What to Know
Comedian Bill Maher was floored after Lara Trump denied that her father-in-law called a female White House correspondent “piggy” last week in a controversial exchange aboard Air Force One.
While discussing ways for Republicans to find common ground with Democrats during the holidays, Maher offered a suggestion to Trump on Monday’s episode of his “Club Random” podcast.
“I got a great answer for you: Don’t do things like call a woman ‘piggy,’ ” Maher said.
“Do we know that happened?” Trump replied.
“I saw it on tape! A thousand times,” Maher said.
“Or did he say McGee?” Trump said, chuckling as Maher groaned.
She went on to downplay President Donald Trump’s combative attitude toward journalists, saying he is “an equal opportunity offender.”
While Lara Trump raised doubts about the incident aboard Air Force One, the White House has defended President Trump’s comments.
When questioned last week about President Trump saying “Quiet, piggy!” to a reporter, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is “very frank and honest.”
“I think it’s one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president because of his frankness,” Leavitt said. “He calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with reporters when you lie about him.”
In a statement to MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, an unnamed White House official said that the reporter President Trump insulted “behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane.”
“If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take it,” the official told MS NOW.
That sort of divisive rhetoric, Maher said, has made it more difficult for him to convince liberals to engage with conservatives.
“Here I am working on this editorial all about how it’s mostly liberals who have to get over yourselves, eat with your families, even the ones who are Trump voters,” Maher said during his sitdown with Lara Trump. “It just makes my job more difficult when he says to a woman ‘piggy.’ Even you must admit this is not cool, this is not necessary.”
“The president is not perfect,” Lara Trump said, “but he does a lot of things that I think are great. And I think overall you got to take some of the good with the bad.”
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Nick Moyle
nj.com
(TNS)
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