Overtime – Episode #708: Rep. Nancy Mace, Michael Smerconish

Summary

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Real Time with Bill Maher – Overtime #708: Rep. Nancy Mace, Michael Smerconish

Date: September 30, 2025
Guests: Rep. Nancy Mace (R–SC, gubernatorial candidate), Michael Smerconish (CNN, SiriusXM host)
Host: Bill Maher

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Episode Overview

This "Overtime" segment dives into current political headlines with sharp, rapid-fire discussion from the panel. Topics include recent government and military decisions, TikTok’s potential American takeover, the secrecy around the Epstein files, public executions, and the challenges facing both parties in upcoming elections. The tone is irreverent, combative, and candid, characterizing Maher’s signature style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pentagon’s Gathering of Officers

(01:06–02:51)

• Prompt: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling 800 generals/admirals to DC sparked speculation and concerns about possible hidden motives.
  • Nancy Mace (01:38):
    "If it were a corporate CEO saying I want to have the leadership come together for a skull session, nobody would care... What the hell am I missing here?"
  • Smerconish (01:52):
    Felt media aimed to inflate fear: "Is he going to... Braveheart? He's going to get them all in the thing and burn the thing."
  • Bill Maher (02:10):
    "Want to be able to work with our allies and be strong and have peace in the world. This is great."
  • Panel notes trust issues with the current administration but agrees this may be overblown, with the only legitimate logistical concern being a government shutdown trapping delegates in DC.

2. TikTok’s Ownership & National Security

(02:51–04:50)

• Background: The potential sale of TikTok to Oracle raises criticism on both sides about ownership—American plutocrats versus foreign (Chinese) control.
  • Smerconish (02:51):
    Questions critics: "Do you want Americans to own it or don’t? Who did you think was going to buy it, mom and pop?"
  • Maher (03:30):
    "Oracle already basically housed all the data here. There was no backdoor way for China to get in... not much difference between now and a year ago."
  • Mace (03:47):
    "I'm concerned about who controls the algorithm... too many young men in particular are getting bad messages from being locked into a bad algorithm."
  • Maher (04:16):
    Warns broader issue: "TikTok isn’t the only risk. We have a lot of risk in the App Store... We're not actually fixing the overall problem."

3. The Epstein Files – Transparency and Accountability

(04:51–08:09)

• Release Timeline: Rep. Mace expects the discharge petition to unseal the Jeffrey Epstein files to reach 218 signatures soon, with a vote expected in the third week of October.
  • Mace (05:11):
    "218th signature will happen next week... Once we get back... the first week of October, the disclosure petition has to cure for seven days. Once you have 218 signatures, then expect a vote probably the third week of October."
  • Maher/Smerconish (05:36–05:44):
    Joking on Trump’s lack of interest: "I haven't been threatened... There’s still time."
  • Smerconish (05:47):
    Skeptical about a bombshell: "I just feel like it’s Al Capone’s vault... What do you think we’re gonna find out?"
  • Mace (06:28):
    "It takes, what, four Republicans to make this happen? And she's one of them."
  • Maher (06:56):
    Stresses focus on victims:
    "What about the victims?... They’ve been fighting for 30 years for justice and they don’t have it... Those predators, those child rapists—they need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I don’t care if it’s a prince in England. I don’t care. Go to jail. Cold, dark cell, that’s good enough for me." (07:14)

4. “Escalator Gate” and Political Conspiracies

(08:09–09:34)

• Context: Trump complained that a broken UN escalator was a deliberate act.
  • Maher (08:37):
    "Nothing surprises me anymore. I’m like full blown conspiracy theorist now."
  • Smerconish (09:03):
    "The prompter also has gone down. Bill Clinton once did like half the State of the Union address off the cuff because the prompter went down. Shit happens."
  • General sentiment: Both view conspiracy theories as part of today's hyper-politicized landscape.

5. Public Executions & Crime

(09:34–10:35)

• Provocative question on public executions:
  • Maher (09:41):
    "Yes. Especially for child rapists?"
  • Mace (09:49):
    Expresses frustration over lack of criminal accountability in her state. Supports enforcing current death penalty laws more efficiently, referencing the Dylann Roof case and general uptick in crime:
    "The violence and the crime, people just getting away with it, cashless bail, whatever. I want to see law and order."

