Bill Maher admitted his 'vote is in play' for the 2028 presidential election during a fiery clash with JD Vance, who claimed Big Tech 'rigged' the 2020 election by censoring information and 'obliterating the real open exchange of ideas.' 

The 2020 election - still President Donald Trump's most politically toxic vulnerability - flared back into focus during an exchange between the liberal host and Vance on Friday's episode of HBO's Real Time.

Maher pressed him on Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election, asking point blank whether he would 'bring the country back to the middle' and accept defeat if an election was fairly lost. 

Vance's argument, however, appeared to strike a chord with the audience, who responded with loud applause. 

'Okay, Bill, so this is where I'm probably going to lose you here,' he began. 

The vice president said candidates should accept defeat in legitimate elections, but argued the 2020 vote was not simply an ordinary contest defined only by Trump's refusal to accept the results. 

Instead of directly answering, he pivoted to what he described as problems surrounding the election - particularly claims that media companies portrayed conservatives differently from liberals and shaped how information reached voters. 

'Set to the side the stuff that really gets you and your audience very angry, about whether the count was legitimate in Georgia or Pennsylvania or any of these other states,' Vance said.

Those allegations - fake ballots, voter-counting fraud, Dominion voting machines and key swing states - were heavily investigated and litigated, with no evidence found that widespread fraud changed the outcome of the election.

But Vance argued the election was 'rigged' not because votes were wrongly counted, but because social media companies censored and boosted certain stories, shaping what Americans saw before heading to the ballot box. 

'The sense in which I think the election in 2020 was rigged, is that you had technology companies that were putting their thumb on the scale in a way that completely obliterated the real open exchange of ideas,' he said.

'By the way, it didn't happen in 2024 but it happened in 2020 and it was a problem.'

Tech giants including Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok and X continued to moderate and algorithmically promote content in both 2020 and 2024, though their policies have since evolved. 

The aftermath of the 2020 election triggered a wave of lawsuits from Trump and his allies alleging fraud - claims repeatedly rejected in court. 

Both sides were affected by platform moderation, although conservatives have argued it appeared to hit them harder amid a wave of election-related claims. Platforms deny any bias, insisting rules are applied evenly across the board.     

Since then, tech policy has shifted amid the fallout from the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol riot, the COVID misinformation surge and growing regulatory pressure. 

But the interview didn't stop there. Maher pressed Vance on a string of Trump administration issues, including DEI-related firings and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 

Vance appeared to land another rare win with Maher's anti-MAGA audience during another war of words over Pentagon staffing under Hegseth.

Maher accused him of race-based firings, saying: 'Did they go too far, probably, in the Pentagon with DEI and... yes, and now Pete Hegseth is like firing everyone who's not whiter than an albino.'

'No, he's not! Come on, Bill!' the vice president fired back, before Maher argued it 'certainly looks that way.'

'I disagree with that,' Vance said. 'I think sometimes things land right where they should but you take the story about Pete Hegseth.'

'Obviously I'm biased, I like Pete, but if you look at the actual promotions we've done, there have been a lot of people from all walks of life,' he added.

'There have been some high profile people, where he said, you know what, I don't think they merited a promotion. But the idea we are not promoting minorities in the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth, it's just not true.'

Vance once again turned to the media, claiming they 'actually obfuscate or conceal the truth rather than reporting what's actually going on,' a line that drew another round of applause.

Maher appeared to agree. 'Of course they do, they all do!' he said. 'That's why you have to read both sides.'

However, Hegseth has fired or sidelined nearly three dozen senior military officers as part of a broader campaign to purge the Pentagon of leaders he has called 'foolish,' 'reckless' and 'woke,' according to several outlets including NPR and The New York Times.

Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, claimed in recent Senate testimony that nearly 60 percent of senior officers removed under Hegseth have been female or black. 

'You are hollowing out the military’s bench of experience and highest-performing senior officers, while making young officers wonder if they should continue to serve,' Reed told him at a recent hearing.

In March, Hegseth blocked the promotions of four Army colonels - two women and two Black men - to one-star general, despite recommendations from the Army Secretary. 

Earlier this month, he removed nine Navy officers from a one-star promotion list - among them three women and two Black men. The revised 22-person list contained no women and just two non-white officers. 

Both current and former defense officials said the moves are highly unusual, explaining that officers are typically only removed for moral, mental, physical or professional failings. 

Taken together, the moves could reshape the military’s top ranks for years to come.

Meanwhile, by the end of the interview, Maher made a surprise revelation, admitting he could see himself voting for either Vance or Marco Rubio if the Democratic Party were taken over by socialists.

The late-night host said: 'If this is where the Democratic Party is going, where this Democratic socialist, this obsession with Israel, with the Jew hating, they don’t believe in capitalism, no prisons...'

'If this is where they’re going, my vote is in play,' he added, to which Vance replied that he 'likes to hear that.'

'It actually always has been. Every year, I don’t make my decision by who has an R or a D, I actually always came to the conclusion that the Democrat was probably better and voted for them,' Maher continued.

'And Trump can’t run again and he’d be a little too exciting for me anyway. So it’s either going to be you or Rubio.'