Bill Maher has heard enough crowing about cutting off family members who voted for Donald Trump.
The “Real Time” host used his “new rule” segment on Friday to push back against the idea that you should excise Republicans from your life in the wake of the election. Maher sees the holiday season as the starting point of any national reconciliation, figuring that we can’t possibly unify the country until we unify our dining room tables.
“For the Democrats, this was a brutal loss, but the plan to deal with it has to be better than ‘stay in a snit,'” he said. “Family isn’t like gender. You can’t fix it by cutting off members.”
Maher railed against Yale psychiatrist Dr. Amanda Calhoun, who told MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid that it’s “okay to cut off family members if they voted for Trump.” Maher compared the act of refusing to spend holidays with Trump voters to “not letting certain people sit with you on the bus” as a photo of Rosa Parks flashed on the screen, drawing groans from the audience.
“[Calhoun] also said that it shouldn’t be automatic that family members think they’re entitled to your time. She said that’s just a societal norm,” Maher continued. “Family. Who do they think they are? Family?”
Maher thought it was ridiculous that a mental health professional would encourage people to isolate during the holidays, wondering if she also recommended drinking too much and putting on weight. Ultimately. Maher pushed for a tone of reconciliation during the holidays.
“If we ever want this nation to heal, this is what we have to do,” he said. “Force ourselves to reach out and find out why someone feels the way they do and make the choices they make without prejudging them a monster.”
Maher also asked liberals to consider the fact that Trump is getting through the holidays just fine and that he “couldn’t ask for a better gift” than knowing his opponents were sulking.
“I’m sure Mar-a-Lago already has bells ringing and stockings hung like Arnold Palmer,” he said.
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