Ep. #478: Bari Weiss, Barbra Streisand

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Ma.

Start the clock.

Let's save it for Tuesday.

Take all that energy.

And I mean everybody, everybody has to vote.

So all you stoners out there, start looking for your keys now.

Everybody should vote.

We have an election.

Democrats, if you're voting by mail, make sure there's enough stamps on your thing.

And Republicans, same goes for your bombs.

Well,

oh.

We found out this week I was on the list, so I was nominated.

But look, don't ask me who's going to win.

You know what?

Vote and make us win.

Can we stop pretending that the polls are a good indicator

of what people are going to do and how they're going to vote?

Our elections aren't even a good indicator of people's votes.

But there is a good omen.

I think there's a good omen.

Yesterday, the Republicans lost Kanye.

He must be back on his meds.

He said.

He tweeted out, I now realize I've been used to spread a message that I don't believe in.

And

Kim told him he doesn't have to sleep on the couch anymore.

And I think this is...

No, this is...

I think this is our formula for deprogramming Republicans.

One part Paxil, two parts Badonka Donk.

Oh, and Oprah's on the campaign trail.

That's a good one.

She was pretty powerful.

Boy,

went door to door for Stacey Abrams in Georgia, knocking on doors.

Can you imagine that?

Oprah comes to your door.

So far she's convinced five women to vote for Abrams and two men to put the shotgun down.

Thank you, ma'am, for laughing where you should.

I appreciate, by the way, all of you putting on such a brave face when you, I'm sure, know that we're only days away from being overtaken by a migrant caravan.

I mean, they are beating this story like Whitey Bulger in prison.

I mean, every day it gets worse.

Trump is like a racist Paul Revere, you know, the migrants are coming.

The migrants are coming.

I don't get this.

The migrants are the ones living off Mexican food, and we're the ones shitting in our pants.

He keeps calling it an invasion.

Yes, an invasion of strollers.

Yes, the great invaders of history, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, Dora the Explorer.

I mean,

every day, Fox News treats us like it's the zombie apocalypse, but zombies eat brains.

Why would they be heading toward America?

I mean, Trump is sending troops, the Army, to stare down the people with sippy cups.

I mean,

I don't want to say the Army is being used as props, but instead of move out, the commanding officer now says, places.

Places, everyone.

But, man.

Got to give it to that Donald Trump.

He sticks to the message, boy.

He said the other day, oh, this caravan, a lot bigger

than people think.

And then I swear to God, I'm not making this, he said, and I'm pretty good at estimating crowd size.

Next to modesty, it's one of my greatest gifts.

I'm also a war hero with a 32-inch waist who enjoys reading and helping poor people.

No, Trump, get this guy, he keeps complaining that the mail bomber and the synagogue shooter have hurt his election momentum.

That's his gripe.

These real attacks are taking attention away from my made-up attack.

How's a guy supposed to stir up hatred for Democrats and Jews when all the media reports is attacks on Democrats and Jews?

I mean,

every day,

every day,

he somehow finds a way to go lower, even just in this one week or two.

You know, first saying that there are terrorists in the caravan, calling an invasion, calling out the troops, the army, trying to revoke birthright citizenship.

And then yesterday, the worst of all, saying anyone who throws a rock will be treated as if they have a rifle.

Let me tell you something.

If there was a teenager from Central America right now who could throw throw a rock that fast and that hard, he'd be in the Dodgers farm system already.

All right, we got a great show.

We have Chelsea Handler at the Romero and Jim Vandehai, and a little later we will be speaking with Barbara Sprice and is here, ladies and gentlemen.

Okay, but first up, she's a New York Times staff editor and opinion section writer, our good friend Barry Weiss.

Hey, you,

how are you?

Okay.

Well, thank you for being here.

I know it was not easy.

I mean, we've never really had a segment like this where we had a guest on who was recently back from a terrorist attack on their hometown.

And when I heard about what happened in Pittsburgh, I know two people from Pittsburgh, my head writer and you.

I remember you at the Mets game with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And I first thought, oh, I hope they weren't involved, but what are the chances?

Chances were pretty good.

Yeah, it was the synagogue where I was Buck Mitzvah.

My dad was president, was the leader of one of the congregations that met there for many years, and he personally knew five of the 11 innocent people who were murdered.

You did.

I read your story today.

You talked about people who you saw every week.

I did.

I talked about a man named Cecil Rosenthal who was killed along with his brother David Rosenthal.

You know, one of the most evil things about the nature of this act is that the murderer killed the most innocent, good, stalwart people in the community.

David and Cecil Rosenthal were both intellectually disabled, but they were sort of the unofficial mayors of my neighborhood.

My mom went to grade school with them.

She was constantly giving them rides to the grocery store, and they were ushers in this community, and they would always sort of stand at the doorway to the sanctuary, which is where they were killed.

So I know a lot of people at a thing like time like this say this is an attack on all religions.

Right, Kellyanne Conway said that.

A lot of people say that.

It's a common thing, even on the left.

It's a thing they say like, you know, hope and protection.

Right.

There's a desire to make things,

let's take it from the most well-intentioned place, a desire to sort of universalize things.

And there is attack on all religions at times.

Sure, but this was an attack on Jews.

And that is a specific thing in history that is different.

Right.

This was an attack by someone who said that there's a kite manifestation in this country who hated this particular synagogue because of the incredible values that it stood for.

The previous Sabbath, it had been refugee Shabbat, a celebration of the refugee, which is a profound and deep Jewish value, one that we pride ourselves on.

