Comedian Bill Maher on Friday blasted President Trump for failing to control the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has sent oil and gas prices soaring during the conflict with Iran.
“Obviously, [the Iranians] There’s still something to bomb, and that’s the Strait of Hormuz,” Maher told his “Real Time” panelists, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
“I don’t understand that,” Maher continued. “We have complete military superiority. We brag about that except for one place where we obviously need complete military superiority. Do you understand this, why we can’t control the Strait of Hormuz and there’s one place where we need to control Iran?”
Scaramucci called it “bad war planning” for the United States to deploy its minesweeping capabilities to other parts of the world rather than through the strait.
“That’s one of the things that prevents us from sending the navy there to fight the convoy,” he said.
If the government were to take over the strait, the choice would be for the U.S. Navy to escort the tankers after the mines are disabled or to occupy Kharg Island. The island was bombed on Friday night and Trump noted that its oil infrastructure had survived.
Maher last week praised Trump for the initial U.S. strikes against Iran. The HBO host blasted liberal viewers for “not understanding liberation.”
“How about this?” he said on last week’s show. “This is a fascist theocracy, and while they’re still there screwing everything up, nothing is going to be okay in the Middle East.”
Maher added that he was “cautiously optimistic” about a military offensive “unless he goes into battle himself,” referring to Trump. He also said the United States’ killing of much of Iran’s leadership – filling the void since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came to power – opened the door to “happiness” for the Iranian people.
The comedian was an outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as former President George W. Bush in the early 2000s. Mach used to regularly challenge supporters of the war.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent prices soaring for commodities ranging from fertilizers to natural gas and oil. As of Saturday morning, the national average price of gasoline reached $3.68, according to AAA.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil price benchmark, was trading just above $98 a barrel. International benchmark Brent crude ended the week at nearly $104 a barrel.
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