Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #453: Beta O’Rourke, Billy Bush

Episode Date: March 17, 2018

Bill’s guests are Beta O’Rourke, Billy Bush, Pete Dominick, Nayyera Haq, Andrew Ross Sorkin. (Originally aired 03/16/18) 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. I know it's a happy time. Thank you. Well, I know, I know, I know. It's St. Patrick. It's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.

It's not about me. It's St. Patrick's as if we need another reason to drink, huh? Boy, no more of those Kiss Me I'm Irish buttons in the Me Too era. I saw one today and said, Kiss me, I'll sue your ass. Yeah, the Irish Prime Minister was at the White House.

At least we honor that tradition still, gave Trump the bowl of shamrocks, a plan from Ireland for a plant from Russia. Well, I got to talk about Russia now. I mean, it's good to know, you know, that Trump is at the helm when you hear about new attacks, as we did this week from Russia. Homeland Security, did you see this, says

that Russian hackers have been in our infrastructure since March of 2016. I'm talking about the electric grid. And they're saying they could turn it off now. Nuclear power also, aviation systems. That could be the scariest. They say the Russians already have the capability to create utter chaos by calling all four boarding groups at once.

No, but with Russia, this is the week. This is the week that Robert Mueller crossed the Rubicon because he subpoenaed Trump's business records. You know, this is the ballgame here. You know, because Trump always said, this is his red line. You know, don't look at my business records. Well, that's where the whole game is. And I think this has made the president crazier than ever.

I mean, the shake-ups at the Trump White House and Casino are... I've just gone into overdrive. We have a new Secretary of State. You know, Rex Tillerson got the act. on Tuesday. He seemed at peace with it. He said, I've undone all I can undo here. So, Rex was replaced at state by the CIA director, Mike Pompeo. And the new top decadie at state is Heather Nort, who used to be on Fox and Friends. And Gary Cohn, who got shit-canned

last week as the chief economic advisor, is being replaced by Larry Kudlow, who Trump watches on CNBC. You see a pattern here? next week he's replacing Jeff Sessions with Matlock so it's just we see on TV and that's not all

other cabinet people the heads of cabinets who are about to be fired they say the housing dude that's Ben Carson Veterans Affairs Guy is ready to go National Security Advisor

again we're going to be without one of those and the people who remain just switch the jobs the CIA director is replacing the Secretary of State. And it looks like the Energy Secretary is going to be replacing the VA Secretary, and he wants

the EPA head to be replacing the Attorney General. And Ivanka's replacing Melania. But other than that, there's no turnover. Trump... He's not running a government. He's running a temp agency. It's like he's calling a square dance. Swing your partner

doci-do. Rex is gone. Here's Pompeo. Not normal, young people, not normal. Even Trump wives are starting to leave. Don Jr.'s wife, did you see this? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Donnie fuckface. His wife filed for divorce. She's citing irreconcilable dushiness. Says she wants to see other creeps. No, but it's sad. We don't know. Look, we don't know why they broke.

you never really know, right, with a couple. But I'm going to go with Hope Hicks. I'm just kidding. But let's end another unbelievable week in the Trump era with... And a week, by the way, he was here in California for the first time.

You see that? He... He went wall shopping. He was... He went to San Diego to look at swatches. But let's... But let's end on a positive note. There was a special

election in Pennsylvania and liberals are very happy that this guy, Conor Lam, is the apparent winner. They say he is a new kind of Democrat, because he won. He won something. And I love this. Trump went to Pennsylvania, campaigned against him, of course, slanted

him. The second, Connor Lamb won, Trump said, well, he won because he's like me. Like me. This guy's 33 years old. full head of hair. When he looks down naked, he can see his penis. He was in the Marine Corps.

He's never gone bankrupt, never colluded with the Russians, never paid hush money to a porn store. Other than that, it's like looking in the mirror. All right. We've got a great show. Andrew Rothsarkin. I'm Pete Dominic. Are here at a little later. We'll be speaking with Billy Bush. But first, he's a third-term

U.S. rep from Texas of 16th, who's the Democratic nominee for Senate against Ted Cruz. Congressman Otto O'Rourke. Hey, okay. Well, look at that. Did you stack the audience here with people? No, they seem to know who you are already.

It's like when the Beatles came to America. They didn't know everybody would know them. So, well, we're just learning a lot of people. So first of all, explain the name. So born Robert Francis O'Rourke in El Paso, Texas, fourth generation. but like almost anyone born Robert in El Paso called Beto from day one. It's a nickname for Beto or for Robert or Alberto or any name ending in Berthol. You're full Irish?

Pretty Irish, especially tomorrow. Yeah. Okay, and you're running against Ted Cruz. Yes. Yes. Okay. Now, Ted Cruz, we know, is very disliked. Let me read some quotes.

Al Franken said, I like to. Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz. Bob Dole in 2015 said, there are a lot of good candidates. I like nearly all of them, except Cruz. John Boehner, Lucifer in the flesh, never worked with the more miserable son of a bitch in my life. Lindsay Graham, if you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, nobody would convict you. I guess my question is, how bad are you going to feel if you lose you? to that guy. Yeah, yeah.

I'll tell you, there's something, though, happening in Texas right now. I've traveled to 226 of the 254 counties. Wow. People are so fired up, regardless of party or geography. So it's Democrats coming out for sure.

