“Real Time” host Bill Maher leveled President Joe Biden for his latest student loan forgiveness plan amid antisemitic protests amid college campuses nationwide.
During the HBO show’s Friday night episode, while discussing the anti-Israel sentiment scourging American universities in recent weeks, Maher said he was “so incensed” about the number of students participating protests who received federal aid.
“When I read about the college loans… ‘Biden administration’s student debt cancellation will cost a combined $870 billion to $1.4 trillion. That’s a lot of debt forgiveness,” he remarked.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that Biden ordered the government to cancel the $6.1 billion in student debt that 317,000 undergrads racked up while attending the Art Institutes.
NEW: Bill Maher says he is “incensed” that his tax dollars are going towards paying off the student loans of “Jew hating” students.
All this criticism of Biden and he will still vote for him.
“I’m so incensed about some of this stuff, because, when I read about the college… pic.twitter.com/XCKR6bU6RC
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 4, 2024
“This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies,” Biden touted his plan.
His latest student loan forgiveness push comes after Biden proposed a federal regulation that would nix $20,000 in accrued interest for over 25 million former college students.
“Over the last three years, my Administration has approved nearly $29 billion in debt relief for 1.6 million borrowers whose colleges took advantage of them, closed abruptly, or were covered by related court settlements, compared to just 53,500 borrowers who had ever gotten their debt cancelled through these types of actions before I took office,” the president commented.
“And in total, we have approved debt cancellation for nearly 4.6 million Americans through various actions,” Biden added.
That number would have been significantly higher had the Supreme Court not ruled against his plan to cancel $146 billion in federally owned student loan debt last year.
“Colleges constantly raise tuition, then the kids take out more loans, then the government comes by and pays those loans,” Maher said on Friday. “Okay, so my tax dollars are supporting this Jew hating? I don’t think so.”
Panelist Kellyanne Conway pointed out that the student loan handouts were a slap in the face to blue collar workers.
“You can’t have plumbers and pipefitters paying for the student loans of doctors and lawyers,” she stated.
“I’m all for the government trying to help people who need it, but he did that as a political play and everybody knows it,” Conway added. “He’s bleeding young people support.”
Bloomberg Businessweek correspondent Joshua Green said that Biden’s plan to rally young voters “hasn’t worked.”
NEW: Columbia protester tells Fox News reporter to get out of her face after he asks multiple questions including why they held three janitors hostage.
Reporter: “Do you feel like it was right to hold 3 of the janitor workers hostage inside of the building?”
Protester: “I think… pic.twitter.com/ACzZqFIMN4
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 30, 2024
“If you look at issues that young people care about, Gaza is like 15th out of 16th. And the only thing that comes in lower than Gaza is student loan forgiveness,” Green explained.
“So it hasn’t worked as a motivator for the youth vote, you know, half of which are out there chanting ‘Genocide Joe.’ So it’s backfired not just in terms of public policy, but in terms of the politics, too.”
“Yeah, I mean, Trump is winning the youth vote by I think 11 points, that’s pretty astounding to me,” Maher said in reference to a CNN poll. “What do you make of that?”
Green attributed the Trump’s increased popularity to the anti-Israel protests, which are dominating the airwaves and overshadowing headlines about the ex-president’s criminal trial and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s puppy shooting scandal.
“What I make of that a lot of it is if you turn on your TV today, you see young people protesting, angry, fighting with cops,” Green noted. “What you don’t see is Donald Trump in a criminal trial. What you don’t see is, you know, one of his blue chip vice presidential candidates murdered dog a week ago and is two weeks into talking about that story.
“All of these stories that could potentially be damaging for Republicans to help Joe Biden have fallen by the wayside because all of the attention is on these protesters and on these fights, on their behavior, and on the fact that a lot of people don’t like what they see on the television,” he added.
Green thinks that Biden was elected to office in an effort to “push aside the chaos and the havoc of the Trump years,” but isn’t living up the voter’s expectations.
“You turn on your TV and see what’s going on these campuses, it hasn’t happened,” he concluded.
“And that’s one big reason why he’s losing the vote, one big reason why he’s losing the youth vote.”
Conway agreed that “it’s chaos and crisis everywhere we look,” citing the nationwide anti-Israel protests and open southern border.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Maher replied.