Maher Rips Dems Over Mamdani: ‘You’re In For A Rude Awakening’
HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher delivered one of his most blistering critiques yet of America’s socialist wing, arguing that New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders are directly responsible for the “collapse” of the Democratic Socialists — and for dragging an already-struggling Democratic Party even further from the political center at a time when voters are demanding the opposite.
Maher used the closing monologue of his latest program to lay out what many moderates and conservatives have warned for years: the Democratic Party’s cultural radicalism, combined with its hard-left economic agenda, has pushed it into territory that most Americans find unrecognizable.
“Democrats should recognize the party moved too far left on social issues after Obama left office. Gosh, if only someone had been saying that all along. But, you know, welcome home,” Maher said.
From there, he unloaded on the Democratic Socialists’ open-borders doctrine.
“Radical economic policy is always ineluctably married to radical social policy,” Maher said. “Their platform, for example, calls for completely open borders. They’re for what Biden was doing, but more. You think you’re going to win an election on that? This just seems like more extremism at a time when Americans are begging both parties, please, could just one of you act normal?”
Maher wasn’t finished. In a segment dripping with sarcasm, he added:
“And finally, New Rule. Democrats must recognize that Zohran Mamdani is the future of the party. Unfortunately, it’s the Republican Party. Get it?”
Highlighting the political grenade Mamdani just handed conservatives, Maher pointed out that the socialist mayor-elect’s victory speech will be “in every attack ad for the next two years.”
“Now, Mamdani seems like a nice guy and I congratulate him on an extraordinary political achievement. But before the whole left side of the country catches socialism fever, let’s listen to the other big winner in last Tuesday’s election, Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, who before the 24 election said things like, ‘Iif the party didn’t shift to the center, we will get f*cking torn apart.’ And ‘we need to never use the word socialist or socialism ever again.’ Well, she was right, but they didn’t listen. Typical of my right lady,” he said.
Maher then laid out the data proving that moderates — not socialists — are the only Democrats capable of winning in the era of President Donald J. Trump’s revived political dominance.
“Well, at least the party has a clear choice here. Very clear. One wing is saying don’t ever use the word socialist again. And Mamdani is saying he’s a ‘Democratic Socialist.’ Clear, huh? So how do we decide who’s right? Well, it turns out we don’t really have to flip a coin. We have the evidence. In 2024, 13 Democrats won. In districts, Trump also won. All moderates. This isn’t rocket science,” Maher declared.
He acknowledged why younger voters are drawn to the fantasy of socialism — but argued bluntly that the system has never worked.
“Problem is, Gen Z thinks socialism’s wired and capitalism’s tired and billionaires are what’s for dinner. And who can blame them? If you’re 30 and still sharing a bathroom with roommates, capitalism isn’t working for you,” he said.
“People will reject any economic system where there’s strange hair on the soap. No one wants to be approaching middle age and still writing their name on food before they put it in the fridge. So they’re quitting, quiet quitting capitalism and texting socialism that they’re down to fck. Thing is, socialism will fck you because socialism, to put it simply, just doesn’t work and has never worked,” Maher declared.
To underscore his point, Maher shared the stark imagery of capitalism versus socialism:
“Here’s capitalist South Korea at night from space. Here’s socialist North Korea,” he said.
He continued with a devastating comparison:
“Yeah. In 1990, Venezuela was wealthier than Poland. But then Poland, finally free of Soviet-style economics, went all in on capitalism. And now their economy is as big as Japan,” Maher said.
“And people there have high wages, low inflation, cars, vacations, homes. Meanwhile, Venezuela traded capitalism for Hugo Chavez’s socialism for the 21st century, which turned out to be like socialism in the last century or any century. A f*cking mess,” he said.
Venezuelan socialism, he noted, produced exactly what socialism always produces:
“It turned one of Latin America’s richest countries into one of its poorest. Low wages, high inflation, shortages, outages, 8 million people fleeing. If you think New York can somehow reinvent this wheel, you’re in for a rude awokening. Zohran can’t make your wishes come true. You’re thinking of Zoltan,” he added.
Maher closed with a warning for voters who still believe the Democratic Socialists represent mainstream Democratic politics.
“Bernie, AOC, Mamdani are not Democrats. They’ll be the first to tell you that. They’re Democratic Socialists. And that’s a very different thing. And I don’t think people know that yet. I don’t think people realize we already have a lot of socialism,” he said.
With Mamdani set to take over America’s largest city and President Trump restoring order at the federal level, Maher’s rebuke signals a growing split on the Left — one the GOP is more than prepared to exploit.