Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #509: Salman Rushdie, Gina McCarthy, Barney Frank, Linette Lopez, Noah Rothman

Episode Date: September 28, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 9/27/19) 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. And the cast of Real Time. All right, here are the questions, Noah, but this could be for everybody. What would it take for Republicans to break with Trump publicly?

I heard, was it Ben Sass or Jeff Flake? One of them said if they took the vote privately, 30 to 35 Republicans would vote to impeach, but that's not publicly. What would it take? Yeah, that's kind of hard to believe, but it wouldn't be off that. by that much. I mean, half...

Privately. Privately, yeah. So what would it take? It would take for them to believe their political prospects are imperiled. And that might sound like, you know, it's a moral failure, and you could view it that way, but it's the fact. And so if you start to see polls of impeachment

that begin to swallow up a lot of independence and 20%, 30% of Republicans, then, yeah, you're going to see where some Republicans jump ship. Okay. Barney, do you think Democrats will be able to stay united and on message throughout the impeachment process or will the divisions between progressives and moderates reemerge? It is a bit of a mind-filled for that.

That's true. Well, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, we will be united. And she took on the people who were the premature impeachers. And she has impeccable credentials now against anyone who says, oh, you were just looking for an impeachment. She's been very firm on that. And now, there is one possibility. I hope, and I know this is her position,

stay on the interference in the election by trying to smear the candidate he most fears by holding up weapons that the Ukrainians needed to defend themselves against his friend Putin, going back into some of the side issues about paying for Stormy Daniels. I hope they stay out of that. I believe they will. And I think that, yes, on this question now of focusing on the defense of the national interest in democracy by going after what Trump did, she'll have almost probably unanimity.

Okay. What do you think, Lynette? You are a business insider, of course, of the U.S. Census Bureau reporting income and equality is now at a 50-year high. I mean, I think that it sounds like it's time to deliver a message a lot like the one that Trump delivered four years ago, and I don't think he's going to be able to do that.

I was just in a room... The message being... Everything is fucked up, and I alone can fix it. After four years of Trump, I see his surrogates out there. I was just in a room of Wall Streeters and Mike Pence, and he was doing the victory lap. We won. Capitalism is back. We're here to win.

Blah, blah, blah. Everyone's winning. And that didn't even go down well in a room of suits. I don't understand how Trump is going to be able to circle that square and say, not only am I the victim and I'm screwed and everything's fucked up and, you know, wrong, but also I just won the last four years and you should reelect me. The winning message is, yeah, inequality is terrible. We have a corrupt society, crony capitalism. That's still a winning message, I think, for a lot of Americans.

And it's going to be really hard to see the Trump administration say, we did it, we're winners, but also say, you're fucked, your victims, let me win it for you. Can I just add a gratuitous conservative talking point to this? So that study I don't think you can help yourself. That study also showed that the median American income is the highest it's ever been in the mid-60s. So while income equality is broad,

more Americans are doing better. Yeah, can I say in response to that, the median doesn't help the people who are losing. And the fact is that median is one thing and there are a lot of people who are doing well, but not only a lot of people are not doing well, but Trump has failed to help them. that's the other issue.

Manufacturing isn't a slump. We're seeing that slump move into the services sector. The recession isn't just a fear. It's something that's a distinct possibility, especially given the fact that we're going to continue this ridiculousness with China. And now we've started ship with the EU. They're also beginning.

The world is starting to be a mess. No matter how much central banks loosen policy, we're still seeing a slowdown. And economic growth is decreasing. Decreasing. He himself is looking for scapegoats for an economy that's getting worse. And what happens politically, by the way,

is that the trend is what counts even more than the absolute. But clearly, inequality is worse than when he started, and he has done zero to make it better and he will make it worse. How does he say, I'm winning, but you're losing. That's what Noah said it was gratuitous. He wasn't looking for arguments.

Fair enough. No, I... She gets me. No, I think he said it was a gratuity. But... But, you know, I understand all this. Trump did promise something delivered on nothing. it. The mayor remind you, in 68, Nixon ran on the idea of the

pledge, I'm going to end the war in Vietnam. He didn't. And then four years later, in 1972, he ran on the platform, I'm going to end the war in Vietnam. That's a salesman. Okay. He also drew McGovern. George McGovern was unfortunately the candidate. Okay.

All right, Gina, which Democratic candidate has put forth the best policy to address climate change? Well, that's a good one. Who's your favorite? I will take them because I was so excited that they actually had a climate debate and somebody spoke about

climate. Last time there was none. You know, the winner in the climate debate seemed to be Governor Inslee. Who wasn't there? Right. Because everybody stole from his plans and gave him credit for it. But I think the most important thing right now is to

recognize how much people now are feeling and seeing the impacts of climate change. How much that people running for office, recognize that. They're not going to pander to it. They're developing real plans. We have to do something and get moving. It's in your backyard.

You know? Well, in California? But I mean, things used to be more alive. There were birds and butterflies. And every day I see bees walking. It's not funny. It makes me almost cry

like the old Indian in the commercial. I see a bee walking. Like bees are. are not supposed to be walking, and this Bob B is obviously not going to be. I just say to Dina, because I think it's optimistic politically. This is the first presidential campaign ever in which climate change has been a significant issue,

and it's entirely because Donald Trump took that position. Literally, nobody, they kind of took it for granted. It may be fights about more or less, but Trump has elevated it, and I think to his disadvantage. Okay, Salman, Indian Prime Minister Modi recently appeared at a... I was in Houston Sunday.

My luck. I'm in Houston once every two years. I'm there. day Fatso arise. Moby. Do you think, and there was 25,000 screaming Indians there for Trump. They were holding hands, he and Moti. You saw that?

I saw it, yeah. Okay. Do you think Trump's push to appeal to Indian Americans will be effective? He seems popular there in Houston. Because, unfortunately, I'm sorry to say about my people that a whole chunk of them voted for Trump last time round. They did? They did.

And the Modi deal, and Modi's pitch and Trump's are not so far apart. Right, nationalism. Well, it's a particular kind of nationalism, it's they both invent a fairy tale of the past in order to justify actions in the

present. So in Trump, we have the red hat, you know, this golden age of America that we're supposed to get back to. And Modi is doing the same thing. He's inventing a much more distant golden age, a golden age of Hinduism that predated the arrival of the Muslim invaders. and uses that to justify attacking minorities.

And Brexit is a similar... Same thing. It's a very similar idea. Fairy tale of England. You think it's a fairy tale. Yeah, because the Golden Age is always a fairy tale. The idea that there was such a thing as a golden age of universal happiness and prosperity,

it's a fantasy. But what about Camelot? Wasn't there a place? I know. Camelot? If you break into song, I don't know. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, everybody. Hatch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.