Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #716: Sen. John Kennedy, Kasie Hunt, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton
Episode Date: January 24, 2026Bill’s guests are Sen. John Kennedy, Kasie Hunt, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton (Originally aired 1/23/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Transcript
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Welcome to an HBO
podcast from the HBO late-night series,
Real Time with Bill Maugh.
I missed you too,
including the guy who yells,
woo, I missed all of you.
We have been off since Thanksgiving,
and nothing much has happened.
He said sarcastically,
yes, I mean,
got a little dicey around Christmas,
but we defeated Venezuela and we're free now.
Oh, also, Iran.
I know this is big.
Here in LA, big Iranian population here,
largest protests ever there.
And, you know, they think this might succeed this time.
They overthrow that awful theocracy
because Trump has promised to help.
Iran is dealing with the protesters
by killing him in the streets.
And Trump said, we are watching, mostly for pointers.
No, these images out of Minneapolis
are just fucking ugly.
Are they not?
I mean, wow.
Including this, you see this one, the five-year-old boy
who was just taking out of going to school.
But, you know, if you looked at his penmanship,
you can see he is the worst of the worst.
And apparently, Minneapolis, only the beginning.
You know where they're going into next ice?
Maine.
That hotbed of crime.
Maine.
This is Trump's shitless.
Greenland, Maine, and Minnesota.
of hot chocolate.
That was the other big story.
Greenland, I thought he forgot about.
Remember at the beginning of the term it was Greenland?
And then it was like, okay, you know,
sometimes the brainfarts pass.
But this week, the past week, it was all,
we're going to take it by force, by force.
Pete Hegseth, I'm so excited he droned a dog sled.
But, okay, but...
But then three days ago, Trump goes to Davos, Switzerland.
You know, this is where the people who run the world have the big meeting every year.
And he gives this big speech.
He kept saying Iceland when he meant Greenland.
He kept confusing Greenland, which is so awkward when you're fucking one country
and you yell out the name of another.
But miracle of miracles, he said in the speech,
no, actually, we don't want to use force now.
Okay, great.
And not even the tariffs.
He threatened that to...
No.
All unneeded, because we are declaring victory
for a problem that wasn't there until he made it.
So it's...
It's like...
It's a little like...
It's a little like when the dog throws up on the rug and then he eats it.
You know, it's...
It took care of itself.
I always let him do it, by the way.
I was like, you know what?
I could get up, but just, yeah.
But this new Greenland deal,
he just says we have a framework.
It's just a framework,
just really a concept, no details,
nothing written down.
It's modeled after the health care plan.
And, yeah, we,
we get bases there in Greenland.
We get to build new ones.
We get to do mining.
We get to keep Russia out.
All of which we had anyway.
But now everybody,
what he hates us.
What Fox News calls the art of the deal.
But here's something...
Here's something exciting.
At Davos, President Trump,
and President, I've got an idea, I call him.
He announced something very exciting.
A new Board of Peace, the Board of Peace.
Here's what we know about it.
Step one, give him a billion dollars.
I'm not making that.
That is step one.
What? You got to know everything about it. That's it. Okay?
What are you? Nosey.
And none of our traditional allies are getting on board with the Board of Peace.
Including Canada, the Prime Minister, there, who, he got Trump made. He made a speech.
And he said, you know, with America, we're not in a transition here. This is a full-on rupture.
And then Trump got up, and he said, you know what, Mark?
Canada lives because of the U.S.
And then Katie Perry said,
screw you both, I'm still fucking Justin Trudeau.
You've got a great show.
We have Senator John Kennedy and Casey Hunt.
But first up, he is retired U.S. Army Major General
who's now senior advisor from Vote Vets
and the Vet Voice Foundation.
General Paul Eaton is here.
General...
Are you, sir?
Once to see you again.
It's been too long, I know.
Okay
Thank you, sir
Appreciate you being here
These are very serious times
So we needed a very serious person
But Kaisenat was busy
We got you
But just tell us your background
I mean I call you general
I know you probably like to be called Paul
But you deserve that
And when I say thank you for your service
That is completely sincere
People
On me on me
But you've been everywhere
You were a NATO soldier.
So in the beginning.
Oh, going that far back, yeah.
No, I grew up in the United States Air Force and a fighter pilot's house,
and that's a special place to grow up.
And I married a Marine's daughter.
My dad was killed flying a B-57 over the Ho Chi-Men Trail in Laos.
And I went to West Point, and then I became an infantry.
and those are the highlights,
but those are the things that have a obvious impact on outlooks.
I mean, obviously, you're here because the military is in your blood
and now the military is in the streets.
This is what I want to ask you about, first and foremost.
