Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #448: Richard Haass, Anthony Scaramucci

Episode Date: February 3, 2018

Bill’s guests are Richard Haass, Anthony Scaramucci, David Frum, Donna Brazile  (Originally aired 02/02/18) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Get the excitement because it's a holiday crowd. It's Groundhog Day. But it is. It's Groundhog Day. And, you know, this year because the Groundhog is brown

and it gets pulled from its home, ice is involved. But forget Groundhog Day. The only large, rat-like creature I'm concerned about is Devin Nunes. This guy, and his memo got released today. And, of course, it's not fair to single him out. All the Republicans these days are treasonous rats.

And they're all together. They're on a retreat in West Virginia. And the people of that town are on to them because the banner said, welcome banana Republicans. Which is what we're turning into. I mean, this slow-moving coup that I've been talking about since before the election, you know, kind of picked up speed this week. Trump declassified this Nunes memo,

which is supposed to make us think that our own top law enforcement people are crooked so Trump can get away with his Russia crimes. Problem is, the Republicans talk about this memo, you know, like it's some smoking gun piece of evidence that they uncovered. No, they wrote it. They uncovered it in their printer. It's not an intelligence document. It's a Facebook post that you'd briefly skim before a clicking unfriend.

But, you know, the Republican, they did not like what the FBI was finding out about Trump. So, like the true patriots they are, of Russia. They attack the FBI and the Justice Department because they're biased. Yes, because they're in law enforcement. And the Trump crime family. commits crimes. So that's what they're supposed to do. It's like saying the exterminator is biased against the termites.

Pace myself. I know I get pissed off. Too early. Right? But don't you? I mean, this Republican delusion that Robert Mueller, a Republican who's there because of Trump, is conspiring with Rod Rosenstein,

the acting attorney general, a Republican who's there because of Trump, and, of course, Mueller's old buddy, Jim Comey, another Republican appointed by Trump. And Trump's attitude is, geez, what a bunch of idiots. Who put them in charge? But, okay, smearing the FBI in the Justice Department is not the only thing that Fat Nixon was up to this week.

It was also a state of the union time here in America. The address, the address was delivered by Trump's alter ego, teleprompter Trump. I'm not going to say the president of the United States can't read. But it's obvious he doesn't get a lot of practice at it. Not great at the teleprompter. First of all, during rehearsals, he kept referring to it as Surrey. And he read it so slow.

He looked like a guy taking an eye exam. At one point, Stormy Daniels pretended to come just to make him stop. You know, But did you watch this speech? He mentioned all the floods, you know, the wildfires, the storms we've had. Never once linked them to climate change. Yes,

probably the work of the deep state, wouldn't you imagine? And he dragged, of course, about, you know, the biggest tax cuts in history. No. Like the eighth biggest. For finally seeing wages going up, they've been going up for years. Car companies are building again and expanding.

No, that's been going on for years. Where's the guy in the State of the Union who yells, you lie when you need him? And as with all State of the Unions, you know, it was the gallery. You know, they have the people up in the gallery what they call the stunt casting. They do. They're the people who tug at your heartstrings

and there were. I mean, there were parents of victims of the MS-13 crime gang and there was a blind double amputee Marine. And then there was one that I must say really got to me. There was a woman in the gallery who has been forced to be married to Donald Trump for 13 years.

And, oh, did you see, Melania? She was all decked out, all white outfit from Dior, Dulcée and Gabana blouse, lubiton heels, and a shock collar in case she made a run for it. And if you have any doubts that Melania is very

pissed and humiliated by the Stormy Daniels thing, she broke all president, did not travel to the speech to the Capitol with the President. She came separately, as usual. Anyway, we have a great show. Donna Brazell and David Frummer here. And a little later, we'll be speaking

with former White House Communications Director Anthony Garamucci. The Mooch is here, ladies and gentlemen. The mooch. But first up, he's the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. I never believe he's doing our show, but he is, whose latest book The world and disarray is now in paperback.

Please welcome. Richard Haas! There he is. Okay, great to see you. Richard. Great to have you here. Your annual... Yes, every year you have to kind of catch us up on what's going on in the world.

I just want to know, first of all, what does the world think when they see... You know, they know what's going on in America. They read the papers, and they see a president who's at war with his own law enforcement. enforcement agencies. What is that say to the, what are they saying in those foreign capitals? Well, U.S. standing has plummeted in most of the capitals. It's probably worst in Europe and Latin America. You mentioned climate change. That's the reason. They see what's going on. President attacking the courts, attacking the media, doesn't play well in places like Europe where democracy is robust. I think the president's popular in, say, Saudi Arabia, Israel. And in places like China and Russia, they are baffled. I should have a nickel for every time people

from those countries say, what do we make of this guy? And how do we read what's going on in the United States? But they have kind of caught on that you flatter him, right? I mean, wasn't that the trick? The Chinese used, and the Saudi Arabians, they put his face on a building. I mean, it's not that hard to figure it out. Yeah, the president cares too much about personal relationships and cares too much about how he's treated.

So, I mean, you say democracy is robust in Europe, not all of Europe. Poland is changing. Good point. Fair enough. Eastern Europe, Hungary. You know, I read this term, you know, populist leaders say the same thing about Trump. As if it's, you could say this, as if it means authoritarianism. And it doesn't, does it?

