Comedian Bill Maher said he was ‘disappointed’ in his friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and while it ‘pains’ him to say it, RFK Jr. has ‘got to go.’ 

Maher, who frequently hosts Kennedy on his HBO series ‘Real Time’ since 2004 and on his podcast Club Random, commented on Kennedy’s recent testimony before Congress.

‘The backlash against Bobby Kennedy is intense, and honestly, I agree with the critics. I attempted to support him, but his three-hour grilling was tough to endure,’ Maher remarked during his opening monologue.

The comedian has regularly applauded Kennedy’s views on public health, concurring with him earlier this year that the surge in autism cases is linked to ‘toxins’ in the environment, such as ingredients in food and drugs, pesticides, or pollution.

After showing some clips from the hearing, however, Maher made a crack about Kennedy’s ailing voice: ‘Poor Bobby, he talked for so long, he gained his voice.’ 

He then continued to pile on the secretary of health and human services, revealing his hopes for Kennedy’s tenure that have fallen away. 

‘I personally find this very disappointing because I am the person who was sympathetic to what he was trying to do,’ Maher said. 

‘A lot of people like me who didn’t think that the orthodox way of western medicine, not that we’re against western medicine or vaccine, just that there’s another way to look at it and a lot of stuff they were doing wasn’t the right way: Finally, we have a guy in there who cares about this stuff. But he’s also just nutty. He just does not listen. He just is.’

Liberal comedian Bill Maher said he was ‘disappointed’ in his friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr . and while it ‘pains’ him to say it, RFK Jr. has ‘got to go’

Maher, who has had Kennedy as a frequent guest on his HBO show ‘Real Time’ dating back to 2004 and his podcast Club Random, reacted to Kennedy’s testimony before Congress earlier this week

He said that Kennedy has been driven too far into his own beliefs and refused to come up with a more moderate position in front of the Senate Finance Committee. 

‘I call it pendulumism, nothing ever stops in the middle. Okay, this needed a housecleaning, the CDC. But to fire all 17 of the top people? Now you don’t have that voice in there at all. You just have your voice,’ he said.

Maher concluded:  ‘It’s just, he’s got to go and it pains me to say it because I like him.’ 

As recently as last month, Maher was praising Kennedy to his relative, Hollywood movie star Chris Pratt.  

‘I love him. I don’t agree with everything, but I agree with, like, the overall view that what makes us sick is the toxicity,’ Maher said. 

‘When he was here, I said my advice to you is like you need to marry your former life more with what you’re doing now. Your former life, you were very admired as an environmental lawyer.’ 

He even said that despite the outsized caricature of Kennedy as a conspiracy theorist, Maher flatly denied he’s out of the ordinary. 

‘And he’s not crazy. I mean the people trying to – he’s also got, like I said to him when he was here, ‘I don’t agree with everything you said, and I don’t think your father would either, but your father would be so proud that you stuck to your guns like more than anybody,’ he told the actor.

As recently as last month, Maher was praising Kennedy to his relative, Hollywood movie star Chris Pratt 

Liberal frustration with Kennedy peaked this week after he was called before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday

Liberal frustration with Kennedy peaked this week after he was called before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. 

Senators grilled Kennedy over a variety of issues, including his views on vaccines, autism, Medicaid and the state of the Centers for Disease Control.

Key topics of discussion were his dismissal of key CDC vaccine advisors, his firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez a mere month into her tenure and his decision to radically reduce the number of people who are eligible for the most up-to-date COVID-19 vaccines.

Democratic senators were the harshest in their criticism of Kennedy eight months into the job as health secretary, with Sen. Ron Wyden calling him or his past association with Jeffrey Epstein.

‘Mr. Kennedy calls himself a protector of children, some kind of rich claim, coming from someone who has flown on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet on multiple occasions,’ Wyden noted. 

However, Republicans too showed their frustration with Kennedy at times, especially Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. 

Cassidy, a doctor specializing in liver diseases, was the decisive vote that got Kennedy over the finish line in his confirmation hearings back in February.

‘Do you agree with me that President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed?’ Cassidy asked Kennedy, referring to the public-private partnership between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies that produced a COVID-19 vaccine in record time.

‘Absolutely, senator,’ Kennedy responded.

Kennedy had one of the most contentious back-and-forths with Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado (pictured on the far right)

Key topics of discussion were his dismissal of key CDC vaccine advisors and his firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez (pictured)

Cassidy then pressed Kennedy on supposedly contradicting himself.

‘But you just told Sen. Bennet that the COVID vaccine killed more people than COVID?’ Cassidy said.

‘Wait, I did not say that,’ Kennedy blurted out in protest. ‘I just want to make clear, I did not say that.’

During his exchange with Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kennedy said that the mRNA vaccine has been linked to myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescent and young adult males.

These are both conditions that cause inflammation in the heart, and if it goes untreated, symptoms can begin to mimic a heart attack.

Medical experts agree that the Pfizer and Moderna cases have led to rare cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, but most health organizations agree that the vast majority of these cases are mild and very treatable.

Cassidy also asked Kennedy about his participation in lawsuits that aimed to restrict access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

‘It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when, as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access.’

RFK again sought to clear the air, ‘I’m happy to explain why…’

Cassidy cut him off, saying he only had three minutes left for his questioning.

As health secretary, Kennedy canceled $500 million of mRNA vaccine research, claiming that 22 projects he terminated failed to ‘protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu’.

In December 2021, Kennedy claimed that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was ‘the deadliest vaccine ever made’.