Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #681: Rick Caruso, Larry Wilmore, Erin Perrine

Episode Date: January 18, 2025

Bill’s guests are Rick Caruso, Larry Wilmore, Erin Perrine (Originally aired 1/17/25) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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SUVW, German engineered for all. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Thank you so much. That helps us all of us a lot because it's a new year, a new season, a lot of new things happening.

We have a new president in three days. It's going to be okay. Take a deep breath. Oh, oh, wait, we're in L.A. Don't take a deep breath. Yeah, we have a little fire out here. I don't know if you heard about that. Local story.

I'll tell you this. I will never once again, make fun of rednecks who have their homes on wheels. I mean, L.A. people, they cannot drive in fire, am I right? Did you get enough alerts on your phone that made your shit yourself? Evacuate now. I'm like, I think I just did. I can fire. No, L.A. is a very unique place. Wouldn't you

agree? Even our millionaires are homeless. Anyone here from Pacific Palisades? Those people are pissed. The hydrants ran out of water. It's like a drag show running out of glitter. I don't know anybody who didn't even

either lose their house or had to bug out of their house. And for all the people who sent me a text, stay safe. Thank you so much. Because I was about to run right toward the flames. And then I said, saw your text and didn't. That was very helpful. But hey, they don't have...

We're not down. We're not out. We will rebuild. I keep hearing that, and we will. What else we're going to do? No, we quit. No, we're going to rebuild. But it's not going to be easy, considering Trump wants to deport all the guys who work with hammers. What a... Fuck the up places. And now, street lunatics are setting more fire. which is unforgivable. You're endangering the looters.

Yeah, looters. I tell you, a thing like this, right, brings out, you see, the best and the worst in people. The best are firefighters who saved our ass. The worst. All these people who are looting, causing new fires. Some of them, I think, were set originally. One arsonist admitted, he said,

I enjoy causing chaos and destruction. And Trump said, fine, run the Justice Department. And, oh, yes, I can't. Joking, gentle humor. That's what I do, right? It's just gentle rumor. That's right, because we have a new president. And Don, I just wanted to say, congratulations.

Look, things have been said. And, you know, Don, what it really is is some of the writers here. don't want to make America great again, like you and me. I say, go team disruptor. Yeah, they're having the confirmation hearings for the people who Trump wants in his cabinet. It's the same hearing every day with every different person. The Democrat get up there and they say,

if Trump wanted you to break the law, will you? And they say the same thing, I'm not going to tell you, I don't want to ruin the surprise. The most controversial one is Pete Hegseth. You like Pete? Pete's up there for, Defense Secretary. And apparently so many people have complained about him having a drinking problem

that he has promised if he is confirmed to stop drinking. And if he is not confirmed, he's going to get drunk and fuck your girlfriend. But the inauguration is, Monday. Oh, they got everything going on. Church service, swearing in, luncheon, parade, three balls, which is three more than Merrick Garland has.

And one more very important story for all the kids watching. TikTok. It's gone as of Sunday. You're going to need a new time sock. Ooh. They say a lot of the kids are going to return to Facebook. Wow.

Even online, they're moving back in with parents. All right. He's a civic leader and founder of the real estate company Caruso, who in 22 ran for mayor here. Rick Caruso. Good to see you. Great to have you here. I can't tell you of all the guests I've had in this opening spot, you know, and we advertise during the week so people see who they're going to. I've never had more people say, oh good. I want to see this guy. Makes me feel good. Thank you. And if people who run the country don't know, you ran against our current mayor. Yes. And lost by not too much. You started out running as a Republican, which is what you are,

and then ran as an independent, and then as a Democrat, you're running out of parties to leave, Rick. Which is probably a good thing. I just want to start there. Because I think it says a lot about a one-party state. And I would say this if it was any one-party running anything. I don't think it's healthy. That you had to put a D by your name.

even to be in the race. Would you comment on that? Well, what I did do is 10 years ago, I left the Republican Party and I became an independent. And then when I was thinking about running for mayor, I did turn to the Democratic Party. And so I did that before I ran. And listen, the reality is we've got a system in this country that's a closed loop, and we've got to get out of that closed loop system. Because you saw in my race the Democratic Party was horrified that I was getting close. Biden flew out to campaign for, Harris flew out a couple times, Nancy Pelosi.

I mean, they should have just filled up Air Force One and done it all at one time. And then at the very end, when we were tied, they finally convinced Obama to come in and endorse her. So it was just an amazing process to watch how keeping the old guard, keeping the career politician, was more important than doing. what I could argue in the best interest of the people. So, I mean, the big controversy here is, could it have gone better? I say yes. Could have what have gone better? Handling the fire.

