Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #362 (Originally aired 8/28/15)

Episode Date: August 31, 2015

Overtime - Episode #362 (Originally aired 8/28/15)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 Maugh. Okay. All right, I'm surrounded by my... Keep your hands to yourself. Sorry. It was just platonic.

Rick Santorum, what are your thoughts on the Iran nuclear deal? I'm guessing you love it because it's Obama. Whatever he does, you're good one. Violated the first principle. You don't negotiate with terrorists. And we negotiated with a terrorist organization. Oh, Reagan, dude.

Well, you don't negotiate with... with terrorists. We didn't negotiate with terrorists. Isn't that your boyfriend? No. We didn't negotiate with terrorists. Reagan never negotiated. No. He didn't negotiate with terrorists. He didn't negotiate with terrorists.

What about Iran-Contra? That wasn't negotiating with terrorists? That was cutting a deal. Reagan negotiated with terrorists. He also cut and ran. When the bombing happened in Beirut in 83, George Bush, his vice president went over there and said, this will not stand or whatever, and then we cut and ran.

He was wrong. He was wrong. was wrong? Oh my God. Look, this was a relatively new threat way back then and radical Islam was on it was emergent during this time. And he had a different, he had a different fish to fry. He had the Soviet Union and he was trying to destroy it.

So the whole country of Iran has to be just terrorists. The whole country of Iran, all those 80 million. Look, it's not who the country is. It's who's running the country. And the people running the country is a death cult. They're a group of radical Muslims, Shia Islamists, who are more concerned about the hereafter than they are the here and now. We had any problem, Bill, with what the policy's been, over these all the years that we've been negotiating this rotten treaty, which is going to give the Mural regime $150 billion to spend on terrorism. All this time, we have hesitated to help the people of Iran fight this regime, which is what Reagan did.

Which is what Reagan did, doing what? In 2009, the Green Revolution occurred and the United States of America said nothing. He absolutely passed on doing anything to support. What would we be doing? Do you guys all the time say, Obama sucked at this, sucked at this. And then the next question, but what would you do differently? Let me be nothing. You never have anything you say that will be substantially different.

I don't do, look, look, look, how would you fight ISIS differently? What would you drop? I hear Ted Cruz say, I take them out, take them out. What does that mean? He's not allowing a answer for you in terms of. cutting and running from Beirut, which was the right thing to do. Ronald Reagan learned a lesson, and he started what they call the Reagan doctrine, which is helping people fight the tyrants who are the enemies of the United States.

ISIS is our enemy, right? Who's fighting ISIS? Iran. Who's fighting ISIS? Let me go back to Iran. The Mueller regime is a terrorist regime who represses their own people. There are any number of groups there we could have been supporting. It's the greatest point of terrorism.

But you guys would agree. that ISIS and Iran are the enemy, right? Great. They're both the enemy. So who's the worst enemy? Because I guess by the Reagan doctrine, we should be supporting the other. So if it's Iran, we should be supporting ISIS. Look, in the Middle East, you cannot I mean, we learn this

during the Iraq War. You cannot defeat Sunni jihadism without having Sunnis on side. I've done a lot of reporting on Syria for four years. I've seen the conspiracy theories devolved from a point of oh, you're backing Assad because you support Israel. Now, it is the United States prefers the

Shia, not just of Iraq, but also Iran. They want to work with the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which, by the way, Bill, has built sectarian militias in Syria that are burning people alive, just like ISIS. Again, we don't see it on the nightly news. Doesn't mean it's not taking place. We should not be supporting Iran. Sunnis in Iraq. That's the point he's making. We shouldn't be supporting Iran in anything. We particularly shouldn't be supporting Iran as they wage a sectarian war and try to create domination of the Shias. They're the only ones who are doing our dirty work against They're not doing the Germans. There are lots of groups in that area.

They can't fight against the Mueller regime like the radicals. Like the Kurds? Really? Like the Iraq? How about the Sunnis in the Anbar province? They used to be alive with us. How about them?

Where are they? Where are they? There's more Kurds in Iran than there are in Iraq. We could have helped any of these people. Instead we sign an agreement that legitimatizes these Mullahs who hate us. So what's going on with your marijuana? bill. Okay, thank you.

The, I am very proud that I know Rick disagrees to me totally on this, that we believe in states' rights, we believe in personal responsibility, believe in doctor-patient relationships, we believe in making sure that you have limited government and maximum of individual freedom. Well, that means that you should let people smoke marijuana if they want to. Here's the ticket, huh? It's called, do we believe in our fundamental principles? We've been talking about all these years, and I forced the issue. I'm very proud to say for the first time we got through the Congress bill that permits people at least to use medical marijuana if they're suffering, have a doctor be able to prescribe it,

in states where they have already legalized it. So my bill just said, if a state legalizes the medical use of marijuana, the federal government can't step in and supersede the state. You're my hero. Robert Costa, is it unfair of CNN and the Republican National Committee to exclude Carly Fiorina from their next debate? Are they really excluding her? Well, in a sense, the RNC has given up responsibility for choosing who's going to be on that debate stage.

