Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #421: Intel, Private Prisons, North Korea

Episode Date: April 8, 2017

Bill and his guests - Jelani Cobb, Chelsea Handler, Ted Lieu, Evan McMullin, and Ana Navarro - answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 4/7/17) 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, we're on YouTube. What should the intelligence community have told the people before the election? Well, you should answer that. You were in it. Well, I think that it would have been nice, of course, to have a little bit of information earlier ahead of the election

about what the Russians were doing. I'll tell you that a lot of it was happening wide open. A lot of it was happening on RT America, which is their propaganda. channel in the United States. So it was barely hidden. Even the hacks were designed, I think, to be discovered right away. So it would have been nice to have

known a little bit earlier. We knew in October, where the intelligence organizations told us in October, but some of our leaders knew ahead of time were suspected and I think we could have known more. The answer is very simple. They should have told us that both campaigns were under FBI investigation. Not just one.

They were going on since July. It's not inexplicable. Sorry. You're from the CIA. What is taking so long for all of this Russia information to come out? This dossier that's everyone's talking about. Why is it taking so long? Well, I think because they're trying to find real evidence. Yeah, I would say that this is a very complicated thing to map out

because there's so much to discover, which is bad news for the president. So I expect this to take, it may take a year or more before we really have an answer from the FBI. Speaking of things that are taking a long time. What about the IRS audits? How long is that going to go on for? I mean, I've been audited. It didn't take forever. It got over at a certain point.

Where is the IRS audit? The FBI's doing it. Do you have any authority to... So in Congress... We keep introducing what it's called resolutions of inquiry that force votes through having released us tax returns. Republicans always vote known we fail. But what about the IRS themselves?

What is their statement about this? I mean, first of all, Was there ever really an audit? Can we get that? We don't know. And they won't tell you? They won't. The IRS won't say that.

They're now allowed to, according to them. Well, and the new IRS commissioner is going to be appointed by Donald Trump, so I'm sure the president's going to say, listen, I don't want to take advantage of being president. Don't put me in front of everybody else. You know, let me weigh in the back of the line of the audit team. I'm good with that. I mean, I would never say...

Damn it. We're like fucking Charlie Brown. We're always losing. I would like... We're just always... Is he saying he's being... audited, they can at least corroborate that. They can say, if he's lying, they can say, no,

you're actually not being audited. It's not like they're giving away, he's already declared that he's being audited. And whether he's being audited or not, it doesn't mean he can't release his tax returns. Let's be clear about that. And the other thing is that he could, he's not being, he's not already being audited for last year's tax returns, or what about these? So as soon

as we get to tax day, let's have him release. But that is his excuse, audit. It is, but it's... So at a certain point, doesn't that become ridiculous? I mean, how long do you... We're past that point. We're past that point. In addition to the audit thing, they also said people don't care.

This is what he said in 2016. Which is not true. People don't really care about this. Unfortunately, he was able to put together a preponderance of the electorate that didn't. I think that's the bigger issue. I think that's the thing that we should be really scared of. America votes again a year and a half. So if you care, vote.

And that's why cruise missiles are such a great distraction. You think Susan Rice is a good distraction? try blowing some shit up. Especially in a country where you have no pending hotel deals. Yes. Right. There's no hotels in Syria with Trump Nama. Do you find Chelsea the criticisms of Kellyanne's posture in the Oval Office sexist?

Oh, when she was sitting on the couch, is that mean? No, I find that pretty specific to her. That's fair. Evan, are you going to run for Orrin Hatch's Senate seat in 2018? in Utah. We'll see. I think I'll pursue public office again, but I do not know yet when or what? What was the upshot

from you running against Donald Trump there? Do they hold that against you since they went for him? Well, I think it's, I mean, it depends on who you asked. Some people are happy about it. Others obviously supported Donald Trump. Some of those who supported Donald Trump did so because they thought I couldn't win and they

bit their... But he seems like... Donald Trump seems like the anti- Mitt Romney. I mean, Mitt Romney had sex with the same woman quietly in the dark, decade after me. Well, I can tell you that Mitt Romney remains very popular in Utah. I'm sure he is because... And Donald Trump is nowhere near that popular. Right, I'm just saying.

