Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #708: Aidan Walker, Rep. Nancy Mace, Michael Smerconish

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

Bill’s guests are Aidan Walker, Rep. Nancy Mace, Michael Smerconish (Originally aired 9/26/25)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher. I appreciate it. Thank you. Wait, please, there's so much so much news to get to. Big story, this just happened.

James Comey, our former FBI director, was indicted today by the Trump administration. I didn't even know he had a talk show. Unbelievable. Oh, wow. Oh, yes, Trump is in his... We caught you with your tail light out phase of justice.

They will find something to pull you over for. He's been trying to get shifty shift. And Letitia James, who prosecuted him in New York, and James called me he's been, shall we say, agitating. For this, there was a guy, Eric Siebert. He was the U.S. attorney there in Virginia, and they wanted him to indict. Letitia James, he came back, he said, boss, I can't find any evidence.

Fired. Fired, canned his ass. Put in Lindsay Halligan. She is an insurance lawyer, 36 years old, his personal lawyer, never prosecuted anybody, and now she's going after the former FBI head. If this was an episode of Boston Legal, you'd say, this show was Jump the Shark. Yeah. Lindsay Halligan, did I mention she's a former?

beauty pageant contestant? Oh, yes. For the talent portion, she kissed ass. So, okay, so if you are tracking the rise of autocracy, okay, we are, we're past the muslin dissident phase, and we're into the prosecuting political enemies phase. I think Trump could be in the general's uniform by Christmas. And, you know, this is, this is why it might be good to get back to learning citizens. because I don't know if people understand this. Presidents are not supposed to comment at all

on ongoing investigations. This is the way we always did it. This is not exactly how we're doing it now. Trump said, or tweeted of Comey, he said, one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to. Worst, worst? Like, like Private Island Having sex with kids' worst?

I mean, that level worse? Wow. And the president, he spoke at a lot of places this week, very busy. He was at the UN, the UN always meets in September, and he was talking again. He said this many times on how many wars he has ended. He has gotten involved and done some of that. The number keeps going up, you know, it was six, and then it was seven. I think this week he said, and if you count pre-wars, people were just thinking of fucking with each other.

maybe 10. And he also said, I'm a modest man, I didn't want to mention it, but also, Oasis. That was me. I got those. I got them back together. But this is interesting. Of all the lives saved with the wars,

could, may not add up to how many lives we're going to save because this week, another big thing, we found out the cause of autism, it was the Tylenol. Well, you know what? Could things like that be involved? Yes, I've always said that. But, you know, come on, it's a little overstating it.

This whole thing, it was a big press conference. Pregnant women should not take Tylenol. By the way, you wouldn't be pregnant in the first place if you use Tylenol the way it was designed to back you up when you said, not tonight, I have a headache. Oh, and next up, next up on the list, the RFK is going to be looking at the abortion pill to see if that's kosher.

No, look, I'm no fan of the pharmaceutical industry, but do we ever have to do anything? All full tilt, can't we just meet in the middle? Now he's putting 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical. He wants all our drugs to be local. farm at a table. That's where America is now. Another place

the president spoke this week of Sunday. Big event there in Arizona. The Charlie Kirk's memorial. I mean two, 300,000 people showed up. And I thought this was a bright spot here in our troubled nation. Charlie Kirk's widow got up there and said she forgave his assassin.

Thank you. Yeah, we can applaud that. And then Trump offered a rebuttal. he said, I hate my opponent and do not want what's best for them. Got to give us with the Republicans. Big tent. Big tent. Forgive my assassin. I hate everybody.

Okay. And in other religious news, oh, another big religious story this week, a lot of people, mostly the type who are living on TikTok, were very excited because they thought the rapture was coming. You see the rapture,

because some nut on TikTok said Jesus told him the rapture was coming on Tuesday, or maybe it was Wednesday. Really? That's what he said. And then, of course, Jesus flaked. Oh, Jesus, you know, he knows each time a sparrow falls. But his own schedule's a mess. You know what I'm saying? Now, the only people who actually disappeared this week

were the guys out front of Home Depot, and a lot of them were named Jesus. Anyway, we've got a great show. We have Nancy Mace and Michael Smirkanis. First up, he is a content creator at Internet Culture Research with more than 35 million views on TikTok, and he writes the weekly sub-sac, How to Do Things with Memes. Aidan Walker. Aidan Walker.

Hey, you. Pleasure to meet you, Aiden Walker. How are you? Good. Okay, well, listen, you're 24 years old, you're new to the audience. Tell us, give us your background. Who are you, A. Who the fuck are you, Aiden Walker? So, quick edit, 26 years old.

26. Technically, I could run for the house, but I won't. I am a meme researcher. I started out. See, already we're lost. Am I right? Older people? This is why I want you here. Because we've had these shootings. Another terrible one this week. The guy shot the... He tried to kill ICE people. I guess he killed a detainee. But we had the horrible one.

