Comedian Bill Maher and conservative commentator Buck Sexton got into a heated argument when talking about whether liberals are politicizing the coronavirus to make President Trump look bad.
“I think the coronavirus is going to change people’s views of Donald Trump, finally,” Maher during a panel Friday on his show, Real Time, on HBO. “Not for the better.”
“There are people trying to score political points,” Sexton responded.
“OK, but he is lying his ass off about it,” Maher said. “You would admit he lies his ass off, and that’s part of the charm, I get it, because government is for trolling and making liberals cry their liberal tears. But that’s not so funny now, is it? Do you really have no buyer’s remorse with a guy who’s lying?”
Sexton said Maher and other liberals are “rooting for failure” of the Trump administration’s response to the threat of the coronavirus.
“We’re not rooting for failure! We’re rooting for health! We’re rooting for competence!” Maher replied.
Democrats in Congress and the 2020 Democratic primary race have criticized Trump’s response to the coronavirus, a deadly virus that has spread to countries around the world, including the United States. The president, in turn, has accused Democrats of “politicizing the coronavirus.”
Near the end of the segment, Maher criticized the administration’s response to the virus. He told Sexton that surely he does not believe “this bullshit” that he was saying and quipped that Trump only cares about the stock market.
Sexton countered by saying there is “derangement” when it comes to Trump.
“I thought tribalism would end at a thing like this,” Maher said.
The U.S. has at least 63 cases of coronavirus, with over half involving people who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. No one has died in the U.S. because of the virus.
The spread of the infection has caused the stock market to suffer its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 4% at its close on Friday, and the S&P 500 dropped more than 3%.
Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to head up the administration’s response to the coronavirus.
