Ep. #502: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Marianne Williamson

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

Right here with me.

Yes,

we made it to August.

What I call hump month.

I took it.

We were off last month in July.

I took some time off to come back strong.

I feel as fresh and invigorated as Robert Mueller at a hearing

that's terrible but good news Trump left Washington DC for the weekend today see he can reduce crime in a black city

I noticed you groaned a little first because you heard black and crime before hearing what the meaning was.

Don't fucking do that.

Okay?

I fucking hate it.

But even for him, he had a racist demonth.

You'd have July.

I mean, today he told Dora the Explorer to go back to the city of gold.

And of course, he told four congresswomen to go back to the country you came from.

And Melania said, How come I never get that option?

Did you see?

Yesterday he said, I am the least racist person in the world.

In the whole world.

You're not even the least racist person at the cracker barrel.

What?

The world.

Well,

today his ass-kissing lackey that he had appointed for a director of national intelligence, kind of an important job, he withdrew.

Even Republicans were like, this guy's too stupid.

Yeah.

They found out he was an idiot, a partisan hack, and a compulsive liar.

So he's staying in Congress where he belongs, okay?

But it's amazing.

Trump doesn't vet anyone.

It's the bureaucratic version of not wearing a condom.

Why bother when you can just pull out?

You keep thinking.

But hey, good news.

We got a budget deal.

Not really good news.

It raises the deficit hundreds of billions of dollars on top of the trillions we've already run up on the card.

But don't worry.

It's okay when Republicans do it.

It's like eating when the refrigerator door is open.

Those calories don't count.

But you're probably still excited about the debates this week.

You watch the debates, I'm sure, that the Democratic candidates,

Democratic candidates went after the president hard.

Unfortunately, the president was Obama.

Did you watch the debates?

Because that happened.

Yeah, the guy with the 97% approval rating among the Democrats.

His shit is not woke enough now.

Yeah, Trump saw that.

He called Putin.

He said, I got this one.

No, they were, they were.

those debates were lively.

It was a chance for viewers, of course, to hear 20 different versions of America.

That was just from Kamala Harris.

And of course, Biden being the front runner, he got lit up by everybody: Harris and Inslee and Booker and Castro and Gillibra, they all hit him.

And you know, is this helpful?

I mean, Americans don't follow politics that closely.

I mean, half the country tunes in and goes, why is everybody yelling at Bob Barker?

And at the end, I mean, Joe is getting on in years a little.

At the end, when the candidates all try to, you know, get people to contribute to their campaign, Joe invited people to visit his phone number.

I don't have a joke for that, and I don't need one.

Joe.

Joe's getting on in years.

Come on.

When he has weird sex, his safe word is speak up.

But

the singer of the night was Corey Booker.

Did you see that?

When he said to Joe, he said, You're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know what flavor it is.

I don't know what that means, but today Kamala Harris just made it her health care plan.

All right, we've got a great show.

We have Jennifer Granholm, Josh Ball,

and Buck Sexton.

And he'll be here a little bit.

We're here.

We're speaking with, wow, the hot candidate now, Marianne Williamson, is backstage.

But first up, he is the Democratic Congressman representing New York's 8th District and the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, my old job, Hakeem Jeffries.

Hey.

How are you?

Thank you for being here.

Appreciate it.

Okay,

so first of all, as one of the few Democrats who's not running for president, president,

you were able to watch the debates, I guess, in a relaxed atmosphere.

What was your reaction?

Well, I thought that the American people did get an opportunity to see a variety of different candidates, you know, reflect the dreams, the hopes, the aspirations of the American people with different ideas, different perspectives.

I think that's a good thing.

I do think that

we need to see more moving forward about the economic anxiety that the American people are experiencing.

Because we can't simply accept the narrative that when you look at the numbers, things are well for the middle class and those who aspire to be part of it, because that's not the case.

We don't have an unemployment challenge, but we have an underemployment challenge.

We have a wage stagnation challenge.

We have a college affordability challenge.

We have a retirement insecurity challenge.

And I think moving forward as we head into the next set of debates, drilling down on that deep-seated economic anxiety in a more precise way will serve.

I mean,

I feel like you're more of a left-center Democrat.

That's correct.

You're like in the Obama school.

You know, you were a corporate lawyer, which some people hold against you.

They do.

They used to think that was the American dream.

Become a lawyer, doctor, lawyer, my son, the doctor.

Did you think the people on the stage were playing more to the audience than the audience who's going to come to the voting booth?

Well, I think we have to resist the temptation to play to the hard left.

Now, the House Democratic caucus, just like the country on the Democratic side, is very diverse.

You've got moderates, you have centrists, you have pragmatic progressives, and you have people in the hard left.

I think the Democratic primary electorate is going to be reflective of that as well.

It's going to be ideologically diverse.

And I think

resisting the temptation to do what is going to cause you to get attention on Twitter as opposed to what may actually cause cause the electorate to go out and vote for you

is something that should happen moving on.

You've got to stand up to Twitter, don't you think?

I feel like that's the key to the election.

Stand up to Twitter.

Don't read that shit.

Great.

Okay.

So, I mean, Bill de Blas.

My advice.

Bill de Blasio.

Thank you.

Bill de Blasio was attacking somebody at some point, I think Kamala, and he said that she does not want to restructure society.