I mean, a populist leader, Trump is not a populist leader. He's a wannabe dictator. But he is populist in the sense that he's tapping into economic insecurity. Okay, what's the difference between a populist and an authoritarian? I think populist leaders are really good at reading the people. and they sense their insecurity, whether it's over immigration, say, in Europe or over economics,

and what they do is they often then are willing to almost make a deal with the people. We'll take care of your insecurities, but you're going to lose a little bit of your freedom. I think in places like Russia or China, there's no deal with the people. They've just decided they are going to be strong men, top down, they are not going to allow any sort of openness to...

They don't want the virus of freedom to break out. I mean, I see places like the Philippines and Turkey, which we thought, you know, went into our column. I don't know what our column is anymore actually. But the old view of our column, Western democracy, rule of law, and now they're not.

Which shows you can go back and forth, and that could happen here too. I mean, Trump definitely does not understand what this country was founded on, because when you see him say things, like we've had three examples of him saying to Come Me, he said I need loyalty, and he meant

personal loyalty. Are you on my team, he said to Rosenstein? to McCabe, who did you vote for? This is not someone who understands how this country works. He was born in the wrong age. He should have been a king. That's what he could have been.

He's Henry VIII. Fat. A lot of wives. A lot of beheading, right? You know, what makes a democracy is you have the distribution of political power, checks and balances, and all that. I think that's foreign

to someone like Donald Trump who comes into politics. not from politics, but from business, a family office, where you control things. What makes a democracy, our DNA is no one person, no one institution controls things. And I think he's having difficulty with that. And do you see any good he's done overseas? I mean, is it all bad? That's not all bad.

A couple of things I mentioned. We've made progress against ISIS, clearly in Iraq and Syria. I think that's been good. Well, that was going on before he... But still, we saw it. He continued the same strategy. strategy and took credit. Greater sanctions, fair enough.

Greater sanctions against North Korea. I think they're, you know, get the Chinese and the Russians. Now, they're doing the Olympics together. We get such mixed signals. One minute, the bomb is overhead, and I'm kissing my ass goodbye. And then I'm reading that they're going to be doing the Olympics. The two are not mutually exclusive. In the sense that a north-south dialogue in Korea is a different agenda

than our agenda, which is to really focus on the North Korean nuclear and missile. arsenal. It's one of the reasons that this conversation is not one that necessarily should fill us with real comfort. Well, what about something like Pakistan? Now, for years, I've heard people in both parties say, Pakistan is double-dealing us. They're not really our ally. Why are we giving them all this aid? They're really in league with the Taliban, all true. And Trump now called them on it, and he's not giving them aid. Either way, we get screwed. Look, Pakistan has the world's fastest-growing nuclear arsenal. It's got the world's greatest collection of terrorists. When we give a maid, they do things we don't like.

They give sanctuary to the Taliban who are killing Americans. When we don't give a maid, they do things we don't like. Either way, we, you know, it's probably the single biggest problem for American foreign policy. We spend all this time talking about North Korea or Iran. I actually worry as much about Pakistan as any country. What about moving the capital to Jerusalem and Israel? We talked about that on the show last week. My enthusiasm for that was limited.

Don't get me wrong. I understand. Well, you are a diplomat. Yeah, I work on it. There's not a lot of them anymore, either. Yeah, I guess so. But the reason is I want, in 50 years or 100 years, I want Israel to be a secure, prosperous, democratic, Jewish country.

It's that now. I want to keep it that way. Oh, yeah, me too. But in order to do that, I actually think Israel needs a Palestinian state, not as a favor to the Palestinians, as a favor to itself. So when I see unilateral moves like this, I worry, this makes an almost impossible situation even more difficult. What about a country like Saudi Arabia?

Germany took in a million Syrian refugees. And as far as I know, Saudi Arabia didn't take in any, or very, very few. How does that make sense? Why did they get a pass on that? That's my thing with Israel. It's like it seemed like they play by a different standard. It seems like if a country like Saudi Arabia, which is rich, and closer to Syria, and they have a lot more in common than the Syrians have in Germany,

it would behoove them to take in their brethren. It would. And the Saudi policy was more obviously to try to shape the civil war in Syria. It didn't work out so well. But you make a decent point. The United States, historically, not now, has been one of the great recipients of refugees and obviously immigrants.

Israel has. It's part of Israel's DNA. But there's double standards? There's triple standards out there. And okay. Finally, we're going to get attacked again in the election we have this year by Russia, our electoral process.

That's for sure. Even Pompeo, the CIA director, who's a Trump ally, admits that. The president is AWOL on this. First president ever not to defend the country during a time of attack, really, when you think about it. Can the U.S. do you think defend itself without the president leading it? Well, something like elections, you know, up to really every state, city, voting machines, in a funny sort of way, we don't really want

to be as networked as we often are. We can also push back against the Russians. I don't understand why we've unilaterally disarmed. Why aren't we publishing things, say, about Putin's finances? You get people rioting in the streets of Moscow. They have arrested political opponents who can't run against Putin. Why is why is the white, you know, House spokesperson, not every day saying, hey, what are you worried about, Mr. Putin? What are you afraid of? Why aren't we going after them? Why are we only playing defense and not a very good job of defense with the Russians? And why aren't we playing offense against them? So, yeah, you ought to be worried about that. Richard, I hope we're here in a year so I can talk to you again, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Richard Haas, thank you very much, as always, for enlightening us. Okay, let's meet our panel. Okay. Hi, what I am. I know you're going to call me that. Okay. Please welcome. He is a senior editor at The Atlantic and author of Trumpocracy, The Corruption of the American Republic, David Frum. And she is the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee

and the author of Hacks, the inside story of the break-ins and breakdowns that put Donald Trump in the White House. Donna Brazell! Yeah, do. Looking ever younger since you're out of politics. Happy Black History Month. Yeah, that's right?

