Bill Maher’s recent outspokenness against liberals and Democrats has earned him praise by many on the political Right. Maher has been critical of woke politics, going so far as to warn of its dangers. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that he has shifted rightward. But the truth is Maher isn’t moving right. His recent statement suggesting the GOP doesn’t want black people on the Supreme Court shows he is the partisan drone he has always been.
On the latest episode of Real Time, Maher criticized Republicans for their questions during the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings. In addition to being apparently asleep during the Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett hearings, Maher then implied that most of the GOP is racist.
“I think that today’s Republicans would not do that. I think they would be thrilled to have no black seats on the court,” Maher said to his panel of guests. “OK, a lot of them,” he added at the end.
The idea that “Republicans are racist and hate black people” is a trope that liberals and Democrats have employed for decades. Maher’s words are not only baseless and offensive but also tired and weak. They add to racial tensions in the country without containing any underlying truth. Maher, who has recently said those tensions need to ebb, could start by not repeating such garbage.
Republicans’ objections to Jackson have nothing to do with her skin color. They are based on a difference in political views and concerns that came with the answers she provided in her confirmation hearing. Republicans know this, Democrats know this, and even Maher knows this.
Maher also knows Clarence Thomas is black. He knows Democrats went to far greater and dirtier lengths in their effort to keep him off the Supreme Court than anything Republicans did in Jackson’s relatively tame hearings last week.
Instead of rushing to praise Maher on the rare occasions in which he agrees with Republicans, conservatives should keep in mind that the man is just a partisan who doesn’t have anything to offer them or to the public discourse more generally.
