Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher rebuked his studio audience during a recent episode of Real Time after some attendees laughed at the idea of disappointment over an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
Maher, addressing reactions to the latest attempt on Trump’s life, paused mid-discussion to confront the crowd directly, noted Fox News.
Bill Maher’s audience laughs as he’s forced to remind liberals “you’re not a good person” if you want Trump killed.
“He’s not Hitler!”
“I would just like to say, if you… watched that and were disappointed the president wasn’t killed…”
[Audience laughs]
“See, they’re… pic.twitter.com/WXFdnaaUCV
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 2, 2026
“I would just like to say, if you… watched that and were disappointed the president wasn’t killed…” Maher said, prompting laughter from parts of the audience.
“See, they’re laughing at that,” he continued. “You’re not a good person or a smart person, but definitely not a good person.”
The exchange escalated as Maher turned to broader political rhetoric, pushing back on comparisons between Trump and historical dictators. Referencing a The New York Times interview with Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker — who said the next president should be “good, decent and kind” — Maher said he agreed with the principle but rejected its application as a political weapon.
“And certainly Trump has often not been good, decent or kind,” Maher said, before cutting off an attempted interruption from columnist Bret Stephens. “But he’s not Hitler!”
Maher then addressed the risks of extreme political language, arguing that rhetoric portraying opponents as existential threats can carry real-world consequences.
“But the shoe’s on the other foot now,” he said. “I mean, it’s on both feet. But you got to own this kind of rhetoric. This is why I was against this ‘he’s Hitler’ bullshit. I mean, if you really believe that he is a Hitler McPedophile, then you kind of have to kill him. That’s the mentality they have.”
The segment aired days after an April 25, 2026, incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, where authorities say a gunman attempted to breach security near Trump and other officials. It marked the third reported assassination attempt targeting the president since 2024.
Maher’s comments drew mixed reactions online. Supporters said the host was right to call out what they view as dehumanizing political rhetoric, while leftwing critics, as always, tried to justify the ongoing rise of violence on the left, or as some academics have labeled it: “assassination culture.”
