Bill Maher began his monologue on Real Time with Bill Maher by denouncing a “very ugly week in America” following the assassination of far-right political activist Charlie Kirk.
As audiences applauded his entrance, the host thanked viewers for “coming on a somewhat difficult week” and noted at the extended clapping, “I hope that’s for what I think it’s for — because I’ve always been someone who wants to talk to people.”
“It’s a very ugly week in America with violence of all kinds: political violence, regular violence, a lot of people talking about a civil war,” Maher continued. “And then today in Congress, because Charlie Kirk got assassinated, [Colorado Representative] Lauren Boebert stood up and said, ‘We need to have a prayer.’ So they started to have a silent prayer. And then she started screaming, ‘No! Silent prayers get silent results.’ As if praying out loud gets big results. So then the Democrats started screaming at her that there was a school shooting in her state. I tell you, so far, the civil war is not very civil.”
Maher went on to say that the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was a “stay-at-home son.”
“They said he acted alone,” Maher joked, “I’m sure this is not the only thing he does alone.”
Speaking to president Donald Trump’s recent comments on what should be done to bridge the stark partisan divide in the nation, the host said, “Today, they asked the president, ‘What are you going to do to bring the country together?’ And he said, ‘I know this is going to get me in trouble, but I could care less.’ He’s a different kind of cat. His message is, ‘Let the healing stop,’” drawing wan laughs.
Later in the episode, which featured guests Charlie Sheen, fellow ultra-conservative personality Ben Shapiro and The Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta, Maher added, “I like everybody, I talk to everybody, I’m glad I took that approach. But he was shot under a banner that said, ‘Prove me wrong,’ because he was a debater, and too many people think that the way to do that — to prove you wrong — is to just eliminate you from talking altogether. So the people who mocked his death or justified it, I think you’re gross. I have no use for you. The people who are saying now we’re at war, I’ve no use for you.”
Kirk, one of the most prominent organizers on the right, particularly in collegiate life via his Turning Point USA organization, was addressing thousands of college students at an outdoor event held at Utah Valley University when he was shot in the neck. About two hours later, Trump announced his death on Truth Social. The president said on Thursday that he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A divisive figure for his espousal of Christian Nationalism, who had called the passage of the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake” and said that some gun-violence related deaths were “prudent” in order to secure the protection of the Second Amendment, though Kirk’s death was swiftly condemned by political officials past and present — from Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to former president Barack Obama — some online, as Maher mentioned, did not have a lot of empathy for his killing, invoking the late pundit’s own words that “empathy is a made-up, new age term that … does a lot of damage.”
Political violence has risen in the U.S. in recent years, with Kirk’s shooting coming just months after the assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, as well as the shooting of a state senator and his wife and the firebombing of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence.
The post Bill Maher Denounces People Who “Mocked” Or “Justified” Charlie Kirk’s Assassination: “Very Ugly Week In America With Violence Of All Kinds” appeared first on Deadline.
