Maher defends Trump's merit-based immigration plan: sounds 'normal Republican'

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"Real Time" host Bill Maher gave President Trump some credit for sounding like a "normal Republican" in backing a merit-based immigration system.

During Maher's "Overtime" segment on YouTube after Friday's show on HBO, Maher asked the panel if Trump's merit-based immigration system "should receive more consideration," asserting that such a system would be similar to "what Canada has."

DEMOCRATS NEED TO READ THE FINE PRINT OF TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION PLAN, EXPERTS SAY

CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers rejected the policy proposal, suggesting the U.S. should instead use its visa program to recruit skilled workers from abroad.

"This country is based on people coming over here not based on having a Ph.D. or having high-level skills," Powers said. "Even when we say 'merit-based,' it sort of suggests that someone who doesn't have a high education doesn't have merit. I think we need people who are unskilled laborers. We need them just as much as people who are engineers."

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

Bill Weld, a Republican former governor of Massachusetts who plans to challenge Trump in the 2020 GOP primaries, disagreed with Powers, saying Trump's proposal is "worth some fleshing out."

"Yeah," Maher said to Weld. "It sounds more normal Republican, the one that was ignored two weeks ago."

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Maher went on to mock Trump for his latest threat to slap a 5 percent tariff on Mexico if it doesn't crack down on the Central American migration crisis, calling it "crazy talk."

"But I can understand how that side looks at what happened two weeks ago and went, 'Oh, well, if you're not going to even engage on the semi-normal proposal, let's go back to crazy," Maher said.