We're still weeks away from Election Day for this year's midterms, but in an interview with the Hill, talk show host and comedian Bill Maher made clear that he's already looking toward the 2016 presidential election — with a particular focus on GOP Sen. Rand Paul.
"Rand Paul is an interesting candidate to me," Maher, who once thought of himself as a libertarian, explained to the Hill. "Rand Paul could possibly get my vote."
Maher went on to note that his feelings about Paul are similar to those he has for the senator's father, Ron, a former GOP congressman who launched multiple campaigns for president. "As I always used to say about his father, I love half of him," Maher said.
"I love the half of him that has the guts to say we should end the American empire, pull the troops home, stop getting involved in every foreign entanglement," he continued.
Despite professing fondness for the Pauls, however, Maher soon made it clear that his 2016 hypothetical vote for Paul would be just as much a vote against likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as anything else. "He’s way less of a hawk than Hillary," Maher said, "and that appeals to me a lot because I’m not crazy about how warlike she is."
Asked by the Hill whether he'd make a donation to a potential Clinton campaign as large as the $1 million he gave to President Obama's reelection effort, Maher said the answer was no. "I’m not as big a fan of Hillary as I am of Obama," he added. "So we’ll see who’s running. I’m not even committing to being for Hillary."
Still, Democrats angry with Maher for flirting with the GOP need not give up on the former host of "Politically Incorrect" just yet. While he's toying with the idea of voting GOP, Maher says, he's not yet so committed as to say he's "leaning" one way or another.
"I wouldn’t say leaning [toward Paul]," Maher said, "but I would say for the first time in a long time I’d be considering the Republican product. I might choose their toothpaste when I’m in the aisle."
[h/t TPM]
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