Bill Maher Retracts President Trump Endorsement Claim After He Fires Back With Fact-Checking Text

Bill Maher is walking back a statement about President Donald Trump‘s endorsement power after the president himself stepped in to set the record straight.

During an episode of Maher’s Real Time With Bill Maher earlier this month, the comedian, 70, suggested that 80-year-old Trump’s endorsements haven’t been as successful as the president claims.

“Trump used to win all of his endorsements; now he’s winning almost none of them,” Maher said on his August 21 show.

It wasn’t long before Maher revealed that he was contacted by Trump personally, who responded with a fact-checking text, prompting the TV personality to reconsider his comments.

“I heard from one viewer who was very upset about this, contacted me directly,” Maher said during his August 28 show on Friday.

“And he sent me charts, he sent me a lot of information, and I promised, ‘If this is not true what I said, I will say it on the air,'” the late-night host, who shared that he texts with the president and is “glad” that they do, continued.

After reviewing the information, Maher said he came to the conclusion that the president was “right.”

“I did overstate it,” Maher admitted, telling viewers that what he said just one week prior “wasn’t true.”

“Was that so hard to not be a [expletive] about everything?” the funny man quipped before further clarifying his previous statement with the new facts and figures provided by Trump.

Maher said that the commander in chief endorsed 260 people this election cycle, only nine of whom have lost their primaries, giving him a 97 percent success rate.

“So he still has very powerful endorsements,” he maintained. “But the full picture is a little more nuanced. My point was that the trend looks like it was going downward on that, because he did lose five governorships.”

Maher continued, “Now, he says that’s because he backs a lot of ones who were sure losers, but he did it out of loyalty. I don’t doubt that some of that is true.”

“I also think it’s true on the other side that he wins some because he picks some easy winners — he picks incumbents sometimes and uncontested [candidates], people with overwhelming [support],” the Real Time with Bill Maher host added.

But that has little to do with the president’s popularity in Republican-led states, Maher claimed.

“He just won in South Carolina, Lindsey Graham‘s know-nothing sister,” he said of Darline Graham, who replaced the late senator following his unexpected death last month. Since stepping in for her brother, Darline, 62, has emerged victorious in her bid to remain in the Senate, defeating Congressman Ralph Norman in the South Carolina Republican Senate runoff last week.

“And he won in Oklahoma. So, OK, when he shows up at a place like he did for Lindsey’s sister, he’s still a star,” Maher admitted. “And they come out, and they vote for him.”

“So there, that’s the truth. It’s a little more nuanced, but yes, I overstated it,” he added, before ending his explainer with a message for the president: “Now, stop texting.”