Rob Reiner | Club Random with Bill Maher

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher – Rob Reiner
Episode Date: September 22, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this lively Club Random episode, Bill Maher welcomes director, actor, and cultural critic Rob Reiner for a wide-ranging, candid discussion covering improvisational comedy, the fragmentation of pop culture, generational divides, political polarization, the threats facing American democracy, and the importance of continuing dialogue across ideological lines. The conversation blends serious reflections with humor and personal anecdotes, offering both nostalgia and timely social analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Spinal Tap” Sequel & the Art of Improvised Comedy

[03:00]

• Rob Reiner appears in a Spinal Tap shirt, confirming the long-awaited sequel (“41 years after the first one”) and details the method behind making both Spinal Tap films:
  • Improvisational approach: “All the dialogue is improvised... we had an outline, and we knew where we were going... but every bit of dialogue is improvised.” [06:45]
  • Anecdote: They used “Roger Grimsby” cards to collect scene ideas during the creative process.

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Reiner: “No script. Both movies... all the dialogue is improvised.” [05:22]
• Bill Maher: “You invented that. Apparently. I think people think Curb Your Enthusiasm was the show that started that...” [07:01]

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2. Generational Shifts in Entertainment & Politics

[10:08]

• Discussion of how entertainment consumption and shared experiences have shifted:
  • Past: Massive, synchronous TV audiences (“All in the Family” as an example — “40 to 45 million people” weekly).
  • Present: Fragmented viewership, personalized content (“Everyone has their own talk show... podcast.” [13:39])
  • Younger generations’ lack of shared cultural touchstones.

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Reiner: “Young people, they don’t even know ‘All in the Family’... never heard of it.” [14:08]

• Bill Maher: “We came up when... you went on Johnny Carson... everyone was funneled into one of these two or three silos.” [12:32]

• Reflection on generational attitudes and ageism:

  • Bill Maher: “There’s a tremendous kind of ageism in the country... but they will attack me not on the merits of the argument. That’s what I object to. It’s a prejudice.” [22:03]

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3. Echo Chambers, Siloed Media, and Polarization

[20:26, 29:45, 56:20]

• The rise of isolated “silos” in media, reflected even among youth unaware of cultural giants like Joe Rogan.
• Deep divides and the proliferation of self-affirming content channels—contrasted with the unifying, if limited, effect of legacy media.
• Maher questions the left’s media infrastructure and whether it can compete with the right’s juggernaut (Fox, talk radio, think tanks).

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher: “If they don’t know Joe Rogan... we are all in our own silos.” [21:01]
• Rob Reiner: “It’s very hard to find somebody who doesn’t have a podcast. That’s what I want to... Who doesn’t in our world.” [14:08]

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4. Political Anxiety and the State of American Democracy

[25:00, 27:51, 28:58, 33:00]

• Reiner expresses deep worry over America’s drift toward authoritarianism, drawing parallels to 1930s Germany and referencing his family’s Holocaust history.
• Maher and Reiner dissect the mechanics of democratic erosion, citing the example of “troops in the streets” and undermined elections.
• Pessimism about Democrats’ ability to regain or retain power; skepticism about fair future elections.

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Reiner: “Millions and millions died all in service of making sure that we would never become an authoritarian fascist state. And here we are 80 years after that war and we’re moving towards that. It’s scary.” [27:51]
• Bill Maher: “I honestly don’t see the Democrats getting power back. Not for a very long [time].” [29:07]
• Maher on the “Pendulum-ism” of media: “Nothing ever stops in the middle...the pendulum just got...[swinging wildly].” [63:31]

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5. Engagement vs. Ideological Purity – The Importance of Dialogue

[42:20, 64:22, 69:50]

• Both stress the need not to cut off dialogue, even across yawning ideological chasms.
• Maher likens difficult political disagreements to marriage—sometimes “let it go” is vital.
• They tackle the trend of “unfriending” family over politics; Maher denounces it as “never going to make this country better.”

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher: “If you demand ideological purity about everyone you want to talk to, you’re gonna have a very small group of friends.” [65:29]
• Bill Maher: “Don’t stop talking.” [63:51]
• Rob Reiner: “Listen, I’m happy to talk to anybody.” [81:46]

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6. Culture Wars – Identity, Language, Race, and Wokeness

[33:00, 47:21, 84:48, 85:10]

• Maher critiques left-wing rhetoric and overreach (“patriarchy,” “privilege,” pronoun battles), laments universities’ lack of viewpoint diversity.
• Discussion of DEI, anti-Semitism on campus.
• Both critique the logic of “future racism” as an antidote to past racism.
• Reiner acknowledges some arguments on the left go too far but maintains focus on practical governance.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher: “The hypocrisy of diversity is the greatest thing in the world, except for what we think, which is where it’s also very important.” [47:21]
• Rob Reiner: “A black person could say, I don’t like any white people, that’s racist. White person says, I don’t like any black people, that’s racist. You can’t argue with that.” [85:10]

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7. Trump, Evangelicals, and the Meaning of “Cyrus”

[71:08]

• The odd alignment between Trump and Christian nationalists is unpacked. Maher explains that some see Trump as a “Cyrus” figure—an imperfect vessel chosen to advance the cause.
• Reiner points to conservative Christians breaking off from Trumpist nationalism as a hopeful sign.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher: “They think Trump is a Cyrus figure. In other words, he’s very flawed...” [73:13]
• Rob Reiner: “Most of these Christian conservatives... feel that this movement has gone so far afield from, you know, love thy neighbor... all those things that are part of the Jesus thing.” [73:41]

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8. Political Comparisons – Bush, Gore, and Institutional Decency

[74:59]

• Reflecting on past Republican leaders (Bush, Reagan), the hosts note the shift from old norms of political decency and peaceful transitions.
• Reiner recounts being with Al Gore during the 2000 election aftermath—Gore’s grace offered as a contrast to Trump’s refusal to concede.
• Maher wonders in hindsight if the left was “too hard on Bush” compared to what followed.

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Reiner: “When Obama took office, they had all the ex-presidents there and Bush stood next to Obama and said, ‘We want you to succeed.’” [77:42]

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9. Stick with Nuance, Avoid Extremes

[90:13]

• The value of satire and parody in works like “Spinal Tap” is defended; Maher argues for subtlety and breaking through “nuance impairment.”
• Closing reflections on the emotional power of pop culture, especially music.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher: “People are nuance impaired...” [90:23]
• Rob Reiner: “We played it close to the bone. But it was satire. Very close to the bone.” [90:58]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On media silos:

  • Bill Maher: “If they don’t know Joe Rogan... we are all in our own silos.” [21:01]

• On ideological tolerance:

  • Bill Maher: “If you demand ideological purity about everyone you want to talk to, you’re gonna have a very small group of friends you can find.” [65:29]

• On the importance of conversation:

  • Rob Reiner: “Listen, I’m happy to talk to anybody.” [81:46]

• On aging and criticism:

  • Bill Maher: “I’ve said it on the air: ‘If you have a problem with this, don’t say you’re old.’ ...That’s a prejudice.” [22:30]

• On the fragmenting of American culture:

  • Rob Reiner: “This is the first time that we’ve had another type of government... taking away that slow and awkward progress. And that is we’re looking at... authoritarians around the world and we have a guy who wants to be one of those guys." [25:01]

• On civility and political transitions:

  • Rob Reiner: “When Obama took office, they had all the ex-presidents there and Bush stood next to Obama and said, ‘We want you to succeed.’” [77:42]

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Key Timestamps

• [03:00] – Spinal Tap sequel, improvisational film technique
• [10:08] – Changing patterns in entertainment, TikTok/YouTube vs. classic TV
• [14:08] – Cultural memory and “All in the Family”
• [20:26] – Silos, media echo chambers, generational gaps
• [27:51] – Reiner’s warning on U.S. trajectory towards authoritarianism
• [42:20][65:29] – Engagement/advice for ideological disagreements; “let it go”
• [56:20][58:45] – Media landscape debates: left vs. right, Twitter/X, Murdoch, infrastructure
• [73:13] – Trump as “Cyrus,” Christian nationalism
• [77:42] – Political decency: Bush’s example
• [90:13] – “Spinal Tap” satire and the challenge of nuance

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Final Remarks

This episode of Club Random is a robust, often funny but deeply impassioned meditation on what’s changed in American cultural and political life, peppered throughout with showbiz memories, personal stories, and blunt recognition of the existential crises facing democracy. Maher and Reiner don’t shy away from their disagreements, but model the kind of constructive, good-humored engagement they both argue is desperately needed—offering listeners a template for civil discourse in fractured times.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Rob Reiner]

What would you say to a white person?

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean?

[Rob Reiner]

Don't order that pumpkin spice latte. Get out of here. Whatever that thing is. We're talking about a man running for president that has that sensibility.

[Bill Maher]

It's just. All right. I said my beast.

[Rob Reiner]

I hear somebody, Rob. I hear a voice that I recognize.

[Bill Maher]

Your wife's already mad at me.

[Rob Reiner]

What? For what?

[Bill Maher]

She said you got a great place. I never been invited here. Which has got. I've been to your house.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I just don't have. You know, when you're a bachelor, you don't really like have dinner party.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, I know, I know.

[Bill Maher]

You say it was such.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, I used to be.

[Bill Maher]

I know.

[Rob Reiner]

Point in my life. Never had a party when I was. Never did that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, not that kind of party.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

When you. When you're single, you tend to pal around with single people. And when you're married, you have couples in a relationship, you have comfort.

[Rob Reiner]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

It's just.

[Rob Reiner]

And when you have children. You gravitate towards couples that have children.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Oh, I'm so glad you're wearing the spinal top.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, I'm do. It's.

[Bill Maher]

It's.

[Rob Reiner]

It's shameless promotion.

[Bill Maher]

I've had half a chubby ever since I've heard that this is coming out. I mean, I am one of a legion of people who have been waiting for years for a spinal time.

[Rob Reiner]

You've been waiting 41 years, I understand. You know. No, nobody's ever done a sequel 41 years after the first one.

[Bill Maher]

It's great that they're all still here.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes, That's. It's a plus. It's a plus. Although we have a bit. We have a bit in the second one, which I hope you'll see at some point. Oh, first day. Yeah. And. And there's a bit where the guy who's a promotion guy says to them, listen, it will help your legacy if at least one of you were to die during the concert. Because the. You know.

[Bill Maher]

So true.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it's the best career move anybody ever made.