You're looking so black today. What's going on with you? What's going on? You got your curl on? You know whatever I say I'll get in trouble. Look, join the party. Yeah, okay. So, you know, I'm of two minds.

There's people out there watching right now who are saying, what is this Devin Nunes memo? Who's Carter Page? What's the Steel Memo? We do a show that has a broad audience. I want to explain it all to them. It's a little in the weeds. And I don't want to also, you know,

more the people who know what this stuff is. Let me just start with this and maybe we'll get into the weeds. The fact that they are fighting this on this level at this stage of the game with this memo tells me that they're very worried. That they must know that Bob Mueller

has a lot. And of course, I would say he does. This is Donald Trump. Think about Donald Trump. It's always worse than you could have imagined. Absolutely. And you imagine the worst. Right. Right. Right. Right. When you look at this memo, what you see is this really is the C-Team.

I mean, America, I think, is entitled at this point to expect high-quality artisanal obstruction of justice. That's true. That is true. And it is getting this kind of mass-produced junk. Oh, that is. Maybe, I mean, if they could just get like a higher quality of obstructor, I think we could have a higher quality of destructive. Okay.

It's, it's, it's, it's, Bill, I asked your staff to print it out because I thought maybe something was wrong with my internet. This is all bullshit. Is this the memo itself that you have here? Bill, don't read this. Get a People magazine, get style, get, in fact, get Ebony and go to the bathroom. This leave, this will leave you rethinking... I've been in the bathroom with Ebony, but go ahead.

Well, if you go in the, if you go with Imani, I'll be worried. Look, this is weaponization of classified information. It stinks. That's all you need to know. Okay, so let's get into the weeds a little. There's around

the summer of 2016, the campaign was well underway, but not over. There were two investigations basically going on at the same time that didn't know there was the FBI investigation when Comey was still there. That's right. Christopher Steele is a British spy, who was also looking into Trump's relations with Russia.

They were looking into the same thing. The reason Christopher Steele was doing it is because when someone runs for president, as Trump was doing, opposition research starts. That's correct. The people who first hired Christopher Steele were Republicans. Correct. Then Hillary's people took it over after the Republicans were out. That is what I learned.

It's a business. Correct. And Christopher Steele, very reliable British spy, that was his turf, Russia. Okay. So because his, at some point, Christopher Steele, calls his friends at the FBI, because law enforcement across the pond, they know each other, they work together, we're allies. And he says, listen, I've been looking into this. You've got a problem on your hands. Donald Trump is crooked, and Russia is trying to steal your election. So this memo was trying to say that because that was involved in the FBI investigation, it's tainted.

This memo, the FISA investigation was opened more than two weeks after the second WikiLeaks dump, in which Russia dumped into the American election, a lot of weaponized stolen emails, welcomed by Donald Trump, after the Trump campaign attempted to coordinate with WikiLeaks in the use of this information. The idea that it took some one piece of paper to pursue, I mean, everyone who cared about Russian involvement in the affairs of Western democracy in the United States, was screaming about this from the time, at least of the Republican convention, when the Republican platform was altered, rewritten, in order, in a pro-Russia direction. And really, from months before that, Donald Trump's connections with Russia have been known for years. This was from

the very get-go, something that people were concerned by. And so what's happening here is, I don't think this memo is an attempt actually, this brochure, this, as you call it, a Facebook post, is an attempt actually to win an argument. It's not trying to convince anybody. What it is, it's a stone thrown in the pond to create a splash to get ready for something bad that is happening very soon. President Trump has gone to Maralaga again this weekend. It's Shabbat, so he's unpoliced by Ivanka. Right. And he, however ludicrous, everybody, everybody, including many of the Republicans in Congress themselves, find this document.

It has revved up the president, according to all reports. He is getting ready to do something. And he is an instinctive actor. And the thing he understands, above all, as he's demonstrated through this campaign, is that his will to power is stronger than that of anyone who's trying to check him. And the system is breaking. It doesn't have to be credible. It just has to be forceful.

And it's forceful enough to drag the Republicans after him and to launch the attack on justice that seems to be coming. And that's what we need to talk about. I mean, there is a fine line between being an enemy of the deep state and just an enemy of the state. And it... No question. No question. I never thought I'd be at the point where I'd be saying these things about Republicans. I never thought I would be defending the FBI in the 21st century.

I mean, these are 37,000 employees during their job, and President Trump is gone after them. Oh, I see what you're saying. Tweet by tweet by tweet by tweet. He's undermining their effectiveness. Remember, the FBI is not only there to protect us against criminals here in the United States, but also terrorists. He's weakening them at a time in which we need our federal agencies to be strong.

