HBO's "Real Time" host Bill Maher on Friday blamed former President Bill Clinton for the fallout and eventual firing of now-former FBI director James Comey earlier this week.
Maher said that Comey made some missteps last fall by announcing that the FBI was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails 11 days before the presidential election. However, he acknowledged that Comey was still on the case and said that he wasn't a guy that you "could buy off with loyalty."
He then castigated liberals for being opposed to Comey over "purity" issues, which he said gave Republicans a talking point to show their hypocrisy after President Trump fired him.
Maher's partial defense of Comey received praise from hip-hop artist Michael Render, better known as Killer Mike, who called Comey a "Boy Scout."
"I thought that 11 days before the election was weird, but I felt like he [took] a fair shot at Hillary. I thought that the investigation into Trump was fair. I was actually impressed that he seemed to be in the middle figuring out, you know, the whole thing and I am glad to see that," Render said.
Later in the segment, Maher brought the conversation back to Comey where he said that "a lot of this is because of Bill Clinton."
"The reason why Comey had to say what he did is because the Attorney General had to recuse herself because he walked on her plane. Let's not forget that. Bill Clinton once again fucked up his wife's life," Maher said, drawing laughs from the panel and applause from the audience.
"If Bill Clinton hadn't walked on Loretta Lynch's plane, then she would have been making the statement instead of Comey," Maher continued. "Yes, he made a statement we don't like, but he was given an almost impossible situation."
"That's where we are. Bill Clinton. Let's put the blame where it belongs." Maher added.
Comey testified last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the airport tarmac meeting last June in Phoenix between Clinton and Lynch showed the Justice Department could not credibly investigate Clinton's email practices, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Comey was concerned with the meeting regardless of Lynch's defense, and said that he lived his whole life caring about the credibility and integrity of the criminal justice process.
"A number of things had gone on which I can't talk about yet, that made me worry that the department leadership could not credibly complete the investigation and decline prosecution without grievous damage to the American people's confidence in the justice system," Comey said.