Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #603: Dr. Cornel West, Kellyanne Conway, Josh Barro

Episode Date: June 11, 2022

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 6/10/22) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Okay. All right. Here we are in Oversight. Kelly Ann, if Trump runs again, will you help with the campaign?

Well, let's see what he decides. I want to help get rid of Biden and Harris because I agree with the vast majority of Americans. They're doing a terrible job on the issues that affect us most. Gas? American say it's inflation. What is the price of gas? I haven't heard lately. Here in California, $6.

It's $6. So I'm going to, I'm absolutely going to support the Republican nominee. All right. I'm so glad I have a Tesla. I don't have to buy gas. Okay. Corkell, with the advent of social media, political protests have certainly changed since the last century. Is this for the better or for worse?

Depends on the quality of the character of the people who participate. Technology is just a mean. What you bring to it. what you bring to it, you know. But certainly, I mean, you would admit that it allows more people to hear about something going on. I mean, you could have the version of a flash mob. You know, I mean, you can get people in an hour to show up someplace. That's true.

But in the end, it's about quality rather than quantity. Right. And it's also, I mean, a lot of people think they do something when they just post something on Instagram. Exactly. They like they got a mass movement all these likes here and likes them. No, it's just a momentary situation. So you're saying you've got to actually get in the street. You've got to get decent, courageous, visionary people who believe in something bigger than their own ego.

So who do you... Well, why are you in the wrong town for that? But I tell you, your indictment of Hollywood was powerful. Oh, thank you. Howful, go, brother. You think of it, you just think of it. You think of it's big of the country. There's roughly, Canada and California have roughly the same populations.

More Californians kill each other with knives, and Canadians kill each other with anything. Right. Well... That's a culture. It's not fair to compare it to Canadians. They're very polite. Well, Canadians got their problems.

They've got their problems. Yes, they do. But our dominant myth is the frontier. Yes, you're right. No, I mean... The guns... I mean, yes. ...proliferating, domestic violence.

Violence against gay brothers, lesbian, sisters, trans, violence against black people, violence against women. I mean, that's one of the three... We have to come to terms. Look at Hofstetter talks about this. It's a great essay, right? Ready for God.

Violence in America. But Slopkin's great trilogy. Gunfighter nation. It's a cultural thing. That's where we had to have counter-factual, I mean, counter-hegemonic and countervailing forces against that kind of violence. So, and, you know, thank you for your compliment, but I'm sure the usual suspects will see that tonight and just tear it apart.

But it is... What can they say? What can they say? What can they say? What can they say? What can they say every week? I'm right every week with me. Well, I don't know.

I don't know about the whole. I don't know. Nobody's right all the time. You're right to call it. You're right to call it hypocrisy every week. You're right to call it hypocrisy, and that is hypocrisy. You can't have these images in front of these kids and pretend it doesn't matter. And what's interesting is that we used to talk about that and then we just stopped.

But how is this different from the watch what you say stuff that you object to on other issues? What do you mean, watch what I say? No. I mean, well, people like, people like, telling comedians like don't tell these jokes about trans people that's harmful, it can encourage violence, that sort of thing. I mean, it's the same sort of feedback effect argument, isn't it? I mean, that, you know, if entertainment matters, it changes how people behave. Right.

And so either that's something that's important in deciding what entertainment is. Well, if you're saying, if you're talking about trans in a way that's hateful, yes, that should be called out. But if you're just talking about it as a subject. Well, but I mean, that's sort of a, then you get into definitional questions, People who are objecting find whatever they're objecting to. The problem was that the left has moved the gold post to, if you just bring it up, you're a bigot. And that's not, no, I can't get down with that. But so...

And also, we're talking about killing people. We're talking about... You're talking about an industry that does tons of polls and focus scoops to figure out what sells. And apparently what sells is having all this gun violence, and we know who the customers are. And you're absolutely right. Look, you quantified it tonight. If people want to disagree with you, they're going to say, Now you sound like a conservative.

