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Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #634: Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sam Harris and Mary Katharine Ham.
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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maher. Long enough, let's do a fucking show. I mean, it's been a long time. Let's not ever be apart this long forever. And of course, right on cue, always when we come back, big news, Dianne Feinstein, our senator for some... No, don't laugh. No, she was a great serving senator here, died today. First female mayor of San Francisco and everyone there today observed a minute of no shoplifting. Let me tell you, when she was mayor of San Francisco, she had that city under control. When there was poop in the street, it was because John Waters was making a movie. Also, a senator for 31 years in politics for 54 years, not once was she caught on tape giving a handjob at a musical. I think that has to count. Well, you saw, you've seen Lauren Boebert, she's the MAGA congressman. I guess she's a 36-year-old grandmother. She is from Colorado, a family's value Republican, was caught on tape. She was at Beetlejuice, like, (1/41)
getting her tit grabbed, vaping, grabbing cock. I'm not making this up. This is your government at work. So they threw her out of the theater and on the way out, she gave them the finger and said, do you know who I am? See, there's a difference between Republicans and Democrats. When Biden says that, he's genuinely asking. But, okay, good news and bad news about our government. There's going to be a government shutdown again. Why do we always go through this? I know it's terrible for a lot of people. On the bright side, the Senate approved a dress code, solving a problem they created last week. Although it was just for the men. Kyrsten Sinema, are you familiar with her? She retains the right to dress like Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie. There was a Republican debate this week. Ron DeSantis is here. He was on it. Apparently he won it, according to the polls. But it was a shit show. Was it not? Did you see this? I couldn't get through it. I mean, they were just talking over each other. It (2/41)
made me so tense I had to calm down by watching a video of Britney Spears dancing with knives. I always played the Republican debate drinking game. That's where you take a drink every time you go, oh, God, I need a drink. The weirdest part was they got onto the subject of education and Mike Pence. Mike Pence says, full disclosure, I've been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years. Why bring Mike Pence? But people don't realize, now they looked into this. He's very kinky. He and the wife, sometimes she dresses up like Trump and tries to hang him. Now, I feel like it's my job to watch these debates. I couldn't get through it. I mean, I got through like 30 minutes of the 90 minutes or whatever it was. Also, at that point, Lauren Boebert said to me, my hand's getting tired, let's beat the traffic. Trump, of course, skipped the debate as his custom is now. Instead, he had one of his rallies, or as I call them, drag queen story hour. He had a bad week, really. A New York judge, listen to this, (3/41)
shocking, said he's a complete fraud. I know. Apparently, he's inflated his property values and made him a fraud. Apparently, he's inflated his property values in New York over the years by $2.2 billion. They canceled the Trump organization's business certification. Wow, that's pretty big news that didn't get much coverage. Still not the biggest crook of the week. That would be the senator from my home state of New Jersey, Bob Menendez. Did you see this story? I love this guy. Old school. Old school. No intricate laundering schemes here, no offshore accounts. I'll just stuff these gold bars in my wife's bra. I fucking love this guy. He had this, his house was full of cash stuffed into his clothes and gold bars. Who accepts gold bars? I've never been anywhere where they went. Yes, we take Visa, MasterCard, and gold bars. They said, why did you have all this cash around the house and gold bars? He said, for emergencies. Like, what sort of emergency requires cash and gold bars? If a rap (4/41)
video breaks out? We have a great show. It's so great to be back. We have Sam Harris, Mary Katherine Ham. And first up, he is the governor of Florida, who is, wow, currently on our show? Currently running to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. Governor Ron DeSantis. I know, I know. Welcome back. All right. On a scale of 9 to 10, what did you think of my monologue? Honestly, I was laughing. I'll give you that. Right. Laughing on both sides of the aisle, too. So it was good. And welcome back to the show. I know you guys were on hiatus for a while. Thank you. I do got to put in a plug. Like, if you ever have problems in California, you know, in Florida, not only do we have no income tax, no Vax mandates allowed in the state of Florida. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. I know, but people do wear cowboy boots with a suit. That's right. So, I'm not going to fly. Okay, that's just a crazy thing. We're proud of it, too. We're proud of it. But there were no (5/41)