But it's also Republicans and Independence. It's in the really big cities. It's in the real small towns. The places that no one has ever visited, including Ted Cruz, because for the first four years he was in the Senate, he was actually in Iowa and New Hampshire, and South Carolina and Nevada,

visited all 99 counties of Iowa. Iowa, right. And so there are places where they haven't seen a U.S. senator. And so when we show up, hold a town hall meeting, listen to the people that we want to serve and represent, we're really making a connection. And folks are committing themselves to the work ahead. And I think we've got a great shot of winning in November.

Well, we've heard that before about Texas. I mean, we, absolutely. I always wonder why Texas and California have very similar, Latino demographics. I think the eligible Latino voting number here in California is 28% same as Texas. Why are we so blue and Texas is not blue? It's only 43% white now, Texas. Is that right? That's right. Texas is one of the most gerrymandered states in the union. It is also a non-voting state. And those two things are connected. There are some people... Non-voting. That's right. We're 49th in the country in voter turnout. The courts four times alone last year found that our gerrymandering is in part based on race and ethnicity.

There are some people who are not supposed to vote. There's some people's voices that are not supposed to be heard. It's on us to run a campaign that brings in everyone from every community, every community within every community, into this campaign to make sure that they're heard and that they're actually leading what we're doing. I think when we do that, we're going to give people a reason to vote. And we saw the greatest democratic primary midterm Senate. turnout last Tuesday in 36 years. We saw, yeah.

So folks are... But the Republicans came out in Texas, too, and big bigger numbers. You know what? We don't have... This is not in the bag by any means. Not at all. And you know what? That's a great thing. Because folks from both parties, independence as well, are getting off the sidelines and into the game. They recognize that this year, everything that they care about, everything that they've told their kids about this country

is on the line. And for Amy and me, that's what motivated us, we anticipate the question our kids, Ulysses and Molly and Henry, are going to ask us, when you had the chance to do something in 2018, when they were talking about walls and Muslim bans

and the press is the enemy of the people, what did you guys do? And we're going to tell them that we and the 28 million of Texas help this country get back on track and on the right direction. So I feel lucky to be a part of it. And you don't take PAC money?

I don't take a dime of PAC money. No corporations, no special interests. So that was... For anybody who's watching, it might not be a political junkie. What is PAC money? What does that mean? Political action committees represent the corporations and interests that have business before Congress.

So the pharmaceutical industries, the telecom industries, the energy industries, the insurance industries, and they give money to members of Congress, not just for access, although that's part of it. They're also buying outcomes, an actual legislative language that appears in the bills and the bills that become laws. When you wonder why Congress is so dysfunctional, why it doesn't represent the interests of the people it purports to serve,

it's because it's so tied to the sources of money that are coming in. It is those corporations. It's why pharmaceutical prices continue to rise. It's why we're the least insured country in the developed world. It's why we're missing out on so many great opportunities to do the big, important, ambitious work before us. And for Democrats especially, it's not enough to decry Citizens United and say that all this big money sloshing through the halls of Congress is bad.

We've got to start walking the talk. And so in this campaign, we have outraged Ted Cruz by well more than a million dollars without taking a dime from Pat's, all people, human beings. But don't forget he's a giant asshole. That's true. Folks, though, will never have to wonder who it is I represent or who I'm voting for. It's going to be the people of Texas every single time. What would you say are your top three, if you had to say your top three most important issues facing this country?

Yeah. What are yours? Too many people can't find a job or are in a job right now that does not pay a living wage. And they need the dignity and the function and purpose. that comes. Number one is jobs? Number two, if you're not healthy enough to go to that job or finish your education or raise your family, you're not doing yourself any good, you're not doing the rest of us any good. So universal health care, the ability for everyone to see a doctor and buy this income. So you're for single payer? If that's how we get there,

that's how we get there, that's how we get there. I'm open to... Whoa, that's a big if, Congressman, if that's how we get, that's a big issue to go, well, if we get there that way. I think Medicare works really well. Its overhead cost is 2%. You compare that against private insurance company, 16, 17%. It's effective, it's efficient. I think that's a great model. So you're where Bernie Sanders is with health care. Yeah, I think he's got a good plan,

and I would support his bill in the Senate. I think that bill is a lot of the Senate. And I'll tell you another issue where Texas, I think, is uniquely positioned to lead. We are the most diverse state in the country. I'd like to think we are the defining immigrant experience. the city I represent, El Paso, Texas, is one of, if not these safest cities in America. And a quarter of those that I represent were born in another country.

They chose us. They're making us stronger, safer, more secure. We should be the ones leading the fight for immigration reform, rewriting immigration law in our own image, from our own traditions and values and interests. Ted Cruz was the sole senator. Out of 98 who showed up to work that day a month ago, the sole senator to vote no on just preceding. on debate and discussion to be able to protect dreamers

and allow those more than one million of our fellow Americans to contribute to their full potential to the success of this country. We need a senator who leads on those issues. Okay, so... So Jobs is your one, health care is your two. What was your three? Immigration. Wow. So Russia and the environment, they don't make the top three?

Russia and the environment are really important. I mean, here's another one. Four or five? Yeah, there you go. Here's one where Texas can lead. Listen. You know us as an energy state, right? And we're proud of that.

