Despite all the backlash Bill Maher received for booking infamous troll Milo Yiannopoulous for an interview on Real Time last week, Maher now says the decision was worth it. In the days since the interview, Yiannopoulous’s resurfaced comments in which he appeared to condone child sexual abuse led to Simon & Schuster pulling the plug on his controversial book; yesterday, he resigned from his editor post at Breitbart News. And if you ask Maher, which the New York Times did Tuesday night, he’s the one to thank for bringing down Yiannopoulous: “As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You’re welcome.” However, Maher readily admits it wasn’t his intention to incite a witch hunt — “I’m somebody who, many times, people have tried to make go away” — because he still doesn’t view Yiannopoulous as a legitimate threat. “To see him as this monster is a little crazy. You know what he is?” Maher says. “He’s the little impish, bratty kid brother. And the liberals are his older teenager sisters who are having a sleepover and he puts a spider in their sleeping bag so he can watch them scream.”
Maher also defended his softball questions and lack of pushback against Yiannopoulous’s hate speech during the interview thusly: “It’s not my job to hold him accountable to everything he’s ever said or done. I had eight minutes with him, on the show itself. Sorry I don’t have time to go over everything everybody else would want to do.” And for anyone hoping Maher is done giving the alt-right a mouthpiece on Real Time, dream on:
“I like people who push the limits. I like people who are not afraid to take the slings and arrows, because they’re going to explore what’s on the edge. Now, is this guy over the edge? Yes. I mean, he’s a little cuckoo. But I would rather err on that side than on the side where everybody else is.”