Should we want to restructure society?

Is that the job of politicians?

We certainly want to improve society.

Well, I think we need to improve society, and there are issues that we need to address to make sure that the American middle class dream sustains itself moving forward.

But, you know, I think as it relates to the mayor, for instance, you know, our mayor back at home in New York City, there's some issues that he needs to address back at home.

I think he can actually start by firing Daniel Pentaleo, the officer who killed Eric Garner

with an unlawful chokehold.

So I'm curious where you are on impeachment because we've seen interesting movement on that.

I thought after the Mueller testimony

that it was kind of a dead issue, but now they say, actually, for the first time, we have a majority of the Democratic caucus, which is, I guess, over 109 people, because you're 218.

Yeah, about 118.

Okay,

who want impeachment?

Where are you on that?

I saw you question Mueller.

Yeah.

Well, I've been of the view that we have to follow the facts on the House Judiciary Committee, apply the law.

Don't we have the facts?

Isn't that what the report was?

Well, the report was a set of facts, and we have to continue to illuminate that to the American people.

But there are a whole host of other things that haven't been fully brought to light.

The money laundering.

the interactions and

then I mean we don't have enough I feel like you know with impeachment we're like in the friend zone.

You know,

we should have closed the deal a long time ago.

And the fact that it's gone on this long, we're just not that attractive anymore.

Yeah.

Well, actually, when you looked at polling in the aftermath of the Mueller hearing, what's been interesting is that support for impeachment actually increased among Republicans.

I think it jumped from about 9% to 17%.

That suggests...

that a lot of the American people haven't really been following the facts that have been laid out.

But as we continue to hold hearings, and I think Jerry Natler is going to do a great job, obstruction of justice hearings, abuse of power hearings, culture of corruption hearings, as we continue to fight it out in court to get fact witnesses and to get documents, we'll see where we are when we come back in September and all the Democrats.

Why isn't anyone talking about moving forward, excuse me, getting rid of that memo

that says a president can't be indicted.

It's just a memo.

This bugs me a lot.

They could write another memo that says

it's not a law.

It's not in the Constitution.

It's not anything.

And when you guys, you all say no one's above the law, Bo, the President is above the law.

Can you ignore a subpoena?

Do you have executive privilege?

Can you pardon yourself?

Can you say, I can't be indicted because of the job I have?

No.

Is that not above the law?

Well, you're making a good case for getting rid of the memo.

But I actually think...

And part of the Constitution.

Yeah, well, there's legislation that I support that would suggest that we need to go in a different direction in terms of Justice Department policy.

The Constitution and the framers were very clear.

Basically impeachment is a political remedy for the House to deal with a president who's out of control and above the law along with the Senate removing that president.

That's one potential lane.

I think Bob Mueller's testimony was also very clear that while a president cannot be indicted according to his reading of the Constitution in that memo while in office, the president can certainly be indicted once removed, which, by the way, I don't care about that.

Yeah.

That's too late.

Well,

in December of 2020.

That's not as satisfying as a congressman for a person.

Okay.

So Marianne Williamson is on the show here tonight.

She was in the debate and she called for $200 to $500 billion in reparations.

What do you think about that?

What about that issue?

Is it a realistic issue?

I mean, I don't think any right-thinking person thinks there's not justification for it.

But where's the, as a practical Obama kind of guy, centrist left, what's your view on that?

Well, you know, the House Judiciary Committee has legislation, H.R.

40, which is supported by the Congressional Black Caucus, supported by Speaker Pelosi, supported by Chairman Jerry Nadler, that would create, for the first time in American history, a commission to to actually study the issue, the legacy of slavery, the implications, and the devastation that it has wrought for African Americans in the country, and then make recommendations as to how you repair the damage.

I think that's an appropriate place to start.

We're still studying it.

We're still studying it, but literally.

We're still studying everything.

We haven't,

400 years actually to the month the first Africans were brought to this country,

August of 16, 19, it seems like the least that we can do is pass this legislation, study the issue, and finally figure out how to repair the damage.

But what if it says,

I'm just guessing, African Americans got a terrible deal in this country, and they should get some money.

Then what?

Well, I think, listen, whatever case is made

for reparations, and reparations can involve a variety of different things, then that's important.

It wouldn't be uncommon in American history.

Obviously, there were reparations that were paid to those victims of Japanese internment, as an example.

And slavery was the original sin here in the United States of America.

Well, an Indian genocide.

Let's not leave that out.

An Indian genocide, of course.

So final question.

I keep saying,

and now I see Trump is actually quoting me, not by name.

He calls me a third-rate comedian.

And he said,

quite a respected comedian.

So I'm a third-rate, respected comedian.

who says if he loses, he's not leaving.

What do you think?

Well, I think we have to defeat him decisively.

And if we defeat him decisively, he'll have no choice but to leave.

He'll be illegitimate.

Really?

I think so.

Donald Trump.

Well, at the end of the day, we...

It's rigged.

He's going to argue that it's rigged.

Yes.

He would have argued that Democrats really didn't take back control of the House of Representatives had we not won decisively.

We flipped 40 seats.

We won decisively.

We had no choice but to accept it.

That's true.

But it was viewed as a repudiation of him.

We'll see.

I won't make a bet with you.

All right.

Thank you very much, Congressman.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Appreciate you coming on.

All right.

