Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #734: Sam Levinson, Rep. Ro Khanna, Jonathan Martin

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

Bill’s guests are Sam Levinson, Rep. Ro Khanna, Jonathan Martin (Originally aired 6/19/26)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Great show. That is a pumped-up crowd. We're scaring the shit out of me. You know why you're happy? We have an Iran deal. Finally, a deal with this deal. We got everything we wanted except for everything we asked for. It's actually a very simple deal. They're going to stop enriching uranium, and Trump is going to stop enriching his family. We can get that. We can get anything.

I just hope we play Iran in the World Cup so we can beat them at something. Because this... First of all, it's not. not a deal. It's a memorandum of understanding. It's about as legally binding as the sign in the break room that says, please, clean microwave. That's, it's

nothing. I mean, we started with unconditional surrender, Operation Epic Fury, and now it's memorandum of understanding. Last thing I got hosed this bag was my dog. I mean, so much...

Where's the big deal maker? What happened to the art of the deal. This is his big clothes. I got news for you. The emperor has no clothes. I'd say yeah. Donald Trump, when he gets tired of a

relationship, he's just out. I think he just said to the Supreme Leader, you know, I think we should take a break. I just want to bomb other countries. Other countries, they're looking at this. They're seeing all that Iran got out of this. They're getting

$300 billion plus sanctioned lifted assets unfrozen. They were all like, Obama unfroze money. It was like the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world. And $300 billion, which apparently is going to come from our Gulf allies, where have I seen this strategy before? Oh, yeah, I think I would call it the Stormy Daniels strategy. It's the...

A third party's going to send you money and then we're going to pretend this never happened. Iran got things in. this deal never had before. The straighter Hermuz is a moneymaker now. You seen that? First they had that whole thing about it. They started to tolls.

They never had tolls there. We said, you cannot have tolls, and they agreed. No tolls. Fees. Fees. You think it can scare us with this? We invented bullshit fees, okay? Wait till you can't get through the straighto hermos

unless you get your ticket at tickamaster. Okay, then talk to us about bullshit fees. And... But I know what you're saying, Bill. Is there any good news? Yes, it's Father's Day Sunday. I think that's... It's good news for me.

I'm not one. So that's... No, I... It's a wonderful thing. Father's Day and Fathers, and everybody is... Everybody gets in the mood. I see that Christy Nome's kids call her...

Call their father, Pop. Because that's what happens when his balloon tits hits... It hits something sharp. But... No, here's some good news. You want good news? Bobby... Bobby Kennedy is getting rid of the blue M&Ms.

Right, it's something. Yeah, the blue dye in the M&Ms is very bad for you, and they're going to get rid of the blue dye out of the M&Ms and pour it directly into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Have you seen what's going on with that with the reflecting pool? Drain the swamp? Now there's one in the middle of town. I mean...

So if you haven't been following this, Trump thought that the pool was looking a little tired. You know, it used to be a 10. And it was like a 6. But, okay. So, you know what? I'm not against spiffying up the Capitol. But is there anything they try to do that they don't fuck up? I mean, Trump wanted it bluer,

and now it's green with algae. And they can't figure out how get the algae under control, but they did get it to sign a memorandum of understanding. Great show, we have Representative Rocana and Jonathan Martin are here. But first up, he is the creator, writer, and director of Euphoria. One of my favorite shows, and yours streaming now on HBO. Sam Levinson. Great to be able to talk to you for more than two minutes at a party.

And, you know, usually I don't do stuff with an HBO show because, you know, you get accused of pimping for your own stuff. for your own network. But I feel like your show deserves pimping. Because it just touches on so many real issues that are in this country of ours and this world. But before I get to it, I have to say, when I told people you were coming on this week, everyone said, you've got to ask him, is there going to be a season four of euphoria? Nope, this is it. I think in terms of what we set out to do, and over the course of three seasons, And, you know, we told the story we wanted to.

We gave birth to a generation of actors that are incredible craftspeople, crew members, and it feels like the natural conclusion. Yeah, I agree. Three is a good number. Yeah. Two was good for the Godfather. Yeah. I can't.

Yeah. Is part of it because it's tough to film in L.A.? Because I've been reading how difficult it is that people will go halfway around the world to film something that is supposed to be in L.A. rather than actually do it in L.A. I mean, it definitely has its complications. I think the price, the price season one has almost doubled

between season one and season three. And the amount of red tape, the kind of bureaucracy, the permitting, it's all very difficult. Part of the equation of why you're... Yeah. Okay. But that's not the reason we're not doing a four season.

Yeah. But let's talk about the end. Yeah. Because, you know, it's funny, everybody in the world has an idea for a movie. You know what they don't have an ending? The ending is the whole thing. Yeah. Because an ending has to be somehow paradoxically a surprise and also inevitable.

And I feel like you accomplish that with this, because it's a show about addiction. And so, spoiler alert, you had to kill the main character. Yeah. I mean, look, it's doing drugs today is not like it was when I was a kid, when you were a kid. It's a whole different beast. I think, you know, 2023, you had over 100,000 people die of fentanyl overdoses. And the number is still enormous. I think now it's maybe 60,000, 70,000.