6. Party Identity, Polls, and 2024 Election Warnings to Democrats

(10:35–13:46)

• Smerconish (10:35):
  Shares polling revealing Trump’s slipping popularity yet continued Republican leads on key issues (crime, immigration, economy, corruption).
  • "Democrats win by two points on respect for democracy. Now, some of this is just because people are fucking stupid."
• Mace (11:53):
  "The only thing the Democratic Party stands for today is opposition to Donald Trump."
• Candid Jabs at VP Kamala Harris:
  • Mace (12:03):
    Jokes about reading Harris’ new book: "I did."
    Criticizes lack of future vision: "I was looking for... what's the plan for the future? There wasn’t any."
  • Maher (12:26):
    "She's rewriting history in the book, too... they tried to dismantle Title IX against women."
• Systemic Political Critique:
  • Smerconish (13:13):
    Satirical salesmanship analogy: "You need 107 days. You tell people your plan... If I'm selling a vacuum cleaner, I'll tell you why I think it's best. Am I going to tell you every goddamn day for two years?"
  • Conclusion: The panel is disillusioned with extended campaign cycles and the overwhelming influence of money in U.S. elections.

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Memorable Quotes

• Bill Maher (07:14):
  "Those predators, those child rapists—they need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I don't care if it's a prince in England. I don't care. Go to jail. Cold, dark cell, that's good enough for me."
• Nancy Mace (11:53):
  "The only thing the Democratic Party stands for today is opposition to Donald Trump."
• Michael Smerconish (10:35):
  "Democrats win by two points on respect for democracy. Now, some of this is just because people are fucking stupid."
• Bill Maher (02:27):
  "Reagan, peace through strength. I mean, showing strength around the world by having these generals come together..."
• Nancy Mace (09:49):
  "The violence and the crime, people just getting away with it, cashless bail, whatever. I want to see law and order."

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Notable Timestamped Segments

• 01:06 – Pentagon generals’ gathering: Is it really a big deal?
• 02:51 – TikTok sale: Contradictory public reactions, Oracle’s real role, and broader security threats.
• 05:11 – Epstein files: Timeline for potential release, focus on justice for victims.
• 08:37 – Escalator gate: Trump, conspiracy culture, political theatre.
• 09:41 – Public executions: Crime, punishment, and the death penalty.
• 10:35 – Latest polling: Republican advantage on issues, Democratic weaknesses, critique of long campaigns.

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Tone & Style

The discussion is punctuated by sarcasm, bluntness, and humor, with participants regularly challenging each other and the status quo. The panel is critical of both political parties and unanimous in their cynicism regarding political theater and missed priorities, particularly on justice, data security, and campaign focus.

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Useful for:
Anyone keen on up-to-date political debates, inter-party critiques, issues of technology and privacy, criminal justice reform, and U.S. electoral politics, rendered with the trademark irreverence of Bill Maher and his guests.

Transcript

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[Bill Maher]

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

[Michael Smerconish]

Okay, welcome number time with the host of CNN Smerconish and SiriusXM's the Michael Smerconish program. Michael Smerconish. And she's a Republican congressman from South Carolina running for governor in 2026, Nancy Mace. Okay, these are from the people. The people want to know, what do you think of the defense secretary? Pete Hegseth is. Oh, yes, Pete Hegseth is summoning hundreds of generals and admirals to Washington. I heard 800 of them from around the world are being summoned to Washington. No one knows why.

[Nancy Mace]

I don't know why people are so unsettled about this. Truly, if it were a corporate CEO saying I want to have the leadership come together for a skull session, nobody would care. I read those stories very carefully. What the hell am I missing here? I don't get it. The concern.

[Michael Smerconish]

I love that, that, that's, that's sensible because I read it and I, and yes, they, they, I, I think I, you know, got scared because they may try. They wanted me to be scared. Like, what? Oh, my God. What's going on here? Is he going to, you know, it's going to like Braveheart. He's going to get them all in the thing and burn the thing.

[Bill Maher]

Want to be able to work with our allies and be strong and have peace in the world. This is great.

[Michael Smerconish]

I mean, it's, I mean, I've never heard anybody doing this, but yeah, maybe it's nothing. But, you know, you, you got to admit there's a reason why we're a little suspicious about some of the stuff that goes on with this administration because they don't know about norms, they don't care about laws.

[Nancy Mace]

True.

[Bill Maher]

Well, but also Reagan, peace through strength. I mean, showing strength around the world by having these generals come together, I think is the only.

[Nancy Mace]

The only legitimate concern that I've heard so far, and Nancy knows more about this than I will, is if the government shuts down, there's some concern that some of these folks will get stranded in the nation's capital. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Well, yeah, potentially. They're actually canceling congressional delegations, I heard, like right now, this weekend, because of a potential government shock.

[Michael Smerconish]

And that subject. Let me just throw this in there, then, about being, you know, not too partisan when you hear about stuff. I was reading a lot about this week. TikTok. Now TikTok looks like it's getting sold, and a lot of people are very upset about this. Like, now it's going to be Oracle, who's going to own a lot of it. And it's, you know, more, you know, plutocrats owning things in America. But it seems like it was the same people who were saying, the Chinese cannot own this company. So what do you want? Do you want Americans to own it or don't? Because who did you think was going to buy it? Mom and pop?