Let's lead our panel.

Hey, been a while.

Hi.

How you doing?

Okay, here's our panel.

He is a business columnist for New York Magazine and host of KCRW's radio show Left, Right, and Center, Josh Barrow.

Got it right?

Yes, yes.

I knew one of these thoughts I would.

All right, he's the syndicated radio host of the Buck Sexton Show.

Buck Sexton, great to have you here for the first time.

And she's the former Democratic governor of Michigan and professor at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.

Jennifer Granholm, back with us.

Don't forget to send us your questions tonight.

It's over time, so we can answer them after the show on YouTube.

Okay, so all this debating, and it strikes me as moot, what we're arguing about, because I don't think the election is secure.

Jimmy Carter said, if this was another country, he couldn't guarantee this election.

He couldn't certify it.

And now we have

Joe Scarborough took a page out of Trump's book, We're Fighting in the Age of Nicknames, called Mitch McConnell Moscow Mitch.

And it's getting under his skin.

But let me read Mitch McConnell.

If you don't know, there's two bills to secure our elections.

One just says paper ballots so we can check.

Another one says if somebody comes to you and says, I have dirt from a foreign power, you'd tell the FBI.

Mitch has blocked them both.

Mitch says, it doesn't make Republicans traitors or un-American.

It makes us policymakers with a different opinion.

I would agree with that.

on so many other issues.

And I think that's a thing we haven't done well enough in this country, is just say, no, you're not evil.

It's a different opinion.

But not on this issue.

Not on this one.

You are traitors and you are an American.

Buck?

So there's a lot more than just basic election security contained in the different bills, and it also has to do with states versus the federal government.

So that's a real concern, a realistic concern.

But beyond that, if they really wanted this to be bipartisan, they wouldn't have gone through the procedure known as unanimous consent, which is what they do to name a post office.

It's what they do.

But what is no one's doing?

But what is the objection to paper ballots?

The objection to paper ballots is that they've already put $380 million, I think, into election security.

That's not a lot of money.

That's not a lot of money.

When is it enough money?

But the Brennan center says that it has to be $400 million more to be able to do this in a way so that these are not

specific

election measures not tied to anything else.

And this thing about how you have to report if somebody else comes to you with foreign dirt.

I mean, this is just sticking a thumb in Trump's eye.

I think Buck is raising this.

Because who's going to enforce this?

This is just ridiculous.

There's nothing that you can actually do.

Well, we caught him doing it.

Maybe the next guy if we catch doing it.

I think Buck is right that Republicans have a long-standing objection to federalizing this stuff, but I don't think they've had that objection for good reason.

They want room for states to do lots of things related to elections that reduce turnout and otherwise make the elections, that reduce the integrity of the elections.

I mean, they've been unwilling to fix the Voting Rights Act.

They want states to be able to do things that make it more difficult for people to show up and vote.

So I don't think this is about Russia.

I think it's about generally protecting state election regimes that do not promote high turnout that they think are good for Republicans.

I think that's totally yes.

I mean, you've got the Senate Intelligence Committee who came out with a report saying every one of the 50 states was hacked.

Everyone.

I mean, it just came out.

And the day after, this is put on Mitch McConnell's floor and he said he gets somebody to say, no, I object.

This is about,

first of all, you've got the Help America Vote Act, which was a federal act that was passed in 2002, where the feds clearly had an impact to try to get election security and advice to locals about how to run elections.

This is totally a ruse.

There's a few things.

One.

People on the right would take all the complaints about election security more seriously if there wasn't always the voter ID complaint, the voter ID complaint from Democrats, for one, which the Supreme Court is.

That's not anything to do with the security security security.

I understand that.

That's your issue.

That's your bullshit issue.

That's not ours.

But that's voting security.

Okay, that is not what voting voting security.

From foreign influence.

So, I mean, when you're talking about doing a unanimous, why do that?

Why?

Because, you know what?

Did you see this week Capital One had a giant data breach?

Capital One?

Yeah, this happened.

Okay,

my point being, they're a bank.

Money's involved.

It's what we care about in this country.

If they can't protect it, you think we can protect the voting?

Well, there's no such thing as perfect security.

I used to work in the CIA.

You can spend endless amounts of money trying to get away from.

We did try, is the point.

We put $380 million in a bipartisan bill.

If they were serious, Bill, they'd try to pass it.

That was not for the purpose of paperwork.

Let me bring up just a couple of other things,

just to press you on this point about whether Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump really have the security of America at heart.

Security clearance is politicized.

This guy, John Ratcliffe, who he appointed, he's withdrew now.

Come on.

This is your field, CIA.

You're comfortable with this green, ass-kissing lackey with no experience.

Look me in the eye and tell me he felt good as the director of Nestica, that that's a patriotic thing to do.

Well, I mean, obviously, Trump didn't want him to be the DNI.

They made this notion of the city.

He wanted him.

He withdrew him because he appointed him.

He wanted him.

He wanted him.

The Republican Senate, including Mitch McConnell, were not going to go to the city.

Once some of the information about his inflated resume came out, Trump no longer, he asked him to step down.

Look, okay, this is the next guy.

This is where we have to get into a discussion that I think is important and should be important to everybody here, and that is that the people that have recently come out of the Obama administration, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, have politicized the tops of the intelligence communities in a way they're Republicans.

