Episode #386 (Originally aired 04/29/16)

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Month series, Real Time with Bill Maher.

Start the clock.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

Time will be

real time.

Thank you.

That's okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you, Sue.

Thank you.

Not running for anything, Dave.

No, I know.

Boy, that crowd is

fire.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

Yeah, point made.

I know why you're happy, because Trump has left California, ladies and gentlemen.

He was here in California.

You can all tell your gardeners they can come out now.

Yeah, he was.

I love this.

Donald Trump was in Orange County.

It's like Chris Christie being in Fat City.

It's wonderful, isn't it?

And Orange County, where Disneyland is.

If you think you saw Donald Trump, but it might have been Mickey Mouse.

here's the difference.

Both are comic book rodents.

But Mickey has large hands.

So, yeah.

Trump was in Costa Mesa, and he was bragging about the size of the crud.

He said, 31,000.

Well, it turns out, not 31,000.

That's three times bigger than it really was.

And Melania said, tell me about it.

And you know, Trump's always saying, Hispanics love me.

Oh, boy, do they.

They were throwing rocks.

Did you see that, flipping over cars, breaking windows, anything to get closer to him?

But look, he appears unstoppable now.

Not only did he win the five primaries on Tuesday on the East Coast, but he won big.

And Hillary won four out of the five pretty big, too.

It looks pretty sure now it's going to be Hillary versus Donald Trump.

That is your national election.

On one side, a hysterical woman, and on the other side, Hillary Clinton.

Oh, yeah.

Well, that

came out.

You just see that on his big victory net?

He made it.

Victory speech, and he couldn't help it to the end getting it a shot.

And he said, Hillary's playing the woman card.

He said, I got nothing against women.

Some, I assume, are good people.

But he said, if she were a man, she wouldn't get 5% of the vote.

And he said, the beautiful thing about Hillary is women don't like her.

No, Don, women don't like you.

They don't like you big time.

Have you seen his numbers with women?

He's like menstrual cramps in a suit.

And then to further prove how masculine he was this week, he made a big boy teleprompter speech about foreign policy.

Did you see that?

Where he said we need to be more unpredictable.

Oh, you mean like after 9-11 when we attacked the wrong country?

That kind of unpredictable, that good stuff, yeah.

And then

he,

more foreign policy advice came from Bobby Knight.

You know, he got the endorsement.

Remember Bobby Knight, the coach from Indiana, got the endorsement on Bobby White to make sure that he was locking up the old white full of rage vote.

And Bobby Knight was saying, Truman was a great president.

He had the guts to drop the atom bomb, and Trump would do the same.

And Japan said, ready for Hillary?

We're ready for Hillary.

So now...

So now it's really down to the state of Indiana.

They're the next primary, the last place where maybe people could stop Trump.

Cruz has been trying.

He is doing everything he possibly can.

He started an alliance with John Kasich.

It's just like a reality show.

They're making alliances.

It's true.

And then,

because he placed last in four out of the five primaries on Tuesday, he picked a running mate

for a race he will not be running.

Yes, Carly Fee Arena.

They had a big ceremony and Carly came up.

It was like Hitler marrying Ava Braun in the bunker.

Except sad.

And I'll just end with this.

In case you think that Donald Trump is a totally new phenomenon with the Republican Party, this week, Dennis Hastert, remember him?

He was the Speaker of the House in the 90s when they impeached Clinton, all that.

He was sentenced to jail, admitted he was a serial child molester.

And as an indication where the moral compass of this Republican Party has been, Tom DeLay, remember him?

Also served at the same time.

Went to jail.

Another fucking crook.

Tom DeLay.

After Hastert was sentenced, Tom DeLay said, we all have flaws, but Hastert has very few.

Yeah, just child molesting.

It's not like he ever used the wrong email server, something horrible like that.

So just remember.

Keep in mind, you know, the sane Republicans from the 90s.

The order of succession on 9-11 was George W.

Bush, Dick Cheney, and Dennis Haster.

Brainless, heartless, and pantsless.

It's so good to know that if something happened to the moron or the vampire, the child molester was next in line.

All right, we got a great show.

Rob Reiner, Kellyanne Conway, and Mark Leibovich are here a little later speaking with political analyst Thomas Frank.

But first up, he's president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and author of The Humane Economy, Wayne Pacelli.

Hey,

how are you, Wayne?

Always great to see you.

Okay,

so.

You know, I should have you on more often and more animal people.

I probably don't because this is the issue that you know I care about the most and I don't want to burden the audience like with, oh, this is my issue, so I probably bend over backwards and not do it enough.

You're a great supporter.

We appreciate it.

Well, I love animals and I'm not that crazy about people.

And that's the thing.

And

let's first talk, you think attitudes are changing with people?

Because we see it in different areas.

And people, of course, are going to get mad at me because I'm going to make a comparison now.

But like gay people, atheists,

transgender people, we've seen all these attitudes change.

Is it the same for animals?

You know, it's as burning as a break.

There's a revolution happening on animals.

Different sectors of the economy, the biggest food businesses in the U.S.

are now starting to source products from places that don't have factory farms where the cages and the crates are not confining the animals so they can't move.

We had Ringling Brothers and SeaWorld, which I'm sure we're going to get into, also say they're going to make reforms.

We've had cosmetic companies saying no more animal testing, hundreds of them.

We've had

the outrage over Cecil the Lion when that man killed Cecil.

There was an outrage in social media.

45 airlines said we're not going to ship any trophies of the Africa Big Five.

So no lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, cave buffalo.

So does that mean people will not be able to trophy hunt anybody?

