Ep. #682: Jesse Eisenberg, Stephen A. Smith, Rep. Ro Khanna

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A better way.

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher. Start the clock.
How you doing?

All right.

Put together already.

Thank you, Brian.

Thank you.

Please.

Thank you.

How you doing? All right. Thank you.
Oh, I'm glad you're on. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Glad you're in a good mood.
I know. Hey, please.
I know it's been a tough time here for us Angelenos, right? I mean, last week a lot of people lost their home to the fire. This week a lot of people lost their gardeners to ice.
You know. And we're not out of the woods yet with the fires.
Right? They came up again. Some of them came up so quickly, the mayor barely had time to book a trip.
Also in the news this week, Donald Trump is president again, and he's only 13% contained. He's here in L.A.
today. He's touring.
Touring the fire zone. He saw all the pink flame retardant.
He said, I had no idea this place was that gay.

Oh, he's

quite an expert on what we should do here about the fires.

He said, I don't think we should give California

anything, aid he's

talking about, until they let the water

flow down. Okay, first of

all, you're not

I'm sorry. water flow down.
Okay, first of all, you're not... I said I wasn't going to lose it this year.

You're not giving us anything.

We're Americans.

Thank you.

This isn't a casino and you're comping a room, okay? And he's obsessed, as he gets obsessed with things like windmills. He's obsessed with this small fish called the smelt.
Now, there is a story about this, and it's too complicated to go into. But, you know, it's a fish.
We changed the laws, environmental, whatever. He said, no wonder it's endangered.
It's not getting any water. Okay, no, Don.
The fish has the water because we took down the irrigation dams in order to... Oh, fuck it.
Just do your dance and get out of here. Just do the dance.
But, boy, the inauguration was Monday, and this guy hit the ground running. So many things have changed so fast, I can't even go through them all.
Just basically, if you're not in prison, report. And if you were in prison, get out.
That's basically... No, he signed...
A lot of signing. He signed, had ceremonies all day long, 26 executive orders, 12 memos, and four proclamations about everything.
Windmills and the Kennedy assassination and renaming things and crypto and DEI and going to Mars and signing, signing, signing.

Lauren Boebert was there.

He said, boy, you think your hand gets tired.

Yes, and one of his proclamations, by proclamation, we will now only recognize two sexes. And if that doesn't grab you by the pussy, I don't know what...
Also, here's something kind of interesting. I'm sure it's just coincidence.
But before the inauguration, Trump increased his wealth by 89%. Yeah, like in a day.
To $58 billion. Now he's one of the richest 25 people in the world.
With meme coins. You got meme coins? You do? Oh, well, that's not good.
He released one of him and one of Melania. And a meme coin is a cryptocurrency that's inspired by an internet meme.
It's kind of like if Bernie Madoff sold Pokemon cards. It's just...
So, Trump voters, help me out on one thing. You voted for him because you couldn't afford eggs, but you can't afford the Melania Magic coin.
Okay. All right.
And finally, come on, this is L.A. The Oscar nominations came out this week.
Very exciting. And most nominations went to Emilia Perez.
Have you seen this one? It's a Spanish-language musical that celebrates a Mexican drug lord who becomes a better person by having a sex change operation.

I'm just glad the Proud Boys got out of prison in time to see it.

All right, we've got a great show.

We have Congressman Ro Khanna and Stephen A. Smith.

But first, he's a friend of mine, an award-winning actor,

a filmmaker, a road-directed and co-starred

in the Oscar-nominated movie A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg. Jesse.
Nice to see you. It's been so long.
It has been long. Thank you so much.
You look the same. You look the same.
You got the glasses, though. Yeah, I got the glasses.
We used to hang out. What happened? You moved to Indiana or some crazy shit? Yeah, I did.
I was living in Indiana. Actually, yeah, I was living in Indiana for a while.
What's there? No, I'm not that a knocking it. It's great.
No, one of the greatest towns in the world, Bloomington, Indiana. It's a college town, and, you know, it's this great place.
My wife was born and raised there. We went back there to help with family stuff, and we stayed for a while.
Oh, and do you like being in the heartland? I do, and I'll tell you like you know because i always did i've been listening to you for so long i i always love that you kind of like defend you're like there's a lot of people there who are not you know what you brush the whole state with you know right bloomington is this like incredible my mother-in-law ran the domestic violence shelter there for 35 years and so like all of our circle there are like people are activists. And, uh, you know, Indiana gets painted with quite a specific red brush.
But, like, uh, when you're there, you know, you're surrounded by people who are far more engaged than, you know, where I am in New York City. Yeah.
And even some red people are not horrible people. Well, of course that.
But I just mean... Of course that.
No, no. No, no.
No, I'm saying, of course that, but I'm saying also you have these people who you probably feel like... Right, I get it.
But listen, let's not bury the lead. You got an Oscar nomination.
I'm so... I'm just really happy for you.
No, because you are so prolific. You've done so much for so long.
And of of course, you've had a great career. But I feel like you're finally getting recognized as an auteur.
And this movie is fantastic. Thank you.
If you haven't seen this movie, I hate you. How's that for a plug? That's our quote.
Yeah, exactly. No, it's just so good.
And do you want to give the basic premise of it for people who don't know? Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, it's different than Emilia Perez.
It's what that movie isn't. No, it's basically, it's these two cousins who I play one of the cousins.
Kieran Culkin plays the other. And we go on essentially a Holocaust tour to Poland

to see where our grandmother is from

and to also see the sights of Poland.

