggestions that he is not physically or mentally competent to serve four more years in the White House.
In recent interviews and a New York Times opinion piece, Maher has called on Biden to release his delegates, allowing for an open convention.
"It would be great for the party. It would be great for the country. It would drum up so much interest. You could not buy this amount of interest with all of George Soros's money," Maher said.
"What do Americans love more than anything? They love a contest. They love a competition. They love a reality show. It would be like the 'Golden Bachelor' times the NFL draft. It would be great, and we would come up with somebody new. I mean, the leadership of this country, it's like a TV show that's been on way too long. We need new characters."
He even put forward California Gov. Gavin Newsom's name as a possible replacement for Biden on the Democrat ticket. What was the reaction to that? "Well, a lot of people hate him," Maher said he learned.
In recent years, Maher, 68, has seen himself move from a traditional liberal to more of a left-leaning, no-woke curmudgeon, open to criticizing both Republicans and Democrats.
But Maher bristles at the term "curmudgeon," suggesting he's more of an "honest broker." He said he hadn't changed but that the world around him had.
He said he could never be a Republican, given the party's problems. He said its members are too religious, are fiscal hypocrites, think climate change is a hoax, are in denial on racism, blame the underprivileged for everything and don't believe in democracy anymore.
But he said the far left has gone "nutty." He said identity politics is unproductive and shouldn't be an issue everywhere in society. He also dismissed cancel and victim culture, virtue signaling, white self-loathing and forcing complex ideas about race and gender on children.
"So you can threaten me with whatever label you want or whatever name you want," Maher said. "I don't bend any if you do something goofy. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, I'm going to call you out. I speak for a different group of people who are not ideologically captured, and that includes Democrats and independents and non-fooling Republicans."
A large part of his critique of the current political environment is his belief that Trump is likely to win a second term as president, no matter what Democrats do.
Would such a term be better, the same or worse than the first?
"The easy and obvious answer is worse," Maher said. "Could he blow up the world on his second day in office? Yeah, absolutely. Or he could just spend four years eating cheeseburgers and calling into 'Fox and Friends' every day and bitching about sharks. It is impossible to predict what he is going to do because he doesn't know what he's going to do."
Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bill Maher talks RNC, dumping Biden and his upcoming show in Milwaukee