Why would you dare talk about mental health? Well, there's a reason we talk about mental health. Generation Z tells pollsters that they are suffering from emotional connections, mental health, lost learning. In fact, the America Rescue Plan, which passed a couple months ago, there's $112 billion in there for post-COVID school funding, and it's really meant to be for lost learning, new counselors' mental health. About 93% of it is still unspent. We can even shift it over to harden those schools, keep them safer, do the mental health stuff. But let's stop pretending it's always about one.

And it's not saying we shouldn't make the change the gun laws also. Stop pretending this doesn't matter. But that's part of it. And as long as you have this out there where everything, every movie these kids see is about somebody picking up. And video game. You didn't even do it. And video games. I mean, it's a big part of the puzzle.

I think the hard in the school stuff is bad. I think, you know, it's when you treat schools like a fortress and when you put kids through these shooter drills that are traumatizing, it's like sending this message. I don't know. I have four school. wherever you go. You know what? I don't want the schools to feel like fortresses, but I'll be damned we have armed guards protecting our money at banks. We should be protecting our children better in our schools. There's a hundred thousand public schools in the United States. Like the idea that you're going to send armed

guards to every public school in the United States. Someone was saying send the national, you would like if you put if you put the National Guard's like 400,000 people, you use a quarter of the National Guard. I don't think we need a federal response. I don't think we need a federal response. I want to get back to brother Josh's crucial point about the arts, because any time a civilization or an empire is reaching its nadir, the artists play a very important role for truth-telling, because there are in many ways the vanguard, the species in that sense. And when Brother Bill says, well, the comedians ought to have not just the right, but they ought to be able to allow for the incongruity, the contradictions,

the falling shorts of anybody, no matter who they are, what color, sexual orientation. I think that has to be defended. But there's a radical difference, and you all tell you. me what you think about George Garland's and Richard Pryors and the moms Maisley, they laughed with people. Too many of the comedians these days laugh at people. Who are you talking about? You're in the legacy of George Garland. You're in the legacy of the great comics because you are willing to laugh at yourself as you didn't laugh at others. We've got some... But you're not mentioning... You're not saying the names of the people he were saying do the opposite. I want to know who's a...

I forgive them rather quickly when I see them, because they're just... You're not talking about... You're not talking about Dave Chappelle? No, no. Dave's a great artist, though. Oh, no, Richard. I don't know that one, that way. I don't keep track of all of them.

But David Chappelle is what is a great one as well. But the thing is that it's the precious humanity of the gays and husbands and trans and black folk and women and white men and and, and, you know, Chicano's and so forth. Because we're all in this human project. together. And if we can't laugh at each other, then we miss something very deeply. But when we just, all we can do is laugh at each other. That's Hobbs on comedy, right? Sutton Groerty. Laughing at somebody's misfortune. Elevating yourself over somebody else. That's not that funny. No. No one's advocate. Put yourself as the object of your thing. And that's what you all do at your best. We just talking about that's your best. Yeah. I mean, we're not, no one's advocating punching down, but, but. But I've seen some comics. They just come and look on the front row and start talking about how people look in their clothes and it.

I said, where are you going? Where, where are you at that? It's the fucking laugh factory on a Tuesday night. Well, you know, they're talking about the open, the open micers. I mean, you know, yes. Maybe it's an open mic. Maybe it's an open mic. Maybe it's an open mic. I can take you to some. I'm going to be right. So, let me ask a final question. Trump is going to be running again.

I'm sure Kelly Ann will be the campaign manager because he's going to say, you stuck out for one because I had nothing to do with this $1.4 billion $2020 boondoggle. Right, okay, right. Okay, you're one for one. And you wouldn't throw him under the bus tonight, so, you know, you could have a whole one.

You shouldn't have people on here and make this human dignity question. Will you throw him under the bus or not? We were talking about January 6th, and I wanted to gently remind everybody. It's not a courtroom. It's a hearing. And that they didn't even have the guts. I think I said balls to subpoena him. And they never do.

