Ep. #711: Gov. Andy Beshear, Kate Bedingfield, Michael Steele

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

Start the clock.

Thank you, people.

Thank you very much.

How you doing down there?

Nice safe?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Real people are the best.

Stop it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And

I don't know where to start.

I'm like the spinning wheel thing in the computer.

Trump is suing America,

the country he's the leader of.

I'm not making a mess up.

For the, you know, when he was out of office, in between the terms, when they were putting him on trial and tried to put him in jail.

But he didn't didn't go to jail.

America is being sued for attempted karma.

He's an interesting man.

He even said, this is a quote, he said, I'm suing myself.

I was like, I'm just glad it's not me again.

You know what I'm saying?

So,

what else?

I'm old enough to remember Mark was so boring and normal that we have what else?

What else is going on?

Yeah, what else?

Oh, he's demolishing the east wing of the White House.

What else?

He is demolishing the east wing of the White House.

And he says he won't stop until he finds those Epstein files.

No, no, it's not for that.

No, it's

because we're putting in a big ballroom.

One of the greatest in the world, he says.

Did I mention the debt has hit 38 trillion?

Anyway,

we're putting in this big ballroom.

Trump, when he first said we're going to do it, he said it's going to not actually interfere with the building.

It's already there.

He said it's going to be near it, but not touching it.

We're just going to put the tip in, you know.

Okay,

then this happened.

I'm just going to file this under metaphors that are almost too obvious.

Okay, I guess.

Did they see the picture?

I don't know.

It was a picture independent.

I guess we fucked that up.

But the interesting thing about this, presidents have changed the White House in little ways before, but you know, they always got approval from Congress, permits.

This is no permits.

Nobody ever said best anything before.

Now, as a constitutionalist, I must say I find this appalling.

As the guy who took three years to get my fucking solar panels in, I'm kind of jealous.

I'm kind of.

I'm kind of in awe, because I live in L.A.

where you need 13 permits to put a bird feeder on your deck.

So,

what else?

What else?

Oh, yeah, he posted a shit video.

The president posted an AI video as a response to the No Kings rally, which was over the weekend.

Did you go?

People went to the.

Oh.

Fucking liars.

You didn't know.

You went from your couch to your bedroom and watched it in there.

I couldn't, because it was so depressing.

It just reminded me of how divided we are.

Democrats are like, no, kings.

And Republicans are like, no, kings.

So in response to this big protest, you know, seven million people came out to protest his presidency, he posted this video where he's flying a jet with a crown on his head, dropping reams of shit on the protesters.

As presidents do.

Also, if you're a Venezuelan in a boat,

you've heard of suicide by cop, this is kind of like that.

And the president said, I think what we're going to do now is just kill the people who are bringing in the drugs.

And I think I speak for all Americans when I say, which drugs?

But I know that because

I've got to tell you,

if you're really that concerned about drugs on boats, you ought to check out Lake Havasu at spring break because

I think you'll find a lot.

But,

oh, and then we've cut off all talking to the nation of Canada.

Suddenly, you know why?

Because Ontario, their big province, of course,

they had an ad, I don't know what it was for, but they showed a clip, a real clip, not a fake, there was no fakes back then,

of Ronald Reagan saying he didn't like tariffs.

A simple difference of opinion over a bureaucratic issue between a fellow fellow Republican who's dead.

But Trump said this was like the most disrespectful thing he's ever seen.

And then he made a video emitting a fart cloud of the Democratic National Convention.

You know,

don't give them any ideas, they'll do that tomorrow.

And they're like, that's a good one.

But hey, it is the World Series.

LA is in the World Series.

Bad timing with the Canada thing because they're playing the Blue Jays.

Then the winner gets to decline an invitation to the White House.

Oh.

One more thing, in bilateral Nazi news, because

there's always a lot of Nazi news these days.

One Republican and one Democrat, there's one Republican, the nominee for the office of special counsel, they found out he can't take the job because he was found to have said, sometimes I have a Nazi streak.

And then a guy named Graham Plattner is the Democratic candidate in Maine for the Senate.

He's an oyster farmer in Maine, and he has a tattoo that's a Nazi thing,

not good.

On the bright side, I think I have found my Halloween costume Nazi oyster farmer.

That's where I'm going.

But this guy,

maybe Senator Plattner, he apologized for his racism and his misogyny, but now there's scrutiny about anti-gay remarks.

So it looks like his days as a Democrat are numbered, and his days as a Republican are just beginning.

We've got a great show.

We have Kate Benningfield and Michael Steele, but first up, he is the Democratic governor of Kentucky.

Wow, and he hosts the Andy Bashir podcast on Syria XM Andy Bashir, the governor.

Governor, how are you?

Great to find to meet you, sir.

All right, you seem very popular out here.

Warm audience.

Very popular.

I'm curious what that Halloween costume is going to look like.

I'm curious if you're running for president.

You know what I'm trying to do right now?