The idea that I was saying in the monologue, Mueller a Republican, Colby a Republican, Rosenstein a Republican, 80% of this FISA court Republicans, and law enforcement itself. Since when have they been a hotbed of liberals? Hey. The reason I was slow-moving coup back in before the election is because the FBI back then was Trumplandia. Right. Remember? Right. Comey was the one who threw the election to Hillary.

11 days out. So, absolutely. And the FBI agent against whom the president is tweeting the most vociferously, was the FBI agent who the FBI itself just because you never get into a leak war against the FBI. That's unwise. They just released two days ago. The FBI agent whom Donald Trump most blames is the FBI agent who wrote the first draft of the Comey member. reopening the investigation to Hillary Clinton's emails. Right, and this guy, we have to, one more weeds point, Carter Page.

Carter Page is a guy who was on the Trump campaign. He's very much in this memo. They're kind of hanging their hat on him because he is under investigation. He was in to see Robert Mueller, I think, already, right? Okay, but even before Trump thought about running for president, Carter Page was on the radar of the FBI. They thought he was a Russian spot. By then? Donald Trump himself named five advisors.

He only had five foreign... Normal campaigns of hundreds. Right. Because you have to keep people busy. But he named five. Two of the five turned out to be persons of interests with connection to Russian espionage. That's a pretty high percentage.

So the Christopher Steele memo came way after that. I mean, British spies are good, but they can't go back in time. Several months. This is not a document to, as I said, it's not a document to convince. It's not an document that's meant for you. It's not an document meant for your viewers. It's not a document meant to persuade judges or FBI men. It is a document written so that Hannity can hold it up

and say it's a piece of paper with words on it. That's exactly right. That's it. It's a piece of paper. I was saying the same thing than my French. I said, you know, for years, especially before marijuana was legal in a lot of states, I got, as many people have had, you know, you go to a quack. I mean a serious doctor,

and you get a license to buy medical marijuana to treat whatever it is I told them my head. Uh-huh. And I've always brought it with me, because I've been Texas or someplace that's very dry. I have a piece of paper. It can say, look, I have a piece of paper. A lawyer can hold up a piece of paper in court.

Right. Look, a piece of paper. That's all this is. It's just, it's the cops planning drugs on you. John McCain. It's that version of it with paper. Bill, today John McCain said that this memo and what happened is, in effect,

is the Republicans are doing Putin's job. This is to discredit the investigation. This is to also undermine faith in the intelligence agencies. Look, it's been over a year now since the intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russians interfered. What are we doing to protect our elections from future happening? What are we doing to protect ourselves from any additional meddling? This is part of the Russians' active measures.

So how does it end? Everybody thinks this is released so he can fire Rosenstein, who's the acting attorney general, who's Bob Mueller's boss, and if he gets rid of him, then what happens? Then he can appoint in a recent appointment, a more compliant person, and the compliant person, he will hope, will do the dirty work of firing Mueller or shutting down the investing. And what if that happens? Do we get to a point where somebody is in the Oval Office saying about... We've been looking for an adult for a long time. We are the adults. We're the adults. What are the Democrats do? Well, first of all, we should release the Democratic memo.

At least the American people deserve to see what the Democratic staff, maybe the A team can finally follow up to what the C team did, and we can get some truth out there. Secondly, we have to figure out a way to protect Mr. Mueller. There's no question that they're going to... The only way is to win the election. Win the election. That's how you do it.

And 276 days. But I do believe that there is a need to bring some bipartisan legislation to protect him in this investigation, because if we don't, we know what Trump is trying to do. The systems are cracking, and I think a lot of people are very focused on the outsized personality of the president. And they talk about this, as your first interview of the show did, as if we're having sort of a normal political process, and they're reds and blues,

and they have the different points of view. The systems are cracking, and the Republicans in Congress, they're complicit, but they're not the principles in this case. They are being dragged along, like hostages, in this attack that is driven, not because Donald Trump has a plan, not because he's got some ideology, but because in sheer self-protection,

he cannot, you're either going to have the Trump presidency or the rule of law in this country. There can't be both because he can't abide both. But I always heard, he's vulnerable and he can't provide the down. You know what? If you fuck with the deep state,

if you fuck with the intelligence agencies, if you fuck with the CIA, you will never win. And now I don't know. All I can say is deep state, please win. Please be those people you can't fuck with. Well, yeah. And don't screw up or fuck up our democracy.

Because if we, the pillars of our democracy is being weakened by a president who only looks out for himself and his own political goal. And look, the Republicans need to get, this is a co-equal branch of government. The legislative branch have no reason to follow the executive branch. They should do what the Constitution give them power to do. and provide oversight and accountability, they have lost interest in doing that. All right, if I could just, I'm sorry,

I just gotta move along because this is very important to talk about the fact that Donald Trump is so in the doghouse with his wife. Oh, please. And well, you know, again, first it was the Hollywood Access tape, then it was 19 accusers and now the Stormy Daniels affair. And if you saw the State of the Union, I mean, she's not going near him.

She's very angry. and Hallmark does not make cards. For anyone as scuzzy as Donald Trump, he's been trying to make it up to Melania, so we've suggested a few if you'd like to see them. These are the cards that Donald would like to have to be able to send to his wife. We had a good thing, but I had to spoil it. Now I cry to myself when I tweet on the toilet.

