Overtime – Episode #687: David Sedaris, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sen. Jon Tester

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Call 1-844-4OTESLA or visit Otesla.com for prescribing info, info about cost and more. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher.
All right, here we are in overtime with the best-selling author and humorist who starts his 40-plus city tour on March 30th across the U.S., David Sedaris. And a former Democratic senator from Montana who co-hosts the podcast Grounded, John Tester, and a CNN political contributor and co-host of The View, Alyssa Farrah Griffin.
Okay. So these are the questions that the people want to know.
John Tester, I don't know why this is just for you,

it says, are you concerned about bird flu

like the rest of us don't care about

bird flu?

And the Trump administration's ability to respond

to another epidemic.

Well... Yes.

Yes and yes?

Yeah, I mean,

look, I mean, I think that

we should learn something from COVID and we should treat these things seriously in the world we live in today with people moving around. And as a farmer.
Yeah. Right.
Around animals and stuff. All the diseases come from animals.
Yeah. And it's because of the way we treat them.
The bird flu. Badly.
There's no doubt about it. It's concentration of livestock in small areas, in this case, chickens.
Did you ever try to, like, do anything about that? Like, I mean, I'm a PETA board member, so I'm a little biased here. Are you into that? I'm totally into that.
I forgot you were. I am totally into not torturing animals.
No, no, no. And you know what? When you do torture animals, it winds up coming...
That's how we get... That's right.
That's a collateral damage of it all. Look, we have a hard enough time getting a farm bill passed in Congress, for Christ's sakes, much less dealing with those kind of issues in our food system.
And that, does it mean we shouldn't deal with it? No, we absolutely should deal with it in common sense ways. But in the end, we end up talking about trans and bathrooms and David, bird flu.
Your thoughts. You know, I saw a video a few weeks ago, and it was Spanish women protesting the rape of chickens.
And I thought, who would stoop that low? They meant by roosters. And they were saying, if you have chickens outside, and a have chickens outside and a rooster tries to rape the chicken,

she can run away.

But if they're confined, there's nowhere to go.

And at first I thought it was crazy, and then I thought,

well, it's a point.

I'm dying to see your browser history.

And not to be gross, but people have had sex with chickens.

Larry Flint claimed that he lost his virginity to a chicken.

Thank you. And not to be gross, but people have had sex with chickens.
Larry Flint claimed that he lost his virginity to a chicken. I don't think that's how it happens.
Seriously? Yes, he was serious. I mean, this is Larry Flint, who started Hustler.
You know, I mean, that puts some context there. Any cock will do.
Any cock will do. There you go.
That's why he is who he is. Any cock will do.
This is for you, Phyllis. What do you think of Republican leadership telling their members that they should avoid doing town halls? You can't hide from your own voters.
It's literally... Like they're not going to be mad if you don't show up.
It's actually politically good advice from Richard Hudson because this is going to happen. My concern is that Doge has cut a lot that we don't know.
And in the next few months, there's going to be goods and services that the American public does rely on, not the fat and waste that none of us like. And if you're not getting your VA benefits, if you're waiting at the Social Security office, you're going to want to go and yell at your congressman or you're going to vote him out of office.
The other thing I would add to that is you get in Washington, D.C., and around that brick and that mortar, and it's a bubble, and you never hear what's going on in the real world. And those town hall meetings are the only way you can hear what's really going on in the real world.
It really goes against our democracy, quite frankly. Okay.
What do you... For you, David, what do you think of artists like Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel and Miranda canceling tours of their shows at the Kennedy Center now that Trump has taken it over? I've played the Kennedy Center three times.
Really? And every time I've gone, I've said, why haven't you given me the Mark Twain Award? I should get it too. Yeah, the last time they gave it to a writer was Neil Simon.
Wow. Now Jeff Foxworthy is going to get it before I do.
I mean... It doesn't seem fair.
I've played the Kennedy City a bunch of times and I've got to say, I don't know that I'd go back right now, because I think the audience is going to stay away as well.

And usually when I've

been there, I don't mean to sound like a dick, but, you know,

it sells out. And I don't want

Trump to take credit.

I don't want to lead

to its success if he's going to claim

that as a victory for himself.

You're not a dick for selling out.

