Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #630: Gov. Chris Sununu, James Kirchick, and Lt Gov. Winsome Sears

Episode Date: April 1, 2023

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 03/31/23) 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. Hello, CNN. We're back here with Tablet Magazine columnist and author of Secret City, Jamie Kurchick, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Windsom Earl Sears, and the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu. Quite a lineup here tonight. And people want to know these questions that they write in. Okay, this is for Governor Sununu. What do you make of Biden's decision to make South Carolina the first Democratic permission? Right, right. Now, your governor of New Hampshire, that was always, and still is the Republican first. No, and the Democrat. I'm sorry, Joe, we're going first. I don't care what the Democrat. The Democrat party doesn't dictate who goes first. The City of New Hampshire does.

No, but that, no, it's not saying that. The Democrat changed theirs. No, they didn't. So the Democrats tried, but New Hampshire's Democrat primary will still go first. Because, again, our law says we're going to go first. And this is Biden's real problem because he's left a huge opening for someone to come into New Hampshire, campaign there strong with some name ID, and charged through essentially. By the way, South Carolina doesn't have a first in the nation primary. They dictate, Trump didn't have one in 20. They just said Trump's the winner.

So Biden has effectively moved the first of the nation, tried to move it from New Hampshire to a state that won't even hold it. They'll just say, you're the incumbent, you're the winner. So it's actually a horrible miscalculation on this part. But I'm sorry, Joe, we're going first. Well, okay. Now, you announced on our show tonight that you're running for president. I know, well, again, it's about the indictment.

Let's see what happens. Let's see what happens. In essence, he did. Not in so many words. I did. My wife is texting me as we speak. Okay. Say it ain't so.

But New Hampshire, I mean, that's awash for you because you're from New Hampshire. So that primary is meaningless for you because if you don't want, win it, then, oh my God, you can't even win your home state. And if you do win it, it means nothing. No, no. If you win, it won't, if I were to win New Hampshire, it would be, you're not, you didn't win by enough. And if you lose it, you're totally toast. It's actually a disadvantage. I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now, for you, Lieutenant Governor Sears, what's a realistic way to approach immigration reform? Heavens. How about doing it the right way and doing it the legal way? I mean, my dad had to wait in line, wait his turn, sign all kinds of documents, prove who he was.

I mean, you've got to know who's coming into the country. We are a nation of laws. And if he had to do it, everybody's got to do it. That's the law. I'm sorry. Okay. No, don't apologize. That's the right answer.

You nailed it. Oh, no, I'm not apologizing. Okay. Governor Sunilis, should we be doing more to secure our northern border to prevent northern underlying, to prevent the trafficking of drugs. And Canadians. And Canadians. They're very dangerous.

So a northern border crossing is up 800%. 800%? Hundreds of thousands in just the last quarter from Canada. Yeah, so we're doing kind of our part. A lot of the states are open. It's a very unprotected border. But it's nothing like the southern border, of course. But yeah, you have to protect the northern border as well.

Canada has agreements with about five different countries. You don't even need visas. I think Honduras, El Salvador. They fly to Canada and then they walk across. We have them walking across through the woods in New Hampshire. Our longest border is with Canada. Yeah. Another critique of your state as a primary state is that it's not diverse. So it doesn't really look like America. Look like America. We have the highest voter turnout in the country. South Carolina's diversity? Look, South Carolina has about 15% voter turnout.

What's the point of diversity if you don't let anybody vote? If nobody comes out to participate. We have rich, we have poor, we have black, we have white, it doesn't matter. Everyone in New Hampshire participates in the process. Well, I mean... I'll take... I'll put my diversity against South Carolinas any day when you actually look at... who's actually voting and participating. The only black you have there is a bear. It's a very white state. Oh, sure, of course. Oh, yeah.

But I'm just saying, but that's... But isn't it about who participates? Isn't it about actually having a primary? Like I said, the Democrats likely aren't even going to hold the primary in South Carolina. So what's the point of diversity if you don't let people participate? I mean, they say that we subvert the vote

by asking people for an ID. They subvert the vote by not even letting them show up. I mean, that's the reality you're facing here. So that's why we're the best of the first of the nation primary. The high voter participation, the voter turnout, local control. And here's the most important part. I can't help you, Bill. I'm from Massachusetts.

I'm not following this argument, but go ahead. I'm from Massachusetts, and we used to refer to New Hampshire as Kentucky and New England. So that's... Really? What? That's not nice. That's not fair. Coming from Taxisichusis, right?

Coming from Tacitius, give me a break. Why is New Hampshire the fastest going to stay in the Northeast? That's not fair. That's not fair. That's right. I didn't say I agreed with it. That was what we used to say. Andy Bashir is now texting me.

