“Real Time” host Bill Maher says “it’s not deranged” to fear former President Donald Trump.
On Friday’s episode of Maher’s HBO show, guest Joe Scarborough reviewed some of the distressing comments Trump has made as he seeks to retake the White House.
“Donald Trump said that he was going to use the military and the National Guard to arrest his political opponents,” the MSNBC anchor said, referring to Trump’s recent suggestions for dealing with “radical-left lunatics” on Election Day.
“He talked about [California Democratic Rep.] Nancy Pelosi being ‘evil,’ her husband being ‘evil,’” Scarborough added. He also noted that during Trump’s presidency, the Republican reportedly complained that his generals fell short of Adolf Hitler’s in terms of their loyalty.
Scarborough added that some people dismiss concerns about Trump, spurring Maher to decry the use of a term sometimes applied to the former president’s more vocal detractors.
“That’s when they say you have ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’” stated Maher, who often criticizes Trump. “And I would just like to say to my Republican friends: It’s not deranged to fear this! It’s not deranged to find this alarming!”
“We’re not guessing what he’s going to do. He’s saying, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’” said Scarborough, adding that Trump intends to “get Liz Cheney in a military tribunal” — referring to a meme about the former representative that Trump reposted on social media.
Scarborough noted that Trump has also called for punishing CBS over allegations of an improperly edited interview with his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.
“He’s out of control,” Scarborough argued.
“I don’t want people to listen to me, I don’t want them to listen to you [Maher], I don’t want them to listen to anybody — I want them to listen to what Donald Trump says,” he noted elsewhere in the “Real Time” segment.
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This week, the Harris campaign similarly called Trump “unstable” after the former president delivered jokes at a charity dinner in New York, saying that he “stumbled over his words and lashed out when the crowd wouldn’t laugh with him.”