Overtime - Episode #509: Salman Rushdie, Gina McCarthy, Barney Frank, Linette Lopez, Noah Rothman

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 Maher.

My cast.

And the cast of real time.

All right, here are the questions.

Noah, but this could be for everybody.

What would it take for Republicans to break with Trump publicly?

I heard, was it Ben Sasse or Jeff Flake?

One of them said if they took the vote privately, 30 to 35 Republicans would vote to impeach, but that's not publicly.

What would it take?

Yeah, that's kind of hard to believe, but

it wouldn't be off by that much.

I mean, half.

Privately.

Privately, yeah.

So what would it take?

It would take for them to believe their political prospects are imperiled.

And that might sound like it's a moral failure, and you could view it that way, but it's the fact.

And so if you start to see polls of impeachment that begin to swallow up a lot of independents and 20%, 30% of Republicans, then yeah, you're going to see some Republicans jump ship.

Okay.

Barney, do you think Democrats will be able to stay united and on message throughout the impeachment process?

Or will the yeah, or the divisions between progressives and moderates re-emerge?

It is a bit of a minefield for that.

That's true.

Well, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, we will be united.

And she took on the people who were the premature impeachers.

And she has impeccable credentials now against anyone who says, oh, you were just looking for an impeachment.

She's been very firm on that.

And now there is one possibility.

I hope, and I know this is her position, stay on the interference in the election by trying to smear the candidate he most fears by holding up weapons that the Ukrainians needed to defend themselves against the trend Putin.

Going back into some of the side issues about paying for Stormy Daniels,

I hope they stay out of that.

I believe they will.

And I think that, yes, on this question now of focusing on

the defense of the national interests and democracy by going after what Trump did shall have almost public unanimity.

Okay.

What do you think, Lynette?

You are a business insider, of course, of the U.S.

Census Bureau reporting income inequality is now at a 50-year high.

I mean, I think that

it sounds like it's time to deliver a message a lot like the one that Trump delivered four years ago, and I don't think he's going to be able to do that.

I was just in a room.

The

everything is fucked up and I alone can fix it.

After four years of Trump, I see his surrogates out there.

I was just in a room of Wall Streeters and Mike Pence, and he was doing the victory lap.

We won.

Capitalism is back.

We're here to win.

Blah, blah, blah.

Everyone's winning.

And that didn't even go down well in a room of suits.

I don't understand how Trump is going to be able to circle that square and say, not only am I the victim and I'm screwed and everything's fucked up and you know, wrong, but also I just won the last four years and you should re-elect me.

The winning message is

yeah

inequality is terrible.

We have a corrupt society, crony capitalism.

That's still a winning message I think for a lot of Americans and it's going to be really hard to see the Trump administration say we did it, we're winners, but also say you're fucked, you're victims, let me win it for you.

Can I just add a gratuitous conservative talking point to this?

So

that study.

Yeah.

That study also showed that the median American income is the highest it's ever been in the mid-60s.

So while income equality is broad, more Americans are doing better.

Yeah, can I say in response to that, the median doesn't help the people who are losing.

And the fact is that median is one thing, and there are a lot of people who are doing well.

But not only are a lot of people who are not doing well, but Trump has failed to help them.

That's the other issue.

Manufacturing is in a slump.

We're seeing that slump move into the services sector.

The recession isn't just a fear.

It's something that's a distinct possibility, especially given the fact that we're going to continue this ridiculousness with China.

And now we've started shit with the EU.

They're also beginning.

The world is starting to be a mess.

No matter how much central banks loosen policy, we're still seeing a significant.

And economic growth is decreasing.

Decreasing.

Heself is looking for scapegoats for an economy that's getting worse.

And what happens politically, by the way, is that the trend is what counts even more than the absolute.

But clearly, inequality is worse than when he started, and he has done zero to make it better and will make it worse.

How does he say, I'm winning, but you're losing?

He knows that it was gratuitous.

He wasn't looking for arguments.

Fair enough.

Oh, I think that's right.

He gets me.

No, I think he said it was a gratuity.

I understand all this.

Trump did promise something, delivered on nothing.

And let me remind you, in 1968, Nixon ran on the idea, the pledge, I'm going to end the war in Vietnam.

He didn't.

And then four years later, in 1972, he ran on the platform, I'm going to end the war in Vietnam.

That's a salesman.

Okay.

You also drew McGovern.

George McGovern was unfortunately the candidate.

Okay.

All right, Gina, which Democratic candidate has put forth the best policy to address climate change?

Oh, that's a good one.

Who's your favorite?

I will take them all because I was so excited that they actually had a climate debate and somebody spoke about climate.

That was a big deal.

You know, the winner in the climate debate seemed to be Governor Inslee, who wasn't there.

Right.

Because everybody stole from his plans and gave him credit for it.

But I think the most important thing right now is to recognize how much people now are feeling and seeing the impacts of climate change, how much that people running for office recognize that.

They're not going to pander to it.

They're developing real plans.

We have to do something and get it.

It's in your backyard.

You know,

well, in California?

But I mean, things used to be more alive.

There were birds and butterflies.

And every day I see bees walking.

Right, it's not funny.

It makes me almost cry, like the old Indian in the commercial.

I see a bee walking like bees are not supposed to be walking and this bee is obviously not going to be.

I just say this, Ian, because I think it's optimistic politically.

This is the first presidential campaign ever in which climate change has been a significant issue, and it's entirely because Donald Trump took that position.

Literally, nobody they kind of took it for granted.

There may be fights about more or less, but Trump has elevated it, and I think to his disadvantage.

Okay, Salmon, Indian Prime Minister Modi recently appeared at a I was in Houston Sunday.

My luck.

I'm in Houston once every two years.

I'm there the day Fatso arrived.

Modi Modi.

Do you think,

and there were 25,000 screaming Indians there for Trump?

They were holding hands, he and Modi.

You saw that?

I saw it.

Okay, do you think Trump's push to appeal to Indian Americans will be effective?

Might be.

He seemed popular there in Houston.

Because unfortunately, I'm sorry to say about my people that a whole chunk of them voted for Trump last time around.

They did.

They did.

And the Modi deal, and I mean, Modi's Modi's pitch and Trump's are not so far apart.

Right, nationalist.

Well, it's a particular kind of nationalism.

It's they both invent a fairy tale of the past

in order to justify actions in the present.

So in Trump, we have the red hat, you know, this golden age of America that we're supposed to get back to.

And Modi is doing the same thing.

He's inventing a much more distant golden age, a golden age of Hinduism that predated the arrival of the Muslim invaders,

and uses that to justify attacking minorities.

And Brexit is a similar idea.

Same thing.

It's a very similar idea.

It's a fairy tale of England.

You think it's a fairy tale?

Yeah, because the golden age is always a fairy tale.

The idea that there was such a thing as a golden age of universal happiness and prosperity is a fantasy.

But what about Camelot?

Wasn't there a place?

I know.

Camelot?

If you break into song, I'll be there.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10.

Or watch him anytime on HBO On Demand.

For more information, log on to HBO.com.