Comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time Bill Maher said during a recent podcast interview that the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump was his “favorite day of 2024.”
Though Maher has consistently condemned the assassination attempt on the former president’s life since the beginning, he told the Daily Beast’s Matt Friend on his podcast Friends In High Places that comedians should be allowed to crack jokes about the event because Trump survived, even though one of his supporters died in the shooting.
“It would be different if he got killed,” Mahar said.
Trump supporter Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from Pennsylvania, died after the shooter missed the former president, grazing only his ear. Two other Trump rally-goers were seriously injured before a sniper took out the assailant. Maher joked that the shooter being killed instead of the former president is so “on brand” for him.
“That’s so Trump. It’s so on brand… it’s always somebody else holding the bullet or the bag,” he said.
Maher did, however clarify that jokes about the assassination can go too far and condemned those who might “joke” that the shooter missed.
“There will be people who will do jokes, comments [along the lines of] ‘What a shame they missed,’” he said, echoing similar remarks her made in the hours after the shooting. “It’s not right. Nobody is more against Trump being president than me but that is not something you fool around with.”
Maher condemned the show on the night of July 14 during a comedy show in Minneapolis and even praised the iconic photo of the former president pumping his fist in the air with the American flag waving behind his bloodied face. During the interview, Maher talked about how the shooting made him have to rework his whole routine that night.
“Soon as the car pulls up at the hotel, before we got the bags out of the back, the guy from the hotel came up and said Trump’s been shot. I was like ‘What?’ And he said, ‘But I think he’s okay,’ and he showed me the thing on the phone,” he said.
“I was like okay, in two hours I’m going to write this whole new ten minute thing about it,” he added.
Maher knew he would immediately condemn the assassination attempt and expressed gratitude for Trump’s well-being, though he admitted he had selfish motives.
“I was glad I staked my opinion on that, and we got it out virally which is great,” Maher said . “But the other reason I said I’m glad that he’s okay is because now I can keep doing jokes about him.”
“Because I want to,” he added.
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