Bill Maher is a left-wing liberal. There is no doubt about where his loyalties lie.

But during the now-recently-ended writer’s strike, when his show was off the air (though he almost broke ranks and went back on), he spent a lot of time doing his podcast “Club Random” (which is easily found on YouTube) doing long form uncensored interviews with celebrities and politicos. Last night was Maher’s first show back since the end of the writer’s strike, and you can tell that he’s done some thinking while away. And while he is still, as a liberal, fluffing old Joe’s feelings by praising his presidency, he is attempting to be brutally honest about what will happen if Biden runs again.

Dear @JoeBiden, you did noble service for your country, but it’s time to let someone else finish the job. You don’t want to go down as Ruth Bader Biden. pic.twitter.com/fJNkjBvgtO

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 30, 2023

And in that mode of brutal honesty, Bill Maher brought in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a live one-on-one interview. Now, Maher has been open about how much he loathes Donald Trump, so it’s not surprising that he would bring in Trump’s nearest competitor in the Republican primary. But it’s not because he supports DeSantis, by any stretch of the imagination. But bringing in DeSantis brings in viewers from all across the political spectrum. DeSantis also knows this. Will he get any votes out of this interview? Who knows? But during the course of a campaign, you have to do one of two things – draw eyeballs to you, or go where the eyeballs are. Trump is the master at drawing eyeballs to himself, and getting massive amounts of free media coverage in the process. DeSantis went where the viewers are, because he knew that this interview would be spread widely over social media.

And this five-and-a-half minute clip of Ron DeSantis being interviewed by Bill Maher had some very good moments for DeSantis.

When Maher tried to pin the entire “election deniers” bit on DeSantis, he smartly shot back with the Hollywood celebrities in 2016 who were begging electors to switch their votes to Hillary Clinton, and the entire “Russia stole the election” bit. Bill Maher had no good response to that. With that one quick reminder, DeSantis blunted the entire “election denying” narrative that Democrats are so anxious to make Republicans wear. Now, Trump will not be able to use that argument as effectively, which is a problem for him.

DeSantis also concisely laid out why he is running against Trump, even with Trump’s commanding lead in the polls:
1) DeSantis doesn’t believe that Trump can win the general election, but he can, and
2) DeSantis doesn’t think that Trump can “get the job done” as president, especially given his record on COVID-19 and how Trump will not stand up and be held accountable for what happened in 2020.

Laying those two reasons out was EXTREMELY smart. Trump has been calling for the field to give up and consolidate around him because his poll lead is so large. But DeSantis was able to put his entire reason for running in this election cycle within a handful of sentences. And he’s actually getting applause from the studio audience! Now, applause is not votes. But it’s a California studio audience, and they’re not booing him.

Bill Maher also tried to pin down DeSantis on abortion laws.

Lastly, Maher brought up abortion, and DeSantis stood by the state’s six-week abortion ban, saying that the legislature decided that a detectable heartbeat was the viable standard for enforcement. Obviously, he didn’t get the cheering on that one (again, this is in California), but it was important to see him stick to his guns. Republicans can’t waffle on the issue of abortion and expect to get anything but more abortions. Make the case, don’t surrender.

Trump has obviously created huge problems for himself with the pro-life movement. DeSantis is not bending on abortion.

The entire interview (which can be seen by someone who took a video of their TV on Twitter/X here) draws eyeballs. That’s good for Bill Maher, who wants to bring his audience back after a strike hiatus. It’s good for DeSantis, because he is actively going to where the views are in order to make his case. Will it make a difference in the long run? That is yet to be seen.

Featured image: composite collage image of Bill Maher (via Angela George on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)) and Governor Ron DeSantis (official portrait, cropped, public domain)