‘Anyone With a D Next to Their Name Is Just Completely Toxic’: Bill Maher Scolds Democrats for Writing Off Rural Areas

Chris Cuomo kicked off his hour-long interview with Bill Maher on Wednesday night by asking Maher an open-ended question that Maher himself asked in the days after the 9/11 attacks about the United States.

“I remember it as an appeal of you saying, ‘We’ve done things in a way that has provoked animus. Can we do better?'” said Cuomo. “We are now doing things in a way that provokes animus. Do you think we can change?”

“The evidence is not really good for that,” replied Maher. “I don’t think we’re on a great trajectory. I keep trying to preach on my show that the thing we have to do long range is stop the hate that goes on in this country. The two sides hate each other to such a degree, I don’t think anybody’s hearing each other. When people hate each other, it doesn’t matter what the policies are. Democrats, I think, keep thinking they can somehow break through to the people who hate them and don’t vote for them, would not vote for a Democrat. Anyone with a D next to their name is just completely toxic.”

Maher said that Democrats often ask, “Why do Republicans vote against their economic interests?”

His answer: “Because they hate you. Because they really hate you. I mean, look at the election we just had in Virginia. I mean, the Democrats lost some of those rural counties by 80%. We don’t do 80% or we never used to in America. A landslide was a guy got 58% of the vote. That’s what made us great.”

Maher continued, “That is beyond policy. And until we figure that out, until you figure out why they hate us so much and obviously it comes back the other way, when people hate you, you tend to hate them. We’re never going to fix any of the problems in this country.”

Cuomo pointed out that since Republicans usually win rural areas and Democrats win urban centers, elections often come down to the suburbs.

“Is it really any different than the typical notion of, a third are for you, a third are against you, and you fight for that other third?” the CNN host asked. “Have things changed?”

“Yes, I do,” answered Maher. “First of all, you look at the electoral map over the decades, some states have flipped back and forth and more states were in play. Now the whole election is run in about 12 different states, that’s about the maximum, those are the battleground states.”

“Probably 30 counties across the country decide a presidential election,” said Cuomo.

“Right, said Maher. “We never see anybody running for high office in California because we’re in the bag already. Probably here in New York too.”

The Real Time host returned to the topic of political animus and said things are worse than they’ve ever been, though he did not mention the Civil War in this context.

“I think it is worse,” he said. “I don’t know, I wasn’t around at the beginning of the republic. I know there was a lot of vitriol between the people who succeeded the Founding Fathers. But as far as the people in this country go, I don’t think it’s ever been worse. I don’t think people used to have this idea in so much of the country that, you know, the Democrats write off right away, that these people would never vote for you, these people would never vote for a Democrat.”

Watch above via CNN.