“Real Time” host Bill Maher connected the dots between the Democrats’ abrupt clean-up of San Francisco ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit and former President Donald Trump’s potential election victory in 2024.
This week, San Francisco hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference where world leaders and business giants hobnobbed and President Biden had a one-on-one meeting with Xi.
But after years of deterioration in the Golden City, most notably the homelessness plaguing its streets, Democrats on a local and state level rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese leader by clearing the sidewalks.
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US President Joe Biden (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk together after a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ week in Woodside, California on November 15, 2023. ((Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images))
“I want to try a theory out on you why Trump is killing it — not just within the party, but he’s beating Biden heavily too,” Maher kicked off the panel discussion on Friday. “Because Xi, President Xi of China, came to our state this week and met with Biden up in San Francisco, and they had a little summit.”
“And they did something very interesting in San Francisco. I mean, I have done many, many jokes as many comedians have about stepping and poop in San Francisco and, you know, it’s a city that needs to be put under control — so they did! Because Xi was coming! Put aside the fact that you only clean up with company coming over?” Maher quipped. “OK, so they cleaned it up, they rinse off the street, the homeless, you know, God forbid the guy who sends us the fentanyl sees somebody on fentanyl.”
“This, to me, is why Trump is winning, because he talks about, ‘I’m going to open up the mental hospitals.’ Again, I’m not saying these are necessarily a good solution,” Maher continued. “When he talks, ‘I’m gonna put people in camps, the immigrants,’ all this kind of stuff, and people just see a place — a country, especially in the cities that look out-of-control. And the fact that the Democrats could control it for three days, how about making it permanent?”
“Real Time” host Bill Maher offered his “theory” that Democrats waiting to clean up San Francisco for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit means “Trump is winning” in 2024. (Screenshot/HBO)
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has received a ton of presidential buzz as an alternative to the embattled Biden, admitted the only reason why public officials waited until APEC to clean up San Francisco was to impress world leaders like Xi.
“I know folks are saying, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town.’ That’s true, because it’s true,” Newsom said during a press conference last week, which received intense backlash on social media.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted that San Francisco was finally cleaned up for hosting world leaders including Xi at the APEC conference. (California Governor Gavin Newsom YouTube channel)
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The liberal comedian has been sounding the alarm that Trump will win the presidency in 2024, repeatedly urging Biden, whose 81st birthday is Nov. 20, to step aside and allow a more youthful Democrat to take the baton.
He’s been comparing Biden to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who famously refused to step down during the Obama presidency and was later replaced by Trump appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett, declaring the aging incumbent “Ruth Bader Biden.”
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Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.