Bill Maher has dared House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to appear on his HBO talk show.
The Real Time host also scolded the far-left ‘Squad’ member on Friday for dismissing critics of ‘wokeness’ - which he claims is the reason Democrats suffered electoral defeats this year in Virginia and elsewhere.
Maher said he would 'love' to have Ocasio-Cortez on his show since there's 'so much to admire' about her, particularly her efforts to combat climate change.
'But that will probably never happen because Democrats don't go anywhere these days where they're not being adored,' Maher said.
'And that's my last bit of advice to them. Go where the "amen corner" isn't.
'Do Fox News. Be brave. Come here. Go everywhere.'
Bill Maher has dared House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to appear on his HBO talk show
Maher added: 'Winning is about expanding the electorate.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to a spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez seeking reaction to Maher's comments.
The HBO talker also hit out at Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic Party for turning ‘woke’ into a ‘pejorative’ that has turned off voters.
'If the word only made you think of rational, deserved causes like teaching a less whitewashed version of American history, AOC would still want to own it,' Maher said.
'But it's a joke because it makes you think of people who wake up offended and take orders from Twitter.
'And their oversensitivity has grown tiresome.'
Maher hit out at Ocasio-Cortez for her criticism of Clinton strategist James Carville. Carville suggested earlier this month that 'stupid wokeness' caused the wave of crushing Democrat defeats
In his monologue on Friday’s show, Maher mentioned that Ocasio-Cortez rejected criticism from political strategist James Carville that Democrats’ touting of ‘stupid wokeness’ hurt them at the polling stations.
The congresswoman from Queens and the Bronx tweeted earlier this month that the term ‘woke’ was primarily used by ‘older people.’
'Like the average audience for people seriously using the word "woke" in a 2021 political discussion are James Carville and Fox News pundits so that should tell you all you need to know,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier this month.
She hit out at Carville, a former top adviser to Bill Clinton, tweeting: ‘And before people disingenuously complain “woke” is denigrating to older people, it’s actually pundits like Carville using terms like “woke” to insult voters under 45 that’s denigrating.’
She added: 'Don’t wonder why youth turnout falls when Dems talk about them like this. We need everyone.'
Ocasio-Cortez was reacting to an interview that Carville gave to PBS News House to discuss Republican Glen Youngkin's victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race.
Republicans also captured the state legislature in Virginia, which had previously been led by a Democrat majority.
The election in Virginia and other races nationwide this year has political observers predicting that the GOP will take back the House and the Senate next year.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Republicans and centrist Democrats are creating a fake 'woke problem' to explain away election losses and distract from racial justice problems
The progressive lawmakers said 'woke' is used by pundits as a derogatory term
'What?!' Maher said, reacting to Ocasio-Cortez's criticism of Carville.
'This is a term folks like you brought out very recently, had been proudly displaying it every march since.
'Just last year, The Guardian declared "woke" the "word of our era."
'I guess they didn't get the memo from the Mean Girls Club.'
Maher continued: 'What a great strategy, never missing an opportunity to remind voters how lame and clueless and hopelessly cool they are, especially since those are the ones who actually vote.
'But OK, fine. What word would you like us to use for the plainly insane excesses of the left that are not liberalism but something completely different?
'Because you can't have that word "liberal" from us and think it should cover things like canceling Lincoln.
'And teaching third-graders they're oppressors. That's all your new-think.'
Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats' so-called 'woke problem' was 'made up' to try and push the left away from fighting for racial injustice and election reform, which she claims could help them win.
'One dangerous aspect of thinking there's a 'woke problem' is that Dem chances for re-election or majorities in House, Senate , & WH rely on the racial justice issue of voting rights,' the New York representative tweeted earlier this month.
She added: 'Dems distancing from racial justice makes protection of voting rights less likely, ensuring losses.'
Bill Maher spoke with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night to discuss his views on CRT, cancel culture and the popularity of former President Donald Trump
Republicans and establishment Democrats claimed that the party's embracing a more progressive agenda and going 'woke' contributed to the wave of defeats in this month's election.
She said that the term 'woke' is a way for the GOP to launch attacks and deflect from civil rights advancements – such as the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools that became a central issue to the Virginia gubernatorial election.
'Woke' is a term pundits are now using as a derogatory euphemism for civil rights & justice,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
'Making up a 'woke' problem results in putting civil & voting rights on the backburner,' she continued.
'In a year state legislatures are planning out GOP majorities & voter suppression, that's dangerous.'
'People think Fox News is just about indoctrinating right-wingers, but it's also about conditioning Dems on what to run away from,' the three-part Twitter thread read.
Carville, who helped steer Bill Clinton to victory in 1992 aimed squarely at cultural clashes over race, education, and police funding as the heart of the matter, after Youngkin took down McAuliffe by winning over suburban areas that had gone for Joe Biden just a year ago.
'What went wrong is just stupid wokeness. Don't just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Washington,' Carville said as he ticked off election results in an appearance on PBS News Hour.
'I mean, this 'defund the police' lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln's name off of schools. I mean that — people see that,' he said.
He said Terry McAuliffe got 'caught up in something national' and blamed it for his loss (McAuliffe also has deep Clinton ties).
Earlier this week, Maher appeared on Chris Cuomo's CNN prime time talk show and repeated his criticisms of 'wokeness.'
Bill Maher criticized the idea of teaching Critical Race Theory in schools and backed parents who opposed the controversial teaching method
Parents at the Loudoun County Schools have led the nation in protests against CRT
School district board meeting have erupted with calls to end CRT since the summer of 2021
Maher, who describes himself as an 'old-school liberal', slammed the far left and progressive side of the Democrats which he called the 'party of no common sense'.
He added that he supported teaching the history of racism in America, but 'that's different than teaching children that racism is the essence of America.'
'That's what people get upset about, or involving children who are not old enough or sophisticated enough to understand this very complicated history.'
Maher also told Cuomo that he supports Dave Chappelle, who received backlash after making derogatory comments about trans people, and said he himself has received calls to be cancelled from conservatives and liberals alike.
The late night host warned that Donald Trump would run for re-election in 2022 and further a 'slow-moving coup' take over the GOP with his supporters.
As they discussed cancel culture and Maher's apparent diversion from liberals, Cuomo asked The Real Time talk show host if he was worried about getting cancelled.
Maher shrugged the question off because he said 'both sides' have tried cancelling him.
'My politics have not changed. I'm an old-school liberal. We were talking about the race issue. They changed, not me,' Maher said.
'I was the old — we should be moving toward a color-blind society where we don't see race. That's the old way to look at it, I think that's still the good way to look at it.'
Along with decades of criticism from conservatives, Maher has recently received backlash from fellow liberals over his opinions on topics like CRT and cancel culture.
Post a Comment