Trump says he's sending the Pentagon is sending 1,500 troops to Minneapolis.
You know, in your career, I'm guessing this idea of,
the military involved in civilian life was just always a non-issue.
It's just something we never did.
Am I wrong about that?
You are correct.
Except when there's a drama in a state and the governor asks for help.
From the Pentagon?
From the Pentagon.
That happened from the Pentagon.
So I went to Homestead, Florida as a lieutenant colonel,
as the operations officer for Army forces.
And because the Army has excess capacity,
we helped Florida recover from Hurricane Andrew.
Okay.
We fought fires in Wyoming in the park system in Wyoming,
in Yellowstone National Park.
So when our governors have a dilemma,
and it is out of their...
control, they're done rating their own resources, they can act to go to Uncle Sam and ask for a little
help. Yeah, but hurricanes and fires, this is different than fighting the people.
You know, I mean, this is slightly different about this. I feel like the mentality of the military
and the police, even though there is a lot of crossover, I mean, a lot of guys get out of the
military and then they join law enforcement. But I feel that.
feel like they are somewhat fundamentally different. I mean, when I think about somebody joining
the Army or one of the branches after 9-11, I think that's a supreme act of patriotism,
I think about people joining the police, not that there aren't many, many, and probably most,
we don't know the numbers, good police, but it's also when you give people a badge,
it's sort of an invitation to be a bully. It's sort of like, okay, here's your license to be an
asshole if you want. It looks like fundamentally they made the mistake here with the ice people
of getting a lot of people here who just are there for the wrong reasons and just want to fuck
with people. Is that your reading of it? May I tell a short story? Tell a long story.
You're the boss. Yeah, yeah. Well, so in Iraq, we're there in Iraq. It was a terrible
decision going to Iraq, but we're there. And, and, and, you're there. And, and, you're, and, you're, and, you're,
the 82nd
Airborne Division has a reputation for being
the macho, powerful, first in the fight
division, justified.
But we had a
situation developed in a small town outside of
Fallujah.
And I can't remember
why the Iraqis were incensed.
Because you're in their country, probably.
That has
a bearing.
And so we have a battalion commander, a rifle battalion commander, surrounded by young men in uniform, in battle dress, with their rifles, and a load of ammunition.
And the Iraqis are very upset, a whole lot of riot potential.
They're moving on the American forces.
The battalion commander directed that the men.
take a knee, but the barrel of their rifles in the dirt, and smile.
They thought he was crazy.
But in that stroke, diffused the situation, de-escalated the problem,
and the Iraqis went, well, all right, and nobody got hurt.
That's the quality of the men and women that we see going into the armed forces today
who know how to tune themselves to the event.
but going into the streets of America,
they didn't sign up for that.
No, and people didn't vote for it.
I mean, I was talking about this almost a year ago
when Trump started to first send troops into Washington, D.C.,
my view was that this is dangerous
just to have the military on the ground.
Not that I would ever suspect him of trying to steal an election,
but if you do, it's kind of handy to have those troops in place.
in American cities?
It's intimidating.
My wife and I are, we spend a fair amount of time in Washington, D.C.
And we see these young men and women.
They're in groups of four.
They're carrying a sidearm.
They're wearing a soft cap.
No visible body armor.
And my wife raised three soldiers.
And she talks.
to them, like they're her sons, her daughter.
And how are you doing?
Why are you here?
Just the normal questions, a mom who is also a veteran,
would ask young men and women doing something
that they didn't sign up for, but are doing,
because they're directed to do it.
And the two who were one killed, one hurt,
terribly. God bless those two, and it is a direct result of going out there.
That brings me to the other question. That was a big issue while we were off. Can soldiers refuse
an order to go into battle? Now, there's two senators, Mark Kelly, is one of them. I forget the
other one who Trump is going after, because they have told the soldiers, this is after we fired on
boats outside of Venezuela, that it is not your duty to follow a order that is unconstitutional.
To me, this is a bit of a slippery slope. I may not have been for those firings, but when you start
to tell troops, kids, that they have it in their power, not to obey orders, I don't know what
happens to your military. What is your view on that?
we are in the greatest civil military relations crisis our country has had and it starts as an attack down from our civilian leadership
in the past we've had problems macarthur and fallon and mcrystal which was a bottom-up attack on civil leadership on our civilian leadership but this is coming from
Project 2025 and it's directed down.
And the whole point of, I will not go there.
I didn't sign up for this.
I had a soldier make that decision back when I had to chop a unit, a change of operational
control to a Finnish Brigadier General before they were in NATO.
He refused to wear the blue helmet, conservative family in Texas.
And we laid it all out for him, and he got in trouble because he would not wear it.
He said, I'll go.