I thought I'd get right to it.

Right now I'm trying to speak a little bit of reason into chaos.

Well, I hope so.

You know, there's a reason why people are putting you up for that job is because you have a very high approval rating in Kentucky and you're a Democrat.

That's not that easy to pull off.

What is your secret?

Well, I think it's showing up, working hard, and getting results.

It's understanding that when my people wake up in the morning, they're not thinking about the next election.

They're thinking about their job and whether they make enough to support their family.

They're thinking about their next doctor's appointment for themselves, their parents, or their kids.

They're thinking about the roads and bridges they drive, the school they drop their kids off at, and whether they feel safe in their communities.

Those aren't things that move a state to the right or the left, but they just move them forward.

Well.

That is a good speech, but I have heard it before.

I've given it before a few times.

Okay, I can tell.

And I'm not saying it can't work, but I mean, you've got to have something that's going on because more than that, they put you in charge, the Democrats did, of recruiting governors.

You're in charge of the whole thing for the country, like trying to find the next Democratic governors, recruiting and messaging.

You're in charge of that.

What's your plan?

Well, it's about common sense, common ground, and getting things done.

We've got to find people that are authentic, they're real, that they talk to people and not at them, and then hopefully have a record of creating jobs, of making health care more affordable, basically, of just bettering people's lives.

I think right now people are struggling to pay bills at the end of the week or the end of the month, and they're not looking for a lot, just somebody that can make their life a little bit easier and a little bit better.

And I think those are the type of candidates that we got to recruit.

Okay, well it doesn't seem like we're getting too specific here.

I feel like there's some elephants in this room that we're not identifying that reason why Democrats have not done well in recent elections.

I mean, first of all, you have to go through a primary gauntlet, don't you, in the Democratic Party?

We like to have spirited primaries.

I'd like to think.

Well.

I'd like to think that when democracy works well, you have that.

Well, we didn't have any for Kamala.

No?

Okay.

Just throwing that out there.

That is true.

That's true.

Should we have?

You know,

with that time period, I think it would have been challenging.

But what you saw very quickly was all the former presidents line up behind the vice president, and she worked hard.

Now, if she had more time, if the Democratic Party had more time, you know, maybe things would have been different.

But we did the best with what we had.

Certainly wish we'd have gotten that over the finish line.

Well, it all came out for the best.

I think she should have had less time, but that's just me.

But

you have this very high approval rating in your state, and yet it's a conservative state, and you still, you vetoed two gender bills that the legislature overrode, which will do you well in the Democratic primary.

Just briefly describe what those bills were and what your reasoning is on this.

Yeah, those were both bills that mainly addressed our LGBTQ population.

They were mean.

They were unnecessary.

Most of the time they were meant to score political points and or hurt me in a 2023.

What did they say?

They were trying to eliminate different types of therapies, both for adults and for kids.

And I think that there can be certain limits.

What about sex change?

Oh, no, certain limitations, certainly for kids, I think, are.

What about girls in sports?

There was a bill on that, but here's the thing.

I care too much about sports to want to let government run them.

You look at where we were in Kentucky, and we didn't have a single issue that you saw in the rest of the country.

We had a high school athletic association that had these really great policies that prevented any unfair advantage.

They were really specific.

The only athlete that we had that was trans in the state was a seventh grader, and she had started a high school field hockey team to make friends.

Certainly, we ought to be able to prevent unfair advantages in the high school and the college level without making life harder for a seventh grader.

Well I'm sure that's true.

But

it does seem like the kind of thing that is losing Democrats' elections, that the perception of a lot of people in the country, and if you're the kind of guy who's going to be out there leading the way, they're going to be saying, yeah, he doesn't quite get it.

We've had too much cultural issues and not enough of the stuff you were talking about at the beginning and the Democrats are not really connected with the regular lives of regular people and we don't want to go back to that kind of stuff.

We don't want to go back to everything is about white privilege and everything is about gender and who's a boy, who's a girl, who knows.

But I think it's more about focus.

You know, people want you to be focused on things that impact their lives every day.

That's what we're saying the same thing.

And so I think what you've got to do is spend 80% of your time on things that matter to 100% of the American population.

That doesn't mean you don't stand up for your convictions, some of which they may share or not, but the next day, be opening that factory.

The next day, be opening that new road that saves 20 minutes each way.

I think people can be willing to disagree with you, even on cultural issues.

But if you're making their life better, if they see the effort and the focus, they'll vote for you.

So I think that last ad during the presidential election was less on being anti-trans, because I think anyone who was anti-trans was already voting for Donald Trump.

The country's not in general.

But I think it was about distraction.

He was saying the vice president was focused on these issues that don't impact you, and I'm focused on you.

And I'm focused on winning.

Well, so

what's going to win?

What's going to win, I think, is the restoration of the American dream.

When you look at our folks right now, they're crying out for help.

because they can't afford a house in the same decade their parents did.