Because you know who's trophy hunters?

Is Donald Trump?

They're the two sons.

Two douchebags' sons.

There's

a whole fuckface Trump.

No, I mean,

I mean,

they can't do that anymore?

Well, we got African lions listed as threatened and endangered, so they're not going to be able to bring lions in.

They did shoot leopards, but a number of countries have banned that.

But it is astonishing that these two young men have used their wealth for that purpose.

I mean, how selfish.

Why are they going to Africa to help the elephants or help the people?

I mean, Chelsea is actually involved in the anti-ivory trade campaign.

So I've read that they got permits, though, because the countries there sell permits and say it's okay to shoot the older non-breeding males, which I take very personally.

This is not a slippery slope we want to go down.

It is ironic that the Safari Club, these guys are typically 60 years plus.

I mean, the Trump boys are not.

But some of these guys say, oh, it's the older male.

They're post-reproductive.

It's fine to shoot them.

I mean, there is an irony there

let's get off this topic shall we

uh so the book is called the human economy you say there's uh ten things people can do name a few with the book well i mean number one is vote with your dollars you know the biggest issue that we're all tied to with animals is one that we don't like to confront that much it's food and you know i've been to these factory farms i went to one factory farm in iowa that had 10 million hens each of the hens was in a small cage about the size of a large microwave there were seven or eight birds jammed in together, just like me and you and six other guys in a small elevator.

They never get out.

We're so disconnected from the food supply, these things are happening to living, feeling, breathing creatures, and it's wrong.

And what we did in California, which you were helpful on, is pass Prop 2 to ban these cage confinement systems.

Since that time, we've gotten 150 of the biggest food retailers in the country, Walmart, McDonald's, so many others, saying we're going to change our sourcing practices and not procure animal products from farms that confine the animals so severely.

It's a big win.

Okay, so

what about the SeaWorld?

Now you put me in the middle of this big fight with PETA because PETA, it kind of reminds me of Hillary and Bernie.

It kind of does.

They're kind of the Bernie and you're kind of the Hillary.

You know, they're saying you sold out.

They're saying you didn't get enough that when you said they were reformed SeaWorld,

that they are not reformed, they say, wait a a second.

And they say, you know, you should have asked for a lot more and that you are giving cover to this disgusting company by going out with them and partnering with them.

You would say what?

Well, PETA's tough.

I mean, that's what PETA's going to say.

And, you know, they take that posture.

And we work more, I think, to try to find common ground with some of these companies.

Not to say that PETA hasn't also done deals, but this was an incredible deal with SeaWorld.

The activists who were really pushing SeaWorld, including us, I've been an adversary of SeaWorld for 25 years.

The debate was really about breeding of orcas at the one facility in San Diego.

There was no comparable activity going on at Texas and Florida.

We got breeding banned for all of the SeaWorld facilities.

None of the new facilities that SeaWorld's going to open internationally are going to have any orcas at all.

They're going to put millions more into rescue and rehabilitation.

They're going to join us in our anti-commercial whaling, anti-shark finning efforts.

And they're even going to reform their food policies at the park, saying only cage-free eggs, more plant-based options.

So the CPEN issue is one that is going to be.

A C-Pen.

Now, what is a C-Pen?

C-Pen is what we supported, actually.

In Keiko, there was a whale that was

free Willie.

He was in a horrible marine park in Mexico years ago, and folks rescued him.

We were involved.

Keiko eventually was put in a C-Pen.

He lived five years ago.

But C-Pen is a big, it's the actual ocean.

Yeah, it's the ocean with the

netting.

They don't know how to survive anymore.

Keiko was a wild whale who was taken from the wild, and the thought was eventually, let's connect him with his pod.

It didn't happen.

He was in a sea pen.

He lived fine.

He was released, and he went to people because he was used to people for so many years.

He didn't find his pod.

The SeaWorld whales are principally animals who were born in captivity, so they're not candidates for release to the wild.

I expect 29 of them.

29.

They kind of remind me of the Gitmo prisoners.

We can't release them, and it's shitty to keep them where they are.

And you know what the even the bigger irony is?

We are killing the oceans.

We're killing them so bad that nothing is going to be able to live out there.

You're going to be begging SeaWorld to take them back because they're going to die in the ocean.

So I hope that's not going to happen.

But I mean,

it's important before we run into that time to make the point that animals and loving animals is completely tied to the environment.

It's right.

If we don't have the environment, they can't live anywhere.

No, and that's why we need everybody joining together with me and you and PETA and all the other folks who are working on this to protect themselves.

We should.

Absolutely.

And

let's all get along.

I mean,

Japan is still engaging in commercial whaling.

Canada has this horrific seal hunt.

Shark finning 70 million sharks killed.

I mean, these are the big fights.

Now, we want to continue to have that discussion with SeaWorld about the future of these whales, but I want to celebrate the gains that we've made and let's keep pushing forward.

That's the goal of the humane economy.

I appreciate so much what you're doing.

Work it out with PETA.

I hate to be in the middle.

All right, Wayne Bicelli, thank you.

Let's meet our panel.

Hey!

There they are.

All right, he is

the chief national correspondent for New York Times Magazine and author of This Town, Two Parties and a Funeral, plus plenty of ballet parking in America's gilded capital.

Mark Liebovich, how you doing?

Hi, Bill.

Good to be here.

All right, he's the president and CEO of the polling company and president of Keep the Promise Pack, Kellyanne Conway

from politically incorrect days.

And he is a big-time movie director.

Oh, my God.

To say the least, so many movies we all love, beginning with Spinal Tap, but not ending with it.