He's trying to get back. I didn't wear a condom. I know that was wrong, but you know me. I wasn't in or long. You know, he's trying. I made a mistake, I lost my head, but this one I didn't make pee on the bed. Words cannot express how much I love you.

So here's $14,000 in cash. I'm sincerely sorry, and I'm not just blabbing. Your pussy's the only one I want to be grabbing. I'm begging forgiveness. I'm down on one knee. Stormy's like the Constitution. She means nothing to me. I know you're angry and it's me

that you're blaming. but you can't leave. I threw out the crate that you came in. All right. He is President Trump's former White House Communications Director, Anthony Scarabucci the Mooch. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. Thank you for, no, thank you for coming.

I always thank the Republicans because it is a hard place to come. I always give them... I thought this was like a Trump fan club meeting. No, it's not, and it never is. But Republicans have more balls to come here when they disagree with me. 90% of the time, then a lot of Democrats who agree with me 90% of the time, and they won't come. So I will give the Republicans that. They've got bigger stones.

And I wish you could lend us some. President, company, accepted. I have to tell you, Don and I go back a long time, Republicans and Democrats. We can get along. We can be disagreeable, but also try to be agreeable while we're doing it, or be, you know, cordial. I mean, I don't have your jokes and your talents. Here's what I would say about some of the things you said. Is that okay? Can I just...

Oh, please. So here's the thing I would say, and I would say this both to David and also to Donna, is that there's a lot going on. I'm not going to nitpick on the memo, but when I read the memo today, my reaction to the memo is that there's something wrong with the spirit of the situation. You know, when you're in law school, and I was in law school at Rod Rosenstein, he was actually in my section at Harvard. So I've known him for 32 years. And I like him. I mean, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a great guy. No, no, that's very impressive.

Well, you know, I was there with the guy. He was in my section. And I, and I have a lot of respect for him. I hope the president does not fire him, by the way. Because I think he's a very ethical and I think he's a very decent guy. And so, but when I read the stuff, and I, no offense, anybody here at the table, but there's something wrong with the spirit in my mind of what is going on right now. If the president, not that he would take my advice,

because I was only there for 11 days, but if the president, it could be 954,000 seconds, too, by the way, if you look at it out. But here's what I would say to you, he would be well-served to put a bipartisan group of people together and to look at the processes that we have in place to make sure that these agencies are shielded

from the accusations of the politicization. On either side. You're dreaming. That's not what he does. You know that better than I do. Why even say that? It's just... And I want a pony.

I mean, that's not going to happen and that's not who he is. You know that. But I'm saying it for a reason because I want it out there in the airspace. I'm saying it. I don't want him watching this show. You're not going to...

Did you tell him? No, I don't want him being away. He sued me once. Do you know this? It was like a $5 million. That was one of your funniest YouTubeable moments. I watched that whole thing. Yes.

You had the orange orangutan. Yes, exactly. I remember the whole thing. Why is he so nutso like that? I mean, does he understand what he's done to the country? That, you know, it's not New York anymore. You know, Coney is not a building inspector. You know, this is America.

I know you guys, you got the pin on, you're thinking yourself as patriots. But time out a second. Okay, there were two candidates last year that saw what is really going on in the country. It was Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. And people that know me, you know, I grew up in a middle-class town. My parents didn't go to college.

You went to Harvard. And I did. But that's because... But that's because I grew up in an aspirational working-class family. Right. The aspirational working class has shifted into the desperation

working class. And I've got to tell you something. Because of who? Democrats? No, no. I don't really think it's anybody's specific blame. It's a globalization thing. Republicans. Okay, well, you... The more Republicans were more for the 1%. And the tax cut

you just gave away to the 1%. No, but the tax cut is actually being downloaded into wages. There's over 300 companies now that have downloaded the tax cut in the wage. You know better. You know where most of the money is going. Anthony, where is most of the money going? You guys are being unfair, but you know...

Where's most of the money going? I showed up. Give me the two minutes. Give me the two minutes. Give me the two minutes. I showed up. When I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, I'm the campaign, and I crossed the Secret Service line, I took my daypin off, and I went to talk to the people that were there. It was like an epithity for me because I was like, oh, my God, he's talking and messaging to the people I grew up with. If you price my dad's wages, his mid-70s wages, 1970, they're down about 35% in real economic terms. You can blame the Republicans if you want, but I don't really think it's just the Republicans.

It's not just the... It would happen in the globalization. Yes. To get us to focus on it, it was one of the things we're very concerned about. And you make some good points of what's happening to the economy. But we're concerned about what has happened to our institutions and our government. So I have a question for you. Before you went into government, where you served as communications advisor,

you received an enormous offer from a Chinese group for the purchase of your company, for about $90 million, before you went in. After you came out, the purchasers lost interest. That's not true. How am I to understand that? The purchase did not lose. Dave, that's a factually incorrect statement. Did they buy the company? They didn't buy the company because the company needs SIFI's approval.

And that's an intergovernmental agency. Okay, this is a different show. No, no, but hold on. We're not doing it. You're not a different show, David, you're making an accusation is completely untrue. I want to understand something. Well, you should call the Treasury Department. You're making an accusation completely untrue.