cowboys in Florida, Ron. Oh, yeah, you should try Florida. We're one of the top cattle states in America. Really? You go from the beach, you go the interior of Florida, nothing but cattle ranches. Oh, all right. Well, I stand corrected. Because I'm wearing orthopedic shoes. There you go. Okay, so, the debate. It was a shit show, but I- right. I mean, even you said you would have turned it off if you were watching it. I mean, people screaming over each other. I couldn't hear what anyone was saying. It was terrible. But I heard you won. I heard the polling said you won. What did you win? With Trump- no, honestly, with Trump not in the race, what did you win? Well, but I think that, you know, he's not showing up. He's missing an action. He owes it to voters to show up and defend his record. And I think he thinks he can take a juice poll and then people don't get to vote. That's not the way the system works. You got to go earn votes. So, I'm showing up, I'm showing that- and that's- here's (6/41)
the thing. In the midst of all the show that happened, I was the one guy that people said, you know what, this guy's actually acting like a president when the rest were not. And so, okay, there I am. I told Donald, let's do a debate. I'm debating your governor, Gavin Newsom, soon. We're going to get to that. But let's do a debate with me and him. I'll do it. All right, but this- can I ask you one thing about these debates? Can you get rid of this guy, Doug Burgum? This guy- this bugs me. He is not going to be president. This guy could start dating Taylor Swift. No one would care. North Dakota. It's not even this guy. All right. But you know, the thing is, you did not take my advice. What was it? I was on this show a few times when we talked. I said, this guy's crazy to run this time. He's, what are you, 45 years old? You just had a birthday, right? You could run for the next 20 years. If you were Biden, the next 40. Okay, why run against Trump? You're trying to thread this needle that (7/41)
will never happen. Well, for a couple reasons. You can't disavow him because that's the base, and yet you're running against him. And that's why, I mean, let's face it, Ron. If this campaign was going well, you wouldn't be on this show. Oh, that's not true. So, one, I don't think he can win the election. I could win the election. Two, I don't think he could actually get the job done that we need to do. For example, COVID. I think we need accountability for what this government did to this country with the COVID restrictions, mandates and lockdowns. Donald Trump is not going to do that. He says he did everything right. He says he saved millions of lives with lockdowns. He claims his MNRA shot saved 100 million lives. He's not going to clean house at CDC, NIH, FDA or any of that. I will do that. I will get the job done and a lot of other things we do. The one thing about me in Florida, and even my critics will acknowledge, if he says he's going to do something, he will follow through and (8/41)
get the job done. So it's about the country. Are we going to get the country turned around or not? I don't think he's a vehicle that's doing. And I have been, when I supported him on the things I liked, I've said it, but I've been critical about the things that he didn't do, and I'll continue to do that. Okay, but you campaigned for election deniers in 2022. This I do not forgive, to quote the Godfather. I mean, Carrie Lake, who said Biden is an illegitimate president, Trump didn't. Well, now she's attacking me, so maybe I did make a mistake there, because she's out there saying, she's trying to say that we mandated vax in Florida. We did the opposite. We protected people even from private mandates, so that may have been. But Trump lost the election, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so why did you campaign for people? Because I wanted to see Republicans win key races. I think it's important. And that's not a deal breaker issue for you? That's not democracy? Okay, well let's go back to 2016. (9/41)
Your friends in Hollywood were cutting ads telling the electoral college to vote against Trump in the electoral college because it was stolen. They said Russia stole the election. For years they said that. So don't act like this is a unique thing in modern history of the country. First of all, Ron, I have no friends in Hollywood. You do remember those commercials now. I remember them. Okay, but the thing that you seem to stake your campaign on is where woke goes to die. And look, I'm fed up with woke too. That's why I have trouble with friends in Hollywood. I'm an old school liberal and that's a whole different thing than woke. And I'm sympathetic to you because you very often take on an issue where I feel like, yeah, there is crazy stuff going on in schools. There is crazy stuff. But the problem is it doesn't resonate with a lot of people who don't see it for whatever reason. And so they're like, why is this guy picking a fight with Mickey Mouse? Right? Well, they picked a fight with (10/41)
us. But well, listen, so first of all, I do a lot more than just that. I think that's a little bit of a caricature. But this idea of ideology corrupting institutions, I see it in Los Angeles with the amount of crime that's here and the homelessness. There are people that commit crimes who are not prosecuted like they would be in Florida. Our state's crime rate's at a 50 year low. You elect these people like Gascon and what they did in San Francisco. You can break into somebody's house or mug somebody and you don't end up going to jail. That doesn't work. But that's driven by ideology. So it's not just we're having just a philosophical debate. I think woke ideology is corrupted institutions. I think it's corrupted things like the CDC with how they handled COVID with the nonsense that they did. So it's a broader issue than just a philosophical fight. You keep wanting to get back to that. And I don't blame you because you're right. We're on the same page there. And I think it's unfair (11/41)
