Overtime - Episode #362 (Originally aired 8/28/15)

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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be.

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

Okay.

All right.

I'm surrounded by myself.

Sorry.

It was just platonic.

Rick Zenturum, what are your thoughts on the Iran nuclear deal?

I'm guessing you love it because it's Obama.

Whatever he does, you're good.

You violated the first principle.

You don't negotiate with terrorists.

And we negotiated with a terrorist organization.

Oh, Reagan, dude.

Well, Well, you don't negotiate with terrorists.

We didn't negotiate with terrorists.

Isn't that your boyfriend?

No.

Reagan.

We didn't negotiate with terrorists.

Reagan never negotiated.

You don't negotiate with terrorists.

Reagan admitted it on the air.

We don't negotiate with terrorists.

What about Iran-Contra?

That wasn't negotiating with terrorists.

That was cutting a deal.

Reagan negotiated with terrorists.

He also cut and ran.

When the bombing happened in Beirut in 83, George Bush, his vice president, went over there and said, this will not stand or whatever.

And then we cut and ran.

As we should have.

He was wrong.

Reagan was wrong?

He was wrong.

Oh, my God.

Look, this was a relatively new threat way back then, and

radical Islam was emergent during that time.

And look,

he had a different fish to fry.

He had the Soviet Union, he was trying to destroy it.

That's where his attention is.

Iran has to be just terrorists.

The whole country of Iran.

All those things.

Look, it's not who the country is, it's who's running the country.

That's right.

And the people running the country is a death cult.

They're a group of radical Muslims, Shia Islamists, who are more concerned about the hereafter than they are the here and now.

If you had any problem, Bill, with what the policy's been over all the years that we've been negotiating this rotten treaty, which is going to give the Mu'ar regime $150 billion to spend on terrorism, all this time we have hesitated to help the people of Iran fight this regime.

In 2009, we had a radio opportunity to do it.

Which is what Reagan did.

By doing what?

In 2009, the Green Revolution occurred, and the United States of America said nothing.

He absolutely passed on doing anything to support that.

What would we be doing?

Doing.

See, I hear you guys all the time say Obama sucks at this, sucked it this.

And then the next question, but what would you differently?

Let me be nothing.

You never have anything you say that will be substantially different.

I don't do good.

How would you fight ISIS differently?

What would you drop it?

I hear Ted Cruz absolutely.

I take them out.

Take them out.

What does that mean?

He's not allowing us to do that.

So I'll I answer for you, in terms of cutting and running from Beirut, which was the right thing to do.

Ronald Reagan learned a lesson and he started what they call the Reagan doctrine, which is helping people fight the tyrants who are the enemies of the United States.

ISIS is our enemy, right?

ISIS is enemy enemy.

Who's fighting ISIS?

Iran.

Who's fighting ISIS?

Go back to Iran.

The Mullah regime is a terrorist regime who represses their own people.

There are any number of groups there we could have been supporting.

But we haven't done a thing.

But you guys would agree that ISIS and Iran are the enemy, right?

Agreed.

They're both the enemies.

So who's the worst enemy?

Because I guess by the Reagan doctrine, we should be supporting the other.

So if it's Iran, we should be supporting ISIS.

Yeah, but look, in the Middle East, you cannot, you can't, I mean, we learned this during the Iraq War.

You cannot defeat Sunni jihadism without having Sunnis on side.

That's right.

I've done a lot of reporting on Syria for four years.

I've seen the conspiracy theories devolve from a point of, oh, you're backing Assad because you support Israel.

Now it is the United States prefers the Shia, not just of Iraq, but also Iran.

They want to work with the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which by the way, Bill, has built sectarian militias in Syria that are burning people alive, just like ISIS.

Again, we don't see it on the nightly news.

It doesn't mean it's not taking part in the US.

We should not be supporting Sunnis in Iraq.

That's the point he's making.

We shouldn't be supporting Iran in anything.

We particularly shouldn't be supporting Iran as they wage a sectarian war and try to create domination.

They're the only ones who are doing our dirty work against ISIS.

They shouldn't.

They're not doing our dirty dirty work.

There are lots of groups

that are not.

They can't fight against the ruler regime and these radicals.

Like the Kurds.

Who?

The Iraqi?

How about the Sunnis in the Anbar province?

That used to be.

How about them?

How about the

Syrians?

The Baluch.

There's more Kurds in Iran than there are in Iraq.

We could have helped any of these people.

Instead, we sign an agreement that legitimatizes these mullahs who hate us.

So, what's going on with your marijuana bill?

Okay, thank you.

I am very proud that, and I know Rick disagrees with me totally on this, that we believe in states' rights, we believe in personal responsibility, believe in doctor-patient relationships, we believe in making sure that you have a limited government and a maximum of individual freedom.

Well, that means that you should let people smoke marijuana if they want to.

It's called Do We Believe in Our Fundamental Principles?

We've been talking about all these years, and I forced the issue.

I'm very proud to say, for the first time, we got through the Congress a bill that permits people at least to use medical marijuana

if they're suffering, have a doctor be able to prescribe it in states where they have already legalized it.

So my bill just said, if a state legalizes the medical use of marijuana, the federal government can't step in and supersede the state level.

You're my hero.

Robert Costa, is it unfair of CNN and the Republican National Committee to exclude Carly Fiorina from their next debate?

Are they really excluding her?

Well, in a sense, the RNC has given up responsibility for allowing, for choosing who's going to be on that debate stage.

