Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #511: Susan Rice, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Danielle Pletka, Sam Stein, Thomas Chatterton Williams

Episode Date: October 19, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 10/18/19) 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 Moore. Okay, Susan Rice, do you have confidence that all votes will be counted fairly in the 2020 election? Yeah. Well, here's what I have confidence.

I don't. First of all, the key thing is whether people get to vote and whether their opportunity once they have voted is respected. So we don't want another re-convests. prized of what happened in Georgia, for example. But if the issue is whether

interference from foreigners can manipulate the vote tally, that's a lot harder than some people might think. And that's because our electoral systems in the states are distinct from one another. They're not hooked up to the internet, and they've actually been reinforced. So in terms of foreign interference,

I have some degree of confidence. In terms of what state election authorities might do to try to disenfranchise certain segments of the public. population, that I have more concern about. What do you think? What does everybody think about the bet I was making with him?

Well, is it legit? Do you think? Yeah, if he would take my... Yeah, I mean, I'd happily give my last penny. But, I mean, I've been saying for a very long time now that I don't think he's leaving. He didn't... I mean, he wasn't going to leave the first time. It was all about it's rigged. He could lose by a landslide in 2020,

and I still think he would say it's rigged, fake news, deep state, I just don't think you're going to get him out of there. But Bill, if he left office, what would you talk about in your monologue? Uh-huh. I don't know. What did I talk about the 23 years

I was on TV before he came along, Mr. Sciences? Neil deGrasse Tyson. What do you think about Mike Mulvaney proclaiming that they will not discuss climate change at the G7 summit? Yeah. Well, climate change. should be discussed at any possible opportunity you are gathering people in power and

To deny what is an objectively true fact about what scientists have recovered in the world is to delay what might otherwise be sensibly argued political decisions about how to address the problem right, but as long as you keep suppressing it that is a recipe for the end of civilization as we know it Okay. Can I just say one thing about the G7... I'm a good weekend. I've been part of a few G7 summits, and I know the host country sets the agenda,

but the other countries get a say. And what I expect is going to happen is Donald Trump may not want to have a formal session on climate change, but it will be on the agenda because the other countries are going to insist. And the irony here is that, I mean, Dural is in right outside Miami, and it's going to be underwater in like 50 years

because of climate change, and they're just not going to discuss it. If you melt Antarctica... Maybe sooner. I don't think it's 50. In the limiting case where all of Antarctica and Greenland melt, then the sea levels will rise to the level

of the Statue of Liberty's left elbow. Right. That's the end of the 8th. Isn't that the end of the 8? You damn... You blew it up, you damn stupid I get I get chills when you do your...

You're Charlton Heston. Okay. Sir Thomas Chatterton Williams. By the way, I heard Downton Abbey is fantastic. Can you explain why you believe Americans must unlearned race in order to transcend racism? Sure, because racism... It's a lot about what your book is about. Yes. Racism creates race, not the other way around. So I think that you have to be able to do two things.

You have to fight the racism that exists in the society that we have, and you have to also keep an eye on imagining a better society that we want to have. I don't think you can get a better future that you can't first imagine. So I don't think it's enough to be anti-racist. I think that you also have to be anti-race if this is not a biological reality, which I want to know. I mean, I don't think Neil would agree that it's a biological reality, right? What I can tell you is that when I'm asked what race I am, I say I'm the human race.

And when you recognize that... Any two people in the world actually have a common ancestor, not very far back in the tree of life, that to sit here and tribalize by whatever possible little difference we can find our monarch selves, rather than seeing what we actually have in common, is an abomination of civilization. It just points to the fact that we are really still a very young species.

Yes. We are at the infancy, really. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Aliens will come down and say, what the hell is going on? Right. Right. Right. I also think in 100 years, doctors

will look at what we are doing today the way we look at the way they treated George Washington and Henry VIII. They'll be like, really? You put wood in his mouth? You know? Oh, he had an infection, did he? And you put dirt in it. That was great. There are things we're doing right now. They'll be like, anyway.

Okay, Sam Stein, what do you think of Shepard Smith leaving Fox News? Well, look, everything happens for a reason. I've been waiting to use that one. That was very good. You know, first of all, I love Shephap is great. And probably one of the most talented, if not the most talented current live news broadcasters in the business. And his departure from Fox News, I don't know, I mean, we can all speculate with the back stories.

I think it's pretty obvious. But it's just a real loss for the industry. I mean, it is important, if not vital, to have voices like that on. on Fox News. I think it's critical. And the absence of that voice, I think, is going to cause some real damage to our news ecosystem,

and I'm sad about it, honestly. Danielle, is Hillary Clinton right in suggesting that Russia is grooming Tulsi Gabbard to be a third-party candidate? I couldn't believe she said that. Tell us what she said. Well, she said, Hillary. Hillary.

Hillary said that Tulsi Gabbard, who is a... That I can't answer. But she was in the woods. So Hillary Clinton said... Not touching that either. Hillary Clinton said that Tulsi Gabbard, who's one of the Democratic candidates for president, is the best candidate

for Russia and is the candidate that Russia is... Well, she's not the first accused Tulsi Gabbard of that. Well... That she's a Russian asset of some kind. She's the first very prominent person to the future of that. Yes, you're right. You're right. And then said that if... that she wasn't sure that the Russians would let go of Jill Stein.

Jill Stein. And give Tulsi Gabbard that crown. It was a... I don't know what the rest of you thought. I thought it was a very strange thing. Oh, it was inappropriate, honestly. What are she basing it on? I mean, obviously, there's anecdotal stuff that she can point to,

but there's no... Unless she has some information that she's not divulging, I don't think it's really fair to... No, I mean... But did you see Tulsi Gabbard's response? She ripped the shit out. She said it's a race... that the Democratic primary is now a race between her and Hillary Clinton.

And she did nothing to disavow her embrace of Russia. You mean she should have said I'm not a Russian agent? I mean, seriously? Tulsi Gabbard's comments and actions are questions. Tulsi Gabbard is unconscionable as far as I'm concerned. Are you kidding? She went and propagandized for Bashar al-Assad. She's unconscionable.

Your guy's a traitor. Not my gosh. Come on, you're saying, I mean, like he sides with him. countries that are not a Russian accent. He actually is a Russian accent. He doesn't, he fucking has meetings with Putin and no one's allowed in the room. He does...

Nonetheless. We're talking about Elsie Gabbard. We're talking about Tulsi Gabbard. I'm not here to defend Donald Trump. Are you defending Tulsi Gabbard? No, I'm not defending her either. No, I'm attacking her. Like Hillary, so I guess that's what we have in common.

I thought it was weird and inappropriate. Looks like we're all coming together. Thank you very much, everybody. That was a beautiful moment. 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.