Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #481: Marshawn Lynch, Barney Frank, Catherine Rampell, Erick Erickson

Episode Date: January 19, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 1/18/19) 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. Catherine, which economic threat is most likely to trigger the next recession? Trump, right now. Normally, I would say presidents get too much credit when the economy is good, too much blame when the economy is bad. I've been saying that for months when people ask me about Trump versus Obama and the economy and whatever else. But Trump is making so many unforced errors at this point. everything from the trade wars, plural, to the government shutdown,

to threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve. I'm amazed it's lasted this long, the economy. I mean, in a sense, it's surprising statistically because this is now the second longest recovery on record. Right. In history, in all of history. So it's like a little long in the tooth no matter what. It's surprising that it's still stuck around

given all of the policy errors that Trump has made. So that's what I'm worried about. And we don't have a lot of money to bail. banks out like we did last time. Or, well, partly because we just spent $2 trillion on a tax cut for the rich. Is your law with your name on it still working?

It's in good shape. It is? They weren't able to... What they've done to do, particularly with the Consumer Bureau, is to not administer it, but they didn't even dare try to change it. And it's still mostly in good shape, and it has stopped the

better stuff. But Catherine is absolutely right. And I think that's the biggest second. problem. We got this artificial rush from the tax cut, and that's petering out. And by the way, that's where, that's what happened, infrastructure. We spent the infrastructure money on the tax cut.

That's why there will be no significant infrastructure improvement, which could give the economy the right kind of boost, because it all went for the tax cut. Okay. Marshawn Lynch, did you try and light a blunt off Al Davis's Eternal Flame at the last Raiders game in Oakland? I think you

did. You did. You did, Yes, you do that. True. I think it was only right to send, you know, I think it was only right to send the Raiders off in a real Oakland, in a real Oakland way. And were you, were there repercussions from the NFL for that?

I mean, I don't think they caught on yet, but I mean, I'm pretty sure now at this point. Yeah. Something to take place. Wait, they got you for skittles on your sneakers, they let you light a blunt off of a guy's eternal flame? That's not a very bright league, is it? Just win, baby?

Yeah, that's Al Davis, right. Okay, Barney, do you hope Democrats will push forward? Oh, no, I guess I asked you that. Do you think Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is a good fit for the House Financial Services Committee? She's doing great so far. I hope she is. What a star.

Well, I have a problem with some of this. Having people that were sitting in the Nancy Pelosi's office was really stupid. Here's the deal. I think it's important. I worry about people on the left picking an easy fight with their friends on the near left

as opposed to fighting the real enemy. That's what I was just saying and you were yelling at me. No, you were talking about signaling. I agree on the first... No, I said people should get a... I agree people should get a second... I think liberals have been inconsistent

in saying no second chance for sexual harassment but yes, for robbery. I think, so I agree with that. But I do think she has a problem in misidentifying. She thinks the reason we're not doing better is that some of the liberals haven't been fighting hard enough. The problem is the opposition of the Republican. So I hope she puts all that energy into fighting the right enemy. Eric Erickson, should Steve King's comments be viewed as an isolated incident,

or are they a symptom of racism dominating the Republican Party? I think there are a Steve King problem, but I think there's a real problem with Republicans who weren't willing to speak up quickly about them. You know, I've known Steve King, and I've kind of been shocked at this evolution of him. I don't know him well, but he's all of a sudden very blatantly about things I didn't even know he believed. It's a common occurrence. I find... It really is. It's symptomatic of this presidential administration making people feel comfortable being assholes.

when they didn't necessarily openly do it in the past. Steve King has been making these comments for years, if not decades. I mean, the cab's as big as cantaloupe comments. I have never heard the... And you're right, the New York Times ran a long timeline of comments he had made.

I'd never even heard it. But the... But they got worse. To see people defending him, too, saying, oh, that's not really what he meant. It was what he meant. Yeah. And I do think they're Republicans.