[Bill Maher]

Well, here's the. Here's the fact. I mean, over the last year, year and a half, Oracle already basically housed all the data here in the US There was no backdoor way for China to get in. But Oracle has had this data, they have firewalled this data. So there's really not much of a difference between now and a year ago.

[Nancy Mace]

I'm concerned about who controls the algorithm. I thought the conversation with Aidan was terrific tonight, and I'm really worried that too many young men in particular are getting bad messages from being locked into a bad algorithm.

[Michael Smerconish]

But if the choice is between an American company and China, the Chinese government.

[Nancy Mace]

Theoretically it was a national security concern that began this whole process.

[Michael Smerconish]

That's what I'm saying.

[Nancy Mace]

So I don't know that you have the national security concern with. With Larry Ellison that you would with Xi.

[Bill Maher]

Well, my bigger concern is we have apps in the App Store that China has done that Iran has done that Russia has done. So TikTok isn't the only risk. We have a lot of risk in the App Store. We're not addressing the actual national security problem. We just took one target, one company, and vilified it. And we're not actually fixing the overall problem about what data or what adversarial country might have access to our data or use algorithms to harm American citizens.

[Michael Smerconish]

Okay. And by the way, the younger generation will be thanking Trump to be the one for saving TikTok.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Michael Smerconish]

So your evil laugh. Okay. All right. Here's one for your evil laugh. Nancy, why haven't the Epstein files been released in full?

[Bill Maher]

Give it three weeks.

[Michael Smerconish]

Three weeks?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Yes. So the 218th signature will happen next week, I believe, when there's a special election. That person, when they get sworn into office next week, will sign the discharge petition. We will be at 218. I am a signature on there. Once we get back in session the first week of October, the discharge petition has to cure for seven days. Once you have 218 signatures, and then we expect a vote probably the third week of October.

[Michael Smerconish]

And Trump doesn't get mad at you for doing this, for.

[Bill Maher]

I haven't been threatened.

[Michael Smerconish]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

You know, and I'm a.

[Michael Smerconish]

Let's see. There's still time.

[Bill Maher]

There's still time.

[Michael Smerconish]

No, no, I mean. Good feel. But I mean, do you really think there's something we don't know? I mean, I just feel like it's Al Capone's vault. I just feel like, what do you think we're gonna find out? That the whole world was really in a pedophile ring? That every rich person was doing this? I think we know. We. But it was. I've said this many times. When a guy has a lot of money and you don't really know where that money came from, he's a pimp. He's a pimp. He's some kind of a pimp. He connects nerdy guys with girls. You know, Bill Gates cannot be. You know, I'm not saying he did anything, but I'm not saying he didn't do anything. I mean, why was he so interested in a guy like Epstein?

[Nancy Mace]

To Nancy, to Representative Mace's credit, I mean, it takes, what, four Republicans to make this happen? And she's one of them. And I think that's great, you know, for the detractors of the president, who I think have their fingers crossed that he's going to show up in all of this and there's going to be. It's just. It's not who he is, you know, is he someone who appreciates beautiful women? Yes. But I just don't think there's ever a part of what makes him tick. So that's.

[Bill Maher]

And even the Epstein victims have stated that he had no part in it. And I've met with them privately. He had no part in it and they've exonerated him. So that's not what this is.

[Nancy Mace]

But I don't, but having said that, I don't know why he's handled, for example, the Wall Street Journal. You knew we were going to get a look at that goofy cartoon sooner or so. Why, why fight it? And why sue the Journal? I don't get that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, the thing that pisses me off about the whole birthday card story is like, that's a birthday card. Nobody gives a fuck. Like, what about the victims? What about the women who've been fighting for 30 years for justice and they don't have it? And all the media wants to do is talk about all the, all the media wants to do is talk about Trump. I'm like, these women have been fighting. They're in their 50s, late 40s, they're my age, have been fighting for 30 years. And it's like, we want to show them that they're going to get justice. That's what this is about. And I want the media to write about their stories. They are horrific, they are terrible. And you can't tell me that only one person was an accomplice in a sex trafficking ring with over 1000 girls. Didn't happen. There was way more than that. And those people that were involved, those predators, those child rapists, they need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I don't care if it's a prince in England. I don't care. Go to jail. Cold, dark cell, that's good enough for me.

[Michael Smerconish]

What are, what are your thoughts on escalator gate? If you don't know what happened? Trump. Trump was at the UN this week and he got on the escalator and it suddenly, when he and Melania got on, it didn't work. He was furious and thinks it's a conspiracy and wants the people found yesterday. Now, could it be? Anything is possible. What are your thoughts then?