They've allowed the networks to make the decision.

So if someone came in second last time, like Senator Santorum, they can't even get on the main stage because the networks decide however they want to do it.

The party has almost disappeared.

They do it by polling, right?

They do it by a polling.

She did rise in the poll.

She did rise.

She may make the second debate in Simi Valley.

She had a pretty solid showing, according to a lot of activists.

So we'll see.

I mean, she's someone who, Carson, Trump, Fiorina, They're seen as outsiders.

And this, in a lot of ways, whenever you travel around, you see this is the year of the outsider.

People want that kind of person on the Republican side.

It makes it harder, even if you have a blue-collar message.

You see,

guys like you who know how government works, when Donald Trump says things like, I would slap a 35% tax on Ford, as if a president can unilaterally lend it to the US.

You're not the CEO of the country.

Thanks, Grace.

That's crazy, right?

The answer is yes to your question.

Yeah.

It drives us crazy.

Okay.

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, are we any more prepared for a natural disaster of that magnitude?

Well,

I bet you we are to a certain degree.

I mean,

they built up some levees there, didn't they?

I'm hoping we ship

shit tons of money down there.

I must have done something, right?

Can't all be for beads.

If you trust the government's going to be doing a good job, well, then

you can trust the government's relationship.

But you do think the government has a role in disaster relief, don't you?

Yes, I do.

Okay.

So FEMA, which didn't work well under Bush, seems to be working better under Obama.

I hope so.

Well, good.

Okay.

Wendy,

is the media tougher on female political candidates?

I think there's a different standard for female political candidates, and I think my race certainly demonstrated that.

As a woman, a divorced woman with two children, I went through a very different type of scrutiny about that than a male candidate would do.

And I think it's part and parcel of what happens to women in politics.

And when it does happen, I think it's important that we call it for what it is because a lot of times people respond to that.

They don't even necessarily think consciously that they're responding to negative messaging that's succeeding in that way.

And when you bring them present to it and they consider it, it really, I think, does make a powerful difference.

And more women candidates need to call it to what it is.

Okay.

Is there any significance to Cornell West's endorsement of Bernie Sanders?

Well, that was

not hard to predict.

But let me ask this about Bernie Sanders.

I mean, he has huge crowds, huge crowds.

The media doesn't cover that nearly the way they do Donald Trump.

Also, I noticed all Republicans are able to dismiss Bernie Sanders with one word, socialist.

Like, case closed.

I don't even have to argue anymore.

He's a socialist.

Social Security is socialism, but would you campaign against that?

Well,

what I think Chris Matthews' question to Debbie Wasserman Schultz was really the operative question.

What's the difference between a socialist and a Democrat?

And to this date, my understanding is she has not answered, even though she's been asked multiple times.

And the truth is that the Democratic Party is basically a socialist party these days.

Where right is that?

To the left.

America and every modern country.

You tell me the difference.

What's the difference between a Democrat and a socialist?

Well, I wish the Democrats were socialists.

Okay, well, okay.

Tell me why they're.

Tell me how they're not.

Okay, I will.

Tell me how they're not.

Okay, but every modern country.

Every modern country is a quasi-socialist country, including the United States.

And again, you would not vote to repeal Social Security, would you?

And if you wouldn't, then you are also quasi-socialist.

Well, just because the programs

or the Veterans Administration,

just because the government does certain functions that we believe should be socialized doesn't mean that we're a socialist.

I mean, socialists are not.

That's exactly what it means.

I mean, for example, I mean, the fact that we provide for a common defense and that we fund the defense.

Does that make us a socialist?

Because the government is doing that?

Of course not.

It's old when it becomes socialism.

And the Republicans haven't reached that level, but to the degree that we support socialism.

You know what's real socialism?

It's the fact that every year the Pentagon tells Congress not to build weapons.

They say we don't need them, we can't use them, we literally have no place to put them.

And Congress still makes them because it's a jobs program in their district.

That's socialism.

I agree with that.

But

that's the good kind of socialism because we're building weapons.

It was like corporate welfare.

Different standards of applying corporations out of it.

Anytime you buy a weapon system that you don't absolutely need for the defense, you're doing a disservice to the people.

By the way, Bernie Sanders, we worked with Bernie.

We did.

He's a nice guy.

He's more than a nice guy.

He's a nice guy.

He's a serious contender for the Democratic nomination.

Yeah,

this guy is running a real campaign.

Yes, he is.

I have almost every college student I encounter is for Sanders.

It's unbelievable.

Let me ask you.

What are the policy differences between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders?

It's about tone.

What is the policy difference between Hillary Clinton?

Name one difference between Hillary Clinton and Harry.

That's one great thing about Bernie Sanders.

He's forced her to to move to the left.

One thing he's really pushing for is a single-payer health care system.

He's talking about

that.

But you know what?

I think that he has helped make the Democratic candidates altogether a better group because he is speaking to something that is really in people's hearts and minds in this country.

They are so frustrated with income inequality.

They are so frustrated with wage stagnation.

They're so frustrated with the people who are going to be able to do that.

You should listen to my speeches.

Loans.

Yeah, but you probably are advocating for an inquiry.

We have a different solution.

Actually, it's actually austerity factory, too.

People actually believe Bernie Sanders will put a lot of these Walsh

crooks in prison.

They don't believe it when Hillary Clinton says it.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's all the time we have.

Thank you, panel.

You are very, very entertaining.

I appreciate you coming out, audience.

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