Real Time with Bill Maher - Episode #386 (Originally aired 04/29/16)

Episode Date: April 30, 2016

Episode #386 (Originally aired 04/29/16) - Bill’s guests Wayne Pacelle, Thomas Frank, Kellyanne Conway, Mark Leibovich, Rob Reiner. 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-month series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Thank you so much. Thank you. I love you too. Thank you. Not running for anything there. I know. I get to go. That crowd is fire. I thank you very much. Yes. Yeah, point made. I know why you're happy, because Trump has left California, ladies and gentlemen. He was here in California. You can all tell your gardeners they can come out now.

Yeah, he was... I loved it. Donald Trump was in Orange County. It's like Chris Christie being in Fat City. It's wonderful, isn't it? Orange County, where Disneyland is, if you think you saw Donald Trump, but it might have been Mickey Mouse?

Um... Here's a difference. Both are comic book rodents. But Mickey has large hands. Trump was in Costa Mesa, and he was bragging about the size of the karate. He said, 31,000. Well, it turns out, not 31,000.

That's three times bigger than it really was. And Melania said, tell me about it. And, you know, Trump's always saying, Hispanics love me. Oh, boy, do they? They were throwing rocks. Did you see that? Flipping over cars, breaking windows.

Anything to get closer to him. But look, he appears unstoppable now. Not only did he win the five primaries on Tuesday on the East Coast, but he won big. And Hillary won four to the five pretty big, too. It looks pretty sure now. It's going to be Hillary

versus Donald Trump. That is your national election. On one side, a hysterical woman. And on the other side, Hillary Clinton. That came out. You see that? On his big victory net, he made a victory speech, and he couldn't help it to the end, getting it a shot.

And he said, Hillary's playing the woman card. He said, I got nothing against woman. Some, I assume, are good people. But he said, if she were a man, she wouldn't get 5% of the vote. And he said, the beautiful thing about Hillary is women don't like her. No, Don, women don't like you. They don't like you big time. Have you seen his numbers with women?

He's like menstrual cramps in a suit. And then to further prove how masculine he was this week, he made a big boy teleprompter speech about foreign policy. Did you see that? Where he said, we need to be more unpredictable. Oh, you mean like after 9-11 when we attack the wrong country? That kind of unpredictable? That good stuff.

And then... More foreign policy advice came from Bobby Knight. You know, he got the endorsement. Remember Bobby Knight, the coach from Indiana, got the endorsement on Bobby White, Knight, to make sure that he was locking up the old white full of rage vote. And Bobby Knight was saying,

Truman was a great president. He had the guts to drop the Adam bomb. And Trump would do the same. And Japan said, ready for Hillary? We're ready, Valerie. So now, so now it's really down to the state of Indiana.

They're the next primary. The last place where maybe people could stop Trump, Cruz has been trying. He's doing everything he possibly can. He started an alliance with John Kasich. It's just like a reality show. They're making alliances. It's true.

And then, because he placed last in four out of the five primaries on Tuesday, he picked a running. for a race he will not be running. Yes, Carly Fiorina. They had a big ceremony and Carly came up. It was like Hitler marrying Eva Braun in the bunker, except sad. And I'll just end with this.

In case you think that Donald Trump is a totally new phenomenon with the Republican Party, this week, Dennis Hastert, remember him? He was the Speaker of the House in the 90s when they impeach Clinton, all that. He was sentenced to jail, admitted he was. was a serial child molester. And as an indication where the moral compass of this Republican

party has been, Tom DeLay, remember him? Also served at the same time. Went to jail. Another fucking crook. Tom DeLay... Listen, after Hastert was sentenced, Tom DeLay said, we all have flaws, but Hastert has very few.

Yeah, just child molesting. It's not like he ever used the wrong email server, something horrible like that. So just remember, keep in mind, you know, the sane Republicans from the 90s, the order of succession on 9-11 was George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Dennis Hasterd. Brainless, heartless, and panceless.

It's so good to know that if something happened to the moron or the vampire, the child molester, was next in line. All right, we got a great show. Rob Reiner, Kelly Ann Conrad. and Mark Leibovic are here a little bit of early speaking with political analyst Thomas Frank, but first up he's

president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, an author of the Humane Economy, Wayne Paselli. Hey! How are you, Wayne? Always great to see you. Okay, so you know, I should have you on more often and more

animal people. I probably don't because this is the issue that you know I care about the most and I don't want to burden the audience. like with, oh, this is my issue, so I probably bend over backwards and not do it enough. But you're a great supporter. We appreciate it. Well, I love animals, and I'm not that crazy about people. And that's the thing.

And let's first talk. You think attitudes are changing with people? Because we see it in different areas, and people, of course, are going to get mad at me because I'm going to make a comparison now, but like gay people, atheists, transgender people. We've seen all these attitudes change.

Is it the same for animals? You know, as Bernie said... Can you get married now? There's a revolution happening on animals. Different sectors of the economy. The biggest food businesses in the U.S. are now starting to source products from places that don't

have factory farms where the cages and the crates are not confining the animals so they can't move. We had Ringling Brothers and SeaWorld, which I'm sure we're going to get into, also say they're going to make reforms. We've had cosmetic companies saying, no more animal testing. Hundreds of them. We've had

We had the outrage over Cecil the lion when that man killed Cecil. There was an outrage in social media. Four and five airlines said we're not going to ship any trophies of the Africa Big Five. So no lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, Kate Buf. So does that mean people will not be able to trophy hunt anyway? Because you know whose trophy hunters?

