Bill Maher insists that President Donald Trumps public tirades are nothing personal, describing the sharp rhetoric as simply his way of talking.
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Speaking to CNN shortly before receiving the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center, the HBO host brushed off the presidents online broadsides as a familiar feature of the political landscape. According to Mediaite, Maher has become a recurring target of the presidents social media commentary, yet he appeared almost amused by the pattern rather than offended.
You know, the last 4 or 5 times hes been public about me, its all its all back to yelling and screaming, Maher told CNN correspondent Camila DeChalus. Im this, Im terrible, Im a lunatic liberal, Im a lunatic, Im a lightweight, Im a jerk. So were back to that. Its okay. The comedian, who has built a career on caustic political commentary from the left, seemed to accept that such criticism comes with the territory when one spends years attacking a sitting president and his supporters.
Maher argued that he would rather endure harsh words than participate in the lefts habit of shunning political opponents as beyond the pale. He rejected the notion that those on the other side of the aisle are too deplorable to engage, a telling admission from a man who has often mocked conservative voters.
Id rather be fighting and yelling. And thats just his way of talking to people, Maher continued. You know, you just kind of have to accept it. Id rather the channels be open, and anything is better than channels just being shut off. For all his ideological hostility to President Trump, Maher implicitly acknowledged that open dialogue even when loud and abrasive is healthier than the cultural boycotts and speech policing favored by many progressives.
Tensions escalated again when the White House blasted as FAKE NEWS the announcement that Maher would receive this years Twain Prize. Maher has claimed on his show that the administration even tried to block him from getting the award, a charge that, if true, underscores how deeply the feud has run.
Their relationship has long been contentious, with Maher proudly displaying in his podcast studio a framed page filled with insults President Trump has directed at him over the years. Yet there was a brief thaw last year, when Maher dined with President Trump and UFC president Dana White at the White House, where the president signed that very list of insults for him.
That fleeting dtente did not last. Earlier this year, President Trump branded Maher a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT and later derided him as a weak and ineffective person over his friendly conversation with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat widely seen as a standard-bearer for progressive governance.
Maher, for his part, insists he is not rattled by the renewed barrage. He joked to CNN that he still half-expected the Trump Administration to attempt to derail the Twain Prize ceremony, even as he walked the red carpet a reminder that, in this long-running clash between a conservative president and a liberal comic, neither side seems eager to lower the volume.
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