Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher blasted Vice President JD Vance over the Trump administration’s claims of election fraud, saying that the president only believes in two options: Winning or calling it a scam.
“Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes that an election can be, either we win, or they cheated. That s*** has to stop,” Maher told Vance on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday.
Vance did not immediately respond as the audience cheered. A clip of the show was posted on X.
“And that means, the person that has to stop it would be you, or Marco,” Maher continued, pointing at Vance.
Although Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have not made any official plans to run for the Oval Office, they are two likely contenders for the 2028 Republican nomination. Rubio has been highlighted as a candidate due to his close relationship with President Donald Trump. Vance told CBS News Sunday Morning that he will consider a run after the midterm elections.
Maher then asked Vance, “Can you tell me you will do that? Will you bring us back to the middle, at least on that, where we concede elections? Where it’s not either one of those two options?”
“I don’t think that we should not concede elections,” Vance said, but argued that he doesn’t think that’s the case with President Donald Trump.
Vance asserted that the 2020 election was rigged due to tech companies censoring information.
Maher interjected, citing a settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit alleged current and former Fox hosts offered guests a platform to make repeated defamatory statements claiming Dominion used computer algorithms to move votes away from Trump.
“That was litigated,” Maher said.
Vance continued, ignoring Maher’s comment, saying, “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.”
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“You had technology companies that were putting their thumb on the scale in a way that completely obliterated the real open exchange of ideas,” Vance said.
Trump’s focus on election fraud has become a central part of his agenda, highlighted by his support for the SAVE America Act, which would tighten voting laws. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has been unable to secure enough Senate votes to advance the legislation.