A lot of good jobs in the oil and gas industry, the refining industry. But we're also leading the country right now in the generation of wind power. We will soon lead the country in the generation of solar power. There are more clean energy jobs in the state of Texas today than there are carbon energy jobs in the state of Texas today. And it's not even close. So whether it is saving the planet for the generations that follow us, recognizing that maybe man-made climate change didn't cause Harvey,

but man-made climate change will ensure that there are more. Harbys, that they are more frequent, they are more intense, there are more droughts in the panhandle. We have less opportunities to grow our own food and pass this planet on to the next generation, whether it's jobs, whether it's economic growth, for all the right reasons in the world, Texas can and should lead on environmental issues for this country. And what about weed? I ask for a friend. Yeah.

Oh. No, but I mean, look, I love Texas. Texas knows how to party. I've gone there as a comedian for like 35 years. You've come to El Paso. Many times. I love El Paso. San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston. They're all great cities.

They're all fun places. And they love their weed. California finally took the plunge. Texas seems like the kind of place where it's a tough road to hove there. Where are you on that one? I've joined a bill written by a Republican colleague, former prosecutor who waged the war on drugs. saw how futile it was from the front lines

to end the federal prohibition on marijuana. So legal in Texas is where we're going? It should be, and we should control and regulate the sale. And listen, we have... It unites people. We have the world's...

Right? No, no. They smoke it in the city. They smoke it in the country. The hippies smoke it. The redneck smoke it. It is a uniting thing. I'll show you after the show. No, we have a chance to do the right thing. We have the world's largest prison population. bar none. We have folks who are wasting away behind bars. You can be raising families,

working, paying taxes, starting jobs, touring in punk rock bands, writing novels. Whatever they're supposed to do in life, let's allow them to do, not lock them up. I'll be rooting for you, and I know they will. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, let's meet our panel. Some new Democrats out there. Okay, here's our panel. He's a stand-up comic and host of serious X-M stand-up with Pete Dominic. Pete Dominic. Who else was going to that be? She's a former senior official at the White House and State Department under President Obama.

Nowera Huck, how you doing? Great to have you back. And our returning champion of New York Times column, it's an anchor of CNBC's squawk box, Andrew Roar Sarkin, right over here. Okay, so I... Oh, yes, join us on overtime so we can answer your questions on YouTube.

Whatever. I should memorize that by now. But I have been hesitant to talk about Russia week after week because there are developments every week and I don't want to bore the audience because it is kind of slow moving. But I do think this week was different. Now that Trump has said he, I mean, Mueller has said he's going after the Trump organization.

And this is what Trump always said, you can't do. This is my red line. And I think Trump is going to fire Mueller. I think this was the red line. He could not have crossed. I think he should. and my question, I guess, to the panel is, do you think the Democrats have a plan for when he's going to do that?

What do they do? What do the Democrats do when he fires Mueller, as he surely will? Thoughts and prayers, I think, is a good... I don't know about Democrats. I don't know about Democrats in office bill. There's not a lot of legislative fix, obviously, that they can fight for, but certainly the grassroots organizations, the indivisibles, the move-ons, they are ready to be out in the streets.

And more importantly, if he fires Mueller, Lindsey Graham back in January said if Trump fires Mueller it will effectively end his presidency to be fair obviously Lindsay Graham has never been right about anything but and he switches on Trump all the time and whatever works for him he put his phone

in a blender and he went back to but the idea that Democrats have anything that they can do here's what they can do they can run harder they can use that if he fires Mueller that will drive people to the Democratic Party and that will be a constitutional crisis that I absolutely think will overwhelm in November

Trump. The poll says people don't care about it. Well, I think Trump's going to be very surprised that and very frustrated that he won't be able to fire his way away from this investigation. It's going to follow him. It started with Comey in the Eastern District. Really? It started legally. Legally, it started in the Eastern District of Virginia. It can easily go to the Eastern or Southern District of New York, or it can even go to the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. It's not just firing

Mueller. He would have to force Rod Rosenstein to make a decision about, on statutory decision, that Mueller was either derelected his duty, he was irresponsible and yes, we are hearing that drumbeat, but it would require firing Rod Rosenstein, putting somebody else who would then fire Mueller, firing several other people,

and you still end up with the case continuing. So you're saying like they're on the honor system, people who have no honor. Look, they're going to fire, he's going to fire Rod, that's what he's going to do. Right. Right. And he's going to replace him. But by the way, and you know what happened when you're... We have some breaking news for you, by the way. Oh, breaking news.

Yeah, no, as you were talking about firing, as you were walking the stage? Yes. Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director, was fired. Oh. Yeah. Two days. Really? So Sunday, he was going to officially step down and retire. He would have collected his pension since his 50th birthday.

He had already obviously stepped down earlier. But it's in the vein of our conversation. I didn't hear about that. Do we know how he fired him? Was it by a tweet? Did he whisper into somebody's ear? Because he has absolutely no balls. He's never fired anybody to their face except on TV. I should say, Jeff Sessions did it, but you know how that happens. By an email. Trump called Sessions, Calls, and that's how that goes.

Session didn't recuse? Supposedly not. Well, Sessions' time is going to be... No, that's just... I mean, that doesn't really affect anything, but it's just mean. For a guy... Andrew McCabe was a guy... A guy who dedicated his life for national security. By the way, absolutely.