One of the greatest of all time.

This new one is called Being Charlie.

It opens May 6th.

Rob Reiner's over here.

Nope, thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Remember to send us your questions for tonight's overtime so we can answer them after the show on YouTube.

Okay, it was a troubling week for the Republic as Donald Trump won five northeastern states.

This is my neck of the woods.

New Jersey is where I'm from.

And it was just, thank you.

You know,

I thought we were the smarter states, but I guess not.

I don't know where to begin with this jackass, but let's

start with what irked people the most, the comments about women.

Finally, we have a candidate who is standing up to the scourge of reverse sexism, which I think is great.

He said that what was it that if Hillary was a man, she wouldn't get 5%

of the vote.

Tell me what is masculine about Donald Trump.

Because I don't see anything masculine about this guy, the most thin-skinned, erratic, non-logical, whiny person in the world.

That's the old woman stereotype at the present.

But I don't see what is masculine about him.

Maybe someone could inform me.

Well, I don't pretend to be an expert on Donald Trump's masculinity, but let me try.

I think obviously he's tapped into an angst of frustration.

He's an outsider, and I support Senator Cruz, but I will say about Donald Trump and the so-called woman card against Hillary, I think he's putting her on notice that you're not just going to see the women's vote, let alone so-called women's issues, because she's a woman.

And he's putting her on notice by basically saying to her, saying to her.

No, you're not.

No, it's true.

No, and it's...

And it's true.

Okay, but we are going to be able to do that.

Because while she was saying that, there was a two-shot of the two of us, and I was going like this.

That's what I was getting back.

And well, go ahead.

All right, I see.

No, no, no.

Hillary Clinton, look, Hillary Clinton's having a hard time.

Hillary Clinton's having a hard time getting these young women in the Democratic primaries.

They're voting for Bernie Sanders.

So why is that?

If it were just as simple as I'm pro-choice or I'm for pay inequality, she'd be running away with the bill.

She would be the nominee, and she would have been the nominee in 2008 against Senator Obama being a very important thing.

So, she's not just playing the woman card.

No, it's not working.

And here's why: women look at her and say,

if you're going, you've improved your life.

Hillary Clinton made more in a 25-minute speech to Wall Street than the average woman

for three years.

No, that is.

I don't know what that actually is.

Because that's why they support Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton.

They don't believe she's a typical politician.

She is improved.

But don't worry about it.

But I just want to support Hillary Clinton.

I guess she's gotten five million.

How many million more votes are you?

Why isn't she the nominee?

Other Other than she could be the nominee.

But how is it,

other than coming out of the womb as a female, how is she actually playing the woman card?

Should she come out as...

I don't think she is at all.

I mean, look, she happens to be a woman.

I don't know.

I mean, so Donald Trump, I mean, there was all this criticism that she got in 2008.

Oh, she lost because she didn't run as a woman.

I'm like, what?

I mean, Mark Penn ran her as a man, as a strong man.

I never got that at all.

I mean, look, she's a woman.

We get it.

I mean, Barack Obama was a black guy.

We get it.

I mean, Donald Trump is a rich businessman.

A rich idiot is a bit of a.

You could say a rich idiot.

No, no, I mean, look, look, here's the thing.

We got Donald Trump.

Here's Donald Trump.

Everything he says, virtually everything that comes out of his mouth is moronic.

Beyond to the nth degree.

And

I was talking to Kelly.

But he's authentic.

He is authentically moronic, yes.

I was talking to Kelly about this backstage.

If anybody who wasn't a celebrity and didn't have his name on things said any of the things that he says, you'd walk past him.

What if he was a woman, bro?

What if he was a woman?

This complete lack of self-awareness.

Right.

That if he was a woman and he had said all the shit he said, he would be out of the race six months ago.

Or a black guy.

If he was a woman, he'd be Carly Fiorina.

Well, you know what?

Actually, that's not fair.

That is fair.

That's not fair to Carly.

And let me just say this about

who Carly does?

No, no, but don't corrupt me.

If you were a woman, we would still have small hands.

But Bill, back to your question, how does she run as a woman?

She's up there every time.

You look at the split screen.

She's a woman.

You did say, how does she, other than coming out of the womb as a woman, how does she run?

No, I'm saying how does she play the woman?

If I said how is she playing the woman?

She does, okay.

She says, make history with me, first female president of the United States.

A lot of women aren't meeting that claring claring call.

And let me just say, when you see the split screen, Bernie Sanders signs say, a future we can believe in.

That's inspirational and transformational.

Hers says, fighting for us.

And then she goes to the bottom of the city.

I love the way you guys fight for us.

Praying for Bernie Sanders.

They always love the person who isn't running.

Yes.

Benghazi was all Obama's fault until the election was over.

Now they like Obama again because he can't run again, and Hillary's the devil.

No, she's not the devil.

She's just a very weak candidate that half of the country doesn't trust.

Why isn't she the nominee?

Why is she losing?

She is the nominee.

Why is she the nominee?

Okay, oh Bernie Sanders, you heard it here first.

Hillary Clinton is a nominee and the millions of people who supported you don't matter.

No, that's not true.

That's not true.

You're playing a weak hand now.

Because you're trying to pretend that you're with Bernie Sanders.

No, I'm trying.

No, I like direct democracy.

I like the fact that he's called out Hillary Clinton as a typical politician who has improved her lot and not that of women over 30 years.

You like the liberal who lost.

That's who you like.

I don't think

he's fantastic.

But you know what?

Now that the thing is almost settled,

millennials, especially who I read all the time, are not.

Will stay home.

They will.

They're not going to hold.

