HBO host Bill Maher on Friday cited “political correctness” as a problem for Democrats and wondered why “mainstream liberals don’t denounce” what “they must know in private conversations is insane.”

Kicking off a “Real Time With Bill Maher” panel discussion about the issue, Maher hammered President Trump as “an idiot,” but insisted voters think he “looks strong, and political correctness, weak.”

“I believed that it would destroy us then, and I believe that now,” he said, referring to his stated belief on his prior show, “Politically Incorrect.”

“80 percent of Americans see political correctness as a problem,” said the HBO host. “And I think it’s our problem. And I don’t know why more mainstream liberals don’t denounce the political correctness that they must know in private conversations is insane.”

Maher then cited astronaut Scott Kelly, who apologized for quoting former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. (RELATED: Astronaut Scott Kelly Apologizes To Twitter Mob For Quoting Churchill)

Did not mean to offend by quoting Churchill. My apologies. I will go and educate myself further on his atrocities, racist views which I do not support. My point was we need to come together as one nation. We are all Americans. That should transcend partisan politics. — Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 7, 2018

“This is the guy who saved us from the Nazis!” said Maher. “And he was a fighter pilot, married to Gabby Giffords, who was shot and bravely continues on. And people on Twitter, and no one denounces this and he has to make an apology. This is when the Trump people go, ‘Yes, you people are too fragile to be in control of the government.'”

While Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. defended Kelly’s apology, theorizing that the former astronaut discovered that “Churchill was in fact a vehemently committed racist to the imperial project,” National Review’s Reihan Salam felt that Kelly should have “stuck to his guns.”

“But the thing is that he believes he does not know where things are gonna go three months from now, six months from now,” said Salam. “He does not know if he’s gonna be anathematized for this.” (RELATED: ‘Melting Pot Or Civil War?’ — Tucker And NR Editor Reihan Salam Discuss Updated Illegal Immigrant Numbers)

“If you don’t think these purists are doing us harm, you’re missing the point,” Maher told the panel. “Groups are only successful when they call out their crazies. The Republican Party doesn’t, you can say that radical Islam has that problem, people calling out the crazies, and I think we have that problem too. I mean, NPR will not use the term ‘homeless,’ people ‘affected by homelessness.’ I’m saying Trump people, independent people, just normal people not here on the coasts hear stuff like that and they go, ‘You know what, I don’t know that much about policy, but you know, this is just too fragile. I can’t let these people in the Oval Office because they’re just too weak.'”

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