Bill Maher reacts to podcast guest's question—"don't sue me for this"
Bill Maher has responded to a podcast guest's question about his past comments on September 11, adding with his anecdote: "Please don't sue me for this."
The Club Random With Bill Maher host, 69, interviewed former Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall, 37, for an episode of the show that was released on Sunday. During their chat, Marshall asked Maher about the time he was canceled over his remarks about the 2001 terrorist attacks.
At the time, the comedian was the host of the chat show Politically Incorrect. Nearly two weeks after the attacks, Maher pushed back on then-president George W. Bush, who called the terrorists "cowards."
"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly," he said on the program of the United States military. "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
FedEx and Sears removed their ads from his show over the remarks. Maher later released an apology.
"Did you feel alone?" Marshall asked on Sunday's podcast. "Did you feel like you had good people around you? What was it like being in the comedy industry then?"
"It's a great question because I haven't thought about it in such a long time," Maher replied. "I mean it is 24 years ago, wow."
Maher said that he tried to do damage control immediately after his comments.
"First, there was that period where we were trying to, you know, get out of it basically. I remember I had to talk to—oh, please don't sue me for this. If there's something suable here, just take it out, I don't have the energy," Maher said, before continuing his story.
Newsweek reached out to Maher's representative via email for comment.
"I remember talking to the head guy at FedEx, who was one of our big sponsors. And they were gonna pull out. And we got on the phone, and I've never met him in person—although he did lie to my face over the phone—and I think he's ex-military, and I have no animosity toward him. I can't remember his name, but he did tell me on that phone call where I was like, 'Please don't pull out,' like, 'Hey, I understand exactly what you were saying.' Which lots of conservatives did.... people from both sides.
"They produced articles from other people and other thinkers who had basically said the same thing...there's not a moral dimension to being brave."
Maher added, however, that his plea "didn't work" and other sponsors followed suit.
The political commentator said he got "canceled" as a result, but went on to have a successful career with his HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher and Club Random.
When Marshall asked him further about his September 11 comments, Maher stood by what he said.
"That was a joke, right?" Marshall asked. "Was it a gag, or...?"
"No, not at all. And it's not a gag today. They stayed with the suicide mission, they're not cowards," Maher said. "America did not want to hear that."
In his apology at the time, Maher said, per ABC News: "In no way was I intending to say, nor have I ever thought, that the men and women who defend our nation in uniform are anything but courageous and valiant, and I offer my apologies to anyone who took it wrong."
Four commercial airplanes were hijacked by terrorists associated with Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda and targeted the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City as well as The Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth plane, Flight 93, was diverted and crashed in Pennsylvania. In total, nearly 3,000 people were killed.
