Bill Maher delivers ‘mic drop moment’ as Dr Phil challenged on attending ICE raids

It was a case of Phil vs Bill on Friday, as TV personality Phil McGraw (better known as Dr Phil) was confronted by HBO talk show host Bill Maher over his decision to join agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on immigration raids.

The New York Post previously reported that McGraw attended raids carried out by the controversial government agency in Chicago and Los Angeles, though a spokesperson for the TV star told The Independent in June he did not join and was not embedded in the LA operations.

Challenging McGraw on this week’s edition of Real Time, Maher asked his guest, “Why are you going on these ICE raids? I don’t understand that.

“You’re a guy who we know for so many years who has been working to put families together, to bring families who are apart and heal them, and now you’re going on raids with people who are literally separating families. Explain that to me.”

In response, McGraw said: “That’s bulls*** … If you arrest somebody that’s a citizen, that has committed a crime, or is DUI [driving under the influence] with a child in the back seat, do you think they don’t separate that family right then and right there?

“Of course they do. I was hearing you in your monologue saying, ‘you’ve got these ICE agents with masks on’, but let me tell you why they have their mask on, because we actually have legislators who passed laws about immigration and funded those laws to be executed.

“They actually pay these agents to go out and do this, and now they’re doxxing them, they’re putting their name, their pictures, their addresses of their families on the internet, they’re putting them on telephone poles. So of course they’re wearing masks so they don’t get outed, so people can do violence against their families.”

He went on to defend ICE agents by arguing that they “didn’t make the laws” they have to enforce and that if someone doesn’t like the law, they should change it.

“I don’t like that law, at all. Change the law,” McGraw said.

This prompted Maher to ask: “If you don’t like it, why are you going?”

As the audience responded to the host’s question with laughter and applause, Dr Phil argued: “Because that is the law.”

The clip has since been circulated on social media, with the account Blue Georgia stating the video showed Maher “humiliating” his guest:

Another account remarked that it was “sad what Dr Phil has become”:

Maher previously made headlines for speaking positively about Trump following a meeting with the Republican in the White House earlier this year, describing the convicted felon as “gracious and measured”.

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