Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime: Andrew Gillum, Sen. Jon Tester, John Heilemann, Jessica Yellin

Episode Date: March 16, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 3/15/19) 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. They must have done okay. All right, first of all, before we get to the cards, you just told me you went on Fox twice. I did. Okay, and that's great.

I did after I became the nominee for the same reason. Yeah. 67 counties in Florida, I know what you know. And I will tell you, I have my issues with whether or not they're like legit, legit news. Doesn't matter. But nonetheless, enough of the people in my state believe them to be, and therefore I wouldn't use it as a venue.

They're definitely not legit. news, but that's where people are watching. That's what matters. I mean, Bill Clinton started that back when he played the sax on Arsenio Hall. Remember, it was like, this is where the audience is. That's right. Obama went on every show. He went on crazy shows. Two ferns. And the lady with the crazy lips. I mean, he did a lot of crazy shows. Okay.

Are the competing wings of the Democratic Party as divided as they seem or is the rift exaggerated by the media? I think it's exaggerated. I mean, there's definitely different perspectives in the Senate caucus, for example, it goes all away from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin. But the Democrats have always been a big tent. We're always going to argue

about issues. But in the end, we always do the right thing for working families. And that's where comes back. When it comes to policy, they're actually pretty close. All the candidates want to expand health care. It's a question of how. They all want to address climate change, how fast. On guns, you can go down the list. But it's really

emphasis. Who's emphasizing what issues? And to what extent is the cultural cultural issues playing. And some of that is how you end up seeing who's a progressive, who's considered centrist. It's also how much they stick it to the establishment, and that's really about rhetoric and positioning.

I'm not sure the Democrats have always done the right thing for the working people. No, I mean, but for the most part, if you want to compare to the other side. But repealing Glass, Stiegel. Wasn't that Clinton? That wasn't that the working class? But you know what? If you look at, I think last week the Des Moines

Iowa Register came out, and said that 40% of folks who chose Bernie Sanders as their number one chose Joe Biden as the number two. And in reverse, 37% of Joe Biden number ones chose Sanders as a number two. So the white guys aren't having it so bad this time. That's true, too. I think it's as much, where the party's divided, I think, more than anything,

is like generational more than it is ideological now. And you see the temperamental difference between, you know, a Nancy Pelosi right now who says, hey, take impeachment off, the table, and Congress from the Taliban, who's like, just be impeached the motherfucker. The attitudeal differences between that younger crop of activists who've come in

just in this last wave and the older mainstream moderate, there's a big temperamental difference, and on things like impeachment, you can really see that difference. It's pretty significant. It was a wolf or barking in the audience. It's in tight. Don't tell me I didn't hear a wolf

bark in the ocean. But, you know, out here, coyotes, they get everywhere. I tell you. Anybody has a little dog. Keep it close to you because that wolf will get it. What do you think of the presidential candidate Pete? Oh, I can't.

Buttigieg. Thank you so much. Edge, edge. Edge, edge. Twitter will go nuts and like. We need a weird name this year. Buda, Budge. Budgegege.

I like Budapest, but Buttigieg. What do you think of President Candleet Pete's suggestion that Democrats pack the Supreme Court? That is what he is suggesting. Wow. FDR tried that. It didn't work so well. I don't know about that. I will say, as just the shout out to the courts.

And how would it work? I am here tonight with Norman Lear, founder of People to the American Way Foundation, legend. And a great deal, I don't know where you are, Norman, but a great deal of that work happens to be around the courts and making sure we get good justices there,

those who are not necessarily 100% in agreement with us every time, but are good judges. Do we know how this works? I mean, the Supreme Court does not have to be nine. We always used to think that, and then when they started fudging with it, we learned, oh, no, it couldn't be 15. It couldn't be four. How would you pack the court? You would have to pass a law to say there are now... It's a piece of legislation. It's that simple. It really is that simple? Wow.

It's a legislative change. I mean, I imagine this would be challenged in court, and so who knows what comes of it. But this is also one of the hallmarks of progressives versus moderates. Progressives are saying the system so having broken, we have to do radical things to take it. Yeah, it's really, yeah. I just, the training, I have, it's like 17 years ago. Good for you. But where does it stop? I mean, so we go from 9 to 15, and then the next 40 takes over in 15 to 27.

We're already halfway to a banana republic. We don't need to. Senator, how did you manage to survive the 28-18 midterms when many of your moderate colleagues lost their elections and Trump targeted you over and over? I mean, he was unrelenting. We talked about health care early. We went all over the state. I listened to people.

The ideas I thought were bona fide, whether they're for my party or not. We took back and tried to put them into effect, and we talked about that. And I had a pretty strong brand from a Montana perspective, and the guy I was ruined against it. So it was just hard work. It's the same way Gillum or anybody runs for office. You go out there and you bust it for as long. And I would imagine in Montana you feel like you're already five lengths behind your competition just because you have the D next to your name.

It is a bit of a badge of dishonor. Look, it's a red state. It'll tend to vote Republican if you don't give them a reason to vote Democrat. We gave a reason to vote Democrat. You got a third-term governor in his state who's also a third term in that red state who's a Democrat. Right. And I think it goes, actually interestingly goes back to this thing. You're talking about it with Hickenlooper earlier, right?

Which is what's so ridiculous about the Hickenlooper question is here's this multi-millionaire who made millions dollars by starting this Gru Pub Empire in Colorado. The guy's a capitalist in every bone in his body. Right. Right? You ask him the question, and he immediately goes into trying to figure out. I should say this, because if I say capitalist, I'm going to lose part of the party.

He's calculating and trying to figure it out. The reason Tester wins... Why don't you bring that up when I said it on the show? But the reason tester wins in Montana, if you go up and spend time with him, is that everybody in the state looks at him and goes, he's not a Democrat, it's not a Republican. He's Tester. We know that that guy is, and that's the same reason why the governor

their wins because there's authenticity to it. They're voting for him, not for the party label. Right. You're not authenticity. And if John brings up a very good point, if you're sitting there as a candidate thinking, gosh, well, how do I answer this question because it might cost me votes over here or there? You're going to lose. And I see that in a lot of Democrats

already. I don't see a big improvement in how they're running. But one last question. Montana, two senators, California, two senators. That's the way the forefathers geniusly thought it up. I like that. But we have like 40 million. people.

I know, but I've got a million marvelous people in the United States. All right. Thank you, everybody. I appreciate it. Catch 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.B.O.com.