Oh, of course. Okay, well, there's lots of people who say, don't, you know, it's, look, I don't want to end, step on my editorial at the end of the show, which is what this is about. Yeah. But that's my view, is that, is fire bad? Yes, and is it inevitable out here? Yes, it is. Right.

But I do think we could have been done better. I mean, I know that's your point of view. Tell me what you would have done. Well, let me just, just to put it in context for a minute. I was very fortunate as a young man. I was a commissioner with Tom Bradley, worked for him. I worked for Dick Reardon, and I worked for Jimmy Hahn. For Tom Bradley and Dick Reardon, I was the head of the Department of Water and Power.

So I know a little bit about the water and power issue here. I also know a lot about what good leadership looks like. Those three were good leaders. To know there's a fire coming, to know you're in fire season. We had a fire three weeks ago in Malibu. Six years ago, we had a fire in Brentwood. And for those that don't know the Brentwood area, it's 15 minutes from where the Palisades fire was.

There's 40-year-old vegetation between Brentwood and the Palisades. And at that time, I said, if that fire travels, it's going to come through and wipe out the Palisades. I'm so sad that I was right. it was predictable, Bill. What's predictable is preventable. And then on top of it, to have a main reservoir out of service during peak fire season? Yeah.

I mean, that's border negligence. And so we've got to get to the backstory of this. But you've got to make good business decisions. Running this city is running a business for the benefit of the residents. And what everybody should have been saying, we had all the alerts about the firestorm coming in or the wind coming in. Why wasn't more done? Why didn't we make sure the reservoirs were all topped

off? You should never run out of water, by the way. You mentioned the vegetation. Now, I remember when we had a fire when Trump was president, and he came in, he said, you don't rake. You're not raking. And I did, we all did jokes about it. But, you know, we've got to get over this thing. Is he wrong,

usually? Yeah. But I'm not going to, I remember when he took Iver mectin or something, and then Ivermectin, which won the Nobel Prize. Right. And nobody, it was like that became snake oil. No. Just because Trump says it doesn't mean it's automatically wrong. Automatically wrong.

Did he have a point about that? Of course he did. Okay. Of course he did. And what we should be doing in the city and what we should do now, we have an opportunity, underground the power lines. Well, yeah. Of course.

But when everybody starts talking about rebuilding, yes, we need to rebuild quickly, and yes, we need to get people back in their homes. But we also need to be smart about it because the palisades, just like Altadena, and God bless the family's there too. the Palisage is going to remain in a fire zone. Say, don't go build the same damn thing. You know what they did in Sacramento? What's that? Goats.

Goats work. Goats. Yeah. Yeah, man. They work. Fucking goats. No. You put them on the hillside, and they eat the vegetation.

Yes. And they're cheap. They work cheap. And they get great milk. I've heard people criticize you and say, you know, when you ran for me, you didn't talk about the fires. What you talked about was the homeless. And then I read,

more than half the fires here are caused by homeless. The connection is huge. First of all, that's wrong. And one of the videos that I made during the campaign, I did talk about the homeless, but I made a video in the campaign

saying the fire department needs to be fully funded. And if I'm mayor, it will be fully funded. And that video is... But don't the homeless start a lot of the fires? The homeless do. The homeless do. The homeless do.

The homeless do so a lot of the fight. But Bill, think about this. We're the second largest city in the United States. We're a world-class city. We have fields of mothballed equipment because we don't have the money to start

it up. We have ten times the calls of service today than we did in the 60s, but we have less fire stations. Should people... None of it makes sense, but we have political leaders that don't prioritize the safety

and the livability of our city. And that's the number one job. Should people be asked to defend their own home more? Because you see this a lot where there's a block. This is not just this fire. Other ones where most of the houses are gone. And then one's right in the middle that isn't. Because that guy got up on the roof with the hose.

Yeah. Not a good idea. No? No. I was going to do it. Why? Why? No.

Doing your... I'm going to thug it out. Do it in your underwear. so your clothes don't catch on fire. Now, it's dangerous. Listen, the people, this fire was incredibly dangerous, and I've been in the palisades. I've seen it.

You can't even get your head around it. It is so bad, so sad. It literally looks like the area has been carpet bombed. Yeah, but see. And that fire came through so quickly. But in this palisades, your area did not burn. Well, we're in Bremen, but my daughter lost her house. Right.

My daughter lost her house. lost your house. What did you do differently there? We built it differently. That whole village that we built is built without any combustible materials. We knew we're building in a fire area. So we designed it to the highest levels to withstand it. And then we had... We do that with earthquakes. Why can't we do it with fire? We could do it. Oh. We did it. Right. Right. And being, there's nothing wrong with being prepared. You should be prepared. And then we have this rapid response team. And that rapid response team, the minute that high wind advisory went out, we've got companies with retardant,

and we've got firefighters that help to reduce the resources the city has to put on us that we can free up to others. Well, you call them rapid response. People call that a private fire department. Is that good? It's private. Is that good?

Of course it's good. Really? Because by us having our home team there, it freed up L.A. Fire Department to go take care of other... But not everybody can afford the private fire department. Well, they can't...

No. But here's what I would tell you. If we have a fully funded fire department that has more resources, you wouldn't need the privates. So can I just say one other thing? Because, you know, people talking about, oh, Caruso shouldn't have saved, you know, his downtown village. That downtown village include eight homes that we saved. It include all the retailers and the restaurateurs. hundreds of jobs are saved. We're going to reopen it. People get their businesses back. What's not being talked about now are the thousands of people that have lost their jobs that have no support system.

The gardeners, the poolmen, the service people, the delivery people, everybody that works, the waiters, the chefs, everybody's going to have their job back that has their businesses at our village. That is the right thing to do. And we've got to figure out how to get help to those that need help the most. And there's a lot of people out there. What can we do about idiots? No, I mean, like, I read there people who, like, during this,

where it's setting off those things where you put a candle inside because it's beautiful to watch it go up in the sky. And also fireworks? Yeah. Look, I don't think California needs a lot more regulations. But fireworks? I agree. I think it's safer if we shut off guns like they do in the Middle East.

if you want to celebrate. Wow. Really? Or just have the city set off one firecracker thing, fire show, but it causes fires. I agree. And there's talk that this was caused because of fireworks the week before, and it smoldered.

Listen, I have zero tolerance for that. Okay. Zero tolerance. So you sound like you're going to run again, are you? You know, somebody told me last night, instead of running again, just run. And, well, I got to tell you, I don't know, I'm wired to run towards the problem rather than away from it. You just told me to get out of the house. But I don't know what I'm going to do you.

I really don't. It's not a political answer because right now I want to focus on the rebuilding. I want to call people out that are dysfunctional. I want to call people out that are in the way. I want to do whatever I can to cut the red tape. I want people to build their homes and get this community back up and running. There's time for me to decide if I'm going to run or not. But I can tell you, I am just honored that I can at least help in some way,

but we've got to get a lot of people involved. And this problem is too big for politics. And I've got zero patience, and everybody should have zero patience. for politics and this idea that the federal aid is going to come with conditions and... Yeah, that's bullshit. Bullshit. No. Thanks, Rick Coruso. I appreciate it.

I'll see you down the road. Thank you very much. Rick Caruso. That's Minar Pada. Bullshit. You heard that. All right, here they are. First show of the season. He's a producer, actor, comedian, writer. Wow. And host of the podcast, Larry Wilmore, Black on the air. Larry Wilmore is back with us.

And she's a Republican. strategists and Axiom Strategies and former communications director for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Aaron Perini. Erin, great to have you here. You're not from here, right? You live in D.C. Larry, you were here? Yeah. How was your fire, Larry? How was your, uh, did you fight or flight? I thought it went, uh, put the hose in my hand bill and went after it. And then the fire came. Yeah, then the fire came. See, that's it. We're comedians. We have to make jokes. It's. We're comedians. We have to make jokes. sad. Everybody needs to laugh. I know. Like people were going out to the looters. The looters got

a loot. That's their job. You know, criminals. Criminals have to commit crimes, Bill. Even in the sad situation. But I am from Pasadena. My father lived there. My grandma. Is that right? Great grandmother. He gets his father. Different people in Altadena. Man, it is sad what happened there. You know, when I saw the criticism, which was crazy about Palisades, you know, rich people losing their homes. So this is a working class nightmare, too. You know, so many working class. families and their, what you can call well, was in their homes build. Like they have nothing. Like, how are people going to rebuild?

They don't have funds to rebuild. Just even relocate is terrible, you know. And I knew I have many friends that lost their homes, and it happened like that, like in an instant. I've never seen anything like it. So it was pretty scary. Lazzang sur-gillet, puissance-moined, for 15 minutes.

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this one. Like, about the fact that people are saying this is going to change I was telling me to Rick about a one state, we've been a one-party state for quite a while now. Not that we haven't had Republicans in the past, but for the last 20 years at least,

I mean, it's just one party. Will this change that? I mean, I see things that I never saw, you know, we will shoot looters on site. You know, where the sign used to be, in this house, we believe. They took that one down and put up the, shoot looters on site sign.

Right. Everything's upside down. You have black people and lots looking at the palates going, man, what verdict were they mad about it? It's like, it's upside down, you know? There is an opportunity now for a political shift in California, and you've already been seeing it happening a little bit already. You saw it in this last November election

with L.A. District Attorney Gascon losing to Nathan Hockman, who was an assistant attorney general, George W. Bush. You've already seen where progressive policies are being pushed away in California. In 2020, House Republicans, California and New York are considered the majority makers in the House of Representatives. That's where you pick up those seats to get you into the speakership. California in 2020 really helped lead the charge of turning seats to Republicans to bring in a House Republican majority. Twenty-two, we slipped a little. Twenty-four, they've been able to stay competitive in some of these races like David Valadeo. But if you look at a state like California, purely

politically, you're looking at like a 45% Democrat registration, about a 24% Republican registration, and about a 21% no party registration. You have about an 84% registration rate in the state. Because of the political realignment that you've seen in the United States over the last decade, Democrats have become the higher propensity turnout voter. What does that mean? It means that in an off-cycle year, your non-presidentials, your midterm years, your special elections, your recall elections, where it's not a learned pattern of behavior. Most people, if they vote, they'll generally vote one of four. They'll vote in a presidential election, right?

These people are more hardwired to vote regularly now. So you already had a registration deficit of nearly two to one with Republicans. Even if you add in the non-registered folks, you're going to see that that's almost identical to Democrat registration in the state. Getting out a low-propensity voter gives you generally, in the national. election with Donald Trump, that was the shift you saw, was that they were going after low propensity voters, those who don't regularly behave in that fashion. Right. In order to do that in California politically, you've got to catch like political lightning in a bottle. You got to have a candidate with money. You got to have a candidate who can raise money. And you got to have somebody who can take that coalition of Republicans, non-registered, and pull from Democrats if you want to be a Republican who wins. It's a complete party realignment. But people are pissed now. See, by the way, this is why we need people.

than comedians, because they know facts and stuff. I mean, we need this mixture of... That's right. You know, even Karen Bass, you know, I have to give her a little bit of credit. She is the first black person ever to be told come back from Africa. That's a great life. That's a great life. It's the other way around.

But I feel like, as we're now here, if you're watching, tonight, it's January 17th. You may be watching this a little later, and Trump was already president, but it seems like the mood is very different than his first time in, because it's, you know, there's people who are mad

than anybody's working with them. There are people who are mad at Carrie Underwood is singing at the inauguration. I don't know if that's an applause for Carrie Under. I don't know if that, yes, she's... I don't know why everybody's so shocked that a country music star is saying, God bless America,

at the presidential inauguration. People have become so fallen in understanding that Donald Trump won and he won again. And that is upset people. The fact that he won the first time made people real angry. The second time, they're even more upset. And now you're not supposed to be able to celebrate. At this point, let normal be normal. Let a country music singer, go and sing at the inauguration.

That's normal. Or any singer. Any singer. And you want to go. I get it about Donald Trump and the things you don't like him. I don't either. But you can't hold this hostage to every other part of life. my view. I saw there was a picture.

I think we have it here of him with Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral. And there's Trump making Obama laugh. I mean, I hate crime. You know? All I want, I only want the transcripts. That's all I want.

Because in my mind, in my mind, Trump was like, remember when you said I had a small dick, it's true. It's true. I don't think he said that. And then Obama's like, you know what, I really am from Kenya. You had it right, bro. I mean, civility isn't weakness, and that's kind of what we've all forgotten.

There are only four living people right now who understand what it's like to be president of the United States. Barack Obama and Donald Trump are two of those people. If they can sit next to each other, after everything these two men have said about each other. But let's not forget. Only one side is civil when they lose. Trump didn't go to anybody's inauguration. Well, Nancy Corlson's not going to his. Yeah, I don't blame her.

Or Michelle Obama, because he didn't even go in there. Or it still hasn't conceded those elections. The way, well, Donald Trump did concede the 2020 election. He did, yes. We can find the tape. 100% I know for sure I saw. Where is it? Where is the tape?

Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? I know. I know for sure. He did not. But here's the thing. Here's something else you should know.

He did. He did. He did. He did. He did. He conceded that he wasn't president. No, in the 2024 cycle. I mean, listen, I know the facts I saw of this.

Like, what are you on TV for a living? But here's the thing. Again, like, why is it that if he doesn't, if somebody doesn't want to go, don't make them go? Like, if Donald Trump didn't want to go, okay, if Carrie Underwood does want to sing, it's the same idea in reverse.

Let them not go. I have to disagree with that. It's fine. But if you're the former president, you should participate in a peaceful transfer of power. If Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to go at this point, that's different than the president. It's the least you can do. As the ex-president, that's the least you can do a show for the inauguration. Are you kidding me? Well, it looks like they're all going to be there this time.

Okay. Yes, the other side, exactly. That's right. Yes. Of course Trump's going to be there he won. It's funny, they were at Jimmy Carter's funeral. And when I was reading about Jimmy Carter, and I remembered from he was president. You know, the thing about him was he did not play. He did not play the game. He was truly an outsider.

And I thought, Trump is the only guy since who's kind of the same way. Like, I didn't come here to make friends. That was Jimmy Carter's mantra. And by the way, it worked. Nobody liked him. I thought he was quite the good president. They never fired a shot.

And Trump is sort of similar in that way, too. Trump's kind of anti-war. You know, he wants to get out of wars, which is sort of a switch on what we used to think of. We used to think of the Republicans of the Hawks. Yeah. Well, Jimmy Carter, his problem was he was a micromanager. He wanted to do everything.

And then Trump's problem is he wants to get credit for everything. Right. People who are killing the yen and the yang. But, you know, that quality that you talk about Trump is the reason why his win encompassed so many different people. because he's not an ideologue. He's just more of a figurehead for a movement or that type of thing. I think that's why it's easier for people who don't necessarily have an ideology or in the middle

just say, oh, yeah, I like what that guy says. And that's the ideological realignment that I was talking about earlier, is that Trump has brought in more of these low-propensity voters, and also you're talking about the similarities of Jimmy Carter and how they have this mentality of, like, I'm not in this to make friends. They're also more likely at this point to represent the same kind of voters because of the political realignment, than people realize,

because of the shift in the Democratic Party now to more elites and the Republicans to more the blue-collar working-class voter, that comparison's a fair one just given the ideological breakdown of parties now. I find it so interesting that, you know, for most people's lives, most of us, and not all and not every time,

but you, you know, when we change presidencies, you might not even know it. And yet the perception, we are in such a state of anxiety that when it's the Republican, everything's different, and vice versa. I know when Biden and before that, Obama was president, all the right-wing sites would sell survival products, survival products, like prepper seeds.

Remember that? And emergency food, because they were going to rat fuck the universe so badly that you needed tactical vests and gas masks. Okay, now that the shoe's on the other foot, liberals are doing this. this article about, oh, liberal prepper. Oh, there it is. Should you be prepping for Trump?

But the liberal prepper kit is a little different. Would you like to see what's in the liberal kit? For example, in the liberal prep kit, you have all-gender tampon. There's a camouflage NPR

tote bag. You have pepper seeds that come in indica and sotiva. That's important. A dehydrated chardonnay. Yes, that I think is very important. You have an SOS beacon that flashes in Morse code. We are low-key lost. Oh, a mask for when you're by yourself alone in the middle of the woods.

Oh. Of course. You got to have toilet paper with Trump's face on it. Gaydar. Oh, important. A satellite phone on your parents' phone plan. And, of course, a portable AM radio so your nanny can listen to the Mexican station.

So Joe Biden is leaving office, and I see he gave his farewell speech, and I thought it was an interesting theme, and I thought it was the right one. He harked back to Eisenhower, who very famously, when he was leaving office before John F. Kennedy came in, warned about the military industrial complex. That was 1960.

That's a long time ago, and we still haven't listened. Because that only gets worse. But Biden's thing was the tech industrial complex. So now we get two industrial complex. And I could add the pharmaceutical medical one. Oh, we're lousy with complexes. But Biden said, today an oligarchy is taking shape of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, basic rights and freedoms,

and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. Obviously, we've seen the tablover, about to see it, at the inauguration, Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg, are all on the dais. I think this is who Joe Biden is. Tim Cook, I think, too, yeah. And the guy from TikTok, we'll get to that. And, you know, these are all the most powerful men in the world. because we want to stick it to the elitist.

And I don't think Joe Biden is wrong. I mean, he talked about back in the day 100 years ago, I remember when, I don't remember, but I remember reading that John D. Rockefeller, I think at one point was worth 2% of GDP in this country. And they did something about it. They did. They created antitrust, and they broke up standard oil.

I don't see us doing that with this group, should we? There's always been a large conversation around, especially on Capitol Hill regulation of social media companies and how you're going to do that in order to not step on the First Amendment. But I find it very difficult for Joe Biden to credibly hold argument about the tech industrial complex when it has so served Democrats up into this point. He talks about the fact that there is extreme wealth and that this needs to be broken up. Democrats didn't have a problem with that extreme wealth when $1 billion. was raised by Kamala Harris in under 100 days to be able to try to fuel her to the presidency. Nobody minded extreme wealth then. They didn't mind extreme power when Joe Biden was able to unilaterally pardon his son for over a decade of alleged or convicted crimes. And they certainly didn't mind

extreme influence when both the Biden White House and the Biden campaign were pressuring these social media companies to suppress conversations, stories, the Hunter Biden laptop story, people pushing back on COVID that they didn't like. So while we can definitely have a conversation on the overall merits of regulation when it comes to social media companies and the uber wealthy, if you want to in this country, but Joe Biden has no credibility to carry that argument.

I think a distinction would be that, I mean, Kamala, it took like a billion people to give her a billion dollars, you know? But you know what do you know what? I'm being perceived, of course. But for Trump, it took one guy to give him a lot of money. And now he has a lot of influence at Elon Musk. I mean, that was an extraordinary amount of money that he then, as his stock went up, you know, he realized tenfold, you know. He profited actually off of that, you know.

But this person has influence on a lot of people, you know, I mean, it is kind of, I get what you're saying, where it's kind of ridiculous for us to now think, oh, people with power and money may have undue influence. Influence? Whoa, when did this happen? Like, it's always been the case here, right? But I think the more concern is that it's really in the hands of a few people who have direct influence. It seems like even more now than ever.

I've never seen it quite like this. Well, we don't know how much money they have because of the Citizens United ruling in 2010. You remember when Obama was at the State of the Union and he said there's an undue influence and Alito was in the... No, no. Joe Biden received the most dark money in political history in this last election cycle. Democrats continue to bemoan all that they profit off of when it comes to politics in this country, and you want to know why Republicans are fed up and voters are fed up quite frequently. It's because they're like, wait, it's okay for you, but not for me. It's a joke.

Okay, but first of all, money doesn't even matter that much anymore. Trump would wear. It does. It matters. You need some money. Trump was outspent both times, any one. It's very true, but money makes it easier to get your message out in politics. It makes it so much easier. TV ads matter. And as much as much as, voters, and I understand it, say they don't like negative ads, it motivates people the most to get to the polls. And you need the money to be able to get that message out. But I take your point about free speech. I think I'm with you. I mean, Zuckerberg did, you know, the cynical people are saying, and maybe they're right, that he did a 180 on free speech.

Yeah. They're right that he's, that there's to be cynical about it? Absolutely. They have every right to. About Zuckerberg? Yeah, about Zuckerberg. There's no reason all of a sudden that we should now think that he is this grand protector of the First Amendment and this real truth seeker when he has long history of against suppressing Republicans and trying to be the arbiter. Well, what he would say, I mean, here's some of his quotes. He said, he's talking about what happened when Biden was president. He said they would call us and scream at us to take down true information.

He said, they pushed us and said anything that says vaccines might have side effects, which is not even controversial. Everything has side effects. You basically need to take down. It is possible, I think, that, you know, he's a fairly young guy. and he got taken the first time around and he's like, because I think his basic instinct to begin with was a free speech guy.

And now he's like, yeah, you know what? I should have gone with my gut. Yeah, he probably gets pressure from the people who he feels he's aligned with. I don't know why people are believing anything on Facebook in the first place, you know. Honestly, I think the thing that should protect us from disinformation

and misinformation on social media should be our brains and our common sense. That should be the same. Well, good luck with that, right? I know, exactly. A little bit, that's what X is trying to do with community notes now, right? They're trying to say, instead of somebody else deciding what the truth is on something, we can all come together as a community and be able to put forward the facts to get something changed together

instead of one person being the arbiter. Good example of this, this week on Twitter, X, sorry. Matt Milano, who's a Buffalo Bills player, apparently there was a tweet that said that he was trash-talking Lamar Jackson ahead of our playoff game this weekend. If anybody has ever seen Matt Milano, the man has barely said three words to a reporter in his entire career. Bill's mafia stood up, put a community note on it,

so they don't get the locker room fodder to try and hit us. But see, where Elon doesn't have a leg to stand here, it's he does the same thing. When somebody says something he doesn't like, remember he did that thing with Don Lemon, and Don Lemon was a little, I don't know, questioned it, and goodbye, defense-strated. But here's, I think,

the thing that Zuckerberg and the people, in his camp are going to have to answer for more. He was talking this week about how he said, soon AI can do the job of most mid-level coders. You know, kind of bragging about this. Right, yeah. My question is, and then what job do most mid-level coders do? I also saw the guy from Navidia.

That's the company that makes all the chips that go in to make AI work. It's made the most money in the last five, ten years. Right. He was basically the same thing. that AI can do this job and this job and this job, and then Bill Whitaker said the right question, of course, you know, what are these people going to do? And a total bullshit answer,

well, I think this is really going to create more jobs. No, it's not. You're just doing it because you want to do it. I don't think these guys are even in it for the money. They have more money they can ever use. It's just fun. It's just fun to push the boundaries in the field that you're good at. I get it.

But they don't give a fuck what the repercussions of AI taking everybody's job. It's like that. I know. It's almost like, as you say that, it's almost like they're making that old migrant argument. Hey, AI's just taking the jobs. College graduates don't want to do. You know, it's like, what are you talking about? This is what people, you know, people want to be engineers. You know, these are fields that people have abilities in. And, you know, a lot of genius about how to do things comes from, you know, the way that people think differently and all that stuff. And AI takes over that. That's a whole swath of opportunities for people to creative about the future that goes away.

Do you think they're trying to... I get what I can. Do you think they want to get rid of TikTok now? As of now, again, this is Friday, January 17. As of now, TikTok goes away on Sunday. I mean, first of all, the kids are going to freak out, right? I mean, what... Trump, he's so...

First of all, let's put this on the table because it's true. Trump used to be on this page. Let's get rid of TikTok. Right. Then a big donor from TikTok came along and gave a lot of money to Donald Trump and suddenly, coincidentally, I'm sure. But also Trump, also influencers on TikTok

also supported Trump. Yes. So he got love from TikTok. So now he might save TikTok and then be a hero to the kids. He just lucks into everything. I think part of this is that there is,

for Republicans and for Congress, especially when they pass the TikTok ban, legislation. It wasn't about banning TikTok. That was never the goal, and it was, it's not the goal. The goal was to get the Chinese investment that is tied to the CCP out of the business, because they didn't want any of TikTok having to report or have access to the inside of American cell phones. That was the push here. So the fact that he's saying he might save TikTok, it's because he's going to get another investor to come in, possibly, and buy it. I heard today that Kevin O'Leary put in like a $20 billion bid. Who's that? Kevin O'Leary from Sharkey.

Shark Tank? Yes. He doesn't want to end TikTok. You make that kind of money on Shark Tank? He says he won a 10% ownership, and as soon as he gets back his investment, he wants a dollar for every video. That's his offer. What did he make his money in?

But he's got $20 billion. Where he's put together a team. I think he has people with them. I think it's a group. It's an investment group together. Okay. But it's never been about banning the app. It's about getting China.

influence out of American cell phones, and especially those... You mean the people that actually make the cell phones? We want to get them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right. That's what I want. If you take one opportunity away, though,

that's better than leaving all the opportunities on the table for the Chinese to be in their phone. No, I understand that. And look, we ran at a time I wanted to talk about that there's a peace plan now that looks like it's going to effect in Gaza, which is a great thing. But, you know, the kids have been indoctrinated by tech.

into, in my view, thinking the wrong way or certainly in a shallow way about the Palestinian conflict. But I think they would have been thinking that anyway. I don't think they needed the Chinese to make them stupid. I don't think the Chinese are upset about them being stupid, but I don't think they need their help. Anyway, thank you very much. We've got to go to New York. Republican congressmen have to answer this question. Do you really not know how to spell military? or does your staff just all hate you? Or is your staff made up of incompetent Gen Z post grads who learn nothing in college? I'm kidding, the answer is D, all of the above.

A lot on my plate. Stop trying to make me care about Blake lively. A movie I didn't see with a guy I never heard of. And she says he's mean and he says she's mean. If I wanted to tune out while you talk about someone you hate at work, I'd get married. Here's the only thing I think when I hear Justin Baldoni. Isn't you the guy who shot the health insurance guy? Well, you have to admit that of all the thousands of photos of Joe Biden taken over his four years in office,

none captures the essence of his presidency and the burden of office more than this one, entitled, Why Did I Come in Here Again? How that Starbucks has changed its policy? to require all patrons to buy something in order to stay in the shop, they have to explain why that wasn't the policy to begin with. Where do you think you are? Europe, where they sit around in cafes for hours, having interesting conversations.

This is America, where we refueled and head straight back to the machine. No cafe culture here. You're lucky if we get out of the car. The French woman who was scammed by someone who used AI to kill. convince her that Brad Pitt was in love with her. But that Brad needed money for kidney surgery because Angelina had frozen all of his assets. So she gave him $850,000 and divorced her husband. This lady must now be set up on a date with the real Brad Pitt.

Now, I know that might be difficult, but I think with the connections in the business I do have, and with a little funding, I can get it done. So what I'm going to need from you is a wire transfer for $850,000. That will get me stuck. And finally, new rule, we may not be able to do much about the weather, but we do need a better plan for putting out a burning city than waiting for rain. America is so partisan now that even when there's a disaster of any kind, so many people choose to defend their own team,

even over death. A lot of Democrats in this one party state this week went right to, don't blame politicians, you can't do anything about the wind. Which is exactly half true, the wind part. Yes, fire is a tough fight out here, and yes, global warming absolutely makes it worse. But that's largely out of our control.

