Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer just went comedian Bill Maher one better. While the HBO host wanted an economic crash to blame on President Donald Trump, Steyer suggested a thermonuclear war to give the country a "real course correction."
The hedge fund billionaire, who's bankrolling an effort to impeach the 45th president, made his remarks during an interview in Rolling Stone published Friday.
Interviewer Tim Dickinson observed that the strategy of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to return the House to Democratic control during the George W. Bush administration, was to remove the impeachment issue from the table.
"She pointed to how she dealt with George W. Bush – whom many wanted to impeach," Dickinson said. "She believes the decision to take impeachment off the table helped Democrats take the House in 2006, and paved a path to [Barack] Obama and a deeper correction."
Both the House and the Senate returned to Democratic control afterwards.
"I remember 2006," Steyer said. "What happened is that George W. Bush, he put us in two disastrous wars and we were headed toward the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. So if the answer is that we need those three things to happen for a course correction, I'd prefer to move a little quicker. How about that? But I take your point. Maybe we can have, like, a nuclear war and then we get a real course correction."
Late last year Steyer appeared to soften his stance on impeaching the president.
Steyer's "nuclear war" statement appeared even more frightening than the remark Maher made earlier this month.
"I think one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession," Maher said during a panel discussion on HBO's "Real Time."
Unlike Maher, who doubled down on his statement, Steyer took back the "nuclear war" remark later in the interview.
"We're trying to do what's right," he said in response to Dickinson's observation that the thought of nuclear war was "sobering." "And 2006/2008 did not happen because George W. Bush didn't get impeached, is what I'm saying. I should be a little bit more tempered: I take back that remark about nuclear war."
Reaction on social media was mixed -- from unsurprised to disbelief.
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