Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #435: Gerrymandering, Voter ID, Presidential Pardons

Episode Date: August 26, 2017

Bill and his guests – Rev. Jesse Jackson, Paul Begala, Matt Welch, Nayyera Haq, and Frank Bruni – answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/25/17) 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. It must have done well. We got encore applause. Okay. Here are the questions. Paul Begala, do the Democrats have an effective strategy to combat gerrymandering?

Yes. Well, they're working on. Eric Holder, the former Attorney General, is leading a movement to do that at President Obama. With Obama, yeah. To support it and fund it, there's no two better people, but we've got to do it. By the way, if we want to tear down monuments to slavery and segregation,

let's start with denying the vote to African Americans, which states across America have done, including Bible love of Texas. I know you've worked on that, Ray. You know what we also have to work on and be careful of is while this is all happening in the longer term plan, Trump's team is making a play to undermine the census

and defund the Census Bureau. So they will not be able to count and accurately represent who is in the country and who lives here. This one I didn't know about. Every time I think he's really exhausted He'll compromise and count him as three-fifths, though. But the illegal immigrants won't take the census

because they're afraid of a knock on the door in a way that they weren't as much last time we had a census. So they're going to be undercounted. Illegal immigrants are going to be undercounted. They've been counted in the past because they've had the implicit... Because they're afraid. The apocry of all those who are ashamed, embarrassed by Trump's Charlottesville statements,

are not ashamed of his, in fact, using, shifting government funds for violence by white supremacists to anti-firmative action. They are not ashamed of his appointing Jefferson, Boroughbara, Davis. So I suspect that come September, he'll be intact. That's what's strange. His agenda must still be intact after all this madness. Frank, what explains why some parts of the country remain so backward when it comes to gay rights? Is it even true anymore? Yeah, it is true.

The numbers are over 50% nationally that they support gay marriage. Yeah, well, this is only going one way long term, because if you look at the polls, it's generational more than anything else. So even if you poll evangelical Christians under the age of 30, more of them support gay marriage than not. But in the South, and in some other regions, the Church still holds great sway, and a lot of this really does boil down to that. Right, it is a, yeah, it is a church thing. Look at me, attacking a church. Next to a reverend. Jesse Jackson, are voter ID laws, the new Jim Crow?

As part of the new Jim Crow, the scheme, actually, the idea of voter fraud is a fraud. Right. Yes. And in Detroit, 7,000 voters, do not register the top of the ticket, which means it was some hanky-panky going on. The very first paragraph in the New York Times editorial on November 9th is the Republican chairman celebrating the fact he suppressed a black vote by 9%

and the increase of white by 21% because of voters. So those who deny the right to vote now, in fact, use purging as their weapon. Okay. What does the panel think about the rumored Kasich Hickenlooper? unity ticket to challenge Trump in 2020. Wait a second. Kasich, Hickenlooper's Democrat, and Casey.

Ohio, Republicans. I mean, I... Lawrence O'Donnell last time was saying that Paul Ryan is actively challenging him because he went to Seattle or something and made a speech. You think... I don't know. I don't think any Republican is going to unseat Trump from the nomination in 2020.

Casick will run, I think. Really? Against... I mean, he's been making all the... the noises for it. Really like John Kasich? Yeah. Go. Compared to Trump? Absolutely. There's that.

John Kasich is like he has a very sort of Lindsay Grahamish record when it comes to just constantly favoring interventions around the entire globe in ways that the media doesn't really give him guff for. You know, this crazy false equivalency that I hear on this panel every

fucking week from people who pick apart little things that, you know, I don't like any of these guys either. I don't like Kasich and him like Bush or Mitt Romney and all these fucking people. It's not the same as this demented manchild in full makeup who could blow up the world and poop tweets at 3 a.m. I mean, I'm not saying they're the same. I'm just saying that a lot of people have a soft spot in their heart for Kasich

because they haven't actually looked at what he's done, either as governor or as a candidate. I have a soft spot for normalcy and sanity and somebody who's not going to blow up the world, is what I... Okay. Does the panel think Trump will scrap NAFTA? If it's stupid, I'm sure he will. Next question. Scrap NAFTA, anybody? Anybody want to bite on that one?

He said he would renegotiate. Will Trump, will he pardon himself? I think there's no line. He would if he could. He's going to fire Mueller. He's going to pardon. I said this earlier. The Apio pardoned was awful in and of itself.

But I also think it was a signal to the targets of the Mueller investigation that I got your back. I think he, I think there's no line. I think your editorial was great tonight. There's no line he won't cross. Got to write it down. If it's not written down, he'll do it.

Or you have businesses go to him and make something happen. Or the generals, right? Somebody else has to weigh in for him to say, oh, okay, I don't care enough about this to argue with you. I'll let you deal with it. Whether it's the Afghanistan War for the general or NAFTA and businesses. Which means that McConnell and must write it down. They cannot say he's a bad guy because he is unkind

and then embrace his agenda. Like they kind of wrote a little law that said you can't fire Mueller, right? They haven't passed it, though. Right. One of the guys who wrote at Tom Tillis got a call from President Trump. I'm sure. Reaming him out about Russia. This is, that they do.

They've all put their spines in a blind trust, these Republicans on the hill. And I would pick another body part, but, you know, my mom watch it. But it's a clean show. My mama, yeah. But another Russian ambassador turned up dead today? I didn't know that. Yeah. like it happens all the time

and it doesn't seem to be natural causes and I'm sure every time it does Trump goes, geez I wish I could do that but again, O'Reilly asked him about that he said Putin's a killer you think we're so great? Exactly. Actually I do think we're so great and I think Putin is so evil

and I'd like my president to be able to say that. Thank you everybody, thank you. That's good on the ring. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch him anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.