Bill Maher tries to explain to baffled William Shatner why Harris lost election

Actor William Shatner admitted to "Real Time" host Bill Maher that he didn't understand why Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, as the pair discussed what went wrong for the Democratic Party on Maher's "Club Random" podcast on Sunday.

Maher opened his show suggesting the left's "intolerance" to Democrats who don't toe the party line on every issue cost them votes this election.

"Conservatives are much more tolerant of people they don’t like. It's the liberals who are purists, especially the ones in this town. They are the ones who say if you don’t agree with me one million percent, I don’t even want to know you. That’s one of the reasons they lost. They have a bad attitude," he told Shatner. 

But Shatner admitted he was baffled by the election results. "I don’t know why Democrats lost. I don’t understand [it]," he said.

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"Club Random" host Bill Maher explained to actor William Shatner why Vice President Harris and the Democratic Party lost the 2024 election. (Getty Images)

Maher argued that President Biden was partly to blame for staying in the race too long.

"That, I understand," Shatner replied. "But inflation? Prices have come down, the economy is good. I don't know why they voted against her, against the party," he said.

Inflation and high costs of living consistently charted as top concerns for voters in polls leading up to the election. 

Maher said that Harris "was not a great candidate" either. 

"Let's be honest," he said. But Shatner defended Harris.

"Why isn't she a great candidate?" he asked. "She combined several trends of thought here. Black, a woman," he offered.

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Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech after the 2024 presidential election, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

"That’s not a candidate," Maher pushed back. "That’s identity politics."

"But those are elements!" Shatner argued.

Maher conceded that while some voters will vote for a candidate simply because they "look like them," this election proved "you have to go a lot further than that" to win over voters.

"You can’t just be, woman. Black person. I mean, Trump got a quarter of Black men!" Maher said. 

"He didn’t do much better because the women are very much against him but he killed it with Latinos. Is there any great irony that the guy who came down the elevator ten years ago talking about the ‘rapists’ — they keep giving him more of their votes," Maher said, claiming that he understood why Harris lost better than the Democratic Party did.

"Democrats don’t understand their own constituencies. If you are a Mexican-American, who do you fear taking your job? The guy who just came in through the border! Of course they like the guy who says, ‘I’m going to keep everybody out,’" he continued.

"He doesn't say, 'I'm keeping everybody out.' I'm going to send everybody out,'" Shatner disagreed.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on September 10, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Maher insisted that Democrats would have had much better chances at winning the election if they hadn't put in Harris at the last minute.

"If Biden had got out earlier, they had a true primary season to find the best candidate, not just one whose turn it was. By the way, before they anointed her, nobody was sort of on the page that she was very good at being a candidate," he said of Harris.

"She failed the first time," Shatner agreed, referring to the VP's 2019 presidential campaign that didn't make it past the primaries.

Maher also hit the Biden-Harris administration for its "pointless reversal" of Trump's Remain in Mexico policy.

"[They] let in too many people. Not that we shouldn't be a nation of immigrants. But it turned into a lawless a s--- show for years," he said.

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This isn't the first time since the election that Maher has reprimanded the Democratic Party for failing to understand its constituents.

Maher opened his first post-election "Real Time" show by telling his party to "look in the mirror" and realize that "woke" policies and a bad candidate lost them the election. He has since scolded his party for "doubling-down" on far-left policies.

The "Real Time" host previously predicted Harris would win the election after the September presidential debate.