Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #475: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jeff Bridges

Episode Date: October 6, 2018

Bill’s guests are Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jeff Bridges, David Jolly, Soledad O’Brien, Andrew Sullivan (Originally aired 10/05/18) 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 Ma. That's... That applause lasted longer than the whole FBI investigation. Well, we got to bite the bullet. They're going to do it.

They're going to confirm Justice Red Solo Cup. He's going to the Supreme Court and I'm going to join the Beach Week Ralph Club, I think. I'm going to... Now the big question is, is where does beer go to get its reputation back? But I tell you, the only time all week I got cheered up was today when I saw that video of Trump walking up onto Air Force One

with the toilet paper on his shoe. Is that? How you doing? Two things about that are very sad. One, the toilet paper was very embarrassed. And two, that is the FBI report on his shoe. Well, I mean, it was... Look, it was a total sham.

You know, there's some things about this that we will never know. I account for that. But you know what? I think what bothers a lot of people, bothers me, is that, for sure, this guy is a liar. Also was a huge drunk.

Maybe not now, but what... And the FBI report was a sham. They had no time to do it. They interviewed all of nine people. Trump said, can I get these guys to do my crimes? And the FBI allowed no walk-ins. No, no walk-ins. It's just the FBI or a beauty salon.

What the fuck? The part I loved is they issued the report. The FBI did it. So, so secret and so sensitive. The way that it had to be read, senators, one at a time, went into a little secure room. Lined up, got in, read the report, and then went out.

This is how you run a train on democracy, ladies, gentlemen. And my favorite detail of the whole thing is, according to a police report when he was in college, Brett Kavanaugh started a bar fight after going to the UB40 concert. He thought he saw the UB40 lead singer, and the guy said, no, I'm not.

And Brett Kavanaugh threw ice at him. By the way, UB40, also what Trump says when he dumps a wife. That's just a coincidence. But, you know, I have to tell you something. Trump and a lot of Republicans already running on this. The base loves Kavanaugh.

They love this guy. He drinks beer. He's a judge. They're like, I wear a robe all day and drink beer. What's not to like? But not to worry. I don't know if you saw, but Susan Collins, the moderate Republican, made a speech today. I didn't know Brett Kavanaugh was that liberal.

Wow, I was really enlightened by her speech. And then Brett Kavanaugh himself wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week, and he admitted. He said, I was very emotional last week. He said, I know my tone was wrong, and I said a few things I should not have said. Wow, it's really comforting to know that your next Supreme Court

Justice sound just like an abusive husband trying to talk his way back into the bedroom. Funny, I said a few things I shouldn't have said. Yeah, Judge Kavanaugh, he said he was just doing the best he could. He said, it's just that I've never acted by. before. And the name of this editorial, I love this, was, I am an independent, impartial judge. In case you didn't get the point. Then he wrote right in the article, I believe an independent impartial judiciary is essential to the constitutional health of this republic. Oh, and also

fuck the Clintons. So, okay, we got a great show. Andrew Sullivan, Sullivan, Salvatta Bryan, and David Jolly are here. And a little later I will be speaking with the incredibly talented Jeff Bridges. But first up, Jeff Bridges is here, I said. Haven't seen a movie in the last 35 years? But first up, she's a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose latest book is Leadership in

Turbulent Times, America's historian in Chief Doris Kearns Goodwin. Thank you for coming on. It's great to see you. I won't burden you with all the Supreme Court talk on this show tonight, but I just want to ask because we often hear from historians that, oh, we've seen this

before with Congress people who have acted lousy in presidents. The Supreme Court, I feel, was always kind of on a pedestal. Is this a low, or were they acting like idiots before? I don't know. I think it is a low in my lifetime, which is not short. I mean, the partisanship that we saw two alternate realities during the Kavanaugh hearings, one and the other that had nothing to do with each other. But I can go back as an historian because I've lived with guys in the past. There were lower moments. Just imagine this. In the 1850s, there was a congressman from South Carolina, and he came into the Senate floor,

and he hit the Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner over the head with a cane, falls into unconsciousness. But the most important thing is in the South. He's made a hero, just as Kavanaugh has been made a hero now. They all had canes. They gave him a golden cane. But in the north, here's the positive thing. It mobilized the anti-slavery sentiment in the north.

They got stronger. The Republican Party, the party of Lincoln then, produces Abraham Lincoln. So if we can awaken from this new low and the citizens can get active again, we can make something from this moment. I believe it. I'm glad you're optimistic.

There's no choice, there's no choice but to be optimistic. What's the other thing to just wallow in it? We can't. No, we can't wallow. Wallowing's no fun. You'll get toilet paper stuck in your... I don't know what that meant,

except that was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. You're on HBO. Let it fly. Okay. Well, you know, when you said he was a hero in the South, it reminded me of the guy who heckled Obama. and said, you lie, and then he was a hero in the South. Maybe the South is the problem.

Well, maybe we should have let them go. Oh. No, no. No. In fact, that's the whole point. And in this, I play the South all the time. When you're in the cities, it's just like anywhere else. It's really a, it's not a state thing.

