"Real Time" host Bill Maher offered caution ahead of the four criminal trials of former President Trump, predicting they will make him look like a "revolutionary leader" as the 2024 campaign unfolds.
In an interview published Monday by Reason Magazine, Maher shared his pessimism about the upcoming election, which is increasingly looking like a rematch between Trump and President Biden.
"I think I'm where a lot of people are: I wish Biden would step aside," Maher said. "Well, first, I wish Trump doesn't win, but he totally could, and it's looking more like he will. But a lot can change in a year. We haven't had any of his trials—although if the January 6 commission and the media and everything else haven't changed people's minds about liking him, I think these trials are only going to make him look like a revolutionary leader."
He continued, "All you have to say is, 'The people who put me on trial were corrupt!' And then your ignominious behavior becomes a badge of honor. So whether the trials are going to help or hurt him, it's hard to say. I think it'll be about a draw, and then it'll really be a referendum on which side is crazier."
"And both sides have a case, although I always fall on the side of ‘Trump of course is truly crazy.’ He's stupid and crazy. They're two completely different things, but he has both of them. I'm even more worried about the crazy side, but crazy photographs, insanity photographs, it's compelling. And when he shows up, come on, people are going to cover it, watch it. It's not going to be boring," Maher said.
"And in this unfactual society, I don't think any of the issues really are what most people vote on anyway. It doesn't really matter what any of them say or do, because they each have their own media sources, who are in the business of feeding back to their audience what they want to hear," he added.
Back in March, Maher sounded the alarm that the first indictment brought by New York D.A. Alvin Bragg would become "rocket fuel" for Trump's 2024 campaign.
"I just would like to go on record in saying I think this is a colossal mistake if they bring these charges. Not this one, you know," Maher said at the time. "I mean, yes, he's done a lot of bad things, and I'm sure he did this — everything they accused him of [doing], he did. But first of all, it's not gonna work. It's gonna be rocket fuel for his 2024 campaign. And it's just gonna look to MAGA nation like, 'Oh, you know, you tried with Mueller, you tried with Ukraine, you tried with January 6. Now we go to the porn star? Really? You're down to that?!'"
Following the first indictment, Trump's GOP polling shot up and remained high as three other rounds of indictments were brought against him, two from Special Counsel Jack Smith and one from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia, totaling a whopping 91 charges.
Maher also revealed in the interview that a "pretty famous" person scolded him for allowing Republicans on his HBO show.
"I had [Ron] DeSantis and Ted Cruz on this year, and Bill Barr. And yes, to answer your question, I can think of two people—and I won't say who they are; one of them is pretty famous—just yelling at me in an email about that," Maher said. "And my answer to that is: F--- off. You know what? You live in your ivory tower. I'm going to talk to everybody in the half of the country that you find is so deplorable. They're not going to self-deport, even if they are deplorable. And some of them are! And some on the left are deplorable too, and incredibly obnoxious. That's the country!"
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He continued, "When historians look back in a hundred years, if we're still here, I don't think they're going to divide the country like we do into these two camps. They're going to say: As a people, they were obnoxious. It happens in different forms on both sides. As a people, they didn't believe in science. On the right, they think global warming is a hoax or whatever nonsense they believe about that. And on the left, they think men can have babies. That's what they'll say. They'll say, ‘As a people, they just lost their s--t.’"