I'm going to go ahead and get a lot of people with Donald Trump.

You know what?

They need to focus.

That's what the Adderall is for.

We're going to make a little bet.

We're going to make a little bet and we're going to have dinner.

You say she's a weak candidate, and I'm sitting here telling you that if it's her and Donald Trump it's going to be a landslide okay now that is a very dangerous thing to say

I wouldn't wait why they're dangerous because I'm going to lose because they'll still fucking stay home now no no no no no they're going to come out you know what it is not going to be a landslide anything can happen in this stupid country

the voters are ignorant you need to come out don't think it's going to be a landslide you know what

they're going to come out because Donald Trump is going to be on the top of the other tickets.

Where has the record turnout been in the primaries on the Republican side?

People standing in line for hours.

They stood in line in Brooklyn, the Democratic primaries.

Hillary's gotten more votes than anybody.

That's the case.

And she might be a candidate she certainly.

But there were more people voting in the Democratic primaries.

I'm saying on the Republican side, there were 10, 15 candidates, Bill, and people that were record numbers in the city of

record numbers in Iowa.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but let's talk about Donald Trump's foreign policy.

Or lack of.

And then we're going to get punky Brewster on gun control.

Okay.

But he made his big foreign policy speech, used a teleprompter, which he doesn't usually do because he doesn't want to alienate the base by reading.

So

he likes the poorly educated.

He loves the poorly educated.

I love what he said that.

I love the point.

But the theme was America first, because it fits on a hat.

They basically loaded all the things Republicans always say about killing foreigners into a teleprompter, and he read it.

The greatest hits list of bullshit.

We have less ships than in World War I.

And he bows to, you know, this bullshit.

I love this one.

We're not respected because Obama was not greeted at the airport in Cuba.

He didn't have an airport greeter.

Yeah, and you know what?

Obama's a man.

So he just goes, I don't give a shit.

Whereas this fucking bitch would.

What's astounding to me is they talked about it as being he's going to be presidential.

He's going to read off a teleprompter.

He's going to deliver a foreign policy speech.

It was the same crap as when he doesn't read off a teleprompter.

Why did he have to put that on the teleprompter?

It was so stupid, though, because they said, oh, we're looking for the Trump pivot.

Look, he's reading from a teleprompter.

He must be pivoting.

He's presidential.

Let's take him more seriously now.

I mean, how that's to me the beginning of him and the media by extension treating much of the electorate like idiots.

Well let me give you

his quote he gave about a month ago when they were asked about the the nuclear situation and turning over the codes.

He said I'm speaking I asked who his advice who his foreign policy advisor was he said I'm speaking with myself number one

because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things

And he has a lot of good things.

That is a direct quote.

He has a lot of good words.

I have said a lot of things and I have a very good brain.

He has the best words.

So,

I mean, I think the speech bomb because people don't like to see him doing scripted drama.

They like the improv comedy, right?

Absolutely.

Well, it's a reality show.

I mean, we are in the Kardashianization of America right now, and it doesn't matter.

I mean, you've got a guy who's a famous guy, so just put him out there, whatever he says.

And the media only cares about him.

Listen, I mean, he's gold for you guys.

You can do a whole monologue with him.

But I'm not a news channel.

I mean,

if we're going to talk about the news.

You're entertainment.

Yes.

I mean, like MSNBC, which I normally like as a channel, but they spend all day long telling you how stupid Donald Trump is and how he shouldn't be president, except when he's speaking.

Right.

And then they have to show you every word like he's the emperor.

I was at my host.

It is disgusting.

Because it's money.

It's all about money.

I have said this before.

People say we've got to get the money out of politics.

We got to get the money out of the news.

News, yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It started

in

the late 60s when 60 Minutes came on the air and they realized that there could be a profit center in news.

All of a sudden, it slowly has evolved to this, where it's just showcasing.

But it's the print journalists, too, which aren't profitable.

They are obsessed.

I see them after these debates in the spin room.

And I said to one, I mean, they're six deep, Bill, waiting to see Donald Trump, who was just on the debate stage.

Even when there were 15 other candidates.

And I said to one, didn't you win a Pulitzer Prize?

Like, don't you at least feel a little cheap for for yourself that you're in a line five deep to see Donald Trump who you just saw on the debate stage and 15 other candidates?

Yes the answer well first of all as a print journalist I can actually you know I'm in favor of more money being pumped into print journalism and specifically me.

But I would say look I got into my hotel a few hours ago I turned on MSNBC.

It was a big breaking news thing.

I'm like oh was there like an earthquake or a shooting or something?

No Donald Trump had arrived in San Francisco.

That is breaking news by these standards.

So look, I mean I think we need, I don't think we need to get the the money out of the media that much.

I think we need to get the idiocy out of the media.

Thanks, Rob.

Actually, that's really.

Because you need

to set me

back.

He really wanted more money.

So I think that's what I'm saying.

I got a whole dinner.

Do you got a dinner out of this?

Let me just say, what?

You can take me.

I told you about it.

I'm not touching that.

One more thing.

He does not react to, well, any facts, but certainly,

you know, people who are good at making judgments that we can respect, especially in foreign affairs, react to what's happening now.

Things change.

ISIS, he talks about it like nothing has changed since we hadn't rolled them back.

I don't know if people read these news stories, but ISIS has been rolled back.

It's not the threat it was.

I think we took 40% of their territory.

They're going to take back the city of Mosul.

They took back many.

They're looking at the...

But most Americans don't believe that.

And politicians, most Americans do not believe what you just said.

They don't even know it.

What do you mean believe it?

What they know, what they know.

