Overview
- On his Club Random podcast released Nov. 17, Maher told guest Patton Oswalt that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be a “fantastic” presidential candidate only after “some deprogramming.”
- Maher said Ocasio-Cortez would not connect beyond a far-left “bubble” and cited a recent New York Times editorial in pressing the case that Democrats must move to the center.
- He accused the Left of abandoning scientific thinking and listed issues such as gender, race, schools, homelessness, crime, the border, and education as areas where Democrats “freaked out.”
- Maher pointed to gender-policy debates, mentioning claims about birth-certificate designations and, as Mediaite noted, appeared to reference California’s 2019 non-binary option.
- Coverage from outlets across the spectrum highlighted the exchange, and in the same episode Maher said he stopped touring as a stand-up comic in part over safety concerns, adding there has been no public response from Ocasio-Cortez.