[Rob Reiner]

Right?

[Bill Maher]

And.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. And then, of course, they say, well, Chris, you know, as. As Nigel says, well, I don't. I don't want to die. And then McKean, as. As David says, but you settle for a coma. And he says, oh, well, that. That's very good. Thinking outside the. Outside of the literal box, actually. Oh, that's. So. So what are you drinking here?

[Bill Maher]

That's tequila.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, this is.

[Bill Maher]

This is sparkling water.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. And that's. Is that your drink of choice?

[Bill Maher]

Yes. I mean, I only. And this is Jing, which makes the sparkling water into diet soda without chemicals.

[Rob Reiner]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I'm very into health and that's why.

[Rob Reiner]

No, I know you are. I know you are.

[Bill Maher]

You look very svelte.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, I'm trying. You know, I'm getting older and I don't.

[Bill Maher]

That's a smart thing. It's a smart thing, but, you know, you lost the weight, but your face looks great. Some people who were heavy, they lo. They lose the weight and they look bad because, like, I have a fat face. It's good it didn't happen to you.

[Rob Reiner]

You just look healthy. The other thing a fat face does is it keeps the wrinkles. You know, the. The fatness takes the wrinkles away. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It's not all bad being a fat face.

[Rob Reiner]

No. No.

[Bill Maher]

But can I ask you. And inside the.

[Rob Reiner]

You can ask me anything you want. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

Baseball question.

[Rob Reiner]

Sure.

[Bill Maher]

What percentage? I mean, you just told me a really hysterical scene from the movie was that written. Was that all in the script? Is that part?

[Rob Reiner]

No script.

[Bill Maher]

No script.

[Rob Reiner]

No. No script.

[Bill Maher]

All that.

[Rob Reiner]

Both movies, the first one and this one, all the dialogue is improvised. Now, we did have a. You know, we had an outline, and we knew where we were going to, you know, when the tour was going to take. We have basic outline, but every bit of dialogue is improvised. And this is a good little story. So when we did the first one, we put a billboard, you know, chalkboard or whatever, and if you had an idea for a scene, you'd put a card up. Harry. Harry Shearer, who plays Derek, he was dating a woman who worked at ABC News at the time. And do you remember Roger Grimsby?

[Bill Maher]

Do I remember him? Of course, because I grew up local news York.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, he was. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

So, yeah, Roger Grimsby, hear now the news.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay, that was his catchphrase. That's right Here.

[Bill Maher]

Now the news.

[Rob Reiner]

And so the. I don't know how Harry got a hold of, but he had a stack of promotional cards that had a picture of Roger Grimsby on the front and the back was empty. So if we ever came up with an idea that we thought this could be a good, interesting idea for a scene, we'd say to each other, does this warrant a Grimsby? In other words, should we put it up on the board? And so. And the second time we did it, the second movie, McKean comes in with a sack of Grimsby. So that. That's the way we do it.

[Bill Maher]

That is a name that. If it wasn't his real name, someone would have had to invent it. Just perfect. But that's so interesting, the way you just described making the movie. No dialogue is written in the script. You just have this outline.

[Rob Reiner]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

You invented that. Apparently. That's not. I mean, I think people think Curb youb Enthusiasm was the show that started that.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Apparently, this then, you know, you're talking about 20 years before.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah. No, this is 1984.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's your method.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. And. And what's interesting is people have asked me over the years, they say, you know, it's your first film. Why would you do, you know, you make a film that has no script? I mean, there's no. And I said, yeah, that made more sense to me than the other way. Because, you know, I mean, if you. What Chris Gesser used to call schnadling, when you schnadle with somebody, you can either do it or you can't do it. And so you get people who can do it, and it's like jazz musicians.

[Bill Maher]

It Would not make sense if film wasn't cheap. I've been on sets before, back in the million years ago when I did acting. And I remember more than one director, you know, could you do another take? Film's cheap.

[Rob Reiner]

Film. This is even cheaper because. Well, for film, you got 10 minutes. This you got an hour and a little chip.

[Bill Maher]

If you don't get it the first five times, do it five times more.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So it's just. And then you just pick the best.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, what's it the best of both worlds? You have the spontaneity.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes. What's interesting about it, and this I learned in the first one is you. We, you know, we shot each scene maybe two or three times. And Chris Guest, who's brilliant, he know. He's in the moment and he never remembers what he did before. So it's new every time. So you have to figure out, how do I stitch all this together to make it make sense? And what you discover is that you cut the audio. Not so much the video, not so much you cutting to make sure that there's no mismatches. If the audio tracks and they sound like they're, you know, talking in some kind of rhythmic thing that makes sense, the audience will forgive all of the visual mismatches. And that's what we discovered. So you're. You're essentially writing with the pieces of film.

[Bill Maher]

Isn't that every film, to a degree.

[Rob Reiner]

Well made in the editing room? Well, some of them are. Some, but. But usually the editor has a script, you know, has a story. And there's this scene that goes into this scene. Goes into this scene. We would move scenes around. You don't know, you know, take. There's a whole element. Oh, that doesn't work. Get that out of there, you know.

[Bill Maher]

Right. But I'm saying, you know, if you shoot. I mean, how many hours of footage did you shoot to make.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, God.

[Bill Maher]

A movie that runs for what, an hour?

[Rob Reiner]

An hour? Actually, they both run 83 minutes. An hour? 23 minutes.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you're just. You're. You're doing the audience such. If you're squeezing out all the stuff that isn't awesome.

[Rob Reiner]

That's right. And I would always say, have in your mind, you're sculpting an elephant, whatever.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Rob Reiner]

Then anything that doesn't look like an elephant, it goes. Even if you love it, even if it's a funny bit, but it doesn't attach itself, you get rid of it.

[Bill Maher]

But you do realize that even that idea which people of our Generation take for granted that is not the way the younger generation necessarily looks at entertainment. And the proof of that is so much of what they watch on TikTok and so forth. YouTube is just people doing ordinary things. And I've said to younger people, like, how could this be more interesting to you? That everything is available. You could watch any movie, you could watch any TV show. People shows with great acting, great writing. And that's not what they want.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, they watch. They watch these what they call supposed to be reality, but in a weird way, it's not because they know they're putting themselves on TikTok. They know they're doing something on Instagram and they're doing something to perform, to do that well.

[Bill Maher]

But, I mean, there was the stage of a reality show, which is different than what we're talking about with scripting and good writing and acting. That at least was entertaining because it was never, of course, really a. You know, they were put up to it. You're going to have a fight, and then they do.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

It's not random, but this is a step removed from that. This is like watching people take their laundry out.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes, yes. And here's what's interesting.

[Bill Maher]

What is your analysis of that?

[Rob Reiner]

Okay, well, here's the thing. I don't know if you ever saw this documentary years ago, it was called We Live in Public. You ever. Did you ever see it? It was written. It was about the guy who created MySpace, which was the precursor to, you know, Facebook. And he says at the beginning of the documentary, he says, Marshall McLuhan had it wrong. Marshall McLuhan said everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame.

[Bill Maher]

No, that was Andy Warhol. Marshall McLuhan TV's a cool medium.

[Rob Reiner]

A cool medium. Cool medium, Right.

[Bill Maher]

Warhol says Warhol.

[Rob Reiner]

Right. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. Warhol says Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame.

[Bill Maher]

No, he said they'll get it. He said, in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

[Rob Reiner]

Right? So here's the thing. It's not that they want. Want 15 minutes of fame. They want 15 minutes of fame every day.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Rob Reiner]

It's not. You know what I mean? It's not like, oh, they're gonna know me. No, I want to be known every minute. They want people to, hey, look at me, look at me, look at me.

[Bill Maher]

That's. That's so exactly right. They want it to continue. And, you know, we live in this medium, this medium culture now, where everything is so dispersed, everyone almost has their Own channel or their own place to sell something. We came up when there was like, you went on Johnny Carson or you went on Merv Griffin or Dick Kev. That was it.

[Rob Reiner]

And you got noticed.

[Bill Maher]

Well, of course you got noticed because everyone was channeled and funneled into one of these two or three silos.

[Rob Reiner]

Right. And you couldn't watch any. I mean, it's not like you. Now you do, you know, whether it's Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, or Steve and Colbert, they don't watch the whole show. They watch little bits and pieces of it on YouTube.

[Bill Maher]

Well, one of those shows doesn't even exist anymore. Or is going off with Steven.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

The other two, I mean, you can. They still exist and you can still do it that way. But the reason why they're going off and they're just watching clips is because everyone has their own talk show.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It's like if Johnny Carson was competing with Merv and formerly. And other people. Podcast.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's what. And, and so, like, when you try to get a guest for this podcast, very often it's like, well, you know, they. They're doing two other podcasts. Who are they? Well, their brother and their best friend. Because everybody, either they themselves or someone they know or they're close to, it's.

[Rob Reiner]

Very hard to find somebody who doesn't have a podcast. That's what I want to.

[Bill Maher]

Who doesn't in our world.

[Rob Reiner]

It really is. Yeah. Yeah. This is something that I've been thinking about for a while, and you, You. You hit on it a little bit when I was on this all in the Family. And by the way, young people, they don't even know all in the Family, they never heard of it. They don't know what it is. I mean, this is a show that was number one for five years in a row, every single week.

[Bill Maher]

Not just number one at the time, but a culturally groundbreaking show. It was a show. Again, I'm saying this for the people.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. No, I'm telling you, young people, they.

[Bill Maher]

Don'T know how to set it up for them to know what we're talking about. We're not just talking about a show that was a hit show on a grand scale. We're talking about a show that changed the game.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It wasn't just a difference of form. It was a difference of kind.

[Rob Reiner]

Right, right.

[Bill Maher]

And that meant a lot.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. But think about this. Here we were a country of, at that time, 1971, about 200 million people around that number.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Rob Reiner]

Every single week, 40 to 45 million people would watch all in the Family.

[Bill Maher]

So a quarter of the country and.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, and they had to watch it when it was on. There was no DVR. There was no TiVo. There was none of that. No, you had to watch it when it was on. That meant that you were having a shared experience with 40 to 45 million people. That has an impact. You then talking to people then that, you know, that water cooler thing and all that. Now we're a country of what, 340 million or something like that. If you get a show that gets 10 million viewers, that's a big hit and they're not all watching it at the same time.