I'll be the best medic you ever want, but I can't do that.
I had an Iraqi battalion refused to serve in Fallujah as the outer ring, unlikely to have any contact,
because we recruited our Iraqi soldiers, and we told them you will not have to fight your fellow Iraqi.
You are here for fighting enemies from without.
Greenland.
And I had a, I served on a panel three days ago with 40 Democratic caucus congressmen.
And I made the comment, if Mr. Trump chooses to put forces into Greenland, you will have soldiers who say, I didn't sign up for this.
it's going to happen
and it will be a terrible event
for the armed forces of the United States
Well luckily that's off the table now
He says we're not doing it
We have come to an agreement
We will not send troops
But Greenland is going to redecorate all gold
No
All right sir I thank you so much
For making time for us
Your expertise is very valuable
Your service is most appreciated
General Eaton ladies and gentlemen
All right let's read our panel
Hey, guys. How you doing?
Okay. She is the anchor of CNN's The Arena with Casey Hunt.
Casey Hunt, of course.
He is a Republican senator from Louisiana and a very funny one author of the number one bestselling book.
How to Test Negative for Stupid and Wine, Washington Never Will.
John Kennedy, your book is very funny.
Very funny.
So I have a suggestion for the people in Minneapolis.
How about this?
It's so cold in this country.
this storm that happened. How about it's too cold to fight and use that as an excuse, face-saving
excuse for everybody just to go home? Ice, you made your point. You made your point. Okay, we got
into something with too many illegals. Yes, that happened under Biden. But these images, like I said,
really ugly. I mean, when I think of some of these things that we've seen, oh, there's some of
them. You know, the guy out in his underwear, no clothes on in the cold, the kid, this pepper spray in the face,
the lady, disabled lady, being pulled out of her car.
John, I'm just going to say to you, I'm not trying to pick a fight right away,
but my prediction is this stuff,
your party is going to get the dog shit kicked out of you in the midterms.
Right, no, come on.
Because this is not what people voted for,
and they're going to hold the party as responsible as they should.
Well, I'm going to give you my take on it, Bill.
You don't have to be Einstein's cousin.
or a senior at Caltech to know that illegal immigration is illegal, duh.
Those of us who believe that no one is above the law have to concede that folks who are in our country illegally are not above the law either.
I support enforcing our immigration laws.
Now, how you enforce them matters.
That's the key.
You have to do it.
It's the half.
You have to do it in accordance with due process, equal protection,
and Terry V. Ohio.
Reasonable suspicion.
It's okay to protest.
It's not okay to protest violently.
Violence undermines the morality that you say your movement is built upon.
But that five-year-old was not being violent.
I understand.
Protesting violently is not only undermines your.
your movement, it's a
12-piece buck.
Somebody's going to get hurt.
But is anybody defending?
You cover this. Is anybody
defending the people who are
throwing things at the ice agents?
I don't think so.
No. And I think
if you listen to the president
and the vice president just in the last
couple of days, you can
hear that they can read the polls.
They are seeing
that Americans are not behind
these tactics and suddenly
you have the president talking about how what happened to Renee Good was a tragedy.
And he also talked about how her family were Trump supporters.
But J.D. Vance went to Minneapolis.
A lot of his critics thought that that was provocative by itself.
But he went there and he actually did say mistakes were made.
The administration was not saying that in the beginning.
And I think it underscores that they know that people are seeing these pictures.
And they are not thinking this is what I voted for.
They voted to secure the border.
Well, absolutely.
I can read a poll.
And the polls tell me that the president's enforcement efforts are polling right up there with toenail fungus.
I get it.
But the question is, is it going to change?
And you know the president.
I can't tell you it's going to change.
That's why God made elections.
But I know this.
Donald Trump, like it or not, he's unrelenting.
he's like that
one light
in your hotel room
that you can't turn off
no matter how many buttons you put
I'm not going to tell you he's going to back up
but you know what that's why God made election
But here's the thing, why if that's true
do people say taco
about President Trump? Trump always chickens out
he just changed on Greenland
what's keeping him from changing on this
because he's seeing the polls?
I don't know. I have no inside
information. Well, he could. But he could, but I wouldn't faint with surprise, Casey, if he didn't.
Okay. But it is actually a good opportunity for him, because he is that kind of guy. That is one of
his strengths, I think, is that it is a cult. I'm sorry, but Manga is a bit of a cult. And cult...
And when it is, I mean, so is Taylor Swift, but okay.
And you're in it, okay.
And a cult leader can change on a dime, as he often does.
So he could be the one, because he has been so awful on this issue with, I mean, that woman, that was an execution in the street.
I'm sorry, but it was.
When I saw it, you know what I thought of?