Tyler Robinson. We need someone to explain what's in the minds of these people. So just tell me, first of all, what is meme researcher? So a meme is something you might look at on your phone, Bill, or on your laptop. Oh, I know that much.

You prefer. But what I do is I look at how they originated, how they spread, and what they mean. A meme is a historical document, like a poem, like a painting, like an article in a newspaper, and I trace their trajectories, their spread, and I try to figure out what they say about us

and about... But they take on new meaning. I mean, this is part of why people get inspired to kill because they get insulted by them, right? They get hurt by them. They have a meaning that a lot of us older people are not getting, correct? Yes, memes are really interactive.

They mean something different to everybody who manipulates and uses them. And in the case of these horrible acts of violence, where the meme angle kind of comes in, is that, like, what we saw with the young man who shot Charlie Kirk, engraved on those bullet casings were memes. And so my theory is that one way to read that is to say it's a shitpost.

It's a nihilistic kind of attempt to draw attention to himself and also to call into question the entire world that older people live in. It's a big fuck you to everybody from law enforcement to a journalist to the regular person reading it in the newspaper. Yeah, this is what I was saying last week. I mean, this is where I differ from Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel was placing the killer on a team. I think that was his mistake.

I don't think he should be thrown off the air for it. I don't think he was deliberately lying. I just think he's in a ideological bubble. So that's a... That was not what I said. I said what you said. It's nihilistic. Politics is part of it, but it's just politics.

They're using it to somehow help them act out their anger. Let's talk about the ICE killer this week, because I read what his friend said about him. And they kept saying he really wasn't political. And they doubt whether he was that upset about ICE and what they were doing. Now, he made some good points about ICE. So did the Unabomber make some good points. But I got the feeling that if he had good have gotten laid,

he wouldn't have cared about ICE so much. Is that true? So politics is never the only thing that's going on inside of people's brains. And I think one of the things that's happening in this country and in many others is you have a lot of especially young people who don't see a future for themselves, who feel lonely, who feel alienated. And they congregate in these spaces sort of outside of the mainstream where they feel like that online world is more important than their real world.

I mean, it's an experience so many people have that, you know, you work a shitty job that you hate, or you're sitting there trying to get a job and you can't get one, no matter how qualified you are, but you can pull out your phone and you have infinity right there. You can look at knowledge that you used to have to go like scan microfecheche to look at. You can look at the craziest videos online. And you can be anyone you want to be.

You can put on any mask. You can posture as a tough guy. You can posture as somebody who's brilliant and smart. And real life just to keeps narrowing all around you. In this context of crisis that we're all living through, especially young people. Many go to the phone. And I think that there will always be a certain number of people

who can't get laid. Not all of them go on to commit acts. Most of them don't commit acts of violence. But some will be demented and twisted. And if this is how the system is set up, this is the slot people are going to go into it. Well, there certainly were always people who couldn't get laid.

Me in college. My condolences. It's okay. That's all right. I made up for it. But I read that this ice killer spent 10,000 hours so far on playing video games. Okay, 10,000 hours that, of course, rang in my head

because the famous, I guess, is that a meme that Malcolm Gladwell said, 10,000 hours? We all know that number because he wrote a famous essay. People, if you want to do something in your life, you got to put in your 10,000 hours. You want to learn to play together? guitar, 10,000 hours, whatever it is. You've got it put in.

I thought, and this guy wanted to be a stand-up comedian. He tried. I thought, well, you know, if you'd put in your 10,000 hours doing that, instead of playing stupid fucking video games, maybe you wouldn't be in the place you're in. You talk about what the phone and interactive media, all that stuff, what it can do for you, talk a little bit more about what it can do against you because I saw this movie a lot of people did it was a water cooler movie on Netflix

a series called Adolescence and it's about a kid I'm going to give the spoiler alert because it's been out of year if you haven't seen it too fucking bad but you know an adolescent he's very young 13 14 he kills a girl okay and they can't figure out if he did it or not that's not really what the whodunit is the who done it is why and he did do it and the adults can't even figure out what the motivation is until a kid explains to them.

Okay, this is the... Show some of the emojis that were upsetting this kid. Okay, the red pill. Again, this is all this world you're talking about, that we just don't, they don't want us to understand, and we don't. But we're going to get to it tonight. The red pill, right, that's one.

That means... What does that mean, the red pill? So the red pill is a meme that emerges from the Matrix, which is from the 90s. Right. And that movie, you know, you offer the blue pill and the red pill, and Keanu Reeves takes the red pill to break out of his reign. What does it mean today when people see it? It means...

So what it means is if you take the red pill, then you've broken out of what they call kind of the oppressive reality of, like, you know, mainstream society, of respecting people who are different from you, of, you know, believing that games that we play in life are fair. And so for them taking the red pill means like being one of them, being one of these in cells outside of the way that most of us do business and conduct ourselves. Okay. And then there was one. It was dynamite. Explosion.