But your grandmother in real life was in the Holocaust?

No.

So my family, like the character in the movie

is kind of like a combination of two people.

My cousin who survived, this woman Maria,

who just actually died of COVID,

but spent her life in Poland after the war.

And my aunt Doris, who left before the war and who was like a real mentor to me in my life. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Visit prizepicks.com for restrictions and details. Well, I read that you were going to play the other part.
I mean, I love the dynamic here because I've seen this in my life so much. One person, I feel like I'm this person, would be like you're the person you were in this movie.
Yeah. You know, they're the reasonable person.
And you have this great speech where you go like, we're all in pain. Whereas the other guy, he acts out on everything.
I think he's a giant pain in the ass, but he is charming. Right.
You know, there's that kind of person. I don't relate to that kind of person.
Yeah. And Karen Culker already won the Golden mean, he's brilliant playing that part.
Yeah, he's really great. Okay.
I read that you were going to play that part. Yeah, I mean...
That was a terrible idea. Well...
You know, that's what actors do. You know, I don't have to be that.
Kieran's not exactly that person either, you know, so, like, uh... Much closer.
Much closer, but... You made the right decision.
Oh, thanks a lot. It wasn't even my decision.
I was told not to play that part. One of my producers is Emma Stone, and she was like, don't try to direct a movie where you're managing a group of people while also playing this character who, as you kind of said, is kind of like this unhinged, spontaneous live wire.
Yeah, And the tone of it, you know, you are making a movie that's about a Holocaust tour. Yeah.
I mean, it's so perfect, but it, I can't imagine that you weren't aware of that at every moment when you're making it's because it's a funny movie. Yeah.
I mean, it is a comedy, but you don't want to make Harold and Kumar go to Auschwitz. Right, right, right.
Right. Yeah.
What was that like? I mean, does that happen in the writing before you do it? Does that happen on the set? Yeah. I mean, there's a scene where you're actually in the camps.
Right. And you see, I mean, I once went to Dachau and saw that.
I mean, it's an incredibly sobering experience. Of course.
To fit that into a comedy is tough, and you pulled it off. Oh, that's so sweet.
Yeah, I mean, I was, the only thing I was very conscious of was like trying to not make a movie that felt like sanctimonious. You know, I think a lot of like Holocaust movies, and of course there are so many, and there are so many wonderful ones, but a lot of times it feels like they're kind of like, I don't know, patting themselves on the back at the same time that they're showing you their movie.
And I just wanted to make something that felt like real and it felt like people I know that I can relate to, that I can understand talking about real things. They go to that camp and at night they sneak onto a roof to share a joint.
Like that would be what I would do if I was in that situation. And you too.
Right, and that's what I mean about relating to your character. Like, you guys go to Poland, and the other guy has a big thing of pot sent over there.
Yeah. And I'm a big pothead, but that would freak me out.
I was like, you're going to be in a Polish prison for the rest of our lives, you stupid fuck. What are you doing? Yeah, but he says in the...
Kieran says in the movie, he goes, what, they're going to arrest two Jews for a little bit of pot in Poland? That's a good look for the Polish people. You know.
But I understand you are now a Polish citizen? Yeah. You have a dual citizenship? I do, I do, I do.
Now, why would you, why were you moved to do that? Because I just had this like overwhelming feeling there of just complete like gratitude and indebtedness to the people who are there preserving like Jewish history. You know, we would go to all these sites of like, you know, Jewish trauma, right? And they're all now run by these incredibly like well-meaning non-Jewish people who have devoted their lives to like, you know, kind of memorializing my family's history.
And I just felt like it's such a shame that a lot of American Jews of Polish descent have this kind of negative attitude towards Poland, that, oh, it's anti-Semitic. I just had the exact opposite experience there.
And I wanted to just reconnect to a country that my family lived in far longer than we lived here. Well, they were very anti-Semitic.
Yeah, but I mean... The Nazis killed almost all the Jews there.
When they pulled out, the Polish people, some of them were still not very nice to the Jews. Listen, I know you're a history buff and we could talk geopolitics for a long time, and I'm happy to do that.
Jewopolitics? Nice. Very nice.
But like, I'm sensitive to the plight of the Poles historically.

Of course. And also, that was a long time ago.

Yeah.

The Polish people there are...

But what do you have to do?

What entitles you to become a Polish citizen?

I really... You know, I wrote a letter to the government saying,

I really want to do what I can.

This movie is an example, but I want to do what I can

to try to repair Polish and, you know, Jewish diaspora relations.

You think they would have let you do it if you were just Joe Eisenberg? Well, you know, I might have a cousin, Joe Eisenberg, and maybe... I might have used the connection.
So, you know, some people say Putin, after going for Ukraine, I mean, there is worry that he...

Right.

I don't think he's going to invade Poland next.

NATO country.

But I've heard that.

Yeah.

Okay, what if he does?

As a Polish citizen, do you go over there and fight the invasion?

You know, I've really only been a citizen for a very short time, so...

