Bill Maher addressed Charlie Kirk’s assassination during Friday night’s episode of Real Time, where he started the episode off by noting that it had been a “very ugly week in America.”
During his opening monologue, Maher touched on the current state of politics in the United States in the wake of the shooting. He began, “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.”
“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,” Maher continued. “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.”
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University after an assassin’s bullet struck his neck while he was hosting a student’s event. He was discussing mass shootings in the U.S. when he was struck. On Friday, Tyler Robinson was identified as the suspect in the assassination and was brought into custody.
Maher went on to address President Donald Trump’s answer to a question he was asked on Fox & Friends about how to “fix this country” and “come back together” in the wake of a major political divide.
“Today, they asked the President, ‘What are you going to do to bring the country together?’” he recited. “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.’”
Later in the episode, Maher sat down with Ben Shapiro and and Tim Alberta, where they spoke about Kirk’s death in length. There, the Real Time host condemned “the people who mocked his death or justified it.”
“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,” he said. “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.”
He further addressed the widespread reaction Kirk’s assassination sparked on social media.
“The governor of the state said, ‘Social media is a cancer,’ which I think is true because when you read some of the comments from people, they really are in such a bubble that they don’t understand that it’s happening on both sides,” Maher added. “And I think the only way this starts to get better is if both sides admit, ‘OK, let’s not have this debate about who started it. Let’s not debate about who’s worse because, plainly, both sides do it now.’ And the right has done it too. A lot.”
Following Kirk’s death, Hollywood and political figures took to social media to share their reactions and tributes to the late MAGA activist. President Donald Trump announced his death on Truth Social, writing, “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel took to Instagram, where he wrote, “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”
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