Bill Maher and Neil deGrasse Tyson Go Bare Knuckle On Dems Losing, Transgender Athletes: ‘Going To File You Under Part of the Problem’

Bill Maher wrapped up the latest season of Real Time with multiple tense exchanges with Neil deGrasse Tyson on Democrats losing the election and transgender athletes.

During their first heated debate on Friday, Maher said he was chalking Tyson up as “part of the problem” on the left while Tyson accused Maher of coming up with a new reason Democrats lost the election “every 20 minutes” of Real Time. The pair came to a standstill when it came to transgender athletes.

The debate began with discussion on Laura Helmuth, the chief editor of Scientific American magazine, announcing her resignation after multiple deleted social media posts where she referred to Trump supporters as the “meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” people. She clarified later her statements were a result of “shock and confusion” from the election.

Maher not only took issue with Helmuth’s leadership position at the magazine, but also knocked the magazine itself for its coverage of transgender athletes, referencing an article pointing to gender “biases” as partly behind why women cannot compete against men in a number of sports.

Check out the first exchange below:

BILL MAHER: “It sure didn’t sound scientific. It didn’t sound like the person I would want to be running Scientific American. It was a rant on [BlueSky]. I could read it to you. It’s really ugly. You know, ‘I apologize to younger voters that my Gen-X is so full of fucking fascists.’ Okay. I’m not for canceling people on either side, but here’s what I think is the scandal. This is in Scientific American less than a year ago, ‘inequity between male and female athletes as a result, not of inherent biological differences between the sexes, but of biases in how they are treated in sports.’ That’s nuts. And it sure ain’t scientific. And it’s in Scientific American. And that’s why the Democrats lost the election. It’s true.”

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: “Bill, every 20 minutes on your platform, you come up with another reason why the Democrats lost. You already have the answer. They lost the election. So anything you say about why they didn’t —”

MAHER: “First of all, you don’t watch this show so you don’t know — It’s okay, but you talk as if you do and you fucking don’t. That’s okay, just don’t bullshit me. That’s the one thing people can never do on this show is bullshit me. And that’s fine, but I don’t say that. I have very good reasons. But engage with the idea here. What I’m asking is Scientific American is saying basically that the reason why an NBA, WNBA a team can’t beat the Lakers is because of societal bias.”

TYSON: “What you’re saying is not Scientific American saying that, an editor for Scientific American says that who no longer has the job so don’t indict a 170 year old magazine because somebody goes —”

MAHER: “This is Scientific American and they are printing something that’s —”

TYSON: “Someone enters the cesspool and social media and then participates in that exchange, so let’s talk about science!”

MAHER: “Why can’t you just say this is not scientific and Scientific American should do better?!”

TYSON: “Well, does she still have her job?”

MAHER: “Not because of this! I said the scandal was her [posts].”

TYSON: “I think this was a year ago.”

MAHER: “I think a year ago, women still couldn’t beat men in basketball or any other sport and it wasn’t because of society. You don’t see a problem here?”

TYSON: “Long distance swimming, women might actually have the advantage. Look into that.”

MAHER: “Maybe long distance swimming, okay.”

TYSON: “I’ve looked into it.”

MAHER: “Well, I’m going to file you under ‘part of the problem.'”

During the show’s Overtime segment, Maher circled back to his criticism of Tyson after the astrophysicist was arguing that people are mostly incapable of thinking “statistically,” tying this argument to criticism and skepticism towards some vaccines. When Tyson brought up vaccines, he jokingly told Maher, “I don’t want to poke the bear here.”

Check out round two below:

MAHER: “The bear believes in vaccines, but just being skeptical of all medical interventions as everyone should.”

TYSON: “Except — wait, wait, wait — except 99 out of 100 medical interventions, you’re not saying I need a second opinion. If you have tuberculosis, you don’t need a second opinion. If you have pollyps in your colon, you don’t need a second opinion.”

MAHER: “It’s not close to 99%!”

TYSON: “It’s easily 99%! If you break a femur, you don’t get a second opinion!”

MAHER: “I agree, but that’s not most things that happen to people. Lots of things that happen to people — and I’m thrilled you don’t ever have this happen in your life and I hope you never do, but trust me, most people at a certain point in their life will need a second opinion.”

TYSON: “A second opinion, yes, but that’s after you’ve been through 99 other — I’m trying to put credit back to doctors where our life expectancy is three times what it was 150 years ago. And everyone before 150 years ago ate organic! And half of them died before they were 35. Science matters!”

MAHER: “Of course it does.”

TYSON: “Sometimes you don’t sound that way. That’s what worries me!”

MAHER: “Actually, you’re the guy who doesn’t understand why the WNBA team can’t beat the Lakers so I don’t know, you’re supposed to be the scientist and you couldn’t even admit that! And as far as medicine goes, I could talk to you about this all day, but again, we do have a party to get to. This is not your field, you’re not a doctor.”

TYSON: “I’m a scientist! Excuse me —”

MAHER: “That’s not a doctor! That’s not a doctor! When I have a goiter on Uranus, I’ll call you.”

Watch above via HBO.