Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #717: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 1/30/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Late Night series Real Time with Bill Ma. Hello, Go to Scarborough and she's a former Republican

Congresswoman from Georgia Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Okay, what does the panel make of

Nikki Minaj bragging about getting a gold card from Trump after declaring herself his number

one fan? Are you a Nicki Minaj fan? I like her music. You do? Yeah. Look at that. See, people just didn't know you, Marjorie.

They didn't know, they didn't know, really. I had no idea. I would think you would have been listening to country music, which you might also say. I do like country music. And Nikki Minaj. Sure. She likes all kind of music. Yeah, I do too.

Yeah, I do, too. There's good. Right. So, what do you think? But I'm wondering if Nikki's fan base is going to be okay with this. You know. I don't know. Yeah.

Anyway, what's the question? What is the panel make of this? Well, I mean, first of all, I think people in the Trump administration said the gold card is not what she thinks the gold card is. So I don't even think she has the real deal. So it's going to be faster. We'll watch this space because, yeah, I think it's good whenever people get out of their boxes. I really do. I mean, I just think it's good when the message goes out.

We don't all have to follow. we don't all wear pink on Wednesday, okay? For whatever reason. Measal cases have reached a 30-year high with a fast-growing outbreak in South Carolina are anti-vax voices in the government like RFK Jr. responsible. Well, yeah.

The question answers itself. It's insanity. I mean, you know, his kids all had the four, five, six, vaccines. Oh, we all had the vaccines. No, I don't, well, I got measles. What, did, what were you? As a child? We all did. Yeah, before the vaccine. No, no, but I'm just saying just in general, like, our kids all got, like, you know, the, the, the, the, the vaccines, and we did a pretty good job in getting rid of, of measles and getting rid of, of, the other things. So, yeah, of course it's RFK's fault, Jr. I don't think you can blame Secretary Kennedy. Look, I totally believe in parents' rights to choose to vaccinate or not vaccinate their children,

and I don't think the government should mandate that. And I don't think children should be able to go to school or any kind of activity without being forced to take a vaccine. And I think that's incredibly important. A lot of people care about that. I mean, some of the poorest states in America actually wiped out disease. because they had, if you look at Mississippi, Alabama, some of the deep south states that I lived in, you know, they had the most stringent requirements because we used to make fun of people in San Francisco. The anti-vaxxers used to be on the left.

They used to be the hippies, the old hippies, the freaks of the... Still are. Yeah, they still. Yeah, but now, for some reason, you have southern governors that have decided they're going to emulate what happens in San Francisco, and you're starting to see these states that had eradicated. these diseases. Now, have rise up again, like measles. Potential links to autism.

Not really. Actually, a lot of parents think that it is linked, and they have been ignored for a very long time. And I think it's such a sad case. This is something that really needs to be studied. Well, it has been studied for 30 years.

And I would say, I was a lawyer. I was an attorney. I talked to RFK Jr. I have a son who's on the spectrum. I had questions in the early 2000s about this. There have been so many studies. There's been one study after another study after another study that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn't. I mean, I think there's people that would argue with you. There are many parents that link it to vaccines, and I really think it's up to the parents. If it's not the vaccines, well, I'm not saying it is.

What is your gut as to why the rates went up so high? Why they've spiked so much? Because we all had kids, or at least I did. We all had kids that we went to school with, and they were a little off. They were a little different. You know, they may have been some of the smartest kids, but they didn't know how to relate to us. They were the ones that sat alone in the cafeteria.

And what happened by the time, you know, we get in the 90s, we're in the 2000s. It was always there. We just weren't counting it. Now if somebody looks at a teacher wrong, they're like, oh, he's on the spectrum. Right. So maybe there's been more of a diagnosis over the past 20, 30 years that have caused those numbers to go up. You're looking to say like California, where the numbers have gone up higher, I think, than other places.

Right. Probably more diagnoses than in other states. Well, it also correlates with the number of vaccines. The amount of vaccines that children have to have now is outrageous. And thankfully, Secretary Kennedy, They changed that. What's outrageous about the vaccines that kids have been having for 30 years? 72 vaccines up to the age of two.

That is outrageous. Versus when we were kids. I think we had, we didn't have that many vaccines. I have four kids, and I didn't give them 72 vaccines. But nowadays, up until... Yeah, they did up the schedule a lot. 72? I don't know.