So you're talking about one decision, one pill that can just wipe you out. And I think it felt like the responsible thing to do. If you're experimenting with drugs today, the likelihood that it'll kill you is extremely high. And I want to, and I know how much the audience loves this character of Rue. And I thought if I can put the audience in the shoes of family members who have lost their children, their parents, their brothers, sisters, then it was it was the right. thing to do. And if it can, you know, give people a pause before they take a pill, then we set up a dude. She died, but you didn't. Yes. And you, right? And you spent most of your high school years in rehab. Yeah. Is that not right? Yeah, from 11 to 19.

11? Yeah. Eleven? Eleven. Holy fuck. Yeah. That just shows the difference in our generations. Well, you know, yeah. I mean, look, I had a, I had a couple of different at the time, you know, I struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder, all this stuff, and I got put on a lot of medications when I was younger, and then I started sort of experimenting with them. And, you know, that... Medications like pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals. Yeah, don't you think that's a lot of the problem?

Is that, yes, kids are always going to be confused and have problems, and some of it does, I'm sure, require that kind of intervention. But when you start messing with the kid's mind, I mean, look, I'm no one to talk about drugs. I've done a lot of drugs in my life. But I didn't start until I was 19. I didn't know what it was like to bend reality. So I felt that. If you start it when you're at 11 or even before, if they were giving you medications,

of course they talk about, you know, what's the gateway drug? Is it pot? Is it beer? It's whatever the first thing you ever do is it goes, oh, there's reality. and then there's this. Yeah. This is kind of cool to live over here. Isn't that what happened to you? I mean, by and large, yeah.

I mean, my gateway drug wasn't weed. It was pills. It was pharmaceuticals. That the adults gave you? Yes. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, look, it's, look, I think there's obviously certain people who need medication

for certain reasons, but it is, there's no doubt that it is overprescribed and is, you know, messing with people's brain. chemistry at a very young age. Well, I'm glad you lived through it because I love the show. I know it's the... I was surprised to learn this, the network with the Sopranos and so many big shows. It's the second most watch show HBO

has ever had after this. Yeah. No. Oh, it's not that funny. All right, after Game of Thrones. But I want to get to the other issue, which I think is almost as big issue is the addiction one that I know you got a lot of heat for it's like okay so you had the

first two seasons and we had the pandemic so there was a lot of gap between when they were in high school which started out as a high school show yeah and then it became this other thing and and okay so now they're out of high school by three or four years and you put them in I mean one works at a strip club yeah one is uh only on only fans yeah one is kind of a sugar baby with a sugar daddy I thought this was the exact right choice for the America I see. Yeah. Not personally, but what I see. I did an editorial there one we called the masturbation economy.

A lot of this economy is, it just looks like a lot of young women who don't go to college, they wind up in some form of the masturbation economy, making older men who have money masturbate somehow. That's what OnlyFans is. That's what Strip Clubs. That's what all of this is. And I feel like that was the right place to put these girls who didn't go to college. Well, it's also, look, if you look at OnlyFans, it is making as much money as Hollywood. I mean, essentially, it's on par.

It's not a niche business. It is a massive enterprise. And so if you're young and you're going, you know, look, I don't want to go work, you know, nine to five at this place or that thing. Well, maybe I can just start taking photos of myself. And, you know, the question is, what are the long-term consequences of that? What happens when, you know, as a young person, you're on Instagram and these things, and you're told that you're the product, you're the brand, and now you're out, you're 18 years old, and you're going, well, how do I make money?

And I just thought chasing that desire, that kind of fast cash was an interesting thing to kind of explore. And also at the same time, you know, we caught a lot of criticism for it. But, you know, there's a part of me that wonders if the show kind of affirmed this life and how empowering it was, whether we would get the same criticism. You know, we take a fairly critical look at it. It's it hollows out the individual. It's, you know, you're constantly just depending on the likes and external validation. I thought the moral center of the thing was always the Maddie character. I know she wasn't the one that got the most heat from the press.

I always thought both the actress and the character were my favorites. She's wonderful. Yeah, and she's the one who says, I forget what the scene was, but she says to, I guess, to the other one, I'm not a hooker. Right. Because I'm not a hooker. And I feel like that said it all.

Yeah. Like she kind of, and she was participating in it to a degree. She was managing the girls, which is a whole new industry. It's sort of light pimping. But it is astounding how much of this economy and how many people are in, how many young women are involved in this? I mean, you can scroll through Pornhub, I hear. Like endlessly, and you'll never see the same girl twice. It looks like every girl who didn't go to college is doing this for a living.

I mean, that's why I thought it was an important point to make, whether they criticize you or not. And also the sort of grooming of social media. of social media. Yeah. You think, I mean, that's something I didn't have as a kid. I don't know if you did. You're a little too old. No, no, I didn't have social media as a kid.