Okay. But that has an alternative meaning. That doesn't just mean dynamite. Somehow that is a taunt to people who can't get laid also. And then there was the hundred. I mean, this is just what I'm reading, which apparently means something about, you're always not going to be able to get laid. Yeah, so the 100 in adolescence, which is a fictional TV show, but is based on a number of real-life stories. That's sort of this install idea of like the 80-20 rule, you know, that 80% of women want 20% of men.

That's right. Yes. A lot of these means of other meanings. Like the red 100 is also, you know, keep it 100. Like all of these sort of have many different levels they work across. And one way to read it is like in that show where the emojis or the memes form this kind of code that adults can't read. In a way, it's a little bit like a dog whistle

with a lot of these memes where they're so ironic, they're so layered in, you know, I don't really mean this, but I can kind of hide behind it, that you can put the sort of antisocial or hateful idea behind that. Yes. I mean, one could say that's certainly what I'm reading

about the ice killer this week. He was almost murdering ironically. Yeah. I mean, that's a place society has never been. Yes, young men certainly are bad and fumbly trying to get women to agree to what they want to do. But it was never like this. We never had the term, InCell. InCell stands for involuntarily celibate.

And they blame the women. I never blamed the women. I knew it was I who was lame. And this guy was into furries. Tyler Robinson was into furries, which, Apparently is... What the fuck is it? What is furries?

So it's a lot like major team sports mascots. It's people who dress up as animals and go to conventions, and sometimes there is a romantic component. He was having a romantic component with his transing lover, right? Tyler was? We don't know anything for sure. There's a lot of people saying a lot on very little primary source evidence. But do you think...

that kids today, one of the reasons why they're having so much troubles sexually, is that the adults have confused them. I mean, when I was in school, I mean, homosexuality wasn't even discussed very much. I mean, we knew it, and I didn't think that adults were

particularly against it. It just wasn't brought up, and certainly nobody ever suggested to me I might be in the wrong body. No, I'm not saying there aren't people who aren't in need of transing. I think it's rare, but they are. But I feel like they put it out in the school so much

That maybe it had a ill effect Do you think there's any truth to that? I think that when you were a kid and that was the situation It led to a whole lot of problems too But we didn't talk about them Like? Like people who weren't able to be their full selves And I think that online are off

Everybody should have a chance to be who they are in America And receive respect and dignity So we think we're doing the right amount So we're doing the right amount in schools. Well, I'm not an educator, Bill. I talk about memes on the Internet. And you weren't an educator either. You have a TV show.

Well, fuck you. I think a lot of people would say have educated them on a lot of subjects. I've been educated by you, too. I watched this when I was a kid. Okay. Let's not fight. I'm glad you're here. And let me tell you, you're one of the youngest guests, and you've handled this better than a lot of ones who are twice your age.

So I'm all good with this. One last thing, you know, these kids, I know, I see there's a lot of school shootings. A lot of them, they don't even try to survive them, the shooter, that they think their life is so fucked. Do you think their life is really so fucked, and they would maybe be benefited by somebody educated with the fact that their life isn't really that bad? I mean, the things that they're so worried about, I mean, yes, the climate is going to shit, and we do have a dictatorship brewing now and lots of stuff. But this kid's, you know, you see him, his own actual life didn't seem that awful. What can we do about that, do you think?

I think that people need to come together more. I think the temperature needs to be turned down. And I think it's not just there's a crisis of affordability, you know, whether people will be able to have that deal of, like, jobs, house retirement that feels like we were taught in all the TV shows we watched. People had that. But I think it's also a crisis of meaning as well. You know, it's giving people those social bonds, making them turn their heads up out of the phone when they're on their commute and look at their neighbors and the people around them. And I think it goes back to what I was saying, you know,

giving everybody this shot at dignity and this shot at being seen in our culture, which I think that's, to me, is the way out. I'm optimistic. Looking at the people in the people in the my comments who are sharing their experiences when I post a video. I'm optimistic looking at people I see on the scroll. You know, TikTok is filled with weirdos and freaks who predict the rapture or just bottles of wine rolling down staircases or weird sludge ASMR. But it's also filled with people just sharing their stories, and that gives me a lot of hope. Yeah. Good to have that perspective. You're good at this. I'm sure we'll see you again. You'll be educating lots of people. Thank you very much. All right. Let's meet our panel.

Okay. Hey. How are you? Okay, here's the host of Smirkanish every Saturday on CNN and Sirius X-M's, the Michael Smirkanish program on weekday mornings. Michael Smirkanish back with us. And she is a Republican Congress of South Carolina, a member of the House Armed Services Committee who recently announced running for governor in 2026. Very exciting, Nancy Mace. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for being here. I always say that to my Republican Party. friends. I said every week, the Republican show up.

The Democrats do not. I say it every week. I'm going to say it every week. Stop asking me why the Clintons have never been on the show. They're invited. AOC. All these people, they never come. Ask them. Get on their case. But you guys are happy warriors. You always show up. But Lucy, you got some flaina to do. I mean, you guys have been saying for a very long time that Trump just says stuff.

