The Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland came up on Friday’s edition of Real Time With Bill Maher. The documentary reflects very negatively on the King of Pop, who spent much of the second half of his life facing allegations of pedophilia. Not surprisingly, Maher and the liberals on his panel could not resist comparing Jackson to their least favorite person on Earth: President Trump.
The eponymous host declared that President Trump and Michael Jackson have two similarities: “One, Michael Jackson could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his fans wouldn’t leave him and two, both of them commit their crimes in the open.” Maher went onto mention that Michael Jackson would talk about how he slept in bed with children and held their hands; leading to people believing that he could not possibly be a pedophile because he was so open about it before arguing, “This is Trump in the Oval Office with the Russians.”
Anti-Trump Republican Michael Steele highlighted how “the families enabled Jackson by putting their kids in that position in the first place…because they got caught up in celebrity, they got caught up in the fame, they got caught up in the adulation that Michael was showing them to their kids.”
MSNBC Political Analyst Jonathan Alter, who had won the Media Research Center’s “Quote of the Year” dishonor in 2013 for claiming that if Mitt Romney was elected President, “a lot of people will die,” was next to weigh in. Not surprisingly, Alter presented the most outrageous analysis of the panel. He agreed with Steele’s point that “the mothers were enablers” in the case of Michael Jackson before arguing that “Congressional Republicans are enablers...they are letting Donald Trump diddle the Constitution and basically rape the country…in front of them in plain sight.”
Maher found Alter’s commentary absolutely hilarious; he noisily laughed off-screen. Maher hardly finds himself the only late-night comedian to compare Republicans to sexual predators. Earlier this week, Late Night host Stephen Colbert compared R. Kelly, the rapper who has faced well-documented allegations of pedophilia for decades, to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
This exchange on Real Time serves as the latest example of how the media will work their anti-Trump bias into every story. Chris Cuomo worked some veiled swipes at the President into a segment about Jeopardy host Alex Trebek’s cancer diagnosis while a CNN segment about Senator Martha McSally announcing that she had been raped in the air force quickly delved into nothing more than Trump-bashing.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Friday’s edition of Real Time is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Real Time With Bill Maher
03/08/19
10:28 PM
BILL MAHER: I was watching this Michael Jackson documentary, did you see it on HBO? “Leaving Neverland.” Okay, and it struck me that there are two things that are very similar to Donald Trump. One, Michael Jackson could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his fans wouldn’t leave him, and two, both of them commit their crimes in the open. Michael Jackson…
MICHAEL STEELE: In plain sight.
MAHER: …you could not believe it, like, he was always with a child and he would hold their hands, he would be like dating that child and we all…and he would admit that he sleeps in bed with children and people were like, you know what, if he says that, how could he possibly be doing something wrong. This is Trump in the oval office with the Russians.
(CROSSTALK)
MARY KATHARINE HAM: And Trump can’t even dance.
STEELE: And he can’t even dance, right.
(APPLAUSE)
STEELE: But the telling part of that, the telling part of that, Bill, the telling part of that and I think the important aspect of both, of both of these narratives, the, the Jackson and the Trump narrative is how the families enabled Jackson by putting their kids in that position in the first place.
MAHER: Of course.
STEELE: And then because they got caught up in celebrity, they got caught up in the fame, they got caught up in the adulation that Michael was showing to them and their kids.
MAHER: But it was also the fact that if I do it so openly, I can’t really be the monster. You have to believe what…
JONATHAN ALTER: To, to Michael’s point, enablers. The mothers were enablers, they let their 11-year-old sleep in bed…
MAHER: Yes.
ALTER: …with Michael Jackson. Congressional Republicans are enablers…
MAHER: Yes.
ALTER: They are letting Donald Trump diddle the Constitution and basically rape the country…
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
ALTER: …in front of them in plain sight.