And this is what made this anti-Semitic murder, that's why he picked this synagogue.

Yes, I mean this is a guy who didn't like Trump because he wasn't enough of an asshole.

Exactly.

He was too much of a globalist.

But he definitely heard his message.

He definitely heard Trump's message that the invasion is coming and what I learned recently is that I think from your article is that when we heard that chant in Charlottesville Jews will not replace us I thought they were talking about a Jew will replace me specifically they were talking there are such conspiracy theorists They were talking about the fact that Jews will not replace us with the brown people.

They pull the strings.

They do the hiring.

They run the world.

Well right.

But Jews are going to replace us not themselves.

It's the Mexicans who are going to take your job.

Well right.

What's important to remember is that anti-Semitism is not just a prejudice, it's a conspiracy theory, right?

It says that there is a secret hand controlling the world and that secret hand is called the Jew.

So even if Trump himself is not an anti-Semite, and I don't believe that he is an anti-Semite, he is inculcating an atmosphere of conspiracy-minded thinking.

So when he says things like enemies of the people, globalists, you know, we can go on and on.

It's been happening every day for two years.

In the mind of people like Richard Spencer and David Duke, they hear Jew, Jew, Jew.

And it's not a surprise that people like that were drawn to Trump's banner.

Now you have it on the left too, where Israel comes to replace Jew as the sort of diabolical controller of all the world's ills, right?

But in this case,

you know, obviously this person was coming from the political right.

Yeah, they use a lot of those kind of terms like globalist, where they mention international bankers and they show George Soros and they show Yellen and they show people who are Jewish.

And I don't think these folks who follow this think too much past that.

They want to believe that anyway.

And I've never understood really why it is the Jews.

Does it go back to?

How long do we have on the show, Bill?

I mean...

Well, I guess it goes back to they think, you know, the killing of the Christ.

Is that really where it all comes from?

If that's one strand of it, then there's another strand on the left.

I mean, it's...

Successful.

People don't like successful.

Sure, I mean, the thing that is interesting about it, right, is that typical bigotry, it's that the subject of your bigotry is subhuman.

With Jews, they are both inhuman and anti-human at once.

They are both physically weak and aggressive.

They are both the socialists and the arch capitalists.

That is what is so hard about anti-Semitism.

I think the thing that,

you know, one thing that I'm grateful for this week is that oftentimes Jews, because they are so successful in this country and we have had incredible freedoms and it's been sort of a singular experience, the Jewish life in America, people don't realize that Jews are 2% of the population in this country, but they make up half of all hate crimes, according to the FBI.

In New York City, half of the hate crimes this past year were perpetrated against Jews.

They're a very small population in the world, only about 15 million or something.

I mean, Israel is a very small country.

It bothers me, I'm sure it bothers you that they get so much hate from the left.

You know, I've said this before, but I'll repeat it.

I don't understand how after World War II, people talked about how the Jews, they just went to their slaughter.

They were so weak.

And then Israel became strong.

They didn't like that either.

Nope.

Maybe it's something with the Jews themselves.

Perhaps.

Israel's the Jew among the nations.

Yes.

And they shouldn't apologize for being strong.

And sometimes they have to do nasty things that strong countries have to do, like any other country does.

But if we went back to free access, we'd go back to pizza parlors blowing up every week.

Right.

If they had a truly free West Bank, I mean, where they didn't involve themselves at all, how long before Hamas, Iran, weapons?

But the problematic thing happening in this moment, right, is that people like Steve Bannon like Israel for the wrong reasons, okay?

And we don't.

Evangelicals do.

Exactly.

Because when the world ends,

the Jews convert or die.

Right.

Your choice.

One thing that I think was made stark this week is that there are many Jews, including Jews that I know, who have liked many of Trump's policies regarding Israel and the Middle East.

They love the fact that the embassy was moved to Jerusalem, a move that I supported.

They like the scuttling of the Iran deal.

But I hope this week that American Jews have woken up to the price of that bargain.

They have traded

policies that they like for the values that have sustained the Jewish people and, frankly, this country for forever.

Welcoming the stranger,

dignity for all human beings, equality under the law, respect for dissent, love of truth.

These are the things that we are losing under this president.

And no policy is worth that price.

So

that's a pretty good speech to the people of your generation who we worry or may not be voting.

I read that 65% of millennials are fearful of the future and I want to say to them, well, there's something you can do about that.

Do you want our future to be American carnage?

Or do you want our future to be a renewal of what the founders talked about?

We can be the new Jerusalem again.

We can renew the tree of liberty.

And this week woke me up to that in a way that nothing in these past two years ever has.

And God forbid it would come to your neighborhood.

But when you see people you love going through this, it changes you.

And you realize that the way we live in this country, it is an aberration in history.

It's a miracle.

And it can go away like that.

We have the responsibility to protect it.

And we need to elect people to

Congress and everywhere else on Tuesday that are going to protect those values.

You're so strong for coming here and doing this.

Thank you so much.

Barry Weiss.

All right, let's meet our panel.

Okay, he is the co-founder and CEO of Axios, which is debuting a documentary series on HBO Sunday.

HBO, congratulations, welcome aboard.

November 4th.

Jim Vandehey is here.

He is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony Romero.

Great to see you, Anthony.

And she's an actors, comedian, and activist who this Monday will be co-hosting an all-star multi-platform get out the vote telethon for America.

Chelsea Handler.

