Bill Maher marvels at GOP popularity among Hispanic voters: Democrats' 'pandering' hasn't worked

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"Real Time" host Bill Maher appeared stunned at the gains Republicans have made among Hispanic voters in recent years. 

"The other bad news, I hate to say, for the Democrats is immigration," Maher said during a panel discussion on Friday night. "For all the pandering, a lot of people would say, they do to immigrants and illegal immigrants, and for all the insulting that Trump has done — Trump won 28% of the Hispanic vote in 2016, and then he insults them for five years and he wins 38% in 2020."

"[Democrats'] advantage now is this election is down 20 points! It's funny because the Democrats thought, ‘Oh, more immigrants, it’s going to be great for us.' It's turning out that it may not be that way," Maher continued before suggesting that immigrants are "sort of natural conservatives."

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"Real Time" host Bill Maher. (HBO)

CNN host Fareed Zakaria highlighted conservative leadership in the United Kingdom where the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now leading and how four out of the eight contenders for Boris Johnson's replacement were "ethnic minorities." 

New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman told Maher that then-President Trump "toned down" on the racial politics after being sworn into office following his push for the so-called "Muslim ban" as a possible explanation as to how his popularity among Hispanic voters improved. 

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"Part of the problem, I think, and I say this as a legal immigrant, is — I don't think Americans have any problem with immigration in general… This is a country very welcoming to immigrants. I've lived that life myself," Zakaria said. "I think the problem is that they see a system that has collapsed, a breakdown of law and order, a breakdown of rules. What's happening at the border is basically a whole bunch of people, large numbers of whom are not technically really asylum seekers, are just gaming the system and coming down, showing up and they're not standing in the normal regular line for immigration. They're standing in the line for political asylum because that gets you in. And once you're in, it's very hard to kick you out." 

In this Sept. 14, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump give a thumbs up to the cheering crowd after a Latinos for Trump Coalition roundtable in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Zakaria continued, "The result is that people look at this and say, this whole system has collapsed. It's not based on any rules, it's not based on any — you have just millions of people showing up. And I don't think legal immigrants like that. I think that you know, in general, I don't want to generalize too much, but I think most of us feel like, you know, we played by the rules, we did it the right way. The idea that you can just show up and boom, you know, you're in."

"And they fear more than anybody else — that illegal coming in right after them," Maher replied, later adding, "I think Democrats think that if we support as much illegal or just have that sense of open borders, maybe not completely, but that's the idea that is sort of put out there, that immigrants who are here will love that, but they don't!"

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Haberman pointed out that President Biden hasn't exactly been a "total clean break" from Trump, saying "a number" of policies have carried over from the Trump administration, which has caused "problems" for Democratic messaging. 

Immigration is at the top of the ticket this November as a record number of illegal immigrants continue to cross the border.   (John Moore/Getty Images)

"What [migrants] also don't like is that they see the left as being too negative about this country that they worked so hard to get to and — compared to the country they came from, is fantastic. And they see this negativity always sh------ on — 'it's horribly, irretrievably racist and that our history is terrible.' And they're like, you know, it's just — it's insulting to them," Maher said. "It's like, you know, saving up 10 years to buy a car and then you buy, ‘What do you think?' ‘Meh, it’s a piece of s---.’"

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"I think there's a lot of Latino voters in particular and immigrants in particular, even if they're not registered, who feel as if they are taken for granted by the Democratic Party, and you are seeing that in a number of states in a number of races — it is likely to play out on Tuesday," Haberman said. 

"You know, I sometimes say when people say, 'Oh, if Trump gets elected, I'm moving to,' I'm like, 'I'm not going anywhere,'" Zakaria added. "I love this country… I'm just fine here whoever wins."