Comedian Bill Maher made a fried chicken joke to Rep. Will Hurd (R., Texas), who is black, during an appearance on his HBO show "Real Time" on Friday.

The liberal Maher aggressively questioned Hurd about being a Republican during their interview.

"I'm just asking why you're Republican because they're not good at the debt. That was their big thing. You said limited government. They don't do that. They took over the Congress in 2011 and they raised the debt a trillion dollars a year. They're not good at national defense. The president's a traitor. What's in it for you? What is in the Republican Party for you?" Maher asked Hurd.

"I will say this—," Hurd began.

"You were in the CIA," Maher interrupted.

"I was in the CIA for almost a decade. I was the dude in the back alleys at 4 o'clock in the morning collecting intelligence on threats to the homeland," Hurd said.

"That's where they collect'em, huh? By the Popeye's Chicken," Maher responded.

Hurd didn't give a sign of noticing Maher's quip, but an old stereotype about African Americans is that they enjoy fried chicken. Maher's joke came on the first day of Black History Month.

Maher got into trouble for using a racial slur during a sit-down with Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.).

In response to Sasse telling Maher he would "love to have you work in the fields with us," the comedian said he was "a house n—er." The backlash to the joke prompted Maher to apologize.

Maher's comment also came on the same day that Virginia Democratic governor Ralph Northam found himself facing calls for his resignation after an image from his medical school yearbook page showed a man in a Ku Klux Klan hood next to a man wearing blackface.