“Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized celebrity “virtue signaling” at the 2026 Grammys and referenced singer Billie Eilish’s anti-ICE speech.
“You don’t know the facts,” Maher said of the singer during Friday’s episode of his HBO show.
Eilish, who won Song of the Year at the music awards ceremony, condemned ICE during her acceptance speech. The 24-year-old went viral when she declared: “Nobody is illegal on stolen land.”
Maher unwrapped a transcript of Eilish’s speech, which began with the singer’s words, “It’s hard to know what to say.”
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“Then don’t say anything, because you don’t know things,” he ordered. “I don’t think you went to school, and you don’t know the facts.”
However, Maher admitted that he agreed with Eilish on one issue before testing her credibility on immigration.
“She said, ‘Keep fighting and protesting and expressing your opinion.’ I completely agree with that,” Maher continued. “She said, ‘Votes still matter. People matter.'”
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“And I would say that goes for knowledge as well,” he added.
It was “pretty awesome” that a tribe in California requested Eilish’s home after her speech, the host argued.
He then confronted his panel with a follow-up question to the singer’s speech.
“What’s the practical next step in saying there’s no such thing as illegal people on stolen land?” Maher asked. “Are we just going to live in tepees again?”
Kevin O’Leary visits “Outnumbered” at Fox News Channel Studios on April 18, 2024 in New York City; Billie Eilish attends the 68th Annual Grammy Awards on February 1, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images; Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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One of Maher’s panelists, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, said his children “forced” him to watch the Grammys. He ridiculed what he called “all the bulls.”
“The fact is, it’s a complicated history,” Christie said.
“People got screwed along the way. Yes, we agree with that,” the Republican admitted. “But if we start making these statements today and then have no real solution behind that statement, it’s all bullshit.”
Meanwhile, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister and a self-identifying progressive, shared what “really irritates” her about the Grammys controversy.
Billie Eilish indirectly condemned the ICE raids during an acceptance speech on Sunday. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
“I thought it was powerful that some of those award winners at the Grammys talked about ICE,” Freeland countered.
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“And I broadly agree with you, Bill, that celebrities should not be the leaders of political movements. But I think it would have been wrong if they had not commented on this truly terrible event,” she continued.
Earlier in the show, Maher compared Eilish’s comments to the “from the river to the sea” slogan often heard during protests against “Free Palestine.”
“The people of Los Angeles will not move, nor will all the Israelis from Gaza,” Maher claimed.
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“We have to deal with the future, not just the past,” he stated.
Fox News Digital reached out to Eilish’s rep for comment and did not hear back in time for publication.
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