Bill Maher predicts Republicans will lose midterms over immigration enforcement
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“Real Time” host Bill Maher predicted Friday that Republicans will “let their dog out” in the midterm elections for one reason: immigration.
“This is not what people voted for,” Maher told panelists, showing images of people held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including a woman facing the road who appeared to have been pepper-sprayed in the face.
Maher’s criticism was echoed by thousands of protesters in Minneapolis on Friday, who marched in subzero temperatures against the Trump administration’s increased enforcement of immigration enforcement.
Some held signs featuring Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE agent as she drove toward him on Jan. 7.
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An FBI agent and Good are separated at the scene where Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images and ODU English Department/Facebook)
Maher described the attack as a public execution.
“That woman was an execution in the street,” Maher said, comparing the visual of Good’s shooting to surprise attacks by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam in 1968.
“I’m sorry, but it was,” he added.
Towards the end of the show, the late-night host didn’t mince words about whether the attack was justified, as the White House said.
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“My fellow Republicans, you know this didn’t have to happen,” he charged. “You know [Good] I wasn’t trying to run the guy down.”
While Maher previously acknowledged that former President Barack Obama was a “troublemaker” over deportation rates under his administration, he condemned Republicans’ apparent invitations for him to cross party lines on immigration policy.
FILE – Then-President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform during a meeting with young immigrants known as DREAMers in the Oval Office on February 4, 2015. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
“You’re not intellectually honest, so stop asking me if I have the slightest interest in joining your side,” he said. “I never did and you have no integrity.”
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Maher, however, took issue with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who addressed his stance on the tactics of ICE operations. He seemed to have found common ground with
“I support enforcement of our immigration laws, it matters now how you enforce them,” he argued.
“That’s the key,” Maher replied. “How is that?”
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“We do this through due process, equal protection and Terry v. Ohioreasonable doubt,” Kennedy explained.
The senator argued that immigration reform should include legal immigration, not just illegal immigration.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said it matters how immigration laws are enforced, adding that due process, equal protection and reasonable suspicion must be followed. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)
He cited America having the highest number of legal immigrants admitted every year compared to other countries, adding, “The whole world wants to come here.”
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“But we could do this better if my fellow Democrats would sit down and talk to us. But when we sit down and talk, the first thing they want is [is] pardon, pardon, pardon. And that dog is not going to hunt right now,” Kennedy concluded.