Don't forget to send us your questions for tonight's over time as I'm going to answer them after the show on YouTube.

And before we get to any issues, I want to talk about voting itself because I think a big problem people have in this country is thinking is my vote going to count.

And I know you have been involved on this and the ground in a way none of the rest of us have.

Oh, my God.

So please.

It's a full employment program for our voting rights lawyers.

I mean, in Georgia, in Missouri, in Kansas, in Arizona, all these places where politicians have come up with these crazy crazy ways to try to purge people from the polls, exactly contrary to the message you just laid out.

We want people to vote, except in Kansas.

And so we've had to sue Kobak on his voter ID.

Are you winning?

Yeah, so far so good.

You're winning.

The scorecards are great.

Georgia, these 53,000 absentee ballots that were going to be thrown away because the signatures looked a little crooked.

Thank God we filed in that lawsuit.

And so far so good.

They're going to be counted as provisional ballots.

They'll be given a chance to demonstrate that their vote was.

So, people should have confidence.

Yeah, you can.

What's the true?

Right, and we don't have confidence, and I mean, then we're really lost.

Of course, you have to have confidence.

I mean, we know the system has major problems and that the votes aren't counted as well as they should, and places where and it's outdated.

I mean, why can't we modernize the machines?

Yeah, I read 14 of the 40 most competitive races Americans will cast ballots on.

The machines don't provide a paper trail.

You know, banks don't have this problem or casinos.

I never get a statement from my bank.

It may be a little over.

They get it to the penny.

There's no fuck-ups.

And yet I think people wonder about voting because they go into some old middle school gym and there's somebody with an ancient binder out of Hogwarts.

And you think, why, you know, am I voting for Goldwater here?

I'm not just going to vote for the wrong guy.

I don't know what you're complaining about.

We've got the President of the United States protecting us from Russia.

So there's nothing to worry about.

What you need to do is we need to vote in the supermajority.

We need every single person, even if you meet somebody tomorrow and they're not registered, you can still register on the last day of voting in California.

We have to vote in the supermajority and we have to vote down ballot Democrats.

No libertarians, no independents.

Yeah, none of them.

Fuck those guys this year.

Yeah, that's

such a great plat.

Exactly.

But there's also on the ballot this year are also reforms to reform the ballot.

So you've got to pay attention to Florida.

If you're in Florida, you better turn out.

To re-enfranchise 1.4 former felons who've been banned from voting for life, we can finally get it passed.

In Michigan, in Nevada,

same-day voter registration, to really modernize these systems, that could enfranchise these three ballot referenda.

Go all the way down the ballot.

Just don't stop at the top.

And also when we get the right people elected, we will reform it.

So we have to get these people in office that care about everybody voting.

There's one party that wants the whole world to vote, and there's another party

that campaigns on voter suppression.

They're called Republicans.

Cheating works for them.

So why would they want it to change?

All right, let me ask about the election itself.

The president wants to make this a referendum on him.

He says it himself.

He said it the other day on the trail.

He said, pretend I'm on the ballot.

Okay, great.

I think this is, I think the Democrats should welcome this.

You either think he's a dangerous menace or you are pro-dangerous menace.

To me, that's what this election is about.

Somebody came up to me the other day, you know, once you give a lot of money, they all want money from me.

He said, I want you to come to this fundraiser.

And he goes, and there's a rumor a Fleetwood Mac might show up and play.

I'm like, dude, I don't need a sweetener.

The president is a raving lunatic who's like two news cycles away from humping park cars.

You think I'd give a shit if Fleetwood Mac shows up?

It's also like, think about, you know, this is a person that told Christians and Jews alike, our president, that, you know, you should be armed when you're going to worship your God.

You should be armed in your place of worship.

This is a person who put children in cages.

Like, if you're okay with the optics of this in 20 or 30 years, of telling your children and your grandchildren that you voted for the one president that will most likely end up in prison, then go with God.

Good for you.

You know?

So here's the question.

I've been hearing, certainly since Ronald Reagan,

the conventional wisdom has always been that the sunnier candidate, like Reagan, always wins out over the dark guy.

Well, certainly Trump blew that out of the water.

It's not true anymore.

For him, it was midnight in America.

Everything with him was dark.

A speech he made at the convention, the inauguration speech, his campaign.

Is the fear going to work?

I think the fear does work in the Senate races for him.

I think his Republican base is clearly responding to this.

The flip side is it kills them in the House.

It's why they probably, Republicans end up losing the House performance.

And why the difference?

Decisively.

Because if you look at the Senate seats that are in play, they have very heavy rural populations.

They don't have a lot of big cities, and we live in two parallel universes.

And to your point, we interviewed Trump this week.

Yes, he wants the election to be about him.

He wants everything to be about him.

And he believes when he is the person that's on the ballot, he thinks that's what inspires his voters.

He thinks that those rural voters will come out.

It's why, if you look at where he goes when he campaigns, he doesn't go to any of these house races.

He goes to West Virginia or he goes to Tennessee.

He goes to places that he thinks he can put 30,000 people into an audience and he could do the immigration riff.

He can do the

thing.

I feel like he's doubling down on the people who are already with him, who can't vote twice, I hope.

You know, how much can you gin up that one section?

And of course, when you gin them up that much, some of them send bombs.

But it's half your country.

But that's the, no, it's 30,000.

It's not half.

His base can't win the election.

And I think it's going to backfire.

