Would Donald Trump supporters really allow him to shoot someone, as he claims, and not care about it?
Comedian and commentator Bill Maher says we’ve reached that reality.
Maher says he’s changing his tune on HBO’s Real Time, telling viewers Friday night that he plans to tone down his comedic routine mocking Trump and his supporters over fears that the political division in the U.S. could lead to a second civil war.
“I have been guilty of saying things like that,” Maher said referring to name-calling of the right, adding: “I’m going to try to stop. I’ve learned that the anti-intellectualism of the right doesn’t come primarily from stupidity, it comes from hate. Telling people they’re irredeemable is what makes them say, ‘You know what, I’d rather side with Russia than you.'”
“Lately, we’ve been hearing more and more about a second civil war,” said Maher, “which sounds impossible in this modern, affluent country. It is not. We talk about Trump as an existential threat, but his side sees Democratic control of government the exact same way. When both sides believe the other guy taking over means the end of the world, yes, you can have a civil war.”
Maher reasoned with viewers to show tolerance and co-exist peacefully with people who do not share their political viewpoint. “We are going to have to learn to live with each other, or there will be blood,” said the comedian. “So don’t freak out if Ellen [DeGeneres] sits next to George Bush at a football game,” Maher added, referring to the criticism Ellen DeGeneres received in October for hanging out with former president George W. Bush.
Ellen Degeneres was forced to defend her friendship with former president George W. Bush
“Bush was not my idea of a good president, but I never worried he was going to lock up his political opponents, or reporters, or me,” said Maher.
“He stood with Obama when Obama took his job. He said, ‘We want you to succeed.’ If you can’t see the difference between that and Trump, Democrats are doomed.”
Maher continued that “the single shining truth about democracy” is “sharing a country with a**holes you can’t stand.”
“Even if the Democrats win everything in 2020, the Republicans will still be here, they’re not going to self-deport,” said Maher. “They’re in Congress, in your office, sometimes your home. Home is where you learn that the three magic words in any relationship aren’t, ‘I love you.’ They’re, ‘let it go.'”
Elsewhere in the show, Maher said that comparisons between the impeachment hearings into Trump and the Watergate scandal are “very different.”
“Watergate, Nixon said, ‘I am not a crook.’ Trump says, ‘I’m a crook, so what?'” Maher elaborated.
WATCH: Bill Maher Commentary On Civil War