On Friday, MS NOW political analyst Molly Jong-Fast was on Bill Maher’s HBO talk show. Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds joined her. The two squared off over vaccines and measles. She took issue with Donalds blaming the reemergence of measles inside our borders on the massive hordes of illegal aliens let into America by former President Joe Biden. She then made it personal.
Here’s more. (READ)
MSNBC contributor tries to corner Byron Donalds on measles and demands to know if he vaxxes his kids.
His answer left her looking stupid. And Bill Maher even piled on at the end.
MOLLY JONG-FAST: “You’ve had to say some stuff. Like last week on Margaret Brennan’s show, you said rampant illegal immigration was the cause for this measles outbreak and not not being vaccinated. I’m curious. Like, I have three kids. You have three kids. Do you not vaccinate your kids?”
BYRON DONALDS: “My oldest son is 23 years old. The vaccination schedule for him was less intense than the vaccination schedule for my 15-year-old son. And if you have talked to my mom, the vaccination schedule for me, being 47 years old, was not nearly as intense as it is for newborns today.“So I think there are parents, there are mothers who have real concerns about the frequency of vaccines for young infants into just being a toddler. And so I think the order that came out the other day from the White House was, well, let’s just spread the vaccination schedule back out. Let parents have an ability to make those decisions for their children with informed consent. And then the last piece is, let’s also make sure that the human body in its infancy can actually manage the amount of vaccines that are being put into their child. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
BILL MAHER: “I don’t either.”
JONG-FAST: “We have people dying of measles. We had two people in Ohio die of measles. We were almost eradicated from measles and now we have measles again, and there’s a reason for that. And the idea that you said illegal immigration causes—”
DONALDS: “Under the previous administration, more than 10 million people came into the country illegally, and I know for a fact, just like everybody else — you can read your notes too — they weren’t checking their vaccination schedules coming into the United States. That’s a fact. That’s number one.“Number two, there was a measles outbreak in a couple of the detention facilities on the southern border. There was a measles outbreak in El Paso, Texas. There was also one in Chicago at another illegal immigration facility. Those are the facts.“So when you let that many people come into your country, when we already know in other countries they don’t have the vaccination schedule that we have, and then when the Department of Health and Human Services is talking about American children, now you’re finding fault with vaccination schedules for American children? I don’t think that’s an accurate way to look at it.”
MAHER: “I had measles as a kid. I loved it. I was home for two weeks. I ate ice cream every day.”
CDC schedule, 1983: 11 vaccine doses.CDC schedule, 2024: 70+ vaccine doses.
Democrats don’t seem to get that many Americans are not opposed to vaccines; they have a problem with the sheer number of them being administered to children in a short time. Molly Jong-Fast tried to equate Donalds's valid concerns with being a bad parent. (WATCH)
MSNBC contributor tries to corner Byron Donalds on measles and demands to know if he vaxxes his kids.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 29, 2026
His answer left her looking stupid. And Bill Maher even piled on at the end.
MOLLY JONG-FAST: “You’ve had to say some stuff. Like last week on Margaret Brennan’s show, you said… pic.twitter.com/pGLXrHqgkg
'Let me signal my total lack of fact and substance by immediately going for the personal.'
— LaughAtLefties (@LaughAtLefties) August 29, 2026
She thought she had such a gotcha. She planned it all… she’s so awful.
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) August 29, 2026
She's used to arguing with her emotions.
One poster agreed with Jong-Fast, but he was quickly set straight.
She doesn't sound stupid, she raises the only valid point: Measles was nearly eradicated before the RFK Jr antivax policy and now it's spreading rapidly. And there is absolutely no proof "illegals" brought it into the country. MAGAts blame them for everything. Ridiculous.
— Lonny Johnson (@lkjohnson1950) August 29, 2026
You're a special one aren't you? Bless your heart.
— Roscoe Hendersoy (@Odif740) August 29, 2026
It "might have" been eradicated in the United States but not the world. Then the illegal migration came... and it followed with them.
Do you see now?
Biden invited the Third World into America, didn’t screen them, and unleashed them and their diseases on the populace. Thanks a lot, Joe.
Jong-Fast confused Ohio for a story out of Pennsylvania. Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro claimed that an adult and a newborn died from measles. The child’s death was not from measles. (WATCH)
And there it is…
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) August 28, 2026
The Lancaster Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni confirms Governor Josh Shapiro lied— the infant died of a Ruptured Spleen, NOT Measles
“At the time of the autopsy, we did obtain some tissue from the newborn, and we sent it for PCR testing…”
The PCR test…… https://t.co/DK6U5dUfXD pic.twitter.com/jRDdN8Avei
Pennsylvania didn’t have deaths. They had lies from their governor
— Genericxaccount14 (@Genericxac929) August 29, 2026
Yet Shapiro shaped the narrative that continues because the masses, and their sycophants, will never check. In fact, she wasn't corrected by either person listening to her.
— CNNlol (@cnnloll) August 29, 2026
Specific details about the adult’s death and whether measles was the cause have not been released.
In the past, many Americans viewed measles as an inevitable rite of passage for young people. Maher and others share that experience, and it was reflected in popular entertainment of the time such as The Brady Bunch. (WATCH)
"I had a measles as a kid. I loved it. I was home for two weeks. I ate ice cream every day." Reminds me of this gem of an episode from the Brady Bunch😁 pic.twitter.com/vNKZ9XaOjS
— Amanda J (@AmandaJ4Freedom) August 29, 2026
>> MAHER: “I had measles as a kid. I loved it. I was home for two weeks. I ate ice cream every day.” <<
— Thomas_Aquinas (@ThomAquinas77) August 29, 2026
Same with Chicken Pox. Everyone got it. No big deal.
Yep that’s exactly how it was. We lived it.
— BB (@BobbyBrady10) August 29, 2026
Can measles be deadly? Yes, but the way media portrays measles, one would believe it’s an automatic death sentence if contracted. There's a reason for that. Democrats and the legacy media are determined to make it an election issue, and as we've seen, they're not above lying about it.
