Overtime – Episode #694: Kara Swisher, Fmr. Spkr. Kevin McCarthy

Summary

Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime – Episode #694 Featuring Kara Swisher and Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Release Date: May 6, 2025

In Episode #694 of HBO's “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher engages in a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation with esteemed panelists Kara Swisher, renowned tech journalist and podcast host, and former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. This episode delves into a range of contemporary socio-political issues, blending humor with serious discourse to provide listeners with insightful perspectives.

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1. Age Gap Relationships and Public Perception

The episode kicks off with a discussion on public reactions to prominent figures engaging in significant age gap relationships. The spotlight is on the rumored relationship between NFL coach Bill Belichick and a woman nearly 50 years his junior, raising questions about societal norms and taboos.

Bill Maher (01:04):
"Panel, what does the panel make of the public reaction to former Patriots' coach Bill Belichick's relationship with a woman nearly 50 years his junior? Does the controversy suggest that significant age gap relationships remain one of society's last taboos?"

Kevin McCarthy (01:44):
"My wife is 15 years younger than me, so I don't know what to say."

The conversation swiftly transitions to personal anecdotes, with both Bill Maher and Kevin McCarthy mentioning their own age differences with their spouses, underscoring the subjective nature of societal judgments on such relationships.

Panelist 1 (01:56):
"It seemed like elder abuse, right? And they were going to do 'Hard Knocks' and they were there three days and then they kicked out. So it's people that know him well. It seems like he's not able to be who he was, but that's his choice. Yeah. If he's happy, why do we care?"

Bill Maher (02:19):
"We live in America. Let him be."

The panelists emphasize personal happiness and autonomy over societal expectations, challenging the stigma often associated with age-disparate relationships.

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2. The Future of TikTok in America

Shifting gears, the discussion moves to the precarious position of TikTok within the United States amidst national security concerns.

Bill Maher (03:40):
"Kara, what is the future of TikTok in America?"

Kevin McCarthy (03:59):
"I don't know."

The panel deliberates on the potential outcomes, including possible acquisitions by American companies like Oracle or venture capital firms, to retain data sovereignty and mitigate Chinese control over user data.

Panelist 1 (04:14):
"They'll keep the data in America and there's too many people using it."

Kevin McCarthy (04:25):
"Because China controlled the data. Because they can. Like that's the issue. And we don't have reciprocal rights there."

The conversation highlights the complexities of regulating global social media platforms and the balance between national security and digital freedom.

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3. Trump's Lighthearted Suggestion to Become Pope

In a lighter yet politically charged moment, the panel discusses former President Donald Trump's humorous suggestion about becoming the next Pope.

Bill Maher (06:17):
"What did the panel think of Trump suggesting? Jokingly, it says, and I'm sure it was that he'd like to be the next Pope."

Kevin McCarthy (06:24):
"He should do that. He should do that. That would be great."

This segment underscores the unpredictable nature of political figures making offhand remarks and the varying receptions such statements receive from different segments of the public.

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4. Tim Walz’s Role in the Harris Campaign

The episode examines former Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz's role in Vice Presidential candidate Harris's campaign, questioning the effectiveness and strategic approach taken.

Bill Maher (06:36):
"Former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz explained that his role in the Harris campaign was to code talk to white guys watching football and fixing their truck. Was he successful in doing so?"

Panelist 1 (06:57):
"I served with Tim in the House for a long time. That is not what I would put him in charge of and he didn't do a good job of that. But I will say I think Harris, he was a different person before she picked him for VP and that she didn't let him go out there and answer any questions because vice."

The panel critiques the campaign strategy, suggesting a disconnect between the intended messaging and its execution, which may have impacted voter engagement.

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5. Prospects for the 2028 Democratic Primary

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to forecasting the landscape of the 2028 Democratic primary, with panelists debating potential frontrunners and the evolving dynamics within the party.

Bill Maher (07:41):
"And who do you see on the horizon for 2028 in the Democratic primary right now? Yeah, Bernie and AOC."

Panelist 1 (07:47):
"No, they got the biggest crowds."

Bill Maher (07:49):
"That doesn't matter."

The dialogue touches on the influence of popular figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), discussing their appeal through large gatherings and grassroots support, yet questioning whether this translates to primary success.

