Overtime - Episode #507: Michael Moore, Bari Weiss, Krystal Ball, Michael Steele, Fernand Amandi

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series, real time with Bill Maher.

Yes.

So, did you look at it?

Did I lose the bet already?

Well,

we're still trying to verify it.

I would practice aloha if I were you.

People know that every year I do New Year's Eve and December 30th and Maui and Honolulu and Mike and on the vacation one year.

This year it's Sarah Silverman and Larry Miller are on the trip with me.

It's going to be fantastic.

So get your tickets now.

See, I turned that into a plug.

No, no, no.

Okay,

here are the questions.

Christopher, do you feel networks like MSNBC,

which you used to work for and you work for, help or hurt progressive causes?

Overall, I think MSNBC in the Trump era has done real damage to the left, and I'm really.

And I say that with love.

I mean, these are my former colleagues, friends.

Disgruntled former employees.

I know, that's right.

That's the deal.

No, I mean, look, the Russia story and what happened there was important, but it was not all important.

And they went so far in the realm of conspiracy theorizing.

I mean, they had Jonathan Chade on.

Well, it was a conspiracy theory.

But they had Jonathan Chade on to talk about how Trump may have been a Russian plant since 1987.

He may have.

This is ridiculous, okay?

This is way out from what journalistic facts said.

And it's to the exclusion of other stories that people actually care about, about health care, about trade, about the future of their lives, automation.

These things are real, and they don't get focused when you only look at one thing.

So, yeah, they built up expectations so much that when the report came out, people were like, oh, it was just no big deal.

When it was a big deal, it was like anything short of T-tape was nothing, right?

Well, the person who shit the bed was Robert Mueller.

He can't even go after the taxes.

Seriously?

That's your investigative technique.

Don't follow the money.

Why did we put it in the middle of the middle and a Republican?

He's a Republican.

He's a lifelong Republican.

What are we doing?

That was the mistake on MSNBC, is making him into this.

He's a hero.

This hero.

And shit, the bed.

Shit, the bed.

He indicted the campaign manager, the deputy campaign manager.

He let Trump off the hook.

He took a memo, a fucking memo, not a law, not in the Constitution, just a memo.

We did a whole thing on this.

Remember that night?

Right after it came out?

And he outspoken, I agree with you.

But he laid it on a platter for

the platter.

Trump didn't have to say that.

Forgot the taxes.

The legal genius of Rudy Giuliani was able to protect Trump from being interviewed by the prosecutor.

Exactly.

I mean, the whole thing is the taxes.

The reason why he may be a Russian asset is he's the worst businessman ever.

So at a certain point, the only people who give money are the Russians.

That's, you know.

But

Mueller didn't establish collusion per se, because that's a technical term.

He showed clear coordination between the campaign and the other.

I think he did his job.

Could he have done more?

Sure.

Did he do enough?

Absolutely.

But here's the, but then it comes back to MSNBC, where it was so overhyped.

And they're not alone, right?

There are plenty of people who were involved in the overhyping of this.

But then what he did find, the facts, were not enough for a public that expected, like Barry said, that they were going to get the P-tape.

My quick take on all of it was everything everybody said is absolutely right.

But here's the rub at the end of the day.

The Democrats in Congress, the media allowed the Attorney General to come out and define the narrative before the report was put on the table.

So at that point, folks, it didn't matter what was in the report

because we were told there's nothing here.

And the report was too hard to follow.

What is this bullshit about?

Like, we did not find

that he did.

It's like, just tell us.

Okay.

Fernande, what is the secret to Democrats winning Florida in 2020?

Oh, good, cute.

Don't run Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee, who's a socialist, in that state where there is no traction there.

The Democrats need to do what Barack Obama did in 2012.

Go after the Hispanic vote now, start turning that vote.

That is the swing state.

If they do that, they'll take those 29 electoral votes with them.

Quick quiz.

Which of the Democratic candidates polls best with Hispanics?

Number one, with Hispanics.

Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders.

Right.

That's right.

Look, I don't know Florida, Paul.

You may be right about Florida.

But you can't.

Well, that's Cuban.

There's a lot of Cubans, and

there's tape of Bernie complimenting Fidel Castro.

Not Julian Castro.

Just the other night in the debate, he was unwilling.

I think to, Fernand's party, you've got to remember how we elect the president of the United States now, all right?

And I know it's frustrating for a lot of folks, but Florida is important in terms of what you're saying.

Yes, Hispanics, you know, you can find me a poll that says Hispanics support the president,

Bernie.

I like what you call 21%.

At the end of the day,

we don't elect the president nationally.

So I tell people all the time, don't pay attention to the national polls.

Pay attention to what's going on in the various states.

That's what Trump did.

That's not what Hillary did.

She focused on the big national picture that said she was going to win by this huge number.

And he went in and he chipped away because he knew what the electoral number was he had to get.

Florida and Texas are key states in this upcoming election.

And by 2024, and I'm on the record saying this, the Democrats will have their nirvana because Republicans could potentially have lost, I mean, make it purple on a good day in Texas.

And so that's to you.

That's what you're doing best in Texas in the most recent poll.

Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders is a state financial market as number one in Nevada.

Nevada is the third of the primary caucus states in February.

