The back and forth between Pope Leo and the Trump administration has produced several hot takes, but CNN’s Kara Swisher may have had the most bizarre and confusing on Friday’s edition of Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime on HBO. As the debate revolves around what constitutes a just war, Swisher threw the First Amendment into the conversation as if someone were attempting to muzzle the pope’s speech.
Maher began by asking, “What do you think of JD Vance saying the Pope should be more careful when talking about theology?”
CNN's Kara Swisher suggests the administration is threatening Pope Leo's First Amendment rights or something, I don't get it either, "I have one thing. I mean, look, the Pope is also an American citizen and should be able to say whatever he feels like under the First Amendment."… pic.twitter.com/kX4Te59RGv
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 18, 2026
Swisher jumped at the question, “As I’ve said, he has the charm of a Cybertruck as a politician, but I have one thing. I mean, look, the Pope is also an American citizen and should be able to say whatever he feels like under the First Amendment, and he just looks like a putz.”
Yes, the pope is an American, but he does not live in America anymore. Is Swisher suggesting that criticizing the pope is akin to trying to silence him? If so, then Maher himself would soon find himself in trouble as former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel got in on the Vance bashing: “The pope is an Augustinian-trained pope. Augustine is the one that developed the concept of just war. You're gonna lecture the pope on the concept of just war. I think, as one Jewish kid, that takes a lot of chutzpah. I mean that takes a lot of chutzpah, and I got a lot of chutzpah, but that is a lot of lecturing.”
Maher then reached back over 1,600 years to attack the man who has greatly influenced Leo and who happens to be one of Western Civilization’s most influential thinkers, “But Augustine—that wasn't like Augustine's main thing. His main thing was that you're born with original sin. You're evil to begin with, and that's why you need the Catholic Church. So, Augustine was not a good guy either.”
While Maher’s atheism led him to denounce Augustine for calling attention to mankind’s sinful nature, he did at least have the intellectual honesty to at least make fun of liberals during his monologue on the regular Real Time broadcast for pretending like their defense of Leo is anything other than more anti-Trumpism.
Here is a transcript for the April 17 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher Overtime
4/17/2026
BILL MAHER: What do you think of JD Vance saying the Pope should be more careful when talking about theology? These guys—
KARA SWISHER: Let me take that one.
RAHM EMANUEL: No, I—
SWISHER: Just one second.
[Crosstalk]
JAKE SULLIVAN: Rahm’s the resident Catholic.
[Crosstalk]
SWISHER: As I’ve said, he has the charm of a Cybertruck as a politician, but I have one thing. I mean, look, the Pope is also an American citizen and should be able to say whatever he feels like under the First Amendment—
MAHER: Yeah, of course.
SWISHER: And he just looks like a putz.
MAHER: Yeah.
EMANUEL: As, look—
MAHER: Well, he’s such a recent convert.
EMANUEL: The pope is an Augustinian-trained pope. Augustine is the one that developed the concept of just war. You're gonna lecture the pope on the concept of just war. I think, as one Jewish kid, that takes a lot of chutzpah. I mean that takes a lot of chutzpah, and I got a lot of chutzpah, but that is a lot of lecturing.
MAHER: But Augustine—that wasn't like Augustine's main thing. His main thing was that you're born with original sin. You're evil to begin with, and that's why you need the Catholic Church—
EMANUEL: That’s why you need him to tell you what a just war is.
MAHER: So, Augustine was not a good guy either.