It's a city versus country thing, isn't it? Well, you know, that's what happened at the turn of the 20th century. You had a very similar situation to now. The cities were growing. The people in the rural alleys felt cut off from them. He had a lot of new inventions. The pace of life was speeding up. The Gilded Age, gap between the rich and the poor.

But luckily then, a leader came along. There was a lot of popular spirit, a lot of anti-elitism. And Teddy Roosevelt came along, and he was able to channel all that emotion into something he called the square deal between the rich and the poor. I mean, he was like Trump. He came in from a privileged background,

but he learned empathy through politics. He learned to go to slums and see what it was like for these other people to live. So he's not like Trump. No, he's certain. No, empathy is the most important characteristic in a leader, and it's what's missing in the current president. Well, it's part of a whole menu of course.

And, you know, I know, historians, and you are certainly preeminent among them. I would consider you primus interparis of all the... Premis interparis. I'd love to be that. You are? Thank you. First among equals for you, non-Latin speakers. Like Zeus was Premus Interprey.

Okay, so, all right, Zeus. So here's the question. But you all seem to say, I guess you're all optimists, that, you know, oh, we've seen worse before. Have we? Did we ever have a traitor president? Because I really do think

we have a traitor as a president, someone who plainly and out in the, out and open, sides with them. Not us. Attacks our Justice Department. Our FBI, our CIA. Says he agrees with Putin.

I could go, on with the list of things that I consider traitorous. Somehow, his agenda and Putin's are exactly the same all the time. Coincidence, possibly. Did we ever have that? I'll tell you, I don't know that we need to go to that direction right now. The Mueller investigation will show us whatever is going to come forth on that. Right now, we just have to understand that we have a president with no capacity to grow.

Well, what could be more important than if the president is a traitor? No, no. What's more important is that we have to persuade other people of why we have to go against Mr. Trump right now. Because he's a traitor. No, because using that language is not going to reach the people that you want to reach. But what language would you use? Here's what I'd use. I'd use the fact that this man has no humility, which is an important part of every president.

Old? That he has no empathy, that he has no resilience, that he says that the reason he's so humble is because the Pope is very, very humble just like Donald Trump? I mean, you can't think that way. You can't be a person who says that the most important thing is never to lose, that you always have to win. Every president I've studied has gone through adversity, and they came out stronger. the other end. Ernest Hemingway said, everyone's broken by life, but sometimes people are stronger in the broken places. He says he's never experienced loss, and that's why he has

the very, very best temperament of anyone who's run. Use those ordinary kind of things, and that's what to persuade people. They can see that this is not a leader. This is not a man who's experienced any kind of empathy for other people. That's what you have to do to persuade people. Have we ever had a leader who was such a cult leader? I mean, I feel like more than any president I've ever seen, it's a cult. No matter what he does, they stay with him. Well, you know, it's interesting. I mean, I think when FDR came into the presidency, people believed in him so much.

But the difference was that his word was his God. I mean, he made his promises real. When he first got in, somebody wrote him a letter and he said, my roof fell off, my dogs run away. I don't have a job. My wife is mad at me. but you are there, and now everything's okay. But the point is that he made everything okay.

He gave those fireside chats, and people felt he was actually talking to them, and he made good on his promises. That's the important thing to keep one's word, which is what not President Trump has done. People felt so close to FDR that they felt like he was actually in their living room when he was on the radio with them. There's a story of a construction worker running home one night, and his partner said, where are you going?

He said, well, my president, he's coming to speak to me in my living room. I have to be there to greet him when he comes. That's the kind of president you need who can deal with a citizen. They feel like he's their friend. That is not the same thing as being a cult president where they just believe whatever you say somehow, but you're not giving them

what they really hope for. That gaps So we never have seen this before, really? We've never seen this before. I don't think so. I mean, we've had other presidents that have been pretty bad, but not to this level of the relationship with his citizenry, I think. And do you think if in 2020 he loses

the election, he'll leave? Because he'll Hillary Clinton now is on my page saying, no, he may not. Of course he'll leave. I mean, we have to believe in the institution. Wait a minute. But we've said, of course he will about so many things, and then he, you know, of course he's not going to... Well, maybe they'll give him a room in the White House somewhere

and he can be by himself, surrounded by others. No, now we have to believe in the institutions of our country. Oh, I believe in the institution. He will be carried out if he doesn't want to leave. Okay, well, I mean... I do. I do. Do you not...

Do you have to believe... You have to believe in the military. You have to believe in the other institutions of the country. The checks and balances will step forward if he's voted out. If the people say he should be gone, and that's the answer. We have to awaken the citizenry right now. They can no longer be spectators. You've got to believe in the people.

I'm not sure we're living in that era anymore. And also, the people with the guns like him. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who has the guns? No, it matters who has the guns. But you're being much too pessimistic. I've got to do something with you. I got to make you more optimistic.

Honestly. I got to do something with you. Yeah. No. No. So you don't think it'll get violent? It's possible it could get violent. Oh.

