Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #434: Web Censorship, Sanctuary Cities, Gavin 4 Prez

Episode Date: August 19, 2017

Bill Maher and his guests - Al Franken, Penn Jillette, Gavin Newsom, and Amy Holmes - answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/18/17) 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. Look where we are. Back on the air. Work, work, work. Are we on the interweb? Yes, we're on the interweb.

And we're going to ask the questions that I'm going to be the voice of the people. Should Internet hosting services and tech companies be cutting ties with white supremacist websites? Oh. or is that a First Amendment violation? Oh, that's an interesting question.

I mean, the ACLU supported the right of the... But they're not going to anymore. But they're not going to anymore. No, they just got out today. Right. They said if you have weapons

and you're hate... Exactly. I think there's a problem, though, and the Supreme Court has ruled on this, which is the difference between speech and speech that is immediately incited. So, Facebook, for example, has a responsibility to shut down, you know, ISIS, sites that are promoting terrorist attacks

and so forth? The government should do that. I don't know. I think we have to wait until they have, you know, I don't think that should be done right away and too easily. I'm kind of, I think that the solution to bad speech is more speech and I still believe. Oh, no, I agree with, certainly I agree with that. And I also, we want to know.

We want to know what the hate groups are thinking. But when you show up with torches and weapons, that does change. They were cheeking torches. It was just cosplay. They still had fuel. They still, you know, set on fire. Okay, Gavin...

I'm saying teaky torches don't burn. I wasn't making that statement. Do you support sanctuary cities to protect immigrants from deportation? Yes. There's a softball. Yeah, no, I mean, yeah. But I'll remind

folks, particularly in the other side of the political aisle, so did Rudy Giuliani. The fact is, sanctuary cities keep people safer, they keep people healthier, and they keep people educated. For three simple reasons. You're more likely to coordinate and collaborate with police as a victim of crime or as someone that was a witness of crime,

you're more likely to engage and sending your kids to school, drop them off, pick them up if you're not worried about the teacher being part of a deportation force. More likely to get an immunization shot if you're not worried about a nurse being part of a deportation force. The vast majority of cities and counties that are sanctuary counties are safer than non-cities in sanctuary counties. And so it is good, sound public policy.

It is. And that's why Democrats should stand up and stop capitulated. Those are the pragmatic arguments. There's also the moral arguments, which is we should let people into our country. Well, let people... I mean, that's much more important than it's better. Look, it's being conflated.

It's not a shield for criminal behavior, however. And that's where the line needs to be drawn. But, Gavin, that's where I would disagree with you, that there's also been research that finds that sanctuary cities act as a magnet that attract criminal illegals and say, if I move to that city, then I won't be facing these deportation. And certainly, Kate Steinley, from your city, and I know you can know this case well,

her family would say that the sanctuary status, they have said, the sanctuary status killed their daughter. Yeah, you've got to be very careful there. And let me just say this with respect. At the end of the day, sanctuary policy is nothing more than saying two things. One, the federal government's job is immigration policy. The federal government's job is the issue of immigration

from a deportation perspective, from an enforcement perspective. Local law enforcement's jobs to keep people safe, That's when local government has the right to do it. But ICE was asking local law enforcement that when you're letting these people out, let us know that we can move them up. By the way, as a mayor, we did that. Conservatives are not making the argument that nurses and teachers and people in this private space should be acting as deportation forces. I think that is not. I'm certainly not. Well, let me tell you, that's the problem here.

Who advocate that. I think that's an exaggeration that is meant to make the right as if we're jackbooted thugs, and that's not true. Okay. It's just, this is where this is complicated. Cities all across the country actually do coordinate with, with ICE. And ice has got back logs for decades. And so the fact is, that's not what the issue is about. The issue is about the fundamental framework of allowing local government the opportunity to choose its most effective public safety programs and not having a dictator the federal government to tell us how to do our job.

And that's why sanctuary policy. And we're a country of immigrants. I just want to say two things. One, I think it's very unfair that this side of the panel is much better looking than this side of the panel. I did my part. I'm less of a fat fuck than I was, but I can only go so far. Only do so much. You've got to do your part a little bit, hell. And you used to have longer hair.

Markle, yes. Why did you get your hair? Locks it long. Pursuant to our conversation about the Democrats winning elections. Yes. Could they get a Frank Luntz? Could they get somebody who would teach them

to name things better? Sanctuary cities. Yeah, it's not a great. Single payer. Yeah, could. Not helpful. People think, oh, that's going to be me. Global warming sounds nice. Jesus Christ, can we just name things better? Can we start with that? They did have someone. His name was Mark Penn. Sanctuary Cities is a horrible term.

Yeah, we used to be cities of refuge. Now it's sanctuary cities. I agree. We can find something better. It's not. How about the USA? The whole country should be a sanctuary. I'm so sick of this. Are you from France originally? Gillette? I'm a real mongrel, probably from Newfoundland, which is just a euphemism for stupid. But yeah, all those people up in the Frozen North

are club seals. Those are my people. Okay. I love Newfoundland, by the way. What did you think of Ray Moore getting more votes than Trump's candidate Luther Strange in the outside? Alabama Senate primary. I mean, that's really inside baseball, but Ray Moore was the, used to be the Supreme Court of Alabama judge who refused to move the Ten Commandments from outside the

court. Yeah, there's ideologues and then there's... Right. No, it actually was like a very sort of muddled case and that it's not really a test case for Trump versus the establishment, because both Trump and the establishment were supporting strange. I think Mitch McConnell put something like $15 million into his candidacy. And then the other guy won. One, on the strength of evangelical voters. So I don't think it really tells you very much about Republican politics, to be honest. All right.

One final thing, in case anyone on the panel is thinking of running for president. I just want to say, I just want to say, because you're running for governor. Yes. Yeah, in 2018. Okay.

So, so say your, you're, governor in 2018. Now this is the sixth biggest economy in the world, California. It is on its way to fifth. And it's, right, really? Okay. And we're sort of the leaders of the resistance and Trump is becoming less... It's probably be a pretty good platform if a person was thinking. I just want to say Chris Christie waited too long. Barack Obama, when he ran, they said, you're doing it too soon.

Always err on the side of doing it too soon. Because the more you wait, The more shit they are gonna just make up. Isn't that true? Chris Christie could have had the nomination. And he was like, no, I'll wait till next time. And next time was after Bridgegate. Right. And you remember Bill Clinton, he didn't wait his turn in 1992.

That's right. You don't wait your turn. If America has proven anything, they like a fresh face. Do it while your face is fresh. Make sure you get all your political advice of a Canadian. Make sure you do that. Oh, shut the fuck off. All right.

Thank you, everybody. Everybody. 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.