Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #668: James Carville, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Kaitlan Collins

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/23/24) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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-month series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. Okay, we're back here on Overside with the anchor of CNN's The Source with Caitlin Collins. Caitlin Collins. He's a Democratic strategist and host of the podcast Politics Warroom, James Carvel, and he's a Republican congressman from Texas who host the podcast, Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw, Dan Crenshaw. Okay.

All right, here is what people want to know. Dan, what explains why certain Republicans like Tucker Carlson have become so pro-Pooten? Good question. What does explain that? Your buddy, man, I don't know. Tucker hates my guts. I mean, I think we all know that.

Well, that says a lot for you. Yeah, you guys. I don't know how to explain Tucker. I've never met Tucker. Never even spoken with him. He just trashes me because I think it's a bad idea if Russia wins a land war in Europe. And I would remind everybody, and I know this is getting serious,

but I would remind everybody, if you don't stop Russia there, and we're spending maybe 5 to 10% of our, sorry, I said GDP, a defense spending just on supporting Ukraine so they can fight their own battles. If you didn't do that, if you never gave them any stingers, never gave them any javelins, you'd have a Russian army that is fully intact, and also very aware that we don't defend our friends, and they'd be on the border of former NATO countries. If you want to get closer to war, that's how you get closer to war.

So what do I make of some random, his opinion who got fired for Fox News? I don't know. That opinion, which I agree with, is out of step with your own party. It's about half and half. I mean, you can see it in their votes, yeah. I mean, it's an ongoing discussion. And Trump, by the way, has never ran away from it. Trump has always said, first of all, he threatened Putin when he was in office.

He said, but we're going to bomb. With what a kiss? In a culture like Russia's, that would be a threat. But no, he said, I'm going to, purportedly said, I'm going to bomb the shit out of a If he invade Ukraine. In any case, we know he didn't invade Ukraine while he was president. He increased the lethal aid to Ukraine by a lot, actually. And he's never said he's backing away from Ukraine.

What he has said is they should be alone. We should have mining rights. European should pay more. All things I think we all agree with. Okay. Except that whole impeachment thing. Which part? The ones of Democrats impeaching for withholding aid to Ukraine.

The thing that Biden did before that. The point, I forgot about that. Well, but that's diplomacy. And Biden did the exact. That's not. He did the exact same thing, literally to the exact same country. No, we did. Yes, he did.

What do he do? He was bragging about withholding aid unless they fired that, the prosecutor. Right, exactly. That's what your party complains about when to aid to them. So American presidents have that power to say, no, we're going to withhold aid because we don't like what you're doing. If our state department and our, I'm not bashing Biden for doing that either, by the way. But Trump was withholding aid because he wanted an investigation into Hunter Biden.

You can't impeach somebody for doing what is within their powers as the president. Sorry. You know, you could misuse power. And he was saying, if you don't, it was a congressional authorized, I think it was $400 million authorization. And he tells a guy, if you don't give me some dirt, I'm going to withhold it. I'm sorry. I don't know. That's not right.

That's not right. Congress voted for that. It was the law. And I think the whole, I don't understand the whole Russia stuff in terms of Tucker. Yeah, he was a friend of mine. I don't know. He used to say that shit in the green room. And I thought he was joking and being provided.

if it turned out he really believed it. It goes back that far. Is it pretty... Could I explain Russia? The guys are pretty fine. What can I say? What are I going on with Russia? Because we once did an editorial out of this show. It's the last country that's all in on white. Did you watch the Olympics?

Like every country in the world now is multiracial. Yeah. Not Russia. I think that's something that a part of the Republican Party just really likes about Russia. They are not for multicultural. culturalism. They're not too much. I think there's more white people in Sweden. I mean, I don't think that's a good.

Sweden took in like a million. Sweden more way. Like, I think they have the higher white population. Russia has like, oh, like, Asian people. Come on. How much? That's just not it. That is it. That's not it. I could read you the quotes. They love it. I mean, they're quotes about how, like, it's the last country in Europe that's going to be completely white.

Anyway, we'll move on. There's some people who like Russia for unknown reasons. I just don't know how to explain. They're a big light to ballet. Caitlin, what is the most... They're great at ballet. Very good. Very good.

Very good. They're very good at doping. Even their drink is called a white Russian. There's a black Russian, too. Not in Russia. Only black in Russia was Brittany Greiner. What is the most pressing question, Caitlin, you would ask VP Harris if you had the chance?

I have a lot of questions for her, but I do think I would ask about, you know, where she stood when she was running as a candidate for the 2020 Democratic primary and where she stands on a lot of issues now. She's criticized a lot by Republicans for reversing her positions. I think also, I mean, Donald Trump has reversed

a lot of his positions from covering those. But I think I would be interested in her evolution and where her instincts are and, you know, what she learned from governing with a moderate like President Biden. Okay. James, how much faith are you putting in polls that Joe Harris is ahead in key states and nationwide? So, let me say this. August is a great Democratic month. We hell on wheels come August. Okay, remember where George Sandbren us had about Dave Winfield. He called him Mr. May. The idea is to be good in November.

