Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #499: George Will, Martin Short, Bari Weiss, Eliot Spitzer, Charlie Sykes

Episode Date: June 15, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 6/14/19) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's something else here now. Something new. From. Exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the series Stephen King calls scary as hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real.

Sci-fi Vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. 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 month series, Real Time with Bill Maher.

Okay, here are the questions. George Will, what do you think of Bernie Sanders taking up the mantle of FDR in defense of democratic socialism? What he said was comes under the rubric of plagiarism. It's a clear restatement, a tepid tweaking of the State of the Union address Roosevelt gave in 1944. So the wave of the future turns out to be 75 years ago. Elliot, what are your thoughts on New York law that would allow Congress to access Trump's tax returns? Look, I'm all for it. I think that a state can determine when its own tax returns should and should not be public. I think it's an embarrassment that somebody would be the president without releasing them.

Any public official in New York these days does, as a matter of course. New York should pass the law and see what happens. Okay. We're moving right through these questions. This is great. We're going to be a... We're off. What do you mean? It shows over. It is? Yes.

I'm going to watch it. When did you move to HBO? We're doing this on Twitter now. Oh, good. Ooh, I shouldn't have said that. No. But we are on Facebook. I mean, we're on YouTube.

What the fuck? I don't know. We're on the Google. On the Google. We're on the Google machine. We're on the toilet. That's what you were on. Martin Short, what do you think of Canada and the European Union's plan

to ban single-use plastics by 2021? No, you're against it. I'm sure you're for it. Of course. You're for it. I never understand why brilliant ideas take 15, 20, 30 years. Well, I mean, California has basically the same thing pending, but

even if we pass it, not until 2030. Really, California? Progressive California? Seated the resistance. You can't do better. That's America. George, you're a historic. Why is America like I've fallen and I can't get up? You know, we just can't do anything.

We built the Empire State Building and the Depression. In 410 days. We built the... Is that right? We built the Pentagon during wartime in 16 months. You can't get the... Yes. You can't negotiate the environmental

and racial set-asides in 15 months now. During World War II, did we not ban cars? I mean, stop building cars, except for military use, all the car facts. Can you imagine doing that today, that kind of sacrifice, that kind of mobilization saying, okay, no more cars. You know what? We need the factories for planes and tanks. No more cars.

Bill, this will come from a nice liberal Democrat. Sometimes there's too much due process. I think George would agree with that, right? I mean, there's too much due process. Nothing important gets done because everybody has a way of stopping things that are important. And too much petty regulation. A great New Yorker, Senator Pet Moineshan, one of my best. very best friends, said America used to be a society that rewarded people who did things.

Now we reward people who stopped things. I've always said I'm a Moynihan Democrat. Exactly right. Do I have any more questions for me? No, you can go. Give it my... I just want to hear him talk. Yeah, right.

Well, you ask him for quite what do you? I mean, I have a million things I could ask you. No, no, I want to go to your prepared text. No, no, this is not my... It's questions from people. Barry Weiss, will the protesters against Hong Kong's proposed extradition bill be successful? I don't know if they'll be successful, but the fact that one in seven Hong Kongers has been taken to the streets to defend democracy against, I mean, it's a complicated situation, but essentially defending democracy against Xi and China.

And the fact that no one here seems to care about it, that the president of the United States, who's supposed to be the leader of the free world, to my knowledge, has said nothing in support of those peaceful protesters. It's a Shonda, as we say in Yiddish. It's ridiculous. Gee whiz. Get it? G-wiz.

That's our show of you. All right, I got a question. Let me say one of the thing. It is fascinating to me that it's not about Trump. Who cares about Trump? Trump is the con man. He was voted for Democrat most of his life. It's everyone else.

That's what's the man. Right, the enablers. The ones that will be judged by history in the most depressing way. Mitch McConnell, listen, he not only is confusing, but this is a man who in his entire life never took a good picture. No. Can we come back to Hong Kong for a minute? Because, I love me.

I can't imagine that one. I actually think what's going on in Hong Kong is a remarkably affirmative, wonderful thing. It is. Because it is maybe the first sign that China is. is being seen for what it is, which is one of the most repressive, autocratic regimes in the world. And I think it's about time people saw that. I mean, I think what's going on Hong Kong is great. Yeah, but it's...