[Bill Maher]

The 10 million is already out of date, Rob. There's no show that gets that. I mean, those are numbers that you get for, like, special events. Sports. Sports is the only shows that get that.

[Rob Reiner]

Get that.

[Bill Maher]

Nobody else gets it.

[Rob Reiner]

But. But think about a show, you know, some series that, you know, White Lotus. I don't care what it is a hot show. If it's 6 million, 5, whatever the number is.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Rob Reiner]

That's in a country of 340 million. And yeah, they're not all watching it at the same time because you go to a dinner, you can't talk about the show. You go to dinner, you say, don't tell me. I only. I only saw the first two episodes. I'm only on season one. You can't. What? I don't. Don't talk. So you can't even talk about the show you're on?

[Bill Maher]

You know, no, it's. It's. It's just so different. I was having this friendly argument with my friend Harvey Levin recently because they showed a clip on TMZ of a pop star. I can't remember her name, which says a lot because I should. Because everybody in her world knows she's. She's a big cuz. She was on the make. Make Room for Daddy. Not Make Room for Daddy, Call Me Daddy podcast.

[Rob Reiner]

Call me. Oh, well, that's a big Make Room for Daddy kids. Jenny Thomas. And we don't want to go there.

[Bill Maher]

And if we don't remember all in.

[Rob Reiner]

The Family, you really not going to remember that show.

[Bill Maher]

I can remember Make Room for Daddy. Was your father friends with Danny Thomas?

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Danny Thomas was.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah. Danny Thomas and his production company in Sheldon Lambert produced the Dick Van Dyke show, which was my dad's show, of course.

[Bill Maher]

Did you know Danny Thomas?

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I was friends with, you know, I mean, Marlo. I'm friends with you know, Tony Thomas went. Dated my sister in high school and stuff like that? Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Was that true? The. The rumor that always went around about Danny, that he was a plate man?

[Rob Reiner]

You know, I don't want to go there, Bill, because I don't have. I don't have hard evidence or loose.

[Bill Maher]

Evidence or evidence or evidence that makes you hard. Certainly. Okay. Okay. But that was always the rumor.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Who knows? You know, he. He had.

[Bill Maher]

You know, he was. Yeah, back then. Jerry Lewis, all those guys. It was a different era. People were weirdos.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know what people are great at avoiding their problems. Oh, I'll just power through. Sure. Until you're huddled in the corner of the shower having a meltdown over something trivial like your partner buying oatmeal milk instead of almond milk. So, yeah, maybe it's time to talk to someone before you make the evening news. And not in a good way. That's where Rula comes in. They're making high quality mental health care easy and affordable. And the best part, they take most major insurance and the average copay is just 15 bucks a session. 15. That's less than you spend on a decent cocktail here in la. It's simple. Rula asks a few questions, matches you with a licensed in network provider, and you can meet with your therapist as soon as tomorrow. Every provider is carefully vetted so you're not stuck with some healing guru who promotes their signature line of gemstone suppositories. Thousands have already trusted Rula to support them on their journey toward improved mental health and overall well being. Head on over to rula.com random to get started today. After you sign up, they ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Go to r u l a.com random and take the first step towards better mental health. Today you deserve quality care from someone who does care. This podcast is supported by FX's English teacher. Last year's critically acclaimed series returns to follow Evan, Gwen and Markie as they vie for their students divided attention. See why Cosmopolitan called its premiere season a masterclass of comedy while glamour raved. It's the year's funniest and most heartwarming new comedy series. FX's English Teacher returned September 25th on FX. All episodes streaming on Hulu. Anyway, what I was saying is she was saying to. To the. I think Alex Cooper's the host. That she did not know who Joe Rogan was. The James Rogan.

[Rob Reiner]

You don't even know who Joe Rogan is, Right? Who's A big deal now.

[Bill Maher]

Very big deal. I mean, in podcasting, he's number one by far. You know, he was one of the first to it. And he, you know, I think Joe does great, but I don't always agree with him, and that's okay. But not to have heard of him.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And, you know, I said, that says a lot. And Harvey said, oh, no, she knows. I said, then why is she lying? And then he brought in two guys from his staff who were young, like 18, 19, but they were male. They weren't quite sure who Joe Rogan was either.

[Rob Reiner]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

And I thought, if they don't know Joe Rogan, you know.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

We are all in our own silos.

[Rob Reiner]

Right. And by the way, it. It's very humbling because it means that when we go, nobody's gonna remember any of this stuff. I mean, you know, I was walking out of Beverly Hills Hotel one day, and I run into Warren Beatty. Warren Beatty was as big a star in America as there ever was. And my kids, their young kids, they don't know. They don't know what it is. I said, Bonnie and Clyde, you know.

[Bill Maher]

But why would they have. I mean, they may. How old are the kids?

[Rob Reiner]

Well, now they know who he is. But they were young.

[Bill Maher]

Right, but of course, like, there were great movies that when I was 12, I wasn't aware of, and then I got to.

[Rob Reiner]

When I was younger. Yeah, but eventually you would watch them.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I also think when I was. When we were younger, we looked up to older people, whereas now I think there's a tremendous kind of ageism in the country.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, well, there's always been ages.

[Bill Maher]

There has always been ageism, but I feel like it's more hostile. Maybe it's just because I am older.

[Rob Reiner]

You think that's being hostile to you?

[Bill Maher]

Yes, of course.

[Rob Reiner]

You think it's because of your age. What do you think? Partly part of it is your opinions or something?

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's obviously part of it, but they. But they will attack me. Not on the merits of the argument. That's what I object to. It's like, I've said it many times. I've said it publicly, I've said it on the air. Like, if you have a problem with this, don't say you're old.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. What is that?

[Bill Maher]

That's not an argument.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

In fact, that's a prejudice. It's a prejudice.

[Rob Reiner]

It's an observation.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Rob Reiner]

But no, you're right, for the people.

[Bill Maher]

Who think that they're the most liberal, who absolutely hate any sort of prejudice that is a prejudice. Why should I even listen to you? Or, you know, oh, he's just get off my lawn. Well, again, that's just to cut off the deb.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Engage with the argument. So you don't want to do that because they'll lose.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So they just say you're old, and then immediately you're just. We don't count what you have to say. You can't imagine doing that to any other group.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, we are the last acceptable group which you can mock, make fun of.

[Rob Reiner]

But you're a lot younger than me. Not a lot, but a little bit. A little bit. But we, until there was. The children of the baby boom generation is the biggest chunk of people in the population. So we have strength in numbers, even if we're losing our strength.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I saw this article when they canceled Stephen Colbert, and it said 10 years ago, the average Colbert viewer was 58 years old. Today they're 68 years old. I was like, yeah, it's the same guy.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Let me, Let me, Let me take a.

[Rob Reiner]

He's got loyal fans.

[Bill Maher]

Take a wild leap that this guy's going to be 78 in 10 years.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And, you know, I. I am always open to everything anybody of any age says. When I criticize ideas that I think are dumb with. If they come from young people, it's not because they're young. No. You know, it's because I think your ideas are stupid.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, giving communism is communism another try to me is a stupid idea.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Because people of our generation remember how evil and horrible communism was.

[Rob Reiner]

And now we're at a different time. Now we're at a different time because it's not about, like during the 60s, you know, with the Vietnam War, that was the whole idea was the creeping communism and the 50s was McCarthyism, that there's communism under the bed. Everywhere you look is a communist. And what we didn't want was to be like the Soviet Union. We were basically saying, you know, protect America for democracy. And we fought against Hitler, you know, to. To win the Second World War and fascism.

[Bill Maher]

Fascism, not communism.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no. That we fought against fascism. As a matter of fact, the Russians fought on our side during the Second World War. So we fought against fascism. And now that's the argument. Do. Because America, as, you know, as ugly as it's been over the years, fits and starts. It moves towards hopefully better things. I mean, women couldn't vote. They can vote. Blacks couldn't marry whites. They can gays couldn't get married. They can. So we had a black president. I mean, things move along very slowly and we certainly have an ugly past, slavery and all of that. But this is the first time that we've had another type of government, a form of government taking away that slow and awkward progress. And that is we're looking at, you know, authoritarians around the world and we have a guy who wants to be one of those guys. And so it's, it's, it's tough. It's a very tough thing because I don't know and let you. Maybe you can tell me. You may be able to tell me because right after the first World War, Germany was a democracy for a minute before Hitler came in. And then he said no, the Weimar Republic. Yeah, yeah. So we're going to do Third Reich and all that.

[Bill Maher]

And Hitler was elected.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, but, but he was only. He never had more than 25% of the, of the electorate. But he figured out a way to do it.

[Bill Maher]

Well, in a parliamentary system.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Very often people don't.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, that's many parties. Yeah, that's true. So, but so he becomes fascist state and they do what they do, which is the horror. But. And after the war, the Germany moves back towards a democracy, slowly becomes a democracy. One of the best, strongest democracies in the world right now. But here's what's uncomfortable for us right now, where we are. My wife, her mother was in Auschwitz. She was the only survivor of her whole family, whole family died in Auschwitz. My uncle Charlie was part of D Day and fought in 11 major battles and, you know, liberated camps. My second father, Norman Lear, flew, oh yeah, 52 bombing missions over Nazi Germany, all in service and millions and millions died all in service of making sure that we would never become an authoritarian fascist state. And here we are 80 years after that war and we're moving towards that. It's scary.

[Bill Maher]

It's very, very scary. And you know, I'm the. I said this on my show a few weeks ago. I think I was the first guy to use the phrase slow moving coup.

[Rob Reiner]

I did it before we won the first time.

[Bill Maher]

I never stopped. My big criticism of the people who were on my k. Throwing dinner with him was just wait, see what I say after. If I change, if I start being complimentary or let. No, I never changed. Never stop saying what I've always been saying.

[Rob Reiner]

Now it's not so slow moving anymore.

[Bill Maher]

That's what I said a couple of weeks ago. I said this is act four of it. Like the point I was making, and I don't remember anybody saying this before, I did see it get picked up a lot. So I don't think so, was that this thing about stopping crime by putting troops in the streets. Of course you can stop crime with more troops in the streets. The problem is troops in the streets. Once you get used to that, and once you have them in the streets, especially of our nation's capital, if there is a disputed election, you already have the private army in the streets. They've been there for three, four years. This, to me, is textbook, what you would do.

[Rob Reiner]

Textbook.

[Bill Maher]

And, you know, I. This is pessimistic, but I honestly don't see the Democrats getting power back. Not for a very long.

