Bill Maher Elicits Cheers After Rooting for an Economic Slowdown: ‘We Have Survived Many Recessions. We Can’t Survive Another Donald Trump Term’
On his show Real Time, the audience loudly cheered when Bill Maher reiterated his support for an economic slowdown sometime in the next year to hurt the president’s reelection chances: “We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term.”
Maher has previously said he is wishing for a recession and even drawn criticism from Fox News’ Sean Hannity for the sentiment. “Sean, if you’re watching, I’m not a genie. I can’t make it happen,” he said to laughs, after pointing out the destructive potential of Trump’s China tariffs and other trade wars. “If it happens, it will be because of your lord and savior, Donald J. Trump.”
When former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci offered several of his own criticisms of how Trump has conducted trade policy, Maher challenged him.
“Did you ever say any of that to Trump? Would he understand it, did he?” Maher pressed.
“One hundred percent. I wrote a Washington Post op-ed about it,” Scaramucci replied.
“But that would be reading, did you ever say it,” Maher quickly cut in, going for the joke.
“This is one of the problems,” Scaramucci responded. “He wants to do it his way. He took a machine gun known as his Twitter account and shot in a 360-degree circle and then dropped the gun.”
Later, Never-Trump conservative guest Tom Nichols said: “I’m not wishing for a recession, but if the farmers want to keep touching the hot stove [of Trump’s backfiring trade policies]…”
“Well, you should be,” Maher interrupted, “because that will definitely get him unelected.”
That comment prompted pushback from Scaramucci: “But Bill, you don’t really want a recession.”
“I really do,” Maher said firmly. “We have survived many recessions. We can’t survive another Donald Trump term,” he added, after which the audience erupted in cheers.
When Scaramucci pushed back again, pointing out that millions of Americans would likely lose their jobs, Maher once more disagreed with him: “I do.”
Maher then received some unexpected back-up for his embrace of economic self-destruction from NBC News’ Richard Engel: “Short term pain…better than long-term destruction of the Constitution.”
Watch the video above, via HBO.
