Bill Maher Shreds Byron Donalds Trump Defense: ‘We’re Criminals But We’re Announcing It!’

Comic and political pundit Bill Maher roasted Rep. Byron Donlds over his defense of President Donald Trump, paraphrasing it as “We’re criminals but we’re announcing it!”

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, longtime MSNBC host Chris Hayes was the interview guest.

Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Puck’s Tara Palmeri were the panel guests.

In one exchange, Donalds defended Trump moves that many consider unconstitutional by arguing at least they’re open about it — and Maher pounced:

REP. BYRON DONALDS: Donald Trump didn’t hide the ball on this. He was very clear about what he was going to do. The American people voted for him and now he’s doing it well.

BILL MAHER: He’s doing it extra legally. Wouldn’t you agree? Extra. And when I say extra, I don’t mean like, hey, it’s extra. Am I wrong about that? That is where we’re sort of skipping over these three branches of government part.

TARA PALMERI: Yeah, I mean. Donald Trump is definitely testing the limits of the executive branch. He’s trying to take your power away, the power of the purse, stripping, the power of oversight.

And he is trying to see as much as he can get away with. And really the only thing stopping him right now are the courts.

But I think he sees his DOJ and his FBI, his attorney general as his executioners, and he is going to tell them what to do and they will carry out those tasks they’ve already started.

REP. BYRON DONALDS: Now, here’s here’s where I got a push back, because as a member of Congress under the previous administration, we would have inquiries, we would request information. We would want cabinet secretaries and assistant secretaries and deputy secretary to come before committee. We would send letter after letter after letter and get no response.

The Biden administration operated literally in the shadows. They would not tell you anything that was going on.

At least Donald Trump puts it out in the litany of orders that come out that day.

Here’s what we’re doing today. We’re going into the Department of Justice. We are taking these attorneys and they are under supervisory review or however they choose to phrase it.

You knew nothing that was going on in Joe Biden’s presidency.

So if democracy truly dies in darkness, I would rather have an executive tell me what they’re doing as opposed to hiding it from the American people.

Unidentified Well, that’s quite a charitable view of it. (LAUGHS)It’s not charitable–

BILL MAHER: We’re criminals, but we’re announcing it!

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.