[Rob Reiner]

You don't think, you don't think there's any chance that the Democrats could take back the House, they could win the vote without.

[Bill Maher]

And so what Congress. I was saying today we should do something in January about let's get rid of the State of the Union address because it leads the country into a very bad thought, which is that the President is the one who suggests what should be done. That's not what the Constitution says. Congress does that the president just is supposed to execute the laws. We have switched it completely where people think he's the fucking leader. And because they don't know anything, because the education system fell apart and most.

[Rob Reiner]

People, most people are not directly, at this point, directly affected. We have people who are thrown out of the country. Those people are directly affected who shouldn't be. Many cases, there's no due process. We understand that's a horror. That's a horror. But they, but the, you know, most Americans don't feel the pain of it yet, whether it's economically or their rights being taken away. And they will feel it. And the time they'll feel it, unfortunately, might be too late when it's already taken over. Now, I. Here's what I think.

[Bill Maher]

It's already too late. Well, I just don't.

[Rob Reiner]

You may be right. You may be right, but this is what I'm thinking. You could stop. You could slow the thing down to a point where you might be able to stop it, because there's still going to be, hopefully, an election in, in, in 2026.

[Bill Maher]

There'll be an election.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, well, wait a minute.

[Bill Maher]

Russia has elections.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, I'm saying a fair election. We don't know if that will be. If there isn't, then you're right. Then, then like the Vegas guys do, like that, it's over. But if there's an election where the Democrats are able to regain the House, then they have the ability to hold hearings and stuff like that and not going to change everything overnight. But it slows the thing down. Yeah, it slows it down.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that's possible. But yeah, it's.

[Rob Reiner]

You don't think, you don't think. Well, I said there will be a fair election.

[Bill Maher]

Well, 20, 26, first of all, the way the Democrats are now, I just don't think they, I don't know if they would even win an election because they're very unpopular and for very good reason. Now, I didn't vote for Trump, as I always say to my woke friends, we voted for the same person. You're just why she lost. I'm not saying that to you. I'm just saying that's my line to them and I will stand by that. And every, everything Trump is doing. And by the way, a lot of the things that he would say, he's straightening out almost all of them. I would say he's doing it in the wrong way. Colossally wrong, but not wrong about like a lot of things that did needed straightening out. The border, for example.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, but he's not really straightening it out.

[Bill Maher]

I just said that. He said he doesn't do it in the right way. But the, you know, that instant.

[Rob Reiner]

And there was, there was a bipartisan bill that called for stronger border security, all of that. And the Republicans said, yeah, we don't want it. And by the way, it was, it was developed by a bipartisan group in the Senate and they're, you know, very conservative Republican senators who were in favor of it. Anyway. Yeah, we're far gone from that now. I mean, we're so far from that. Right.

[Bill Maher]

I just don't see them, you know, giving up power. They, they have all the levers of power and power begets power. You know, once you have it, it's easier to get more of it.

[Rob Reiner]

Yep.

[Bill Maher]

Like rabbits breeding.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, especially, yeah, especially if you have no, if you have no compunction for thumbing your nose at a, at a court ruling and, or the rule of law if you, if you don't care.

[Bill Maher]

About it and if the people don't like the Democrats, again, often for very good reason. They don't seem connected to reality in a lot of ways and they don't seem to be on the same page, common sense wise, with a lot of people. So there's a lot of people in this country who just go, yeah, I don't love Trump, he's crazy. But these People are even crazier. They have to get rid of that first. They don't even have a chance unless they do that. And they themselves are saying that now. I see that third. Third way. Is that the group, the. It's a left leaning thing Tank put.

[Rob Reiner]

Out during the Clinton years. They had the third wave.

[Bill Maher]

I think that's what it's named after. Anyway, they put out a list trying to help The Democrats of 44 words and phrases they should never say again. That like just lost people, patriarchy and privilege and all. Stuff like that.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Which bathroom you go into does it shouldn't be at the Hill that you die on. Right, right.

[Bill Maher]

And people are our age. You pee a lot.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. This is really. I just. More room. I can open it up and go in. I have that joke. I put it in bucket list. You know, I was making this movie, American President and they had a, they had a, a consultant on it. He was a, A retired secret service guy and he was telling me, because he was an older guy, he said the three things you gotta remember when you get old. And I put it right in bucket list. I had Nicholson say, it says never pass up a bathroom, never waste a hard on and never trust a fart. So that was the three. So yes, if there's a bathroom there, we want to be able to access it.

[Bill Maher]

See, there's one.

[Rob Reiner]

You could redo the bucket list.

[Bill Maher]

No. The American President.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, the American president. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, God, when you think of it now, this is Michael Douglas in 1990. Something six or.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, something.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. I mean that's 30 years ago. And you think about what the presidency was.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, and you know, and.

[Rob Reiner]

The issues are still the same. We still have a gun. We still have too many guns and people getting, you know, murdered every day on the streets. And we still have problems with the environment. Those were the two issues that we focused on.

[Bill Maher]

Right. She was a lobbyist.

[Rob Reiner]

She was a lobbyist for an environmental group. And you know, we, you know, that was the thing I was interested in at the time. And Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the screenplay, he was interested in gun control.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And you know, it was the, as I remember the film, the crux of it is like politics is about making deals. It's about bargains. And like, of course somebody can always get butt hurt about. You're not pure enough. Again, this is a big problem in the left.

[Rob Reiner]

Perfect is the enemy of the good.

[Bill Maher]

Right. But let's. That's why like Obama, he was great at that. I mean, he was the he was that guy who thought that and said that perfect is the enemy of the good and let's get what can practic what can be done practically.

[Rob Reiner]

But nobody's willing to do that now.

[Bill Maher]

Nobody.

[Rob Reiner]

Both sides are not willing to exactly do anything. Like what is the old, you know, the days, you know you talk to Chris Matthews who worked for Tip o' Neill and he said he Tip o' Neill and you know. And right. They would talk all the time. Exactly the opposite.

[Bill Maher]

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[Rob Reiner]

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[Bill Maher]

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[Rob Reiner]

But here's the thing. You're right. But here's the thing. Let's say we're going to have that argument. You're going to try to talk to somebody and you have a point of view, the other person has a point of view. Before you have the exchange, you have to agree on certain facts.

[Bill Maher]

No, you don't. You can't. Once you start down that well. No, no, it's like these are. You just have to talk to people.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, you talk to people. But if somebody says two plus two is four and the other guy says no, it's not, how do you begin the discussion?

[Bill Maher]

Because it's because, Rob, that's a slippery slope. I agree. There are certain things that we all think and then there are people. I'm sorry, everybody. I know this from doing this show. So many people who've sat here and they're like, oh, this is a smart person. This is a rational person. This is. And then there's like, one thing. They don't believe we landed on the moon. And you're just like, no, if you start down that road, if I can't talk to you, if you believe this crazy thing, because maybe.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay, but. Okay, so let's say you're having a conversation with that person. The I don't believe. Oh, I have. Okay, so. So what do you do? What do you say after?

[Bill Maher]

What do you do in a marriage? If.

[Rob Reiner]

No, but a guy says that and you say, what?

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm serious. Same thing, what you would do in a marriage. And who would know better than me? Yeah, yeah, I'm an expert.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

No, but in a relationship.

[Rob Reiner]

But it says that. He says that and you go, what?

[Bill Maher]

Okay, I'm answering you.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

The way I want to answer.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay, go ahead.

[Bill Maher]

It's very. Like a relationship. I. Now, I have not been married, but I've been in long term, serious relationships. And I know there are moments where the person is believing something and you just. Every fiber of your being wants to be like, I gotta get this person not to see it that way, because I just think it's fucking nuts. And if you want that relationship to last, you're gonna have to learn the three little words that are most important to any relationship. And they're not I love you. They're let it go. Sometimes you just have to let it go. I mean, let's take our friend Bobby Kennedy now. I think they should let him go. I do. I mean, I've had extraordinary amount of patience with circumcision.

[Rob Reiner]

I think you. I thought let him go. And you pull. And you pull out a scissors and I'm. What do you say? He's not circumcised. What are you saying? Because he doesn't believe in it because there's too much thimerosal in that. In that scissors.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly. But we both like him.

[Rob Reiner]

We both know him. I've known him for a long time.

[Bill Maher]

I know He.

[Rob Reiner]

He married the woman who used to be our assistant.

[Bill Maher]

Is that right?

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cheryl. She worked for us for a couple of years.

[Bill Maher]

He's still his wife.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's not our assistant. She's his wife. Yeah, no, she. She's still his wife, but not our assistant anymore.

[Bill Maher]

But she was your assistant. Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

And she would, you know, before she was an actress, she was an actress. She was going out for jobs, you know, interviews and she got Curb youb Enthusiasm while she was working for us, so we had to let her go.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, of course.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I didn't know all that well. I mean, look, I tore Bradley Whitford a new asshole about this about a year ago because he. This is, again, what I really don't like about the left. Cause he was just so abusive in a tweet, yelling at her for staying with her husband. Staying with her husband?

[Rob Reiner]

No. Well, that's not fair.

[Bill Maher]

And it's.

[Rob Reiner]

That's not fair.

[Bill Maher]

It's a marriage.

[Rob Reiner]

You know, you want to attack Bobby Kennedy for believing. You know, let's. Let's put the bear in the trunk and drop him off at Central Park. That's something you could talk about.

[Bill Maher]

No, it's. Look, there's. There's a great amount of disappointment I personally have, and a lot of people, because I've always been on the alternative side, shall we call it, of Western medicine. Not that I don't appreciate Western medicine. I'm glad we have it. But I think that the emphasis has always been on the wrong things, like pills and surgery instead of prevention, stuff like that. That Bobby was all over the idea that what really makes us sick.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, eating bad food, eating processed food.

[Bill Maher]

And all that stuff.

[Rob Reiner]

I understand. So that part of it's good.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Rob Reiner]

But we do know that they eliminated polio.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. I mean, that's.

[Rob Reiner]

I mean, that's a thing.

[Bill Maher]

It is a thing. It's a little more complicated than just the vaccine. It also had to do with. At the time, you know, there was bad sanitation that got better. But, look, I. I'm a vaccine fan. I just don't want you ever to force one on me.

[Rob Reiner]

I'm sorry.

[Bill Maher]

So I was with them on that.

