Bill Maher Critical Of NYC Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani On ‘Real Time’: “Not My Choice” 

During Friday night’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher, host Bill Maher brought up New York City’s newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, during a discussion with guests Bill O’Reilly and Florida Congressman Jared Moskowitz.

“We had somebody win in New York,” Maher began in the midst of a conversation about the current state of the U.S. economy, “I’ve spoken against him. He was not my choice.”

Maher then discussed Mamdani’s Democratic socialist stance and compared this to a quote from recently elected Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, where she warned other Democrats to avoid the words “socialist” and “socialism” altogether. With this seeming split in the party, Maher asked his guests how we can get America’s economy back on track.

“Look, it’s a supply and demand country,” O’Reilly responded. “Now, Mamdani doesn’t want that, okay, he’s not a socialist, he’s a communist.” He went on to say, “So, it’s supply and demand, and I’m going on a jihad, to please Mamdani, of telling people don’t buy anything that you feel is exploitative.”

While Maher agreed with O’Reilly’s point about the ineffectiveness of socialism, saying, “We’ve tried it many, many times. It never works.”

Moskowitz then added his two cents, clarifying that while his own capitalist stance doesn’t align with Mamdani’s socialism, he could see why Decocrats would want to rally around him right now. “Our wing of the party now is pissed… And this is the message to us that Republicans were sending with Donald Trump to their own establishment.”

Maher then closed out the Mamdani discussion with an invitation. “I’d like him to do this show,” he declared. “This guy seems to say he has balls, let’s see it.”

You can watch a short clip above of Maher discussing Mamdani on Real Time‘s Friday panel with O’Reilly and Moskowitz, or stream the full episode now on HBO Max.

Real Time With Bill Maher airs Fridays at 10/9c on HBO.