Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #513: Dr. Jay Gordon, Ronan Farrow, Christina Bellantoni, Dennis Prager, Richard Stengel

Episode Date: November 2, 2019

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 11/1/19) 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 Mark. Okay, thank you. Here we are with the questions. Ronan, were you surprised that you were able to win the trust of the Black Cube agent hired by Harvey Weinstein to stalk and intimidate to you? Now you're going to have to explain what that means, the folks who have... Black Cube is an Israeli private intelligence firm that touts its close connections to the Mossad. It's run by a lot of former Mossad and other Israeli intelligence and military personnel. and they did have a subcontractor operation where there was a Russian spy and a Ukrainian spy

kind of chasing me around for a lot of the plot of catch and kill. And look, one of the inspiring things about these events, despite all the darkness in them, is time and time again. There were whistleblowers who saw bad stuff happening and said, enough, I'm going to report it. And one of those guys chasing me becomes a source. How do you know when they're chasing you? You know, for a time, it's sort of its paranoia

of seeing the same car over and over again, seeing the same guy over and over again. And then ultimately it is receipts. I'm an attorney and a skeptical investigative reporter, and I get all the contracts showing exactly how the operation went. And one of these guys at the heart of it was one of the many sources who stood up and said, I care about the free press.

I don't want to be tracking reporters. And one of the craziest things in it is you describe getting all these text messages, like just dozens and tons of time. I'm like, that is not a way, a method I would have thought to be spied on, but now it's made me paranoid. They used my phone to track me. There's a lot of different methods,

but it actually ties into some very high-stakes issues globally too, right? Because Jamal Khashoggi's friends had this kind of spyware on their phones. An Israeli company called NSO Group is one of the main person

When you want to get serious with this shit, you get Israelis. You know? When I went to Europe to tour like four years ago, who protected me? Israelis. That's who we got. We got fucking Israelis.

There's a lot of great private firms out of Israel that do good work on security. Right. This particular firm didn't, I mean, I was able to own a mask all the race. So I don't know if that's a ringing endorsement. Okay.

Dr. Gordon, how concerned are you about the new report that says 95% of baby food contains toxic metals? It does. I tell people to please make their own baby food. I don't trust the manufacturers of children's products, whether it's pharmaceuticals or baby food. And I worry a lot about the new vaccine laws, which have taken the decision about vaccines away from parents, initially gave it to me, and now there's going to be a government committee in California deciding whether or not you medically qualify for vaccine exemption, and those laws are going to spread across the United States unless we slow them down.

And the sheep not applauding. Okay. So, Dennis, how can you justify saying truth is not a left-wing value when Donald Trump has lied over 13,000 times since taking office? He does lie. You would agree with that. He does. Okay.

What else has ever lied? No, no, that I would not say. You see, wait, wait, wait, wait, first of all... What are, like, when he makes him a phone call? Like, he said he talked to Mitch McConnell, and Mitch McConnell said, we never had a conversation. Okay. Does that president lied like that?

So allow me to explain my comment. Okay. All right. First of all, Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not right-wing or conservative. Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Okay. The left wing...

The left wing... I'll tell you what it means. I'll tell you what it means. It means nothing. The left wing is infinitely larger than one person. I don't choose one. one left-wing person who tells a lie. The left wing says,

I'll give you gigantic lies, that the United States is a racist country. This is a lie. This is a gargantuan lie. This is the least racist, multicultural, multi-ethnic country in the history of the world. That these people believe it

is proof to me about how effective lying can be. This is an unbelievably non-racist country. Have you people been to Asia? Do you people know that The Japanese did not allow one Vietnamese boat person into Japan because they're not Japanese. We allowed them into America. What is that?

We're better than the Japanese. We're better than everyone. We are less racist than any country with many races. It is a lie. But we could still have some racism. Of course there's right. I'm a Jew. There are anti-Semites in America.

It is a giant lie that America is anti-Semitic. I taught Jewish history in Brooklyn College. I know it. I wrote two books. on Judaism. This is the least anti-Semitic country Jews have ever lived in. To say America's anti-Semitic is a lie. To say it is racist is a lie. These are giant left-wing lies. We're talking about degrees. To say that men can menstruate is a lie. And that is now, that is what is said.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, where did that? You never heard it. Right. Okay. Check it out, folks. Check it out. Anyone who says a man cannot menstruate is considered transphobic. I missed this whole story. You did. I did. Now, tell me where you're getting this. Just Google it.

Can men menstruate? Who is saying this? Who is saying it? Who is saying it? Very small percentage? Really? That how do you allow men, biological men, to run against women in the races in Connecticut and set all the high school records?