[Rob Reiner]

No, that's true. But, you know, my. My wife's pointed this out many times. I can guarantee you his children had been vaccinated when they were little. I'm sure they were. I'm sure he was vaccinated.

[Bill Maher]

He just. I gave him every amount of slack I could because I like him and because the general idea of it I thought was good. But he just has proved himself to be someone who won't listen to any science. He's just a kook now, and he's fucking up the cdc. I mean, I could name just by using letters so many things. Cdc. Epa. Fda. Doj.

[Rob Reiner]

Fda.

[Bill Maher]

The Department of Justice. The scariest one. Going after your political enemies like the Republican Party.

[Rob Reiner]

There. You're going back to the authoritarian playbook. No, that's authoritarianism.

[Bill Maher]

My list of things that are bad about this administration is a long one and I get into it every week. I also think the reason why Trump does so well is because he identifies places where the Democrats did fuck up. And I could go down that list too. Like the border. Like DEI was out of control. Colleges, completely out of control. Elite universities where the kids are raised to be these anarchist America hating, anti Semites. And there is zero diversity of opinion. You know, the hypocrisy of diversity is the greatest thing in the world, except of what we think, which is where it's also very important.

[Rob Reiner]

But the point is you can't force people, you know, it's a university. What he's trying to do is force the federal government onto the universities and forcing them to.

[Bill Maher]

Well, they get.

[Rob Reiner]

They're going to withhold certain things unless you do this.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, if they're getting taxpayer dollars and they're supposed to be therefore in the service of this country to a degree, yes, I think then you have some right now, of course, the way he does it is always a bull in a china shop. He goes in there with a club and just starts breaking shit. I mean, what does taking away cancer funding have to do with the anti Semitism on campus? But again, Harvard has an endowment of $50 billion. Really? They couldn't make that up? They can't find that $500 million themselves somewhere? So there's a lot of bullshit and hypocrisy.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, right now, right now, you know, the UC system is also going to be under attack and Newsom is trying to fight back and say, you know, let's hold your line here. I mean, you know, and law firms are, you know, some cave. And a good friend of mine, Ted Boutros, who, you know, is with a law firm that is holding firm, Gibson Dunn is holding firm. So, you know, you pick your.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I have been trying to make Evanism President for 15 years, people. I'm still on that page that he'd be a great candidate even though he was a lot of California baggage.

[Rob Reiner]

No, but he would be. Not about California anymore. It's about who is articulate, who is smart, who knows how to govern, and in this case, who is pushing, who's strong and pushing back. So I'm with you on him. I mean, listen, I've known him since he was mayor and I know him before that. He was supportive of ballot initiatives that I've done. And I like him.

[Bill Maher]

I like him. That's what I say. And I've had discussions with him to his face about. Because Gavin's good like that. He'll come, he'll talk. He could take a punch. Most of the Democrats can't. They won't even come on. We invite them every week. They won't come. The Republicans always.

[Rob Reiner]

What am I doing here?

[Bill Maher]

The Republicans always come.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And they take their beating like a man. It's awesome.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But the Democrats. But not Gavin.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

And I've said there are lots of things. I think he went way too far and he's. And that is gonna be his biggest liability. But as you say.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, they're fourth. They're now the fourth largest. California, the fourth largest economy in the country. It just surpassed Japan. So. Yeah, you know, not that you're gonna. It was no secession or anything like that, but he's representing 40 million people.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

And they're not all liberal Democrats, Rob.

[Bill Maher]

He's going to win the state.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, no, he's going to win. He's not running anymore for the state. He's finished.

[Bill Maher]

I'm saying in the general. He's going to win the state. Oh, no, no, no.

[Rob Reiner]

He's got to win.

[Bill Maher]

He's going to win those 40 games for sure.

[Rob Reiner]

I understand, but I think he can. When you look at Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, which are the swing states, he win.

[Bill Maher]

Those two, but in key ways. He has recently, in the last six months, moved to the center on. On different issues.

[Rob Reiner]

He's never been. He's never been wildly liberal.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, he was, but.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, when he married gay people, when he was the mayor of San Francisco, he didn't.

[Bill Maher]

He officiated it.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

He wasn't marrying.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, he wasn't marrying a gay person. He was officiate. He was officiating over gay marriage, which is great.

[Bill Maher]

He was out ahead on an issue that even Republicans now agree with.

[Rob Reiner]

Some do. Well, they're trying to undo a lot of.

[Bill Maher]

They're not gonna do that.

[Rob Reiner]

I don't think they can, but they're gonna try.

[Bill Maher]

They're not. Sean McCrees just wrote a great article in the Times about how much of Washington now is gay. Trumpers who are, you know, staff positions and so forth. But they're very. They're well accepted and they're. And they are. And you know what? Again, you can't start not talking to people or hating people because part of them is something you don't like or don't agree with. And he quoted. Trump had a great quote in the article about his view when he was asked about gay. And he said, I Go to a restaurant. Some people like the spaghetti with red sauce. I like a steak. That's why they have a menu. That's why restaurants have menus. And we should. We have to focus on, like, what to be worried about and that storage.

[Rob Reiner]

We have to worry about troops in the streets. We have to worry about destroying a democracy.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Rob Reiner]

Of 250 years.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah. That's how. I mean. And what is the plan? There's this terrible asymmetry we have where when the Democrat loses the election, it's over and in a matter of hours and we concede and go home, and that's that. Yeah. And if the Republican loses, you just know it doesn't end that day. It could be a landslide.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And it won't be. It never is. But if it's. If it's. It doesn't matter how close or unclose it is. They're gonna say, oh, that's what Gary like, did. They're gonna say they won't.

[Rob Reiner]

In Arizona, she did that. She lost pretty bad.

[Bill Maher]

She still said he still hasn't conceded 2020.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Publicly, anyway.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Wink, wink. Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

So you think they'll. Do you think there'll be a 2028 election?

[Bill Maher]

There's always an election. Even the dictatorship.

[Rob Reiner]

No, I'm saying a real election.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, I do. I just think that they will find a way when the votes come in, if they lose, of contesting it, just like they did in 2020. The only difference is in 2020, they had people like Raffsenberger in Georgia who wouldn't go along with the scheme. Well, they've had all this time to replace those people, the head of the FBI, you know, now all the people who you would need to go along with the scheme. And you already have the army in the streets.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Are there. I just, you know, I just don't see it. I don't see.

[Rob Reiner]

You know, you may be right.

[Bill Maher]

I just.

[Rob Reiner]

And if we do, and if you're right, that will be the end of American democracy. And I don't know of any country that has had a democracy for as long as we have has gone to authoritarian rule that has ever had a democracy come back.

[Bill Maher]

I just.

[Rob Reiner]

I don't see that happening. So we have to hold on to it. We have to hold on to it.

[Bill Maher]

I don't see. On November 10, 2028, 20. Yes, 2020, Donald Trump sending out a truth saying, I'd like to congratulate President Elect Klobuchar.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Well, do you think. Do you think he'll Try to run again in the third. A third time.

[Bill Maher]

I don't. I think he's going to do the Medvedev move, which is what Putin did between 2008 and 2012, when Putin was technically, by their constitution at the time, prohibited from running. So he had his prime minister and him switch jobs, but nobody was fooled that he wasn't really. I mean, if it's J.D. vance, you know, and Trump is still around, you don't think, first of all, Trump can destroy anyone with social media. So if the person who's running the country, quote, unquote, gets out of line, he could just blast out his social messages. That's where all the power is. He does it now.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, well, this is the thing that I.

[Bill Maher]

But yeah, he might run.

[Rob Reiner]

This is the thing I talked about with some friends after we, you know, we lost this past election and we lost 2016 by a very small amount, was 79,000 votes in three states. It was, you know, Wisconsin, the same, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And what they did, and they were smart to do from an electoral standpoint, is they suppressed the vote in Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia, which is predominantly black populations in those areas. And if you suppress enough, you know, it's not that, that many votes, 79,000 in three states aggregate. Yeah, that's, that's what they did. And they knew because, you know, Putin was playing with the farm in Saint Petersburg and had all of that, you know, working, but didn't have to cost.

[Bill Maher]

Them very much money either.

[Rob Reiner]

And then we won and we lost again. And I've said the only way we are going to be able to compete is to have the kind of grip they have on the media. And it's not just the regular media, television news, social media, AI, all of the stuff that they have control of, unless we have something to come up, bounce up against it. You remember when Air America came on because.

[Bill Maher]

Because beginning when they talk radio, what became msnbc. Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

Remember talk radio, when talk radio first came into being, the shows that got huge ratings was Rush Limbaugh and right wing talk. That was predominantly what there was. And the idea for Air America was to try to combat that. And I was at a meeting at, you know, when Clinton was in the White House and they had a meeting at Jay Rockefeller's house in Virginia, was a senator at the time and Gephardt was there, and Tom Daschle and Barry Diller and all these people there talking about trying to create some kind of forum where we could compete using media with them. And the Democracy alliance came out of that. And Soros was one of the funders I funded, you know, and what came out of was the, you know, center for American Progress crew, which was a, you know, a legal group to. And Media Matters, you know, well, those are the big things that came out. It's nothing compared to what they have. They have a juggernaut. You know, when you have, you know, American Enterprise Institute and you have American Heritage foundation and you've got Cato and all these things, and they are behind you with well funded like crazy. It's hard to push your ideas through. Because our base, yeah, we have our, our billionaires, but they have way more billionaires. And our, most of our constituents are not as rich.

[Bill Maher]

It's not the money that works.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, but you have to build something. Listen, I ran into Rupert Murdoch and I ran into Rupert Murgat. I said I want to, you know, thank you.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you run into a lot of people.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, who else did I run into?

[Bill Maher]

Warren Beatty.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

But they're 20 years apart.

[Bill Maher]

Okay?

[Rob Reiner]

No, I'm not running into him the same day. Hey, Warren. Hey, Rupert. I'm not doing that.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just saying you're a popular guy.

[Rob Reiner]

Anyway, I see him and I say, I want to, you know, thank you for standing up and letting your, you know, your, your network come out and say, say these things. But there's very little, I mean, you know, he's, who knows where he is at this point. But we don't have the infrastructure. We don't have a media infrastructure the way the other side does. And we don't.

[Bill Maher]

We can't. That's bullshit.

[Rob Reiner]

It isn't bullshit.

[Bill Maher]

The New York Times, npr, msnbc, nobody reads these things. Nobody reads the New York Times.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, nobody reads the New York Times. And nobody watches MSNBC and nobody.

