Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #402 (Originally aired 08/05/16)

Episode Date: August 6, 2016

Overtime Episode #402 (Originally aired 08/05/16) - Bill and his roundtable guests Julian Assange, Jeff Ross, Rob Reiner, Rick Santorum and Tara Setmayer 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 Maher. All right. We are here back. Rick Centorum, how can you reassure evangelical voters that Donald Trump won't change positions again on issues like abortion? He has kind of flip-flop on that one. Look, I will tell you that I campaigned against Donald Trump in the primary, and he was all over the map. And here's what I believe. I believe that he is a Republican.

I believe that he has surrounded himself with Republicans on his campaign. I believe he's appointed people like Christy, like Pence, who are followed. He's only a recent Republican. I've got to admit that. How many Republicans do you know have given money to Democrats the way Donald Trump passed?

Terror will back this up. Personnel is policy. It's who you surround yourself with. Sure. It's who's going to, and Trump has been pretty clear. I mean, he's surrounding himself, his picks on the court. I mean, he's all in now. But he's all in. Not in his campaign, though.

His campaign has a bunch of Democrats. From Michael Cohen to Amorosa, there's not very many Republicans that he's surrounding himself with. Well, some of those are personal friends. And, you know, look. But even you can attest to this that a campaign is a microcosm of how you would govern. And this has been a disaster.

It's a disaster. It's a clown show every week. They don't know what they're doing. So that's a concern for me. With all due respect, this clown show beats 16 other folks, including you. including me, who had a lot, in many cases, a lot more money and a lot better staff and a lot better

organizations. But that's partially why, because there were 16. No, I disagree. Even when it got down to two or three. A lot of people have vanity campaigns. That works. I think this is the new normal. And I think the celebrityization of politics, I think you're making a good point.

The celebrity and the use of social media is transforming politics. And we better get, we better get our hands around it. What, Jeff Ross, you're always trying to make friends. always trying to bridge gas. I am. But I love about Jeff. Trump, there's no question he has momentum. I think civilization had a great run.

It's time to try something new. Terrible. Rob Reiner, is your upcoming biopic LBJ characterize him more or less favorably than other recent portrayals? Well, the last one was all the way. Well, I think what I tried to do is humanize him. This is the Woody Harrelson?

Yes, Woody Harrelson, who's absolutely brilliant in it. I mean, off the charts, brilliant. Yeah. You know, he's a very... He showed us the makeup. He showed us dancing, member on his phone? But he's a...

LBJ is a very complicated character, very complicated person. He was almost Shakespearean in a way. I mean, he was at odds with himself. He was very tremendously insecure and at the same time, tremendously effective as a legislator. So, you know,

Many people have said, if it had not been for the Vietnam War, he would have gone down as a great president when you think about the accomplishments he had with Medicare and the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and Medicaid and Head Start. I mean, he did... Not everyone is for those programs. No, no, I understand, but...

No. Did you... You say it like it's a universally accepted... I think people do like Medicare. Well, they do. Even the Republicans like Medicare. Yeah, but the war on poverty, a couple trillion dollars later, has been an ultimate...

failure and the whole thing about keeping... The war on poverty? Excuse me. The war on poverty has been a disaster. You're kidding? Have you been to any urban cities lately? Look at it. But... But brilliant. Look at the state of urban America today versus 50 years ago. And you tell me that the state of urban America today is better than it was 50 years ago. That's right. It's a disaster.

But Medicare was a big part of the war on poverty. War on poverty is an overarching name. And they're going broke. Wait a second. Before the war on poverty and Medicare, something like 28% of seniors lived in poverty. Now it's under 10. That's called a success. Except that it's going broke.

Except that you'll never see it. I'll never see it. It's going broke in like 2040. The idea of providing health care is one thing. The way it's provided is just... And what about the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act? Republicans, Republicans. And by the way, Republicans...

Republicans. No one is... That's true. That's true. And it turned the South. into Republicans. Sensible people on the left, by the way. I was 20 years after that. Sensible Democrats are for fixing it.

As I recall, President Obama wanted a grand bargain, and so did John Boehner. Who stopped it? On entitlement reform? The rednecks in your party. No, absolutely. The T-Port. John Boehner, excuse me, John Boehner and Barack Obama wanted to have a grand bargain a few years ago on this. Obama's the one who put entitlement reform on the table. for a little bit of tax

raising of the taxes? What did he propose? He proposed nothing. He put it on the table and said, oh, I'd do it, but he proposed nothing. Then why didn't Boehner want the deal? Look, we need to have entitlement reform. We need to have a bipartisan deal on that. But the president has to

lead, and he didn't. You know, you never give the other guy credit for anything. I give him credit when he leads. He didn't lead. Oh, please. Can I ask us a... Jeff, who would be your dream roast? That guy. Thank you. Come on.

Let's go. Who's going to bring the booties? What I'd like to understand is if you're both Republicans, help me understand how one can go for Trump and one couldn't. What's the one issue? What do you grab onto where that pushes you over to endorse them after being? Well, I'm not the one making excuses for him. She's a comment.

I understand. It's a little different. Right. So you feel beholden to the park. Well, no. No. No, no, not not at all. it is, but I mean, Rick has been

in the arena. Right. You know, sitting senator, two terms. Yeah, that's a little different than someone like you or me or Tara who just talks. Right, no, that's for now. I didn't just talk, though. I worked on Capitol Hill for many years and did many things that affected people's lives. No, I worked

for an office holder, but it affects people's lives. I mean, office holders don't do anything without their staff, so it's not like I haven't done anything. Yeah, I mean, it's a little different to hold the office. No, absolutely, because there is a certain, there's a lot of conflict. I have friends on Capitol Hill, other congressmen who are they're tormented over

this decision because they feel a certain obligation to the party and to their constituents who want to vote for this guy. But at some point you have to stand up like Adam Kinsinger just did and say, you know, I'm an American first and this is unacceptable and Donald Trump doesn't really represent

what we do. We would never put up with this. People are making excuses for Donald Trump that they would never allow a Democrat to get away with. I think that's hypocritical. Okay, let's get away from politics for our last question before our break. Olivia R. wants to know will Brazil be able to pull off the Rio Olympics without any major health or security event? Security event, maybe.

Health, I don't think so. I've got to say, what a shit? I mean, I remember reading about Brazil only a few years ago, like they were the new big boy country on the block. And now I read that they pour the sewage right into the water without treating it. You know, of the 50 cities, the most violent cities in the world, Brazil has 21 of them. 64,000 murders a year. How much did they pay the Olympic Committee to get the Olympics?

Because they never should have been, Rio never should have been selected. It was ridiculous. I mean, it was only a year after the selection that Brazil went into a major recession. It's corrupt. Their president is impeached, for goodness sakes. And people were rioting in the streets because of eminent domain. The Olympics come in, and they take people's houses, and they think they make all these promises.

But the people there are the ones suffering, too. Why are we giving it to countries that can't sustain it? It used to be when you got the Olympics. You got your shit together. Right. You know, it was like, this is our moment. The world's going to be looking at us. Well, now there's shit's in the water.

Good night, everybody. Thank you very much. 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.