No, no, no. I mean a dick for saying it.
Not a dick for that either. Okay.
Three times sold out. I'm angry that the building was politicized.
I'm angry about that. Okay, but I will say this in defense of the other side on this one, because I watched the Kennedy Center Honors this year.
It was in December. It's always in December.
I always watch it. And this year they honored Francis Ford Coppola and the Grateful Dead were the two famous ones, and then they have an opera singer you never heard of.
Okay, there's five people who get honored. And I just, now maybe I'm wrong because I didn't do an exhaustive study, but I was looking at watching the show.
I did not see one person in the audience or one person on the stage who you would think voted for Donald Trump. And this is the last month of the Biden administration.
And having just lost the election, I just thought, you know what? Invite Ted Cruz. If this is supposed to be America and we're all together and you just lost, invite some of the people who you wouldn't suspect to be there.
I'm sure Ted Cruz, or somebody like that, likes Francis Ford, Culple, everybody likes the Godfather. I'm sure there are some Republicans who are grateful dead fans.
And it's just like, no, the mean girls were like, no, this is our last time, and this is what you get. And now, you know, Kevin Sorbo will be winning the next Kennedy Center.
The arts obviously skew left of center and that's fine. I'm not looking to see Rob with all due respect perform there.
But I do think that how much in Beltway media the story of the Kennedy Center takeover has become a big story is just once again so out of touch with the middle of this country who doesn't even know what it is outside of watching the Kennedy Center honors once a year. So I think like going overboard on it isn't the answer either.
It's just it's just a bad attitude. So what you're saying is there were no Republicans in the audience? That's what I didn't see anybody throughout the whole show who I thought, oh, this is a person who voted for Trump.
I just felt when they they cut to the audience, it was just the usual suspects. And, like, okay, I get it.
You're right, it does skew left. But just, that's one thing that really bugs me about the left, that exclusionary attitude.
And, like, but you just lost. You don't have the juice to pull that off anymore.
And I've only been to it in person twice in 18 years, but the truth is both times that I went there, once about three years ago, there were a lot of Republicans in the audience during the Biden administration. Okay, maybe they just didn't show that.
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Not available in all states. What does the panel think about the inmate in South Carolina choosing death by firing squad? Eesh.
The state's first sex education as the least cruel option. Oh, yeah, I would agree.
Are you kidding? They're always fucking up. How is that better? Like, first you lie on the table.
It's like a massage. How do you know the guy shooting at you knows how to aim a gun? What? They could screw that up, too.
You know, they might miss. They've got, like, ten guys.
How could anybody have been in this? No one ever missed a firing. Are you crazy? No, it's over in two seconds.
You have the cigarette, blindfold, you're out of there. Oh, you get a blindfold.
That helps. The other thing where they would put you first, because they had to make this, they got the formula wrong many times.
They would first need to, like, put the guy out. Like, oh, you know, the Nora Jones music is playing.
It's, like, really comfortable. And then they would put in the real bad stuff.
And they fucked it up a number of times. And the guy, it was just the worst.
How have we not gotten better at doing it in a humane way, though? I would just imagine we have the technology to make it, like, quick, easy and peaceful, because I'm not going firing squad personally. David, firing squad, your thoughts? Miley, there was somebody on Instagram and he was asked what his last meal would be and he said the all-you-can-eat breadsticks.
Are you allowed to request alcohol in your

last meal? Because I'd be like, I'd like a bottle of Jack Daniels. Okay.
Well, what

does the panel think of Trump pulling $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University for failing to protect Jewish students from harassment? Well, it's true people love it. I'm for it.
Listen, the devil be at the details. Because, listen, free speech, fine.
If you want to be a queer for Palestine, it's an idiotic philosophy, but you have a right to be that.

You do not have a right to harass,

intimidate Jewish students on campus

to keep them from going to their classes at the table,

to keep them from going to dining hall.

It is ridiculous, and I will tell you,

those campus protests, those got Trump a lot of votes.

That was one of the times that I was like,

I hate this man, but this is insane that it's happening,

and we need a change in leadership. So when did you go from working for him to hating him? COVID in January 6th really did it for me.
Listen, I worked. I worked for Pence.
I worked for the Department of Defense in the first administration. And I went over to work for him during the COVID crisis.
I, to this day, think his single greatest accomplishment was Operation Warp Speed and getting the vaccine. But then he's run away from it for the past four years rather than leaning into science and American ingenuity and the free market and how we got there.
And I left before January 6th, but I saw it going that direction and the lies about the election. And that, to me, just went against my values.
I just couldn't be with him. Same thing happened.
Fascinating. And when did you go from loving him to hating him? I wish there was...
All right, everybody. Thank you very much.
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