Overtime - Episode #497: William Weld, John Waters, Kirsten Powers, Jonathan Swan, Lawrence Wilkerson

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.

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

We are on the internet

with the questions that the people wrote in.

Lawrence Wilkerson, does the Trump administration plan to bypass Congress to sell arms to Saudi Arabia concern you?

Very much.

I'll bet.

And if the Congress really has the courage, political and moral, it will pass a separate piece of legislation and just disregard the Export Control Act, which would take too long anyway, and shut him down.

Can they?

Yes.

Okay.

John Waters as the Pope of Trash.

Is that a nickname?

Well, that's been called worse.

Yeah, yeah.

Can you confirm that Trump is the trashiest president of all time?

Oh, yes, he's the worst.

Well, I think he's the worst.

I think, you know,

he looks like a white James Brown impersonator now.

Yes.

But I mean, besides from that, but also the decor.

I mean, it looks like Saddam Hussein's palace.

It looks like Jeff Koons decorated without art history or irony or any knowledge.

Okay.

Okay.

Governor Bill Weld, in the event that you don't get the Republican nomination, will you back the Democratic nominee for president in 2020?

I'm not sure what I'd do.

You know, there may be Justin Amash hanging out there on the libertarian ticket.

Hard to say.

Really?

Would not support Mr.

Trump under any circumstances.

I love the United States too much.

So

you wouldn't support Trump, but you might support a third-party candidate or the Democrat, depending on who it was.

Anyone but Trump.

You wouldn't do that bullshit right-in Mickey Mouse thing, would you?

No, no, no, no.

And wouldn't go back to libertarian.

All right.

Alfred E.

Newman.

Well,

people do that.

I think it's just.

No, but Alfred E.

Newman.

Remember, he did run for president in the old days for Mad Magazine.

He's not a real person.

I know, but remember, Trump called Mayor Pete Alfred E.

Newman, didn't he?

Oh, yes.

Oh, okay.

You got the old enough to be able to do that.

Kirsten, was the Democratic National Committee wrong to implement stricter fundraising and polling benchmarks for the third round of debates?

Wait, what happened?

You don't know what you're saying.

I don't know.

Well, what they did was they said you need 2% in the polls and 130,000 unique donors.

This is the third debate.

The debates start like three weeks, right?

Yeah, they're set for the first one.

This is to narrow the steps.

They're set for the first debate?

No, no, no.

The numbers, the thresholds are set.

This is a higher standard after the first debate.

You can't have more than 20, right?

Is that the thing?

There's 23 candidates.

Three of them are not going to get the chair.

I think what they realized was that the standards that they set were too easy.

And so that's why we have so many people now that are going to be running.

And so to make it 2% instead of 1% is going to maybe narrow the 10-year-old.

I mean, even 10.

We remembered this with the Republicans.

It's very hard to make a mark.

I don't know how.

I guess that's what they'll all do.

And that's why it's bad to have so many, because they don't really concentrate.

And they destroy each other.

They just creating these ridiculous immigrants.

And looking for ways to separate themselves from the pack, yes.

Okay, should President Trump's plan to switch to a merit-based immigration system receive more consideration?

Well, it would be more like what Canada has.

No, I don't think it should.

You don't think so?

No, I don't think so.

We're not, you can have both.

You can have merit-based like we do if you need a bunch, you need some engineers, right?

You'll get some visas for them.

But really, this country is based on having people come over here, not based on having a PhD or

high-level skills.

I mean, I don't know what your family did when they came here.

My family worked in coal mines.

You know, and that's what most people's family did.

And so I think even when we say merit-based, it sort of suggests that someone who only has a, you know, doesn't have a high education doesn't have merit, right?

What's merit?

And merit is merit, you know, I think that we need people who are, you know, who are unskilled laborers.

We need them just as much as we need people who are engineers.

So I would dissent on that.

I think the latest proposal is worth some fleshing out.

Yeah.

It's more normal Republican, the one that was ignored two weeks ago that he put forth.

I hate to be called a normal Republican these days.

No, no, I mean, I'm talking about Trump.

His proposal.

Oh, oh, yeah.

Oh, it sounded almost normal.

Today he was like, I'm going to stop immigration with tariffs.

That's crazy, Trump.

That's crazy.

But, like, I can understand how that side looks at what happened two weeks ago and went, oh, you know what?

If you're not going to even engage on the semi-normal proposal, let's just go back to crazy.

Yeah, but it's more of his trying to keep people from the so-called shithole countries out.

I mean, I think you're almost giving him too much credit.

You know, it's the idea that

his motivation is to keep people out who he thinks are.

Have you noticed recently there have been a lot of people taking out ads?

Let's pray for the president.

Even Nancy Plosa.

There's a whole day of it coming up.

That's because they're afraid he's losing it.

That's why.

Yeah, I'm sure they are.

Okay.

Finally, what do you think about Elizabeth Warren's proposal to change Justice Department policy on whether a sitting president can be indicted?

Yes.

Always Elizabeth Warren, who actually comes up with the actual nuts and balls.

She never said a funny thing in her life.

Who cares?

Yeah, I know.

She's the real laugh riot.

Right.

I don't know.

I think you need a little humor.

No, I don't want somebody coming out every day.

And I agree, because I made a joke and she didn't like it.

I think she's funny.

She's a laugh, not funny.

She's not funny.

You don't have to be funny, but it is important to have a sense of humor.

She doesn't have one.

But you know what?

That's not a reason to

go to hell.

No, of course.

I think this is a very serious issue.

I think the founders were smart when they put a little ambiguity in the Constitution,

a lot more than a little, but

it lets

modern people

amend things a little bit.

But one of the things in the Constitution in Section 4 of Article II that deals with impeachment and the words that are around it says you shouldn't let lower politics be used to remove a sitting president.

I think that's sound advice.

The kind of politics you have to use to remove a sitting president is the Senate, the Supreme Court,

the House, and impeachment.

And that's the way it should be done.

Now, after COG continuation of a government deliberations and 9-11 and our thought that maybe we'd lose a third of the government in one terrorist attack, we designed some other ways to deal with it, but that's in extremist conditions.

I think the Constitution is pretty sound.

The president should be removed from office by impeachment, and we ought to have some congressmen with some balls.

All right.

We can all agree on balls.

Thank you, everybody.

All right.

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