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Donald Trump has slammed Bill Maher for inviting MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and The New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens on to his Real Time with Bill Maher talk show.
The late-night host recently sat down with Ruhle and Stephens, where they discussed the week’s headlines, including the former president’s claim that if he loses the 2024 presidential election, “the Jewish people would have a lot to do with that.”
Trump made the remark last week at a campaign event held in Washington DC, which had been billed to be about tackling antisemitism.
“Whenever the autocrat starts blaming the Jews, I think it’s a great sign because when has that ever turned out badly,” Maher joked.
Stephens jumped in to add that “democracy is at risk whenever antisemitism rears its head,” going on to call Trump a “really scary guy” and “antisemitic adjacent.”
He confirmed that he would not be voting for Trump but also shared that he has not yet committed to Vice President Kamala Harris, explaining that he’s unsure about her policies.
“Kamala Harris is not running for perfect. She’s running against Trump,” Ruhle responded. “We have two choices. And so there are some things you might not know her answer to, and in 2024, unlike 2016 for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is and the kind of threat he is to democracy.”
Trump has since blasted the talk show host and his guests in a lengthy and irate post shared on his Truth Social media platform.
“The ratings challenged Bill Maher, on his increasingly boring show on HBO, is really having a hard time coping with TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” he wrote.
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Describing Maher as a “befuddled, mess, sloppy and tired,” Trump continued: “And every conversation, with B and C list guests, seems to start with, or revert back to, ME!
“This week he had ‘dumb as a rock’ bimbo Stephanie Ruhle, from MSDNC [sic], on the show,” he said, with what appeared to be a reference to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
The Republican nominee’s misogynistic comments ironically come the day after he wrote on Truth Social that he would “protect women at a level never seen before.”
Trump then attacked Stephens, calling him a “Trump hating loser” who “seems totally confused and unsure of himself.”
He went on to suggest that the journalist “should find himself another line of work because I am driving the FAILING New York Times absolutely crazy, and it is very hard, perhaps impossible, for a writer to write well of me without suffering the wrath of the degenerate editors who, with a push from the top, have gone insane.”
“They apologized to their readers in 2016 for their complete and total MISS, and they’ll do it again in November,” Trump said. “The FAILING New York Times is a badly run ‘newspaper’ that has totally lost its way. Put it to sleep!”
In 2016, following Trump’s election victory, the NYT published a note apologizing to its readers for underestimating Trump’s “support among American voters.”
“We aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism,” the statement read. “That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor, striving always to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you.”
