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“Real Time” host Bill Maher predicted Friday that Republicans will get the “dogs–t kicked out” of them in the midterms for one reason alone: immigration.
“This is not what people voted for,” Maher argued, showing his panelists pictures of people in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including one of a woman appearing to be pepper sprayed in the face against the road.
Maher’s criticism was echoed by thousands of protesters in Minneapolis Friday, who marched in sub-zero temperatures against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge.
Some held signs featuring Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE agent after appearing to drive toward him with her vehicle on Jan. 7.
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Maher called the shooting a public execution.
“That woman, that was an execution in the street,” Maher said, comparing the visual of Good’s shooting to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces’ surprise attacks in South Vietnam in 1968.
“I’m sorry, but it was,” he added.
Toward the end of the show, the late-night host did not mince words on whether he thought the shooting was justified, as the White House has said.
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“To my Republican friends, you know this didn’t have to happen,” he charged. “You know [Good] wasn’t trying to run the guy over.”
While Maher conceded earlier that former President Barack Obama was a “badass” on deportation rates under his administration, he went on to denounce Republicans’ apparent invitations for him to cross party lines over immigration policy.
“You’re not intellectually honest, so stop asking me if I have the slightest interest of joining your side,” he said. “I never did, and you have no integrity.”
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However, Maher appeared to find some common ground with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who addressed his position on the tactics of ICE operations.
“I support enforcing our immigration laws, now, how you enforce them matters,” he discussed.
“That’s the key,” Maher replied. “It’s the how.”
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“You have to do it in accordance with due process, equal protection and Terry v. Ohio, reasonable suspicion,” Kennedy explained.
The senator went on to argue that immigration reform should include legal immigration, rather than merely illegal immigration.
He cited America having the highest number of legal immigrants admitted every year compared to other countries, adding, “The whole world wants to come here.”
“But we could do that better if my Democrat friends would sit down and talk with us. But when we sit down and talk, the first thing they want [is] amnesty, amnesty, amnesty. And that dog’s not going to hunt right now,” Kennedy concluded.
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