'2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Spars With Bill Maher Over 9/11 Comments (Video)

An appearance by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza on HBO’s Real Time turned into an unpleasant trip down memory lane, when host Bill Maher confronted the director about his apparent role in events leading to the comedian's firing from ABC in 2002.

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The 2016: Obama’s America director appeared on Maher’s Politically Incorrect on the now infamous 2001 episode in which Maher said the 9/11 hijackers were not cowards, because they had the guts to fly planes into buildings.

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"We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away,” Maher said on the episode. Those comments sparked an outrage that contributed to Politically Incorrect's cancellation the following June.

On Real Time, Maher read a portion of the episode's transcript, which showed his controversial comments came after D’Souza first called the 9/11 hijackers brave.

Maher said he was simply agreeing with D’Souza about the hijackers. 

But D’Souza said Maher took his comments a step too far by claiming the U.S. had been cowardly. (D’Souza had called the hijackers brave on Politically Incorrect, but had not called the U.S. cowardly.)

“That’s what got the veteran’s upset. That’s what got the Disney people upset. And that’s how you got booted off the air,” D’Souza said. “Not because of me. Because of you.”

STORY: '2016: Obama's America': What the Critics Are Saying

Earlier in the interview, Maher slammed Obama’s America for its assertion that President Obama’s agenda was shaped by Barack Obama Sr., even though the Commander in Chief met his father just once.

But D’Souza offered as evidence the title of Obama’s book, Dreams From My Father.

“Not Dreams of My Father,” D’Souza said.“Not about his father’s dreams. Dreams From My Father means ‘here are the dreams, I, Obama, got from my dad.”

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Maher didn’t buy it.

“How far up your ass do you have to go to pull that out,” the HBO host said. “I could just as easily say 'Mitt Romney’s father was born on a polygamist compound. My theory is Mitt Romney wants to be president so we can have sister wives.'”

D’Souza’s anti-Obama documentary has been doing strong business, and is slated to finish the weekend with a domestic cume of $20 million. It is currently the No. 1 documentary of the year, excluding nature documentaries. 

Watch the video below.