I mean, come on. We have gone from just saying stuff now to, I mean, James Comey? You know, I was saying in the monologue, you're not supposed to comment at all, a president, on an ongoing investigation. He called him bad person, sick guy, did terrible things, guilty as hell. Would you at least agree that we are in a very different place than we've ever been? Well, my perspective is that I don't want us to rewrite history here. In 2016, Chuck Schumer said of James Comey.

that he lost all confidence in him. So there had been Republicans and there have been Democrats who have expressed that James Comey has lied, has leaked. And this is a guy... But that wasn't talking about a trial. That wasn't talking about an ongoing investigation.

That was just an opinion about a guy who was the FBI director. Well, right, but, I mean, I don't disagree with Trump that James Comey, he was under oath. He lied to Congress. That is a crime. That's perjury. Do we know that as a fact? No.

Well, I would say there are a... a jury, grand jury of his peers, 14 people, indicted him over this. I'm an independent. I'm not here to argue for or against Donald Trump. And here's my starting point relative to Comey. I did not believe that Donald Trump should have been prosecuted by Alvin Bragg in the porn case. I did not believe that Donald Trump should have been prosecuted by Fannie Willis in the Georgia case. I did not believe that Letitia James should have brought that civil suit against Donald Trump based on his business dealings. I said all of that on radio and on television, not to be defensive of Trump, but as an attorney,

I thought they were political prosecutions, each of them. This is worse. This is worse because now it's the head of government directing the indictment of a former head of the FBI, and what I worry about the most is the precedent that it will set, somebody running for governor, maybe, somebody running for attorney general who's going to feel comfortable in saying so-and-so deserves to face charges. And most importantly, what it does is it causes a further diminished level of confidence in our institutions, especially the DOJ. You know, Bill, when people used to say, we're going to bring in the feds, we need a federal investigation.

It's because that carried the imprimatur of impartiality. That's gone. Nobody has respect now for the federal government, and this is going to make it worse. I mean, I can add to that, or you can rebut it. I mean, I just feel like he's right. We were in a completely different place. I mean, Trump, this may have been something he has. intended to send to Pam Bondi privately, turned out to be a, I'm not a tweet, what do they call it, a

truth? Truthsocial.com. Okay, because it starts with Pam. Okay, it's an odd way to start a tweet. Pam. You have to admit, he's at least transparent. He is. He lives his heart on the sleep. You know where he stands. And, you know, I come back to when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, when he was murdered, we found out in the days afterward that there were 91 conservative groups that were targeted by the administration, including Turning Point USA, including Charlie Kirk. So if we're going to say people are targeted, well, we had 91 conservative groups, Republican groups that were targeted by Biden's administration specifically. That's not what's going on here. Targeted, is vague? What does that mean? I mean?

That they were being, I guess, being investigated. That's what the headlines in the article said. Well, there was some politicalist issue. Absolutely. And I feel like this is a pattern, that the Democrats do something bad, just enough. to allow the Republicans to do it 10 times worse and say, well, you started it. That's true. I don't know how you negotiate with people that want you dead. I mean, that's kind of where we are on the political spectrum right now,

and it worries me for our country. We come on here, an independent, a classical liberal, a conservative, and we have this conversation. I would hope we could have this everywhere, but we can't right now. Yeah, I don't think that... But I would like to believe that people don't... don't want you, don't want anybody dead. What I objected to in the Charlie Kirk Memorial,

which I thought was 98% appropriate, I had no problem with the religious aspects of it. After all, it was a memorial and funeral service. But anytime someone used the word they, and Stephen Miller did it a lot, to refer to who was responsible for that assassination, it should have been he. And this has now been whipped into,

there's a whole movement out there, instilling all this violence against conservative, when the facts belie that. There's too much violence that comes from both sides, and the data suggests, frankly, that more of it is coming from the right than comes from the left. Your own Justice Department said that.

It is both. It's now both. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, but, I mean, Pam, I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam Schifty Schiff, Letitia? They're all guilty as hell.

I just want to, just so people understand why I'm so. apoplectic about this. In 1970, Nixon commented on an ongoing investigation, which was Charles Manson, who I think we could agree was probably a little more evil than James Comey. And Nixon fumbled it. He said Manson was directly, or indirectly guilty of eight murders without reason. It was such a scandal that he had to take it back and say, last thing I would do is prejudiced the legal rights of any person in any circumstances. And now, a president can do this. Just admit to me we're in a very different place.

And tell me you think it's probably not the best place to be? No? I appreciate that he wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm not mad at him for saying that. I mean, I've weighed in on... Really? I have weighed in on things where I'm very passionate, you know, on different cases in my state of South Carolina.

We're passionate to people in pedophiles and giving them one day in jail. I weigh in a lot on whether a child rapist should get the death penalty. I'm a yes. So I don't have a problem with that, but it was his DOJ. A president can't always wear his hurt on his sleeve because there's things that go with the job of being president, like staying out of this.