Is Donald Trump's? Yeah, the two sons. Two douchebag sons. There's one of the leopards. Fuck-face Trump. No, I mean... They can't do that anymore? Well, we got African lions listed as threatened and endangered,

so they're not going to be able to bring lions, and they did shoot leopards, but a number of countries have banned that. But it is astonishing that these two young men have used their wealth for that purpose. I mean, how selfish. Why are they going to Africa to help the elephants or help the people? I mean, Chelsea is actually involved in the anti-ivory trade campaign. So I've read that they got permits, though, because the country's there sell permits and say it's okay to shoot the older non-breeding males, which I take very personal. This is not a slippery slope we want to go down, Wayne.

It is ironic that the Safari Club, these guys are typically 60 years plus. I mean, the Trump boys are not. But so many of these guys say, oh, it's the older male, they're post-reproductive. It's fine to shoot them. I mean, there is an irony there. Let's get off this topic, shall we? So the book is called The Human Economy. You say there's 10 things people can do. Well, I mean, number one is vote with your dollars. You know, the biggest issue that we're all tied to with animals

is one that we don't like to confront that much. It's food. And, you know, I've been to these factory farms. I went to one factory farm in Iowa. That had 10 million hens. Each of the hens was in a small cage about the size of a large microwave. If there were seven or eight birds jammed in together, just like me and you and six other guys in a small elevator, they never get out.

We're so disconnected from the food supply, these things are happening to living, feeling, breathing creatures, and it's wrong. And what we did in California, which you were helpful on, is past Prop 2 to ban these cage confinement systems. Since that time, we've gotten 150 of the biggest food retailers in the country, Walmart, McDonald's, so many others saying, we're going to change our sourcing practices and not procure animal products from farms that confine the animals so severely. It's a big win. Okay, so what about

what about the sea world? Now, you put me in the middle of this big fight with PETA, because PETA, it kind of reminds me of Hillary and Bernie. Yeah. It kind of does. They're kind of the Bernie and you're kind of the Hillary. You know, they're saying you sold out. They're saying you didn't get enough

that when you said they were, You reform SeaWorld, that they are not reformed. They say, wait a second. And they say, you know, you should have asked for a lot more and that you are giving coverage to this disgusting company by going out with them and partnering with them. You would say what? Well, Pete is tough.

I mean, that's what Peter's going to say. And, you know, they take that posture. And we work more, I think, to try to find common ground with some of these companies. Not to say that PETA hasn't also done deals. But this was an incredible deal with SeaWorld. the activists who were really pushing SeaWorld, including us, I've been an adversary SeaWorld for 25 years. The debate was really about breeding of orchids at the one facility in San Diego. There was no comparable activity going on in Texas and Florida.

We got breeding banned for all of the SeaWorld facilities. None of the new facilities that SeaWorld is going to open internationally are going to have any orchids at all. They're going to put millions more into rescue and rehabilitation. They're going to join us in our anti-commercial whaling, anti-shark finning efforts. and they're even going to reform their food policies at the park saying only cage-free eggs, more plant-based options. So the C-Pen issue is one that is going to... C-Pen. Now, what is the C-Pen? C-Pen is what we supported, actually, in C-C-Po.

There was a whale that was... Free willy. Free willy. Right. He was in a horrible marine park in Mexico years ago, and folks rescued him. We were involved. C-Pen eventually was put in a C-Pen. He lived five years.

So C-Pen is a big... It's the actual ocean. Yeah, it's the ocean. With a netting, because they don't know how to survive anymore. Kako was a wild whale who was taken from the wild, and the thought was eventually let's connect him with his pod. It didn't happen. He wasn't a seapen.

He lived fine. He was released, and he went to people because he was used to people for so many years. He didn't find his pod. The sea world whales are principally animals who are born in captivity, so they're not candidates for release to the wild. It's like 29 of them. 29. They kind of remind me of the Gitmo prisoners.

We can't release them, and it's shitty to keep them where they are. And you know what, even the bigger irony is, we are killing the oceans. We're killing them so bad that nothing can be able to live out there. You're going to be begging sea world to take them back because they're going to die in the ocean. No, I hope that's not going to happen. But I mean, it's terrible. There's plastic. It's important before we run an attempt to make the point that animals and loving animals is completely tied to the environment.

If we don't have the environment, they can't live anywhere. No, and that's why we need everybody joining together with me and you and PETA and all the other folks who are working on this to protect them. We should, absolutely. Let's all get along. I mean, Japan is still engaging in commercial whaling. Canada has this horrific seal hunt, shark finning 70 million sharks killed. I mean, these are the big fights. Now, we want to continue to have that discussion with SeaWorld about the future of these whales,

but I want to celebrate the gains that we've made, and let's keep pushing forward. That's the goal of the humane economy. I appreciate so much what you're doing. Work it out with Peter. I hate to be in the middle. All right. Wayne Buceli, thank you. Let's meet our panel.

All right, he is the chief national correspondent for New York Times Magazine and author of this town, two parties and a funeral plus plenty of valet parking in America's gilded capital. Mark Leavovich, how you doing? Hi, Bill. Good to be here. All right, she's the president and CEO of the polling company

and president of Keep the Promise Pack, Kelly Ann Conway from Politically Incorrect Days. Yeah. And he is a big-time movie director. Oh, my God. To say the least, so many movies we all love, beginning with Spinal Tap, but not ending with it. One of the greatest of all time.