LAUGHTER

You went right into your Woody Allen. Yeah, yeah.
I don't mean to be facetious. Don't speak the language.
I wouldn't be good on the unit. Yeah.
You know. And also, I just have an appointment here on the Upper West Side.
Well, speaking of that, you did two movies with Woody Allen. Yeah, right.
And it's interesting the way this town is a little divided. Some actors will not work with him.
Yeah. Some, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, Diane Keaton, say it's a witch hunt.
Right. Other actors, let's call them gutless pussies, they say they regret working with him and wouldn't work with him.
Which are you? Well, you know, I... You know, saying, like...
First of all, thanks for bringing that up. You know, I'm of a few minds on this, and that's like, you know, to say I regret it, you know, something seems a little bit like passing the buck.
The other thing I think about all the time is, like, you know, if I can use my platform to say something like that, I'd rather say, please donate money to the Middleway House in Bloomington, Indiana. It's a domestic violence shelter.
And if you're really concerned with issues surrounding domestic violence, please don't ask an actor to have an opinion about something that they don't really know about. Please give money to this amazing shelter.
Okay. All right.
All right. What about, you played Lex Luthor in the Superman movie.
And it's interesting because I see Zuckerberg now at the inauguration and he's right at the seat of power. You kind of played Lex Luthor as a tech bro.
Yeah. And you must have some feelings playing, because you also played, obviously, famously in the social network, Mark Zuckerberg.
What do you make of all that's going on with the tech bros? Oh, you know, I just, I look at it from a very specific perspective, which is just like, if you're so rich and powerful, why are you not just spending your days doing good things for the world? Like, so I don't like, it's hard for me, it's hard for me to like understand like the specifics of what're doing. But I just know, like, you know, I married a woman who's, like, this amazing activist.
All she thinks about all day is how can I help the people who are most in need. And so when I watch these, like, incredibly powerful people, I just think, like, why are you not spending your day helping people? Why are you, like, getting mired into this weird stuff, stuff I don't really understand, and, like, taking, you know, privacy concerns away, you know, hurting people who are already hurting, marginalized people.
Like, to me, I just, I can't even understand that, so I'm not exactly thinking about them in politics. I'm just thinking, why are they not spending every day helping people? I think you should get an Oscar just for that speech.
Thank you. The movie's fantastic.
If you haven't seen it, please do. Jesse Eisenberg, great luck.
The movie's great to see you again. Don't be a stranger.
All right, let's meet our panel. Hey, guys.
All right, he hosts First Take on ESPN and the Stephen A. Smith Show on YouTube.
Stephen A. Smith is here.

And he's a Democratic congressman from California, Silicon Valley,

and a member of the House Oversight

and House Armed Services Committee.

He's Ro Khanna is back with us.

Okay.

So, week one of the Trump administration.

Look, I said from the beginning,

I'm not going to pre-hate anything this time, but now he's been in office for a week. I'm going to hate something.
No, really. I mean, I don't I hated pardoning people who attacked cops.
Even if you took the politics out of it, even if they were at the Capitol that day because they were a polka band. I don't care.
You know, even the cops didn't like that. I also don't like the same thing I didn't like from the first time.
Trump has no understanding of how this country works. He does not care to learn.
In his view, I'm the leader. So I can do anything.
TikTok, I mean, both House and Senate voted, you know, you either have to sell it or...

He just got rid of that and just said no by proclamation.

Birthright citizenship is another one.

Now, I didn't even think birthright citizenship is a good idea to begin with.

It seems kind of crazy to have that in the...

But it's in the Constitution.

So it seems like people are talking about this imperial presidency we have where a president can just do anything. What are you in Congress going to do about it? That's my question to everybody in Congress.
It keeps happening. What are you going to do? Well, first of all, we're going to speak for basic American values.
I mean, if you're born in America, you're an American. Period.
And when he's going after that, you know, all the Republican lecturing, we're for the Constitution, we're for the founders, until they're not. You know what makes America exceptional? The fact that your parents can come from any country, be of any faith, not have wealth, not have fame, and if you're born in America, you can go as far as you want.
And that's what Donald Trump is taking away. And in the part that people, I mean, come on, man.
Rich Chinese people come here, just they fly over here, and then they have the baby here just so they can be an American citizen. It has been bastardized.
You can't say that this is just all for the good. This is like the Reagan welfare quiz.
They picked out some extreme example, but you're going to change the Constitution over there? No, you have to change the Constitution. That's what I'm saying.
You can't do things by proclamation. He does not understand that.
He doesn't care. He does not care.
He does not care to learn. He doesn't give a damn.
He's not interested. And not by the way, that's how he got in the office.
We got a backtracker on the clock when he walked down. We just strolled down escalators in 2015.
He was basically sitting up there and saying, what you've seen going on in Washington is so disgusting. It's not in the interest of you as the American people.
So I'm going to do it my way. And I've answered this question on so many occasions when I've talked about them, guys.
I've said this. You could have politicians saying, I disagree with this person, I disagree with that person, et cetera.
Trump will call them every name under the sun. He will mock them.
He will insult them. He will be as annoying and as disgusting as you will allow him to be.
And the voters will say, ha, we love the fact that you talk to washington that way because as american citizens that's how we feel about washington and the fact that you're speaking our language is what makes us trust you because we believe you resonate on our behalf this is why he got into office in 2016 this is why a whole bunch of people were acting like you know what in 2020 with the insurrection because because it was an insurrection, regardless of what people want to admit, the way those folks were acting. Not everybody, but some of them.
And then ultimately, he wins back in office in 2024. Just like in 2020, we said Biden, it wasn't about votes for Biden.
It was about votes against Trump in 2024. It wasn't about votes for Trump.
it was votes against some of the nonsense that was taking place within the Democratic

Party, because they have not been able to

find a voice that would resonate with the American

people, where you're speaking their language, where

they look at you and they say, hey, we get where

you're coming from. You relate to us.

The Democrats went a different direction.

Trump capitalized on it.

