Megyn Kelly and Bill Maher came to rhetorical blows multiple times on Friday evening as the two discussed various topics. Not surprisingly, their views on Donald Trump caused the most contention, with Maher repeatedly calling the former president a "fascist."

Kelly was ready to respond, though. 

MAHER: I'm not saying you don't have a point. I'm just saying it's hard for people to understand why that, which is not democracy, that's the border issue, and you're right, they ******* it up. Back [to] all the things that he's been saying, and all the people in his administration who've said he's a fascist, he wants to be fascist, his friends are all dictators.

KELLY: I don't care about that at all. Not at all. 

MAHER: Because?

KELLY: January 6th was not good. 

MAHER: Wait, why don't you care about that at all?

KELLY: Because they've been saying that about Trump for years, they've been saying that about Republican candidates for years. It has like a long storied history. If you are at all center or center-right, you are used to having your candidate of choice completely demonized, whether it's the f-word, the r-word, the misogynist word. 

They tried to tell us Mitt Romney was a raging sexist because of binders full of women. They tried to tell us John McCain was a raging racist not withstanding the fact that he adopted a daughter from Bangladesh. They've been doing this for every Republican and they get to Trump and we are not longer listening to them. Trump has incendiary rhetoric, there's no question, but we have four years to judge him by, and the country was going pretty well, unlike the four we've had with these two. 

This is a key issue in the 2024 election, and one that I'd argue is going poorly for Democrats. As Kelly points out, everyone has heard all of this before. At some point, and that point was a long time ago, this became a "boy who cried wolf" situation. You can only call someone a fascist so many times before people want to see some actual evidence, and people mouthing off on MSNBC aren't going to qualify. 

Trump was president for four years. If anything, he was too soft at times in wielding lawful executive power. He was not a fascist, and those still saying that come across as unhinged. Worse, they come across as deflecting. Voters are concerned about issues that affect their everyday lives. Continuing to try to turn this race into a referendum on "democracy" is not working for Democrats because it makes them look delusional and out of touch.

ALSO SEE: Even Bill Maher Has to Admit Things Aren't Looking Good for Kamala Harris 

Continuing, Maher tried to turn things around by claiming that the economy is going great and that Trump's economic success was the result of Barack Obama. It took about two seconds for Kelly to sniff off the inconsistency in that statement, causing Maher to change the subject again.

MAHER: Well, I mean I could argue with that too. If Trump had this economy, and I could go through all the stats, the stock market is through the roof, wages are up.

KELLY: Not as high as it was under Trump.

MAHER: Well, first of all, Trump inherited somebody else's economy. 

KELLY: That's what Barack Obama would like us to think.

MAHER: Well, it's true. Really, on day one, everything changed?

KELLY: So walk me through it. So Trump has Obama to thank for his economy, but Biden can't thank Trump for anything?

MAHER: Okay, let's get off this...

Because Obama is a raging narcissist, he's been campaigning for Kamala Harris by claiming that he was responsible for the economy under Donald Trump. There's just one problem with that logic. If it were true, then that would mean Trump is responsible for whatever economic success exists under Harris and the Biden administration. They can't have it both ways, and Maher had no answer when called out.

Still, he just couldn't shut up about fascism. He was like a dog yelping the same thing over and over.

MAHER: These are the dictator countries. There's a very World War II feeling here when the dictators were getting together. I mean, in World War II did Hitler and the Japanese have in common? Nothing except they saw the world one way: Fascism. 

They all had to do it in their own way. Iran is a fascist country, in their own why. So is China, so is Russia, Saudia Ariaba you could say also. Somehow the world seems to be dividing between the good guy countries, the democratic countries, and these autocracies, and if your guy gets in, we are going to be on the wrong side of this one. 

I've never become as big of a fan of Maher as some others on the right, and this is the reason why. Sure, he says some good things on the issue of transgenderism, which we'll get to momentarily, but overall, he's still a left-wing imbecile. China is a fascist country? How is the largest communist nation on earth a fascist country? And how are Iran and Saudi Arabia fascist countries? Does Maher think fascism is a synonym for dictatorship? Last I checked, Russia is the birthplace of mainline communism, but Putin, a former KGB member who longs for the return of the Soviet Union, is also now a fascist? 