But it's, I mean, if you're constantly taking photos of yourself and selling yourself online, it's the natural evolution of it. It is the natural evolution of it. That's right. So, okay, I'll let you go. But I want to know what you think about these new movies that were out that did so well, obsession and backrooms that were made. I mean, this is something you can comment on

probably better than anybody. You're an uteur who just does the whole thing yourself. And now we have people who just went right from TikTok to $100 million opening weekends. What do you see as the future for this industry? You're optimistic about it? Is that a good thing?

I'm extremely optimistic about it. I think, look, we've gone through this kind of strange period in Hollywood where I always think about it this way. In the country, we've gone through maybe the most politically and socially tumultuous time and recent memory for the last 10 years. Yet the artistic response to it has been rather timid. And I think that that's starting to break away. And whatever the future holds, I think that a lot of new voices are going to come in who don't care about the old rules, who just want to make something great, something entertaining. The fact that, you know, this kid, you know, made a movie $750,000,

and it's made, I think, over $200 million is incredible. And I think we're going to start to see more of that. I'm very bullish on the future of storytelling and Hollywood. I don't know why a lot of people aren't. So we're going to have like 70s movies again. Oh, that's the dream. Or movies like your great father made. Yes.

You sound just like them, by the way. Tell him, I said, oh, wow. I will. Great to see you. Thank you for the great work. All right. Sam Robinson, everybody. Let's meet our panel. Hi, guys.

All right, he is the senior political columnist for Politico. Wow, and host of the podcast on the road with Jonathan Martin. Jonathan Martin, welcome aboard. Let's go. And you know this guy, a Democratic congressman representing California Silicon Valley, ranking member of the House China Committee, former co-chair of Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, Rokana.

All right. So, you are in the news right now, if you don't realize it, because you represent Silicon Valley. And I was looking, I mean, this week was the G7 meeting. If you're not familiar, that's when the big economies who aren't China. Can we put it that way, get together,

the seven biggest economies in the world? Okay. And you know who else was there? Sam Altman. Open AI. Dario Amodi from Anthropic, the dude from Google Deep Mind. Alex Wong from Meta. In other words, the AI guys are now sitting at the table at the G7.

Roe, are you proud of this or alarmed? Alarmed. Let me say this. I know these folks. You represent them. I represent them as we're approaching the two. So are your best friends. Not all my best friends.

I hope them don't like me. They spent a lot of money trying to defeat me. But the point is this, as we approach the 250th year anniversary of this country, let me just say this, we didn't fight a revolution to be ruled by tech billionaires. And right now, right now they keep folks are acting

like they're entitled to rule. One of the things, one of the reason they don't like me is I've called for a billionaire or trillionaire tax. Think about this. For one tax on Elon Musk, 5% tax on Elon Musk, You could pay for child care, $10 a day for every American. You could pay for free public college for every American.

They don't want to pay a few percent tax. Well, I mean, there's very few people. In fact, there's nobody like that. He's five times more rich than the next richest guy in the whole world. That's incredible. So we're talking about maybe just an Elon tax. I mean, he would... That'd be a story.

You know? What do you think? You've been traveled to country. I mean, is there any part in America? You've gone all over. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Where if you said you want to tax these billionaires or a trillionaire, a few percent, they'd say, no, no, no, don't do that.

No, it's an obvious populist issue. I think it's sort of the horseshoe theory, far right and far left, are coming together in their deep dissatisfaction with the tech oligarchs. And it does remind, I think, a lot of people of the 19th century and the railbarons because they had so much power, not just culturally, but economically and politically, too. Bill, I think about when Trump was inaugurated the second time and they had to move it inside because of the Cold in D.C., who was behind him? It wasn't the CEOs of Caterpillar or ExxonMobil.

Who was it? It was the top execs at the information economy companies, right? That, to me, was symbolically so important because it told me a couple of things. Trump knows where the power is today, and also those folks know that access to power themselves is everything to take their own rules going forward. Okay, well, information is a little different than AI.

I mean, obviously they cross over, but this is a whole different kettle of, a fish year. I mean, this week we had a situation where the administration apparently is trying to get, is it a Modi's company? No. Not to release.

It's called Fable 5 or Mythos 5. These are people who make Claude. And they say it's just not safe. That it can penetrate almost all of the government's classified systems. I mean, is it too late already? Don't these

handful of on the spectrum in cells excuse me but Elon is not an in cell I said Elon is not an insale

there's evidence about that yeah that's right okay but I mean how are we going to get the cat back in the bag I mean these people already have this kind of money

and I assume this kind of power I assume if they're inviting them to the G7 they're already afraid of them they're already calling the shots I think it's going to be maybe the sense issue of the 2028 campaign is because the AI impact, not just on the economy, but also on kids and what kids are seeing, and also the basic fact of what's real and what's not. You know, there's an old quote to everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but not

their own facts. Pat Moynihan said that. Well, now we're entering this world where we are sort of living in our own version of reality, and every day that goes by, the deep fakes are getting better and better. And it's not just going to be people who are elderly who can't figure out what's real and what's It's going to be us trying to figure out, is that video real? Did that guy just say that? Is that commercial actually legit?