I mean, James Comey, we're talking about James Comey, when he was Obama's FBI guy. They meant like never, because you're not supposed to. And then Trump comes in. He meets with them like nine times in the first three months. months. Well, to be clear, the... To pressure room. Well, the DOJ actually reports to... They're in the

executive branch, and they report to the president. I mean, that is the way that the DOJ was actually created. The irony here is it's Jim Comey who got Donald Trump elected in 2016 because you'll remember his mishandling of Hillary's emails when he treated her as if she were being indicted

when in fact she wasn't. By the way, one other point, those things that you just read from ensure that this prosecution is going to fail. It's going to be perceived as a selective prosecution, it'll never get to a jury. Oh, okay. Well, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General says nobody is above the law. But let me bring up the case of Tom Holman.

He was here last week, again, Republicans show up, and I so appreciate it. And I even said... I'm here for it. I know. I haven't said to, you know, thank you for the... You know, he's been doing this since the 80s. He's done some good things. I don't agree with the things he's doing a lot of them with ICE.

But it came out the next day. by the way, by the people who were all saying, Bill, why didn't you ask him about this? Because it hadn't happened yet last week. The next day, an undercover sting operation recorded Tom Holman, taking $50,000 in cash, in a bag.

A bag. Now, we're not going to call this a bribe, because that's what normal people do. They take money in a bag. And the FBI, again, because we are way, past having an independent FBI or Justice Department. It says,

we're not pursuing it. I want to get your feelings on this, and then also your feelings on what Megan Kelly tweeted, which I want to know if this is your feeling, too. It seems to be she's speaking for a lot of Republicans. She said, we do not care. Bag of cash in a paper

bag. We do not care. Is that where you are? Well, no, I take on Republicans and Democrats. I call the balls and strikes. In fact, I'm going... No, 100%. No, I absolutely am. And my record shows that.

But what Cash Patel said is that they investigated this. It was not true. He didn't take a bag of cash. And that there is... It's on tape. Have you heard the tape? I haven't heard the tape. I would rather hear the tape and hear what's going on.

But Cash Patel said they investigated it. That he did not do that. And this was the Biden administration targeting him, trying to ensnare him in something he did not do. And then the White House stated this week that it didn't happen. and case closed. That's what they said. That's what the FBI said.

They investigated. Okay, well, then I made this hat for you. It's, uh, we do not care. We do care. I think it's a good upgrade on the, uh, you would like that. Can I answer one thing about this?

Yes. One question for Tom Homan. By the way, I watched the interview last week. I thought it was terrific. Like you, I give him credit for closing porous borders. That needed to happen. Oh, yeah.

Right? Yeah, of course. With regard to the cash in the bag, one question, did you declare it on your taxes? Because if he didn't declare it on his taxes, it's not the tax fraud alleged that I would worry about, but it would be evidence of an illicit purpose. That's the one question.

Well, I have to add one point. Talking about, like, paying people for putting forth a policy, putting forth a business or something, we ought to ban lobbying. I mean, that's essentially what lobbyists do. They take money to go pitch something to Congress or whatever. So if we're going to have that conversation, just ban it all together. Right.

For people who are wondering, why did he take the money? Because he was going to be in charge of this big department and say you're in the windowless van industry. They're going to need to buy a lot of windowless van. So, like, here, sir, maybe you'll think about our company when it comes to buying a windowless van. I just, you know, my question would be, is this the way honest people accept money?

in a bag in small bills. I hope not. All right. So I mentioned my friend Jimmy Kimmel up there. I'm glad he's back on the air. But, you know, everyone is a little freaked out these days about getting in the crosshairs of the president and what beats, you know, kind of walking on eggshells.

To the degree, I was watching Jeopardy. And I'm telling you, I don't know if this is because of what's going on, but the categories are really different. Would you like to hear what the... I think this is something to do with this atmosphere of fear. This week, the categories were shithole countries.

Commandments that don't count. Things that would be better covered in gold. I think they're kissing up there a little bit. Good blacks. Oh. Women who should smile more. deserving Nobel Peace Prize recipients. That I will tell you.

Things to call Rosie O'Donnell that rhyme with punt. Things that are like a dog. And will Bobby Kennedy eat it? All right. So, you mentioned the event. in Arizona, the big memorial. And I agree with you. Like I heard from people

who were absolutely very upset that there was fireworks. And, you know, and I said to them, I said to them, I have never been to a funeral out here in Hollywood

where I wasn't pressed into service to join in a competitive comedy roast of the dead person. That's how we do funerals out here. At least for every...

Everybody has to get up and I'm like, oh, I don't want to have to follow Billy Crystal. and that's a funeral. So people do funerals in their own way. I'm interested in your take on whether this was a Christian nationalist event. We hear that term a lot.

I've done a lot of material on it. Christian nationalism. First of all, how do you define it? Are you one? And is it a good thing? You're making it sound like it's a bad thing. I just asking. I just set it up.

I'm a Christian. Christian nationalist we're talking about. How do you define... Well, how do you define it? What do you define it as? The inappropriate commingling of politics and Christianity in a country that is supposed to have a separation of church and state. Well, I mean, our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values.