Of course it's great, but can you believe that our government's doing nothing to try and... They're not going to win. And so here's going to be another defeat for democracy. You know, here we are in 2019, and democracy is in retreat all over the world. But it shows there's organic opposition, which is a wonderful thing. It will succeed in the long run. We like everything organic here in California. Right.

I read that you turned down the part in Dumb and Dumber. Now, I never saw the movie because I didn't want to ruin the book. I did it. You could have been the Jim Carrey point? No, no, Jeff, I was too old. I read the script.

I said, this is too high-brow. What a shame. I know. I wouldn't be here with you, people. I have my own island. But all actors have one of those, at least one of those. Absolutely. Bert Reynolds has like 10.

I know. Kurt Reynolds turned in like every great movie in the 70. You could be in the Godfather. You could be in three days with the Condor. You could be in the... Nope, I want to do smoking.

A cannibal eight. I'm there. George Will, do you believe the expanding powers of the presidency can ever be reversed? Yes. I think the physics of our politics is at work now.

This is the optimistic view, which is that Congress, it turns out, can be embarrassed, and the president can, now that progressives who created the modern presidency, have seen that they're not always going to occupy the modern presidency. They're going to rethink the separation of powers, which they began to undermine when Woodrow Wilson became the first president to criticize the American founding because largely of the separation of powers. But they don't want it.

When Obama was being taunted by the Republicans about Syria, remember this? And he said, you know what? I'll go into Syria. Give me authorization. It's your job. It's in the Constitution. And they, of course, were like, no, because then if it goes badly, we're to blame. But he went into Libya without anybody's worth.

Well, sure. But it's more likely to happen on domestic policies where the Democratic Congress is going to try to restrain Trump and regret that it gave President Obama all the powers he had. And courts are going to do the same thing. Charlie, what do you anticipate the first round of Democratic debates to reveal about the candidates? Oh, yes, we didn't really mention that tonight. They got the first two nights, 20 people. I don't even know who some of them are. Marianne Williamson?

You don't know Mary and William? I had to look her up. Oh, I cannot wait for that. She literally believes it. The Department of Love or something? She's like a new age author. But Marianne Williamson is one of the reasons why God invented the mute button. And I think what people are going to find is that as these debates go on,

they're going to have the various candidates and people are going to go, you know, mute for this person, for this person, for this person. You do not know. You might be, you might use something. That's right. You know, some of these people who are... You do know. You do know who is not going to be president, who's not going to say anything. Right. But Andrew Yang, I mean, that's it out of the box choice.

It's way out of the box. He's doing quite well. You know, Trump, I might say. Everybody thought he wouldn't go anywhere. I said he was. So listen to me. Also, what about How bad do you feel if you're one of the three who didn't make the cut of 20?

This is like not getting a rose on the first night of the guy. This is what Democrats are so bad at politics. You have the governor of Montana who actually might have something to say that people would be interested in because he's a

Democrat who wins in a Republican state and instead we have to listen to I'm sorry, you know, Marianne Williamson. and I'm a little hung up on her. Here's the good news. Iowa is so small, 20 candidates they can meet everybody.

Six months from now when these classes happen, we have no idea today what's going to happen, and despite all the pundits are going to tell us what's going to happen, they have no idea.

I'm not a pundit. Who's going to win that? I have no idea. Who's your money on to win the nomination? We have no idea. Who do you think, if you had to bet now your own money, who's going to win the nomination?

My own money? That seems very unfair. I don't have to be wrong so far. I'm going to say Biden because the Democrats are going to be too afraid to go with somebody who might lose to Donald Trump. And at a certain point, you're going to have the panic set in. You think it's going to be Biden? I think at this point, people are in politics and active in the nominating electorate because politics is fun. I think the most fun candidate for Democrats is Elizabeth Warren.

Okay. And I think it's Mayor Pete. All right. You think Mayor Pete's going to win the nomination? Absolutely, because I think when you talk about it. Mayor Pete's. Yes, because when you talk about it. When you talk about these debates, he is incapable of anything coming out of his mouth that isn't impressive.

I think he's going to be phenomenal on television, and I think he'll then do a lot of, he'll be everywhere. And I think if the millennials would actually vote, if you're 1837 seems pretty old. Right. But do you think he could beat Trump? It's going to be the dirtiest election ever. I mean, no matter who it is. You know, Trump is like an old series that you liked the first half season. I'm telling you, people will get bored.

I think his stick is wearing thin. Well, it already has, and he's down in the polls. We'll see. All right. Thank you very much, everybody. 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.