Bill Maher shocked his audience by arguing that all fraternities should be abolished following allegations involving seven Cornell fraternity members.
The Real Time with Bill Maher host, who graduated from the Ivy League university in 1978, criticized his alma mater during Friday evening’s broadcast.
At the end of the episode, Maher addressed allegations involving seven Chi Phi members accused in a lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting a female student identified as Jane Doe.
Umar Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar have not been charged with crimes and deny the allegations.
“Any place that’s all male, no girls allowed, just doesn’t function without depravity. Just ask the Catholic Church. Ask the Taliban,” Maher said, prompting a mix of gasps and applause from the audience.
“Human nature is bad, and the best we can do is create institutions that don’t make it so easy to be worse. And a great place to start would be getting rid of ‘Greek life,’” he added sarcastically.
Maher went on to outline what he sees as the damaging characteristics commonly associated with fraternities.
“Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity. The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism, and just general a**holery – boat shoes, for example – and hypocrisy,” the comedian said.
Late-night host Bill Maher called for fraternities to be abolished amid the ongoing investigation involving seven Cornell fraternity members
Seven Chi Phi members have been accused in a lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting a female student identified as Jane Doe
The political commentator focused in particular on the case that has drawn national attention and sparked intense criticism of Cornell.
“Fraternity mission statements love to use the word ‘gentlemen’; well, in this current Jane Doe case, a young woman made a bad decision – as 20-year-olds do – when she went to a frat house drunk and did ketamine, and for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay.”
“Now, no one there knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is: a gentleman, gentlemen, is someone who, in that situation, doesn’t exploit the woman; he saves her. That’s a gentleman,” Maher said, drawing loud cheers and applause.
Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, Maher’s guest on the program, also applauded the remarks.
Maher spoke roughly a month after Jane Doe filed a lawsuit naming Cornell, the fraternity and seven Chi Phi members, along with other defendants.
According to the September filing, Ingalls, Newell, Lee, Lopes, Sarabia, Norris and Kretzschmar allegedly raped the former student at a fraternity party on October 19, 2024.
The alleged victim claims the Chi Phi members engaged in sexual acts with her while she was incapacitated and unable to give consent.
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The lawsuit also alleges that the men manipulated her into consuming ketamine and alcohol that night.
Maher’s guest, Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, applauded his comments
Jane Doe, who was 20 and a sophomore at the time, first reported the allegations in 2024. However, an investigation by Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten resulted in no charges being filed.
But after her recent lawsuit, the office has reopened the case, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has tapped Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor.
Since news of the alleged incident came out, a slew of evidence has come to light, including text messages between Jane Doe and the frat brothers.
On Thursday, TMZ shared messages that allegedly show Jane Doe downplayed the alleged assault in conversations with Ingalls and Newell.
According to Jane Doe, Ingalls had invited her to the house that night before asking her if she wanted to have a threesome with Newell.
She agreed and was taken to a room where she was allegedly offered alcohol and ketamine, the lawsuit stated.
Newell then sent a message to about 50 fraternity members on Snapchat that read ‘free p****’, referring to the woman.
Other frat brothers then came into the room and allegedly sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated, according to Jane Doe.
A female protester holds up a sign calling for fraternities to be banned amid the allegations against Cornell frat brothers
Thomas Giuffra told the Daily Mail that his client maintains her allegations and said that the newly released messages between her and some of the accused frat brothers did not suggest that the alleged encounter was consensual
In the newly released texts, Jane Doe told Newell that ‘none of the sexual stuff was illegal,’ and described the incident as a ‘gangbang’ that was ‘our body our choice’ in text messages.
But her attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told the Daily Mail that his client maintains her allegations and said that the messages did not suggest that the alleged encounter was consensual.
Giuffra argued that Jane Doe was showing ‘classic symptoms of delayed recognition’ about the gravity of the incident, meaning it took some time for her to realize that she had been the victim of an alleged crime.
‘This is a well-known phenomenon which is widely reported in medical and psychological literature,’ the attorney said.
‘Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.’