First of all, some of the people that hate Republicans.

Some of the people that hate Trump the most are actually Republicans or former center-right people.

So that's true.

They're human.

And then on Twitter.

but you have.

That's ridiculous.

You are the former.

Those guys were never.

Those guys were never political.

Trump made them political because he behaved this way.

He's the former CIA.

Because he sits here.

He's going on.

Because Kim Jong-un fires off missiles, and Trump says, don't worry, we're friends.

You mean if Obama did that, you'd be cool with that?

You had the former CIA.

Instead of crashing

the president, our great.

Oh.

Oh.

I do not know him, by the way.

I do not

know.

I see you brought a guest.

Okay.

I do not bring you.

All right, sir.

I did not bring him.

I know.

Okay.

You know, this is not the first time I've had to go in the audience, but we've got to get faster-moving security people.

I'm telling you, you guys really...

I know you're going to make America great again, but yeah.

Okay.

You've made your point.

I don't know what it was, but you've made your point.

I think your point was you like Trump.

And there are a lot of people who like Trump.

Make sure he doesn't have a gun.

Okay.

Now,

let's move on to the debate.

The centrists showed up.

That was the big difference I thought

with the first debate was that there was no centrist, and now it was actually a debate between the two wings of the party.

But I don't get this.

The Democrats' best issue.

Did you hear that?

Yes, I did.

Okay.

I thought it was the pop.

The Democrats' best issue is health care.

And now the public is confused.

It's like, do they want to take it away now?

Right?

I mean, they took their best issue and rat fucked it.

Well, it's not over yet.

But what I really like,

Bill, is this notion that

there are wide wings when they all care wide wings to the Democratic Party.

Because everybody cares about universal health care.

It's just a question about how you get there.

Everybody wants to see a climate change address.

It's just a question of how you get there.

Well, of course, that's what we're arguing about.

Right, but I mean, that's the point is...

But they seem to bail on Obamacare kind of quick.

They bailed on Obama's left.

Not everybody.

No, but in the second debate, they were all piling on how Obama wasn't liberal enough all of a sudden.

You have a couple of dynamics.

That's a big problem.

In terms of the party, I think you have socialists, Democratic socialists versus liberals.

That's been playing out.

We also have two major issues.

Healthcare is one where you guys are stronger.

Immigration is the one where your party is in a state of self-immolation self-immolation right now.

I mean, they're going to have to essentially repudiate some of the things that they have.

Kids in cages.

Kids in cages.

Our party is not.

No, it also happened during the Obama administration.

It's easy.

If she wants to talk about this, you should really talk about this.

We should really talk about it.

Because, I mean, no one likes kids in cages.

No one likes kids in cages.

Thank you.

That does not

win election.

I mean, just to say kids in cages, I think, is a sure way to win.

You know what else doesn't win election?

Saying you want to pay for the entire world's health care.

Anyone who shows up gets health care paid for by the taxpayer, which they all raised their hands for at the first debate, which was Democrats

are very good at going after the votes of people who aren't here

and can't vote.

I think this is an issue with the way Democrats talk about immigration.

You saw Joe Biden actually try to get out of this and saying at the debate about what kinds of immigration we need, that we need more legal immigration, that people who get PhDs, they ought to be able to stay.

And then Corey Booker went and attacked him for that and basically said that by saying, you know, we want immigrants with PhDs, that's pitting immigrants against each other and we need to be for everybody's humanity.

And that was was a ridiculous attack.

But Biden has the right line on that, in that he's talking about immigration in terms of what immigration can do for American citizens who can vote in this election.

Which used to be Democrats agreed, by the way, on this point across the board.

And similarly, people keep saying, well, you know, they were all crapping on Obama and they all want to repudiate Obamacare.

Not Biden.

Biden is out there with a robust defense of the Obama record, and Biden is way in the lead in the polls.

Right, including a public option to be able to do it, which gets to the university.

Let me just say something about these wedge issues, which are brought up in the debates.

You know, this election is going to be won in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

And Donald Trump, who got 306 electoral votes, has a bunch of electoral votes in the bank.

Remember, he only needs to get 270.

That means he can win everything he had last time.

He can lose two out of those three Midwestern states.

All he needs is one to be able to win.

If we are not talking to the issues that these people in the Midwest care about, we're going to lose the whole

banana.

And it's amazing because, you know, on the health care issue, there is no Republican plan.

This is the one you guys have.

Except for the one to take care of the current.

I'm telling you what you're going to do.

But like he said, just back in April, he said that the Republicans are developing a really great health care plan.

No, they're not.

They are not locked in think tanks thinking about this because they don't care about it.

He said it will be far less expensive and much more usable than Obamacare.

We heard this before.

The only action that they've taken is to go to the Supreme Court to get rid of Obamacare and take away people's protections for the existing conditions.

It's the fire festival.

There's no there.

The Bernie Sanders plan, which is appealing to people, is just not workable.

I mean, it's fantasyland, unserious stuff that it's fun for people to hear.

Bernie couldn't even do that in the state of Vermont.

Why?

It's too expensive.

And people like to talk about Sweden, need to understand that the taxes on the middle class are roughly 50 50 to 60 percent.

You'd have to have a huge middle class tax increase.

Okay, Biden's plan is serious.

When you start talking about a public option tied onto that, that's where Democrats make headway.