[Bill Maher]

Not anymore. But people do read the New York Times.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes, a group, a small group of people read the New York Times.

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all, the New York Times been doing very well financially. Also. They're a national.

[Rob Reiner]

I know they're doing well.

[Bill Maher]

I'm talking about they're a national paper and they would, I would, in my view, they would do a lot better if they weren't so ideologically captured. They're a very different paper than they were when. I mean, I've been reading it since.

[Rob Reiner]

Listen, I read it. I've been reading it since I'm a little kid, too.

[Bill Maher]

A kid.

[Rob Reiner]

But here's the thing. When I say Rush Limbaugh and those kinds of right wing shows dominated talk News Fox is the one that does better than msnbc, CNN on the cable side. So that's what you have. You don't have parody. And then when you took on social media, Twitter, I don't know. You still on Twitter?

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's X now. Am I on it? You know.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, yes.

[Bill Maher]

I have a. Personally, not really.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay. So I, I, you know, I was not on any social media. My wife says to me, you know, when Trump first emerged in, when he was running for president, right. Back in 2015, I guess it was. Yes, 16. She said, you should talk. You know, get, get out there. So I got onto Twitter and I built, you know, a good following. You know, I had like two and a half million followers, whatever. It's not nothing compared to no, you know, Dua Lipa or, you know, whoever. I don't know if we'll do a leap out of my ass.

[Bill Maher]

You did, and it was a perfect reference.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or, you know, Selena Gomez or whatever. But the point is, I had this following, right? Then Elon Musk buys this, takes it over and it changes whatever. And I'm saying, I don't want to be this item. Enough of this stuff. So I get off now. I can't get back on. They can't get my name because apparently if you give it up, you can't get back. So I said, I try to get back on. And it says, you can't say Rob Reiner. It says actual Rob Reiner. What's with the hell? And you know, from two and a half million followers, I had 48 followers. And so it was, you know, it's like. But the point is they have all these followers. They have Truth Social. He has his own, you know, platform.

[Bill Maher]

What happened with X was Twitter was a mess. My line about Twitter was always, anything I want to say on Twitter, I can't say on Twitter because it was so full.

[Rob Reiner]

What did you say? What did you want to say?

[Bill Maher]

You couldn't say, I'm going to tell you. Okay, this is back. This is before Elon bought it.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

It had got so overtaken by left wing scolds that they were just looking for something to catch you on. Another obnoxious trait of the far left. They just, they don't look to uplift, which is what traditional liberals like myself believe in. Uplifting. It was just catching people and putting a scalp on the wall because we caught something you said. So I stopped tweeting. And it was too bad because it used to be fun. You say, oh, I had a brain Fart. I could say it, but then they would just. So.

[Rob Reiner]

But if you say something that you really believe, and I've put a lot of things out there, if, you know, if you look at my old Twitter feed, there's all kinds of stuff.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. But nothing that offends the far left.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, I don't know what, who it offends, what. All I know is they, you know, the right would call me a libtard, you know, which is, that's part of the course. But it got way worse than that. They had me living on Epstein's island and I'm. And I took a summer home there and I'm, you know, Mr. Pedophilia. I mean, it's like crazy. Oh, it is crazy, crazy stuff.

[Bill Maher]

Were you ever on the plane?

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Rob Reiner]

No, I don't, I never met the guy. I don't even know the guy.

[Bill Maher]

Some people were on the plane, but they didn't go to the island. Yeah, the island. I mean, the plane.

[Rob Reiner]

Were you ever on the plane? No, the island.

[Bill Maher]

Well, how would I get the island?

[Rob Reiner]

You got to get. You got to get on the plane to get the.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. But the plane went all over the world. Now the island was like a hub. It was, it was kind of like, you know what Atlanta is for Delta. But, but it was still like Clinton was on the plane a lot. I don't think he was ever on the island. Okay. But my point was that Elon took over claiming that what he was going to do was get rid of this one sided. And it was completely one sided.

[Rob Reiner]

But he didn't do.

[Bill Maher]

And then he did the opposite.

[Rob Reiner]

He went the other way.

[Bill Maher]

It just went.

[Rob Reiner]

It went the other way and it's.

[Bill Maher]

A perfect paradigm for the world we live in.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Nothing ever stops in the middle.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I call it pendulum ism. The pendulum just got. And all he did was turn it into a place where now nobody, unless you're super right wing, feels comfortable.

[Rob Reiner]

Then you can't be there. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So like how do we get back to a place where we do that? And I would say job one, don't stop talking.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, well, I agree, you know, I agree with that.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I was going to tell you before I was reading this article about a guy who was in the Obama or no Biden administration and he cut off his brother who voted for Trump or maybe brother in law. And then he wrote this article, I forget for who. And it basically said, yeah, you know what? I relooked at that issue. He's my brother in Law. He's a good guy. He voted for Trump. You know, it's more complicated than that. And then there was a backlash to that. You know, they got mad at him.

[Rob Reiner]

For New York magazine forgiving him.

[Bill Maher]

Well, New York was like, it is perfectly okay to unfriend and cut off. I forget the word they used for, like, disengage with your fa. Talk about family. Like, the advice is don't go to Thanksgiving if they're. And we just. That is just never going to make this country better. And I know it's terrible to have to, like, suck it up and talk to people who, yes. Hold views that, you know, you think you're morally superior to and sometimes you actually are morally superior to. You still have.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, you have to try to talk. But it is very frustrating when, you know, the truth is ephemeral, for sure. But there are certain things that are true. Like two and two is four. Like, there's a man on the moon. Like a man landed on.

[Bill Maher]

I know.

[Rob Reiner]

You have to at least agree to that. How do you have the conversation then?

[Bill Maher]

Okay, well, we just had. We had this discussion before, and I told you my answer, and I think.

[Rob Reiner]

And your answer is just let it go. Let it go.

[Bill Maher]

If you demand ideological purity about everyone you want to talk to, you're gonna have a very small group of friends you can find.

[Rob Reiner]

I'm not saying ideological purity. I'm just saying a basis for conversation. You can come at it different ways, but you have to agree that there's. That's. There are certain realities.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but. But you know, there are certain. And in other words, like, for example, they would say, and one of them is biological sex. So, you know, I was talking biological sex.

[Rob Reiner]

What do you mean?

[Bill Maher]

Boys and girls, Penises and vaginas.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

X and Y chromosomes.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Okay. Well, that wasn't the left position for a long time. Certainly not the far left. Now, I was. You mentioned Epstein. I was having this discussion with somebody about Epstein like, a month ago when it first hit. And, you know, we're talking about Trump and Epstein. And I said, you know, Trump is on. I don't know what he did with Epstein, but he's on tape saying he grabs pussies. That's on tape?

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know what his answer was? He said, okay, he's on tape doing that, but you want to talk about doing bad things to vaginas. And then he went into lots of facts and figures about trans and kids who are younger than. Where they would do it anywhere else in the world. Based on self diagnosis. So if you want to get on your high horse about who's crazy, it's going to be a fight if you want.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, but you don't want to get into a question of whataboutism and that we have to agree that it's not a good thing for a man to just grab a woman.

[Bill Maher]

We do.

[Rob Reiner]

We have to agree on that. We have to agree on that.

[Bill Maher]

He wasn't saying that wasn't a good thing. He was just saying what about this other thing that he.

[Rob Reiner]

First of all, we can say that's not good either.

[Bill Maher]

But it's.

[Rob Reiner]

But the point is we have to.

[Bill Maher]

But it's valid. And what he was saying, it doesn't.

[Rob Reiner]

Justify the first thing.

[Bill Maher]

Trump saying that, Bill.

[Rob Reiner]

It doesn't justify the first thing.

[Bill Maher]

No one's saying it justifies it.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. What do you say?

[Bill Maher]

Where's your sense of nuance? What we're saying is what this person was saying, and it's a valid argument, was like what Trump did. Okay, conceded wrong. But it didn't actually. That comment itself, if he did it, it was wrong. But is it actually worse than taking a child who perhaps shouldn't be having this kind of life changing surgery? Kids are very confused. Should we really be this gung ho.

[Rob Reiner]

And again, we can have that discussion. We can talk about that. But they, the discussion of this, they're two different things. And we can have both of those discussions, but we shouldn't conflate them and say because he did. Because this. That that's okay.

[Bill Maher]

No one is saying that.

[Rob Reiner]

I thought you were saying that.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not saying that. You're just missing the point.

[Rob Reiner]

I'm missing the point. You are as usual, right?

[Bill Maher]

Not as usual, but. But you are. There is a point to be made. People who write into the show back me up on this. No, we're not saying what Trump did was right. We're not saying it shouldn't be condemned. We're just saying if the subject is who's crazy about vaginas? The subject is vaginas. And craziness is the issue. We think that what you're doing in this area is crazier and actually affects people more. Okay, so than him grabbing pussies.

[Rob Reiner]

I'm going to say may that may be true. That may be true. But that person isn't running for president. And this. No, but I'm saying I didn't vote. We're talking about a man running for president that has that sensibility.

[Bill Maher]

It's just. All right, I give Up.

[Rob Reiner]

Disgusting.

[Bill Maher]

I said my piece. You either get it or you.

[Rob Reiner]

So. So you want that guy to.

[Bill Maher]

I didn't know you the. Can. Can you not pause before running immediately right to. All the way over here. This is not where the argument is. And straw man didn't show up to this party. That's not what I'm saying and that's not what the issue is. I don't want Trump. I would have voted for him if I did, but I didn't.

[Rob Reiner]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

And I would, you know, have paused.

[Rob Reiner]

No, but what you're saying is you should be able to engage anybody in any discussion about something that they are passionate about. And I agree with that.

[Bill Maher]

Part of the reason why.

[Rob Reiner]

The right.

[Bill Maher]

Is so butthurt about the left. It's not always just policy. It's like they feel very disrespected. Like, I won't even talk to you. I won't even sit down and break bread with you. Really? They don't like that. Remember the deplorables comment Hillary made? They just think that they're looked down on.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, that's a bad thing to be saying if you're running for president, to call some people who are voters deplorable. Even if you think that, you don't say that's bad politics. But Trump doesn't have that problem. He says whatever the hell he wants and nobody. He doesn't worry about that. He doesn't worry about what he says about people.

