Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #346 (Originally aired 3/13/15)

Episode Date: March 16, 2015

Overtime - Episode #346 (Originally aired 3/13/15)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 Maher. We are on the internet. Have we counted out Joe Biden as a candidate too early, David F. asks. That laughs, that so much, Cheryl. Is he counted out?

Because, you know. Because he's... But, you know what? Let me ask this hypothetical. What if, like Whitewater, the nothing scandal turns into the something scandal and that it's too late

and Jim got the Democrats have nobody else. The one they would turn to would be Joe. Even if the nothing scandal doesn't turn into anything. The bottom line is that nobody can consider Hillary inevitable. I mean the idea of inevitability should have

gone out of the window in 2008 when she was inevitable but then she wasn't because Obama happened. So who knows what's going to happen? I actually think Democrats would probably look more closely at Jim West. He's a war hero. He, especially with national security,

probably going to be looking like a more of a 2016 big issue than it wasn't 12. I think, you know, he's from Virginia, which are blue, you know, purple state. I think he potentially could be, and he's announced that he's, you know, really exploring it. So it would be interesting to see what happened. I find it a little bit strange that normally some in the press who you might think would be coming to Hillary Clinton's rescue right now and saying some of the things that you said that maybe the email thing is not such a big deal, have latched on to it and really taken a... grip and taken a hold of it? You're surprised at that? I am. Some of the liberal media have done it.

First of all, I don't know where you're getting this from that the media is liberal. The media could give a shit about liberal or conservative. What the media loves is scandal and bullshit. They're like their own grand scandal. So the idea that they would ever take a pass on Hillary Clinton when they could... I worked in the media, so I'm just telling you sometimes from the inside there are considerations like that. And I'm telling you from one who watched it. Well, you could have the different opinion, but it makes me think that there are people out there who are looking for a different idea and a different plan and would like to see something else come along. I don't know what. Yeah. Well, I'm one of them. What about you? Absolutely. Who do you want? Everybody should be out wanting a real great...

Are you ready for Hillary, Ariana? I'm actually waiting to see what Herman Kahn does. Herman Kaine? Yes, Herman Kaine. You know, it's like, and then I will decide. There is surprising. We're always breaking news here on. There has not been a Sherman-esque, no. Herman Kane has not said I'm definitely not running.

Until I hear that, just waiting. So you think the last time he was just warming up? Yeah. That, you know, sometimes you need one under your belt. It's like a starter marriage. Exactly. Got to get one under your... What would you know about that?

When is your starter marriage going to happen? Exactly. Always trying to get... How did I bring... How did this moment happen? She takes it as a personal failure. Exactly. But I don't have six children now.

She really does. I'm going to be the godmother. Right. Well. And I'm going to be the godfather. All right. You two. What can you tell us about the legislation you worked on with Senator Gillibrand?

Well, first of all, we're working on... She's on the military, right? She's doing the military. She did the Military Justice Act, and right now we're working on a bill about college sexual assault. which would really flip the incentives for colleges to actually report crimes and do right by their students. But the interesting thing, too, is we have a bipartisan bill, which is, you know, very rare these days. You have Marco Rubio standing next to Kirsten Gillibray.

And Lindsay Graham. Which is, Lindsay Graham. Again, amazing. So a little bit of the specifics giving the Department of Education the power to find, making schools have biannual surveys. So we actually have better data so we can improve policy. Yeah, and also requiring universities to have a confidential advisor on campus. Oftentimes students have no idea what their options are. They kind of tell them they can't go to the police who doesn't count.