And it's getting harder and harder every day. You know, but if we want to regulate them, maybe we start by not having 380-year-old presidents in a row. We need someone who actually understands technology. Give me the ideas? You know, you had Mark Zuckerberg. Well, that's ageist, first of them. Well, fine. It is, but it's interesting the way the Democrats who are also always against the prejudice.

That's the one prejudice that's okay. You're fine with having another eight-year-old president? I think it's a case-by-case basis when you're 80. I've certainly known people who are 80, which I'll be in 10 years. And I don't intend to be like Joe Biden. No, but, no, you first. What's fascinating is this issue squeezes both parties, because Trump has been sort of laissez-faire about this. And Vance knows that.

And Vance is going to have to take a much more populist hard line because he knows the votes in his party are much more skeptical of AI than Trump has been. At the same time, his whole strategy is, let me just contradict everything the president's doing. War in Iran? Oh, I was against it. Releasing Epstein?

And Democrats, obviously, are the party of California. This is their economic base. So both parties are going to have to pick a side here. It's not going to be easy. I'm talking about. I'm talking my guard rails. This is really what we're talking about. Both sides are talking now about guard,

at least talking. But it's moving so quickly. And are you who represents them going to be able to have the strength to actually implement those guardrails? Is anybody? Yes, because I've stood up to them. I stood up to them on the billionaire tax where they went against me. I've stood up to them and said, why don't we have an AI regulatory agency?

Look, if you think this is this... Why don't we? Well, because people are putting money in, and Trump said, I'm an accelerationist. China's going to eat our lunch. Let them do whatever they want. And how are you going to defeat that? We're going to defeat it by telling the American people, you have a vote, and we should be voting for sensible guardrails and regulations.

Here are three things we should be doing. First of all, you know, you hire someone, you hire someone on your staff, you've got to pay their payroll tax, and you've got to pay their health insurance. But you want to automate them with a robot, no tax. We actually incentivize the elimination of jobs. Change the tax code, actually tax agentic AI. Then you want to make sure that we actually have a regulatory agency like we have for nuclear energy or electricity.

We need people who understand technology, who have the guts to stand up. to them and who are going to be on the side of the workers, not the tech billionaires. Only 16% of Americans now think AI will positively impact society, which it definitely will. It definitely will. It will probably make 80-year-olds sharper. The numbers don't lie. But, Roe, you guys can barely keep the lights on in Congress and fund the government.

How are you going to do a sweeping new regulatory agenda to regulate this massive industry when it's hard enough to keep the government open in Congress? And secondly, if you look at other countries around the world, Bill, places like Australia, the UK are banning social media for 18 and underyear-old kids. So I just don't see that level of activism and that political possibility happening here because the Congress is so gridlocked, even when one party's in power like it is now. Well, we need leadership. I mean, Donald Trump ran and he said, give these tech billioners all that they want. And he had Elon Musk pour $300 million into getting him to win. But if you had a leadership that said, you know, we have a nuclear energy regulatory commission,

we have it for electricity, let's do it for AI. You don't need Congress doing all the details. You need an independent agency doing that. And then what about a jobs program? All these young people, they can't get a job. Why not have a work for America where you hire young people into a job to rebuild communities or rebuild the federal government? What we lack in this country is leadership.

Either people don't know AI or they're afraid to stand. end up to these billionaires. And now we're entering, I think, an era of lame duckness. Really. I think we can talk about the Iran war, although I doubt there's going to be a lot of debate about it, because even those of us who thought it might be a good idea to try to defang Iran, as we've been saying for so many years, they just fucked it up so badly. Trump never was going to have the attention span to get that done, right?

It was going to take a period of months, protracted war, damage to the economy, at some point having to put troops on the ground, he was never willing to do that. No, there could have been an uprising. They just missed the timing, I think. I just think they should have done it while the people were in the streets. January or if I were?

Yeah, instead of waiting until they all got shot and then doing it. Anyway, it's fucked up now. Here's the bright side of it, I think. Yeah. I don't think the Republicans are scared of Trump anymore. For the first time in like almost 10 years. I don't think they are.

I mean, when you read the quotes from the Republicans, they sound like Democrats. Ted Cruz, to theocratic lunatics, John Kennedy of Louisiana. Unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker, he says, no one's confident that Iran

is going to do anything. Bill Cassidy said, Reagan is rolling over in his grave. I don't remember them ever doing this. Biggest they would... It took Trump ending a war to get Ted Cruz to start criticizing him. No, go do more more.

Losing a war. Losing a war. Yes, but, you know, and how about even you agree, Bill, we can't be giving them $300 billion? He says it's not taxpayer money, it's money from the coast. What happened from the Gulf countries? Why not put that money in Pennsylvania and Ohio? What happened to America first? We're giving $300 billion.

That's what I'm saying. That's why he's lost, I mean, he's two years coming up on two years from out of office. They're going to lose the midterms, and he's not that popular with his own party. So what is that two years going to look like? I mean, certainly it's got to be an opportunistic moment for the Democrats. So I think there's one of two approaches. How are they going to blow it? Well, the more likely approaches is that this is going to be a protracted, ugly subpoena and investigation, Phil, and court battles, because Trump and his family are not going to want to testify and his allies aren't going to want to either, and Democrats are going to be out for blood.

