Bill Maher: ‘Defund The Police’ Messaging Is ‘F*cking Stupid,’ Helps Donald Trump
On the latest episode of his HBO show, Real Time, comedian Bill Maher described the calls to defund the police as “f*cking stupid,” The Hill reported.
Since George Floyd’s death, protesters and activists across the nation have called for city and state leaders to defund police departments and divert taxpayer money to social programs. Floyd died in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department, after an officer pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck.
According to Maher, the calls to defund police departments are counterproductive.
“They’re calling it ‘defund the police,’ which sounds bad!” the comedian said.
“They must have meetings to be this f*cking stupid about politics. ‘Hey, guys, we’re making some headway here. Um, how can we turn this into something that makes people have to vote for Trump?'” Maher continued.
The comedian said that “defunding” was a “terrible way to put it,” arguing that most Americans do not support such measures.
Polling suggests that Americans are indeed opposed to defunding the police. For instance, a recent HuffPost/YouGov survey found that most Americans support law enforcement reform, but not slashes to funding.
Only 27 percent of respondents said that they support defunding police departments, with nearly all demographic and ideological groups — excepting self-described liberals — saying that they do not.
Maher also discussed the recent protests in Minneapolis, when the city’s Democratic mayor Jacob Frey was told to leave. Frey refused to commit to abolishing or defunding the city’s police, so the protesters booed him out of the demonstration.
Maher concluded that Democrats may be setting themselves up for failure by pushing seemingly anti-police messaging.
“I worry that Democrats are wandering into another purity test that’s not going to serve them well. And it’s going to be about how much you want to get rid of police altogether,” he said.
Most Democratic politicians have resisted the calls to defund the police. As Politico reported, only some progressive lawmakers have agreed with activists and protesters. Top Democratic politicians have called for milder reforms. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have both expressed opposition to the idea.
Donald Trump and his allies have nevertheless accused Democrats of siding with the demonstrators. The president’s campaign has repeatedly suggested that Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, wants to slash police budgets. According to Biden’s team, the former vice president “does not believe that police should be defunded.”
