Bill Maher worked on the topic in his monologue in Friday’s “real-time” episode, centering on a conversation about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, discussing Fallout with guest, Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro and Atlantic author Tim Alberta.
“It’s a very ugly week in America with all sorts of violence, including political violence, regular violence, and many people talking about civil wars. And today, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, so today in Congress (Colorado Representative) Lauren Beaubert stood up and said, “We need prayers.” So they began to pray quietly. As if praying loudly would result in great results,” Maher began with his monologue. “Then Democrats began screaming at her that there was a shooting in her state. So far, the Civil War is not very civil.”
Maher then cited President Trump’s comments on the fierce political environment that was left behind after Kirk’s death.
“Today they asked the president, ‘What are you going to do to unite the nation?” And he said, “This would bother me, but I couldn’t really care,” Maher continued with a laugh. “He is a different kind of cat. His message is, “Let me stop healing.” ”
Later in the episode, Maher welcomed Shapiro and Alberta for the roundtable. Shapiro began his speech by saying in a poll that “only 57% of Generation Z say they have no excuses for violence in response to their speech.”
“At least 42% believe that violence should often be a response to a speech, and that’s very frightening,” Shapiro said. “I never thought we would reach this point, being honest with God. Even the assassination of a political figure is not just being shot in the throat for a crime debating the matter in a public square.
Describing herself as a “sparling partner from afar,” Alberta, who described herself to Kirk as a “sparking partner from afar,” added: “The response to this was not a shock or fear, it wasn’t a reversal of the trendlines of these polls. If anything, this will become mainstream and become acceptable, especially for Ben’s point among younger voters.”
“The state governor said, ‘Social media is cancer,’ and I think that’s true. When I read some of the comments from people, they’re really in the bubble so they’re in the bubble so much that they don’t understand that it’s happening on both sides, so the only way this gets better is not to argue “It’s okay, who started it.” And I did a lot of rights too,” Maher said.
Maher and Shapiro were taken to policy custody on Friday to challenge reports on the political ideology of the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson from Utah.
“I know this kid was a political left,” Shapiro began, citing a report from the Guardian and tablet magazine.
“It’s two days later. I don’t know shit. The internet is undefeated to what’s wrong from the start,” replied Maher.
Kirk appeared on Maher’s podcast club random in April.
Kirk, 31, became Trump’s ally as co-founder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocated mobilizing young people’s votes, was filmed Wednesday afternoon at a debate event he was holding at Utah Valley University. Kirk was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.
After a massive manhunt, Trump appeared on Fox News Friday morning, announcing that the suspect in Kirk’s shooting had been taken into police custody.
Along with Alberta and Shapiro, guests of HBO’s “real-time” episode on Friday included Charlie Sheen.