Because we're old enough to remember this?
I mean, show the picture.
Okay, that's it.
Now, I'm going to describe this first, because this is from my...
the 60s. Remember
Vietnam, the TED Offensive,
and that ugly picture that
we saw after
show the picture. This is, everybody
our age knows this.
That's the first thing that flashed
in my mind. Just, okay.
So, okay, he made
his point. He's the tough guy.
It gives him the opportunity
now to be the guy who says, okay,
I'm actually going to do comprehensive
immigration reform, because this
has been on the, how long you've been in the Senate?
Ten years.
Okay, this has been on the table.
In dog years, it's about 70.
And before, Obama tried with a grand bargain.
But why couldn't Trump be the one to get this done?
You talk to him.
I bet you you could put that B in his bonnet.
Well, you know what the real answer is?
The real answer is immigration reform.
That's the real answer.
Well, we did that.
We closed the border.
No, no, I'm talking about not only for illegal immigration,
but also for legal immigration.
And the truth is, Bill, if you're honest, and you are,
we admit more people into America legally every year
than anyone in the world, because the whole world wants to come here.
Yeah.
When's the last time you heard of somebody trying to sneak into China?
I mean, they want to come to America.
And we do, but we could do that better if my Democratic friends would sit down and talk with us.
But when we sit down and talk, the first thing they want,
amnesty, amnesty, amnesty.
And that dog's not going to hunt right now.
But couldn't there be some sort of agreement on that?
Because what people are saying, even people from your own party,
is that, yes, we wanted to get rid of the criminals.
We all were for that.
And there are some.
It's not like they have...
About 47%.
47%.
Yep.
I saw numbers this morning.
About 47%.
Sounds bullshit to me, but maybe.
I mean, I don't know.
No, no.
That seems high.
It seems high.
I mean, Obama, can we get just back to his policy?
He was a badass.
Was he not on this couch?
Well, the Democrats were very unhappy.
He was.
He was.
Democrats were very unhappy with the rate of deportation under President Obama.
It's absolutely true.
And a lot of the people he deported did not have criminal records.
I mean, he did it too.
He just did it without this ugliness.
Yeah.
Okay, so it could be done.
Okay, let me ask, but let's get off this for a second.
Trump said, I think if he would just stop voicing his interior monologue, we'd all breathe a lot easier.
He's been doing it for a decade.
I know, but it just, like, I think sometimes it's great.
We actually know what he's thinking, and then it's too much.
He said, God is proud of the job I've done, talking about the end of his first year.
What parts?
Because I just want to, I said this.
you're backstage.
You want to take that one, Casey?
You can have that one?
I do not have Trump derangement syndrome.
I know he's going to yell at me.
He does it privately now, but I will get yelled at for this.
Trump derangement.
You're with the left of lunatics.
Okay, all that.
No, no, no.
I don't judge everything just by Trump must be awful.
I'm sure.
There's some things he said even while we were off.
He did an animal rights thing that all my Peter friends loved.
He came out.
A pot is not a schedule one anymore.
Thank you.
You know?
I mean, it's not like he came out and said the Nick Fuentes wing of the party.
We're not with you.
We don't want you.
So, and Venezuela, do I love everything about it?
No.
But do I hate it?
No.
Do I hate it when we get rid of a merciless dictator who made a quarter of his country flee
and is inviting China and Russia and Iran into the country?
Do I, do I, should Exxon get the oil?
Maybe not, but better than that asshole.
So I don't have Trump derangement syndrome.
I know.
But you're, to some extent, Bill, you're yelling at the wind.
Trump is, just like you are who you are.
I've known President Trump for 10 years.
Like him or not, he exists loudly.
He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought.
It's all unfiltered.
Now, some people like that, and some people don't.
I would think the media would love.
He talks to the media more than any president I've ever seen.
But the idea that President Trump is not deciding which version of himself we're going to see is absolutely wrong.
I mean, if you know and you interact with President Trump in private, I have over the course,
the first time I interviewed Donald Trump was back in 2013 when he was just thinking about running for president.
And he has one setting when those cameras are on and one setting when those cameras are off.
Right.
And if he wanted to make a different decision about how to conduct himself in public,
he is absolutely capable of doing it.
He's not going to.
But he is not going to.
That is also correct.
And you can,
you can,
you can criticize it.
This is America.
You can say what you want.
Now, you know,
he's not going to like it.
You might,
you might end up
with a sombrero on your head.
But,
but he is what he is.
Okay, but what,
so many.
And the people elected him.
And you know what?
We're going to have midterms
and,
That's why God's right affection.
But even before then, we have a government now, and you're in it, and you're in his party.
And what people are saying these days is like, when is enough enough to stand up to him?
