Bill Maher slams Jimmy Kimmel’s wife for giving Trump‑voting relatives a political 'ultimatum'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Bill Maher delivered a reality check to Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney, calling her out for issuing a political "ultimatum" to her conservative family members that ultimately backfired.
During the 'Real Time with Bill Maher' monologue on Friday, November 21, Maher dismantled the "arrogance" of liberals who cut off family members for voting for Donald Trump.
He specifically zeroed in on McNearney, the executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who recently went public about losing relationships with relatives after she sent them a list of reasons not to support the president.
Bill Maher tears apart Molly McNearney's 'ultimatum'
Maher wasted no time addressing McNearney's recent admission that she sent a "top ten" list to her Trump-voting relatives before the election, only to be ignored.
"Molly McNearney... went public on this topic recently, so I feel it's fair to comment, respectfully, in public," Maher began.
"She says she's lost relationships... because she wrote them an email... with ten reasons why they shouldn't vote for Trump, and some still didn't obey," he added.
The comedian then offered a brutal assessment of her strategy. "Ten reasons? I can think of 100. But I would never present it to someone as an ultimatum," Maher quipped. "Ultimatums don't make people rethink their politics. They make them rethink you."
Bill Maher claims the left alienates voters
Maher used McNearney’s story to illustrate an allegedly broader failure of the Democratic Party- the inability to understand why approximately 77 million Americans rejected their platform.
"Write a top ten list to yourself where you try to imagine ten reasons why 77 million Americans didn't want to trust you with taking power," Maher advised, flipping the script on the producer.
"As I like to remind my very pure friends, we voted for the same person. You're just why she lost," he added, indirectly blaming the "moral superiority" of the Left for alienating voters.
Jimmy Kimmel's wife claims family betrayal
McNearney had revealed her family struggles on the 'We Can Do Hard Things' podcast earlier this month. She claimed that she felt "betrayed" because her husband, Jimmy Kimmel, has been "fighting this man" (Trump) publicly.
"To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family," McNearney lamented, seemingly framing the political choice as a personal attack on her marriage.
She admitted that she "couldn't deprogram" herself from the anger she felt toward her "aunts, uncles, cousins who put [Trump] in power."
Context of the feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Trump
The family tension was exacerbated by Kimmel's own escalating feud with the president. In September, ABC briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host made controversial remarks regarding the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
While Kimmel returned to the air about a week later, the incident and Trump's subsequent celebration of the suspension deepened the divide between the couple and their conservative relatives.