Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #393 (Originally aired 06/24/16)

Episode Date: June 25, 2016

Overtime – Episode #393 (Originally aired 06/24/16) - Bill and his roundtable guests Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Larry Wilmore, Paul Begala, Michael Steele and Betsy Woodruff answer fan questions from the latest show. 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 Marr. Okay, we're back here on whatever we're back on. Michael, should Republicans in down-ticket races embrace Trump or run away from him? And what they're going to do is they're going to assess likely to not be as close as they want or would be otherwise because of the baggage that he's bringing on immigration and a bunch of other issues. So yeah, I think you're going to see a lot of down-ballot candidates. you know, I would begin to see that say, you know what, I don't need to go to the convention, I don't need to have you come into the district, and we'll see how that plays out.

Paul Begala, should Hillary use Bill Moore as the campaign heats up, or is he too much of a liability? Now, he's a total asset, and I think you'll see him a lot, particularly in those Rust Belt states, where Trump is strong. His appeal, especially with, like, white working class guys, It's the heart of the Trump. They all voted for Bill Clinton 20 years ago. He can get a lot of them, at least talk to them, and try to get them off of their crazy. I want to see him out there a lot.

Yeah, but does Hillary? Sure. How is his health? I have to say, I'm concerned. He doesn't look good. Well, yeah, it's now years since he had the heart surgery, but he's doing great. He needs to eat a cheeseburger.

He's healthy and thin. Everybody mocked him when he was eating at McDonald's, and now they're mocking him because he only eats, you know, bean burritos or whatever. Right, because there's a happy medium. He's doing great. Okay. By the way, he should see his schedule.

He's always off to Africa, especially, where his foundation is saving millions of lives. He travels all the time. He just works his butt off. Okay, shoe, and I'm just going to call you shoe. Is that what, do people... Well, I'll take what I can get, but... Do people call you that?

No. No? But it seems like it's a short for Shuzza Cat. Don't get that one day, Bob. It's okay. If you saw how it was spelled, you'd feel sorry for me. It's not helpful to spell it.

At all. X-I-U-H-T-E-Z-C-A-T-L. Yeah, good luck with that. I think she's a good name. What can one person do to influence global climate policy? I'd like to think that there's more than one person that cares about influencing global climate policy. So I say get involved with people around you,

make a difference. It's about one of the greatest issues of our time, you know? So one person can get involved and connect with other people in their community to make a difference, get involved with politics, give it involved with business, get involved with science, whatever it is that you're passionate about. getting engaged with that to make a difference. That's what I gotta say.

Yeah. Man, how do we... A better question is, how do we clone more kids like you? Well, I think the good thing is that we don't have to because, at least in my personal experience, I've met millions of young people all over the world. Well, that might be an exaggeration.

I met a lot of young people all over the world that are already thinking the way that, you know, I've been thinking my entire life and are ready for change. They're ready for change. I mean, our voices have been systematically disempowered since the day that we're born, we're not going to make a difference until you graduate college and you get a career,

then you'll contribute to society. But the way that I see is we're one of the most powerful forces on the planet right now. We've got to use that. Yeah. But you just, no one would think this guy was 16, right? If you didn't know. Can I ask him a follow?

Remember when LeBron was first in the NBA? He was like, this guy's 32. He's kidding. He didn't just come out of high school. How are you dealing with the system? I mean, your passion and your energy is contagious. how is it being received by the system itself, whether it's at the local level, the state level,

the governments that are going to be making the policy? Exactly. So, I mean, working with the system because obviously if I just stood at the street with a sign and a bullhorn, like, where am I going to get? You know, that's part of it, but at the same time, that's why I'm in a federal lawsuit holding our federal government accountable for violating our constitutional right to a healthy atmosphere.