...trying to find bad people and busts bed. We are in through this... By the way, Republican. He was Republican. Of course. They were all Republican. So is Bob Mueller. That doesn't matter. So is Comey.

I know. But somehow the patriots are the ones... Well, is the people always talk about law and order and make that the thing they're going to defend are the ones who are undermining it most right now? I don't know what's happening to this country. It's very upsetting. Okay, so let me just...

Here's more upsetting this week. Devin Nunes, Republican, Trump's ass, disbanded the committee that was looking into it in the House, said they found no collusion, which is, of course, ridiculous. Meanwhile, I just made a list of the Russia attacks against this country in the last couple of years.

They hacked the emails, of course, the DNC emails. That's Hillary Clinton's emails. The Facebook stuff. They sow discord among the people here by purposely putting these bots and bots what they put the memes on Facebook. They got into the voting machines. We don't know if they were successful,

but in many states they were trying to get into the actual voting machines. now the power grid we hear about. And this isn't like they might do it in the future. They're saying they have the power now to turn shit off. And you didn't even mention yet that they killed the guy on English soil with a chemical weapon. Right. They poisoned the, right. I mean, what can we do if the president isn't going to?

Now, Nikki Haley was pretty good this week. I like what she said at the U.N., but that's not Donald Trump. He did join in, he did sign, he didn't say it, but he did join in with the UK and with France and Germany and saying this poisoning in the street really is not good. Look, when you have a situation where one party controls everything, you get the whitewash. But, by the way, just to be balanced about this...

It's your book. It's too big to fail. That's not true. We haven't seen that in the past. We've seen, in Nixon, it wasn't... We didn't get the whitewash. This is unprecedented. One party does control everything. But in the past, Republicans turned on Richard Nixon. Yes. Yes, but we're not there yet. We should be there.

The moment they did actually was once they fired a special prosecutor. But that's what I'm saying. Your book was too big to fail, right? I think the Republican Party, that's the same thing. They're all in it. So you can't fire the entire sentence. Do you remember when we used to come on, when Obama was in office, we used to sit around and we used to say,

there's gridlock in Washington, nothing can get done, right? And everybody complained about that. The flip side of that, and I'm not saying it's a good thing, is when you have one party in office, it becomes very, very complicated, and it is progressively, in an age of social media and Kanye West, this is where we are.

But the idea that you can't do anything, yeah, you can't fire Congress right now between now and November, but that's why everybody has to do something every single day to make sure they advocate, they donate money to elect in November to send these guys home,

and on January 20th, the whole bunch of women are going to replace these Republicans, and they are going to, if he fires more, They are going to impeach him as soon as they get sworn in if he fires most. So that's what you can do. Too big to fail implies that they haven't already failed the American public. Right?

I mean, they have failed to keep any sense of an ideology, any sense of reason. I have a toddler at home. Well, the banks fail. These are the toddlers in government, right? But these are... And our democracy right now, with the Russia attacks, with Trump as a chaos agent, is not capable of withstanding the systemic shock. the American public will now have to bail out

our democracy in November. But, I mean, when you go down this list, you know, it's just obvious that Vladimir Putin never got over the Cold War, wants to win it now. You know? I mean, the hatred that this man obviously has for this country and what he's

willing to do is really surprising. I knew we were adversaries. I didn't know that we were this kind of enemy. And what do we do? Do we go after the money? I mean, I've read that in the paper. recently, the oligarchs. I mean, all these people, I mean, they killed a guy in England,

throw them out of London. Can they do that? They probably should have imposed the sanctions that Congress authorized a year ago, and instead, that happened after Putin got away with murder, and with the signal that Trump administration is given, and I don't think the Nikki Haley statement

was a particularly strongly worded one. The strongest one was Tillerson. He got fired the next day. This is signaling to Putin that Trump is willing to, let him get away with murder, allow him to sow chaos throughout the region and the West. We have not been friends or allies with Russia since World War II, and unfortunately now we have a president who is willing to defang the entire NATO allieship because Putin's got

something on him. Right. All right. So what do you make of the, this... But even if... Just real quick. I mean, just real quick, even if Putin doesn't have something on him, the problem, the real problem. is that Donald Trump wants to be Vladimir Putin. That's what's going on. He has a psychological affinity for dictators in general, right? Like any time you hear, like President Xi says,

I like lifetime powers, Trump wants lifetime powers. He heard Deterre say, I want to kill drug dealers. Trump town wants to talk about the death penalty. It's like... He has poor role models. It's take your dictator to workday at the White House. So this special election where this Connor Lamb, a name I hadn't heard,

just two weeks ago, there he is, He looks like the kind of guy Taylor Swift dumps in a video. But I think that's good. He's handsome and boring. My takeaway from this is it's not really about ideology. He's kind of all over the map.

It's about Trump fatigue. I think the Democrats, their slogan for next time should be, let's get back to normal. I think more than anything else, that's what people want. Boring, normal. Vote for us,

and you won't be scared to check your phone. Set me and forget me. That is there. There's no question that there's going to be a resistance movement that's going to happen. That's clear. But I think there's one part that's not being discussed, at least on the Democratic side, enough,

which is people vote with their wallets. And by the way, I would argue... No, not always. And I would argue... Absolutely not. In Pennsylvania, they were voting with their wallets too because, by the way, the tax cut in Pennsylvania did not work for them.

