Real Time with Bill Maher - Space Force, Fighting Fear, Shunning Trump | Overtime with Bill Maher

Episode Date: August 11, 2018

Bill and his guests – Lawrence O’Donnell, Steven Pinker, Christina Bellantoni, D.L. Hughley, and Rep. Seth Moulton (answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 08/10/18) 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. Okay, here are the questions people are wanting to know answers to. Why do we need a space force when we have NASA? Ah, yes, if you missed it, Trump sent out Mike Pence

to announce the space. Mike Pence does not seem like a space guy. But he's in charge of Space Force, a sixth branch of the armed service that Trump wants. He said it was a separate but equal.

He said that about, so I couldn't help noticing that. Space Force. Opinions? What do you think, Congressman? You're... Trump dodged the draft five times to avoid serving in Vietnam. But maybe if he could have been a space cadet...

But we don't really... I figured it was because, you know, Joe Biden had the moonshot as vice president, so they wanted to have something equivalent for vice president. But is there anything to the fact that space is different than it was 20, 30 years ago? I mean, it is becoming a place where countries will, as the North Pole is, a place where countries didn't use it used to contend for power, and now they will be.

That's fair. I mean, we do have to invest in space. The Air Force does that. Yeah, the Air Force does that. And we should do more of it. I don't know that we need a space force. I think it's just something he saw on TP. I mean, it sounds like a sitcom, doesn't it?

But the most important thing to know about it is, and I think the congressman will agree with this, is it's not going to happen. Because it's up to him. It's not up to Trump. It's up to him. It has to be voted on by Congress. And this is, at the moment, the beginning down payment on it is $8 billion that you don't have. It's an increase in the deficit by another $8 billion.

It would never get through as it is now. Well, they ran up a trillion with a tax cut. So $8 billion would be nothing if they wanted to do it. Yeah, but when he's Speaker of the House next year, he's not going to let it. Is that what's happening? Who's going to be speaking again? No, I'm not right.

What? Are you running against Nancy Pelosi? No, I'm not going to run for speaker myself. But I do think it's time for a new generational leadership in our party. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Okay. Lawrence, what do you say to people who claim MSNBC is just a liberal version of Fox News?

Oh, fuck. No. Look, we work with facts. Of Fox? That's it. That's the answer. That's it. Yeah, it really is.

I cede back the balance of my time. Stephen Pinker. How do you fight a political party that's winning with a platform of hate and fear? Well, you didn't identify which one. I do think Democrats should take ownership of policies that have worked, like the Environmental Protection Agency. which has reduced air pollution by 60%. They don't brag very well.

They really don't. Democrats do not brag well. Yeah, like anti-poverty measures that really have reduced poverty. And if Trump has really shown us, people in this country don't hold it against you when you brag? And the debate on this midterm election season,

you know, with all due respect, shouldn't be about Nancy Pelosi, right? Like, there is a generational discussion to be had among Democrats if they win back power, if they don't. However, it should be about ideas. If Democrats are moving more to the left on health care issues, they should be out there talking about Medicare for all,

or why they don't agree with that, or how you will defend the EPA. And instead, you have this constant either reaction to what the president is tweeting, or it becomes about whoever the boogeyman is at the moment, whether that was Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi. And here in California, where you have these very competitive congressional races, that's, again, I mean, and at the LA Times, we wrote that story,

you know, what are people saying about Nancy Pelosi? Because it is news, but the candidates get lost. in that and that doesn't really help any voters try to distinguish what the ideas you're actually fighting for are Do you know the Democrats position on Trump? Have you heard this? Have we mentioned it a few times? We get it. We get the Democrats are opposed to Trump. We got to start talking about what we're gonna do, you know? What we're gonna do for this country. I mean, totally right You need to do a better job of that. Yeah, I wouldn't completely hold up on on on rat-fucking Trump. There's a lot to be said about we hate Trump and he's a traitor.

You know, I mean, he did sell this country out to another country. I would hope one political party could make that a bit of an issue. We won't stop staying it, but we've got to start talking about what we're going to do, too. I think that you've got bragging

about what you do is good, so we have to teach you how to grab your nuts once in a while. Well, that would be cultural appropriations that we will not be a good idea. No way that's going to happen. D.L. Hughley, do you think it's best for black celebrities?

to shun Trump or meet an attempt to reason with him? I've just never seen, to black, to Trump, black people are photo-ops. Like, they, like, he's never, when he wants to talk, like, he wants to talk to athletes, actors, and comedians about the problems in the black community. Why don't he just talk to David Blaine and make them all disappear? It's like, it's like, he's never, like,

he's never serious about what he does. And I think I've never seen a black person meet with him who got a result other than black people being angered with him and a picture. So I think it's, It's silly. What do you think about Marosa? Do you think she has any credibility?

No, of course not. She sold us out and now she wants to buy the... Right. Like, yeah. I sold you out, here's how. Written by the guy who... OJ.U. So it's, like...

The biggest headline out of that for me was that President Trump was eating paper, which, you know... Right, eating paper. You know, whether you're trying to hide secrets or maybe he just eats paper. Like, that's how weird. What the hell? What was that?

You know, I think it was a fit of anger. He just was like, ah, blah, he's that nuts. Didn't she say he... Flavored with nacho cheese or something? Better than his regular diet. She says she had a recording of him saying the N-word. Like, black people are not going to be shocked by that at all. Trump said the N-word.

But I think it's also funny that Trump accused Obama and Comey, remember, of secretly taping him. But who did actually secretly taping him? Yeah. We trust it. Amarosa and Michael Cohen. And that's all we know about. And that soccer ball from Putin has a mic in it. All right. Thank you very much, everybody. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10

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