And I tell Democrats some caution here. First of all, most quants say we have to win by three. in a popular vote to win the electoral college. So when you see a poll that says, we two up, well, that's actually you won down if the poll was correct. Yeah, you'd lose. The other thing is Trump traditionally, when he's on the ballot, chronically under polls. All right?

And so they came back late in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in 2020, and it showed Biden winning these states seven, eight points. Under polls, meaning Trump's going to do better than the polling shows? I'm saying traditionally, he under polls, traditionally. Means he's going to do better in the election because people are too ashamed to tell a pollster they're going to vote for. I don't know, but I'm just saying traditionally with Trump on the ballot, just telling the

Democrats, he said, oh, James and Debbie Down, what's he talking about? I'm not just telling you, you got to win by three. And I think we can get that, I think, to debate on September 10th is going to be so consequential and it's going to have an audience there. We can't believe, because what does America love? a train rack. And they had one on June of 27 and they lost another train rack.

I agree on that. Do you guys have that debate? It's ABC debate. ABC debate. If it happens, I still think it's an open question. Really? Trump's go, we've got to. You think that Trump's going to pull out? I think Trump is going to pull out. I think Trump is nervous about it. I talk to

a lot of sources in his world. I think he has really struggled with it. It's not just a narrative or a talking point from Democrats. He really has struggles with how to combat her. And I think going into that debate, he does not really want to do it. I think it's difficult, if not impossible, for him to pull out because his campaign manager had cards printed that said anywhere, anytime, any place for President Biden,

and it would look weak. But I don't think he's looking forward to it at this point. No. I think the specter of September 18th is driving him crazy. He's going to have to sit in that courtroom. And that judge is going to lecture him. Now, I don't know if he's going to have real time, but there's going to be some imposition on his liberty. I don't know what it is, but, and those judges have sentencing options that are

multitudinous. They can do a lot of different creative things. But he knows that's coming. He knows September 10th is coming. There's no way that he can get out of it, Caitlin. I don't think. I mean, I would be happy if he did, but he kind of needs to debate now. He needs it as much as she does. Right. He does. And so instinctively, the guy, the candidate that doesn't want to debate is the one that doesn't need it. The one that needs it wants to debate. So I'm we'll make a friendly bet. I think it goes off. I mean, he's going to shit the bed.

You know this. I mean, he does not do well with women. He just I would, whether he does the debate or not, I don't know, I'm not a political pundit trying to analyze this stuff. But I do know that it's a very easy debate to win. So all you have to say is, look,

you had four years, I had four years. When I was president, and when you were president, and here's the differences. Prices are at 50% when you're, when you're vice president. Electricity prices up 30%. Grocery up 22%. The list keeps going. Taxes were lower under Trump.

They raised them under Biden-Harris. Regulations were lower under Trump. They raised them under Biden and Harris. Immigration numbers way down. They actually tried to stop the problem. Record numbers under Biden and Harris. This is a very easy debate to win because on the metric, it's very easy to show side by side. Okay.

But that's what his campaign wants him to say. But Donald Trump is the, it's not a campaign where you just give him his talking points and he goes out there and delivers them. I mean, Donald Trump is his own biggest impediment. His own campaign will tell you that. I mean, he's questioning whether or not she, her race and whether or not she's actually black at an event with black journalists. It's stuff like that that his campaign is, you know, watching in real time and knowing he's their own biggest liability. And also, if I may say, you know, you're sure of yourself. you present these issues as if it's, you know,

slam dunk, less regulations. Well, some regulations are good. Some are good, but ten more... Some are bad. Believe me, I live in California, I know. We have a lot. I was like, I oversee the EPM. My side committee. Like, one regulation can be good. Clean air, good.

All of it is good. Ten more more. And I have a lot of friends to Republicans that kind of believe in white of touch regulation, maybe a few less taxes, kind of slightly nationalistic. If I'm one of you, I want Trump to get to be bad. I mean, I'm talking about a 64-72 wipeout.

You know what happened after Republicans got wiped out in 64? They won in 68. You know what happened after the Democrats got wiped out in 72? They won in 76. If he gets, if Biden, Harris gets 280 electoral votes, your party is fucked. Because he's stuck with them the whole time. They're not going anyway.

You want a wipeout. What I want most of all is for, my daughter to grow up in a place where she can start her own business more easily, where she's not competing against men on a swimming team or in a wrestling match. That's what I want most of all. And so the Trump policies simply are better. You have less of the bad stuff, more of the good stuff, right? I don't know.

I don't know how to break this election. Like, what all those things that are supposed to be down are up and all things just be up or down? I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I can run circles around you on the economics of this. Let's go back to 280 votes. Okay. What does Trump do if he loses this? Now, he lost the last election, right? Yeah, he lost the last election. Okay, that's a very important thing.

