Liberal HBO host Bill Maher appeared to be stunned by his “Real Time” audience on Friday after virtually no one applauded a Democrat call to admit “some people belong in jail.”

During the show, Maher talked about a recent report in the Los Angeles Times about dramatically increased crime rates in Portland, Ore. — though certainly the Times could also have looked at the paper’s own city for more of the same. The headline read, “Shootings, theft, and other crime test city’s progressive strain,” and addressed left-wing soft-on-crime policies that have exploded crime in the uber-liberal city, especially homicides.

“Almost all cities are Democratically-run and this is one of the big talking points on the right — that cities in America are falling apart [and] they’re run by Democrats [so] why aren’t we blaming the Democrats?” Maher said in reaction to the report.

He went on to call crime an “Achilles heel” for Dems going into the 2024 elections. Some Democrats, Mediaite noted, such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) have been calling out some criminal justice ‘reforms’ like ending cash bail as being counterproductive to community safety and for law enforcement in general.

“This is a big Achilles heel for the Democrats, is it not?” Maher asked.

CNN contributor and former Bill Clinton presidential adviser Paul Begala agreed.

“Oh, they need to get out in front of it. They need — I want a Democrat to stand up and say, ‘you know something? Some people belong in jail.’ The rapists, the murderers —” he said before Maher interrupted and pointed out that only one person clapped in response to Begala’s statement.

“One clap for that! I think that’s very interesting,” he said as more people in the audience finally applauded. “Let’s just pause there. One person is like, yes, some people in jail and everybody else is going, no, they don’t, nobody belongs in jail.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb. Some people do belong in jail,” Maher continued.

“One clap for that.” @BillMaher appalled by near silence from his Los Angeles audience when guest @PaulBegala said “I want a Democrat to stand up and say ‘you know, some people belong in jail, the rapists, the murderers.’” #RealTime pic.twitter.com/Mt1fpp5rsV

— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 (@BrentHBaker) February 11, 2023

Maher isn’t likely to be voting for conservative politicians any time soon, but he sure has a lot of complaints about uber-left-wing Democrats these days as well. Last week, the liberal comedian once again took aim at leftist activists who he says are warring with reality and biology.

“If you’re part of today’s woke revolution, you need to study the part of revolutions where they spin out of control because the revolutionaries get so drunk on their purifying elixir they imagine they can reinvent the very nature of human beings,” Maher noted.

“The problem with communism, and with some very recent ideologies here at home, is that they think they can change reality by screaming at it, that you can bend human nature by holding your breath. But that’s the difference between reality and your mommy,” Maher said.

“I’ve spent three decades on TV mocking Republicans who said climate change was just a theory,” he concluded. “And now I got to deal with people who say, ‘You know what else is just a theory? Biology.’”