On Sunday, Aug. 4, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo criticized HBO’s Bill Maher for doubling down on his call for an economic recession to prevent President Donald Trump from being re-elected. She explained that a recession would hurt all Americans and especially those in the lower income brackets, and added that the multi-millionaire Maher clearly does not care about regular Americans.
“It’s crazy,” she said on Fox & Friends. “He really should be ashamed of himself, and the reason is that recessions matter and they hurt. It’s very difficult to get through a recession. In the 2008 recession, which was the worst situation we have ever seen in a generation, almost 3 million people lost their jobs just between 2008 and 2009.”
Last year, Maher said on his show, Real Time with Bill Maher, that “the one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy, so please, bring on the recession.” He doubled down on those comments also in 2018, stating that “a recession is a survivable event. What Trump is doing to this country is not.”
Last Friday, Aug. 2, Maher again brought up his hopes for a recession to oust Trump from office. “I’m hoping for a recession,” he said. “People hate me for it, but it would get rid of Trump so you shouldn’t hate me for it.”
Commenting on the 2008 recession, Bartiromo told Fox & Friends, “ Not only that, hundreds, thousands of others lost everything. They lost the value of their home, they lost their entire 401K value.”
“So in order to say something like this,” she added, “you really are showing that you have no care whatsoever for the rest of the country. Not everyone has a -- is a comedian making millions of dollars on TV every day.”
“The recession isn’t gonna’ hit him, it’s gonna’ hit regular folks,” said Fox co-host Pete Hegseth.
“Exactly,” said Bartiromo. “That’s right. It’s gonna’ hit regular folks and it’s gonna’ be in the millions. And it is going to be a loss of job, perhaps, a loss of value in their home, a loss of everything that they thought they had for retirement. So recessions can really hurt.”
“To say ‘bring on the recession’ shows a complete, you know, not caring for the rest of the country while he’s sitting in his post, making millions, making jokes on television every night,” said Bartiromo. “Not everybody has your situation, Mr. Maher.”
“They don’t learn,” said Fox co-host Jedediah Bila. “This is why Trump won because they say things like this, just ‘oh, as long as we get rid of Trump, it doesn’t matter how everybody else is affected.’ This stuff does not resonate. People at home, I’m sorry, I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or you like Bill Maher, you’re sitting saying, ‘don’t say that Bill. It doesn’t work.’”
“Exactly, and not only that, but you see the impact of the words,” said Bartiromo. “But people are shocked when he says it, and then, you know, you see the next day when you have a tough day in the market, you have a tough day in the economy -- this hurts the weakest of us all. This is really hurting the lower income scale -- a lot of his viewers, by the way.”