Maher: I Don’t Care if Bob Menendez Is ‘A Menendez Brother’ – ‘He Needs to Stay in the Senate’

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) should stay in the Senate, even if he’s a Menendez brother.

Maher said, “[I]n normal times, I would say, well, maybe the Democrats should vote — he’s a Democrat, to vote against Bob Menendez and say, ‘You should get out of the Senate. Except, in the post-Merrick Garland world, where the Republican view is you know what, whatever you can get away with, I don’t care if he’s a Menendez brother. He needs to stay in the Senate. Because if he leaves before Chris Christie (R) leaves as Governor on January 16th, then Chris Christie gets to appoint his replacement, who would be a Republican. And they — one more vote could have switched the whole vote on Obamacare repeal.”

Maher’s panelists, author Salman Rushdie and Vanity Fair Contributing Editor Fran Lebowitz pushed back. Leibowitz argued that what Republicans did with Garland was wrong, and so would letting Menendez stay. She added, “I don’t think we should be learning from the Republicans.”

Maher countered, “This is exactly why the Democrats will continue to lose. Because they do not know how to go for the jugular. They do not know how to fight on their level.”

Rushdie asked Maher if his mother had ever told him that two wrongs don’t make a right. Maher answered, “Yeah, my mother wasn’t around when Trump was president. And I’m looking at bigger matters.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett