Maher on Hunter Biden's Ukraine ties:
'If Don Jr. did it, it would be all Rachel eMaddow was talking about'
HBO's Bill Maher on Friday addressed Hunter Biden's lucrative work with a Ukrainian gas company while arguing that MSNBC's Rachel Maddow would be covering the story extensively if President Trump's son was involved in a similar situation.
"The more I read about this ... no, I don't think he was doing something terrible in Ukraine," Maher said of the younger Biden during a panel discussion on "Real Time" on Friday night.
"But why can't politicians tell their f---ing kids, 'Get a job, get a goddamn job!'" he continued. "This kid was paid $600,000 because his name is Biden by a gas company in Ukraine, this super-corrupt country that just had a revolution to get rid of corruption."
The liberal comedian and host added that it "just looks bad."
Maher expressed the same sentiment on Twitter to his more than 11 million followers:
"It does sound like something Don[ald] Trump Jr. would do," Maher later added on his show Friday. "And if Don Jr. did it, it would be all Rachel Maddow was talking about."
Maddow, MSNBC's top-rated host, covered possible Russian ties to President Trump and his campaign in the 2016 election extensively leading up to the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report in April.
Maher's perspective comes as polling on impeachment has notably shifted in recent days following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) announcement Tuesday that Democrats would launch a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
The president has faced scrutiny over a July phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 presidential candidate.
Biden as vice president in 2016 called for Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was looking into the gas company on whose board his son Hunter Biden sat. No evidence has emerged that Biden acted with his son's interest in mind.
Democrats have blasted Trump's conversation with the Ukrainian leader, asserting it amounts to Trump seeking help from a foreign government heading into the 2020 elections while dangling hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid.
An NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Thursday found 49 percent approval for impeachment, against 46 percent do not support, while the latest who said they disapprove, marking a 10-point rise in favor of impeachment over the same survey from April following the Mueller report.
A Hill-Harris X survey released Friday also found support for impeachment increasing 12 points to 47 percent versus 42 percent who oppose.