Bill Maher may have spent a lot of 2023 worried about Joe Biden’s age, but during “New Rules” on Friday’s episode of “Real Time,” he did a full 180 and offered some advice to the president about how to handle the issue during this election year: “Own it. Own it.”
Maher argued that Biden’s age, given who actually tends to turn out during elections (older voters), could be a selling point. Democrats, Maher said, need to “find a way to make the Biden age issue work for them. Because you know what’s really getting old about Joe Biden? Complaining about his age.”
Maher conceded that people are worried about Biden slowing down. “But when did we start insisting that our presidents be smart? Like these a–holes?” Maher said as images of Donald Trump and George W. Bush appeared onscreen.
Maher advised Biden to “stop with the ‘I’m sharper than ever,’ nobody’s buying that. Don’t try to deny the age thing, lean into it. Lean in, lean in like you’re eating soup and just admit it, say ‘yes, I’m bad with names and I walk like a toddler with a full diaper. But I believe in democracy.’”
Maher’s point is that the age thing is part of a larger problem Democrats have, that of “letting the opposition intimidate you into being defensive about who you really are.” He cited the examples of John Kerry in 2004 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 — and how their attempts to not be themselves didn’t work.
“Americans hate that s–t. Be yourself. And Joe, yourself is old. That’s who you are,” Maher quipped.
“You’re the guy who thinks an ‘app’ is the sound that a chihuahua makes when it comes. You once fell down the stairs at the Underground Railroad. You’re so old, your bad kid with a drug problem is 54,” Maher said referring to Hunter Biden, before referencing John McCain and using him as an example of what he’s talking about as far as a politician who embraced his age and experience.
Maher chided the Biden campaign for establishing a TikTok, noting that less than half of younger voters turned out in 2020, but 72% of people over 65 did. “Those are your people, Joe. The ‘Matlock’ crowd. Reach out to them, reach out to them, reach out like it’s a wrong number at dinner.”
“Time to take all your ads off Twitter and put them on CBS. Tell America, ‘I feel your joint pain.’ Let them love you as a relatable figure in a way only you can. You think you’re the only old geezer who ever called LL Cool J, ‘LL J Cool J’?” Maher rhetorically asked.
Then Maher ended the bit by imagining the sort of State of the Union address Biden could give if he took this advice. Standing in front of a green screen with images from previous SOTU addresses, Maher delivered a parody speech that went all in on the idea — including using a walker.
Among other things, Maher-as-president noted “my opponent would like to take us back to the past. Not the good past of bobbysocks and copping a feel at the drive-in. The bad past of racism and denying a woman’s right to choose.”
“My friends, when I first came here as a senator, Washington welcomed me with open arms. Not the place, the guy. And that is a virtue. You don’t want a young person in charge of our defense. We need a president who can stand up to Russia and say to its current president, Mr. Gorbachev, ‘get off my lawn,’” Maher said later in the sketch.
You can watch the “New Rules” segment of Friday’s “Real Time” at the top of the page.