What To Know
- Bill Maher endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner from Maine on his show, despite Platner’s personal scandals.
- Maher compared Platner to Donald Trump, arguing that ‘crazy is just not a deal-breaker anymore’ in politics.
- He urged Maine voters to support Platner to help restore balance in government.
Bill Maher just endorsed Graham Platner, a Democrat from Maine, after comparing him to President Donald Trump on Real Time With Bill Maher.
During the June 12 episode of his CBS late-night show, Maher, 70, urged Maine voters to consider Platner despite controversies that have surfaced.
Platner — a 41-year-old United States Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer — recently won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine. In November, he will face off against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
“Now, I don’t judge Graham Platner because I’m just learning who he is. Problem is, so is he,” Maher joked during his “New Rule” segment.
He continued, “What I do know is he served his country in the Marines in war, and you can never discount how big that is. But then there’s the sexting while married, scary behavior according to some of his exes, old posts about how he’s a communist and ‘all cops are bastards’ and ‘Black people don’t tip.’ Well, they don’t tip cops — I can understand that.”
Additionally, Maher pointed out that Platner had a tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol, which isn’t even the “scariest thing” about him. “That would be his solution to a home invasion, which is to rape the home invader,” he said.
“This is the kind of thing war does to people,” Maher claimed. “That’s who we created. Our society is not healthy. We create broken people. So, don’t expect politicians to suddenly become Lincoln-esque again.”
Still, Maher confessed, “And yet, I would still urge the folks in Maine to vote for him.”
He explained, “One, we need to restore balance in our government, and a Democratic Senate would help a lot with that. And two, get used to it. America is a country filled with a lot of broken, horribly educated, phone-addicted, sort of nutty people. And as long as we live in a representative democracy, we are always electing our reflection in the mirror.”
Later, Maher brought up wild behavior and contradictory stances from other politicians, acknowledging that “crazy is just not a deal-breaker anymore for running or serving.”
He added, “I mean, our current president just speaks out loud his internal monologue.” Maher compared this to what a typical person does, explaining, “We edit our thoughts. We don’t just fling all of our feces. We have a Strait of Hormuz between our brain and our mouth, where we don’t let everything through. But not the president of the United States.”
To conclude his thoughts on the topic, Maher pointed out, “Politics has always been a crazy game, but the people running weren’t this crazy.”
Real Time With Bill Maher, Fridays at 10/9c, HBO
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
