HBO host of “Real Time,” Bill Maher, warned Democrats on Friday about salivating over arresting former President Trump, telling them it would be a “colossal mistake” and would be “rocket fuel” for the presidential contest in 2024.

On Maher’s show, he covered a wide range of topics including Hollywood, Chat GPT, and TikTok. But the potential indictment of Trump was front and center.

As the liberal host started discussing the looming criminal charges for the former president with his panel guests, he told them that he believed it would be a very bad idea to arrest Trump. Maher’s remarks come as Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is allegedly prepping to charge Trump for financial crimes related to the Stormy Daniels 2016 “hush money” probe.

“I really don’t want to give Donald Trump the satisfaction of talking about him,” Maher stated at the beginning of his commentary. “I thought when he was gone, he’d be gone a little bit. But, you know, there is an ex-president out there now who’s going to be arrested — possibly. And he is talking about violence in the streets of his supporters if he does.”

Bill Maher describing bringing charges against Donald Trump as a "colossal mistake"

"It's not going to work. It's going to be rocket fuel for his 2024 campaign.

"You tried with Muller, You tried with Ukraine, You tried with January 6th, now we go to the porn star, really?" pic.twitter.com/AjGeJV5bsG

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 25, 2023

“I just would like to go on record in saying I think this is a colossal mistake if they bring these charges. Not just one, you know. I mean, yes, he’s done a lot of bad things, and I’m sure he did this — everything they accused him of [doing], he did. But first of all, it’s not gonna work. It’s gonna be rocket fuel for his 2024 campaign. And it’s just gonna look to MAGA nation like, ‘Oh, you know, you tried with Mueller, you tried with Ukraine, you tried with January 6. Now we go to the porn star? Really? You’re down to that?!” he added.

Annie Lowrey, a staff writer for The Atlantic, adamantly agreed with him. She referenced recent GOP primary polls where Trump has gained a significant lead over his strongest potential rival, Governor Ron DeSantis.

A poll by Monmouth University shows Trump is now 14 percentage points ahead of the popular Florida conservative.

“I think that we’ve seen in, you know, the past however many years at this point that the more attention is on heavy regardless of what that attention is about, the more the circus has him in the center of its rings, the better he tends to do,” she contended.

NYU professor Scott Galloway weighed in, stating that if Bragg moves forward with the indictment, “it’s going to be a perp parade, not a perp walk.”

“If they do this, this increases the likelihood he’s the nominee, they need to put wood behind the arrow that sticks. That’s Georgia. This is just not sufficient,” he said.

The professor went on to cite a poll that shows “75%” of Republican voters get that the accusations against Trump are bad but they also don’t believe “any of these charges really matter.”

The panel discussion was a follow-up to Maher’s opening monologue where he ripped on Trump, claiming “all week everyone’s been on pins and needles because we thought the word would come down that Trump was going to be indicted and arrested, and it’s true… Trump may be indicted in a criminal investigation.”

(Video Credit: Real Time with Bill Maher)

“And everybody in this country said the same thing: ‘which one?’ – there’s four!” Maher snarked.

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