Bill Maher is flabbergasted by the people President-elect Donald Trump wants in his Cabinet.
Trump has picked a flurry of controversial Republicans for key White House jobs in the weeks since he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris: Fox News host Pete Hegseth, World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon, independent candidate and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and firebrand former Representative Matt Gaetz, to name a few.
“Linda McMahon is in a lawsuit about enabling sexual shenanigans of some kind with the wrestling world,” Maher said on “Real Time” Friday in his opening monologue. “And then there’s Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, and oh, RFK, who admitted to groping a nanny.”
Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to a police report filed at the time. The Fox star was never charged, and has claimed the encounter was consensual. But Maher said the allegations raised another question: “Has anyone ever had sex with someone from Fox News and liked it?”
The Democrat and comedian did applaud the other side of the aisle for pushing back against Gaetz, who faced a House ethics probe for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old and using illicit drugs, only to resign from Congress before the probe’s report could be released. The former congressman, who withdrew from consideration Thursday amid mounting objections from Democrats and Republicans alike, was replaced within hours by former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.
“The Republicans said, ‘Yes, too despicable, even for us,’” Maher joked, “which I respect.”
Maher visibly struggled to contain himself while setting up some of these bits, particularly in noting that a wrestling executive was nominated to be secretary of education, and asked rhetorically, “Do I really have to write jokes for this?”
“I’m not saying this crew will not be good at their jobs, but they will be the first cabinet that’s asked to stay [outside] 500 feet of a school,” he joked later in the show. “You know that useless sexual harassment seminar that we all have to do at work? We finally found an office that needs it.”