I mean, look, look, even the great story you ran on birthright citizenship, where he wants to repeal that right, bring it on.

Try it.

I feel like if he would try to sign this executive order that you covered, fantastic.

We'll sue him.

But that's the problem.

He's not intentional.

He's not in the business.

He's not war with that executive order.

And there's no way he's going to succeed.

And look at the fractiousness that he just even, the Wall Street Journal this week came out with an editorial saying, can't do that, shouldn't do that, the birthright citizenship.

Paul Ryan, until he was kind of cudgeled into sniveling submission, also disagreed with the president.

So I think that he's overplayed his.

And the only thing I would say that way is there's a difference between Paul Ryan and the Republican Party.

Paul Ryan is not the Republican Party.

Donald Trump is.

We're in the field right now with a poll.

It looks like 87% of Republicans still love the guy.

He's been at 40% nationally.

from three years ago, two years ago, one years ago.

Now, when he fires Mueller, he'll be at 40%.

But again, that is a minority.

People People who are still claiming to be Republican, because there are less of them, because a lot of them don't like him.

And I feel like with this, especially with this violence, the last couple of weeks, I don't think that's playing well for him.

I think they feel like he's crazy.

We liked crazy for a while, but this is too crazy.

And anytime it looks too crazy, too violent, I think they're going to blame him.

I think they are.

His idea that, try to put across the idea that the Democrats are the mob.

For once, Bland works for Democrats.

They are not the mob.

Even the regular Joe gets that.

These people are not that tight.

I think the fear works on both sides.

I mean, Democrats are, you know, I mean, I'm doing more than I've ever wanted to do in my entire life because I'm fucking scared shitless, you know.

And so I think people are, and fear is what it is.

It's a motivator, it's a galvanizer for everybody.

And also, you know,

these Republicans that are leaving the party, you can't park your racism in religion, you know, for that long.

You can't co-opt religion from the Democrats.

We believe in things too.

I mean, I don't, but a lot of people do.

So you can't just decide, oh, we're going to take God and we're going to take the veterans and we're going to take...

No, you can't because you're not acting like Christians at all.

Well, that's true.

Yeah,

I mean,

the way he's galvanized the base is incredible.

I mean, I should send Donald Trump a thank you card.

Our membership at the ACLU quadrupled.

in the time of Donald Trump.

It doubled, it doubled in the time of George Bush.

It's younger, it's more diverse, it's more engaged.

It is the golden era of citizen activism.

And we have him to thank for it.

And it's in response to him.

And so I think we have to remain optimistic.

Sure, fear is a major motivator.

You bet.

I'm optimistically fearful.

And you got it.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, so this caravan that he keeps talking about, it's just amazing.

It's ISIS coming.

It's amazing to me how it's this refillable cup.

of everything bad.

Yes, he said there's terrorists in there from the middle.

Why would they come from the Middle East to to come up through Honduras 2,000 miles?

He said there are gang members, lepers, people with smallpox, TB.

Listen to this.

Gene Pirro said today, there's also pedophiles, career criminals, and wife beaters.

Who isn't in this caravan?

Meanwhile, you just described like the entire White House.

We got a hold of the, there's still four days to go before the election, we got a hold of their internal strategy memo at the White House.

These are not the only people they're going to say are in the caravan.

Would you like to hear some of the other people they're claiming?

Because they just never end.

Kids with cooties, they're saying, are in the caravan.

Saudi assassins are in the caravan.

Dinosaurs, that seems ridiculous.

The clown from it is in the caravan.

This caravan.

Kathy Griffin fans holding severed heads.

Oh my God.

Colin Kaepernick is in the caravan.

If this isn't a PC crowd, I'll go fucking nuts.

Someone with more than four ounces of shampoo is in the caravan.

Harvey Weinstein is in the caravan.

The girl from Ipanima, who's now a guy.

People who won't shut up about vinyl, in the carriage.

A child who calls herself the honey boo-boo of Honduras.

And Rosie O'Donnell's Mexican cousin, Josie O'Donnell.

Okay.

So

speaking of this care, we made a little chart here because we're sending the troops.

I find this so insulting.

to the military to be used as a stunt.

We already have on the border 16,000 border patrols.

There's 5,800 ICE deportation agents.

They're not on the border, but they could be soon.

Over 2,100 National Guardsmen.

As of now, 5,200 Army troops on the border.

Compared to, can you show the chart?

This is what they're facing off against.

Yeah, wow, I can't read that.

That's like an eye chart for me.

Look at the caravan, men, women, and children against, this is what we're facing on the border with.

So

I guess my question is, when you get to the point when you're saying we should fire on people with rocks.

Rocks?

He wants to turn us into the Gaza Strip?

Yeah.

Where they throw a rock and we fire upon them and then we'd have dead bodies.

You know, he's been very lucky up till now.

The bomber guy, none of those bobs went off.

Our best defense is that they're so stupid, they don't know science.

The guy was 0 for 12.

The FBI came to his door.

The doorbell didn't work.

I don't know what my question is.

I'm so fucking pissed off.

What are you going to say about this?

I mean, what?

No, you go ahead, please.

I talk enough.

You know, I mean, I think the idea of militarizing the border, we also have to put it in the context that it is already incredibly militarized.

Yes.

We are suing the government right now because you had a government official who literally shot a man across the border through a chain link fence while the guy was running away.

That's a lawsuit that we have in court right now.

The border is hyper-militarized and it's terrorizing communities on the border.

