Bill Maher blasts astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on air for refusing to admit men have physical advantage in athletics

The debate started over the resignation of the editor-in-chief of Scientific American for her comments about Trump voters. But Maher thought the real issue was the magazine’s insistence that “inequity between male and female athletes is a result not of inherent biological differences between the sexes but of biases in how they are treated in sports.”

“That’s nuts, and it sure ain’t scientific,” Maher said. “And it’s in Scientific American. And that’s why the Democrats lost the election.”

Tyson responded by laughing. “It’s true,” Maher said. The scientist didn’t want to bite but said, “Bill, every 20 minutes on your platform, you come up with another reason why the Democrats lost.”

“That’s not true. First of all, you don’t watch this show, so you don’t know,” Maher accused Tyson. “I know you don’t and it’s okay, but you talk as if you do and you f**kin’ don’t. And that’s okay, just don’t bulls**t me. That’s the one thing people can’t ever do on this show is bulls**t me.”

“Engage in the idea here,” Maher continued. “What I’m asking is Scientific American is saying basically that the reason why a WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers is because of societal biases.”

“What you’re saying is not ‘Scientific American says that,’ an editor for Scientific American says that who no longer has the job,” Tyson pushed back. “So don’t indict a 170-year-old magazine because somebody __”

“Why can’t you just say this is not scientific and that Scientific American should do better?” Maher responded after Tyson refused to address the issue.

“Well, does she still have her job?” Tyson said, referring to the former editor. “Not because of this!” Maher shouted. “I said the scandal is not her tweet… you don’t see a problem here?”

“Long distance swimming, women might actually have the advantage, you look into that,” Tyson responded. “Yeah, maybe long distance swimming… Well, I’m gonna file you under ‘part of the problem,’” Maher said. The host returned to the subject matter later in the show.

“I can’t get a scientist to say that Scientific American, the magazine, as so many institutions, have been ideologically captured by this very, very far-left wing to the point where they’re denying stuff that is just obvious to the naked eye,” Maher said.

Maher summed up Tyson’s attitude as “insane. And people see that and they go ‘Well then I can’t trust you on anything else.’ I mean, look at that ad that Kamala Harris — that Trump ran against her about the transgender in prison thing, like, ‘We’re gonna pay for prisoners to get a transgender operations’ that affects like three people in the world. But she wouldn’t say ‘That was dumb. I just wouldn’t do that anymore.’ And people go, ‘Well, then I just can’t trust you on anything else.'”