I mean, I don't know the number, but I've heard those high numbers. Yeah. And who knows? I mean, my thing with vaccines, I wasn't an anti-vaxxer just always was, long term, do we know if there is a long-term problem? Like, well, I'm talking about 50 years down the line. If you have taken everything your immune system is supposed to do naturally and made it so that you're...

Because usually when you do something with your body and you say that your body doesn't have to take care of it itself, it doesn't. Yeah, but, you know, we have... A lot of these vaccines that have been around for 30, 40, 50 years. I don't know what the impact of Ozzympic. I'm serious. I don't know what the impact of the Zempex is going to be, 20, 30 years from now. Exactly. That's the point.

Right, right. But as far as a vaccine for measles, a vaccine for some of these other things, they've been around for decades. Yeah, but we're talking about the accumulation of all these vaccines plus all these different elements that we never had in our body for, like so many different

chemicals that we know, is there some sort of mixing and matching of all these different elements that we never had electromagnetic energy? cell phone, whatever. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not saying there is.

But is that, is, you know, so until I can go to a doctor and have them say, you know what, you got cancer, but, you know, we know exactly what cost it, and we know exactly what can fix it. I'm just going to be, like, open-minded about everything. Are you sympathetic toward, are you sympathetic toward RFK-Gior's position on vaccines?

I'm sympathetic to the idea. in general, I think he's a big picture guy not very often with where he gets into the weeds. Right. And I'm right on track. Yeah, you're right on track. I'm not going to. Oh, I am definitely not on track with everything he says. In America, great.

We can all disagree. What I said to him when he was on my podcast or the show or one of the two, maybe both, I said, you know, you made your bones as an environmental lawyer. You connected our terrible environment with our ill health. this is the you need to transfer this now to this other this is really kind of what you're doing now but instead of with a river you're talking about the river of shit that we put in our bodies

from the pharmaceutical companies and on down the line he just goes to I also said to him at one point is there a conspiracy theory you don't believe right I mean unfortunately and his answer was no I don't know I don't know I don't I don't think I don't know

Okay, Trump announced he was moving a huge armada to the Middle East. And he also said we have something called a discombobulator. Yeah, I heard about that. I think the people in Venezuela found out about that as well. The discombobulator? Apparently they did. Yeah. What is a discombobulator?

Well, I don't know. We have one, and it was used in Venezuela. Yes. And so I put out a post today, I said, well, now that files have been released and then deleted. I think it increases the odds that will be bombing Iran tonight.

Well, it's a Friday. Right. Oh, sure. Weekends and holidays. Absolutely. Sure, you've got to do it on a Friday. Wag the dog. People have plans on Saturday. You know, you'd ask in the show about Republicans. I mean, one of the problems that Republicans have is the fact

that you've got a White House that has been focused on foreign policy so much, whether you're talking about Venezuela, whether you're talking about Greenland, whether you're talking about Iran, you know, we've got a country, well, Republicans mocked and ridiculed Democrats for not focusing on affordability, not focusing the price of butter. And now they're talking about foreign policy all the time. We've got wars all over the place. They were bombing, you know, they were bombing boats going out of Venezuela for a very long time. And that's in the news.

affordability is not. The cost of health care is not. The cost of rent is not. The cost of groceries, which went up at a faster clip in December than, I think, any time since 22, 21 or 22. You know, they're not talking about that right now. They're talking about a lot of things that don't... Talking. Where's the protesting about what's going on in Iran? I protested. You did? I was so outspoken on No More Foreign Wars. That was part of... I got in trouble. I went to the principal's office on that.

I kind of stuck with the whole MAGA, make America great again, America first. No more, no more for the war. You said the weak Republican men. You used that term. And, I mean, I read a story in the New York Times about the, we're talking about the split in the Republican Party. Apparently, it's very gender-oriented because Mike...

Johnson. Yeah. Not popular with the ladies. No, he's not. No, he's not. And he went on some podcast and said he doesn't think the women have something like the mental capacity to compartmentalized? Did you see that? Wow.

Yeah. What do you make of that? I make a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. I sure do. I want to go back. I want to ask you this, though, because I think you were going to go, I think you were.

