Bill Maher appeared to get high and mighty over his upcoming White House visit.
The comedian and host, who has ingratiated himself to the MAGA world due to his “wait and see” attitude towards Trump 2.0, recently revealed he will break bread with his old foe, after Kid Rock acted as a go-between.
In a new episode of The Chris Cuomo Project podcast, Maher said that his impending visit has the same gravitas as former President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. That visit ended a quarter century of diplomatic oblivion between the two nations. So important was the visit, that “Nixon to China” has become a metaphor for doing a deed for the greater good, despite knowing that it will incur criticism.
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“Now, I don’t have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America, I can’t. OK, let’s get that clear. I’m not going to be healing America,” Maher demurred, before comparing his visit to that of Nixon’s.
“But if two guys who’ve been at each other for so long—I mean, it’s kind of a Nixon to China thing. I have the credentials. There was nobody who was harder on Trump or more prescient about the fact that he wasn’t going to leave office voluntarily than I was."
He then went on about his “credentials,” and said the Trump Administration “respects” him.
“I feel like I have the credentials. But they also respect me because I’m honest about the woke train to crazy town,” Maher continued. “And I don’t shrink from that. And I’ve also lost a lot of fans for that. The woke people have left the building and I’m willing to make that sacrifice. but it does give you a certain credibility. So I just think to meet somebody, first of all, it’s an honor to be invited to the White House.”
Maher then dived into his own personal history, effectively saying “I’ve made it!” by getting to dine with Trump in Washington, D.C.
“And I’ve already had a couple of people who... I said to them, you know, I’m just gonna take it as a backhanded compliment that you glide right past the idea that little Bill Maher from River Vale, New Jersey, just a humble kid from the suburbs was invited for a private dinner at the White House,” he explained.
Maher, who Trump has criticized repeatedly over the years, added: “You glide right past that to ‘how dare you talk to him,’ and that you’re not impressed by it at all. I’m impressed by it a lot. I’m impressed the f--k out of it. I get to go to the White house and, yes, that is the structure of this dinner... just let’s talk. Let’s talk to each other face to face. Let’s stop shouting from 3,000 miles away, you know?”
He said, despite his excitement, he is certainly not bending the knee. “So if they expect me to be leaving in a MAGA hat, they’re gonna be very disappointed, but I know they don’t,” he said of his hosts. “And I think it’s gonna be, you know, look, it probably will accomplish very little, but you gotta try, man. You gotta try.”
“I love it,” Cuomo replied, adding, “You’re no Kanye!”