In fact, the Republicans stopped advertising. on the tax cut. I think that the... What a surprise, $11 more of your paycheck is it going to move to? No, no, but that's the point. The point is that I think the... No, but the Democrats are going to have to prove over and over again that either

Trump has left us holding the bag or that we are worse off today or we're about to be worse off. That's the only way that this argument is actually going to work. But I think the coal miner, who's been left behind and lied to and thinks his industry is coming back, is now waking up and realizing... I don't think they've woken up just yet, but maybe.

We got a couple more months to get there. Well, it's cruel what they're doing in those coal miners and those steel miners, by acting like their jobs are going to come back. They should be retrained in renewable energies and any other number of industries in the future. But I don't... But I also, with all due respect to your point, I don't... I think that's traditionally true about people voting, you know, with their wallets or their pocketbooks or whatever they keep their money in these days.

But the idea... I think people also have a certain amount of integrity, and we're embarrassed. We are embarrassed that every day we wake up and he's our president. And that is enough to vote against that motherfucker. It is... Very brave of you. With this crowd.

Right. But I'm like somebody like Stormy Daniels, that kind of a thing. I just think... I remember in the Clinton scandal, it was all about, oh, it's just the fatigue of this. We don't want to see it. We don't want to be reminded. And even people who are on Trump's page politically, I just think as a human being, they don't like him.

How could you? And it's like, I don't want to hear about this every day, this disgusting, vulgar man. And what he's done. is what he said. We always have to debate the latest bat-shit thing that comes out of his mouth.

I just think people need a... It's exhausting. We're exhausted. Let's get back to normal. That's the slogan. All right. I have something to report to you. I read this story in the paper

speaking of how much we're exhausted by Trump. There's this guy... Oh, I don't have his name. Well, okay. Fuck me. I forgot it. But some guy, I don't know what his name.

You don't know his name either. But he lived in Ohio, and we all have... our ways of coping with the Trump era. There he is. The man who knew too little, I love that title. He decided as kind of a protest and a kind of way to cope, he was going to completely

unplug when Trump won the election. He is not looking at his phone, his newspaper. It says he swore he would avoid learning about anything that happened in America after November 8th, 2016. But he still tweets and, boy, would you like to hear

some of these tweets? Because these are like Like, he tweeted, that's right, I'm pretending Trump just isn't president. But thank God, Kevin Spacey's doing another season, The House of Cards. Yeah, he's... I don't think he is. No, he's... I sometimes wonder what Trump is up to, but I'm reassured by the moderating presence of Rex Tillard.

Lots of weird looks when I walked into town tonight. Haven't they ever seen a guy with a tiki torch? Can't tell if there's something between me and my hot new assistant. Guess I'll show are my penis. I'm not laughing. Hey, at Live Nation, what's the hold up on Tom Petty tickets? Yes, your personal friends, I know. This is the last time I day drink in Vegas.

For a second, I thought I saw O.J. Simpson. Just book summer vacation. Here I come, Puerto Rico. Oh, shut the fuck up with your groaning. Jesus Christ, what is wrong with these fucking snowflakes are going to drive me to fucking... A lot of cuss. He watched. Rewatch Shakespeare in love.

Is there anything Harvey Weinstein touches that doesn't turn to gold? All right. Let's bring out Billy Bush. He is the former co-host of the Today Show. He was also on that other show. You know what happened. Billy Bush is over here.

There you go. Oh, so, sir. Thank you very much. So I had Kathy Griffin on last week. Oh, good. And I feel like this is my month to rehabilitate people who should not have been made to go away. I'd like to get back to normal

Exactly As we know You were, you know, the guy in the bus With the President When he said those nasty things about grabbing pussy First, let's just ask How you would have handled it differently now that you look Can look back

Probably would have just changed the topic I mean, I spent a lot of time with Trump back then Because Yeah, I didn't realize that you And Trump, you were eight agents? I was the entertainment correspondent for NBC. And he was the cash cow. He was the cash cow.

He was pulling 20 million viewers a week or something. So I'm with him two, three times a week. You had to kiss his ass. Sort of. I mean, you sort of meet them where they are. Or you can interrupt him. And then, you know how volatile he is, right? So he'd be like, I hate Billy Bush.

He's done. Moving on. Entertainment tonight only. Forget Billy Bush. And then I have to explain why I lost the Trump, the big fish. Right. So, okay. So, and I'm sure.

Everybody says this to you, but it is weird that he kept his job and you lost yours. A little irony. Yeah. And how has that made you feel the last year and a half? Oh, shitty. Yeah. Are you over? I'm sure there was a period of bitterness.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's definitely, it's in the beginning, you know, it's, um... Let it out. It's chaos, right? You got order in your life, and then all of a sudden, in an instant, you have chaos. Right. And you don't know what end is up, and there's paparrow.

all over the place and you're wondering you're going to be okay, am I done, am I, I don't know, and then you go into the whole thing. But then you sort of come out. Oddly enough, the day that Trump walked into the Oval Office was the day that I walked into a self-help retreat in Northern California to sort of get back on my feet.

It's called the Hoffman process. I go up there and I'm seven days off the grid. I'm like the guy from Ohio there who knew too little. You know, no phones, no nothing. And that was the beginning. of just getting over it. Look, I mean, things happen to people.