What we hear from clients, from communities, U.S.

citizens are getting deported.

because they are being thought of as being undocumented.

We had a case here in California, in Southern California, LA.

So we've got to put this in a context that it is totally ratchet crazy,

the rhetoric.

But it's already in the context of a hyper-militarized border, a Department of Homeland Security that's run amok, very little oversight.

That's one of the things that will change with the House.

If the Democrats take the House, you can demand, we can demand much greater oversight of these agencies.

And that could be significant.

Or any oversight of these agencies.

I mean, anything is better than what we're dealing with.

One of the disturbing stories that got buried in the news this week is that Brazil has a new president who they're calling the tropical Trump.

And I feel like I've read this story before before about other countries in the world.

It's like they're franchising Donald Trump.

I know.

And he loves it.

He loves it.

It's a compliment to him.

They're popping up everywhere.

They really are.

Italy has one.

Hungary.

Hungary, Poland.

Merkel is out in Germany.

We don't know what's next there.

Why is liberal democracy so in retreat right now?

It's a big problem, right?

Because it's not going away anytime soon, because you named it.

Even if you look at the politics of Britain, look at the politics of Italy, look at what happened with Merkel, you don't have as big a number of sort of trumpers there, but it's much bigger than it was before and helped driver out of office.

And the commonality of all of those is it's migration there, where it's immigration here, it's economic stagnation, and it really is this switch globally that you've seen in politics from, for most of my lifetime, it was big government versus small government at its simplest form.

Now it's not.

Now it's very much about sort of your identity.

Do you like the way the world was when you grew up or do you want change?

And once you get there, you now took this from, if it ever was an intellectual battle, to something that's very, very, very emotional and very, very dangerous.

And that's, when we interviewed Trump, we talked a lot about this, that he does not have an appreciation for how much dry kindling there is around the world, but here.

And when you keep saying these things, you keep doing these things, you make it so personal, you make everyone the enemy, the enemy, the enemy, bad things happen.

Bad things happen.

There are a lot of people out there that want to be, they want to be the spark on that kindling.

But we also have to lean into that debate and we shouldn't be afraid of it.

We shouldn't mumble our way through it.

I mean part of what I think that liberal democracy needs to develop that spine again and just lean in and just defy and

contest these issues.

I mean we don't live in Donald Trump's America.

He lives in our America.

So let's remind the man what our America looks like.

I mean, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to get birthright citizenship.

So if he goes after birthright citizenship, bring it on.

Let's remind our president, birthright citizenship was the way that we fixed America's dirty little problem of slavery, right?

That's how we took slaves and made them citizens.

So if he wants to take on birthright citizenship, you're walking on hollowed ground.

And so bring it on, buddy.

Bring it on and let's fight it.

Let's fight them for the values that we believe in.

I didn't know when this issue came up this week how many people were born in this country from an illegal immigrant.

And it's 7%.

That is a lot higher than I've been.

Mindy Kaling.

Mindy Kaling tweeted.

She was born here with two Indian parents who were immigrants.

And she's like, I'm in our business.

Were they illegal?

I don't know.

The backstory.

I just saw the tweet.

I think that's different.

We're talking about 7% are born from undocumented immigrants.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

And they're U.S.

citizens, as they should be.

I mean,

I think what's really exceptionally important, I mean, and there are other countries that have played with this.

Germany has a totally screwed up history of trying to deal with citizenship that's not birthright, and now they're experimenting with a new law.

Japan, you could be there for generations and a Korean descendant, and you're not a Japanese citizen.

Let's look at those democracies and see how well it's worked for them.

What's worked here, how can you have America as a nation of immigrants?

and not have birthright citizenship.

How do you become an American then?

And then, so you're taking on this.

Well, there are other ways to become an American.

Well, yeah, of course, you can apply and

be naturalized, but you're born here.

You're born with these rights.

Yes, and no one's suggesting that we should take away those rights.

Like even that, I mean, everything's incendiary.

Everything's just to get everybody.

Right now, everything he says is moot anyway.

It doesn't make any difference.

You know, we just know Republicans, we keep waiting.

I mean, how many times during this presidency have we all said, oh, the tide's turning.

After maybe the 18th indictment, maybe now Republicans will grow a spine.

After the cages and the babies and the families, maybe now somebody will stand up and do something.

You know, we are the tide.

We're the tide.

On November 6th is the tide.

We have to make this happen.

So what?

I saw your interview with Trump.

I mean, you were pretty hard on him, as it goes.

You know, you interrupted him, which I liked.

You know, you didn't let him just give a speech.

But it's hard.

It's hard to hold his feet to the fire.

How does the media exactly play this?

And also, I must ask you, your headline in Axios, Trump to End Birthright Citizenship.

That's not really accurate, though, is it?

I mean that's what he says.

That's what he says.

But that's going to

get

that he's going to attempt to do it.

Like how do you hold him account?

Like I think there's more good journalism going on than ever before.

What I would tell my colleagues in the media is let that be our weapon, at least in terms of the media, in terms of the nonpartisan media.

Keep doing great reporting.

Keep holding government accountable.

Keep holding him accountable.

Us getting in the business of popping off and just screaming on Twitter, screaming it on Facebook, I don't think that that makes a big difference.

I think over time, us in the media, we have to find ways to get to the persuadables, people who've started to lose faith in truth.

And I'm a big pro-truth guy.

I believe that once Donald Trump burns off and whatever is around him, that there's a certain number of people who will come back and they will believe truth.