They're struggling to pay the phone bill,

the premium on their health insurance, every single thing.

I mean, I talked to a bus driver who talked about barely being able to afford the groceries for her family at the end of the month, but I hadn't been able to take them on vacation in years.

And people have to believe that American dream is attainable, and that's where I think the Democratic Party has to be, has to live, and where they'll win.

Well, let's talk about another elephant in the room, which is race.

I mean, in the past, Democrats,

they had to check boxes before they could go forward with their ticket.

You know it would I asked Democratic politicians this and they didn't argue with it.

I said it's impossible to imagine a Democratic ticket without a person of color on it.

Now maybe that's the right thing to do but it is more limiting than what the Republicans are which is we don't give a fuck.

That does make things easier I guess.

Right.

But

okay.

But I'm just asking

if if you were, just hypothetically, at the top of the ticket, would you feel that sort of constraint?

Would you say, no, I am the Democratic candidate, and I can't have another white man on the ticket?

I'd want, number one, to pick somebody who could help govern.

You want somebody who would do the best job.

Because if you only run for these offices to win, and trust me, you've got to win to do them, then you're not doing it for the right reason.

And so you've got to think about who can help me do a little bit more for the American people?

Who can add something that I might not have?

Who has some experience that I don't have?

So I think you're always looking both at winning and at governing.

But I think what you're talking about is sometimes the right meaning policies of inclusion can lead to exclusion.

Now, the idea is we should be able to pull more seats up to the table, not ask somebody who's been sitting at it to get up and to move for somebody else.

What do you think about what Governor Newsom out here, who you could be hypothetically running against in the primary?

I'm just saying, it's a crazy hypothetical, but who knows what could happen.

He's been trolling Donald Trump.

I mean, he's been doing, he's been, you know, sort of taking Trump's methodology and throwing it right back at him.

I think it may have jumped the shark a little recently.

Is that something you endorse?

Do you think that's an effective technique?

Would you do it?

Should we keep doing it?

Should we stop doing it?

I think think what Gavin is doing, especially on redistricting, is important.

It's needed.

He's taking the fight back.

I wish we didn't have to be there.

I wish we didn't have to do it.

But once Texas changed the rules of the game, we all have to play by the same rules.

And so I appreciate his leadership there.

Well, that's not trolling.

That's a real issue.

Now, he's pushing back in his way.

It's not my way.

It's just not me.

But I think everybody has to take their style and do what's best for their people.

But I think he is standing up.

I think he's pushing back.

And I think it takes all of us all in our own ways.

What is your prediction for the midterms?

I think the Democrats actually are going to do very well because, I mean, if you look at what's going on now,

even among Republicans, the polling is not especially good on the economy.

This is among Republicans, who are very worried about the economy and also think he's overreached.

Like, I think 63% of the people said, we need to check on this guy.

He is a little drunk with power.

A little, I say.

Wink, wink.

And that has been noticed, I think, even by sort of the person who doesn't pay that much attention to politics.

So that's usually when people do really well from the other party in the midterms, when they say, okay, there's this guy in the White House, because this has happened before with both parties, not to this degree, of course.

But, and drunk with power, we need to check.

You think that's what's going to happen?

I do.

I think people don't like extremism.

I think people feel that the country may have swung too far one way and now is swinging too far the other.

And it's impacting their daily lives, even mental health, getting hit by how the news comes out over and over and over right now.

But before we get to the midterms, the Democrats are going to win the governorship of both New Jersey and Virginia.

We're working really hard to make that happen.

All right.

Well, I know you are.

Thank you very much.

It's been a long time I've wanted to meet you, Governor.

I appreciate it.

Good luck.

All right.

Good luck with whatever campaign you might be involved in.

Governor Berskik, let's meet our panel.

Who knows what he could be?

We have no idea what his political future is.

All right, he's the former RNC chairman who now co-hosts MSNBC's The Week Night.

My friend Michael Steele is over here.

And she's a CIM political analyst and the former White House Communications Director under President Biden, Kate Bettingfield.

Kate, great to have you on our panel.

All right, now that he's gone, let's talk about it.

What'd you think?

Is he the guy?

Is he the one who's going to be the...

There was a lot less pearl clutching.

I like that part.

He's good.

It's very strong.

I think it's very strong.

Good conversation engaging with you.

I think in a lot of ways, you know, the Democrats are going to have to figure out the sensibility of the country.

They're going to have to align their characters, their characters, their candidates.

With that sensibility.

And I think, you know, you saw someone who,

he's top in his state right now because he's able to do that.

Yeah.

Look, I thought his answer on the gender stuff was really, really good.

Because the reality is, Republicans are going to continue to try to drive this issue, right?

They played it to great effect in 2024.

They're going to continue to try to drive it.

They view it as an 80-20 issue.

So whoever the Democratic nominee is, they're going to have to have handled this issue, have talked about it.

And I thought he spoke really effectively about taking a principled stand, but also making it about the fact that he's actually focused on what people are concerned about.

