Bill Maher said during the comedian’s weekly HBO show Friday that he believes President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic warrants Congress impeaching him again.
The host of “Real Time with Bill Maher” made the remark while criticizing Mr. Trump over how his administration has responded to requests from governors seeking federal assistance as COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, continues to claim lives across the country and abroad.
“I find one of the most galling parts of this is that the president is favoring certain states over the others. Governors who are ’nice’ to him, as he calls it, get a lot of attention and all of the equipment they want,” Mr. Maher said.
“To me, this is even more of an impeachable offense than what he did with Ukraine or Russia,” Mr. Maher added, referring to Mr. Trump’s past actions that risked his presidency.
Mr. Maher made the comment during a pre-taped interview with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, who he proceeded to ask for his input.
“How do you stop a president who is blatantly not the president of every state equally? How do you stop a president who sends aid to Florida, for example, because he likes the governor there, but not here to California or Illinois or Massachusetts?” Mr. Maher asked the White House hopeful.
Mr. Sanders subsequently described Mr. Trump’s actions as “literally beyond comprehension” and suggested his colleagues on Capitol Hill intervene.
“We have a president who has done so much harm in this entire process, who has downplayed the crisis from day one, which will cost us. And his actions — or inactions in not listening to the scientists and spouting off ridiculous ideas — is, in fact, going to cost the lives of many thousands of Americans,” Mr. Sanders said.
“But to answer your question, Congress has got to step up to the plate and step up big-time,” Mr. Sanders added.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Mr. Trump in December after it emerged that he asked his counterpart in Kyiv to investigate Joseph R. Biden, the current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, while the U.S. withheld millions of dollars in assistance meant for Ukraine as the former Soviet state faced Russian aggression.
Mr. Trump ultimately avoided being removed from office upon being acquitted in the Senate in early February, however.
He has since come under scrutiny over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed thousands of Americans since the first U.S. death attributed to COVID-19 was reported in late February.
States hit hardest by the pandemic have accordingly pleaded with the federal government for help in the form of medical gear and other equipment, prompting Mr. Trump to suggest recently that governors curb their criticism of his administration if they want assistance.
“It’s a two-way street,” Mr. Trump told Fox News last week. “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ’Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’ “
More than 278,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S. as of Saturday morning, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University. More than 7,000 people in the U.S. have died from the disease and over 9,000 have recovered, according to the data.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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