Bill Maher Criticizes Bradley Whitford For Criticizing Cheryl Hines

Bill Maher still considers himself a liberal, but he’s begging them not to shut him out — especially when it comes to a prominent liberal’s attack on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actress wife, Cheryl Hines. In his latest extended New Rule on Friday’s “Real Time,” Maher began: “New Rule: If you want to win my vote, don’t give me the ick.”

“You know what ‘the ick’ is, right?” the comedian continued. “It’s a term used mostly in the dating world to describe that moment when one of the people, usually the man, does something so disgusting that the woman can’t forgive or forget it.”

He gave examples, including:

• Send a dick pic
• Being mean to the waitress
• Pay for dinner with a coupon
• When your mother calls you when you break up
• Asking for sex in a baby voice

“Once you give her a swipe, it’s over,” Maher continued, before explaining how that translates to the 2024 presidential campaign.

“Donald Trump has taken the concept of ‘the ick’ to boundaries no one ever thought possible. And that’s saying a lot, considering we once had to learn that John Edwards fucked his five-month pregnant mistress, because who doesn’t love seeing a politician kiss a baby?” Maher explained, to laughter from the audience.

Maher then described some of Trump’s dump truck full of dirty moments, including:

• The sexualized way he talks about his daughter
• How he talks about his penis
• Doing a fake “disabled voice”
• “Raising the flag”
• A push and pull in a cemetery

The host then went on to mock Trump’s dancing style, describing it as “like jerking off two guys at once.”

“What I’m saying is, don’t underestimate the ick. It’s what’s going to decide this election, and it’s the best thing the Democrats have going for them,” Maher said.

But Maher has no confidence that what he calls “the far left” won’t ruin this for the Democratic candidates, adding that everything he laid out was a signal for them to say, “Hold my beer.”

Maher focused on former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, and his wife Cheryl Hines’ continued support for her husband.

“Look, I like Bobby and I always will,” Maher said. “And there are things he’s right about that no one else would want to touch. But yeah, I think he’s weird too.”

Maher noted that her “Curb Your Enthusiasm” colleague Larry David once described Hines as “The greatest person I’ve ever met. The only person in Hollywood who doesn’t have a single enemy.”

“Well, now I do,” Maher added. “Because she didn’t throw her husband under the bus when her husband made a decision about something she clearly didn’t agree with. But that didn’t satisfy the annoying posers on the aforementioned far-left page.”

The host pointed to criticism on social media, noting that thousands of people had tweeted their anger toward Hines with sentiments like:

• “How do you live with yourself?”
• “Do it better.”
• “I can’t even enjoy the episodes of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ with you in them anymore.”
• “It’s no wonder Larry divorced you.”

Maher had a particularly subtle but dripping disdain for that last comment, adding dryly, “Yeah, that’s a character on TV, but okay.”

The host eventually reached out to the ultimate example of his frustrations that he wanted to go after: actor Bradley Whitford, best known for his iconic role as Josh on “The West Wing.” Maher read Whitford’s own angry tweet to Hines, which read: “Hey @CherylHines how do you stay silent while your insane husband supports a convicted rapist who brags about depriving women of their basic rights. Brave. Great example to the kids. Profile in courage.

“Yeah, well, you know what I don’t think is bold?” Maher began his response. “Calling a woman names, but not to her face, of course, about how she should sacrifice her marriage — all so you can read something on Twitter that you approve of.”

The “Real Time” host explained that this is what he complains about when he complains about liberals.

“You want to know why I hate the left more than I used to? It’s such a mess,” Maher said. “There’s an ugliness to it that it never used to have. The liberals I grew up with aren’t like that. Going after women — even the Mafia doesn’t do that.”

Maher added that he now sees a lot of people who he describes as “liberals in theory.”

“In theory they hate bullying – ‘terrible’. In practice their attitude is: it’s not bullying if I stay your head in the toilet. In theory, liberals are sympathetic. In practice, this man cannot even understand one of the most basic dilemmas that all humans share: that when you’re married, sometimes you have to swallow a little shit.”

The famous weed smoker then compared marriage to… “a bong.”

“To make it work, you have to take a few hits,” Maher said.

He admitted that he has never been married, but said he understands that in a marriage, “you’re not going to love everything your partner says and does. But I promise you, no relationship therapist has ever said, ‘Have you tried yelling at each other?'”

Maher pointed to former President Barack Obama speaking at this year’s Democratic National Convention and asked listeners not to assume the worst of others just because they disagree with you on every issue. Obama criticized the idea that the only way to “win” was to “name, shame and shout down the other side.”

“Bradley, did you go to the bathroom or something when that came up?” Maher asked. “Because it’s almost like he was talking to you directly, by name. No name calling, no shaming, no shouting at you.”

The host noted that former President Bill Clinton delivered a similar message as part of his speech at the DNC, urging Democrats to “meet people where they are” and “not belittle them.”

Although Maher had many problems with liberals, he doesn’t think the group he’s talking about includes Democratic politicians.

“The real politicians of the Democratic Party are generally a pretty healthy group of people,” Maher said, adding, “The worst of them are miles better than the worst of the Republicans. The Democratic politicians are not the ones calling for defunding the police and all this crazy stuff.”

“But the kind of people who are always screaming on social media, yeah, those are the kind of people who scare the living daylights out of a lot of people when they hear ‘liberal,’” Maher said, completing his New Rule circle.

Maher agrees: “Trump is terrible.”

“He’s not Hitler. But he might be the worst person since Hitler,” Maher half-joked, before joking that they’d love to have Trump on the show.

Maher said Trump is “driving people crazy,” including Whitford.

“I knew Bradley a little bit. He wasn’t that kind of guy. And while he might like to write Cheryl Hines off, I’m not writing him off,” Maher said.

Maher, on the other hand, said that this is not the right way to handle something like this and that he would instead follow Obama’s advice to be merciful to our fellow citizens.

“We have to resist the lure of being an asshole. Don’t like Trump? Don’t be like him,” Maher concluded.

You can watch the full “Real Time with Bill Maher” segment in the video at the top of this story.