Friday night’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher was anything but ordinary. The October 24, 2025, broadcast delivered a potent mix of political analysis, sharp satire, and unvarnished debate—especially as Maher waded into the increasingly contentious New York City mayoral race. With Kentucky governor Andy Beshear and political commentators Michael Steele and Kate Bedingfield on the panel, the show became a microcosm of the broader divisions and anxieties gripping the Democratic Party as the nation looks toward 2028 and beyond.
Maher, ever the provocateur, opened his monologue with a weary acknowledgment of the current political climate. "Trump is suing America. The country he’s the leader of. I am not making this up," he quipped, capturing the sense of exhaustion that even seasoned satirists are feeling amid relentless headline churn. According to Vulture, this mood set the tone for a night where no political sacred cow was left unprodded.
The episode’s first surprise came in the form of Governor Andy Beshear’s appearance. Maher noted that, in recent years, elected Republicans have been more willing to come on the show than their Democratic counterparts. Beshear’s visit bucked that trend, and he arrived ready to discuss his pragmatic approach to governance: "Spend 80% of your time on things that matter to 100% of the American population," he said. "That doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for your convictions, some of which they may share, or not." He emphasized his record of supporting trans rights—even in deep-red Kentucky—while focusing on tangible improvements like opening businesses and fixing roads.
Maher, never one to shy away from the horse race, pressed Beshear on whether he was angling for the Democratic nomination in 2028. While Beshear deflected, the panel of Steele and Bedingfield didn’t hesitate to speculate about his national prospects. Steele reflected on his own long history with Maher, noting, "We started out going back and forth on policy. Now we’re going back and forth on what the country is. I think that says a lot about how we’ve grown as a country, but it also talks about the fissures that have grown with it." He warned, "This thing breaks, it ain’t coming back."
But it was Maher’s foray into the New York City mayoral race that truly ignited sparks. He introduced the idea that Democrats needed a "Sister Souljah moment"—a defining act of moderation to signal a break from the party’s leftmost elements. To Maher, that moment could come in the form of electing former Governor Andrew Cuomo, whom he described as "kind of normal." Maher argued, "No, Andrew Cuomo may not be that exciting and that inspirational, but for a party that said, ‘We want to get back to normal,’ he’s kind of normal."
This assessment caught Bedingfield off guard. She reminded Maher—and the audience—that Cuomo’s history was far from normal. As HuffPost reported, a 2024 Department of Justice investigation found that Cuomo had created a "sexually hostile work environment" affecting at least 13 female state employees, including allegations of unwanted touching. The resulting scandal forced Cuomo’s resignation in 2021. Bedingfield remarked, "some things in Cuomo’s history actually aren’t normal at all."
Maher, however, dismissed much of the controversy, saying, "A lot of it is kind of bullshit. I mean, maybe he was a little too handsy, a little too Italian, a little too touchy, you know?" He warned, "If you Democrats want to keep doing this, throwing guys like that under the bus, because ‘that’s not good enough’ and ‘pure enough,’ you’re going to wind up with a guy who did a little more than what Andrew Cuomo did." His comments drew both laughter and discomfort from the crowd, revealing the deep divisions over how the party should handle allegations of misconduct and the tension between pragmatism and principle.
The conversation then shifted to Cuomo’s progressive opponent, Zohran Mamdani, whom Maher painted as a risky choice for the party. He raised concerns about Mamdani’s dual citizenship in Uganda, a country with harsh anti-LGBTQ laws, arguing, "I would renounce my citizenship from a country whose ‘government policy’ was to kill homosexuals." Bedingfield shot back, "So somebody who is a dual citizen can’t be mayor of New York, or…?" She accused Maher of "buying into a fear framework" and engaging in "race baiting," especially after Maher referenced a controversial statement by Cuomo suggesting Mamdani would be "cheering" another 9/11-style attack if it happened under his watch.
Maher doubled down by bringing up Mamdani’s photo with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whom he noted was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Wahhaj has always denied any wrongdoing and was never charged. Bedingfield pointed out that other prominent politicians, including Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had also met with Wahhaj without controversy. "I just don’t know if this is a great look for the party," Maher concluded, expressing his skepticism about Mamdani’s candidacy.
The debate over the national significance of the New York mayoral race was fierce. Maher insisted that "the whole country will be looking at this race to see which way are the Democrats going to go," but Bedingfield disagreed, saying, "I disagree that the mayor of New York sets the national tone." Steele added, "I don’t think it’s a bellwether for the country; I think it’s a bellwether for New York." The discussion revealed just how much is at stake for Democrats as they navigate between competing visions for the party’s future.
Maher didn’t let the right off the hook, either. In his closing remarks, he critiqued the paranoia and exaggeration that have taken hold among some conservatives. "Each side has its crazies, and I’ll grant you — at least the right has found a place for theirs. Unfortunately, that place is elected government." He pointed to Scott Adams’s 2020 claim that "Republicans will be hunted" if Joe Biden were elected, noting how poorly that prediction has aged.
The episode was also peppered with Maher’s trademark humor. He joked about the new White House ballroom, "As a constitutionalist, I must say, I find this appalling. As the guy who it took three years to get my fucking solar panels in, I’m kind of jealous." On the World Series, he quipped, "The winner gets to decline an invitation to the White House." And when riffing on the rise of AI chatbots, he warned, "We’re about three months away from the chatbot ghosting you."
As the credits rolled, viewers were left with more questions than answers about the future direction of the Democratic Party, the role of scandal in politics, and the ways in which local races can ripple outward to shape national narratives. One thing was clear: in an era of deepening political fissures, the debates on Real Time reflect the country’s own search for a sense of normalcy—whatever that means in 2025.
