Bill Maher exchanged angry barbs with Kellyanne Conway during his Friday night talkshow after the former Trump official tried to dismiss the significance of the January 6 hearings.
Mr Maher welcomed his old friend back to Real Time a day after the House committee investigating the insurrection held its first primetime hearing, and the conversation quickly turned to the evidence laid out of a conspiracy perpetrated by Donald Trump to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Mr Maher and another guest, business journalist Josh Barro, were discussing how the committee’s evidence could be a precursor to a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice.
Ms Conway pushed back, saying the committee had hired a news producer to “make it a production” and “let’s not pretend that we’re in a courtroom here”.
She then attempted to shift the topic of conversation to soaring gas prices and the baby formula shortage, and chided that “why is every day January 6”?
“Here we go again, spin doctor, back to the gas prices, which has nothing to do with this,” Mr Maher responded.
During an animated back-and-forth, Mr Maher argued that the evidence was clear that Mr Trump had broken the law.
“If he committed crimes then somebody will have to prosecute that. But that’s not what these hearings are,” Ms Conway says.
“Why are you afraid of him beating Biden?”
Maher replied: “Because he’s a criminal who doesn’t abide by American democracy. That’s why. Because he doesn’t care. Because he knows. He knows he lost the election.”
Ms Conway then repeated the bromide that Mr Trump believes that he won the election.
“Well that’s even sadder,” Maher says. “Again, it’s this debate. Is he stupid or crazy?”
Mr Maher repeatedly tried to convince Ms Conway to stop defending her former boss, but she did not budge.
The January 6 hearing utilised video testimony from members of Mr Trump’s inner circle, including daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump, son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and former attorney general Bill Barr. Ms Trump said she respected respect Mr Barr’s assertion that the 2020 election was without major voting issues that would swing the results.
Ms Trump’s testimony appeared to strike a nerve. The former president lashed out at his eldest daughter, saying that she had “checked out” on the election results.