But I mean, you say you'll support the Republican nominee. But, like, we don't have a Republican nominee yet. We don't have an active vice president right now. Why don't you want them to nominate somebody else? We don't even know what she does. Her weekend schedule always says the vice president has nothing on her public schedule this weekend. I want to get a vice president who's working for the republicans. Why shouldn't they nominate Ron DeSantis or Glenn Yonkin or some other governor who's popular in the state who doesn't have the baggage that Donald Trump has and who who was who didn't.

The Santos just beat him in a Trump hole. So they should, the Republican Party should nominate who it wants to nominate. But I will tell you in the time. But you're a Republican. They're all running. You get an opinion too. And I'll vote for whom I want. I absolutely will and I'll keep that private.

But listen, because that's my right. But listen. It's right. Here's the thing. They're all running as a mayor. They're all running on energy independence, better tax cuts. I get out of it. No, they're all running on that way out.

It's driving me up the wall. This gas. I would like to know, since you're telling the Republicans, they should nominate Josh, respectfully, I would like to know how this party, they had 25 Democrats running for president last time. You had an openly gay man, a very impressive person. You had an African-American man. You had a black woman in Connolly Harris. You had an American Samoa, that's Tulsi Gabbard, not Elizabeth Warren.

Elizabeth Warren, you had a female socialist. You had a male socialist. And you ended up with the old white guy from Washington. How did that happen? How is the Democratic Party, this party, youth and energy. I'll tell you how. Black voters in South Carolina,

tick the guy who could win. Yeah. That's what happened. And he's a terrible president. Well, but the sad thing was, it's not a terrible president. For the first time in American history, the most progressive voting block of black people

did not vote for the most progressive candidate who was brother Bernie Sanders. Right. That's very important to keep in mind. Right. Because Bernie was much more tied to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., than brother Joe Biden was. Oh, for sure. But the black leadership, with Clyburn and others, tied to the pharmaceutical company so he can't go for Medicare for all. No, he's tied to big money.

Like most of these milk-toast politicians, they tied to big money. So you got Bernie out there. laying out his vision, and we were winning in November, remember? What do you mean that's the first time? You had in 2016, you had the black voters lining up strongly behind Hillary Clinton over Bernie. In 2008, you had them behind Obama, who was not as far left as John Edwards. I think that, I think it's a long tradition of pragmatism. And having gone for Rick Or we can say pragmatism or concentrated perception.

And in surveys, now you get white liberals having moved to the left of black liberals. This last election, though, brother, when we were winning in the election. in Nevada. In that sense, we could have had a major push for black voters for Bernie. Where the first time he ran, it was an interesting kind of project. They didn't think that he really had a chance. I mean, I support Obama in 2008, but he had 4% and the black folk were not voting for him. Early on, they shifted later. Maybe people just are not

in love with socialism. No, it's not socialism. Well, Bernie is a socialist. He's a new deal, new liberal. He likes to call himself. He calls themselves a socialist. A lot of people like to call themselves things. He didn't want to... Why would you want to call yourself a term that doesn't have a positive kind of... Because he's in love with Eugene Debs and he's in love with Norman Thomas. Okay, but the people don't know who Eugene Debs is.

And if they did, he wouldn't be popular. He got to teach people who to you. I think he owns a socialist view, though. I think he's very proud of that, frankly. He just primaried a guy, a Democratic congress in Oregon, who was backed by Biden, and the more socialist candidate wants. We have polling on this. I mean, the white liberal is to the left of the average Democratic black voter.

No question. Right? Every time. On social issues and on economic issues. And education. Right. Most black voters are moderate, not liberal. More white Democrats are...

They take the poor people's campaign with William Barber and Thier Harris. We're going to be there next week with him. The black community is very supportive of William Barber and company. Yes. Four people's campaign. Okay. Just as, or even more than the White Brothers isn't a little surplus. Why is Joe Biden losing their support right now, though,

according to lots of tolls and oil. Gas. In place. Because he's gas. I got to go. You like badmole. I got to go. Catch all new episodes of real time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10.

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