And we can't check any of this. I signed the purchase and sale again on January. Nobody knows what we're talking about. No one cares. I know, I'm telling him, it's for a different show. It was a little bit of, like, a set-up question, but he's trying to suggest that they were buying into the lobbying. Take yes for an answer.

You know, I mean, I don't, you know, by the way, I curse a lot, but I don't curse on TV. That's a little BS, actually. I'm going to call you out on that because you don't know the facts. You don't curse? I don't curse on TV. You curse to reporters. You're the one who said Steve Bannon sucks his own cock.

Yeah, okay. You did. And he was right. He does. I want to say that. I mean, I'm sort of surprised that that didn't win the fake news award, okay? I'm sort of surprised about that.

Oh, so you didn't say that? No, I don't think he's anatomically capable of it. No, but we took it as a metaphor. You didn't say it as a metaphor? No, I said it. I owned it. Oh, I own what I said. Right. And it's a... But what David's trying to say is that the Chinese company

bought my business to her favor... Okay. I don't care about you in China. The sale agreement still stands, call the Treasury, ask them, why it's a national security issue to sell a $200 million per... I don't get it... I don't get it. I see why you and Trump...

It's a set of questions. No, but I see why you and Trump get along. Well, New Yorkers are... You actually would get along with him. I hope so. Because... You would, because you got a tough personality. You know how to give it as well as take it,

and that's what his personality is. But I'll give you this about Donald Trump. He has an almost inhuman ability to withstand pressure. Yeah. I've never seen anybody do it like him. Yeah, resilient. He never... Resilient.

never moves. This is... No, really, no matter what comes at him. He sleeps, well, probably like a baby, drooling and... Don't go there, Bill. Don't go there. I'm not going to go there. But, like, no matter...

He never... He doesn't really sleep that much, to be honest. I know, and it shows. And it shows, thank you. I took the words out of my mouth. But, you know, he is the son, and he makes everyone slowly, because he's a ball of gas and dust,

and he slowly makes... These are all Republicans. A year ago, we were saying, like, how many these Republicans are going to come over? Slowly, everybody falls into the orbit of the Sun King. And he does it by just staying exactly right where he is. He doesn't move. He's like a guy at a party. Some people go to a party and they circulate. Some people sit, let the party come to him. He lets everybody come to him.

And I would ask this question, not just you, but everybody. Is he winning? Because he may be. No, you know, I think he's winning. but let me ask you a question. Why did he win the election? Well, Russia helped. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, you're,

don't think Russia helped? You're suggesting that he colluded with the Russians. Well, even if he did, even if, if, if, well, he totally did, but even if he didn't, but even if he didn't, but even if he didn't, but even if he didn't, Anthony, you know that all seven, all 17 of our intelligence agency said Russia, he didn't. meddled in our election. That's different. I accept that. Well, then I just said they helped. That's one reason why he was.

They were helping him, or they were creating a disruption in the process and they were hurting the integrity. They favored him. I've spent more time in a Republican administration than you. As a Republican, does it not, does it not... Davis is coming across pretty angry. I am angry. Really?

Does it not stick in your craw that Vladimir Putin wanted to help your guys? so much. I didn't see, you brought up the WikiLeaks thing. The WikiLeas guy said it didn't bother you. Don't you ask the question. Why did my guy, why did my guy

win the Putin primary? Okay, I didn't hear either. Your level of anger and sanctimony is not coming across great on television. But I think, David, I don't have to. For me, it's not a show. It's not a performance. It's the country that is in danger

and you help to endanger it. I'm going to tell you what you do. You're making a very big mistake. No, no, no, this is, we need to have this conversation. You're turning a deaf-eer, so what's actually really going on out there. This is real. You're going to play that card or you're going to name drop Harvard, one or the other. Look, guys.

Okay. Let me ask you. I'm going to be able to do both, David. Isn't that the few of the evening? Look, look, if you're going to start a fight, I'm going to get right in the middle. I actually came from nowhere and went to Harvard. How about that? Okay, good, Lord.

I'm able to do both. Look, I went to LSU, all right? No. I only brought it all. Because Rosenstein is a good guy, and I have no problem with bending Rosenstein. Okay. I've known him for 32 years. But you mentioned that the president, why hasn't the president called for an independent commission? Away from Congress, away from the partisanship, to investigate what happened, and what do we do?

He just suggested that, and I told him it was silly. Well, no. But he's not going to do it. Let's not pretend. All right. So let's move on. He's not going to do it. If he's not going to do it, then he is complicit.

Because he's not doing anything to stop it from happening again. So how about this? He would say, I mean, he's not going to come on Bill's show. It is part of what rattles the American people. How do we prevent this from happening again? It's happening in Mexico. What are we going to do? He's not going to do anything.

Okay, but since we don't have a waterboarding operation, we're not going to get. We're not going to get him to admit that point. So let's move on. That's what I'm saying. All right. That's all I'm happy. Listen, I'm a pretty objective guy.

I'm happy to. And you're being so cool, baby. Well, he is. Exactly. I know, I made it. Exactly. And that's a red, violets, or blue. I don't want Putin in my election.

Do you? I don't, but you're losing the... What do you think of the state of the union? You're taking a normative... What do you think of the state of the union? What do you think of the state of the union? We're going to be a democracy. And what about the response?

