Senator John Fetterman | Club Random with Bill Maher

Bill Maher sits down with Senator John Fetterman for a brutally candid conversation with no loyalty tests and no easy answers. From Trump, media outrage cycles, and Democratic Party infighting to Israel, Iran, immigration, cancel culture, and the death of political nuance, Maher and Fetterman dive headfirst into the forces pulling America apart — and why so many voters feel politically homeless right now. Fetterman opens up about surviving his stroke, the backlash he’s taken from both the left and the right, and why he refuses to perform partisan outrage just to earn applause. He talks about how his support for Israel after October 7 fractured relationships within his own party, why Democrats continue losing working-class voters, and what many on the left still fail to understand about Trump’s appeal. Support our Advertisers: Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/RANDOM #rulapod #ad Try ZipRecruiter for free at https://www.ziprecruiter.com/random Try Claude for free at https://www.claude.ai/clubrandom Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher’s Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://billmaher.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Club Random Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clubrandom.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it. For advertising opportunities please email: [email protected] ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Streaming October 30 on Paramount Plus.

• 0:02Speaker 01

  I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you. You're having a midlife crisis. I'm not ready for that.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  He's back.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  I'm older. I'm wiser.

• 0:15Speaker 00

  And sharper than ever.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  Dexter Resurrection. New season October 30 on the Paramount Plus Premium Plan.

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a Berry Chantilly Cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever Chicken Wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3 at Whole Foods Market.

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• 1:28Bill Maher?

  Breaking news, our merch just got a full revamp with all new designs and items. So if you want a little more random in your life, head over to clubrandom.com and check out the store. We've got premium hoodies, including our brand new Quad Hoodies with the updated logo. Super soft t-shirts, super soft, for men and women, and even tie-dye shirts. All merch is available exclusively at clubrandom.com. While you're there, catch up on recent episodes and grab some swag and bring a little random home. Once again, that's clubrandom.com.

• 2:08Speaker 05

  I've had to vote against my caucus, alone.

• 2:12Bill Maher?

  I mean, somehow you're the suspect Democrat? The guy in the hoodie?

• 2:18Speaker 05

  Coming up on the 4th anniversary of when I died from that stroke.

• 2:21Bill Maher?

  Your health is good?

• 2:23Speaker 05

  Never better.

• 2:23Bill Maher?

  Physically, mentally, everything?

• 2:27Bill Maher?

  How you doing?

• 2:29Speaker 05

  Hi, there he is.

• 2:31Bill Maher?

  Hi. How are you, big man?

• 2:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:33Bill Maher?

  Thank you for seating, because I know if you stood, you'd tower over me, I'd look like a shrimp.

• 2:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:39Bill Maher?

  I see you wore your good shorts. Were you making a speech on the Senate floor?

• 2:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, no, I mean, you know, true story, though. I was never trying to change any dress code. Like, you know, Schumer was just trying to be kind, assuming that it was referencing me. And then I found out. I'm like, oh, my God, everyone's gonna think I was like trying. I'm like, no.

• 3:01Bill Maher?

  Well, maybe you weren't trying, but when you show up like that in a place like the Senate, people are going to notice.

• 3:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:11Bill Maher?

  And, you know.

• 3:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, it never really occurred to me how strange that must seem.

• 3:16Bill Maher?

  Well, to me, that story always illustrated the big problem, of course, I think we both agree, that goes on in this country, which is everything is, becomes a political battle. Everything is just an excuse to say, your team is stupid and my team is great. It has nothing to do with anything. You know what it's like to me? The ballroom. Trump's ballroom.

• 3:47Speaker 05

  You think, can we talk about that? It's like, who gives, I don't give a fuck about this. It's like, yes, you need, I mean, you've been there, I'm sure. You'd seen like they have these tents and it's crazy. And like, now, I was a table away when that assassination.

• 4:04Bill Maher?

  Oh, you were?

• 4:05Speaker 05

  And, and it just, I'm like, I was stunned just walking in. You have the entire line of succession right there. And, you know, could you just imagine? I mean, you, we all remember Oklahoma bomb, right?

• 4:18Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 4:19Speaker 05

  They could have had someone, you know, in a room up there, boom. And you could have decapitated the, you know, our nation just in one thing with, you know, a couple thousand dollars, a diamondite, a dynamite and thing, it's...

• 4:33Bill Maher?

  And again, you can be, as we do, opposing Trump on everything that's important.

• 4:41Bill Maher?

  But if you are a person out there who just hates the ballroom, that is a roars test on you that you go by the, if I hate this person, then I just have to hate everything they do.

• 4:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:57Bill Maher?

  And it's silly because this is the United States of America. We do need a place to have state dinners. You know what it is, John? It's the ter- it's the word ballroom. It's a funny word. It connotes like some sort of gallivanting around and 18th century fops with powdered wig. A ballroom. If they called it, we're putting in a state dinner pavilion.

• 5:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, absolutely. And from a security, from a security issue too now. As drone technology continue to evolve, it creates even more, more dangerous. And, and the thing like by the time we will be forced to vote on that. You know, and then I'll, I'll be like, do I vote no? Because, because, because, oh yeah, we have, we have to hate that shit. You know, I mean, but we can't, we can't just acknowledge, yeah, we should have a facility to accommodate these kinds of events. And, you know, I've always, I followed your story, how, how long it took you to build your structure. I mean, this thing won't even be finished by the time he's done.

• 6:04Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 6:04Speaker 05

  And, and this idea, he's not gonna build a Dave and Buster's. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's just gonna be a ballroom.

• 6:14Bill Maher?

  Are they going to make you vote on this?

• 6:16Speaker 05

  I, I mean.

• 6:18Bill Maher?

  Cause it's publicly funded now?

• 6:19Speaker 05

  Regardless, at this point, what, whatever's damage done already, because I, I haven't described it as disgusting or terrible. And if you use private money, that's terrible. If you use public money, well, that's outrageous. And now.

• 6:35Bill Maher?

  Meanwhile, the money is like one Angstrom unit of a percentage point of what our budget is. So it, it doesn't matter anyway. It's, it's couch money.

• 6:45Speaker 05

  In my race in 22 was spent $330 million. That was the record at that time. That's quaint compared to 24. And watch the cycle this year. Senate, Senate seats are gonna be spending much more than just that to build a legacy structure for, for the White House. And that's only gonna be used from presidents that are not gonna be him.

• 7:14Bill Maher?

  And 330 million, that is about what a ballroom costs.

• 7:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly. That's the thing.

• 7:20Bill Maher?

  You can either have a senator or a ballroom. No offense, I'll take the ballroom. The ballroom has a purpose. A lot of the senators you work with do not.

• 7:29Speaker 05

  No, I, I said that's the tedious, this thing. You know, I, I said that in one where if he, if he came out for ice cream and lazy sundaes, we would fucking hate it.

• 7:40Bill Maher?

  And, and the other, we, the other side does it too. But I don't care about them so much. I, I would like the Democrats, I mean, we're both always on the same page here. We just, people attack us because they think we're picking fights with the left. We're not picking fights. We just don't like let it pass if we think something is stupid.

• 8:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, like, do you have to have a fucking opinion on everything? I mean, like, we all, we all have platforms and we all have a personal bandwidth. You have to choose what's your, and I, I don't chase these small, like, weird things because it has no impact on the overall, you know, and, but people, you know, they become just constant, constant.

