Preet Bharara Pushes Back When Maher Calls Trump a ‘Traitor’: We Shouldn’t Overstate What Others Do
On Friday night, Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara sat down with Bill Maher and discussed the Trump Team’s handling of the ongoing Russia investigation.
Maher began by asking Bharara his thoughts about Rudy Giuliani, who once held his former position, as well as the rest of the Republican Party in the Trump era. Bharara believed those were “two separate questions.”
“Well, they’re both enablers for a traitor,” Maher said in response, causing his audience to roar with applause. “What’s the difference?”
Bharara said Giuliani is “supposed to be a professional lawyer” but now he “doesn’t remember what the truth is.”
However, Maher pointed out Bharara’s “uncomfortable” look when he referred to President Donald Trump as a “traitor.”
“Tell me why we’re not saying that word more,” Maher told him. “Because we are being attacked by Russia, even presently, you would agree with that, right?”
“That is my understanding,” Bharara agreed.
“If the president is taking the side of the people attacking — and he’s certainly doing that when he goes after the people who are defending us from those Russian people. He belittles them. He criticized them. He threatens to arrest people like James Comey!” Maher continued. “You’re on one side or the other! Why do we shrink from that word?”
Bharara defended himself, saying he’s been a “vocal critic” of the president and believe he was “leading a corrupt government.”
“The words ‘treason’ and ‘traitor’ have particular legal meaning.” Bharara elaborated. “The worry I have sometimes just as a private citizen now… is you could subject yourself to criticism if you are sort of overstating, and I’m not saying you necessarily are, but when you’re overstating what other people have done. And it allows folks to be dismissed a little bit more out of hand when people yell ‘treachery’ or ‘treason.'”
Watch the clip above, via HBO.
[image via screengrab]