They tell them that they have no rights to actually go through adjudication procedure. It's kind of like, well, you should just never talk about it. Who tells them they can't go to the police? Sometimes it's a really awful dean. Sometimes it's the professor. Sometimes it's just the guy who doesn't want you to out his fraternity. It's so disappointing. I know there's so many dumb things that come.

go on on campuses. I've been reading instances we're talking about political correctness where they just go nuts. Like I think it's Mount Holyoke. They won't, they don't, they get rid of the vagina monologues they were performing because they said it wasn't fair to all women because transgendered women, you know. What about women who don't have vaginas? They deserve a monologue. I mean, that kind of crazy shit. And then they allow actual brutal rapes to happen. It just seems so ass backwards. Well, it's because nothing happens

if a rape happens on campus. I mean, and then the worst that could happen is a Department of Education says, never do it again. Yeah. And, well, that happened to Florida State in 2010, and look what happened in 2013. You know, it also was really eye-opening in your movie is that when you were talking about the

Florida State, is that Florida State quarterback, James Winston, who was accused of rape. He was being defended by girls too. It's not like there was any solidarity there. They were like, hey, no, he's the quarterback of the football team. We got to get this bitch to shut up.

I think that just goes to show. You have athletes who are idolized, who are gods walking around as 18, 19-year-old kids on campus who are in four, you know, by the school, by their fans, by, you know, alumni who come to those games, and they're never held

accountable. If you're making money for the school, if you're winning football games, then who cares what you do off the field? And so I think But it's disappointing that the young girls themselves, who could have been the victim, are not on your side. It's disappointing that anybody would do that, I think, too. Okay. Cheryl, how would you characterize your relationship between Obama and the press right now? The relationship is very strained, and I think if you ask...

Is it not with every president? Somewhat, but I would say more so, and I think that's been expressed explicitly in letters and interviews by reporters from the New York Times, Washington, Post USA Today, Washington Correspondents Association, White House Photographers Association. They have said in many different ways that this is the least transparent and open administration that they've dealt with, and many of them have been in the business longer than I have. But it's what they care about. I mean, to get back to this, Hillary Clinton, the day she made her comments about the email scandal, she was talking about women's issues, right? Wasn't that what the press conference was supposed to be about?

20 years ago she was in China saying women's rights are human rights and humans' rights are women's rights. And we haven't talked about this, but around the world, the UN just released a report that said one in three women around the world experienced some sort of violence, either sexual harassment, rape, violence, murder. And some of it codified by the religions and countries in which they live? Not one member of the press asked one question. It was all about email.

What was on your server? Why didn't you use? So they don't care. They're not liberal. They're just jackals. But to your question, just of openness, I would say that universally, each administration, from my viewpoint, I've only covered three, has been worse than the last in terms of lack of transparency. I feel like the federal bureaucracy tends to want to covet information and keep it from us. And that's why the press and others are supposed to make a balance.

and this one has picked up and stepped up from where the last one was, I believe. And the next one will. Just a couple of examples, you know, the way they've handled whistleblowers and also what's happening with detention centers. There are 200 immigration detention centers in America, which have become like Gullex. You can't get information. Families can't get information.

This administration has deported more immigrants than Bush. So, you know, there is a lot wrong. And so the fact that they didn't ask Hillary the right questions doesn't justify what the Obama administration is doing when it comes to transparency. Okay. What does it mean that Boko Haram is joining ISIS? Ah, yes. Boca Haram a couple of days ago told ISIS they want to get hitched and ISIS thought it over and the wedding is going to take place. Now they're going to, it's like the bachelor. It's really very romantic. Is this kind of coalition building, making them more dangerous?

Well, yeah, of course. I had a piece on this earlier this week, and the problem that you have is the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria's a guy called Abu Baku Shaka Chaka, who is basically a psychopath. And I don't use that as a kind of flippant line. One of the things Boko Haram is known for is leveling villages, but they also like to go to student dormitories, lock the kids in there, set it on fire, any kids who escape through windows, then get caught by end, and they'll slit their throats. So it's the counterpoint to ISIS.

The problem is, with joining, it's about the metastasis of Salafi jihadism, which is the particular brand of Islam. They both subscribe to. And the Islamic State, the kind of narrative that it's been able to survive and that it's expanding is deeply appealing to people.

Tom, Tom. It's violent extremism. There's no Islam involved with it. They're literally uncomfortable about that. It's Salafi jihadism. It's a specific, you look at the tenets. Believe me, I know. All right.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. 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.com.