This new one is called Being Charlie. It opens May 6. Rob Reiner's over here. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Remember to send us your questions for tonight several times, so we can answer them after the show on YouTube.

Okay, it was a troubling week for the Republic, as Donald Trump won. Five northeastern states. This is my neck of the woods. New Jersey is where I'm from. And it was just, thank you. You know, I thought we were the smarter states, but I guess not. I don't know where to begin with this jackass, but let's start with what irked people the most, the comments about women. finally we have a candidate who is standing up to the scourge of reverse sexism,

which I think is great. He said that, what was it, that if Hillary was a man, she wouldn't get 5% of the vote. Tell me what is masculine about Donald Trump. Because I don't see... Kelly? I don't... I don't see anything masculine about this guy,

the most thin-skinned, erratic, non-logical, whiny person in the world. That's the old woman stereotype, not the president. But I don't see what is masculine about him. Maybe someone could inform me. Well, I don't pretend to be an expert on Donald Trump's masculinity, but let me try. I think obviously he's tapped into an angst of frustration. He's an outsider, and I support Senator Cruz, but I will say about Donald Trump and the so-called woman card against Hillary.

I think he's putting her on notice that you're not just going to see the women's vote, let alone so-called women's issues, because she's a woman. And he's putting her notice by basically saying to her, saying to her that, no, you're right. No, it's true. No, and it's... And it's true.

Why? Because while she was saying that, there was a two shot of the two of us, and I was going like this. That's what I was getting that. And, and, well, go ahead, right. No. All right, I see.

Not enough, Hillary Clinton, look, Hillary Clinton's having a hard time, Hillary Clinton's having a hard time getting these young women in the Democratic primaries. They're voting for Bernie Sanders. So why is that? If it were just as simple as I'm pro-choice or I'm for pay inequality, she'd be running away with the bill. She would be the nominee, and she would have been the nominee in 2008.

Again, Senator Obama, because 56 percent of the women. No, it's not working. And here's why. Women look at her and say, if you're going, you've improved your life. Hillary Clinton made more in a 25-minute speech to Wall Street than the average woman. I don't know what that has to do with. Because that's why they support Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton. They don't believe, she's a typical politician.

She has a lot of support her. But I just want to- We don't support Hillary Clinton and yet she's gotten five million, how many million more votes? Why is the nominee? Other than coming out- She wouldn't be the nominee. It's a long time because the young women don't like her. But how is it, other than coming out of the womb as a female,

how is she actually playing the woman card? What, should she come out? I don't think she's- is at all. I mean, look, she happens to be a woman. I don't know. I mean, so Donald Trump, I mean, there's all this criticism she got in 2008. Oh, she lost because she didn't run as a woman. I'm like, what? I mean, Mark Penn, like, ran her as a man, as a strong man. I never got that at all. I mean, look, she's a woman. We get it. I mean, Barack Obama was a black guy. We get it. I mean, Donald Trump is a rich businessman. Like, you know. Rich idiot is.

A rich, you could say a rich idiot. You can say a rich idiot. Look, look, here's the thing. We got Donald Trump. Here's Donald Trump. Everything he says, virtually everything that comes out of his mouth is moronic. Be... To the instant. And I was talking to Kelly... But he's authentic. He is authentically moronic.

Yes. I was talking to Kelly about this backstage. If anybody who wasn't a celebrity and didn't have his name on things said any of the things that he says, you'd walk past him. What if he was a woman? What if he was a woman?

This... This complete lack of self-awareness. Right. That if he was a woman and he had said all the shit he said, he would be out of the race six months ago, or a black guy. If he was a woman, he'd be Carly Thiery. Well, you know what? He actually, that's not fair.

That is fair. That's not fair to Carly. And let me just say this about... I still have small hands, too. Very small hands. Who Carly does? No, no, but Donald Crumpfrey. If you were a woman would still have small hands.

But, Phil, back to your question. How does she run as a woman? She's up there every time. You look at the splits. She is a woman. No, Bernie, you did say, other than coming out of the womb as a woman, how does she play the woman? She does. She does. Okay, she says, make history with me, first female president of United States. A lot of women aren't meeting that clarin call. And let me just say,

when you see the split screen, Bernie Sanders signed say, a future we can believe in, that's inspirational and, and her says, fighting for us. And then she goes up there and says, fighting for her. She's praying for Bernie Sanders. They always love the person who isn't running. Yes. Benghazi was all Obama's fault until the election was over it. Suddenly was all his fault.

Now they like Obama again because he can't run again, and Hillary's the devil. No, she's not the devil. She's just a very weak candidate that half of the country doesn't trust. Why isn't she the nominee? Why is she losing?

She is the nominee. Bernie Sanders, you heard it here first. Hillary Clinton is a nominee, and the millions of people who supported you don't matter. No, that's not true. You know what? That's not true.

You're playing a weak hand. Now. How? Because you're trying to pretend that you're with Bernie Sanders. No, I'm trying, no. I like direct democracy. I like the fact that he's called out Hillary Clinton as a typical politician who has improved her lot and not that of women over 30 years been publicly. You like the liberal who lost.

That's who you like. Right. I like, I don't think he's a loser. I like them too. But you know what? Now that the thing is almost settled, millennials especially who I read all the time are not going to. They won't. They're not going to stay home.