Basically, he played everybody

like a fiddle, and there's one re-election

again. That's really the bottom line.

I agree. I think

with a lot of what's through today,

Thank you. Basically, he played everybody like a fiddle and has won re-election again.
That's really the bottom line. I agree, actually, with a lot of what Steve today is saying.
I mean, look, I think Trump came in there and said politics are broken. They're all beholden to donors.
There's been a country which has had all this economic wealth in some areas, other parts of the country, offshoring of jobs. Your communities haven't been helped.
I'm going to come and fix it. And there's a history in this country.
We love James Dean. We love Miles Barber.
We love people who question rules. But what is he doing about it? Like, how is freezing cancer research, freezing diabetes research and freezing Alzheimer's research doing anything to help people's lives? Now they're saying, oh, he's cool.
Well, I mean, talk about cherry picking.

I mean, I didn't even hear about those.

I'm not surprised he's doing it.

But I don't have all the facts on that.

And there's a lot of other stuff.

I mean, some of them are not that crazy.

Again, how he does it, you know, by proclamation, no.

But to your point, you know, this country never reacts. It only overreacts.
And some of this is brought on by the left. Yeah.
You're right. You brought it on yourself.
I mean, penises in the locker room, penises in women's prisons. Of course he's going to go the complete opposite direction now.
And now we have there's only two sexes. Whereas, obviously, there's a middle ground, which, there's not just two sexes.
This goes back to hermaphrodites in ancient history, and, you know, chicks with dicks. And there's just, it's just not that simple.
But it's also not the case that every baby born, which is what we have for the last four years, is kind of a jump ball of, oh, I don't know, just as likely, let's not even put the sex on the birth

certificate, let's let the kid decide when they're

five. That was crazy.

So there's going to be this backlash

and that's what you have now.

You did bring it on yourself in a lot of

ways. Here's the deal.

The man was impeached twice.

He was convicted on 34 felony counts.

And the American people still

said, he's closer

to normal than what we see on the left.

That's what they're saying. He's closer to normal.
Why? Because something that pertains, when you talk about the transgender community, for example, and you're talking about the issues that pertain to less than 1% of the population, the Democratic Party came across as if that was a priority, more so than the other issues. And so he comes into office.
Now you're talking about childbirth, citizenship and what have you. He knows that's not going to pass the mustard, but he knows that he made that promise.
So when he shows up week one on Capitol Hill and he says, this is what we're going to do through an executive order, even though it's going to be shot down through the courts and what have you, he's saying, I kept my promise. A lot of other things that he's going to point to that he's going to try to do, I kept my promise.
Then you turn around and you look at the left and you say, what promises did you keep? Now, you might know the answer to that. I'm certainly not questioning your knowledge about that at all.
What I'm saying is what resonated with the view with the voter. What voter out there can look at the Democratic Party at this moment in time and say there's a voice for us.
Somebody that speaks for us that goes up on Capitol Hill and fights the fights that we want them fighting on our behalf. They didn't do that.
And that's why they're behind the home. And that man is back into the White House.
And they want to sit up there and tell you, look at the networks right now. They're talking about it.
Look at it. This is the latest.
Look at him. Here he goes again.
Well, you know what here he goes again means? He's doing what he said he was going to do. He promised you he was going to do these things.
And he walked into office week one, and that's exactly what he's doing, and he's saying, y'all do something about it. And when you try to do something about it, he's going to say, look at them now.
Now they're concerned about these issues. Were they talking about that during the campaign? Hell no.
That's really it. Yeah.
Yes. Well, look, I think that people voted for him because they were upset at a system where they didn't feel that their kids' lives were getting better.
He went to places like Galesburg, Illinois, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He said, I'm going to bring the factories back.
I'm going to get good-paying jobs. Your kids don't have a future.
I'm going to bring the cost of living down. And then he's doing nothing, nothing, nothing with wages, nothing with the economy.
He's doing, you know, he's putting out a meme coin. It's putting...
It's week one. I mean, he just got...
It's week five days. So, look, here's the thing.
I get the American people. They've been voting everyone out for the past 20 years.
But you know what? At some time, they're going to say, who's actually making our lives better? How are we actually getting our kids to have a shot? Well, you keep talking about kids. He also won because parents were a little fed up with parents coming in second...
a who says what goes with my kids contest. Right.
Which Democrat is for that? I mean, I have kids. I mean, most Democrats believe that parents should have a say in their kids' education.
These have been exaggerated. Here in California, I think the governor here used the word snitch.
Like a parent, if you...

Dime them out. Tell them to parents.
Point them out.

The parents will be in trouble.

If the kids switch genders in school, you know, they hid that from the parent.

Or you could.

I mean, I don't think snitching really takes place in my...

And as a guy that was born in the Bronx, raised in the streets of New York,

I can assure you snitch has an entirely different meaning than what they put out. I can promise you that.
I can promise you that. But, I mean, let me put it this way.
Here's how bad the Democrats fucked up. Trump is cool now.
He's not just the most powerful guy in the world and just made himself like the richest. He's actually kind of at 78.
I mean, rappers like him. The athletes are doing...
I was making fun of him jerking off two guys at one time. And now he owns it, and they're doing it.
I mean, the village people are gay for Trump now. He's always been a celebrity, Bill.
He was a joke. He had the apprentice.
He used to do movie cameos. He did wrestling.
He was a joke. But you know what the problem with that is.
He was a celebrity, but he was made to be a celebrity by a whole bunch of Democrats. Think about that.
I mean, I'm telling you, listen, Trump, and I've said this many occasions, I knew Trump before he ran for president. When you're hosting your fights at, you know, Trump Casino and you're showing up to Knicks basketball games with Bill O'Reilly and stuff like that, we would see him.
The players would talk to him. The rap artists would talk to him.
Celebrities all over the place from Hollywood, from L.A. to New York would talk to him.
And they all loved him until he ran for office. So then when they talked about him

the way that they talked about him, they were like,

you didn't feel that way about him before. What changed?

