Bill Maher and Panel Get in Fiery Clash Over Brett Kavanaugh: ‘What Were You Like at 17?!’

Bill Maher and his panel got heated tonight over Brett Kavanaugh as Maher brought up concerns that the “Kavanaugh effect” hurt Democrats in 2018 and it could hurt them again.

Maher brought up some 2018 polling and argued that Democrats could have done better in the 2018 midterms if not for how voters didn’t like the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.

Given the attention on the Supreme Court justice this week and the criticism of the New York Times‘ story on him, Maher said, “People did not like going after a guy for what he did in high school. It looked bad and now Democrats are talking about impeaching him again?”

Historian Tim Naftali argued that it’s a cloud over Kavanaugh, but Andrew Sullivan shot back that “he probably did some shitty things in high school drunk” and that’s a concerning public standard that could lead to an “inquisition of people’s PC-ness throughout their entire life.”

Heather McGhee jumped in to say, “May the woman please speak about what this felt like?”

“Please don’t play that card,” Sullivan responded. “You’re making my point.”

“I’m sorry, I think you’ve already made your point, Andrew,” McGhee shot back. “You were going on about PC-ness, we got it.”

She argued this isn’t about a normal job, but about someone being “one of the nine moral arbiters of this great nation.”

“So you’re saying at 17 you have to have your fully formed character,” Maher said.

McGhee criticized Kavanaugh for how he conducted himself during the hearing. Naftali added that he lacked proper “temperament.”

“You try maintaining a good temperament,” Sullivan said, “when you’re being accused of something, you had no idea it was coming at you, came at the last minute, and that happened years and years and years ago.”

Naftali argued that “the Federalist Society could’ve found another conservative.”

“Of course they could!” Maher cried. “Live in reality, man! That’s who they put up. We don’t have the votes, and now we lost seats! Are we gonna do it again? Ruth Bader Ginsburg said glowing things about him… What were you like at 17?”

You can watch above, via HBO.