They never heard it.

Now we're going to have to do it.

Especially the Fox News viewers, because it would be something that Obama would have to get credit for.

And we can't have that on Fox News.

No, their idea of ISIS is very simple.

Americans' idea of ISIS is very simple.

Beheadings on their computer screen.

San Bernardino.

I know.

But here's the thing.

So when they hear it's being rolled back and then another terrorist, they don't see it that way.

So it's okay to bomb their families.

I didn't say that.

What I'm saying is

what I'm saying is this is the way Americans look at it.

Except that things don't happen overnight.

No drama, Obama.

He just did it slowly, incrementally.

He tried not to kill as many civilians as possible.

And it's working.

It's actually working.

That's why they're laughing at us.

That's why they're laughing.

I love that.

Yeah.

They're laughing at us.

They're laughing at Trump.

They're laughing at us.

No, they're laughing at him.

Okay, so last week I held up this magazine.

This is a real magazine.

Us weekly, 25 things you don't know about me.

By the way, I read this every week.

I read all the tabloids.

It's my guilty pleasure.

I admit this freely.

I need to know who wore it best.

Who wore it best?

I want to know if stars are just like us.

Are they?

They are.

It actually turned out they are.

So then we said, all the candidates were asking for equal time.

And Ted Cruz, we did last week.

This week, we're going to do Bernie Sanders, 25 Things You Don't Know About Me.

Bernie Sanders.

Franzac, I'm the only candidate who uses a typewriter to tweet.

I cried when the Brooklyn Dodgers left Brooklyn, which was embarrassing since I was 68.

I'm known for having what my wife calls resting kvetch face.

Resting kvetch.

I love Kevin Hart.

Very funny in Beverly Hills Cop.

Yeah, I know, because he does it in black people.

Smacking me on the back releases a dust cloud.

Shake Guevara used to wear a t-shirt with me on it.

I combed my hair with a balloon.

For a second.

I didn't quite.

The whole time I marched with Dr.

King, he thought I was Art Connie.

Art Connie!

A year ago, I was screaming at kids to get off my lawn.

Now 20,000 show up every time I make a speech.

How about that?

All right, let's bring out Thomas.

He is an author whose latest book is listen, liberal, or whatever happened to the party of the people.

Thomas Frank is over here.

Thomas, how are you, sir?

Great to see you.

All right.

So Thomas Frank, you are known to the public as the guy who wrote What's the Matter with Kansas, where you took on the Republicans and especially the Republican voters.

You said they vote against their economic interests because they're fooled by these wedge issues.

Now you're going after the Democrats.

Exactly, yeah.

Don't you think it's about time?

I do it all the time.

I do it all the time here and I take the booze because they boo you for it.

Will they?

Yeah, let's try it out.

They're going to boo you right now.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Shit on the liberals.

Go ahead.

See how you like it.

All right.

So

what the book is about is basically that the Democrats aren't who we think they are.

You think they're the party of the people, the party of the workers, the party of labor?

They aren't.

Yeah, yeah.

right.

So, who are they?

Who are they?

Well, you see, talk about the liberalism of the rich, which is an interesting part of the question.

It's a party of the white-collar professional class,

affluent white-collar professional.

Kale eaters.

Kale eaters.

That's good.

And that's a great shorthand.

But you wonder about why.

My parents didn't eat kale.

You wonder about it.

It didn't even exist.

And they were dying the wolf.

They had it in Kansas.

Well, really?

Back then?

Yeah.

Well, we didn't have it in New Jersey.

And

they didn't have it there.

yet now i don't think it's new jersey oh you do okay you have

they were real democrats but they were a very different breed than this these kind of democrats absolutely and the but today's breed it's you know these uh ivy league guys doing favors for other ivy leagues guys look at the obama administration the revolving door with wall street look at the clinton administration same kind of thing and if it's not wall street it's silicon valley it's big pharma i mean so yeah it's a liberalism of the rich this is a liberalism of the winners of the new economy winners the people who are left behind, of course, organized labor.

And this is why

these white working class people have abandoned the Democratic Party for a long time, going back to Reagan Democrats.

I think I read that 50,000

Democrats switched over to vote for Trump in Pennsylvania.

Yeah,

it's been going on for a long time, since the early 70s.

We have someone here who could tell us all about it

in

the earliest days.

The classic TV.

I played a liberal on television.

No, no, no, no, but you remember this.

But you remember this.

I mean, this is, yeah, of course.

Now,

this has been going on for a very long time.

And it was actually done in a kind of deliberate way back in the McGovern days in the early 1970s during the Vietnam War that

organized labor was kind of removed from its structural position within the Democratic Party.

And then it's gathered strength and gathered speed ever since then.

Today it's basically the same.

I feel liberals just got lazy.

I feel they got it so it's the bar to be smarter than a Republican is so low.

And it's so easy to do.

That is for sure.

You know

that they got lazy and they made it all about these silly little wedge issues, which, I mean, some of them matter, but they don't.

But these things are...

But I understand that.

These people who are so smart, they fuck up again and again and again.

I'm talking about the Democrats here.

They can never see it coming, right?

It always

completely blindsides them.

You know, what's the matter with Kansas?

I wrote that 12 years ago.

It goes on and on and on to this day.

Well,

again, the Republicans are stupider because

here's what happened.

They elected.

They're taking over all these state legislatures.

Kansas elected Sam Brown back.

Okay.

This is a guy

who tried to put in trickle-down economics, which is funneling more money to the rich, which was discredited many, many years ago.

And of course, it tanked the economy, and he got a second term.

Yes.

