- The Washington Times - Saturday, February 2, 2019

Bill Maher faced fresh allegations of racism for invoking a stereotype about African American while interviewing a black congressman, Rep. William Hurd, Texas Republican, on the comedian’s live HBO program Friday.

“I was in the CIA for almost a decade,” Mr. Hurd said during the segment. “I was the dude in the back alleys at four o’clock in the morning collecting intelligence on threats to the homeland.”

“That’s where you’d collect ’em, huh?” the host “Real Times with Bill Maher” responded. “Wow, by the Popeye’s Chicken?”

The exchange reverberated on social media afterward, where Mr. Maher’s critics considered his quip to the congressman to be the latest addition to a long list of racially-charged remarks made throughout the course of the comic’s career.

“At this point people have to start declining invitations to go on @RealTimeHBO,” said Jelani Cobb, a professor of journalism at Columbia University who previously served as the director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut. “I’ve been on previously. No way I would again,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Bill Maher has spewed racist or Islamaphobic garbage on TV almost every week for years,” tweeted journalist Erick Fernandez. “This dude said the N word on live TV recently and nothing happens. It’s absolutely insane how there has been no repercussions for this. None!”

Indeed, Mr. Maher made waves in 2017 for dropping the racial epithet during an interview with Rep. Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican, igniting a firestorm that resulted in the comedian issuing an apology within hours for his “completely inexcusable and tasteless” comment.

Mr. Maher, 63, faced similar criticism in the past for comments considered Islamaphobic by his critics, including remarks comparing Muslims with the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS.

“Not only does the Muslim world has something in common with ISIS, it has too much in common with ISIS,” Mr. Maher said in September 2014. He later described Islam the following month as “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will [expletive] kill you if you say the wrong thing.”

Representatives for neither HBO nor Mr. Hurd’s office immediately returned messages seeking comment.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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