Bill Maher started his monologue on Friday’s “Real Time” by talking about what he called “a very ugly week in America with violence of all kinds, political violence, regular violence. Lot of people talking about a civil war.”
He was referring, of course, to the murder of right wing influencer Charlie Kirk, by a 22-year-old man named Tyler Robinson who, evidence shows, may have shared similar right wing beliefs. And also, to the rippling effects, as right wing voices online assumed without evidence that the killer was a leftist.
“And then today in Congress, because Charlie Kirk got assassinated, Lauren Boebert stood up and said, We need to have a prayer. So they started to have a prayer, a silent prayer. And then she started screaming, ‘no, silent prayers get silent results,’ as if praying out loud gets big results,” Maher joked.
“So then the Democrats started screaming at her that there was a school shooting in her state,” Maher added, “I tell you, so far, the Civil War is not very civil.”
Maher then talked about Tyler Robinson, who he joked was “a stay-at-home son,” because he’s a “22 year old, white kid from Utah, living with mom and dad. They said he acted alone. I’m sure this is not the only thing he does alone.”
“And there’s a new wrinkle. Now the assassins are writing on the bullets. Have you seen this? This is not the first time he wrote on the bullet, ‘if you’re reading this, you’re gay, LMAO,’ because, you know, if you’re going to be an assassin, have fun with it,” Maher continued.
“Also, he wrote, you know, ‘hey, fascist, catch this.’ Gen Z, that’s so Gen Z. The ends justify the memes,” Maher joked.
To explain, while Robinson’s motives aren’t yet known — or, at least, public — his social media activity suggests affinity for the far right internet-based “Groyper” movement. More to the point, the engravings on the bullet casings were references to video games and internet memes that happen to be popular with the Groyper movement.
Meanwhile, Maher continued, “yesterday, the President weighed in on this. He said violence and murder are tragic consequences of demonizing those you disagree with day after day, year after year, and that goes double for dogs, fat pigs and terrible persons.”
“Today they asked the President, what are you going to do to bring the country together? And he said, ‘I know this is going to get me in trouble, but I could care less,’” Maher continued. “He’s a different kind of cat. His message is, ‘let the healing stop.”
Later in the monologue, Maher noted how in Brazil, unlike in the United States the president who attempted a coup in order to remain in power has been sentenced to 27 years in prison.
“This is also big news from the southern hemisphere, from Brazil. Bolsonaro, the president down there who was on trial for trying to steal the election, was convicted for trying to overturn the election that he lost. Trump is furious about this. He accused the entire government of being a functioning democracy,” Maher joked.
Then at the end of the show, Maher used his “New Rules” segment to defend freedom of speech. Watch that below:
