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Bill Maher Clashes With Far-Left Actor Over Immigration

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Bill Maher
Photo Credit: Angela George, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Comedian Bill Maher and liberal actor John Leguizamo found themselves on opposite sides of a heated immigration debate during a recent episode of Maher’s podcast.

The pair clashed over how former President Biden and President Trump have differently handled border policy.

The exchange took place during Monday’s installment of Maher’s podcast “Club Random,” with Leguizamo taking aim at Stephen Miller, a key Trump immigration adviser, calling him the “architect” of what he characterized as racist deportation strategies.

Maher countered, that the real crisis was born out of the Biden administration’s chaotic and lenient border approach.

“Part of this is a backlash to how badly Biden handled the immigration situation. It can’t just be like ‘Come one, come all,'” Maher said.

Leguizamo rejected Maher’s take and insisted that America had the capacity to accommodate more immigrants.

“There’s plenty of room here,” the actor argued. “There’s plenty of room in America, come on. There’s no lack of room in America.”

Maher wasn’t buying it. “It’s never about room. It’s about resources,” he snapped. “Countries have to have a border.”

“I mean, they’ve done surveys and something like 200 million people around the world when asked, ‘Would you come to America if you could?’ ‘Yes, I would.’ Why wouldn’t they?” he asked.

“Lots of countries, excuse me, are sh**holes, and they would love to be here.”

“The places aren’t sh**holes,” Leguizamo fired back.

“Well, they are,” Maher said flatly. “That’s why they want to come.”

The conversation grew even more tense as Leguizamo doubled down on the argument that immigrants form the backbone of the U.S. economy by taking on essential roles that many Americans are allegedly unwilling to do.

Maher acknowledged that contribution but held firm in his belief that there needs to be structure.

“When it comes to immigration, there has to be some order to it,” he said.

Leguizamo also recalled meeting Trump years before his political rise and said he was taken aback when the president called him “articulate,” which the actor viewed as a subtle insult.

He also described the president as “meek” at the time. Maher, however, offered a different assessment.

“I wouldn’t call it meek,” he replied. “What I would call it is knowing how to make everybody – it’s ironic because he’s known as the greatest egomaniac, and he is quite an egomaniac – but to make the person you’re talking to feel like they’re the ones who are important and you’re interested in what they’re saying. He’s good at that.”

The HBO host then explained that he doesn’t personally believe Trump is a racist, but more so a “product of his time.”

“Some of us overcome our times,” Leguizamo responded.

“That is true and fair to say,” Maher agreed.

Maher, who has long been a media opponent of Trump, made waves earlier this year after publicly revealing he had dinner at the White House with the president.

The two reportedly discussed a variety of topics, and Maher admitted he found Trump far more self-aware in person than his public persona would suggest.

“He didn’t get mad. He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” Maher recalled.

The late-night comedian said he even brought a printout of roughly 60 insults Trump had hurled at him over the years, which the president signed with good humor.

Maher’s acknowledgment that Trump could be “likable” in person stirred strong reactions from his fellow entertainers.

Actor Sean Penn, a previous guest on Maher’s podcast, dismissed the notion of ever accepting an invitation to dine with Trump, despite having once met with controversial world leaders like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

“Really, you meet with f***ing Castro and Hugo Chavez, but not the President of the United States?” Maher asked incredulously.

Penn justified his stance by saying he wouldn’t trust anything said by Trump in private.

“I saw good results come out of some of those things,” Penn added, referring to his foreign visits.

“I just personally wouldn’t trust anything that was said in the room [with Trump], including the personality.”

Maher disagreed. “It’s like saying, ‘I don’t want this medical test because I don’t want to know.’ I want to know.”

Penn also complained that the dinner between the pair was viewed as “successful.”

“Well, it was less successful because I never stopped saying all the things I’ve always said about him,” Maher remarked.

“It would’ve been successful if he had somehow seduced me into supporting him, so it wasn’t successful.”

The fallout continued when comedian Larry David mocked Maher’s Trump dinner in a fictional essay published in The New York Times titled, “My Dinner With Adolf.”

The piece, written from the perspective of someone shocked to discover Hitler was surprisingly personable, skewered Maher’s willingness to break bread with Trump.

Maher responded to the mockery during a later interview with Piers Morgan, pushing back on the idea that reporting honestly about Trump made him complicit in anything.

“First of all, it’s kind of insulting to 6 million dead Jews … It’s an argument you kind of lost just to start it,” he began.

“Look, maybe it’s not completely logically fair, but Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place. He is the GOAT of evil.”

“Nobody has been harder, and more prescient, I must say, about Donald Trump than me,” Maher stated.

“I don’t need to be lectured on who Donald Trump is.”

Despite the public criticism, Maher stood firm on his principle of engaging with people across political divides.

“There’s got to be a better way than hurling insults and not talking to people. If I can talk to Trump, I can talk to Larry David too,” he said.

Watch the full episode of “Piers Morgan Uncensored” here:

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