We’re assuming that Bill Maher is quite the yogi, because he twisted himself in knots to make a stretch of an argument.
On Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Maher decided to pooh-pooh the artists who pulled out of the President Donald Trump-backed Freedom 250 concerts for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall — and his argument ignores the giant Trump-shaped elephant in the room.
Screenshot “Real Time with Bill Maher” via Snapstream
Concerts aren’t the only events scheduled to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. Trump also tied his 80th birthday on June 14 into the festivities by erecting a UFC cage on the White House’s South Lawn for a bloody bout on his special day. A racetrack is also being built around Washington, D.C., for a Freedom 250 Grand Prix event in August.
Kevin Carter via Getty Images
After Maher poked some fun at Trump by calling him a “redneck president” for the types of events he chose to throw for the celebration, the comedian moved on to make his argument against artists like Poison’s Bret Michaels, Milli Vanilli and The Commodores, who dropped out of the Freedom 250 concert lineup after it was announced.
Maher began by saying the 250th anniversary celebration “was not planned as a specific Trump thing or a specific MAGA thing.”
“They all pulled out,” Maher said, before claiming they did so to appease the left.
“This is a question about what looks best for the Democrats, because I don’t think that looks good,” Maher said.
“It looks like you are just what people say about you — you don’t really love America. It looks like you think Trump is more important than the country itself.”
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Maher said the event is now “just a big MAGA rally,” because it’ll just be “Trump and [“God Bless the USA” singer] Lee Greenwood.”
Maher went on to argue that the event is nonpartisan.
“Wouldn’t it be better to play this gig?” Maher said. “It’s a monthlong gig. Lots of people like just celebrating America. Can’t we all just celebrate America itself and leave Trump out of it?”
This is when one of Maher’s guests, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), pointed out that it’s hard to view the event as neutral, considering Trump made the event about himself rather than the country.
After Murphy noted that his kids are “excited about the D.C. race” and that the lineup of events will definitely get some folks hyped, Murphy broke down why people view the 250 festivities as a thinly veiled celebration of Trump.
“Here’s what happened,” Murphy began. “There was a nonpartisan, apolitical effort to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. And instead of just letting that effort go forward, Donald Trump took it over, right, to create a parallel set of events.
“My understanding is these artists thought that they were going to the nonpartisan effort, and then when they found out that it was just a predicate to a Trump rally, they didn’t want to be part of it.
“I think this would have been a lot better for the country if Trump had decided to just let professionals, let people who just care about celebrating America with no political agenda, be part of this,” Murphy concluded. “I agree there’s no reason to overly politicize this, but Trump decided to politicize it by essentially shutting down the citizens who were leading it and turning it into a big MAGA event.”
Watch the entire exchange above.
