Bill Maher had a blunt take on Los Angeles’ political future after voters handed the mayor’s office to a Democratic Socialist.
The talk-show host took aim at the city’s two choices in Tuesday’s election, which saw City Councilwoman Nithya Raman defeat incumbent Karen Bass.
“Yes, we have a new mayor in L.A.,” Maher told his two guests on Friday night’s show, before delivering a punchline that drew laughs from the audience.
“You get two choices in L.A.: Left or further left,” he said.
Maher echoed the sentiment of many Angelenos who felt their final two options came down to who was the least worst option. Both general election candidates had been dogged by questionable track records.
One of Maher’s guests, Coleman Hughes, ripped further into the mayor-elect’s ideology. Both candidates are Democrats, but Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Look, my issues are high rents and crime. Socialists don’t tend to be good on those issues because they institute policies like rent control, which sounds good but end up increasing the rents in the long run,” Hughes said.
Hughes, an American writer and podcaster who is a former fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, also pushed back against younger Americans who view socialism as a fresh solution to the country’s problems.
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“We got 100 years of data on socialism. It’s not good for the economy,” he bluntly stated.
He dismissed the idea that socialism was some new political experiment, adding: “Hate to break it to you, Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital in like, 1860.”
Raman’s victory has already prompted concerns among critics about how her administration could reshape public safety and policing in Los Angeles.
The mayor-elect faces pressure from Democratic Socialists of America supporters to make sweeping changes to the Los Angeles Police Department, including potentially scaling back its policies. Some officers have warned that such moves could worsen public safety as the department struggles with staffing shortages.
“It’s going to be a nightmare and very, very bad for public safety,” one senior officer said of Raman’s win.
Bass warned voters of that Raman would plunge the city into chaos. “I think four years under Nithya Raman would present a tremendous amount of chaos,” Bass had told The Post. “It would be chaos from day one.”
The mayor zeroed in on Raman’s pledge to replace LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, warning that removing the city’s top cop could trigger an exodus from an already understaffed department.
“I don’t think she has a clue what it takes to get a police chief for the nation’s second-largest city,” Bass said.
“The minute she would initiate that, you will have officers leaving the department, and confusion sets in anytime they’re gonna sit around and wait to see who is going to lead them.”
Bass also warned that a leadership shake-up at the LAPD could invite unwanted intervention from Washington, particularly with Los Angeles preparing to host the 2028 Olympics.
