Real Time host Bill Maher accused the establishment media of a “conspiracy” to keep the Hunter Biden laptop story quiet until after the election — so they could “get rid” of former President Donald Trump.
Maher made the remarks during his show on Friday night, referencing podcaster Sam Harris’s candid approval of the purported “conspiracy” to suppress the story in the waning weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign.
The liberal HBO comedian pressed his liberal guests about whether burying the scandal was appropriate.
“He’s saying that’s what they did, and that is what they did,” Maher said. “They buried the Hunter Biden story before the election because they were, like, ‘We can’t risk having the election thrown to Trump. We’ll tell them after the election.'”
“Is it OK to have a conspiracy to get rid of Trump,” the host continued. “Look, let’s not pussyfoot around this — he was selling the influence of his father, Joe Biden. I mean, most political sons do, but let’s not pretend at least that was going on.”
Rob Reiner, a director and political activist, sidestepped the question, dredging up the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“You know what’s not justified? Using armed violence to try to kill people in the Capitol. That’s not justified,” he replied.
“Answer this question!” Maher said. “The question is — was it appropriate to bury the Hunter Biden….”
“You talking about the press doing that?” Reiner interjected, before later questioning whether the media actually conspired to bury the story. “I don’t know what they did,” he said.
“I know because you only watch MSNBC,” Maher responded.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) later chimed in on the discussion, arguing that the Justice Department should do its job.
“You have to make sure you are treating people fairly,” she said.
Maher refrained from outright answering the question of whether the so-called conspiracy to bury the story was appropriate but appeared to voice apprehension about the matter throughout the exchange.
Harris has since clarified his remarks, insisting that he was referring specifically to the laptop story and was not advocating Democrats partake in election fraud.
“On the podcast, I was speaking narrowly about the wisdom and propriety of ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop story until after the election. I’ve always thought that this was a very hard call, ethically and journalistically,” he tweeted. “Nothing I said on that podcast was meant to suggest that the Democrats would have been right to commit election fraud or take other illegal measures to deny Trump the presidency.”
In which, Sam Harris says that it’s ok to conspire against Trump getting elected, because he was the equivalent of an asteroid headed towards earth. Literally literally. Worth watching just for Francis’ reaction at the end. Omg. pic.twitter.com/hVH7IPAx1t
— Alexandros Marinos (@alexandrosM) August 18, 2022
The segment came after an interview between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and podcaster Joe Rogan, in which the former recalled that an FBI warning had overshadowed Facebook’s initial decision to throttle the New York Post’s story on the laptop in October 2020. None of the panelists addressed Zuckerberg’s revelation during the exchange.
“The background here is the FBI basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was, like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert … we thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant,'” Zuckerberg told Rogan.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
