Real Time with Bill Maher - Episode #380 (Originally aired 03/11/16)

Episode Date: March 12, 2016

Episode #380 (Originally aired 03/11/16) - Bill’s guests are Jane Mayer, Bill Kristol, Monica Mehta, Sam Stein, and Maria Konnikova. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Start the clock. Good afternoon. At the tone, time will be real time. I think I know why this crowd is happy.

Because Bernie Sanders had a huge upset victory on Tuesday in the Michigan primary. One... Bernie Sanders? No? Okay. Maybe I...

Maybe I... Maybe I... Maybe I... Maybe I'm in the wrong building. I don't know. Usually, we've got a big Bernie continue here. But he kills it with the young people. Bernie won 83% of people under 30.

Apparently, old Jews are the new trucker hat. That's what I was doing. And this, despite the fact that he had said ghetto in the debate up there, he used the word ghetto. This is one of those rules that I didn't know was a rule until they tell you it's a rule. Can't say ghetto, which is so ghetto. But he did well there.

Now the race moving to Florida. Both parties had their debates down there. Hillary and Bernie had their debate for Univision. Did you see that? Yeah, they were pandering to that Latino audience. I got to say, at one point, Hillary said that her private server ran on Mac and didn't do Windows. I thought that was a little. And did you see the beginning of the debate?

What appeared to be a Latino? teenager came out dressed in a mariachi outfit to sing the national anthem so it's good to see Marco Rubio getting work because he's yes and morning we won't let up Hillary on the email stuff Jorge Ramos said to her if you get indicted

will you drop out okay just can we review this here first of all she had a private server which all her predecessors as Secretary of State had all the government officials have none of the things she did were illegal all the emails were not classified at the time she sent them out, but the question we have to keep asking her is, will you be taken alive? And can you guarantee that your DNA is not on that knife they found at O.J.'s house?

We don't know until we asked. Now, on the Republican side, Trump also won Michigan, had a huge night. Huge night. Really? Okay. No, no. We won all types here. You're, well, your boy's doing very well. He had a huge night on Tuesday, so good. He did so good on Tuesday.

He is now pivoting to the general election, asking the other Republicans to unite behind him and talking about how he's very presidential. In his... He had a press conference after his big victory Tuesday and said, I am the most presidential one since... And he went, I've got to go back to Abe Lincoln. I'm not... I can't make this up.

That's what he said. He was so presidential. He felt the need to refute product by product. allegations that his opponents had made, that some of his business ventures, had failed. So he stood there. You saw this, right, in front of a table full of Trump water, Trump wine, Trump vodka, Trump steaks. Who advises this man? Kanye West? What the... You know, and...

And it's working. That's the thing. It's not stopping him. Everyone comes up to me these days and says, Bill, could Trump really be president? Yeah. Fuck yeah, although here's a little bit of hope. You know, I know. Nothing seems to stop this guy, whatever you throw at him. Did you ever see the movie War of the World's Tom Cruise movie? Right?

That gives me hope. Because if you remember the movie, the space invaders are just totally kicking our ass. I mean, they got their tripods, they got the force fields around them. Nothing can stop them. And then they just die. They just die. Nobody does anything. They just fucking die.

I mean, it's like they got to bait 100 in the script and went, uh, fuck it, they just died. I have Morgan Freeman come here and do a voiceover. They get the flu or something, and that's my fantasy. Trump will be up there one day. I am the greatest. Blah! He just died.

That's it. All right. So that's the fantasy. Say what you want about Donald Trump. He has made sucker punching great again. You saw this yesterday? This. Oh, man.

This guy sucker punched this guy. A Trump supporter punched a protester, sucker punched him. And he said, why did he do it? Because he was not acting like an American. And he was deliberately going out of his way to be black. And then the police arrest the black guy. Did you see that? And they charged him with resisting assault?

What the fuck? And Trump asked about it, basically excused it. He said his support, this is his quote. He said his supporters have anger that's unbelievable. He said, they love this country. They don't like seeing bad trade deals. They don't like to see bad higher taxes. And naturally, the answer to bad trade deals and higher taxes

is punching black people. I think that's obvious. I mean, this stuff doesn't happen at anybody else's rallies, punching and shoving and spitting and kicking. Although, at a Sanders rally this week, a man was warned about quetching. Not exactly an equivalency, but... So, but again,

Again, it doesn't seem to stop him. You know who endorsed him? He announced it last night. Today, Dr. Ben Carson has endorsed Donald Trump. He gave a whole speech about it. Unfortunately, the speech was cut short when a Trump supporter punched him in the face. And we should note, a sad passing this week,

Nancy Reagan, former First Lady, was lovingly laid to rest today beside the remains of the Republican Party. President Obama did not attend the funeral, which, of course, made Republicans furious. Although I thought he had a good answer there. He said he was paying honest to Nancy Reagan by just saying no.

And to give Nancy her credit, you who were too young to remember the 80s, just say no was a huge campaign. It was on everybody's lips, a lot of media coverage, very successful, and for us, stoners at the time, it made getting high a little more fun. It did it. And I'll just say this.