• 8:31Bill Maher?

  Right. They have to be at war. My advice to them, I, I did this as a bit one night because every time I've tried to learn meditation, which I'm not very good at, maybe you are, you know, it's a big thing. People, very respectable people, like Sam Harris is a big meditation person, people I respect a lot, say it's very helpful for you and. They always describe it as, you know, meditating, clearing your mind. And we all have a million thoughts that are coming into our mind. And they say, well, just let them pass like a cloud. Your thoughts will come, just let them pass like. And I feel like this is what you have to do with Donald Trump. Go after the stuff that matters.

• 9:15Bill Maher?

  The politicization of the Justice Department, the threatening of election. I mean, all the stuff. And the stuff that like ballroom stuff, that's the cloud. It's just, it doesn't matter. And if you chase it, it's so much more about you than him at that point.

• 9:34Speaker 05

  It's constantly like a churn. And the thing that, you know, today, the most outrageous thing, the world's on fire. And then by Wednesday, we've moved on to something completely different. And that's the next, it's the next kind of crisis. And the conversation is increasingly driven by people that represent very blue. You know, the anti, the resistance, whatever you want to call it. People that have never won like a, like a, an actual election that, you know, you have to be in front of both kinds of people and make the argument and just realize that there is another side. And they're all not fascist, they're not Nazis, they're not trying to destroy.

• 10:18Speaker 05

  They love the country just as much as you do. And finding a way forward. And that's the reality, that's the essence of democracy. And when you represent a state like Pennsylvania, that's a responsibility. And, you know, it's easy and even you can be jealous where it must be nice to just to yell, yell to the.

• 10:36Bill Maher?

  Oh, it is. It's lovely to. To sit in the peanut gallery? Yes, peanut gallery is, the peanut gallery now is like one of those fancy theaters now. The seats go back and they have a thing for your food to put in. And, oh, it's very exclusive. It's like 25 bucks a ticket, but I think it's worth it. Because otherwise the peanuts, you're just sitting on peanut shells.

• 10:57Speaker 05

  And now we're, you know, the Democratic Party, we can't resist our worst impulses as things continue to accelerate. We keep trying to get ahead of California. You know, like, we, you know, as a national party, we can't get ahead of California of these kinds of policies and this kinds of thoughts of what we think it should be. If you believe in Medicare for everyone, why don't we have it here in California? Why don't we have it in other blue states that could have do anything that they want to do? And there's a lot of realities, so, you know, why can't we just slow down and realize,

• 11:37Speaker 05

  call balls, call strikes, and remember, all of our excess that really cost us in 2024, we will revisit a lot of the things and add $100 million behind that, and that people will finally remind that, oh, yeah, they do have kinds of things that aren't compatible with my worldview.

• 11:57Bill Maher?

  I had our governor on Friday night.

• 12:00Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, I, yeah.

• 12:02Bill Maher?

  Okay, so you'll appreciate this. So, you know, they always, the news people write about the show over the weekend, and I see in the California Post, which is the New York Post now that we have it out here.

• 12:17Speaker 05

  I read, I read that, yeah.

• 12:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I do, too. It's great to have somebody to keep the other side honest. I mean, some of it is trashy, that's fine. Some, I enjoy some trash, and it's too reflexively anti-democratic, but it's fun. And, and yes, there's also some actual very credible writing in there from the right, which is, which is okay. But I see they're talking about my interview with Newsom, and it's, oh, Bill kept his feet to the fire, and Bill said, when he started to talk about California, Bill said, you really think people are feeling that, as he was bragging about the stuff in the state? So it looked like I was the hero there.

• 12:56Bill Maher?

  Then I read, the next day, Trump tweeted that I was too easy on him. And so the story, and the same paper is like, ah, Bill, he just let Newsom off the hook. Wait, a day ago, they just don't care. They're not, they don't care what the truth is. They go, what's going to sell the paper today or be interesting today? You can't even take it seriously.

• 13:23Speaker 05

  I mean, since I since I is here, um, have you seen the, what's the Spencer Pratt's, whatever? His last commercial, that AI about he's Batman?

• 13:34Bill Maher?

  No.

• 13:35Speaker 05

  Oh, you you have to see it because he has this AI commercial as Batman. And it put it put, uh, Mayor Bass as the Joker. And they put Newsom as, you know, like Louis the fourteenth, you know, eating cake. And I'm telling you now, like, you know, whatever happens in this election, you know, any other election, I guarantee they are, you know, like, uh, it put him just like French, you know, eating cake and, you know, you should check it out.

• 14:07Bill Maher?

  I will.

• 14:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:08Bill Maher?

  Obviously, this is all from AI and and but he, so he made it with AI, but ran it as a real campaign ad?

• 14:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, legit.

• 14:17Bill Maher?

  He's not denouncing it.

• 14:18Speaker 05

  Well, consider the other side, the Democratic side's, their commercials are literally fuck Trump.

• 14:25Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 14:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, like it just keeps cutting, you know, different people saying fuck Trump. And like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, you're gonna love that in a purple state. Try, try to, try to win, try to win a national argument. And by announcing, you know, the party's leader and and your and your voters, you know, like, well, that's your platform.

• 14:46Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it's, first of all, he can't be president again. Uh, I, that doesn't mean he won't try. Uh, but even for people who didn't vote for him, that doesn't appeal to me. That that this is the smartest thing you can say, really? Uh, so, you know, look.

• 15:09Speaker 05

  I mean, honestly, I was never worried that he was gonna run for three terms. I mean, he he's like the master troll. I mean, he he must love just Trump 28 throwing out the hats and it's just meth. And then if he does try to run for a third term, that means that makes Obama eligible. And then, you know, isn't America really wanting that to finally settle that anyway? Who? Actually, it's because I I don't know, but like that's just not gonna happen.

• 15:37Bill Maher?

  But yeah, but I mean, first of all, he could do it. Uh, I mean, when I talked to him, he he did, and I've heard him say it in other occasions, but he did say vaguely, you know, there's a way you could do it. And I remember saying to him, no, there's not a way you could do it. And again, this is what they got mad at me for reporting honestly that in private, when you talk to him like that, he doesn't get upset. When he said, uh, there's a way you could do it, and I just said blatantly, friendly again, because when you're on, when you're, the claws are down, and I just said, there's actually not a way you could do it. He just laughed, you know?

• 16:17Bill Maher?

  It wasn't like, and then Dr. Jekyll goes away and Mr. Hyde comes out, who has to like call everybody out on everything and be completely DEFCON one about everything. I mean, this obsession he seems to have lately with, I was so nervous at the White House that I had to have a drink right away. It's like what a check says about you when she's pissed off and you break up, you know, like, he did this, he did that. No, I didn't do any of that. Uh, did I have a drink before dinner? Yes, as people often do, have a drink before dinner. Was it immediately? Of course not. Was I nervous? No. Partly because, again, he wasn't.

• 17:02Speaker 05

  You were taking on the spectacle, right? I mean, and I mean, you and I, you know, we were in a unique situation together. You know, he invited me to have a dinner with him in Mar-a-Lago in in January of twenty twenty five. And and I took a lot of shit for that, like, you know, I'm like, he invited, why wouldn't as a senator, you know, have an opportunity to to to meet with him and, you know, and you did the same thing. And like, why is that?

• 17:32Bill Maher?

  And he does listen in private.

• 17:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I I couldn't believe it.