Because God forbid, if this trend continues where you have 60% of the country that doesn't believe a damn thing that we do, bad things are going to happen.

One of the things that we've forgotten over the last two years is for all of the hangdog moods that we have, we live in a time of insane prosperity and peace globally by almost every measure.

Bad things happen.

And when bad things happen in this country, you're going to need to trust the media.

There's going to be a cyber attack.

There's going to be a terrorist attack.

I don't mean to be dark, but it's going to happen at some point.

And that's when you have to believe in truth.

And if the president keeps corrupting the truth, and that's what he and I got into about a five or six minute pretty heated exchange about, right.

He just doesn't, he doesn't see it.

He does not.

I asked him at one point, is it your job?

I said, every president that I've ever seen, read, or covered felt it's their job to bring the boil down.

I said, you seem like you think you need to bring it up.

And he's like, yeah, he does.

He's like, my people demand it.

That's how I got here.

And even if I wanted to calm down, they tell me they want more, more, more.

I'm like, you're one for crying out loud.

You could make a decision.

You make the conscious decision to turn it up.

And when you turn it up, and then I said at one point, I said, you know what?

I said, what happens if a reporter gets shot?

And even then, he's like,

it's on them.

It's on me.

It's not my job to tone it down.

And that is just such a

radical departure.

You might have loved George Bush or disliked George Bush.

He never, in moments,

felt like it's his job to make things worse.

You got to calm, you got to soothe things.

Okay.

But that's not going to happen with this man.

Very enlightening discussion, but right now I have an honor I've wanted, I've waited for for 25 years to bring on someone who, if anybody doesn't need an introduction, is Barbara Streisand.

You know, she's one Oscars, Danny's, Emmy's, Tony's.

Her new album is called Walls and dropped today.

Here is a look at the video of the new song she throws out called Don't Lie to Me.

It answers to someone.

Don't lie to me, don't lie to me.

You lie to me.

Don't lie to me, don't lie to me.

You lie to me.

Can't you see I'm crying?

Can't you see we're crying?

Can't you see we're right?

Everyone answers to someone.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barbara Streisand.

Okay.

See,

I told you you'd be glad you came.

Thank you so much.

No business like show business.

I know you hate it and you love it.

But thank you so much for coming.

You were on our anniversary show.

Now you're on this show.

I couldn't get you for 25 years.

Now you're on twice in three weeks.

I love the trend.

And you sound awesome on the song.

You sound as good as you ever have.

Oh, thank you.

So I'm glad you're still singing.

Any day.

There's a new Barber Streiset album.

There's a great day in my house.

I love this one.

I have all the old ones.

I'm going to get the next one and all the new ones that are going to come out.

But this one, you know, it's a great, that's such a catchy tune, too.

Oh, good.

You know, I'm glad you have your old crew, I see, in the credits back there.

Carol Baker, Sager, and

the Bergman.

This wonderful team.

Yeah.

What was I going to say?

About the album.

No, no, it's just interesting, you know, real life, real life, and real

sadness as well as anger,

I must say,

motivated me.

It's amazing that you can take something, I mean the name of the album, the walls, but the idea of the first song, What's On My Mind?

You say right in the beginning, I want to, it's so on my mind, Trump is so on my mind, you channeled it into this.

I couldn't sleep

nights.

And so I was thinking, oh my God, now the photographs in my head, the pictures, you know, the children being ripped out of the arms of their parents.

I remember, you know, about the, one of the last lines in that song is, whatever happened to just being kind?

And

well, it's still there.

It's still there somewhere.

But I think we share something which is we both hate liars.

You know, you can do almost anything to me or say anything to me.

That's right, I agree.

Just don't lie to me.

I know.

It's such a lie.

I was lied to as a child.

That's why I'm so passionate about lies and people who lie.

By family?

I was sent away to a summer camp.

And

when my mother came to visit me,

I said, you're not leaving without me.

I always had a strong will, you know.

And I got a carton, I remember, and packed my things up.

She had to take me home.

And in the car was this stranger, this new man.

And I thought, who is this?

And

he turned out to be my stepfather.

That I was never told about that.

And that my mother was going to have another baby.

Nothing was ever told to me.

You know, when I said to

my mother,

why didn't Well, that was later, but I said, why didn't you ever talk to me about my father?

My father was a teacher, a scholar,

and a religious man, by the way.

And she said, well,

I thought you'd miss him.

But you see, you see what I mean by

the lying.

By the way, as an actress or a singer, what you depend upon is truth.

Truth communicates.

Lies.

It reads, yeah.

Well, in this case, I mean, his lies seem to work for a bit.

But truth eventually wins out, don't you think?

Well, people, it reads.

It reads.

The audience or people who are voting for a politician, they very often don't know the specifics, but they kind of sense whether you're for real.

I mean, not everybody, even in my own audience, agrees with me on stuff.

But the bond is that they know I'm never pulling a punch.

I'm always being straight with them

as to how I feel.

It's very powerful.

And, you know,

when you're like that, you can be friends with the other side.

You are friends with Republicans.

I mean,

Bob Dole called you recently, right?

That's right.

Bob Dole.

When I went to sing in

the

95 years old and sounds totally there, plausible and gentle and kind.

I keep using that word, but it's very meaningful to me.

But

yeah, he wanted to give me a compliment.

It was just very sweet.

And we talked about working across the aisle and how much he was able to do with George Mitchell when he was the, George Mitchell was the Democrat, of course, but Bob Dole was the leader of the Senate.