And Mitt Romney may run for the U.S. Senate in Utah. And even though he was one of Donald Trump's strongest critics during the campaign, I don't think they're going to hold it against him in Utah. Okay. Jolani, what's the historical context of fake news and Trump's abuse of the media? Oh, God. No, let's ask. You know, I got a better question for you.

What's the consequence of privatizing prisons? Yes, there we go. Because that's another thing they did this week or recently, and like it gets lost in the swarm of bees. Right. I mean, so just really quickly on the first question, there's a connection between Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump. And you look at their relationships to the media. They're strikingly similar. I actually wrote about this a while back.

They also shared the common thread of Roy Cohn, which people have seen what Roy Cohn was and the type of figure he was. But the thing that Joe McCarthy figured out in the 1950s was that he could lie. And if he lied kind of exponentially and people could only fact check arithmetically, he would get much more misinformation out

than people could ever correct. Hitler said that. He said people believe about it. He said people believe a big life, more than a small life. Right, right. And this is the same sort of philosophy, the same sort of kind of blueprint that they run on. In terms of the other thing about privatizing prisons,

it's pretty straightforward. When you give people a profit motive, they're going to pursue a profit motive. Yes. And so it's not unrelated. We have the largest incarcerated population in the Western world. It's not unrelated to the fact that people can actually make money on putting people in prison.

And they do. Very straightforward. And they contribute. Yeah. It's horrible. Anna, do you think the Republican leadership is due for a shake-up? Paul Ryan, as mentioned. Look, I think what you saw this week, Nunes, leaving.

By the way, what I wanted to tell you is it's not Nunez. He's not Latino. He's Portuguese. It's Nunes. He's making that clear. But I think what happens this week is a little bit... Is it something... He's not one of me.

They're... Look, I'll... I think what happens is a little bit of... this week with newness, is self-preservation by the Republican leadership. They realized that America is pissed off at an investigation that has no credibility at a guy that had become the water boy

for the White House that didn't know whether his allegiance was to an investigation or to the president, and they were hearing from it. I think that... I'm a high school picture says at all. I mean, what a fucking mess. Right. What a loser.

I assure you, Americans were calling their Congress people, including Republicans, and saying, you know what? We can't vote against Nunes, but we'll vote against you. Tell Paul Ryan. That's what happened this week. Do you really want a picture of you in 1991? I can picture it.

I don't want mine up there. It's not as bad as that, the guy. Chelsea, any reflections on Don Rickles? Yes, the world lost. Don Rickles. What about you? Any reflections for you? I mean, I love Don Rickles.

I remember Don Rickles on the Tonight Show when I was a kid. It was one of the things that would make the whole family Don Rickles is on. We'd all come down, we'd all watch it. I mean, there was something amazing about him. Because, first of all, it was not stale. It was right off the cuff. You never knew what he was going to say.

He didn't know what he was going to say. And he got away with it, you know. And no, I think he was a great comedian. He was one of my favorites. What should the U.S. posture be toward North Korea? Yeah, well, you know, Trump this week said, if China's not going to take care of it, we will. That made me shit my pants, Congress.

That's a bad idea. That's a, yeah. Syria doesn't have nuclear weapons. North Korea does. We can't launch 59 cruise missiles. But what if they have a weapon that could reach, because it's us. That's who it would be reaching here, the West Coast. Now I want my congressman to maybe, me.

So this is what we shouldn't do. We shouldn't do what Rex Tillerson did, which was issue a three sentence statement. We're not talking anymore. we need to engage, we need to get other countries engaged, and that's how we solve our career. But that's been going on for 25 years, and it doesn't really do anything because that guy is a bigger nut than our guy.

And, I mean, Trump is not wrong, that it is, China is the one place that can solve this. Yes, that is correct. Yes. So how do we get them to do that? Not by issuing statements saying we're not talking about calling them motherfuckers in a speech. Remember when Trump did that when he called China motherfuckers? and we still elected him.

People, it's just amazing. And the Chinese president is meeting with him this weekend. That was the one thing we hadn't tried, Bill. That was the one thing we hadn't tried. Can you imagine how all these world leaders must feel when they're lying over? Oh, they're just like... Angela Merkel's like, oh, fuck, I'm going to see this guy. Oh, my God.

What is this mental patient going to say to me? This person who's defiling the White House? Oh, Jesus. I mean, they brought everyone. went to such a new low. I know. Well, thank God, only another seven years. Thank you very much, everybody.

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