Despite President Barack Obama’s stance on gay marriage, abortion and the Second Amendment, the Commander in Chief acts as more of a centrist than a liberal, at least according to HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher.
Maher was joined by Center for Social Inclusion President Maya Wiley, director Oliver Stone, George W. Bush Institute Executive Director Jim Glassman, CNBC contributor Carol Roth and MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews on his show “Real Time” on Friday night. When discussing former President John F. Kennedy Jr., Maher claimed Kennedy knew he was going to be “driven out of the picture” for his far-Left policies, and said that fear of hatred and assassination has led Obama to act as a moderate President.
“It seems like the people like that, Kennedy — they just seem to always, at the end of the day, either somehow get cut out of the picture — violently, or otherwise,” Maher said. “And maybe that is why Barack Obama is a little more of the centrist than we want him to be. I think he knows that if he goes a little too far to the Left…”
But Maher’s statement was far from well-received by Matthews, who questioned the HBO host.
“I’m just saying that’s an extraordinary statement. I’m amazed — I’m impressed you think that his policies are driven by fear of assassination,” Matthews said.
“Look, I think he is a centrist,” Maher said. “I think people saw him as what they wanted to see him. They saw a liberal and he really wasn’t that much of a liberal. And to call him a socialist is completely…”
Roth pushed back against Maher, saying no one who identifies as a centrist or center-right would agree with Maher on Obama’s leanings. But the “Real Time” host disagreed.
“I don’t think that is an insult to say to somebody that he may modulate his policies because he is afraid of all the hate that he sees,” he said.
Check out the clip below.