We have in God we trust printed on our money. That came way later. Well, it did. It came in the 1950s. Yeah. Well, 1856 were the in-God we trust, I believe, on coins at least. But, no, I mean, as someone who is Christian, I don't think it's a bad thing to, you talk about our faith. And I saw Charlie Kirk's

Memorial, look, I mean, Jimmy Kimmel's going to get his show back. Charlie Kirk is never going to. And if this is a revival to get people back into church and to professor of faith, I'm okay with it. I listened to Aiden earlier in your interview with him. It was remarkable. And he was admitting that our young people, they lack a purpose. They were held up in COVID. They couldn't socialize. They couldn't go to school. They can't get jobs. They got degrees. They can't get jobs for. They are some hopelessness feeling. And if somebody's faith, this revival in the Christian faith helps kids find their purpose.

I think it's actually a great thing for our country. Something's changed in terms of the GOP. I came of age in the Reagan 80s as a Republican, and then eventually left the party because I thought that the party had changed. But what I remember is that Jerry Falwell was often in the room, and the moral majority, right, was then a factor in our politics. But that was just, and Peggy Noonan wrote a lot about this this week, that was one constituency of the GOP.

It was like many other constituencies, but it didn't speak for the party generally. What I saw in the Kirk Memorial, and I'm not objecting to it, it's just, it was an interesting lens into the leadership of the GOP today, because the entire, I mean, the president, the vice president, and most of the cabinet were all there. Fine, so long as the establishment clause at some point doesn't get violated. It just has to make you heightened to a concern. Well, I mean, I was raised Catholic, and I'm still bitter about it. I'm an atheist, so this is not the stuff for me.

Right. I have often thought that Christians have a persecution complex, because, I mean, after all, the religion is based on someone who was persecuted. I saw a picture of a guy. Do we have that picture of a guy who is carrying? Look, he's got the cross, and he's wheeling it. It's got wheels on it.

I love it. I love it so much. Really? I really do. Jesus made water out of wine. What's not to like about it? I know, but like, this dragging the cross, that really wasn't the hard part of it. the cross. It's really the getting up on it. That's the thing.

Anyone can kind of drag them, you know, and then to put wheels on it. Well, we saw the world leaders come to New York this week, the UN summit. And we had the president of Syria, the prime minister of Syria there, and while he's there speaking at the UN, speaking with world leaders, we gave him a visa to travel here. There were Christian villages in Syria that were being burned down. And Nigeria. No, in Syria. In Nigeria, yes. In Nigeria. In Nigeria, yes. I mean, the fact that this issue has not gotten on people's radar. Right, no one's talking about it.

It's pretty amazing. If you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble. And again, I'm not a Christian. But they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over 100,000 since 2009. They've burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more.

These are their Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide, a genocide. than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this? Thank you.

Thank you. No one will talk about it, so thank you. Absolutely. It's Africa, that's what. No one's talking about it, and they should be. You can't read about it on mainstream media. It's sad, so thank you for bringing up. Well, because the Jews aren't involved.

That's why. It's the Christians and the Muslims, who cares? And it's just Now to Tylenol. Oh, I'm going to love this. I'm so ready for Tylenol. Trump's view, pregnant women, tough it out.

Your thoughts? Well, it's not Trump's view. Well, he said tough it out. Well, no, I mean, there are other pain relievers you can take. I mean, ibuprofen, my understanding, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not giving medical advice. It doesn't hurt your liver as much. But Harvard and other research institutions in universities

have said for years that Tylenol may, there may be a link, there may be causation or causality. And even Tylenol says pregnant women should not take Tylenol. It's not Trump, but this is the medical community that's saying this. I don't take Tylenol. And I don't think it's going to kill me, but for these exact reasons. I mean, all these things that we take, you know, I don't think we educate people enough to know that there's always a side effect. There's always something that happens downriver, especially when you block something in the body. Well, there's going to be an effect.

So is it one of the more deleterious ones? I don't think so. But it's not nothing. But to lay this all on Thailand, and just let me, this is Trump part of his statement. I hear Cuba, I hear, again, not exactly how medical people talk. I hear Cuba doesn't have it because it's very expensive, and they don't have the money to have it,

or they don't want to spend the money to have it. Oh, they have the money. I just want to spend it on Thailand. They don't have money. And I hear they have essentially no autism. Okay, this is like page one, if you ever took a logic course. Post hoc, ergo proctor hoc. Means because of, you don't mix up because of this.

When one thing came, what am I trying to say? Something happened before and then something happened after. It doesn't mean there's causality to it. You know, I broke the mirror and then I had bad luck. It doesn't mean because the mirror broke, you had bad luck. But this is the, this is the, what we're going by. RFK says, you never see 70-year-olds completely non-verbal. Well, outside of Clarence Thomas, huh?