What about the Kennedy kids? What do you think about him? You came from nowhere. He came from everything. I like him. I don't have any problem with Joe Kennedy. I thought, hey, listen, there is a problem in the country, okay? You guys may not see it, but I see it.

Okay, the president saw it. Bernie Sanders saw it. Maybe David sees it. I don't know, but I can take him to places where he could see it. There is a problem in the country, okay? The people have less disposable income. Yeah, okay, we did this. There's an opioid crisis.

We got there. Okay. I know. I know. But I didn't here. When he wins re-election, you know, he might. He might. When he wins the election in 2020, who are you going to put up, Don?

Who's your person? Joe Kennedy? Look, there are so many people who want to run. One person that's going to beat him. Let me. Bernie. Hell, don't you worry. We got more than enough five power on the Democratic side.

Did you name one? Can I just... Can I just... Name five. Let's... I'll give you my entire list of 50 in the back room. Fifteen. And you're saying that of those 15 candidates, one of them is going to beat Donald Trump.

Oh, let me tell you. The sitting president in a rising economy. He picked the lock in 2016. He won by less than 78,000 votes in three states. This time, we will not allow it to happen. No, no, no. That's not actually what happened. That's a very good emotional applause line, but that's not what happened. This is all fellow Americans.

The rise of Trumpism is concomitant to the Klein of Clintonism. OK, the rigging of that primary situation that you wrote about, because they drop off. You didn't read my book. You didn't not read my book. I'll make sure I'll personalize a copy because I have a copy of your book. Personalize a copy.

I'll personalize a copy. The rise of Trumpism is a global phenomenon. It's happening across the developed world, and it's a sign of the weakening of democratic institutions, and it is a crisis. And it is a crisis that is bigger than one party. And Democrats, unfortunately, do not understand what has happened. They are still searching.

Republicans do not understand what has happened. There are so many people in the Republican world who are aghast, and yet they're being dragged along, like prisoners, to an outcome that may well re-elect President, may well re-elect President Trump. Because we're not guaranteed any happy ends. Can I offer one more answer? Because we left that a long time ago about why he won,

and I said Russia was one reason. Another reason is, well, it's certainly one of the reasons. How many times the Secretary Clinton go to Wisconsin? All right. Jesus Christ. Let one thing go. Can somebody on this panel let one thing go?

Uh-uh, uh-uh. Just so we could make... We're letting so much go. I'm looking ahead. I don't let anything go. I know, I know. We have 276 days to the midterm. I'm letting it go.

I'm ready. I'm ready. Here's another reason why is because there are two sets of rules for the two parties. Sure. We saw this this week when Steve Winn, who has got caught up in the Me Too movement. Apparently he's been not doing the right thing there in Los

Vegas. Okay. So he was the RNC chair. He had to step down. Now, when Al Franken stepped down, the head of the RNC said, well, he's got to give back every cent. Every nickel. Right. And Harvey Weinstein, all that money had to go back. All of it. Right. Steve Winn has

given a lot of money. You know what the RNC said? We accept his resignation. In other words, different rules for us. There's different rules for the Supreme Court. There's different rules for voter fraud. There's different rules for gerrymen. Are I allowed to react to? You are? I'm just laying it out. I'm just saying, and this is,

I'm not blaming the Republican entirely. The Democrats should not be letting that happen. Okay, so let me react to it. Okay, I think that this thing was obviously the explosion that took place in the Me Too movement, and I have a beautiful daughter and a wife and a lot of women in my family. I want them to have a safe space.

That explosion is bipartisan. It's a cross-category. It's a cross-industry. And so I think that people are making so many mistakes in this situation. But if they're going to give the money or say that they other people should get back the money then they should do the same thing and get back the money But but I'm gonna tell you something right now

We'll tell you something right now we have to also address this as a society because as bad as actors as these people are You and I both believe in prison recidivism you know the the reform of the of the criminal justice situation Koch families alongside of Valerie Jared and President Obama you mentioned your kids you don't want to have a you don't have a professional life death sentence for these people 72% of Republicans say he's a good role model. Trump is for children. Would you say he's a good role model for children? Do I think he's a good... I think he's been a good dad.

That's not the same thing. Yeah, you can't fake good kids. He's got very good kids. Well, we don't know that. I wouldn't say he has good... I don't think he has good kids. Well, I do. I know them personally, and I think they're good kids.

I want to say something, Bill. You made a good point. We need to have one standard. We need to have one standard on sexual harassment. We shouldn't be telling John Conyers and Al frank and to go to hell resign their positions, Blake Farento is still there in Congress.

Two rules. In taxpayer money, after the taxpayers settled his case, we shouldn't have different rules. We should have one rule, one standard. We shouldn't be telling Democrats to turn the money back, and the Republicans, well, we'll wait for due process. We also have to have a path to redemption. But there must be

some things when your kids are a little older, your young ones, for example, when they come to you and they say, Daddy, I just found out you worked for Donald Trump in 27 And then they ask you about the Hollywood Access tape. I'll say to them, I watch my dad get up at 4 a.m. with a lunch pail. And I was able to live an amazing middle class life. And the next generation, when the whole society shifted, they weren't able to do that.

