On Friday, left-wing talk show host Bill Maher predicted that this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) would witness a repeat of the infamous riots that plagued the 1968 gathering.
Breitbart reports that Maher, on his HBO show “Real Time,” compared the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s to the ongoing anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country today. The upcoming 2024 DNC will be held in Chicago, the same city that hosted the 1968 DNC.
Maher reflected on his memories of the 1968 DNC and the violent protests that overshadowed the convention’s nomination of then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey, saying that “I was twelve years old when they had it in 1968 in Chicago. It was like my baptism into politics, like, wow, this is kind of interesting shit going on on TV, and I know this is politics.”
“But because there [were] hippies in the streets and the cops were beating the shit out of them, it was really quite dramatic,” Maher continued. “And it’s going to happen again, because the kids, they’re going to be out there in force chanting about Genocide Joe, because this is their new cause now. This, they think, is the cause of their lifetime, Hamas, to be on their side.”
“So, I’m just wondering how the Democrats are going to come out of that convention. Because I remember the last time that happened in Chicago, they got bloodied by it, and Nixon won the White House,” Maher concluded.
The anti-Israel protests have resulted in the largest rift within the progressive base, with thousands of grassroots activists, primarily young college students, expressing their opposition to Joe Biden’s support for Israel and demanding that he turn against Israel in favor of “Palestine.” Protesters have repeatedly heckled Biden and other prominent Democrats at campaign events across the country, and protests have swarmed college campuses, with Columbia University being the most prominent to date. Last weekend, protesters across the country blocked off several major bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge.
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson infamously decided not to seek a second full term despite his landslide victory just four years prior, with the anti-Vietnam sentiment being the primary reason for his sharp decline in approval. Humphrey did not satisfy the anti-Vietnam protesters due to his role in Johnson’s administration. This element, along with other key factors such as the third-party candidacy of Alabama Governor George Wallace, ultimately led to Republican Richard Nixon winning in an electoral landslide.