You know, that kind of thing.
I mean, here's the question I would like to ask the people in your party.
Sure.
Iran.
I mentioned it in the monologue.
This is kind of a big thing.
And I thought, you know, we've seen these demonstrations in Iran before, but this was bigger
and more people have died.
But I think maybe more people have died.
because he said he was going to help.
This looks like a bay of pigs to me.
This looks like America's going to come and help you.
Where is it?
Remember the Kurds in 91?
They thought they were going to get help from America?
Vietnam could make the same claim.
I mean, a lot of people have felt let down by us.
I thought Trump was different.
Where are you on this?
Because all these bodies that I see, these body bags in Iran,
I think a lot of those people went in the streets
because they thought, oh, he said he's got our back.
this time? Where's the help?
Well, the generals have told us
that short of sending
in a massive number of troops
it will
be another Iraq. Well, then what did he mean
when he said... I don't know.
But if you look at it from a larger
if you look at it
from a larger perspective
because of Israel, this is
one person's opinion, because of Israel
and President Trump's backing
of Israel, the Middle East,
is safer than it has been in 20 years.
Absolutely.
Hamas is on its knees, has bop,
and bars on its knees.
I gave him credit for that.
Iran no longer looks invincible.
And you know who is applauding us every step of the way?
Not out loud, but the Arab countries.
Look, if...
Every one of them.
If Venezuela causes Cuba to fall,
if he somehow gets Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran
all to be not these horrible places they were,
he should get a Nobel Peace Prize.
But the smartest people that are coming through that I'm talking to, usually in commercial breaks, will say,
this is the closest this Iranian regime has ever been to falling.
A big American concern is that over-involvement on our part could help the support among the people with the regime, right?
These Iranian people might not actually want America to make a big show.
They want to be standing on their own,
but then there is this question of the Israelis.
And are the Israelis interested in seeing us go in or not?
And right now it seems to be that they have,
and correct me if I'm wrong, Senator,
I'm sure you've been in these briefings,
they want to push pause a little bit.
Well, yes or no, what's your gut?
Will this regime fall from this?
My gut is it's going to take a little bit longer
than what we are seeing right now
that it's not going to be precipitous,
but I also think President Trump,
has been relatively unpredictable.
If he starts to talk about potentially doing something like this,
I think we've all learned, you know,
we got a lesson in it in the first Trump term, right?
And I think some people forgot in the second Trump term
that, you know, we really should when he says
he's gonna do something actually listen,
and now he's emboldened.
Why couldn't he have just droned the Ayatollah's ass or something?
You know, I mean, it seems like that's...
If you want a Ron to fall, here's what you do.
You cut off their cash flow.
You double down on the sanctions.
We're still letting them sell all to China.
And this would be dangerous.
You embargo their tankers.
You embark, just like we're doing in Venezuela.
So, when are we doing it?
Now, you better be prepared to suffer the,
or accept the consequences.
If you pray for rain, you've got to be prepared to deal with the mud.
We don't know what China will do,
because China buys a lot of that oil.
Yeah, not a problem.
So his polls look like they're pretty down.
I think he's suing the New York Times for reporting that.
Interesting.
But I don't go by the polls.
Polls can be right, polls can be wrong, polls can change.
You know what I go by?
There is a Trump store in Pennsylvania where they sell go-maga merchandise.
No, they do.
They sell MAGA merchandise, and this was doing Gangbusters business.
It's going out of business now.
Okay, this to me is very indicative.
They sold things like
2008 Trump hats.
You get it, 2020.
Trump, beef jerky, clocks, flags.
So their loss is your gain,
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There's no question. You're going to have a sombrero on your head. Please. You make me more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Nervous? I thought I'd try to do one of yours. My dad used to say nervous as a pregnant nun. Yeah. So, okay, so before we run under time here in the second afternoon.
The Shell, let's talk about retribution because I know that when you voted for, and I think you did, Bondi for Attorney General, and Cash Patel for the FBI, I feel like you thought you got promises that they would not indulge in retribution, political retribution. Do you think they kept your word?
So far.
Really?
They're not involving themselves in retribution?
Yeah.
Well, here's what I said.
Look, there are those on both the right and the left.
who think it is acceptable
to believe that two wrongs
don't make it right, but they do make it even.
And there are folks on both sides
who think it's okay
to prosecute a political opponent
just because he's a political opponent.
And I talked to him about that.
To equal degree?
And I told them that this is not America.
This is a sort of thing
that happens in countries
whose powerball jackpot is 287 chickens and a goat.
That's not a lot.
