HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) comparison of the migrant detention facilities on the United States-Mexico border to concentration camps, saying that the “connotation” of the term isn’t appropriate for the situation.
Maher said on his June 21 show that while the term “concentration camp” may be technically accurate to describe the detention facilities, “there are certain words that we just associate with something truly at the ultimate end of horrendous. Holocaust just means a big fire, but we don’t use the word, hey, let’s go have a holocaust, I’ll bring the wieners. No one says that.”
LGBTQ activist and columnist Dan Savage defended Ocasio-Cortez, arguing that concentration camps are defined as the “mass detention” of people without a trial, prompting Maher to respond that there actually are trials for the migrants but they take a long time to occur.
“When we think of concentration camps, I don’t know what you think, I think of mass graves,” Maher said. “I think of experimenting on human people.”
Maher later added that the term “concentration camps” has a “connotation that goes far beyond as so many words do.” After a back-and-forth between Savage, Republican strategist Liz Mair and progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, Maher concluded the discussion by positing that calling the detention facilities “concentration camps” would hurt the Democrats’ electoral chances in 2020.
“I’m not saying you can’t do it but it would be very hard to argue that this is helping,” Maher said.
Watch the full clip below:
