Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #462: Media, Midterms, Prejudice

Episode Date: June 2, 2018

Bill and his Real Time panelists – Paul Begala, Natasha Bertrand, Bret Stephens, and Charlamagne Tha God – answer viewer questions after the show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Okay. All right, Natasha, how can we combat the systematic undermining of media institutions and the gross disregard for facts and truth? Yeah, in three words.

Just keep reporting unapologetically, keep speaking the truth, fight disinformation with facts, and every time the president lies or tells a demonstrable falsehood, as some people in the media like to characterize it. Call them out. Okay. We'll do that. Paul Begala, what are your thoughts on this year's Democratic candidates? The, yeah, the roster, the bench, how they do it?

And are you happy with the direction the party is going in? Yes, first I think they're great. I'm out of the business of running campaigns, but I volunteer a lot of these. I've been all around the country campaigning for some of these folks. You got a lot of money out of me in 2012. I did. Yes, you helped reelect our president when I was working for him. That's amazing.

I was so scared of Mitt Romney. I gave Obama a million dollars, and now... Yes, you did. Now I would give Mitt Romney a million dollars to take over. I would. But we have more women running, more people of color, more veterans, sometimes all three, you know, women of color who are veterans. These are, this is the best crop of candidates that I've seen in my life.

So my follow-up question is, how are the Denver out going to blow it? Actually, I have a good three words. You talked earlier with Bernie about what's the... I think for the midterms, this is not for the president. midterms, it's really simple. Vote them out. You know who came up with that? My friend Willie Nelson.

Willie came up with that. Willie was speaking at a rally and they were screaming about this and that. He said, well, if you don't like it, vote him out. Not that that guy is way better political consultant than I am, and he's Willie Nelson, so vote him out. That used to work before the Russians were rigging the election. Yeah.

The other answer is don't talk about impeachment. That's just going to drive Republican turnout. I mean, I don't agree with Sanders about it a lot, but at least he's talking about issues that matter to normal people. And it should not be a campaign about the anxiety and anger of the kind of media class in L.A. and New York,

because that's a way to lose. You've got to start appealing to people who voted for Obama, then voted for Trump, and now have to be brought back. I agree. You can't be anti-Trump. You've got to be pro-people. Yeah. Lauren asked, Charlemagne,

since your next book is about fear and anxiety, what do you think is the number one issue we as a country have to fear? The easy answer would be Donald Trump, but I would say just prejudice in general. You know, Martin Luther King, Jr. once said he wants to live in a country where people are judged by the content of their

character, not the color of their skin. I think we need to broaden that out and say, not just the color of your skin, but your sexuality, your gender, your religion. If we can just eliminate prejudice across the board and really just treat people as people, the country will be a better person. Can you do that politically? I think so.

Is that a... Yeah, I think so. Like, I've only voted... How do you legislate that? I mean, more than obviously than we have. Well, I think... I mean, we mostly have laws in place already. But as a person that is governing,

you have to be humane, and you have to want justice for all, right? I think that you have those two simple attributes. It's pretty easy, regardless of what side you're on. I know. I just think that it's very tough when you get to that level where people just don't vote for the right people. Well, I think it's going to...

It would be easier after this presidential term is over because so many people have been exposed. That's the beauty of this presidential term. Nobody's being covert with their racism and their bigotry no more. A lot of people are being overt with it. So now we know who's who. Yeah.

Okay. What effect will Trumpism have on future presidential... Let's not talk about that asshole anymore. Good. Do you think the NFL? No, that's about him too. That's the fucking... The problem with this guy is that, you know,

he takes up all the eyes. It's just, should the Democrats be making the case that they, rather than the Republicans, and now the party of law and order? Republicans certainly don't care about lawlessness anymore. You're going to add that to the list of things they used to care about and don't. I was struck that's the first thing Senator Sanders said to you. And, you know, he's a Democratic socialist. He's all about, you know, Medicare for all and jobs for all.

He didn't open that with you. That's a tell. What he said was something you and I've talked about. The real threat of this president is not even any of the issues or ideas. It's that he's a wannabe autocrat. He wants to cripple any checks on his power, whether it's the free press, the federal judiciary, the FBI, the CIA, the opposition party, the Congress. It's really telling to me that somebody who's been so focused on democratic socialism sees actually democracy as the greater threat from Trump. He's 100% right.

You've been on that a long time, Bill. Slow-moving coup. I said it before the election. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, audience. You were terrific. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Ma every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO on demand.

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