CNN: Bill Maher’s 2024 presidential race predictions

CNN’s Jake Tapper speaks with Bill Maher about the comedian’s predictions for the 2024 presidential field. Maher’s show, “Real Time with Bill Maher” airs on HBO, which, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Transcript

It’s not me who’s changed. It’s the left who is now made up of a small contingent who’ve gone mental and a large contingent who refuse to call them out for it. But I will. Do you think Democratic politicians have changed their views, or do you think they’re just afraid of their party’s activists

The way that a lot of Republicans are afraid of their party’s activists, the MAGA folks, be. They’re afraid. They’re just afraid. Yes, I think I think both sides I think, again, this fought tribes, I think in this country, I think there’s old school liberals and old school conservatives, Republicans and Democrats,

The kind of people who used to. I think that’s the majority of the country like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush or something. Yeah, the kind of people who never agreed on a hell of a lot, but they found ways to work together. They didn’t hate each other. It wasn’t all about

Making liberal tears cry and all this stuff and, you know, owning and destroying people. It was just, yeah, I don’t agree with Bob Dole, but, you know, we can work together. We can get a grand bargain, that kind of stuff. And so I think that’s the majority. But then you have Trumpers

And then you have jokesters and you know, those fringes are not doing this country any great favors. If Donald Trump is challenged for the nomination, I mean, he’s obviously already being challenged by Governor Haley, Nikki Haley. And then there’s talk of other people that Governor DeSantis and Mike Pompeo and others,

Vice President Pence. Do you think any of them can take him out? No, but I think what they will do is ensure him the nomination by splitting all the alternate. Absolutely. Same thing that happened before. Yeah. The only way Trump doesn’t get that nomination is if it’s just him and the Sanders,

If it’s a bunch of people in there, know they’re going to split the anti-Trump vote because, you know, Trump has a very hardcore following. I mean, it’s a cult. And cults don’t ever go away. Look at Christianity. So I, I despair about that because I think when politicians smell the White House,

They don’t care about the repercussions for the country. They just want to go for it. Dissent is against Trump, I think could get it. You know, somebody said to me once, a conservative guy said, the thing you guys don’t understand about us is we don’t really like Trump. Now, that doesn’t speak

For all the Trumpers. He definitely has some real fans. Oh, sure. But there’s a lot of people who voted for him, and that’s their little secret. We don’t like him either. We just vote for him because the stuff that you guys are doing on your fringe

Is scarier to us than what he’s doing, which is saying a lot. And I’m not quite with them, but I get it. Yeah, I think it’s also that that he hates the same people that they hate, even if they don’t agree. Yes. And they love it

That he sticks his thumb in their eye. Yeah. Do you do you think that DeSantis is part of the old school Republican tribe, or do you think he’s more of a Trumper to point out that’s the great question. I don’t know if he’s playing a part or if that’s really him.

You know, he’s the reason he’s so effective is he does two things at once. He can be a real old school Republican who just takes care of business, you know, COVID, the hurricane, stuff like that. He just goes about his business. He doesn’t do crazy stuff.

But then when he wants to throw red meat to the base, he’s a performance artist and he does a lot of really outrageous stuff. But I get it that that’s where the party is. If you want a big future in that party, especially if you want to take on Donald Trump,

You got to ride both those horses at once. Everybody keeps saying to me, but he has no personality. I don’t think people care. Like a lot of politicians don’t have personality. Nixon had no personality. I mean, I could name some politicians who have absolutely no personality. It’s not a prerequisite.

I mean, it’s great if you have one. Like Obama had a great one and Kennedy had a great one. But, you know, Biden is not you know, I mean, James Brown at the Apollo. Exactly. You know, I mean, I don’t think that’s going to hold Ron DeSantis back. You know, it’s interesting.

I met this couple from Florida, liberal Democrats, and then they told me how much they loved Ron DeSantis, really loved him. And it’s for the governance from Florida. Yeah, they were from Florida. The people in Florida like he won reelection with almost 60% of the vote. Also, while the rest of the country

Was overdoing COVID Florida, I was there during COVID. It was night and day from this place. And you know, I am not one who is ever on the page with COVID paranoia. So I thought it was a breath of fresh air. And the people there, when they would visit me here,

Sometimes they would say, Oh my God, in the middle of the pandemic, what do you do? You people live like this and so unnecessary. We don’t live like this. Right. And it turned out a lot of what Ron DeSantis did was smarter than what the people who are criticizing were saying.

I mean, he kept the beaches open. Yes. You’re not going to get it outside. In fact, it’s good. Get some fresh air and some sunshine that would be better for you. And he also protected the elderly. It was much more targeted. It’s sort of the opposite of what happened in New York State.

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