America. Now, what has happened so far? There have been three prosecutions. Two of them,
the courts have thrown out. James and Comey. We never saw any of the evidence, so I can't tell you
whether they're illegitimate. The third one is Bolton, and I just don't know enough about the
allegations for Mr. Bolton. I do know Mr. Bolton is one of the smartest people on the planet.
if you don't believe me ask him.
But other than that, there have been some investigations.
I pushed back on the Powell investigation, very vociferously.
Okay, this is, or so my Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed.
Okay, so you're making the case that both sides do it equally.
Trump is going after him for redecorating.
See, Trump, yes, he's, am I wrong about that?
You are not wrong for spending too much money.
apparently. Spend it like he's his wife.
You spend too much...
Okay.
Okay.
They had a new office...
Tell me if I'm wrong.
They have a new office building, the Fed.
Okay.
Now, this is what I call a bar fight.
In a bar fight, you pick up anything.
That's Trump.
He picks up anything.
You know, you've got the mortgage form wrong.
That's the other one.
He's going after for filling out the mortgage form
for checking the wrong box,
which everybody does, including lots of Republicans.
So you can't quite make the case, can you, that it's equal?
I concede, but step back a second.
Conceived.
I concede those points.
It's undeniable that President Biden started this.
What did he do?
He not only prosecuted a former president.
He prosecuted a former president who was his former opponent.
He prosecuted a former president who was his former opponent and his current opponent.
But don't you argue it?
And that unleashed spirits that he could not control.
Is anyone surprised that Trump punches back?
I'm not saying it's right.
But, Casey, please.
I was just going to say you write in your book,
that two wrongs don't make a right, but they do make it even,
and you take them to task for it, right?
And, I mean, the facts you leave out around Comey and Letitia James
are that the Justice Department couldn't find a career person in that office
who looked at that evidence and thought,
I'm going to bring a case.
They had to fire that person, put in someone else.
Then it turns out that person actually is illegally appointed.
And now Pam Bondi is trying to figure out a way, you know, putting out statements defending her.
So are they not doing exactly what you warned them not to do when you questioned them in that hearing?
Those are fair points.
But the only prosecution that I see is Dr. Bolton.
And I don't know enough about...
Democrats will admit as well as...
I don't know enough to know it's bad.
The investigation of Jerome Powell, I have posed vociferously,
because when you prosecute someone,
you not only have to have a federal crime
and be able to prove it's beyond a reasonable doubt,
you have to be able to show it's in the public interest.
Okay, but let's get out of the periphery here
and go right to the heart of it,
because it's great, we agree,
we shouldn't be prosecuted for redecorating.
I'll give you this on the table
Let me put this forward
In a show of good faith
I don't think they should have prosecuted them over the
There's a button here somewhere
Yes
I don't think they should prosecute him over the
Hush Money to the porn star
Remember that one?
Yeah, I do
Okay, we could have let that one go
I mean I'm sure you could make the case
She wasn't worth it by the way
Just one person's opinion.
Eskimo cousins, are you?
Okay, but the big one is the one,
now Jack Smith, he's the one who was prosecuting Trump
for crimes of trying to steal the 2020 election.
Okay, that's the real one.
And I get your point that we don't want to go into this spiral of lawfare.
That's what banana republics do.
Nobody ever really wins an election.
You win until the next people come.
along and say, well, you didn't, and it wasn't fair, and it wasn't right. Nobody
believes the election. This is what made us so great for so long. We avoided all that
bullshit. We had a peaceful transfer of power. So this only... Thank you. America.
But this only works if the person in office doesn't actually commit crimes that are egregious.
You see what I'm saying? Should I read to you the quote from...
Georgia, where he says, I just want to find 11,700 votes, which is one more than we have,
because we won the state. I only need 11,000 votes.
Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
This isn't worth looking into. This isn't something that you kind of have to take to court.
I'm going to say it again. And you may disagree, Bill. But when you have an able process,
First of all, a prosecutor, you need prosecutors who know, who have prudential judgment
and who know a law book and a rule book from a J-Crew catalog.
And if they're fair, here's how they're going to proceed.
They're going to prosecute a federal crime, only if it's a federal crime, only if they can prove
it beyond a reasonable doubt, and only if it's in the public interest.
If the prosecution, even though you don't have to agree with the conduct,
but if the prosecution will undermine the fairness of the criminal justice system
or the perceived fairness of it, you don't prosecute.
And I'm just telling you, President Biden, for the first time in this country's history,
prosecuted a former president, a former opponent, who was his current opponent?
I understand.
And he unleashed spirits he could not control.
Well, but...
But again, it was the first time we did that.
It was also the first time that something prompted us to do that.
No.
No.
I'm not defending the president or his conduct.
You make your own...
Well...
You make his...
You make your own job about it.