But some of the other stuff that was brought up in the debate was absolute crazy time.

You had Tulsi Gabbard say that Trump supports Al-Qaeda.

You had Joe Biden say we're going to get rid of all carbon,

all fossil fuels.

I mean, these are things that are just unserious and unworkable.

But it's not possible.

Even if you thought it was going to be possible.

Not in eight years.

I mean, not in eight years.

Not even close.

But he didn't say it in 80s

by 2050.

He said we'd phase it out.

You brought up the immigration issue.

There was a hearing that the Democrats had in the House last week about border policies, and Ted Liu, my congressman, great congressman,

he was questioning his constituents here, the chief enforcement officer there at the Border Patrol, and it was about a three-year-old girl who had been separated for 47 days, and he asked if she was a security threat, and the guy said he couldn't really comment on that particular case.

He doesn't know.

He didn't look into that.

So, you know, you don't know when a three-year-old, you don't know when a three-year-old might be a security threat.

So the government has come out with this pamphlet called How to Tell if a Three-Year-old is a National Security Threat.

And we'd like to read a few of them.

For example,

for Christmas, he asked Santa for a silencer right there.

The story about his nap keeps changing.

He says he wants a new toy because his old one was compromised.

He's on the no-fly list for the Dumbo ride at Disneyland.

The password is pillow for it is death to America.

His mustache keeps falling off.

He wants to throw Peter Pan off a building.

He calls using the potty dropping a dirty bomb.

And of course, he believes the boogeyman is Jewish.

All right.

She is the best-selling author.

His most recent book is A Politics of Love, a handbook for a new American revolution who is now running for the Democratic nomination president.

Marianne Williamson is here.

Marianne.

Hey.

Great to see you.

How are you, Marianne Williamson, everybody?

All right, Marianne, I mean, looking into your past, I tell you, you are actually too interesting to run for president.

You have too many things I want to talk to you about.

But first, I just want to say congratulations for being the most Googled

from the debate, and everyone wants to talk to you now.

Thank you.

Right?

And I think it's interesting because people who are just coming to you through politics, that's what they're Google.

They didn't realize I'm humbled enough to remember, you've been around and you're big.

You were Oprah's spiritual advisor.

Well, I don't know about that, but she was very generous to me, that's for sure.

I know.

So because a lot of your politics does spring from this former life you had, or I guess the life you'll continue if you don't win,

is based on,

well, this book called A Course in Miracles?

Well, my career for the last 35 years, I have given talks based on this set of books called A Course in Miracles, which has been referred to as a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy.

That sounds like Scientology.

How can you even say that?

No, it just sounds like it.

I'm not saying it is.

No.

I'm just suspicious when something is based on one book.

That always worries me.

But it is a book that is based on universal spiritual themes.

It is not a religion.

It does not claim any kind of monopoly on truth.

It has no dogma.

It has no doctrine.

It talks about love and forgiveness.

And I think that so many of the people who are students of the Course in Miracles come from all religions and even no religions, people like you.

But I read that the author.

I read that the author of the book, Helen Sheckman, said she took dictation from Jesus.

Well, there's nothing in the book.

Maybe she did.

Maybe she felt that way.

The book is not trying to get us.

Who would know better than you?

This is your book.

I'll tell you what, because the book is not...

Did she take dictation from Jesus or not?

The book says nothing about that.

The book does not try to get us to believe in God.

The book does not try to get us to believe in Jesus.

The book tries to get us to believe in each other.

The book is about believing in each other and living with love for one another, which is the experience of a higher power or God, as people understand it.

We can't argue with that.

Okay.

So

one thing I like about you and the debates, I've said this before on the show.

There was only one thing?

There was a couple.

No, one thing that is about all issues, you always go to the root of things.

I love that.

You know, everybody else is talking surface.

Right.

And you say, what about, you know, immigration?

But let's talk about why they're coming here, about the drug war in those countries.

That's why they're...

And health.

You know, you and I are simpatico on health.

I did mention that on the show last time.

Thank you.

What you say is what I have always said.

We're never going to fix this health care crisis because we don't ask about why are people so sick.

Doctors don't ask you what you eat.

Well, our current politics, our current political establishment, what I call yada yada yada politics, is based in 20th century thinking.

This is now the 21st century.

In the 21st century mindset, we have a far more whole person, holistic understanding of things.

We understand that there's effect, but there's also cause.

There's external symptoms, but there's also how people feel, what people think.

There are underlying forces and dynamics in people's lives that must be addressed if we are to transform one life.

And all that a nation is, is a group of individuals.

So those same processes, those same factors must be addressed if we're to change the country.

So there's a 21st century political conversation that the old establishment doesn't seem to understand, but what's most dangerous now doesn't seem to be open to.

And that must change, or we will not beat Trump, and we will not bring forth a future that we want for ourselves.

And with just the health issue, again,

you know.

The greed of the pharmaceutical companies.

Yes.

You know, the food companies.

Right.

The environment.

Right.

All the toxicity and the chemicals.

This is why people are so sick.

You're not going to fix this unless you get to that.

Why are they sick?

Well, exactly.

Why do we have so much more chronic disease than in other countries?

And what you were saying, and I brought that up at both debates, you can't just talk about a health care system.

You have to realize it's a sickness care system.