They won't. You know what? focus. That's what the Adderall is for. We're going to make a little bet. We're going to make a little bet and we're going to have dinner. You say she's a weak candidate, and I'm sitting here telling you

that if it's her and Donald Trump, it's going to be a landslop. Okay, that is a very dangerous thing to say. I would have... Wait, why is it dangerous? Because I'm going to lose a dinner. Because they'll still fucking stay home now. No, no, no, no. They're going to come out of

You know what? It is not going to be a landslide. Anything can happen in this stupid country. The voters are ignorant. You need to come out. Don't think it's going to be a landslide. No, no, they're going to come out because Donald Trump is going to be on the top of the other ticket. Where has the record turnout been in the primaries on the Republican side? People standing in line for hours. They start in line in Brooklyn, the Democratic primary because they have referred to. Hillary's gotten more votes than anybody. And she might be a weak candidate. That's a fact. Correct. But there are.

more people voting in the Democratic primaries. I'm saying on the Republican side, there were 10, 15 candidates bill, and people were record numbers in Iowa. I never thought I'd be saying this, but let's talk about Donald Trump's foreign policy. Or lack of. And then we're going to get punky Brewster on gun control.

Okay. But he made his big foreign policy speech used to teleprompter, which he doesn't usually do, because he doesn't want to alienate the base by reading. So... He likes the... poorly educated. He loves the poorly educated.

I love the... I love what he said that. I love the poor educated. But the theme was America first, because it fits on a hat. He's... Now, they basically loaded all the things Republicans always say

about killing foreigners into a teleprompter, and he read it. The greatest hits list of bullshit. We have less ships than in World War I, and he bows to... This bullshit. I love this one. He was... We're not respected because Obama was

not greeted at the airport in Cuba. He didn't have an airport greeter. Yeah, and you know what? Obama's a man. So he just goes, I don't give a shit. Whereas this fucking bitch would... What's astounding to me

is they talked about it as being he's going to be presidential. He's going to read off a teleprompter. He's going to deliver a foreign policy speech. It was the same crap as when he doesn't read off a teleprompter. But it's... Why do they have to put that on the teleprompter? But the media is so stupid, though, because they said,

oh, we're looking for the Trump pivot. Look, he's reading from a teleprompter. He must be pivoting. He's presidential. Let's take him more seriously now. I mean, how's, I mean, that's, to me, the beginning of him and the media, by extension, treating much of the electorate like idiots.

Well, let me give you his quote. He gave about a month ago when they was asked about the nuclear situation and turning over the codes. He said, I'm speaking. Who his foreign policy advisor was? He said, I'm speaking with myself. number one because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things and he has a lot of good words he has a lot of good words I have said a lot of things you know

he has the best words yeah he has the best words so I mean I think the speech bomb because people don't like to see him doing scripted drama they like the improv comedy right absolutely well it's reality show I mean we were in the Kardashianization of America right now and it doesn't it matter? I mean, you've got a guy who's a, you know, a famous guy, so just put him out there and whatever he says. And the media only cares about him. Listen, I mean, he's gold for you guys. You can do a whole monologue with him. But it's... But I'm not a news channel. No, no, you're not. That's what I'm saying. If we're going to talk about the media...

Your entertainment, yes. I mean, like MSNBC, which I normally like as a channel, but they spend all day long telling you how stupid Donald Trump is and how he shouldn't be president, except when he's speaking. Right. And then they have to show you every word like he's the emperor. I was at my hook. It is disgusting. Because it's money. It's all about money. I've said this before. People say we've got to get the money out of politics.

We've got to get the money out of the news. News, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. It started in 19, in the late 60s, when 60 minutes came on the air and they realized that there could be a profit center in news. All of a sudden, it slowly has evolved to this, where it's just show business. But it's a print journalist, too, which aren't profitable. They are obsessed. I see them after these debates in the spin room.

And I said to one, I mean, there's six deep bill waiting to see Donald Trump, who was just on the debate stage, even when there were 15 other candidates. And I said to one, didn't you win a Pulitzer Prize? Like, don't you at least feel a little cheap for yourself that you're in a line, five deep to see Donald Trump who you just saw on the debate stage? You're 15 other candidates. Yes, the answer, well, first of all, as a print journalist, I can actually, you know, I'm in favor of more money being pumped into print journalism, and specifically me.

But I would say, look, I got into my hotel. a few hours ago, I turned on MSNBC. It was a big breaking news thing? I'm like, oh, was there like an earthquake or a shooting or something? No, Donald Trump had arrived in San Francisco. Right. That is breaking news by these standards. So, look, I mean, I think we need to get the money out of the media that much.

I think we need to get the idiocy out of the media. Here, just this 20. Thanks, Ryan. Oh, wow. Because you need it. Dinner better be better than that. He said he wanted more money. So I got a whole dinner.

You got a dinner out of this? Let me just say what? I took it back. I'm not touching that. One more thing. He does not react to, well, any facts, but certainly, you know, people who are good at making judgments that we can respect, especially in foreign affairs, react to what's happening now. Things change.

ISIS. He talks about it like nothing has changed since we hadn't rolled them back. I don't know if people read these news stories, but ISIS has been rolled back. It's not the threat it was. I think we took 40% of their territory. They're going to take back the city of Mosul. They took back many... They're looking at...

