Bill Maher didn’t hold back when Ben Shapiro tried to pin Charlie Kirk’s killing on the political left. The Real Time host sparred with Shapiro on Friday night’s episode, stepping in to correct him as he attempted to argue that leftists are responsible for most political violence, citing 22-year-old Tyler Robinson as proof.
Maher condemned violence across the political spectrum but challenged Shapiro’s attempt to paint the right as blameless. Shapiro had claimed the right “hasn’t fired a bullet.” Maher shot back. “Your side has fired a lot of bullets. And used hammers on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and used firebombs on Governor Shapiro’s house.”
Shapiro pressed forward with his own framing. “If we are not politically correct, then we understand that if there’s a shooting at a synagogue, it is very likely to be either a white supremacist or a radical Muslim. If it’s a shooting of a Republican politician, it is very likely to be trans, antifa, Marxist shooters.”
Trump went out to dinner, and people started to gather around him, chanting, "You're the Hitler of our time!" He's not Hitler, and calling somebody Hitler just makes it a lot easier to justify things like assassination. Let's put that shit away. pic.twitter.com/EiRCCQSidm
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 13, 2025
Maher reminded him that the facts about Robinson’s political leanings are still unknown. “It’s two days out. We don’t know s–t, Ben. They never do. The internet is undefeated in getting it wrong to begin with,” he said. Robinson’s background paints a murky picture. He comes from a Republican family but was registered as an unaffiliated voter. Investigators noted that bullets at the scene carried anti-fascist slogans, but understanding what that means is complicated by internet memes, irony, and cultural references that blur any simple narrative.
Maher laid out the flood of online speculation that spread after Kirk’s death, including theories that Robinson was a registered Republican, that he donated to Donald Trump, or that he was part of the Democratic Socialists of America. “We don’t know what he is,” Maher said. “How are you so sure he’s of the left? He may have been part of that group for whom Charlie Kirk was not right-wing enough. You’re sure he’s not that?” When Shapiro admitted, “I’m not sure he’s not that,” Maher quickly noted, “Oh? A minute ago you were sure of what he was.”
Shapiro then shifted to broader arguments about what he called “permission structures” for violence, linking them to his usual talking points about transgender people and immigration. Maher listened before calmly replying, “I think you are projecting your own intellectual rational world onto people who are not living in that universe.” The comment drew loud applause from the audience.
.@BenShapiro: “What’s going to make Charlie—correctly—a free speech martyr is that he was literally in the middle of using words to talk about vital issues when he was shot to death.
— The Free Press (@TheFP) September 11, 2025
He died doing the thing America was supposed to be about.” pic.twitter.com/cDe2EaCDgX
In the days after Kirk’s death, Shapiro has doubled down on his claims. He called Kirk a “free speech martyr” and warned in The Daily Wire about a “rising tide of violence on the left,” writing, “it feels as though a tsunami is coming. That tsunami, if left unchecked, will wash away this entire republic.”
Shapiro’s narrative, however, leaves out violent attacks against Democrats. Paul Pelosi was assaulted in his home, Governor Josh Shapiro’s house was firebombed, Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed, and the CDC has faced threats. These examples stand in contrast to Shapiro’s one-sided framing.
Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told PolitiFact that political violence feeds itself when both sides begin to rationalize it. “The more people justify violence from their side of the aisle, the more unhinged, aggressive people will commit violence from that side. And the more that will justify the other side in doing the same,” she said.
