” Real Time ” host Bill Maher weighed in on the political violence plaguing American life on Friday, getting into a heated discussion about the death of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist fatally shot Wednesday at Utah Valley University with conservative guest Ben Shapiro in the area.
Maher began by condemning the two-sided blame game that resulted from Kirk’s killing in the area.
“I think the only way this starts to get better is if both sides acknowledge, okay, let’s not have this debate about who started this.” He told The Local “Let’s not have a debate about who’s worse, because obviously both sides are doing it now — and the right has been doing it, a lot .
Maher went on to read a social media post from a conservative user who cited the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, the death of Kirk, and the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots to claim that “our side did not fire a bullet.”
“Your party has fired a lot of bullets,” Maher said. “And used hammers on [Democrat former House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s husband and used firebombs on [Pennsylvania’s Democrat] Governor [Josh] Shapiro’s house.”
The discussion then became testy, as Shapiro said he was familiar with “the kind of death threats Charlie was getting.” He then claimed that it was clear which side of the political spectrum was responsible for Kirk’s death.
“If we’re not politically correct, then we understand that if there’s a shooting in a synagogue, it’s very likely either a white supremacist or a radical Muslim. If it’s a shooting of a Republican politician, it’s very likely a trans, antifa or Marxist shooter.”
Maher interjected: “That’s just not true. We don’t know who this kid is.”
The suspect in the Kirk shooting has been caught , but the motive remains unclear. While a Wall Street Journal article reported that shell casings found at the scene were inscribed with “transgender and anti-fascist ideology,” those details were reprinted in an editor’s note in the Local.
Shapiro claimed that “we know” the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, “was on the political left,” citing a report from The Guardian that a former classmate described Robinson as “leftist.” However, that is also limited to an editor’s note.
“It’s two days,” Maher said. “We don’t know shit, Ben. We don’t know shit.”
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The pundit then listed all the theories flooding social media about Robinson—including that he was part of a far-right group “for whom Charlie Kirk wasn’t right-wing enough ”—and asked Shapiro point-blank, “But you’re sure he’s not?”
“I’m not sure he’s not,” Shapiro said, which prompted Maher to remark, “Oh, a minute ago you were sure who he was.”
This moment was met with thunderous applause from the entrepreneur’s studio audience.
Shapiro went on to dissect the “permission structures” on both sides, from supposed Marxists on the left and white supremacists on the right, to encourage political violence — only to declare once again that the left is more responsible than the right.
“I think you’re projecting your intellectual rational world onto people who don’t live in this universe,” Maher said, to more applause.
