Bill Maher challenged former Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan over recent Senate votes on Bernie Sanders-backed resolutions seeking to block U.S. arms sales to Israel, after dozens of Democrats supported the effort but the measures failed.
The U.S. Senate voted on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, on two Bernie Sanders-backed efforts to block certain U.S. arms sales to Israel, as Democratic opposition to Israel-related weapons transfers continued to grow.
The measures were joint resolutions of disapproval aimed at stopping a proposed sale of about $295 million in Caterpillar D9R and D9T bulldozers and a proposed sale of about $151.8 million for 12,000 general-purpose 1,000-pound bombs and related support services. The Senate rejected the efforts in votes of 59-40 and 63-36, respectively.
According to reporting on the vote, 40 Democrats supported blocking at least one of the sales, while a small group of Democrats voted with Republicans against the blocking efforts. Among the Democrats reported as voting against the resolutions were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
The vote became a point of contention in a recent exchange on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, where Maher told Sullivan that the vote showed Israel had “seven Democratic allies left in the Senate,” referring to a group of Democrats who opposed the blocking measures.
Sullivan pushed back, arguing the vote reflected broader Democratic concern because “40 Democrats” supported the effort. He also said he spoke with some of those senators before the vote and praised them for what he called “the right thing,” contending they should not back actions that would further entangle the United States in a widening regional conflict. Maher responded with a jab linking Sullivan’s argument to Democrats’ recent national electoral setbacks.
The Senate votes were the latest in a series of Sanders-led attempts to force public debate on U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, which require congressional notification and can be challenged through resolutions of disapproval, though such measures historically face long odds of becoming law.
