Bill Maher clapped back at Real Time guest who canceled appearance
By Josh Hill
Real Time host Bill Maher has responded to journalist Jeremy Scahill after he cancelled his appearance following Milo Yiannopoulos’ booking.
When Real Time host Bill Maher announced that alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was going to be on his show this week, it naturally drew some blowback. But within 12-hours of booking the controversial commentator Maher already lost a guest.
Journalist Jeremy Scahill almost immediately opposed the booking of Yiannopoulos and issued a statement about canceling his Real Time appearance. In his statement, Scahill noted that while the Real Time crew has become like family to him over then years, he objects to and finds offensive the idea that Maher would give Yiannopoulos a platform for his message.
The Real Time host didn’t take this shot sitting down. In response, Maher slammed Scahill for pandering to liberal views that anything other than what they think is wrong and any opinion otherwise expressed is false.
"“Liberals will continue to lose elections as long as they follow the example of people like Mr. Scahill whose views veer into fantasy and away from bedrock liberal principles like equality of women, respect for minorities, separation of religion and state, and free speech.”"
In addition to going after Scahill for playing into the snowflake cliche that has been attached to liberals, Maher went hard in the paint when defending his statements last year about Islam.
"“My comments on Islam have never veered into vitriol. Liberals will continue to lose elections as long as they follow the example of people like Mr. Scahill who’s[sic] views veer into fantasy and away from bedrock liberal principles like equality of women, respect for minorities, separation of religion and state, and free speech. If Mr. Yiannopoulos is indeed the monster Scahill claims – and he might be – nothing could serve the liberal cause better than having him exposed on Friday night.”"
In his statement announcing the cancellation of his Real Time appearance, Scahill went after Maher for saying that Islam is a dangerous and hateful religion. This also seems to have contributed to Maher coming off the top rope to suplex the hell out of Scahill for backing down from appearing on the show.
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You can catch what should be a controversial episode of Real Time tonight at 10pm ET on HBO.