All in all, my life is pretty good. I got great kids. I got a great family. And life is random. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. That's why people like me are atheists. How about you?

Did it make you lose your faith? Bill, I thought you'd like this. I'm donating the $850 I get to appear here to the church in Los Angeles. Just because I thought you... I am... I won't try to convert. External events you can't control, right?

I've got a whole bunch of self-help work. You can't control what happens. You can only control how you react to it, how you handle it. And it took me a while, but then I said, wait a minute, hold on. Things are pretty good. Get back on your feet. And I took my daughter to Japan, and she's 13 years old, obsessed with Japanese culture. We went there for 10 days.

I got a trip planned with my middle daughter. I'm doing a little time. You know, things like that. that it's just, you ever wonder what happens to you if, like, everything went away? The big career, the big show, HBO, the whole thing. What does it happen? Oh, it's flashed before

my eyes, many times. Right when I said it. It's only on a weekly basis. Twice already in the show so far, I thought. Exactly. But can I ask you a few things about Donald? Because you obviously do know him better than most. Well, I did. First of all,

did he have a type, like, You know, like in the Fire and Fury book, Michael Wolfe says, you know, like his whole life was based around chasing women. Like Bill Clinton, he didn't have an air club at a time. I mean, I saw him on camera here and there, but I did host, you know, four Miss USA pageants and four universe pageants for NBC at the time. And, you know, he's, yeah, he's definitely a, you know,

he would come backstage, all the reports you've heard of, you know, coming backstage and reviewing the guard, like, you know, Kim Jong-un reviews the military. He comes back with the tie that's too long past the belt and the overcoats. Yeah, but I think we know about Donald Trump, right? We know who the guy is. Well, the story that I love that I think is so indicative is when you called him on the ratings once, you said, because the apprentice was like number 30, and he was saying it's number one.

Well, he's been saying number one forever, right? And finally, I'd had enough. I said, wait, Donald, hold it, wait a minute. You haven't been number one for like five years or four years. whatever it is, not in any category, not in any demo. He goes, well, did you see last Thursday? Last Thursday, 18 to 49, whatever, last five minutes or whatever I know, no. I don't know that stat.

No, I can't. So it's like, I told you. And then later, after when the cameras are off, when the cameras are off, he says, he goes, Billy, look, look, you just tell them and they believe it. That's it. That's it. They just do. And I said, ah.

That's where we are. So from that point forward, Axis Holley's, it was always number one. Right. We were number two. But the fact that he can do that to America now, because that's exactly what he does all the time. He just says it, and they believe it, right?

Yeah. People do. He never said he was sorry to you, right? I mean, he never said he sorry. Did the phone ring? His life, yeah. Well, he didn't do it. I mean, in fairness, he didn't, you know,

leak a tape, but I didn't want him to call. I don't want to talk about this. I haven't spoken to him in three, four years. I have to ask one more thing. Did you actually give him the TikTok when he asked for the tic-tac? Because I always thought that... I know your tic-tacks are right here.

I always thought the tic-tac was sort of like a Colombo episode. That was the little detail that showed that he wasn't... This wasn't just locker room, dog. He was really going to do it across... Why else do you need the tic-tac? No. If you're not going to kiss somebody, why, Billy, give me a tack. Thirteen years ago, I kissed a lot of ass, but that's where I drew the line.

No tic-tac. So you did not give him the tic-tac. I did not give him... I drew the line. I'm so glad to have found that out, ladies and gentlemen. No tic-tack. Okay. So, you did eight pageants, you said, with them.

When I was reading about that, I just was, let me ask this panel this, too. The idea of pageants, it just seems in 2018 like something were, like, are we still doing that? It just seems very anachronistic at this moment that, hey, come on out in a bikini and answer a question about Syria. Are we still doing that? Are we still going on right now?

Yeah, I'm sure there are. So, yeah. I walked away. I sort of had the same feeling like, I don't think I can do anymore here. I don't want to insult women who are legitimately trying to do pageants to get scholarship money. And I, I mean, no, but I mean, it's a sad thing. Many women do feel like they have to trade on their sexuality to make it ahead in the workplace. And the scariest thing about the tape and how women like me, I think, viewed it wasn't necessarily just the interaction between you and Donald Trump, but was your colleague coming in afterwards and not knowing that everything that had been said. in the room before her. And it affirms the suspicion we've always had that our men in the workplace

won't respect us the same way. And I think the easiest, honestly, solution to that is for when people are in a room where everybody looks like you. And somebody says something racist or sexist to have that social courage to say that that's not okay.

Calling it social courage for a reason because that is more difficult than joining a rally of 20,000 people who think exactly like you. There you go. Right? And because those are the rooms where that change really needs to happen,

and that's something that every man can do on behalf of your daughters, your mother's, your friends, and your sisters. Yeah. But I agree with that. Thank you. I have three daughters. And you spoke beautifully about them.

Yeah. I have three daughters, and, you know, it hit home when you realize, well, she's going to be in the workforce someday. She's going to be going, if she walks out of a room and someone, you know, is talking about her behind her, back that'll upset me. There's a great quote from Maya Angelou. When you

knew better, you did better. Here's a good quote. Here's a good quote from an Australian general after their sexual assault epidemic. It's a shorter version of what Nayara said. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

And I don't know. I never thought I'd say with all due respect to Billy Bush. You chose that job. You were in that situation. And your situation is now represented. that of what Naira said, every single one of us has to stand up in those moments. That's the only way it turns around.

