Megyn Kelly, Bill Maher Dissect Ben Affleck Video
Megyn Kelly on May 18, 2022, in New York City, Bill Maher on October 24, 2017, in Hollywood, California and Ben Affleck on December 12, 2021, in Hollywood, California. Kelly and Maher have discussed the heated debate Maher and Affleck had back in 2014.
Megyn Kelly and Bill Maher have discussed the viral moment that saw Ben Affleck and Maher get into an argument over the topic of Islam, using it to reference the political landscape in 2024.
In 2014, the Oscar-winning actor appeared on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher alongside panelists such as author Sam Harris and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. The panel discussed whether liberals were failing to criticize Islam for what some people view as its inequality toward women, minorities, and other religions.
During the televised debate, Affleck accused Maher and Harris of "gross" and "racist" depictions of Islam. This was partly because Maher claimed Islam manifested as "the only religion that acts like the mafia." Harris added: "We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion gets conflated with bigotry toward Muslims as people. It's intellectually ridiculous."
Affleck responded by saying these kinds of comments were "stereotyping" Muslim people, adding: "How about more than a billion people who aren't fanatical, who don't punch women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, pray five times a day, and don't do any of the things you're saying of all Muslims."
During an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show on Monday night, Kelly and Maher discussed this moment. Kelly praised Maher, saying he was "ahead of the curve" and said Harris was "totally right."
Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Affleck, Maher, and Kelly for comment on Tuesday.
Maher used the 2014 debate with Affleck to claim that it reflected what was happening in politics and world issues today.
"This is one of the big problems with the left today, is they see race in everything."
"As the guy who was trying to, like, be the common-sense person in the middle, just speak for the normies, everything, I think, to a lot of people strikes it the way it strikes me as—we start with one thing on this idea over here, and then we're all the way on the other side over here," he said, using his hands to illustrate his point.
Maher went on to say that he disagrees with those who are "bigoted" and said he approved of the fact that people had grown impatient with racism, which he said was the "appropriate response."
He continued: "And then it goes all the way to, 'and no one who is a person of color can ever do anything wrong.' That's how you get, 'we don't talk about China.' North Korea starves its people, China puts the Uyghurs in concentration camps, the president of Burundi was on the front page of The New York Times a month ago saying, 'We should march the gays into football stadiums and kill them for just being gay.'
"Boko Haram captures entire villages of children but none of these crimes are coming from white people so, crickets. Really kids, nothing? No marching...against any of this?"
This comment appeared to be aimed at the fact that college campuses nationwide have been roiled by anti-war protests amid Biden's ongoing support for Israel.
Kelly agreed with Maher's point, saying: "When we do our, you know, look back at history, only the whites get excoriated for their bad behavior 200 years ago."
Maher has long been a fierce critic of organized religion, having previously released the documentary Religulous in 2008. In it, he played devil's advocate as he talked to believers about their faith.
During their conversation back in 2014, Harris told Affleck, "Ben, we have to be able to criticize bad ideas. But Islam at this moment is the mother lode of bad ideas."
"Jesus Christ. It's an ugly thing to say," the actor responded.
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