An “Irish debate” between Bill Maher and Bryan Cranston on race inevitably turned to President Donald Trump and politics as Maher informed his guest that “Republicans are doing better and better with people of color.”

Maher posted a “Classics” episode of his Club Random podcast with Bryan Cranston on Thursday where the two went toe-to-toe over their opinions on race and “wokeism” in the United States. The episode was originally posted in 2023 and was reshared on YouTube and social media as Cranston is promoting the revival of Malcom in the Middle.

Cranston argued that “critical race theory” should be taught more in schools, and Americans are too ignorant of their country’s history with racism, something Maher pushed back on.

The debate eventually turned to Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” slogan, with Cranston asking Maher what he thinks it means.

“Sweetheart, no one has made more fun of Donald Trump than I have,” Maher said. “So you can’t get me on, ‘I like Donald Trump.'”

“I’m not saying that,” Cranston, who described himself as a “liberal person,” responded.

Maher acknowledged that for some, the slogan can be a “dog whistle” to a time when the country was “whiter.”

Cranston then argued a “large swath” of people in Trump’s camp are unaware of that “dog whistle” factor, inspiring a loud sigh from Maher.

“Oh, God! Making a big sigh,” Cranston said.

Maher inquired about his guest’s current reading selection and then blasted the idea of “wokeism” and terms like “white privilege.”

“The worse I think things are, the better person I am,” he said. “That’s what I get from a lot of the left.”

The debate eventually turned to the racial makeup of Congress. Cranston argued that Congress is an example of racism still existing because “older white men are the predominant factor in Congress.”

Maher pushed back again, saying Congress is getting more and more diverse and moving from “a place where it was all white.”

“I have to tell you, Republicans are doing better and better all the time with people of color,” Maher then said, arguing “wokeism” has put a sense of “negativism” on Democrats that has only hurt them and driven people to the other side.

The two ended their back-and-forth on race and Trump with an awkward fist bump/handshake, with Maher asking Cranston if he enjoyed a “good Irish debate.”

“F*ck yeah,” Cranston said.

Check out the exchange below:

BILL MAHER: I have to tell you, Republicans are doing better and better all the time with people of color.

BRYAN CRANSTON: I hope so.

MAHER: Because the woke sh*t doesn’t actually help any Black people. See, to me this is the difference between liberalism and wokeism. Liberalism is about lifting people up. Woke is just about self-loathing and hating yourself and scolding everybody and virtue signaling. It doesn’t actually help anybody. Lifting people up who have gotten a bad shake in this country, who are for some reason down-trodden or have been cheated? Absolutely. I’ve always been for that. But I don’t think that’s a lot of what’s going on, and I think there are — I just look at the numbers from the last election, I mean, Trump, would you think that he would get even one Black or Hispanic vote? He got 20% of the male Black vote. And he did better with Hispanics than he did the first time. Comes out. Rapist. And gets respectable numbers in that election and then four years go by and he does better. People, especially immigrants, they don’t like this unrelenting negativism about this country.

CRANSTON: I would agree with that.

MAHER: They’re like, you know what? You should see the f*cking river I swam through to get here and I get here and all you people do is sh*t on your own country and tell me how horrible it is. You know what? I came from horrible. You want to know horrible? I’ll tell you f*cking stories.

Watch above via Club Random.

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