Number one, Bernie Sanders.

Bernie could be.

Okay, let me ask you this.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yes, but I believe that about the top four or five.

They could beat him.

But Hillary beat him, and we need to crush him.

Just beating Trump isn't going to be good enough.

Well, you've got to pay attention to the electoral map because that's where you're going to win.

Exactly.

You're not going to win with the national strategy.

And it has four states.

Nevada's not one of them.

It's Florida.

Right now, it's Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Those are the magic four.

It's all about the business.

How do you win Western?

How does Springer's

Western participation?

Because he won it by losing Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.

So we need to focus first on those three.

And Bernie won the Michigan primary.

Bernie won the Wisconsin primary.

That was Democrats voting.

Yes, but

he actually,

the people, he won't even identify as a Democrat for crying out loud

as a Democrat.

That's why people love him.

I would say that there are a lot of Democrats running for Democrats.

Exactly.

Let me ask you a question with this question of our Republican friend here because this audience, even though 90% of Republicans are friendly behind Donald Trump, we only see Never Trumpers.

We see people like you on TV and Nicole Wallace and Steve Schmidt, and we know the roster.

And you're a Never Trumper, right?

You don't want to.

No, I don't classify myself though.

I am a Republican.

As I say to folks, look, I've been in this party for 41 years.

So you could vote for Trump.

No.

That's a Never Trumper.

No, it's not.

No, it's not.

It's not in a sense, you know, saying, oh,

because I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you why.

And this is important.

This is important.

Because you wind up playing that political game when you start creating these kinds of labels.

If you're not standing, to your point, Michael, if you're not standing for something, which is what you just, you just saw the exchange.

Bernie Sanders is a socialist, or he's not claiming claiming he's a Democrat.

And you're like, yes,

that's a good thing.

When you start using the labels, that works to the advantage of your opponents.

So the whole, if you go back and study what happened with the Never Trump narrative, right?

Trump reveled in that.

What he does not like is someone who stands there and says, listen, son of a bitch, this is how this is.

I believe in these things.

These are the things I value.

That's the fight.

So you wouldn't ever vote for Trump?

No.

Okay.

I do.

Even if Bernie Connolly is.

My question is: what do the Never Trumpers do?

What do they say?

the people on MSNBC who have gone very far left, because look who's giving them their paycheck,

what do they say if it's Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren at the top of the ticket?

Do they never Trump, but would they vote for?

Would Nicole Wallace vote for?

Well, that's a bullshit way.

But honestly, that's what people talk about.

Yeah, that's right.

So they're on the spectrum.

Wait a minute,

blank.

But that's partly true.

And some will vote for the bank.

There are a lot of folks like Nicole and Joe Scarborough and others who very say, look, I'll vote for the dog in the car if that's what the Democrats nominate.

Why doesn't it matter?

There are like five people.

What?

This is the never-Trump.

I mean, I'm not sure.

I know I'm just sure, but there's like five people.

I know.

I'm just amused because I see them.

I miss NBC, and I remember how they used to talk when they were talking with Bush and Romney.

And they didn't even want Obamacare.

Right, but

be clear.

You're identifying the people that you see on television or read about in the newspaper.

Trust me, there's a much larger network of folks out there.

And this is the rub that gets into the core of what the Democrats have to do this next November, is how do you make the argument to a center-right Republican or Independent candidate, I mean, voter, to get them to support your candidate, your agenda?

Because someone like me, I can't separate Say, well, just because you're the candidate who's not Trump, I am all in.

I also need to take value and stock of what it is you're going to do.

So, to Bill's point, in your discussion earlier, it matters to me when you say you're going to take away my private health care.

It matters to me when you say we're going to open up the borders.

Actually, we're going to give you, and you, and every other country.

But that's not what the plan is.

That's going to be paid for by taxes, like in every other civilized country.

You're going to get a lot of things if Bernie is your business.

I don't believe in the government giving me stuff like that because it's never free.

The idea that the government, can you pay your taxes?

But you have such faith in the government.

The U.S.

government

can really take over

the government.

I mean, Medicare is far more efficient.

Medicare is far more efficient than the private health.

It's on the market.

But there's something in between.

I mean, Elizabeth Warren always talks about the insurance companies.

That's not where most of the money is.

It's the hospitals.

Thank you.

Somebody has to stop the gout.

It's the profit motive in healthcare, which incentivizes Michael Moore.

Thank you for educating us.

Sickness is what our our profit motivates.

It's not about physicality of

the U.S.

government taking over a sixth of the economy.

I just don't have that.

They already do it.

They take over, they do the police force, the fire department, the libraries, the public schools, the military.

Military.

Talk about a percentage of the economist of the voters.

Post office, the government does give it a government.

And they do a pretty good job of it.

As long as if it's the government of, for, and by the people.

If it's the government of the corporations where their corporations are people, that's where we get screwed.

That's what we've got right now.

And we need to

look, let's go back to the thing we all agree on, that we have to defeat Trump.

If that's job one,

that is going to happen.

We put up a street-frightened woman or a street-frightened man that is going to bring him down.

Otherwise, he will make mincemeat of the wrong Democrat during the campaign.

And we cannot let that happen.

Okay.

We got to go.

Thank you very much, everybody.

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