Okay, all right.
Sounds like you.
But you can be worried, you can be worried about the president and not defend the conduct.
But why, they're alleged that...
that President Trump defrauded the American people.
Okay?
What does that mean?
How about when President Obama said,
if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance?
Is that fraud?
Not quite on this, no.
Come on.
But is that fraud?
It wasn't the best thing he ever said,
and it turned out to be not completely true.
It's well within the realm of political...
How about the people around President Biden,
who hid studiously,
and successfully the fact that he had neurodegenerative disease.
Should they be prosecuted?
The 2020 election.
Did he win that one?
Here's the way I see about it.
The issue is not
the issue.
The issue is not whether the 2020 election was manipulated.
Well?
Both sides.
Both sides did everything they could.
The issue is whether it made a day.
And the only way you can prove that it made a difference is to go in front of God, country, and a federal judge and prove it.
And that hasn't been proven.
So the election was legal.
What is he saying now?
You won't need to repeat it.
No, no, I want her to translate.
I...
So, the senator...
...and many others in this party.
He's in his party.
Casey, you can call me an ignorant slut if you want to.
I am more polite than that.
I was raised to be more polite than that.
No, cut loose.
No, no.
You're hardly ignorant.
There are so many layers here, okay?
He is in a difficult position when that question is asked
because of President Trump and the way he commands loyalty
from all of the Republicans in your party.
I mean, let's be real about that, right?
But the reality is, I mean, you were at the Capitol on January 6th.
I was at the Capitol on January 6th.
I looked at the window, I saw the mob.
I mean, the idea that, you know, the president,
and we were there for hours, right?
I mean, I got into journalism
because I thought it was public service, right?
We're all in this democracy together.
I wanted to play a little bit of a part in it.
There are people attacking the building.
We find out later they've carved,
killed the media and other things.
They're hunting Nancy Pelosi.
They're yelling, hang Mike Pence.
The president's at the White House,
and for hours, no one comes, right?
No one.
Right?
we found out later, they were called, but then the president basically wouldn't let the call go through.
It's a little more nuanced than that, but basic facts of the case.
The idea that then we're not going to say, look around and say, hey, how do we hold people accountable for that?
It's kind of where we are now.
And I will say that in terms of lawfare and the way the system...
Do you think he should be prosecuted for that?
Well, I mean, he was prosecuted, like he was about to be, and then he won an election.
But if you were a prosecutor, would you prosecute him for that?
I'm not a prosecutor. I'm not a lawyer.
I'm a journalist.
Well, I'm a TV host,
and I have to say that's all the time
we have to the final.
Thank you very much.
It's time for new rules.
Okay, new rule.
If you want to know why eyes play's so rough,
follow the money.
Who's getting rich?
It's obviously the auto glass industry.
Stop asking Trump about the proud boys.
We need to look into his connection to the pep boys.
A new rule, since foldable phones are all the rage,
Apple must go all in and make the next phone
so flexible that Japanese kids
can turn it into a swan.
And by the way, if you're a young person
who pays a thousand bucks for a new phone
because it can bend in half, you must apologize
to every old person you made fun of
for still using one of these.
New rule, Emmanuel Macron,
has to come clean about wearing sunglasses
everywhere this week at Davos.
Just a minute, man,
your wife is beating you up again, isn't she?
Uh, Newell, the folks who make
mott and bows,
jeans must admit that there's no such thing as anti-flat-butt technology.
If your butt is flat and then you put the jeans on and then it's round, that's technology, that's padding.
The idea that denim can take you from flat buns to bad dunk-a-dunk is something they just pulled out of their ass.
The rule, please don't make me feel sorry for Stephen Miller.
The crew of the new Star Trek series features a cast of three lesbian performance artists
prompting Miller to retweet an ex post calling it tragic.
Unlike being a 40-year-old man tweeting about Star Trek.
Although I must admit, when I was a teenager,
dreaming about space lesbians,
this wasn't what I had in mind.
And finally, new rule, if you're still looking for a New Year's resolution,
here's one. Get out of your media bubble.
The most frustrating thing that happens to me whenever I'm off
is people I run into want me to do my job.
which I'm on vacation from.
Privately, in restaurants and at parties,
and, well, the bathhouse is a separate situation.
But look, I'm happy to share my opinions wherever, except for this.
Everybody, left and right, is only half informed.
So I'm constantly hearing.
No, I didn't hear that part.
News feeds.
They're like high-priced fetish escorts.
They understand their whole job is to give it to you,
just how you like it.
So, to my Republican friends,
you know this didn't have to happen.
You know she wasn't trying to run the guy over.
You know, I always do my part
and admit when the left has gone off track.