And so I was trying to help. But the kid's asking about the pussy grabbing. What are you talking about? If he asked me about that, I'll be, depending on his age, I'll be very honest with him. I'll say, you know what? There's a lot of flawed people in the world. Your daddy's got a whole phone book of flaws. probably half a phone book just in the 11 days in the White House,

and I would say to them that I'm not going to judge him the way Bill Clinton's not judged, Donald Trump's not drugs, or this whole group of people. Let me finish. What about Clarence Thomas Thomas? I mean, we constantly... I'm not really even trying to do that. All right, I'm going to go again. I'm not trying to say that.

Well, it's time for new rules, everybody. Sorry, I have to move on it. It's a live joke. All right. You'll like these rules. They're kind of funny. Or you'll hate them. New Rule, stop saying... The only time Sean's face will be on this show.

Stop. Go ahead. He'd be welcome aboard. Stop saying Sean Hannity's Twitter account, getting briefly shut down, was part of some deep state conspiracy. Maybe he was just so far up Trump's ass. He lost service.

He is kind of far up Trump's ass. Come on. He's going. It's good. I like you. New Rule, on Sunday, someone has to beat these Patriots. I'm sorry, but I... I...

I just want to live to see the day when the pure unbridled joy gets wiped off Bill Belichick's face and is replaced with this. That's good. I like that. Yeah. Neeril, stop saying that giving explicit verbal consent ruins the mood.

You just have to make consent sexy with useful phrases like, I want to fulfill the terms of our agreement so hard. I'm going to come, I'm going to come, I'm going to come in the designated location, per our conversation in January 12. New Rule, someone has to explain to me the difference between Bitcoin and me saying, this hunk of foil I just rolled up into a ball is worth a million dollars.

Bitcoin, it's more than just a cryptocurrency, it's Beanie Babies. And I did that one for you. I thought if currency, you'd like that one. It was great. You're great. Neurole, when you're in front of me in the supermarket checkout, don't be so quick to slap down that divider between your food and mine. It's my lunch, not the Korean demilitarized zone.

And what would happen? What would happen if your kale touch my ding-dong? If you care so much about personal space, how come you parked like this? And finally, new old Trump fans have to admit that of all the lies, he vomits on a daily basis. The one that makes you look the dumbest is this. one, we will begin working

on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. You can believe anything else, but give me this one. Just admit, you got con when you actually thought that blob the builder was going to erect the eighth wonder of the world for free

and Mexico would pick up the check. If you don't want to say it out loud, you can mow it into the corn. Come on, man, we've all been there. You bought weed in the park, and when you got home, it was pine needles and oregano. Even General Kelly had to admit a couple of weeks ago that Trump's idea, the wall was uninformed and had evolved. Ooh, that pissed Trump off. He quickly lie tweeted,

The wall is the wall that has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. Yes, conceived. He's the Leonardo da Vinci of walls. His drawings of walls and his notebooks were years ahead of their time. And don't ever confuse it with a fence. Oh, during the campaign, Trump tweeted to Jeb Bush, it's not a fence, Jeb.

It's a wall. There's a big difference. Except now it's a fence. Problem is, Trump fans don't want a fence. Or a river or a virtual barrier. They want a fucking wall. because a wall represents an impregnable barrier that keeps out, not just Mexicans,

but everything that makes them feel antsy about the old America that's slipping away. The wall, it's like one of those prescription drugs that blocks the causes of your discomfort. Yes, now there's Mexicon. Mexican has been clinically proven to reduce the pain caused by foreigners entering the country illegally.

Mexican works with your natural gullability to construct a wall that keeps immigrants from shithole countries out and good-paying jobs in, so you can get back to cleaning your guns and sending out Facebook memes of Hillary getting hit with a golf ball. Except it doesn't work that way. Most illegals don't even cross the border. They come here the same way you came back from Cabo.

They catch a flight, and then they just stay. Like that Australian on your couch. Even Trump admitted the wall was bogus when he was caught on. tape and a call to Mexico's president saying the wall is the least important thing we are talking about. It was always just an applause line that got out of hand. So there you have it. The wall will not help with employment. It's not feasible to build and even Trump knows it's bullshit. And if all that isn't enough to deter you, let me add this, Trumpsters. You don't need it because everything that wall represents, the bigotry, the racism, the

The ignorance, the paranoia, is already in your heart. Yes, the wall has been inside you the whole time. Trump just brought it out because he's the jackass whisperer. But you don't need it. Every time you vote for a child, molester, because the other choice is a Democrat, the wall is there. Every time you feel rage because a voice recording says, for Spanish press 2, the wall is there.

It's there whenever you begin a Facebook post with, I'm not a racist butt. And it's there every time a unisex bathroom makes you hold it till you get home. It's there when snow makes you deny global warming. And it's there at the ball game when two gays on the kiss can make you throw up in your mouth. Every time you use air quotes when you say the word college, the wall is there. It's there when you use juice.

when you use Jew as a verb. And it's there every time you're Tucker Carlson. So you don't need a wall. Because you see, even without it, you're still the grumpy asshole who ruins Thanksgiving. All right, that's our show. I want to thank my guest, David Flynn, Donna Brist.

And Anthony Scaramucci, the mooch, and Richard Haas is coming back for overtime. We'll see you on YouTube. Thank you. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.