And the pressure on the liberal base to impeach Trump will be immense. That's the most likely scenario, I think, especially if. Trump tries to fuck around with the election this fall. That's only going to further radicalize Democrats. The other scenario that's possible, I think, unlikely, Bill, is this. Trump is desperate for a domestic victory. He needs a legacy going forward beyond cleaning out their fencing pool, which isn't going so well now, right?

And so Trump, as Nixon goes to China, and tries to do a big immigration bill with a Democratic majority in Congress because Democrats like Roe are savvy enough to know you're probably only going to fix immigration in this country with the Republican president, just because the politics of it are so hard. I think that's unlikely, but that would be a fascinating effort

because Trump would sell out Stephen Miller in his party so fast to get a big legacy walking in a way. Because right now, what is his second term legacy, at least domestically? I'd be open. If he wants to have a pathway to citizenship

for hardworking immigrants are paying taxes, there'd be people who are open to that, secure borders and do that. What are you guys talking about? It's just the farthest thing from his radar. He closed the border. He thinks he won this.

This is over for him. I'll tell you what will happen. First of all, the crack in the Trump coalition was when Thomas Massey and I passed the Epstein files. They have J.D. Vance in the situation room covering it up. We're going to get those files released and we're going to make sure we get justice for survivors. Then we're going to start passing bills,

raising the minimum wage, child care for all Americans, paid family leave, figuring out how we get people homes by 35. and let him either veto him or sign it. He lost the immigration issue when he enacted Stephen Miller's policies and had ICE agents going to get housekeepers

and gardeners and throwing them in jail and then had two Americans killed in cold blood in Minneapolis. He lost the best issue he had. He doesn't have any issues now domestically, so he's going to need a legacy. I think it's unlikely, but I'm just saying if there was one issue where the two parties could get something done in the final two years,

I think it's that. You know who gets the crow about Iran, Obama? He does. Oh, and even Biden, the way they got on him, the way he got out of Afghanistan, at least he got out of Afghanistan. But especially, I mean, I was always trying to defend that. When I talked to Trump, I was defending many of it.

And look, there were reasons why it may not have been the right thing because they probably were cheating the whole time. But it turned out Obama was right. There really is no other better way to do this. You know, it's always the best of the worst possible option. Well, and now we know that they have the leverage, which is close down the straits, and they can turn that on and off any time they want.

So any future American president threatens Iran goes back into Iran, well, guess what? We'll close the straits down. We'll jam you on gas prices back home politically, and we'll wait you out. There's no midterms in Iran, right? It's not just about scoring a political point. I mean, like Jonathan, I was at the Obama Center and Obama's speech,

and I think here's the lesson for Americans, that sometimes tough diplomacy is better than chest-thumping brute force. Obama got the enriched uranium out, 97% of it. Trump's agreement, it's simply dilution. We don't even get it out. Obama got a United Nations Security Council resolution that actually had enforced inspectors. Now we don't have enforced inspectors.

We don't know. They've gotten a weaker deal. You agree it's a weaker deal. It is. Oh, absolutely. No, it's a terrible deal. I mean, either deal of the Iranians are going to fudge the nukes, right? And that's just, we kind of know that, I think.

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We had him on the show, James Tullerico. He's a charismatic new Democrat. And he that could be the next Bader O'Rourke in Texas. Or he could be the guy who finally flips Texas. Anyway, you know, you mentioned deepfakes. That's not the only way you can cheat with advertising because he's running against this guy, Ken Pax. down there and I want to show you that Ken Paxton ad that Ken has been running against James

Tolarico take a look this is Texas this is not our southern border should be like our front porch there should be a giant welcome mat out front okay that's what he ran and that is what James Talleyco said it's just not all he said he cut off the part where he went there should be a giant welcome at out front and a lock on the door he cut that part all the That's a small thing, yeah. That's how you run a dirty campaign. And that's not the only one. Would you like to see some other examples I thought you were?

Because there's just... There are other times where he just showed part of what Tolariko said and then didn't show the whole thing. So I'm going to show you both. I'm going to show you what he showed and then what the whole comment was. Ready? Okay. For example, he has Tolariko saying,

I think a lot about children. having good schools. He showed him saying, I want Texas grandmothers to know I'm hard. At work, protecting social security. Christmas makes me want to throw up some tinsel and lights. This is a sneaky guy.

Every time I visit our classrooms, I come. To the conclusion that we can do best. I wake up every day to a big black cock crowing outside my window like most rural Texans. God blows. A strong wind of faith that guides my life. And, uh, white people need to get the hell out of the sun, I'm telling you. All right, so, you mentioned deepfakes. Let's show that one.

That's a Tala Rico deep fake that's going around. And this is, you know, I could tell that this is not really him because I think it's ridiculous. But, I mean, what I've seen move people in elections. Show that. This is not him. This is a deep fake of James Tullerico. Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes.

Girls dust with hormones till they grow moustaches. See, they're trying to... This is Texas, and they're trying to say he's gay. I got that. They're making stuff about his past girlfriends. I don't understand that. He's got to pick one side. Right.