[Bill Maher]

He's such an instinctive politician. You know, he talked about it back from the 80s that he was going to run. He kind of knew that in himself and he just flipped the script. Everybody had become so press spokesman. I just say the exact right thing and try not to offend anyone. And he was like, I'm just gonna let my interior monologue out. I don't know if he can help himself.

[Rob Reiner]

No, I don't think he can.

[Bill Maher]

He just says.

[Rob Reiner]

And this is what he really thinks.

[Bill Maher]

And that's in many ways refreshing, even when it's awful.

[Rob Reiner]

But it's also, you know, listen, I made a movie with my wife called God and Country, which was all about Christian nationalism.

[Bill Maher]

I know, I saw it.

[Rob Reiner]

Ye. And the idea was that. And we had a lot of very conservative Christians on the show talking about, you know, what they feel was not only a danger to the country, but a danger to Christianity. And because they felt that this Christian nationalism was going so far afield from the teachings of Jesus in their minds. And the idea that. And this is something I remember back in 2004, when Bush was running for reelection and ran against Kerry. And I remember Carl Rove saying that we could win this election with just Christian evangelicals if we get all of. Because they weren't getting them all to the polls. I mean, the Ralph Reeds of the world and the turning points and all that had not galvanized at that point. They started to. And they were able to, and they've been successful since then. But this whole idea that Donald Trump is the guy that they think is the second coming or is sent by God to represent them, it can't be further from. I mean, if you read then the teachings of Jesus, it can't be further from him.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but there's one word and they.

[Rob Reiner]

Like, they love him.

[Bill Maher]

There's. They love his dirty drawers. There's one word that explains this, which is Cyrus.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, yeah, of course.

[Bill Maher]

Cyrus.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, Cyrus. I understand.

[Bill Maher]

Can you explain to the people who Cyrus is?

[Rob Reiner]

No, you can explain.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. It's in the Bible and it's in. It's the 45th chapter, and he was the 45th president. So I mean.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, you can't argue with Cyrus. You do the math.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but Cyrus was a king of Persia or he fought the Persians. No, he was the king of Persia. Anyway, he freed the Jews accidentally. He was like going to war against, like, as a sideshow. It turned out very well for the Jews. That's who they think Trump is. He's a Cyrus figure. In other words, he's very flawed.

[Rob Reiner]

He's flawed, he's faulty. But he's our guy and we're the.

[Bill Maher]

Jews in this scenario.

[Rob Reiner]

And most of these Christian conservatives like David French and Russell Moore, they feel that this movement has gone so far field from, you know, love thy neighbor and do unto others and all of those things that are part of the Jesus thing. So. And if you looked at what happened in nine, you know, January 6th, there was a lot of Bibles and crosses and they were all storming the Capitol.

[Bill Maher]

QAnon. Yeah. And Christian nationalism are. Yeah, they're a Venn diagram that looks like a circle.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

No, it's all part of it.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is scary.

[Bill Maher]

That's scary.

[Rob Reiner]

You know.

[Bill Maher]

You know Bush, you mentioned Bush. He was a super duper Christian.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah. But he didn't push it on.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly. I mean, I remember reading there was.

[Rob Reiner]

A separation of church and state at one point.

[Bill Maher]

There was. And that's. And that's what I'm going to get to. Or I want to ask you because I Do remember reading that like a sly dig during the Bush administration was mischief Bible study.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So they were full in on the Jesus eating.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But do you think, given what we now see in the Trump administration and things that are just so unprecedented, do you think we were too hard on George Bush? He was. I wonder. And it's hard to remember because it was 20 years ago to me, the prob.

[Rob Reiner]

The biggest.

[Bill Maher]

I was very hard on him and I'm still not a huge fan.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no.

[Bill Maher]

But it was a normal sort of Republican.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, he was. And so was Reagan and. Yeah, I understand that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

But to me the big thing with Bush was going to war in Iraq. And that to me made him somebody that I.

[Bill Maher]

But I still think it was a lie.

[Rob Reiner]

It was a lie like when we went into war in Vietnam and Spanish American War. They're lies and we understand how they get people galvanized to go to war. That's when I had the problem with him. Oh, me too. Reagan didn't do anything like that.

[Bill Maher]

I also think Bush going into Iraq, the reason they gave to get people behind it was a lie. True. But I think it was sincere, him thinking that was the correct response. Even though it wasn't Iraq who did it. He understood.

[Rob Reiner]

Forget it wasn't Iraq who did it. The Iraq didn't have weapons of mass. And they knew it. They knew it. We had, we had. And I made a movie about that too. Shock and awe. There were, there were, you know, observers on the ground. We had a, A, a no fly zone around and it was contained like crazy.

[Bill Maher]

I agree. I mean, look, I was not for the Iraq war, but I do think Bush, this guy, you know, he's not a genius. He's from Texas. And he was like, you know what? When they, when they punch you, you punch him back. Doesn't have to be exactly who did it. Well, then I'm a big thinker, big picture.

[Rob Reiner]

But then you figure out where go get bin Laden then.

[Bill Maher]

No, I understand. I'm, I'm not.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not arguing with you on these points.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just saying I wonder if looking back if I was too hard because for example, I could think of two things that Bush did that I. Three if you count sitting with Michelle Obama and them seemed to get along well. But he also had the opportunity to pardon Scooter Libby and he didn't.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, listen, he didn't. I don't.

[Bill Maher]

And he was like, he was like his bottom bitch, which was the right thing.

[Rob Reiner]

To do.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly.

[Rob Reiner]

I'm saying, but this guy we have is pardoning people who beat the crap out of cops.

[Bill Maher]

Exactly. I understand. That's what I'm saying.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, yeah. There's a difference. Yes.

[Bill Maher]

The other thing I love the moment with Bush is that when Obama took office, they had all the ex presidents there and Bush stood next to Obama and said, we want you to succeed.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

I mean it was, it's just such a different time.

[Rob Reiner]

And Trump did not do that. He did, of course not do that.

[Bill Maher]

He still hasn't conceded the election.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Again, these are people who we didn't vote for 20 years ago and yet when they took over, we just didn't have the worries we have now. It just wasn't where, it just wasn't where we are. It wasn't at this existential way. It was like, okay, when the Democrats are in office, for us personally, for example, how are we affected? Well, the top bracket goes from paying 36% under Republicans to paying 39% under Democrats.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, no, you pay a little more.

[Bill Maher]

We switched.

[Rob Reiner]

You pay a little more.

[Bill Maher]

We've had giant elections over 3%.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, no, I understand.

[Bill Maher]

So it just wasn't that sort of like you go from here all the way over to, you know. Yeah, I mean, you have.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, that's why it's really scary because you know, you talk about Bush, but I was, you know, I campaigned like crazy for Al Gore, went all over the country with him and you know, I was actually with him the night that the Supreme Court ruling came in and I was having dinner at this place and we were working on an op ed piece that was supposed to be in the New York Times the next day called the Consent of the Governed and they came down with this ruling. And we're all sitting there watching CNN and the guy on television says, I'm on the phone, he says, oh, he says, I understand that the Vice President is in his residence and he's on the phone talking to his advisors, trying to understand this ruling along with the rest of us. It was like a Truman show moment where. Cuz he was on the phone with David Boies and Ron Klain trying to. Because basically what the Supreme Court said was we want to remand this back to the, to the Florida Supreme Court, but there's not enough time because of the, the, the December 12th ruling to be able to change and make it one way of counting all the votes. So we can't do it. So, so, you know, Bush is president and they said that and that. And, and I see I'm sitting right next to him and Gore says all this is. He says, that's all he said, just one word. And his daughter was there, his son Albert was there. And the daughter started crying hysterical. And he, and he says over and, and she started crying. He went and hold her, he gave her a hug and he said, don't worry, it's going to be okay. Gonna be all right. And at that moment, I said, wow, we lost a great man that could have been great president.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

Because he had the decency and he had the calmness to be able to say that. And then, of course, he conceded right away.

[Bill Maher]

He took one for the team.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, conceded right away. And you could think about, think about 20 years jump on climate change. Think about no going to war in Iraq. I mean, the things that change when you do things like. And, you know, that was 500 and what is it, 34 votes in Florida.

[Bill Maher]

We don't know how he would have handled nine, 11. I mean, Hillary voted for the Iraq war.

[Rob Reiner]

Yes. No, no, no, I agree. How he would have handled nine, 11, we don't know. No, no. But I don't think he would have gone to war in Iraq.

[Bill Maher]

I don't think so. But you don't. You just don't.

[Rob Reiner]

I don't think.

[Bill Maher]

No, I don't think so either. No, I don't think so either.

[Rob Reiner]

But, but the point is, we're at this point now with a guy who's so far off the charts in terms of but normal governing that it's frightening.

[Bill Maher]

So how do we get the Democrats so united? Because, you know, you and I can't keep arguing if we're going to, like, ever.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, we're trying, you know, it's good.

[Bill Maher]

To talk, isn't it?

[Rob Reiner]

I guess. Yeah, it is. I mean, it is. I'm. Listen, I'm happy to talk to anybody.

[Bill Maher]

More information is always better than less information is how I look at it.

[Rob Reiner]

Listen, I had dinner with JD Vance years ago over at David Frum's house.

[Bill Maher]

Ran into him.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, it was invited to dinner.

[Bill Maher]

I didn't run in.

[Rob Reiner]

He was there.

[Bill Maher]

You're just always running into.

[Rob Reiner]

I didn't run to them.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Rob Reiner]

So I'm having dinner with him and he had just written this book, Hillbilly Elegy.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

It was just pretty good.

[Bill Maher]

Howard made it into it.

[Rob Reiner]

I thought it was pretty good.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. And talking with him and. Couldn't be more reasonable. Couldn't be. No, we didn't agree. I mean, he's Right. He's, you know what he is?

[Bill Maher]

He's a nice guy.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Couldn't have been more reasonable. And then he becomes this sycophant. And they all are. Yes, all of them. Oh, so what am I going to do there? I mean, what are you, you know, this is like, you know, this is insanity.

[Bill Maher]

What you're going to do there is make them hate you less. Their whole policy is based on make them cry their liberal tears. They think they're so fucking superior that they won't break bread with us, just break the hate. No, you're not going to convince them to go against Trump on an issue. But Trump famously is like a guy who sort of like follows whatever the last thing he hears. Now he's surrounded by ass kissers. The last thing he hears is usually something stupid. He got out of, he got out of the meeting with Putin and he said we should get rid of mail in voting because Putin thinks mail in voting is why our elections are rigged. Now that's, that's just.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, he's always been saying that. I know Trump's been saying that for.

