Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #720: Lauren Boebert, James Talarico

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 2/20/26) 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. Okay, here we are in which time with the Texas State Representative is running for the U.S. Senate, James Salarico, and she is a Republican congressman from Colorado. Lauren Bowdo is over here. All right. All right. These are from the people out there for the panel. Oh, this is, I know this is about you because you've had a lot of controversy this week about this one, the FCC.

Should the FCC get rid of its equal time? rule is the government engaging in cancel culture. Let's explain this a little. You went on Stephen Colbert's show, they didn't air it. Now, I remember this from when I was a kid, the FCC rule, the equal time rule. If a politician

went on a show, you had to give equal time to, this was from 1934 is when it was first written. It made sense when there were three networks, I guess. It makes no sense in the age of streaming and TikToks and, I mean, you know,

podcasts and everything else that people can go on. So what should we do about this? Well, and there was always an exception for late-night television shows, like the late show. And now the Trump administration's FCC is going after some of these shows. And so to me, I think we should use our common sense. Do we think the president is digging through the minutia of FCC policy because he's concerned about the equal time rule and how it's applied? or is he going after shows that talk about him in a way he doesn't like? Which one sounds more like the president? And this is the party that ran against cancel culture.

Now they're trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read, and this is the most dangerous form of cancel culture. This is not people on the Internet. These are the most powerful politicians and those powerful corporate media executives coming together to sell out the First Amendment. And a threat to any of our First Amendment rights is a threat to all of our First Amendment rights. Bill, you know this because you had this happen to you.

And it's really important that we leave room for dissent in this country, especially when everyone seems to be on the same page. It's really important to have folks and to allow folks to be able to say something different, to challenge that group think. And I'm really concerned when you have the government starting to cancel free speech, what kind of road we're traveling down. The First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason. It's not the second, the third, or the fourth, and the fifth,

because that freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, it allows us to safeguard all those other freedoms in the Bill of Rights. And it's why I'm so concerned, and honestly so proud of Stephen Colbert and his show for standing up against him. And it's the hypocrisy of it, to me. The hypocrisy of it, I mean, when they were squelching, dissenting opinions about COVID. I was right with your people.

Yes, I know you were. And I was going to say, I'm old enough to remember the cancel culture of COVID lockdowns. And that's where we were really fighting. I mean, they canceled schools.

They canceled churches. Don't worry, the strip clubs and marijuana shops were still open. So, you know. I'll tell Paul I can. Yes. President Trump that canceled your segment there.

I mean, this is one area where Ms. Crockett is correct. You know, this was a decision by the network, and, you know, they didn't want to have her on possibly. They didn't want to have that equal time. And so they looked at the ruling and said, well, we're not going to do this. But I also think that the way it was aired,

I mean, you've got over 5 million views. You raised $2.5 million in 24 hours, so it was pretty big success for you. Well, again, my concern is not for my campaign. It's for the Constitution. Right, there wasn't the president who said, do not allow this to air. They did not say, do not allow this to air. It was equal share time.

It was already in the rules. And that network said, we don't want to have the equal share. We don't want to fulfill that part of the rule. Again, let's go one level deeper. Larry Ellison, who owns Paramount, is trying to acquire Warner Brothers, which... Including me. And... I would be part of the deal.

And he is one of Trump's biggest donors. So again, this is very powerful politicians with billionaire mega donors colluding to sell out our fundamental freedoms in this country. And Republicans and Democrats, we should both be appalled by this. We should both be concerned about this because, again, when they come for some of us,

they end up coming for all of us eventually. Let me ask that a different way. After the Charlie Kirk assassination, I mean, obviously anybody who did anything but say this is a horrible thing for this country, horrible thing personally for him and his family, I have no use for a person like that. But it is still free speech.

And they made basically a blasphemy law. And people were canceled because they said things that were rude and inappropriate. But that does not mean that they should have been unallowed to say them. Don't you think that's hypocritical? When the networks make a decision to not have someone on air to cancel, a show even over the weekend when it wasn't going to film and be on air anyway, or if they choose to not have another guest because of rules, I don't think that is the same as President Trump coming in and cancelling people from the executive branch.

There are rules in place, and you've even said earlier, that we are a nation of laws. I just mean in general, the red team. They were all for free speech, except when it was somebody that they liked, and then it was just, no, I'm sorry. you just can't say anything. And it just seemed like nobody has any integrity anymore. It's only about what team were on. And the FCC is weaponizing.

Well, and the FCC is weaponizing a technicality. They are going after an exemption that's existed for decades because they don't like some of these late-night talks about it. I mean, Jimmy Kimmel made a joke they didn't like, and they went after him. Stephen Colbert called out Paramount's bribe to Donald Trump, and they went after him. With pressure from the FCC, from the federal government. I mean, this is government overreach. His network could have pushed back on that, and, you know, he's back on the air.

He's making his crappy jokes. I just, I mean, I, listen, I have a lot of, I have conservatives in my family. I have conservatives who I grew up with. Y'all always warned us about government overreach. You warned us the government would cancel free speech. You warned us about the government usurping the role of the church. You warned us about secret pedophile rings. All that is now happening, and your party is enabling it.

And I know you've stood up on some of these things, which I appreciate. We need more people in both parties willing to stand up. But I'm really... Bipartisan Bobert at your service. Well, I just think... I really think the Republican Party has to get back to those small-seat conservative values. And even when they're guys in office, those values shouldn't change. All right.

