Bill Maher Roasts Audience Member Cheering On AOC, Bernie Sanders Tour

Bill Maher trolled a member of his own audience cheering on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour headlined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Maher noted during a Real Time panel discussion with Sen. Tina Smith (D-NM) and Matt Welch on Friday that Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders are drawing “big crowds” with their tour, but he chalked it up to a “shiny” distraction for Democrats, rejecting Ocasio-Cortez as a potential 2028 candidate.

“What do you think of the fact that the people who are getting the big crowds right now are AOC and Bernie Sanders. They’re going around the country —” Maher said, stopping as a lone member in the audience clapped.

The comedian responded to the clapper by dubbing him the “always wrong guy.”

“Thank you. That is the same guy. I call him the always wrong guy,” he joked.

The Real Time host continued by saying he doesn’t see progressives like Oscasio-Cortez and Sanders as Democrats who can translate “big crowds” into votes.

“I feel like big crowds — again, the shiny object that Democrats chase. It’s not about the big crowds that come out when you’re talking at a festival or wherever they are. Because I think Bernie showed up at Coachella. That must have been fun for the fans. It’s who shows up on election day and I just don’t see that’s the ticket,” he said.

The comedian chalked up the tour and a recent marathon Senate floor speech by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to Democrats simply “whacking each other off.”

Maher later flatly rejected Ocasio-Cortez as a possible candidate. In a Yale University survey conducted this month, Ocasio-Cortez ranked a close second behind former Vice President Kamala Harris as a 2028 option among Democratic voters.

“You don’t really think AOC should be the candidate, do you?” Maher asked Smith.

Smith said it’s “not her job to pick who the candidate” will be.

“It’s mine and it shouldn’t be her,” Maher said.

Watch above via HBO.