Bill Maher: Bridgegate Is Christie's 'Miley Cyrus' Moment

"Real Time with Bill Maher" returns this weekend, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. Maher, a New Jersey native, has plenty of opinions on Chris Christie and "bridgegate," as he told Chris Matthews on Tuesday's "Hardball."

Maher rejected the conventional wisdom that the New Jersey governor has derailed his chances to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 due to the scandal. He joked: "I don't think they'll ever find a smoking ham to attribute to Chris Christie directly."

But the comedian did not let Christie off the hook for the actions of his administration. "I never knew before of a scandal where an... administration actually purposefully inflicted pain on its own citizens to make a point to other politicians," he said. "Nixon had an enemies list, but he carried out his vengeance against his enemies."

Furthermore, he hardly believes that this spells the end of Christie's career, citing the fact that politicians like Sarah Palin are bullies and were still beloved. "This is not the disaster for him that people think it is," he said. "I think it's Miley Cyrus [moment]. It looked like a scandal when she was twerking at the VMA awards, but it turned out that it just made her a bigger star."

Check out Maher's full remarks above, where the famously atheist comedian also shares his thoughts on Pope Francis.