Liberal HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher took offense to a CBS White House reporter who on Wednesday admitted to intentionally provoking President Obama with a question about Iran.

"Major Garrett is a huge a--hole," Maher wrote late Wednesday in a message to his 3 million-plus followers on Twitter.

Maher suggested Garrett's interaction with the president had a racial element to it. "If you wanna 'strike a nerve' with [Obama], why not just scream the N word?" Maher's tweet continued. "That should get his attention."

Obama hosted a press conference earlier in the day for reporters to ask questions about the administration's controversial deal with the Iranian government to curb Tehran's nuclear development program.

Noting that the deal does nothing about four Americans held in captivity by the Iranian government, Garrett asked Obama to explain why he is "content with all the fanfare around this deal to leave the conscience of this nation ... unaccounted for in relation to these four Americans?"

The president let out a small laugh before saying that "nobody's content" and told Garrett he "should know better."

Afterward, Garrett said of his interaction with the president that it "struck a nerve" and was intentionally "provocative."

Garrett did not respond to a request from the Washington Examiner media desk on Thursday.