Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #503: Terry McAuliffe, Richard Engel, Tom Nichols, Catherine Rampell, Anthony Scaramucci

Episode Date: August 10, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/9/19) 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 Ma. Yes, everybody did good. All right, here are the questions from the people in their underwear. Anthony, which Democratic presidential candidate should Trump fear the most? So I'm probably a little different from Governor McCall. If I would be going younger with somebody like Senator Harris or Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and I think that that contrast, okay, and the thing I tried to say last time we were on the show, Go out there and speak to the people that Trump won last time.

Don't call them deplorable or white nationalists. Go out there and understand what's wrong with their economic situation. And boy, let me tell you something, that would be very powerful. If the Democrats, in my opinion, always do better when they go with somebody below the age of 50. Barack Obama, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton back in the 90s. Okay. That would be me. Go for somebody younger.

Catherine, what's your reaction to Beto saying, what the fuck? to the press in regards to their coverage of Trump's racism? I think that was a perfectly valid response, frankly. I think that was in response to the question, do you think Trump is a white supremacist or a white nationalist or something like that? And Beto said, like, yes, obviously. And it's not just because of stuff he said this week, and it's not just because he refused to rent to black tenants in the 70s.

There was also him saying that the Central Park Five should be, executed and still refusing it back down from that birtherism, you know, Muslim ban, all that other stuff. Okay. Long history of them. Richard Engel, why is Trump harsh on China except when it comes to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong? Have you been there lately? That's pretty nasty. It's very troubling.

I think it doesn't bother him. He's made it quite clear that human rights groups and protesters when they come out on the streets, that's not a priority for him. And I think he respects people who have power and use power, and the reason I'm worried about what's going on in Hong Kong, there is a very high cost to failure. So these people have come out on the streets. If they don't succeed and don't succeed in establishing the rights and the laws that they're pushing for,

they could pay a very, very high price. Like a Tiananmen Square. Like a Tiananmen Square. Well, Trump praised the Chinese response to Tiananmen Square, as you may recall. He's not hard to get on your side if you just say he's quite handsome. Governor Terry, as someone who turned to red state blue, do you think

Democrats have a real shot at Texas in 2020? Yes, I do. I think that would be the whole ballgame, right? Well, if you look at the polls today, I mean, listen, the big issue is who has the best chance of defeating Trump. Right now, it's Biden, right now on the polling date. It can change.

We got six months to go before the primary start, but today, Biden, poll in Ohio. He beats Trump by eight points in Ohio. He wins Georgia. He wins North Carolina. And he wins Texas today against Donald Trump. So we got a great opportunity.

That's a long time from an election. It's got a long time. But, you know, Trump's going to continue to do the insanity that he does every single day. He can't get over 42%. He's alienated most of America. He's got his base. And I'm just shocked he's coming out and doing all these things against Elijah Cummings, the squad.

I guess he figures there are all these neo-Nobes. Nazis and white supremacists under rocks that weren't motivated in 2016, and they're going to come out in 2020. He has alienated, uh, non-college educated white women. They've walked from him. We have a huge opportunity now in the way. I think you just did what Hillary did last time when she said deplorable. It sounded to some people like you called all his, everyone who voted for him Nazis under rock. It's a big block of ours. But that is not what it sounded like you would say. I mean, that's-neal Nazis are bad. I know, but every person who voted for Trump is not a neo-Nazi under a

No, but he's, why is he doing this? He's trying to spur a new base for him? No, no. I mean, who's he talking to when he attached Elijah Cumm, he's called Baltimore rat infested? Who does he, go home to your own country? I get it. These women were born in this country. Trump bad, you good.

Send him home. You see why I only watched Brian Williams? Okay. Tom, your book is called The Death of Expertise. What is the solution? Wow. And, yeah, in 30 seconds, Tom. What is he? I think the problem is people, the problem with the death of expertise is that, again, it's rooted in narcissism.

It's not that people need more education. You mean not just his, everybody. No, everybody. Right. He's not the only narcissists in this country. That is true. Everyone does it to each other. People will walk up to, you know, you and say, oh, you're a stand-up comedian. I have some thoughts on timing. Right? No, it's true. Right? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, you're governor? Here's what you should do about the budget. Yeah. People do that because it feels empowering and it makes them feel important. And I think we're just going to have to wait for that bubble to burst where we have to start listening to each other because we're heading for disaster. And I think it could be that recession or a war. The three things I worry about are a pandemic, a recession, or a war. And any one of those things, people are going to start listening to doctors, economists, and generals again.

Except to play devil's advocate, we had a great recession. And what happened, people stopped trusting economists, right? There are a lot of economists who don't focus on financial markets, but who in fact said that we're quite worried about, you know. I don't think people stop trusting economists. Are you kidding? They stopped trusting capitalists, yes. Bankers.

Yes. There was a whole documentary about it. Well, maybe. I don't know if people ever had an idea in their mind about economists, one way or the other to begin with. Maybe the people you hang out with. But I'm talking about the regular rank and file. I think they blamed banksters.

But Tom did a good job in his book. A lot of blowback against expertise, economic expertise in particular. Well, because they say the bankers were experts, and they told me, I could afford it. No, the banker is an expert the same way that a Lexus salesman is a Lexus expert who says, you can afford this car. Right. That's different than an economist saying, you know,

running up your household debt to massive levels on a house, you know, that you shouldn't have bought in the first place is a bad idea and that's all those guys don't know anything. But there was a lot of pushback against the Fed for example. And the Fed made mistakes, but the Fed also bailed our asses out. The experts let us down.

They did. Yes. Yeah, and I think Tom points that out in his book, because the book is great, but what happened was the experts, the establishment politicians. Not all experts. Some economists said we're going off a cliff and we're inflating the bubble. The collective society of experts, again, lower middle class people, middle class people feel that the establishment politicians abandon them. And that's why you've had this. But politicians and experts are not the same people. And this is the other problem. I was an advisor to a senator.

That's why they feel that way, though. I was a senior advisor to a U.S. senator. Sometimes he took my advice. sometimes he threw me out of his office. The idea that while the elite, I mean, look, me and the senator, I was the expert, he was the elite. He got to vote. I was just the guy who came, I mean, you have people advise you all day, governor, right?

You know, in the end, it's your decision. Who was the senator you're talking about? The Lake John Hines, Pennsylvania. Oh, okay. Good man. The ketchup guy. The ketchup guy, the ketchup parent. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, look, Trump ran on draining the swamp, which I think to most people, man, get rid of the, you know, know, palm-greasing executives and the lobbyists and the corrupt officials and all of those other people who were getting rich off of government. And instead, what it has turned out to mean is let's pardon Rod Blagojevich and purge all of the scientists, which is exactly what Trump either has said he's considered doing or is actually doing. That piece you guys had today

about purging the experts, that is a huge issue that's going on right now in the federal government. But basically, the Republicans have decided that anybody who knows stuff has to leave. Yes. Yes, that's exactly what's happening because they don't want to be. Well, we hope they'll come here and join our battle. Thank you very much, everybody. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them anytime on HBO on demand.

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