On Friday night, Bill Maher and former DNC chair Donna Brazile expressed their disagreement with Michelle Obama’s recent assertion that the U.S. isn’t prepared to elect a female president. The duo analyzed the former first lady’s comments during the season finale of Real Time, with Maher labeling her perspective as “nonsense.”

Maher focused on Obama’s statements made during her book tour at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she discussed why she has no intention of pursuing a political career in 2028, despite ongoing speculation.

“Michelle Obama was in the spotlight this week. She has released a new book, a coffee table book,” Maher noted. “Her comments really surprised me.”

He continued, “To me, this is a basic logical error. Just because the country wasn’t ready for previous candidates like Hillary and Kamala, doesn’t mean we aren’t ready for a female leader.”

Obama had explained to moderator Tracee Ellis Ross that her reluctance to run comes from a belief in a more profound issue within U.S. politics. “As the last election showed, unfortunately, we’re not ready,” she remarked during the November 5 event. “That’s why I’m saying, don’t even consider me for a run, because honestly, you’re not ready for a woman. Don’t waste my time.”

She doubled down, saying, “We got a lot of growing up to do and there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.”

Maher pushed back by invoking her husband’s historic 2008 victory. “I think it’s a bad attitude. We said we weren’t ready for a black president and someone, I can’t remember who maybe she remembers, said maybe it just has to be the right one,” he joked.

Brazile backed Maher up with a numbers-based rebuttal. “We are ready,” she said, pointing to the popular vote totals from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s 2024 defeat. Clinton won 65.8 million votes to Trump’s 62.9 million, while Harris pulled in 75 million in her own losing bid.

“Maybe we should stop talking about it and just do it,” Brazile added, later emphasizing, “We are ready. Eighty percent of American people say, ‘they are ready.’ So the idea that America isn’t ready is bullsh*t. They might not be ready for this one or that one.”

You can watch a different clip of the panel, which also featured rapper and activist Killer Mike, in Maher’s “Overtime” segment from last night’s episode above.

Maher also stirred things up earlier in the week on his Club Random podcast, where he floated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as a potential White House contender — with one caveat.

“If she had some deprogramming, she could be such a fantastic candidate,” he said of AOC. “She’s never going to resonate with people outside of the bubble she lives in, in the very, very far left.”