I'm working with the system on a legal level. I'm working on the system with a political level. I've been a voice for my generation at the United Nations. I'm on Bill Ma. Like, there's all these crazy things that have, happening, getting me in the mainstream, you know? Yeah. You talked with Bill earlier

about music art and culture and how that reaches your generation. Who's doing that right in your generation? Who's reaching your age cohort through music art and culture to make them care about the fact that the planet is on fire? Well, personally, I know a lot of artists that I listen to personally that are already on the right track. You know, my homie, Rory's in the audience, my friend Mustafa, they're in the audience, and they're here, and they're artists that are already thinking, how can we use this passion that we have, these talents that we have?

How can we get Kanye to know about this? I think there's a lot of other people we can focus on that aren't Kanye. They are more likely, you know? I love the crowd turning on Congress. Oh, disrespect. This is hysterical, aren't they? He's right, the shout out to Rory. I had him on my show.

He's amazing. Yeah, oh, hell yeah. It's awesome, man. But Kanye would be a tough one to turn around because he's very into materialism. Yeah. The bling is very important. Well, I mean, how do we make bling sustainable? Big part of rap culture.

Yeah, for sure. You know, it's hard to rap about not having... Yeah. Rap about heat. Warm weather. Larry, as someone with experience in sitcoms, late night, and sketch TV shows, which format offers the best opportunity for social criticism? Well, late night television for direct social criticism.

It's harder to do it in sitcoms. All in the family, it was... Oh, blackish, pretty... Blackish, we have done it. That was the show I was involved with, also. And from the beginning, we wanted that show to be a... a show about a black family where the Cosby Show, well, it's hard to mention a Cosby without going there. Why? What happened?

No, the Cosby Show. To what do you refer to? No, nothing, nothing at all. I didn't think so. But the Cosby Show was a show about a family that happened to be black, where Blackish was like, no, motherfuckers, we're black. Right. And that was the big difference, you know. So it was taking a race without apology, you know, and creating stories that are universal family stories without a

But it's harder to do that in sitcoms. I think the late-night format is the most direct way to do satire. Okay. Does Bernie saying he will vote for Hillary? That was news yesterday, have an impact on the Bernie voters who have yet to get behind the presumptive Democratic nominee. And it was a bit of a mixed message Bernie gave. I couldn't quite figure it out. He's staying in the race, but he's voting for not him.

He said this morning he's still running for president, but he will now be voting for himself. for president. So I imagine the Bernie Bros are a little baffled. I would find that perplexing. At this point, like, I just feel like people are kind of over the Bernie thing a little bit, maybe. We know Clinton's going to be the nominee. It's kind of done. I'm not sure. I mean, there's just so much the media tension has shifted completely away from his campaign. So instead of feeling the burn, you want you to sense the burn? Yeah, vibe burn. Imagine the burn. I'm very optimistic about this. We saw this with Hillary and Barack.

The most important thing is when it looked like Senator Obama was going to win, he pulled back and he told his team that. Let's stop attacking her. Let's give her the time and space to finish her race. If you watch, that's what Hillary did with Bernie, too. It's a sign of respect. But now they're going to have to come together. And they will. They really will. And as I said earlier, his voters have a smaller percentage of his voters today, say they'll never be for Hillary, than Hillary's voters said about Barack. The challenge will be to motivate them.

She got crushed with young people by Bernie. She's got to find a way to motivate them. She's got to get your slightly older, big brothers and sisters out. And he will be central to that. That's why her team is giving him all this time and space. And like, even though he didn't become our president, like, he stirred things up. You know, he really stirred things up, especially among a younger generation. And we'll never be able to forget that.

And we have to respect that. But the question is, can Hillary capture that kind of energy and sustain it? And that's something I just don't think she can because I don't think it's in her nature to be in that space that Bernie is. I mean, there's all this conversation running around. I completely disagree with that. You think so? I think it's a race between alien versus predator. I think...

I really do. And Hillary, that political machine, the Clintons, is a killing political machine. It is. Anything in its past... He knows better than... No, Hillary... Hillary Clinton should not be underestimated.

She's smart, she's competent. She knows exactly what she's doing. She'll feed her. But she, like Donald Trump, creates her own drag as well. And so the question going into the campaign when it begins in August is how much drag does she create, given all those variables with youth voting? She won't be seen as her drag.