• 17:36Bill Maher?

  I keep saying to these people, these morons, he needs more people like us talking to him, not less.

• 17:43Speaker 05

  And he's willing to do it. It's the, it's the people on the far left who are like, how dare you talk to Hitler? How dare you talk to Hitler McPedophile? You know, and if you characterize someone that way, of course, there are people like the nut who was at the dinner you just mentioned, who are going to take that seriously. No, that happens on the other side too. Rhetoric does cause action, absolutely. But, I mean, well, what was that like? I mean, you said you were a couple of feet away from?

• 18:14Speaker 00

  Streaming October 30th on Paramount Plus.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you.

• 18:22Speaker 06

  You're having a midlife crisis.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  I'm not ready for that.

• 18:25Speaker 00

  He's back.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  I'm older. I'm wiser.

• 18:29Speaker 00

  And sharper than ever.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything.

• 18:38Speaker 00

  Dexter Resurrection. New season October 30th on the Paramount Plus Premium Plan.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies, made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake. Ready to cook pizza? No antibiotics ever chicken wings. And sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3rd at Whole Foods Market.

• 19:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, it's like, you know, when you were, you were describing your experience on your show, like you've, you've seen that, that meme from Leo, like, me, me, like, I was like, yeah, that's the thing, like gracious and measured, whatever that's a term use, that's, that's his, you know, in a personal level. And it's a much, much dramatically different, the public face compared to when you're there. And he, you know, we, we hung out for 75 minutes, where I wondered if it was gonna be 10 minutes, kinda like hi, bye, and whatever.

• 19:44Bill Maher?

  No, no, he, he gives the time.

• 19:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, and, and that's, it was.

• 19:50Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 19:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 19:51Bill Maher?

  Well, another thing I keep saying is, He's not home reading the briefing books. He's a people-assaying guy. So be one of the people-assaying. It's the only way he gets information is through dialogue.

• 20:08Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:09Bill Maher?

  Okay, that's just the truth. I'm not even putting him down, although a president should definitely read the briefing books. But that's the world we're living in. We're with one who doesn't. So like, conform to that a little bit. It doesn't make you somehow unpure. Makes you practical and smart.

• 20:28Speaker 05

  Oh, well, it's funny. He was giving like a speech at some place in, I think, Florida. And he's like, he start talking about Dr. Oz. He's like, look, he's like, Dr. Oz, I don't care about that medicating. I don't care, just do something.

• 20:42Bill Maher?

  He just said?

• 20:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, like, he just looks like, like, just absolutely said that aloud. And like, that's that reference, that preference where it's like the the briefs and all that stuff. Like, I don't care, Dr. Oz, I don't, just do whatever.

• 20:56Bill Maher?

  I mean, the things that he says aloud, the way he just voices his interior monologue. There is, there is something not exactly psychologically normal about someone who just vomits their interior monologue. But it gives him a authenticity with people that no one else can possibly match. I saw his interview with Nora O'Donnell after the shooting, like, the next day. And she quotes the assassin who called him a pedophile, Hitler, whatever he called. I mean, you know, pedo, you know, could any of the things be true?

• 21:37Bill Maher?

  Yes, anything could be true, but like, to just go right to, it's the ballroom syndrome again. Let's just go right to the worst thing because we hate this guy. And that pissed him off a lot. I could see both sides. As a reporter, it is news. Also, it's giving access to the president from the

• 21:58Bill Maher?

  Terrorist, I would say, that's terrorism assassination. Not, you're giving his message. Okay, you could make a case for either one. But his reaction immediately was to her. You're a terrible person. And he didn't just think it. Like, like any politician, that's exactly what they're thinking. He just says it. Like, if that's what's in his head. You're a horrible person. You're a terrible, you're a disgrace, you're a horrible person. And he just, and it's like, it's at, it's at the same time horrifying and also like, it's kind of like refreshing. It's shockingly, the honesty, as someone who loves honesty and has made my career about it as much as I could.

• 22:41Bill Maher?

  It is, it's, there's some level of it where you tip your hat and you go, wow. Total honesty. You, you, I think you're a horrible person and I'm just gonna say it.

• 22:53Speaker 05

  The ultimate, the quiet piggy.

• 22:56Bill Maher?

  Right. Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 05

  That's the president of America.

• 23:02Bill Maher?

  No, that's.

• 23:03Speaker 05

  Quiet.

• 23:04Bill Maher?

  That's why I don't.

• 23:05Speaker 05

  It's like, all you can do is just, you know, like.

• 23:07Bill Maher?

  I don't get mad when he sends out these tweets anymore about me. It's like, because the next day, I feel like it's forgotten. Yeah, I don't know.

• 23:16Speaker 05

  A, a, a long time ago, yeah.

• 23:18Bill Maher?

  I don't know if he, even he remembers. But I know he's, I know he's working very hard to get you. Or, isn't he trying now to get you to become a Republican?

• 23:27Speaker 05

  I, I mean, I, like, I, I absolutely had to, you know, actively participate in an election that I absolutely knew that we'd go down. You know, like, after the assassination. People have absolutely forgotten the difference between, uh, Zapruta or Bu- Butler is half an inch. And that would have been that. And, uh, how horrific it is that.

• 23:54Bill Maher?

  Horrific, yes.

• 23:55Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I can't imagine the shape of our country if he has been. Uh, yeah, oh, uh, like, I can't, I can't imagine. Thank God, thank God, for a lot of reasons why that was unsuccessful. And people forgot that, I think, in my, in my views. And then after, when you, uh, when, when Anderson Cooper asked, uh, Harris, you know, so you think he's, he's a fascist? Yeah, I do, I do. And that means. People that, well, if he's a fascist, that must mean, you know, I must be a fascist too. And if you know and love a lot of people that have voted for him, I know they aren't fascist. And you kind of, you.

• 24:37Bill Maher?

  I mean, there are things the Trump administration has done that resemble what fascist governments do. That doesn't make him a fascist. I said 10 years ago, before he won the first time, I thought this was a slow moving coup in the sense that he was never going to voluntarily give up power. And he still really didn't. I mean, he still is upset about the 2020 election. Which is, which is an insane thing to do if you then won the 2024 election. Because, okay, you, this is the third act and, you know, the hero rises.

• 25:21Bill Maher?

  And of course, he goes down in the second act and then he comes back in the third act. He doesn't then, you know, relitigate the second act because you've already avenged it by becoming president again. But he's still obsessed with it.

• 25:37Speaker 05

  I, it's, one of the reasons why I was, I was, was eager to have a sit down where I'm like, I was marvel, I, I marvelled at the, the, the most incredible political, you know, turnaround ever. You know, like after January 6th, after impeached twice. And, you know, you know.

• 25:58Bill Maher?

  And all the trials.

• 25:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, the trials and everything. And to, to win, you know, every swing state and the popular vote, you know, the absolute kinds of, of a reversal. And, and it's like crazy. And, and that's why there's some things that they do, I just don't understand. And what you possible at that point and what you may choose to do, you know, I made that decision. I'm like, well, I'm going to agree with some things that I happen to agree, you know, and. The things that I don't.

• 26:35Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 26:36Speaker 05

  You know, and like I never voted for the big, beautiful bill and those things. I've never voted for these kind of signature things that I think it isn't the right thing for the country. But I absolutely support the things that they've done.

• 26:48Bill Maher?

