Comedian Bill Maher took aim at Democrats in the party’s progressive wing with a stinging three-word insult as he suggested that he could support a Vice President JD Vance for the top job in 2028.
Maher made the remarks in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s This Week, a few weeks after he was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with its annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Past recipients of the award have included Conan O’Brien, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld, and Dave Chappelle. Maher, an occasional critic of Trump’s, dined at the White House last spring at a meeting arranged by Kid Rock aimed at smoothing over their sometimes-strained relationship. Afterwards, he claimed that Trump “definitely has a form of Tourette syndrome.”
In the interview, the HBO star quipped that the “level of nutty” he said was represented by the party’s new progressive insurgents were a bridge too far for him, telling ABC’s Jonathan Karl that he’d abandon the party if its “communist” wing took over.
”This wing of the party, this new wing with all the energy … It’s just a level of nutty that I’m so glad that whenever it was I was like no, I’m not going along because this is where it ends,” he said. ”My vote is in play [in 2028] because it can’t be Trump running, so I’m not living in communist America.”
Maher answered directly “yes,” when asked by Karl if he could support Vance for president in 2028 if a progressive Democrat was the nominee. Vance is widely considered to be the most likely successor to Trump for de facto control of the Republican Party, but faces potential competition from others such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The host also noted that he advised Vance to quit with the conspiracy theories about the 2020 election if he wanted the support of moderates: “This stuff that’s going on now, as I said to the vice president, this s*** has to stop.”
But Maher isn’t ready to jump ship just yet, adding that he thought there were “talented” Democrats who could run for the presidency from younger generations.
“I hope we can have an eight-person presidency next time because I can’t pick between this crop of geniuses,” Maher said sarcastically, before adding seriously: “No, there’s some very talented people.”
He ripped into the Democratic Party as “cowardly”, however, because he claimed that many Democrats were avoiding his show and coming face-to-face with his criticism.
“The Democrats don’t come on [my show], and yet they got my vote. It’s just odd, isn’t it?” he remarked to Karl.
Maher has signaled his distaste for the progressive left before, even though his own record on the issue is muddled. He endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton in 2016, though he soured on the “Bernie or Bust” movement when it became clear that Clinton had won the primary.
Sanders is one Democrat who has made repeat appearances on Maher’s show, and others have joined the program in separate appearances including Rep. Ro Khanna, Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Sen. John Fetterman.
Maher’s criticism comes as the progressive wing of the party has clashed with both Democratic Party leadership as well as the general seniority of the party’s membership on Capitol Hill while targeting incumbents with primary challenges this cycle.
The left has brushed off the criticism from the center and portrayed the wave of primary challenges against incumbents as the inevitable result of the anger openly displayed by the Democratic base over 2025 in the face of the onset of the second Trump administration, which began with the DOGE-ification of the federal government. Party leaders acknowledged that voters were furious last year over a perception of non-resistance hanging over the Democratic House and Senate caucuses. A shutdown fight over federal Obamacare subsidies, which expired at the end of the year, added to that perception when Senate Democrats eventually backed down.
Maher’s selection by the Kennedy Center for the Mark Twain prize sparked controversy online as many saw the news as the Trump-controlled board of the Kennedy Center picking someone who is relatively friendly to the president to receive the prize.
Trump launched a full takeover of the Kennedy Center last year, complete with an unsuccessful attempt to add his name to it without congressional approval. An effort to alter the Center’s programming was met with stiff resistance from both artists who pulled out of hosting shows at the venue and audiences who departed in droves.
The board of Trump-installed directors announced earlier this year that it would close and undergo a two-year renovation process after several months of declining ticket sales.
