On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that while President Donald Trump has been overly friendly to Vladimir Putin in the past, it is a “zombie lie” that he’s “still backing Putin, because, first of all, he bombed Iran, that was a Putin ally, he didn’t get out of NATO, he mended fences with NATO, and he put sanctions back on Russia.”

Maher began by saying, “I don’t think he was exactly a Russian agent, but Russiagate was not completely made up. … It’s on tape, he’s asking the Russians for help on tape, … they released those emails that day that they hacked, he said, could you please hack some shit, they did it and released it that day to help him. So, don’t tell me there’s no smoke.”

He added, “I think it’s kind of a zombie lie that Trump is Putin’s bitch, because he certainly was over-friendly to him for a very long time, considering who Putin is, a thug and a murderer. … I could read 20 compliments that Trump has given to him.”

Maher further stated that with Ukraine, initially, Trump’s “solution was, well, surrender, give Putin everything he wants, and even that didn’t work. That’s the thing, he gave Putin anything he wanted, and it didn’t work. But, again, let’s not have the zombie lie that he’s still backing Putin, because, first of all, he bombed Iran, that was a Putin ally, he didn’t get out of NATO, he mended fences with NATO, and he put sanctions back on Russia.”