And I think sometimes, you know, Democrats get so afraid of their shadow.

And

I thought he was really forceful about standing on principle without sort of saying, you know,

my entire focus as governor is protecting protecting trans athletes.

I thought he did a really good job on that.

Okay.

Well, great.

I'm glad we're providing a forum.

Well, he and I are both part of the let's talk to the opposition wing

of the Democratic Party.

Oh, there is another wing.

Oh, yes.

Oh, believe me, I hear from them all the time.

I bet you do.

How fucking dare you

talk to them.

I'm sorry, I'm part of the let's talk to them wing because, you know, it's on both sides where there's people who believe, well, they're too deplorable on either side, we just can't talk to them, we have to own them.

And I think what we're seeing now is the upshot of this strategy: when you lose,

because a lot of people on the left wanted that and still want that.

We can't talk to them, we just have to own them.

Great, unless you lose, then they completely own you.

Because my question this week is:

what could President Trump not do?

I mean,

well, it's a question for the country.

So we in the country?

No,

look, the reality of it is, in so many respects,

we are past in my

appreciation of this, past Trump, in the sense that

at some point, this idea of us as a country, as folks who are kind of under this pluralistic umbrella called democracy, and we're kind of working our way through it, and we're a 249-year-old experiment that seems to work every once in a while, that at some point we have to put our foot down too.

We've checked out as a country and allowed a lot of the crap that's happening happened to us.

And so the question becomes, if you know someone's taking away the programs that are going to feed your kids, that are going to keep you healthy, and that are going to allow you to live in an environment in which you can actually breathe and drink the water.

All right, if they're going to take that away from you and the only thing you're worried about is your fantasy football picks or whether or not you're going to go hang out with your boys on a podcast, then you get Trump, then

you get Stephen Miller, then you get Buravat.

So

when do we the people, and I've listened to you for a long time, and I think people appreciate the thing about you over the years that you and I have been having this conversation where we started out going back and forth on policy, and now we're going back and forth on what the country is.

And I think that that says a lot about how we've grown as a country, but it also talks about the fissures that have grown with it.

And we have to address those fissures.

Otherwise, this thing breaks, baby.

It ain't coming back.

Yeah, which is part of the reason that we have to talk to each other.

I'm with you in that wing of the party.

We have to talk to the opposition.

One, we have to talk to them if we want to win, because as you say, news flash, Trump actually won the popular vote in 2024.

So in terms of people who turned out to vote in 2024, there were more of them than there were of Democrats.

So, you know, simple math, you got to talk to them.

Kind of matters.

But we have to talk to each other because we are really facing some existential issues in this country.

And the more we continue to silo ourselves into us versus them,

the less prepared we are to take this on in a real way and to do it in a way that helps more people.

I mean,

sorry.

No, no, no, go ahead.

I saw in the news this week that he was about to send the troops into San Francisco.

And then he talked to somebody who talked him out of it.

Yeah.

I'm not saying this is the ideal way to run the government.

I'm just saying the more people who talk to him, the better.

Yes.

And

by the way, he's not against talking to people.

He's really not talking to us.

He won't either.

They won't talk to him.

I think he would.

I think he likes having people around.

Oh, absolutely.

I also, I think it's also actually what people want in this country.

Like, we get so, you know, the megaphone on X, the megaphone on TV is so loud, and we kind of get convinced that we're all just, at each other's throats and we're just pitted against each other.

But for the vast majority of Americans who don't follow politics, who aren't living and dying with the up and down of what's going on in Washington, they actually look at Washington and say, like, these jokers can't work together.

I have to go to work every day and work with people I don't like.

Why can't these people get it together?

He is there.

I think we're missing the mark.

No, you're right.

The people aren't all there, although millions of them are.

But he is definitely at a place.

We are at a place now where it is sort of getting to be against the law to not be on their side.

Yeah.

Sort of against the law not to be with them.

I think what you have, that's an excellent point to raise in the context of what this is and what you heard from the governor is that you're really beginning to see, I think we're at a fork in the road, Bill, where you're MAGA or you're not, it's no longer right or left, red or blue.

All right?

It's because

that paradigm has passed.

It is now something very, very different.

And the question for the country as you face this fork in the road is

where do you turn?

Which way do you want to turn?

Because we watched this week

the destruction of a symbol of this government, of our democracy, of our pluralistic society.

Time at the White House?

The East Wing.

Yeah, a lot of...

It's a building.

It's a building.

Okay, Bill, it's a building maybe to you, but to a lot of Americans, it's not.

And I'm going to tell you, as a young kid growing up in DC,

when my daddy took me by that building, it meant something to me as a 10-year-old.

It meant something to me to grow up in a town where everybody in this country came and protested and cried and screamed and laughed, right?

And I was a part of that.

So that building for me was my childhood.

Because my daddy stood me out in front of the gate before Clinton closed the road, right?

Because of terrorism and all the other threats to the country.