Something spooky, a little bit spooky, is going on here at real time. Because two weeks ago, I mentioned Antonin Scalia, and he died later that night. And last week, I mentioned Nancy Reagan, and she died the next day. So this is a reminder, life is short. We all have to go sometime. And a quick story about Dick Cheney. I did, don't know. Okay, okay.

I know. I don't wish Dick Cheney dead, okay? I can't control that anyway. So, you don't write in. All right. We've got a great show. Bill Crystal, Monica Mehta, Sam Steiner here, a little bit of speaking here with journalist

and author Maria Konnikova. But first up, she's a staff writer for the New Yorker, and her latest book is Dark Money, The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right, Jane Mayer. Hey, Jane Mayer. Thank you see you again. How you doing?

Thank you. Thank you with you. Yes. Okay. So say somebody hasn't really been following American politics, like most of the American electorate. How would you explain to them who are the Koch brothers? Because that's mostly who you're talking about in the book. Well, they are the fifth and sixth richest Americans.

They're brothers. Together, they're worth about $90 billion. $90 billion. Billion. And they... That's huge. It's even huge than some other candidates.

Yeah, right. And even though they have never been elected to any office, they have huge influence over American politics. They've put together a group of investors. They're very conservative. They've brought together 400

of the other richest conservative people in the country to pool their money, and they've got a kitty now that they say is $889 million. which they'd like to spend in the 2016 election cycle to influence the outcome. And what is their goal? What do they want? Well, so the brothers are Charles Koch and David Koch, and Charles has said

his favorite president is Calvin Coolidge. And he... Silent cow. He said little and he did little, which is sort of telling because the coax are really anti-government. So they would like to bring the country back. They see all regulation as tyranny. They do.

They're in the oil and gas and coal business, right? They're a huge fossil fuel company with a terrible record of pollution. They don't like government regulators. They've been taken to court by them a number of times. And they'd like to push the country back to sort of where it was in the robber baron era. And you see that in their background. I mean, you go into extensively about the father was one of the founders of the John Birch Society, which was made the teabaggers, you know,

look like hippies. They were the originals, yes. They were the originals. They were. He thought Eisenhower was too liberal. Well, they thought Eisenhower was a communist. The John Birch Society believed that the government was being taken over by communists. And so Fred Koch, the father, was one of the founders, as you said.

He also was, interestingly, someone who made his fortune partly by building oil refineries for Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. And then he went on and built one for Adolf Hitler, where, So he was bipartisan. He had to... Works for the left and the right. Well, that's... It's interesting, as a sort of source of one of America's great families and businesses. It's a very secretive company.

It's Coke Industries. Many Americans know its products, but they don't know they are made by Coke Industries. And also, wasn't the Nanny a Nazi? The Nanny was a Nazi in this family. The Nanny was a Nazi. Sounds like a fun. movie, doesn't it? The nanny was a Nazi.

Well, Fred Koch, the dad, was in Germany doing business with the Third Reich. And he rode home in 1938, which was not too long before World War II, saying there were three countries that were great at that time. Germany, Japan, and Italy.

The Axis Powers, yes. And he brought home a nanny for his boys. He brought her from Germany. Yes, she was actually a Nazi sympathize her and when Hitler invaded France in 1940 she went back because she wanted to celebrate so she left the family and this was the this was the woman who brought up Charles Koch in his earliest years she was apparently horrible disciplinarian and it was a kind of a family that has incredible problems that you really could not make

one of the brothers is gay right I mean these are the two there's four brothers you the two that are in politics and doing all this evil They're not the only ones. There's a gay one, right? The oldest... There are two missing brothers from the Koch brothers' general picture. And the oldest one, Fred, he says he's not gay. Three of his brothers accused him of being gay and, in fact, said they were going to tell dad that he was gay

unless he turned over his shares in the company, the family company to them. And so they tried to blackmail him with this. He lives in New York. fantastic backer of the arts. And he gives... Sounds gay. No, I mean... He's from a generation...

Backer of the arts. The Koch brothers ate him. He's from a generation that doesn't discuss that so much. But this family had epic fights. They went through... Two of the brothers sued two of the other brothers for 20 years.

They all inherited about $300 million from their father, but they still sued because they wanted more. And they wanted control of the family company, and 2-1. And that's the ones we think of the Koch brothers as Charles and David Koch. And they're very involved in American politics. So there's a Trump supporter in our audience tonight. And, by the way, none of the liberals are punching her.

So I'm sure she and many other conservatives watching this are saying, well, what about the left? They have sugar daddies like Jewish. George Soros. Could you address what I would consider to be a false equivalence on that? Yes. I'm glad you asked me that question. I'm glad I did too.

So I wrote a piece for those who think that the New Yorker doesn't write about liberal money, too. I wrote a piece about George Soros. At his height, he put $20 million into American politics in 2004. 20 million. This year, 20 million. This year, the Koch brothers and their group of friends

are putting $889 million in American politics. That kind of gives you something of the scale. And there's really never been anything quite like what we're looking at this year. One group of unelected, incredibly rich people who've almost formed their own plutocratic party in order to try to pick the next leaders. And this is why I gave Obama a million bucks. A lot of good it did me.

