Dr. Phil defends joining Trump ICE operations during tense Bill Maher interview

“Real Time” host Bill Maher abruptly put his guest Dr. Phil in the hot seat on Friday for joining the Trump administration’s ICE raids, which led to a tense exchange between the two personalities.

“Why are you going on these ICE raids?” Maher asked Dr. Phil.  “I don’t understand that.” 

Maher continued: “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.”

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The former clinical psychologist pulled no figurative punches.

“Well, now that’s bullsh—t,” Dr. Phil countered, before launching into a comparison. 

“Look, if you arrest somebody that’s a citizen, that has committed a crime or is DUI’d with a child in the backseat, do you think they don’t separate that family right then, right there?” Dr. Phil asked. “Of course they do!” 

“But that’s not what’s going on,” Maher argued.

Moments earlier, Maher had introduced the topic as “another thing” President Donald Trump is doing as he is “doubling down on unpopular.” 

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Dr. Phil took an even further step back, addressing part of Maher’s monologue where he had criticized masked ICE agents. He said the masks are a result of legislators “doxxing” officers. 

“[Legislators are] putting their names, their pictures, their addresses of their families on the internet, they’re putting them on telephone poles,” Dr. Phil noted. “So, of course, they’re wearing masks so they don’t get outed, so people can do violence against their families.”

The former talk show host cited “files” he had seen to justify the ICE operations he has joined.

“They’ve got a rap sheet, 12, 14 different cases long of child predators that they’re taking off the street,” Dr. Phil said. “These are the worst first that they’re taking off the streets. Who would want them back in their communities?” 

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ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith, who was also a guest on Maher’s show Friday, found some common ground with Dr. Phil and admitted that he supports “closing the borders,” but argued the administration’s actions have not matched their words.

“When you’re going to Home Depot, when you’re going to people’s jobs, when you’ve been given authorization to enter churches and to enter other properties…who they have been targeting has been different than what they originally advertised,” Smith concluded. 

Maher echoed Smith’s argument, adding ICE is going to places where people are “already working.”

“If you can’t go to work because you’re hiding, what other recourse is it for [illegal immigrants] except crime?” Maher asked.

Dr. Phil has reportedly accompanied ICE two times – first on the ground during January’s Chicago raids and during the Los Angeles raids in June.