I think you were starting to touch on it. I want to know how many people the Iranian mullahs have to slaughter in the streets before one person, one student on Colombia, goes out on their campus grounds and protests. Or do they only protest when it's Jews who are fighting the war? Correct. Because it's outrageous. It is. It's up to 30,000. It only proves what supporters of Israel said at the time, and a lot of times they were focused on me.

They go, were you focused so much on Gaza? Why are you focused? Why don't you focus more on in the middle of these other things? Well, I will tell you, Colombia, other universities are proving them right because 30,000 Iranians have been slaughtered. Not one campus protest, nobody's talking about it. You know, Trump tweeted some horrible things about Elon Omar, which is wrong. and despicable. He tweeted some bad things about me too. Of course he did. He called me a murderer 13 times.

I mean, we can all go to that party. It's a big club. Oh, yes. It's a big club, yeah. I mean, I still get the text. Yeah. But it's better this way. It's better to have a dialogue than just be yelling at each other. Well, of course.

Dialogue's great. Dialogue's great. I totally agree, and you do a good job at that. Thank you. But there is a, a stunning lack of perspective often on the left on these kind of issues. Now, he said something terrible among things he said about Elon Omar, and I'm not going to have the quote in front of me,

but basically what it was is she comes here, and all she does is complain and bitch. Okay, there is something, there is a kernel of truth in that, that somebody comes from a country like Somalia, and then it just seems like she does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here, and never seems to have anything good, to say about America. The second she came here, my family's allowed. My family's probably

been here for 400 years. The day she came to America and raised her hand and took the oath, she's every bit as much of an American as you are or me. And I would say this is every other American. And we have some perspective. She has just as much right as Donald Trump already in the billionaires and his administration. We're not talking about rights, Joe. I'm not saying you're not about any right. I'm saying have some perspective about this country versus a country like Somalia. Right. I agree. It just makes it.

You shouldn't complain about America? I didn't say that. You're saying that. No, I'm trying to figure out what you're saying. What I'm saying is have some perspective about this country, not just her. But yes, I mean, if she's from a country like Somalia, which is a country you wouldn't live in. Right. Right.

Okay. Well, just be honest about it. Instead of, it just seems like it's always completely negative about this country. Also, sometimes seems like we have... I agree. Say something positive. Say something realistic. About...

Yes, I agree with that. Well, I could say to see it. Everyone has free speech and all of us can complain, but be grateful. Well, I can say the same thing about Republicans over the past decade. All they've done is bitched and moaned about how horrible this country was when we're the most powerful country on the planet. We have the most powerful military, the most powerful economy. Well, that's when they're out of power.

No, no, but here's a thing. As soon as they take office, we're the perfect country. But when they're out of tower, what do they do? Donald Trump talks about how the American dream is dead. No, it's not. That's bullshit. The American dream's not dead. We're stronger militarily.

We're stronger economically. We're stronger culturally. We're stronger with soft power. We're stronger in every single way. I don't know about that. Ask Gen Z. They're not feeling. so good.

But I don't see... Okay, so now you're talking badly about America. How dare you do that? I think it's a great country. No, I said ask Gen Z. Well, would Gen Z rather live in America or Somalia? I'm just saying the American dream

is harder to realize. The value of the dollar has gone down so much. I know. They don't see the ability to ever own a home possibly. It's a much bigger hill to climb than it was for all of us. And that's, you know, more like to sell.

As in a more, no one's saying it's not. You're trying to turn this into a bullshit argument that doesn't exist. I'm not trying to turn it into a bullshit argument. It is a bullshit argument. No, it isn't. You're basically saying if you're from Somalia, you can't bitch about what's wrong in America.

But I didn't say you can't. Straw man didn't come to the show, Joe. Straw man. No, no, I didn't say that either. Okay. She's just like having a fight with your wife, which I don't even have. If somebody comes to it.

I said have some perspective. So that's it. And I would say it to anybody. That's right. Everybody. I would say that to the Republican Party that says the Americans. I would too. Good for you.

We agree about this. So why are you yelling? Because I don't like when people put words in my mouth. That's why. I did not do that. You did it over and over again. I could show the tape. Show them to the tape.

Show it, Jimmy. I can't believe this guy is his own show. I know. What are the chances Congress averts another government shutdown? So where are we with the, you would know that? Government shutdown. I don't know. Aren't we all discussed with it?