I used to stand in front of that building and watch it.

It meant something.

So, yeah, you can say it's just a building.

And something

Donald Trump tore it down, but he tore it down without availability.

It's not without availability.

Okay, first of all, I agree.

I said, you know, he should have gotten the permits,

but that's how he does things.

You know, the recklessness.

But

it is just a building.

First of all, that part of the building wasn't always there.

I got it.

Presidents do change the buildings.

Nixon put in a bowling alley.

Obama made the tennis court a basketball court.

I can't get this mad about everything, Mike.

I'm not mad.

It's not a question of being mad.

It's a question of understanding what the symbolism is and what.

The symbolism is he's not leaving.

That's what bothers me about it.

Exactly.

Is that who puts in a giant ballroom if you're leaving?

If this is like the only thing that's not the best thing, okay, but that's the issue, not the building.

If this was the only impulsive, reckless,

driven by his driven by his own desire for self-aggrandizement, if this was the only thing he had done on that front, then I would give you it's just a building.

But it's not.

It's part of a

manner of governing that is

tearing at some of the foundations, the institutional foundations in this country, and that's scary.

Well, that's what I'm much more concerned about.

Those two things.

The institutional foundations.

Well, the institutional foundation does not.

I agree with you.

But again, I'm just talking about, for me, it meant something a little bit different than it does probably.

No, I mean, look, I don't know what's going to happen because of the no kings thing, but a lot of people did come out.

It's probably not a lot of actual practical effect.

And some of these people faked it, and they said they went, and they really didn't.

I'm sure some did.

But it's not like they didn't have a point with the no kings.

I mean, we are, I mean,

that is basically a valid point to make about the whole king thing.

Here's a question that I saw, did not realize until it hit the news a lot: that it was very white.

What do you make of that?

That the white, the guy in Baltimore, the paper there, said we struggled to, or a photographer, to find a picture of black people in this march.

I'm okay with that.

I didn't go, and I feel like, oh, well, you talk.

Well, we had a meeting.

Yeah,

Go ahead.

Yes.

And let's just say it didn't go too well for white folks, that's all.

No, look, I look at that.

That to me is just, that's a distraction for me

to go down that road because the no kings piece is very different from another piece that that question I think gets to.

And that is the relationship that broke with Democrats and the African American community in the last cycle, particularly with black women.

And so I think the no kings thing, I would set that aside because, you know, you look at the fact that in the

first version of that, 5 million Americans showed up, this version, 7 plus million.

That's a trend line that you pay attention to.

There's something that's moving in the country.

So I'm not going to sit there and count the colors of the skin of the people who are there or not there.

But what I am going to pay attention to is that as I get ready for the next cycle, which begins in two weeks with the elections that the governor referred to in Virginia and New Jersey, that's where it's going to matter, the turnout of the African-American community, which after the

Kamala Harris thing

turned into a real, real bad situation in the way it was handled internally within the party, the way it was handled externally in a number of communities.

So I'm not going to lump that in with the no kings thing.

I appreciate the fact what those folks were able to do in galvanizing the American people around the idea that was part of the formation of the country.

Absolutely.

Well, and especially in a moment where Trump is largely

trying to push in this kind of unprecedented way on our legal system, on institutions in this country, from a place of fear.

And so I disagree with you a little bit about, oh, it doesn't really mean anything.

I actually think that people showing up and

we oppose that.

I didn't say it didn't mean it.

That was the building.

In an environment.

In an environment of fear.

But

the white house in matter.

You said it's not going to have any practical effects.

You know, it's not going to, you don't change laws or, you know.

But yes, it's a good thing.

It's going to

ask.

What do you make of the folks around the country that organize that way?

Well, I think it's good.

I think it's good that people care.

It's good that you show that you care.

On this issue that we were talking about, I also was reading that, you know, a lot of folks thought, well, if they see me at this rally,

to the point of what a king does, if they see me at this rally, or what actually goes on in countries with the dictatorship, if they see me at this rally, you know, in China, if they see you at a rally, and they always do because they have cameras everywhere, and they may have that here, maybe when I go into work, I'm not going to be welcome there.

And I think black folks have a greater understanding of this than the white folks,

which is why they might not have shown up.

And I don't blame them.

It certainly probably plays a part for some people, but I do want to give a shout out to the 7 million who didn't give a damn about the campus.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I rethink here to Michael's point about

what the Democrats have to do to rebuild in places where they have struggled and have lost black support, Hispanic support.

To me, that is largely going to be a question about what they're doing on the economy and what they're saying about the economy.

And I think that while it is, I think that while the no kings piece is important for all the reasons we just discussed, in terms of the work the Democratic Party has to do to get back to better electoral footing in this country, it's winning back over black voters, Hispanic voters, young voters on this question of

we believe there's an economic future for you, we believe there's opportunity, and really laying out an agenda.

So to me, it's really, that's going to be the economics.

It's going to happen in the economics maintenance.

