Bill Maher

 "Real Time" host Bill Maher ripped the left during the most recent episode of his late-night program, saying that Fox News has praised him of late for criticizing woke liberals he claims "have their head up their backsides."

Maher, who has frequently slammed Fox News in the past, spoke about the recent appreciation coming from the conservative news outlet during a segment of his show Friday night.

He played a clip of Fox News host Dana Perino suggesting he run for president as a Democrat. The comedian said, "In the space of 20 years, Bush press secretaries have gone from telling me, I need to watch what I say," referring to comments former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer made in the early 2000s, "... to wondering if I should run for president."

Perino previously served as White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration from 2007-2009.

But the HBO host explained that Fox's admiration of him is not a result of his political beliefs moving toward the right but because he is willing to call out liberals who have shifted further to the left.

"It's not me who's changed, it's the left, that is now made up of a small contingent who've gone mental. And a large contingent who refuse to call them out for it. But I will," Maher said.

"That's why I’m a hero at Fox these days," he continued. "Which shows just how much liberals have their head up their backsides, because if they really thought about it, they would have made me a hero on their media. But that can't happen in this ridiculous new era of mind-numbing partisanship where if I keep it real about the nonsense in the Democratic Party, it makes me an instant hero to Republicans."