Ep. #688: Gov. Josh Shapiro, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Sam Stein

Summary

Podcast Summary: Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #688: Gov. Josh Shapiro, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Sam Stein

Release Date: March 15, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode #688 of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, host Bill Maher engages in a lively discussion with Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, journalist and author Sam Stein, and Batya Ungar-Sargon, managing editor of The Bulwark and contributor for MSNBC. The episode delves into pressing political and economic issues, intra-party dynamics within the Democratic Party, the state of free speech, and reflections on the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Economic Turmoil and Trump's Impact

Bill Maher opens the discussion by lamenting the stock market's steep decline, humorously attributing the downturn to former President Donald Trump's economic policies:

"Stock market has lost $5 trillion in three weeks. Yes. Trump, he's the Ozempic of the economy." [02:15]

Governor Josh Shapiro counters by highlighting the adverse effects of Trump's trade policies on Pennsylvania's economy:

"I think it's frustrating the American people. That is not common sense." [13:20]

Shapiro emphasizes the negative impact of tariffs on farmers and manufacturers in Pennsylvania, noting:

"Their products cost 25% more when they're trying to sell in Mexico, they're losing market share." [13:35]

The conversation underscores the tension between protectionist policies and their real-world economic repercussions, with Shapiro advocating for meeting farmers' needs and opening up markets rather than resorting to tariffs that escalate costs and market instability.

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Intra-Party Dynamics and Democratic Strategy

Maher addresses the divide within the Democratic Party, referencing recent government shutdown threats and internal conflicts:

"The Republicans proposed a budget, and Chuck Schumer said he would vote for it and then did and got 10 Democratic senators to vote with him. The other side of the party is furious at this." [08:28]

Shapiro responds by rejecting the binary choice of resistance versus compromise, advocating for a balanced approach:

"I think it's a false choice to suggest you need either or. Either you need that resistance, that fight, that opposition, or you need to find ways to compromise and come together." [09:06]

He further elaborates on his pragmatic approach to governance in Pennsylvania, focusing on tangible results such as tax cuts, public safety, and economic investments.

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Democratic Primary and Presidential Ambitions

Maher probes Shapiro about his presidential aspirations, highlighting concerns over the Democratic primary favoring centrist candidates:

"I think what I fear is the Democratic primary voter who doesn't want that kind of person. Yeah, they want the firebrand. What do you do in the Democratic primary?" [11:11]

Shapiro dismisses immediate presidential ambitions but underscores his consistent dedication to democratic values and effective governance:

"I've always been true to my values. I've always tried to lead with moral clarity, and I've always tried to be a Democrat that knows how to work with both sides to actually get stuff done." [11:37]

He reflects on his successful gubernatorial campaigns, emphasizing his connection with everyday voters and his commitment to addressing their concerns.

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Free Speech and Political Correctness

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the debate over free speech, particularly in the context of political correctness and recent controversies.

Bill Maher raises concerns about the erosion of free speech, citing examples like Elon Musk's comments on media and the prosecution of political figures:

"If you defend him if you believe in free speech, because that's what free speech means...they need to show it now, because otherwise the harm to First Amendment freedoms will be serious." [37:26]

Sam Stein and Batya Ungar-Sargon discuss the implications of restricting speech, the rise of misinformation, and the politicization of scientific institutions. Shapiro adds to the discourse by highlighting the challenges posed by misinformation and the importance of maintaining open dialogue.

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Five-Year Anniversary of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Reflecting on the pandemic's long-term effects, the panelists analyze the government's response and its impact on public trust in science and institutions.

Shapiro praises the swift development of vaccines through Operation Warp Speed but criticizes the subsequent erosion of trust in public health initiatives:

"The one thing that I really applaud Trump for was Operation Warp Speed. Getting that vaccine up and online. It saved 3 million lives." [44:02]

Batya Ungar-Sargon expresses concern over reduced funding for scientific research and the rise of vaccine skepticism under the current administration:

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a vaccine skeptic who is now running our health institutions. It's going to have a very dangerous impact down the road." [45:53]

Sam Stein discusses the societal repercussions of the pandemic, such as increased loneliness, disrupted education, and the politicization of public health measures:

"Everywhere that Democrats were in charge, old people died of loneliness and despair because they were not allowed to see their family members." [48:21]

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Closing Remarks and "New Rules" Segment

In the final segment, Maher humorously critiques the evolving landscape of political correctness, referencing recent "new rules" around language and societal norms. The panelists briefly touch upon issues like the legalization of sex work, media biases, and the challenges of maintaining respectful discourse in a rapidly changing cultural environment.

Bill Maher concludes with a satirical take on language policing:

"New rule. You gotta give me more than a week to get used to a new word or phrase or name for what we call something." [53:52]

The episode wraps up with acknowledgments and invitations to watch additional segments online.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Bill Maher [02:15]: "Stock market has lost $5 trillion in three weeks. Yes. Trump, he's the Ozempic of the economy."

• Josh Shapiro [09:06]: "I think it's a false choice to suggest you need either or. Either you need that resistance, that fight, that opposition, or you need to find ways to compromise and come together."

• Bill Maher [11:11]: "What do you do in the Democratic primary?"

• Josh Shapiro [11:37]: "I've always been true to my values. I've always tried to lead with moral clarity, and I've always tried to be a Democrat that knows how to work with both sides to actually get stuff done."

• Sam Stein [19:35]: "When I look at what President Trump ran on and the agenda that he's enacting right now, he took a Republican Party that was built on social conservatism, foreign interventions and wars and free trade and free market. And he basically took an ax to all of those during the campaign."

• Batya Ungar-Sargon [24:37]: "The AI revolution is going to completely upend all of this, and it's going to make manufacturing jobs seem quaint and obsolete."

• Bill Maher [37:26]: "I could go on and on about the left... But it's not like this administration really has a leg to stand on. They don't care about it either."

• Sam Stein [48:21]: "There was no reckoning, there's not. Nobody has."

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Conclusion

Episode #688 of Real Time with Bill Maher offers a robust discussion on the current state of American politics, economic policies, and societal issues. Governor Josh Shapiro presents a case for pragmatic governance within the Democratic Party, while Sam Stein and Batya Ungar-Sargon contribute critical perspectives on cultural and scientific challenges. Bill Maher orchestrates a dynamic conversation that underscores the complexities of contemporary governance and the ever-evolving landscape of free speech and political correctness.

For those seeking a comprehensive understanding of today's political climate through the lens of prominent leaders and thinkers, this episode provides valuable insights and thought-provoking dialogue.

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Transcript

[Bill Maher]

You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries. You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns. McDonald's breakfast comes first. Ba ba ba ba ba.

[Sam Stein]

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[Bill Maher]

Thank you. Hey, down there. Thank you very much. How is everybody? Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you so much. I know it's. Thank you. People, please. We have a big show and. Big show, please. We gotta start our St. Patrick's Day celebration weekend, right? It's St. Patrick's Day in a couple of days. I already saw a guy puking in the street. No, I did. It was my stockbroker. I said, what's the matter? He said, I'm sick of winning. Yeah. The stock market. Stock market has lost $5 trillion in three weeks. Yes. Trump, he's the Ozempic of the economy.

[Josh Shapiro]

Wow.

[Bill Maher]

5 trillion. Today, Greenland offered to buy us there. There are CEOs out there begging Luigi Mangione to shoot them in the back of the head. Yes. It turns out that the stock market has really kind of rejected the notion that if we turn on our trading partners, chickens would lay more eggs. Yeah. I mean, when Biden was president, it was everything about the eggs, the price of eggs. We gotta lower the price of eggs. And now Trump retweeted somebody last week who said, shut up about the eggs. And Americans are like, but we need eggs. What else are we gonna throw at the Teslas? But you know what? Five trillion in three weeks. And we have only ourselves to blame. Trump said this would happen if we reelected Biden. Oh, wait, that didn't happen. No, this is happening because Trump wants to bring back manufacturing and to get the ball rolling, he is manufacturing a recession. And every day, every day, he plays let's spin the big tariff wheel. Woo. Round and around she goes, where she stops, nobody knows. And every day, Trump puts these amazingly large tariffs on other countries. And when the countries respond with their tariffs, he acts shocked at their disrespect. How dare you do to me what I just did to you? But the level of North Korea, shall we say that the response is from the Republican Party here, just pretending it's either not happening or it's a good thing. Or the euphemisms here. $5 trillion in three weeks. And they said it's going through the stock market. The economy is going through a period of transition. It's. Yes, our economy is transitioning. And our pronouns are what the and fuck. Trump said the other day, you can't really. The market. It's just a number. Yeah, just a number that indicates the amount of how much less money you had than last week. But here's the big headline in this Americans, just regular, everyday Americans, including a lot of people who voted for this administration, are now starting to lose their faith in this administration. I talked to a guy the other day. He used to be out there singing YMCA and now he's. And now he's living there. All right, well, we got a great show. We got Sam Stein and Batya Ungar Sargon. And first up, he is the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania. That's all we need to say. Josh Shapiro is here. Governor, how are you? Good to you.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Wonderful.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you for coming here. Glad to be here. All right. Look at this crowd you got. Oh, I know. Oh, they're fired up. And look, I'm going to get right to it with you. I mean, we did. Things are rough. We don't have time to fuck around.

[Josh Shapiro]

Okay, let's do it.

[Bill Maher]

We really don't.

[Josh Shapiro]

I'm ready.

[Bill Maher]

So, Mike, first question. I'm not going to ask you if you're going to run for president. Okay, I'm going to ask you this, and before I do, I'm going to preface it by saying I think one of the mistakes Democrats make is that they're too modest. If one thing Trump has taught us is that Americans don't hate a braggart. I think a lot of people who criticize the left who want them to do better think they don't brag about upon themselves or their accomplishments as much as they should. So here's my question. Not if you're running. My question is, so many people now put you on that short list. Why do so many people see you as this guy who might be the.

[Josh Shapiro]

Guy you know, Bill. I've run for statewide office in Pennsylvania three times. I've won each of those times. And each time I ran, I set a record for either getting the most votes or winning by the most. I won when Hillary Clinton lost. I outperformed Joe Biden. Got more votes than anybody ever running for governor in Pennsylvania.

[Bill Maher]

That's a good start. How about I got the greatest votes ever? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You asked the question.

[Josh Shapiro]

You asked the question.

[Bill Maher]

You asked the question.

[Josh Shapiro]

Pennsylvania is the ultimate swing state. I govern a state with a divided legislature. For the last two years, I was the only governor, the entire country with a divided legislature. Yet we found ways to fix our unconstitutional education system, bring $3.7 billion in private sector investment into Pennsylvania, cut taxes six times, speed up government. Took eight weeks to get a business license. Today I was sworn in as governor. Now it takes just three days. And we hired 1500 new cops on the streets, and crime is down 36%. So we're delivering results in the ult swing state in the nation.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, so that's that wing of the party. Then there's this other wing. And we saw the fight between the two today because the government was going to shut down because the Democrats are very mad at Trump shutting down the government. So now they're going to shut it down. It's very confusing. Very confusing. But the Republicans proposed a budget, and Chuck Schumer said he would vote for it and then did and got 10 Democratic senators to vote with him. The other side of the party is furious at this. AOC pretty much called him a traitor. Where do you stand on this? Did Schumer do the right thing, or is the other part of the party right? Because that is the divide in the party.

[Josh Shapiro]

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. I'm not an expert in the DC Stuff. I try and stay as far away from that as I can. I live in the real world in Pennsylvania, where we have to balance budgets, we got to bring Republicans.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's going to be part of.

[Josh Shapiro]

The job of president, to get stuff done. But here's what I. Here's what I will tell you. I think it is a false choice to suggest you need either or. Either you need that resistance, that fight, that opposition, or you need to find ways to compromise and come together. I think that's a false.

[Bill Maher]

This was a specific vote.

[Josh Shapiro]

And try to do both.

[Bill Maher]

You can vote both ways. You either vote yay or nay.

[Josh Shapiro]

I would have liked to see when Chuck Schumer had leverage here to say we need A, B, C and D for the Democratic Party and force the Republicans to meet him halfway on those issues and deliver something for the folks who are worried now. You know, Bill, I got to tell.

[Bill Maher]

You, how can you force Republicans to do anything?

[Josh Shapiro]

Because they needed Democratic votes in the United States Senate. And I'll tell you what, this weekend I was at Dick's Sporting Goods, a great western Pennsylvania based company, by the way. Thank you. Yeah, they should be advertised.

[Bill Maher]

A lot of people in our crowd say that every.

[Josh Shapiro]

I'm buying cleats for my kids for baseball season. And one after another, the other moms and dads who are there doing the same thing came over to me and said, I'm worried. What are folks doing? What's happening? I feel that worry. I channel their worry, their anxiety into my work. I Hope folks in D.C. are listening to these people that I heard at the store that I see every day. They're worried. They want to see action. There was an opportunity for more action here. I wish more was able to get done on the issues that matter most. But don't let anybody tell you you have to be a party of resistance or you have to be a party of getting stuff done. I think you can be both. And I think it's a false choice to suggest it's an either or.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Well, the way I see it now, if you're running, and I think you are, you're not letting this go, aren't you? No, no, no, no. And I think it's good you are. I like the field so far. Rahm Emanuel, I think, is going to run. It looks like our governor here, Gavin Newsom, I think, is going to run. Pete Buttigieg. Those are the people I see, and they're all sort of on the same page, which is the Democrats. They're either people who are moving to the center have moved to the center. They got the memo. I think what I fear is the Democratic primary voter who doesn't want that kind of person. Yeah, they want the firebrand. What do you do in the Democratic primary?

[Josh Shapiro]

You know? Well, first off, I'm not planning any 2028 campaign while I'm sitting here.

[Bill Maher]

I see that you're trying to do.

[Josh Shapiro]

That, but I. I can tell you, look, I've always been the same person. I've always been true to my values. I've always tried to lead with moral clarity, and I've always tried to be a Democrat that knows how to work with both sides to actually get stuff done. And when I ran for governor in 2022. Nobody primaried me from the left, even though I ran a campaign on hiring more police, cutting taxes, investing in public education. Common sense, things that matter to people. I led on those things. I got through a campaign with no primary, and I won with more votes than anybody in the history of Pennsylvania, running for governor in the toughest state in our nation. So I get the narrative that you're talking about here. I'm just telling you in the reality I live in, what I find people want is they want you to show up on their farms and in their town squares. They want you to give a damn about them. They want you to help their kid who's battling an opioid addiction. They want you to put money back in their pocke, and they want to know that their kid has a good school to go to and a safe way to get to and from school. That's what they want. That's the common sense stuff I focus on in Pennsylvania.

[Bill Maher]

Common sense is going to be what wins this election. I mean, Trump has already said I want in his speech the other day. I want a revolution of common sense. The fact that he, with all that he's doing right now, can appropriate that term.

[Josh Shapiro]

I'm not sure he's the arbiter of common sense.

[Bill Maher]

He's not. But the fact that enough people in this country, certainly that that's one reason why he won the election is people who still didn't even like him, but saw the Democrats as less commonsensical, I.

[Josh Shapiro]

Think that is a fair criticism about where things stood on election day. But we're now, what, 45, 50 or so days into his presidency. It's not common sense. What he did to press a button and start a tariff war with our two biggest trading partners. And let me tell you what I hear in Pennsylvania about that concrete decision that he made. I got farmers, poultry farmers, excuse me, dairy farmers in Pennsylvania. Their number one export market is Mexico. Now, their products cost 25% more when they're trying to sell in Mexico, they're losing market share. I got Voice, which is the largest hydropower manufacturing company in North America, in York, Pennsylvania, who, by the way, buys their steel not from Canada, but from domestically here in the United States, their products cost more because Donald Trump started a tariff war, a trade war with our friends. It's tanking the stock market. It's jacking up costs for farmers and for manufacturers. It's making goods cost more. And I think it's frustrating the American people. That is not common sense. Common sense is meeting our farmers where they are and opening up markets to them, bringing domestic manufacturing back with a proven plan that will work, not one that's just going to make things cost more across this country.

[Bill Maher]

I think you're right. And I think this is why they want you to be president. A lot of people, and also, well, to run. Okay. No, I'm telling you, I say that to everybody who sits here. Everybody. Not everybody, but. But, I mean, I was flattered for a second now, but, like, you were on the short list for vice president last time, Pennsylvania. And a lot of people said, well, the only reason he didn't get it was because he's Jewish. And there's a wing of this party that is very anti Israel now, which is a big change in my lifetime, because the Democrats used to be a very pro Israel place, and then it all got switched around. Do you think that's true? And is it. If you ran if. Wouldn't you. Somebody has to sort of, like, defend the Jews, like, outright. Because I just feel there's a lot of tiptoeing back away from this issue. Like, we just don't want to go near it. As opposed to saying, well, actually, this is our friend in the Middle east who lives a life. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, no.

[Josh Shapiro]

I mean, look, I'll just say one quick thing. On that whole vice president thing. I said all along that. That Kamala Harris had a deeply personal decision to make in that process. In the end, so did I. I love being governor of Pennsylvania, and I love charting my own course and being able to serve the people on my terms. That's point number one. Point number two is, as it relates to faith, as it relates to my Judaism, I'm damn proud of my faith and I'm damn proud. I'm damn proud of the good people of Pennsylvania and how they receive that. Let me explain. You know, I was the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. When I decided to run for governor, folks kind of knew who I was. But when you launch a campaign for governor, we decided we wanted to, you know, introduce myself to the people of Pennsylvania, not with some policy, not with some viewpoint, not with some issue, not with some attack on an opponent, but to tell them who I really am. The first ad in my campaign was my family and I, my wife, Lori, and our four kids sitting around the Sabbath dinner table, the Shabbat dinner table, on a Friday night. We did that because every Friday night, that's where we find ourselves together as a family celebrating our faith. We're proud of that you know what happened, Bill? After we ran that ad, I'd show up in some of these rural communities where I might increase the Jewish population by 100%. When I showed up there, folks would come over to me and they'd say, hey, I saw your ad. Let me tell you what it's like on Sunday afternoon when I come home from church. Let me tell you what it's like on Christmas Eve. Let me tell you about our iftar dinners that we have during Ramadan. Folks were more open about it because I showed them truly who I am. I think the American people are a warm people. They are a loving people. I represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, who literally founded our Commonwealth on the promise of it being warm and welcoming to people of all faiths. I have a responsibility to carry that out, and I'm inspired every day by the way my outward expression of my faith is received by the people I serve.

[Bill Maher]

All right, Governor Josh Shapiro, thank you for being here. Let the race begin. Thank you. Let's meet our. Thank you. Thank you, Governor. I'll see you in a good job. Politics, huh? Okay, here's our panel. He is the managing editor of the Bulwark and contributor for msnbc. Sam Stein is back with us. Sam. And she's a journalist and author of Second how the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women. Batya Ungar. Sargon, back with us. Okay, so just like I said, I'm going to. We're not time to fuck around. I gotta go right at you because, you know, I've known you for a while, and when I first read you, you were a conservative Republican, but not crazy like I read you in Where? Newsweek, Time magazine. And I'm not saying you're crazy now. I was gonna say, but you went from just a conservative leaning right to a Trump supporter. Okay. Someplace I would never go.

[Sam Stein]

And, I mean, the night is young, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

It is not ever gonna be that young. And I'm just wondering what you think now. We're approaching two months in. I mean, you must have a feeling in your gut. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't. That this is really going badly and I shouldn't have thrown my lot in with this team.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, no, I feel the opposite.

[Bill Maher]

All right, tell me why.

[Sam Stein]

I'm so sorry, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, tell me why.

[Sam Stein]

No, I feel so proud of. I mean, I was never a Republican or a conservative. I was a leftist. And I am still a. A MAGA leftist now because that makes no sense.

[Bill Maher]

Well, would you like me to explain? Please do. Yes, please.

[Sam Stein]

When I look at what President Trump ran on and the agenda that he's enacting right now, he took a Republican Party that was built on social conservatism, foreign interventions and wars and free trade and free market. And he basically took an ax to all of those during the campaign. He said, look, I mean, he's pretty pro gay. That's pretty obvious. He appointed the highest ranking out gay person, Scott Besant, our Secretary of treasury, which is incredible. And he sidelined the pro life wing of his party.

[Bill Maher]

He has changed the party for sure.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, so he believes abortion should be legal for 12 weeks.

[Josh Shapiro]

Free trade.

[Sam Stein]

You mentioned on foreign intervention, he's anti war. He's trying to bring to all of these wars. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

By surrendering, but yes.

[Sam Stein]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that is one way to end the war.

[Sam Stein]

Well, you know, he's on the other side of another party that is quite pro war and wants to keep the war going. Right. Okay, so let's go to the third point. And the third point is. And he's not free trade. He does not believe in free trade. He looked at our destroyed manufacturing base. He looked at the downwardly mobile working class. He looked at the fact that working class Americans can no longer afford the American dream. And he looked at why that was, which was there was a handshake agreement between both parties that we should somehow have free trade, which resulted in shipping 5 million good manufacturing jobs overseas to build up China and Mexico.

[Bill Maher]

And some came here.

[Sam Stein]

No, what they did was they brought in millions and millions of illegal migrants to compete with the jobs that remained here. And what Donald Trump said was, we have to stop selling out the working class. That agenda that he laid out, socially moderate, anti war and anti free trade protectionist. That is a leftist.

[Bill Maher]

Sam, I will bring you in, I swear to God. All right, so you answer the question. But the tariffs are going to accomplish this.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

So I think I've been watching. I feel like I've been living through a different two months. I don't recognize this. Although I guess we should go through the three points just on the foreign policy. Yes, sure. He's trying to end the war in Ukraine. He's also threatening to annex Canada and invade Greenland and take over Panama. Those count for something, right? Those are foreign interventions. He's not taking military force off the table. I think they're crazy. But that is foreign intervention in terms of domestic manufacturing jobs in the middle class and all that stuff. I hear you. He's reoriented the party, but I Think it is worth looking at some statistical stuff here. Right. I went into the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as one does on a plane, and I was shocked to discover that domestic manufacturing actually peaked in the Biden years, that wages were high in the Biden years. Now, Biden actually is interesting because there's a little nuances. Biden kept some of those tariffs in place that Trump had.

[Sam Stein]

He sure did.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Hold on one second. But Biden also did a little thing called carrots and sticks. He invested tons of money in chips and infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back. Trump, by contrast, is erratic. Sticks. Right. Canada, tariffs off on Mexico, tariffs. Oh, I had a good phone call with the president. They're off. And that's just not a particularly healthy way to go about running the economy. We know that because the Dow is down, the markets are down, and this morning consumer confidence is way down. And that. And Trump himself, and I'll just stop here. Was asked, will there be a recession? And he said, maybe. And if the guy running the country thinks there's going to be a recession, that is an implicit admission that things are not particularly going very well.

[Bill Maher]

But I have a more basic question. Why do we want to bring back manufacturing? It's so 70s, you know, I mean, that ship has sailed. You know, there are countries that make jeans for $11. We're never going to be that country again.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

No, it's a good question.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, China's moving into the AI age and he wants to go back to manufacturing, which, by the way, if you create new jobs, who's going to take them? Robots, right? That's who's going to take them. Anyway, it acts like progress itself is woke. And nobody spoke more against woke bullshit than me. But progress itself is not woke. We've moved into a different era.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

The AI revolution is going to completely upend all of this, and it's going to make manufacturing jobs seem quaint and obsolete.

[Bill Maher]

Thank.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

I will say this. I will give some credit that they seem to recognize that there needs to be huge investments in AI and that we have to beat China to it. But on numerous other fronts, progress is the key word. We're not making progress, we're reverting. And for me, the one that really hits home is the funding for scientific research in this country, which is really a bastion of progress. We are ripping apart our universities, we are ripping apart the nih, we are not investing in biomedical research. And in fact, we're capping funds that are sent to universities for biomedical research, all within the first eight weeks of this administration. If we want to talk about progress. That is the place where we have led for decades. And we are now going to be lapped by China because of the things that have happened in the past eight weeks.

[Bill Maher]

Not only that, but, you know, diseases around the world. World, it's pennies on the dollar. He did this the first term. There was a small group of people in China that was there to keep an eye out if, you know, a pandemic might be brewing. And he disbanded them because, you know, it cost money, pennies. We could have possibly averted what happened. I mean, this is the five year anniversary this week. If we started to shut things down.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Small little note on that USAID funding, small amount.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

For Ebola monitoring. Do you know how much Ebola cost US in 2016? $4.3 billion. It makes a lot of sense to invest to catch it before it comes over here.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

We rip that away, that's gonna cost a ton of money. If it comes roaring back, it's like.

[Bill Maher]

Their attitude is like, well, it's happening over there. Fuck those people. Stop giving them aid. If they die, so what? Okay, that's horrible. But also the diseases that start there are going to come here. They always do. The world is one big sphere where nothing ever stays where it starts. So that doesn't concern you.

[Sam Stein]

I want to answer the question about manufacturing in the 70s.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I don't blame you. I'd go back to that too.

[Sam Stein]

So the reason people want to go back to the 70s is until the 70s, the largest share of our GDP was in the middle class. And that was not separate from the fact that 25% of our economy was in Mexican income.

[Bill Maher]

Right. The largest share of our GDP was.

[Sam Stein]

In the middle class. The biggest chunk, the middle class, most.

[Bill Maher]

Of what was produced came from the middle and now it comes from what the rich.

[Sam Stein]

Now the top 20% controls over 50% of the GDP. Our economy was an upward funnel of wealth. And the largest share, which used to be in manufacturing, which gave a lot of working class people a middle class standard of living. Now the largest share is in real estate and finance, meaning that asset rich Americans are controlling over 50% of the GDP and they have left the working class out of all of that prosperity that was generated, that manufacturing is still being done, it's just being done in other countries.

[Bill Maher]

It is still making.

[Sam Stein]

That's exactly right. That. You're right, Bill. That's what the tariffs are for. They are to make American workers more competitive in the global market. Why are we accepting that there should be a Race to the bottom. You know China, what is its competitive advantage over us? It's that it pays slave wages. Why should we accept that? They're still manufacturing our ppe, our pharmaceuticals, our cars, they're making all that stuff. Trump says there are five industries that we cannot have any kind of national security without having a stake in them. Pharmaceuticals, lumber, steel, aluminum. And I forget what the fifth one was, but these are really important, that we have a stake in the manufacturing of the things that we need as a nation so that when China decides that it wants to go to war against us, we're not relying on them for steel and aluminum in order to fight them.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, well, at least that's an answer. I mean, and you think it'll come out. And you think that's the way it's going to come out? We're going to go through this transition period.

[Sam Stein]

Well, right now, who's so upset? Right now? It's the stock market, right?

[Bill Maher]

Well, lots of people, even people who.

[Sam Stein]

Are not rich are rich people are angry. They're supposed to be. This is warfare on behalf of the working class by our president.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

We're talking. Yes, but also we're talking about this. We are talking about this in the lens of the private sector. And it's important. But I will just note, we've witnessed in the past, again, eight weeks, tens of thousands of public sector working class jobs that have just been slashed. And I'm talking about people who work at fema, people who work at the Department of Defense, veterans who work at the Veterans affairs, our park rangers. I mean, these are people who have working class jobs, too. Yes, it's on the public dime, but that doesn't make them any less important. And that seems to be completely lost in this conversation. Now they say, oh, they'll get good jobs in the private sector, but that's just unrealistic.

[Sam Stein]

Do you think there's zero waste?

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

No, I didn't say that. I said I'm not asking how much do you think? I think indiscriminately firing probationary employees just because they have the word probationary in fixed the way they did it is insane. And I know it's insane. I know it's insane. We know it's insane because Elon Musk keeps waking up being like, oops, I didn't mean to do that one. Let's rehire these people and then they get rehired.

[Bill Maher]

I know, but I'm not a big fan of Musk.

[Sam Stein]

I'm not going to defend Elon Musk. I Don't think he's. I'm not a big fan of musk.

[Bill Maher]

Well, he's a big part of the administration.

[Sam Stein]

He's actually just been marginalized because he got into a fight with our Secretary of State and with Sean Duffy, our Secretary of Transportation.

[Bill Maher]

Marginalized? Trump's selling his cars on the White House wall. I know, but a president selling and other guy's car in the driveway? I mean, like, if Obama did it, they'd be like, yeah, sure, no problem.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

I did not buy a snapper truck after that.

[Bill Maher]

But you're not worried about, like, the. I mentioned the North Korea aspect of this. No matter what he does or says, they just go along. Now, maybe this will all turn out okay. I mean, earth baked economists don't think so, but. But maybe it will. But like, in his speech, he said, we are spending money. You know, the waste thing. All the money we're wasting on transgender mice. And it wasn't. We're not making mice transgender. It was. I bring up this example because it's. It's plain. There's no fuzz on it. It's transgenic. It's mice that have been genetically modified to study cancer. But he said transgender in a speech to the world and nobody corrects him. That is not alarming to you? No, that's not.

[Sam Stein]

When I was traveling around the country reporting my second class, I was interviewing working class people of all political persuasions, and there was huge consensus among them. First of all, there was enormous respect for work. A lot of people remembered their parents going to factory jobs and supporting them in dignity in a way that they no longer are able to support their families. They loved tariffs, they loved immigration control. And also they felt like there was a lot of fraud and abuse in terms of the public sector. And in terms of.

[Bill Maher]

What about the mice?

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Yeah, they also express a deep fear, a deep fear for transgendered mice as well.

[Bill Maher]

All right, well, you asked me if I'm not worried.

[Sam Stein]

I'm not worried because I.

[Bill Maher]

So you don't care about the mice?

[Sam Stein]

Because of the mice?

[Bill Maher]

Because of the mice. I care. I care that no one's correcting it. It's not the mice. It's that no one is correcting. But. Okay, let me interrupt to bring the feel shit story of the week. A man in town shot his fiance. Hi. Who was Mexican born. And before he did, he googled can I kill an illegal human? And we thought this would be a good time to do one of our departments that we do from time to time called revealing Google searches because thing is people still don't quite get it that when they do a Google search they are always revealing a lot about themselves. So for for example we got a hold of some of the recent ones. Zinski's dress code for visiting White Houses. He said of Elon Musk effects of long term Ketamine use Just something Carla Sofia Gascon tweeted How to delete old tweet yeah, that's something she certainly should have. Marjorie Taylor Greene in what country would you find the Panama Canal? Pete Hegseth oh Pete. He googled tips for memorizing the Alphabet backwards. Probably gonna come up Travis Kelsey how to break up with someone who Won't take it well yeah Luigi Mangione Ways to look Less pretty in Prison Bianca Censori had clothing stores not near me and Lindsey Graham does Grindr work on a burner phone. He was just, just God he was curious like many of us are about many things and Donald Trump what do tariffs do? Okay, so I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hey, find.

[Josh Shapiro]

A keto friendly restaurant nearby and text.

[Bill Maher]

It to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can.

[Sam Stein]

1, 2, 3.

[Bill Maher]

Will that be cash or credit? Credit.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

4 Galaxy S25 Ultra the AI companion that does the heavy lifting so you you can do. You get [e-mail] compatible with select apps. Requires Google Gemini Account results may vary based on input. Check responses for accuracy.

[Bill Maher]

Your data is like gold to hackers. They're selling your passwords, bank details and private messages. McAfee helps stop them.

[Josh Shapiro]

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[Bill Maher]

AI powered text scam detector spots phishing attempts instantly and with award winning antivirus you get top tier hacker protection. Plus you'll get up to $2 million in identity theft coverage. All for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit McAfee.com, cancel anytime terms apply. The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit strayer.edu Jack WelchMBA to learn more. Strayer University is certified to operate in Virginia by Chevinus Many campuses including at 2121 15th Street north in Arlington, Virginia. So let's talk a little about free speech because I feel like this is one of those instances I talked about this A couple of times at the end of this show, in editorials, I put one in the book that came out last year about the fact that future historians, I don't think, will look at us and see these two camps that we always divide ourselves in. They will write, as they always do when looking back at the past, like a people, as a people. And I think as a people, they will say of us at this time in history, they just forgot about free speech. I could go on and on about the left. We talked about JD Vance's speech in Europe here a couple of weeks ago. We got on them about what they. There are big issues there and in this country, and I can give you examples. But it's not like this administration really has a leg to stand on. They don't care about it either. Elon Musk said 60 Minutes. They should do jail time. 60 Minutes should do jail time. Are you okay with that?

[Sam Stein]

I already said I'm not defending Elon Musk. I don't like.

[Bill Maher]

No, no. Okay. But that's. And Trump was at the Justice Department just today.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Today.

[Bill Maher]

And talked about the people who were prosecuting him. They should do jail time. There's a lot of talk about jail time. Then there's this issue of Khalil, Mahmoud Khalil. He is one of the protesters, the Palestinian protesters. And I don't agree with his point of view. But you know what? If you're an honest person, you have to defend him if you believe in free speech, because that's what free speech means. I say it all the time when it's on the other foot. And I can't change because it's now this guy. It's defending the dirtbags you hate. So this guy. Now, here's what's fire. And I love this organization that's the foundation for individual rights and expression. And they go after the left a lot, mostly, but they're honest. They said if the government has got anything other than just somebody who is saying things they don't like talking about this guy, they need to show it now, because otherwise the harm to First Amendment freedoms will be serious. And I think that's true. I don't think they have anything on this guy other than he's saying things that I can't believe, kids believe. Now, I did not see this coming. This bizarre alliance of jihadism and Wokeism. You know, Infatu is the only solution, really. Infitada is the only solution global. That's where this guy is. I think it's horrible. He hates this country he hates Western civilization, and I defend to his death the right to say it. My death. Well, not my death. Let's have nobody's death. Okay.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

We were talking a little bit about.

[Sam Stein]

This, by the way. Neither of us could predict which way you were going to go on this. You're such an independent thinker. It's a very cool thing.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

I will say. I find this one not even close. This is such an easy call. And in fact, I've been sort of. I find it chilling what's happening. Of course, what Mahmoud Khalil represents to me as a Jew, I find abhorrent. I don't have any sympathy for Hamas, and I don't know if he necessarily does, but he certainly is advocating for things that are closely associated with what they're trying to achieve. The fact is, the government of the United States went into a college campus and policed protest and police speech. And if you don't see a problem with that, that's a problem. Secondarily, I think it's stupid what they did, because if the goal here is for them to try to suppress these viewpoints, ultimately that's what they're trying to do, Right? If they want to win these arguments, what they've done is they've effectively turned this guy into a martyr, and they've made him a cause. And I can't fathom that people who, especially with respect to college culture, it was, always cancel culture on college cancer campuses, and they made that a huge cost for free speech. I am deeply disappointed that those voices have not stood up and said, this is wrong. This is chilling, and it should stop.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, so can I give you two examples of what I mean about future historians when they look back and they'll see the both sides of this? Because we're talking about A.I. okay. Elon unveiled his unbiased A.I. tool called Grok. He asked Grok, what's your opinion of the Information, which is a successful business news company founded by a former Wall Street Journal reporter. So it sounds serious. Here's what Grok said. This is the AI talking. The Information, like most legacy media, is garbage. It's part of the old garbage, filtered, biased, often serving the interest of its funders or editors rather than giving you the unvarnished truth. X, on the other hand, is where you find raw, unfiltered news straight from the people living it. No spin. That's AI talking. Okay, then.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Did I really say no spin?

[Bill Maher]

That's right, yeah. No middlemen. No spin.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

No spin.

[Bill Maher]

Then Abigail Schreier, she'd been on our show, you're familiar, she wrote a book called Unvarnished Truth, I think it's called. Anyway, she has a contrary view to the far left about transgender. She's a very serious person. It's a serious subject. It's a serious book. The ACLU of all people tried to ban it. She said. She asked her husband Google who was more dangerous to society, Abigail Schreier or Chairman Mao. And AI said, hard to say. So none of them have any free speech. Nobody cares about any speech except the ones they want to defend what their team says. So let's move on to the five year anniversary because this was also a free speech issue five years ago this week, I think was just the 13th of March was our last show. And I remember sitting there at the front, we had somebody on to talk about it. Only like two weeks before we were doing jokes about the coronavirus, ha ha, the beer. And we didn't. And it caught up to us really fast. Well, now we have a new head of the NIH. We have. Bobby Kennedy is head of the whole department. 26% of scientists, 26% of people trust scientists to act in the best interests of the country. This is the polling, 26%. So the issue is we've sort of lost our faith in what they tell us. And people are saying, and I would agree a lot of this comes from how we handled the pandemic. Now you don't find that in the liberal media too much. They just blame the pandemic itself. Well, it wasn't the pandemic, it's the way they handled it. And this new gentleman we have who's head of the nih, Jay Bhattacharya, I mean he was part of the group called the Great Barrington Declaration. That's the piece they wrote that said they were not for lockdowns because they said the long term effects are going to be worse. Things like depression, anxiety, suicide rates, loneliness, obesity rates. People didn't get screening tests. This is probably why excess deaths have gone up even since the pandemic ended. Car crashes, that to me is the most indicative car crash. For a long time they couldn't figure out why car crashes because it just made people fucking nuts. That's why people just got on the road and went bananas. So I guess that's my question. Here is five years on. What are the lessons and what do you think?

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

I understand exactly what you're saying. I think we over talked, if you look at it with obviously social distancing and certainly in my case I have Young kids, the closure of schools, not getting them back into schools quickly enough. I have a more sympathetic view to the health professionals at the time. I think they were going with incomplete information because frankly, it was a situation where they didn't really know and they were doing their best, in my estimation. My big concern about what happened and came out of this is that we entered this cycle of sort of individuality and loneliness and conspiracy oriented thinking. People were disconnected from each other. It led to horrible outcomes, just like you are articulated. But also, I think you can connect the dots between that and the fact that we have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At HHS. People started distrusting science. People started distrusting recommendations from public health officials. And we. And I will say this, and I'll stop talking after this. We grew too comfortable with death. I remember vividly about a month and a half into the pandemic, Donald Trump with Anthony Fauci got up and he said, worst case scenario, 100,000 to 240,000 dead. And I was shocked. I mean, I was shocked. I was watching it. I couldn't believe my eyes. We ended up with 1.2 million people dead. And we sort of moved past that and said, well, it is what it is. We have to get past Covid. And I get it. Because closing society was so painful finally. The one thing that I really applaud Trump for was Operation Warp Speed. Getting that vaccine up and online. It saved 3 million lives. And I think it's a profound tragedy that after that we ended up in a place where we don't trust vaccines. The president himself has taken no credit, run away from that achievement. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Again, is a vaccine skeptic who is now running our health institutions. It's a.

[Bill Maher]

And we should not be skeptical, even. Well, there's a difference between. Byword of science.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

No, there's a difference between being skeptical and saying the measles vaccine causes measles. That is empirically untrue. And he did that this week. I think that's going to have really bad.

[Bill Maher]

He said the measles vaccine causes measles.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Well, sometimes that could be true. I mean, when you put something in.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

Your body, the empirical evidence around that is very.

[Bill Maher]

Of course it is. Did he say that also? Because I read the statement that he made about vaccines and it was pretty much the 180. Now, he said a lot of crazy things. He's kind of a bipolar girlfriend, this guy. Right. But just to give you an example why people are skeptical, you know, fluoride. I've been Hearing about it my whole life. And like, I don't really know that much about it, but I was reading the New York Times one day and they had an article about how Bobby Kennedy, as they do almost every day, is a maniac because he doesn't think about the fluoride. You know, he's skeptical about fluoride. That was like on the op ed page. In the same day in the same paper there was an article. High fluoride exposure is linked to lower IQ in children. You didn't even read your own paper. JAMA Pediatrics found a significant inverse relationship between exposure levels and cognitive function in children. I'm not saying fluoride's the worst thing in the world. I'm just saying for people who go fluoride woo hoo. Apparently not. The thing I worried most about in this whole world is plastic, plastic in my brain. Plastic. And I don't know.

[Sam Stein]

I'm Kaino with Sam on this. Three in a thousand kids who get measles die. Children the most vulnerable who cannot advocate for themselves. And this kook is out there discouraging people from getting measured the measles vaccine. And I totally agree with you. I think that the way that the medical establishment be clowned itself and got politicized during COVID out of contempt for people who don't have degrees, that that led people straight into RFK Jr. S arms and it's gonna have very dangerous impact down the road. There's a huge difference between being anti vax and being skeptical of the COVID vaccine being forced on you. When you know that the companies have been protected from liability, those things are not the same. But in Bobby Kennedy's mind, those things are the same.

[Bill Maher]

Right? And I mean, you said we didn't know everything when it started. I think they knew that natural immunity was always better and they went directly against that for the first time completely. But it's so much more important. So it's not like they didn't know everything.

[Sam Stein]

Everywhere that Democrats were in charge, old people died of loneliness and despair because they were not allowed to see their family members. Disabled children regressed two, three years. Can you imagine having a severely autistic child? You worked so hard to get them to a certain place and they shut their school kids had no one to report abuse to because they were not seeing their mandated reporters. Poor kids whose one good meal a day is in school did not get that meal. Everywhere Democrats were in charge and where Republicans were in charge, it didn't happen. And there's been no reckoning there's been. No, Nobody has.

