He took a poke at the people who protested him but he had to jab the GOP too, naturally.

Ashley Dobson of Red Alert Politics reports.

Bill Maher finally gives his much contested commencement speech at UC Berkeley

After months of publicity, liberal comedian Bill Maher finally got to give his much contested commencement speech at the University of California Berkeley over the weekend.

Maher’s speech had become the center of controversy back in October after he got into a televised argument with Ben Affleck over Islam. His statements criticized the religion and more than 4,000 people signed an online petition calling on Berkeley to ban him from speaking at commencement. The student leadership took a vote against Maher, but Nicholas B. Dirks, the chancellor at Berkeley, said that the university would not rescind the invitation to speak.

Maher denounced the petitioners, saying that it contradicted Berkeley’s historical commitment to free speech.
During the commencement speech, he touched on this same theme, but didn’t address the conflict directly.

“I recognize that this university, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Berkeley free speech movement, made a statement by choosing me for this speech, and I would like to say I appreciate that, and I’d also like to say: I think you made the right statement,” he said.

“Come on, it’s Berkeley. I think I can speak freely here. I mean, I hope I can.”
He, of course, couldn’t help but take a couple of jabs at the GOP and also repeated some of his comments about how free speech is essential to being a liberal.