Bill Maher and Megyn Kelly got into a tense exchange over her support for former President Donald Trump and how much emphasis should be placed on the fact that many Republican voters deny the results of the 2020 election.
Maher went on Kelly’s SiriusXM radio show on Tuesday and the two started off surprisingly cordial, noting that neither had a “political home.”
But when Kelly, a registered independent, said she would vote for Trump in 2024, it set the liberal comedian in motion.
“Well, I mean, I can’t even understand that, and I understand that Biden is deeply flawed, but he does believe in our way of life.”
President Joe Biden has the support of Maher, who told Newsweek in March that he was in favor of “Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid‘ over Trump.
Bill Maher and Megyn Kelly face off on her SiriusXM show
Trump has actually responded to Kelly’s support of him, saying she “made a career” by “pretending” she liked him.
The ex-Fox News host’s feud with Trump dates back to when Kelly moderated a presidential debate in 2016 and asked him a pointed question about how he treats women.
Nevertheless, her support for Trump caused Maher to repeatedly condemn the events of the 2020 election.
Maher said Trump’s refusal to concede the election and his claims that it was fraudulently stolen from him amount to him violating the norms that have held the country together since the beginning.
“What could be more fundamental to you or anyone else than allowing elections?” Maher asked Kelly. ‘And he has not admitted the latter. He clearly won’t admit this one.
“He now has all his sycophants around him parroting his party line, and that’s when they ask them, ‘Will you stick to the election results?’ “Yes, if it’s a free and fair election,” which is another way of saying, “If we win.”
“Do you really think this is where this country should be?”
Kelly responded by saying she would not defend “election denial.”
“I’m not one of those people who believe that,” Kelly added.
As of December 2023, 31 percent of Republicans believe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election.
The same poll sees a decline from December 2021 to December 2023 across all parties in those who think President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was ‘legitimate’
Maher then intervened and asked Kelly what was more important than “election denial.”
“What if my daughter doesn’t go into a locker room and see a man’s penis?” she said right back, referring to the spate of incidents in which trans women have been spotted in female locker rooms at gyms and other recreational spaces.
Planet Fitness is a gym plagued by this problem. Most recently, a man who allegedly took advantage of the woke company’s transgender locker room policy went to the women’s facilities, stripped naked and paraded his genitals around.
A woman was banned from Planet Fitness in March for reporting a “trans woman” shaving in the women’s locker room.
Maher acknowledged the importance of addressing gender and how bathroom policy should work, but immediately returned to how the upcoming elections are crucial to democracy.
‘I’m talking about the difference between this and something fundamental, which is our democracy. The fact that you have to respect who wins the elections, otherwise you won’t have the kind of country we’ve always had,” he said.
Maher repeatedly hammered home the point that Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election is a “fundamental” problem more important than the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story
Kelly argued that President Biden’s administration is “as woke as it gets” and that he has chosen to keep the border open
While Kelly agreed with Maher that the election was not stolen, adding that she did not think there was any substance to the claim that the Dominion voting machines had been compromised, she did make an overture to Republican voters, saying that the election of 2020 ‘weren’t good’. ‘not fair’ to Trump.
“What wasn’t fair?” Maher asked.
‘Don’t get me started, what wasn’t fair? What about the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story?”
Maher was incredulous, “Oh, for God’s sake, really? Then we’re not as similar as you think. That’s a stupid non-story.’
The New York Post originally published the story in October based on documents from Hunter’s laptop detailing alleged corruption within the Biden family.
Twitter blocked its users from sharing that story, which claimed Hunter was involved with a Chinese oil giant and that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden may have received money from the deal his son made with the foreign company.
The New York Post story alleged that Hunter (left) was involved with a Chinese oil giant and that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden may have received money from the deal his son made with the foreign company
Images of Hunter Biden naked, smoking crack appear to appear in the tweets that staffers from Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign told Twitter to delete, revelations show
The information published by the Post was widely dismissed as fake or “Russian disinformation,” leading Facebook to suppress the story as well.
Kelly pointed to polling data showing that if Americans had known the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop were authentic, many of them would have voted differently.
A December 2022 survey by right-wing TIPP Insights found that 28 percent of adults following the Hunter Biden story would have voted differently if the FBI had not claimed it was all Russian disinformation.
Maher acknowledged that the story should not have been suppressed, although he said he doesn’t think the story would have changed the outcome of the election.
“These are typical right-wing talking points, evil Hunter Biden and evil Joe Biden,” Maher said.
“You are clearly someone who looks at an elephant and a mouse and asks which is bigger,” he added, comparing the issue of the Hunter Biden laptop story to the denial of the 2020 election.
Kelly quickly hit back.
“You keep telling me I’m crazy because I don’t see the difference between the elephant and the mouse, and I’m telling you I identify them differently than you do,” Kelly told Maher. “Hillary Clinton is, of course, the original election denier. I’m sure you voted for her in ’16.’
Kelly referenced Clinton’s 2019 comments on CBS’ Sunday Morning show, where she said Trump “knows he’s an illegitimate president.”
Maher pointed out that Clinton conceded the election to Trump the day after the 2016 election, something Trump never did again after the 2020 election.
