Media firebrand Keith Olbermann has unleashed a scathing rebuke of comic and HBO/Max host Invoice Maher for Maher’s reward for President Donald Trump following a dinner arrange by Child Rock.

Taking to X (previously Twitter), Olbermann dismissed the dinner as a transactional transfer to protect Maher’s profession, immediately attacking Maher’s character and motivations.

“BTW don’t overanalyze Maher prostituting himself to Trump,” Olbermann wrote in a put up. “Maher works for a similar fascists at Warner who took over and corrupted CNN.”

Olbermann, who has had an extended and infrequently combative profession in media, claimed private information of Maher stretching again almost 5 many years.

“I’ve identified Invoice since 1978. He was a shameless opportunist with no actual rules then and he stays so,” he added. “That is so he can hold his HBO present.”

The outburst got here in response to Maher’s current monologue on his late night time present “Actual Time with Invoice Maher,” wherein the host tried to downplay the dinner with Trump — organized by musician Child Rock — as something greater than a social encounter. Maher opened his section by mocking the media and public for blowing the assembly out of proportion: “Let me first say that to all of the individuals who handled this prefer it was some type of summit assembly, ‘You’re ridiculous,’” Maher mentioned on his present.

The remarks signaled a softening or at the very least a private re-evaluation of Trump from Maher, who’s beforehand crucial of the previous president. It was solely two weeks in the past, on a March 28 episode, that he delivered a section titled “Trump Devotion Syndrome,” when the 69-year-old comic mocked and skewered MAGA.

However that nuance was misplaced on Olbermann, who interpreted the assembly and Maher’s remarks as little greater than injury management to take care of his standing inside the Warner Bros. Discovery media firm, which oversees HBO and CNN —each of which Olbermann accuses of ideological drift.

Whether or not Maher’s dinner with Trump can have long-term penalties for his credibility or scores stays to be seen. However within the courtroom of public opinion, the battle strains are already being drawn, and Olbermann has made it clear which aspect he’s on.