You could have, you should have, you didn't. In the future, I hope you will, and I hope everybody that saw that and heard that tape knows that is unacceptable, and you have to stand up to assholes everywhere all the time. The standard you walk past is the standard you said. How courageous, I know, but I mean, that's... I know, but...

So, in your life, off-camera, you never had locker room talk with another guy like that. You were... Before 2017, you were always... completely respectful in your own private talking with other men? Absolutely not. I objectified women. I looked at women as vessels to be conquered when I was growing up, but I matured at some point. I had good role models. And the idea is, you know, locker room talk for me was I would like to have sex with that girl.

And another guy would say, she's never going to fuck you. That's what happened. That's what it sounded like us. That was locker room talking. You didn't say, I'm going to take sex from that girl. And if some guy did say that, even when I was in seventh grade, yes, I would have shut him down. Yeah, that was over the line. If you don't mind, if you don't mind, it was, you know, yes, I was a grown man, but it was 13 years ago. I'd settled into my job. Since then, I became the solo anchor of the show. I started a daytime show. 150 to 180 women on staff, I grew into myself.

I became a different person. You know, I was tried for an event from way back when. I was already a different man. Not that I need to convince you. And confessions and confessions. I have now started to question when I was in my early 20s, working in rural Colorado, trying to be one with the boys. What was I supporting? How much of a game girl was I in this? And we all start to adapt to these situations.

There was a great study done, I think it was by the guy who does Future of Men. He went around for a year and started listening to conversations and recording how long it took before a sexist comment was made or objectifying comment. He said at most it was two minutes. Sometimes it was the opening comment. And so lesson to take away from that is, you're constantly. currency to enter a conversation should not be sexism or racism. And one third of the men, he said, gave him a hard time about it, said, we're not going to talk to you anymore. One third said, we're silent.

And one third, the younger generation came up to him and were like, why did you do that? Explain that to me. As an adult and someone I admire in the workplace, why did you do that? I just have one question, which is, and I'm curious with Billy thinks, the comeback. So a lot of men have been in some pretty bad situations, especially that have been exposed over the past.

You're two now. Not as bad as they're victims. Correct. No, no. 100%. But the question, and it revolvely, it's about,

to some degree, it's about people like you, which is when, is there, is there a comeback? And how does that work? Well, I'm just curious. Yes, there's redemption.

There's an opportunity for redemption for murders and rapists. Yes, and, and Billy's going to make his comeback, I'm sure of it. There's a way to do it. Yeah, and he's not quite a murderer or a rapist.

But I just I just would like to say By the way, that was my point. I think it's very easy to come back. It's very easy to sit here and I think you're making very important points but I just think that there's a larger context to play here. There is.

And also, you know, this country has many fine qualities. But this little idea that's floating through the Gulf Stream in recent years that people just have to go away when they do something. Just go away forever. that's not a very attractive quality. Can I just hold hands with you guys and say,

I'm so glad you're feeling that worry about going away because that's something women have also have had to do for a long time. Yeah, okay. Well, speaking of going... Speaking of going... But I just, I didn't mean just about sex for a million things. Just go away if we don't like you.

But speaking of going away, I just noticed that a lot of the people who are going away because of the Me Too stuff are in the liberal professions. Eight people at NPR. Wow. Toitt, PBS. The opera seems to be rife with predators.

The ballet, the art world. And I'm just thinking, nothing in trucking. The world wrestling federation, Wall Street. What about Wall Street? So, Roy and War territory is obvious. What? I said, Roy and War territory is obvious. What I call war and war industries, let's call them.

But Wall Street's actually an interesting one. I think about this all the time, which is, I think two things happen. One is, I do think that Wall Street actually went through its own problems and cleaned up some of it. Where? I think the other piece of it, though... I haven't even heard about anything on Wall Street where people

have come out. What problems? It must be right. 80s, 90s, and aughts. What did they stop doing $1,000 with the cocaine? What did they do? No, no. They actually put in compliance programs. They took out the bars. But what I was going to say is the second piece of it

is there's more money, And I think what really has happened is it's... No, the point is it's silenced the women. That's the point I'm trying to make. There's more NDAs and there's more money to rest. Harvey Weinstein only had so much money. The reason why Wall Street has so much more money... Money is the power imbalance.

All of these NDA, all these non-disclosure agreements, women on Wall Street. I know some of these people. It's a whole different story. You know all of those people, and you also know that they don't feel the pressure that every other industry feels. Who are the customers of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan? We don't know how to get to them.

We can't boy. They don't care about this thing. They're the kind of people who are more likely to grab pussy and pay porn stars off to shut up. I mean, there's no way to pressure with all three bankers. And that's just what I was... You can boycott Fox News advertising and get rid of Roger Ailes. What do you do to J.P. Morgan?

What do you do? No, seriously, what do we do? But that's what I was just saying. What I'm saying is the reason it hasn't come out is because, to the degree it exists, it's in large part because we don't know about it because there is so much money. Right. So they're not liable to a public perception in the same way that, like you said, NPR and a lot of these liberal industries are.

