Abdul El-Sayed claims Bill Maher will get his 'a** whooped' if he goes on 'Real Time'

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said he would appear on Bill Maher’s show despite Maher having a history of saying “terrible things.” Maher has been an outspoken critic of religion, particularly Islam.

Sitting down in an interview with Chuck Todd, El-Sayed spoke about media personalities who have given platforms to people with whom he disagreed. He mentioned Joe Rogan, criticizing him for hosting “vaccine deniers,” but said he would still appear on Rogan’s show. El-Sayed then expressed a similar sentiment about Maher.

“You know how many terrible things Bill Maher has said about people like me?” El-Sayed. “Terrible, awful things.”

El-Sayed said he would still go on Maher’s so that he could “give people the image of watching him get his a** whooped on his own show by a guy who prays like I do.” He also said he wanted to reach Maher’s audience and convince viewers that many of the things Maher has said are not “viable.”

Maher responded to El-Sayed’s comments on his own show, clarifying that his criticism of Islam is different than attacking El-Sayed directly.

“It’s not people like you, I would love to have you on,” Maher said. “I talk about Islam. It’s never personal, and it’s never about race. It’s about ideas. Religion is an opinion; that’s all religion is.”

“I have different views on… how women should be treated and things like that that we will discuss,” Maher added, saying he hoped El-Sayed would accept an invitation to appear on the show.

Maher has a long history of criticizing Islam and has argued that religions are not equivalent when it comes to issues such as women’s rights, free speech, and peace. In 2014, Maher was part of a heated argument with actor Ben Affleck over his criticism of Islam.

During the exchange, Maher said, “Islam is the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f*cking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book.”

Maher, a longtime liberal, has also recently critizied the growing influence of socialism within the Democratic Party. In July, he said his vote would be “in play” in the 2028 presidential election, and he would vote for Vice President JD Vance should the left embrace the Democratic Socialists of America.

"I'm not living in communist America ... I've read the quotes from the DSA platform, from their own mouths. Don't tell me I'm not seeing what I am seeing," Maher said in an interview in July. "What world do they think we could possibly live in under these conditions? That's just a level of nutty that I'm so glad, whatever it was I was like, I'm not going along, 'cause this is where it ends."