Okay, I know. They're called men. The Nation magazine said they're women. Okay, but I would agree with you on that. The way you framed it is nonsense. No, I framed it perfectly accurately. No, no, no, you didn't. What you're talking about is, yes,

Someone who is transgendered was a man, now claims to be a woman, is a woman, okay, is beating the dog shit out of other women in the race because, of course, they have more muscle mass, and even Martina Navratilova came out and said, this is ridiculous. You might not have women's sports. This is a far cry from saying men can menstruate. I agree.

But that's not where anyone went with that, but you. Okay. At the University of Berkeley Menstrual. room, tampons are given out. Check it out. You see Berkeley, men's rooms have tampon dispensers.

That's probably because men are pussy whipped and their girlfriend said, go get me a tampon. That's why. That's a much more logical. Okay. Okay. All right. Moving on to the next. Dennis, I remember you in the old

show, you were a little more reasonable. What did I say that was it? You said that we think that men menstruate and no one does. Have you heard about it? I'm a doctor. I missed that one, I confess. And this is one of the premier reporters. He knows everything.

These people are very, he's a doctor. He's one of the great investigation. I would make a friendly bet that the LGBTQ normative statement is men can menstruate. With North America generating most... I'm glad you... Okay, all right, let's talk about another kind of gusher. With North... With North America...

What's happening here. With North America generating most of the oil that's used in the United States, why is the U.S. still in the Middle East? Now, I read this week that we get 16% of our oil from the Middle East countries. That's not much. Only $30 billion do we spend on it. Most of what we get from us, Canada, get half.

Canada, we get like half, and they have zero warlords. And Mexico. Why are we spending untold billions to protect this area that we're only spending $30 billion on oil for? It makes no sense. Well, it should be liberating for us. I mean, we started to get involved in the Middle East in 1945 when we wanted oil, when there was oil discovery in Saudi Arabia and Iran. We are now, as of the last two years,

the world's largest energy producer, not just oil itself, but all kinds of other forms of energy. And it should liberate us from having to be there. What's ironic and silly about what Donald Trump has done is he's taken out a thousand special operations forces in Syria. By the way, the same guys who got al-Baghdadi. We have 14,000 people in Kuwait. We have 13,000 people in Qatar.

Let's bring some of them home. I agree we should have a smaller footprint in the Middle East. And the person who tried to do that was Barack Obama. There's also reasons to be present strategically other than military presence. And we've talked about this before. We have strip-mined our diplomatic apparatus. And in a lot of these countries, we now have primarily a military posture that is completely needless. It costs us in multiple ways.

And it's changed the face we put forward to the world. We need more diplomats in these places. Look, I think the fact that we had a small number of troops in Syria, but still American troops. All you need is a couple of thousand. And this is why, before Trump did his thing three weeks ago, we didn't lose Syria. Now, Iran has an overland route into Hezbollah. I thought you were a big Israel lover. You're okay with that?

Your boy gave Syria to the Russians and the Iranians, and now Israel is going to have Iranian... You're right. I'm right about something. Wait, just for the record, I want everyone to know. The Wall Street Journal and every single Republican and conservative columnist I have read, including people I've had on my show, disagreed with the president on Syria. So just know about the cult issue. I don't know who's in that cult, because every Republican I have read

oppose the president on that issue. Well, I would advise you to look at Lindsey Graham's comments on that, because at first he said what you're saying now, I don't agree, and then he was like, president thinks out of the box, this could work. Okay, maybe. All right. Yeah.

And he's not the only one. I mean, this idea that the president doesn't have enablers and lackeys. Did you read the comment from his press secretary who said General Kelly quit because he couldn't, he couldn't take the genius that is Donald Trump? Did you see that? Okay. I have it somewhere. Press secretary, it's unfair to pick on them.

They have an untenable role. Did any press secretary? ever say that? Anything like that? Okay, if that's what she said, it's a silly comment. She did. Okay. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm going to find this card. Okay, fine. I'll say something. We are in the Middle East, not just for oil.

Wherever American troops are, liberty expands. Look at Korea, look at Germany, look at Japan. If they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to those who deserve it, the American military would get it every year. Here's the comment. She said, I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president.

You're telling me that sounds like a... That's what fucking Kim Jong-un's people sound like. You're okay with that? I'm not okay. It's silly. It's silly, but it's not Kim Jong-Lu. It's not? I'm not equipped to handle the genius of our great president? But we're free to laugh at it, so it's not North Korea, is it? We're laughing at the president's press secretary.

If you laugh at Kim Jong-Zo, President, you're dead. We're looking at the trajectory of where we might go. Today, we're laughing. Tomorrow, who knows. 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. For more information, log on to HBO.com.