what they did to you because you did handle it better. You did handle it better. You were right. You were like, let's target the people, protect the people who are most vulnerable, and everybody else can go on with their lives a little better. You open schools sooner. And a lot of the stuff that's come in, the information we have after now, we've had a few years to look at it. You were more right. And they won't give you credit for that. It's not about credit for me, though. It's not about credit for me. It's about them admitting that they were wrong because they are setting us up. If this happened again, they would repeat the same playbook all over again. And if we don't have accountability, that's what's going to happen. So I'll bring accountability so it never happens in our country again. I saw the New York Times did such a despicable hit piece on you that I saw because I forget what the lead headline was, but it was basically Ron DeSantis fucked up the pandemic. And then at the (12/41)
very end, it says Florida's death rate overall was better than the national average. Now, if you're going to do an article about Florida and the pandemic, shouldn't that be the lead? Shouldn't that be the — I mean, talk about burying the lead. It shouldn't be that we're the number one state for in-migration. I mean, if we did so bad, people would have been leaving Florida. People are coming, wealth's moving into the state, our economy's done better than any other large state, and education. We're now ranked, I think, in the top five on most metrics in education. Now, that wasn't true when I was a kid growing up in Florida. So we did it right, but what we did is we understood you can't stop society because of one respiratory virus. That's not even the way to help health overall. Well, you could if it was bad enough, but not that one. Right. Well, they were wrong on the death rate. They were wrong on closures. They were wrong on everything. And yet we act like, what, we're just going to (13/41)
shrug our shoulders and move along? So, like, that's the part of you I like. And then there's the part of you, like, where you're going after — I mean, your state voted to restore voting rights to felons. And then through some political bullshit jujitsu, that got undone. Now you're like — No, no, no, that's not true. It is true. No, no. And you're going after people now. I mean, you have some sort of — I didn't qualify, though, so that amendment did not include murderers and sex offenders. So we had sex offenders, convicted sex offenders who voted who were not eligible under that amendment, so we held them accountable. But that was absolutely consistent with the law. But there really isn't in-person voter fraud. Like, 11 million people voted in Florida, and I think you found 41 people. I mean, that's point — Right, but if you have somebody that's illegally in the country and they vote, should they be held accountable or not? I think they should be held accountable. I mean, that's point (14/41)
0.00002%. Not in a statewide race, but we've had local elections decided by 15, 20, 30 votes in the last few years. And so I think we want legal people to vote. I know, but — If you're not a citizen of this country, you should not be voting in American elections. OK, but that's not the biggest issue we have, is it? I mean — No one's saying it's the biggest. We take on all kinds of issues in Florida. But it looks like you're just trying to stop black people from voting. Oh, that's nonsense. That's nonsense. I don't think it's nonsense. Black folks don't vote for the Republican Party in very big numbers. But I got a bigger percentage than other Republicans have gotten when I ran for re-election. Whoop-de-doo. That's not a — I wouldn't brag about that. We're making progress, man. And then the abortion thing, a six-week abortion ban. I don't get that either, because six weeks — like, if you're — I know you say it's a case of conviction. If it's conviction, wouldn't it be moment of (15/41)
conception? That's what conviction is to me. Like, if you believe the second — you know, before the guy can get the towel, there's a third person in that room. Well, no. I mean, it's a legislative issue, so they have to figure out what they think. And so the legislature identified the moment where there's a detectable heartbeat as the time where there's legal protections. Now, they did provide exceptions for all the difficult cases that you hear about, but basically, once there's a heartbeat, it shouldn't be used as a form of birth control. OK. So you're going to debate Newsom. We are. You know he's taller and better looking. Good luck. Thank you for being here. Thanks, Ed. Governor Ron DeSantis, everybody. Good luck out there. All right. Let's meet our panel. OK. We're back, and here they are. She is the co-host of the podcast, Getting Hammered. The co-author of End of Discussion, How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free and (16/41)
