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“Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized celebrity “virtue signaling” at the 2026 Grammys, calling out singer Billie Eilish’s anti-ICE speech.
“You don’t know facts,” Maher said of the singer during Friday’s episode of his HBO show.
Eilish, who won Song of the Year at the music award show, condemned ICE during her acceptance speech. The 24-year-old went viral when she declared, “No one is illegal on stolen land.”
Maher picked apart a transcript of Eilish’s speech, which began with the singer saying, “It’s hard to know what to say.”
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Billie Eilish (right) was among the musicians to criticize the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Grammy Awards on Sunday. (Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
“Then, don’t say anything, ‘cause you don’t know things,” he charged. “You didn’t go to school, I don’t think, and you don’t know facts.”
However, Maher admitted he agreed with Eilish on one subject, before roasting her credibility on immigration.
“She said, ‘Keep fighting and protesting and speaking up.’ I totally agree with that,” Maher continued. “She said, ‘Voices [really do] matter…people matter.’”
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“And I would just say so does knowledge,” he added.
It was “pretty great” that a tribe in California asked for Eilish’s house 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 if you say there is no such thing as illegal people on stolen land?” Maher asked. “Do we just go back to living in teepees?”
Kevin O’Leary visits “Outnumbered” at Fox News Channel Studios on April 18, 2024, in New York City; Billie Eilish attends the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 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 Gov. Chris Christie, said his kids “forced” him to watch the Grammys. He ridiculed what he called “all bulls—.”
“The fact is, it’s a complicated history,” Christie said.
“People got screwed along the way. Yes, we agree with that,” the Republican conceded. “But if what we’re going to do today is say these pronouncements and then have no real solution behind that pronouncement, it’s all bulls—.”
Meanwhile, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister and a self-identifying progressive, shared what “really bugs” her about the Grammys controversy.
Billie Eilish indirectly condemned 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 did speak about ICE,” Freeland countered.
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“And I agree with you broadly, Bill, that celebrities should not be the leaders of political movements. But I think it would have been wrong for them not to comment on this really horrible thing happening,” she continued.
Earlier in the show, Maher compared Eilish’s remarks to the “From the river to the sea” slogan often heard during “Free Palestine” protests.
Maher asserted that the people of Los Angeles will not move, and neither will all Israelis from Gaza.
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“We have to deal with the future, not just the past,” he posited.
Fox News Digital reached out to Eilish’s representative for comment and did not hear back in time for publication.
Stephanie Samsel is a digital production assistant at Fox News Digital. She has previously written for Campus Reform and the Media Research Center, covering political bias in education and entertainment. Follow her on X @StephSamsel.
