Bill Maher Spars With Far-Left Guest Over ‘Real Radical’ Zohran Mamdani

HBO  host Bill Maher, a longtime Democrat who has developed a reputation for criticizing the left’s more radical elements in recent years, got into a somewhat tense exchange with a supporter of pro-communist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during Friday’s installment of “Real Time.”

“He’s not contrived. He’s gonna be the mayor of New York,” Maher argued. The talk show host went on to highlight some of Mamdani’s most radical, Marxist-aligned policies, including significant reduction in police resources, government-owned grocery stores and exuberant minimum wage hikes that have led to crippling job losses in states like California.

“There’s a lot of opposition [to Mamdani] because we’ve never had someone this radical,” Maher went on to say. “Some of the things he says, you know he quotes Marxists, ‘each according to their need.’ I mean, that’s straight up Communism.”

Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a member of the House progressive caucus, pushed back by claiming that Mamdani is not as radical as Maher argues and has instead been maligned as the latest “boogeyman” by the right. “They always try to create a villain is my point,” he said. “They always try to create some boogeyman or bogeywoman.”

“No, these are quotes. I’m not creating anything, I’m quoting [Mamdani],” Maher shot back.

The talk show host’s other panelist, columnist James Kirchick, then chimed in to note that much of what Maher was saying is on the mark. “Everything that the crazy far-right alleged about Obama – wasn’t born in America, Islamist, socialist, antisemite, hates America, it’s all true about this guy [Mamdani],” Kirchick said.

Kirchick went on to describe what he views as some of the most “appalling” aspects of Mamdani’s platform.

“He defends the expression ‘globalize the intifada,’ which explicitly means – and I don’t wanna hear anyone deny this – it means kill Jews whenever and wherever you can find them,” Kirchick added. He further noted that a number of prominent Democrats, both in New York and nationwide, have refused to endorse Mamdani.

Mamdani has indeed expressed support for communist ideology on numerous occasions.

In one infamous post from December 2020, Mamdani reposted a tweet celebrating the election of a communist mayoral candidate in India. “Comrade Arya Rajendran, age 21 new Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram , Kerala. She will be the youngest mayor of a major city in the world. Here she leads a detachment of Red Volunteers,” reads the post, which was posted from an official communist party account.

“Them: what kind of mayor does NYC need right now?” Mamdani reposted before confirming that he was endorsing this kind of leadership.

Mamdani has also endorsed “defund the police” positions in the past, a platform he has largely attempted to run from during his general election campaign.

“In the last budget, the City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half. They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt,” Mamdani posted on December 7, 2020.

“Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence,” the post continued, which was one of many he shared on the topic in 2020. “Our police: threatening the physical safety of politicians who oppose their agenda. Our prosecutors: turning their own offices into super-spreader events because of all their COVID truthers. The entire carceral system is an unreformable public health hazard. Defund & dismantle,” the pro-communist candidate wrote in another.