Bill Maher drew a shocked reaction from his audience after arguing that all fraternities should be abolished following allegations of a gang rape involving seven Cornell students.
Maher, who graduated from the Ivy League university in 1978, criticized his alma mater during Friday night’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.
He addressed the episode near the end of the program, discussing allegations against seven Chi Phi fraternity members accused in a lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting a female student identified as Jane Doe.
Umar Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar have not been charged with crimes. They deny the allegations.
“Any place that’s all male, no girls allowed, just doesn’t function without depravity. Just ask the Catholic Church. Ask the Taliban,” Maher said, prompting a mixture of gasps and applause from the audience.
“Human nature is bad, and the best we can do is create institutions that don’t make it so easy to be worse. And a great place to start would be getting rid of ‘Greek life,’” Maher added sarcastically.
Maher went on to outline what he described as the harmful traits associated with fraternity culture.
“Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity. The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism, and just general a**holery—boat shoes, for example—and hypocrisy,” the comedian said.
Late-night host Bill Maher said fraternities should be abolished amid the ongoing investigation involving seven Cornell students
Seven Chi Phi fraternity members have been accused in a lawsuit of drugging and sexually assaulting a female student identified as Jane Doe
The political commentator focused particularly on the case, which has drawn national attention and sparked widespread criticism of Cornell.
“Fraternity mission statements love to use the word ‘gentlemen’; well, in this current Jane Doe case, a young woman made a bad decision—as 20-year-olds do—when she went to a frat house drunk and did ketamine, and for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay.
“Now, no one there knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is: a gentleman, gentlemen, is someone who, in that situation, doesn’t exploit the woman; he saves her. That’s a gentleman,” Maher said as the audience responded with loud cheers and applause.
Maher’s guest, Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, also applauded the remarks.
The comments came about a month after Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Cornell, the fraternity and the seven Chi Phi members, along with other defendants.
According to the September filing, Ingalls, Newell, Lee, Lopes, Sarabia, Norris and Kretzschmar allegedly raped the former student at a fraternity party on October 19, 2024.
The alleged victim said Chi Phi members engaged in sexual acts with her while she was incapacitated and unable to consent.
DON’T MISS: ‘Godfather’ of Australia’s Pool Industry Suffers Fresh Blow
She also alleged in the filing that the men manipulated her into consuming ketamine and alcohol that night.
Maher’s guest, Republican North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, also applauded his comments
Jane Doe, who was 20 and a sophomore at the time, first reported the allegations in 2024. However, after an investigation led by Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, no charges were filed.
But after her recent lawsuit, the office has reopened the case, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has tapped Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor.
Since news of the alleged incident came out, a slew of evidence has come to light, including text messages between Jane Doe and the frat brothers.
On Thursday, TMZ shared messages that allegedly show Jane Doe downplayed the alleged assault in conversations with Ingalls and Newell.
According to Jane Doe, Ingalls had invited her to the house that night before asking her if she wanted to have a threesome with Newell.
She agreed and was taken to a room where she was allegedly offered alcohol and ketamine, the lawsuit stated.
Newell then sent a message to about 50 fraternity members on Snapchat that read ‘free p****’, referring to the woman.
Other frat brothers then came into the room and allegedly sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated, according to Jane Doe.
A female protester holds up a sign calling for fraternities to be banned amid the allegations against Cornell frat brothers
Thomas Giuffra told Our News Outlet that his client maintains her allegations and said that the newly released messages between her and some of the accused frat brothers did not suggest that the alleged encounter was consensual
In the newly released texts, Jane Doe told Newell that ‘none of the sexual stuff was illegal,’ and described the incident as a ‘gangbang’ that was ‘our body our choice’ in text messages.
But her attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told Our News Outlet that his client maintains her allegations and said that the messages did not suggest that the alleged encounter was consensual.
Giuffra argued that Jane Doe was showing ‘classic symptoms of delayed recognition’ about the gravity of the incident, meaning it took some time for her to realize that she had been the victim of an alleged crime.
‘This is a well-known phenomenon which is widely reported in medical and psychological literature,’ the attorney said.
‘Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.’