Kevin McCarthy (08:11):
"I think it's Moore versus Youngkin. That's where I see it."

The conversation extends to the Republican perspective, with mentions of candidates like Mike Moore and Glenn Youngkin, highlighting the bipartisan considerations leading up to the next election cycle.

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6. Oklahoma's Curriculum on the 2020 Election

Bill Maher addresses Oklahoma's recent decision to mandate that students learn about alleged fraud in the 2020 election, prompting a critical examination of democratic integrity and educational policies.

Bill Maher (09:22):
"So Oklahoma has now required their students in schools to learn that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. What are your thoughts on that?"

Kevin McCarthy (09:32):
"Yeah, you could do that one."

Panelist 1 (09:36):
"From my belief, the election was very clear. Biden won that election."

The panelists express concerns over the politicization of education, emphasizing the importance of factual accuracy and the dangers of undermining electoral legitimacy through mandated curricula.

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7. America's Decline in Press Freedom

In the concluding segment, the panelists discuss America's drop to 57th place out of 180 countries regarding press freedom, a decline that poses threats to the First Amendment and democratic principles.

Bill Maher (10:26):
"Last question. According to the people who study this, out of 180 countries, America has slipped down to 57. So we're middle of the pack as far as freedom of the press goes. What do you think about that?"

Kevin McCarthy (10:40):
"Well, not good. Because it's our First Amendment and, you know, it's first. And so it should be important in this country."

Panelist 1 (11:39):
"I don't think the press has been fair in so many other places. [...] You just have to have your news so fast and so rapidly so you don't have the editors, you don't have the ability to check."

The discussion underscores the challenges faced by the American press, including legal threats and the pressures of the digital age, which contribute to the erosion of press freedom and trust in media institutions.

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Conclusion

Episode #694 of “Real Time with Bill Maher” offers a comprehensive exploration of pressing issues, from personal anecdotes on age gap relationships to the broader implications of media freedom and electoral integrity. Through candid dialogue and incisive commentary, Bill Maher and his panelists provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the current socio-political landscape, encouraging critical thought and informed discourse.

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Notable Quotes:

• Bill Maher (03:40):
  "Kara, what is the future of TikTok in America?"

• Kevin McCarthy (04:25):
  "Because China controlled the data. Because they can. Like that's the issue."

• Panelist 1 (09:36):
  "From my belief, the election was very clear. Biden won that election."

• Kevin McCarthy (10:40):
  "Well, not good. Because it's our First Amendment and, you know, it's first."

This episode serves as a critical reflection on both personal and national narratives, encapsulating the complexities of modern American discourse.

Transcript

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[Kaley Cuoco]

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maher.

[Bill Maher]

All right, we're back with our panel. A former California Congressman and 55th speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. And she hosts the Pivot podcast and is the author of Burn Book Harris Wisher. All right, panel, what does the panel make of the public reaction to former Patriot oh, Jesus Patriots coaxed Bill Belichick's relationship with a woman nearly 50 years his junior? Does the controversy suggest that significant age gap relationships remain one of society's last taboos?

[Kevin McCarthy]

My wife is 15 years younger than me, so I don't know what to say.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, mine too.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, love is where you find it. It's just amazing to me that the same.

[Panelist 1]

I think a lot of people would have brought it up if it wasn't for her interjecting during the interview. It seemed like elder abuse, Right?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah.

[Panelist 1]

And they were going to do. They were going to do Hard Knocks and they were there three days and then they kicked out. So it's people that know him well. It seems like he's not able to be who he was, but that's his choice. Yeah. If he's happy, why do we care?

[Bill Maher]

Right? Exactly. I mean, we live in America. Let him. She did.

[Panelist 1]

She's of age. Young age.

[Bill Maher]

Right, Right.

[Kevin McCarthy]

No, it's been going on. Remember Anna Nicole Smith when she married that old guy?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but that was a cash run.

[Kevin McCarthy]

All right.

[Bill Maher]

This does not look like that. Bill Belichick is not a billionaire.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Do you care?

[Bill Maher]

I don't. Well, I Do you do?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Why?

[Bill Maher]

Let's just say I relate.

[Kevin McCarthy]

I know, I know. You know, I get it. You want to get some of that sweet, sweet Bill Belichick?

[Bill Maher]

No.

