Bill Maher is developing a pattern here. While his humor has always been that of a shock jock, garnering attention with crude attempts at humor at the expense of others, his inner racist bubbles up during the least expected times. Take Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Maher was interviewing Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX), a black Republican, and lo and behold, a racist crack came from Maher’s lips as easy as a hot knife slicing through butter. Kudos to NewsBuster’s Managing Editor, Curtis Houck, for capturing it.
Video: Here's Bill Maher lobbing a clearly racist joke to GOP Congressman Will Hurd, asking him if he gathered undercover intel for the CIA out "by the Popeye's Chicken." pic.twitter.com/gxwNZQKyAL
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 2, 2019
Of all the references Maher could have used as he made light of the former CIA operative’s work in dark alleys, gathering intelligence in the wee hours of the morning, Maher used Popeye’s, a fried chicken fast food franchise. What’s the matter, couldn’t Maher think of a zingy watermelon reference? The Daily Beast caught it and pounced.
Following some back and forth about the border wall, which Rep. Hurd—who represents “more border than any part of Congress”—isn’t a fan of, Maher asked Hurd, who is black, why he’s a Republican.
“I’m a Republican because I believe in limited government,” Hurd responded.
“But they don’t do that,” interrupted Maher. “I’m a Republican because I believe in the rule of law. I’m a Republican because I believe in economic opportunity,” Hurd continued.
“They don’t do that either,” Maher interrupted again.
“I’m just asking why you’re a Republican?” he pressed. “Because they’re not good at the debt, that was their big thing. You said limited government, they don’t do that. They took over the Congress in 2011 and they raised the debt a trillion dollars a year. They’re not good at national defense—the president’s a traitor. What’s in it for you? What is in the Republican Party for you? You were in the CIA!”
With that, Hurd explained, “I was in the CIA for almost a decade. I was the dude in the back alleys at four o’clock in the morning collecting intelligence on threats to the homeland.”
“That’s where you’d collect it, huh? Wow,” shot back Maher. “By the Popeyes Chicken?”
You can hear a bit of groaning coming from the audience. Even they knew Maher had stepped out of bounds.
Talk about timing. Maher’s HBO show tapes in the late afternoon on Fridays, if I remember correctly, and it’s taped on the West Coast so he may not have known about the outrage of the day spreading out of Virginia. Of all days to let loose with a lame racial slap to a black guest, Friday was the least hospitable time. Virginia Governor Northam caused a bi-partisan backlash from politicians, celebrities and the Twitterverse Friday afternoon as a photo from his medical school yearbook showed the governor either in blackface or wearing a KKK costume. I’m still not clear which one he is in that picture.
Democrats didn’t care that the governor came out in support of legislation legalizing infanticide in Virginia but this photo from 30 plus years ago is beyond the pale, apparently. I certainly don’t condone the blackface or the KKK costume. The governor was 25 years old at the time and in medical school, not some dumb 18-year-old kid in his undergrad days. He knew it was wrong, or he should have known. But it sure would have been good to see Democrats as outraged about the inhumanity of the Virginia legislation.
Does anyone think HBO will hold Maher responsible for anything he does? He’s a liberal and he gets every benefit of the doubt even when there isn’t any. Like Hillary’s “they all look alike to me” joke. It’s just a joke, but from anyone else, it would be deep rooted racism.
The man obviously was caught off the plantation and Bill wanted the reward for putting him back there. Pointing out that Republicans are bad to the confused boy, maybe he didnt run away he just wandered off and got hisself a bit lost.
Why Hurd, he is isnt gungho for the wall, so that part is cool, but we just might have to leave a trail of burning crosses so he finds his way back, you know they are all to stupid find the DMV for fre IDs.
cia agents and former agents do not share assignments, time, place, country or assignment information. you knew maher has a long history of psychiatric issues and has been in rehab.