So sometimes you just got to look at the voters and go, I can't help you.

Fair enough, fair enough.

And they deserve all of that.

They deserve all of that.

But what concerns me in this book, I mean, the folly of the ignorant is sort of what's the matter with Kansas is about.

This is about the folly of the highly educated,

the folly of the Ivy League set.

I mean, these people are just

as foolish and have made, I mean, even bigger blunders in some ways, and really do not give a damn about average working-class Americans.

Nothing stupider than an intellectual.

I agree.

So listen to this.

The kind of wedge issue that used to work on the Kansas voter, as we might call them,

is sort of in the news now because of this where transgender people can go to the bathroom.

Oh, God.

Thing that's taken over the country.

Ted Cruz is literally making his last stand on this issue.

I swear, he talks about it every day.

He said, Donald Trump is calling for grown men to be allowed to use little girls' public restrooms As the dad of young daughters, I dread what this will mean for our daughters.

It is a reckless policy that will endanger our loved ones.

This is the kind of shit that used to work.

And I feel like it's not working anymore because these Republican voters, the Trump people, they feel like they've been used economically

by the Jeb Bush issues of, you know, we're going to bring back corporate taxes from overseas.

Like, who gives a shit?

And this shit, they know they have been played before, and and they caught up to it.

That's an excellent point.

But what's the matter with Kansas was that was 2004 when that came out.

We've had, since then, we've had this

global economic catastrophe, you know, this recession that for a lot of people has never ended, scandal after scandal after scandal on Wall Street.

These people are looking at the Republican Party.

You know, they've been voting for these guys for decades now, or years anyway.

The party's done absolutely nothing for them.

And Trump, at least,

talks a good game on one or two issues, you know, that seems like trade, trade,

absolutely true.

Well, trade.

And have you seen what he says about negotiating with big pharma for Medicare?

Have you seen what he says about the military negotiations?

So does Hillary talk about that?

About negotiating with big pharma.

But this is amazing.

Your book should be What's Still Wrong with Cancer.

Really?

I mean, it's not just cancer.

So many times.

No, no, no, it's not just cancer.

So many times.

I mean, come on, look at the situation that we're in.

It's not Sam Brownback that bailed out Wall Street.

Sam Brownback has his problems, and I've criticized his case.

You know this.

Right.

I mean,

but Sam Brownback isn't the one that got the tarp through Congress.

Sam Brownback isn't the one that let, you know, the robo-signing thing go by, the LIBOR scandal, and never prosecuted anybody on Wall Street.

That was Democrats doing it.

Well, no, the tarp was brought up by Paulson.

Paulson and Bush pushed the tarp.

Sure, sure, sure.

Sure, sure, sure.

Hey, look, Barrett Obama could easily have unwound, could easily have unwound the bailouts of these banks if he wanted to.

He could have easily fired the top management of every Wall Street bank completely within his authority.

He could have prosecuted these guys for the business.

You're sounding like the exact Democrat who makes people's eyes glaze over right now.

You're actually doing what you're saying going up the Drug.

I'm a happy legendary.

All right, so I need to get jobs.

So I read a really interesting article in New York Magazine this week about how Trump, apropos to this, instead of hiring pollsters and consultants and the usual hacks, here's how he organized his campaign.

He had three people sit in a room and listen to talk radio,

right-wing hate radio, find out what is riling up the rubes, and they are rubes.

And it was Mexicans coming into this country, our jobs going overseas, Common Core.

Like Donald Trump doesn't know what it is.

He doesn't know what it is.

But he knows he hates it.

He hates it.

He hates it.

Because this is what was going on.

And that's what we're doing.

Maybe as the mother of four small children in the public schools in New Jersey, where we grew up, where you grew up, Bill.

Maybe people should know that it's not right for the federal government to take over local education.

Thank you.

Why would you, no, maybe people should know it is, but listen, calling millions of people Rooves, I think, is really unfortunate and goes to the point of your book, which I very much appreciate you writing.

I mean, instead of, look, attack Donald Trump as you all want to, but let's study why the people feel that they have a home in what he's saying on trade, on wages, and workers.

Look at this.

But this is the problem.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

You got the same disenfranchised people at the Bernie Sanders campaign.

There's a lot of people that are going there because they feel like they've been left out of the economy.

The only difference between...

No, no, the only difference between the two of them, there's a racist element in the Trump party.

You don't see that kind of racism at the Sanders campaign.

I really don't.

No, you don't.

You don't.

I'm not going to bandy those words around.

However, I will say that

that

let's have a serious conversation.

Let's connect it all together now.

Why are people at Bernie Sanders rallies?

Why are people supporting Donald Trump?

Why did Tom Frank write this book?

Because people who are non-college educated feel left behind.

That's right.

In focus groups, men say I'm getting screwed.

Women say we're struggling.

They're saying the same things, and people aren't listening.

But can I go back to Rubes?

This is the same problem I have with talking about religion.

If you criticize it, then somehow you're a meanie who's being mean to people who aren't that bright.

But if you go through what actually is in religion, they're not that bright.

And it's the same thing with people who vote based on things that are not factual.

Facts don't even get in the bubble.

I mean, Donald Trump is out there talking about how we have to stop Mexicans from pouring over the bill.

Well, net immigration has been zero from Mexico for the last eight years.

Once our economy went to shit in 2008, Mexicans went, Thank you.

We don't need to come here.

So the whole thing is based on something that is is not factual.

So I'm sorry if I call someone who doesn't use facts a rube.

But I feel like we're calling someone who

doesn't have a college education rube.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Do you need a college education?

No, you don't.

And you don't need a college education and want to support your family either.