Let me give you some more bad news about the Democrats.

Another way they're losing babies.

You know, Trump is a guy who looks at everything and says, I want to fix it.

I don't like the way he's doing it usually, but

whether it's the ballroom, we've got to fix that, that's not right.

We've got to get rid of the dictator in Venezuela, everything,

we've got to fix everything.

Nothing he doesn't look at says, I'm going to fix this.

Well, that includes now in vitro.

Dr.

Oz was out there the other day, and he said that we're going to have a whole new bunch of Trump babies, he calls them, Trump babies.

And this is their stated goal in Project 2025.

They said, we want more babies.

They're the baby party.

And meanwhile, the Democrats, the liberal young Democrats, don't have much sex anymore.

This has also been reported a lot.

It's true.

So we thought as a public service,

as a public service, we would put out some posters to try to get the young people to start fucking again.

Would you like to see them?

For example, turn your phone off and get busy.

It's not like you're going to miss a job offer.

Wouldn't you like a tiny friend to watch SpongeBob with?

You can get through to the kids.

Make her scream about something other than the patriarchy.

Don't think of it as fucking.

Think of it as genital influencing.

Save the planet.

Make more people who recycle.

Oh, here's a good one.

Don't let the trad wives get all the dick.

Yeah, that's.

And

you know how you plug your charger into your phone?

It's like that.

And of course, an erection is just a penis that's woke.

Okay.

So

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I was going to ran out of time with the governor, but I was going to ask him about a sister soldier issue, which is what has been talked about a lot, because the Democrats, let's face it, they're kind of split now.

There's the far-left version that did not do too well in recent elections, and then people like the governor who say, we got to come back to the middle, common sense.

And whenever this discussion comes up, this is what you hear a lot.

We need a sister soldier moment, a time when

some issue with the Democrat says, look, I'm not with the far left, and this is how you know you can trust me that I'm not.

I think I have the issue.

Okay.

And it's the mayor's race in New York.

I think

he seems like a sweet guy, mum-dummy.

But I would just like to say, because the election is in a couple of weeks,

This is not just New York that's on the ballot.

I think the whole Democratic Party in the country is on the ballot.

And the whole country will be looking at this race to see which way are the Democrats going to go.

No, Andrew Cuomo may not be that exciting and that inspirational, but for a party that said we want to get back to normal, he's kind of normal.

I mean.

What?

No.

Well,

he's got some things in his history that I would suggest are not.

He's not the normal I want to embrace.

Well, we did a deep dive on that because we had him on the show.

A lot of it is kind of bullshit.

I mean, maybe he was a little too handsy, a a little too Italian,

a little too touchy.

You know,

that's what he said.

You know, yes, you know, you know, did not get the memo.

If you Democrats want to keep doing this, throwing guys like that under the bus, because that's not good enough and pure enough, you're going to

wind up with a guy who did a little more than what Andrew Cuomo did.

Anyway, the point is, they're going to have to decide on this mayor's race.

Now they say it's getting closer.

If it is Mondami in New York, again, I think this has very important national implications.

So, I disagree with you a little bit.

I both agree and disagree.

I'll tell you why.

I disagree that the mayor of New York sets the national tone in the way that New Yorkers maybe think that he does.

I don't think that people living in purple districts in the middle of the country actually really care all that much who the mayor of New York is.

I don't think they do.

What I will say, though, is I think that to your point about Sister Solja, I actually do think that those people, should Mom Dani win, those people should criticize him.

That's fine.

I actually think that's a good thing.

Separate yourself from somebody who's running in New York City, one of the most liberal districts, places in this country,

because you represent somewhere different.

I think that's okay and actually creates distance in a way that I think isn't bad.

But I also think that Democrats, national Democrats, have shocker, wrung their hands about this this too much.

I think Mandani has a lot of energy.

He's excited a lot of young people.

He's brought a cohort of voters who have been unsatisfied with the Democratic Party into the tent.

And you have to win in order to win.

And I think that Democrats are constantly looking to try to take a loss out of a win.

They're trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And I think that if Mandani wins

with a coalition of voters who have been not all that excited about the Democratic Party over the last few years.

I think that's a good thing for the Democrats.

And I think if you're in a purple district, say you disagree with some of the things that he does and

use that to establish your independent cred.

Well you make it sound like he's a little more mainstream than I think he is.

I mean the issue now that Andrew Cuomo is bringing up in New York is that he is a Ugandan citizen.

Uganda is a country where they kill homosexuals.

So

somebody who is a dual citizen can't be mayor of New York or?

I would renounce if I was the dual citizen with a country whose policy, government policy was we kill homosexuals, yeah, I would renounce that citizenship.

I don't and to not and

it's not good for the country.

It's not good for the country.

You shouldn't be afraid of the country.

And I think the way that Cuomo, I think the way that Cuomo is closing out this race and

really race baiting and really leaning in on

terror and something like Rhino.

You know what?

