Bernie Sanders Telling Bill Maher He Favors ‘Equality’ Over ‘Equity’ Leads to Shock, Celebration on the Right
Senator Bernie Sanders (I) whipped up a myriad of reactions from the American right on Friday night with his appearance on Bill Maher’s Real Time on HBO.
While Sanders sat with Maher for a one-on-one interview, it was the panel questioning at the end of the program that made headlines. Maher read Sanders a question, “Are we confusing equality of opportunity with trying to guarantee equity in outcomes?”
“I think this word ‘equity’ has come into the language in the last few years and before that we didn’t hear it a lot. And I think a lot of people hear ‘equity’ and they hear ‘equality’ like it’s the same word, but it’s not the same word and the same concept,” Maher explained.
“So how would you differentiate between equity and equality?” Maher asked.
“Well equality, we talk about – uh, I don’t know what the answer to that is,” Sanders said earnestly, pausing for a second to gather his thoughts, as a few people in the audience laughed loudly.
“Equality is equality of opportunity,” Sanders responded. “We live in a society, we want all people, no matter what the color of your skin is –”
Maher jumped in, saying, “Equity, I think, is more of a guarantee of outcome, is it not?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Sanders agreed.
“Which side do you come down on?” Maher asked.
“Equality,” Sanders responded right away.
Clips of the exchange quickly went viral online with politicians and commentators weighing in.
Many on the right roasted Sanders for his brief pause and saying, “I don’t know what the answer to that is.” Sean Hannity’s website, for example, ran a headline slamming Sanders, writing, “CRASH AND BERN! Sanders Fails Maher’s Woke ‘Equity’ Language Quiz, ‘I Don’t Know’ [WATCH].”
Others focused on the answer Sanders did give.
Radio host Clay Travis wrote, “Bernie Sanders said last night with @billmaher that he favors equality over equity. He will now be burned at the Democrat stake. But good for him. He’s right.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) replied, “Even Bernie Sanders, America’s most famous socialist, says that he favors “equality” over “equity”. It wasn’t particularly clear if he truly understood the question, though. I guess the DEI training didn’t really do the job!”
Columnist Jamil Jivani, noted, “On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders told Bill Maher that he believes in “equality of opportunity” not “equity of outcomes” Doesn’t that kind of destroy Sanders’ whole political philosophy? Maybe Sanders has been watching @jordanbpeterson videos.”
Here are some more replies:
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