To get the left billionaires, because there are lots of rich people on the left, to realize, you know, you've got to get in this game. The game has changed since Citizens United. And the thing about George Soros also is that he's fighting for raising his taxes. He's not fighting greedily, selfishly, like the Koch brothers. And also for transparency. And I think one of the most troubling things that you've got to keep in mind about the Cokes

is that so much of what they do is in secret because they use groups that are supposed to be philanthropic groups that can hide their donors. And they pour money through these groups. So you can't really see who the donors are. The group they have, 400, 500 people, they won't release the names of these people. So people in the country can't see who's in it. I mean, in my book, I write a lot about who they really are, though, and their tremendous fossil fuel interests, the biggest frackers in the country,

the man who started Home Depot. I hope he's not an advertiser. We don't have advertisers, Jane, you're on HBO. All right. It's a great book. You're a great reporter. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, let's meet our panel.

All right. Okay, next. All right, here they are. He is the senior politics editor at the Huffington Post, our friend Sam Stein. How you doing, Sam? She's a financial expert and a managing principal at 7th Capitol. Monica Maita back with us, hey, Monica.

And he is the founder and editor of the Weekly Standard and an ABC news contributor, our friend Bill Crystal over here. Once again, hey, Bill. Okay, so we saw the video of the guy soccer punching. How much does Donald Trump really have their responsibility for this? I think a lot. I do too. Go on, Sam.

I'm so glad you're jumping in. All right, well, thank you. First of all, Bill didn't like your monologue about Dick Cheney. He was twitching in the back there. I was calm. I think when you tell your crowd that you, yourself, want to punch someone in the audience, that you missed the days when people were taking out in stretchers, you're kind of sending a signal to your audience that it's okay.

It reminds me of the abortion doctor thing, you know? How so? Well, you know, there are like right-wing people who said, if an abortion doctor gets killed, that would be a good thing. And then some nut goes and does it, and they say, we didn't actually say he should do it, but you pretty much put the idea in some borderline guy's head. Exactly.

And that's sort of what's going on here. And again, this doesn't happen on the left, or even among the other candidates on the right. This is purely a Trump phenomenon. Today, he had to cancel a rally in Chicago. in Chicago because it was going to get too out of hand. Doesn't this... I don't know if it was a good thing.

I think Trump is definitely fanning the flames, but there's a genuine frustration out there. And it's emulated, and you can pick up after looking at how much he's actually spent running for president. So in early January, he had only spent about $12.5 million on his campaign. But see the momentum and see the eruption from people. There's definitely a tidal wave of... angry people and he's tapped into this frustration.

Is he causing the anger then? I don't think that you could cause this. I think to a certain extent it was there already. You can make it worse, absolutely. There is a lot of anger there. But can we just get to what he says? Because a lot of the reason why people are angry is because he lies horribly like they all do with the debates.

Nobody checks them on it. There's that old saying, you know, dance like no one's watching. He lies like no one is fact checking. and no one does. Now, like last night at the debate, he said our GDP was zero. It grew 3.9% last

quarter. All jobs are gone. We added 6 million the last two years. We've had job growth for 72 months straight. It's a record. The military has been gutted. They keep saying this. Obviously, that's not true. It's been steadily increasing, through Bush, through Obama.

Yeah. It doesn't bother you that somebody lies like this, that somebody tells the American people who, without a viable media, or without any means to check this? Of course it's bothersome. I mean, but he spouts 20 lies a minute that it becomes almost impossible

to call flat on a single one. And so you end up trying to grab over here, and that's not even getting to Trump's stakes, which are atrocious, and he says that they're good. They're terrible. But I think Trump also exists because there's this feeling that politicians are pre-fabbed phonies,

and their answers are all blow-dried. Like, I would like all the time I've ever spent watching any debate ever back, because there's just this genuine feeling that your lips are moving, but you're lying to me, and I don't know what you're doing. So, I mean, yes, he embellishes the truth, but I think it's clear to...

Enbellishes? He exaggerates wildly. He exaggerates wildly, but I can see clearly why. He's trying to get attention, and he's trying to fund... He's trying to fund his campaign in a completely different way than everyone else is funding his campaign. But that's a lie itself. He knows that he says crazy things.

The cameras will be pointed right there. And like monkeys, they are. And this is a reason to support a candidate? It's not a reason to support a candidate. So you don't support it. How are we supposed to be, how are we supposed to be angry about the insane amount of money that it takes to run for office? Bernie does it pretty well. Well, Bernie...

But wait a second. Donald Trump says if he is elected, he'll appoint a Supreme Court justice like Clarence Thomas. So that's not a formula for getting rid of Citizens United. That's a formula for keeping it. Silence. Look, I mean, I loathe Donald Trump, and I hope we defeat him for the Republican nomination.

It's good that you yearn for the good old days when Dick Cheney was up there, giving fact-based answers. a serious honorable politician. Don't you agree? Don't you agree? No. Why? What? Dick Cheney was honest. Dick Cheney was straightforward.

Dick Cheney was straightforward. Yes. So, so honest, when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And he was... I believe... Did you know Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction bill? I don't recall that, that was your view. Well, the UN inspectors said they didn't. That's not correct, actually.