Or Joe Biden. Or Joe Biden. Yeah. The number, the number, it's not scientific. To that point, the number of profoundly autistic has not changed. The number of, I'm sure you know this, we all read in the last week or so on this subject, the number of autistic certainly has. spiked, it's because the diagnosis criteria have changed over time. It's actually not as complicated

as they make it out to be. He made the same observation about the Amish as he made about the Cubans. That has been disproven. If you want to go down the rabbit... The Amish, meaning they don't take... They don't have it either. Right. They don't have the rate of autism either, like the Cubans, and I guess because they can't afford or they won't otherwise give their pregnant women Tylenol. Well, also because they believe only in natural immunity, I think. True. Right.

So it has something to do with the vaccine theories. Can I just say one thing? There's a study by Harvard and Mount Sinai. No new data, but it was an analysis of, I think, 46 different studies about a potential link between autism and Tylenol. And the conclusion was that there were some associations, no causation having been determined. And it was sort of a cautionary table. Like, hey, you might want to take this in very limited supply if you're pregnant. If the president and if RFK Jr. had limited themselves to that scientific finding, I think it would have been entirely reasonable. But as you pointed out, they went well beyond the four quarters. But they are using medical studies. And I just want to say this for parents who do have autistic children. I have a child, not diagnosed with autism, but the parents will understand this, with sensory processing disorder. One of my children, every kid who's on the spectrum, has it, but not every kid that has it is on the spectrum. And I can tell you, I've wondered for a very long time of two almost adult children,

What caused this? And when the Tylenol story came out, I started reading medical studies. Then I read that potocin, when women are in labor, that that could cause autism. But this child of mine, I've not been able to do the 4th of July or loud celebrations for their entire life because of this thing that they have. I want to know is it chemicals in the food? Is it Tylenol? Is it oxytocin that's in the potocin? Could it be an amalgamation of things?

Yes. I think so. I think it's all of it. I think we just live in a very, very toxic. And we're all different on the inside. We're all, that's why I don't believe in one solution fits all, anything in medicine. But we all are subject to dirty water, dirty air, dirty food. A lot of it, we do it to ourselves, and a lot of it we just can't help.

And we don't know exactly. I don't know if we'll ever know, but yes. Parents are desperate to know why. And so I appreciate bringing attention to the medical issues. There's a young woman that took too much Tylenol this week and is in critical condition. may die from taking it because she did it in spite of Trump. And it's like, we should be protecting our kids and women and kids. And I don't understand it.

And, you know, I think we need to have an honest conversation. Looking at the medical studies that you mentioned, Harvard and Mount Sinai, just because Trump said it doesn't mean it's not true. No, absolutely. And I don't want to diminish. I hope this chapter doesn't diminish the good work that I think RFK Jr. is doing with Make America Healthy again in trying to focus our attention on diet, environmental factors and getting our kids outside.

Yeah, chemicals and food. MSG, what does that do to us? I mean, there's so much stuff in our food. All right. So I have two minutes to try to get you to admit one thing. No. As always, I never get it. We, Trump is at the UN and we completely did a 180 on Ukraine.

Okay, you know, flexibility is good. But, you know, it is kind of amazing. I mean, for the longest time, he was like, oh, but just give Putin everything he wants. I know how to end this war. Surrender. Surrender, Ukraine. Now this week, he said, is it? quote, after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine, Russia, military, and economic

situation, I think Ukraine, but this is part of the European Union, isn't a position to fight and win. After getting to know and fully understand, it's a little light in the game, but just, I mean, just to, just admit one thing. Just admit, if Obama or Biden did this, you'd go batch Well, I mean, we have spent almost $200 billion on Ukraine. And I look at the countries around the world, particularly our European allies, who still buy oil from Russia. They are funding a war that they are against. And it's confusing. And we have our European allies that diminish their military reserves, their munitions reserves,

and that aren't spending as much as we do percentage-wise on GDP on their defense. And it's got to be everybody in it or not. I'm not for forever wars. I want this thing to end. I don't want U.S. troops anywhere. And take the right decision. But to me, we've spent a lot of money, and our European allies need to step up.

I'm happy that he met with Putin. I supported having that summit in Alaska. Dialogue is a good thing. It has now played itself out. Didn't come to fruition. Drop whatever we got left in terms of sanctions. He said at the end, I wish both countries, well, good luck to all.

Just like it's a... You'd probably like that. Like it's a football game, not a war. Good luck to all. All right, thank you, panel. Time for New Rules. New Rule, now that it seems clear that Trump took a DM

intended for Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering her to prosecute his enemies and posted it to Truth Social. He has to tell us, where do you keep the launch codes? Because I don't know what frightens me more, the power-hungry strong men or the old dude who can't figure out the remote.

New Rule, now that Taco Bell just opened their first location in Ireland, Someone must ask them why. Ireland already has a place where drunk people eat terrible food. Ireland. This is like bringing a restaurant to France called snails and shitty attitude. No, a little MAGA conspiracy nuts must admit that of all the dumb things they believe, the idea that France's first lady, Brigitte Macron, is secretly really a transgender man, is the dumbest.

although I gotta say that wig isn't helping uh... Neuro someone has to explain why it took humans so long to put wheels on suitcases we've had the wheel for thousands of years and suitcases for hundreds it never occurred to anyone to put a heavy thing you lug around on wheels

it's like how we had seatbelts forever but didn't put them in the vehicle with the most kids until the 90s uh... Neerl now that it's fat bear week again, where Alaska's Catmine National Park lets nature lovers vote for their favorite fat bear, whatever you do, you must turn on safe search before you Google fat bear.