So we have to address issues of

chemical policies, agricultural policies, environmental policies, even economic policies, because the economic anxiety that's already been referred to causes such stress for us.

They subsidize the wrong foods.

That's why we live on corn like we're fucking cows.

But then you have to go even deeper than that.

Cows are not supposed to live on corn either.

That's true too.

So I want to ask you about mental health because this was a, you know,

we have to go even deeper than that though because it's not just the corporate interests that underlie our health crises, but corporate interests that underlie our dysfunction in every area.

So it's not just chemical policies or agricultural companies, it's also the health insurance companies, it's also the big pharmaceutical companies, it's also the gun manufacturers, it's also the fossil fuel companies, and it's also the defense contractors.

It's the fact that our government has stopped being a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and is of those huge multinational corporate interests, by those huge multinational corporations.

Now you're giving me your scum speech.

Come on, don't become a politician now.

It happens.

Don't become a politician.

All right, so mental health.

You got into a brew a harbor.

I read this.

Now, again, I'm with you on this.

And I read this.

This is how the New York Times characterized your basic views.

And of course, it's presented as kind of a like, what?

What's this crazy lady saying?

I agree with everything.

Mrs.

Williamson, it says, has criticized the widespread use of antidepressants.

I'm down with that.

They aren't too much.

Okay.

Suggested that

they were to blame for some celebrities' suicides.

We don't know, but I thought the same thing.

Characterized treatment guidelines for postpartum depression as a way for pharmaceutical companies to make more money.

I don't know a lot about that, but I know pharmaceutical companies are not above doing anything.

And called the distinction between ordinary sadness and clinical depression artificial.

I think that's a bit of a mischaracterization, but you do say that, yes, we over

prescribe these drugs, and sadness is a part of life.

You don't always need a pill for sadness.

Isn't that your basic thrust?

Well, absolutely.

There is a spectrum of normal human despair.

Someone that you love died.

You went through a divorce.

You had a bankruptcy or a financial failure.

There are all kinds of severe disappointments in life, but they're not a mental illness.

And I also think that we have to deal with the fact that we are now, attorney generals all over this country are even now indicting.

executives of big pharmaceutical companies for what we know are their role in the opioid crisis.

So given that we know about the over-prescription of painkillers and the over-manufacture and the over-sale of

opioids, I don't know why we would just assume that in every other area that Big Big Pharba is acting with the purist of intent and concern with the common good.

I have asked that question

many times.

All right.

Let me ask you this and turn it to the panel after I get your reaction.

But you said in the debate reparations, we were talking about it with the congressman.

You mentioned $200 to $500 billion.

How do you come up with that money?

Who decides

how's it going to go over in the Iowa caucus?

When I have talked about it in Iowa, I've gotten massive applause in the standing nation.

All those people want to pay that money?

Well, let's talk about it.

First of all, the congressman was saying that we should have a commission.

What?

It's been 400 years, but we should still have more evidence that we should.

I didn't get that either.

This is what I mean by yada, yada, yada, politics.

We know what happened.

We know what happened.

So this is the deal.

When I don't believe that the average American is a racist, I don't.

But I believe that the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States.

And when you point out, when you point out to people that there was 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of institutionalized violence against black people, this is 350 years of institutionalized violence against blacks.

That's longer than this country has been in existence.

At the end of the Civil War.

We know what happened.

Okay.

Now we're talking about the future.

What should we do?

So reparations.

Yes, please.

Well, I mean, for one, I think about 25% of the American people are in favor of some form of monetary reparation.

So just politically, it's going to be really, really hard to get that through ever.

Beyond that, it's an idea that everyone can understand and why it's good, right?

The monstrous evil of slavery.

How could we ever confront that fully?

The truth is, we can never confront it fully.

There's no price we could ever pay monetarily that will undo that, that will make that pain go away.

Now we have to focus on today.

How would we actually do this?

Would you have people actually get direct?

monetary payments as part of some massive fund.

Would it just go to some organization that would dole out funds to individuals?

Who would get that money?

And by the way, would new,

you have

50 million Americans born outside the country who live inside of America now, who are part of our American family, they're going to be paying for reparations?

It just doesn't make any sense.

It just doesn't make any sense.

It makes a lot of sense.

It makes a lot of sense.

Germany has paid $89 billion to Jewish organizations since the Holocaust.

That doesn't mean the Holocaust did not happen, but it has gone far towards establishing reconciliation between Germany and the Jews of Europe.

There were Holocaust survivors, though.

There were derivatives.

No, they were not by the time the money was paid.

No, there were people who were affected by the Holocaust.

And not just this conversation, but also about decriminalizing illegal entry into the United States, taking away people's employer-based health insurance plans.

Not only are these ideas so unpopular that

you cannot enact them, and if you run on them, you hand Trump an issue that he can beat you over the head with, where much more of the electorate agrees with him than with you.

Even if you win the election, you'll never pass it because you'll never get it through Congress.

You either have Republican-controlled Congress or you need swing district members who have districts where these ideas ideas are even less popular than that.

Democrats have lots of popular ideas available that they should run on.

They should run on those instead of doing this thing that not only hurts them, but actually it does no good for anyone.

It's not actually going to be enacted even if you win.

Okay, principle is great, but you know, you got to get elected.

But we haven't tried.

You know, I

can't let me ask about one other issue here.