It's like every news. I mean, you have to talk about it every morning. And then you talk about it once a week, and I lived in it, and I just thought the word, CR, I'm like, why can we not fund the government? Why is this so complicated? Why can't we have a balanced budget? Why is it always overspending?

But are they going to fund the government? No, they're going to fight on TV so they can make all of you at home mad and to the point where we all have just outrage fatigue, just constant outrage fatigue. It seems like it's the only weapon that they ever pull out, is we're crashing the game board over and we're not playing anymore. Right. That can't be. Again, in both sides to it.

It's exhausting. I mean, they didn't do it when you were in Congress. We shut down the government to balance the budget. We told Bill Clinton we were going to keep fighting. But they didn't do it all the time, right? No, we balanced the budget four years in a row, so we were happy. So you're saying it's a good thing? Well, I mean, it's sometimes it has to be used.

But the problem with what's happening now, compared to when I was there, we'd have all of our appropriation bills. They would all go through. Usually the president would sign them. And then at some point about 15 years ago, they say, okay, you know what, we're going to stop having what's called sort of like regular order. And we're just going to get the three Republican leaders and the three Democratic leaders together. They're going to do these huge omnibus bills. And then they're going to tell everybody with like 24 hours left, here's the bill vote on it.

And it's over a thousand pages or more. And so there's not buy-in from the members. So that's why you're more likely to have government shutdowns. Was there more congeniality? Oh, my God, yes. When you were there? There was no congeniality when I was there. No congenial.

When I was there, you know, I was, again, I know it's hard to believe, but I was considered like one of the most right-wing members. I would come in and what did I do? I would go sit and talk to Ron Delams. It was a Black Panther in the 60s. It's from Berkeley. And you hugged? Yeah.

And I did. I went over there. And I saw him. Who did you hug? Oh, Maxie Waters. And that was the beginning of the Me Too movement. Go ahead. Thank you.

Please, please don't put words in my mouth. Oh, extraordinary. But, you know, what I found was when I'd go over there, you know, you talk to somebody for five, ten, 15 minutes, and you're like, wow, this guy has lived this extraordinary life, and we became lifelong friends. Most of my friends that I met, you know, I knew how Republicans felt and what they believed. But we were able to do that then. And I will tell you, chairman of the committees, most of them were chairman of the committees.

They did not put up with you trashing the ranking member. Like I remember one time Floyd Spence from South Carolina, I started to say something about whoever the ranking member was. And he cut me off. He goes, no, don't talk about him. He's a great guy. We disagree, but we work together. And the longer you're here, you can have. But I have a lot of friends that were there who said it's miserable there now.

It's miserable. I call it the political industrial complex. It's now the two parties. It's an entire industry where so much money is made on both sides of the aisle. You've got the political consultants, email, fundraising, all types of people that generate income based on creating this hate among the two parties. And the Democrat Party and the Republican Party message on it, and they message at home to the people at home.

because if they can build hate and fear to the other side, they drive people to donate and vote. And I think that is what has completely destroyed the ability to work in Congress and work across the aisle is because of this political industrial complex that feeds off of hate and fear. And it's just destroying our ability to get along. Because people have seen me setting up strong men

and then knocking them down and saying next year, you're knocking down. I wanted to tell everybody here, as you're talking about dealing with people who think differently than you, I was telling Marjorie, the story about when we first met. And I'd love, since they saw that last little thing that I did, I'd love to just say, for those, everybody here probably doesn't know it, but I was here, what, maybe 96, 97? Well, the old show, politically incorrect.

The old show, politically incorrect. And, you know, I was from the South. I was a conservative. I was a Southern Baptist, and somebody in your show called me. a racist and a bigot. And of course, at that time, 99.9% of your audience was really left-wing.

There would always be one guy with a NASCAR shirt that would be the one guy that cheered for me. But you stood up for me, and I have never forgotten it. And you said, hold on a second. The only bigot I see here is, and you pointed to the comedian who was trying to get a cheap laugh.

I mean, and I've never forgotten that 35 years later, And that's the sort of thing you don't see in Congress. You don't see people getting out of their comfort zone, you know, and it makes a difference, you know? Let's hug it out, bitch. Come on, thank you. Thank you, Joe. 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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