Bill Maher: Republicans have decided ‘democracy is what’s wrong with America’

HBO host Bill Maher blasted the Republican Party on Friday, arguing the GOP does not view democracy as “inextricably linked” with America following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

On his show “Real Time With Bill Maher” on Friday night, the talk show host cited a series of Republican candidates and politicians who have made statements about restricting voting in America.

“Many Republicans have decided that democracy is what’s wrong with America,” Maher said.

The host argued the gap between the Democratic and Republican parties has grown larger and there is “more of a difference between the parties than there ever has been in American history.”

“Democrats, for all their flaws, still see democracy as the essence of America. They see America and democracy as inextricably linked. They see one without the other as unthinkable,” Maher explained. “Republicans? Thinkable.”

Maher cited a 2020 tweet from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who wrote, “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”

After the 2020 election, Lee reportedly sent text messages to former President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows that supported overturning the election.

Lee on Thursday said he was trying to understand the administration’s messaging.

Maher also took aim at Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol, stating that there was no election fraud and that the former president lost the contest.

“I’m no constitutional scholar, but in the case of an election loss, it doesn’t say break shit and install your guy anyway,” Maher said.

“A lot of people drive themselves crazy asking Republicans for evidence that Biden somehow stole the election,” he added later. “But that’s a fool’s errand. In the circular logic of today’s right, the evidence that the election was stolen is that they lost.”