Filmmaker and Michigan native Michael Moore says he knows the kinds of people who have been bringing guns, Confederate flags and swastika iconography to the Michigan state capital to protest the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, and they're nothing to worry about.
"I want to appeal to people to not be afraid of these guys with the guns," the 66-year-old liberal provocateur and Flint native said Friday on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher." "I went to high school with them. I know them."
Moore, who correctly predicted Donald Trump would win the presidential election in 2016, said those protesters talk a big game, but if push comes to shove, they'll scatter.
"They want to kill Bambi. That's their idea of a real fight. Them and a deer," Moore said. "If the deer were ever armed, if it were a fair fight, these guys would never be in the woods."
Moore noted that President Donald Trump has visited Michigan three times this month and needs to keep his base energized in the northern swing state, which narrowly swung in Trump's favor in 2016. For more than a month, Trump has encouraged those protesters to defy local leaders and push for their state to reopen.
It's the "Sicko" director's hope that voters who oppose Trump get involved in the electoral process in 2020 and support the Democratic nominee, which will likely be Joe Biden.
Maher expressed concerns that Trump will refuse to leave the White House if he's defeated in November's election and his armed supporters will come out in force to keep him there. Moore assured the 64-year-old talk show host that will not happen.
"Again, these guys I went to high school with, with their big guns, they know better," Moore said. "They can see the endgame of this. They're not going to win."
According to Moore, those protesters are role playing and not about to give up their comfortable lives for a cause.
"They're living their white life in their white neighborhoods," Moore said. "If they end up being arrested ... for doing what you suggested, they will then be moved to a black and brown neighborhood called the United States prison system."
Moore has been critical of U.S. penal system, particularly with regards to racial inequality. In 2015, shortly before his documentary "Where to Invade Next" was released, the controversial director tweeted that blacks in prison for nonviolent offenses should be freed.