I think, notwithstanding what he's saying, Bill, there are people in this country who are struggling, and they're still struggling.

And it's a bipartisan objection.

And

they are talking about wages and increasing the power of the people who are in the world.

Why do you think he was struggling?

Why do you think

that's a good question?

Look, I think it's a stylistic thing.

I think whether Donald Trump supporters are are rubes or not, I think underpinning all of this is political correctness.

I mean, I hate to throw up cliché in here, but there is a thrilling thing about Donald Trump saying, you know, sounding authentic, whatever the stupid word you want to put on it is.

But look, he's different.

Hillary Clinton is not different.

Jeb Bush is not different.

I mean, he gets a lot of points for this.

I mean,

I think the real populism in this country, I mean, say, oh, it's like it's pitchforks.

It's not pitchforks.

He's a celebrity, and he's interesting, and he's made himself interesting over many years.

He might be appealing to Rubes.

He might himself be a Rube, but that itself is, I think, the basis of a lot of his support and why it's a bit of a wild cart in November.

Sanders also authentic.

This is one of the things that is so appealing to his voters.

Sanders seems like the real.

You think Trump is authentic?

I mean, authentic, right?

Authenticity is like, this is all.

I think he's authentic.

Yes, I think he's actually a goosebag from Queens.

I think he will be in a 2015.

Very authentic.

And you know what?

Let me tell you something.

I am, as I said before, and you grew up on the East Coast before you moved to California.

Okay.

All right.

I know this guy.

I know this East Coast guy, the guy who says, I'm going to get you a great deal.

I know a guy who knows a guy who's going to get you a great deal.

He just took this national.

He took that character, which is such an East Coast thing that we know, and he took it national, and they've never seen it before.

And they are going to be so disappointed when he can't get you a great deal

that's who it's exactly who he is

and and I don't know what people is think is going to happen I mean I don't know who you're for I know you're for Cruz okay you're they like the unpredictability of Trump and I think that people who say that you know Hillary's gonna win in a landslide just have to be careful because the whole thing's been so unpredictable from the beginning with him as you very astutely pointed out Bill he had 50,000 Democrats switch over just to vote for him in Pennsylvania Just like Sanders does well in the open primaries on the left, Trump has done very well in the open primaries on the right because they get these independents and the opposite party people to vote for them.

But I just prefer to study the voters rather than criticize them.

It's like, what is motivating them to show you?

Yes, let's talk about that.

What motivates 30,000 people to show up for a Bernie Sanders rally?

Yeah, why are they so upset about

the economy that's left them behind?

Why is that?

They're upset for many reasons.

They feel like the jobs have been shipped overseas.

Why?

They feel like wages have been staggered for 30 years.

Many reasons.

It's a bipartisan vibe.

You're going to think bipartisan problem.

Exactly.

I'm saying it's a bipartisan vibe.

Washington has earned it.

We have to accept the fact that there's a new global economy and that there's new manufacturing jobs to be had here that can't be outsourced, which are infrastructure jobs and a green economy.

Those are the jobs we have to go.

Not these jobs that are going overseas, they're never coming back.

They're never coming back.

45 years old and you don't have a college degree.

Are you just going to go back to college?

Now everybody's going to move to North Dakota to learn how to fracture

natural gas.

Not everybody's going to do that.

So what do we do for these people?

They're frustrated.

Okay, well this gets back to your point.

I was going to ask you this.

You talk about the Democrats abandoning the white working class worker.

Okay, but in those days,

the white working class worker were in manufacturing.

We're not a manufacturing-based economy.

We are a service-based economy, which is much more what the Democratic base is now.

And they are more likely to be women workers.

That's why the Democrats appeal to us.

But there are millions of jobs available if we are willing to go into a green economy

and build our infrastructure.

Millions of jobs there.

That's all very true.

And I think they put it forward.

The Republicans.

Right, the Republicans.

They asked for the infrastructure and then they pulled the Republicans out of it, right?

A lot of people have nostalgia for what you just described, the manufacturing economy when people had good jobs.

But what they, I mean, and you know, look at happy days or something like this.

Look at one of these TV shows about the, you know, the good old days.

They're obsessed with the 570s TV shows.

I am

happy.

Poll and the family.

Happy to you.

Good times.

What they're actually nostalgic for, and this is interesting, is the relations of power in those days.

It's not like that we were building 57 Chevys or something like that, although those were awesome cars.

It's that people people could negotiate with management, okay?

That people had a say in the conditions of their own employment, and that is what's gone.

And by the way, you talk about globalization.

This is a subject that I did a lot of research on for the book.

And one of the things that I learned, and this is fascinating, is that you could write, I mean, we say globalization, right?

As though God came down and gave us NAFTA.

But what I learned is that, in fact, NAFTA was written by lobbyists.

and that you could write a trade agreement that would screw any occupational group in this country, and you could write one that would benefit any occupational group in this country.

And it's easy to do.

I mean, I could do it.

It's not hard.

But you let lobbyists go write the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

You let lobbyists write NAFTA, and they're going to figure out a way to get what they want.

Let me go back a little further with TV.

Ronald Reagan

did his show from this studio.

Did you know that?

GE theater?

Well, we all did all in the family in this theater.

You did?

Yeah, right here.

Carol Burnett, so much is that yeah.

Do you think Archie Bonker would be a Trump voter?

I'm pretty sure.

Yes, duh.

Okay.

So, but it's funny, because Trump and Ronald Reagan both made their names being TV

characters, basically.

Reagan was on GE theater for a moment.

And then he was the governor of California.

Yes, okay.

