WATCH: Top 5 Moments From Ben Shapiro’s Appearance On ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’

Ben Shapiro, host of the “‎The Ben Shapiro Show” and Editor Emeritus of The Daily Wire, was featured on a panel discussion Friday night on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” and produced several viral moments.

The panel discussion, which covered a variety of topics ranging from authoritarianism to Critical Race Theory, featured host Bill Maher, Shapiro, and MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance.

The following are the top-5 moments from the panel discussion:

1. What Real Authoritarianism Looks Like. 

The first highlight from the approximately 20-minute panel discussion came when Shapiro compared what many on the left see as authoritarianism — mean tweets from former President Donald Trump — to an example of what real authoritarianism looks like.

“And the point of the book really is that for all of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the elections, the institutions did not stand with him. There was not a single major institution in American life that stood with Donald Trump,” Shapiro said. “When it came to the riots last year, every single major institution mobilized on behalf of Black Lives Matter — from corporate America to people like Vice President Kamala Harris, who was urging people to bail out rioters in Minneapolis — the question is not whether authoritarianism exists on all sides; I think there are plenty of authoritarians on all sides. The question is where does the institutional power lie?”

“And if the answer is that Donald Trump tweeting and being a jerk is the essence of authoritarianism, as opposed to say, Joe Biden, the President of the United States saying this week that he doesn’t care whether it’s constitutional for the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium, he’s going to do it anyway,” he added. “I mean, that seems rather norm-breaking.”

WATCH:

Shapiro on mean Trump tweets vs. an example of what real authoritarianism looks like: "Biden … [said] this week that he doesn't care whether it's constitutional for the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium, he's going to do it anyway. I mean, that seems rather norm breaking." pic.twitter.com/mDbQjpWNAh

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 8, 2021

2. Dismantling Nance’s False Claim About The January 6th Riot.

The next viral moment came several moments later when Nance tried to “talk about bare facts” when it came to the riot that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Nance claimed that Trump “managed to mobilize 40,000 people” to “lay siege to the Capitol.”

Shapiro picked apart Nance’s claims as the exchange continued:

SHAPIRO: A couple of quick things. One, 40,000 people did not assault the Capitol, okay? It’s just factually inaccurate. There were maybe 1,000 people. That is not making light of the evil of those people who all will end up rotting in prison, as they should.

NANCE: How many people came to that rally?

SHAPIRO: Were all of those people assaulting the Capitol? Is that your contention now?

NANCE: They all marched on the Capitol and then the leading–

SHAPIRO: They all marched on the Capitol? That’s just inaccurate, Malcolm.

NANCE: Yeah, it isn’t. No.

SHAPIRO: Yes, it is inaccurate, Malcolm.

NANCE: Facts, Ben.

SHAPIRO: Yes, you’re not mentioning them.

NANCE: Okay. Okay.

MAHER: Let’s just say some of them milled around outside–

SHAPIRO: I’ll tell you why this is an important thing. This is very quick. I’ll tell you why that’s an important point. Because, Malcolm, you have a terrible habit of conflating people who do actual violent activity with a broader rubric of everyone, for example, who voted for Trump, which was 75 million people, and that really is ugly. You’ve tweeted about me, for example, that I’m such a racist I shouldn’t be allowed in Washington, D.C. That sounds rather authoritarian in attitude to me. I’ve never called for you to be kicked off of MSNBC; I’ve never called for anybody not to buy your book. I’ve never called for anybody to censor you on Twitter.

WATCH:

After falsely claiming 40,000 people stormed the Capitol on 1/6, @BenShapiro SCHOOLS Malcom Nance's nonsense and dangerous conflation of all right-of-center Americans as terrorists.

Shapiro THEN points out that Nance has called him a "racist" who should be banned from D.C. pic.twitter.com/hgkr22uU08

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 7, 2021

3. Bill Maher Gets Friendly Reminder About Democrats Cozying Up To Dictators.

Several moments later, Maher talked about Fox News host Tucker Carlson visiting Hungary to interview Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Maher and Shapiro then had the following exchange:

MAHER: It’s a different kind of autocracy that he is practicing. It’s kind of dangerous. And the fact that Tucker Carlson embraces this guy, that the Republican Party gets this sort of dictator immunity, that, I mean, if a Democrat kissed up to a dictator like that.

SHAPIRO: Wait, if? “If a Democrat kissed up to a dictator?” Barack Obama went and held hands with Fidel Castro’s brother at a baseball game. “If a Democrat kissed up to a dictator like that.”

MAHER: Yeah, you’re right.

SHAPIRO: Barack Obama said that he was going to provide flexibility to Vladimir Putin.

MAHER: Alright, forget that.

WATCH:

.@BenShapiro calls out Bill Maher on his claim of Republicans having a "dictator immunity" by pointing out that Barack Obama held hands with and went to a baseball game with Raul Castro in Cuba and Obama promising Medvedev "flexibility" after his reelection. pic.twitter.com/SMI6iaLAZs

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 7, 2021

4. What Real Authoritarianism Looks Like — Part II.

Maher later said that he was worried that Orban was preparing for an armed conflict because of the danger that the far-left poses to society.

During the following exchange, Shapiro noted that the Democrat Party controls the House, the Senate, and the White House and that it is the Democrat Party that is engaged in “mask mandates, vaccine mandates and lockdowns.”