Fun. Mary Katherine Hamm. And he's the host of the Making Sense podcast, the best podcast where the host isn't totally baked. Sam Harris is over here, ladies and gentlemen. Well, it's great to be back. First of all, I want to thank everybody who made this possible to be back. You know, I'm talking about my brilliant staff, writers and non-writers who scrambled the jets so we could be on in two days. And the union folks who expedited the paperwork so we could get back so quickly. So thank you. All right. So I want to talk about Dianne Feinstein. That was the big news that happened today. I mean, it's kind of spooky. Our last show, April 28th. And what was the last thing I talked about on the editorial? Dianne Feinstein. And it wasn't just about that she should resign. It was about the fact that people in the Democratic Party were kind of playing an outdated woman card about her. I remember quoting Nancy Pelosi said, I've never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that (17/41)
way. Bullshit. Robert Byrd, Strom Thurmond, obviously Biden, but we'll save that to the end of the show. Our Congresswoman here in L.A. said, when women age or get sick, the men are quick to push them aside. When men age or get sick, they get a promotion. Where did that ever happen? Yeah, they just make this shit up. Well, it's the quickest way to sort of get out of trouble is to play the card you have, right? And Menendez is a perfect example. Senator Menendez this week was like, how could the Democrats push out a proud Latino American who has made it this far in his career, right? Never mind the gold bars. Guys don't pay attention. But it's not a bad play strategically. I don't think it's right morally. Okay. So now our governor says he's going to appoint a black woman to the seat. Do we still need this kind of identity politics as opposed to the best person? Maybe we do. I don't know. I'm amazed that people don't recognize that it's insulting to the candidate that gets picked. So (18/41)
Biden did that with Kamala Harris. So you say you're going to filter in advance by sex and race. Just pick someone as though they're the best person. And lo and behold, they're a black woman or whatever the template is. It's just, it seems, I mean, it's not even implicitly insulting. It's actually just right on the surface and no one seems to comment on it. Well, it's like, it's racism, but for the right reasons. It's like, it's still the thing. I mean, we still do need to even things out from our despicable past. But even them out, even if that's your agenda, just do that and never make it explicit that you cut out whatever 85% of the contestants in advance. Well, you can make it explicit that you've created a generous pool from which to pick that includes many, many minority folks. That would be easy in the state of California. It's just, I keep coming back to this concept of the zombie lie. I used to get on the Republicans about it. They still do it. Like tax cuts for the rich will (19/41)
increase revenues of zombie lie. That was one that was never was true. Then there are zombie lies that are things that used to be true, but are no longer true. And I think we still get caught in those with especially race issues. I saw in the paper after the 2020 riots, corporate America pledged to hire more people of color. And boy did they. Like 94% or something like that? Of the 300,000 people from S&P companies, I think that's 100 companies that were surveyed, 94%. I ain't mad at it. I'm just saying, can we acknowledge that, I mean, if this was such a horribly racist country, could you be guilted into doing this? You know, can we just acknowledge we are in the year we're living in and not some year that has passed? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to know what the remedy is in each case. There was a time, I think, where affirmative action was totally defensible. And you could be honest about it and you didn't have to, I mean, you're redressing a wrong that was historically obvious. But we (20/41)
have to acknowledge that we're in a different situation now. We're pretending that there's a disadvantage based on race. I mean, to take one variable. And for basically as long as, virtually as long as I've been alive, that has not been true. Right? So it's like this is something, there's no medical school in this country that is filtering against race to the disadvantage of black people. Quite the opposite. It's quite the opposite. And for a very long time. And so there is a kind of gaslighting when you're pretending the disparity is opposite to what it is. And I was amazed at that figure too. I mean, 94% is amazing. And may I say to the people who are saying, well, three white people are talking about this. Exactly. So fucking what? White people can talk. I'm sorry, you know, that's just a ridiculous talking point. Like, how could you possibly have this discussion? We can have this discussion. Any person who was here in addition to us might add something to that discussion that we (21/41)
are not adding. But it shouldn't stop people from just talking. You can be cognizant of that without being quite so insulting as you're pointing out that this can be. In fact, in this case, I think he said he's going to pick a black woman for sure, but just a placeholder. So it's like, well, I'm going to pick a black woman, but I'm not probably not going to pick Barbara Lee, who is actively running against two white people because that might give her too much of an advantage to have actual power in the future. I don't know what the theory is here, but it seems insulting. Yeah. So another zombie lie I was picking on when we were off with, I saw Barbie, which I enjoyed very much. You got to say that part. I got to say that part. Well, no, it was cute. I liked it. I mean, I wasn't trying to attack it. And it is, look, give it credit. I mean, there are hits, there are monster hits, and then there's phenomenons. This is a phenomenon. But it is a zombie lie. That was the point. I wrote a (22/41)
