— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) November 8, 2025
Comedian and pundit Bill Maher took a vicious shot at Bill O’Reilly out of nowhere, taunting his fall from Fox News mainstay to podcast host — and O’Reilly shot back with a defense of his own.
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the interview guest was country music singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney, who enters the Country Music Hall of Fame this year and co-authored the new book “Heart Life Music.”
The panel guests were Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Democratic congressman representing Florida’s 23rd district; and Bill O’Reilly, anchor of the “No Spin News” show and author of the bestselling book “Confronting Evil: Assessing the Worst of the Worst.”
During the panel segment, Maher took exception to a gentle crack from O’Reilly and way escalated:
BILL O’REILLY: Look, I watched your program, and you were disenchanted, and correct me if I’m wrong, which I very rarely am, so you probably won’t have to do that, you’re disenchanting with the far left wing of the Democratic Party, okay? Because you believe that it’s poised in the well for everybody else, like the congressman here. Am I correct.
BILL MAHER: Because they never met anything that was counterintuitive that they didn’t love.
BILL O’REILLY: Right. So they want to put trans people in here, and they want to do this. And it just dilutes the message that the Democratic Party has traditionally had that we’re for the workers. We want to improve the lives of the backbone of the country.
Now you’re into all this fringe garbage that Americans don’t want. I think that’s your posture.
BILL MAHER: Nah I wouldn’t put it that way. But go ahead.
BILL O’REILLY: Okay. But you might want to rethink because that’s a good way to put it. Um…
BILL MAHER: Well, I’m still on the air and you’re not, but go ahead.
(LAUGHTER AND HOOTS)
BILL O’REILLY: Oh I expected that. So we did a town hall on NewsNation two weeks ago from Kennedy Center. 23 million people watched, 23 million, OK?
You can add up all the HBOs you want. You’re not going to come close. Just want to correct the record.
BILL MAHER: Uh, I-I-I will, uh…
REP. JARED MOAKOWITZ: All right, I have a tape measure if anyone wants to. A little more and.
BILL MAHER: I will check those facts.
BILL O’REILLY: Yeah, you check it. Bill Maher and I go at it. People love this.
BILL MAHER: No, no, no. It’s okay. No, it’s okay, no no. I.
REP. JARED MOAKOWITZ: ‘ll drink the water.
BILL MAHER: This is going to be social media heaven.
The Cuomo town hall averaged 800,000 total viewers. O’Reilly’s figure includes all social media views, including clips, across all platforms.
Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
