Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #522: Brian Cox, Rachel Bitecofer, Caitlin Flanagan, Anthony Scaramucci, Ross Douthat

Episode Date: March 7, 2020

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 3/6/20) 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 Maugh. Okay, here we are. Rachel, will the Democrats be able to take back the Senate in 2020? What's your prediction on that? The Senate? Because if we don't get the Senate,

then it's all kind of motion. So now that the socialist prospect has been vanquished and the party will not be running against itself, which is a really critical element, yes, the Colorado and Maine are definitely flipping, as will Arizona. So the question is, Wait, which ones are flipping?

Colorado, Maine, and Arizona. Okay. So when my forecast for the House and the Senate come out, we'll be talking about at least six house seats in addition to the ones they gained in 2018. But that's because they didn't understand in this new environment where to spend money. It's in these realigning suburbs,

which are, by the way, re-aligning because of the millennial generation who are now 40. They're balding. They own houses. Right. They're not college kids. And they were sitting on their ass not voting before, but now they're freaked out, okay? And so when we look at the suburban revolution, it's not Republican women singing kumbaya

and having, like, buyer's remorse. In fact, if you look at my analyses, which I really urge you guys to do, anyone who's hearing this, please do, you're going to see Republicans are stoked on Donald Trump. They love what this man is doing. They're not disaffected. They showed up. They increased their turnout in 2018. and Democrats are actually flipping seats

because of independence and Democrats who are changing the composition of electorate, they're making it less white, younger, more female, and better educated, and that's what's saving America. Okay, Brian, as someone raised with Britain's National Health Service, why do you think some Americans are so hesitant to embrace Medicare for all?

I have no idea. I think that's stupid. I mean, I think, you know, the National Health Service is phenomenal. Well. And each government tries to screw it up by appalling middle management. And it's a middle management that's done the job. Not the people on the ground, not the nurses, not the doctors, but the management that's been shit.

But now doctors in England are paid a salary, right? Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's going to be a tough sell in America. Well, of course. Everything's a tough sell here. Right. So what's new?

Right. And the idea of a National Health Service, you know, it was started by Clem Attlee and Aaron Bevan, two great politicians, actually probably being the greatest Prime Minister I think we ever had. He was right after Churchill?

He was right after Churchill. He managed the country while Churchill was doing the war. That was the interesting thing about him. And he was very quiet. It was a very quiet man. But anyway, I think that the National Health Service is You know, they try to destroy it. They'll try and sell it.

They'll try to do everything, particularly the Tories. But it still goes on. And it's great. Ross, is the coronavirus the kind of event that could force us out of our state of decadence, which, of course, is the subject of your book? That's a terrific question. Thank you, Mom.

So, yeah. So, I mean, it's a little weird because I'm out promoting this book about how we're stuck in these loops of, you know, decaying, institutions and stale-mated politics and the same Star Wars movies over and over again. And I'm doing this while the coronavirus is basically sweeping through and putting it all to the torch. So, yeah, I can say definitively, you know, pandemics are not decadent. They're really bad,

but they're definitely not decadent. But it is a test for, I mean, what I was talking about earlier, basically the institutional failure at every level that we've had in response to it, that is decadence. That's what decadence looks like. And, you know, I mean, more than you, I think it's going to be worse than the flu, I think. What's going to be worse than the flu? The coronavirus? It could be. What are you basing that on?

You know, Italy, mostly, Iran. I mean, even South Korea, the best containment we've got has a fatality rate of 0.6 and the flu is 0.1. So that's for every person you said dies of the flu every year, which is too many. You could have six people dead, which is hundreds of thousands of people. I think there's a debate about that. I don't think you're... Well, that's the low end. That's the low end. I read today that the people most to worry about this, of course, are over 80, 80 and over...

And even among 80, it's one out of six. Really? Yeah. Go on. I'm not to say, if I was 80, if I was 80, and I still had six to one odds to live through this day. Go to the casino on that.

I mean, it's not the worst when you're 80. I mean, we have death. You know, part of decadence, I think, is that people, you're right, it's always about victim of your own success. I mean, you think of the French, you know, the kings in the time of Louis XIV. I mean, everything was just so effete.

And nothing, they couldn't stand any sort of pain. They sat on thousands of pillows. That's where we are now. Yeah. People sitting on thousands of pillows. Absolutely right. But pandemics are worse than that. They are.

