Maher skewers Roy Moore for defending Kavanaugh: "He wasn't invited to that party with teenagers"

Taking aim at Trump and the newest alleged "p***y grabber" in his circle, Bill Maher eviscerates Brett Kavanaugh

By Joseph Neese

Deputy Editor in Chief

Published September 22, 2018 12:28PM (EDT)

 (Youtube/Real Time with Bill Maher)
(Youtube/Real Time with Bill Maher)

Taking direct aim at President Donald Trump and the newest alleged "pussy-grabber" in his circle, late-night host Bill Maher eviscerated Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his monologue on Friday night's episode of "Real Time" on HBO.

"This time last week, Brett Kavanaugh was heading to be on the nation's highest court," Maher said, summing up the stunning developments of the last seven days. "And now, he is heading to the world's worst high school reunion."

The Senate Judiciary Committee had originally intended to vote Thursday on Kavanaugh's nomination. However, the remarkably speedy pace toward confirmation was slowed after California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward as the accuser who claims she was sexually assaulted by the Supreme Court nominee in the early 1980s, when they were both teenagers.

Maher lambasted the large number of Republicans who have jumped to Kavanaugh's defense prior to hearing Ford's testimony as they plow toward their goal – seating a new Supreme Court justice before this fall's midterm elections, in which a "blue wave" is forecasted to occur. "Republican defenders are saying we shouldn't revisit things that happened decades ago, which is what I say about Roe v. Wade," the comedian said pointedly.

"There other big line is, 'You know, if we're judged by what we did in high school – my God! – none of us would have jobs,'" Maher said.

"It's true, we all did stupid things when we were young. I sold pot in college," the comedian admitted. "But I never pinned anyone down and forced the pot in their throat, you know what I'm saying?"

Maher was making a not-so-subtle allusion to the allegations Ford has raised against Kavanaugh, which include claims that the Supreme Court nominee pinned her down on a bed, groped her, tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth when she attempted to scream at a high school party in the 1980s.

"Roy Moore is defending Brett Kavanaugh. He said what they're doing to Brett Kavanaugh makes him very mad," Maher opined. "He's also very mad that he wasn't invited to that party with the teenagers."

Moore, the Alabama judge who lost a special election last year to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, did post a statement Tuesday on Facebook, via his wife. Moore was twice removed from Alabama's highest court, and his Senate campaign ultimately ended in disgrace following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, which included alleged encounters with teenagers.

"Brett Kavanaugh, like me, has withstood numerous investigations and vetting by the most rigorous legal and political authorities," Moore stated. "The timing of these accusations in the midst of the U.S. Senate's confirmation for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, like those allegations against me only 32 days before the final election for the U.S. Senate last year, is indeed suspect and show the depths to which liberals will stoop to stop opposition to their agenda."

Elsewhere, many Republicans were quick to jump on the bandwagon of a bizarre conspiracy theory floated by Ed Whelan,  president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, that a Kavanaugh lookalike could have been the real culprit behind the alleged assault of Ford.

Whelan has since apologized for his claims, which Ford has vehemently denied, although not before "Fox & Friends" took them to air. "And then [he] realized whose house it was and looked at a picture of the young man who lived there at the time who was a classmate of Mr. Kavanaugh’s, put up side-by-side images," Steve Doocy said. "They look a lot alike."

"Dr. Ford perhaps was attacked, but not by Brett Kavanaugh – by someone who looked exactly like Brett Kavanaugh," Maher deadpanned.

"Five people were at the party, and one brought a robot double," he continued. "Remember '80s parties? They were kind of like that. There were a lot of evil twins. Remember the documentary about Michael Jackson, where he's nice at first and then a werewolf?"

Ford, who is currently in the middle of negotiating her possible testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, had originally requested an FBI investigation into her claims – a request Republicans have opposed. Trump stood by his Supreme Court nominee Friday on Twitter, calling Judge Brett Kavanaugh "a fine man, with an impeccable reputation, who is under assault by radical left wing politicians who don’t want to know the answers."

READ MORE: I was wrong about the "blue wave": It's here. But where will it land and what does it mean?

"They just want to destroy and delay. Facts don’t matter," the president continued in his tweet. "I go through this with them every single day in D.C."

"Trump knows this, because he says him and Brett Kavanaugh had a long serious talk – pussy-grabber to pussy-grabber," Maher joked.

"Mike Pence says this will keep happening as long as America ignores the problem of boy-girl sock-hops," the comedian added for good measure. "And Betsy DeVos says it means we should get rid of high school."


By Joseph Neese

Joseph Neese is Salon's Deputy Editor in Chief. You can follow him on Twitter: @josephneese.

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