Bill Maher got into granular detail about his dinner with Donald Trump nearly 2 weeks ago at the White House, and he's convinced the authentic Trump is charming and even self-deprecating, while the President is an actor of sorts ... but a bunch of people think Bill's got it backwards.
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00:00Bill Maher's review of President Trump, we'll put it that way.
00:04You know, of course, that last week, Bill Maher had dinner.
00:08Two weeks ago today.
00:08Two weeks ago, yeah, had dinner at the White House.
00:12And on his show on Friday night, he finally told us what the experience was like.
00:19And a lot of people who are big Bill Maher fans have a few issues with what he described the president
00:27or how he described the president.
00:29Here is just a little bit of it.
00:31Just for starters, he laughs.
00:34I've never seen him laugh in public, but he does, including it himself.
00:38And it's not fake.
00:40He's much more self-aware than he lets on in public.
00:43Look, I get it.
00:45It doesn't matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian.
00:48It matters who he is on the world stage.
00:51I'm just taking it as a positive that this person exists.
00:54Because everything I've ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent, at least on this night with this guy.
01:02I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him.
01:05And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama.
01:08But I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump.
01:12That's just how it went down.
01:14Make of it what you will.
01:16A crazy person doesn't live in the White House.
01:18A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is up.
01:24It's just not as up as I thought it was.
01:26So he's getting a lot of criticism.
01:30People who feel like he got suckered in by Trump's charisma.
01:35And look, I'm just going to say, I know him pretty well.
01:40And he is one of the smartest people that I know.
01:43You're talking about Bill Maher.
01:44Bill Maher.
01:44Right.
01:45And, you know.
01:46The reason I made that distinction is I know you have interacted with Donald Trump as well.
01:50And because I know Trump, I disagree with him on this.
01:53I think Trump has refined his social skills as a real estate mogul, as an entertainer, as somebody who was in New York high society.
02:04And I think that's a polished version.
02:07But I think the opposite, that I think the president is at his core.
02:13What he does as the president is at his core.
02:15That said, I love the fact that I can like somebody a lot who I disagree with from time to time.
02:23Because I think that, if anything, Bill Maher has talked about this a lot.
02:26That you don't have to always agree with somebody that they're either your friend or they're your enemy.
02:31I just happen to disagree with him on this.
02:33You disagree.
02:33Again, you keep saying him.
02:34You disagree with Bill.
02:35With Bill.
02:36About his.
02:36On his evaluation of Trump on this.
02:38But at the same time, so what?
02:40I mean, you know, people don't have to have mirror views in order to like each other.
02:46So this doesn't in any way take away the way I feel about Bill Maher.
02:51I hope this is an encouraging time.
02:53And this goes for both sides here.
02:55I think that Republicans need to stop villainizing Democrats and vice versa.
03:00And maybe there's some sort of common ground that people can find here.
03:03And I'm not trying to make this a bigger deal than it is.
03:05But I really, I was encouraged by it.
03:08And by what Bill had to say.
03:09And I didn't think Bill held back in criticizing Trump in the monologue.
03:12I think he just, he called it like he saw it.
03:15And he said, look, I'm not MAG.
03:16I still have problems with this, this, this, and this.
03:18But there is some common ground that the guys found.
03:21And I think that's a really important thing for the country going forward.
03:24And sometimes you can disagree and work together.
03:27Yeah.
03:28Sometimes.
03:29Hey, Babcock.
03:29You can.
03:30It's the rhetoric.
03:31Love you, Babcock.
03:32I love you guys, too.