One of the things that Lincoln... I think I'm bringing you around. No, no, no, no. Here's the thing, in fact, there was violence in the 1830s and 40s, and Lincoln gave an amazing lecture in which he said that the rule of law was what had to be reinstituted in people's minds. And he said that everybody should be reading the revolution and the Constitution at night to their children, like you'd read the Bible to them. And then if we remember our history, we'll remember the ideal of who we are, and we will not allow these things to happen.

Did you think Donald Trump would ever get the nomination? No. I did. Did you think he could win? So you're a better predictor than me. I'm telling you. But it doesn't mean it. But you're a better historian.

We ignore history at our peril. If we don't look back at these other times, when a leader came, look, they got us through the depression, FDR did. Abraham Lincoln got us through the Civil War. And LBJ, my LBJ, who I worked with when I was 24 years old, He had bipartisanship in the Congress. Those two sides came together. Civil rights, voting rights, Medicare,

aid to education. We've done this before and we can do it again. All right. Thank you for making me an optimist. I appreciate you coming by. Darius Kern's Goodwin, everybody. Thank you. Let's meet our panel.

Okay. Here they are. He is a writer at large for New York Magazine, our returning champion. Andrew Sullivan is over here. Andrew. Oh. She anchors the syndicated

Sunday morning news show. Matter of fact and is a correspondent in HBO's Real Sports Soledat O'Brien. Hey, get to see you again. And he's a former Republican U.S. Congress of representing Florida's 13th District. No, we love him. David Jolly's over here.

We used to not like you remember. We love that. Exactly. We appreciate that. Oh, and our special is on a week from next week. We're on a live show on the 12th, and then the 19th, our anniversary special in our regular time squad, 25 years of me on television. 15 years here on HBO. You've got to enjoy it. It's very entertaining. There's a lot of great people.

Andrew is speaking in it. We have a lot of wonderful witnesses. All right. And don't forget to send us your questions for tonight's overtime so we can answer them on YouTube. All right, so it's one month before the election. We're going to have to just move past the fact that Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court because we've talked about the last three weeks and I'm a little sick of him hanging and he's on. So let's move forward. Republicans have closed the enthusiasm gap. In July, it was 10 points.

Now it's almost even. That's people who view the midterms as very important and are going to get out to vote. So that's not good news for the Democratic Party. And they say it is because of Brett Kavanaugh and this circus we've just been watching. Why? Why did that close this gap?

It was brilliant. They created an aggrieved father. and a grieved man who was crying and angry, and they've moved the focus off of the questions of perjury, off of the questions as this person suited for the Supreme Court, and really have put the argument in the court where people are interested and feel very emotionally about it. So I do think that draws the Republicans into saying this is unfair,

and they are very interested. I think you're going to see that gap widen up again, actually, and I think you're going to see Democrats who are now, especially women, absolutely furious. I would not underestimate the, fury, the anger, and the motivation to organize among women. So I think you're going to... Among Democratic women.

Among Democratic women, but not only... I will tell you, the polling suggests that part of the reason for the firming up of the Republicans is women in a Republican Party responding to the way the Democrats treated Breckhavenor. But women in the Republican Party, the important part here about the enthusiasm spike among Republicans is that it is among Republicans. It is not among independents. Republicans are now more excited. But among independents, you know what they learned today?

There is no moderate wing of the Republican Party. That was the message they learned today. Susan Collins is not a moderate. Bob Corker is not a Maverick, and Jeff Flake is not going to be the next president of the United States. There is no moderate wing of the Republican Party, and so Republicans might be more excited over Kavanaugh. There is, but it's sitting there every Friday night.

That's true. But the moderate wing of the Republican Party. the independents are not going to trend Republican after-shops. No. But there weren't, it wasn't, it was a lot of people looked at this process, and they didn't say they were creating a person offended as a nice father. He seemed to be genuinely upset. Wouldn't you be genuine upset if something you really didn't believe happened

was suddenly accused? Would you not be genuinely upset? Sure. Let me finish. If the media then went on accused you of having gang rapes, of reporters going out asking anybody in his height school It was a job interview. Have you got any dirt on this guy? Do you not have any queens in this?

But what the question asked was about the election and how they're going to use this. And that's what I want to get to, because that's what's forward. And I think you're onto something here. I think what they're going to be running on is the Democrats, we know they're socialists, because the couple of people in the party are. Well, because that word is scary. And then there's social justice warriors. And there are social justice warriors.

are crazy enough in this country, I fight with them all the time, who they lend enough credence to this to make people think, oh, you know what, they're going to go after my high school record. That's fair game now. And it becomes sort of a privacy thing. Look, what happened is that the Democrats, and I have to say the mainstream media, made this not about Brett Kavana, but about all white men. And how all white men are essentially want to be rapists, how all white men are the problem,

the way that ordinary, regular people, why do you feel sorry for you? Why do you feel sorry for me? Clearly, you're a victim. I'm not. You are. I'm not. I'm saying to take one individual and use that individual to say all white men of this, which was the rhetoric you can hear.

Actually, everyone said it. That's absolutely. First of all, everyone did not say it. That is absolutely untrue. A wave of coverage about how this just shows everything about white male privilege. That's what's on trial. You're breaking my heart. Absolutely not.

