Bill Maher Suggests Putting Men in Women’s Sports Is ‘Kookier’ Than Events of Jan. 6

Bill Maher attends a game between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2023. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

During the “Overtime” segment of Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time” aired on CNN, TV host Bill Maher stirred the pot with guest Seth McFarlane when he stated that putting men in women’s sports could be considered crazier than the events on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

The comments came while the “Family Guy” creator argued against former President Donald Trump while approving of President Joe Biden, siding with fellow guest Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during the segment.

After Mr. Maher’s comments seemingly confused Mr. McFarlane, he turned to another member of the show’s panel, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, and asked him about men playing in women’s sports.

Mr. Maher mentioned an article published last year by The Atlantic called “Separating Sports by Sex Doesn’t Make Sense,” which he said talked about how we separate sports like the WNBA (and the NBA). He cited the article saying that the separation of genders was “just socialization.”

“This is insane,” said Mr. Maher, to which fellow panel member Mr. Smith agreed.

“That’s why people vote for Trump because there’s stuff like that on the left that people just go, I know Trump’s horrible, but separating sports by sex makes perfect sense, and if you think it doesn’t, you can’t lead the country,” Mr. Maher explained.

Mr. MacFarlane responded that the logic Mr. Maher was describing was akin to “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

Mr. Maher continued, “Okay, I’m just giving you the answer to the question you were asking all night long, why do they vote for Donald Trump? It’s not always because they like him; it’s because stuff like that is kookier to them.”

To that statement, Mr. McFarlane responded, “It’s kookier than trashing the Capitol?”

“In a way, it is,” Mr. Maher responded, prior to querying Mr. Smith as to what would happen if the NBA and the WNBA were combined.

To that, Mr. Smith replied that LeBron James would go from 25 points per game to 70.

Mr. McFarlane went on to note that while President Biden was “not the world’s greatest public speaker,” he was certainly likable.

Maher Speaks With Riley Gains

It was back in May of last year that Mr. Maher interviewed Olympic swimmer turned women’s rights activist Riley Gains on his “Club Random” podcast about the transgender movement. The Lia Thomas (who identifies as transgender), situation was brought up during the conversation, although Mr. Thomas was not mentioned by name.

“Well, the whole thing is silly. First of all, it’s so funny. Again, these people, they’re so mindless. They choose to lump themselves all together in this,” Ms. Gains said when talking about the LGBT movement.

Riley Gaines Barker, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied for fifth place against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA Championships in March, speaks at the “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington on June 23, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

“They really wanted equality,” Mr. Maher said about the past gay movement. “What I’m noticing with this trans movement is they don’t want equality. They want to take our rights. They don’t want the same rights. They want our rights. It’s not the same.”