HBO host Bill Maher updated his ongoing “dictator checklist” with President Trump’s latest actions, saying that Trump is encouraging “ethnic cleansing” with his stance on Syria.
“This week, though, wow,” Maher said Friday on Real Time. “He added, like, five to the list.”
Maher cited several incidents this week that he found shocking: Trump calling Republicans who do not support him “human scum,” Republicans storming a secure hearing room where lawmakers were conducting impeachment proceedings, and Trump referring to the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution as “phony.”
“I feel like this is the not going gently edition of the dictator checklist. It’s going to get uglier. You think he’s just going to let us take him out of there?” he said about Trump’s possible removal from office if he is impeached by the Democratic-led House and convicted by the Senate, which has a Republican majority.
Maher also said Trump allowing Turkey to push America’s Kurdish allies out of northeastern Syria by withdrawing U.S. troops takes the cake.
“I just want to say this,” Maher said. “The United States of America, led by Donald Trump, is now part and party to ethnic cleansing.”
Maher read Trump’s tweet from earlier this week that said, “Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region!”
“An American president is encouraging ethnic cleansing,” Maher concluded.