That is absolutely untrue. And I understand that your message is that somehow. how white men are aggrieved here in America. It's bullshit. I'm saying that when you generalize... It's not true. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

It's not true. I am saying that when you make a negative generalization about... Let me finish, for goodness sake. Carry on. When you take one individual and you accuse an entire group of people... Which wasn't done. Which wasn't done. Carry on.

Because of their gender and because of their... He wasn't done. It wasn't done. That is not true. Let's move past this point because I'm bored already. I know. Me too. Okay. And we'll just leave it. And what I'll say is I'm sympathetic to the point of view you're expressing, but not this exact point. I don't think that it was moved over to that level either.

But I do think that when Trump said, it's a very scary time for young men, yes, let's get out the world's smallest violin. But I think, but wait. Wait, just, let me just ask a question. Ask a question first. Okay. It does seem like things have morphed from. Listen to any woman who says she's been wronged,

which is the right thing to do, to automatically believe. Here's the new... That's what's scary. Here's what Republicans got wrong, Bill, and you're right. Look, we all get to choose who we believe. I choose to believe Dr. Ford. Other Republicans choose to believe Judge Kavanaugh. We will never know, but you choose who you want to believe.

here's what the Republicans got fundamentally wrong. We now have Republican parents telling their Republican kids that this is a war on young men. The message that Republican parents need to tell their sons is that no means no and don't sexually assault women. And that is lost in all of this, that every suburban mom knows that what happened in Washington today

is that Republicans did not believe Dr. Ford. That is the only translation that happened today. They said it was credible. They said, we respect her, but they did not believe her. They said, at some point they say in the culture like us, there has to be some benefit of a doubt for people. If a single accusation makes someone guilty, then our entire system is open.

It's not that they believed or didn't believe, but they don't care. They care about Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. Absolutely. And this was not, it's not a trial. It's not a trial. And we could have avoided this. It is a job interview. So guess what? If someone comes to a job interview and they have been credibly accused of sexual assault,

and then they sit in a chair and yell at people and cry and get hysterical and are very partisan, you could say as an interviewer for that person, maybe you're not right for this job. There are. Right? It's not a trial, but there is a culture here in which you give people a fair chance. And I think people felt there was an onslaught against this guy, and they reacted defensively, understandably. And look, when you do talk about white men in general, I'm not saying white men don't have a lot to answer,

but I'm saying when you generalize that way, you're telling every white man in the country, you don't want their vote. You're telling every one of them, you're making them real. Are you shitty about who they are? Again, I don't think it's about that. I think it's more about high school. Everyone can relate to I was an idiot in high school.

I remember when I was in grade school, all school, they had this thing they used to, maybe they don't do this anymore, but it was a big threat from a teacher. This is the days when parents cited. with teachers, as opposed to now when they side with their brats all the time. But they would say, this is going to go on your permanent record. Ah! My permanent record.

That was drinking Boone's Farm in the parking lot. No, I know, but... Listen, I was never accused of sexual assault as a high school. That's the issue here. Are you telling me the best guy Republicans could nominate was Kavanaugh? No, no. Because if that's the person... We've got a bigger problem if that's the issue.

Look, Steve Martin said, be so good they can't ignore you. We failed that test as Republicans. I hate Brett Kavanaugh too. Okay. Let's get to the more nuanced level of it. We're all vulnerable, right? We're all very vulnerable in this. All our privacy is vulnerable online.

The next generation that's coming up is going to be extremely vulnerable. Any politician doesn't have a dick pick floating out there is going to be very vulnerable. And when we out this, when we out people's private lives this way, we make them very vulnerable. And I think people respond to that in the right way. And I don't want to live in a culture where liberals used to say, we don't want you looking in your bedroom. And now they say we want to know exactly

what you did in your bedroom, when and where. And that's not a culture I want to live in. He was credibly accused. Come on. Okay, first of all. 36 years ago, as a teenager. Yes, and he should have said, you know what?

I drank a lot in high school. Everybody did. And you know what, I don't remember. He's a liar. But again, the situation, if we're going to get back to that, and I guess we are. I guess there's no avoiding it.

Okay, it is five minutes in a room. We don't know what happened exactly. It could have, on one end of it, it could have been completely premeditated. He and his evil friend, Mark Judge, could have said, we're going to rape this girl tonight, and this is how we're going to do her. We're going to get blind drunk and we're going to blah, blah, blah. Or it could have been two asshole, 17-year-old morons who got blind drunk and we're like, let's scare this girl.

And they jumped on her. I mean, it is a little weird that the third guy, the second guy, the third guy, the third person jumps on the pile. I want to know why. Why did he jump on the pile? Was it to stop it? Was it to join it? I mean, it's a weird...