But anyway... Yes, it is correct. I will defend the other politicians. I agree with him. Trump is horrible, and he is partly responsible for the violence. I agree with that very much. Every decent, Dick Cheney would not say, go ahead and punch people or whatever.

But let me just one more. I can come back to Dick Cheney one more time. Look, I cannot make Dick Cheney die, just so you know about it. I'm worried. I was a joke. I told you. You liberals in Hollywood are very powerful.

We are very powerful, you know? No, no. And by the way, Bill, even if I could, I wouldn't. I don't like him, but I wouldn't make him die. How about that? I really like that. And I knew you wouldn't, though. I just want you to know that.

But listen to this. 49% of Americans say the United States is number one in the world militarily. 49% say it is not. That's half the people who are so dead, stupid, fucking wrong. Who put this idea in their head? I'll tell you who.

all the Republican candidates who took... Let's go. Trump said last night, we don't get any victories. First of all, how is this not insulting the military? Actually, our military had a pretty good week this week. Yeah. We smoked al-Shabaab. We smoked ISIS.

Here's Marco Rubio. America's influence has declined while the president has destroyed our military. Utter lie. Ted Cruz, Barack Obama right now, number one, over seven years, has dramatically degraded our military. military, utter lie. Donald Trump, we don't win with the military. We don't win with the military. We can't beat ISIS. We don't win anything. How come these guys are the patriots who the military likes? If they want to build up the military, which does... The military has not been degraded.

It has been cut. It's way below what Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense said it should be in 2011. Anyway, but look... It was a sequestration, which was a bipartisan bill. Yes, which was a terrible mistake. It's so not. But to put it on Obama's hands is silly. But the bigger problem here is... No, it's a bipartisan. The bigger problem here is that you end up having an electorate that thinks that we're on the precipice of total internal destruction, and they get really mad. And now we're at this point where you're actually seeing images out of Chicago that are pretty grotesque and actually legitimately scary. And you can easily imagine a rally down the road where this ends up in a pretty, pretty dark place.

I mean, violent, violent stuff. And this isn't really how it's ever been, ever. Okay. So let me ask another question about a lie at the debate last night. The debate was in Miami. 21 mayors from around Florida asked, begged the moderator, which was Jake Tapper last night, since the Fox News people will never even bring the issue up,

to ask a question about climate change, since Florida could be the place that, you know, gets underwater. Okay. Marco Rubio went through the greatest hits of climate denial bullshit. The weather is all... And here are those greatest hits. The weather is always changing. True, of course, but has nothing to do with climate change

caused by carbon emissions. He said, is it changing because of something we're doing? Like, that's a question. Even if it is changing, no law can change the weather. Bullshit. I've lived here for 30 years. We used to have what they called ring around the city because the cars were, had catalytic converters.

We don't have the ring around the city anymore. You can... all, climate is not weather, but they gloss over that. London used to be foggy. They wrote songs about it. It's not anymore because they stopped burning coal. So, yes, of course you can write laws. Be called a carbon tax.

Well, the funny thing was that he went through this whole spiel, and then at the end he gave this very uplifting speech about his father, come to America, and said, and America can do anything it puts its mind to. Except climate. You know, you can't do that, you know. Well, because it would, it would, it would devastate our economy. You know what, devastates an economy being under war?

Yeah, Miami-Fed. That's so, it's so terrible for an economy. Yeah. It's good that you have this wonderful faith in every liberal, you know, trope and verity, and they don't, there's... So you don't believe in climate change? I do believe that there's been climate change. There's a little ice age 300 years ago.

Hollands canals were frozen, but, I mean... Oh, my Lord. You're really going to that one? That's a true fact. What do you mean going to that one? Well... You don't believe that there's been cycles in the climate over the centuries? But that is a much different...

Human activity has contributed probably to global warming over the last century. It definitely has. I'm not a scientist. Oh, good. But then we can have a serious policy debate. But you are, Bill. You've studied this personally. I would like to have a serious policy debate.

Well, we don't because one party denies that it exists because the Koch brothers give them... Oh, that's a silly. We waste all our time talking about the wrong things. I mean, we have to accept. at a point that this is happening, and we can only come up with a good policy when we actually accept that this is happening. Exactly. And then we can focus on where the efforts, where the dollars can go, so that we can make

maximum impact. The problem is climate change is sort of a gradual menace, right? We don't see the threat imminently. If Miami, for instance, were to be subject to a potential terrorist attack, I'm assuming the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, we do everything in their power and devote tons of resources to stop it. But we don't see Miami under that type of threat when it comes to rising sea levels. So you have to actually educate people about the severity of the threat if you want to get any action.

Okay. So let me ask you this. The cover of Time Magazine today is a picture of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, and it says, What Happened to this party? I'm not making fun of Nancy Reagan. She's a very nice lady, and she made a fine president in the last two years of his administration. That is, that is... Poor Bill.

The last two years of Reagan's administration were extremely successful. Maybe you're not aware of that. Iran-Connor. Yes. How about the collapse of the Soviet Union? People like you were laughing about Reagan in 1981. How ridiculous as foreign policies would be nuclear, when it would be a nuclear war, right?