  Well, I think you vote with the Democrats ninety-three percent of the time. I mean, it's hysterical to me that the Democratic Party, which you vote with ninety-three percent of the time. Because I feel like I get the same shit from the same kind of people. It just, I'm so glad that there's a number to put with it. Because even when you're ninety-three percent with them, their attitude is so bad. They have such a bad attitude of you either be, you either have the one true opinion, which we, the geniuses of the far left know, or you're just somebody at least suspect.

• 27:26Speaker 05

  In a state that fifty-two percent agree Trump should be president. And, you know, the guy that represents them, you know, ninety-three percent time. And if, I know you're not a believer in marriage, but if you marry to someone and you agree ninety-three percent of the time, that's probably be a pretty, a great marriage. And I, I'm mystified by, and what's also on the other side. I've had Republican friends, you know, in office say, they're like, you know, our internals, you're more popular with our people than, than we are. How? And, and I, I don't understand that either. You know, when I vote ninety-three percent like a damn line and I'm more popular with Republicans,

• 28:10Speaker 05

  I, I can't explain it. I, I truly don't. And I'm finding myself in a strange, in a strange place.

• 28:16Bill Maher?

  When are you up for reelection? Twenty-eight?

• 28:19Speaker 05

  Twenty-eight.

• 28:19Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 28:20Speaker 05

  And, and, and, you know, like, the things that were really important to me, that was, and I think you are largely agree with the circumstances in Israel after ten-seven and the Gaza War and the Prime Minister and how that migrated into Midnight Hammer. And of course, the Iranian War. And you don't have the kinds of energy and outrage on the left after Iran just massacred thirty or forty thousand of its young people and now are actively now torturing, beating, and hanging teenagers right now, executing these people, no outrage.

• 29:05Speaker 05

  And, and that's, that's really, maybe that's part of the fracture in my party. And, and that's, that's probably how I explain.

• 29:14Bill Maher?

  And those outrages that you speak about, those atrocities, those are only the outrageous new, visible ones. What about the everyday atrocity that was living in the, under the Iranian regime? Now, you know, people compare it to the Iraq war. In some ways it is, in some ways it isn't. Iraq and Iran are quite different countries. Sunni and Shiite, one, I'm sorry, but just way more sophisticated than the other, and that would be Iran. Iran, under the Shah, yes, he was a dictator also, but it was a fairly Western country. It's a very, it's a very sophisticated population.

• 30:00Speaker 05

  Have you seen the pictures? I, I looked through a catalog of, of pictures of the Iranian society in the seventies. You know, before the, it's, it's Western.

• 30:10Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 30:11Speaker 05

  And women are able to dress effectively the same way. And it's so, it's so radical. That's the society. And when I spend time here in LA, I constantly encounter members of the Iranian community, and they are all, they're, they're once supportive of my views.

• 30:29Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 30:30Speaker 05

  And they all understand how awful the Iranian regime is, and, and how evil, and they want, you know, you and I. Free Palestine. No, where's the protest? Free Iran, free Iran. Why can't we have a free Iran? You know, like, where, why does that come from? And that is absolutely...

• 30:50Bill Maher?

  But what are we gonna do about it now? That it has devolved into this stalemate? I mean, just yesterday, first, well, first they announced the war part is over. We were on to Project Freedom, which is just about opening the strait. And that lasted like an hour. And they stopped doing that because I think what Trump fears a lot right now is he doesn't want one of our boats to get sunk.

• 31:19Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 31:20Bill Maher?

  And that could happen.

• 31:21Speaker 05

  Like, if it has to be a perfect war in terms of that, people have forgot like the brutality and real loss for that. And then that, I think that's what defines that. You know, I was so nervous and just following that so closely about rescuing the pilot, you know? That would have turned the entire

• 31:45Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 31:46Speaker 05

  energy of that if the Iranians would have got to them.

• 31:49Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 31:49Speaker 05

  And can you imagine? I mean, they're making Lego videos for propaganda. Can you imagine if they had an American pilot?

• 31:57Bill Maher?

  I can because I saw Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines.

• 32:01Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 32:02Bill Maher?

  That is that exact movie.

• 32:04Speaker 05

  And that's, I think that's part of the energy. But I think what's accomplished with Epic was very important. And it's astonishing to what they've been able to do. But overall, right now, it would be a huge, huge if you don't, if you don't walk away now without requiring them to produce their nuclear material.

• 32:28Bill Maher?

  I don't know how, you know? I don't know how you can force them because they've kind of shown we can take your best punch. And let's be honest, the things that, the reason why you and I both supported this war as a thing to be done, none of those objectives have been achieved. It's not a different regime. It may in fact be a worse regime. Because now the Revolutionary Guard probably is in command directly, as opposed to having the mullahs above them, wink, wink. But they were really in command, but whatever it is. It's not the people we want who took over. The protests from the people rising didn't happen. I've been saying that's because they missed their window.

• 33:10Bill Maher?

  They should have attacked Iran while the people were in the streets. They let the people get slaughtered in the streets.

• 33:18Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 33:18Bill Maher?

  And that's probably the top echelon of the people who you want to be in the streets, the bravest ones. They killed them all.

• 33:26Speaker 05

  What's so disappointing to me is where is the global nation community, you know, demanding Iran at this point? You know, it's like this idea, like this, every Democrat, you can't ever let them build a bomb, you know? And here, we're here at the cusp. When would you ever have that opportunity to do? And so if now the Democratic Party and a lot of the media has trained the Iranian regime. It's like, we just have to hang on one more day, one more day. We have to, because eventually people will lose their focus and just give up. And that's, I think that's the tragedy right now.

• 34:09Bill Maher?

  But how do you, I mean, again, the objectives. The people didn't rise up. The regime isn't changed. We don't have the nuclear weapons 100% secured. And then the straighter Hormuz, which wasn't even on the table before the war. It should have been as an issue. So we lost the three things we wanted and gained one fourth one we didn't want. Yeah, we knocked out some of their, most of their military stuff. Okay, that's all to the good. But how do you actually get this nuclear dust, he calls it? Whatever it is. We probably knocked out some of it with the bomb back in July, the big bunker buster bomb.

• 34:56Bill Maher?

  But we don't know. Apparently, we probably didn't because we're doing this. We don't know unless we are actually in that mountain. And how do you get in that mountain? They have a million man army that hasn't been talked about a lot. But they do have an army. So if you're gonna look at that mountain and what's in it, somehow you're gonna have to secure that area, which means I think you're gonna have to fight this million man army. And you don't want that, right?

• 35:27Speaker 00

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• 36:26Speaker 07

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• 36:32Speaker 07

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• 36:55Speaker 05

  Well, what I'm saying is that,

• 37:01Speaker 05

  you know, where are we at right now? Remember back two years ago in 2024? And Sinwar was alive and the majority of the hostages were at the underground? And our party was demanding for a ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire. And what Israel realized that, you know, we have to break and destroy Hamas. And we have to, we have to break and do the same for Hezbollah. And they've done that. And then they knew, they all understand history. A country can't fight two wars on two fronts at the same time. So after they neutralized those two, they were able to go after Iran. And then everything changed with Midnight Hammer. And they were able to significantly damage their nuclear facilities.

