Overtime: Rep. Tim Ryan, Van Jones, Nayyera Haq, Matt Lewis | Real Time (HBO)

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

Okay, here are the questions that people wrote in.

Congressman Ryan, given how Nancy Pelosi has performed as speaker so far, do you regret your past opposition to her?

That question went up to the point.

Yeah, no, I think she's done a magnificent job handling Trump.

Not just the Trump dynamic, but protecting the integrity of Article I of the Constitution.

I think she's done a phenomenal job.

And I don't regret it because we were able to

Over the last couple years, we moved a lot of new people into leadership.

Hakeem Jeffries, Catherine Clark, Ben Ray Lujan.

She was fighting?

Well, we just needed to start getting some people in line, and I think we were able to do that.

But I think it worked out best of both worlds.

Naira,

does the drumbeat by the Trump administration to go to war with Iran remind you of the lead-up to the Iraq war?

Oh, yes, of course, given that the architect is the same, right?

John Bolton is Mr.

I Want Regime Change.

And I think what's concerning this time around is that Donald Trump has completely outsourced what our Middle East policy should be to Saudi Arabia and Israel, who also want to see regime change in Iran.

And the scary thing is that regime change rarely happens without some bloodshed, without military involvement.

And we also now have an election coming up in which he may think it's a good way to distract the American public.

Right.

Well, one good thing about him winning, he doesn't need to.

That's the one silver lining in Mueller fucking everything up, was that now he's the big winner.

He doesn't have to start a war.

Matt Lewis, will you vote for Trump in 2020?

No.

Well, will you vote for the Democrat?

You know?

Because if you don't vote for the Democrat, then you're just jerking off, Matt.

Well, I'll tell you who I am.

If you're going to write in John McCain, he's dead.

He's not going to be president.

So

someday they're going to bring him back.

He's being.

I mean, we only get two choices in this country.

And if you think Trump is all that bad, then you vote for the Democrats.

I'll tell you, there's someone, and I like what I heard tonight, but do you know this Andrew Yang fella?

Yeah, we have him on, I think, coming up.

He's starting to get popular.

You're on the anti-circumcision platform?

Well, that's a secondary issue for me.

But I'm not in the Yang gang yet, but I like what he has to say.

I think he's appealing to some interesting technology.

So it would depend on the Democrats.

Absolutely.

Would you vote for Biden?

No.

No?

No.

Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, and you're going to take a pass.

What state do you live in?

I live in Virginia.

Matters.

Wow.

See, I'm pro-life.

You wouldn't vote.

So for me, the life issue

is a very important issue.

It's a very important issue, to a life or death issue.

But then there's also, I can't vote for Trump because he's a bad person and the lack of character and integrity.

But there's always one choice that's better.

Mature people understand.

There's always one choice that's better.

It's binary.

It's not about ideas.

Always one better choice.

People say, if you don't vote, if you don't vote, then you can't bitch and complain.

And I say, just watch me.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it anyway.

anyway.

Okay.

Now that we know Michael Cohen helped Jerry Falwell with blackmail photos, do you think Trump has something on other clients like Sean Hannity?

Well, I mean I don't know if they even know this story, but yes, Michael Cohen, it came out from Tom Arnold.

Tom Arnold, yes that Tom Arnold

befriended Michael Cohen in this recent period before Michael Cohen went to jail, which I think was today.

And only like a month ago, Michael Cohen said, I love this.

Trump, not only is he probably a blackmailer, he lends out Michael Cohen as a blackmailer.

And

so Jerry Fobwell Jr.

is getting blackmailed by some guy, we don't know who.

With like racy photographs.

Racy photographs.

Michael Cohen comes in and says,

I took care of it, except I kept one picture.

Fairly.

So now he's black.

And then it was very odd.

Like a month later, Jerry Fobal Jr.

endorsed

the evangelicals.

It's not just the blackmail, it's blackmail, bullying,

and the other B is bribery.

Because if you watch the way that Trump actually gained bribery is maybe a bad, a harsh word for this, but when Donald Trump was first running, thinking about running for the Republican nomination, the Trump Foundation started making donations to groups.

I think $50,000 to CPAC.

That was his big first foray.

So I don't think that he probably has any sort of picnic pictures of Sean Hannity.

I just think he's got multiple ways of coercion.

Yeah.

So, okay,

does the restrictive abortion legislation in Ohio, Georgia, and Alabama concern you?

If it's for you, but we can all.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And we had a case just this week where

it's super restrictive, restrictive, criminal penalties for the doctor.

This week, an 11-year-old girl was raped, got pregnant.

Tragic situation, obviously.

And under Ohio law that just went into effect, this woman, this young girl, could not have an abortion.

And so that's the ultimate of the government being in the middle of.

That's the law right now in Ohio.

Yeah, it's just going into effect.

If she can't, who can?

I don't know if they would have to take her out of state or how it would work.

But that sounds like no one in a certain way.

You're just criminalizing going out of state now for receiving some kind of treatment.

And with the six-week fetal heartbeat rule, which is it's actually not technically a heart there.

It's just, anyhow, that's the science behind it, but that's why you need to have doctors and medical professionals involved in these decisions.

But you, I mean, a woman can miss her period, not even know.

You can miscarry, and now you could be arrested for that.

For your body's natural rhythms can be used against you.

What do you think about this?

Well look, I mean it's obviously a horrible situation.

I think most mainstream conservatives allow for exceptions for say like the case of rape for example.

So you'd be against this.

I would

as a public as a matter of public policy I would be against this.

So there are places

you said you're pro-life but there is something that goes too far for you.

Well yeah, I think as it now look

you could you could ask here's the problem that pro-lifers have of course is like once you make the argument that life is precious and that this is an unborn child, then it doesn't, by that definition, right, if you just sort of carry that logic forward.

But politics is about

we live in a fallen world, we live in a messy world, and it's about making public policy decisions.

And I think that's an example where I think 99% of pro-lifers would say, in that instance,

that is an exception.

Well, I mean, you had the entire Ohio legislature, House House and Senate, and a Republican governor pass this.

So, I mean, that

is not the majority of Republicans.

They control the House.

I think people forget, I think, sometimes.

They think the Roe versus Wade ruling in 1973 said abortion is legal.

It did not.

It said states,

right?

It passed it back to the states.

It said, we're not making it illegal federally, but it's really.

They're making it impossible at the state and local level to actually make these medical decisions absent any Supreme Court ruling.

Okay, funny stuff.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

I appreciate you coming and helping us out.

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