But most Americans don't believe that. And politicians... Most Americans do not believe what you just said. They don't even know it. What do you mean, believe it? What they know, what they say... They never heard it. Now, what they say...

Especially the Fox News viewers, because it would be something that Obama would have to get credit for. And we can't have that on Fox News. No, their idea of ISIS is very simple. Americans' idea of ISIS is very simple. Beheadings on their computer screen. San Bernardino. I know.

I know. But here's the deal. So when they hear it's being rolled back and then another terrorist they don't see it that. So it's okay to bomb their families? I didn't say that. That's what Tom and Trump said.

What I'm saying is, this is the way Americans look at it. Except that things don't happen overnight. No drama, Obama. He just did it slowly, incrementally. He tried not to kill as many civilians as possible. And it's working.

That's why they're laughing at us. That's why they're laughing. I love that. Yeah. They're laughing. Trump, they're laughing at us. So they're laughing at him. Yeah.

Okay. So last week I held up this magazine. This is a real magazine, Us Weekly, 25 things you don't know about me. By the way, I read this every way. I read all the tabloids. It's my guilty pleasure. I admit this freely. I need to know who wore it best.

Who wore it best? I want to know if stars are just like us. Are they? They are. They actually turned out they are. So then we said all the candidates were asking for equal time. and Ted Cruz we did last week. This week we're going to do Bernie Sanders.

25 things you don't know about me, Bernie Sanders. For example, I'm the only candidate who uses a typewriter to tweet. I cried when the Brooklyn Dodgers left Brooklyn, which was embarrassing since I was 68. I'm known for having what my wife

calls resting kvetch face. I love Kevin Hart, very funny in Beverly Hills Cop. Yeah, I know, because he doesn't black people. Smacking me on the back releases a dust cloud. Jake O'Vara used to wear a t-shirt with me on it. I combed my hair with a balloon. I got to think for a second.

The whole time I marched with Dr. King, he thought, I thought I was Ockconny. A year ago, I was screaming at kids to get off my lawn. Now, 20,000 show up every time I make a speech. How about that? All right, let's bring out Thomas. He is an author whose latest book is Listen, Liberal, or whatever happened to the Party of the People.

Thomas Frank is over here. Thomas, how are you, sir? Great to see you. All right. So Thomas Frank, you are known to the public. the guy who wrote, What's the Matter with Kansas, where you took on the Republicans, and especially the Republican voters,

you said they vote against their economic interests because they're fooled by these wedge issues. Now you're going after the Democrats. Exactly, yeah. Don't you think it's about time? I do it all the time here, and I take the booze. Because they boo you for it. Will they?

Let's try it out. They're going to boo you right now. Go ahead. Shit on the liberals. Go ahead. See how you like it. All right. What the book is about is basically that the Democrats aren't who we think they are.

You think they're the party of the people, the party of the workers, the party of labor, they aren't. Boo. Ooh. Yeah, you're right. So who are there? Who are there? Who are there? Well, you talk about the liberalism of the rich, which is an interesting concept.

It's a party of the white collar professional class. I call them kale eaters. Kale eaters. That's good. And that's a great shorthand answer. But you wonder about why. My parents didn't eat kale. It didn't even exist.

And they were dyed in the wool. We had it in Kansas. Well, really? Back then? Yeah. Well, we didn't have it in New Jersey. And like, they were... I don't think you have it there.

Yet now, I don't think it's in New Jersey. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, you do. But they were real Democrats. But they were a very different breed than these kind of Democrats. Absolutely. But today's breed, it's, you know, these Ivy League guys doing favors for other Ivy League guys.

Look at the Obama administration, the revolving door with Wall Street. Look at the Clinton administration. same kind of thing. And if it's not Wall Street, it's Silicon Valley, it's Big Pharma. So, yeah, it's a liberalism of the rich. This is a liberalism of the winners, of the new economy winners. The people who are left behind, of course,

organized labor, working people. These white working class, people have abandoned the Democratic Party for a long time. Going back to Reagan Democrats, I read that 50,000 Democrats switched over to vote for Trump in Pennsylvania. Yeah, it's, it's

It's been going on for a long time since the early seven days. We have someone here who could tell us all about it in the earliest days. Classic TV. I played a liberal on television. No, no, but you remember this. I mean, this is, yeah, of course. This has been going on for a very long time. And it was actually done in a kind of deliberate way back in the McGovern days in the early 1970s

during the Vietnam War that organized. labor was kind of removed from its structural position within the Democratic Party. And then it's gathered strength and gathered speed ever since then. Today it's basically... I feel liberals just got lazy. I feel they got... It's so... The bar to be smarter than a Republican is so low.

And it's so easy to do. That is for sure. You know? That is for sure. That they got lazy. And they made it all about these silly little wedge issues, which, I mean, some of them matter. But they don't... But I understand why...

These people who are so smart, they fuck up again and again and again. I'm talking about the Democrats here. They can never see it coming, right? It always is a completely blindsides them. You know, what's the matter with Kansas? I wrote that 12 years ago. It goes on and on and on to this day. Well, again, the Republicans are stupider because...

They're what happened. They elected... But they elected... Kansas elected Sam Brownback. Oh, yeah. This is a guy... By the way, I met him finally. Who tried to put in...

