James Carville Rips ‘Friend’ Bill Maher As ‘Supremely Naive Man’ Over Positive Trump Meeting

James Carville labeled his “friend” Bill Maher a “supremely naive man” after the comedian offered a positive report about his White House meeting with President Donald Trump.

On a Politics War Room episode released on Saturday focused on answering listener questions, Carville and his co-host Al Hunt both criticized Maher’s recent dinner with Trump, which was put together by vocal MAGA supporter and musician Kid Rock. Maher called Trump “gracious” during their dinner and revealed he did push back on the president on multiple issues including Iran nuclear negotiations, the 2020 presidential election, and a past lawsuit filed against the comedian by Trump.

A podcast listener named Roger out Tennessee asked Carville what he thought of Maher’s dinner and his “book report” on how “great” it was. Hunt first dug into Maher, saying the comedian was “had” by Trump’s “personal charm.” He compared the positive report from Maher to past positive assessments of dictators like Adolf Hitler.

Hunt argued:

I think Bill Mahr was had. He went there and he talked about how charming and nice Trump was. This was the same guy that day who was reveling in a guy who was illegally deported to El Salvador and refuses to bring him back, who loves to hurt people, loves to inflict pain. But, you know, Bill is just the latest in a whole series of people who get had by the personal charm, if you will, of some really bad people. Walter Duranty of The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Lenin and Stalin in Moscow in the ’20s. They were thugs. He didn’t get it. The same thing in Neville Chamberlain said, you know, Hitler is a guy we really can deal with. No, you can’t. So I don’t think there were any ill intentions, but Bill Maher, you were had.

Carville called Maher a “friend” but said he is “supremely naive” when it comes to the president, arguing the report by the comedian offered “legitimacy and credence” to the administration. Carville also knocked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who was seen covering her face from cameras during a recent visit to the White House.

“They gave legitimacy to a guy who is only legitimate by the fact that he got elected to something and nothing else,” Carville said.

The Democratic strategist explained:

I would defend Bill Maher to this extent, I think he’s a supremely naive man, alright? I think that somebody who shits on the Constitution, that’s exactly what [Trump] does, has been caught lying 36,411 times or whatever the number is, somebody could fact check this, someone who’s convicted of 34 felonies in a court of competent jurisdiction, a person who set up every grift that you can imagine, I think the problem with people have with Bill, I have the same one, is you’re kind of leading legitimacy and credence to this.

Carville believes the criticism of Maher is good because it’ll make someone else in the same position “think twice.”

“The criticism, I think, is useful because it’ll make someone else think twice again,” he said. “But I don’t think we’re dealing with normal opposition here. It’s not Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan.”

Watch above via Politicon.