Comedian and pundit Bill Maher whined to Trump Vice President JD Vance about Democrats not coming on his show, but conveniently left out the reasons why. I still wish they’d do it.

Maher interviewed Vance on Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and while he got in some tough talk here and there, he began with a little bit of mutual knob-polishing.

He began by congratulating Vance and other Republicans for their bravery in coming on his show, and lamented how he can’t get New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), former Vice President Kamala Harris, and others to come on his show:

BILL MAHER: Do I have the nicest crowd?

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: I’m sure it’s the only applause I’ll get, but I’ll take.

BILL MAHER: No, I mean, I’m just glad you’re talking to me, you know. I mean I say it every time when the Republicans come here, they take their beating like a man. The people I vote for, they’re the ones who won’t talk to me. It’s odd, isn’t it?

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: It is very odd.

BILL MAHER: I mean, and I… I’m.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Like this new woman who was elected to New York. Do you think she’ll come on the show?

BILL MAHER: Oh, I know you want… No, I can’t get AOC, I cant get Mandami, I couldn’t get Kamala Harris, you know.

Took me eight years to get Obama. Anyway, let’s not talk about my problem. And I promise this is going to be a lot easier than talking to the Iranians. Or even more, The View.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: The question is whether it’s harder than The View, that’s right.

And when he’s not ripping Democrats who won’t come on his show, he’s congratulating himself for having dinner with Trump, while also demonstrating how thoroughly Trump played him.

Here’s what Bill won’t tell his audience, or maybe even himself: it’s because he trafficks in despicable bigotry of multiple stripes.

Most ostentatiously, he’s a virulent and ignorant transphobe, but he has also made mocking any and all concern for marginalized groups — Black people, LGBTQ people, really anyone whose concerns are derided by bigots as “woke” — his entire personality. He’s also spent decades deriding Islam to non-Muslim guests— and even got called out on it on his show.

And he does all of this with a near-complete ignorance of the facts.

So it’s not a big mystery why someone like Mamdani — who is also pretty busy — or AOC or Harris don’t want to sign up for the intellectual labor of educating Maher, or the frustration of dealing with his practiced rationalizations. But they also don’t want to contribute to the success of such a toxic personality.

But I wish they would. As much of a cranky, ignorant, liberal-until-it-hurts-me Boomer as Maher can be, he’s still useful and his audience is still reachable. They hate Trump, but they’re also being trained to hate caring about marginalized communities.

Maher is a skilled communicator, as many comics are, which is probably part of the reason liberals aren’t lining up to do fruitless verbal combat with him. He surrounds himself with Democrats who are willing to sit there and laugh along with whatever he says, but rarely books someone who might push back against his pet “woke” bogeymen — or persons with bogey.

But what if he did? What if Maher’s viewers were exposed to someone who was willing to push back? If someone like Trump could work Maher so thoroughly that he made Maher literally think up reasons to praise him, what could Mamdani — who took over Trump’s own office — do with 12 minutes on Real Time? What could AOC do on a panel with Maher and Joe Rogan?

I’d love to see it. I probably won’t get to.

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

The post Bill Maher Bitterly Whines To Trump’s VP That Dems Won’t Come On His Show — I Know Why But I Wish They Would first appeared on Mediaite.

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