The liberal industries feel that they at least need to present on the surface that they are abiding by all of these other progressive liberal norms. But let's be honest, nobody got fired in these liberal industries because their bosses thought it was a bad thing. It was the public pressure that really did it. But also in the arts, in the liberal, I mean, in the arts, it became a public liability. It's also a little bit more exciting of a story, isn't it? It's more of exciting. And there's also social inclusion that comes. with the arts and the way that you engage with the public

that the banks just aren't doing right now. In fact, I mean, banks are failing average person on a day-to-day basis. They're failing, they are notorious for not having women in their ranks. I just don't know if Garrison Keeler was worse than the people in some other industries. Well, those institutions and individuals

that don't change and don't catch up are going to be paid dearly. All right. Thank you, panel. It is time for New Rules. Okay. New Rule, stop criticizing Jose Al-Zubei for looking like this. Throughout Monday's White House ceremony

for the Astros, it's not like Melania trademarked over the shoulder dagger eyes. New Rule, Girl Scouts can't hawk their cookies outside of weed dispensaries. It's just not fair. It's fishing with dynamite.

Plus, stoners get paranoid. They see little people with cookies and they think the place got rated by Jeff Sessions. New Rule, instead of building Trump's wall on the let's build the obstacle courts from American Ninja Warrior. It'd be a border wall and a huge primetime hit. Plus, if they can get across that,

even Trump will say, okay, okay, they're sending us their best people. New rule, if Trump and Kim Jong-un do end up meeting, they have to stage a point off. To settle the question, who's better at pointing at things? I have a wall. I have a wall, too. I have a sign. I have a floor.

I have a wife. I have a brother. Well, now he's cheese, but he used to be my brother. Since the... New Rule, now that there's a change.org petition calling for a transgender Barbie, Mattel has to go ahead and create one. It'll be easy.

Just change the name of your other doll to post-op Ken. Really, really... And finally, new rule, Democrats must learn how to support a very important part of their coalition. Other Democrats. I know everyone is excited about Connor Lamb winning in Pennsylvania this week, but watching his TV ad is why I worry about how this party fights. My opponent wants you to believe the biggest issue in this campaign is Nancy Pelosi.

It's all a big lie. I've already said on the front page of the newspaper that I don't support Nancy Pelosi. Okay, so this was a special election to replace a Republican who was, staunchly pro-life but got caught pressuring his mistress to have an abortion? And the Democrats let it become a referendum on Nancy Pelosi? How about this for an ad?

Democrats support abortion. So do Republicans when they need one for their girlfriend. Nancy Pelosi was never a scary radical. And Democrats long ago made a horrible mistake in deciding that when the Republicans called her that, they would just

duck their heads and go along. What Nancy Pelosi did was past the stimulus that averted a depression, passed the very best version of a health care bill this country's ever had, past Wall Street reform after the Great Recession, and the bill that saved the auto industry, past the Fair Pay Act.

These are things to brag about, not distance yourself from. Learn the lesson that's staring you in the face every day in the person of Donald Trump. Voters don't care about how smart you are. Just don't be a pussy. Hillary Clinton got 26% of the, the vote in West Virginia.

Trump did better with Hispanics after calling them rapists and killers. Trump once said to a crowd in Iowa, How stupid are the people of Iowa? And then won Iowa in a landslide. As the people cried, it's about time.

Somebody leveled with us about how stupid we are. Their attitude is insult me, lie to me, just lead me. Hillary had the right plan for coal country. Get them off coal. Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on. Everything about that answer was right.

But she did what Democrats always do. The second there was the slightest backlash, she backpedaled. It was a misstatement because what I was saying is that... Stop, stop! You already lost. It wasn't a misstatement, it was the truth. And she should have said, you heard me.

Cole is dead, and it's about goddamn time. It's dirty, it's killing the environment, and it's killing you. Instead of pretending it's a great thing that a West Virginia man can die in a hole looking for rocks, just like his daddy and his daddy before that. How about we're the party that's going to get you out of the hole? What happens? to selling the American dream of a better life for your kids.

But Democrats are to political courage what Velvita is to cheese. Republicans just added 80 billion to a defense budget that was already more than Russia's, China's, and the next five countries combined, including Wakanda. And the Democrats went right along when they should be saying this isn't defense spending its welfare for defense contractors and the reason we never have money for anything else. But just like the Democrats' position on coal, love it, had some for breakfast.

And guns, I love the Second Amendment too. They're afraid to make the counter argument. Republicans, they're all claws and sharp teeth and fangs when they fight. The Democrats, their weapon of choice is adaptive coloration. I'm a leaf. Don't eat me. Vote for me. I'm the same pattern as the couch.

How about this, Democrats? Let's create a brand new issue out of thin air, just like the Republicans do, and you can use it to practice having balls. And we'll pick an issue that actually would help you. And that issue is this. Why the fuck do we need two Dakotas? Are they really that different?

I don't think so. Combine these two. Two states with a total population of 1.6 million get four senators. California with a total population of, have you seen the 405? Get two. There are more people in California named Dakota than there are in the Dakotas. All right, work on that, Democrats. That's our show.

I want to thank Pete Dominic. They are a hook, Andrew Ross Sark, and Billy Bush, and Betelow Roark. Tour de Stile for overtime on YouTube. Thank you, folks. 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.