Overtime: Andrew Gillum, Sen. Jon Tester, John Heilemann, Jessica Yellin

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

Thank you.

We must have done okay.

All right, first of all, before we get to the cards, you just told me you went on Fox twice.

I did.

Okay, and that's great.

I did after I became the nominee for the same reason.

67 counties in Florida.

I know what you know.

Now, I will tell you, I have my issues with whether or not they're like legit, legit news.

Doesn't matter.

But nonetheless, enough of the people in my state believe them to be, and therefore I will use it as a venue.

They're definitely not legit news.

But that's where people are watching.

That's what matters.

I mean, Bill Clinton started that back when he played the sacks on Arsenio Hall.

Remember, it was like, this is where the audience is.

That's true, that's right.

Obama went on every show.

He went on crazy shows, Two Ferns

and the Lady with the Crazy Lips.

I mean, he did a lot of crazy shows.

Okay.

Are the competing wings of the Democratic Party as divided as they seem, or is the rift exaggerated by the media?

I think it's exaggerated.

I mean there's definitely different perspectives in the Senate caucus.

For example, it goes all the way from Bernie Sanders to Joe Manchin.

But the Democrats have always been a big tent.

We're always going to argue about issues.

But in the end, we always do the right thing for working families.

And that's where it comes from.

When it comes to policy, they're actually pretty close.

All the candidates want to expand health care.

It's a question of how.

They all want to address climate change.

How fast?

On guns, you can go down the list.

But it's really emphasis.

Who's emphasizing what issues and to what extent is the

cultural issues playing?

And some of that is how you end up seeing who's a progressive, who's considered centrist.

It's also how much they stick it to the establishment, and that's really about rhetoric and positioning.

I'm not sure the Democrats have always done the right thing for the working people.

No, I mean, but for the most part,

compared to the other side.

But repealing Glassdeagle.

Wasn't that Clinton?

That wasn't

a working deal.

But you know what?

If you look at, I think last week the Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines Register came out and said that 40% of folks who chose Bernie Sanders as their number one chose Joe Biden as the number two.

And in reverse, 37% of Joe Biden number ones chose Sanders as a number two.

So the white guys aren't having it so bad this time around.

That's true, too.

Exactly.

Do you think, though, I think it's as much that where the party is divided, I think, more than anything, it's like generational more than it is ideological.

Now, you see the temperamental difference between,

a Nancy Pelosi right now who says, Hey, take impeachment off the table, and Congressman Talib, who's like, Just be impeached the motherfucker.

The attitude, the attitudinal differences between that younger crop of activists who've come in just in this last wave and the older, mainstream, moderate, there's a big temperamental difference.

And on things like impeachment, you can really see that difference is

pretty significant.

It was a wolf or a barking in the art.

Don't tell me I didn't hear a wolf bark in here.

But you know, out here, coyotes, they get everywhere.

I tell you.

If anybody has a little dog, keep close to you because that wolf will get it.

What do you think of presidential candidate Pete?

Budigege.

Buddhige.

Thank you so much.

Edge Edge.

Edge Edge.

Twitter will go nuts.

Edge Edge.

We need a weird name this year.

Budget.

Buddige.

Not like Budapest, but Buddhajej.

What do you think of President Cangelot-Pete's suggestion that Democrats pack the Supreme Court?

That is what he is suggesting.

Wow, FDR tried that.

It didn't work so well.

Don't know about that.

I will say, as just a shout out to the courts.

And how would it work?

I am here tonight with

Norman Lear, founder of

the People for the American Way Foundation, Legend.

And a great deal...

I don't know where you are, Norman, but a great deal of that work happens to be around

the courts and making sure we get good justices there.

Those who are not necessarily 100% in in agreement with us every time, but it'll get that.

Do we know how this works?

I mean, the Supreme Court does not have to be nine.

We always used to think that, and then when they started futzing with it, we learned, oh, no, it can be 15, it can be four.

How would you pack the court?

You would have to pass a law to say there are no.

It's a piece of legislation.

It's that simple.

I mean, that's...

Really?

Is that simple?

Wow.

It's a legislative change.

I mean, I imagine this would be challenged in court, and so who knows what comes of it.

But this is also one of the hallmarks of progressives versus moderates.

Progressives are saying the system's so effing-broken, we have to do do radical things to do.

Yeah, it's a lot of people.

The training, I have to do it just like 17 years old.

But where does it stop?

I mean, so we go from 9 to 15, and then the next

2 to 27.

We're already halfway to a banana republic.

We don't need to.

Senator, how did you manage to survive the 2818 midterms when many of your moderate colleagues lost their elections and Trump targeted you over and over?

I mean, he was unrelenting.

We talked about health care early.

We went all over the state.

I listened to people and the ideas I thought were bona fide, whether they're for my party or not, we took back and tried to put them into effect and we talked about that.

And

I had a pretty strong brand from a Montanan perspective and the guy I was ruined against didn't.

So it was just

hard work.

The same way Gillam or anybody runs for office.

You go out there and you bust it for as long as you're going to get it.

But I would imagine in Montana you feel like you're already five lengths behind your competition just because you have the D next to your name.

So it is a bit of a badge of dishonor.

Look, it's a red state.

It'll tend to vote Republican if you don't give them a reason to vote Democrat.

We gave them a reason to vote Democrat.

They did.

You got a third-term governor in his state who's also a third-term in that red state who's a Democrat.

Right.

And I think it goes, actually, interestingly, it goes back to this thing you were talking about with Hick and Looper earlier, right?

Which is...

What's so ridiculous about the Hick and Looper question is here's this multi-millionaire who made millions of dollars by starting this brew pub empire in Colorado.

The guy's a capitalist in every bone in his body.

Right.

Right?

You ask him the question, and he immediately goes into trying to figure out, I should say this, because if I say capitalist, I'm going to lose part of the party.

He's calculating and trying to figure it out.

The reason Tester wins.

Why didn't you bring that up when I said it on this show?

But

the reason Tester wins in Montana, if you go up and spend time with him, is that everybody in the state looks at him and goes, he's not a Democrat, he's not a Republican, he's Tester.

We know who that guy is, and that's the same reason why the governor there wins, because there's authenticity to it.

They're voting for him, not for the party label.

Right.

That authenticity is a very important thing.

And if

John brings up a very good point, if you're sitting there as a candidate thinking, gosh, well, how do I answer this question?

Because it might cost me votes over here or there, you're going to lose.

And I see that in a lot of Democrats already.

I don't see a big improvement in how they're running.

But one last question.

Montana, two senators.

California, two senators.

That's the way the forefathers geniusly thought about it.

But we have like 40 million people, and you have to go to the house.

I know, but we've got a million marvelous people now.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

I appreciate it.

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