And they asked, a lot of people

asked themselves that question. And they

weren't satisfied with the answers the Dems gave them.

You know what would be nice

in this country? I mean, just hypothetically,

do we not, do we have to have

the celebrity president? I mean, is it all

about coolness? How about being cool as a president is actually about helping people? How about, you know, when we look at our great president, they weren't out doing dances. They were figuring out how to get higher wages for people.
They were out of jobs. But that horse has left the barn.
You really think so? You're living in America, dude. Come on.
We just celebrated Jimmy Carter's.

Can I ask?

Jimmy Carter was a great

American, and he did a lot of

great things. And by the way, the FEMA

agency, Department of Education

that he established, Trump now wants

to take it down. I think that...

We know a lot. We know a lot.

Listen, we know that there's a lot that has to be

done. A lot of us don't have the greatest confidence that Trump is the right man that's going to do it.
We'll see what happens, okay, second go round. But when you bring up celebrity, it's pretty hard to make that argument when you see politicians that are on X, on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, because you have to reach an audience.
You can't complain about that when you're a dem, when that assisted

that Obama won an election in 2008

and 2012. But Obama...
I mean, he utilized

it, is what I'm saying. I have a celebrity exception.

If Stephen A. wants to run, I'm all for it.

I mean, that's a...

That ain't going to happen.

That ain't going to happen.

I like my life.

I like my life.

Obama used the tools to make his message go. but he had substance.
He had actual ideas. And the difference is, they used to say Obama was a celebrity.
Obama became a celebrity because he was great at his job of being a politician. That's different.
That's a huge difference. This may get me in a little trouble.
You know the difference between the Obama and Harris campaigns was Obama connected with people, and all the celebrities wanted to do concerts because they wanted to be with Obama, because he was with the people. In the Harris campaign, they went after the celebrities to do the concerts to get the people.
They got it backwards. I'm just saying.
I don't know about that. Okay, let's be honest here.
First of all, one could argue that Obama resonated more because the people chose him to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States of America, as opposed to somebody backdooring their way into that position. Let's just be honest about it.
You had Biden. I know that you supported Biden.
Obviously, you spoke about his mental acuity and all of that other stuff. But we all saw what we saw before the debate on June 27th when the debate happened.
And by the time that was exposed, it waited three weeks after that before he decided to walk away. But it was too late for anybody else to get in.
So Kamala Harris, who didn't resonate during the primaries in 2020, couldn't even get to Iowa, suddenly is the Democratic nominee. And then y'all go, then you roll up at the Chicago, at the convention in Chicago, and

everybody's like, she's a rock star. So it was like, wait a minute, how that happened?

How that happened? I don't know how that happened. So you're looking at all of those things and

you're saying, yes, I voted for her. A lot of people voted for her.
But in the end, we end up

feeling like damn fools because we supported it. We fell for the okie-dokie, as they say.
You know she didn't. If you had a primary, the likelihood is that she would not have been the Democratic nominee.
And you can't say that about Trump and his style. You can't.
That's water under the bridge. That's water under the bridge.
The point is, we have a new sheriff in town, and it's okay to be a dick. It's okay to be a dick again.
I have some information about Pete Hegseth. I mean, we were waiting before we went on.
We're taped this Friday night. Oh, there's Pete.
He's apparently going to be the next defense secretary. It's the most controversial appointment that Trump has made.
We didn't get the news right before we got on, but it'll probably be this weekend. But here are some things that have been leveled against.
Now, Pete denies all of this, but his ex-sister-in-law signed a sworn affidavit. I'm just going to read the highlight phrases.
Passed out at family gatherings, dragged out of strip club, throwing up, abusive, wife once hid in a closet. Wife needed a safe word and said the phrase, women shouldn't have the right to vote.
Now, the wife, this is the sister-in-law, says there was no physical abuse in my marriage. We need to enter that in the record.
Here are some phrases from, he was a part of two

veterans groups. Here are some phrases

what they said. Forced to step

down, repeatedly intoxicated

while in official capacity,

sometimes needed to be carried out,

had to be physically restrained from

joining dancers on stage at a strip

at a strip club.

Well, I've done that.

Not the physically restrained

part, but the joining on stage. I don't

think there's anything wrong with that. So we

I'm going to go. at a strip club.
Well, I've done that. Not the physically restrained part,

but the joining on stage. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
So we thought it would be a good time to do 24 things you don't know about Pete Hanks, one of our favorite refillables. All right.
When Trump first asked me to be Secretary of Defense, I said, Secretary, I ain't no woman. I don't know the meaning of surrender or last call.
I got the idea of concerned veterans for America from veterans saying, we're concerned about your drinking. My favorite sex position

is where my wife lies face down

and I'm 10 miles away fucking a cocktail

waitress.

My ancestors are Norwegian,

which is why you'll often find me sleeping outside with the dog.