That was a big job.

But I'm just saying, here's the difference.

Reagan, when he was on GE theater, the character he was playing was, I'm part of the company.

I'm one of you.

When Trump was on TV,

he wasn't part of the company.

He wasn't one of you.

He was the guy who said, you're fired.

Get on your knees and bow to me.

That's, I think, the difference between where the Republican Party was in Ronald Reagan's day and where it is now.

You talk about rudes, you talk about irony.

I mean, like, that a working-class movement

would be rallying around a guy who goes on TV and fires people.

Right, exactly.

Why is he a hero among people?

I just don't understand that.

I don't understand why they see him as masculine.

I don't know why they see him as masculine.

They do.

They see him as very tough.

They see him as fearless and peerless.

And they see him building up.

No, because they're rubes and they're fooled.

Says things they would never hear say.

Yeah, and if he ever became president, they would be so disappointed.

They would hate him more than they hated anybody who ever disappointed them before.

Because it would be government by SNT.

This guy would get nothing done.

It would all be about settling scores with people who opposed him.

But he would do it.

He's online trolls.

He would do it on social media.

Constantly trying to refute the college kids in a dorm somewhere that are tweeting something mean about it.

All right, we have to leave it there.

It's time for new rules, everybody.

New rule.

Oh, yeah, that's right, Blaz.

You get you some.

Look, I don't know what's going on here, but we sure have come a long way from this.

Nero, Gary Marshall, has to admit that Mother's Day, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day are all the same movie.

The one I'm waiting for is Election Day, where Ann Hathaway and Kate Beckinsale are both in love with Channing Tatum until they see the back of his car.

Nero, the British judge who wants to euthanize this dog just because its owner died and the starving dog ate the owner, has to explain what else the dog was supposed to do call dominoes

I'm sure he didn't want to eat his owner but let's be honest if Timmy and Lassie both fell down the well

New Rule now that Ted Cruz while speaking in the famous gym from Hoosiers referred to the hoop as the basketball ring

he has to release the Ted Cruz glossary of sports terms including the ice rake, the

catch mitten,

the hand cozy, and of course the funny hat they made me wear in high school.

New rules, since the current bestseller list now includes books called Go the Fuck to Sleep, Calm the Fuck Down, memos to shitty people, and I am sick of this shit.

Someone has to write a cookbook called Eat Shit and Die.

And then a Christian sequel, Eat Shit, Die, Go to Heaven, Come Back and Eat More Shit.

And finally, new rule, before Americans can laugh at how pathetic Cubans are for driving those old patched up cars instead of getting new ones.

We have to explain why that's what we're doing with our health care system, our voting system, our energy policy, and our infrastructure.

Now with apologies to my friend Jay Leno, I am not a car guy.

I don't know shit about them.

They all look alike to me.

I don't know who makes what and I don't care.

But I know if this video was taken recently, it must be from Cuba.

And the reason for the time warp is that these cars are the same ones Cuba had back when America imposed its embargo.

And so their cars are stuck forever in 1959.

And the Cubans are forced to make the best with what little they have.

Like what Trump does with his hair.

But in the case of the plucky Cubans, it means endlessly patching up their old DeSotos and Edsels with whatever they can scrounge, old tractor parts, chicken wire, the bones of prostitutes Rush Limbaugh killed on vacation.

The horn on this Buick Roadmaster is provided by squeezing a monkey's ball.

So I get why they do this.

What I want to know is, what's our excuse?

Why does America address so many of its problems by jerry-rigging the old instead of starting fresh with something new?

Why don't we put in completely new state-of-the-art water pipes instead of just patching up the old ones from 100 years ago when we thought lead was a vitamin?

Same with roads and bridges.

Chris Christie once held up traffic on the George Washington Bridge.

I'm not sure the George Washington Bridge could hold up Chris Christie.

And driving a 59 Chevy may be embarrassing, but when it comes to elections,

we're still trying to keep the 1787 model on the road.

And that model runs on gerrymandering and the Electoral College, so of course it runs like shit.

We're still using this thing and signing this thing, which always makes me feel like I'm checking into the Bates Motel.

How come the NSA can turn on the camera in my laptop and watch me while it reads my email, but I need to show ID to vote?

Why can't I just say, hi, government?

You probably don't recognize me in my clothes,

but I'd like to vote.

And the next time we fix the health care system, let's not.

Let's make a brand new one instead of cobbling together some Rube Goldberg monstrosity of exchanges and tax credits and insurance industry concessions.

Obamacare?

It should be called MacGyver care.

The president has said that he would have preferred a single-payer system if we were starting from scratch.

So let's start from scratch.

I don't get it.

Americans throw out their old smartphone every six months like it has cooties.

We think nothing of getting new hips, new knees, new livers, new wives.

But we can't tear ourselves away from sucking oil out of the ground and burning it or cutting off the tops of mountains.

What, no whale oil?

Let's switch to solar and wind by actually switching.

We're killing the planet.

If someone is stabbing you, you don't look for ways to build on the existing stabbing.

while gradually shifting to a less stab-based system.

One reason young people are attracted to Bernie is because they haven't accepted that things can never change, that the only car you'll ever know is a rusty old piece of shit and your choices are learn to love it or walk.

I'm just saying, it's been a while since we had that new country smell.

All right, that's our show.

I'll be at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh July 8th and the Uptown and Kansas City August 7th.

I want to thank Mark Liebervich, Kellyanne Conway, Rod Ryder, Thomas Frank, and Wayne Vicelli.

Join us now for overtime on YouTube.

Thank you.

Watch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch him anytime on HBO On Demand.

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