Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville slammed Bill Maher’s child-like lack of judgment after the comedian’s dinner with President Donald Trump.
“I would defend Bill Maher to this extent; he’s a supremely naive man,” Carville said on Saturday’s episode of the podcast Politics War Room, further ripping into his long-time “friend” for being taken in by a president “who sh-ts on the Constitution” and “who’s set up every grift you can imagine.”
Maher’s White House dinner with Trump at the White House earlier this month marked an end to more than a decade of ill will between the two, with Trump at one point even suing Maher for daring to suggest he was the son of an orangutan.
The comic-cum-political-pundit has since said he found Trump not only to be “gracious and measured” during their meal together, but perfectly capable of laughing at his own expense.
Carville made his comments on Saturday after co-host Al Hunt compared Maher to Walter Duranty, a New York Times reporter who won a Pulitzer prize in the 1920s for his coverage of Joseph Stalin.
“I think Bill Maher was had, he went there and he talked about how charming and nice Trump was,” Hunt said. “This was the same guy that day who was revelling in a guy who was illegally deported to El Salvador and refuses to bring him back, who loves to hurt people, loves to inflict pain.”
Carville said what really irks him about the comedian’s White House visit is the fact that it offers “legitimacy and credence” to the Trump administration.
“They gave legitimacy to a guy who is only legitimate by the fact that he got elected to something and nothing else,” the Democratic strategist said, adding he hopes widespread criticism of Maher’s trip will make others in a similar position “think twice” about spending time with the president.
