Mediaite70%

Bill Maher Hammers Trump’s Low Ratings Amid Reflecting Pool Debacle: ‘He’s at 25% With Independents and 0% With Ducks’ 21%

By Tommy Christopher0%

6/27/2026, 5:04:47 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Ambiguity (Equivocation), and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 31.7% saturation with 170 hits. Analysis detected 759 faulty-reasoning hits from 536 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 34.7% and a BS Rank of 21% (17,466 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 79.80% of the article peer group.

Comedian and pundit Bill Maher hammered President Donald Trump over his low approval ratings in the polls and his difficulties with the Reflecting Pool renovation amid reports he was warned the project was "unfeasible." 
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was Vice President JD Vance, 50th vice president of the United States and author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” and the new memoir “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” 
The panel guests were Senator Raphael Warnock, Democratic senator from Georgia, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and author of the new book “The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America”; and Larry Wilmore, comedian, writer, and guest star in the new HBO Original limited series “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America,” debuting Friday, June 26. 
Maher devoted a good chunk of his monologue to the Reflecting Pool  including a sharp and pointed jab at his ratings: 
BILL MAHER: Thank you, great to be here, I know. 
It's our last show for, take a summer break for a month, you gotta give me a little time off, it's been nerve-racking lately. 
Fourth of July coming up, and you know what? 
Today it opened, Supergirl, perfect for the Fourth of the July, what? 
Yeah, big superhero, another superhero movie opened this week, but what's going on in Washington? 
Deadpool. 
Oh, we've killed the reflecting pool. 
I'm tired of hearing about the goddamn reflecting pool, I've got to say. 
I don't really give a sh*t about the reflecting pool. 
And I love America, but I've gotta admit, we're the only place you could make a pool improve by pissing in it. 
All right. 
And, you know, it started out innocently enough. 
I wasn't against the idea that we should spiffy up Washington a little. 
It needed a little spiffing up, so they tried it with the pool. 
Whatever happened, you do know what happened next. 
The algae. 
Then the pool was filled with algae. 
So then they put a fence around the pool, I like that. 
I for one am tired of algae coming into this country. 
Getting over that fence. 
I mean, look. 
We don't know what caused the problems in the pool. 
Trump says it's lunatic liberals. 
Also what he calls me, but you know, I was not in Washington. 
Who vandalized it. 
So now he's suing ABC News for reporting falsely on the pool, and ABC... 
ABC says this is baseless, outrageous, and preposterous, and how would you like us to make out the check? 
I care. 
But, uh... 
But you know, the problem is now, there are dead ducks in the pool, or possibly murdered by Antifa. 
I don't know. 
But you know the pool is dragging down the president's approval ratings. 
It's like a little in the low 30s now in the country and among independents, 25%-- and 0% with ducks. 
Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 2.5%Mediaite: 5.0%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 3.7%Tommy Christopher: 1.3%Mediaite: 0.9%Anchoring Bias3.7%This article: 7.3%Tommy Christopher: 4.2%Mediaite: 3.8%Availability Heuristic7.3%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.4%Mediaite: 1.0%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 1.0%Mediaite: 0.7%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.9%Mediaite: 2.1%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 9.9%Tommy Christopher: 7.8%Mediaite: 9.1%Framing Effect9.9%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.2%Mediaite: 0.4%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.4%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.4%Mediaite: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 1.5%Tommy Christopher: 1.0%Mediaite: 1.2%Optimism Bias1.5%This article: 2.2%Tommy Christopher: 0.4%Mediaite: 1.6%Pessimism Bias2.2%This article: 31.7%Tommy Christopher: 12.8%Mediaite: 14.7%Negativity Bias31.7%This article: 5.2%Tommy Christopher: 1.1%Mediaite: 1.6%Self-Serving Bias5.2%This article: 0.9%Tommy Christopher: 1.0%Mediaite: 1.7%Fundamental Attribution Error0.9%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.7%Mediaite: 2.1%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.7%Mediaite: 2.0%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.3%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.7%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 1.2%Mediaite: 2.3%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.1%Mediaite: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.8%Mediaite: 3.8%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.3%Mediaite: 1.2%Straw Man0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 2.1%Mediaite: 3.5%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 0.6%Tommy Christopher: 0.1%Mediaite: 2.4%False Dilemma0.6%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.5%Mediaite: 1.3%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 8.8%Tommy Christopher: 5.8%Mediaite: 7.6%Hasty Generalization8.8%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.6%Mediaite: 0.4%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.2%Mediaite: 0.9%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 4.1%Tommy Christopher: 1.4%Mediaite: 6.6%Appeal to Emotion4.1%This article: 1.5%Tommy Christopher: 0.5%Mediaite: 1.6%Begging the Question1.5%This article: 12.3%Tommy Christopher: 2.5%Mediaite: 2.9%Post Hoc (False Cause)12.3%This article: 2.4%Tommy Christopher: 0.2%Mediaite: 0.1%Tu Quoque2.4%This article: 2.6%Tommy Christopher: 1.7%Mediaite: 1.2%Burden of Proof2.6%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 4.3%Tommy Christopher: 3.3%Mediaite: 3.0%Anecdotal4.3%This article: 0.9%Tommy Christopher: 0.1%Mediaite: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.9%This article: 14.4%Tommy Christopher: 4.9%Mediaite: 2.8%Ambiguity (Equivocation)14.4%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.3%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 0.6%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.9%Tommy Christopher: 2.3%Mediaite: 3.3%Unattributed Quote0.9%This article: 7.3%Tommy Christopher: 1.8%Mediaite: 3.2%Quote-first Misdirection7.3%This article: 17.4%Tommy Christopher: 16.1%Mediaite: 8.3%Biased Writer Voice17.4%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.4%Mediaite: 1.6%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 3.8%Mediaite: 2.0%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Tommy Christopher: 0.0%Mediaite: 1.1%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 1.7%Tommy Christopher: 2.4%Mediaite: 1.4%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…1.7%

536 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers61%attributed speech209writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 19 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 34 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 58 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 67 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageBill Maher • 10 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 24 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 9 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 12 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 15 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 1 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 6 words • 100.0% coverageBill Maher • 13 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 10 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 22 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 2 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 8 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 13 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 13 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 8 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 2 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 7 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 12 words • 100.0% coverageBill Maher • 11 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 4 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 3 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 10 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 5 words • 100.0% coverageBill Maher • 13 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 3 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 14 words • 0.0% coverageABC News • 19 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 2 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 2 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 19 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 3 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 12 words • 0.0% coverageBill Maher • 20 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 9 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Bill Maher

72%flagged-word coverage
308 attributed words94% of attributed speech40% writer coverage
0%20.0%40.0%Biased Writer Voice-30.0 ptsWriter: 35.9%Bill Maher: 5.8%5.8%Quote-first Misdirection-2.6 ptsWriter: 9.1%Bill Maher: 6.5%6.5%Attempt to Sell a Product -4.3 ptsWriter: 4.3%Bill Maher: 0.0%0.0%Unattributed Quote+1.6 ptsWriter: 0.0%Bill Maher: 1.6%1.6%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.