Bill Maher still considers himself a liberal, but he’s begging them not to skeez him out — particularly when it comes to an attack one prominent liberal made against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actress wife, Cheryl Hines. In his latest extended New Rule from Friday’s “Real Time,” Maher began, “New Rule: If you want to win my vote, don’t give me the ick.”
“You know what ‘the ick’ is, right?” the comedian continued. “It’s a term mostly used in the dating world to describe that moment when one of the people, usually the man, does something so icky that the woman cannot forgive it or forget it.”
He laid out examples, including:
- Sending a dick pic
- Being mean to the waitress
- Paying for dinner with a coupon
- Having his mother call you when you dump him
- Asking for sex in a baby voice
“Once you give her the ick, it’s a wrap,” Maher continued — then he explained how this translates to the 2024 presidential campaign.
“Donald Trump has pioneered the concept of ‘the ick’ to frontiers no one ever thought possible. And that is saying a lot, considering that we once had to learn that John Edwards was going down on his five-month pregnant mistress, because who doesn’t love to see a politician kiss a baby?” Maher laid out, to laughs from the crowd.
Maher then laid out a smattering of Trump’s dump truck full of icky moments, including:
- The sexualized way he talks about his daughter
- How he talks about his penis
- Doing a faux “disabled voice”
- “Humping the flag”
- Getting in a shoving match in a graveyard
The host went on to mock the way Trump dances, describing it as “jerking off two guys at once.”
“What I’m saying is, don’t underestimate the ick. It’s what’s going to decide this election, and it’s the best thing Democrats have going for them,” Maher stated.
But Maher doesn’t have faith in what he calls “the far left” not to screw this up for Democratic candidates, adding that all of what he’d laid out was a cue for them to say, “Hold my beer.”
Maher turned his attention to former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump — and wife Cheryl Hines’ continued support of her husband.
“Now look, I like Bobby and always will,” Maher said. “And there are things he has been right about that no one else would touch. But yes, I also think he’s weird.”
Maher noted that her “Curb Your Enthusiasm” costar Larry David had once described Hines as “The best person I’ve ever met. The one person in Hollywood who doesn’t have a single enemy.”
“Well, now she does,” Maher added. “Because she didn’t throw her husband under the bus when her husband made a decision about something which she’s made plain she disagrees with. But that didn’t satisfy the obnoxious posers on the aforementioned far left.”
The host pointed to social media criticism, noting that thousands had “tweet-screamed” anger at Hines with sentiments such as:
- “How do you live with yourself?”
- “Do better.”
- “I can’t even enjoy the episodes of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ with you in them anymore.”
- “It’s no wonder Larry divorced you.”
Maher had some particularly subtle yet dripping scorn for that last remark, adding in a deadpan, “Yeah, that’s a character on TV, but OK.”
The host finally came to the ultimate example of his frustrations that he wanted to go after: actor Bradley Whitford, best known for his iconic role as Josh on “The West Wing.” Maher read Whitford’s own irate tweet at Hines, which read, “Hey @CherylHines, way to stay silent while your lunatic husband throws his support behind the adjudicated rapist who brags about stripping women of their fundamental rights. Gutsy. Great example for the kids. Profile in courage.
“Yeah, well, you know what I think is not gutsy?” Maher began his response. “Mansplaining to a woman, but of course not to her face, how she should sacrifice her marriage — all so you could read something on Twitter that met with your approval.”
The “Real Time” host explained that this is what he’s complaining about when he complains about liberals.
“You want to know why I have a bug up my ass about the left more than I used to? It’s s–t like this,” Maher said. “There’s an ugliness they never used to have. The liberals I grew up respecting, none of them are like this. Going after the wife — even the mafia doesn’t do that.”
Maher added that he sees a lot of people now who he describes as “liberals in theory.”
“In theory, they hate bullying — ‘terrible.’ In practice, their attitude is, it’s not bullying when I stick your head in the toilet. In theory, liberals are compassionate. In practice, this guy can’t even understand one of the most basic dilemmas common to all humans: that when you’re married, sometimes you have to swallow some s–t.”
The famed pothead then compared marriage to… “a bong.”
“For it to work, you have to take a few hits,” Maher said.
He admitted that he’s never been married, but said that he understands that in a marriage, “you’re not going to love everything your spouse says and does. But I promise you, no couples counselor has ever said, ‘Have you tried screaming at each other?’”
Maher pointed to former President Barack Obama speaking at this year’s Democratic National Convention, asking those listening to not assume the worst of others just because they don’t agree with you on every issue. Obama critiqued the idea that the only way to “win” was to “scold and shame and out-yell the other side.”
“Bradley, did you go to the bathroom or something when that came on?” Maher asked. “Because it’s almost like he was talking to you directly, like by name. Don’t scold, don’t shame, don’t out-yell.”
The host noted that former President Bill Clinton delivered a similar message as part of his speech at the DNC, where he urged Democrats to “meet people where they are” and “not to demean them.”
While Maher had a lot of problems with liberals, he doesn’t think the group he’s talking about includes Democratic politicians.
“The actual politicians of the Democratic Party are generally a pretty sane crop of people,” Maher said, adding, “The worst of them are leagues better than the worst Republicans. The Democratic politicians are not the ones calling to defund the police and other goofy stuff.”
“But the kind of people who are, the kind of people who are always howling on social media — yeah, that’s who gives a lot of people the ick when they hear ‘liberal,’” Maher said, bringing his New Rule full circle.
Maher does agree with this: “Trump is awful.”
“He’s not Hitler. But he is possibly the worst person since Hitler,” Maher half-quipped, before turning to joke that they’d love to have Trump on the show.
Maher posited that Trump “drives people insane,” including Whitford.
“I used to know Bradley a little bit. He wasn’t this guy. And while he may relish writing Cheryl Hines off, I’m not writing him off,” Maher said.
Instead, Maher said that’s not the right way to approach something like this, and that he would instead try to follow Obama’s advice to extend grace to our fellow citizens.
“We have to resist the siren call of being an a–hole. You don’t like Trump? Then don’t be like him,” Maher concluded.
You can watch the full “Real Time with Bill Maher” segment in the video at the top of this story.
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