Bill Maher believes the “really ugly” images coming out of Minnesota’s ICE raids will lead to MAGA getting the “dogs--t kicked out of” it in the 2026 midterm elections.
The 70-year-old pundit gave the grim prediction to Louisiana GOP Senator John Kennedy on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
“I’m just gonna say it to you. I’m not trying to pick a fight right away,” said Maher to Kennedy. “My prediction is, this stuff? Your party is gonna get the dogs--t kicked out of it in the midterms.”
Maher pointed to some of the most harrowing images coming out of ICE’s raids in Minnesota.
Maher pulled up pictures of ICE detaining a 5-year-old child, dragging a U.S. citizen out of his home in his underwear, pepper-spraying a person pinned to the ground, and wrenching a woman on the way to see her doctor out of her car.
“This is not what people voted for, and they’re gonna hold the party responsible, as they should,” said Maher.
Maher’s prediction comes at a time when ICE has never been more unpopular. Since the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, the organization’s favorability has spiraled into a free fall. ICE currently has a -17 approval rating, and a plurality of Americans support abolishing ICE altogether.
Maher is not alone in thinking that Republicans are headed for a drubbing this November.
Influential election forecaster Cook Political Report shifted 18 House races leftward on Jan. 15. Democrats need to pick up only three seats to grab a majority in the nearly deadlocked House of Representatives.
Kennedy, 74, responded to Maher’s prediction with a folksy aphorism.
“You don’t have to be Einstein’s cousin to know that illegal immigration is illegal,” said the senator.
However, Kennedy agreed that ICE’s methods in Minnesota had gone too far.
“I support enforcing our immigration laws, but how you enforce them matters,” he said. “You have to do it in accordance with due process, equal protection, and Terry v. Ohio, reasonable suspicion."
Terry v. Ohio is the 1968 Supreme Court case that allows police officers to “stop and frisk” people they suspect of having committed a crime.
Maher first pleaded for peace before agreeing that immigration laws should be enforced.
“It’s too cold to fight. Use that as an excuse for everybody just to go home. ICE, you made your point. We gotta do something with too many illegals, and yes that happened under Biden,” he said.
Still, he warned that ICE’s methods were going to spell doom for Republicans.
“These images? Really ugly,” he said.
