Bill Maher declares himself a 'hero' for confronting Trump at White House meeting
"Real Time" host Bill Maher said Thursday that he should be regarded as a "hero" for how he handled the White House meeting with his political foe, President Donald Trump.
Appearing on the "2 Angry Men" podcast, Maher was asked about the public response to his dinner with Trump.
"I'm not pulling punches, either on my show or when I was with him or after," Maher told podcast hosts Harvey Levin and Mark Geragos. "And I'm proud that I was able to go into the White House and say to the President of the United States, look him in the eye and say, 'You're scaring people. You know, it doesn't bother you that you're scaring so many of your own citizens?'"
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Maher addressed the backlash he received from the left for his monologue recapping his positive Trump meeting.
"I would say to them, ‘As opposed to what?’ I had the opportunity to go to the White House and talk to the president and not give up my principles. It seems like nobody noticed that," Maher said. "I didn't go MAGA. I had the opportunity to talk to Donald Trump and say things to him that maybe he never hears, literally to speak truth to power. I shouldn't take that opportunity?"
"So, I should be a hero for going there and doing those things and saying those things to the president. I'm not the villain here," Maher said. "I mean, there's two ways you can do the Oval Office: the way I did it, honestly, or, like Gretchen Whitmer, who held up a bunch of binders in front of her face."
"I should be a hero for being one of the people who got inside the inner sanctum and was able to say to this person – who knows how much he ever hears anything that's not coming from the cult – and say those things and stick to my guns."
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Maher made headlines on Friday for calling Trump "gracious and measured" at the meeting and suggesting the man in the Oval Office is not the man the rest of the world sees on TV.
"I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him," Maher told his "Real Time" audience. "And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it's emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days."
While conservatives celebrated Maher's White House visit, liberals were irked by his comments, many accusing the HBO host "falling into the trap" of the president's "PR stunt."