And then they all wind up on the floor. This at least allows the possibility that this wasn't an intended rape. Absolutely, which is why you have an investigation, an actual investigation. Again, no one arguing with that. No one argue with it. But the accusations that he was involved in gang rapes,

that kind of stuff, when it then became absolutely open court for anybody to make any accusation. It didn't. at all. It didn't. None of that happened. I'm sorry. He faced senators. That's ridiculous. We're never going to know the answers to this, but we should expect more

of our political leaders than we expect to the principles of our high schools. Yeah. Okay? We're never going to be able to solve this. But why has the Republican Party thrust this upon us? And you can say Democrats played all the antics in the world, and I will give you that. But the higher honor would have been

to withdraw Brett Kavanaugh and put another justice in without this. And the answer's your question. Because Brent Kavanaugh in 2009 wrote that the president cannot be indicted or investigated. That's why he has... That's why I opposed the nomination. Wouldn't it be great if we were able to decide these issues on those relevant issues rather than having this really awful thing which no one actually won and which the country tore itself even further apart?

It's very true. And to your point about what I call the Handringers Caucus, Jeff Flake and Susan Collins, and the same ones were always waiting to do the right thing and they never do the right thing. But you know what? They feel bad about it. It goes, fuck that. You know what? You feel so bad about it. Either do the right thing

or don't do the right thing, but you can't be like, and I feel so bad about it, but it's always Lucy with the football. It moves into very concerned and then goes into very troubled. Like, that's always a thing and then they vote exactly along party lines. Every single time.

This is the closing chapter of the moderate wing of the Republican Party there is not one and let's declare that this evening. Okay, so listen, I feel like Trump has been trolling me lately. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing something to the end of the show here talking about him talking about

Kim Jong-un when he said, oh, he likes me, I like him, who knows what's going to happen? And I was like, what are you going to fuck? And then this week, did you see what Trump said? Look at it. And we'll go back and forth and then we fell in love. Okay? No, really? He wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters.

We fell in love. Well, we got a hold of the letters that... President Trump... We got a hold of the letters that President Trump and Kim Jong-uh, and have been exchanging their love letters, and I'll go back and forth. It starts with Kim to Don, goes back and forth. Dear Donald, I know I had it well, but in my line of work, murderous despot... It's not easy means.

people. But when I see you on my black and white TV, suddenly there's a missile program in my pants. I think about you day and night. I guess you could say I've got an orange crush. And Trump responds, Dear Kim, no one's less racist than I am, so don't take this the wrong way, but you had me at Herow. You'll giggle the way you took Lyle Lovett's haircut and owned it. I got a bigger heart on for you than I do for Jeff Sessions. And then Kim, dear Donald, you make a little bit of you. me want to be a better tyrant. I long to run my fingers through whatever that is on your head.

You're like no one I've ever met. Fat. And alive in his 70s. Dear Kim, or as I like to call you, my dear leader from behind. I love the way we finish each other's sentences, like when I said I want to destroy, and we both said

America. Oh, Donald, that puppy dog look in your eye makes me hungry. It's all too good to be true. I never I thought I'd be dating a blonde with big tits. My dearest Kim, I'm just a dotard standing in front of a little rocket man, asking him to love me.

You are my forbidden love, too, if you count Ivanka. All right, he is the Oscar-winning star of Crazy Hart, the Big Lebowski, a million other great ones, and the upcoming bad times at the El Royale. His documentary, Living in the Futures Past, open today. Welcome, Jeff Bridges. Now they're standing up. Well, I know you don't come here

unless you have something on your mind. You're a busy guy and a private guy, and I appreciate that, but it's always something important. And I know it's the environment because I watched your documentary twice. It's fantastic. And I've heard you talk about it a little. I know you got your interest in the environment

first from your father because you did... I used to watch that show. Yeah, sea hunt. Yeah. Sea hunts. Yeah, he didn't know anything about the ocean before that show, and he got so involved with the, well, the health of the sea and how important it was, and that he brought the whole family with him. And this is about the environment, but it's different in the sense that you're trying to find out how can we be at such a dire place and still not have reacted. Why are we hardwired humans to not react to a slow-moving crisis? I don't think so. I think, you know, we're hardwired to,

breathe and grow fingernails and beat our hearts and stuff like that. But being hardwired to fail, I don't think that's really in our cards. But don't we react only to things that are of a, I mean, doesn't the history of our environmental reactions bear this out? We react only to things that are immediate threats. That's the problem. We're the frog in the pot. Yeah, I just got an immediate threat. You know, I was rescued by a helicopter by the debris flow in Santa Barbara where you know 22 people were killed debris flow debris flow this is due to the mud the fire there was a huge fire

the Thomas fire in Santa Barbara oh yeah and all the foliage was burned and here comes the debris flow the whole hillside where you know bow and it hit your house hit our house and we were yeah but that that was after the movie was made you know but it brought it brought it all home but we you know we we we when things thinking about making this movie, we didn't want to do a doom and gloom kind of thing. There was enough movies about that. We didn't want to downplay the seriousness of our situation, but we wanted to shed new light on the thing. And we thought, yeah, let's do something,

let's kind of flip the hood up and examine what's making us tick as a species and why we are behaving the way we are in front of this enormous challenge we have. So why haven't we done more? Well, you know, to look that far in the future is not, that's not what we're really wired for, you know. One of my, you know, it's such a tendency to kind of throw up your hands. I know I fight my own cynicism with this whole thing. You know, when you think of the, you know, the politicians and the news,

and, you know, we often think, well, our politicians are going to save us. You know, it's going to kind of trickle down. But we can't wait. for these guys to understand the scientific data. I can't agree with that because I think the only people who can solve this is government. I don't think this is like World War II. We're not going to, yes, people can save 10 and ration, but they're not going to defeat Hitler. It's going to take the government to tell people we have a carbon tax.

