Bloomberg Businessweek columnist Joshua Green mourned on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO that the media has been covering the demonstrations on college campuses across the country and not Donald Trump’s hush money trial. Not only is surging anti-Semitism among college students a newsworthy topic, but it is simply not true that Trump’s trial has been removed from newscasts.
Green’s fellow panelist was former Trump strategist Kellyanne Conway and the trio were discussing what voters care about when Maher quipped, “People do care about democracy also, they do, maybe not the circles you run in.”
Conway pushed back, “I came on your show five days after that, we know what—nine days after that, you know what I think of January 6, that will never change. But if we are looking backward, elections are always about the future, not the past. That’s the way America needs to look at them and right now they feel cost of living in everyday quality of life is diminishing.”
That led Green, who is the author of The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for a New American Politics and Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency, to chime in, “But as a pollster you’ve got to worry, I mean, you’ve seen polls that say if Donald Trump is convicted of a crime, he’s currently on trial, though, it doesn’t get much attention in the news that support for Trump will ebb.”
A stunned Conway replied, “Trump doesn’t get attention in the news? It’s all they talk about.”
Green clung to his claim, “No, the criminal trial, no, it’s nothing but protests. It’s like the D block.”
At the same time, Maher tried to offer an explanation, “Well, that criminal really—we’re treating it like it’s like the Gwyneth Paltrow skiing trial. People just don’t care.”
Back in the real world, the media, and especially cable, has obsessed over the trial. They cover it pretty much all day, relay what is going on inside the courtroom, and then have their legal analysts discuss. CNN has tried to analyze the profound meanings of photographs and court sketches of Trump to such a comical degree, even Jon Stewart couldn’t pass on the opportunity to mock them for it.
Here is a transcript for the May 3 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
5/3/2024
10:27 PM ET
BILL MAHER: People do care about democracy also, they do, maybe not the circles you run in.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Of course, we all do. No, no, we all do. You know what I think of January 6.
JOSHUA GREEN: But as a pollster.
CONWAY: I came on your show five days after that, we know what—nine days after that, you know what I think of January 6, that will never change. But if we are looking backward, elections are always about the future, not the past. That’s the way America needs to look at them and right now they feel cost of living in everyday quality of life is diminishing.
GREEN: But as a pollster you’ve got to worry, I mean, you’ve seen polls that say if Donald Trump is convicted of a crime, he’s currently on trial, though, it doesn’t get much attention in the news that support for Trump will ebb.
CONWAY: Trump doesn’t get attention in the news? It’s all they talk about.
GREEN: No, the criminal trial, no it’s nothing but protests —.
CONWAY: Oh, okay. Well—
MAHER: Well, that criminal really—we’re treating it like it’s—
GREEN: It’s like the D Block.
MAHER: — like the Gwyneth Paltrow skiing trial. People just don’t care.