Just because

I understand.

But just because something is done by people in Africa doesn't mean it's always okay.

But you said race baiting.

It has nothing to do with race.

Oh, I'm talking about what Cuomo is doing, suggesting that Mombani couldn't be a leader in a terror situation if he were mayor of New York and, God forbid, something else like Nina.

But he did campaign with a terrorist.

He did say, well, but Cuomo was pretty clear, I thought, in the way he talked talked about that, in a way that I thought was ugly.

Well, he campaigned this week with a guy who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and served as a character witness for Omar Abdel Rahman, the terrorist who organized it.

So Sarah Palin used to say Obama palled around the terrorists, which was bullshit.

But...

I just don't know if this is a great look for the party.

I really don't.

My take is I think what's being left out out in this conversation is probably the most important ingredient, and that is the people of New York.

They will decide whether or not everything you just leveled up and every concern that people have put out there about Mr.

Mondami is relevant to them when they go to the polls.

When they start, they've started early voting, and when they go to the polls, New Yorkers will decide, just like 78 million Americans did four years after Donald Trump to re-elect him.

And here we are.

So if we really believe in this idea that this is a pluralistic society and that voting matters and democracy matters, then we are not in a position to sit back and second guess and vote shame a community because we outside that community don't like their choice.

Right?

So what we have to do,

this is the tripwire bill for this country right now because everybody's got an opinion about shit that don't matter to them.

I don't live in New York.

I live in Maryland.

Wes Moore was my governor in Maryland.

And those of us who know Wes campaigned and who liked him, campaigned for him and voted for him.

Those of us who didn't, didn't.

That's the way the system works.

And so, you know, Montami, and here's the last piece, having been the lieutenant governor of a state and worked with every municipality in my state, with the mayors and the city councils, he's going to have to govern.

So all of the stuff he's out here talking about he's going to do and free markets and I'm going to give you this, I'm going to give you that, wait till the city council has something to say about it.

Wait till the governor of New York has something to say about it.

And then all of a sudden, when she says, well, we're not sending money to the city of New York to do that, Mr.

Mondami will have a different conversation than the one he's having right now.

And more importantly, the people of the city, when he starts to stray from what, and this goes back to your very first point in this conversation about Trump.

When the leadership starts to stray, the people should course correct.

The people should have something to say, whether it is a march, whether it is a protest, whether it's going to city hall and sitting out in front of his office.

So I'm just waiting.

Let the voters vote, and then we can decide what this all looks like.

I don't think it's a bellwether for the country.

I think it's a bellwether for New York.

No.

That's why it's a debate show.

You have every right to.

No, no, no, but

you make the point.

I get it.

I mean, I disagree.

But the one thing I wanted to follow up on, though, is you said we should, it's okay that we don't care about shit that doesn't affect us.

But you certainly don't mean that.

No, I mean, to the extent that some policy that he is the city, the mayor of New York, will have on me living in Prince George's County, Maryland, yeah, I'll be concerned.

Well, we came out in 2020 when people came out for the Black Lives Matter

protests.

But that was a national event.

That wasn't centered around.

No, but

to white people, it's like, this doesn't affect me directly.

I'm doing it because I do care about what affects other people.

Why didn't it affect them directly?

Because they weren't black, because they weren't the ones who were having their own.

But

that was beyond the point.

It started there, but then the conversation, I mean, how do Europeans look at this?

How come they were a part of this movement?

I'm just saying, I think it's a good idea.

It spoke about our humanity.

It spoke about our humanity, how we treat ourselves.

And humanity is like caring for people beyond just who you are.

Right.

No, no, that's very true.

I agree with you, and that's why I said if Bandami institutes a policy in New York City that I'm feeling in Maryland, oh yeah, a brother going to have a lot to say about it.

All right.

I've got to end it there.

Thank you very much.

Time for New Rule.

Okay.

New Rule, now that over 100 million in historically significant jewelry has been stolen from the Louvre, the Louvre needs to send a representative to America to find out how we keep our shit safe here.

Ha ha, you lost priceless jewels and we haven't lost a disposable razor since 2009, bitch.

New rules, someone has to break it to the people having relationships with AI chatbots that were about three months away from the chatbots ghosting you.

Your chatbot has a genius level like you, can speak a hundred languages and compose a symphony.

You think it wants to listen to your bullshit?

Trust me,

at some point it's going to say, I just need to go offline for an update and never come back.

New will, now that Lionel Ritchie has revealed in his new memoir that he stopped believing in love,

I know.

He must explain how the guy who gave us love will find a way, love will conquer all, endless love, love, oh love, I call it love, still in love, unsweet love,

has now decided love, eh.

You're telling me it was all bullshit?

This is like Cardi B saying she prefers an arid, well-ventilated vagina.

Geez, next thing you'll tell me is I shouldn't have tried dancing on the ceiling.

New rural energizer has to replace the bunny.

