‘What the F**k?’ Bill Maher Bristles When Guest Tries to Defend Uvalde Cops

Comic and pundit Bill Maher dragged the Uvalde police over their inaction during the massacre at Robb Elementary School, and bristled when a guest tried to offer even a mild defense of the officers.

On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher used part of his monologue to lampoon the police response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two adults.

“The Texas police, they are very pro-life, mostly their own,” Maher cracked.

And during the panel segment, Maher was not having it when author Michael Shellenberger tried to empathize with the cops:

BILL MAHER: Well, the question is this. I mean, after that horror unfolded, there was first the outrage about availability of weaponry in America. And then there was a second outrage about the fact that the cops stood outside and didn’t do anything. And this is becoming a pattern in America. Parkland. There was a cop there, a security guard, didn’t do his job. The Mandalay Bay, you know, the guy went up to the wrong floor and stayed there. You know, what do you do about people who are paid to act and just don’t? How do you solve that problem? Because, I mean, they could take away a lot of different kinds of guns. I mean, I mean, this kid was in the room for 40 minutes before anybody came in. It wouldn’t have mattered what kind of gun he had. Any kind of gun could do any amount of damage in that time. What do you do about law enforcement who don’t do their job? There’s the impossible question.

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: I mean, I think it was this initial reaction that these police officers were cowardly. I don’t think we knew that. I have to expect that…

BILL MAHER: Really?!?

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: I have to expect that many of those police officers are having a hard time sleeping at night after what’s occurred.

BILL MAHER: Oh, I feel bad for them.

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: Well, I mean, I think they.

BILL MAHER: They should have a hard time sleeping!

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: Yeah, although.

BILL MAHER: That’s, this… What the fuck?

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: My my concern is that my concern is that, I think when our institutions fail us, we are so quick to want to shut down the institutions, want to demonize the people in those institutions. Yes, they got training. The training didn’t work. The answer to it is going to be more training. It’s going to be to get better at it. We focus on when things go wrong, but things don’t. Things mostly don’t go wrong. We need to we need to learn from these mistakes.

BILL MAHER: It’s not institutions. It’s people. It’s not institutions who didn’t run into the building. It’s people. People didn’t do it. It’s not an institution. And by the way, this is part of the problem with police training. Their training is all about how to preserve their life. Now, of course, we want them to be as safe as they can, but it is a job that entails danger. Somewhere they got it into their head, the cops, that. It’s better that I just save, preserve my health. But you’re there to protect and serve us. That’s the deal. You get to , you know, walked all, all the time. Everybody kisses your ass. Everybody has to comply with you. And then once in a while, you just have to ball up and do the job that’s dangerous.

Watch above via HBO.

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