Bill Maher called out his audience as “f–king liars” for claiming they cared about former President Barack Obama’s nearly $1 billion Presidential Center.
Maher criticized the design idea and purpose of the near-windowless, 225-foot-tall museum at the center of the complex that opened in Chicago on Friday during a discussion with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) and journalist Jonathan Martin.
“Do we have a picture of the Obama library? Because it looks like something aliens built in Dubai,” Maher said on “Real Time.” “It cost $850 million. I don’t understand why progressives like this. Couldn’t that money be better spent on something else?
“Who’s gonna go to this? Why does anybody need a presidential library? These monuments to some of these ego, out of office,” he began to say.
The 70-year-old comedian then polled his audience on whether any member was planning to visit the center in Jackson Park in Chicago’s South Side.
The question got a resounding round of applause, but Maher wasn’t buying the response.
“Really? You’re all a bunch of f–king liars,” Maher said. “You’re not going to the Obama library.”
Khanna, who was a panelist on Friday’s show, questioned Maher’s problem with a building honoring the first and only Black president of the United States as he compared the money spent to Elon Musk’s billion-dollar venture to Mars.
“First of all, we don’t need that building to do that,” Maher said. “That’s in our hearts and minds. That already happened.”
Bill Maher mocked the Obama Presidential Center as a billion-dollar monument to ego. Ro Khanna had the better answer. “It’s a unique story of the possibility in this country of someone who had no shot. When I was in law school, they said to me, your Indian-American, you’re of… pic.twitter.com/mJ84IRfu5E
— Blue Georgia (@BlueGeorgia) June 20, 2026
Khana, a fifth-term congressman representing the South and East Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area, proclaimed that Michelle Obama gave “one of the greatest speeches” at the Obama Center dedication.
The 49-year-old politician said the former first lady spoke about how her husband fought against racism and insults while showing “hope and patience and aspirations can overcome it.”
“What does that have to do with a building?” Maher retorted. “We didn’t know that story without the building? Like unless you go to the building you’re like ‘Obama, who was he again?’”
The “Death Star” shaped centerwill feature a museum, a community hub, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, and an athletics and recreation space along with other outdoor spaces.
Khanna argued that the building represents more than just the eight years of Obama’s presidency and has impacted millions of lives in the country.
“I do think Obama’s story is unique, I’m biased, I worked for him but it’s a unique story of telling the possibilities in this country,” Khanna said. “When I was in law school, an intern, they said to me ‘Ro, you’re Indian-American, you’re of Hindu faith, go to the Capitol because you’re never getting elected to anything.
“That’s what I heard, and then Barack Obama happened and he changed the direction of this nation for millions of people,” he said.
“Again nothing to do with a building,” Maher said.
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