Overtime – Episode #694: Kara Swisher, Fmr. Spkr. Kevin McCarthy

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night Series, Real Time with Bill Maher.

All right, we're back with our panel, a former

California congressman and 55th Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and she hosts the Pivot Podcast and is the author of Burn Book, Harris Wisher.

All right, panel, what does the panel make of the public reaction to former

Patriots coach Bill Belichick's relationship with a woman nearly 50 years his junior?

Does the controversy suggest that significant age gap relationships remain one of society's last taboos?

My wife is 15 years younger than me, so I don't know what to say.

Yeah, mine too.

Yeah.

I mean, love is where you find it.

It's just amazing to me that the same.

I think a lot of people would have brought it up if it wasn't for her interjecting during the interview.

It seemed like elder abuse, right?

Yeah.

And

they were were going to do hard knocks, and they were there three days, and then they kicked out.

So it's people that know him well, it seems like he's not able to be who he was.

But that's his choice.

Yeah.

If he's happy, why do we care?

Right.

Exactly.

We live in America.

Let him.

Right.

She did.

She's of age.

No age.

Right.

Right.

No, look, it's been going on.

Remember Anna Nicole Smith when she married that old guy?

Yeah, but that was a cash run.

All right.

This does not look like like that.

Bill Belichick is not a billionaire.

Do you care?

I don't.

Well, I do.

You do?

Why?

Let's just say I relate.

I know, I know.

You know,

I get it.

You want to get some of that sweet, sweet Bill Belichick.

No.

No, I just think it's amazingly hypocritical for the same kind of people who have been saying forever, wherever you find love, I was born this way, you know, all that kind of stuff, which I'm totally on the page with.

You know, whatever it is.

I mean, if I came out as gay tomorrow, I'd be the biggest hero in this town.

I would be the marshal of the gay pride parade.

Like, oh, he's gay.

He's just doing this.

He just found love.

You know, okay.

Why doesn't that apply to what age also?

Like, not everybody has to be age-appropriate.

I think, you know, talk about dating shows like I was just doing in the editorial.

I think the awesomest dating show would be, yes, to do the golden bachelor, but not with age-appropriate girls.

Oh, okay.

I'm just saying, if someone wants to put that show on the air, I am volunteering myself.

It would be awesome.

It would be a really funny show.

We and the United.

Kara, what is the future of TikTok in America?

I don't know.

I don't care.

There's supposedly J.D.

Vance and Mike Walls was in charge of the deal, so who knows now that he's gotten that personal.

It's gonna move to the U.N.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Okay.

It's gonna survive.

It'll be fine.

It's gonna survive.

They'll give it to some VC and Oracle, and that'll be that.

They'll keep the data in America and LSD.

There's too many people using it.

Yeah, maybe.

Was it ever a threat?

Yes, I think, yes.

Because China controls the data.

They can.

Like, that's the issue.

And we don't have, speaking of the actual use of reciprocal, we don't have reciprocal rights there.

Yeah.

Okay.

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What did the panel think of Trump suggesting, jokingly, it says, and I'm sure it was, that he'd like to be the next pope?

He should do that.

He should do that.

That would be great.

You got a dodge.

Former vice presidential candidate Tim Walls explained that his role in the Harris campaign was to code talk to white guys watching football and fixing their truck.

Was he successful in doing so?

Well, plainly, he wasn't very successful.

I served with Tim in the House for a long time.

That is not what I would put him in charge of, and he didn't do a good job of that.

But I will say, I think, I thought Harris, he was a different person before she picked him for VP, and that she didn't let him go out there and answer any questions.

Because vice presidents are well known for that.

No, but, you know,

it helps the campaign.

Look, at the end of the day,

had they had an open primary, Harris would have never won.

They were set to lose from the people.

Who would have?

Whitmer probably had a better chance.

Pritzker would not.

I don't think Gavin could get there because they had to go through this F.

Bashir would have a real chance.

But you've got to win the Democratic primary.

It's not so easy, but they gained the system.

They changed it.

So who do you see on the horizon for 2028 in the Democratic primary?

Right now?

Yeah.

Bernie and AOC?

No.

They got the biggest crowds.

That doesn't matter.

It wants to sustain itself, but right now they have no leader.

But this is the thing the Republican Party has to understand, too.

Both parties lost in the last election.

Trump won, okay?

And I don't know if that's going to transfer.

We should have won four more seats in the Senate.

If you looked at the last 70 races for the Senate, 69 followed exactly the same.

I think it's Moore versus Yunken.

That's where I see it.

Yunkin would be at the

same time.

