Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #637: Alexandra Pelosi, Paul Begala, Bret Stephens

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 10/20/23) 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 Maher. The Inselectionist next story, Alexandra Pelosi. We have New York Times columnist Lex Stevens, and we have CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Paul Bagawa. And these are the questions hot off the press. I hold in my hand the... When that head should just do Carnac and fuck with their minds. Okay.

Should Rashida... Oh, oh, yes. Rashida Talib, who, by the way, still has not acknowledged that the missile that killed the hospital was not an Israeli missile, still telling the lie. Should she be forced to take down the Palestinian flag flying outside her office? Yeah, I saw that picture. Oh, there you have it. No, the answer is no. No.

No. I mean, I despise her political views, but absolutely not. She's an American. She can do whatever she wants. Okay. And I mean, this is the American Congress. Has this been done before? Do other people, I mean, people come from different countries.

Do they then fly the, I mean, there's plenty of people, I'm sure, who have heritage from Mexico. Did they put the Mexican flag outside their office? I think voters should make judgments about her political choices, but I think it's the essence of a democracy. And you can fly the flags. What do you stand on this one? I'm not touching that. You're not touching that. Well, you are afraid to get cancer.

But I will say, wait, but here's the thing. I will go into, I support the whole concept of free speech, right? And one of the main things I talk about in my movie is about, when does free speech become hate speech? And when do we go after people and call it hate speech? This is where the whole thing about getting canceled comes from. Like, I'm afraid to talk about that because I don't want to get canceled. That's people are going to say it's hate speech.

Well, what? Okay. Why don't we just call it shitty speech? Yeah. I'm not... It's in the eye of the... Hate speech is a concept that's always in the eye of the behold.

I agree. I never... Speech that I hate. So don't say anything I disagree. Right, but there's this whole thing called free speech, but who cares if nobody's listening? We're not listening to each other. So who cares?

I've never been in love with the concept of looking into people's minds when they commit crimes. It's a crime. You need to pay for it if you committed the crime. Why you did it? I don't know. That gets into crazy kind of territory.

thought crimes. Right, which is exactly where we don't want to go. But yeah, no, I agree. She can fly the flag anywhere, but what does it say about you know, your, it just seems like your loyalties are a little too divided. I agree, and let the voters of

Bishop draw their conclusions next year. I know how I would vote if I were in her district, but absolutely I'm going to stand up for her right to speak her mind. What do you think of Putin's meeting with Xi? That's right. Putin of Russia and Xi of China. boy, these two, they like have friendship bracelets.

One says... One says, fuck, and the other says America, you know. Forming a new axis of evil. Boy, I mean, you go, but it's weird because China and Russia were always at each other's throats. And Putin has this sort of fanboy appeal to the far right in the republic,

give to a lot of Republicans, which I find astonishing, because they'll tell you they hate the Chinese Communist Party. Okay, good. I'm with you, buddy. But they love Putin. By the way, Putin was meeting with the Sheikh Nostrala, the head of Hezbollah. Right. He is behind all of the worst things and the worst people in the world.

And yet they love him. It's something Biden deeply gets, which is that dictators by nature unite. Whatever there are geopolitical differences. Right. They are birds of a feather. They see themselves as authoritarian who want to. to destroy the free world, and that's why it's important to have leaders in the free world, who recognize what the threat they posed.

Hamas, Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, they all have something in common. What did Nazi Germany and Japan really have in common, except, oh, we're the bad guys? That's right. You're right. There was really, I guess, the plan, was there ever, even a plan, we're going to divide up the world? we're going to conquer each our halves and then obviously they would have turned on each other like Hitler turned on Stalin. It's weird.

Do you think Mitt Romney is right to blame Fox News and right-wing media for radicalizing the GOP? Boy, when Mitt Romney becomes... And I must say, Mitt Romney, he is who he is. This is the kind of guy. You know, like, he irons his underwear. You know, you just... You can't...

I mean, when he ran for president, I was unmerciful. But he was just... You know, he's just being the person he was born. He's just, you know, he's met Romney. But, Alexander, I'm sure you saw a lot of people who were poisoned by Fox News. I keep referring to your interview with Bill because it's the downstream effect.

They're drinking... We say in Texas, the water won't clear up until you get the hogs out the creek. Okay? All these people are drinking... All this shit that we're at Morda And the social media companies are putting in the water, right? Yes.

More like that, that's how you get elected in this country. You come out with stuff like that. But you saw them. You saw the victims of that poison, right? Absolutely. It's really toxic. And then, of course, it goes even worse into the political violence territory.

And I'll tell you this. He's making fun of me for this, but I'm saying, I have to be careful because I don't want a guy to break into my house with a hammer and try and kill me a night. And I'll tell you something. You come look at my inbox, and you'd be...

You'd be shitting in your pants if you saw my inbox. Again. How could these people want... They want to kill me because why? I don't get it. I get that. I don't get the cancel part. Oh, okay.

Remember? About... I get the kill part. You're right about that. About Mitt, I think he's proved himself to be a great American. He voted for impeachment twice. He did. He really did.

Anyone who is willing to stand up to the assholery of his own side deserves a place in the American Panthers. And there's a few of them. Liz Cheney. There's a few of them were there. No, there was a bridge too far. I hear a lot. I really do from Republicans on the Hill about their personal safety. One of the

reasons they don't want to break with the cooks is their personal security. Mitt Romney, it's been reported, spends $5,000 a day on security for himself and his family. He's a very wealthy man, but most members are not wealthy. And there is an honest fear factor that is real and

legitimate that is causing a lot of these Republicans to cower. Okay. What does the panel think of Gavin Newsom's trip to Israel in China? Is he setting himself up for a presidential run? I mean, it does kind of look like he's running to be the stand-in. I'm not saying I'm wishing for something to happen about it. But is a little Prince Charles when the mother was still alive feeling to... No? And he went to the debate, the Republican debate,

he went to the last Republican debate with Joe Biden's blessing and carried the torch for Biden and the Democrats. I thought that did a great job. And you don't think he'd be a better candidate than Biden? Not better than Biden, but one day he'll probably run, and that'll be great. Okay. All right. Thank you, everybody. We appreciate your patience. We'll see you next week.

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