The full exchange:

MAHER: Yes, what I’m worried about is that this looks like a dry run for what, that Tucker Carlson would embrace him, it looks like a Spanish Civil War for what Hitler did later, if I may use that analogy, the kind of dry run that we are seeing where they foment fear of what the, and I would agree, are the exaggerations of the cultural Left to say, “they’re so dangerous that we cannot let them take over, no matter what, even if we have to get rid of democracy, it’s more important than having these leftists with their ideas that will change our culture completely from the root, it’s more important.” And that seems to be the argument that they are making here in America. That’s why you get these numbers of Republicans who say we may have to take the law into our own hands. So this thing of Tucker Carlson in Hungary, I think is a big deal.

SHAPIRO: Okay. Well, obviously, you know, anybody who says that would be morally wrong. I think there is always an element when you poll Republicans of “screw you” to the pollsters. And so they sort of tell pollsters what they think the pollsters don’t want to hear. But let’s assume that all those poll results are accurate reflections of what people actually think. I feel like I’m living in a bit of a parallel universe in the sense that right now, the House, the Senate and the presidency of the United States are all controlled by the Democratic Party. It is the Democratic Party, large scale across the United States currently engaged in mask mandates, vaccine mandates and lockdowns. So, for all the talk about Tucker Carlson, who, again, you mentioned, is not a governmental figure, or Donald Trump, who has not been in office since January last I checked, it seems that the great threat that people are experiencing right now is from the soft institutions, right? The institutions, the Facebooks and the Twitters and the corporate world, right, all those institutions on a soft level and on a governmental level, the people who are actually experiencing control top down from the government, the people at the top of the government right now are Democrats.

WATCH:

After pointing out that, contrary to the behavior of leftists, Donald Trump isn't in power and #Tucker only went to the small country of Hungary, "people are actually experiencing top-down control from the government," which, as per the balance of power, are all Democrats. pic.twitter.com/YhV3hn62mG

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 7, 2021

5. Shapiro Defines Critical Race Theory, Repeatedly Dunks On Nance. 

The final viral moment occurred during the latter half of the panel discussion when Maher had Shapiro and Nance discuss Critical Race Theory.

Shapiro gave a masterful definition of Critical Race Theory, explaining:

Yes, there’s a certain sort of crystallized version of it that is a lot less complex than what Critical Race Theory actually is. But Critical Race Theory essentially argues that racism is baked into all the systems of American society, and that any sort of neutral system is in fact, a guise for racial power. And so the argument is made by Derrick Bell, for example, that Brown versus Board of Education, and this is an argument he made in 1991, that Brown versus Board of Education was actually a way for the white community to leverage its own power. It wasn’t an attempt to end segregation in public schools, even things that are purportedly good in terms of race, so long as they uphold these broader systems, things like capitalism, or things like the meritocracy, these things are actually just guises for power. And so what that boils down to in sort of practical terms is all disparity equals discrimination. If you can see any stat where black people are underperforming white people, this means the system was set up for the benefit of white people, and that white people have a duty to tear down these systems in order to alleviate the racism that’s implicit in those systems. When it comes to schools, what this tends to boil down to is kids who are white have experienced privilege because the system was built for white people. And we have to change the standards.

After rebutting several false attacks from Nance, Shapiro had to explain to Nance that Nance supports an ideology that wants to tear down the meritocracy which Nance has benefitted from, a fact that seemed lost on Nance:

SHAPIRO: I define Critical Race Theory by citing the actual authors of Critical Race Theory and you seem to be a pretty good beneficiary of the meritocracy because you have merit, Malcolm. So, if you’re going to criticize the meritocracy as an outgrowth of white supremacy then you’re going to have to tear down the system that you’ve succeeded in because you merit or do not have merit.

NANCE: You know, when my great-great-grandfather ran away from slavery to join the 111th U.S. Colored Troops and fight against the South keeping human beings as slaves, he didn’t think, you know what, in 150 years, my great-great-grandson is gonna have to sit on stage and argue with the guy who thinks all that’s bull****.

SHAPIRO: All of what is bull****?

NANCE: There is no controversy, the controversy that’s made up is people saying that this is being discussed, that this being taught in schools and that kids should be–

SHAPIRO: That’s not true. Malcolm. The 5th largest school district in America, Clark County, just decided that they were going to lower standards with regard to testing because they wanted to alleviate disparities in outcomes. That is an outgrowth of Critical Race Theory.

NANCE: Can you draw a straight line to it?

SHAPIRO: Yes, 100%. Because when you say that the meritocracy is an outgrowth of white supremacy and then you suggest that I’m somehow denying that slavery took place or that your great-great-grandfather was a hero because I am saying that I want people tested when they are in school to see if they are good at school, then what you are purporting to push Malcolm is nonsense and [inaudible] sheer bull****, Malcolm. It’s just bull****.

MAHER: But I think it’s also a leap to say that [Shapiro] thought [what Nance was saying] was bull****, because that’s not what it is. I mean, we’re talking, are we talking about 2021? Or are we talking about 1861?

Several minutes later, Shapiro continued to grill Nance on why Nance supports Critical Race Theory, to which Nance was only able to respond by claiming that Shapiro’s show “sucks.”

Here’s how Shapiro responded:

SHAPIRO: If we agree that history should be taught, why are you defending Critical Race Theory, which is not history?

NANCE: Did I not just say a moment ago that I think that term has been hijacked and that’s not what we’re talking about?

SHAPIRO: Then why are you defending it?

NANCE: I’m going to go back and repeat that I didn’t say that.

SHAPIRO: You are literally defending Critical Race Theory by redefining it as just teaching history which is a cheap semantic trick and you know it.

NANCE: Is this what you do on your show because it sucks?

SHAPIRO: You know, Malcolm, I appreciate that. But I will comfort myself tonight by sleeping on my bed made of money.

NANCE: I’m sure, we have, I’m sure you have another adult subject to talk about.

WATCH: