Ep. #677: Rep. Jamie Raskin, Tim Miller, Michael Moynihan

Summary

Podcast Summary: Real Time with Bill Maher (Ep. #677)

Title: Real Time with Bill Maher
Host: HBO Podcasts (Bill Maher)
Guests:

• Rep. Jamie Raskin: Congressman from Maryland and Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee
• Tim Miller: Former GOP Communications Director and Host of the Bulwark Podcast
• Michael Moynihan: Co-host of the Fifth Column Podcast

Release Date: November 2, 2024

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1. Introduction and Election Weekend Context

Timestamp: 00:00 - 08:21

Bill Maher opens the episode with his trademark humor, addressing the anxieties surrounding the 2024 election weekend. He touches upon societal tensions, voter uncertainties, and the polarized climate as both parties gear up for the crucial voting day.

2. Conversation with Rep. Jamie Raskin

Timestamp: 08:21 - 19:18

Discussion Points:

• Campaign Strategy: Jamie Raskin shares his optimism about the Democratic surge, noting, “I've been out to 27 states, and the Democrats are on fire everywhere” (08:21).
• Voter Mobilization: The focus is on increasing turnout among Democrats and reaching out to undecided voters, emphasizing the party's efforts to combat Trump’s influence.
• Challenges from Trump: Raskin highlights Trump's rhetoric, stating, “Donald Trump is doing a good job reminding everybody what life would be like if they were actually to restore his attempt at dictatorship and authoritarianism” (08:57).
• Democracy Under Threat: He elaborates on the fragility of democratic institutions, discussing issues like gerrymandering and the Electoral College. Raskin advocates for a national popular vote, arguing, “If we had a national popular vote for president, this thing would not be” (12:55).
• Commitment to Democracy: Raskin reassures his commitment, “I'm not going anywhere” (10:55), and underscores the importance of defending democratic processes against authoritarian tendencies.

Notable Quotes:

• "We are the champions of truth. We are the nerds. The new superheroes to save Gotham City." – Bill Maher (00:10)
• "If we had non-gerrymandered districts and a national popular vote for president, this thing would not be." – Jamie Raskin (12:55)

3. Panel Discussion: Tim Miller and Michael Moynihan Join

Timestamp: 19:18 - 45:58

Discussion Points:

• Election Dynamics: The panel delves into various factors influencing the election, including recent gaffes and public reactions. Bill Maher jokes about the "garbage" metaphor used during the campaign, questioning if Democrats appear weak for reacting emotionally (20:00).
• Media Influence and Public Perception: Tim Miller and Michael Moynihan discuss the role of media personalities like Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly in shaping public opinion and supporting Trump’s narrative.
• Institutional Trust: A significant portion is dedicated to debating the strength of American institutions in preventing authoritarianism. Moynihan asserts confidence in America's institutions, stating, “I believe the institutions of this country are strong enough to withstand another administration” (40:27).
• Voter Demographics: The conversation examines shifts in voter bases, particularly among Hispanic and Black male voters moving towards Republican support, challenging traditional Democratic strongholds.
• Fascism vs. Authoritarianism: Maher raises concerns about Trump’s rhetoric bordering on fascism, while Moynihan clarifies, “I don't think he's a fascist, but he wants to be an authoritarian” (43:21).

Notable Quotes:

• "Don Jr. went out dressed as garbage, which, see, you know, cuz he's owning the libs and confusing the raccoons." – Bill Maher (09:30)
• "These are the stupidest smart people in the world." – Tim Miller (38:27)
• "I believe in the institutions. I worry about it and he shouldn't be saying it." – Michael Moynihan (36:43)

4. The State of Democracy and Electoral College Critique

Timestamp: 11:30 - 20:00

Discussion Points:

• Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression: Raskin discusses legislative efforts like the For the People Act aimed at reducing gerrymandering and enhancing voter participation, lamenting their lack of progress in the Senate.
• Electoral College Reform: He advocates for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, explaining its potential to bypass the Electoral College pitfalls (15:43).
• Impeachment and Accountability: Raskin touches on his role in the second impeachment of Trump and the ongoing investigations, emphasizing accountability within politics.

Notable Quotes:

• "If you could, wouldn't we have done it by now or the election?" – Bill Maher (13:00)
• "Democracy, as Lincoln knew, is an unfinished project. It's always in motion." – Jamie Raskin (15:09)

5. Analyzing Trump's Impact on the Electoral Process

Timestamp: 20:00 - 39:07

Discussion Points:

• Trump's Influence: The panel discusses how Trump's actions and statements, such as calling supporters "garbage," affect voter sentiments and the overall democratic process.
• Media and Political Endorsements: They critique media endorsements and the reluctance of mainstream conservatives to oppose Trump decisively.
• Potential for Authoritarianism: Concerns are raised about the possibility of Trump undermining democratic institutions if re-elected, although Moynihan maintains institutional resilience (41:15).

Notable Quotes:

• "Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and should be thrown out of the country." – Bill Maher (35:28)
• "If you think that it's a very, very low chance, a 2% chance, like, that's an insane risk to take." – Tim Miller (41:34)

6. The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Voting Patterns

Timestamp: 27:38 - 29:01

Discussion Points:

• Gender Dynamics: Maher and the panel explore how gender influences voting behavior, with men, especially young men, leaning towards Trump for his unfiltered communication style, while women support Harris for policy reasons.
• Ethnic Voting Shifts: Moynihan highlights the nuanced differences within Hispanic and Black communities, noting that various subgroups are increasingly supporting Republicans, challenging the notion of a monolithic voter base.

Notable Quotes:

• "If you think that men have been in shackles for certain ways, and then somebody comes up with, no, you can't look at porn for a month." – Bill Maher (28:05)
• "They are Cubans and Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, and they intend to be a little more towards the right." – Michael Moynihan (29:02)

7. Humor and Satire Segments: "New Rules"

Timestamp: 45:58 - 58:17

Highlights: Bill Maher transitions into his comedic segment, “New Rules,” where he mockingly proposes absurd ballot propositions across various states. These satirical "rules" poke fun at the complexity and sometimes ridiculous nature of ballot measures, highlighting Maher's critical view of the electoral process’s over-complication.

Examples of "New Rules":

• Wisconsin's Prop 52: Requires every resident to wear cheese hats.
• Vermont's Proposition 35: Mandates all small bookstores to have a cat sleeping in the window.
• New Jersey's Prop 10: Requires drivers to stop their cars before flipping off a cybertruck.

Notable Quotes:

• "Mississippi is America's poorest state, but its residents earn on average more than Canada, Germany, or England." – Bill Maher (54:07)
• "The US now produces more energy than it uses, which is saying something since we have Las Vegas, where I'll be tonight, but it's sold out." – Bill Maher (54:07)

8. Closing Remarks and Predictions

Timestamp: 58:15 - End

Bill Maher wraps up the episode with reflections on the election's tight race, predicting a possible Harris victory despite lingering uncertainties. He encourages "Christmas Eve voters"—those who decide at the last minute—to consider the broader implications of their vote beyond immediate frustrations.

Final Thoughts:

• Economic Performance: Maher emphasizes current economic strengths under Biden, countering claims of a struggling economy.
• Call to Action: He urges undecided voters to recognize the stakes of the election, highlighting the potential dangers of a Trump presidency.

Notable Quotes:

• "Things aren't that bad, but they might get a hell of a lot worse under the rule of a mad king." – Bill Maher (54:07)
• "If it's a free and fair election, we will honor it." – Jamie Raskin (17:19)

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Conclusion:

In this episode, Bill Maher engages with key political figures to dissect the complexities of the 2024 election. Discussions span campaign strategies, the integrity of democratic institutions, voter behavior across gender and ethnic lines, and the overarching influence of Donald Trump on American politics. Through a blend of serious analysis and sharp humor, Maher provides listeners with a comprehensive look at the current political landscape, encouraging informed and decisive voting behavior.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Bill Maher]

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[Bill Maher]

But they can't stop us. For we are the champions of truth. We are the nerds. The new superhero to save Gotham City. Well, more of the researched thousands of financial products to help you make smarter decisions. Kind of hero Nerd wallet finance Smarter nerds. This episode is brought to you by. Skinny Pop Popcorn. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Oh, so light and crunchy. Skinny Pop original popcorn is the snack you've been searching for. Made with just three simple ingredients. Popcorn kernel, sunflower oil, and salt. Snacking never felt or tasted so good. Perfectly popped, endlessly delicious. Give yourself permission to snack and pick up Skinny Pop original popcorn today. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Ma. Hi, everybody. How you doing? Thank you. Thank you, people. How you doing? I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Happy election weekend. Congratulations to the Dodgers. Oh, it's all so. I know. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Well, hey, we did it. We made it to the finish line almost with the election, I think this has it all galloped. At a poll, they said 21% of people in this country want to leave. I say, good. I hope they all live between my house and this studio. I would make my life a lot better. But no, People. People are just very nervous about this election. Every beach side thinks that the other side wins, that the world is over. Today on the View, they were just eating ice cream out of the carton. But I understand why the Democrats are nervous. But Kamala still has to be shoring up the vote of the people who should be in the bag. You know what she did a couple days ago? She went to a barbershop, a black barbershop in Philadelphia, to get the black man vote. Wow. Because, you know, if there's one thing black guys in barbershops love, it's when a woman stops by and monopolizes the conversation. Always a winner. And, oh, and they were very nice to her. And in honor of her campaign, they were offering a very special haircut. The Fade. I'm not making this. No, it's a dead heat. We don't know who's going to win. Is it that you can flip a coin with a margin of error, plus or minus Joe Biden's ability to shut the fuck up? Well, for those of you who don't know what I'm referring to, let's back up a little to the beginning of the week, okay, Trump had a, a big rally at Madison Square Garden and then MSNBC called him a Nazi because Madison Square Garden, they did have a German 1939 sympathetic rally. And nothing's happened at the Garden since. It's just Nazi rally. It's just. Yes, look, Trump, a fascist. I think I was the one who first said that fascist is not synonymous with Nazis. Okay? Two different things. Yes, all Nazis are fascist, not the other way around. And the bros, the Trump bros. At the rally were not Nazis. They're nothing like Hitler. For one thing, Hitler had a girlfriend. But what the Trump people did at this rally, it's so Trump, they hired an insult comic. Really? He went up there and did very insulting things. I mean, this is his act. I'd never heard of him, but this is his act that he does all the time. And he told a really demeaning joke about Puerto Rico, said there's a floating garbage in the ocean. It's called Puerto Rico. Didn't even go over with the Trump crowd. They said, look, we didn't come here to hear vicious remarks from an insult comic. We, we came here to hear it from the candidate, for God's sake. But, but of course, that joke infuriated millions of Puerto Ricans, and that was just in the Bronx. That joke is not offensive, by the way. Yeah. Oh, no. Bad Bunny is now Mad Bunny. He's, he's. But, but then, okay, so this is where Joe Biden comes in. So they asked Joe Biden about this and his response was, the only garbage I see out there, floating out there are Trump supporters. Okay? In fairness, he was on a video call and he thought he was just yelling at. But now, of course, of course, Republicans are using this. They're doing everything they can to remind voters that the President of the United States called them garbage. Yesterday was Halloween, for example, Don Jr. Went out dressed as garbage, which, see, you know, cuz he's owning the libs and confusing the raccoons. But you gotta give it to Trump. He eats shit, he sells shit, he says shit. But don't call me garbage. But then, yes, this will always be remembered as the garbage election, because then Trump's big troll on this was he got a garbage truck and he tricked it out with Trump on the side. And then he got in the truck, get it? Biden called him garbage. And then he got in a truck of garbage. And today Biden said, geez, I wish I'd called him a piece of shit. All right, we got a great show. Tim Mueller and Michael Moynihan are here. But first up, he's a congressman from Maryland and a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee who led the second impeachment of Donald Trump. Jamie Raskin. Jamie, Amy. Congressman. How you doing? All right. Well, you look very smiley and happy. It looks like you're feeling good about your chances Tuesday.

[Jamie Raskin]

I mean, I've been out to 27 states, and the Democrats are on fire everywhere.

[Bill Maher]

Well, where you go, they are.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. So that says nothing, does it?

[Jamie Raskin]

So even where there are no surrogates and Kamala and Tim Wallace can't be. I think they're huge people turning out for rallies and for canvas kickoffs and the whole deal, so.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's always about turning out the people who like you. We used to go to the middle in elections. I feel like we don't do that anymore. Each side just goes to its base and tries to get them to come out.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, at this point, we're looking for anybody who hasn't voted yet.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Jamie Raskin]

And the, you know, the undecided people. And, you know, I feel Donald Trump is doing a good job in the last week or two of the campaign, reminding everybody what life would be like if they were actually to restore his attempt at dictatorship and authoritarianism.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. You yourself might be in trouble. I mean, you.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, I mean, you know, don't tell my wife that.

[Tim Miller]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'm sure she knows. I mean, because you were the lead impeachment manager.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

The second one or the.

[Jamie Raskin]

The second one.

[Bill Maher]

The second one.

[Jamie Raskin]

That was the insurrection.

[Bill Maher]

Right. The one after he left the White House. Boy, how big an asshole do you have to be where they go after you. After you left the job? I mean, that's. But, okay, that never happened. But I mean.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, also, I was on the January 6 select committee, and of course.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Jamie Raskin]

He's called us top most wanted and so on. But Liz Cheney's at the top of the list right now. Top of the charts.

[Bill Maher]

Well, okay, but let me ask you this, because, I mean, I mentioned in the monologue, fascist. I mean, I said slow moving coup before he took office the first time.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So I think I've been on this page. My question to you is these things he says he's going to do, put people like you in jail. I mean, he says it. He say he wins. What are you going to actually do? I asked this of Jared Polis last week. I was not totally satisfied with the answer. What are you going to actually do? I mean, are we just going to knit pussy hats? You know, I don't know what the plan is. And it reminds me of the, when I kept saying to Democrats, you know, he's not gonna leave. And they would laugh and say I smoked too much pot. And then what are you actually going to do?

[Jamie Raskin]

I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna go to work. I'm not going anywhere.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not going anywhere.

[Jamie Raskin]

I mean, you know, Donald Trump has never won the popular vote. The Democrats have won eight of the nine last presidential elections in the popular vote. Even when Trump won in the Electoral College against Hillary, she beat him by three million votes. Joe Biden beat him by seven and a half million votes, 306 to 232. And the vast majority of the people in America reject fascism, authoritarianism and racism and want to get back to what the real American story is. And I'm not going anywhere.

[Bill Maher]

By the way. But it is tied. It's not the, it can't be the vast majority because it's tied.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, look, the way I see it is like I'm a big John Dewey fan. He said the only solution to the ills of democracy is more democracy.

[Bill Maher]

I agree.

[Jamie Raskin]

And what we've got is a series of impediments and obstacles to democracy. We've got gerrymandering of our districts. Look what's happened to us in North Carolina, which is a 50, 50 state at best. It's really a Democratic state. We're going to beat their self proclaimed Nazi candidate for governor, but we are likely to end up with, you know, seven to three, something like that in the congressional delegation. And it's because of the gerrymandering of our districts. Look at the voter suppression tactics. And then we're stuck at this point in our constitutional architecture with the Electoral College, which has given us five popular vote losers in our history. Twice in this century. The Electoral College can get you killed these days, as we saw on January 6, 2021. But it's 2024. How about it's time we start electing the President the way we elect governors and senators and representatives and mayors. Whoever gets the most votes wins. So I mean, I think if we had, if we had non gerrymandered districts and if we had a national popular vote for president, this thing would not be.

[Bill Maher]

And if we had beer and nuts, it would be a hell of a party.

[Jamie Raskin]

But that's why it came to Bill Marshall.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, I agree with everything you said, you know, and it's a great applause line, but what are you going to do? How are you Going to get rid of gerrymandering. I mean, if you could, wouldn't we have done it by now or the election?

[Jamie Raskin]

No, we passed it in the House. This was the for the People Act. Number one article of it was to require get the politicians out of drawing districts. The voters choose the politicians instead of the politicians.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Jamie Raskin]

Choosing the voters. And it didn't go anywhere in the Senate. So we're stuck with another antidemocratic mechanism, which is the filibuster on the Senate side. So we got to deal with that too. But I think that's what this campaign is about. When we say we're defending democracy against the autocrats, the plutocrats, the theocrats, the dictators and the despots. It's a little bit deceptive because it implies that democracy is just a static collection of institutions and rules. Actually, democracy, as Lincoln knew, is an unfinished project. It's always in motion. And so, you know, we've got millions of disenfranchised people in america, starting with 3 1/2 million US citizens in Puerto Rico who should be a state by now so they can defend themselves against Donald Trump. You know, we saw in Hurricane Maria that the people of Puerto Rico got cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars and Donald Trump threw some Scott paper towels at them. And so we need statehood for people in Washington D.C. it's the only nation's capital on planet earth where the people are not represented in their own legislature. And we passed that in the 117th Congress. I got to be the floor leader. And I said, you know, I wanted to thank the people of Washington D.C. 713,000 tax paying, draftable American citizens who have a real bona fide grievance against the US Congress and didn't come down and beat the hell out of our police officers. Storm the Capitol, drive us out of our chambers. They've done it the right way. They had a statehood constitutional convention. They're asking for admission like the last 37 states and we should admit the people of Washington D.C. is a state into the union.

[Bill Maher]

I agree. I won't hold my breath, but I agree.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, you know, I mean, everything in democracy looks impossible until it's inevitable. So we gotta cheer people up. Most of the states that have been admitted into the union thought that it couldn't happen. For many of them it took decades for it to happen. And you know, it was said of different states, you know, Utah, they're too Mormon. New Mexico, too Catholic. California is too big.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, things that take a constitutional amendment take 2/3 and you would agree that that's very far away from where we are.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yeah, but you don't need a constitutional amendment for statehood admission, just a majority vote in the House.

[Bill Maher]

But to change the Electoral College, you would.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yes, eventually. To change the Electoral College, we would. We do have a plan in place. This was my first bill I introduced in Annapolis when I was a state senator for a national popular vote interstate compact.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Jamie Raskin]

And we have more than 200 electors in a coalition that we need 270 electors to trigger it. And what it says is we states will cast our Electoral College votes for the winner of the nationwide vote rather than the winner in our state. So we're two thirds of the way there. I mean, Trump used to denounce the Electoral College. He said it made us the laughing stock of the world. Then after the 2016 election, he discovered some heretofore mysterious virtues to Electoral College.

[Bill Maher]

We know one thing, on Tuesday, it'll either be the most beautiful election ever or completely rigged. I mean, that's the only two ways he goes.

[Jamie Raskin]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

But you know, you were asked by Axios, you know, if you would accept the election results, and you said, if he won a free, fair and honest election, of course we would accept it. Yeah, but that's what he says.

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, right, I copied them. I said exactly what they said. If it's.

[Bill Maher]

Is that a good thing?

[Jamie Raskin]

Well, in this respect it is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, he does cheat, so. Yes, I get why you'd say that.

[Jamie Raskin]

The reason I said it was this. Okay. We've never seen an election like what happened in 2020. Everybody thinks about January 6th, but that was the culmination of a long process.

[Bill Maher]

I agree.

[Jamie Raskin]

They tried to get the state legislatures to void out the popular vote and just deliver electors.

[Bill Maher]

He still hasn't conceded that one.

[Jamie Raskin]

That's right. He calls up Secretary of State Raffensperger and Georgia, he says, Find me 11,780 votes. I mean, I'm a politician, find me 11,780 votes. Right. That's not Donald Trump. That's not him trying to stop election fraud. That's, that's him being caught red headed trying to commit election fraud. They, you know, they unleashed the mob against his own vice president. So when I say we will support a free and fair election, no, we're not going to allow them to steal it in the states or steal it at the Department of Justice or steal it with any other election official in the country. If it's a free and fair election, we will do what we've Always done. We will honor it.

[Bill Maher]

So finally. Yeah, and that is the Democrats history. They honor it. That is the big difference between the parties. One of the big.

[Jamie Raskin]

Okay, so, and on that point, I'll tell you, the political scientists have told us the hallmark characteristics of a fascist political party. Number one, they don't accept the outcome of democratic elections that don't go their way.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, right.

[Jamie Raskin]

Number two, they embrace political violence as an instrument for obtaining power. And three, they're not organized democratically. They're organized top down as a cult of a personality around a charismatic or allegedly charismatic figure.

[Michael Moynihan]

Right.

[Jamie Raskin]

I mean, and that's, that's a fascist party. They also don't put issues before the people for meaningful discussion and debate. This whole campaign's been wasted. What do they do? Scapegoating, racism, antisemitism, immigrant bashing and gay bashing. They got mad at, you know, our great President Joe Biden because he said there were semi fascist currents running through the Republican Party. But I'm sorry, if the shoe semi fits you, semi wear it. And that's what they've done, you know.

[Bill Maher]

So what's your. So the election is Tuesday. What's your prediction on when we will have a winner? Give me a date. A prediction date in the office pool. Well, because it's not January 5th. I mean, it's not December 5th. It might even be January 5th.

[Jamie Raskin]

Right. Well, let's see. So by December 11th, the governors have to render the certificates of ascertainment, which means it goes through the election process. The state settles everything that needs to be settled, and then the governors will deliver the certificates of ascertainment, and then on December 17, the electors will meet and then they will send in their votes. Now, this is a very arcane, antiquated system, as you know, to the archivist, to the national archivist, then who one week after that will send it in to Congress.

[Bill Maher]

Well, let's hope it goes that smoothly.

[Jamie Raskin]

Yeah, that's the theory. That's why I say, why don't we just have an election and count the votes? So the electoral College is filled with all of these booby traps where you've got a strategic bad faith actor like Donald Trump and he will use each phase to try to revisit the results. I mean, is there anybody in the country who believes that he will accept an election that doesn't go his way?

[Bill Maher]

I said that first. All right, thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right, thank you, Congressman. Let's lead our panel. Hi, guys. All right. He is a former GOP communications director who now hosts the Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller. Tim. And he co hosts the weekly podcast the Fifth Column. Michael Moynihan. Michael, great to have you back. Okay, let's just go through all the factors that could be affecting this election. I want to get your opinion on each one of them. Made a list here. First one is what happened this week with the garbage. Now, the result could be Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania win this election for Harris. Right? That's possible. You're doing this.

[Tim Miller]

Possible.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it's possible. Or it could be the other way, because, I mean, I think it's a bigger gaffe than people think. It's so funny. Joe Biden, his whole career he was like, Mr. Gaffe. And then here at the very end, he's like Aaron Judge in game six.

[Michael Moynihan]

Just.

[Bill Maher]

He fucking buffed a fly ball and at the end of the thing and blew the whole. Because I feel like it epitomizes everything that the Trump people hate about the Democrats. They look down on us. It's like deplorables times 10.

[Michael Moynihan]

Bitter clingers. That whole thing too, that Obama said. No, I mean, this is an unbelievable own goal. And to have this argument about where the apostrophe is. Who is he referring to? It's clear what he was referring to. And obviously they're running away from this. But yeah, I mean, when you talk to Trump voters, and I've spent far too much time of my life doing so, is that the assumption is that the media hates you, the elites hate you, they think that you're garbage and they think that you're bitter clingers, and they think that all these things and any sort of hint of that, that seems to prove that is just not a net positive for Democrats. I don't think it's very, very difficult to point that out. But yeah, no, that's a bad thing for them.

[Tim Miller]

I don't know if it's a net positive, but having the elderly president give like a marble mouthed answer, yielding and elderly competitor dressing up as like a Oompa Loompa garbage man sex doll, that's kind of a wash for me. I don't know, like, is it a huge win for Trump, like, to go out there on stage, like, dressed up like in his dad's dumpster truck outfit? I don't know. I hear what you're saying. It was a gap, it was dumb. But I don't know if Trump took advantage of it as much as some people might want to think.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, what about the remark itself? Did the Democrats look weak because they can't take a joke? Because I think that's another Achilles heel that they have. People just grab the joke. The joke that the guy told at the.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, but I mean, was the funny part of the joke?

[Bill Maher]

Well, it was, it was insulting. Look, I have to defend my profession. I'm a comic. I'm a free speech.

[Tim Miller]

You did some good Puerto Rican jokes in the intro, though. That's. I heard all those.

[Bill Maher]

I laughed, but they weren't, they're not offensive. This was offensive. But, you know, this guy's an insult comic. Why he's at this particular. It's like bringing cocaine to a funeral.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Why would. Yeah, yeah. Why?

[Michael Moynihan]

I mean, I've been at the Comedy Cellar when I've heard comics do political material which veers off into a lecture and it's just nobody's interested. The same thing is true in the other direction if you have an insult comic opening up this entire thing. But the thing that annoyed me about Biden's response to that, in as marble mouthed as it was, he said a speaker at the Trump rally said this. Well, okay, it was a speaker, but it was a comic. And is it a joke? Yes, it was a joke. Was it a bad joke? Absolutely. And I talked to another comic. I talked to a comic about this the other day and he said that, you know, the problem with this was the joke wasn't funny. It's like it just wasn't a good joke. It does nothing to further. I don't know why he was there. He didn't do a good job. And as you point out, the crowd didn't like it either. The Trump crowd kind of, you know, like just gasped at it.

[Tim Miller]

Here's the thing, though. The joke was the exact same point that Donald Trump makes when he's speaking seriously.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Tim Miller]

Like the joke. Right. The joke was. The joke was the Puerto Ricans. The Puerto Rico is an island of garbage. Trump on the stump says, we are a trash can for the world's garbage. It's the same point, just an inverse. So it wasn't like it'd be one thing if it was a random insult comic who happens to be a surrogate who said something at some random thing. That's not what it is. It was him speaking to the same insulting stuff that Donald Trump says at Donald Trump's closing argument speech when he didn't have to be there. Had they just had Kid Rock play a song and then Donald Trump talk, we wouldn't be doing this. They didn't have to have a whole lineup of deplorable weirdo, freak circus people before him. Like, I don't know. When Jeb had a. We didn't have random media personalities and three insult comics and an angry businessman and his three kids talk like that's not standard behavior. They. They chose to have those people.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I, I used to say Trump was born of an orangutan and did he sue me? Bad example.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

That'S right. He did. Because they are just as big snowflakes. They are. I mean, if I, if I did that joke in reverse and instead of Puerto Rico said Staten island, they would have had a shit fit. They would have found that completely unacceptable.

[Tim Miller]

Well, that was the whole point of the first question, Right? They're deplorables. They're bitter clingers. Like, they all get so, you know, it's so touchy when it goes the other way around, right?

[Bill Maher]

People, this culture does like insults. I mean, do you ever see a rap battle? It's all just eight months.

[Tim Miller]

Be a rabbit.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I mean, it's just all, I can insult you. I can make you my bitch with words. That's just who we are as a culture. That's cool.

[Michael Moynihan]

Do we want that in the presidential elections?

[Bill Maher]

No, no, we don't. But I'm just.

[Tim Miller]

Is where we are as a culture.

[Michael Moynihan]

We kind of segment those things off.

[Bill Maher]

Look at certain places. You know, I just. Yeah, I'm not a historian, but, like, did the Romans do this? I mean, is this, Was this in any other culture that they found this so amusing that we just Hamilton each other down? Burr and Hamilton and Burr, they shot each other. They didn't insult each other.

[Tim Miller]

Not even years ago.

[Bill Maher]

All right, so Kamala was caught off mic the other day saying to Gretchman, grit and Richmond, we need to move ground among men. So, you know, we know it's true because she didn't know she was being recorded. And that's the other big factor I think, in this election is gender. I mean, the numbers are just completely reversed. The men, especially young men, even much more for Trump, the bros, the women. So who's going to win this? Are the women going to come out because men are still pigs and abortion, or is it going to be the men who are like, you know what? Donald Trump, we like him because he talks the way we used to be able to talk anywhere. He swears in front of the cardinal in New York and he talks about Cox, you know, and he says, motherfucker. And it's like when he's back on the Iron Throne, we'll just be able to speak freely. And I kind of get that, too. I mean, people are mentioning.

[Tim Miller]

Seems like people are. You're speaking freely? We're speaking freely. Joe Rogan's doing great. Theo Vaughn's doing great. That's the thing I really don't get about the, like, the bro grievance. Right. Which is like, I don't. Our society is so PC these days that, like, the top 10 podcasters are all like, bro podcasters who like to.

[Bill Maher]

Talk about boobs and dicks, which are mine.

[Tim Miller]

They're fine. They seem to be doing fine.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah. But we're talking about guys in their homes. We're talking about what can I say at the office and what can I say in front of the wife?

[Tim Miller]

It's like, that seems like a personal problem. I don't know. I'm gay. So we can say whatever we want now. So I guess. I don't know. But I don't know if Donald Trump's gonna fix that problem, though. You know, it's like this is the.

[Michael Moynihan]

Most popular podcast because of a backlash to that kind of attitude. And we have to acknowledge that that kind of attitude did exist. I think it sort of peaked in a way, and it's a different time, but, no, we should not have that in politics. And you literally said that. And I was like, did he talk about Cox recently? And I realized that, yes, he was.

[Bill Maher]

Talking about, oh, shit, lots of Cox.

[Michael Moynihan]

And this is like a weird thing, but as gender is big, but also we have to pay attention to ethnicity, race, if you want to call it that, in the number of male voters who are black and Hispanic who are moving towards Donald Trump. This has been happening from Republicans, Democrats to Republicans since 2012, but it's really increased a lot. I've seen this very close up, and we made this mistake for a very long time in assuming there was something called Hispanic, that everybody who was Hispanic was the same. Right.

[Bill Maher]

So silly.

[Michael Moynihan]

And there's Cubans and there's Venezuelans and there's Nicaraguans, and all of whom escaped Communists, intend to be a little more towards the right. I went to Texas and I interviewed people there and they said, you know, we don't like immigration. We want the drawbridge. And these are all Tejanos, like Mexican Americans, who said, yeah, no more. But we've thought about this for so long in the wrong way that these people are natural Democrats. Right. That's why it's like the right wing idea of importing people to make Them voters is insane in a number of ways, but that's actually not even what Hispanics are like as voters now. And we see them moving towards Republicans, so. And that's also true of black men. So, I mean, that is also a hugely important thing if Donald Trump wins that movement is.

[Tim Miller]

You're saying they escaped communism, though, but didn't they also escape cardios? We're sitting here talking about this, and I do wonder, like, we're. Well, look, we're four days away from the election. Donald Trump has a lot of characteristic traits with authoritarian Latin American leaders, certainly more than Kamala Harris does with communist Latin American leaders. And so I think that we get down into this conversation where, like, oh, these men are offended about the fact that they can't make the Arnold Palmer dick jokes that they want. And, like, there are these groups that are, like, worried about the fact that Kamala Harris might make us communist. Like, all of this is nonsense, like, compared to the real tangible threat from Donald Trump that we saw in 2021. And I think that women get this because it's affecting them personally. But I do think sometimes, like, we're losing the. What we should be focused on.

[Bill Maher]

All right, I'll say one more thing about this. I read in three different newspapers this week that November is no nut November.

[Michael Moynihan]

What's no nut November?

[Bill Maher]

Do you read it? You got a cage.

[Tim Miller]

It's like a cage situation.

[Bill Maher]

I'm gonna tell you.

[Michael Moynihan]

Oh, my goodness.

[Bill Maher]

Calm down.

[Tim Miller]

I don't need to be told.

[Bill Maher]

You know what it is.

[Tim Miller]

I know about it.

[Michael Moynihan]

No, I know what it is. I just didn't know. I couldn't do it. Oh, okay. Go ahead.

[Bill Maher]

No nut November, where men give up porn for a month and I guess don't masturbate for a month. Who comes up with this? It's not the man. I'll just say that to you, Tim. It's not the man.

[Tim Miller]

What does that have to do with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States?

[Bill Maher]

Well, you know, for guys who think that, you know, men have been in shackles for. In certain ways, and then somebody comes up with, no, you can't look at porn for a month.

[Tim Miller]

This is a decadent culture. This is a culture that has no problems. We have no real problems in the country right now, and we're like, you know what we're going to do? We're going to burn it all day down with Donald Trump.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, I'm not for that. It's got to be a middle ground.

[Tim Miller]

That's not a Real problem.

[Bill Maher]

Got to be a middle ground between no nut November and Donald Trump. Okay. All right. This election, though. This election, let me do say, is not just about the big stuff. Obviously, it's the president and senators and governors and congresspeople. It's always. And I think California pioneered this. We put a lot of stuff on the ballot propositions. I think that was California's thing. And now everybody does it. For example, coming up, Missouri will vote on legalizing sports gambling. West Virginia, about participating in euthanasia. I can understand why that's popular in West Virginia. No, I kidding. I kid West Virginia. I love West Virginia. Massachusetts. Massachusetts will vote on regulating access to psychedelic drugs. I think that's a good one. But they get really picky. Union specific. Would you like to see some of the other ones? I knew you would. I knew you would. Okay. For example, Wisconsin's Prop 52 provides every resident one of those cheese hats, whether they like it or not. Vermont's Proposition 35 requires all small bookstores to have a cat sleeping in the window. Alaska has Ballot Measure 8, which makes alcoholism mandatory.

[Michael Moynihan]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

New Mexico has Measure J, which requires everyone to wear a piece of turquoise jewelry at all times. Oh. New York's Prop 3 requires all strange Chinese card games to be played within 12ft of a chicken. All right. I used to live in New York. That's true. Louisiana, right here is proposing Prop 45, which states no two actors playing family members can be of the same race. That's. Oh, and under. Under California's Prop 10, your car must be fully stopped before you flip off a cybertruck. And Missouri has Prop 1, which says that if anyone walks into you because they're on their phone, you're allowed to beat them with their own selfie stick. That's. That's a good one. All right, so let's continue with our.

[Tim Miller]

Our husband's from West Virginia. That was a tough hit with our.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I kid. We just do gentle good humor. That's what we do on the street.

[Tim Miller]

West Virginians are going to be pissed. Call them garbage now. You know they're going to be win.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I think I'm not going to get into defending the J. So I think there's two ways that people look at Donald Trump. One is, you know, I had Megyn Kelly on last week, and then I had Ben Shapiro on my podcast. And they're both extremely bright people. I don't think anyone would deny that.

[Tim Miller]

Megan was in a garbage bag last night.

[Bill Maher]

Was in a garbage bag.

[Tim Miller]

She put on a garbage bag. Last night. So, I mean, I'm just saying she might write, but, like, might be kind of just going a little.

[Bill Maher]

I think she's more right wing than she used to be. Anyway, the point is that, you know, both of them have this idea. Ben said it like, you know, he says a lot of shit.

[Jamie Raskin]

Mm.

[Bill Maher]

But Ben said, like, that's what will be on his tombstone. He said a lot of shit.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Well, some of the things that he just says are like, when I win, those people that cheated will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, which will include long term prison sentences. Um, he's threatened to put reporters in jail many times. MSNBC should be investigated for its country threatening treason.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and should be thrown out of the country. So these are the two views of Donald Trump. I think you and I are on different pages. I think I'm with you on this one. That he says a lot of shit and we should take it very seriously as opposed to, yeah, his tombstone's gonna say he said a lot of shit. But it was just talk.

[Michael Moynihan]

We might not disagree on this. I mean, I have my faith in the institution are very different than saying this stuff doesn't matter. We are actually in a place now that we actually have to have a presidential candidate that we're supposed to believe that what he says is not going to happen. I want the opposite of that. I don't want somebody to say something and say, well, yeah, I hope that doesn't happen. I'm going to vote for him. I mean, Donald Trump does things like. And like the frequency of this stuff, by the way. I mean, it comes so fast and heavy that we didn't even notice that two days ago, Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS for $10 billion literally in the Austin Powers, like, because of an edited interview that he wasn't even a part of.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that he.

[Michael Moynihan]

$10 billion. The people that. And I think we actually will agree on this. The people that have gone out there for years, people that I know that have been on my podcast, I've done their shows, who have talked about free speech and have nothing to say about the fact that he sounds like Hugo Chavez when he says we should take away the broadcast license of CBS because they were unfair to me during the debate. Do I think that can happen? Well, no, because I think that America has those robust institutions. I worry about it and he shouldn't be saying it. And it is something that is disqualifying for a president of the United States.

[Tim Miller]

I Agree with that. But I think it's way worse than that, actually. And I want to revise and extend my remarks from earlier about how those are smart people. These are the stupidest smart people in the world. And I don't. And it's only in the context of politics where somebody as smart as Ben Shapiro would take a risk such as this on Donald Trump. Right. In their personal lives. They would never put their kids in a school where somebody like Donald Trump was the principal of the school. They would never do that. Right. If there were two options and, and there was like a normal center left kind of woke liberal running one school and there was an insane madman sundowning running the other school saying random shit all the time. They would always go in the woke liberal school every time. All these people, they're only doing this in the context of politics. It is an unbelievable risk. And the Wall Street Journal this morning, if you don't mind, I pulled this one up. These are supposed to be the intelligent conservatives. This was their editorial today. Mr. Trump was too undisciplined and his attention span too short to stay on message, much less stage a coup in supporting Trump. The Wall Street Journal's editorial position is he's too stupid to coup. So we're gonna roll with it.

[Bill Maher]

That is insane.

[Tim Miller]

He's gonna be older than Biden at the end. He's gonna be older than Biden. We're gonna have this elderly man with only crazy people around him in charge at age 82 who would take this risk. No matter even if you did agree with the policies or whatever, it is a ludicrous risk to take. And all these supposedly smart people have lost their mind to go. To go along with it.

[Michael Moynihan]

Agree some of that, Tim.

[Tim Miller]

Agree some.

[Michael Moynihan]

Some of it. We do have to contend with the fact that 75 million people voted for Donald Trump. And we do. I mean, we have to figure out why that is.

[Tim Miller]

Well, part of it is because a lot of smart people are telling him it's going to be okay. Right? So part of it is that these people are abdicating their responsibility and that they trust Ben Shapiro, they trust Megyn Kelly, they trust Wall Street.

[Michael Moynihan]

75 million people voting for are all Ben. Some of them are listeners. He'd be very wealthy if that were true.

[Tim Miller]

He's pretty wealthy.

[Michael Moynihan]

But no, but at the same time, you have to see like if 75 million people figuring out why they would do that. The one thing is that they do believe in the institutions that like this happened before. And I get the counterargument this happened for four years. He was reckless, but nothing bad happened in the way they said it would. And then, of course, January 6th happens. But he couldn't pull that one off. That's the Wall Street Journal.

[Bill Maher]

Wait a minute. Nothing bad happened. He's running again. That's what bad happened.

[Michael Moynihan]

He can run. As long as he's not in jail.

[Bill Maher]

He can. But why isn't he in jail? That's a good question. Because the institutions did not help certain individuals held. Like Mark Milley.

[Michael Moynihan]

Well, the cases aren't done, by the way, Brad Rattensberger.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, right. Those people. But I'm not sure those people are around anymore. I mean, it looks to me like the first time was a dry run.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And this time it's going to be a whole different situation. And for those Republicans who said, well, we didn't impeach him because the courts will handle it, well, then the courts didn't handle it.

[Tim Miller]

And they have convinced him.

[Bill Maher]

And the Supreme Court has pretty much given him carte blanche to do anything with impunity, has it not?

[Tim Miller]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So where do you get the institutions held? I don't think the institution.

[Michael Moynihan]

Well, I mean, the argument that I'm making is that how 75 million people can vote for Donald Trump is that the presumption is that the institutions will hold. I mean, there are very, very smart conservatives. George Will, one who hates Donald Trump, says, I cannot stand him, but if he becomes president, I believe in the institutions. Right. HR McMaster, who believes that he's unfit to be president, said something very similar this week. That I believe the institutions of this country are strong enough to withstand another administration. I'm not saying this should happen. I haven't voted for the guy. I will not vote for the guy. This will be the third time I haven't voted for him and I never would because of the things that Tim mentioned and because of the things I've mentioned. But I don't believe that we have a fascist here that's going to take over the country and put us on camps.

[Tim Miller]

What percent chance do you think it is, though, that it's like that the institutions don't hold and that he becomes a quasi.

[Michael Moynihan]

I mean, that.

[Tim Miller]

Well, it becomes kind of some kind of quasi authoritarian, like a orbanish and kind of fascist? Like, what's the percent chance if he.

[Bill Maher]

Just does what he says he's going to do?

[Tim Miller]

Is it a 5% chance that he does that we don't have an election in 2028? Is it a 2% chance?

[Michael Moynihan]

I think it's a 0%, 0% chance.

[Tim Miller]

What about not a real election?

[Bill Maher]

Okay, well. Right. Not a real election. Russia has elections. Everybody has elections. Everybody has a parliament.

[Michael Moynihan]

It's a very dark vision of the future.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it is a very.

[Tim Miller]

I'm just thinking, for good reason, 2% chance. My point is, like, even if you think that it's a very, very low chance, a 2% chance, like, that's an insane risk to take. Okay, let's just do Kamala Harris and we'll roll it back in four years. You can put up J.D. vance or whoever. Ron Desantimonious or whoever the hell you want. I don't know.

[Michael Moynihan]

I mean, we're having this direction of a conversation.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's because I pointed out.

[Michael Moynihan]

That 75 million people voted for Donald Trump and he very well might win again.

[Tim Miller]

40 million of them want him to be kind of a soft dictator, though.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Tim Miller]

Like 30 to 40 million of them.

[Michael Moynihan]

Like, want to base that on.

[Tim Miller]

Well, I mean, the primaries, like, the fact that.

[Bill Maher]

And the polling. I mean, that's the thing.

[Tim Miller]

If you ask people, are they more of a Donald Trump Republican or more of a Republican, it's about half the Republican Party, like, wants like a.

[Bill Maher]

Let me ask that question about fascism, because that's another. That was sort of like a closing arc. And I said in the monologue, fascism is not synonymous with Nazi. Yes, every Nazi is a fascist. I don't think Donald Trump is a Nazi, but I've been saying forever, I think he's going to be a fascist. He wants to be that. He says it. You don't have to look that hard. So is that going to be just as you would more say, campaign hyperbole? Is it going to be something that's going to swing the election to Harris, or is it a case of a lot of people on the Trump side saying, yeah, he's a fascist, but he's our fascist. The fact that fascism is not unpopular with these people because they don't really care about democracy. What they care about is they getting their people in who want to run the country their way. And I'm. Yes.

[Michael Moynihan]

No, I just don't think he's a fascist. I mean, I think I have said this recently in a piece I did recently, I said, he wants to be an authoritarian, but I don't think he's a fascist.

[Bill Maher]

Well, he's on the waiting list.

[Michael Moynihan]

Yeah, he's on. Well, but the thing is that fascists. You say that. As you say not all fascists are Nazis.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Michael Moynihan]

This is redolent of Nazism. What are we supposed to think when MSNBC is doing this thing?

[Bill Maher]

What are we supposed to do? That's what I would. I asked the congressman, the governor last week, I asked Cisco, what are we going to do? I mean, he said, I'm just going to go to work. Yeah. And what do they do when you, when you show up at work and they throw you in?

[Tim Miller]

This is why. This is. This is why he can't be elected. And this is why it infuriates me like the argument of, well, you know, I don't think we should be that concerned about it. We shouldn't be that alarmed. That's why we first the Wall Street Journal. Okay, well, but I'm not saying it's you, but there's a spectrum of people from like, you and like the teetering edge of being critical of Trump all the way that are like, no, this is an emergency. This is an emergency. No, but you're not out there saying this, right? This is an emergency. He has to be stopped. And the people that know better need to say it. And why is it only Liz Cheney and Mark Cuban? And speaking of the, like, it's too late to stop him if he wins.

[Bill Maher]

Speaking of the editorials in the newspapers, what about the ones on the left that just wouldn't endorse her?

[Tim Miller]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

The Washington Post, their saying was democracy dies in darkness. What's their saying now? If democracy dies, it's fine. I mean, you can't have it both ways. You can't live under this banner. Every day you had, you put out the paper, democracy dies in darkness. And now, well, we don't know who. Why should we get involved? We don't want to get involved.

[Tim Miller]

He has less opposition now after January 6th than he did before. It's an insane state of affairs. Like in 2020, if you look at, across any metric, business leaders, editorials, the rich people that are running editorials, the Republicans within the party, opposition people have pre submitted to Trump and they know that he will go around the rule of law and they don't want to be on the target list like Liz Cheney.

[Bill Maher]

That's what's happening, I think, when billionaires are afraid to step out because they see what happens in other countries. Putin didn't get to where he was by not throwing people out of windows.

[Tim Miller]

Even if it's not throwing out of windows. You look at Orban, they know that there'll be retribution. Yes. They know that Kamala Harris is not gonna go in there and do retribution against Blue Origin or Amazon or whatever. Because Bezos didn't endorse.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Tim Miller]

Trump will. Bezos knows that. That's why he's acting that. So we're already too far down the path, I guess, is the.

[Bill Maher]

All right. I gotta end it there. Thank you, guys. Good luck, everybody. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about.

[Tim Miller]

We got it.

[Bill Maher]

We're just starting. We got it. All right. Time for new rules. Ready for new rules. New rule. The orca whale that pooped in its tank at SeaWorld San. SeaWorld San Antonio and then splash the dirty poop water onto the audience doesn't need to apologize. He. He did it on purpose, and I love it. And. And don't say the audience members were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They're in the wrong place. He's a whale in San Antonio Mural. Nikki Haley has to enter a shelter for battered candidates. It's painful to have to watch her making excuses for Trumpers. Like, I know they keep saying racist and misogynist things, but they have a good heart. Girlfriend, you sound like Rihanna when she got back with Chris Brown. Throw some clothes at a suitcase and get out now. That 49er Nick Bosa interrupted his teammate's interview so he could display his MAGA hat on national television. Laura Ingraham has to explain why she didn't tell him to just shut up and play. I don't get it, Laura. You told LeBron to just shut up and dribble. You told Kevin Durant to shut up and dribble. Colin Kaepernick needed to go away. Why did these three athletes all have to shut up? But this athlete gets to. Oh, never mind. I get it now. Hilro. Instead of giving oral contraceptive pills names like Nikki, Portia, and Yasmin, name them after the guys you definitely don't want to have a baby with. Name them Brad, Greg, and Darnell. Or better yet, name them after the guys who don't want you to have those pills in the first place. Neil, Samuel and Clarence. Hero horror movies. Have to stop telling me what to do. Don't move. Don't breathe. Don't look now. Don't look away. Don't say a word. Don't answer the phone. Don't look in the basement. Don't look under the bed. Don't open the door. Don't go in the house. Don't go in the woods. Don't blink. Play dead. Let me in. Get out. Watch me when I kill. Drag me to hell. Jesus, it's like we're married. Honey, I had a hard day at work. Just let me taste the blood of Dracula and relax. And finally, new rule. Well, here we are the Friday before election day, and at least one of my predictions was right on the money. It's tied, as it always is. That's just who this country is now. Two tribes united by a history, but maybe not a future. I'm sticking with my other prediction, that Harris is going to win. But I can't say I'm not nervous that the election is in the hands of a small cohort of undecided voters. Those curious few bisexuals of the political world. Oh, everybody loves to mock, but I see it as more of a personality thing. I call them the Christmas Eve shoppers of politics. They know the big day is coming, but they just can't get themselves to do anything about it until the last minute. My father was that guy with Christmas. He would do all his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve night, an hour before the stores closed, he would go to a single department store with no idea what he was going to get. But that's why a department store is great. Oh look, toys. I got kids, they like toys. Done. And actually he was a great gift giver because he felt you had to be fully in the Christmas spirit to go Christmas shopping. And being in the store at that hour with Santa and the music and the tree and the whole production going on, it served as kind of a muse for picking presents. And I think there are people who feel the same way about the voting booth. So let me have a word with them. Hi, Christmas Eve voter. Look, you obviously don't like Trump or you'd be in that camp already. But you're still torn. And I'm the guy who keeps saying, I get why you wanted more reassurance that the Democrat isn't going to go along with every aggressively anti common sense idea that comes out of the woke mind virus. Which, yes, is a thing. And if she loses, that will be mainly why. And part of that mind virus is progressophobia. Steven Pinker's term for the liberal fear of ever admitting when things are actually good. As the Economist puts it about America today, an economy with an unemployment rate of 4% and a per person GDP of $85,000 does not have to be made great again. It is great. And yet the economy is the Christmas Eve voters other big issue. And they think it's terrible when actually it's bigger and better than ever. Makes Arnold Palmer's dick look like nothing. When we were coming out of the pandemic Every economist predicted we were headed for a recession and all the horrible things that come with it. But much like Trump's girlfriends, those things never came. The truth about America today, what Democrats should have been selling is everything that should be low and down is wages. Unemployment, low, black unemployment, low poverty rate, low gas prices, down. And everything that should be up and high is manufacturing, real wages, the stock market, personal spending, personal savings, oil production. The US now produces more energy than it uses, which is saying something since we have Las Vegas, where I'll be tonight, but it's sold out. So sorry. Mississippi. Mississippi is America's poorest state, but its residents earn on average more than Canada, Germany, or England. That's right. We're beating the axis of beer. If Trump was president with this economy, it would be 247 if we have the greatest economy ever in the history of the world, maybe the universe. Many people are saying it, but Trump isn't president now. So you get this now. You have millions and millions of dead people, and you have people dying financially.

[Jamie Raskin]

Because they can't buy bacon, they can't buy food, they can't buy groceries.

[Bill Maher]

That's right. In this reality, if you don't get bacon, you'll die, which is also what my dog thinks. But here on Earth one, it's not actually like that. The vast majority of Americans make it to the Piggly Wiggly and back alive. Yes, everything at the dollar store costs $1.50 now. But Biden didn't invent meant food costs money. And what caused the inflation was shutting the entire country down and paying everyone $6 trillion to stay home because a bad flu was going around. And Trump and Biden both did that. Everybody took the money, and I don't see anyone in this crowd handing back the checks. But who brought inflation down further and faster than any other country? The United States, bitches. It peaked here in 2022 and since has dropped like a rock to 2.4%. Biden tamed it without causing a recession, which is like catching a SpaceX rocket with your butt. Cheers. The phrase I hear so much that makes me just want to unalive myself is how's she going to help me? Like the President is your personal genie. It's Kamala, not Kazam. And it's a government, not an insurance company. I don't know if Kamala worked at McDonald's, but she's not Flo from Progressive. You think you're living in the second Great Depression because you can't buy a full foot of sandwich for $5. Maybe you're not looking at the actual numbers. Maybe your hat's too tight. And undecideds, you should be voting Harris because of the economy. But undecideds don't get that message because Democrats can't make the words things aren't so bad ever come out of their mouths lest someone somewhere accuse them of not caring enough about people who are struggling. But even in a good economy, some segment of society will always struggle with money. Mostly liberal arts majors. And so, dear Christmas Eve voter, I say to you, things aren't that bad, but they might get a hell of a lot worse under the rule of a mad king. Do I love everything about Kamala? No. Who told you you get to love everything? Do I wish she came up with a better reason to be president than I'm not Trump? Yeah, it would have been very helpful. But let's not forget, I'm not Trump is still a really great reason. All right, I'll be at the Beacon in New York for the Comedy Fest November 16th at the Tibic Chicago Theater December 6th in Chicago. I want to thank Tim Miller, Michael Moynihan, and Jamie Raskin. Now go watch Overtime on YouTube. Thank you, folks. You were great. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch him anytime on HBO On Demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com Every Hero in Gotham City has an origin story. And nerd Wallet. Nerds like me are no different.

[Michael Moynihan]

I discovered the power of a high.

[Bill Maher]

Yield savings account in a secret lab experiment, and I had to tell everybody about it. Okay, we might not be actual superheroes, but we did become the nerds. To help you make smarter financial decisions, we've researched and reviewed thousands of financial products so the good citizens of Gotham City. I mean, your city, don't have to Nerds. Nerd Wallet Finance Smarter.