‘Biden is Killing It!’ Bill Maher Makes Case Biden is Better ‘Because He’s Older’ and ‘Wiser’

Comic and pundit Bill Maher told guests that President Joe Biden “is killing it” in many respects, and made the case that Biden’s age is an advantage, not the liability some claim it is.

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the host pushed back on recent polling that shows a preference for leaders under age 70, saying that Biden’s years of experience in the Senate and as VP have led to some canny decisions on issues like the war in Ukraine and climate change:

BILL MAHER: No. I got to say, I’ve done my share of jokes about Joe Biden. But when I saw this poll last week that something like 73% of Americans think there should be an age limit, and I think 40% of them think that age should be 70. All I could think of is only a country as dumb as this one would think, something like that. The reason why he’s doing well is because he’s old.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Bingo.

BILL MAHER: Thank you. One guy. He’s been around the block. He has the experience. Every other culture gets this. When you’re young, you’re beautiful, and then you get wiser and less cute. But you’re wiser. Could we take advantage of the wiser point? I mean, he’s killing it in a lot of ways, including Russia. He was the guy who understood. Everybody else was like, what are we throwing money down the, Russia’s obviously going to win. And he said, let’s see. Maybe they maybe Ukraine can can win. And now Ukraine is winning. They kicked Russia’s ass this week.

JON MEACHAM: He’s my friend. I help him when I can. So take this role in that context. I believe that if you support American democracy, it is important to support this president. And one of the fascinating things to me is there’s this part of the Republican world that seems to think that there’s this mythical universe. It’s like Brigadoon. And there’s a there’s a place where there is no Trump and it’s just going to all go away. And what this moment requires, it seems to me, is support for, thoughtful support, reasoned support, not blind support, but basically believing that Joe Biden, who has more experience in the Senate and as vice president than any other president in American history, by far. He was in the Senate and vice president longer than, say, Theodore Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama were alive when they became president. And so you had this moment where a guy born in World War Two, raised in the Cold War, comes of age during civil rights, lives in an era that we now look back on as an era of at least workable consensus and who deeply understands the threat to these institutions and wants to rescue them, not for the sake of rescuing them, but because they beat any alternative. And one of the things you have to ask, if you’re on the far left, you know, and there are people who say, oh, electoral college, senate, all bad, you know, whatever. Okay, fine, what are you going to replace it with? And basically what history tells us, experience tells us, is that as imperfect as the system is, it’s still beating all the others.

BILL MAHER: He got things done on climate.

JON MEACHAM: Yes.

BILL MAHER: That nobody was getting done before. And and again, this Ukraine thing, I mean, I just nobody saw this coming. I think this is just another nail in the coffin about experts. I mean, nobody thought that Russia was going to do anything but roll over Ukraine. And of course, first, six months ago or whenever the war started, they were beaten back from Kiev. And then they thought, okay, well, they’ll just take the east and now they’re getting pushed out of the east. And I think for a guy like Putin who’s a strongman, the worst thing that can happen is that you don’t look strong, you know, then you’re just the Wizard of Oz after Toto pulls the curtain back. Right?

Watch above via HBO.