Bill Maher defends Trump supporters: Let's not confuse '5,000' Capitol rioters with '74 million' voters

close

Video

Feds warn violent extremism likely to surge in 2021 as Capitol, statehouses are fortified for inauguration

The FBI is preparing for a violent extremism surge ahead of Inauguration Day; national security analyst Dr. Rebecca Grant offers insight.

"Real Time" host Bill Maher closed his show Friday night by defending the millions of Trump voters who were NOT involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

"As bad as last week was ... let's not confuse 5,000 people with 74 million," Maher began his monologue. "Yes, even supporting the insurrection in spirit is, well, deplorable. But there's a difference between holding illiberal beliefs and acting violently on them. At least that's what they always told me about Islamic terrorism."

CNN'S DON LEMON DOUBLES DOWN ON LUMPING ALL TRUMP VOTERS WITH KLANSMEN, NAZIS: 'I BELIEVE WHAT I SAID'

Maher told his viewers he always "wrestles" the hard question on his show of how all Americans "learn to share a country with a------s you can't stand."

"I've preached, and still do, that you can hate Trump, but not all the people who like him," Maher said. "And as counterintuitive as it may seem, you can like something run by a------s without being one yourself."

"You can hate Trump -- but not all the people who like him."

— Bill Maher

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The HBO star mocked the "liberal happy talk" assumptions that the events of recent weeks will mark the "end" of the GOP, warning his audience that 2024 will probably be yet another tight presidential election. 

"Seventy-four million people are not self-deporting and neither are we," Maher told his audience.