He was trickle-down economics, which is funneling more money to the rich, which was discredited many, many years ago. And, of course, it tanked the economy, and he got a second term. So sometimes you just got to look at the voters and go, I can't help you. Fair enough, fair enough. And they deserve all of that. They deserve all of that. But what concerns me in this book, I mean, the folly of the ignorant is sort of what's the matter with Kansas is about.

This is about the folly of the highly educated. the folly of the Ivy League set. And these people are just as foolish and have made even bigger blunders in some ways and really do not give a damn about average working class American. Nothing stupider than an intellectual, I agree. So listen to this.

The kind of wedge issue that used to work on the Kansas voter, as we might call them, is sort of in the news now because of this where transgender people can go to the bathroom. Oh, God. thing that's taken over the country. Ted Cruz is literally making his last stand on this issue.

He talks about it every day. He said, Donald Trump is calling for grown men to be allowed to use little girls' public restrooms. As the dad of young daughters, I dread what this will mean for our daughters. It is a reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones.

This is the kind of shit that used to work. And I feel like it's not working anymore because these Republican voters, the Trump people, they feel like they've been used economically by the Jeff Bush issues of, you know, we're going to bring back corporate taxes from overseas. Like, who gets a shit?

And this shit. They know they have been played before, and they caught up to it. That's an excellent point. But what's the matter with Kansas was, that was 2004 when that came out. We've had, since then, we've had this, you know, global economic catastrophe,

you know, this recession that for a lot of people has never ended. Scandal after scandal after scandal on Wall Street. These people are looking at a Republican Party. You know, they've been voting for these guys for decades now or years anyway. The party's done absolutely nothing for them. And Trump at least talks a good game on one or two issues, you know, that seems like trade. Trade. Trade. Trade. And have you seen what he says about negotiating with Big Pharma for Medicare? Have you seen what he says about the military industrial complex? So does Hillary talk about that.

about negotiating with Big Farm. Your book should be what's still wrong with Kansas. Really? I mean... No, it's not just Kansas. No, no, it's not just Kansas. I read that so many times. I mean, come on.

Look at the situation that we're in. It's not Sam Brownback that bailed out Wall Street. Sam Brownback has his problems, and I've criticized his... You know this. Right. I mean... But Sam Brownback isn't the one that got the tarp through Congress. Sam Brownback isn't the one that let, you know,

the robo-signing thing go by, the LIBOR scandal, and never prosecuted anybody on Wall Street? That was Democrats. Well, no, the tarp was brought up by Paulson. Paulson and Bush pushed the tar. Sure, sure, sure. Sure, sure. Hey, look, President Obama could easily have unwound

the bailouts of these banks if he wanted to. He could have easily fired the top management of every Wall Street bank completely within his authority. He could have prosecuted these guys. You're sounding like the exact Democrat who makes people's eyes glaze over right now. You're actually doing what you're saying. I'm a happy. I'm a happy little. I'm

I'm the happy look. I need to get job. So I read a really interesting article in New York magazine this week about how Trump, apropos to this, instead of hiring pollsters and consultants and the usual hacks, here's how he organized his campaign.

He had three people sit in a room and listen to talk radio. Right-wing hate radio. Find out what is riling up the rubs, and they are rubs. And it was, Mexicans coming into this country, are jobs going overseas, Common Core.

Like Donald Trump doesn't know what... He doesn't know what it is. But he knows he hates it. He hates it. He hates it. He hates it. Because this is what was going in. And that's brilliant. Well, maybe people should learn what Common Core is.

Maybe as the mother of four small children in the public schools in New Jersey, where we grew up, where you grew up, Bill. Maybe people should know that it's not right for the federal government to take over local education. Thank you. No, maybe people should know what it is.

But listen, calling millions of people, Rooves, I think, is really unfortunate and goes to the point of your book, which I very much appreciate. you writing. I mean, instead, look, attack Donald Trump as you all want to, but let's study why the people feel that they have a home in what he's saying on trade, on wages and workers. Look, there's a lot of... Wait a minute, wait a minute. You've got the same disenfranchised people at the Bernie Sanders campaign, you know. There's a lot of people that are going there because they feel

like they've been left out of the economy. The only difference between... They're not for Hillary. No, no. The only difference between the two of them, there's a racist element in the Trump part. You don't see that kind of racism with like Sanders' contact. No, you don't. First of all, I'm not going to, I'm not going to bandy those words around. However, I will say that

let's have a serious conversation, let's connect it all together now. Why are people at Bernie Sanders rallies? Why are people supporting Donald Trump? Why did Tom Frank write this book? Because people who are non-college educated feel left behind. In focus groups, men say I'm getting screwed. Women say we're struggling. They're saying the same things and people aren't listening.

Can I go back to Roobes? This is the same problem I have with talking about religion. If you criticize it, then somehow you're a meanie who's being mean to people who aren't that bright. But if you go through what actually is in religion, they're not that bright. And it's the same thing with people who

vote based on things that are not factual. Facts don't even get in the bubble. I mean, Donald Trump is out they're talking about how we have to stop Mexicans from pouring over the bill. Well, net immigration has been zero from Mexico for the last eight years. Once our economy went to shit in 2008, Mexicans went, thank you. We don't need to come here. So the whole thing is based on something that is not factual.