Let me ask you another question. This is some... I saw this in the news. Was fascinated by this also. Will Trump alienate the ma-ha that's Make America Healthy again, who backed him after signing an executive order to boost production of Roundup. Roundup is what they spray on crops. It's a great pesticide, not so great for people.

I see that Bayer, which owns them, just had to pay something like $7.5 billion in lawsuits for this stuff. The pesticide at the center of major, yes, health lawsuits. It's baffling to me. I mean, the way he courts a certain group and then seems to just deliberately turn his back on them. I don't get this. I mean, why appoint Bobby Kennedy to be the Secretary of the Health and Human Services

and then order a boost in production of Roundup the single most deleterious substance I can think of on the whole agenda? Now, he did go opposite of Secretary Kennedy after I heard about the cocaine off the toilet seat. So maybe that had something to do with it. But no, I do disagree with that. I mean, I have a lot of farmers and ranchers in my district in eastern Colorado, and that is the lifeblood of my district, of my state, of our nation.

What is the lifeblood? Our farmers and ranchers. So you think Trump did the right thing? No, I don't. Oh, you don't? But our farmers and ranchers, they will advocate for the continuation of glyphosate and roundup. That's what they have. That is

what is affordable. I do not think that that is something that should be sprayed on our crops. It does breaks the blood-brain barrier. It gets into our systems. I think this is why we are sick and unhealthy barely alive and it's part of a bigger conglomerate.

Kind of like we have the military industrial complex. Well, we also have the homeless industrial complex and the drug industrial complex and it's like you just barely keep hanging on and keep giving them money and, you know, they'll still be there and there's still that reason for it. And it's why we're sick and pay all of this to the pharmaceuticals. Was he going to get mad at you for saying you thought he did the wrong?

I am also a co-signer now on Thomas Massey's bill to not provide immunity to these companies. And I think Congressman Massey did the right thing in this piece of legislation. I'm a proud co-sponsor of it. And, you know, President Trump, he's my friend. I love this. that he's our president once again. But there are things that I'm going to... That's what Marjorie Tala Green said, and she's in the dark house. She disagreed on a lot of other things this year, and I think that it was handled unprofessionally in total,

and it's really unfortunate what happened because they did have a really good relationship. And, you know, I'm not looking to, you know, sever that friendship, but I also have principles. And I want to make a point just real quick to the base and to the voters, if we could go back to Epstein for just a moment, look at the pressure that was put on these politicians, put on the House of Representatives, put on the Senate by the base demanding that that was passed. And without me and Marjorie and Nancy Mace, Thomas Massey, Roe-Connor,

forcing that legislation, it would have never happened because our leadership in D.C., they do listen to others and not the base. But, you know, finally, these politicians... One thing you guys were always... The base will not like this. ...toeuvre... ...is you had this bug up your ass about elites. Mm-hmm.

Elites. Yeah. And I've said many times, they're not completely wrong about that to the consternation of people on the left who don't like when I say things like that. But it's true. Now, when I read this list of people

that are in the Epstein orbit, it is vast, and it is certainly bipartisan. Yes. But even the people who like now, like Musk, who are on the right, at the time they were in communication with Epstein, seemed to be more on the left. Yes. You think that's true?

Do you think that's fair? I do think it's heavy left-leaning, for sure. And certainly you're seeing... They are more elite. Yes. They are more elitists. Correct. You would disagree?

I think there are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and progresses on that list. I would hope that we can all agree that regardless of their political affiliation, anyone who's found guilty of committing these crimes should be prosecuted the fullest extent of the law. And I mean, I just, I really don't. We're past that. We're past that point in the story. We're at the point of the story now of something different. Yes, maybe you didn't do anything. A lot of these people, we don't think they did something directly with underage girls.

But you still kept up this very friendly, communication, this very friendly relationship you had with the guy who you knew was already prosecuted for this. And that's why I'm trying to figure out when pedophilia became a partisan issue in this country. Because if there's anything we should all agree on, it's that no one, including those powerful men in the country, should be able to cover up those crimes against children. Okay. Last question.

Trump, President Trump said he would release files on UFOs and alien life. What might they show? Yes, he said, we're going to see it all right. And a lot of people have been asking about this. Obama was on a podcast last week, and he had to walk back a statement he made saying, you know, I think they're out there or something. And then I, no, I haven't seen them. But, you know, I mean, I had a gentleman on recently who made a documentary about this.

I believe that the people in the military see things that are unexplainable. I think it's more likely that there are aliens. I don't know, I think it's good news that they haven't taken us out yet because it just means they're monitoring and if they're watching, I think we can all get along. But what do you think it's going to be in these files? Well, gosh, probably going to be just as redacted if it's anything like the Epstein files.

No, I am in an unofficial, bipartisan kind of group task force, Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Anna Paulina Luna, Eric Burlinson, and we've gone in and seen some of the classified documents, and there's some really interesting things there, and I don't want to pull in Obama and say classified information that I can't, but I'm really excited that this is coming out. I hope it's not another distraction. Remember during COVID we learned aliens were real?

There were UFOs, there were UAPs, and then everybody was like, Yeah, so what? And so I hope this isn't just another like, well, let's just put it out there and see if they catch it this time. But I think there's going to be some interesting information. I think you should feel comfortable telling us. I don't think we're going to tell anyone.

This is a safe space. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com. Lazang surgellied,

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