While his HBO counterpart John Oliver issued an urgent warning about voting GOP during the midterms, Bill Maher spent the majority of his time in the lead-up to the critical election dining with the Trump at the White House (and then bickering with him publicly), conducting an embarrassingly softball interview with Trump’s former press secretary Karoline Leavitt and platforming Kid Rock’s racist rants against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
And so, following a blue tsunami that saw the Democrats wrest back control of Congress in startlingly dominant fashion, the increasingly illiberal pundit dedicated Friday night’s episode of “Real Time” to “gloat” about the Dems’ big night — and make some gay jokes.
“Republicans lost bigly. There’s no other way to put it. And, great! Now I’m never going to get that check for $5,000,” joked Maher, adding, “In 2016, Lindsey Graham said, ‘If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it,’ and it just shows gays are always ten years ahead of everybody.” (Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, passed away in July.)
He wasn’t done. “Well, look, I hate to gloat, but sorry, I have to do a little bit because everybody was hedging about this election,” Maher said, before pointing to a series clips of himself on “Real Time” and various cable news programs predicting that the Democrats would deliver a “historical thumping” to the Republicans during the midterms.
“Here’s something I could not have predicted: Trump’s reaction to the election. He said, ‘Congratulations to the Democrats, they did a good job,’” offered Maher, before looking directly into the camera and addressing his sparring partner: “Donnie, are you OK? I know we’ve been feuding. You sound unwell. You’re not even going to fake it was rigged?”