So I'm sorry if I call someone who doesn't use facts a room. But what word would you like? No, no, no, no. Do you need a college education? No. You don't. And you don't need a college education and want to support you. your family either. I think, notwithstanding what he's saying, Bill, there are people in this

country who are struggling, and they're still struggling, and it's a bipartisan affliction. And they, and they are talking about wages and workers. Why do you think he was struggling? Why do you think that's a stylistic thing. I think whether Donald Trump supporters are rubs or not, I think, you know, underpinning all of this is political correctness. I mean, I hate to throw up cliche in air. But there's a thrilling thing about Donald Trump saying, you know, sounding authentic, whatever the stupid word you want to put on it is. But look, he's different. Hillary Clinton is not different.

Jeb Bush is not different. I mean, he gets a lot of points for this. I mean, I think the real populism in this country, oh, it's like it's pitchforks. It's not pitchforks. He's a celebrity and he's interesting and he's made himself interesting over many years. He might be appealing to roobes.

He might himself be a rube, but that itself is, I think, the basis of a lot of his support and why it's a bit of a wild cart in November. Sanders also authentic. This is one of the things that it's so appealing to his voters. Sanders seems like the real deal. You think Trump is authentic? I do. I mean, authentic, right?

But authenticity is like this is... I do. I think he's authentic. Yes, I think he's actually a douchebag from Queens. I think he believes what he thinks. Very awesome. And you know what? Let me say you something.

I am, as I said before, and you grew up on the East Coast before you moved to Calais. Okay. All right, I know this guy. I know this East Coast guy. who says, I'm going to get you a great deal. I know a guy who knows a guy who's going to get you a great deal. He just took this national. He took that character, which is such an East Coast thing that we know,

and he took it national, and they've never seen it before. And they are going to be so disappointed when he can't get you a great deal. That's exactly who he is. No, that's exactly right. And I don't know what people think is going to happen. I mean, I don't know who you're for. I know you're for Cruz. They like the unpredictability of Trump.

And I think that people who say that Hillary's going to win in the landslide just have to be careful because the whole thing's been so unpredictable from the beginning with him. As you very astutely pointed out, Bill, he had 50,000 Democrats switch over just to vote for him in Pennsylvania. Just like Sanders does well in the open primaries on the left, Trump has done very well in the open primaries on the right because they get these independents and the opposite party people to vote for them. But I just, I prefer to study the voters rather than criticize them. It's like, what is motivating them? Yes, let's talk about that.

What is motivating? What motivates 30,000 people to show up for Bernie Sanders rally? Yeah, why are they so upset about the economy that's left them behind? Why is that? They're upset for many reasons. They feel like the jobs have been shipped overseas. Why? They feel like wages have been stagnant for 30 years.

Many reasons. It's a bipartisan. You're going to think it's a partisan problem. Exactly. I'm saying it's a bipartisan. Washington has earned their iron. We have to accept the fact that there's a new global economy and that there is new manufacturing jobs to be had here. That can't be our source which are infrastructure jobs and a green economy.

Those are the jobs we have to promote. You have not these jobs that have been overseas, they're never coming back. Right, that's right. But if you're 45 years old and you don't have a college degree, are you just going to go back to college now? to college now. Everybody's going to move to North Dakota and learn how to fracture high, you know, national gas. Not everybody's going to do that.

So what do we do for these people? They're frustrated. Okay, well, this gets back to your point. I was going to ask you this. You talk about the Democrats abandoning the white working glass worker. Okay, but in those days, the white working glass worker were in manufacturing. We're not a manufacturing base.

We are a service-based economy, which is much more what the Democratic base is now. And they are more likely to be women workers. That's why the Democrats appeal to... But there are millions of jobs available if we are willing to go into a green economy and build our infrastructure. Of course.

And there's millions of jobs there. That's all very true. He put it forward. The Republicans didn't... They asked for the infrastructure and then they pulled the Republicans out of it. A lot of people have nostalgia for what you just described, the manufacturing economy when people had good jobs. But what they...

I mean, and, you know, look at happy days or something like this. Look at one of these little TV shows about the, you know, the good old days. You're obsessed with these 70s TV. I am. I am. All in the family, happy days. Are you? Good time.

What they're actually nostalgic for, and this is interesting, is the relations of power in those days. It's not that it's not like that we were building 57 Chevys or something like that, although those were awesome cars. It's that people could negotiate with management, okay? that people had a say in the conditions of their own employment, and that is what's gone. And by the way, you talk about globalization. This is a subject that I did a lot of research on for the book. And one of the things that I learned, and this is fascinating,

is that you could write, I mean, we say globalization, right, as though God came down and gave us NAFTA. But what I learned is that, in fact, NAFTA was written by lobbyists, and that you could write a trade agreement that would screw any occupational group in this country, and you could write one that would, benefit any occupational group in this country. And it's easy to do.

I mean, I could do it. It's not hard. But you let lobbyists go right, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. You let lobbyists write NAFTA, and they're going to figure out a way to get what they want. Let me go back a little further with TV. Ronald Reagan did his show from this studio. Did you know that?

GE Theater? Well, we also did all in the family in this theater. You did? Yeah, right here? Right here. This Carol Burnett, so much is it. Do you think Archie Bunker would be a Trump voter? Pretty sure.

No kidding. You think? Some tweens, too. Yes. Duh. Okay. So, but it's funny because Trump and Ronald Reagan both made their names being TV characters, basically. Reagan was on GE Theater from 1954.