What are we going to do, pass a ballot measure to make sure Chinese stop burning coal? It's also, yes, undeniably true that L.A. is built in a stupid place to build a city. but when it's not on fire, it's really quite lovely. And it's my home. And stupid, as its origin may be, it's not going anywhere. Axios ran a story on how getting the water out of the hydrants in Pacific Palisades

was more complicated than it seems. I'm sure it is. I'm sure it's very complicated. That's why I pay 13% of my income in the state every year to people who I assumed were working on things like this. Ask why so many of the hydrants in the palisades right now. of water, Governor Newsom said the local folks are trying to figure that out. Yeah, you've got to do that before the fire. At least in the Palisades, the hydrants were still there. Three hundred other

ones around the city are just gone, stolen for parts. One of the three reservoirs for the palisades was offline at the one time of year when it was most needed. L.A.'s mayor, Karen Bass, the Nero of American politics, was fiddling in Ghana while the city burned and later placed the blame on eight months of negligible rain and winds that have not been seen in L.A. in at least 14 years. Yeah, that's not that long a time. Maybe look in the history books to see how our ancestors handled it back in 2 and 11. The mayor said about cuts to the fire department's budget. There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation. The fire chief here had a slightly different take. She said,

we are screaming to be properly funded. And yes, the budget was cut, and it did impact or ability to provide service. And by the looks of all the fire engines in the bone yard out of service, because we didn't fix them, she's right. Exposed power lines keep causing fires and keep not getting buried underground because it's expensive. I've heard people say, do you want to pay more taxes to fund this? No, I want you to use the exorbitant taxes you already collect to prioritize it.

Power lines that cut through to Panga weren't upgraded because in, it endangered an herb, the milk vetch, which sounds like something they serve at Passover. I mean, talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. You know what the absolute worst thing for the environment is? Wildfires. A 22 study found that the smoke from just the two in 2020 wiped out 18 years of carbon reduction in the state, which means we suffered the pain of driving those early model Priuses

for nothing. California is the place that spends money and gets nothing, which is why you may have noticed when the fires broke out. No one escaped by high-speed rail. We have the highest marginal tax rate in America higher than almost all other states, and soon, Greenland.

What is included for that? Breadsticks? Because it clearly doesn't cover fire. That's government's job. Protect us from crime, violence, theft, fire. I'm not saying Alabama would have better with fires by fighting them with prayer and school.

But look me in the eye and tell me anyone could have done worse. We just got our ass kicked by fire, something Neanderthals fought to a tie. The good news is our fire chief is a lesbian. Am I against a lesbian being chief? Of course not. Do I think a lesbian can do the job? Of course I do. And maybe she's the best person for the job.

Or maybe they really wanted a lesbian in that job. And she's just the best lesbian. just the best lesbian for the job, and with essential services, that's not good enough. Crowley's official bio says, Chief Crowley leads a diverse department, creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity, while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities. Well, you didn't exceed my expectations, which was that the whole city wouldn't burn down, but it's telling that diversity is mentioned twice before we get to while, while striving to meet expectations.

Now, can you do two things at once? Yes, but it matters where your head is. Deputy Chief Kristen Larson said this. You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call, that looks like you. Which would sound kind of racist if a Southern sheriff said it. So we should be sending white firefighters to white houses and black ones to... Who teaches people this bullshit?

No one cares what someone looks like when they're pulling you out of a burning house. Larson also seems to believe that if a female firefighter can't pick up a man, it's his fault. She said, he got himself into the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire. Well, tell that to these guys. Because who pays the highest price when politicians don't prioritize basic services? The first responders are, heroes who every time go above and beyond because they have to, because we leave it all to them. Now, is wokeness the main reason for the fires? Of course not. But it's also not wrong to associate

some of the unforced errors our government made with the things Normies see as hallmarks of Uber progressive politics, questionable budget priorities, high taxes that get you nothing, making everything about identity politics, virtue signaling, overseas, instead of tending to the nuts and bolts at home. Cali has no shortage of safety commissions and agencies and bureaucrats and regulators, and of course, sign language interpreters who communicate with their face.

But common sense, we better get some of that vaccine because wildfires in California are like boob jobs in a strip club. Inevitable, and they're only going to get bigger. All right, that's our show. My special is anyone else? See this? got to see it. It's on HBO and streaming on Max. I want to thank Larry Wilmore, Ellen Perini, and Rick Caruso. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much,

ladies and gentlemen. 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.