Bill Maher Defends His Interview With Vice President JD Vance

Democrat Bill Maher is speaking out after facing criticism for how he handled his interview with Vice President JD Vance.

“They would never be happy unless JD Vance walked out and I punched him in the nose,” Maher, 70, told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Monday, June 29. “That’s the only thing that would satisfy certain people. I don’t play that game. I like to actually talk to people.”

Maher faced backlash after he interviewed Vance on the Friday, June 26, episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” with some viewers claiming that he was not aggressive enough with his questions concerning Vance and President Donald Trump’s policies. Vance appeared on the show to promote his new faith book, Communion, becoming the first sitting vice president to be featured on the HBO show.

“Throughout their interview, Maher seemed outmatched, with Vance talking circles around him,” a Variety article reads. “And, for someone who spends every Friday night railing against the Trump administration, he treated its vice president with kid gloves.”

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On Sunday, June 28, Maher accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and detailed his conversation with Vance, sharing that their talk didn’t change his opinion on the vice president. Maher also noted that he “talks to these guys all the time,” referring to Republicans and high-level politicians.

“Everybody’s a monster till you talk to them,” he said, referring to interviews with Republicans. “Are there things we’re never going to agree on? Yeah.”

While he has disagreements with politicians, Maher shared that those conversations — like the one he had with Vance — don’t tend to turn “hateful.”

“They’re happy warriors,” he said, referencing Vance and other Republicans he has interviewed. “You hit them with three really, really hard-hitting things that say ‘you can’t keep doing it,’ and they just answer it. They evade it. But they don’t hold it against you. It doesn’t turn hateful.”

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During the conversation with Vance, Maher made headlines when he admitted that he could see himself voting Republican in the future.

“If this is where the Democratic party is going… this obsession with Israel, with the Jew-hating, with they don’t believe in capitalism, no prisons, if this is where they’re going, my vote is in play,” Maher said. “It’s either going to be you or [Marco] Rubio.”

He continued, “Here’s my dealbreaker for your side. Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes that an election can be, either we win or they cheated. That s*** has to stop. And that means the person who has to stop it will be you, or Marco. Can you tell me you will do that?”

Vance replied,“OK, Bill, so this is where I’m probably going to lose ya there. I don’t think we should not concede elections, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on … The biggest criticism I had of the 2020 election is that you had technology companies that were quite literally censoring negative information about the left and promoting negative information about the right.” (Progressive research center Media Matters showed that Facebook and other social media platforms promoted right-leaning content more than left-leaning content.)

“Well, you’re going to get a big pat on the back when you go back to the White House,” Maher retorted.