[Bill Maher]

His teleprompter didn't work out. There was a series of things at the. I would. Nothing surprises me any in politics. I've seen it all. When I think I've seen it all, something else. I mean, nothing surprises me anymore. I'm like full blown conspiracy theorist now. This is the environment that we're in right now. You are 100%. I've just seen some of the craziest things happen. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

[Michael Smerconish]

But the moon, we did land on that. No, I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I mean, Nothing would surprise me anymore.

[Michael Smerconish]

I mean, the prompter also has gone down. Bill Clinton once did like half the State of the Union address off the cuff because the prompter went down. I mean, prompter just went down. Shit happens. But, you know, I mean, of all the ways to get Adam the escalator, I mean, I don't know why it would. Why is it even, you know, so what? And then they got it working. You know, it just.

[Bill Maher]

Well, they'll investigate it and we'll find out.

[Michael Smerconish]

Here's an off the beat question for Nancy. Are you in favor of bringing back public execution?

[Bill Maher]

Yes. Especially for child rapists?

[Michael Smerconish]

Oh, somebody obviously knows about your feelings on that. Public execution.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah, I just. Scimitar, did you watch the video, did you watch the video of the young woman and Charlotte on the train? Yes, I just, I see those things and I come from a state where we're not prosecuting murderers, we're not prosecuting pedophiles or getting one day in jail. And until we. Dylann Roof, who killed nine black church members and Mother Emanuel is sitting on death row. How long is he going to be sitting on death row? 20 years, 30 years? 50 years? Get it over with. You know, Tyler Robinson, I think he deserves the death penalty. We have it, but a lot of states, we're not using it, obviously due process and you got to do all that. But I'm. The violence and the crime, people just getting away with it, cashless bail, whatever. I want to see law and order. And I think that would be helpful.

[Michael Smerconish]

Well, and for part of that, I'll bring up one last subject. Somebody didn't write this, but I want to say it because it's interesting. Some new polling came out and this is really. I'm speaking to the Democrats, especially here, because Trump's numbers are down. They're down with Latinos, they're down with blacks, they're down 15 points with whites. And when whites say you're not hip anymore. Ooh. And yet in the other poll on issues, Trump still winning. So this is your big opportunity. Democrats, he's down in the numbers and you still can't score when they ask who has a better plan. Republicans crushing it on crime, immigration, wars, the economy, even corruption. Democrats. Democrats win by two points on respect for democracy. Now, some of this is just because people are fucking stupid. Two points on respect for democracy. Democrats win on health care, environment, women's rights, respect for. But on those issues, I bet you that are the big ones that they vote on more crime, immigration, wars, economy, corruption. So that's the takeaway there.

[Nancy Mace]

The only thing the Democratic Party stands for today is opposition to Donald Trump.

[Michael Smerconish]

Yeah.

[Nancy Mace]

And I just read Kamala Harris New book, 107 days.

[Michael Smerconish]

No, you didn't.

[Nancy Mace]

I did.

[Michael Smerconish]

No, you didn't. I'll say a lot of lies on this show, but I won't take. I will not accept that.

[Nancy Mace]

I thought you might ask me about it. That's what I had to read.

[Michael Smerconish]

But the point is.

[Nancy Mace]

The point is, it's like, as you probably know, it's like a diary of what happened. But I was looking for. Okay, and what's the plan for the future? There wasn't any. And she's just indicative of the party at large. And by the way, that's one of the reasons she lost.

[Bill Maher]

She's rewriting history in the book, too. She's now against men and women's sports. Like, come on. Like, they tried to dismantle Title nine Against Women when she was vice president.

[Michael Smerconish]

Right. I mean, that's just one of many examples.

[Nancy Mace]

She could have had 701 days and would have still lost that race.

[Bill Maher]

But you're right, the data. The data says it's cost of living, it's inflation, it's immigration, illegal immigration, all those things. Everything else is at the bottom.

[Michael Smerconish]

And by the way, law and order, crime, 107 days. Way too many for anybody, but including her. Right. But the more they got to know her, the less they liked her. I've said this many times on this show. Other countries don't do this. They don't have years to run. They call an election and they have an election in a month.

[Nancy Mace]

Yeah. And nor the influence of money. We should do that.

[Michael Smerconish]

That's gonna be hard to get rid of. They tried, but, you know, it's like you don't need 100 days. You need 107 days. You tell people your plan. This is what I am for. This is my thing. You're selling something. You're selling a vacuum cleaner. If I'm selling a vacuum cleaner, I'll tell you why I think it's best. Am I going to tell you every goddamn day for two years? Did I tell you about the attachment that gets under the. Yeah, you did. You told me a thousand times. All right, thank you very much, everybody.

[Bill Maher]

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