tweet and they all went batshit about this tweet. Just saying, because I looked up something. That's really what they got mad at because the movie is based on the premise that we live in a patriarchy. So let's just talk about it. Maybe we do. I don't know. But in the movie, Barbie goes to Mattel headquarters, who made her, to confront the patriarchy, which is the boardroom. And she breaks into the boardroom and it's 12 men. The patriarchy. So I got home and I was like, Mattel's a real company. I bet you you could look up who's on the board. Of course, it's like six and six. Maybe it was seven and five or six, I think. But the CEO is a man, but he's not. But it was almost or basically even. Then I looked up how many women were added to Fortune 500 board seats in 2021. I think it was the last year I looked up. It's 45 percent. So maybe not exactly even. But I mean, if these are the stats and of course, nobody who attacked me engaged with those ideas. Well, the writer, Megan Dom, who I (23/41)
think you might have had on the show. She's great. She wrote, you remember, America Ferreira's piece, her speech in the film where it was just kind of this anthem for feminism. So Megan wrote it from a guy's point of view, proving that it was really this kind of political pablum that it was a kind of a zombie speech because it worked just as well for a guy with almost no changes to the text. So it was well, first of all, I don't know, except that I regret to inform you, I am the only person on stage who's allowed to talk about this. I felt like, first of all, Mattel's happy to come in for that sort of abuse in the movie because there's this alignment of sort of corporate views and lefty leaning activism. And that was sort of packaged into this movie. I have complicated feelings about Barbie. For instance, I never played with Barbies, but my daughters do. And I was conflicted. And so I got them only Barbies with flat shoes, because that's the secret to feminism, guys. But I think Barbie (24/41)
gave a lot of women feelings. We were like, why am I having feelings about Barbie? Did I get dressed up as Rodeo Barbie with a pink cowboy hat and go to a movie with my friends? Yes, I did. And some of it really hit me over the head with the patriarchy, and I found that insulting. But there were parts of it that were a little more sneaky. Things like the fact that that is interchangeable for men, that speech where I went, this is a movie about how being human is hard. And in fact, for men in the current time, and this is what you're speaking to, which I wish the movie had tapped into a bit more, when it comes to despair, loneliness, suicides in some demos, academic achievement, men are having a lot of problems. And I have three daughters and one son, and I would like them to be equally successful and have equal chances. And I don't think that my son deserves any sort of comeuppance, because things might have been harder in the past for women. I saw it with my nine-year-old daughter, so (25/41)
I had rolfed my brain into the appropriate shape before seeing it. I enjoyed it. I loved it. You did? Yeah, I laughed way more than I thought I was going to laugh. Purposely? No, no, I mean, I just, listen, half of it was going over my daughter's head because she's nine, so I was sort of having my own experience. But it's interesting to just, I mean, you're in the most charitable possible mood when you're seeing a movie like that with your daughter. Yes, and again, I enjoyed it. I just thought it was 2008. You know, it just wasn't up to the times. At one point, I remember the Barbies have to get the Ken's back, and they do it by pretending to be helpless about stuff. Like, I don't know how to use a computer. And the woman I saw it with said to me, I don't know any woman who acts like that anymore. So how could a movie that's not with the times be that successful, but I guess people just, they want to believe what they want to believe. It's emotional truth. Yeah, but I do think that (26/41)
could be a critique of both of those gender stereotypes, right? In some respects as well. And I did, the thing I liked about the movie is that it was interesting where it was allowed to be complicated, and it was not as interesting where we tried to gender stereotype in this really specific way. Although, like, what is gender anymore anyway? You also can't have two sexes that are not. So, I don't know. It's confusing in these modern times. Well, I want to show the Lauren Bulbert video because it's funny. I just do. So, this is Lauren Bulbert about a week ago watching Beetlejuice. There you go. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the left. (27/41)
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to the left. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the left. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back (29/41)
and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the (30/41)
right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back (31/41)
and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the (32/41)
right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back (33/41)
and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the (34/41)