Somebody else is president. But he hasn't conceded losing that last election. My point to you, sir, is that gas prices and food prices go up and down. But this shit is forever. Don't take my word for Biden policies being responsible for inflation. You can just

ask the Fed in their statements in 2022. The question I'm asking is... It was all on fiscal stimulus, which was the American Reston Plan. Okay, but I'm saying that stuff, that's the normal stuff of politics and economics. It goes up and down. But not normal. But wait, but wouldn't you concede that not conceding elections

is a much bigger, more existential issue, and that he's going to concede this election. Can you imagine, can you tell me a scenario where he loses, maybe even by more, and he concedes the election? Can you imagine him saying, I've seen the results, and I'd like to congratulate Kamala Harris and running a good campaign. It's impossible to imagine. I don't have to imagine. I don't have to imagine any of it, because I know the history of it, and the history of it is he moved out of the White House. There was a peaceful transition of power, and there was an inauguration on January 21st.

He cheated. He tried everything not to do that. Yeah, they tried to do the same unconstitutional process that Democrats did in the last three elections and Republicans run. The Democrats sent fake electors. The Democrats pressured the Justice Department. The Democrats went to court and got laughed out of it. No. That never happened in any other elections. You're talking about utilizing the legal process. Now, I disagree with the fact that there should even be a process to decertify an election. But Democrats did it three times in the elections. part of that. Where was the hand-wringing then? Stacey Abramson never said that she lost the governor's race in Georgia. Nobody rings their hands about it. That's wrong, and it's a false

equivalency to sending fake electors. What's fake electors? I want to make two points. I want to make sense. I want to make two points. There's no... Michael Bloomberg said there's zero evidence that the economy, the last

two years of the Trump economy, when they've been in the last two years of Obama economy. All right, period. The truth of the matter is Trump inherited a good economy. Okay. Biden inherited a crappy economy. That's a fact. Okay, that's a fact.

That's not a fact. Let me. So inheriting economy matters when you count jobs? A Democrat storming a capital in beating a shit out of a police officer, then I'm going to say something. I definitely saw the beating shit out of a lot of police officers and burning down a lot of buildings in the riots of 2020. But on the inheriting a good economy, can we address that real quick? Because that's often a talking point, and it's completely false. By the time Biden took office, real GDP was back to pre-pandemic levels.

And one of the quarters in the last year of Trump, 35% increase in GDP, then 5%, then 4%. You were well on your way to a recovered economy by the time Biden got to take office. That's where a lot of those job gains were coming from. And they were despite the fact that Democrat mayors and governors all over the country were destroying their own cities, destroying their own economies, keeping them locked down more than they needed, just like here in LA, just like in California, just like what Tim Walls did in Minnesota. These things all happened. And so if you want to talk about inflation, what causes inflation? Lack of supply, too much demand. They injected a ton of demand, two trillion dollars worth

an American Rescue Plan, and then they screwed supply by screwing up and closing down factories and businesses. That creates a perfect storm. Republican policies are not responsible for any of them. Well, some of their economic conditions in the United States in December of 2020 compared to December, of 2016. And I'm going to tell you what you're going to find. It was a lot better in December. There was a global pandemic. Again, you know,

obviously. I try not to interrupt you, because I have respect to you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. What happened was they assaulted the capital at the encouragement of him. They are celebrating this on

5 September of 2024. Right. And if If a Democrat did something like that, I would go nuts. I'd want to haul off and slug a white in face. I wouldn't do it. I did go nuts. Like, I hated it. Because I think they do it.

They are honoring these criminals. And I wouldn't, you know, and saw a Democrat in Minneapolis. I'm not fought at at all. And by the way, you know, look what would happen. And so it's not just. You got to admit, though, that people are. Go ahead. Again, these were people that assaulted the Capitol.

They were trying to hang people. But also to act like what Democrats have done before, which is often something that Republicans, when we have them on my show, say when we talk about January 6th and the fake electors and Trump refusing to admit that he lost the election, there was barely a peaceful transfer of power. They actually wouldn't even allow them to move forward

with getting federal funding to start the transition for weeks. I remember it was because we found out about a little-known position that no one in the federal government even really knew much about because of that. But also, the difference then is Joe Biden went and certified the election. He was the vice president then, and he certified Donald Trump's election and did not, there was not a massive...

Yeah, because Mike Pence was pressured not to buy Donald Trump. The entire process of certification is bullshit. It's unconstitutional. Democrats opened this door, Republicans ran through it. Congress... Democrats did not open the door. The Constitution... Yes, they did.

Three elections in a row. You cannot compare those. I can, because they're going through a legal... What they deem to be a legal process. I think it's illegal, no matter which party does it. Because there's nowhere in the Constitution that says Congress gets to certify the election. They don't even use that word.

This is based on an old 1886 law from the Reconstruction era. It's for a very different situation. We need to get rid of that entire process. We need to have a full page one rewrite of the Constitution, not that there aren't some great things in it. We have the oldest Constitution in the world. Right, and some of it is ridiculous.

I live in a state with 40 million people, and I get two senators, and the Dakota Territory gets four. All right, we've got to go. Thank you very much, everybody. 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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