Overtime – Episode #599: Chloe Maxmin, Paul Begala, Michele Tafoya

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

AKA Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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

Okay, we must have done good.

Okay, welcome over time.

Here are the questions.

Okay, for the panel.

While some Republicans are public in their disdain for Trump, others argue he's still an influential kingmaker.

What do you think?

Well, J.D.

Vance, right, he just got the, he won in Ohio.

He's going to be the Republican nominee for Congress.

He's the hillbilly

elegy guy.

Okay, but that was his book.

Anyway, Trump endorsed him.

It was supposed to be a test, right, of Trump's kingmaker power.

So is that a test of his kingmaker power?

Absolutely.

It's a stunning victory for Trump.

I mean,

Vance was not doing very well.

He had, you know, those Republican primary voters, especially in Ohio, they loved Trump.

And Vance had called Trump, compared him to heroin, compared him to Hitler, compared him to cancer.

Other than that, he loved the guy.

This is before this running.

This is before.

Right.

This is when Trump was first running.

And now all of a sudden, and they literally asked him, he said, well, what changed your mind?

He said, because Trump was so tough on corruption.

Swear to God.

And he didn't even laugh.

So it's, but it is.

It shows you that this is Trump's party.

And he will seek the nomination and he will win it.

He's going to be the Republican nominee.

The Democrats are going to get their act together.

Right.

You're really convinced of that.

100%.

Oh, me too.

I've been saying it before the first one.

First of all, he hasn't conceded this

He hasn't conceded the one he already lost.

Right.

This is not a man who gives up things gracefully.

Look at his hair.

He is.

No, he is going.

He's definitely the nomination.

He's definitely going to run, and they can't deny him.

Right.

Try to deny him that nomination.

You know, listen, I guess I'm wacky, but I like to think that somebody else can steal that nomination.

I don't know how in the hell it would happen.

You can't.

I mean, the one they talk about is DeSantis.

I mean,

his, I guess, strategy is I'm Trump without being this crazy man with the clown makeup.

Right?

But they want the crazy man with the clown makeup.

I mean, he's the star.

I mean, you know, you're just not going to unseat him until he, he, you cannot break up with a narcissist.

Right.

That's true.

He breaks up with you.

Yeah, well, maybe he will.

Maybe he will.

He will break up.

You don't think over the next two years, he'll decide, you know,

I like Mar-a-Lago.

He's going to spend more time with his family.

Yeah.

You know,

no narcissist says turn the camera off.

And

his life doesn't change when he becomes president.

He doesn't work.

What he means like, oh, I'll have to go back to that grind of being up at 11 a.m.

He came down at 11 a.m.

He was up at 6, because we know from the tweet he didn't come down to 11.

What's he doing?

His hair.

That's what he was doing for five hours.

He doesn't say life hasn't changed.

It's all about winning.

He's winning, winning, winning.

He did not like not winning, and he's going to do it again.

And

if I had to bet my own money, I would bet he's going to win.

What if you had to bet your own life since you don't value life very much?

I didn't say that.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

No, I said life is not necessarily precious.

Especially when it hasn't started yet.

Okay, you've been vocal in your support for American-made products.

How can lawmakers better promote an environment for business to manufacture their products here?

Well, listen.

Make better shit.

Well, that, yeah.

But you know what?

I do think there is room in the tax code.

Look, we gave it away to China.

We just said, yeah, we'll pay dirt for dirt, and there you go.

And now we're stuck with all these, you know, these delays in receiving things and all of that, barges stuck out in Long Beach, California.

I just think that we have the capability not only to make things here, but to maybe not make things in countries where there's slavery and genocide.

I think that would be a good idea.

And I think slavery anywhere in China is slavery everywhere in China.

Because if you've got some industries relying on slave labor, then everything kind of falls to that level.

That's going to be an interesting moment when the people go to Walmart and they can't buy things from China.

since about 98% of what's in Walmart is from China, and that's why those products are so cheap.

So that's going to make your your people very popular.

Well, listen, I do think there are other countries you can do business with that aren't killing their own.

I just do.

But really, what percentage of what's in Walmart is from China?

98%.

You're right.

But we allowed that to happen, Bill.

We allowed that to happen.

We gave up all that manufacturing to other places.

Help me.

Because they make a pair of jeans for $9.

That's why.

And people want $9 jeans.

But they make it at $9 because they don't pay their people to work.

I understand, but

the people shopping there.

When we're so ashamed of our own slavery,

why can we support countries that have to do with that?

But if you're going to be honest, start the discussion to the people you're convincing to do this by saying you're going to be paying a lot more for everything you've ever bought.

Well, and therefore, maybe you don't have 900 pairs of jeans in your closet and you only have $899.

Tell that to me.

What's the other way?

To the people who have three pair of jeans in their closet.

No, look, I understand that.

Go ahead.

What's the other way?

The federal government buys stuff, not just consumers.

And our president has said, I'm going to buy American.

I'm going to make sure when the federal government buys stuff, people go into Walmart, they buy whatever they want.

They're free citizens.

But the government spending American taxpayers' money because of Biden is now going to have to buy stuff made in America, which means some of those manufacturers are going to have to onshore.

It's going to take a long time.

But that's a good place to start.

I don't want to take away consumers' rights to buy something, but the federal government buys, by the way, every single weapon by law must be made in America.

We don't outsource that to China.

China could make it cheaper.

We don't allow it because it affects our national security.

I'd like to see that expanded beyond just weaponry.

And I think Biden is going to do a good job on that.

He's pushing a Made in America agenda.

But it reminds me a little of the,

you know, Mexicans are coming here to take our jobs, and then we find out that, you know, Americans don't do those jobs.

White people don't do yard work in this country.

So no one's taking the job that you wouldn't do anyway.

John McCain said it.

I don't know.

I do my own yard work, so what can I do?

You don't pick fruit.

No, I do not pick fruit.

Right.

And you wouldn't.

But I'm Hispanic, so I'd fit right in, I guess.

I don't know who's going to get canceled or why, but I'm sure someone's going to try.

Because following me.

It's just the world we live in.

doesn't even have to make sense.

You're gone.

Chloe, you passed a new Green Deal.

I mean, a Green New Deal for Maine with support from the AFL-CIO, the first time the union ever endorsed a Green New Deal.

How did you do that?

Well, it all started with relationships, so much of like what we were talking about before.

The bill came out of my conversations with constituents.

I've rarely heard my folks talk about climate change, but we talked about ice fishing every winter and having enough rain for our farms in the summer and having good sustainable jobs in rural places.

So from day one, I worked with the unions and we created a piece of legislation that was really geared towards green jobs.

And people really embrace that even

because usually what we hear is

you know if it doesn't affect you directly and you have much more immediate concerns, that's something that people say, oh, that's a rich man's concern.

But I mean the climate crisis does impact rural folks directly.

We just have a different language for talking about it.

And especially when it comes to job opportunity and economic growth in rural places, we desperately need more of that, especially for young folks.

And that's really what the bill was targeted at.

Okay.

Time to go.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Appreciate it.

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