Words have actual meanings, but because it's been so overused, fascism no longer means anything. That hand has been overplayed, and while Maher's left-wing audience will eat up whatever he says, the broader electorate has become numb to this stupidity. 

As Kelly goes on to explain, maybe instead of arguing from vast generalities that largely make no sense, Maher should take some time to examine the results. 

KELLY: Trump did not go after his political enemies with the DOJ. That was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

MAHER: Well, we had Hitler in the 30s and things were okay, and then we had Hitler in the 40s, and they got way worse. Just because we had him...

KELLY: Oh, I see, he hid his Hitlerism the first four years and is going to come out in full force the second four years. 

MAHER: Well, he tried to do things like that. He tried to do dictatorial fascist things, and he was stopped. 

KELLY: Joe Biden has flouted the law when it comes to these student loan giveaway programs.

MAHER: Really, you're talking about...

KELLY: He's flouted the law, Supreme Court opinions that openly told him he didn't have the right to do it, and he openly said, "I will get around the Supreme Court." He did it with respect to rent abatement programs, the same exact thing, and then he and Kamala Harris unleashed this Department of Justice against their political enemy, Donald Trump, their number one chief rival for the presidency. Is it funny? Because they did it. You want to talk fascism? That's fascist. 

MAHER: I don't think history is going to be kind to your point of view, but I appreciate you coming on again.

Maher's intellectual dishonesty is on full display in that exchange. He dismisses Biden's lawlessness and flouting of the democratic structure while not naming anything that Trump supposedly did with his presidential power that could be considered "fascist." It's just a meaningless buzzword. 

Meanwhile, it is Biden and Harris who have used the Department of Justice to try to jail their chief political opponent before a major election. The audience laughed at Kelly's claim, but they wouldn't be laughing had it been Trump who had done that while he was in office, and everyone knows it. Does the rule of law matter or not? Because if Democrats get to pick and choose based only on what they decide is a "threat to democracy," then the rule of law no longer holds any weight. 

As I mentioned earlier, there was one moment of agreement between Maher and Kelly, though.

KELLY: Almost equally important, maybe as important is what we are doing to our children with this trans insanity. I mean, this is almost my single issue. We are chopping off the healthy body parts of young children. Oh, 100 percent, we are doing that...

MAHER: Well, we are definitely doing that, so I don't know what the booing is about...

KELLY: I don't either, pay attention because I'm about to give you a truth bomb. Kids who are suffering from bullying or have been sexually assaulted or who are going through normal puberty and feel uncomfortable in their bodies will say to their parents, "I'm not sure, maybe I'm gender-confused." 

They will send them into a psychiatrist or psychologist who are told by our organizations, the American Psychiatry Association and all the others who run their licensing, "You must affirm, affirm is the only standard." And so the child gets told, "You're right, you are secretly a boy or vice versa." And the child gets put on puberty blockers and do cross-sex hormones which sterilize a child and deprive the child of any chance of sexual pleasure for the rest of his or her life. 

We're talking about nine, 10, 11-year-olds who can not give informed consent, and then they have body parts chopped off by a medical establishment and by parents who mean well but believe in these doctors, and they shouldn't, and when they inevitably get past the awkwardness of puberty or what have you and they want to turn around and detransition, those who love-bomb them on Reddit saying, "Come on in, the water's fine," abandon them. They are depressed. They have changed their bodies forever in a way that is irreversible, and we are all sitting back saying, "It's a remote issue," as Kamala Harris is saying. It's not remote. It's the issue of our time both in respect to children and women's rights. 

Credit to Maher for managing to be on the right side of at least one issue, I suppose. Still, I continue to see him as mostly an intellectual lightweight who is reduced to repeating hysterical buzzwords when he's challenged. Kelly won the day during these exchanges.