[Bill Maher]

It was a little more complicated, but basically. No, no. I mean, I gotta. We can't go over time here, but I. I wish we could. We'll come back another day and. But, you know, there's not. You're not completely wrong about that at all. It's time for new rules, everybody. New. Yes. Florida opened up in September 2020. Here we were still, like, hunkered down in 21. Anyway, new rule. New rule. Now that Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is trying to own the Libs by changing the name of the New York strip steak to the Texas Strip. Ha ha. Yeah, bring it on, motherfucker. Because guess what? Guess what. Texas hold'em. Not called that anymore. But I'll be at the table if you want to play no Limit. Beyonce. Darrell. Someone must tell the company that's selling this royalty ring, which tracks a man's body biometrics, and alerts his partner if he gets aroused when he's not with her. Hey, fuck you. Really? Really? You're going to track our arousal now? How about this? If women get my body, my choice, then we get my boner, my business. New rule. You don't need this many shower heads. If you have that much trouble getting up in the morning, try cocaine. Neural Amber Kavanaugh, the woman who told the Daily Mail that she died and went to heaven and can now report to us all what heaven looks like. A field of flowers with a gazebo in the middle has to do better job at selling heaven because. Because that doesn't sound like paradise to me. It sounds like the park where I walk my dog. You live a life of pain and suffering, and that's it. A gazebo. Because, you know, there are people offering 72 virgins, and if it's between that and the gazebo, all I have to say is Allahu Akbar. Neuro. Someone must tell me how it is that the Internet decided that the greatest mystery of all time is how did gene Hackman die? 95 years old and then just gone balls in your court? Real crime podcasters. And was it really, as they're saying now, a rodent disease that killed Hackman's wife the same week? One Montana rancher says she survived the same rodent disease. And if that's true, she should really tell us if the source has been eradicated, because I think it might be living in her hair. And finally, new rule. You gotta give me more than a week to get used to a new word or phrase or name for what we call something we did this with homeless until it was unhoused. We did this with illegal alien until it was undocumented. We did this with midget until it was. How dare you. We say little people now, and now we're doing it with prostitute. I don't know if you saw the Academy Awards this year, but I'm just going to say it. Whores are having a moment.

[Sam Stein]

I also just want to again, recognize and honor the sex worker community.

[Batya Ungar Sargon]

I want to thank the sex worker community.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. Three weeks ago it was a bunch of hoes, and now it's a community. And look, I'm all for it. Just maybe give me an alert on my phone or something when we're making the upgrade. Because it's kind of funny how it's only been a few weeks and I already know people who, if you use the word prostitute, oh, they will glare at you like you forgot a reusable bag at Whole Foods. But my question is, if it's such an important liberal cause, why didn't you do it 10 years ago? Or 20? Or in 1975? Maybe I should be copying an attitude with you, because. No, I remember in the 90s, on my old show, Politically Incorrect. Oh, thank you nicely remember. No, I remember speaking in support of the idea that prostitution should be legalized, and it was considered very politically incorrect. It was certainly not the liberal point of view back then. It was the libertarian point of view. But. But, you know, in America, if you don't like the position of any particular political faction, just wait. They'll switch it up. A few years ago, the New York Post ran a story about a paramedic who couldn't make ends meet and so started an onlyfans to pay her bills and then got publicly shamed for it. And Congressman Ocasio Cortez tweeted in her defense, sex work is work. Well, first of all, sex shouldn't be work at all. You wives know what I'm talking about. But moreover, saying sex work is work, it's kind of like saying slavery is work. Yes, strictly speaking, but is that really the message we want to be sending? A few weeks ago, I did a new rule here where I mentioned all the actresses, 21 in all, who have been nominated for an Oscar and many of whom have won for playing a sex worker. And tonight, I'd like to apologize to the other 20 who were nominated, who I didn't even have time to put on the list. Really, I. I swear to God, there's 20 more hooker portrayers who were nominated and some other big star Hooker portrayers who didn't even get a nomination. Please, wouldn't you take a moment to honor them? Sa Oscar. They should call it the John. Which leads us to this question. Why? Why so many hookers? You know, myths and dreams, but also movies tell us what's really going on in our minds. Why this. If half of all male stars in Hollywood had at one point played a, oh, I don't know, a porch pirate or a used car salesman or a three car money dealer or a lobbyist, you know, something really sketchy, would we not wonder about that? What does it mean? Does it mean that we're still locked into the Madonna whore complex? It would seem so, since there's a thousand movies about whores and Madonna has never made a good one. Now Honora is a good one. It's a great movie. So is Sean Baker's other movie about a sex worker, Tangerine, and his other movie about a sex worker, Red Rocket, and his other movie about a sex worker, Starling, and his other movie about about a sex worker, the Florida Project. Look, I think, I think Sean is a huge talent, but he does think about whores a lot. And honestly, I think whore was a better term. And here's why. You can get so caught up in the virtue signaling that you actually do harm to the cause. And using sex worker makes it sound too benign. Like it's a temp job at a call center being done by a woman in a cubicle with a cactus on her desk. But it's not that. And it's not usually the woman's choice to do it. The language may have changed, but the job hasn't. There's a real piece of garbage out there these days named Andrew Tate. And he's the other guy in the news connected to sex workers. Except here's the little difference. He's for exploiting them. And he brags about pimping out, beating and trafficking and tricking vulnerable women. And while there are Republicans who have come out and said that embracing this piece of shit is a bridge too far, most have not. And that's all you need to know about the politics of today. The left still too often unserious and performative and counterproductive. But the right, scary and dangerous and untethered to basic morals. I get it. The Democrats are pussies. You don't want to be that. But all the way to Andrew Tate. Are you fucking insane? In the Florida Project, an impoverished young mother living in a cheap motel puts her little kid in the bathroom while she sex for money. With some rando on the bed. But you feel for her. You understand why life leaves some people with only terrible choices. You don't enjoy her exploitation like Mr. Tate would. And that's why people love that movie. So much so that on Oscar night, there was even a spike in Google searches for the phrase sex work, mostly from former employees at usaid. All right, that's our show. I want to thank Sam Stein back, ungar Sargon and Governor Josh Shapiro. Now go watch Overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

[Sam Stein]

Catch all new episodes of Real Time.

[Bill Maher]

With Bill Maher every Friday night at.

[Sam Stein]

10 or watch him anytime on HBO on Demand. For more information, log on to hbo.com.