A leader of a super PAC supporting President Obama told MSNBC Tuesday that President Obama will not make any public appearances with comedian Bill Maher, who very publicly donated $1 million to support the president’s relection and whose incendiary comments over the past couple years have made him the focus of intense criticism from the right.
During a discussion about Mitt Romney’s decision to publicly embrace Donald Trump despite Trump’s continued birtherism and racially-tinged attacks on Obama, Priorities USA chief Bill Burton told MSNBC that he “wouldn’t expect” Obama to appear with Maher. The Obama campaign has distanced itself from the comedian as conservatives have tried to tie Maher’s rhetoric to the president, while still denying the conservative suggestion that Maher is the same as other conservative-leaning rhetorical bomb throwers like Rush Limbaugh.
From the transcript:
Chuck Todd: If the president appeared with Bill Maher who has said some tough and some would say hateful things about the mormon religion, would you expect the president to appear with him?
Bill Burton: I wouldn’t expect that. The key distinction that’s in your question is that Mitt Romney is choosing to actually stand next to this guy [Trump] who espouses some of the most hateful theories in Republican politics right now. It’s not even conservatism. It’s this fringe ideology.
