HBO’s Bill Maher torched his own party, accusing Democrats championing dangerous extremist behavior in their “young loyal followers.”
In a pointed opening monologue on Friday night’s episode of “Real Time,” Maher suggested the party’s attempt to appeal to radicalized youth may come at a steep political cost.
“Their young people, their key constituency, not only don’t like their own civilization, they like the wrong one,” Maher said, accusing progressive activists of romanticizing terror groups.
“They actually think Hamas is a liberation movement. They chant for the Houthis. They’re chanting we will honor our martyrs at Yale. They’re looking for love in all the wrong countries.”
Maher cited chants seen at recent rallies and festivals. “At Coachella this year, when an Irish rap group projected onto screens, ‘F**k Israel, Free Palestine,’ it got big applause,” he pointed out.
“Globalize the Intifada is the catchphrase that’s really catching on these days.”
He also singled out liberal lawmakers Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for failing to push back on anti-Israel symbolism during their national speaking tour.
“What should have happened after that is one of the adults on stage should have told their young loyal followers, ‘This is not a symbol of freedom,’” Maher said, showing a U.S. flag. “This is.”
Maher blamed “white” Democrats for indulging in “all sorts of nonsense” from their young adult children.
“Last election, it was all the gender stuff—the insistence that men can have babies and such—and now I fear that ‘we like the terrorists’ is the new that,” he added.
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered his own diagnosis, suggesting Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) has clouded Democratic judgment.
“They hate Donald Trump so much it’s driven them to crazy town,” Cruz told Fox News Digital, walking through the Capitol on Friday.
WATCH: Bill Maher absolutely destroys David Hogg’s political career in under a minute. 😂
The Democrat party is cooked.
pic.twitter.com/7AKOXd6k0K— James Dunn 🦡🇺🇸 (@dunnrightpodcst) May 10, 2025
He pointed to Democrats opposing the deportation of violent criminals like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national accused of being both a gang member and a domestic abuser.
Cruz noted that lawmakers, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, even traveled to El Salvador advocating for Garcia’s return to the U.S.
“You look at the State of the Union address, where not a single Democrat house member or senator would stand or applaud for anything,” he noted, before calling out a particularly shocking case out of New Mexico.
“A Democrat state judge in New Mexico was arrested because he was housing a Tren de Aragua gang member in his house. Not only that, he destroyed evidence,” Cruz explained.
“He took the gang member’s cell phone. He shattered it with a hammer… That cell phone had pictures of two victims that had been decapitated!”
“It is a very bizarre political decision that the Democrats have made,” the Texas lawmaker continued. “They have decided that they are the party of illegal immigrants and the party of gang members.”
Surprisingly, not all Democrats disagree. On NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) pointed to a specific demographic within his party pushing the envelope.
“I guess what frustrates me is it is really white, college-educated liberals that are pulling us into, like, fly down to El Salvador, fly down to El Salvador,” the liberal lawmaker explained.
“No, let’s actually work for the middle class, let’s work for the working class, let’s do the things that we said we would do.”
Bera noted that Democrats lost union voters to Trump and that they “ought to learn something from that.”
“We ought to learn how to talk to those working folks, we ought to fight for those working folks. Those are our values,” he continued.
“Our policy, I believe, [is] better for folks. But we’ve got to talk to them. We’ve got to meet with them. We can’t talk down to them. We can’t be elitist.”
Meanwhile, Maher hosted DNC vice chair David Hogg, who attempted to explain the party’s loss of support among young voters in 2024.
Hogg argued that many younger men preferred a candidate “they don’t feel judged by” over someone they agree with but feel scrutinized by.
“What I think happened last election is younger men, they would rather vote for somebody … who they don’t completely agree with — [that] they don’t feel judged by — than somebody who they do agree with that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around constantly because they’re going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated,” Hogg said.
WATCH: Bill Maher absolutely destroys David Hogg’s political career in under a minute. 😂
The Democrat party is cooked.
pic.twitter.com/7AKOXd6k0K— James Dunn 🦡🇺🇸 (@dunnrightpodcst) May 10, 2025
He claimed the parties have flipped in tone. “Republicans used to be the judgmental a–holes in many ways,” Hogg continued.
“And since many Democrats — despite us, I would say, for most of us [are] coming from the right place of wanting to do the right thing — we’ve created a culture where we say, well, if you say the wrong thing, you’re excommunicated.”
Maher challenged Hogg on Trump’s growing support among the youth, particularly in light of Vice President Harris’ policy focus.
“I mean, if you go and look why they didn’t vote for them, it was more of the woke stuff, wasn’t it? Isn’t that the strategy that Trump employed? Like, she’s for they, them, and he’s for you. That was the big ad that worked,” Maher said.
Hogg laid out a path for bringing young men back into the Democratic fold by “advancing the future of this country,” so they can focus on what really matters: Getting some.
“So that they’re able to focus on their lives and you know, getting with a young woman or something like that instead of how are they going to pay their rent, for example, or how are they working their two jobs,” he stated.
“Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun,” Hogg concluded.