Donald Trump Fires off Heated Tweet at Susan Rice Just as She Appears on ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’

President Donald Trump tweeted a direct response to former National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Friday night, indicating that he was watching her on Real Time with Bill Maher. Rice was picking apart the president’s policies and behavior on the HBO series, and many Twitter users were surprised to see that he seemed to be watching live.

Rice worked as a National Security Adviser during the administration of President Obama. She was not shy about criticizing president Trump on Friday night, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. Rice was there to promote her new book, Tough Love, which documents her career as a diplomat.

“What Putin’s genius is, is he understands that we are so divided internally,” she said to Maher on Friday. “And I argue in my book, Tough Love, that our domestic political divisions are, in fact, our greatest national security vulnerability.”

The president fired back on Twitter in real-time, to the surprise of some. While he has often responded to Fox News shows like this, he tends to do so in the morning, and not with shows that criticize him so openly.

“Susan Rice, who was a disaster to President Obama as National Security Advisor, is now telling us her opinion on what to do in Syria. Remember RED LINE IN THE SAND? That was Obama. Millions killed! No thanks Susan, you were a disaster,” he wrote.

Once she was off the air, Rice sniped back at the president on Twitter.

“Then why did you come up and hug me at 2015 WHCD when I’d never met you (which was totally gross) and whisper in my ear that I had been ‘very unfairly treated’ over Benghazi and ‘was doing a great job for the country?’” she wondered.

This is the second time President Trump has responded directly to Real Time. He did the same back in August, but back then he clarified that he was not watching the show by choice. He tweeted that he “got to see, by accident, wacko comedian Bill Maher’s show,” which he said was full of “so many lies.”

Rice, 54, worked for the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. Before that, she worked on the National Security Council staff in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and was later promoted to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. She was then appointed a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013.

Rice was even considered as a possible replacement for Hillary Clinton when she retired as U.S. Secretary of State in 2012. However, she withdrew from consideration due to her relation to the Benghazi attack scandal. Rice is also a mother of two, with husband ABC News producer Ian Officer Cameron. Her new book reportedly takes an unflinching look at her life and her work, with no detail spared.

Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For by Susan Rice is available now wherever books are sold.