• 37:45Speaker 05

  Now, if there was a ceasefire, and now where would Iran's nuclear bomb be right now? You know, two years after that, if there was that ceasefire that we all demanded? And where would Hezbollah? Hezbollah would have hundreds of thousands of rockets able to fire on will. Yeah, and things that we would never tolerate in our nation. You know, I had a room as Israeli politicians. I'm like, you know, have you ever been in your bomb shelter in your home? Everyone hand goes up. And I'm like, yeah, well. And now Democrats are voting against supporting the Iron Dome and those purely defensive things for Israel. And that's, that's the betrayal. And that's heartbreaking to me.

• 38:29Speaker 05

  These were our core values. And, and that's, that's, that's part of this fracturing. And maybe that's why I've lost support in part of the Democratic Party.

• 38:41Bill Maher?

  Me too. I mean, we're exactly the same way on this. We're really walking hand in hand because we get shit about it. And if there's one issue, I mean, this whole big issue of Israel, the Middle East, Islamophobia, this whole, because they're all connected. If there's one issue which makes me say to the far left, "Stop asking me why I make..." Make fun of the left more than I used to. This is it. This is why. Because you're morally goofy. You're ignorant, you don't know history, you don't know the present either. Just when you put it on that level where you just said, would you? I like to do it to that because people don't know the history, they don't know the facts.

• 39:25Bill Maher?

  So you kind of have to just make it on that level for them, and I did it once. There was a liberal woman who was sitting here and she was arguing about how horrible.

• 39:33Speaker 05

  I saw that, where it's like, where would you live? You know, Tel Aviv, right? Yeah, yeah.

• 39:37Bill Maher?

  If you had to live somewhere in the Middle East. And it was just a lot of like trying to scream over me. Like whatever she could do to not answer the question and finally did have to say, yes, Tel Aviv. I mean.

• 39:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. That's the first.

• 39:52Bill Maher?

  I mean.

• 39:52Speaker 05

  Ask any ISIS bride, you know, how's the life, you know, you know?

• 39:57Bill Maher?

  ISIS bride.

• 39:58Speaker 05

  Ask it, you know? Like Australia, Australia now has finally agreed to repatriate, you know, these ISIS brides. You know, these people, these women in Australia realize, oh my gosh, that must be the caliphate. You know, living that life. And, you know, ask, ask any of them. Ask any of them.

• 40:19Bill Maher?

  Just, just the concept of an ISIS bride, which is basically a sex slave. But when your husband isn't fucking you, you have to wear the fucking beekeeper suit. So nobody else can even look at you. And these are the women who would be like, how horrible the manosphere is. They don't respect women at all. Let me go join someone who will put me in a tarp all day. And cover me like I'm a motorboat engine. I mean, they are so morally goofy and liars. You know, they put that whole thing out for the longest time about how Israel was starving. The Palestinian people. You know, that was part of the thing in Gaza, part of their.

• 41:02Bill Maher?

  Yes, people were starving because Hamas stole all the food.

• 41:06Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 41:07Bill Maher?

  Because Hamas wants the people to die. That is, first of all, they love being martyrs. Let's just not gloss over that. That's part of the whole religion dominated culture. Martyrdom is good. They have words for it. That's why they strapped bombs to children.

• 41:28Bill Maher?

  Okay, so again, you're morally goofy. If this is the team you want to be on. And Israel didn't starve them. First of all, no other nation on earth at war would ever be even asked to feed their enemy.

• 41:45Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:45Bill Maher?

  Okay, so, but Israel always has to play by a different set of rules. Okay, so they're gonna feed their enemy. They tried. The food was stolen by the same people who, by the way, had an enormous bomb shelter. The whole country was a bomb shelter. It was their tunnels. But they wouldn't let the people in them.

• 42:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, and they would use the hospitals. They would use

• 42:09Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 42:10Speaker 05

  the schools. They would use that civilian facilities for the attacks. You know, Sinwar described Palestinians as necessary sacrifices. You know, that's the plan. It's like they don't care how many Palestinians were killed. And that's part of the problem, too. Having to engage in a war that doesn't care. Because how many civilians suffered? They don't care.

• 42:37Bill Maher?

  And, and

• 42:38Speaker 05

  In fact, they celebrated, in fact.

• 42:41Bill Maher?

  And I know you have your problems, John. But I live here in Hollywood. I have to live amongst people, most of whom, who think it's cool to wear the kaffiyah to the Oscars. And to say, you know, free Palestine. As if Palestine would be liberated by living under Hamas. By the way, Israel Geniuses Educated on TikTok was liberated in 2005 by Israel. Israel gave it back and said, here, you have your land again. You do something with it. And this is what they did with it.

• 43:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean

• 43:22Bill Maher?

  They made it into a fortress, didn't spend it on the people, or turning it into any sort of, it could have been Dubai.

• 43:30Speaker 05

  I agree. I sat with Bill Clinton. We were campaigning in Harris. And I was like, hey, thanks for your work. And Clinton, he reminds, it's like, yeah, we offered them 96% of the West Bank. And East Jerusalem was the capital. You know, here you go. For 25 years, they could have rebuilding that into Dubai or whatever that they want. They did not want a two-state solution. Their one-state solution, you know, as you always point out, like

• 43:58Bill Maher?

  From the river.

• 43:59Speaker 05

  See what's in there. Exactly.

• 44:02Bill Maher?

  Just look at a map. We know where the river is.

• 44:05Speaker 05

  Look at the map, yeah.

• 44:06Bill Maher?

  As if these kids know what a map is or would know how to look at it. Yeah. They don't, again, it's especially frustrating out here because people out here, they're actors, so they just want a cause. They want to do something about free Palestine. But that's as far as they've looked into it. They don't look past the buzzwords. They're talented. They're not bright.

• 44:30Speaker 05

  Name the one pro-Israel band that played at Coachella. You know, they started, they started, they're sad, you know, Israel or whatever. It does not exist, but there's constant kinds of

• 44:44Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 44:45Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:45Bill Maher?

  Oh, there's an Irish.

• 44:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, those assholes kneecap or whatever.

• 44:50Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 44:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:51Bill Maher?

  And they even went to Cuba, as if Cuba hasn't

• 44:54Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 44:55Bill Maher?

  As if Cuba hasn't suffered enough. An Irish rap group.

• 44:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, and 1300 sunglasses, walking around like the communist paradise.

• 45:06Bill Maher?

  That's right.

• 45:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 45:08Bill Maher?

  Was that Code Pink who did that?

• 45:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, like, yeah, Code Pink and all these

• 45:13Bill Maher?

  Okay, but here's the backstory. We did the move in Venezuela, which has, look, that one, you have to say, worked pretty good.

• 45:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, you remember, people lost their shit over Venezuela.

• 45:28Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 45:29Speaker 05

  No one talks about Venezuela anymore. And, and, and that's my point.

• 45:32Bill Maher?

  No.

• 45:33Speaker 05

  People, people also, I'm sorry, let me say this, that, you know, we're not talking about Gaza anymore, and people forgot, like, yeah, we, you know, ended the Gaza War, brought everyone back home as well, too. And this idea that what is the freak out of the day? You know, we're not talking about these things. We've all moved on, and I guarantee by the time this drops, there will be one or two more that, you know, part of this conversation.