And then he was the governor of California. Yes, okay. That was a big job. But I'm just saying, here's the difference. Reagan, when he was on GE Theater, the character he was playing was, I'm part of the company. I'm one of you. When Trump was on. on TV and he wasn't part of the

company. He wasn't one of you. He was the guy who said, you're fired. Get on your knees and bow to me. That's, I think, the difference between where the Republican Party was in Ronald Reagan's Day and where it is now. You're talking about rudes. You talk about irony. I mean, like, that a working class movement

would be, you know, would be rallying around a guy who goes on TV and fires people. Right, exactly. Why is he a hero among people? I just don't understand that. I don't understand why they see Ms. Masclan. I don't They do. They see him as very tough. They say it's fearless and peerless,

and they see him built. Because they're rubes and they're fooled. Says things they would never fear, and if he ever became president, they would be so disappointed. They would hate him more than I've hated anybody who ever disappointed them before, because it would be government by snit. This guy would get nothing done.

It would all be about settling scores with people who opposed him. And online trolls. He would do it off. Very authentically. Constantly trying to refute the college kids in a dorm somewhere. that are tweeting something mean about him, you know.

Exactly. All right. We have to leave it there. It's time for new rules, everybody. New rule. Oh, yeah, that's right, Playa. You get you some. Look, I don't know what's going on here, but we sure have come a long way from this.

New Rule, Gary Marshall has to admit that Mother's Day, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day. are all the same movie. The one I'm waiting for is Election Day, where Anne Hathaway and Kate Beckinsale are both in love with Channing Tatum until they see the back of his car. There are all the British judge

who wants to euthanize. This dog, just because its owner died and the starving dog ate the owner, has to explain what else the dog was supposed to do, call dominoes? I'm sure he didn't want to eat his owner, but let's be honest, if Timmy and Lasty both fell down the well...

New Rule, now that Ted Cruz, while speaking in the famous gym from Hoosiers, referred to the hoop as the basketball ring. He has to release the Ted Cruz glossary of sports terms, including the ice rake, the catchminton, the hand cozy, and of course, the funny hat they made me wear in high school. New rules since the current bestseller list now includes books called

Go the Fuck to Sleep, Calm the Fuck Down, Memos to Shitty People, and I am sick of this shit. someone has to write a cookbook called Eat Shit and Die. And then a Christian sequel, Eat Shit, Die, Go to Heaven, come back and eat more shit. And finally, new rule before Americans can laugh at how pathetic Cubans are for driving those old, patched-up cars instead of getting new ones. We have to explain why that's what we're doing with our health care system, our voting system, our energy policy, and our infrastructure. Now, with apologies to my friend Jay Leno, I am not a car guy.

I don't know shit about them. They all look alike to me. I don't know who makes what, and I don't care. But I know if this video was taken recently, it must be from Cuba. And the reason for the time warp is that these cars are the same ones Cuba had back when America imposed its embargo. And so their cars are stuck forever in 1959,

and the Cubans are forced to make the best with what little they have. Like what Trump does with his hair. But in the case of the plucky Cubans, it means endlessly patching up their old DeSotos and Edzels with whatever they can scrounge, old tractor parts, chicken wire, the bones of prostitutes Rush Limbaugh killed on vacation. Oh, Jesus.

Jesus. Oh, jeez. The horn on this Buick Roadmaster is provided by squeezing a monkey's ball. So I get why they do this. What I want to know is, what's our excuse? Why does America address so many of its

problems by jerry-rigging the old instead of starting fresh with something new? Why don't we put in completely new, state-of-the-art water pipes? Instead of just patching up the old ones from 100 years ago when we thought lead was a vitamin. Same with roads and

bridges. Chris Christie once held traffic on the George Washington Bridge. I'm not sure the George Washington Bridge could hold up Chris Christie. And driving a 59 Chevy may be embarrassing, but when it comes to elections, we're still trying to keep

the 1787 model on the road. And that model runs on gerrymandering and the Electoral College, so of course it runs like shit. We're still using this thing. and signing this thing, which always makes me feel like I'm checking

into the Bates Motel. How come the NSA can turn on the camera in my laptop and watch me while it reads my email, but I need to show ID to vote? Why can't I just say, Hi, government, you probably don't recognize me in my clothes, but I'd like to vote. And the next time we fix the health care system,

let's not. Let's make a brand new one, instead of cobbling together some Rube Goldberg monstrosity of exchanges and tax credits and insurance industry concessions. Obamacare? It should be called McGivercare. The president has said that he would have preferred a single-payer system if we were starting from scratch. So let's start from scratch. I don't get it.

Americans throw out their old smartphone every six months like it has cooties. We think nothing of getting new hips, new knees, new livers, new wives. But we can't tear ourselves away from sucking oil out of the ground and burning it or cutting off the tops of mountains. What, no whale oil? Let's switch to solar and wind by actually switching. We're killing the planet. If someone is stabbing you, you don't look for ways to build on the existing stabbing. while gradually shifting to a less stab-based system.

One reason young people are attracted to Bernie is because they haven't accepted that things can never change, that the only car you'll ever know is a rusty old piece of shit, and your choices are learned to love it or walk. I'm just saying it's been a while since we had that new country smell. All right, that's our show. I'll be at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, July 8th, in the uptown in Kansas City, August 7.

I want to thank Mark Lieberovich. Kelly Ann Conway, Rob Reiter, Thomas Rank, and Wayne Faselli. Join us now for overtime on YouTube. Thank you. Watch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.