And that's the way it works.

Did you see

Fareed Zakaria with Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell?

No.

I mean, they're dear friends.

They were both secretaries of state for different kinds of presidents.

And yet,

sane people can agree to disagree in a very civil conversation.

I think part of the problem is that politics is too much in our life.

When I was a kid, it was like something that was almost impolite to talk about.

You didn't talk about religion or politics, the neighbors.

We didn't know where they went to worship or who they voted for.

You just didn't go there.

And I think that's our way back to sanity.

People say you've got to talk to the other side, but what they really mean is you've got to convince them.

You're never going to convince them.

No.

But just don't talk about that shit.

Talk about

everything else that people used to talk about.

What's interesting is that when, like as an actor, you have to inhabit other people's personas.

You play that role, but in order to play them, you have to understand them.

And

that takes away a lot of bigotry, I think, if you really step into other people's shoes.

Right.

Empathy.

Empathy.

Yeah, exactly.

I think one reason why the right,

I mean, they fear you, but they go to your concerts.

You know, I mean, you, they do.

Well, I was fascinated.

One place I don't remember, I think it was in Washington, D.C., I asked, how many people in the audience are Republicans?

And a lot of people raised their hands.

And I said, sure, you're the ones who could afford these tickets.

So,

but no, I love that.

Of course, because art cuts through it.

That's right.

Art transcends politics.

It really does.

It does.

And so does music.

But one reason I think they are always, you know, against you is because you have been effective.

I remember in 1986, you were...

So they're against me?

Yes, they're very much against you.

They don't like you.

I remember years ago when I was supporting something.

Enemies list.

That's right.

Which I was very proud to be and and I still am proud to be.

That's the good news.

I was kind of gratified when I found out this week I was on the bombers list.

You know, I mean, you don't want to be left out.

It's a little more scary.

It is a lot more scary.

Well, it's all scary.

But, you know, in 1986, I remember you did that concert,

and it was about the Senate was very much

Republican.

And

the Democrats kind of pulled it out.

I mean, people raised money for

five out of our six senators.

Yeah.

And they won and the Senate was able to flip from Republican to Democrat.

So that was very powerful.

And then music.

Music.

And money.

And also Robert Williams was my opening act and then Barry Gibb came out and sang a duet.

I mean it was a good evening.

You know I love Barry Gibb.

I love Barry Gibb.

He said about you there are the ten greatest singers in the world and then there's Barbara Streising.

Oh.

You remember that?

When you were doing the Guilty 2 album.

He said it.

My God, I don't remember Guilty Two.

I know, I remember your career better than you do sometimes.

The bad articles and stuff.

I don't know.

But

so, how do you balance, I think we all fight this, how do we balance not being obsessed with Donald Trump, thinking about him all day?

Because I've never known a president who was more in our heads, which is sort of what the album is about.

Exactly.

What I do is, first of all,

I eat a lot.

You eat.

I eat that.

And I eat sweets like coffee, ice cream, right?

That counterbalances the bitterness

that he's throwing at us, right?

And

also, I have to play games literally before I go to sleep.

I mean, to get him out of my head, to get the news that I watch all day out of my head,

thinking about tomorrow, I have to be in the present.

To be in the present, you have to play

gin, you know?

You have to play rummy cue.

Right.

You have to play scramble.

That's my way.

What do you do?

I just turn.

I find I'm watching in-season basketball.

I've never done that.

Really?

Yeah, I've always waited till the playoffs came around, and now it's...

I don't understand those things.

Well, it's just

as opposed to watching the news.

I mean, I can't watch the news all the time.

Oh, that's right.

You have to turn it off at some point.

Just what's going on with the environment.

Oh, my God.

I mean,

that's like the forgotten issue because of all this other nuts.

You mentioned about the younger people, and I read an article the other day that talked about 18 to 29-year-olds, one-third of them are not going to vote.

And I think, but what do you mean?

Just think about climate change.

What's going to happen to your future, your children's future?

This is a terrible problem.

The Republicans and this administration have wiped off all of the information about climate truth, the truth yeah of

climate change they don't even want to know what change yeah it's one thing to make the argument it's another thing to not let the people hear what the truth is right so there's no transparency it wasn't there with his tax returns you know didn't people think what is he hiding

I mean why change the norm?

Why is he above the law?

I mean, I know it's not a law, but why is he abusing this power he has?

Those people who say you should...

Why does he live with those conflicts of interest?

Why do they let the other Republicans let him get away with it?

Well, yes, that's a great question.

They're the enablers.

Where are the George Bushes of yesteryear?

Those people you talked about, the Bob Dole.

We so appreciate George Bush now.

Well,

I forgot.

Well, we have it in perspective.

Yes, right.

And I will be the first to say, me a culpo, maybe I was too hard on him.

Now that I see what it could be.

Oh, wait.

I didn't finish my thought before.

When I sang in Texas, I invited the Bushes to come see the concerts.

Bush, senior.

Senior, and Barbara Bush.

Right.

And they were so lovely and came backstage at first and I gave them a gift and they brought me a gift and invited them to, you know, invited me to their house and so forth.

So lovely.

And I introduced them.

to the audience and they got a standing ovation.

And I thought, you know, he served our country.

She stood up for women.

And,

you know, that's our common ground.

That's for the common good.

It's for decency.

And,

you know, people getting along.

Well, never stop speaking out, please.

Those people who say shut up and sing, do both.

Sing and keep speaking.