He would never defeat the Soviet Union. He would never liberate. He did it single-handedly by himself. It was a 40-year effort. Lots of people defeated the Soviet Union. He was there and presided at the moment when it collapsed. He had a huge defense buildup with pressure on that. That's right. And you're right.

He gets credit for that. But it wouldn't happen if he was the president in the 60s. It had to happen when they were ready to fall anyway. Anyway, the question I was going to ask is... It's wonderful that we can decide after the fact that these things were inevitable, right? Well, it was... And New York City crime rate would have gone down by 50% if Rudy Giuliani hadn't had tough on crime policies.

Is that right? It was inevitable in 1993 that the Dinkins' mayoralty was going to lead to a reduction in crime. This one took a turn. Yeah, that would... No, well, that's another Republican policy that people like you mock, right? Being tough on crime. People like me. Yes.

people. You people too. But Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer. That's historical fact. If Michelle Obama consulted an astrologer, would the Republicans be okay with that?

What do you think you would say about that? I think I would say it was foolish, as it was foolish of Nancy Reagan to do so. And it didn't affect any of Ronald Reagan's policies, thank God. Because they would impeach Obama if that happened there. I don't think so. But anyway, she consulted an astrologer... She can consult whoever she wants us for us for a son, sir.

All right. Well, and by the way, it did affect policy. It affected lots of stuff. Like, should Ronnie go to this summit? Oh, no, don't fly in a Thursday. I mean, this was like third world stuff. Okay, but Joan Quigley was the name of the astrologer. This is in the 80s. She was consulting her.

She was from San Francisco. But, look, I tease what we found. We did a little research. We found out that Joe Quigley actually was right about everything. We have some of her predictions. Would you like to hear them? Bear in mind. Like she said, cars in 30 years

will no longer require human drivers. Passengers will be transported by lifeless automaton known as Uber drivers. She said three things will disappear in the 90s, vinyl records, the snowy owl, and pubic hair. Wow. This is spooky stuff. A place called Whole Food will stick a lot.

leaf and water and convince you to pay $12 for parsley juice. Wow. She said religion will lose relevance with adults, but the Catholic Church will still find a way to touch children. Television will get thinner and brighter, and the viewers, thicker and duller. Johnny Carson will quit the Tonight Show, after which America will fall asleep to Bill Cosby.

I... Oh, yeah, they remembered. Bill Cawes Me Bad Guy, that's right. A great scourge will spread across America and sicken thousands. It will be called Chipotle. Bring out Maria, she's a journalist and the author of The Confidence Game, Why We Fall for It Every Time. Maria Konnikova, Maria.

Hey, great pleasure to meet you. How you doing? Yeah. Okay, so as someone who wrote a book called The Confidence Game, we fall for it every time, what did you think? think when you saw Donald Trump standing there in front of a table full of his products. To me, that screamed, there were a picture of it screamed confidence man. You know, I saw him and I thought, I'm a psychic.

Right. Because I clearly predicted that this was going to happen. I mean, the moment that they analyzed what his products actually were, they found out that they weren't his products. Not his products. He was blatantly lying. and the hallmark of a psychopath, well, of a psychopath. See, there you go, Freudian's lip.

The hallmark of a psychopath, but also the hallmark of a con artist, is someone who deceives you for their own ends. So they're trying to convince you to support them, to vote for them in this particular case, and they're doing it by tactics that aren't actually... Is this... I mean, am I reading too much into this, but standing there in front of a table full of steaks.

Now, I don't eat steak. But like most people love steak. I thought this was like subliminal advertising kind of stuff. Like people looking at that and going, Trump, steak. If I vote Trump, I'll eat steak. I mean, they look juicy, you know, steaks look good. People are, hmm.

And you know what? Think of the voters he's trying to appeal to. So he's actually going for that comment. People who would like to eat steak but can't afford it. People who want to eat. steak. Right. Let them eat steak.

What? Yeah. That's true. And I think that we see him trying to get the popular vote. It's the same appeal that he makes all the time, that he is honest, he's a man of the people. He's telling everyone exactly what they want to hear. And he doesn't actually say anything. So that's what confidence artists do.

So he's, so he's a con man, but he is a good one. He's a very good con man. Right. That's why they're called con artists. Right. The art of the deal. And you make the point that, you know, everyone is saying that Donald Trump

is hijacked the party, but a conman doesn't take anything from a person. No. You give it to him willingly. Yes, we give them our confidence. The origin of the term confidence game was a man who stole watches, but he never actually stole them.

He went up to people on the streets and said, have you confidence in me to lend me your watch until tomorrow? and people gave them his watch because they gave him their confidence and that's exactly what Trump is doing to the party he isn't asking anyone for anything people are willingly giving their trust

and their confidence to him the more I read about this Trump University the more it sounds like Scientology it does people people paying great sums of money to find out a secret that isn't really a secret and people being coerced to keep giving good ratings.

We have Scientology, where you also have some of the same coercive tactics, where people basically get brainwashed into saying that Scientology is wonderful. Trump's university's 98% approval ratings. I mean, when we read about... Is that true? They really do have that high approval rating? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Every single person stands behind that rating. So they have people watching them and calling them. We read stories of people who say that they're... they've been called every single day to change their rating. And finally, they say, fine, I'm going to, I'll change my rating to 100%. Now, you called them a psychopath. First of all, what is a psychopath? We all throw that term around.

