Maher: It’s ‘Scary’ That We Went From ‘Listen’ to Women Who Were Victimized to ‘Automatically Believe’

Amid the divisive battle over Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavnaugh, Bill Maher weighed in on what may become a dangerous precedent because of it.

The conversation began with a heated debate between New York Magazine writer-at-large Andrew Sullivan and political commentator Soledad O’Brien about the media’s depiction of Kavanaugh, which Sullivan argued generalized white men. But while Maher told Sullivan he was “sympathetic” to the point Sullivan was trying to make, Maher drew focus on a bigger concern.

“It does seem like things morphed from listen to any woman who says she’s been wronged, which is the right thing to do to automatically believe,” Maher told his panel. “That’s what’s scary.”

Ex-GOP congressman David Jolly said he “chose” to believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford while other Republicans chose to believe Kavanaugh, but insisted that his party got something “fundamentally wrong.”

“We’ve got Republican parents telling their Republican kids that this is a war on young men,” Jolly told Maher. “The message that Republican parents need to tell their sons is that no means no and don’t sexually assault women… Every suburban mom knows what happened in Washington today is that Republicans did not believe Dr. Ford. That is the only translation that happened today.”

Sullivan sided with Maher, saying that our society has to give “some benefit of the doubt” because if a “single allegation makes someone guilty, then our entire system is over.”

Maher responded by saying it’s not that Republicans didn’t “believe” Dr. Ford, it’s simply that they “didn’t care” because they want control of the Supreme Court.

Watch the clip above, via HBO.