They definitely have a role, but we have a role as individuals, not only in voting, that's very important, important and to vote with people who are in alignment with your thinking of how the environment should go but here let me let me just can I say my thing no that's don't say your hey you're here you're here you to say your thing well here's the deal this is what I think about just personal responsibility one of my heroes is Bucky Fuller you know Buckmaster Fuller you know his most you know amazing invention was the geodesic dome right but he made a wonderful um observation with the huge ocean-going tankers that we see.

And he said the engineers were quite challenged by trying to get this huge rudder to turn this big ship. It took too much energy to turn that huge rudder. It had to be too big. So they came up with a beautiful, elegant solution. Let's put a little rudder on that big rudder, and that little rudder will turn the big rudder. The big rudder turns the ship. And that little rudder is called a trim tab.

Bucky said, this is a great metaphor for how the individual is connected to society. You know, we think, oh, this is one little individual. But we're connected, man. I'm connected to you. I do this show. I know, but the little rudder isn't doing that. It's buying an SUV. Well, that's what we want.

This is what the movie is encouraging people to do. I know, but people don't give a shit, you know, because, I mean, that, and that's the problem is that if, if the government doesn't make all of us do it, people look. I was like one of the first people to have a Prius. Yeah. And, you know, after a while, you look around and you're like, nobody else is helping. Why am I driving this shitty little thing? You know what I mean? You go, like, why am I busting my balls and everybody else is?

And if we've all decided we're going to go over the Grand Canyon, let's just hold hands and go. But I'm not going to be the one to deprive myself if everybody doesn't, including younger people who have more at stake than I do. I've had my fun with the earth. So you throw your hands up and you say that's it? No, not at all. Not at all, but I'm just saying, I think it has to be electing politicians who will make laws.

Yes, that's for sure, but that can't be all it is. It's also individuals. All of us, all of us are trim tabs, man. We're all connected. We can do, you know, connect ourselves to organizations, man. You're a good hippie. You're a good hippie. The flower and child have gone to seed, man, but coming up again.

But you know, there's organizations like, you know, The Amazon Conservation Team, you know, that works with 50 indigenous tribes in South America protect 80 million acres of rainforest. Deforestation is, you know, that's one of the things. That's just as bad as, you know... But here's just recent headlines from the last month. Trump administration wants to make it easier to release methane into the air. Trump administration wants to make it easier to release mercury.

EPA says a little radiation may be healthy. this is why we have to just change the government, okay? Yeah, but the fact that the government is the way it is, that's kind of a wake-up call, man, isn't it? I mean, this is like, this is his... Isn't it more about the Republican Party, really? It has become deranged. There is no other right of Center Party anywhere in the world

that doesn't accept reality. Like the first person to tackle the ozone layer was Margaret Thatcher, for Christ's sake. This is an empirical question, right? Right. So what is it that has got... into their psyche that forces them to do, what you tell me, David,

forces them to deny something that is so obvious right here and now. If you want to conserve the world, if you want to conserve the planet, if you want to be a conservative, what are you doing, vandalizing the place? Two quick answers, the emergence of the Tea Party in 2010

and deep, deep, deep, deep-pocketed corporate influence that control Republican Party. And one other thing, I think, which is, we're so tribal, that because liberals want to save the environment, it's worth it to kill myself and die choking on bad air

if it makes liberals cry their liberal tears. It poisons everything. Yeah. So this other big story, this is sort of apropos of this, why we concentrate on one story and not the other. To me, the giant story of the week was the New York Times printing this very,

very long article about Trump's origin story. He had always told us, I'm rich because my father, gave me a small loan of a million dollars. That was always funny to me that he thought that was a small loan. He was off by 412 million. Apparently, it was all daddy's money, all along, all through his life, from the age of three years old. It was all daddy's money, and it was fraud money.

Fred Trump passed a billion dollars to his kids and should have paid 550 millions in inheritance taxes on it. That's the law. So they cheated the government out of $500 million. Why doesn't that resonate with people? That story is gone, right? Gone. We don't even talk. It was two days ago.

It's no surprise. It's not a surprise, is it? Well, the size of it is a surprise. Don't make a joke. Look, to Jeff's point, listen, we've always known this president as a con man, right? And so he engaged in tax planning, but he also engaged in tax fraud. That was in the New York Times article, Deliberate Tax Fraud. big takeaway from the New York Times story is what a terrible business person Donald Trump

actually is. The fact, and here's what I mean by that. This is a guy, this is a guy that we know was born on third base. And the idiot, instead of stealing home, stole second. Right? This is, this is the guy who figured out how to lose everything his father gave him. Yeah. And then asked for a bailout, right? This is an obvious, obvious thing for them to use. Here he is, bilking the working classes, screwing people. He's cheating on his taxes. He was earning $200 grand a year at age three, and the Democrats can't use that effectively?

He loves the military. He loves his incredible police. He loves the vets, but not enough to pay one dime in taxes to support them. They don't care. They know. They know. They're proud of him. They're proud of him for stealing from the government.

That's where the Republican Party is today. They are proud of him for stealing from the government. That's interesting. He worked the system. He did. beat the system. Let me explain. In the end, just the way this tax cut that's running up the debt, that's going to hurt them in the end.

We're now paying more to service the debt than we pay for Medicare. It's almost $500 billion a year just paying to banks who have lent us money. When does that common man, the forgotten man that he said he was jail? When does that guy see that this is the Wizard of Oz? Who's the toto who's going to pull back the curtain? But the media helped sell that story from the 19. 70s. They really did, right? And they consistently

and things that were easily provable. Let's check, does he own these homes that he's saying he owns? Let's see, was he number one in his class of Wharton, which he was not? Let's actually fact check some of this, and they never did. They like to believe this story. I think it was Tina Brown when she ran an excerpt of

her book. She was like, I knew it was bullshit, but I actually liked the writing, and I thought it was a convincing story. And so when you do that, people then buy into the myth. Don't be surprised when they follow that. This means his whole life has been a constructed lie. Yes. It's a Potemkin life of something he wanted to be.

Right. But knows deep down, he doesn't have an ounce of the ability to be. And he's managed to palay this incredible Pandora scheme into the presidency of the United States. And he's still doing it. Right. It's a pyramid scheme. Now, whatever it is, it is an amazing spell he's able to cast on. Here's what he did, though.

It is a salesman of unbelievable skill. You're right. And simplicity. and cunning and absolute ruthlessness. And I think we keep underestimating how dangerous this person is and this phenomenon is in this part of it. Okay, which brings me to my final question.

Because Mike Pence was out there today talking about China. I haven't seen Mike Pence in a while. I don't know what... Lange Lowe. He was laying low. You know, sometimes people say, this is the week Trump became president.

I felt last week was the week Lindsey Graham. became vice president. Well, he's auditioning for something. Definitely attorney general. Okay. But Trump said it at the UN. He said China has been attempting

to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election. They do not want me. I thought Xi was his best friend. There was another guy he said he was in love with. What happened to that? They do not want me to win because I am the first Yeah, you're bullshit, whatever. Then Mike Pence today, China

has initiated an unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion. The 2018 elections, Trump's leadership is working. China wants a different American president. Everybody wants a different American president. But this is so dangerous, right? Because... Move the rhetoric off of Russia, first of all, right?

And move it on to China, I think, is strategy number one. And number two is, when he loses the 2020 election, it's because China was meddling. It's also this. They're setting this up. Donald Trump declared a trade war that he's not. losing. China's beating him and China's beating him in his backyard

and China is smart enough to target the constituencies that elected Donald Trump and he's terrified that he's not smart enough to compete with China so he's attacking him. They don't seem to think they're losing. What's interesting also on this front let's give him credit, you know, he did this is an

improvement on NAFTA that he did this week. He is capable of doing these trade stuff and he has been, I think, tougher on China and I think it's amazing how many people have said you know we should have been tougher on China for quite a while. That's a strong point of his. There are business interests, right, who would say,

listen, China has issues an IP theft, China has issues with coercion, and business people support that. What he's come up against in China is China has been smart enough to outplay him. China is targeting in the trade war the very constituencies that got him the extra 90,000 votes that elected him to the White House,

and he's terrified that he's losing to China. That's the problem. Well, they better do better than that, Because those reasons aren't that, aren't that falling behind him. Can I quote you, Andrew, for our last question. Journalists have begun to see themselves as vanguards of a cultural revolution rather than skeptics of everything. What did you mean by that? I meant particularly during this cultural revolution around gender and race, in which newspapers and magazine,

I felt this particularly during this period with the cabinet nomination, in which really these journalists were attempting to fight for one side. And now I'm not a Fox News viewer, but I have seen the mainstream media in the last two years shift to such a situation where I think they really are fermenting and agreeing with a very left-wing ideology that is coming through in all their articles, and it is alienating. A lot of regular normal people, alienating even younger people in some respects, especially young white men. And they need, Trump has done this to them. Trump has evoked the same kind of mania and ideology in them. And everything has to be one that he demonstrates in himself.

And so I think that's an incredibly dangerous moment for our culture. I mean, the media I don't trust anymore. And I've seen that nobody I saw in mainstream media from second thought Kavanaugh could be innocent. Just for a second. Right. In fact, they were eager to prove not only that he was guilty, but that everything he represented needed to be destroyed.

I think that's an overstatement. Again, I've said that 50 times. Yeah, I know. That's an overstatement. And when you talk about regular and normal, We should all note you're talking about white men. I get it. That's your perspective on it all the time. I'm talking about white women.

I'm talking about black men and black women. Why do you think that everyone of one race has to think a certain way? It's very diverse. Which I did not say, first of all. But listen, at the end of the day, what people saw, it was not a trial. This is what you're wrong about. All right.

We have to stop fighting. It's time for comedy. Thank you, panel. But new rules. Okay. Okay, new rules. Stop making such a big deal over the Instagram trend of women painting their rear end like a pumpkin.

What I call the crack a lantern. I hate it when we're late for a party because she's still putting on her ass. I say it's Halloween, do whatever you want. Just don't call me Peter Peter. New Role people with comfort animals, carry-on guitar cases, and special dietary restrictions must all fly on one carrier called Pain in the Ass Airlines. We'll be cruising at 37,000 feet and none of those. those feet have their shoes on.

New Rule, whoever installed these three crack pipe vending machines on Long Island must be told, thank you for your service. Really, with everyone ODing on opiates these days, isn't it time you took a second look at crack? Hi, I'm Bill Maher for crack. How many times has this happened to you? You try heroin, but it's not cut right, so you almost die. Well, now there's a better way. Come back to crack.

It's been under your nose the whole time. New Rule, someone has to reassure the lonely in-cells of America that while they may never get a girl like Kim Kardashian, they can get pretty close. New Rule, Melania must admit she's a lot happier when she's halfway around the world from her husband. Here she is in Africa holding a baby's hand, and here she is in Washington, D.C., holding a baby's...

And finally, new rule, liberals must stop chasing conservatives out of restaurants. They've done it to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, they've done it to Kirsten Nielsen, they've done it to Stephen Miller, and last Monday it happened again when Ted Cruz and his wife went out to dinner and were bombarded by a chant of, we believe, survivors. So I'm guessing the restaurant was Chipotle. But this is the new deal. Conservatives get to run America, and we get to ruin their dinner. And listen, I get it. Nobody wants to see Ted Cruz when they're eating. Ted Cruz is what baseball thinks about when it's trying not to come. But we need to get people like Ted Cruz out of power, not out of restaurants. This is something Republicans understand

way better than Democrats, that real power isn't about making a scene or what makes you feel good. And power? It's a lot like owning rabbits. The more you have, the easier it is to get a lot more. Power begets power. Texas has very similar demographics to California. But one reason they're red and we're blue is we want every citizen to be able to vote, and they don't. A federal court has ruled seven times

that Texas Republicans drew their congressional districts with racial discriminatory intent. But our federal court won't have the final say on this. That's the Supreme Court. They will, which is why Republicans so desperately want to get Schlitz-Cavanaugh confirmed, even though he doesn't have the temperament to be a judge on American Idol. Because, like the rabbits, the more justices Republicans get to pick, the more those justices protect unlimited campaign spending

and voter suppression laws, which helps more Republicans get elected. power begets power. Trump loves to say the system is rigged. Yeah, it's rigged, your president. He leaves out the part that it's rigged for them. The electoral college helps Republicans. The fact that every state gets two senators, helps Republicans. Mike Enzi of Wyoming represents 287,000 people.

Kamala Harris represents 20 million. Why is Wyoming even a state? There's not even a river or any other kind of natural borders separating it from the other square states. It's just a square. It's like they copy-paste in Colorado and then forgot to put people in it. I know I have asked this before,

but do we really need two Dakotas? It's like when there's a Starbucks right across the street from another Starbucks. It's greedy. You're greedy, DeKedatres. four senators for you? It's like a little person going up to the buffet and taking half the food.

We all failed to notice that as more Americans move to coastal cities in pursuit of high-paying jobs as Uber drivers, rural red states became overrepresented, which is why every election year we have to hear what's on the mind of everyone in a diner in Iowa. Meanwhile, nobody ever talks to the loser

at the coffee bean in West Hollywood. Does America's vast army of unemployed screenwriters not count? The Constitution is not on our side. Bush II and Trump both lost the popular vote. They shouldn't be picking Supreme Court justices at all. Had the Democrats, had the Democrats who actually won the popular vote, been in the Oval Office,

we'd now have a seven to two liberal majority on the court. Instead, as usual, we all have to pin our hopes this week on Senator Susan Collins of Maine, population Stephen King, two lobsters and a bear. When the deck is this stacked against you and the other party cheats? Democrats have no margin for error. Or bullshit, you know who you are. Or complacency. Republicans in Texas were able to draw those districts with race. racially discriminatory intent because they won the state house.

Democrats lost a thousand state legislature seats in the last 10 years. Can't do it. We just can't do it like that. We need to win elections so we can protect voting rights so we can win elections. Next month, there is a referendum on the ballot in Florida, the state that so often decides our elections, to restore the voting rights of 1.4 million. ex-felons who currently cannot vote.

It could turn Florida blue, which turns America blue. So next time, you want to scream at a politician, move to Florida and help change that law, because power begets power. And we've got to beget some for ourselves. All right, that's our show. I'll be at The Mirage in Vegas,

October 26 and 27th. I want to thank Andrew Sullivan, Soledadad, O'Brien, David Jolly, Jeff Bridges, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Join us now 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.