I'd be hard pressed to define it right now. What is a psychopath? Well, there's actually a checklist. Here's psychopathy checklist. Well, I know you have a checklist for narcissistic personality. I have lots of checklists. Is that indifferent than a psychopath, narcissistic person? It is, but they actually both, both of those traits.

Yeah, there's a lot of overlap there. Because here are some of your narcissistic personality disorder. Exaggerated sense of self-importance. I don't see that in Donald. No, not at all. Not at all. Need for excessive admiration, again, coming up empty. Sense of entitlement.

Where are you getting this shit from? Lacking empathy? Ha, come on. Believing others to be envious of him. Arrogent, haughty, contemptuous behavior or attitude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

like he might be on the edge of that. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think it applies. But a lot of these actually overlap with psychopathy, like the lack of empathy, like the arrogance and putting down of other people. So he does this very funny thing, where to his voters,

he says really wonderful things to their face. And then behind their back, he says terrible things about the same groups, because he makes the same statement, but opposite ways, depending on who he's talking to. And so you end up seeing these two sides of him where the truth is a really fungible thing. And there's no such thing as absolute truth. The truth is just what's true in the moment to him.

And that's both a narcissist and a psychopath, and those are two of the dark triad of traits. The third is Machiavellianism. Yes. Okay. And I don't want to make you psychoanalyze someone you never met too much, but last week, before they had the nice debate this week, they had the nasty debate, and they were talking about their penis size.

They were. It seems like he also is a prime candidate for micro penis. You know, you know, I mean, somebody who's always, I'm the best, I'm the biggest, I got the greatest. I mean, isn't that obviously someone who does have a small penis? Well, I'm sure that Dr. Freud would have something to say about that. I'm sure there's a Napoleonic complex equivalence. She didn't answer the question. No, she did not.

And we'll never know. I mean, I wrote an editorial, I wish I had known about your book, about Trump called The Confidence Man about two months ago. But I do think he is a very skillful demagogue. And he's dangerous for that reason, honestly. And we all make fun of him. And I myself thought, oh, he can't sustain this. He'll fade.

It can't possibly work. But it has worked more than I would have thought. I feel like what's so dangerous about him is that we now have seen him for so many months and gotten so used to all this behavior, the incredibly ridiculous, and the insulting of everyone who looks at him the wrong way, that it's so baked in the cake now that he's a loon

that he could almost... There's nothing he can do that shocks us anymore or people don't go, oh, well, that's Donald Trump for you. Yeah, but I think in this Trump University, for example, I mean, only recently people actually start putting up ads criticizing Trump. The other candidates were idiotically attacking each other, the Jeb Bush Super PACs spent $20 million dollars attacking Marco Rubio

and Rubeo attack Cruz and they reached jockeying. I agree with that. I think when people, I don't know, I'm hopeful over this way. I mean, I think Trump University is particularly despicable because he's taking advantage of people who aren't very well off. I agree with you. I agree with you. I think we're credulous.

I mean, I do think when people see that, it's one thing to sort of cut good deals against other rich businessmen. If he takes advantage of them, tough, you know, they should watch out with these cells. But you're seeing this outrage because there's an exceptional frustration at the fact that the government accountability office, for example, will look at the Department of Defense, and over the last 20 years, $8 trillion is missing from their financials. That's $400 billion a year missing. We talk about Social Security being unfunded.

And which party wants to not look at that and just always says we need more defense? No, but at the same token, like when we're talking about Social Security expiring by 2029, that's $67 billion should make it funded. So this is $400 billion that we could get if we actually just audited this. McCarran-Fergusen Act, 1945. Insurance companies are exempt from antitrust regulations. They can collude together to set prices and share information. How many Democrats, how many Republicans have been in office since then?

Why is this still here? I looked at health care company shares from 2009 to today. Healthcare company insurance stocks are up 400% while the S&P is up 200%. This is a bull market. Why is this happening? Well, you're saying since Obamacare, this is what's going on. I'm just saying why do they get this? Why, okay, the reason-

They have to cut a deal with insurance companies. Exactly. We're cutting that deal. Because one party would not even consider the idea that we cut the profit motive out of people sick and dying. But let's... Which is what every other civilized country in the world does. But also, let me just make one point. Two points.

First of all, Donald Trump is not running on bringing in social security spending. He wants to actually keep social security spending at its current state, which is not a very Republican thing to do. But also, his rally goers aren't. mad because insurance profits are up. They're mad because they think brown people are coming over the Mexican border and they want a wall. That is the rallying cry. That is the rallying cry. Trade issue is what's resonating.

No, but I'm in middle class. All of his... Five million manufacturing jobs. That is what catapulting jobs are gone since 2000. This is resonating with Bernie supporters. This is resonating with Trump supporters. I know, no doubt. But they think it's because... And they're worried about cheap Mexican labor.

