Bill Maher Goes Scorched Earth on Zohran Mamdani During ‘Real Time’: “He’s a Straight-Up Communist”

Bill Maher is never shy about picking a political target, but on Friday night’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the HBO host zeroed in on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — and he did so with zero chill.

You can watch the clip above, with Maher’s comments about Mamdani beginning around the 7:20 mark.

Maher framed his monologue around what he described as a growing debate among Democrats about Mamdani’s politics. “Democrats seem to be having this debate about whether or not Mayor Mamdani is a socialist or a democratic socialist,” Maher said before cutting straight to the point. “Let me settle it. He’s a straight-up communist.”

Anticipating pushback, Maher walked viewers through how he reached that conclusion. “How do I know this?” he asked. “Well, I’m reading between the lines when one of his major advisers says, ‘Elect more communists.’”

To Maher’s credit, he made clear that ideology itself wasn’t the issue — denial was. “Which is fine. It’s fine. It’s a belief system. He’s allowed to believe it, and people are allowed to vote for it,” Maher said. “But if liberals deny it, like he’s just going through a goth phase, they’re going to lose more elections.”

From there, Maher widened the lens, arguing that American politics has become a game of extremes. “This is not a communist country,” he said, adding that it feeds into what he called the “‘pendulum never lands in the middle’ problem I’m always bitching about.”

In Maher’s telling, voters are being forced into a brutal binary. “Really, the choices we get here are either the worst version of crony capitalism or communism,” he said. “Either a side deal for the Trump family every time he does business overseas, or the lady who says, ‘Impoverish the white middle class.’”

That hypothetical campaign pitch didn’t impress him. “Oh yeah — there’s a great campaign slogan for you,” Maher deadpanned.

And because this is Real Time, the rant ended where many Maher monologues do: with a joke designed to make everyone uncomfortable. “Honestly, as New York mayoral races go, I was less creeped out by Anthony Weiner’s dick.”

As usual, Maher’s comments are likely to light up both sides of the political spectrum — and ensure that Mamdani’s name, and ideology, stay very much in the conversation.

Now in its 24th season, Real Time with Bill Maher is back with new episodes premiering Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO.