Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #662: John Fetterman, Matt Welch, Abigail Shrier

Episode Date: June 8, 2024

Bill’s guests are John Fetterman, Matt Welch, Abigail Shrier (Originally aired 6/7/24) 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. So much to get to. Oh, wow, I feel great about that. Yes, the big news this week is Hunter Biden's trial. Let's get right to that means absolutely fucking nothing, but let's get right to it. Because, oh, the media is obsessed with this one. And the Republicans, they're like, you know what, if you take down Trump, okay, we're going to take down Hunter Biden. And the Democrats are like, knock yourself out.

We barely care about Joe Biden. But this trial is all about one thing in America, which is very important. You cannot mix drugs and guns. Seriously, we don't take a lot seriously in this country, but this is one we're very serious about. And Hunter Biden did, you know, he was buying a gun on crack. I mean, at the moment, he was literally on crack and buying a gun. He almost had the pipe in his head. Okay.

So the prosecutor gets up and says, one is above the law in this country, doesn't matter who you are or what your name is, and all the Republicans stood up and fist pumped and went, yeah, and then they went, oh, wait. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's not what they were saying last week, was it? Interesting, in April, they took a survey. 17% of Republicans said it was okay, only 17% okay for a felon to be president. Now they took the survey again. 58% say it's okay for a felon to be.

Gosh, what happened? And that's, you know, usually to change this drastically in the space of two months, hormones are involved. But if Trump, if Hunter Biden does get convicted, this will be a historic first. It'll be the first time Republicans ever objected to someone buying a gun. There was a testimony from Haley Biden. She's her name is Haley Biden because she

was married to Hunter Biden's brother sadly died, Beau Biden, and then Hunter went out with her. So she's the ex-girlfriend and the widow. And I know. She testified that when she was with Hunter, he got her into crack and she is ashamed and embarrassed about that part of her life.

Really? You... You you bang your dead husband's brother and the part you're embarrassed about is the crack. But she said she found Hunter's gun at one point. She knew he couldn't have it. So she took it and she threw it away, like in the supermarket dumpster. Perfect place.

So when Hunter found out, she threw away his gun. He was very angry. He called her insane. He called her stupid. He said, what do you want to? crack, and if you are, may I have some? This guy did a lot of crap. I mean, well, we all saw this stuff from Hunter Biden's laptop, right? I mean, if they did a reality

show about Hunter Biden, it would be called Naked and Afraid of Running Out of Crack. And it's just bad optics for the president. The jury is looking at sex tapes of Hunter Biden, and the rest of us are worrying of his father can walk a wreck. No, I care.

Well, actually, Joe was doing the D-Day thing. You saw that yesterday? Did very well. I thought he did very well. He was over there converting the A anniversary of D-Day. And over here in America, you know what they did? Nine congressmen, oh, gosh. Nine congressmen dressed up as military people.

World War II, you know, vintage stuff. And jumped out of a World War II vintage plane to commemorate D-Day. Sadly, they were wearing parishes. And George Santos said, you know, when I do dress up, you bitches make a whole thing at it. Oh, yes, it's Pride Month. You're in the spirit of pride. Okay. So, listen to this.

There's a Pride Month story. Five drag queens in Philadelphia did a reading, children's books, reading as they do, made the Guinness Book of World's Records for the fastest way to. get Trump reelected. Not that there aren't still bigots in this country. Did you see this? The head of the Colorado, this is the head of the Colorado Republican Party sent out an email

missive saying, calling gay people godless groomers, which in California is not even an insult. I get my hair cut at a place called godless groomers. It's fantastic. It's on Santa Monica. All right, we got a great show. We have Matt Welch at Abigail Schreier.

The first up, he is the no-holds-bar Democratic Senator from the great state of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. Welcome back. Welcome back to the show. It's been 13 years. It's an honor to be here. I'm a fan boy, so it's...

Well, and right back at you. I have been badgering my staff for a long time now to get you on this show, and I'll tell you why I've been badgering them. I guess then they badgered you. So I'm glad it worked and you hear. because when I see you, especially the last couple of years, you speak so freely. You speak like politicians who I get on this show

who aren't in politics anymore, the ones who are out of office when they can be honest, and that's the way you speak now, and it's a beautiful thing. Well, honestly, this is true. You speak for a lot of Democrats that are afraid to say a lot of that stuff. I mean, it's a lot of release for a lot of Democrats

to be able to be like, thank God, someone's actually platforming that, you know, like that. No, I think we're very much on the same page, but it's very rare. I mean, I don't have to worry about being reelected except by the audience. It's, I think, even more brave for you to do it. The question I'm interested in asking you is,

is this connected to some of your health issues? I mean, when you've gone through it you have, both physical and mental health issues, does it give you a freedom? Like, what can you... Yeah, no, absolutely. There's a line from the first Batman Joker. He's like, I've already been dead once already.

It's very liberating, you know. And that's not reckless. That's really just freeing. It's just freeing in a way. And I just think after being all of that, I just really be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there's any kind of blowback. And what about mental health in America?

writ large. What is the prescription for this because we're going to talk about it on the show to a degree tonight? It's certainly a big issue in this country and we have, I think, 50,000 suicides in the last year. Absolutely. This is an astounding number, I think. What are your thoughts on this? No, it's, well, I actually, I thought after I signed myself into Walter Reed to get help, depression, it's not, it's not really a big political winner to talk about depression. Right. And then when I started to have that conversation, I realized that if I had to be really honest, I have to talk about self-harm, you know, harming myself. Because you pointed out to 50,000 Americans took their lives. And I started to talk about that and saying, yeah, I've been in that kind of a place. And I now tell people, like, I'm promising you, I'm begging you, please, don't, don't harm yourself. Stay in the game. And now I'm contacted by people on the regular saying, hey, you know, thanks to hearing this, I got. help or even saved my life.

And I never thought that that would resonate. And that's why I decided to have that conversation because I was lucky. I got help and got better. And now I want to be the kind of guy that can say something that could have helped someone like me that was in that situation. Let's talk a little of politics here

because that is your game. Pennsylvania's going to be one of the, they say, probably it could be come down to three states. Pennsylvania will definitely be one of them. Well, I've always said that. Pennsylvania picks the president, and there really is no legitimate path for the president if he doesn't win. And I really do believe he will win, actually, because Trump was able to flip Pennsylvania, and that helped deliver his first victory.

But Joe Biden carried it in 2020 because he has a really strong connection there to Pennsylvania, and I do believe he will again, but it's going to be very close. And that's the same conversation I've been having with Pennsylvania, that it's going to be very close because Trump has a strong connection, in Pennsylvania, and it's going to be very competitive and all of that. And I've also been saying that I don't think that whole trial is going to be anything meaningful with people

who have already decided, like, hey, that's my guy. I don't, we'll never understand by somebody who would say, yeah, I love that, or I want more four years of that. But I do believe Joe Biden's going to carry Pennsylvania, and he's going to win. But as he is not yet officially the nominee of the Democratic

Party, is he really the best one for them to put forward? Joe Biden? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's actually the only American that's ever beat Trump in an election. And I do honestly believe that he's actually the only Democrat that could win. And let me just say this.

Let me just say this. I know that might be provocative. But the last time there was like a hot shit governor that with $200 million thought that he was going to beat Trump. And then Trump threw him in the woodchipper. And he finished third in his own state. And again, Trump has... You're not about DeSantis. Yeah, yeah. It's like Trump is pretty tough.

And that's what the Republicans want. And I can't imagine why he's still appealing right now. But Trump has a very... And I do believe Joe Biden has that ability to win. And we have a great bench. But I think it's a very distinct kind of situation right now. I'm surprised at that, but I'll move on. I'm sorry by that.

I'm not on the same page. there, but okay, I mean, it's probably going to be Joe Biden, and I'll vote for him. But you mentioned DeSantis. This is very curious to me. DeSantis wants to ban fake meat in Florida. And you agreed with them. I don't get this. Well, I think it's no so much about making it illegal, but it's also just talking about

I really wanted to stand with, I wanted to stand with American farmers and ranchers and those kinds of a thing. and I don't believe that it's helpful, and that's the direction that I'd like to move in that. But if somebody wants to consume that, that's okay. But I think there's going to be states that are going to decide, I don't want to ban this, or I really want to invent and create that kinds of a product in their state, I think.

But I wouldn't need it either, quite frankly. But I wouldn't ban it. I mean, that's what Desantis wanted to do, so you can't get it. I mean, I thought that was the Freedom Party. I thought this was the Freedom Country. if people want to have fake meat or fake anything, fake tits, fake anything. It is Los Angeles. I don't know why anybody want to eat that slap either,

but I don't think that's really going to solve anything other than I don't get why anybody that would appeal to anybody. Okay. And you've been very out front on legalizing weed. Oh, yeah, of course. I've heard that you too. John, that's just a character I play on television. Never smoked a joint in my life.

I heard you once say, or a Reddit, maybe it was a tweet, I don't know what it was. You said, I'm not a progressive, I'm a Democrat. What does that mean? How do you, what is that distinction? Because I'm always, I don't think I've used the word progressive. I think I've said woke. I think there's a big difference between woke, and I know that word triggers a lot of people because it had a great beginning as a meeting, but, you know, word,

migrate and it went to something else. I think there's a big difference between an old school liberal and a woke person you say progressive Democrat. How do you describe this? Yeah. No, I agree. It's like I've just say, and I've been saying that for years actually. I said that, you know, I didn't leave the label. It left me on that. Right. And that really, after it happened on October 7th, I was really new that that whole progressive stack would be blasted apart and they're not going to be any kind a way how the Democrats are going to be able to reply to that kind of, respond to that kind of. And I really decided early on that I believe that was going to be the right side with Israel throughout all of that. And I knew that would have going to be, Democrats would continue to

peel away and kind of walk away from standing with Israel on that. But that's where I decided after. How do you explain that if you can, that the people who consider themselves the most liberal, have abandoned Israel, which was always a liberal darling, for the people who, a terrorist organization, the people who outwardly say they want a genocide, who outwardly are the one side of this who is against the two-state solution. Somehow they wound up with them. Why do you think that is? And will this split the Democratic Party? Well, it does because there's an appeal there. And I think you talk about that. Like last week, you really hit with the gender apartheid.

Yes. And talking about a lot of these issues. And some of the most progressive and left parts of the Democratic Party are standing, you know, for the kind of side that have kinds of organizations like Hamas or these kind of nations that there are no rights for women. And they certainly don't embrace the LGBTQ kinds of lifestyle. And even in Philadelphia, the queers for Palestine blocked. the pride parade in Philadelphia. And I never saw that on the bingo card.

But it's really true. All right. Well, it may seem lonely out there sometimes when you're brave like you are, but you have a lot of fans. A lot of fans here. I think you have a lot of fans all over the country. When I told people you were coming on, a lot of them were really excited that you were here.

But they all had one question they wanted me to ask you, which is, what is the deal? with the wardrobe. They just, people are very curious. Doesn't bother me. I'm just saying, please ask you. Let's talk.

Last year I noticed you had a great joke. You really nailed it. You put a picture of me and you're like, he dresses like a guy that the airline lost his luggage. It's true. It's funny because it's true. And I know I dress like a slob.

And I'm not making a statement or anything. But it's like I'm into comfort. Yeah. And it's just comfort. Yeah. And I'm kind of, it's like I don't have to iron. And, but, but it's like it's really, I can't, you know, it's kind of hard to find suits and all those things. And I, but I never understood why anybody thought why that was interesting.

But what's really crazy is it's like it was more controversial. And I want to be clear, I wasn't behind the change, changing the dress code or anything. I really wasn't. but more people were seeing more concerned about me wearing a hoodie on the floor as opposed to we have senators taking bribes and being, you know, foreign agents and everything like that. And I'm just kind of like, you know, like it's...

But I'm learning, I'm learning, you know, I'm still a freshman. You seem like you're in a really good place. Oh, I mean... Well, I'm sitting across the few... Yeah, I know, but I mean like... But, um... But, um... But, um...

You know, having a near-death experience and going through that kind of a blowtorch of $100 million and attack acts and all of that kinds of things to emerge on the side where I'm grateful to be here, both right with you and back with my kids and my family and everything. And I just decide. I really want to be the kind of voice that's consistent and has a moral clarity on issues that may not. be controversial for Democrats, but I'm not sure why any of that's controversial for Democrats, whether it's about Israel or the border. Because people just want to bitch these days, John. Everything is controversial to everybody. But you keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate it. Thank you, bro. All right, we'll see you again. John Setterman. All right, let's meet our panel. There they are. All right, he is the editor at large, a recent magazine, a coach of the

podcast, the fifth column, Matt Welch is back with us. And she's a journalist and author of The New York Times, thus selling book, Bad Therapy, Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up. Abigail Schreier is finally here. Thank you, thank you. Okay. So this is the week where we celebrated the greatest generation, saving democracy, so we could learn about Hunter Biden's smoking crack.

I feel like that's the week in a nutshell. So I feel like it's one of the first of the first of the world. those stories where both sides have a lot of wrong in their handling. I remember at the beginning when the laptop came out, the left-wing media just would not even admit it was a thing, right? It just had to be a hoax or it had to be Russian disinformation. It just didn't exist. They wouldn't write about it. That was wrong. And the right is wrong to pretend it means something, except possibly about Joe Biden's parenting. The question I want to ask, because I know your book is about it and you've written about parenting.

Okay, why do all the political families have this near-do-well fuck-up family member? If we, is it just because they're famous? If we went into every family that have a Billy Carter or Roger Clinton, you know, George Bush himself

was the near-do-well fuck-up family. Since the beginning of time, we've known that children basically need three things, and these are essential. They need parental authority. They need to hear no. They need independence, and they need loving community. And kids with high-profile families often get none of those.

No one's willing to tell them, no. They never get independence because they don't want anyone to make the big guy look bad. And they don't have loving community. They're raised in a political battlefield. And unfortunately, too many of American kids today also don't have those. Yeah, the way you describe it, you sound like everybody's from a prominent family. Because I read in your book that kids go off to college. And they've never heard the word no.

That's right. Or the word wait. That's right. Well, kids today are under a microscope. They're under a microscope. They're literally, because of the projection, of course, social media and whatnot. But also because their parents are so afraid of traumatizing them. They've been told by mental health experts that saying no, punishing can be traumatizing.

So they don't exert their own authority. So these kids are basically, we have a generation being raised as shrinks kids. And they're miserable. There's a, I think, a link with your D-Day tie-in, which is that we understood that generation and others, but especially that one, to have a sense of stoicism, right? Like, you're going to go through some bad stuff. It's going, you're going to fail.

There's going to be unfair things that happen to you. The question is, what are you going to do with that? The father of a 15-year-old and a 9-year-old, they're not teaching a lot of stoicism in the Brooklyn public school system. Last time I checked, it's, you know, at some point, she starts to use it as an excuse to get a, out of chores. Like, that's not my journey. I'm not going to... I don't consent to folding the laundry. So, I mean, at least they're making some

fun out of it. But there is something to that. And there's also, I think, you know, when you think about the greatest generation, they probably could have used a little bit more therapy than they actually do. Right? Yes, there's a happy medium. But, I mean, you mentioned D-Day. I couldn't help think of it because I was reading, the New York Times says, among college students, PTSD. among adolescents is surging. PTSD. The fact that we have so...

It's just... Because my father was in that campaign. He wasn't on Omaha Beach, but he was in that campaign in France. PTSD. That even when we allow kids to think they have PTSD. That's right. They don't have PTSD. Kids raised gently in Brentwood don't have PTSD.

Bad vets sometimes do have PTSD. And they need... Always. when they have it. It is real. But that's not what kids at universities have. What they have is what I call in my book, bad therapy.

They have a kind of emotional hypochondria. They have focused so much on their own bad feelings that they magnify these feelings. They make them an organizing principle of their lives, and then they have trouble escaping them. Okay, so here's my question. We had a Me Too reckoning about sex in 2017. We had a racial reckoning in 2020.

I feel like there's a parenting, reckoning, coming. A lot of rollback, pushback on gentle parenting. I think that people are realizing that this kind of stuff has raised a lot of fucked-up kids. Another statistic, maybe it's from your book, 49.5%. So let's just say half of adolescents. at some point have a mental health disorder. So half of the kids in the country are diagnosable? Okay, either they really are that fucked up, or we're over-diagnosing.

That's right. It's the latter. We are way over-diagnosing them. This generation has had more mental health intervention in schools, more mental health treatment. 40% of them have been in therapy. They've had therapeutic parenting, and it's making them worse. These kids don't need therapy. They need less therapy.

They need to be told, I love you, you'll live. Now get out of my house and have an adventure. I think it's worth pointing out that this generation, let's say, 15 to 22, they got banged up during COVID, pretty bad. And the more you were in places where schools and society was locked down, the more banged up you got. And also it's tied up with social media and kind of knew what you're doing on your phone all the time, the stuff that John Haidt talks about.

So I think there is a legitimate mental health thing going on with teenagers, and especially teenage girls in this country. The question is, are we teaching them to get out of it and also to have fun and to take some kind of initiative in their lives? Or are we encouraging them to think of themselves as victims? And I hope it's not the latter, because you're not going to get much past your 18th birthday walking around and saying that it's somebody else's fault.

So if this is so obvious, and we all agree, Who's still defending this? I think the trauma industry is. They basically have taught... The trauma industry. I mean, that's what we have now. We've basically convinced a generation that any distress is trauma,

it's permanent psychopathology, now you have a disability, and you have to live with that forever. And these kids are behaving like mental patients. Right. Right. I mean... And they're medicated, then, like...

That, to me, is where it really... goes off the rails. Because a lot of them are on, you know, whatever the psychiatric drugs they put them on. And, you know, when I think about the two big ones that I see always talked about that are now pathologized, shyness, which is like social anxiety disorder, if you pathologize it, and depression. I mean, that's just being bummed out. My whole adolescence, my whole childhood, through past college, was about those two things. Right. I was just

had tons of both of those things and drugging me would not have helped. That's right. I discovered pot when I was 19, that drug helped. Organically, but... Yeah. Okay, so I read about SEL,

and I suppose everybody who has kids knows what this is. This is social, emotional learning. Like, this takes front and center this explains a lot to me. One, why they're so stupid. Because this is the priority above learning. Is that right?

That's right. And what is social... I mean, obviously, it sounds like what it is. Well, purportedly, it's supposed to teach kids things like emotional regulation, which we want them to have, of course. But in fact, how do you teach kids how to handle bad emotions? Right? Because we're not worried about them having too much joy. We're worried about them having too much sadness, regret, bad feelings. so it necessarily always goes negative.

It becomes a kind of group therapy, and it forces kids to ruminate, to pathologically focus on their bad feelings, on their pain, and those are the number one symptoms of depression. And it's interesting. 70% of very liberal students, they say this is from the American Enterprise Institute, so they're a little right-leaning,

report feeling anxious, 52% of conservatives. But it does seem like the liberal, are more in their own head and are more suffering from this. Is that right? And why? I have seen that statistic. Look, the reason that I think so

that might be is because those are the parents in general who are giving their kids more therapy. They're highly educated and they're more anxious because they're highly educated. They're more anxious themselves. They're pushing their anxiety onto their kids. And we know you can

communicate anxiety. Parents need to be tougher for their kids. They need to set an example here, and they need to stop obsessing over kids' happiness and start worrying about making kids strong. All right. So your parenting is also involved in the other book you wrote, your famous one

that was banned, right? Your book, Irreversible Damage, which is about gender reassignment, I think, is the proper term we should call it. Well, now we have the cast review from England which said, you must feel somewhat vindicated by this, because America is now an outlier country with this.

The Scandinavian countries that were doing in England that was doing it, they've all pulled back. The cast report says that the evidence supporting the use of puberty blocking drugs and other hormonal medications and adolescents was remarkably weak. Why is America so behind? Why are we, usually when we look at those countries, you go, oh, these are what the liberals are doing. So we're just going to, no, we're alone on this. Yeah, we are. I mean, I think two reasons. England had national centralized health care.

So they got into this faster, and they also were able to shut it down faster. And that because our health care is obviously decentralized, it's harder to shut bad medicine down in this country. But there's something else that I have to say. They had something really special in England. They had J.K. Rowling. And she helped gender-critical feminists pry away from the progressive left on this issue and stand up for the bodily integrity of girls

and stand up for the integrity of medicine. I think as part of that peer pressure kind of elements in the professional practice, it's worth pointing out to the extent that your audience might not, that Abigail's book was targeted by people who work for the ACLU. Oh, yes. Saying that, oh, you know, it would be the highest thing to do to block the distribution of this book. It speaks to a kind of aggressive, illiberal conformity that takes place, not just on this issue, but other issues many that have to do with COVID.

And I think it's kind of a new thing. The last 10 years especially, there's been a semi-deranging moment where people who are involved in journalism or academia or whatever will just say, we've created a new taboo. And you're on the wrong side of the taboo. We must attack this person.

We must attack Jesse Single. Other people who've been working in this. And yes, it hurts their careers, but we don't necessarily have to cry for them. She's on Bill Maher. So she's doing okay. But it hurts them. That's what people don't get.

when you block off the information that's coming in, particularly on a contested subject, particularly that's affecting kids and life and death situations, and you're blocking off the information by enforcing a taboo. You are hurting yourself. It's one thing to critique. It's another thing to say, no one should be able to even look at this, to even read it, as if you were some sort of crazy person. Yeah, and I'll just say one more thing. You know, in the three or four years it took between the time I wrote my last book and talked about the same risks that are in the, to cast report to until the mainstream media worked up the backbone to actually do some reporting, tens of thousands of American children were harmed. Yeah, and what I don't think you're saying, I certainly wouldn't be the one saying, that there aren't trans folks who, who, we do need some transitioning sometimes. I think you were just saying was, there's no guardrails on this?

And these are children. And these are children. This is not about the bodies of adults. They can do whatever they want with their bodies as long as they don't have. They were using children as cannon fodder. in their culture wars is what it looked like to me. All right, switching subjects. So I see this week, Google has been caught doing something.

Why did the tech companies do this? They've been caught collecting and sometimes leaking personal data of users. So you might want to erase that browser history. But we thought it would be a good time because of this. to do one of our favorite bits on this show. It's called Revealing Google Searchers, because we believe here at real time that when you look at people's Google searches,

it does reveal a lot about them. For example, Melania Trump, Google, do felony convictions invalidate a pre-up? RFK Jr., where does brainworm poop go? Nick Cannon, how many kids does Nick Cannon have? Elon Musk, baby, names that sound like license plates. Oh, Justice

Samuel Alito Googled flags that mean not fascist, just pussy whip. I hope he sounds some more. Richard Reifes, Googled safe amount of opiates to take before a public appearance. Oh, Ben Affleck. Google divorced lawyers that accept

Batman memorabilia. Kanye West, what to say when woman asks if anyone else at the party will be naked. Rupert Murdoch, name of woman who recently married Rupert Murdoch. And Lauren Beaubbard, can you get an STD on your hand? Okay. Let me do one more gender issue and then I'll get off that. Just while you're here, I've wanted you here for so long.

Caitlin Clark, are we following this story? Yes. Yes. It's fun. I know. The way you said it. though. Yes. That's a fun. All right. Well, show...

Now, you know how Caitlin Clark, she's the sensational basketball player, women's basketball from... I don't follow college sports. I'll be either sex. Not that I have to apologize, by the way, for not watching anything. Let's start with that.

I don't watch women's basketball. I don't watch college basketball. I only watch three sports. Sports is a waste of time. I understand we need to waste time in my life, but I'm trying to limit how much time I waste. So I will watch you when you get to the pros when you're the very best at what you do.

No apologies. Okay. But even this, but women's basketball got on my radar, like everybody's because of Caitlin Clark. And the other girls in the league are delighted for her success. I'm joking, of course. They fucking hate her, and they've been... Show the tape if we're getting body checked.

This is a game the other day. And she... I mean, that was pretty deliberate. And look at the other girl. on her team coming over. See, if this was men, they defend each other on their same team. I mean, men will fight from two teams,

but when somebody checks you who's on your team, you defend that guy. I'm just saying men have their bad parts. We're toxic, we're dogs. But only women would do this. Women are catty, even the ones on her own team. Matt Barnes, he said, my question and my issue is,

where the fuck are her teammates at? I've seen a couple of girls smirk when she's got knocked down, half-ass to pick her up. You guys are supposed to be a family. It's your guy's fucking job to have her back and have each other's back. Discuss. One, I have the exact same viewing habits as you do,

and yet I watched the final four women's this year because Caitlin Clark was so awesome. And he had storylines of people who hate each other and everything that you want in sports, just brutal, awful competition. mixed with excellence. It was great. So it's really fun, and I love that we're talking about the WNBA, which I've never really cared about since the days of Sherylmiller. And she is getting knocked on her ass right now. She's leading the league in turnovers.

Her team kind of stinks. It is a great moment of a great player. Can't she get back up? This happens in the NBA, too. Michael Jordan got hacked a lot. There was a Jordan rules associated with him. But his teammates defended him. Yes, and her teammates need to defend her. You're absolutely right. They need to. Rick Mahorn on her team. Right. This is on the coaching staff, I think. I mean, look, it's true that women don't naturally

throw their bodies in front of each other to defend each other, but the coaching staff needs to tell those players. Look, she's your superstar. She has quadrupled viewership. She is the greatest female player ever to hit this sport. You better defend her, and if I don't see you

defending her, you're benched. So you can learn. Right. Now, there's also a racial element to this. We can't deny that. And I have Sherlock in on next week. I'm going to talk about with him. So I'll get you off the hook.

But I'll just say, it's not always racism when a white person succeeds. And it's not always racism when black people hip-check them either. Right? Like, both are at play. I think it's natural for a megastar to come in. And people say, I'm kind of tired of hearing about it. It's everything. It's women are kids.

Patty. The league is very lesbian, and she's not. And there's race. There's a lot of going on here. But before I run out of time, because I see I am, there was an actual big story in the news this week about immigration, and I want to get to that. Because I think if Biden loses this election, it's going to be because of two things. He's old, and he can't get past that issue, and people just hate that about him.

And immigration. I mean, just on a political level. I don't think they could have handled it worse. Because now what's going on if you didn't see the news this week, okay, here's what Biden's doing. He's finally, after saying he couldn't do anything, he's going to issue an executive

order. By the way, this is the same executive order Trump tried to get through the courts and they didn't let him do it. But he's going to finally try it six months before the election, which says, we will put a cap of 2,500 now asylum seekers coming in. If it passes 25,

If it's 2,500 and 1, then we automatically close the border. Fire Marshal says, no more. He's going to come here and close the club, and if you don't have a snap on your hand, you can't get back in. Okay. But when it goes down to 1,500, then we resume standard asylum procedures. It's like surge pricing with Uber. It's a bizarre scheme that, of course, has cleave.

Just nobody. It looks like a last minute... It looks like he did nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And, of course, he did try through Congress, and the Republicans purposely spiked that football. They didn't want this bill because they wanted it as an issue. So they could have fixed it themselves. They didn't.

But now it looks like this is his last minute before the election. Hail Mary pass, and it's not going to succeed. That's right, yeah. It's not even a Hail Mary pass, though. Hail Mary pass, the guy might catch it, right? Doug Flutie did that one time. He did this knowing that it's going to be declared invalid by the courts. And it's an admission that he could have done it the whole time, and he didn't.

So now you broke it, you bought it, it's on him. And so it's right there in the Refugee Act saying that if someone comes to the country, they don't have to apply for asylum at a point of entry. They don't have to. It's in the text of the law. If you don't like that and think that's crazy, and a lot of Americans do, you've got to change the law. You can't just make that happen.

Meanwhile, it does nothing to allow for a greater processing of the people who are standing in line. Standing in line, also, you have to use the app, the I would want to come into the country app, and you have to do it three weeks ahead of time, and you can't do it from your home country. That sounds like it's going to be totally a normal process. That's going to be really easy for Venezuelan refugees. This is the biggest refugee crisis in the Western Hemisphere ever. More than like 8 million Venezuelans, for example. That's a ton of people, and we're having 1,500 at border checkpoints that have no ability to process them.

It's not going to work. So since January 2021, when Biden took office, more than 9 million migrants have entered. That's more than the number of people who live in Nicaragua. He led in all of Nicaragua equivalent. And the question that Democrats don't seem to be able to have the balls to answer is just how many is too many. And, like, infinity is the answer. If you don't give that answer, you're a racist. That's their essential problem with this issue.

Yeah, I read an article about this that really stuck with me. I think it was in Yuma, Arizona, where the hospitals were so overrun that American sick people could not use the hospitals. Okay, we have schoolchildren who can't get into their schools. This is a problem. It's chaos. And Biden campaigned on reversing Trump's policy on the border. he reversed it, and now he's stuck with the consequences.

He reversed some, and then he reverted to some others. It's been a mix in both ways. And overall immigration, as ever, when you have a lower number of legal immigrants coming in, it's going to create more pressure for people to come illegally. It just always happens that way. And from 2016 to 2022, we reduced by hundreds of thousands the number of people who do it, who get in line the proper way and come in. And so what does that do?

It says to other people who are desperate to come in the midst of a refugee. crisis, I will do anything. I will pay anyone to see what happens, and the result is chaos, and there's no one thinking smartly about how to manage that chaos. And listen to these eye-popping numbers. Trump has a 30-point edge with registered voters on the question of which candidate would handle immigration and border security better. This is even after he promised a wall and didn't, that was his big issue and never delivered, including Trump has a top. 23-point edge among Latino voters. You're not even getting the people you're supposedly pandering to. I mean, look at the vote totals in South Texas. It's crazy. Like in 90% or more Hispanic areas,

they have flipped. I mean, it's a matter of like 50 percentage points in some places towards the Republicans and towards Trump. It's gigantic. And Democrats, I don't think, even have sort of a story to tell. There could be a story of, we're going to accept more refugees, we're going to make it easier to do this and that. But they tell kind of a chaotic story rather than something that makes intuitive sense to people. And if you live in places like Chicago or New York or elsewhere, it is impacting your city in ways that you don't necessarily enjoy.

All right. Thank you, guys. Got to go to new rules. That was very informative. Appreciate it. Okay. New rule. Airlines can feature these new first-class suites that feature a curved 42-inch screen

for a full cinematic experience, but only if they're paired with those new double-decker seats in economy. On a new carrier called Inequality Airlines. Yes, Inequality Airlines. There's something special in the air. It's just not you. Newell, don't bring your kid to the office if your office is the United States Congress. Tennessee, Representative John Rose, did just that while making a furious speech denouncing the Trump prosecution and look what happened. Someone acted

yeah, someone acted like a goofy childish moron and his poor kid had to sit through it. Zero, let's stop rewarding every family that has too many kids with a reality show on TLC. The latest one is the Baldwin's.

Seven kids born in a 10-year span. Wow. I guess there were no blanks fired in that house. Well, they shouldn't prosecute him. That's a serious point. about that. That's true. They should not. New Rule, now that a remote Amazon tribe has connected to Elon Musk's Starlink Internet and

become addicted to porn, I say congratulations. Oh, sure, the liberal inclination is to bemoan the encroachment of modernity on such an innocent, unsullied people, but that's not what the Amazon tribe themselves

are saying. They're saying, thanks, Elon, it sure beats jerking off to this tree. New rule, now that researchers say marijuana use has surpassed alcohol as Americans drug of choice? They have to answer this... You're welcome.

They have to answer this question. If alcohol use is declining, why is it still not safe to eat at a waffle house? I mean, not to always be the marijuana advocate, but do you know what the stoners are doing while the fight

is going on? Eating their waffles. And finally, new rules. someone has to look into the puzzling paradox of why it is that rape jokes are completely unacceptable and unthinkable and totally out of bounds, but raped in prison jokes? Fucking hilarious. It's never a bad time to do the one about how if you drop the soap in the prison shower, don't bend over for it. And look, with all the talk now about...

Trump, possibly going to jail, we've all been doing it. I mean, come on, it's Donald Trump. Given the opportunity, it's natural to want to imagine him getting fucked in the ad. I'm just saying maybe we shouldn't. If not for him, then for the nearly two million people behind bars at any given time in this country, that's more people than in 12 states. They should have their own two senators. And one can be Bob Menendez.

America has a higher incarceration rate than Russia or China or almost any of the other evil-doer countries who are always shitting our pants over and yet for some reason everything at Walgreens is still locked behind plexiglass but for some reason Americans simply accept that not only do we lock up way more people but that if you're a criminal of any kind

yes sodomy is the appropriate comeuppance they say if you want to survive prison the first thing you do when you're get there. What you have to do is go up to the biggest, baddest guy and punch him in the face, which I find also works if you're a passenger on Delta. As a prisoner here in America, you'll either be alone in solitary, which drives you out of your mind, or completely on top of everybody else. Inmates in America are routinely forced to sleep on the floor and to fight for access to toilets and showers. Of the world's 25 most dangerous prisons, four are here in the

Aetka, San Quentin, the Supermax in Colorado, and the state Penn in New Mexico. Where, for $45, oh yes, you can tour the cell block, where in 1980, 33 inmates were killed in one of the worst prison riots in history. So bring the kids, and don't forget that selfie in the gas chamber. Here in California, the prison at Dublin made headlines because it's where they sent Lori Loughlin after her college cheating scandal, but alas, it's closing. Why? Because the rape club that the guards had going was so impervious and ingrained

it was easier just to shudder the whole place. And prison in America is a place that forces the people in it, forces them to become racists. If you're black, you're with the brothers. If you're white, you have to join the Aryan skinheads. There's no, oh, leave me out of it. I like everybody. Let's just all go get coexist tattoos on our knuckles.

Now, I mean, what kind of society is cool with all this? We call them correctional facilities, but that's like calling the NFL a brain development program. And, look, I'm not saying that it's not okay to lock people up. It is. Of course it is. Ditty does it all the time. But it's not okay to deliberately violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. fake tough guys think, hey, if prison's bad enough, it'll incentivize people to stay out of trouble after they get out. But they're wrong. It actually does the opposite. Within a year of release, around 40% of prisoners are re-arrested.

Within 10 years, it's 82%. And I don't think they want back in because they miss the toilet wine. If we're trying to make inmates into criminals for life, it's working. Because prison is like LinkedIn for low-lifes. You can't beat the networking. It's a taxpayer-funded criminal mentorship program. But here's the thing. Around 95% of all inmates eventually do get out. So the question becomes, who do we want returning to society? Some hapless broke dude goes in for selling drugs or passing a bad check.

And a few years later, he comes out a sexual predator with white power written on his neck. And we all sort of just accept that, like, well, that's how prison works. You go in bed and you come out worse. if you're lucky when you get out, we'll let you work the Tulta Whirl at a carnival or date Britney Spears. Jesus. It almost makes stealing Catholic converters not worth it. But it doesn't have to be this way.

We could change. There are even places in the world that offer a model as to what that would look like. Norway's recidivism rate is 20%. Prisoners there do yoga. They learn a trade. There's a playground for the kids when they visit. And the guards aren't maniacs who failed the police. police psych exam. And it's a place that looks less like our prisons and more like what you'd find

on an American college campus, only, of course, with less anti-Semitism. Of course, the big difference is that unlike here, Scandinavian countries, don't have private for-profit prisons. That's what we have here. And corporations, it turns out, don't run prisons to improve society. They run them to make money, which means putting more people in the system, the more prisoners, the more profit. This is why they lobby Congress for three strikes rules and keeping weed illegal. They don't want them rehabilitated. They want return customers. All right, that's our show, and if you enjoyed this editorial, I've got 300 more just like it for you. What this comedian said will shock you is out now. If that's not a Father's Day president, I don't know what is. I will be at the

David Copperfield Theater in Vegas, June 21 and 22nd at the NGM, and at the NGM Music Hall in Boston, July 26, and Toyota, Oakdale, and Wallington, Canada, July 27. Thank you, Matt Welts, Abigail Schreier, and Senator John Fettner. All right, now go to watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you, Bob. Watch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch them anytime on HBO on demand.

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