“Real Time” host Bill Maher on Friday got into a heated on-air spat with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who was presenting his theory about Maher’s gripes with the Democratic Party and the “fringe garbage” concerns of its leftmost wing.
The duo was discussing this week’s various elections, where Democrats won key races across the country. They were notably expressing mutual disapproval of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and democratic socialism.
Then the bickering began.
“You’re disenchanted with the far-left wing of the Democratic Party,” O’Reilly told Maher.
The HBO host has repeatedly maintained as much on his show over the years, and agreed with O’Reilly’s stance that leftists have supposedly “poisoned the well for everybody else.” Maher claimed they’ve “never met anything that was counterintuitive that they didn’t love.”
“Right,” said O’Reilly. “So they want to put trans people in here, and they want to do this, and it just dilutes the message that the Democratic Party has traditionally had — that we’re for the workers, we want to improve the lives of the backbone of the country.”
When the conservative pundit added that Maher presumably isn’t fond of “all this fringe garbage that Americans don’t want,” the comedian interjected, “I wouldn’t put it that way, but go ahead.” The moment prompted rabid applause from Maher’s studio audience.
“OK, but you might want to rethink, because that’s a good way to put it,” O’Reilly argued.
Maher sniped back, bragging, “Well, I’m still on the air and you’re not.”
O’Reilly was fired from Fox News in 2017 following sexual harassment allegations from numerous colleagues. A bombshell New York Times report indicated at the time that O’Reilly and Fox News had paid some $13 million in settlements to address the complaints.
The former “O’Reilly Factor” host shared a smile with Maher before motioning to the crowd to relax, stating, “I expected that.” He then countered Maher’s brag with a boast of his own.
“So we did a town hall at NewsNation two weeks ago from the Kennedy Center,” said O’Reilly. “Twenty-three million people watched. Twenty-three million. OK? You can add up all the HBOs you want, you’re not gonna come close. Just wanna correct the record.”
Maher’s audience seemed to enjoy the dick-measuring contest on display, as another guest, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), had to speak up over the applause to joke, “I have a tape measure if anyone wants one,” before Maher addressed O’Reilly’s comment.
“I will check those facts,” he said.
O’Reilly argued earlier in the show that Mamdani supports communism, citing the mayor-elect’s 2021 comment that “seizing the means of production” is an issue his base believes in, only for Moskowitz to counter that President Donald Trump has practiced this himself.
“I would say, by the way, while you’re talking about ‘seizing the means of production,’ I mean, Trump did take a 10% stake into Intel,” said the Florida Democrat before assuring his constituents: “I’m not defending Mamdani, I’m a capitalist. I’m just saying.”
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