Comedian Bill Maher, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, suggested that the Democratic Party needs to find “an alpha” politician, warning that voters can “smell a phony a mile away.”
Maher, who just met with the president at the White House, acknowledged that Trump is “one of the most effective politicians,” an assessment he believes himself despite being Trump’s “biggest critic.” He added that one reason Trump is so popular is that the president has “moments” that no other politician can generate, recalling how Trump directly threatened Taliban leaders during his first presidency, which Maher said he “f***ing” loved.
NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo, a guest on Maher’s Club Random podcast, suggested that Democrats need to find “a message” to sway voters back to the party, which Maher disagreed with and called “the worst thing the Democrats always say.” He said Trump’s message to voters is “I’m strong” and “I’m daddy,” adding that “people want a daddy” in the White House.
“You know what? That’s what works, and that’s what people respond to,” Maher argued. “They don’t know the issues, they don’t know the facts, and they have no interest in learning about them. They’re like an animal — they’re instinctive — I smell fear, or I smell alpha, and they smell alpha. And Democrats have to come up with an alpha, and it’s not Tim Walz! And it’s Tim, the other Tim who ran … Kaine? These are not alphas!”
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Maher continued to say that Democrats look to recruit a “docile man” as vice president and portray him as “an a**hole” while “mom takes care of business,” referring to former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As such, he contended that politicians must appeal to voters “on a primal level” to an extent, which Trump does “better than anybody.”
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Cuomo added to Maher’s comments by suggesting that politicians “forgot how powerful celebrity is in the American psyche,” pointing to how popular Trump was among voters through The Apprentice reality television series. He assessed that many voters missed “the money, the power, [and] the agency” that Trump possessed in the White House.
During their discussion, Maher also lamented the partisan divide between comedy and making fun of politicians, arguing this is something “we got to get past.” Cuomo seemed to reference Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-TX) recent dig at Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), calling him “Governor Hot Wheels,” stating she would not be canceled since she is “a black woman.” Maher agreed, saying, “She wears the magic armor, so she can do that.”