[Panelist 1]

He's hot.

[Bill Maher]

No, I just think it's amazingly hypocritical for the same kind of people who have been saying forever, wherever you find love. I was born this way. You know, all that kind of stuff, which I'm totally on the page with, you know, whatever it is. I mean, if I came out as gay, tomorrow, I'd be the biggest hero in this town. I would be the marshal of the gay pride parade. Like, oh, he's gay. He's just doing this. He just found love. Ok, why doesn't that apply to what age? Also, not everybody has to be age appropriate, I think. Talk about dating shows like I was just doing in the editorial. I think the awesomest dating show would be yes to do the Golden Bachelor, but not with age appropriate girls.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Oh, okay.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just saying, if someone wants to put that show on the air, I am volunteering myself. It would be awesome. It would be a really funny show. Kara, what is the future of TikTok in America?

[Kevin McCarthy]

I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Kevin McCarthy]

No, no. They're supposedly J.D. vance and Mike Walls was in charge of the deal, so who knows now that he's gotten that promotion, he's got.

[Panelist 1]

Moved to the UN now.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. Okay.

[Panelist 1]

You know what? It's gonna survive.

[Kevin McCarthy]

It's be fine.

[Panelist 1]

It's gonna survive.

[Kevin McCarthy]

They'll give it to some VC and Oracle and that'll be that.

[Panelist 1]

They'll keep the data in America and there's too many people using it.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Maybe.

[Bill Maher]

Was it ever a threat?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, because China controlled the data.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Because they can. Like that's the issue. And we don't have. Speaking of the actual use of reciprocal. We don't have reciprocal rights there.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, okay.

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[Bill Maher]

What did the panel think of Trump suggesting? Jokingly, it says, and I'm sure it was that he'd like to be the next Pope.

[Kevin McCarthy]

He should do that. He should do that. That would be great.

[Bill Maher]

Gotta dodge. Former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz explained that his role in the Harris campaign was to code talk to white guys watching football and fixing their truck. Was he successful in doing so? Well, plainly he wasn't very successful.

[Panelist 1]

I served with Tim in the House for a long time. That is not what I would put him in charge of and he didn't do a good job of that. But I will say I think I thought Harris, he was a different person before she picked him for VP and that she didn't let him go out there and answer any questions because vice.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Presidents are so well known for that.

[Panelist 1]

No, but you know, it helps the campaign. Look, at the end of the day, had they had an open primary, Harris would have never won. They were set to lose from the who would have. Whitmer probably had a better chance. I think Pritzker would not. I don't think Gavin could get there because he had to go through this act. Bashir would have a real chance. But you got to win the Democratic primary. It's not so easy. But they, they gamed the system, they changed the system.

[Bill Maher]

And who do you see on the horizon for 2028 in the Democratic primary right now. Yeah, Bernie and AOC.

[Panelist 1]

No, they got the biggest crowds.

[Bill Maher]

That doesn't matter.

[Panelist 1]

It wants. It will sustain itself, but right now they have no leader. Okay, but this is the thing the Republican Party has to understand, too. Both parties lost in the last election. Trump won, okay? And I don't know if that's going to transfer. We should have won four more seats in the Senate. If you looked at the last 70 races for the Senate, 69 follow exactly the same.

[Kevin McCarthy]

I think it's Moore versus Youngkin. That's where I see it.

[Panelist 1]

Youngkin would be ethically bag it adjacent.

[Kevin McCarthy]

And then Vance and Junior will fight it out for that crowd.

[Bill Maher]

But you're AOC and Bernie. And who's at the top of the ticket?

[Panelist 1]

They're going to lead right now.

[Bill Maher]

Who's at the top of that ticket, Kevin? Because if it's not Bernie, what, he's going to be vice president and wait his turn?

[Panelist 1]

No, no, it would be. Bernie's been running each time. I'm just saying who's in the lead right now? I don't think that's how it ends up.

[Bill Maher]

But big crowds don't necess mean who's the right candidate. You know, when I started.

[Panelist 1]

No, but it drives. It drives where the ideas are going to go. It's going to drive money for a while.

[Bill Maher]

It doesn't make them the winner. It doesn't make sense.

