Bill Maher urges Kamala Harris to stand up to an ‘extremist’ on the Democratic side: ‘Sister Souljah moment’

Comedian Bill Maher encouraged Vice President Kamala Harris to target an extremist on the Democratic side on Friday during “Real Time,” referencing a “Sister Souljah moment.”

“It’s not too late for Kamala Harris to do what many have been calling for her to do since she became the candidate: have a Sister Souljah moment. And if you weren’t around in 1992, let me tell you what a Sister Souljah moment means. It’s when you earn cred with the middle of the road voters by standing up to an extremist in your own coalition,” he said, referencing when former President Clinton had denounced the rapper and activist’s remarks about race while he was running for president.

Maher, who supports the vice president and routinely criticizes former President Trump, has also criticized the far left. The comedian recently said Harris needed to convince undecided voters that she’s not part of the “worst excesses of the left.”

“After the L.A. riots in ’92, she said, if there are any good White people, I haven’t met them,” Maher explained. “But she also said if Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill White people? And Bill Clinton, looking for an easy target and also well aware that killing White people would decimate our Olympic snowboard team, rebuked Souljah and came out against taking a week to kill Whitey. And yes, that was seen as courageous. It was an easy win.”

TRACKING KAMALA HARRIS’ POLICY REVERSALS: A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF KEY ISSUE FLIP-FLOPS

Maher explained that former President Obama also had a “Sister Souljah” moment when he denounced a reverend who “claimed the government purposefully engineered AIDS to kill minorities and spoke the words ‘Goddamn America.'”

Maher suggested Harris could make a speech about George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and asked White Americans to understand how the footage of the murder, would “affect you if that was the history of your race.” 

“I think most Americans would be sympathetic,” Maher said. “And then admit that in 2020 the left got a little carried away.”

“Looting was rebranded as Justice shopping. We stopped arresting shoplifters. Anti-Racist Baby was a best seller. Corporations took DIY to ludicrous lengths. We opened our hearts to all who wanted to come here and then also our borders. Portland decriminalized all drugs and Seattle set up a no cop zone until they had to reverse course on both,” Maher said. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

“When Kamala says, ‘we’re not going back,’ the undecided voter thinks, No, I don’t want to get on the short bus back to Trump Town, but I also don’t want to go back to 2020. Please, God, don’t make me sit through another one of those corporate mandated sensitivity training sessions,” he said. “When the Harris campaign launched, they got great traction by calling Trump and Vance weird. That was good. Weird was working. People are tired of weird. And ever since Donald Trump decided to dominate our f—— lives, the Democrats argument has been we’ll restore normal. Well, if what you’re selling is let’s be normal again, here’s an idea. Be normal. America doesn’t need a revolution. It needs fixing,” Maher said. 

Maher said during the episode that it was a mistake for Harris to not go on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Maher also asked his guests, which included CNN’s Van Jones and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, about Trump’s stint as a fry cook at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.

“I think when you have somebody who is a world-famous superstar, who’s a billionaire, etc, etc, and they do something you don’t expect, it’s brilliant media,” Jones said, as Maher agreed. “And I think we got to acknowledge that this guy is beating the pants off of us with these so-called publicity stunts. It gets into everybody’s feeds. And people who are not looking at politics will look at that. I think we just have to have more fun ourselves.”