right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. Back and to the right. New Rule. Before you judge how many kids in the US are overweight, check out Australia where it's reported that childhood obesity will double by 2035. In fact, it's so bad that they're remaking that Meryl Streep movie and now she says, help, a baby ate my dingo. Google it kids, it's funny. New Rule, if like Virginia legislative candidate Susanna Gibson, you've live streamed yourself having sex and also asked viewers to pay you money to perform specific sex acts on chatter bait. You don't have to campaign anymore, I'm already (35/41)
voting for you. Because talk about being responsive to your constituents. Some guy asked you to blow him into reverse cowgirl and you did. All I want from you is a permit to hook up my solar. And finally, New Rule, someone has to convince President Biden that if he runs again, he's going to turn the country back over to Trump. And go down in history as Ruth Bader Biden. The person who doesn't know when to quit and so does great damage to their party and their country. All of us who like Joe Biden have been struggling lately with the political situation in the Democratic Party. An incumbent we admire who acquitted himself well in the first term but who even members of his own party don't want to see run for a second. Despite a touching letter of recommendation from Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. I kid, they shouldn't have gotten shit for that. If you ask me, do I think Joe Biden can do the job of president? My answer is an unequivocal yes, he can do the job. Do I love everything? No. (36/41)
But that's every president. But government work is done in small quiet rooms like the Oval Office. And in that setting, Joe's compassion and centuries of experience are pluses. And he's generally made good decisions that got us out of Afghanistan, handled Ukraine, kept the economy chugging, finally got us rebuilding infrastructure, returned a sense of normalcy. There's a term for Joe Biden, but not two. Because while he can do the job, what he can't do is run for it. Our campaign season is long and it gets icy in New Hampshire. To those who say he beat Trump once, he'll do it again. I say things change. They always do. The parade moves on. 2024 is not 2020 in so many key ways, including, yes, Biden being four years older. You can be a national treasure and still be too old for the job. If I'm on a plane and the pilot says, this is your captain, Buzz Aldrin, I'm getting off. Mitch McConnell has served Satan well, but when he starts buffering during a speech and it appears his soul is (37/41)
leaving his body, it's time. I have made it a theme on this show to rail against ageism, the last acceptable prejudice in America. I've tried to make the argument that judging by age is wrong because we all age so differently. Some people are old when they're 45 and others are spry at 90. So it should always be a case by case basis. But the credibility of my argument against ageism rests on the honest calling out of people when it is time to go. That's what case by case means. At an event last weekend, Biden referred to LL Cool J as LL J Cool J. Say what you want about Trump, but he remembers Kanye's name. Look, at some point, perception becomes reality. What matters is voters think Biden's too old. What matters is he's going to lose to Trump, who's almost the same age, but his age just doesn't read like Biden's. Maybe it's because Trump is insane. Maybe it's because he's always a ball of white hot anger. But for whatever reason, he looks robust and Joe looks like his own skeletal (38/41)
remains. If this was 1860, when Joe first ran, this would not be an issue. You didn't have to look good, and there was no ubiquitous media to pick on every little mistake. The only people who saw the Lincoln-Douglas debates were the people who went to them. But Joe's debates next year will be televised to all, and I don't think he's going to look good. Yes, Trump is old too, but Trump is like Kiss. He puts on the face paint in the wig, and he looks the same as he did in 1978. Far from being the only one who could beat Trump in 2024, Biden may well be the only Democrat who would lose to him. James Carville told me any centrist Democrat around 50 or 60 would get 55% of the vote, and I believe him. You know that future headlines bit we do? Well, the most predictable headline ever is presidential race tied. Two weeks before every election, it's always tied. No matter who is running, the vast majority just vote for the D or the R. But Biden is the one Democrat who gives pause to so many (39/41)
people, even in his own party. Andrew Sullivan makes the necessary point that a new nominee for the Democrats would shift the dynamic immediately. Trump would be the tired, old guy retread hanging on to the past, and the Democrat would now be the future. Let the Republicans be the party with the candidate who babbles nonsense, shouts at the TV, and can't do ramps. Joe, you did noble service for your country, and you checked that big box, the President of the United States. Of course, as a politician, you're naturally going to say, but the work is not finished. Of course not. It never is. But it's time to let someone else finish it. You don't want to go down as Ruth Bader Biden. America is calling, Joe, and it's saying, that's not our car, grandpa, we're over here. Alright, that's our show. I'll be at the Fox in St. Louis, October 7th. Wow, coming up. The Orpheum in Omaha on the 8th, and the MGM Grand in Vegas on the 3rd and 4th. I want to thank Mary Katherine Ham, Sam Harris, and Ron (40/41)
DeSantis. We've got Keegan-Michael Key and his wife, Al, Matt Welch, and Sarah Isger next week. Thank you very much, folks. Great to be back. Thank you. (41/41)