[Panelist 1]

No, it doesn't make them the winner. You'll have to wait until you'll get two years out and then you'll start seeing these governors that start showing solutions. You also have to know what is the issue going to be? Are we going to have a foreign policy issue? Are we going to have an economic issue and who's been the best and leading in that? But right now, for the Democrats, who's going to lead for the next two years? The money is going to. AOC outraised everybody in the House, and it's all small. It's all small donors. This is exactly where Trump was when no one gave him a chance at 17. He outraised everybody else. So that's where the base is at. Right. And so what will happen? It'll move after the next midterm elections.

[Bill Maher]

So Oklahoma has now required their students in schools to learn that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. What are your thoughts on that?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah, you could do that one.

[Bill Maher]

Look, come on, man.

[Panelist 1]

From my belief, the election was very clear. Biden won that election. Okay.

[Kevin McCarthy]

That wasn't hard.

[Panelist 1]

No, but I've never Done it different.

[Kevin McCarthy]

I know, I know.

[Panelist 1]

And it's very clear. Trump won the election this time and won the popular vote, which a Republican has not done in like 30 years. And so. But the basis is we've got to get out of this running. The last elections, presidential elections should be aspirational. It should be about ideas. It should be about where America wants to go for the next century. And if we have elections demonizing one another instead of election about the public deciding where they want to go. You can't govern once you win, and we're going to fall behind.

[Bill Maher]

Last question. According to the people who study this, out of 180 countries, America has slipped down to 57. So we're middle of the pack as far as freedom of the press goes.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Mm.

[Bill Maher]

What do you think about that?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Well, not good. Because it's our First Amendment and, you know, it's first. And so it should be important in this country. You know, these assaults, these lawsuits and everything else, much of the nuisance lawsuits are really problematic.

[Bill Maher]

You mean like again, 60 minutes?

[Kevin McCarthy]

60 minutes. Which is which it looks like they're going to pay in some way to get that deal done. It feels. That feels like paper for play all over the place. But all of them, even Facebook paying Trump that money for throwing him off the platform or any of these things that are happening around the country, it's a real problem and it's very chilling. It's not to say that press doesn't make mistakes, because they do all the time, but when it's done and they correct it rather quickly, the New York Times just did win its case with Sarah Palin. Yes, a very good sign. And they made a mistake. They admitted a mistake, they apologized for a mistake, they corrected the mistake and they got better, presumably. And so I think that's where we should be. But there is a real movement to chill the press through legal means.

[Bill Maher]

You think so?

[Panelist 1]

Look, I don't think the press has been fair in so many other places. You can look at certain things they made up. Look what the White House Correspondents dinner. Who did the. Who won the award this time? The one reporter who got up and reported that Biden wasn't mentally all there when they all hit it the entire time. So there's a reason why we have been dropping. It all started after the Pentagon Papers and others, whether people put trust in this. And you've got the Internet today, you've got more people bringing stuff out. I just have a hard belief of things that I read of what had transpired in A meeting I've been in and I do think it's pretty tainted one way. So that's why you see the pendulum swing the other way.

[Kevin McCarthy]

All the strength is on the right right now. The energy is in right wing media right now, whether it's small podcasters or bigger podcasters or small media sites and stuff like that.

[Panelist 1]

What's interesting for the media, you think these Sunday shows are all important. No more people listen to Joe Rogan on a podcast or in your podcast.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Flipping to Midas, the Midas group show.

[Panelist 1]

Which is great, which is good, which is the way it should be. Let people gather whatever information they can out there and you should be able to challenge it.

[Kevin McCarthy]

But the First Amendment standards, facts that are very clear.

[Panelist 1]

But it's also newspapers today can't afford to do it. You've got to have your news so fast and so rapidly so you don't have the editors, you don't have the ability to check. So people should be able to question what goes on.

[Bill Maher]

Well, they did put somebody in the press room from social media. I read this this week.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Tim Pooler, one of them.

[Bill Maher]

One of them. And these are very young people and one of them had once asked the question, has the moon disappeared?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Has it.

[Panelist 1]

Now?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Now we've had Eclipse before, so no, that's. Those are just cheerleaders. Those are cheerleaders. And it's kind of laugh. I've applied to be in that room and Carolyn Levitt in her Tracy Flickness has not allowed me to be there.

[Bill Maher]

Tracy Flick. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Kaley Cuoco]

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.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Com.