They're tripping. And I'm a vegan, too. The poor guy's cardiologist going to be so mad at him because he's had to eat barbecue every day the rest of the campaign. He said he's not a vegan, you know? That's incredible. So that's what goes on in a state like Texas. Let's talk about California because this is your state. And I was reading Fareed Zakaria's column this week.

Well, I'm sure you did. I'm sure it wasn't good news to you. Now, look, they've called California a progressive laboratory for a good reason. It is a progressive laboratory. It made me think about something I covered many years ago, maybe 10 years ago. Kansas. There was a governor there named Sam Brownback. Remember this? And he did the opposite. He did the Republican laboratory, which was cut taxes for everybody and magically

will grow more revenue. Of course, it was a giant disaster, and we had a lot of fun calling it out. And Democrats, one ever since then. Yeah. What? Democrats have one ever since there. Yeah, that's right. Okay. But the progressive laboratory, if it is a laboratory, that means it's doing experiments,

we do need to have to call them out when they fail. Hasn't a lot, and I can go through these stats in Farid's column, and I've read them everywhere for years now. I mean, it's not good. We constantly take more money from the people and get less results. Is that not true? Isn't that what one-party rule has given us in this state? Look, it's a mixed bag.

On the one hand, we've done certain things right. We have excellent higher education, the UCs, the California states, and it's led to, of course, a lot of innovation, $20 trillion in my district, right? Education, health care. But we messed up housing. That's where all the AI guys are. That's what that money is. Well, it's been more.

There's been a lot of innovation technology, but we messed up housing in this state. We have too much regulation, zoning where we don't build. We've made it very, very hard to build. And that's been a failure. I mean, and any person being honest about it needs to acknowledge that we've put roadblocks onto building housing. And that would, in my view, be the biggest failure. And that's what Farid was saying, that the housing policy here has been bad.

It's going to be a big challenge, I think, if Governor Newsom is the nominee for Democrats in 28, because you'll see a lot of folks in his own party who aren't from California use the status. and the images against him, and certainly you'd see it in the fall as well. Look, it's a trade-off, I think, you know, in exchange for getting great weather, great schools, you know, opportunities. What's that? The schools...

Higher ed. Higher-ed. Higher-ed. How do you know they're so great? Well, the UC system is, you know, you stay in-per. I don't know who's coming out of it and what they're learning. I mean, from what I see, from the elite schools on the East Coast, they're shit.

Right. The UC's produced a lot of Nobel laureates just this past year. They take a lot of kids who don't are first in their families to go to college. I mean, the UC system genuinely is working. Cal State is working. K through 12, there are issues. I mean, there are issues. I see kids demonstrating for Hamas.

But I'm sure this is how this is going on too. And there are structural challenges too. And it's very simple, the cost of living. People are boating with their feet, going to Arizona and going Nevada, going to Idaho, because it's cheaper to live there. and they can sort of see their dollar go farther. And until California addresses that, they're going to have a serious challenge.

I agree with that. I think the housing is the key issue. It's the biggest cost of living. And then the child care cost. If you can get universal child care, and if you get the health care costs down and you have housing policy, you would help move this state forward.

But gas being seven bucks is kind of hard, too. People in this state do think that it has been a failure. I mean, even in this city, even the Democrats. This is why this guy, Steve Hilton, who's running for president. Now, I prefer governor here. I don't know much about him. He was on Fox News. I don't watch Fox News.

Generally, they're assholes on Fox News. I go on Fox. You go on, yeah, right. And that's good. I'm glad you do. No, I always encourage Democrats to do that. I'm doing it Sunday. Good for you.

If this was not a, I think, big Democratic year based upon Trump backlash, that race would be a lot more interesting for governor. If it was about state issues and the performance. of this state and direction of the state, and you had a better, I think, GOP candidate. I think that would be a very competitive race, the most competitive that's been here in a long time. The problem,

Bill, is all politics is now national, and everything's about Trump. It's a one-man election about Trump. And so all Bacera is going to say is Trump, Trump, Trump, and that's all the ads that are going to be. If you were to litigate the actual direction of the state, it would be a competitive race, but you can't do that in the Trump environment.

But the other thing, Jonathan, obviously Schwarzenegger was a larger-than-life personality, Hilton's not a celebrity. But Schwarzenegger had the common sense to say, I'm going to be pro-choice, I'm going to say that climate change exists, I'm going to be for gay rights and equality. Right. And you keep having these Republicans and they keep running pro-lides, who don't give up on, I want to bash gay people, like, who want to deny climate science, just run someone. Schwarzenegger showed you how to compete. The same reason. All politics is national, so that candidate can't get through the primary, or what counts is the primary here, because they're

hardcore base won't allow it. So you're left with these candidates who are Trump-Light, who are walking the line of those issues who aren't viable in the fall. It used to be a moderate candidate for governor in California or Vermont and New York was acceptable and won't have a chance to win, but you can't do it anymore. I think you're exactly right. The problem

is that I used to talk about the toxic D, why Democrats just are not competitive in so many states in this country. Same reason here. But there's a toxic R, like in California. As long as long as Trump is president. No matter how bad it gets in California,

matter how many people think, and a lot of people do think it's a failure. The city is a failure, the state is a failure. They will vote for failure over someone with an R by their name. My advice to Steve Hilton would be, distance yourself from Trump, if you want to have any chance of winning in this state,

and you don't think he'll ever do that? I'm skeptical, A, because Trump would lash back at it, but also because he'd help him. But he'd alienate the hardcore GOP voter in the state. And if you don't have them, if you don't have your base, you can't win in the fall. But you're right, Bill. And by the way, the same thing still applies. That toxic deed, Democrats can't compete in half this country.