And Christian wives, if you don't get that reference, but your husband just laughed, you need to talk. And finally, new rule, as it's kind of late in the fourth quarter for America, and we're behind by three touchdowns. Let's make one last stab at a grand bargain between the two sides that hate each other so much. America used to do this all the time, make bargains, and I've suggested many myself,

like, you stop saying fetuses are the same as babies, and we'll stop saying trans women are the same as biological women. You stop saying alternative facts, and we'll stop saying my truth. You stop saying thoughts and prayers, and we'll stop with the land acknowledgment. You admit there's no such thing as voter fraud, and we'll admit that getting a picture I do,

isn't really that fucking hard to do. Stuff like that. But as it is so late in the game, let's just go right to the granddaddy of bargains now. The left will seriously quash all their loony woke shit, and the right will stop the slide into autocracy. That's really the only card left to play. Because the basic problem we have in America is

conservatives think the liberals are insane, and they're not completely wrong, Now, I don't think most liberals are insane, but neither do they make it clear they disapprove of the ones who are, and their cowardice in not marginalizing their own crazies has been their downfall. I couldn't get Neil deGrasse Tyson, a genius scientist and preeminent scientific voice in the media, to agree that it was ridiculous for scientific American and the Atlantic to be claiming that separating sports by sex doesn't make sense. Yes, it does. Actually, it makes perfect sense.

And it's obvious that it does. And there's a lot of stuff like that on the left. And when conservatives see it, they say, I'm sorry, we're just not going to go along with reinventing society, often pointlessly, even if we have to cancel democracy to do it. That's what they're saying. They see gender is only a construct and sex is assigned at birth, and they say, we're not doing that.

transing kids by self-diagnosis with no age limit, no parental notification, and no acknowledgement of social contagion? Not doing it. Asylum now covers any reason for anyone to come to America? Not doing it. Homelessness is a lifestyle. Natural immunity doesn't count anymore. Whiteness is toxic. Penises in women's prisons. Welcoming the intifada. We're not doing it. And so, folks, If we are ever going to get back to the old America, that's got to be the Democrats part of the bargain. Stop coming up with radically new and often terrible ideas,

and then in the next breath, insist there be no debate about any of it, that if you don't see it right away and go along, you're bad, stupid, and deplorable. As if you were saying, duh, 2 plus 2 equals 5, isn't that obvious? Yeah, it's obvious you can't add. You can't just say shit. Math is racist, queers for Palestine, looting is cool, healthy at any weight?

If the men's football team played the woman's team, it would be a tie. You can't just say shit. I mean, you can, but it doesn't make it true because you're not Harry Potter. Smug self-righteousness in the defense of some of the dumbest ideas to ever come down the pike is not a formula that's really working for you. because here's one thing I can promise every liberal in this country. The Democrats can win every election from now until forever. And the people who now hold the reins of power

will not give a shit and will not give it back if they think you're still nutty. Which brings me to my friends on the right, to whom I say, becoming an authoritarian police state, that's not going to work for you either. Do you know what a drag it is to actually have to run a police state, because half the population is seething and plotting against you, while all the time you know, deep down,

that they're right about America becoming something that it never was and never should be? You keep saying the left is more approving of political violence. Well, who do you think that's going to be aimed at? I know it feels exhilarating to make the liberals cry their liberal tears after they made you feel disrespected and looked down on and flown over and called the nutty ones, but come on, I thought you were the tough guys.

Get over it. You must know that we are really on the edge of a dictatorship here, and you're the only ones who can stop it. Do you really want to make this a fundamentally different country than the one you claim to love? A country where we censor the media, disappear people, use the legal system to excuse friends and punish enemies,

have a secretish police, hang banners of the dear leader on buildings, sue newspapers and declare war without mercy on windmills. You know that's all crazy too, right? So how about starting your end of the bargain with this? Find one thing Trump wants and tell him no. One thing. Just one time say,

Sir, we'd like to, but we can't. It's still a government of laws. Because you're a way past flirting. with authoritarianism. Flirting? Let's be real. You're fucking it. And I get it. It's hot.

Troops in the streets. Funerals with fireworks. The Department of War. Exploding boats. Milfs packing heat. And in Congress. The smell of tear gas in the morning. Pete Hegseth without a shirt on.

It's a whole... vibe, but it's not going to last. What good is making America great again if you end up losing the America part? All right, thank you. That's our show. I want to thank Michael Smirkinnish, Nancy Mace, and Aidan Walker.

Club Random drops every Monday on YouTube or listen to get your podcast. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. You're just right. I appreciate it. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them any time on

HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.