Bill Maher ridicules Trump's 'public collusion': 'He's so protective of Putin's feelings'

During Friday's "Real Time," host Bill Maher couldn't help but observe that President Donald Trump seems to be conspiring or colluding with Russian President Vladimir Putin in real time.

During his overseas trip, Trump had to walk back his comments that he believed Putin over American intelligence agencies. Maher noted that Trump seems "so protective of Putin's feelings." Maher wondered if such a thing is impeachable.

Appearing as a guest, veteran reporter Carl Bernstein explained that it isn't.

"I think his conduct, in terms of his embrace of Putin without any thought given to the actions of Putin to undermine our elections in this country is extreme," Bernstein continued, noting that this is why there is a special prosecutor trying to get to the bottom of things. "And what Donald Trump may have [done] in terms of enabling, helping to enable what the Russians did, or not. We don't know where this is going to go. What we do know is that there's a coverup going on. And that the president does not want us to know what the coverup is about. Whether it's indeed about something with enabling the Russians, whether it has to do with his family money. What we know is he sought to demean, undermine, obstruct -- not necessarily obstruction of justice -- obstruct these investigations to keep us from knowing what this is really about. That's why we have a special prosecutor."

Maher agreed with Bernstein, but noted those crimes are all in the past and it seems crimes are continuing to persist in the Trump White House. His example was Trump accusing the former director of the CIA a hack while cozying up to Putin.

"His favorite national foreign policy advisor on Russia is Putin," Maher said.

Bernstein said that the difficulty is in separating what might be a criminal act or a conspiracy and what is outrageous and vile. And it's very difficult to do in this presidency." He praised the old-fashioned, mainstream media, who he said has coaxed out these stories about both criminality and behavior that many believe is unfit.

Similarly, writer and non-resident West Point fellow Max Brooks called on citizens not to feel powerless and beg special counsel Bob Muller to "save us." Instead, he wants Americans to be responsible for the information that is passed on to our networks via social media.

Watch the full exchange below: