WATCH: Bill Maher Says People Got Charlie Kirk All Wrong — On Purpose

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher said that people often got the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk all wrong — and did so intentionally in an effort to score points.

Maher, who interviewed Kirk before his assassination in September of 2025, raised the topic during a recent episode of his “Club Random” podcast with guest and fellow comedian Jeff Dunham — and he argued that Kirk’s statements were often cut off and presented without context so that the Christian activist could be portrayed as a “monster.”

WATCH:

????NEW: Bill Maher on Charlie Kirk: “I liked him as a person. I’m glad I talked to him. I do not think he was a monster.” pic.twitter.com/jDymW06WrK

— Jason Cohen ???????? (@JasonJournoDC) June 8, 2026

“The Charlie Kirk interview with you and him was really interesting,” Dunham said.

“Me, with him here?” Maher asked for clarification.

“Yes.”

“I loved it,” Maher agreed, adding that he’d since been asked to participate in a documentary about Kirk, and that he’d quickly agreed to do so.

“I’m giving them five minutes after my taping Friday night, because — and I told them, don’t expect me to be just saying, you know, hagiography about Charlie,” Maher continued. “I liked him as a person, I’m glad I talked to him. I do not think he was a monster, and if you look — if you look at — uh-oh, heart attack?”

“Yeah,” Dunham laughed.

“If you look at his statements, I’ve read the full statements. Of course, because everybody is only interested in getting points for their team they mischaracterize them,” Maher added. “But even when I read the full statement, which were accurately characterized, I still disagreed with him. But it wasn’t what they present — it wasn’t what they presented.”

“Again, it’s always in the middle — it wasn’t as bad as they said, but I still disagree,” he said.

Dunham said that’s what he’d enjoyed about Maher’s interview with Kirk — that he had allowed him to fully lay out his points and had considered them rather than simply pushing back and calling him names.

“My little motto here is everybody’s a monster until you talk to them,” Maher concluded.