I mentioned impeachment, but when the numbers went up, I just thought, apropos to this discussion, it seems like some of the people who are now coming on board for impeachment, it's not about Russia.

Maybe Russia was not the right issue.

It sounds to me what I was reading today that some people are ready to impeach him over the racist stuff.

Kidnapping.

Kidnapping.

How about kidnapping of those children at the southern border?

Okay, we already did that.

I think that the impeachment question is one that should have been handled right away.

I think the House should have voted and gotten it off.

Because when you spend so much time

because there is a huge question about immigration.

I'd love to see the House pass some sort of comprehensive immigration reform that deals with the issue at the southern border.

But if everybody's focused on this issue of impeachment, which by the way is not going to fly in Michigan, Wisconsin.

Right, but all these congress people are going home now for their break.

They're going to have the town halls.

The people who come to their town halls are all riled up about no one

wants to live in Baltimore.

We can move on then.

But let's do it quick instead of dragging it out.

It riles up the base, as it should.

And by the way, I mean, I've got to.

What riles up the base in Michigan is trade.

What riles up the base in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania is this two-tiered economy.

I was in West Baltimore two days ago, and anyone who spent some time there knows that it is in really rough shape.

And you talk to residents, it's been in a very rough shape for a long time.

And it feels like that.

You're not really going there, are you?

What?

It sounds like you are parroting the president's.

Excuse me.

Bernie Sanders said it's like walking through a third world country.

Yeah, I actually spent time there.

So I think that's the only thing that's happening.

I don't think it's outrageous to say Baltimore has placed it to do this right now.

This is perfect.

It's really fun to stand up and say, I want reparations because I care so much about the minority community.

And then we want to have a conversation about Baltimore that's bipartisan with the president, who, by the way, did push the First Step Act, is doing some things, as much as he has critics that think that this stuff doesn't go enough, isn't far enough, that are good for minority communities.

This is just a fact.

And when the conversation comes up about what to do in these inner cities, people just want to shut it down.

They want to say the president's a racist or they want to talk about it.

Because the president's using a problem.

The president has been using it to exploit this issue of dividing people.

He's been using Baltimore as the example.

What do you think that tweet today

about the robbery?

It was just outrageous.

It looks like he's laughing at it and using it.

But if you're going to make reparations you want to repair, then policy that helps to uplift uplift policy.

I think a conversation about Baltimore, Chicago, and what's happening there, and police tactics, and by the way, the conversations, the way we're

the way we're talking about law enforcement right now, what you see with these videos where kids are laughing and throwing water on them, concentration camps at the border, this stuff is out of control.

That actually can help minority communities.

You would allow that his criticisms of different parts of the country are not exactly even.

For example, he said about West Virginia recently: the great state of West Virginia is producing record-setting numbers and doing really well.

Well, infrastructure, they're 50th.

Healthcare, they're 48th.

Education, they're 44th.

I mean, how do you politicians say the great state of whatever when they're in it?

I know, but.

I mean, like, you can always pick.

I mean, every, come on, every politician, they show up in a state, they say, I love this place.

Play baseball team's amazing.

I mean, this is

real about that.

But it does seem like he picks on certain areas.

Some areas need help.

They need a focus.

Baltimore needs to be a lot of people.

This is Nevada needs help.

So does West Virginia.

West Virginia is as poor.

95 of the 100

counties in the country are red counties.

Why are you talking about that?

West Virginia

is primarily economic and opioid overdose, and the administration has been trying to do a lot about opioid overdose specifically as an issue because we lost 73,000, I think it was, last year.

It's out of control.

So, yeah, there's absolutely a focus on easy.

That's a real conversation.

Reparations makes people think that.

If the president really wanted to help with the opioid addiction, he would not be proposing cuts to the FDA, cuts to the National Institutes of Health, and cuts to the Centers for Disease Control.

He would not be proposing cuts to make it more possible for his big pharmaceutical company buddies to control and to continue to have 75% of the control of the review of drugs.

This man's corporatist agenda has nothing to do with helping the people of the United States.

Do you think we should cut the

minutes?

They passed a budget.

It's the one thing that is now bipartisan is that we don't care about debt anymore.

I mean, the Democrats are are always known as the big spenders, but now when the Republicans get in office, they don't care either.

And $738 billion are going to go to the military.

The only other thing that's also bipartisan, shovel as much money as you can to the Pentagon.

I think we get rid of half of it.

What do you think?

I think that we have reached a point now where we are both hell in a handbasket until this thing explodes, meaning the debt.

This is just out of control.

Republicans have been saying for, I came into political commentary when the Tea Party was at its absolute height.

Where did they go?

I speak to my own party about this.

I don't know what else to say other than we're spending too much money.

The cases that we made when Obama were in office are the same cases now.

And if we're in office, by the way, meaning if Trump is in office and this thing actually goes south, which it really could based on a few different economic factors that we could all talk about, we got a big problem on our hands.

We have an even bigger problem than that.

We have a moral problem.

This current budget proposal of his would take 500,000 American children off the free lunch programs.

We have millions of American children who go to school every single day in schools that don't even have the school supplies with which to adequately teach a child to read.

And if a child cannot learn to read by the age of eight, the chances of high school graduation are drastically decreased, and the chances of incarceration are drastically increased.

This is a moral problem.