No, no. But Sanders and Trump clearly are. cheap Mexican labor because politicians are passing all these trade agreements that do nothing. I mean, we have $400 billion of trade deficits, and it's always sold to the people as it's going to create jobs. NAFTA did not create jobs. The WTO did not create jobs. The P, the... No, but NAFTA did prevent a lot of Mexicans from coming over the border because it created jobs down there. It created jobs in Mexico, and if you're a liberal and care about poor people around the world, you should be four more of the trade. India, China, Mexico. Understandably, these trade agreements have cut $1,800 a year from the United States.

I'm not saying these trade agreements aren't problematic. I'm just saying Trump's appeal is not necessarily meant. Let me, you're talking about economics now. The tech titans, you know this, met this week. You were there, right? It's an island off Georgia where you... It's a place called Sea Island. It's a nice resort.

It's called the AEI World Forum. Tim Cook was there, Apple, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt of Google, Sean Parker, Elon Musk. They were all there to talk about how to stop... They were there to give talks. I mean, this is really ridiculous. They would be very appalled. Well, that's what was.

was reported. A conservative conspiracy. I mean, it's a think tank. They have an annual conference. A lot of people come and speak, a lot of scholars. So you're denying that it was about stopping Donald Trump? Yeah, totally. It's scheduled a year ago.

I know, but what did they talk about? Why was Carl Rove and Mitch McConnell? No, no, they didn't mention it. Now, did some of the Republicans... They didn't mention it? The tech... Donald Trump's name didn't come up. No, I was at Eric...

I guess it's off the record, so I shouldn't say this, but I will say this. I don't know Eric Schmidt at all. He gave a very nice talk. He answered a million questions, and Trump never came up. He talked about Google. He talks about all that stuff. But in the halls and in the, you know, were people talking about Trump? Of course.

Of course they were. Okay. In the hall. No, seriously. What do you expect? Well, the idea that this is some conspiracy is. No, no, no. The meetings in the halls?

I'm just saying, it's interesting that this group, if I was getting a group of people together to stop an asteroid from hitting Earth, these are the people I would. Yeah, but these guys are Democrats mostly. Eric Smith can't stop Donald's a week. Oh, yeah, they're Democrats who make a lot of money. So let me. Clint Cook and Eric Schmidt are not part of the group. Republican effort to stop Trump. I would love it if they would help us stop.

Here's what Trump said. We're going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of other countries. I'm sure that went down very well with Tim Cook. It's incredibly disturbing. Tim Cook and Eric Schmidt are big Democrats. I mean, the headline. Very close to President Obama.

And they would not be part of a Republican effort today. And they sure don't want. They're probably shortling at the idea that Trump will be the Republican nominee because Hillary Clinton will win the last. So let me get this straight. The two biggest companies in America are commuting with the political party to try to push out who the people want. They're not colluding.

I wish they would collude with us and help us to save the Republican Party from Donald Trump. They only collude in the whole. If Eric Schmidt is watching right now, send a check to the Stop Trump effort. If any Republicans are watching this show, like scratch that. Vote for John Kasich in Ohio and Marco Rubio and Florida. Two media companies are meeting with a political party to determine who is going to be the next president. It's not just big business, it's media.

How inappropriate is that? Eric Schmidt supports Hillary Clinton. I know. I know. You know whose approval ratings are up? Obama. Yeah. Now that...

Now, I've said this before. The 22nd Amendment that allows the President only to have two terms is really a mercy rule for Republicans. Bill Clinton would definitely have gotten a third term and Obama. Don't you think if Obama was running against Donald Trump? I worry about Hillary running against... The one guy that put Trump in his place... Trump in his place was President Obama during the White House

Correspondents dinner during that infamous moment. But, you know, Bill's right that Donald Trump is probably a disaster for the Republican Party in the general election, but also these approval ratings that you're citing really are good news for Democrats, if you think about it. The approval rating of a sitting president going into a general election, if it's high generally bodes well for the party and power. I think Democrats are very...

I'm not so sure he's a disaster in the general election. I think Trump... Trump, Trump, Trump, the Democrats are talking about Trump, the Republicans are talking about Trump. You think Trump's a good general election? And you're talking about the rhythm that everyone's trying. Especially if there's a terrorist attack within two months of the election, then it's definitely going to be president of the total.

You want to stop Trump, you get Bernie. Bernie! Yeah. Well, okay, so let me ask this question. Now, it could be that Trump's voters are, his people are locked out because they are trying to stop him. If he doesn't arrive at the convention with a number of delegates, they're going to try to have somebody else.

And Bernie's people, Hillary's people, Hillary's probably going to get the nomination. They're pissed off. That's a lot of people on either side who are now disenfranchised and pissed off. Where do those people go? Michael Bloomberg. But here it is.

Someone as sensible as Michael Bloomberg. In a way, it's a tribute to the American political process that it's open enough. I mean, I don't like either Sanders or Trump. I think both to be terrible presidents. Well, they both get to run. Sanders is much better than anyone expected. Actually, the Sanders people are pissed off

because of the super deli. No, I agree with that. It's so funny because the... Well, that's right. The Democrats are not Democratic enough. Right. I agree. Republicans don't have super-deligan.

You wish it. They're the party that needs the secret delegates. I couldn't be more. Right. You need some people. And this is what the founders wanted. The founder's greatest fear was a Donald Trump. This is why they did not want mob rule.