This poor fucking thing

has been going for 37 years, and it's not a coincidence that it came along right after the introduction of the rabbit vibrator.

So

let's just admit what couldn't be said in a TV commercial in 1988.

It's pink, it takes batteries, and it keeps on going.

Don't make us spell it out.

New world, now that President Trump is redecorating the White House, building a ballroom, and hosting brunches at his new Rose Garden Club,

he has to star in a new TV series called Queer Eye for the Authoritarian Guy.

In which he

transformed dowdy MAGA voters from frumpy to trumpy

with the help of his sassy sidekick, George Santo.

And finally, new rural Republicans have to be honest about who these days is more deranged.

They love to invoke Trump derangement syndrome, and there is some of that, but Trump really is doing things when it comes to ignoring court orders and using the Justice Department for partisan goals and deploying the military domestically that no one ever came close to doing before.

So I don't feel especially deranged calling that out.

But having

your press secretary say that the Democratic Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals, that's deranged.

Democrats

Democrats have many flaws, and I point them out frequently on this show, but unstoppable super monsters?

These are people who let their 10-year-old pick the restaurant, okay?

Now,

are there dumb, college-age, useful idiots who march for Hamas?

Yes, that exists, as does Democrats who stupidly enabled way too many migrants to enter the country.

But that is a far cry from the main constituency of the party being terrorists or being illegal aliens.

And violent criminals?

Well, 7 million people came out last weekend for the big protests, and there was no violence, but there was a lot on January 6th.

House Speaker Mike Johnson called last weekend's hate America rallies and said that the kind of people you're going to find there and who are when you think about it, the kind of people who make up your average Democrat,

Marxists, socialists, Antifa advocates, anarchists, Hamas lovers,

Mike, get a grip.

75 million people voted for Kamala.

So yes, among 75 million there do exist all types.

But Mike, your team just got caught in a scandal where your young people were all texting each other, I love Hitler.

So maybe we both have a dog that needs training.

I will be the first to admit there is a growing problem of young liberals who see violence as an answer.

20-somethings who throw kisses at Luigi Mangioni and firebombs at Tesla dealerships and want to eat the rich.

And you have my full permission to keep an eye on them.

But I'd be more afraid of that generation if they didn't have a habit of quietly quitting everything they start.

These are people who won't risk going on a date in real life.

I'm not sure they can screw America if they can't screw each other.

So

yes, each side has its crazies, and I'll grant you, at least the right has found a place for theirs.

Unfortunately, that place is elected elected government.

It should not be the case that the White House press folksperson sounds exactly like the worst Karen at Dollar General.

But she does.

You guys have got to get a grip.

You're paranoid.

You're fucking paranoid.

I'm telling you, you know I don't lie to you.

Listen to this: conservative cartoonist Scott Adams said in 2020 that if Biden were elected, it would mean that there is a good chance you will be dead within a year.

Republicans will be hunted.

Okay, but Biden was elected.

And it wasn't that long ago, like less than a year, when he headed the government with his people heading the Justice Department.

And he didn't hunt you dead, Scott.

Mike Cernovich is a popular conservative influencer and quite insane, but

his views among Magination are considered mainstream, and he says that if Kamala had won, listen to this, quoting, by now there'd be over 5 million gang members in the country.

Also, Elon is in prison, Trump is dead, I'm dead, or in a gulag.

Your family is being rounded up, about to be murdered.

We were that close.

Yeah, Mike, I'm going to go sit at the other end of the bar, no offense.

Jesus.

Forget fentanyl.

I want to know what's in the skull.

Guys,

I'm beg of you.

If Democrats really were rounding up families and wanting to kill all the conservatives, I'd be for a right-wing coup myself.

But it's not even the neighborhood of being true.

The Democratic Alliance isn't a top-down evil empire.

It's black ladies who go to church, white suburban moms, and gay uncles.

Almost everyone I know out here in LA is a liberal Democrat, and 0% of them are Venezuelan gangbangers.

Am I just lucky?

Is it a zip code thing?

This insane caricature of the left as ruthless communists about to force you into gulags where you'll make you saw our Lululemon yoga pants by forced labor.

This shit has got to stop.

You're not under attack.

No matter how many times you show that video of the insane black guy stabbing the pretty blonde on the train, there's no great replacement theory.

And that 75 million that voted Democrat, they can't all be drag queens.

And one more thing: Democrats sometimes do things without George Soros telling us to.

Yeah,

he's not our pimp, I promise.

It doesn't work that way.

I've been at the meetings.

It starts with a ridiculous land acknowledgement, and at some point, there's drumming.

That's it.

I know this tribe.

Not only are they not in Trendaragua, most of them think Trend Argua is George Clooney's latest tequila.

Thank you very much.

You were a great crowd.

I want to thank Michael Steele, Kate Benningfield, and Governor Andy Bashir.

Club Random drops every Monday on YouTube or listening wherever you get your podcast.

Now go watch Overtime on YouTube.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, guys.

Catch 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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