We're talking about more military spending while we have millions of American children going to school every day asking the teacher if maybe there's some food for me.

And you say this thing is out of control.

I'll tell you what's out of control.

We have no heart.

No, no,

on that note

say what you really think but it's time for new rules everybody new rules

you feel this don't you

cut the pot again

okay new rule Reverend William Weaver the New Jersey pastor accused of performing oral sex exorcisms

where he claims to suck the demons out of men who come to him for Christian counseling, has to stop doing that.

And men who come to him for counseling must realize one sign your spiritual counselor might not be on the level is when the answer to every problem is, how about I just suck your dick?

Nural, now that a new study finds that 28% of food delivery drivers drivers have eaten some of your food,

it's time to put those fears to rest with my new food delivery service, Muzzle Meals.

Your Muzzle Meal driver is locked inside this bondage mask at the start of his shift, and it doesn't come off until he's delivered his last bowl of ramen.

And if he's not there in 30 minutes, you can punish him any way you want.

Muzzle meal, where our kink is service.

New Roll, the Friendship Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia, must tell us: in what part of the Bible did Jesus say, love it or leave it?

Maybe I missed that in the good book.

I'm just saying, this message doesn't really sound like a church, and it doesn't sound like friendship.

But fuck if it ain't Baptist.

New Roll, the parents who let their young child get swept away by the airport conveyor belt,

the parents who let their young child get too close to a wild bison

have to get together for cocktails.

But just for an hour or two.

After all, the kids are waiting in the car.

Neuro, the artists who installed seesaws in the border fence between the U.S.

and Mexico have to admit that while they meant it to be a commentary on the interconnectedness of our two nations, if you get a fat enough American on our side of the seesaw,

it also can be used to flip a Mexican right over the fence.

And finally, new rule, before summer is over, Donald Trump must give everyone a vacation from himself.

You know,

you know, July used to be a happy month for me.

It was my downtime, a chance to tend my garden and then smoke it.

But this July started with tanks in the streets of America, another notch in my dictator checklist.

Then came Trump telling four congresswomen to go back where they came from, you know, Czechslavania.

By the time he got to no human would want to live in Baltimore, I got so high the fire department had to come get me down.

When your vacation leaves you more exhausted than when it started, that's called Trump fatigue.

And I'm not the only one who suffers from it.

70% of Americans say Trump tweets too much and 70% find him unpresidential.

That's the fatigue talking.

Even his TV ratings are failing.

In June, he did a prime-time interview on ABC and got only 3.9 million viewers.

A sharp drop from Celebrity Family Feud, which got 6.1 million in the same time slot the week before.

Sad.

Sad.

But not sad for Democrats.

Fatigue is the best thing we've got going for us.

The majority of Americans aren't tired of winning.

They're tired of looking at his fat fucking face.

Do you have any idea how obnoxious you have to come across to have only a 43% approval rating?

when the unemployment rate is under four?

Yeah, it's hard to beat an incumbent in a good economy.

Every incumbent since FDR has won if they avoided a recession leading up to the election year.

And consumer confidence is sky high.

Americans have disposable income.

It's a bullish market.

Lobbyists who used to just lease a congressman are now buying.

The voters that Democrats need to win, moderates who have Trump fatigue, will vote against the good economy, I think, just to get back to normalcy.

But they won't trade it away for left-wing extremism.

You say you want a revolution?

Well, you know.

You got to get elected first.

And this election...

And this election is about two things, fatigue and fear.

We have fatigue, he has fear.

Fear of socialism, fear of open borders, fear of getting rid of private health insurance, fear of higher taxes.

He's running on, the communists are coming, shit yourself.

We should run on, elect me, and we can stop talking about him.

All the Democrats have to do to win is to come off less crazy than Trump, and of course, they're blowing it.

Coming across as unserious people who are going to take away all your money so migrants from Honduras can go to college for free and get a major in America sucks.

Now, do I want Biden to be president?

Not really.

But Biden's the only Democrat who beats Trump in Ohio.

He's like non-Dairy Creamer.

Nobody loves it, but in a jam it gets the job done.

I mean,

I can't figure people out, but they just like Joe.

Maybe it's the familiarity.

He's like a McDonald's when you're in Europe.

I'm sick of hearing that Democrats need to excite the base.

Trump excites the base.

With Obama, the battle cry was, yes, we can.

With Trump, it's what the fuck?

He generates the kind of excitement that put the Dalai Lama on Kwanopin.

It's the fatigue, stupid.

Let's make it hard for Trump to play on voters' fears and let the fatigue win the election for us.

We'll get to the revolution, but remember, put on your oxygen mask before assisting your child.

If the Democrats can do that and win, this country might stop being as divided as it is.

Because underneath, maybe we're not so divided.

Old Town Road just set a record for the most weeks ever at number one, and it's a black guy rapping a country song

on a horse

And he's gay.

The rapper, not the horse.

Gay country rap.

You can't get a bigger tent than that.

All right, folks.

Great to be back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's our show.

I'll be at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, August 18th, and at the Mirage in Vegas, September 6th and 7th.

Boy, I cover the waterfront.

I want to thank Josh Barrow,

Barrow, Buck Sexton, Jennifer Grandholm, Marianne Williamson, and Hakeem Jeffries.

Stay tuned for overtime on YouTube.

Thank you.

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.