Governor Bashir is texting me figuring out what that comment meant. Speaking of Peak Caucasian, perfect segue for this question, why was the public so captivated by Gwyneth Paltrow's trial this week? Does the panel think just was served.

Does the panel care? He said, she said. Yeah, I mean, really. Too rich people fighting it out. You know, I'm not in that. Here's the only... Go ahead. He was an orthodontist, if I'm not mistaken?

Optometrist. Autometrist. Retired optometrist. Okay. Meaning. Well, I... You were like Perry Mason. I have the evidence and then nothing.

What's the significance of that? He was an optometrist. I think that says it all. If he was an orthodontist, I had terrible memories of orthodontistry as a teenager, like many of us have had. And I would have sided with her instinctively on that. But he wasn't an orthodontist, so it doesn't matter. I think she was inspired by Johnny Depp. No, in this way.

Johnny Depp was just not going to take it. He was like, now, we don't know what goes on in a marriage, although actually we do know what went on in that marriage because they testified to it in court. You cut off my finger. You shit in the bed. You know, okay. Oh, marriage. It sounds great. Anyway, but I think Gwyneth was the same thing. She was like, this was only cost her $300,000.

She's worth million. She could have just paid it off. And she said, I am not going to let a guy just hold me up. I'm going to fight it. You know, we just can't have this situation in this country, which we do have, where people can accuse you of anything. And it's just easier to pay off. She said, I don't care if it's just $1.

Well, that's assuming she didn't do it. I mean, who knows what happened? There was no video. We're a video society. They're skiing. Exactly. I mean, I don't know. Who knows what happened?

One of them collided into the other. That's what we know. And somebody sued somebody else. This is America. We sue and then we see what happened. This is where I'll give Gwyneth a lot of credit. Do you see after the verdict came down, she went over, pat him on the shoulder and said,

I wish you well. That's a boss move. That is a boss move on her part. Because it basically says, nice try. Yeah. When you win, it's easy to do. Yeah. It's nice to be nice.

I mean. I mean, I never understood. She got her dollar. Skiing, you know. I would never ski. What a stupid sport. Oh, here we go. Here we go.

You know? You're freezing. He's got more snow than we do, so let him defend it. Last week, I was shoveling my walkway, and I got excited. I came out to California, and you have a whole different flavor of snowflake out here. So I'm hiddling with that. But you've got to get used to the snow and the skiing. I'll bring his skiing sometimes.

He was preparing that one. I was just going to say, he's definitely running for president. Oh, my, he's even got the comedy writers were. Snowflakes jokes, I'm going out to California. Speaking of which, another great segue, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he plans, oh yeah, I read this, to travel to states where freedom is most under attack.

I don't know. Would this strategy help Democrat? I don't know. A few years ago, the California legislature banned state money going to travel to states that had so-called anti-LGBQ laws. So you couldn't have the sports teams. You couldn't have state officials

going to other states that had controversial laws. And just a couple days ago, one of the leading legislators who supported this said, it's not working. And we have to repeal this because there's too much business

going on across the country. We have to travel, and it would lead to a civil war. I mean, if you can't even... And we're also making it very personal. You remember the Civil War, what it was called, the war between the states?

We're making it very personal. between states. Like, your state is... New Hampshire? I'm not sure where you're going. Right. It's kind of purple now, right? I mean, it's...

A little more red than purple, but yeah, we always get stuff down. Right. I mean... Well, here's the thing. He's talking about freedom, less... States that are less free. Isn't he the guy who told everybody

they had to stay home during COVID? And then he went to some lobbyist dinner with, what, 25 of his best friends? So they were hanging out, having a good time. This was the number one lockdown state. That's atroo. Does he have a... mirror? Oh, yes, he does, because we've seen his hair.

Ooh, Gavin, the knives are out. He makes it easy. Take care of your own house before you start talking about other people. Okay, he owned that. He shouldn't have gone out that night. He shouldn't have locked down his state. Among the political peccadillos, I put it

about thousands down on the list. It wasn't his finest moment, but really, come on. If that's all you got on him? No, how about the schools? How about the millions of kids that didn't get back to schools? How about the businesses? I know. I'm on your side. He sent his wife, you know, with the kids to Florida. I'm so. I mean, really. The list on Gavin is quite long. Okay. You have time? Put it this way. Republicans would love to run against Gavin.

We would love it. It's a Sunnu Sears ticket. I think. No, no, no, remember, I can't run. Time. Before anybody says anything about immigration again, remember, I wasn't born here. So you can't run? No, I can't. And that's why you're so delightfully honest. I thank you all for being here. Gotta go. Time for a commercial. Catch all new episodes of real time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10.

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