But it's not the black plague. You can't root. I'm not rooting for it. I'm not, let me be clear. I am against the coronavirus. Let me say I have always been against the coronavirus. Check my record. Stop lying about my record, Roth,

Alton. Also on the campaign, list of don't do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah. Okay. Well, what does the coronavirus do do to the campaign, though? How do you put that into a model? You know, Trump is so screwed, right? Because it's going to totally fuck the economy. Everybody says

that, everything that happens and he's never screwed. Oh, no, no, no. He is definitely, definitely not helped by this. And you can see that in his total panic. He took a trillion dollars out of stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one thing that he had is that decadence, right? He had all of these rich

people who were able to say, well, I've got not my conservative judges who will one day redefine American citizenships or a minority population can hold on to power. And I have money, right, from the stock market. Well, my parents are living off of retirement funds. They lost like 40% of their stock. You said his mouth lost $2 trillion? 100%. Just what he said.

100%. That first press conference. Above what it would have been. Okay, look, I'm a clear-eyed money manager running 11. Yes, you are. You like money. I do. I watch that.

I have a lot of it. I watch that guy's press conference. Forget my politics or getting out. I said, okay, the market is going to sell off on this because it's science. You want to say that the Trump Tower condominium is 10,000 square feet? When it's 1,000, no problem, okay?

You can't lie about the science, okay? You can't. You've got to hit the science right in the bullseye. And then he opened his mouth on Sean Hattady's show. And that costs another trillion. I know. I mean, they can't go south by south west. I mean, that's a huge...

This is going to have an impact, though. It's going to be a silver line. There's got to be a silver line. So here, in my research, like economy, right? People argue, oh, Trump's in this great position because the economy is strong. Bullshit, right? In the old days, the economy mattered.

So Carvel was right one time, but not anymore, right? But a bad economy on a guy that everyone hates, just asked Jimmy Carter how that went for him. Not everyone. Not everyone in America hates. That's a little bubble. It's about 43%, and he's going to get about 47%.

So the question will be, can the Trump team make enough not-Trump voters? Stupid about to vote against their own interests. Certainly you've made my point, not everyone. What are your thoughts, panel, on Bill Clinton saying in the new documentary, I guess this came out today, that his affair with Monica Lewinsky was a way of, quote, managing my anxieties. and lets you take that one. This is addressed to you, but I put it to the whole panel.

I don't know why you do it. You know, obviously, I assume it's taken out a context. It did seem to address his anxieties. He did very well. I know it's a president during that period. You know, sounds right to me. I think it's indisputable. I think it really is indisputable.

I think it really does help your anxiety. Yeah. She's called Dr. Rood. He's back to the Bloomberg blowjob terminal. But just, go ahead. No, but I just think they would be better served as Democrats to stay out of the way right now.

Why surfers that and bring up the fact that he was impeached and all that other stuff? It just colors badly the Democrats. The Clinton's never miss an opportunity. Never miss an opportunity to... Right. For a Democrat. But I just got to say.

No strategy. Now, but to say... And then also you have the symmetry of him getting impeached and plus... Yes. Can I, for one second, channel Monica Lewinsky and I don't think Monica likes me very much. You know, I may have done a few jokes in the past. Just a couple. I tried to, when she came out a few years ago in Vanity Fair and wrote that, I kind of, I tried to defend her and then I saw her and she was like, your defense was not good enough or it was the wrong kind of defense.

I was like, oh. You're dead to her. Yeah. But I just got to say. the blindness of a man saying that I had this affair with this person it was to manage my anxieties. How does that make her feel?

It's just like a terrible thing to say. You know what reminds me of when people are with like their second wife? Right. And they just go on it. This is the love of my life and I didn't live before I met. It was the first wife.

Right. How does she feel when she hears this? You know, it's just like they do this all the time. And the Clintons are very blind to they have a callousness. They really do. This to me was very callous. It's like, manage my anxieties.

You know, really? There was not a human being there? Especially after she's revealed that she was in love with him and she really opened up about what she felt about it. And then... And he, like, and there was more than just managing my anxiety, as I recall that. He bought her that book of poetry. Remember that?

Right. Well, women. It was like, and there was a tape where he was like, good morning, because he got a blow job that day. And like, you know, he was, it's a little more than that. All right, thank you. But he has to go out to Hillary every night. Right.

So I guess. Yes, you're right. That's right. Very good point. 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.