Bill Maher with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show," 1985. Getty // Ron Tom
Q1. Robert Ritchie, the musician known as Kid Rock, is a mutual friend of President Trump and comedian Bill Maher. Ritchie arranged a dinner with Maher and Trump at the White House that took place two weeks ago.
Maher, who characterizes himself as an anti-woke, centrist-minded liberal, donated $1m to an Obama SuperPac in 2012, and has been a long-standing Trump critic. In 2013 he joked Trump needed to prove he was "not the son of an orangutan" in response to Trump questioning the birthplace of Obama. Maher has also criticized Trump on a range of political issues from Russian appeasement to Jan 6 violence.
For his part, Trump sued Maher for $5m after the orangutan joke (a suit he later withdrew), and has lobbed voluminous public insults at the comedian, calling him "deranged," "really dumb guy," "fired like a dog," and "low-life sleaze" to name but a few.
What do you think of political antagonists Trump and Maher getting together for dinner?
Maher, who characterizes himself as an anti-woke, centrist-minded liberal, donated $1m to an Obama SuperPac in 2012, and has been a long-standing Trump critic. In 2013 he joked Trump needed to prove he was "not the son of an orangutan" in response to Trump questioning the birthplace of Obama. Maher has also criticized Trump on a range of political issues from Russian appeasement to Jan 6 violence.
For his part, Trump sued Maher for $5m after the orangutan joke (a suit he later withdrew), and has lobbed voluminous public insults at the comedian, calling him "deranged," "really dumb guy," "fired like a dog," and "low-life sleaze" to name but a few.
What do you think of political antagonists Trump and Maher getting together for dinner?
overall
custom
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+
Good thing
42%
52%
34%
78%
41%
7%
34%
34%
53%
39%
42%
Bad thing
8%
3%
12%
1%
5%
15%
11%
9%
7%
5%
8%
Completely meaningless thing
42%
42%
41%
19%
45%
65%
31%
52%
33%
50%
42%
Don't know
4%
0%
8%
0%
1%
10%
21%
2%
2%
1%
4%
Don't care
4%
3%
5%
2%
8%
4%
4%
2%
5%
4%
4%
Q2. On Friday Maher offered his version of the dinner, giving Trump generally favorable reviews and saying the President was very different in private than in public: "The guy I met was not the person who tweeted nasty crap about me and the dinner the day before it happened. For one, he laughs. I’ve never seen him laugh in public, but he does, including at himself. He lets you talk, he listens, looks you in the eye."
Maher went on to say that how Trump treats a comedian at a private dinner is unimportant, and how the President acts in public is very important, but still he felt better after the dinner knowing the President "isn't crazy."
Your view?
Maher went on to say that how Trump treats a comedian at a private dinner is unimportant, and how the President acts in public is very important, but still he felt better after the dinner knowing the President "isn't crazy."
Your view?
overall
custom
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+
Don't care
7%
5%
8%
4%
7%
10%
2%
7%
8%
9%
7%
Q3. What do you think is the main reason Trump agreed to the dinner?
overall
custom
male
female
rep
ind
dem
18-29
30-44
45-64
65+
PR stunt
39%
30%
48%
8%
48%
69%
69%
39%
29%
38%
39%
Hear opposing viewpoints
15%
10%
20%
30%
13%
0%
4%
7%
24%
17%
15%
Meet an interesting person
7%
13%
1%
13%
5%
1%
0%
10%
6%
8%
7%
Win Maher over
14%
18%
10%
18%
12%
10%
2%
20%
12%
16%
14%
Mend fences
6%
7%
5%
11%
4%
1%
0%
5%
9%
4%
6%
Didn't want to, gave in to Ritchie
5%
6%
3%
4%
5%
5%
0%
3%
6%
6%
5%
Other
4%
3%
5%
6%
1%
4%
11%
0%
7%
2%
4%
Don't know
4%
3%
4%
1%
6%
6%
2%
7%
3%
4%
4%
Don't care
7%
10%
4%
8%
7%
5%
13%
8%
5%
5%
7%
June 2018
In the aftermath of the Sept 11 attack, in response to people calling the hijackers cowards, comedian Bill Maher said, "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly." Do you think the 9-11 hijackers were cowardly?
55% Yes
43% No
Maher also said "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 4,000 miles away. That's cowardly." Do you think we as a country are cowardly when attacking with cruise missiles?
32% Yes
67% No
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