I hold the Guinness record for a number of times being told by a bouncer, please don't touch the dancers. I think Amelia Earhart is proof women can't drive.
My drag name is Miss Ogenist. And I have a tattoo on my penis that reads, you must be this tall to ride.
I don't know what that means. All right.
So, let's go through, again, the first week of the Trump administration, some of the things we're going to do, take over the Panama Canal, take Greenland, a man on Mars. He's talking about we're going to put the American flag on Mars.
I mean, we're not sure if it's a man, but the flag's going up there. Pulling out of the Paris Accords, pulling out of the World Health Organization.
Open. Well, I mean, the border closed the border and the DEI.
And OK, so let's talk about the border one, because ICE is now detaining people. This is very a lot of people concerned.
The Lake and Riley Act, I'm sure you voted on that. I think you voted no.
OK, but it did pass with 46 Democrats in the House voted for it. And in the Senate, it passed 64 to 35.
So I think about 12 Democrats there. This is a law that says that ICE can detain any illegal who is charged, arrested, or convicted of a crime.
Not merely an accusation, so don't get excited, Karens. Has to be charged, arrested, or convicted.
Now, Ruben Gallego, who we've had on this show a number of times, and I think has bigger ambitions, that he's now the senator from Arizona. He voted for it.
He said, I'm bringing the perspective of working-class Latinos from Arizona. That perspective, I think, has been missing.
And he talks about people who are largely out of touch with where your average Latino is. It sounds like he's calling out people like you who voted no.
I like Ruben. There are a lot of Latinos.
I do. I think you've had a hell of a race.
But there are a lot of Latino leaders who also voted no. Here's the basic thing in this country.
If you're convicted of a sex offense, of a violent offense, absolutely, you should be deported. But if you're just arrested, we are a country in which we have due process.
And you should have a trial. I think that's a reasonable position.
I think most people can agree also that, yes, let's deport convicted felons, convicted criminals, but let's not deport our nannies and students or dental hygienists who have been living here for years and have kids in communities. We can have a common-sense position on this.
I get that. That makes a lot of sense, but there's a flip side.
So, for example, if I remember correctly, based on my research, in Sacramento in 2023, there was a law passed in terms of empowering the governor of California to really force the environmentalists and the courts to move quickly, about 270 days, if I remember correctly, something along those lines. Why do I bring something like that up with a subject like this? Because here in your state, they can drag their feet and prolong certain things.
And as a result of that, things don't get done nearly as fast as they should. When we're talking about immigration and we're talking about immigrants who may be criminals, you're talking about them being arrested.
Let's have due process. But if it takes too damn long to address it, that pisses people off.
That's one of the problems that exist in this country. You're looking at stuff and you're like, okay, you arrested him.
Well, is he in jail? All right, you let him out. Recidivism is an issue in this country.
You let somebody, you arrest them, you're letting them out the same day, stuff like that. You've got law enforcement officials that are getting discouraged because they're looking at it and they're saying, wait a minute, why are we out here risking our life and taking care of this stuff when y'all are just letting people out? You've got to handle business.
And a lot of times we hear about the red tape and all of that stuff, and you're talking about a candidate right now who's not supposed to be the president of the United States now. He's sitting up there, and he's talking about expediting the process at every turn.
Let's just get stuff done. Let's just get it done.
Now, I don't know if I trust that. I don't blame you for not trusting it.
But we have to understand the American people are saying, you know what, enough's enough. We've tried it that way.
We've been doing it that way for decades. We're sick of y'all.
Let's wait. Let's go through the process.
Let's arrest somebody. Let's let them out.
Let's put them back out on the streets. Oh, let's make sure they have due process.
You think somebody wants to hear about due process with somebody that's in this country illegally? I want to hear that. You're in the country illegally.
How was your process? You got the audacity to admit a crime after you got here illegally. We're trying to hear that.
Nobody's trying to hear that. So they say, wait a minute.
What are you going to do about it? Where is the common sense in that? I get that. But that's what makes America different than every other country.
We have a constitution. We give people rights.
We don't just say, let's conveniently ignore. Well, we give citizens rights.
We give citizens rights. No, we give every person here rights on basic due process.
Maybe that's what people are saying. They want the citizens to have the rights.
You weren't at the inauguration. I went to the inauguration.
You did. I didn't even watch it.
Neither did I. And the ratings were way down.
I think not since 2013. I'm sure you did.
You asked Trump about it as the biggest audience ever. Let me just say one other question.
Everybody watched. Everybody did not watch.
You know one of the things people like about Donald Trump is he stands on his convictions. When have you heard Democrats saying the vast majority of immigrants in this country contribute to this country? They don't commit crimes.
They are law-abiding. They're patriotic.
Our party needs to stop being scared of our own shadows, stand up for what immigrants have actually contributed. You know what we should have done? Kamala Harris should have gone to Springfield.
The day that Trump was doing that garbage about their eating the dogs and cats, she should have stood there in Springfield meeting with the Haitian immigrants who are contributing to this country. We will win when we stand on strength of our values.
Well, I could... I don't know.
I'm getting from the applause, he's more popular than you. I'm just saying...
He's got to be his commensal. I'm just saying what he's saying is getting up every day.
And you're getting like, yeah, that's true. What you said sounds beautiful.
Here's the problem. We're a couple of minutes removed from talking about the senator from Arizona.
And y'all talked about Ruben and y'all talked about the position that he took. One could easily argue is that's the kind of Democrat people are looking for.
That Democrat listened to the people in his state instead of saying you elected me to hell with what you want. Listen to me do what the party wants me to do.
He is following. He said the citizens of Arizona said this to him,

and that is why he voted that way.