• 46:01Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but Venezuela was, look, I mean, when it does come up in conversation, it usually comes up now when people say, and this could be true. They say, well, Trump saw how well Venezuela worked. He thought he could do it in Iran. Yeah, maybe that affected his thinking somewhat. Iran is not Venezuela, okay? I mean, you know, Barzini is not Tartaglia, sorry. It's gonna be a lot harder. But Venezuela kinda worked. I mean, nobody died on our side. It was very clean. The idea in that country where you could get rid of this really bad dictator and bringing, bringing somebody who wasn't from the opposition exactly, but someone who was like, okay, you know what?

• 46:47Bill Maher?

  That guy was kind of an asshole. Let's work together. That's a great plan as opposed to.

• 46:53Speaker 05

  We, Joe Biden put 25 big stacks on, on him. You know, in January, before he left the office, he put a $25 million, you know, bounty on it.

• 47:05Bill Maher?

  Oh, really?

• 47:05Speaker 05

  Yes, you can, you can verify that. And it's like, essentially, that's like, you know, some hitman. There's 25 million for you.

• 47:13Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 47:15Speaker 05

  So we did it in a way, and now they, you know, we have him. He's gonna be on trial in public, held accountable for the atrocities that he committed against his nation.

• 47:25Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 47:25Speaker 05

  And that's why I said, why is that a bad thing?

• 47:28Bill Maher?

  It's not a bad thing. And, and the, and the bank shot off of Venezuela was Cuba.

• 47:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:34Bill Maher?

  Because Cuba is propped up a lot by Venezuela. They're very close. In fact, all of

• 47:40Speaker 05

  It's all interconnected.

• 47:41Bill Maher?

  All of Madero's security guard were Cubans. Obviously, they didn't do so good. But Cuba needs the Venezuelan oil. So, yes, Cuba is starving now for oil. And we're doing that to them, but we're doing it because we want to have a regime change there. And so Code Pink and Jeremy Corbyn, the usual suspects. I think little Greta was on that trip, or if she wasn't, she's certainly not supportive of it. She was probably involved with some other cause du jour. But they went to Cuba in support of the regime. This is what is just so insane about the far left and why. Why, why are we so stupid, John, that we are criticized?

• 48:25Bill Maher?

  That is why, because they're stupid. Because they go to Cuba in support of the regime, which has done nothing but make. I know people who've been to Cuba. If you think you know poverty in America, you have no idea what poverty is.

• 48:38Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 48:39Bill Maher?

  And that's been going on for 67 years. It didn't just start when we took away their oil.

• 48:45Speaker 05

  Exactly. And, and those people that visit there, do they know that they're useful idiots? You know, or they are that clueless that they're, they're absolutely. You are backing a regime that's, that's trapped this entire nation in extreme poverty and misery. And we are there like they're so great down here.

• 49:08Bill Maher?

  Because Cuba could, again, be another like Gaza. It could be instead of Gaza could be Dubai and Cuba could be St. Bart's.

• 49:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, or, or anything, anything.

• 49:21Bill Maher?

  It's Cuba, it's in the Caribbean. And it's just been this, this nightmare for the better part of a century now. And, yeah, we're trying to do something about that. And here's the best, the kicker of this story.

• 49:37Bill Maher?

  They're in Cuba, like you say, these assholes in their $1,300 designer glasses going out to support the people. They're staying like in the one hotel, that's a luxury hotel, that while the people have no electricity, everything they're doing is air-conditioned, the bus. They cosplay, sort of going into a field with the farmers, I think, for a minute. And you know what they visited while they were in Cuba, like sightseeing on their whirlwind tour? They went to the North Korean Embassy, and one of them tweeted out, "Our solidarity with North Korea for being two regimes that are against US violence."

• 50:17Bill Maher?

  The level of stupidity of these kids, that they know one thing, this country, America, is the worst one that's ever been, we have done nothing but even... That's really how they've been indoctrinated. It's, aside the fact that it's terrible for our national security, it's just wrong. It's just stupid. You're stupid, you're factually wrong. This country has done bad things, like every country has. On a relative scale, we've actually been way better.

• 50:49Speaker 05

  Instead of staying at a luxury hotel, live with a real family that lives under this terrible regime for a month. And you still, will you still defend this regime if you spent a month living in extreme kind of deprivation like that?

• 51:04Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 51:05Speaker 05

  Of course, of course not. You know, you get choppered in, stay at a luxury hotel, you know, like this is great, and then we're out. I mean, it's...

• 51:15Bill Maher?

  It's just...

• 51:16Speaker 05

  And that's the frustration, but these are, they are the people that the emerging, you know, that's our new class of mascots for our party. And now, many of the people that are running for the senate are campaigning with these kinds of people.

• 51:33Bill Maher?

  Well, I mean, just the word communism, or being called a communist, not that long ago, was a dirty word. As it should be, we did try it. Communism all over the world. It's, it's a nightmare. But it's not a dirty word anymore on the left.

• 51:55Speaker 05

  No, I mean, you know, you know, Plattner in Maine absolutely identified himself as a communist.

• 52:02Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 52:02Speaker 05

  A hundred percent.

• 52:03Bill Maher?

  And so does Mondami's main lieutenant, that's Cia Weaver in New York, head of the movement to get the rents fixated or whatever.

• 52:16Speaker 05

  Well, you know.

• 52:18Bill Maher?

  She says.

• 52:19Speaker 05

  Homeownership is racist and it's white supremacy.

• 52:23Bill Maher?

  She's also tweeted out, "Elect more communists."

• 52:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, we want to impoverish, you know, white, middle, middle, middle income families. It's part of, it's part of the extreme. And, and that's what I'm saying, like, it's ironic in my cycle, that the Republicans try to spend tens of millions of dollars to convince people that I was a socialist. You know, and, and now I'm accused of gone MAGA after voting 93% Democrat. But communism now, that's not, it's qualifying.

• 52:52Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, it's not that anybody's gone MAGA. It's that you're gone Gaga. You're fucking nuts. You're crazy. You'd say crazy shit. Like, I mean, that, the woman we're talking about. All homeownership is racist. In a country where 20 million black people own homes. It, you know.

• 53:16Bill Maher?

  Queers for Palestine.

• 53:17Speaker 05

  Or when your mother.

• 53:18Bill Maher?

  It's so self contradictory.

• 53:20Speaker 05

  Yeah, their mother has a $2 million home in like Tennessee or whatever. And, and it's just like.

• 53:26Bill Maher?

  Kamala.

• 53:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, what?

• 53:28Bill Maher?

  Kamala Harris.

• 53:29Speaker 05

  Oh, no, I'm referencing that, like.

• 53:32Bill Maher?

  No, I know.

• 53:32Speaker 05

  Mondami's house czar.

• 53:35Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 53:35Speaker 05

  But I, I did read that she purchased, yeah, a $9 million home in Malibu.

• 53:40Bill Maher?

  And she should. That's fine. This is America.

• 53:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, I agree. No judgment.

• 53:45Bill Maher?

  Yeah, she's got a big baller house in Malibu. I mean, you can't get less sort of you. Real person kind of, I mean somehow you're the suspect Democrat. The guy in the sweatshirt and the hoodie who lives like he always did, you know, regular guy, Pittsburgh Steeler fan, data, data, data, I could go on. But she's the one who more represent, well, if you think that more represents, and again, she, good, good for you to have a nine million dollar house. But to think that that represents that working class that the Democratic Party is trying to win back. I mean, I don't know, it just, it doesn't look.

• 54:28Speaker 05

  Talk, talk to any traditional, uh, union, traditional guys. They're all, all, all gone from the Democratic Party.

