🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
HBO's Real Time host Bill Maher on Friday appeared to back the ethos of worldwide "Freedom Convoy" protests amid fears that the demonstrations will continue to cause economic and social disruptions.
Speaking during the show's panel segment with author Vivek Ramaswamy and former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, Maher discussed the anti-authoritarian sentiment being portrayed by protesters in Canada and across the globe.
In the past several weeks, thousands of people around the world have launched demonstrations against COVID-19 measures and government mandates after a group of Canadian truckers began blocking major bridges and infrastructure while fighting against a January 15 vaccine requirement.
"People are understanding this is about something more than just the vaccine mandate," Maher said. "It's becoming a big thing. It's happening all over the world now. They're thinking it might happen here in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday."
Ramaswamy, author of the book Woke, Inc., then chimed in to say that "If you think it's about vaccine mandates or white supremacy, you're missing the point."
"This is about an uprising of everyday citizens in democracies around the world," he said, who are "rising against the biggest threat to actual democracy, which I think is the rise of this managerial class in democracies around the world that are crushing the will of everyday people."
The TV host responded by criticizing a classist attitude, while sympathizing with truckers and essential workers who are "pissed off" at elites who have the privilege of working from home. He also chided a "we're all in this together" notion being pushed by government leaders.
He also slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for past remarks in which he said unvaccinated people are often "misogynistic and racist" and that they "take up space."
"Now you do sound like Hitler," the host added.
In an op-ed penned for Newsweek last week, Canadian trucker Gord Magill similarly slammed "elites" for attempting to smear the protesters' message against government mandates.
However, Friday's discussion comes as critics of the "Freedom Convoy" protests have noted that the ongoing presence of demonstrators has caused significant economic repercussions.
Arthur Wheaton, the director of labor studies at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, previously told Newsweek that truckers who have blocked several U.S.-Canada border crossings have incurred more than a billion dollars of losses each day.
"If you have a disruption like that, it doesn't take long to get into tens of billions or hundreds of billions of dollars," he added.
The protests prompted Canada's Ontario province to declare a state of emergency this week, and a judge on Friday ordered demonstrators to stop unlawfully blocking the entrance to the Ambassador Bridge between the U.S. and Canada. By Saturday, police began arresting and removing those who continued blocking essential streets.
However, the protests have not yet showed signs of easing. In the U.S., officials fear that a group of American truckers, known as the USA Trucker Convoy, will cause disruptions outside of Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium during Sunday's Super Bowl. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the Department of Homeland Security "is surging additional staff" to prevent unlawful gatherings.
"Freedom Convoy" protests are also taking place in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