You've got Tim Scott calling out the Republicans, and I think it's right. If the Republicans can't clean their own house, the voters totally will. And at some point, they're going to stop worrying about cleaning the Republican's house. They're just going to pour kerosene around the outside of the party and strike a match. Yeah. I mean, I've seen so many people, though, who used to be what I would call normal Republicans, who then...

Devin Nunes had some pretty smart quotes. I swear to God, I read them on this show years ago. He became this person. It happens a lot. I think it's Fox News. I think they get sucked into the Fox News War text. I think it is, I think that it has become this cult of personality with the president. I mean, I had people show up at my house to threaten my family because I said I wasn't going to vote for the guy.

And I'm a Republican. I was a Republican on my city council, and they still showed up to threaten me, yelled at my kids in the grocery store. These people, they feel comfortable finally in public. What happens is Trump is an extraordinary figure. He can get away with crap that nobody else can get away with, but people don't see that. And I think too many people think, hey, look at how it's paid off of Trump. Yes. This guy totally unqualified.

Longshot becomes president. So people think they can be Trump. Our generation is growing up with that too. Who's that right? I said our generation is growing up with that too. But that's, I think, give some of these people. I think the Republican Party has been dog whistling for decades. And it was just couched a little bit in more politeness before.

And the dog whistle became audible to human ears in the last few years. because of Trump, but I think that strain has been there for a very long time. Who'd you vote for last time? I didn't. You didn't? No. Oh, no, that's not right? Yeah, I know it's not, but I don't, like this politics shit, that shit is crazy. Like, you know what show you is reason. Come on.

Hey, look, I, look, I get down and I, like, I, I mean, I respect people for what they believe in and all the shit. But at the end of the day, like, if you, if you're not a solid individual, then fuck you. That's just how I feel personal. But whoever is president and who are our leaders in the Senate and the House, they do affect people's lives. They do. You're right.

They do affect people. Politics affects people's lives in a very real way. You know, John Kasich, the Republican governor, I said to him, you did what most Republicans governors didn't do. He expanded Medicaid in his state. That means hundreds of thousands of poor people got to see a doctor.

That's real shit. Right. And that, you know, that's the what happens in the voting booth downstream. So, like, what I know about, like, because I mean, like, I understand that, but I'm, like, I'm in the communities and shit, though.

So, like, when I go to these, like, just me being from Oakland, but then I'll go to Miami, a hood in Miami, or a hood, and a Saginaw or something like that, like a lot of those people don't, even though those services are out there, for whatever reason,

it don't reach all of the people. And then, therefore, they're still struggling from that. And I mean, at the end of the day, like... But that's why you need a good community organizing. I mean, you do. You got some great... You had Ron Dellens.

It was a great man who was Mayor of Oakland. You have Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who's an outstanding moral leader. You should be voting for these people because that's standing up. Right. Look, I get out there and I just get down with the people. Okay.

I mean, regardless to all of that, I just... But you get some strong allies. It is time? You do, but then, I mean, at the end of the day, like dealing with, like, going and dealing with politicians right now. I get into a situation where I want to do something in my community

to benefit more of the youth, and if it don't come with a paycheck for some of them, they're not interested in what I say. So therefore, what I... So therefore, what I do is I just hit the hood running myself. I'll pack up a fucking U-Haul

with either turkeys, toys for the kids, and I'm out there just giving them all myself. But that's not a long-term solution. It's not a long-term solution. You can't do that. You can't fight turkeys. Don't you want to encourage the good ones? Some are bad.

But you've had, again, in Oakland, some very good, outstanding people who are very community-rooted. Don't you want to encourage them? You're saying some of them are good and some of them are bad, but the same conditions in which Oakland was in, back then, they're still in the same situation now.

But they're trying to make it better, and if there were more of them, they could succeed. That's it. So, where were they yet, then? I mean, look at California. When this state, they said about five years, years ago before Jerry Brown became governor. They said it was ungovernable, remember?

They said it was a failed state. And then we elected a Democratic governor with the Democratic legislature, and our state did a lot better, and people did a lot better, and we have a surplus. And it rains now. It rains. All right.

We got water. We got to go. It's time to party with the people. Thank you, everybody. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand. more information, log on to hbo.com.