"Real Time" host Bill Maher is readying for the new season of his HBO political talk show on Friday — the same day Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president — but he warns that his fellow liberals aren't accomplishing much by just "talking to themselves."
In an interview with The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg, Maher referenced Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech in which she blasted Trump for vilifying "Hollywood, foreigners and the press."
"We're the losers now, so it behooves us to break out of that bubble more," Maher said. Statements like Streep's, he said, look "very insular. Just the liberals talking to themselves, which they are very good at doing."
Still, Maher said, he is concerned about how Trump will act toward his detractors with the power of the presidency behind him.
Maher was sued by Trump after Maher made fun of Trump's "birther" claims against President Barack Obama.
Appearing on "The Tonight Show" in 2013, Maher pledged to give $5 million to the charity of Trump's choice if he would produce his birth certificate to prove he isn't half orangutan — a reference to the color of Trump's hair.
Trump's lawyers produced his birth certificate, but Maher didn't pay up, saying he had been making a joke. The lawsuit didn't succeed, but fighting it was costly nonetheless, Maher said.
"It was worth it in comedy material … But you definitely spent money," he said.
Others targeted by Trump might not have the ability to pay, he said, calling that a possible harbinger of how the Trump White House might operate against critics.
"No one knows what this man is capable of," Maher said. "I never, ever, ever felt worried — it never crossed my mind — that George Bush would do something crazy, even though I knew he hated me. He never sued me for a joke."
Even more concerning, he said, are reports that some FBI agents were pushing for an investigation of the Democrats' presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last summer.
"When the internal police department is politicized, that's a place I don't want to be on the wrong side of," Maher said. "I mean, that’s fascism."
Trump adviser and former Maher guest Kellyanne Conway told Rutenberg such fears are unfounded.
"He's not going to use the 'tools of state'" to target critics, Conway said. "This is America."
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