During an episode of HBO’s “Real Time” airing Friday, host Bill Maher said that the lawsuit filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, which is based on a claim that Trump “got elected president” by paying hush money, is unclear and that the lawsuit should have been filed at the federal level.
Maher said much of the reaction from the right seemed to ignore the fact that the verdict was made by a jury. “I don’t understand this talk about us losing a dictator or our way of life. This is our way of life. This was made by a jury. Does this have no repercussions or meaning?” he added.
Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) argued that it was dangerous for prosecutors to target one person, noting that Bragg had taken a stance of “holding Donald Trump accountable.”
After Maher questioned what was wrong with holding someone accountable, Buck responded: “If you look at it under a magnifying glass, you, me and David are all guilty of a crime.”
Maher interjected, joking that marijuana is now legal.
Maher later said: “[I]This is a complicated case, and I’ve written op-eds about it before, saying I don’t know if we should be covering this case, that people just need to look at it. [as] It’s a sex case. … I always thought Merrick Garland should have gone federal, because that’s the case. And the weird thing is, even though it was a state business record falsification case, the closing argument was about this, this, that, got him the election. Did this, and that, get him the election? I don’t know. Did Russia get him the election? I don’t know. And you can’t retry all that stuff. I didn’t think the Democrats were right to say he was an illegitimate president. He got the votes.”
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