A guy like that will get a Democrat back in office.

I like that.

I'm just talking about that position.

Let's talk about your constituents a little first,

because I saw them all at the inauguration.

I think they're called a tech row.

I think it was the three richest people in the world. Musk, Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos. But wasn't Peter Thiel there? Yeah, I think so they were.
And Mark Andreessen? He had everybody there. Tim Cook.
Okay, this is your constituency, your Silicon Valley. Why do you think they turned? Because I think it's very interesting that all these guys who were not conservatives, Zuckerberg, Joe Rogan wasn't.
He was there. Elon Musk certainly wasn't.
I got a guess. You want my guess? Tell me.
They were bullied. Yes.
Four years ago. Right.
They remembered. They don't like it.
They said they don't like it. It's very personal.
It's personal and we're going to go in the other direction. It's get your behind up out of here.
We don't want to deal with that anymore. That's what they said.
That's exactly it. They're looking at also their business interests.
They went and met him in 2017. A lot of them did.
Tim Cook did. A lot of these business leaders said, you know when they deserted him? With Charlottesville.
That's when a lot of these

tech leaders said, I'm done.

And we'll see how long they stick

with the Trump administration

and what he's doing.

But it gets, I think, to the problem

with the Democratic Party and that

part of the left that I've always been complaining

about. It's also why they don't like me anymore

and they can go fuck themselves.

I agree with you.

A thousand times over.

A thousand times over.

The difference between me and all those guys is

Thank you. I'll do times over.
And I went to the times over. The difference between me and all those guys is they're not going to drive me into the worst pile.
I still understand why that party is worse. Right.
Okay. But that attitude, that exclusionary, mean girl, if you don't agree with me 100%, then we're going to go after you.
We're going to try to cancel you.

And these are not stupid people.

These are brilliant people.

Some of them are a little on the spectrum.

This guy.

But I don't think he's a Nazi. But come on, who's the party that is out there

intimidating people?

You know, the pardon, the guy who was just pardoned says, I want to be secretary of retaliation. Yeah.
I mean, come on. That's why I said I'm not in that party.
My party, does my party have an issue? Yes. What my party needs to do is make sure that we respect people who have different social and cultural viewpoints than our own, and we don't look down on people.
But that doesn't mean you have to give up your principles to do that. That's true.
Look, I like you. I'm on the left.
I'm a proud progressive Democrat. I come on this show because you have a civil conversation.
We don't always agree. I don't pull my punches.
And we voted for the same person. And we voted for the same person.
To a lot of people in your party, that's not good enough. Exactly.
I've said it to them. Politics is addition.
We voted for the same person. I thank you for the vote.
What? I thank you for voting Democrat. You don't have to thank me.
Well, I mean, I enjoy it for you. But more people should come on, mix it up, mix it up.
But I think it's important that you understand. See, you're a likable individual because you're sensible.
I know Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, likable man. I think he has incredible potential, resonates with people because he sends a message to them, not just that he cares about them, but that he's listening to them as opposed to trying to guilt them with fear mongering and everything else to get them to do what you as a politician want them to do.
You have to understand respectfully, in my opinion, that you are in the minority within the Democratic Party based on what we've seen over the last, you know, four to six years. It's entirely different now because, like Bill said, it's not enough for you to vote for them.
You got to side with them. The same people that you voted for, you uttered the wrong...
They made you feel... They got to a point where if you uttered the wrong pronoun, they was ready to cost you your career.
I'm working in television and I'm having people who are hyperventilating, scared to death, taking deep breaths, making sure that when they go on a diatribe or a rant or whatever, they're uttering every syllable correctly. This is the kind of world that the Republicans didn't create that.
They're guilty of a whole lot of stuff.

But they didn't create that.

And when you create that, when somebody is scared to utter the wrong word out of their mouth,

and we all know what some words are taboo, but damn, it got to a point where he or she was taboo amongst some Democrats. Now, how the hell that happened?

Well, I have to say two words.

Show's over. But you guys were great.
Time for new rules, everybody. New rules.
Okay. All right.
New rule. Now that Trump has deadnamed Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley and changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
He has to rename the Great Lakes.

Lake Terrific, Lake Fantastic.

Lake Michigan, a state I won by a lot.

Lake White Superior and Lake...

Lake like nobody's ever seen before. And the Grand Tetons are now Mount Tits.
You know, this young woman has to explain why, if the revolution is now, she's the only one there. Revolution? You don't even have enough for a snowball fight there were more people in prints in the revolution i'm going to remember okay you're all the new york new york times style magazine has to hire someone with a memory that goes back before 2018 i saw this cover story with Robert Pattinson as the last movie star.
And I thought, where have I seen that before?

Oh, yeah. that goes back before 2018.
I saw this cover story with Robert Pattinson as the last movie star,

and I thought, where have I seen that before?

Oh, yeah, everywhere.

George Clooney, the last movie star.

Tom Cruise, the last movie star.

How Leonardo DiCaprio became Hollywood's last movie star.

Why Denzel Washington may be the last movie star.

The last movie star as Paul Newman and Joanne Orbert.

Stop writing the same movie star. The last movie star is Paul Newman and Joanne Orbert.
Stop writing the same stupid story. There are always going to be movie stars.
It's magazines that are dead. No, well, the Pakistani ad agency that created this ad for Pakistan Airlines

that says, Paris, we're coming today,

and appears to show a plane flying into the Eiffel Tower,

has to admit they're fucking with it.

This is what happens when you hire someone whose LinkedIn says his passions are graphic design and jihad.

