Bill Maher urges Joe Biden to drop out, reveals his pick to replace president: ‘Desperate need of new characters’

HBO host Bill Maher is one of the latest to urge Joe Biden to drop out of the race after the president’s disastrous debate performance. He also backed California Gov. Gavin Newsom to compete against former president Donald Trump.

Maher, the host of Real Time with Bill Maher, interestingly compared the choice between Biden and Trump to the episode of Happy days. The episode showed Fonz jumping over a shark while water-skiing in his signature jacket, which is the pop-culture inspiration for the phrase ‘jumping the shark.’

“If our presidential politics were a TV show, it would be a series past its prime in desperate need of new characters,” Maher wrote in a New York Times guest essay following Biden’s debate disaster.

Biden’s presidential debate performance, in which he often stumbled, froze, misspoke and stared blankly, led to many top Democrats asking him to bow out for the betterment of the country. The left-leaning Times even ran an editorial calling on the president to drop out.

“There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden,” the Times’ editorial board said, as per New York Post. “It’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.”

A ‘a blessing in disguise,’ not a ‘tragedy’

Meanwhile, Maher said that when it comes to the 81-year-old president’s age, he “can’t ignore the obvious; none of us can.” He said Biden’s failing was not a “tragedy” but “a blessing in disguise” instead, noting that it gives him an opportunity to bow out and allow a fresh face to run in his place.

Maher urged the Democratic Party to hold an open convention. “Democrats could not buy, with all of George Soros’s money, the enthusiasm, engagement and interest they would get from having an open convention,” Maher said.

Maher said his pick as Biden’s replacement would be Newson. “He is forceful, is never at a loss for words or stats, never stumbles, is never intimidated. He’s unbullyable, and that’s important against Mr. Trump,” Maher said of Newsom, adding that Biden being determined to continue to be in the race has become “an act of supreme selfishness.”