Bill Maher Responds to Donald Trump’s Wildfire Aid Threat: ‘Do Your Dance and Get Out of Here’
“Donald Trump is president again, and he’s only 13 percent contained,” Bill Maher said in the January 24 episode of HBO’s Real Time as he criticized Trump’s remarks about federal aid for the ongoing Southern California wildfire disaster.
Trump recently told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he doesn’t think the U.S. government should “give California anything until they let water flow down.”
To that, Maher said, “You’re not giving us anything. We’re Americans. This isn’t a casino and you’re comping our room, OK?”
In his Fox News appearance, Trump also repeated false claims that fish conservation efforts in Northern California robbed the Los Angeles area of fire hydrant water, according to the Associated Press.
The delta smelt faced extinction in the 1990s because of river water diverted for farm irrigation, so state and federal officials required that some water flow through to support the species, according to The Washington Post. But experts told the Post there’s no link between the conservation efforts and the hydrant shortages.
Confusing matters, Trump said on Fox News that the delta smart is endangered because it’s not getting water — even though he issued a presidential action ordering California to “route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta” to the Central Valley and Southern California to reverse a “catastrophic halt … allegedly in protection of the delta smelt and other species of fish.”
On Friday’s show, Maher said Trump is “obsessed” with the delta smelt. “He said, ‘No wonder it’s endangered. It’s not getting any water.’ OK, no, Don, the fish has the water because we took down the irrigation dams in order to — oh, f***, just do your dance and get out of here.”
Maher previously said that he’d cover Trump’s second presidential term on Real Time differently than he did the first, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that he wasn’t going to “chase every rabbit down the hole” like he did during Trump’s first four years.
And the comedian seemingly referenced that intention on Friday’s show as he ridiculed Trump. “I said I wasn’t going to lose it this year,” he said through mock tears.
Real Time With Bill Maher, Fridays, HBO
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