HBO talk show host Bill Maher said Friday it looked like Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) and Democrats were "stalking" Donald Trump following the release of the Robert Mueller report.
Schiff was the face of the Russia investigation in Congress for the past two years, becoming a near-ubiquitous presence on cable news and repeatedly saying there was plain evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians. Now the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he told Maher he disagreed with the notion a sitting president couldn't be indicted, but he said regardless the Mueller report showed Trump was unfit for the presidency.
Maher, who has called Trump a traitor for his conduct, told his guest on Real Time that the American people weren't into "details" as he wondered if Democrats had missed their shot.
"But this was our big gun," Maher said. "Now it just looks like you're stalking him, I think, in the eyes of the people who don't follow it that closely, which is most of the country."
Maher said most people in the country were looking for a "thumbs up or thumbs down" from Mueller, and his punt to Congress on obstruction and exoneration on collusion presented a quandary for Democrats.
"If you couldn't impeach before, how are you going to impeach after?" Maher asked. "Or should you?"
"I'm not there yet on impeachment," Schiff said. "I may get there. He may get me there, but here's the awful dilemma that we face. If we don't impeach him, that sends a message that this kind of conduct, this obstruction of justice, this kind of willing use of the help of a foreign adversary ... that this is non-impeachable. At the same time, if we do impeach him, and he is acquitted as he would likely be acquitted, then the message is those are not impeachable offenses."
Leaning into being on HBO, Schiff said the true way to deal with Trump was to "vote his ass out of office." Schiff said there was "no patriotism in Trump's GOP" and called for a sharp repudiation of him at the ballot box.
Schiff called the Trump team's conduct "scummy and wrong" after Maher praised him for his speech at the House Intelligence Committee last month. Schiff said the conduct of Trump's campaign was "not OK," even if Mueller didn't prove a criminal conspiracy.