Yes, Biden let in too many immigrants.
Yes, there are criminals among them, blah, blah, blah.
But you never reciprocate and say,
okay, this is where we went too far.
It's just my team, fuck the truth.
You're not intellectually honest.
Stop asking me if I have the slightest interest in joining your side.
I never did. You have no integrity.
You went apeshit about the corruption of Hunter Biden,
which in the liberal bubble didn't exist at all,
although yes, of course, it really did,
but on such a smaller scale than what Trump is doing.
Was it ridiculous that Hunter Biden got a job
helping the Ukrainians look for natural gas?
Of course, especially since he was looking for it in hookers.
But the Trumps are so far and away more corrupt than that.
Don Jr. owns a nightclub in D.C., for Christ's sakes.
Really, a private club called the Executive Branch,
where people pay a membership fee of half a million dollars
because corruption now has valet parking.
Tuesday nights, ladies bribed free.
Scarface is there on Wednesdays.
Look.
In the old Watergate days, the refrain,
was, follow the money.
Well, now the money's in crypto, so you can't.
Originally, Trump hated crypto,
said it was a scam.
And then he remembered, I love scams.
Hunter Biden made a few million.
The Trump family has made at least two billion
since he was elected as America's 47th
and final president.
And that can't all be from gold sneakers.
It's not.
It's from shady people, like crypto-billionaire
Justin's son, who was being investigated for fraud by the SEC, but then he bought $75 million
in World Liberty Financial, and the case went away. What you ask is World Liberty Financial?
Well, it's the Trump's private company, wink, wink. And it sells crypto, that is monopoly money
to guys who wear track suits on yachts, who buy it with real money, which gives them a friend
in the Oval Office who can do them favors
when they commit crimes and pardon them
when they get caught. Trump isn't draining
the swamp. He's bottling it.
Everyone
these days says he wants to be a king?
No, not a king.
He's a prince from Nigeria.
I see
now why he doesn't want to leave office.
The money's too good.
Carolyn Levitt says, neither the
president nor his family have ever
engaged or will ever engage in
conflicts of interest. And then her
tiny cross pendant burst into flame.
The Trump's sons
even launched a crypto mining
operation, which Trump may not want
to discuss while the Epstein scandal
is ongoing, as he's very sensitive about
any connection to miners.
But yes,
by all means, Fox News,
please tell us more about the Biden
crime family and nothing about
how Trump once promised to put his business
assets in a blind trust.
Actually, that's what you gave
him, blind trust.
Speaking of which, now, let me tell you about the story
that liberal algorithms locked out.
Her name is Cia Weaver,
and if you ask anyone in the blue sky bubble,
who that is, to look at you like a turkey
looking up at the rain.
But she's kind of important in New York,
being Major Mondani's chief of the office to protect tenants,
and since Momdani's big issue is the rent's too damn high,
yes, he stole this guy's act.
It's a very good thing.
key appointment in the most important city in the country, which is also our financial center.
It matters that the mayor stands by, and so I assume stands with, someone who says things like,
if you don't believe in the government's sacred right to seize private property, it's over.
Seize private property.
Home ownership is racist.
Elect more communists.
Private property, especially home ownership, is a weapon of white supremacy.
Really?
Even among the 20 million black Americans
who own their own home?
I mean, these are the
kind of utterances, I might forgive
as something a dumb white girl said
while she was at Brynwar.
Because it's the kind of privilege-hating
you can only learn for $95,000
a year.
But these are statements made
as an adult. Yes.
For co-eds from elite private
colleges, you're only a lesbian
until graduation, but
the communism lasts a lifetime.
Democrats seem to be
having this debate whether or not
Mayor Mamdani is a socialist
or a democratic socialist.
Let me settle it.
He's a straight-up communist.
How do I know this?
Well, I'm reading between the lines
when one of his major advisors
says, elect more communists.
Which is fine.
It's fine. It's a belief system.
He's allowed to believe.
and people are allowed to vote for it.
But if liberals deny it, like he's just going through a goth phase,
they're going to lose more elections.
This is not a communist country.
And this is the pendulum never lands in the middle problem.
I'm always bitching about.
Really, the choices we get here are either the worst version
of crony capitalism or communism,
either a side deal for the Trump family every time he does business overseas,
or the lady who says
impoverished the white middle class.
Oh yeah, there's a great campaign slogan for you.
Honestly, as New York mayoral races go,
I was less creeped out by Anthony Wiener's dick.
All right, that's our show.
I want to thank my guest, Casey Hunt, Senator John Kennedy,
and Major General Paul Eaton Club Random.
Back on every Monday.
It's great.
It drops on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcast.
Now go watch overtime on YouTube.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Hatch 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.
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