Bill Maher challenged former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Donald Trump’s election denialism, as the two sparred on Real Time on Friday over McCarthy’s trek to Mar-A-Lago shortly after the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
“Did he win that election, Biden?” Maher asked McCarthy.
“Yes,” McCarthy insisted.
“I said from the beginning. I have no qualms with that,” McCarthy said.
“And you actually told that to Trump?”
“Yes,” McCarthy said.
“And then you switched,” Maher said.
McCarthy protested, before Maher said, “You went down to Mar-A-Lago and kissed his ass after that.”
McCarthy called that “bulls—” and said, “You’re so full of crap.”
“I was going to see Donald Trump. He’s my friend. I served with him. Just like I do anybody else.”
McCarthy trekked to Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 28, 2021, a week after Trump left office. The visit was viewed as the former president’s first step toward political revival. On Jan. 13, in the wake of the attack on the Capitol, McCarthy gave a speech on the floor of the House where he said that the siege was “un-American” and “criminal.” He also said that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack. As Democrats moved to impeach Trump, McCarthy called for a fact-finding commission and a censure resolution.
At another moment in the interview, Maher noted that Trump never conceded the last election. “Did Hillary Clinton ever concede?”
Maher shot back, “Yes she did! She came out before the cock crowed. She was out, conceding the election. Why are you denying this obvious fact?”
McCarthy argued that Democrats challenged the presidential election in Congress in 2000, 2004 and 2016. But those challenges were in far fewer numbers than Republicans in 2020, when McCarthy himself joined in the protest to the count, even after the Capitol siege. The previous Democratic challenges also took place after presidential candidates conceded: Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and Clinton in 2016.
Maher did blame McCarthy’s ouster as House Speaker last year on the fact that he worked with Democrats to prevent a government shut down. “The reason that you got sh–canned is that you did the right thing,” Maher said, referring to McCarthy as a “good as it gets Republican.”