But that crowd.

You're the AOC and Bernie, and who's at the top of that?

They're going to lead right now.

Who's at the top of that ticket, Kevin?

Because if it's not Bernie, what, he's going to be vice president and wait his turn.

Bernie's been running each time.

I'm just saying who's in the lead right now.

I don't think that's how it ends up.

But big crowds don't necessarily mean who's the right candidate.

You know, when I started...

No, but

it drives where the ideas are going to go.

It's going to drive the money for a while.

It doesn't make them the winner.

It doesn't make it a winner.

No, it doesn't make them the winner.

You'll have to wait till you'll get two years out, and then you'll start seeing these governors that start showing solutions.

You also have to know what is the issue going to be.

Are we going to have a foreign policy issue?

Are we going to have an economic issue?

And who's been the best and leading in that?

But right now, for the Democrats, who's going to lead for the next two years, the money is going to...

AOC outraised everybody in the House.

And it's all small dollars.

It's all small dollars.

This is exactly where Trump was when no one gave him a chance at SMT.

He outraged everybody else.

So that's where the base is at, right?

And so what will happen, it'll move after the next midterm elections.

So Oklahoma has now required their students in schools to learn that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud.

What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, you can do that one.

Look.

Come on, man.

From my belief, the election was very clear.

Biden won that election.

That wasn't hard.

No, but

I really got to do this.

I know, I know.

And it's very clear, Trump won the election this time and won the popular vote, which a Republican has not done in like 30 years.

And so, but the basis is we've got to get out of this running the last elections.

Presidential elections should be aspirational.

It should be about ideas.

It should be about where America wants to go for the next century.

And if we have elections demonizing one another, instead of election about the public deciding where they want to go, you can't govern once you win.

And we're going to fall behind.

Last question.

According to the people who study this, out of 180 countries, America has slipped down to 57, so we're in middle of the pack as far as freedom of the press goes.

What do you think about that?

Well, not good, because it's our First Amendment, and you know, it's first, and so it should be important in this country.

You know, these assaults,

these lawsuits and everything else, much of them nuisance lawsuits are really problematic.

You mean like against 60 minutes?

60 minutes,

which looks like they're going to pay in some way to get that deal done.

That feels like paper play all over the place.

But all of them, even Facebook paying Trump that money for throwing him off the platform

or any of these things that are happening around the country, it's a real problem and it's very chilling.

It's not to say that...

that press doesn't make mistakes, because they do all the time, but when it's done and they correct it really quickly, the New York Times just did win its case with Sarah Palin.

Yes.

A very good sign.

And they made a mistake, they admitted a mistake, they apologized for a mistake, they corrected the mistake,

and they got better, presumably.

And so I think that's where we should be.

But there is a real movement to chill the press through legal means.

Do you think so?

Look,

I don't think the press has been fair in so many other places.

You can look at certain things they made up.

Look what the White House correspondents dinner.

Who won the award this time?

The one reporter who got up and reported that Biden wasn't mentally all there when they all hit it the entire time.

So there's a reason why we have been dropping.

It all started after the Pentagon Papers and others, whether people put trust in this.

And you've got the internet today, you've got more people bringing stuff out.

I just have a hard belief of things that I read of what had transpired in a meeting I've been in, and I do think it's pretty tainted one way.

So that's why you see the pendulum swing the other way.

John, all the strength is

on the right right now.

All the energy is in right-wing media right now.

Whether it's small podcasters or bigger podcasters or small media sites and so on.

What's interesting for the media, you think these Sunday shows are all important?

No.

More people listen to

Joe Rogan on a podcast or in your podcast.

Although you're slipping to Midas, the Midas group.

Which is great.

Which is good.

Which is the way it should be.

Let people gather whatever information they can out there.

And you should be able to challenge it.

It's the First Amendment or right now.

There are standards and facts that are very clear.

But it's also

newspapers today can't afford to do it.

You've got to have your news so fast and so rapidly, so you don't have the editors, you don't have the ability to check.

So people should be able to question what goes on.

Well, they did put somebody in the press room from social media.

I read this this week.

Timpooler, one of them.

One of them, and these are very young people, and one of them had once asked the question,

has the moon disappeared?

Has it?

No, no, we've had eclipse before.

Yeah.

No, that's those are just cheerleaders.

Those are cheerleaders, and it's kind of

laughed.

I've applied to be in that room, and Carolyn Levitt

and her Tracy Flickness has not allowed me to be there.

Tracy Flickness.

All right, thank you for watching.

I love you, Elc.

Carolyn!

I appreciate it.

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