I'm not taking away from anything that you just said, but I'm just, that's part of the... But her drag is all old drag. It's all stuff that's... Trump creates new drag every day. Exactly. I think part of the problem for Hillary is that all of her strengths are not things that translate into getting tons of, you know, 18 and a half-year-olds to show up at rallies. Hillary is really good at having a wonky, detailed conversation

about how to fix the opioid epidemic. But nobody's going to be like, hooray, gradual change as far as the student loan crisis. I can't wait for the tax code to be slightly tweaked. Yeah, I mean, people don't stand in line for hours for that stuff. But she has a secret weapon, Donald J. Trump. He's going to be the greatest turnout machine the Democrats have ever had.

And she also has President Obama, and she also has her other. But she's going to have a running mate soon. But she will be too. And so don't underestimate that either. Yes, but see, his voters, Donald Trump, voters, this is all they do is like bitch about their prostate and vote.

They're very loyal voters. Yeah, that's true. My people, they're hard to turn out. We need motivators. We need work. That's true. Or else it's going to be Brexit too. Yes. That's right. But that's why charismatic candidates work for Democrats more because they need to fall in love with people. Oh, the Messiah. Hope and change. Thank you. We don't need to love you. We just need you there.

That's one of Bill Clinton's laws. He always said, Democrats want to fall in love. Republicans just want to fall in line. Right. And they have fallen in line. They have led you there. They do. Who do you think our hope would be her V-P pick? If you could, like, have any ideal person you're watching? The problem is I think about the election, and it's a governing issue.

The vice president has never really mattered. Even Sarah Palin didn't tank McCain. Even Dan Quayle didn't tank George H.W. Bush. Even Lloyd Benson couldn't save Mike Dukakis. In my lifetime, I'm 55. I know that makes me ancient. In my lifetime, it's never been outcome determinative. So you should actually pick somebody who, God forbid, you die, could actually run the country.

percent of our presidents got there because the president died or resigned. So you've got to think about it that way. It can't just be, oh, who will help me carry, you know, Kentucky? That's what, I know her. I know her 25 years. She's sitting there saying, God forbid I die, who could take over? God willing, I live, who could be a governing partner the way I think Biden has been wonderfully for President Obama. And that's how you have to do that.

And who cannot suck all the oxygen out of the room. Like Elizabeth Warren. And that's why Elizabeth Warren won't be a ticket. I agree. I agree. I don't think that's a consideration about that. Well, that's why she won't be the best. Can I do a... Nobody wants to be the bride and have the bridesmaids deal all.

Correct, right. You know. It just isn't happening. That's why they dress the bridesmaids in shitty color. Also, if we're talking about Elizabeth Warren, so last week you were criticizing Republican Senate leaders for running into the elevators, you know, the morning after Trump says something stupid. Elizabeth Warren does that every day on Capitol.

Is that right? Yeah. Like, if you're a reporter and you're sticking out votes and you want to ask her, how are you voting? What's an important issue to you? I mean, it's like she sprinted. there's a staffer behind her, she automatically gets a phone call, like, oh, man, how convenient you get a phone call whenever a reporter walks up to you. And, like, I understand that Hill reporters are a little socially awkward and don't always have the best personal hygiene.

We're not terrible. And just seeing the fact that she just totally stiff-arms reporters and only wants to talk to them in, like, a TV setting, I find really troubling. And if I had anything to say about Hillary's V-Pick, I hope she picks somebody who doesn't treat journalists, you know. Hillary herself is not... Hillary has not had a press conference. Yeah, no kidding. But I don't... You know what?

I can't blame her. Because if she does, it would just be bullshit stupid questions. Yeah, but all these guys... From the bullshit media. But all these guys talk to reporters. Quaker talks to them. Tim Kaine talks to them.

Ted Cruz will talk to you for like half an hour. Of course. But every question is not going to be about emails and Benghazi and, you know, I don't... I mean, suck it up, you know. It's not that bad. Okay. Thank you very much, everybody.

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