Pratt and Maher Call Pro-Hamas Students ‘Psycho-Nazi’

Pratt and – In a Monday episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt (R) and Maher criticized college students supporting Hamas and denouncing Israel, sparking a sharp exchange that also referenced UCLA’s legal fight with the Tr

On Monday, Bill Maher didn’t start soft. He launched into a blunt line about Harvard University being an “a**hole factory,” saying it was clear to him when students “are chanting for Hamas” on campus.

Maher framed it as a “big issue,” then said he and his guest didn’t need to debate it further.

Spencer Pratt. the Los Angeles mayoral candidate running to replace incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (D). then took the conversation further—tying the campus chants to personal stakes in Los Angeles. “I will go there,” Pratt told Maher. He said he grew up in LA and that many of his close friends are Jewish. Pratt added he went to Crossroads High School. described attending “more Bar and Bat Mitzvahs than I’d been to church. ” and said that when he campaigns for mayor he goes to temples and supports his Jewish friends.

From there, the rhetoric sharpened. Pratt said he was hit with “the level of psycho-Nazi lunacy” that came from people accusing him for wanting his friends and family to feel safe in LA—“to feel safe if their kids go to UCLA.”

Maher nodded as Pratt spoke, agreeing multiple times. Pratt also described the situation as “diabolical” to witness what people are dealing with because of their religion.

Pratt then said he doesn’t care how people identify or what faith they practice. “And again, I don’t care if you’re Muslim. I don’t care how you identify, I don’t care if you’re trans,” he said, adding: “Whatever you do, but you should have the right to do that and feel safe, wherever you are.”

Maher matched his agreement.

The moment landed just as UCLA is already in the middle of a legal fight over campus harassment allegations. The comments came a week after the college was sued by the Trump administration for taking “no serious action whatsoever” to stop Jewish students from being harassed during pro-Palestine protests in 2024. It was also the second antisemitism lawsuit filed by the administration against UCLA in four months.

The mayoral campaign context wasn’t incidental either. Pratt is seeking to replace Mayor Karen Bass. and his campaign has focused heavily on what he calls her botched handling of the wildfires that ravaged LA in early 2025. Pratt said his own home—one of about 12,000 houses that burned down during the fires—was lost.

On the podcast, he also returned to another issue central to his bid: homelessness. He discussed Los Angeles’ homeless crisis with Maher, while also slamming Bass for having what he described as a terrible plan to combat it.

Taken together. the exchange put campus unrest. safety for Jewish students. and a citywide political fight into the same frame—one in which Pratt and Maher treated chants and harassment not as distant controversies. but as something that can follow people into their daily lives. their families. and the institutions where their children study.

Bill Maher Club Random Spencer Pratt Los Angeles mayoral race Karen Bass UCLA lawsuit Trump administration antisemitism lawsuit Hamas chants Harvard campus protests homelessness campaign