• 54:39Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 54:39Speaker 05

  That, you know, that started 10 years ago during the Trump first, first race. And a hundred percent all those traditional, you know, like the regular, regular dudes and those kind of people, you know, they're, they're, they're not, they're not coming back. And, and that's, that in part why, you know, we have a second term of Trump.

• 55:00Bill Maher?

  I think, and, and I would say the first term is because around then, I think there was a lot of talk about how, well, you know, the Republican Party, they, they seem to do well in these races and we had Bush and blah, blah, blah. And Mitch McConnell, look what he did, he fucked up the Supreme Court thing, yes, he did. But you know what, their days are numbered because this is a, a country that is getting more and more diverse, which is a great thing, all the time. And Trump looked around and went, yeah, I still see a lot of white people. You know what, that is true, but I, I see, I see white people. He was like the kid in the sixth sense, except not dead, white.

• 55:42Bill Maher?

  I see white people, and he did, and they still exist. And, and they're mostly not racist, but they do have their own concerns. And there's a big difference between being not racist and willing to turn your life over to the cause of anti-racism, which is what the far left wants. I think the best way to be an anti-racist is to be a decent human being to all people. But that's very passe, that's, that's Democrat classic, John.

• 56:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, well.

• 56:13Bill Maher?

  That's what we are, we're classic.

• 56:16Speaker 05

  You know, I've, I've, I've followed you for, you know, we watch for, for, your values haven't changed.

• 56:22Bill Maher?

  No.

• 56:22Speaker 05

  Your views haven't changed. And I say this, I'm the same thing, where it's like,

• 56:26Bill Maher?

  No.

• 56:27Speaker 05

  I haven't, you know, like, I, I mean, and, and that's what's so exasperating, where I'm like.

• 56:33Bill Maher?

  No, we're, we're fine. We're, it's so much better to be sane, no matter how much a certain faction hates you for it. Lots of other people love us for it. So there's, it's not like we're getting, not getting a good trade off. But also, it's just, you just sleep better at night, knowing, no, I, I'm not one of these sheep who won't say the emperor has no clothes. It's a real emperor has no clothes thing. You know, when it's, when you see somebody with Queers for Palestine shirt and you, and you just pretend that that's not a thing. That that's not so stupid. Okay, you can do that, but you are an emperor no clothes person there. You are saying the emperor has no clothes. And.

• 57:18Speaker 05

  I mean.

• 57:19Bill Maher?

  No, I mean, I am. I mean, you're saying the emperor does have clothes. Right. I'm the kid who says the emperor has no clothes. Because the emperor doesn't have any clothes in that scenario, and many others. I mean, I could list a dozen things where the, the left finds a way to work their way back to what they're trying to stop. You know, like defunding the police.

• 57:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, we're, we're right back there. You know, we're, we're like, you know, fuck ICE, abolish ICE. We are back. We can't resist our worst impulses that brought, that summoned, that summoned

• 57:54Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 57:55Speaker 05

  A, a second term with Trump. You know, and, and now we are back there.

• 57:59Bill Maher?

  And backlash like ICE.

• 58:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly. We are living in the backlash of, of this. And we are, what, 15 months into his term? That's four years. Can you imagine what's gonna happen in the next two months, six months? You know, a year from now. I mean, do you think it's gonna get going in one direction more extreme? And there, you know, there are no experts at this point, because we are in unprecedented kinds of times. You know, I've had to vote against my caucus alone through two, two government shutdowns. The, you know, historic, long, record breaking.

• 58:37Speaker 05

  You know, we used to be, we used to be the party that would refuse to shut down our government.

• 58:42Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 58:42Speaker 05

  You know, we used to, last year, we used to scold Tuberville in Alabama for jamming up promotions. And now we've shut the whole, the whole government down. We've shut the whole thing down. And over healthcare?

• 58:59Bill Maher?

  So you're a guy who's known to have friends on the other side of the aisle, which I think is so important that we don't do that much anymore. It's, it's like, I don't sit with those kids in the lunchroom. But like, somebody like, you mentioned him, Tommy Tuberville? He was a football coach?

• 59:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, and he, he, he did that stand about, I think it was like abortion in parts of the military for some weird thing. And it jammed up, you know, promotions and, and it was punishing innocent people. And we shut the entire government down for forty-four days and plunged people into chaos. SNAP, forty-two million Americans depend on SNAP, all of that stuff influx. You know, we, well, we're doing this for healthcare. There was no healthcare. There was no developments. We've all moved on. We're not talking about that anymore. And then the second shutdown was about, we have to punish ICE.

• 59:57Speaker 05

  But we all knew that because of the big, beautiful bill that I did not vote for, had unlimited money. And yet we still, we have to shut it down because the base demands that. And I was the only Democrat, I'm not going to shut down our DHS to punish ICE because, and that what's happened? Zero, zero reforms on ICE that I wanted to see as well, too. Zero reforms, nothing. We walked away empty pockets, just like in the first one, because they were both driven by the outrage of the base. And that's another reason why I'm at odds with part of the party. And I don't know, these were our values. We must never shut our government down, but now we're doing the same things.

• 1:00:41Bill Maher?

  Well, you ask what we're gonna be doing in two, six, eight months. I have no idea. I know the, the political landscape will change a lot. What doesn't seem to change... Is my life.

• 1:00:57Speaker 05

  Trump makes anything possible on our side too. You know, the extremism has mutated, you know, the genome here of like, who knows what's possible? How it's going to continue to mutate? And the extreme things now, um, you know, our part, I'm the party that calls, calls them as, as Nazis. You know, but except for the guy that has an actual Nazi tattoo, we won't call him a Nazi. You know?

• 1:01:22Bill Maher?

  I don't hold that against him. That to me is the kind of gotcha thing that people play games with. I think it's a red herring. Uh, if anything, he's way too far left. I don't think he's a Nazi. I think he got a tattoo when he was a teenager or something. He says he doesn't know what it was. Even if he didn't, you know what? It, it's like, you can't hold people responsible for what they did as a teenager. I think he was a teenager.

• 1:01:50Speaker 05

  Well, uh, but except that, you know, he was caught, uh, lurking online and praising Hamas. Snuff film of them killing and torturing Israeli soldiers to death. I dig it, you know? I mean, he thinks he, he absolutely, absolutely praised Hamas what they've done in that.

• 1:02:10Bill Maher?

  See, I see that as a leftist thing.

• 1:02:13Speaker 05

  Uh, yeah. I mean. Yeah, well, but well, my point, my point though, and that doesn't, it, this is, this is this idea though. You know, all cops are bastards. You know, he's claimed that.

• 1:02:27Bill Maher?

  Okay, that, see, I'm still getting educated on him. I know that he said all cops that right away.

• 1:02:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, and, and all rural people are racist and stupid. These are, I, these, I, I'm not insulting him. I'm just reflecting the things that he has proudly said online. And it's not a gotcha thing. It's just what's, that's who he is. And he's the guy that ran away from the primary.

• 1:02:51Bill Maher?

  And he's going to be the senator in Maine. Because, because the only person he was running against on the democratic side dropped out.

• 1:02:59Speaker 05

  Correct, yeah. And so, and, and there will be unlimited money there. And, and that's made possible because, you know, I don't think that's authentic. I think that's just someone that has extreme views and.

• 1:03:17Speaker 05

  That's just, how is that qualifying of, of being part of this?

