HBO talk-show host Bill Maher on Friday defended Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE's (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign over sexual harassment allegations.

"Let me ask a question about the Democrats. Bernie Sanders got into some trouble the last couple of weeks because apparently there was sexual harassment that was reported on his campaign. They asked him about this, and he apologized," Maher said.

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"They asked if he was aware of it, and he said, ‘I was a little busy running around the country trying to make the case.’ Which I had no problem with," he continued. "Just like Hillary [Clinton] wasn’t responsible for Benghazi, she was the secretary of State, it’s not [Sanders’s] responsibility to know everything that goes on, and it didn’t seem like it was the worst kind of sexual harassment."

“I don’t know what went on in that campaign, but if the Democrats are going to keep killing their own — Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenGOP Senate candidate says Trump, Republicans will surprise in Minnesota Peterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district Getting tight — the psychology of cancel culture MORE, Eliot Spitzer, [Al] Gore didn’t support [Bill] Clinton through the blowjob horror — I don’t know where it ends,” Maher quipped.

Maher's comments came during a panel segment on his show "Real Time," which returned Friday after a nearly two-month hiatus. Fellow panelists Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell and former Democratic Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.) pushed back on Maher's remarks.

"I don't think Bernie is responsible for every bad actor in his campaign, but it wasn't just one bad actor," Rampell said.

"The notion that you’re too busy making speeches to know what’s happening in your campaign I don’t think is an acceptable excuse,” Frank added.

Sanders apologized earlier this month to female staffers on his 2016 presidential campaign who said they experienced sexual harassment, acknowledging that the campaign’s procedures for addressing such issues were “clearly inadequate.”

The apology followed after The New York Times and Politico reported that nearly a dozen women who worked for Sanders’s campaign said they were harassed and that their complaints were handled improperly.

The slew of allegations comes as Sanders weighs a presidential run in 2020.