Maher: 'Sad' that the super-rich GOP takeover of NC 'wasn’t even all that expensive'

HBO comedian Bill Maher is lamenting the fact that super-rich Republican activists were able to use the Supreme Court's Citizen United ruling to "take over" the state of North Carolina and "it wasn’t even all that expensive."

On his HBO show last week, Maher pointed out that North Carolina "is going apesh*t in a way no state ever has" after Republicans took over the entire government and began passing laws to restrict voting rights, restrict women's reproductive rights and even ban Sharia law.

"Take every crazy angry idea your drunk right-wing uncle mumbles at Thanksgiving, turn it into a law, and that's North Carolina today," Maher said.

In an interview with the Raleigh News & Observer published on Thursday, the HBO host explained that he had been trying to point out the fact that Citizens United had a bigger impact locally that it did nationally.

"It certainly had a huge impact the last election when you saw the kind of money spent – just by me!" he remarked. "But Obama won, so the people who were supposed to steal the election didn’t because the Democrats scared up enough of their own PAC money to scrape by."

Maher continued: "But not at the local level, like in North Carolina. Look at Art Pope, one man was basically able to take over the entire state. And the sad thing is it wasn’t even all that expensive. It should have cost more than it did."

During his HBO "New Rules" segment on Friday, Maher had explained that Pope was "kind of the Koch brother from another mother."

"He's super-rich, super-anti-union, anti-tax, anti-big government, thinks government should have absolutely no role in helping the less fortunate, who should earn their money the same way he did — by inheriting it from their dad," he noted. "You know, until recently, rich *ssholes like this would just use their money to buy a Ferrari and splurge on hookers, and then kill them."

Watch this video from HBO's Real Time, broadcast Aug. 3, 2013.