‘Sorry CNN!’ Bill Maher Drops First CNN F-Bomb Answering Question About Ex-Trump Spox Sarah Huckabee Sanders

MAHER: Right. All right. To the panel, does the fact that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is — does the fact that — this is written by Elaine (ph). But Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a Nepo baby —

(LAUGHTER)

MAHER: — detract from her political accomplishment. I guess they were hearing me talk about the Huckabee dynasty. But, yes, that’s a big saying these days, Nepo baby. You know what that is? It is like — you mostly refer to people in showbusiness as Nepo. Anybody whose mother or father was a star and then you’re a star, that makes you a Nepo baby. I could name many of them. They’re very upset about being called that.

I’ve noticed this phenomenon as many people have out here. It’s fine if your parents were in showbusiness. Just don’t say, as I’ve heard some of them say, well, it wasn’t any easier for me. Yes, it was.

(APPLAUSE)

MAHER: It was easier, or the other thing they say a lot is, well, it just got me in the door. Well, that’s a lot of it in showbusiness —

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, POLLSTER: Yeah.

MAHER: — is getting in the door. Anybody can act. It’s not that fucking hard. Oh, sorry.

(APPLAUSE)

MAHER: Sorry, CNN. I know. I forgot. You’re not supposed to — Not on HBO.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: When you’re in politics, one of the things that you want generally is higher name I.D. When a pollster like me goes out and they do a survey, we want to know how many people know what your name is at all. And if you have —

MAHER: Right.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: — a dad or increasingly a mom that has been in politics before, it does make it easier for voters to just go, I liked your dad.

MAHER: George Bush —

SOLTIS ANDERSON: So, you know.

MAHER: — the second, that guy, when he ran, he went to the top of the polls, I remember this story, I think, in 1999, the people thought it was his father. That is what they were responding to. He had the same name and, oh, George Bush is running again. He was a one-timer, he could do it.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And Franklin Roosevelt’s cousin, Teddy, was president before him.

MAHER: Sure. BEGALA: John Quincy Adams’s dad was president before. I mean, there is a tradition of that in America. But you still have — I don’t support Governor Sanders. I don’t know her. I probably wouldn’t like her. But she earned that job fair and square. She won — by the way, she didn’t cheat. Nobody cheated. It wasn’t rigged. She won the election fair and square and she’s entitled, I think, to the respect that a governor of a state —

MAHER: I noticed that she made a big point of age. She said —

BEGALA: Yeah.

MAHER: — Biden is 80, and I’m 40. By the way, I thought she was 60, but okay.

(LAUGHTER)

MAHER: I was — no, I’m not 60, but I was shocked that she was only 40. I mean, Washington has a way of taking a toll on you. Let’s just leave it at that. But, I mean, that was kind of a strange thing to brag about, I thought.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: I don’t think it’s a strange thing to brag about, especially if your core argument going into 2024 is that Joe Biden is past his prime and we need to do something new. Now, this — it depends upon, does the Republican Party not nominate someone who is also approaching 80?

MAHER: Wow.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: And so, that’ why some people thought —

MAHER: Don’t say depend when you’re talking about age.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: Something that I thought was very —

(LAUGHTER)

SOLTIS ANDERSON: (INAUDIBLE) response. She talked a lot about a new generation of republican leadership. And when she talked about her time working for the former president, she did not use the word “Trump” once.

MAHER: Yes, and I understand he was pissed. Yeah.