Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #518: Michael Eric Dyson, Mitch Landrieu, Mikie Sherrill, Rick Wilson

Episode Date: February 1, 2020

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 1/31/20) 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 Maher. Remember a Congress here, we defer. Do you believe the House passage of the No War Against Iran Act yesterday will effectively curb Trump's ability to take military action without congressional approval? So this has always been a kind of gray area. So we passed two resolutions. One was ending the 2002-A-U. The authorization to use military force. That's why we got into Iraq, right?

That was widely seen as we got in, that was, there was 2000, the 2001 AUMF, which is fighting al-Qaeda and terrorists. So we're fighting under that. The 2002 AMF was largely seen as set out to take out the Saddam Hussein regime. That's the one Biden's always having to explain his vote for, right? That, so he's, yeah, so Barbara Lee was about the only person to vote. against that is represented Barbara Lee from Oakland. Oh no, I'm thinking of the one that many

like 27 Democratic senators voted for to give Bush authorization. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm talking in the House. Yeah, so in the House, Representative Barbily was the only person to vote against that, if I recall correctly. No, I think that's the one that was right after

Afghanistan. I think more people were for the Iraq War, right? Because by then they had sold it as So that's the one. We repealed the 2002. Okay. And she led that. So now you've repealed this one, the 2002 one?

Well, the House has. The House has. The House has. It won't pass the Senate. But you would like it to? I would like it to pass the Senate because I don't think we need these long, outstanding authorizations to use military force. I think Congress has abdicated many of its responsibilities, including with respect to war powers.

Forever. And so, you know, to have these unending war powers out there, you know, I think is, we should definitely stop the 2002 AMF. I think we need to actually modernize the 2001 AUMF, but I've been hesitant to repeal it. I'm not co-sponsoring that until we have a sense of what a new authorization would look like. I think we need, like many people,

that we need to find a pathway to ending our fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, I don't think it's healthy for a country to do that precipitously to simply pull out. And then we voted to not authorize funding for a war with Iran and specifically saying the president does not have the authorization to go to war with Iran. We had passed both of these as amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. They were both stripped out in conference when we went to conference with the Republican Senate,

so we passed them both on the House floor now. Okay. Rick Wilson, will the Lincoln Project formally endorse a candidate for 2020? Lincoln Project is, you explained it. It's your baby. Me and a bunch of other former Republican guys who, the Liam Neeson joke, you know, is a little tired, but we have a specific set of skills.

We do the things that you talked about just now about going after. Oh, the dirty stuff. Well, and it's the effective stuff. And it's the group of us that put it together. We're going to target both Donald Trump and Donald Trump's enablers. Now, we're not trying to pick the Democratic nominee. We're not trying to run their race or tell them how to do their policy or their ideology. but as an outside force that can do things

that the Democrats have demonstrably failed on doing a lot of the time like actually getting in people shit. We're sort of a pirate ship in that regard. And so we're going to go at a lot of folks on their support of Donald Trump. We're going to go at a lot of folks in the Senate who have now put their heads on the chopping block by following these votes that basically empower Donald Trump to be a lawless, reckless, corrupt president.

But will you put up a candy? I think, or endorse a candidate. We're not going to run a candidate. There's not a candidate. You're not going to endorse one. Well, that's a matter. Like Bill Weld is running again? You know, immaterial.

Look, the math doesn't exist right now for a Republican candidate to win the primary. And Donald Trump has shut off all of the state caucuses that matter, or state primaries that matter, so you can't really get to the nomination. So we're on the outside of that, so we're going to do as much as we can to make sure that Donald Trump is not reelected using all the tools in our toolbox and some of the they were pretty freaking nasty. Mitch, what do you think of the DNC adjusting its debate qualifications? Is it fair to the other candidates that Bloomberg may be able to qualify?

I don't think... I think the rules ought to be the same for everybody. Meaning? But they shouldn't change them. They set them. They had a big argument about them, and they ought to stay the way that they are. Mayor Bloomberg is out there spending a ton of money in areas

that are not going to and doing a pretty good job from what I can tell from... So shouldn't we hear them at least? ending up. Yeah, at some point in time, but I know there was a dust-up of this early on about some of the other candidates not being able to get in it. At some point in time, I suppose so, but it's a really difficult case for them to make today, after taking the position that they took a couple of months ago. I feel like when people lose, they just fight about the rules. Yeah. In many ways.

I mean, what do you think about, I mean, Corey Booker dropped out, Kamala Harris dropped out, and... Yay! And there was some support for that, obviously. And I mean, they were, I didn't know what the argument was because it's not like they were in a party that isn't trying to be diverse or that, you know, banned them from the ballot box. They didn't get the votes.

Yeah, but they couldn't get in on, speaking to the change in those rules, they couldn't get in on that, right? They were like, hey, we have less than 1% but we've got to reach out to the grassroots. So the change of rules for Bloomberg right now is kind of tricky. But I think, now here's my theory, probably I'm the only person that thinks this, partly of the blowback against Kamala and Corey

had nothing to do with them. They were perfectly fine candidates. I think it's the kind of delayed reaction of grief over some Democrats to Obama. Love him as a person. Still a great hero, but his policies not so much. So they see Kamala and Corey who kind of look like Obama politically speaking and they go, yeah, we've had that enough and we need to go on to the next one. And that's my theory about why some of them. Is there that much disappointment about,

Obama policies? I mean, saving the economy. Bailing out the auto industry and, you know, health care, I mean, but they were complicated. It was not just policies. Art of the possible politics. I feel like that's what

people don't get these days. But he went around the country also picking on black people in a particular kind of fashion. Obama did? Oh, yeah. Picking on. Let me give a quick example. So he went to Morehouse College and he's lecturing them and he's telling now they're graduating from college

and he's saying you know nobody's going to give you anything you didn't deserve or that you didn't earn well the only person who got an unearned degree that day was you Obama because they worked for theirs and then he really kind of excoriated them but when he went to Barnard College he had none of that so he was like I was a young person I know what it is I claimed

the white man was being racist against me I doubt that but then he turns around and goes to Barnett and doesn't excoriate them for the sexism he went to the Congress of Black Caucus and said stop complaining stop bitching put on your bedroom slippers, go out there in war, because they were saying to him,

you've got to have policies that are at least more respective of 14% black unemployment. So yeah, there was... I can't even like Obama. But you didn't love him. You didn't love him. But I'm good. It's been a rough day. Leave me Obama for a little while.

But here's my point. But here's my point. Would I take him right now? No. But notwithstanding what the professor said, who I love, the polling data reflects that the Democrats in this country have a very high opinion of President Obama's tenure.

And they would take you back in a second, right? I would too. I would too. All right. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it, audience. We'll see you next week. 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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