But I have one question, though.

Yes.

Why?

Do we allow the media to keep showing him on TV?

Why are we covering his rallies?

He said 70% of the money.

Because there's money in it.

Because the media used to be a lost leader.

They didn't care if covering the news made money.

And now it has to report to the stock room like everybody else.

Yeah, that's the thing.

Don't cover them.

Right, exactly.

Thank you, Barbara Streiser.

Thank you.

Barbara Streiser and everybody on my show.

Thank you.

A national treasure.

Now it's time for new rules.

Okay.

This is going to seem

anticlimactic.

Okay, but new rules.

Alexander Barter, the 21-year-old Texas man arrested for what authorities say was a plot to kill and eat a 13-year-old girl, has to try and look a little less like the kind of guy who would do exactly that.

New rule, Megan Kelly has to change her name to Terry Sullivan and work her way back up the chain.

Don't think of it as starting over as another interchangeable Fox News blonde.

Think of it as Whiteface.

New Rule, the sheriff in Butts County, Georgia, who posted no trick-or-treat signs in the front yards of sex offenders, has to butt out.

I know he means well, but those are the houses that have the best candy.

Why?

Because they're motivated.

Everyone else on the block hands out whatever's on sale, but Chester the Molester, this is his day to shine.

Neural, stop trying to convince me your dog loves to surf.

Your dog is clinging to something that floats because you stuck him out in the ocean.

Look at the expression on their faces.

These dogs aren't saying, hang 10, they're saying, What the hell did I ever do to you?

New rule, whoever invented the baby seat and the shopping cart has to admit they didn't think it through.

I have an idea, let's put a diaper full of shit exactly where the next shopper is about to put his dinner.

And finally, new rural historians have to stop telling us everything's going to be okay because we've been here before.

With all due respect, we haven't.

You can't watch a day of cable news anymore without seeing prominent historians telling us, calm down, America has survived bad times.

And we have the Civil War, the Depression, Pearl Harbor, 9-11, disco.

But trust me, my historian friends, I've read your books on American history, and this guy ain't in any of them.

George W.

Bush was a walking disaster area, but he believed in democracy so much so he tried to export it to Iraq.

Whereas Trump believes in oligarchy so much he's trying to import it from Russia.

Yes, previous presidents declared war, but never on reality.

You got to admit, that's kind of new.

And look, I love historians.

I watch the history channel like most guys watch Pornhub.

In college, I majored in history.

And who didn't love high school history?

There was always a 50% chance the teacher would be hungover and just show a movie.

But stop trying to calm us down right now.

You know when it's okay to yell fire in a theater?

When it's on fire.

Last week, Trump's son-in-law said of Trump, he's a black swan.

A black swan is something we've never seen before that defies all previous expectations.

That's what we're dealing with: a black swan with a mushroom penis.

And when I look at the Trump family, it feels a lot like it has a lot less in common with this family than with this family.

This attitude that America is like a cat, it always lands on its feet, I don't buy it.

I don't buy that just because something didn't happen before, it can't happen now.

Rome didn't fall and didn't fall and didn't fall and then it fell.

Gonorrhea has been around for a long time and we could always kill it with penicillin.

But now there's drug-resistant super gonorrhea and we can't.

Was incivility bad in other times in our history?

I'm sure it was.

I've heard the anecdotes.

I know that during a brawl in the House chamber in 1798, Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont tried to beat Roger Griswold of Connecticut with a pair of iron tongs.

I don't give a shit.

This isn't two gentlemen slapping each other in the face with gloves.

This is a slow-moving coup.

This is the head of the federal government calling the American citizens that make up the free press the enemy of the people.

And that's why, here on our final show before the election, I want to talk directly to the millennials and to Generation Instagram, or whatever they're calling you.

We need you.

We need you like you need your anti-anxiety meds.

Not to protest or to post something.

We need you to actually vote.

Because historically,

you are the least likely to.

I get it.

You're young and young people aren't big on planning for the future.

That's why we have laser tattoo removal.

But we need you to turn out in unprecedented numbers, and we know you can.

Look at the March for Our Lives.

That's how you should approach voting this year as a march for your life.

It's your future, not mine.

But to paraphrase the farmer's insurance guy, I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two.

And to paraphrase the alt-state guy, you're not in good hands.

Getting this moment wrong and not participating will be just like your student loan debt.

It will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Getting this moment wrong, you can say goodbye to reproductive rights, to legalized pot, possibly to gay marriage, and definitely to what's left of the environment.

If Trump wins, he will cast it as a complete endorsement of his most undemocratic behavior.

If you're 18 and that happens, you stand a very real chance of not living in a Western-style democracy for part or all of your life.

Yes, it can happen here.

If historians want to look at an example of we've been here before,

look at this picture.

This isn't Nuremberg in 1934.

It's Madison Square Garden in liberal New York City in 1934.

And here's the garden in 1939, after Hitler had already done some pretty awful things, and yet 22,000 Americans were cheering him on.

I'm not saying Trump is Hitler.

Hitler volunteered for the Army.

But Trump is a wannabe dictator, and he does have a knack of getting what he wants to be.

So mark Tuesday, November 6th, down.

Mark it on your calendar like you're Brett Kavanaugh planning to get shit-faced.

Because Tuesday is winner-go-home for democracy.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

I want to thank my guests, Jim Vandehai, Anthony Romero, Chelsea Handler, and Barbara Streisand, and Barry Weiss.

All right, join us down 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.