Bill Maher got into a heated exchange over the term “s—hole countries” with John Leguizamo after the actor said that there’s “plenty of room” for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
Maher was had been ripping former President Joe Biden’s border policy—which he characterized as “come one, come all”—before Leguizamo pushed back during Maher’s Club Random podcast.
“There’s plenty of room in America, come on,” the Romeo+Juliet actor and liberal activist said. “There’s not a lack of room in America.”
Maher wasn’t having it.
“But it’s never about room, it’s about resources,” he said. “Countries have to have a border. I mean, they’ve done surveys and something like 200 million people around the world when asked ‘Would you come to America if you could?’, [say] ‘Yes, I would.’ Why wouldn’t they? Lots of countries, excuse me, are s—holes, and they would love to be here.”
Maher’s language directly echoed that of President Donald Trump, who stoked outcry in 2018 when he complained about immigrants from “s—hole countries,” pointing to Haiti and African nations.
“The places aren’t s—holes,” fired back Leguizamo, Monday’s guest on Maher’s podcast.
“Well, they are,” Maher said. “That’s why they want to come.”
Leguizamo argued that many countries in Latin America have suffered because of U.S. intervention, saying America has “beat up every democracy that was burgeoning and then destroyed it to keep their oil or their resources.”
However, Maher doubled down on his characterization of many undocumented immigrants’ home nations.
“It’s not your fault you live in a s—hole. It doesn’t mean you’re a s—hole person,” he said. “You have the misfortune of being born there, and I get why you would want to come here.”
While Maher has typically aligned himself with liberal viewpoints, including criticism of Trump, the commentator took heat after he dined with the president in March and described him as “gracious and measured.”
In June, Maher pushed back on criticism from actor Sean Penn that he had painted Trump in too flattering a light after the dinner.
Maher told Penn that he had been honest about the dinner but remained a critic of Trump, explaining that he hadn’t been “seduced… into supporting him.”
The post Bill Maher Clashes With Star Over Immigration From ‘S***hole Countries’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
