Bill Maher says his 2028 vote is 'in play' after JD Vance appearance on ‘Real Time’

WASHINGTON, DC: HBO host Bill Maher said his 2028 presidential vote could be “in play” following an appearance by Vice President JD Vance on ‘Real Time’ Friday, the first sitting vice president to ever appear on the program.

Vance appeared with Maher to promote his new book, ‘Communion,’ about his Catholic faith, in a conversation that also touched on Iran negotiations, immigration enforcement, and the direction of the Democratic Party. By the end of the exchange Maher, who has long positioned himself as a critic of both political parties, floated the idea that the Democratic Party's current course could lead him to vote Republican.

Bill Maher signals 2028 vote shift after JD Vance ‘Real Time’ appearance

"If this is where the Democratic Party is going... this obsession with Israel, with the Jew-hating, with they don't believe in capitalism, no prisons, if this is where they're going, my vote is in play," Maher told Vance, adding that his choice in 2028 would likely come down to Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Maher also pressed Vance on whether the administration would commit to conceding future election results regardless of outcome.

Vance responded by reframing the question, telling Maher he didn't believe the GOP had refused to concede past results and pointing instead to what he described as tech-company censorship of conservative viewpoints during the 2020 election.

"The biggest criticism I had of the 2020 election is that you had technology companies that were quite literally censoring negative information about the left and promoting negative information about the right," Vance said.

“It’s either going to be you or Rubio. Here’s my dealbreaker for your side: Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes that an election can be, either we win or they cheated. That shit has to stop. And that means the person who has to stop it will be you, or Marco. Can you tell me you will do that?” Maher continued.

JD Vance defends election integrity claims and tech censorship criticism

On Iran, Vance defended the administration's negotiating position, pointing to oil prices falling to $73 a barrel and saying Tehran's nuclear enrichment capability had been "destroyed." "If they're willing to change, we're willing to change too; if they're not willing to change, we still fundamentally have all the cards and I think that's a good place to be," he said.

Maher immediately tried to cast doubt on the Iran deal, claiming he’s “heard it so many times before.”

The problem for Maher was that the man leading the negotiations, JD Vance, was sitting right across from him to shut it down in real time.

JD Vance defends ICE enforcement operations on immigration policy

Maher also asked Vance to acknowledge that the administration's ICE enforcement operations had "gone too far," drawing a comparison to Vance's past willingness to own his "childless cat ladies" remark.

Vance declined to characterize the operations that way, saying, "You can't do a law enforcement operation like that without having some situations that are recorded like that... I don't think there was an easy way to do this."

“You’re negotiating for America. I’m rooting for America… Why is this different? Why isn’t it bullshit this time?” asked Maher.

The appearance came a day after Vance visited the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, where he argued that a scandal on the scale of Watergate would be treated very differently by today's media.