HBO’s Bill Maher’s habit of reducing a chaotic scene to one photograph continued on Friday’s episode of Real Time, where he compared a photograph of the Alex Pretti shooting to The Last Jew in Vinnitsa photograph during the Holocaust. Joining Maher at the table was MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, who, in other Minneapolis news, declared former CNN host Don Lemon’s arrest was meant “to scare other journalists.”
Maher recalled last week’s show when he declared, “That’s why I showed this picture last week. We can show it again. Executions in the streets. This reminded me of the one from Vietnam in 1968 that changed hearts and minds. This week there's another one. We had a second shooting that looks just like this. That's what people are seeing. Pictures worth a thousand words. That did not happen under Obama.”
It’s ironic that Maher thinks pictures are “worth a thousand words” because when he compared Renee Good to the Viet Cong prisoner in the Saigon Execution photograph, he omitted that the man who took that photo acknowledged that photos, and his in particular, are incapable of telling the whole story. Now, Maher is comparing a frantic situation involving a man with a gun that is currently under investigation to a Jewish man being shot in the back of the head by the Nazis during the Holocaust in front of a mass grave full of people who had already been executed.
Still, Maher kept rolling, “A viral video in Maine. ICE guys taking this woman's—picture of her license plate, and she says, ‘Why are you taking my information down?’ This is caught on tape, I guess, because they have the quote ‘We have a nice little database, and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.’ That's exactly what they do in fascist governments. Whenever you are a protester, you’re actually an enemy of the state, and we arrest you. That's what's going on in Iran right now.”
It is unclear what that agent was referring to. CNN asked DHS about the video, and Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said no such database exists. Also, in Iran tens of thousands of people have reportedly been killed.
Moving on to Lemon, Maher continued, “They arrested Don Lemon. I—somebody went ‘Yes,’ like good, I don't know. It’s not good to arrest him.”
During an argument with former Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, MS NOW's Joe Scarborough (yes that's a real sentence) says of Don Lemon, "So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists." pic.twitter.com/Z523JnRMVe
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026
During the discussion that followed, Scarborough was arguing with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene when he tried to separate Lemon from the other church stormers:
What I'm saying is, whatever the act is, if it is the FACE Act or the Faith Act or the Fake Act, whatever act it is, I think the people that went in and disturbed that church, if they want to prosecute them, then that is certainly, you know, their right to consider that. If you are Don Lemon and you are going up to the pastor and you're saying, ‘I'm not here with them. I'm curious, what are your thoughts?’ Was he aggressive? He was aggressive.
Was Mike Wallace aggressive? Were other journalists aggressive in their days? Yes, they were. I think there has to be sort of a differentiation between if somebody's going in there and saying, ‘I'm not with them, can I ask you some questions?’ because you're going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests.
War correspondents and people who normally cover protests do not invade private property. If a group of people stormed the set of Morning Joe, Scarborough wouldn’t call someone a journalist just because they were asking questions while holding a camera.
Nevertheless, Scarborough continued, “So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists. And when you have the magistrate in Minnesota see the charges and say, ‘Well, this is bullshit.’ When you had the chief justice, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, look at it and go, ‘Well, this is bullshit,’ and say, ‘You can't bring these charges,’ and so Pam Bondi goes, ‘Okay, I’ll bring them myself.’ Obviously that shows it's at the direction of the administration to intimidate journalists.”
Or, perhaps, Bondi noticed that the protestors in Minnesota aren’t being as peaceful as people like Scarborough want to portray them as.
Here is a transcript for the January 30 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
1/30/2026
10:25 PM ET
BILL MAHER: That’s why I showed this picture last week. We can show it again. Executions in the streets. This reminded me of the one from Vietnam in 1968 that changed hearts and minds. This week there's another one. We had a second shooting that looks just like this. That's what people are seeing. Pictures worth a thousand words. That did not happen under Obama. That's why you’ve lost—including rank and file—and that's not the only really chilling thing.
A viral video in Maine. ICE guys taking this woman's—picture of her license plate, and she says, “Why are you taking my information down?” This is caught on tape, I guess, because they have the quote, “We have a nice little database and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.”
That's exactly what they do in fascist governments. Whenever you are a protester, you’re actually an enemy of the state, and we arrest you. That's what's going on in Iran right now. They arrested Don Lemon. I—somebody went “Yes,” like good, I don't know.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I didn't hear that.
MAHER: It's not good to arrest him.
…
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What I'm saying is, whatever the act is, if it is the FACE Act or the Faith Act or the Fake Act, whatever act it is, I think the people that went in and disturbed that church, if they want to prosecute them, then that is certainly, you know, their right to consider that. If you are Don Lemon and you are going up to the pastor and you're saying, "I'm not here with them. I'm curious, what are your thoughts?" Was he aggressive? He was aggressive.
Was Mike Wallace aggressive? Were other journalists aggressive in their days? Yes, they were. I think there has to be sort of a differentiation between if somebody's going in there and saying, "I'm not with them, can I ask you some questions?" because you're going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests. So yeah, there is no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists.
And when you have the magistrate in Minnesota see the charges and say, “Well, this is bullshit.” When you had the chief justice, the chief federal judge in Minnesota, look at it and go, “Well, this is bullshit,” and say, “You can't bring these charges,” and so Pam Bondi goes, “Okay, I’ll bring them myself.” Obviously that shows it's at the direction of the administration to intimidate journalists.