• 1:03:21Bill Maher?

  Well, I would say that the two wings of the party that we keep talking about. There's talk to Trump, fuck Trump. Those are the two wings.

• 1:03:31Speaker 05

  Well, no, to be clear, I mean, it's like here we are now. It's like, I don't care if you build a ballroom. That's bad, that's bad punching. You know, you've said I'm a communist or all cops are bastards, abolish ICE and all that other stuff. We're okay with that. Kind of the agreeing like, I don't care, build, build a ballroom that we do need that. That's, that's damaging, but all these other extreme things seems, seems pretty good to me.

• 1:03:57Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you know, you seem like you're upbeat. I mean, you look good. You look healthy.

• 1:04:04Speaker 05

  Oh, I, I, I haven't, I felt so good just be, I'm gonna just agree or vote for things that I think happen to be true. And it just, I sleep better. I feel better. I don't, I don't carry this.

• 1:04:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:19Speaker 05

  You know, a career isn't worth anything if I had spent that lying. I know what pays the bills as a Democrat right now. Fuck Trump, literally. And just agreeing to do things that we would never do those kind of things. And I've always refused to turn my back on the Jewish community and Israel because that's what history demonstrates that's consistently gonna happen.

• 1:04:41Bill Maher?

  The best thing about being honest is that you don't have to keep your lies in order. You know, you don't, you don't have to remember, you don't have to remember lies. You know, and that's priceless.

• 1:04:56Speaker 05

  Well, maybe that's a version of Bullworth or whatever, but I'm just, that's what I've decided to do.

• 1:05:02Bill Maher?

  But your, your health is good because obviously you've had.

• 1:05:05Speaker 05

  Never, never better.

• 1:05:06Bill Maher?

  Never better, in every way, physically, mentally, everything.

• 1:05:10Speaker 05

  What?

• 1:05:11Bill Maher?

  Physically, mentally, everything?

• 1:05:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:13Bill Maher?

  You think all of that is behind you?

• 1:05:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I just, I just had, you know, the check, the check out, but actually, before I came out, uh, to the west coast, yeah, and, you know, check, checked out, you know, ab- absolutely. And I, I, I'm a, I'm, I'm the luckiest guy alive. I mean, I'm coming up on, you know, when this, when this drops, that would be essentially the fourth anniversary of when I died from that stroke.

• 1:05:36Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:05:37Speaker 05

  And that was touch and go at that time. And I never thought I, four years later, I'd be sitting in a chair, talking to a guy that I always, uh, and, and I could have been, uh, dead, or I could have been, uh...

• 1:05:53Bill Maher?

  So, when you have a stroke, are you supposed to take aspirin? I'm asking for a friend.

• 1:05:58Speaker 05

  Uh, no, well, I take, I take a medical version of it.

• 1:06:01Bill Maher?

  But is that the prescription?

• 1:06:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's called Eliquis, and that's a blood thinner to make sure that doesn't happen. And, and then also, what really brought to that was I suffer from Afib, and that's kinda like a silent thing.

• 1:06:13Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:06:14Speaker 05

  And that, that, that damaged the heart in, in a way. And, and that, and the stress and, and of everything about that campaign, it all just, you know, converged, and, and that's when I was, I knew I felt terrible at that point, and I was gonna just finish out the primary, and then I was gonna immediately get, get checked out, because, uh, and, and that mistake was, um, three days before the election, that's when the stroke hit.

• 1:06:42Bill Maher?

  Do you have anxiety about...

• 1:06:44Speaker 05

  Not anymore.

• 1:06:45Bill Maher?

  No, about, about the...

• 1:06:47Speaker 05

  About time?

• 1:06:48Bill Maher?

  No, about whatever upcoming election, the kind of, because once you go into an election season, whoever your opponent is, even the people on your own team in a primary, but then certainly the Republican, are going to say the worst sort of things about you.

• 1:07:04Speaker 05

  I mean, I've, I've lived through that. I, I've already been dead once, you know, like, there's nothing, like, it's, it's...

• 1:07:10Bill Maher?

  So you don't care what they say about you?

• 1:07:12Speaker 05

  It's very liberating in, in, in that, in that way. And, and what I'm saying, like, uh, there's, there's no real stress compared to whether if you're a soldier in IDF, or, you know, in our military, or you have families, you know, with a lot of these, uh, ability to feed themselves and all that thing compared to where I'm at. You know, there's, you're just... Freeing to just, I happen to believe this is true. This is where I think the Democratic Party should exist in that way. And, you know, I'm tired of hearing lectures that, well, we need to be a big tent party, but except for this guy, you know, like, why?

• 1:07:54Bill Maher?

  This is common sense.

• 1:07:55Speaker 05

  Yeah, having the courage to, you know, that, having the courage to just be honest about these kinds of circumstances. And I think, I think that's what, what America really wants, except in the extreme kinds of spaces, but they have the largest and the loudest voices and, and they, and they rule in the primary parts and that. And, you know, eliminate, eliminate this idea of primaring because, and you just make it seem open primaries and people will be accountable on both sides on the things that you say and the things that you vote and the things you say.

• 1:08:34Bill Maher?

  All right, John, well, I know I have a special treat this week because I get to see you on Friday also. You came in and for us, us at the last minute, I really appreciate that.

• 1:08:45Speaker 05

  Oh, hey, well, I mean, that's, that's, that's a, that's a treat.

• 1:08:49Bill Maher?

  I was glad when I get to have my audience get to see you and see what you have to say because, again, people like us, we gotta fight for the megaphone. I mean, it is the crazier people who get, I feel like, more of the coverage. So, you know, I sure hope you run in 28 and, you know, I just hope you're on the scene a long time because I don't have a lot of allies, but you are one of my allies.

• 1:09:16Speaker 05

  Well, I, I've been described as the lonely Democrat, but I feel a little less Democrat as a Democrat, you know, watching, watching your shows and, and your views because it's like, hey, a guy that are, with our values haven't changed and the things have mutated in ways.

• 1:09:30Bill Maher?

  And believe me, I'm sure you hear it too. We don't, we don't see a lot of it in the press because the press is kind of captured by either fringe on either side, but I'm sure you have a life like mine. Wherever you go, people come up to you.

• 1:09:44Speaker 05

  All the time, yeah.

• 1:09:45Bill Maher?

  All the time to try to tell you, please do what you keep doing because you're one of the few people I, you know, that means the world to me. Anyway, you mean a lot to me too.

• 1:09:56Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 1:09:57Bill Maher?

  Thank you, pal. I'm glad you came by and saw my little crazy get up here.

• 1:10:05Bill Maher?

  You saw this, the insults that he signed when I went to the White House? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that awesome?

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you.

• 1:10:23Speaker 06

  You're having a midlife crisis.

• 1:10:24Speaker 01

  I'm not ready for that.

• 1:10:27Speaker 01

  I'm older. I'm wiser.

• 1:10:31Speaker 01

  And sharper than ever. Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything.

• 1:10:46Speaker 07

  It's getting chilly outside. But you know what that means?

• 1:10:52Speaker 07

  It's time to cozy up with Panera Bread. Let's get toasty, cheesy. Oh, hello, broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl. How about melty? Okay, Chipotle Chicken Avo Melt. It's dip and bread and soupy goodness season. Oh, yeah, we are so back. It's Panera season. Order now.

• 1:11:16Speaker 03

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