Maher mocks 2020 Democrats, implores Oprah to run: She is only ‘sure-thing winner’
HBO’s Bill Maher implored Oprah Winfrey to run against President Trump in 2020 while expressing doubts about the current crop of 24 candidates on the Democratic side, arguing she is the only “sure-thing winner” for the opposition party.
“I am telling you that at this particular moment in history, in this particular election year, she is the only candidate who is a sure-thing winner for the Democrats,” Maher said Friday during his show “Real Time.”
“No pressure,” the host added.
Maher also noted the power of candidates who are stars in modern politics.
“Never underestimate the power of being in people’s living rooms for decades. That’s what got Trump elected,” Maher said. “This is now an as-seen-on-TV country.”
“There really is no underestimating the power of celebrity in modern American politics,” he later explained. “It’s not the way it’s supposed to be be, it’s not the way I’d like it to be, but we officially live in a post-literate, post-truth, star-f—er society, and this is going to be the dirtiest campaign ever.”
Maher, 65, went on to laud Winfrey as the only Democrat who could pull male voters from Trump’s staunchly loyal base.
“If he’s fed up with Trump, I know he would vote for Oprah. Because he knows that if he doesn’t, his wife will never blow him again.”
Maher also blasted embattled 2020 front-runner Joe Biden, comparing him to a typewriter while teeing off on other top-tier candidates.
“Young people look at him like a typewriter’s running for president,” Maher joked about the former vice president.
He also referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “a three-syllable woman in a one-syllable country,” he added.
As for Sen. Bernie Sanders, Maher described him as “an American hero in my book, but he’s another one who has his cardiologist on speed dial.”
Maher also evaluated South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s chances.
“We must ask the question ‘Is America ready to be led by a gay teenager?'” he joked.
“This is not an open letter to Oprah. I know she isn’t running,” Maher concluded at the end of his closing monologue.
“I’m just saying: I have Nate Silvered the shit out of this, and I am telling you that at this particular moment in history, in this particular election year, she is the only candidate who is a sure-thing winner for the Democrats. No pressure. I am just putting it out into the universe.”
Silver is a statistician and the founder of FiveThirtyEight, which conducts deep data dives on everything from elections to baseball.
Maher, who celebrated his 500th “Real Time” episode Friday night, donated $1 million to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
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