During Friday’s episode of The ReidOut , Real Time host Bill Maher spoke to MSNBC’s Joy Reid about the upcoming election. As reported by The Hill , the HBO host expressed concern about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s chances against Donald Trump in the wake of the Republican National Convention.
“I don’t know if this stuff works,” he said of the event. “I am feeling less confident about this. Maybe it’s just their convention bump got to me, but I’m feeling less confident than I was a month ago.”
Maher continued to say that he feels “very nervous” about Biden’s chances and compared the feeling to how he felt in 2016 around the same time.
During her talk with Maher, Reid noted the RNC’s Black and female speakers, which she believed was a strategy to ease the guilt of potential voters who are hesitant about voting for Trump again. As reported by Fox News , Maher claimed that this strategy was “effective” and pointed to African American Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s attack on Biden.
“He was pushing back on Joe Biden for saying, you know, if you vote for Trump, you ain’t Black and I don’t think that is a good thing for Joe Biden to have said,” Maher said. “He [Cameron] said ‘I have my own mind.’”
Afterward, Maher expressed his distaste for “conformity” and appeared to push back against the moral argument Democrats are pushing on Americans in an effort to generate support for Biden.
Maher also said that optimism is a crucial factor that drives electoral victory. The host claimed that many Republicans at the RNC “looked optimistic” despite the civil unrest and coronavirus pandemic that continue to grip the U.S.
Trump later responded to a tweet from The ReidOut’s account that highlighted Maher’s unease.
“Leading in Michigan, leading in Minnesota, leading all over. Sorry!” he wrote.
As noted by The Hill , recent polls show the presidential race tightening. Although Biden has maintained a significant lead for the duration of the battle, Trump continues to gain ground and close in on the former vice president.
A recent poll showed that Trump gained nine points of support from Black voters during the RNC. In particular, 24 percent of those in the demographic surveyed approved of the president’s performance, compared to 76 percent that disapproved. In the previous iteration of the same poll, Trump received just 15 percent approval from African American voters.
Nevertheless, recent polls continue to show Biden with a significant lead over Trump among the African American voting bloc.