And the reason why they're never going to have an enduring set-up majority unless they change is because they can't compete in places like the Dakotas or like Texas or Oklahoma because of that same challenge play. I think we can compete in 26 and 28 because most of this country doesn't want us in foreign wars. Most of this country wants us focusing on the manufacturing and economic building here. And Trump has failed that. He said I was going to focus on America. There are no factories. There's no economic rebound in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan, Wisconsin.

If we run on economic renewal of the heartland, no more wars, invest in Team America. I think we can win in almost any state. And if Gavin Newsom is the candidate, I mean, if Gavin Newsom, with all the California baggage, is going to try to win over America. Isn't you going to have to say some version of our two woke policies just didn't work here? We wanted less testing because that would be something to do with equity and it made the kid stupider. You know, we didn't want to tell the homeless they could get off, they have to get off the street because that would be, I don't know, interrupting their lives. I think he's flexible enough that he would do it in the general election if he thought that that was the direction to win.

I think he'd be up for that. Look at the trans issue. He's moved on that more to the center political. So I think he'd be willing to do it. The challenge is are the votes and quotes, as they say, from his past, and they'd hold that against him because previously he said other stuff, you know, that's the challenge. I always say I'm a Pennsylvania born and raised, California representative. Okay, what is?

He's available. I got that that was a big brag, why? You don't know what you're not? You don't like Pennsylvania? Oh, I love Pennsylvania. There you know. I think you need to have, I think, whoever, I think for the Democratic Party, we need to make sure that it is California in the service of the country.

It can't be California lecturing the country. So you guys were both at the Obama Library? Do we have a picture of the Obama Library? Because it looks like... Nestar. It looks like something aliens built in Dubai. I like that. Top affair.

Why do it cost $850 million. I don't understand why progressives like this. Couldn't that money be better spent on something else? Who's going to go to this? Why do we need a president? Why does anyone need a presidential library? These monuments to somebody's ego out of office? Are you...

Anybody here in this audience planning to go to the Obama presidential library? There you go. Really? I'm a bunch of fucking liars, you are. You're not going to the old Bible library. At a time that Elon Musk is talking about sending people to Mars, you're telling me that spending up to a billion dollars one day. on commemorating the first and only African-American who's ever been president isn't worth it.

First of all, we don't need that building to do that. That's in our hearts and minds. That already happened. But this is to inspire people. You know, Michelle Obama gave one of the greatest speeches. I'm telling you, don't listen to me, just listen to her five minutes. And here's what she said. Racism was hurled at Barack Obama. Insults were hurled at Barack Obama. And he never lost his cool. He never gave in to a temper. And he showed that hope and patience and aspiration can What is it to do with the building? The building? We didn't know that story without the building?

Like, unless you go to the building? Like, Obama, who was he again? Well, you know the same for education. You know what it's safe for education? Okay, but it's not that $850 million versus going to Mars. I don't want to go to Mars either. It's $150 million going to the real causes of people who really need it. That's the money I'm talking about.

You know, we spend money on a lot of fibrillist shit. I'm just saying you can't. You can't be a hypocrite about it. I don't think most presidents need libraries. I do think that Obama's story is unique. I'm biased. I worked for him, but it's a unique story of telling the possibility in this country of someone who had no shot.

You know, when I was in law school, when I interned, they said to me, Ro, you're Indian American, you're of Hindu faith. Go to the Capitol because he can never get elected to anything. That's what I heard. And then Barack Obama happened. And he changed the direction of this nation for millions of people. Nothing to do with the building. But thank you.

All right. Time for new rules. Now that we've all seen this hilarious viral photo of mom and dad getting married while their three-year-old daughter is just not having it. Let me be the first to say this marriage will never last. Not because they'll fall out of love, but because this kid is going to kill you in your sleep. Well, now that Jack Schlossberg, the latest Kennedy to run for office,

says RFK Jr. appeared to him in a dream and told him he'd win a seat in Congress. He has to consider the possibility that it wasn't a dream and that Bobby really was in your bedroom while you were sleeping. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's ever done.

New Role, stop going down into caves. Every year, there's another cave tragedy story and a dangerous rescue mission. And why? You know what's down there? More cave. unless it's where you keep wine, stay up here with us.

And if you still feel the need to get stuck in a dark hole, try grad school. I'm sure the colleges are going to. New rule, stop acting like Americans were horrified when a broadcaster on Fox's World Cup pregame show called James Corden a full-kit wanker. First, we barely remember James Corden. Second, we have no idea what that means.

