Bill Maher pans media’s excuses for Kamala Harris’ defeat: America just ‘didn’t like’ her

“Real Time” host Bill Maher was quick to dismiss growing excuses from journalists for Vice President Kamala Harris’ crushing defeat against President-elect Donald Trump. 

During Friday night’s online “Overtime” segment, ABC News contributor Sarah Isgur argued Harris was “set up to fail” by Democrats when she was tasked to run a “three-month campaign” as she was supposed to “introduce herself to the American people.”

“You’re saying three months wasn’t long enough?” Maher asked. “It was long enough. It’s not that they didn’t have time to introduce- they met someone and they didn’t like ’em.”

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MSNBC analyst John Heilemann also offered a defense of Harris, arguing she was in a difficult position being the vice president of someone unpopular like President Biden. 

“Bill, I don’t know if you know this, but the vice president of the United States is basically shoved in a broom closet for three-and-a-half years,” Heilemann said. 

“I know, she was more popular in there,” Maher quipped. “This idea that in a mass media age that 107 days is not long enough to know somebody?”

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Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech after the 2024 presidential election, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Moments later, Maher turned to his audience and asked whether they didn’t know enough about Harris “pretty much after a week to make a decision.”

“It’s ridiculous!” Maher exclaimed. “We just get sicker of them!”

“Why do you have to make all these excuses for her?” Maher then asked. “All it was this week was people who say ‘Oh, she ran a flawless campaign.’ How ridiculous. Or ‘It’s sexism. It’s racism.’ This is an old playbook!” 

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Maher panelist Sarah Isgur argued Vice President Kamala Harris was “set up to fail” when she became the Democratic nominee following President Biden’s delayed exit from the race. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“I didn’t say any of this,” Heilemann pushed back. 

“I know, but I heard a lot of these things,” Maher continued. “I think America is perfectly willing to elect a woman. They just didn’t like the last two that were put up.”

The HBO host later added, “She didn’t make a good case. She didn’t denounce the past stuff that people didn’t like. She just tried to ignore it,”