Newell, if you're a grown man and watching another man become president and it makes you cry,

you are banned from the manosphere for one year. Sorry, no Joe Rogan podcasts for you.
No TikTok videos of a guy cooking steak on a rock in Alaska. No MMA knockout compilations.
For one year, every time you try to watch something manly, it will instantly cut away to Taylor Swift in the luxury box at a Chiefs game. And finally, New World, let's look on the bright side.
I know we're all obsessed these days about the fires and the anxiety from Trump taking office again, but one hopeful thing did happen when we were on our break. A health insurance executive got shot in the back on the street in broad daylight.
And the kids couldn't love the guy who did it anymore if he was the leader of a terrorist organization. That's right.
Last December, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione fed up with the health care system in America, stalked and murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, thereby raising awareness of the problem of insurance companies denying people's claims. And Lord knows that is a problem.
People are justifiably sick and tired of paying through the nose only to get

the runaround and a mountain of forms to fill out and, yes, infuriating claim denials based on petty

technicalities. Something, by the way, that is increasingly now done by AI, a robot program to

find a way to fuck you in the ass. Which is not covered.
Look, we've all been there. Ever get a prescription filled? And they say, that'll be a million dollars, please.
And you say, is there an alternative? And they say, oh yeah, there's

one that's basically the same for 10 bucks. I didn't mention it because it didn't seem

like something people would be interested in. Or how about when health care providers

put on the bill something they know is already covered just to see if you'll pay it anyway,

because they have the ethics of a Nigerian prince emailing

you for a loan.

Every doctor's office has a medical billing specialist who has a particular set of skills

to fuck you.

And what the hell is a pharmacy benefit manager?

I'm not sure, but I think I was one back in 1980 when I sold pot. Oh, it's a shifty business, all right.
Navigating between all the different players is like trying to find the bathroom in a casino. It's just so unbelievably complicated, like an electoral college that does prostate exams.
A maze-like mosaic of analysts, regulators, administrators, consultants, advisors, hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies, bus ad trial lawyers, and the actors in drug ads portraying eyelash crust mites. They love to party.
So I guess my question is, why shoot just the insurance guy? The profit margin for the U.S. health insurance industry is only 2.2%.
For drug companies, it's over 65%. And for hospitals, it's really hard to say what it is because their accounting is done by the Corleone family.
So, okay, a guy from the insurance industry is dead. That's great.
But he's not the one who decided that the box of Kleenex next to your hospital bed costs $60. Hospitals set the prices that insurers pay.
And costs vary wildly. The same procedure can cost up to 10 times more, not just within the same city or same state, within the same hospital.

It reminds me of clothing stores.

Eighty percent off.

Off of what?

Oh, right.

Off of a number you pulled out of your ass to begin with.

That seems to be how hospitals work.

So shouldn't we really

be shooting hospital execs first?

I mean, it's only right.

I have a feeling insurance people get blamed

more because there's no

insurance company version of Grey's

Anatomy where hot young insurance

agents steal away to fuck each other

on bunk beds during their work. So, okay, hospital execs first, then we shoot insurance guys, then drug company people.
Oh, and the tech bros who create those medical website portals that are impossible to navigate. And what about the people who make the shit that makes us sick in the first place? Watch your back, whoever makes fucking Twinkies.
But here's what's so interesting about this. The reaction from different generations.

Older people think it's bad to shoot a guy in the street.

But 41% of 18 to 29-year-olds say it's completely or somewhat acceptable.

Where only 9% find it so extra.

Which confirms something I wish wasn't true, but unfortunately is, about certainly not all, but too many Gen Zers. They're fucking stupid.
I don't... I don't know what they're teaching them in college these days, but they all seem to have majored in simplicity.
Oppressed and oppressor. No in between.
Health care, good guys and bad guys. Simple.
When Trump said nobody knew that health care could be so complicated, he was wrong. It's not complicated.
It's simple. It's as simple as shooting your insurance agent.
Bad guys get shot. Hello, you never saw John Wick? Yeah, I'm thinking now, maybe it wasn't a great idea to make every single movie about someone who's a hitman.
And so here I am again, feeling like an old school liberal at odds with the new politics of the far left, because it wasn't that long ago when liberals thought shooting people who don't share your politics was bad, or at least a microaggression. Doesn't pumping someone full of lead verge dangerously close to mansplaining? And what about gun control? when Sarah Palin posted a map with crosshairs

on the districts of House Democrats she hoped to defeat in 2010,

liberals went nuts.

But now, vigilantism is okay when it's someone you want dead?

And where does all this lead?

Both parties having death squads?

So, Luigi, I say to you,

good luck in prison where being handsome always makes you popular. And congratulations on being a folk hero.
But just know you're not Robin Hood. You're not a hero.
You're a typical member of your generation, too lazy to do the work to really understand an issue, but happy to pose as a social justice warrior for it. This is the same mentality I saw this month when internet lowlifes posted about their glee in watching the well-off people of Pacific Palisades lose their homes in the L.A.
fires.

It's a very popular mindset these days,

summed up in the phrase, eat the rich.

But kids, I've seen your media consumption,

and I've seen your social media posts.

You can't fool me.

You don't hate the rich.

You hate that you ain't the rich.

All right, that's our show.

My Club Random podcast has some amazing guests coming up. Watch it on YouTube or listen whenever you get your podcasts and I want to thank Stephen A.
Smith, Ro Khanna, and Jesse Eisenberg. 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.