Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #456: Obama's Legacy, Police Brutality, LGBTQ #MeToo

Episode Date: April 14, 2018

Bill and his guests – Brian Schatz, Andy Cohen, Jonathan Chait, Jason Kander, and Maya Wiley answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 04/13/18) 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, welcome to Big Shoulder Night here on... I've been working out. Did I mention it? Mostly shoulder stuff. Okay, Jonathan, how much of Obama's

legacy will survive Trump and the Republicans? Oh, boy. I really think most of it will. I, honest to God, think most of it will. Obama care already has. They couldn't repeal it. Well, the jury's out. I mean, yes, it has so far. They tried a thousand times to repeal it. and they've given up. They're not going to do it.

Only, you know, a little way into year two. They're not going to repeal the Dodd-Frank reforms of Wall Street. I think a lot of the environmental stuff is going to stick because electricity, you know, solar power is getting cheaper. Wind power is getting cheaper. All that

all those changes, I think, are outliving because he made better policies than this stuff Trump has tried to replace it. I would argue that President Obama's legacy is also wider than policy accomplishments. I mean, when you look at the way that, you know, the millennial generation, my generation, Generation Z is stepping up.

I think you can trace that directly back to a transformative leader who told us, you know, we're the ones we've been waiting for. And I think ultimately our salvation will come not from, it will come from his legacy, which is he made a lot of people, particularly my generation, believe we could do that.

What, what, what, well, but Trump, Trump is going to transform the bench. He's going to transform the courts in a very bad, dangerous way, and we're going to live with that for a very long time. Yeah, right. I mean, there's some stuff that's pretty... There's parts of this country we're never going to get back.

Yep. You know. Okay. On that note, let's move on to something for Andy. Andy can always have palate cleanser. Do you feel that reality TV can be seen as pure entertainment, or does all media share responsibility for setting some sort of example for viewers? Well, that's a loaded question.

I mean, it is a loaded question. I think for us, Bravo has the most educated audience on cable outside of all the cable news channels and they're smart enough to know the housewives are not on... Smart people can watch stupid shit. They can want... They can. They can't, and they can know the difference between... And you cannot make people feel guilty. It's true.

You know, I read the tabloids. I've done it since the 80s when I was wearing this jacket. And I've had people say to me, you know, celebrities, but like, don't do that because, you know what, they take pictures of my children, and you only encourage them by giving them your money. They're hurting my children. I'm like, fuck that. You know what? I have to be on a plane tomorrow morning to go to a place you do staph. I'm tired in the morning. Saturday. I worked all week. I did this show. I want something I can laugh at. Yeah. And it makes me laugh out loud. Not intentionally, it just does. Yes.

And also how I keep up with my friends. Okay. Did you finish your answer? Did I cut you up? I think people are smart enough to know, oh, she flipped a table? Should I do that? Is that how I should? Will I be rewarded for that? I mean, I just right, if you're that stupid, you're going to fuck up your life anyway. Exactly. I mean, yeah, right. If you're taking your cues from... Right. Right. Okay. Maya, as a critic of the use of excessive force by law enforcement, how would you suggest we go about changing department protocol?

Legislation. In fact, California is already looking at legislation. It was very hard... How do you legislate that? Well, you literally write in... What happens right now is police departments. essentially write their own patrol guides that tell them what force is what you know that's the rules of the road for police officers and what they do is they build in huge amounts of discretion rather than setting boundaries that actually makes sense for keeping everyone safe because the truth is it'll also keep officers safer I've been ringing that bell for a long time Well, I just that I don't know how they got it into their head this idea that if I feel threatened at all I get to kill you that that I don't know how you legislate that

but that mentality has to change right we all empty our clip into that guy if we think he's got what happened to just freeze it will change they seem to go right they seem to forgot about the old freeze it just goes right to is that a cell phone or a gun let's find out after he's dead if they start having to pay a price for bad behavior

that will change behavior oh I see right a price and they were starting to make some real changes the last couple years of the Obama administration Prioritized it. New York City's made some real changes even while we've had some really big problems because there was an insistence that we stopped policing people for poverty. Now didn't happen in Eric Garner, right? But if you tell, if you actually say, and actually district attorney races have mattered

a lot. Getting reform-minded, people elected as public prosecutors is actually, that's, you know, Ken Thompson and Brooklyn actually said, I'm just, you can bring me people, NYPD for low-level marijuana, I'm not, but we're not going to prosecute him. And that's actually what changed. Who is this? He passed away, unfortunately. Oh, he passed away. Damn. Okay. Jason, Kander, as the first millennial, you're a millennial? By five months. What's the cutoff point? How old are you? I'm 36.

About 36 is a millennial? Just barely. Five months? I'm a gray senior millennial. Yeah. Phone it. What do you want to say it? Maybe you want to talk to him more. Is that okay that I spoke? I'm allowed to speak. I'm inviting you to...

All right. I think he was implying that you were hitting on it. I certainly was not. I was not. I'm just here to translate. Oh, please. Thank you. I have, I resembled that remark.

As the first millennial ever elected to a statewide office, how do you feel about the reputation of your generation of being unengaged, lazy, and self-obsessed. Yeah. I did it again. I think it's total crap. I think that the idea that this generation wants to have our personal identity match what we see from our country,

what we see from a company that employs us, that that is somehow entitlement. I think that's not true. I think from the folks that I saw in Afghanistan who volunteered knowing that when they sign on the dotted line, they might end up there, to the folks I saw marching in Ferguson when I was Secretary of State of Missouri,

I don't see entitlement, I see patriotism. Well, there is a lot of that. I mean, obviously, we're talking about millions of people. There's some of each. I think the problem began when parents, I don't know what generation it was, I think it was millennials, but as soon as kids were able to say,

fuck you, mom, that's where we all went downhill. Any kid who grew up saying, fuck you mom, the fuck you mom generation. That generation don't live in my house. No, I know they don't. Oh, I know they don't. But they live in a lot of people's houses. Okay.

Andy, do you think the Me Too movement has affected the gay... This isn't my question. Somebody wrote this. I'm not... Believe me. I am not obsessed. It says right here, do you think the Me Too Movement

has affected the gay community in Hollywood? Yeah, I think it's affected everybody in Hollywood. I think it's affected a lot of people around the country, but certainly in this business. Yes, absolutely. Because of Kevin Spacey, Lay? Because we all have to watch how we speak to each other.

The entertainment industry is very salacious by the nature of what we're doing. I mean, it's looks driven. There's a lot of jokes. There's a lot of things that are not considered appropriate in the workplace, so I think everyone has had to look at the way that they speak to people. But other than Kevin Spacey,

I can't think of a lot of... Well, I'm just saying if you work in the entertainment business, whether you're gay or straight, it affects... Right, but do you think there are some gay shoes about to drop? Are there some people out there that you've heard that maybe should... Possibly, yeah. Like, you know, done some things and maybe... Yeah, possibly. It's not going to be good for them.

Maybe. I'm just looking for a scoop. We're looking for a scoop, Andy. I have to say this, because I think it's really important to note that... LGBTQ people in this country have largely been significantly less protected even when we have laws on the books because there's this this assumption and stereotyping about somehow you couldn't be sexually harassed right and that is that is a serious injustice that we have not made so well beyond that I mean listen they're discriminated against in and housing and in employment legally across the country and and we have a vice president who is incredibly anti-gay and I'm I'm nervous to see what... And not everyone's out of the closet.

Right. So if you're sexually harassed, and then you don't want to come forward because you don't feel like you're in a position... Yeah. And my cue is to say, thank you, panel, and good night. All new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher

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