This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Bill Maher has called Donald Trump a liar and an egomaniac and criticized him for foisting some truly terrible people on the country.

It's like looking in a mirror for the host of HBO's "Real Time."

Maher caught plenty of flak for scheduling Milo Yiannopoulos as a guest last week. Yiannopoulos built a career expressing racist, misogynist, anti-immigrant, transphobic and homophobic views (although he is openly gay), and he's gone out of his way to incite violence.

So it was understandable why Jeremy Scahill, a regular guest on "Real Time," canceled his scheduled appearance that night as a result. But Maher was also correct when he argued, "If Mr. Yiannopoulos is indeed the monster Scahill claims — and he might be — nothing could serve the liberal cause better than having him exposed on Friday night."

If Maher had followed through and exposed Yiannopoulos, there would have been value in the appearance.

Instead, Maher went out of his way to normalize Yiannopoulos. He yucked it up with him. He allowed Yiannopoulos to minimize and explain away his worst atrocities. He avoided asking tough questions. He didn't challenge Yiannopoulos when he expressed anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-women views.

Yiannopoulos flattered Maher, and Maher ate it up. And Maher chided Yiannopoulos' critics: "Stop taking the bait, liberals! The fact that they all freaked out about this little, impish, British f—? You're [expletive] schoolgirls!"

Yes, he used that anti-gay slur. If he'd used the n-word, he'd have been fired by now.

Maher did get slightly more confrontational with Yiannopoulos in the online-only "Overtime" segment, but most of the credit for that goes to panelists Larry Wilmore and Malcolm Nance.

After handling his guest with kid gloves, Maher tried to claim credit for Yiannopoulos' downfall, which happened shortly thereafter — the cancellation of his appearance at CPAC and his book deal; his "resignation" from Breitbart.

"As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant," Maher told The New York Times. "You're welcome."

That's hubris on a scale with the worst of Trump's behavior. Maher had nothing to do with Yiannopoulos' downfall, which came when video surfaced of Yiannopoulos defending men having sex with boys barely into their teens.

For Maher to take credit for what happened is grotesque. It's fake news.

And then somebody dug up an old clip from "Politically Incorrect" in which Maher discusses Mary Kay Letourneau, a schoolteacher convicted of two counts of rape of a child; she had sex with one of her students beginning when he was 12.

Maher says Letourneau "is in jail because she's in love. That's how I view it."

At the time, the boy was 14 and Letourneau was pregnant with their second child.

"So, basically, they're having a family and they're keeping the mother in jail because she won't conform to what society feels should be the perfect American family," Maher said.

When a panelist expressed disgust because Letourneau "raped this kid," Maher said, "Raped? C'mon."

Because, in his view, a 12-year-old boy can have consensual sex.

"How can a woman rape a man?" Maher asked.

A 12-year-old is a man?

That's not all that different from what brought down Yiannopoulos.

Ironic, isn't it?

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.