HBO host Bill Maher challenged New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to appear on “Real Time” during Friday’s episode featuring Bill O’Reilly and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). Maher also urged Democratic Socialists to drop the “Democratic” label, arguing it forces mainstream Democrats to answer for their more extreme members.

BILL MAHER: They call themselves Democratic Socialists. I think they should drop the Democratic part, because that means that you have to answer for everything the socialists do. And he’s plainly, maybe he is a communist, maybe he’s — it’s very far left, whatever it is. It’s not what we’ve seen before. REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): And Republicans are trying to do that. They’re trying to make me and others answer for everything he does. What’s weird is, like, I don’t remember Eric Adams being the head of the Democratic Party, or Michael Bloomberg being the head of the Republican Party, but Republicans are trying to make him now the head of the party. MAHER: Because those guys weren’t as out of the mainstream of the Democratic Party as he is, but they’re trying to make that the mainstream. The question you’re going to get, and you should get it, and I’m going to give it to you. MOSKOWITZ: Let’s go. MAHER: Where do you eat hamburgers? No. MOSKOWITZ: In-N-Out. MAHER: Should this be the direction the party is going to? He’s not the only the only Democratic Socialist. There’s about a hundred in different offices and places where they’ve won in this country. I mean, here’s a Mandami quote from his speech. He said, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve.” MOSKOWITZ: Yeah. [LAUGHTER] MOSKOWITZ: Wait till he gets into government. MAHER: I can tell Bill O’Reilly thinks that’s ridiculous. BILL O’REILLY: This is so crazy. Look, first of all, he won because he was running against Bela Lugosi. All right? That’s right. I told Andrew Cuomo, why don’t you just campaign with a cape on and turn into a bat? The guy was as dour as possible. I mean, that is a good campaigner. I mean, the guy was smiling. You know, when he’s going to come to your house and take your stuff, he’s going to smile. Thank you for the couch. Bring it on out. MAHER: Tonight, let’s give him a week. Okay? I’ve been critical. Let’s give him a week to say just congratulations. On a political level, it was quite an achievement. I’d like him to do this show. So many other Democrats. And I vote Democratic. And they still won’t come on here. This guy seems to say he has balls. Let’s see it.

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