They've allowed the networks to make the decision. So if someone came in second last time, like Senator Santorum, They can't even get on the main stage because the networks decide however they want to do it. The party has almost disappeared by polling, right? They do it by a polling. Didn't she rise in the polls? She did rise. She may make the second debate in Simi Valley.

She had a pretty solid showing, according to a lot of activists. So we'll see. I mean, she's someone, Carson, Trump, Fiorena, they're seen as outsiders. And this, in a lot of ways, whenever you travel around, you see this is the year of the outsider. People want that kind of person on the Republicans. It makes it hard, even if you have a blue collar message, you see the people. We must kill guys like you who know how government works when Donald Trump says things like, I would slap a 35% tax on Ford as if a president can unilaterally leverage attack.

Yeah, you're not the CEO of the country. It's crazy, right? I mean, it's drive you crazy to hear people. The answer is yes to your question. Yeah. It drives us crazy. Okay. Ten years after Hurricane, Katrina, are we any more prepared for a natural disaster of that,

magnitude. Well, I bet you we are to a certain degree. I mean, they did, they built up some levies there, didn't they? I'm hoping we ship, shit tons of money down there. I must have done something, right? Can't all be for beads. If you trust the government's going to be doing a good job, well, then you can trust the government to do that. But you do think the government has a role in disaster relief, don't you? Yes, I do. So FEMA, which didn't work well under Bush, seems to be working better under Obama.

I hope so. Well, good. Okay. Wendy, is the media tougher on female political candidates? I think there's a different standard for female political candidates. And I think my race certainly demonstrated that as a woman, a divorce woman with two children, I went through a very different type of scrutiny about that than a male. candidate would do. And I think it's part and parcel of what happens to women in politics. And when it

does happen, I think it's important that we call it for what it is, because a lot of times people respond to that. They don't even necessarily think consciously that they're responding to negative messaging that's succeeding in that way. And when you bring them present to it and they consider it, it really, I think, does make a powerful difference. And more women candidates need to call it for what it is. Okay. Is there any significance to Cornell West's endorsement of Bernie Sanders? Well, that was not hard to predict. But let me ask this about Bernie Sanders. I mean, he has huge crowds.

Huge crowds. The media doesn't cover that nearly the way they do Donald Trump. Also, I noticed all Republicans are able to dismiss Bernie Sanders with one word, socialist. Like, case closed. I don't have to argue anymore. He's a socialist. Social Security is socialism, but would you campaign against that? Well, I think Chris Matthews' question to Debbie Washington Schultz was really the operative question.

What's the difference between a socialist and a Democrat? And to this date, my understanding, she has not answered, even though she's been asked multiple times. And the truth is that the Democratic Party is basically a socialist party these days. Wait a second. To the left. America and every modern... You tell me the difference. What's the person, Democrat and a socialist?

Well, I wish the Democrats were socialists. Okay, well, okay. Tell me how they're not. Okay, I will. Tell me how they're not. Okay, but every... Wendy can... Every modern country is a quasi-socialist country, including the United States.

And again, you would not vote to repeal Social Security, would you? And if you wouldn't, then you are also quasi-socialists. No, just because the programs... Or the Veterans Administration. Just because the government does certain functions that we believe should be socialized, doesn't mean that we're a socialist. That's exactly what it means. No, it doesn't.

For example, I mean, the fact that we provide for a common defense and that we fund the defense brands, does that make it a socialist? Because the government is doing that, of course. You must be a military. When it becomes socialism, and the Republicans haven't reached that level, but to the degree that we support social. You know what's real socialism? is the fact that every year the Pentagon tells Congress not to build weapons.

They say, we don't need them, we can't use them, we literally have no place to put them, and Congress still makes them, because it's a jobs program in their district. That's socialism. I agree with that. That's a good kind of socialism because we're building a weapon. It's like corporate welfare. It's different standards that apply to corporations. Anytime you buy a weapon system that you don't absolutely need for the defense,

you're doing a disservice to the people. By the way, Bernie Sanders, we worked with Bernie. He was, he's a nice guy. He's more than a nice guy. He's a serious contender for the Democratic nomination. This guy is running a real campaign. Yes, he is. He's connected.

I have almost every college student I encounter is for Sanders. It's unbelievable. Let me ask him. What are the policy differences between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? It's about tone. What is the policy difference between Hillary Clinton? Name one difference between Hillary Clinton. That's one great thing about Bernie Sanders.

He's forced her to move to the left. One thing he's really pushing for is single-payer health care system. He's talking about that. But you know what? I think that he has helped make the Democratic candidates altogether a better group because he is speaking to something that is really in people's hearts and minds in this country. They are so frustrated with income inequality. They are so frustrated with wage stagnation.

They're so frustrated. You should listen to my speeches. Is that they can't afford to pay? Yeah, but you probably are advocating for an increase. We have a different solution. I actually have the sincerity factor, too. People actually believe Bernie Sanders will put a lot of these Wall Street Cooks in prison.

They don't believe it when Hillary Clinton says it. Yeah. Okay. That's all the time we have. Thank you, panel. You are very, very entertaining. I appreciate you coming out, audience. 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