And third, we weren't watching. The Knicks were on. Now that Florida Congressman Byron Donald's was out this week promoting literacy programs with a misspelled word on his sign, you have to admit, it kind of proves his point. But good on you for trying, Byron. Don't let it stop you from making America grape. And finally, Neural, everybody has to start getting a little more excited

for America's birthday. Come on, our big 250 is coming up. It's on July 4th for the kids in our public school. I think that's a pretty big deal. Problem is, there's kind of a stink on it because you know who is president right now, so the left half of the country fears he'll make the anniversary about him.

Of course he will. I even bet that on Kalshi. The question is whether we all will help him do it. We shouldn't. This is about America. He isn't America. He's the temporary caretaker of America. America's employees.

and the message should be that America isn't actually his and that no one's side gets to own being psyched about the country so I'm not down with this attitude of well we're having a party but if Trump's going I'm not that's so high school it should be in the Epstein

files go to the party it's a big celebration you probably won't run into him this country's 3.8 million square miles and that's without Greenland I'm not saying Trump Trump doesn't want to muddy the distinction between himself and the country.

He is sure his shit does. That's what want to be authoritarian do. They try to blur that line. Don't be an accomplice. Especially since, for all of Trump's nonsense, America is still here. Still incredibly prosperous by world standards. Still the place people want to get to.

Still free enough to let me put the word nonsense next to the president's name. You do know it's not that way everywhere. Now, am I worried about creeping authoritarianism and attacks on free speech and politicizing the Justice Department and enemies' lists? Yes, as I have been since 2016 when I first used the term slow-moving coup. But we're 10 years on now.

And while Trump, wanting to act like a king in many ways, is still a sorry, so was the fact that he's also been checked. In 2020, he became the first president who flat out not concede losing an election, as I predicted, and yet he didn't stay president either. In cases where a court has ruled for Trump or the plaintiff,

Trump is winning less than one out of ten. Even the pliant Supreme Court checked him on tariffs. A court made him take his name off the Kennedy Center and he didn't fight it. Ten more days. Ten more days. Please. Here's the budget cuts to key departments

Trump wanted in his second term, and here's what actually happened. Almost no change. Congress didn't go along. America may right now be the country Donald Trump is president of, but America is also everything that keeps Trump from being the king he wishes he were.

So this 4th of July, let's celebrate the genius American-Intyre of checks and balances, which, yes, is threatened and yes, is taking on water, but is still afloat. Like those tall ships, I remember from 1976. Oh, yes, I remember. I was 20, and I wore a bicentennial T-shirt that whole summer. Yeah, man. I wore it every day, and nobody thought it meant that I loved Nixon. Because 50 years ago, liberals didn't concede patriotism. Abbie Hoffman. was the quintessential 60s radical, and when he had to appear before the House

on American Activities Committee, he wore an American flag shirt, which some cops later ripped off his back, because the message that most threatens authoritarian's isn't America sucks. It's America is ours, too. Every election year, Democrats seem to remember patriotism for about an hour at their convention

when they're trying to win back swing voters. The whole message of Congress, Kamala's speech in 2024 was take back the flag. That's why she talked about America like a pageant contestant. The greatest privilege on earth. The privilege and pride of being an American. Hard to believe she lost, huh? Well, you can't take back the flag in an hour if the rest of the time you treat patriotism as something vaguely embarrassing. It shouldn't be. Even even though we are far from perfect. You know, in 1976

when I was wearing that T-shirt with my Nuthugger shorts, America wasn't exactly crushing it then either. Inflation was around 6%. Mortgage rates were almost 9. There was actually a thing called the Misery Index. The average person earned far less

than they do today. They had a smaller house and watched a tiny TV that had three channels, mostly I Love Lucy reruns. The closest thing we had to euphoria was Three's company. AI was Cliff Notes. Women had just won the right to get a credit card

without their husband signing off on it. And there were no women on the Supreme Court and only 19 in Congress. Infant mortality was three times higher. And we had just been through Vietnam and Watergate, for which President Ford, pardoned Nixon before pardoning crooks was cool. You think filling up your tank is a headache now?

Back then, being online meant you were waiting for gas. Everything had lead in it, which fucked up kids' brains even worse than TikTok. People smoked inside planes, and drunk driving was considered driving. Hot car that year was the pinto because it was on fire. And since there wasn't any internet porn yet, if you wanted something to masturbate to for free, you had to wait for a streaker. Had smog days.

Buildings had asbestos. Radio had disco duck. Things were bad, man. So bad, I was forced to sell everyone drugs just to cheer them up. And yet it didn't stop us from making 1976 one big P-ditty freak off for America. Because asked Joe,

Biden, you only turn 200 once. So, come on. It's the fourth. Don't let this year's fourth become another excuse for partisan sulking. Let it be an excuse to be really hungover on the fifth. All right, that's our show. I want to thank

Jonathan Martin, Rokana, and Sam Levinson. Club Red and drops every Monday on YouTube. Or listen, wherever you get your podcast. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much, ladies. 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. Are you one of those media strategy people clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets?

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