[Bill Maher]

Years, but the fact that he, he was like quoting Putin on electoral politics.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, listen, he sat in Helsinki next to Putin. I understand. I don't think he did it.

[Bill Maher]

That's not the point. The point is. The point is he just sort of listens to and repeats the last thing he hears. So let's get more people in there who are saying things, because I'm telling you, he does. He didn't object to any time I contradicted him. You know, I said to him, you're scaring people.

[Rob Reiner]

They're your people.

[Bill Maher]

Why do you want to scare people?

[Rob Reiner]

So what'd he say to that?

[Bill Maher]

I don't remember. But it wasn't. I don't, I don't. But it wasn't.

[Rob Reiner]

So it was a good conversation.

[Bill Maher]

It wasn't.

[Rob Reiner]

It was. It was. It made an impression on you.

[Bill Maher]

Well, did you watch my report on it?

[Rob Reiner]

No. No. But I want to know what he said to you.

[Bill Maher]

I don't remember, but it wasn't. All stop. Because I would have remembered that and I didn't.

[Rob Reiner]

Okay, from now on, I don't think.

[Bill Maher]

And I didn't expected it to be, but just the fact that something gets in there. Yeah, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world. Yeah, it may be the best thing in the world or best you can do, but you know, racist.

[Rob Reiner]

There's a blind spot. They can't see. Yes, of course they can't. See, so how do you discuss. How do you talk?

[Bill Maher]

There's also blind spots on the other side with race. You think everything that comes out of the left on race makes sense.

[Rob Reiner]

Like, give me an example.

[Bill Maher]

Anything in Robin d' Angelo Ta, Nehisi Coates.

[Rob Reiner]

Give me specifics.

[Bill Maher]

For example, I mean, he says, or maybe it's Ibram X. Kendi says, I'm not quoting word for word, but it's very close to word for word. The only solution to past racism is future racism. In other words, being racist in reverse.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, well, that's ridiculous.

[Bill Maher]

Okay then. But my point is. But that's what a lot of people.

[Rob Reiner]

But that's a. That's an argument. That's not saying I. You know, a black person could say, I don't like any white people, that's racist. White person says, I don't like any black people, that's racist. You can't argue with that. How do you argue that? I mean, you can't discuss that.

[Bill Maher]

Who's arguing what? I mean?

[Rob Reiner]

No, I'm saying you cannot discuss those.

[Bill Maher]

Things with somebody if the issue is Trump and racism. I think it's more nuanced than that. I mean.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, I'm not saying him. I'm just saying, generally speaking, you know, a racist is somebody you can't really argue with.

[Bill Maher]

It's hard, but, I mean, I could show you like, many tick tocks of what I don't know.

[Rob Reiner]

I know where you're gonna go.

[Bill Maher]

No, I know of, like, young, usually black women saying some variation of, I just can't deal with white people today. And you could hardly imagine that in reverse. No, I'm not mad at it. I'm just saying we can understand exactly.

[Rob Reiner]

What is built into a black person's experience, why they would say something like that.

[Bill Maher]

Maybe not that person in particular. Maybe I don't know that person, but I don't know that person either. But it could be possible that they're just somebody. Who was it? Oh, Thomas Tatterton Williams is on my show a couple of weeks ago and was talking about microaggressions and the idea. I said, let's. It's funny because there's. There's. Sometimes it seems like there's more anger now racially, and yet things were so much worse then. You know, you and I, it is. He said there's a interesting human psychological factor where, like, the better things get, the tinier the offense that makes people angry.

[Rob Reiner]

That's right. That's right. And you also forget where you were and you forget the progress that's been made because you're only focusing on the inequity right then and there.

[Bill Maher]

And again, to your point before about they don't know anything in the past. Like they don't know your show. Yeah, they don't. They also don't know about the civil rights pioneers who actually endured horrible and died.

[Rob Reiner]

Died to try to get the right to vote.

[Bill Maher]

So, you know, could it be that a 20 year old goes out in the world today and has a terrible experience with white people? It could. But you know, I don't think if you're in Los Angeles and you're black and you walk into a Starbucks, they're going to say, we don't serve your kind here.

[Rob Reiner]

No.

[Bill Maher]

You know, okay, so, you know, I don't know what the white. I don't know what your white people out there are doing that you can't deal with today. I'm just saying you could never say that in reverse. And you shouldn't say that in reverse.

[Rob Reiner]

What would you say to a white person?

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean?

[Rob Reiner]

Don't order that pumpkin spice latte. Get out of here. Whatever that thing is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's the season of pumpkin spice.

[Rob Reiner]

I can't believe getting there. Getting.

[Bill Maher]

Can't believe how fast the time goes. So the movie opens.

[Rob Reiner]

The movie opens September, September 12th. Okay, so in theaters around the town. And I wanted it, I wanted it to be in the theaters because you got to watch a comedy with people. You want, you want that shared experience. If it's a comedy or it's a thriller, horror, you want people to be there and enjoy it with them. It's not sitting at their home, going to the bathroom, getting something to eat or whatever.

[Bill Maher]

You are not the first director I know who's been making this argument. Yeah, and it's a valid argument and it's just really a hard one. You're fighting it.

[Rob Reiner]

No, no, I know it's very hard.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it's very hard. I, I don't often get my ass out to the theater either.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, no, no. I mean, I've only gone a couple times.

[Bill Maher]

But this one I would.

[Rob Reiner]

Oh, good.

[Bill Maher]

This one.

[Rob Reiner]

Well, I like, I mean, I care in that.

[Bill Maher]

Not wait to see.

[Rob Reiner]

I can't wait. You'll like it. Some good.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, what I loved.

[Rob Reiner]

There's some good laughs in it.

[Bill Maher]

Besides what I loved, everything about that was in the first one, which is lol, like ultimate lol, kind of movie comedy, was that there were people who did not understand it was a comedy.

[Rob Reiner]

A lot of people at the beginning. They came up to me at the first screening and. And they. In Dallas, we had. And they said, I don't understand. Why are you making a movie about a band I. Nobody's ever heard of? And one, you know, why did you make? What are you doing? And I felt bad because we got the worst cards. You know, they sign these cards and they give you the thing. The worst cards ever. The only thing I felt good about is I counted five different ways they spelled the word movie.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. There was movie.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Rob Reiner]

There was mov e Y. There was mov Y, M O V E E. And my favorite M O V E move. So.

[Bill Maher]

So you're saying.

[Rob Reiner]

So I'm saying maybe they weren't geniuses. I don't know. But it took a long time for people to catch onto the movie and like it.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I don't think that's an accurate appraisal. What it is, was like. And look, it's just gonna sound like I'm making fun of half the country. Half or however many. I'm sorry, but people are nuance impaired. This is a movie that's a mockumentary about a man. You don't have to be a genius to get the satire and the parody of everything about rock and roll that is so paradiable, if that's a word.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Yeah. But we played it close to the bone. But it was satire. Very close to the bone.

[Bill Maher]

Yes. But I just gotta say, you're a little dim if you're one of the.

[Rob Reiner]

People that spelled it M O V.

[Bill Maher]

E. The M O V E person. Okay.

[Rob Reiner]

Is not gonna get it.

[Bill Maher]

You didn't get that this was parody. They took it seriously.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. I know some rockers, some rock and roll people took it seriously, and they got mad. Like, Steven Tyler was upset and.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then that's Axl Rose from Guns and Roses. And. And, you know, God bless him.

[Bill Maher]

You know, musicians.

[Rob Reiner]

Or Ozzy Osborne didn't love it too much.

[Bill Maher]

They're so talented, but thinking ain't their thing, Rob. No, you know, it's not.

[Rob Reiner]

It's not high on the list.

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Rob Reiner]

So we try to make fun of that, too.

[Bill Maher]

Of course, that's. That's part of why it's so funny. If you have this built in.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And the thing is about musicians, especially rock stars. What it is about music that gets to us. Gets to us on such a deep.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah. It's on a very emotional level. Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I remember when I visited Amsterdam and I had a friend who Lived there. And I said, what's it like here? And he's telling me everything about it. And he said. And I said, the people are. They're. They're. They're polite, but they're not warm. He said, right. He said, they don't get excited about anything except pop stars. Just like everywhere else in the world. When Michael Jackson was there, they went, fucking nut. It just gets to us. It does.

[Rob Reiner]

It's a very visceral thing.

[Bill Maher]

The people who are the rock stars get to live in this world of their own. And we see it. I could mention a million names and just who've lived in this bubble of just like, I'm the greatest. I don't have to know anything. I have assistance. And everyone. And, you know, that's what you're.

[Rob Reiner]

But most rockers did get it eventually. They all got it and they dug it. It was like a staple on the tour bus. They'd had the thing because Sting, when the first time he met him, he said, I've seen this movie a hundred times, fifty times. Every time I see it, I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

He's smart.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

There's millions of smart. Paul McCartney's in the room.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, he's in the movie. And he's. He's really funny, too.

[Bill Maher]

So what do you have in the. As far as, like, the. The cameo.

[Rob Reiner]

Paul McCartney.

[Bill Maher]

Elton.

[Rob Reiner]

Elton John.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Rob Reiner]

Garth Brooks. There's Questlove. You know, there's a whole thing where they're trying to find a new drummer because the drummers are always dying, you know?

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Rob Reiner]

They had 12 drummers, which is true. Yeah, it's tr.

[Bill Maher]

True.

[Rob Reiner]

The last drummer, this guy, Skippy Scuffleton, he. He died because he. He sneezed himself to death. He couldn't stop sneezing, and he had a fit and he dropped dead. So we have to get a new drummer. And they put out. They put out a word to try to get a new drummer. And they talked to Questlove. They talked to Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lars Al from Metallica. And they get. They all turn them down because they rather stay alive. They don't want to die. They. They love them, but they don't want to die.

[Bill Maher]

All right, well, thank you.

[Rob Reiner]

Yeah, thanks for having me.

[Bill Maher]

Had the time of my life I hope you did.

[Rob Reiner]

I had the time of my life and I owe it all to you.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Rob Reiner]

All right, buddy.

[Bill Maher]

Making films.

[Rob Reiner]

Then you've got footage in Dropbox scripts and docs notes and slack and no time to hunt. Dropbox Dash, new from Dropbox, pulls it all together so you can focus on the final edit. Learn more at Dropbox.com/.