Bill Maher calls Democrats 'cowardly,' says he could back JD Vance in 2028

HBO's Bill Maher declared his presidential vote "in play" and refused to rule out supporting Republican JD Vance, a striking break from a man who has voted Democrat for decades.

Maher, the longtime host of "Real Time with Bill Maher," appeared on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday and delivered a blunt indictment of his own political side. Democrats, he told interviewer Jonathan Karl, are "cowardly." Their party, he said, is "being taken over" by radicals. And when Karl asked whether his vote was up for grabs, Maher didn't hedge.

"Yes. My vote is in play," Maher said on ABC. The statement landed as more than a provocative soundbite from a talk-show host. It marked the sharpest public break yet between one of liberal media's most visible figures and the party he has supported for most of his adult life, and it came with a specific list of grievances that will sound familiar to millions of voters who have already walked away.

Maher names names: socialism, anti-Israel radicalism, and the DSA

Maher did not deal in vague disappointment. He pointed to the Democratic Socialists of America and their platform language, which he said calls for the "takeover of key industries." He rejected the argument that what the party's left flank promotes is merely European-style social democracy.

"I know that the talking point is that it's not communism, it's socialism," Maher said. "OK, 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!"

He drew a hard line on the word itself. "DSA, again, they say things like 'takeover of key industries', that's communism. You know, there is a definition."

Maher also singled out the pro-Palestinian protest movement that has swept through Democratic constituencies. "When we're cheering for the Intifada, cut, I'm out," he said. That language, "Intifada," a term that refers to violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel, has become a flashpoint on college campuses and in progressive activist circles. Maher treated it as a deal-breaker, not a policy disagreement.

His frustration echoed the concerns of Sen. John Fetterman, who has warned he could walk away from Democrats over the party's handling of Israel.

'Every day I hear about a new, very radical guy'

Maher framed his shift not as a sudden conversion but as a slow accumulation of offenses. He said he lost fans roughly a decade ago for refusing to go along with what he called "crazy stuff on the left." He insisted his views on the right had not changed, but that he could no longer ignore what was happening on his own side.

"I can't sit and just not notice stuff, which people seem to want to do because it's all about my team or your team. But yeah, there's some crazy stuff."

That framing, loyalty to facts over loyalty to a jersey, is the kind of argument that resonates with voters who feel politically homeless. Maher positioned himself as someone whose principles stayed put while the party moved. Whether or not one agrees with his self-assessment, the argument carries weight because he is making it publicly, on network television, with no apparent interest in walking it back.

The broader pattern is hard to miss. Even Sen. Cory Booker has called out his own party, saying Democrats "desperately need new leadership." When figures across the ideological spectrum within the Democratic coalition are publicly airing the same complaints, the problem is structural, not personal.

Vance gets a direct endorsement signal

Maher's willingness to name a specific Republican made his comments harder to dismiss as mere frustration. In a separate appearance on his own HBO show, Maher told Vice President JD Vance directly that he could see himself voting for him in 2028. Fox News reported that Maher laid out the full list of issues pushing him away: the Democratic Party's "obsession with Israel," anti-capitalism, and support for prison abolition.

"If this is where the Democratic Party is going, this obsession with Israel, with the Jew-hating, they don't believe in capitalism, no prisons. If this is where they're going, my vote is in play."

When asked point-blank whether he could vote for Vance, Maher answered simply: "Yes. If this is the Democratic side, yes." Newsmax reported the exchange as part of a broader trend of traditionally left-leaning figures reconsidering their political homes.

Maher also noted a telling asymmetry in who will talk to him. The New York Post reported that prominent Democrats, including Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have all refused to appear on his show, while Republicans regularly accept his invitations.

"It's the people I vote for, they're the ones who won't talk to me! That's odd, isn't it?" Maher said.

It is odd, and revealing. A party that will not sit for questions from a sympathetic interviewer is a party that does not trust its own positions to survive contact with an honest conversation.

Not a party switch, but a warning shot Democrats cannot afford to ignore

Maher has not registered as a Republican. He has not endorsed Vance outright. He stated plainly that he has "never voted strictly by party" and always voted for the candidate he believed was best. The Washington Examiner noted that Maher's comments reflect a growing disillusionment among long-time Democrats who view the party's progressive wing as extreme.

But the political significance is not really about one comedian's ballot. It is about what Maher represents: a visible, vocal, culturally connected liberal who has reached the point of saying out loud what quieter Democrats say only to friends. When a man who built his career on mocking Republicans tells a Republican vice president "my vote is in play," the Democratic Party's internal problem is no longer deniable.

Maher is not the only traditionally left-leaning figure making this kind of noise. His earlier exchange with Vance on "Real Time" previewed the same themes he brought to ABC, the same grievances, the same willingness to cross a line that would have been unthinkable five years ago.

And the phenomenon extends well beyond media figures. Across the country, former Democrats are switching parties entirely, drawn by the sense that the GOP is now the more hospitable home for people who believe in free markets, secure borders, and basic public safety.

Democrats called 'cowardly', and the silence confirms it

Maher's sharpest word was not "radical" or "communist." It was "cowardly." He did not accuse Democratic leaders of believing in the DSA platform or cheering for the Intifada. He accused them of lacking the courage to push back against the people in their coalition who do.

"Democrats are cowardly. Their party is being taken over now. Every day I hear about a new, very radical guy."

That distinction matters. Maher's complaint is not that every Democrat is a socialist. His complaint is that the ones who aren't refuse to say so, refuse to draw lines, refuse to show up for tough interviews, refuse to risk the wrath of their activist base by stating obvious truths.

The refusal of Harris, Ocasio-Cortez, and Mamdani to appear on Maher's show only reinforces his point. If the party's leaders cannot defend their positions to a friendly liberal host, they are confirming exactly the charge Maher leveled: they are afraid of their own coalition.

When the people who have voted for you their entire lives start telling you, on national television, that they might stop, the problem is not the messenger. The problem is the message.