That's right. Our cover this week is Alexander Hamilton, we're peeping over the prospect of Donald Trump. They hated the peak said that. It is good that Sanders gets to run against Clinton. I hope he beats her, but I don't think he will. I guess it's healthy. I do think it's healthy.

It is healthy that someone like Trump can make a case who's an outsider. It's not just a bunch of career politicians. But he, in particular, is a dangerous. But I agree, he in particular is a dangerous demagogue, and it's unfortunate that... Not just a demagogue in this country, but what happens the first week in office when he tweets that Angela Merkel is a fat pig? Because that's not a joke. He's going to do something like that.

It's kind of funny. His presidential squatter-counter account would be something. All right, I got to go. Thank you, panel. Donald Trump must have a little bit. admit he's not sharing his umbrella because he wants to see if rain mixed with Chris Christie creates gravy. Stop trying to make this a thing. Nintendo tried it and NASA and this loser and these schmocks and this asshole. It's like Marco Ruby over.

We're going to catch on it would have by now. And besides, there's a much cheaper device you place on your head to escape reality. Next time you wash the statue of David, don't make the water so cold. New Rule, everyone must come together to help the little guy. And by that, I mean generic sign man. I guess his childhood was okay, but his life hasn't been easy.

It's been a constant stream of slips, trips, electrocutions, choking, and getting hit with fallen objects. It's time for generic sign man to catch a break. meet a nice, generic girl, and settle down, have kids, and then get chased back to Mexico by Donald Trump. New Rule, Mitt Romney has to stop helping Marco Rubio. This picture doesn't say winners. It says scout leader and boy with a secret.

And finally, New Rule, Batman and Superman have to explain something to me. Why are you two fighting? You're supposed to work together. I saw it on my footy pajamas. It's unsettling to see two beloved mythical figures go at it. It's like watching Jesus beat up a unicorn. And I think the same thing when I see Democrats these days.

You two also need to work together so you can stop the greatest supervillain of all time. Orange Crush. Now, it was an exciting week for us left-leaders because with the win in Michigan, the Sanders campaign, which I have been saying, is offering America a new kind of deal has shown that Americans

are still considering that deal. But I feel I should say something about a growing movement called Bernie or bust, where Bernie supporters pledge that if it's Hillary, they'll stay home or vote for the Green Party. On their website, they say they're revolting against the plutocracy. No, actually, you'll be helping elect a plutocrat who's revolting. Elizabeth Warren recently disappointed Bernie,

supporters by staying neutral in the primary fight. No endorsement for either one. So thousands of Sanders fans hijacked her Facebook page and said things like, I'm disgusted by you. Why not just throw the whole country under the bus? It must be Carl Rove's money. And those were the early comments before the Red Bull kicked it. Really, Elizabeth Warren is the enemy now? She's helped more millennials than Adderall. And the Hillary camp does it too. In a race where no Republican candidate supports a woman's right to choose, and one of them calls women bimboes and pigs. You know who the real sex this is? Bernie. Bill Clinton accused his supporters of online sexism, which is pretty rich coming from a guy

who's been known to grab your tits in person. So while Bernie fans attack Hillary for not being liberal enough, and Hillary fans attack Bernie for not being feminist enough, Black Lives Matter is attacking them both for not being black enough. Even though they both have a 100% voter rating from the NAACP, as opposed to Trump, who gets five stars from the KKK. There are real enemies out there. Have you seen a Republican debate?

The zombies are in the mall. I'm telling you, this is going to be the death of liberals, this nitpicky, intramural attacking of friends for insufficient purity, compulsively cleaning up a little corner of the room that's already quite clean. Well, there are giant piles of shit everywhere else. Last year, a social justice warrior swarmed on Matt Damon for saying gay actors should not be defined by their sexuality,

which was interpreted as him saying gay actors should stay in the closet. The Daily Beast screamed, shut up, Matt Damon. Washington Post. He's got Damon spainting to do. And Vox said, Matt Damon isn't a terrible person. He's just ignorant.

Right. The real obstacle to gay is achieving equality is Matt Damon. In fact, he's such a homophobic. He fucked Liberace. Last year, Dulce and Gabana got their gay tit caught in the liberal ringer when they expressed one conservative view

on artificial insemination, and this week, oh, they fucked up again. But luckily, the brave virtual vigilantes of the internet were there to condemn these two evil old queens for get this crime, selling a shoe that they're calling a slave sandal. But look at it, it's a happy slave sandal.

Now, clearly, they should update the name and call it an intern sandal. But in this month, when we found out, that 20% of Trump voters believed that the end of slavery itself was a bad idea? This is what motivates you to write a scathing blog post, a thoughtlessly named shoe. Well, hold on to your hats, guys, because right now, I'm wearing black loafers. All right, that's our show. I'm at the Mirage in Vegas this weekend. March 12th and 13th, and I'm at the American Phoenix, April 10th.

I want to thank Sam Stein, Monica Mata, Bill Krista, Bill Krista, Maria Konnikova, and Jane Mayer. Join us on overtime for YouTube. I mean on YouTube for overtime. Thank you. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand.

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