Overtime – Episode #717: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene

Summary

Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime – Episode #717

Guests: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene
Date: February 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this Overtime segment, Bill Maher hosts a spirited roundtable with Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The trio dives into a variety of hot-button issues—celebrity endorsements in politics, the rise in measles cases and vaccine debates, America’s foreign policy focus, the state of political discourse (and dysfunction) in Congress, and the importance of maintaining perspective and dialogue even amidst fierce disagreement.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Nicki Minaj, Trump, and Celebrity Political Endorsements

[01:02–01:55]

• Discussion opens around Nicki Minaj bragging about receiving a gold card from Donald Trump and declaring herself his number one fan.
• Greene admits to enjoying Nicki Minaj’s music, defying some assumptions about her tastes.
  • Greene: “I like her music.” [01:02]
  • Scarborough: “People just didn’t know you, Marjorie. They didn’t know.” [01:04]
• Debate on whether Minaj’s fanbase will accept her support of Trump.
• Maher questions the validity of the “gold card,” suggesting it isn’t as significant as Minaj might think.

2. Vaccines, Measles, and RFK Jr.

[01:55–08:49]

• Measles cases hit a 30-year high; the panel debates the influence of anti-vax voices like RFK Jr.
  • Maher: “It’s insanity. His kids all had the four, five, six vaccines. We all had the vaccines.” [02:25]
• Greene defends parental choice on vaccines, opposes government mandates.
  • Greene: “I totally believe in parents' rights to choose to vaccinate or not... I don’t think the government should mandate.” [03:05]
• Maher highlights that widespread vaccination once eradicated diseases in even the poorest U.S. states.
  • Maher: “Some of the poorest states in America actually wiped out diseases… because they had the most stringent requirements.” [03:27]
• Greene raises (debunked) vaccine-autism theory, citing parental concerns.
  • Greene: “A lot of parents think that [autism] is linked [to vaccines] and they have been ignored for a very long time.” [04:12]
  • Maher: “There have been so many studies… that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn’t.” [04:24]
• Scarborough and Maher discuss increases in autism diagnosis possibly stemming from diagnostic changes, not vaccines.
  • Scarborough: “Now if somebody looks at a teacher wrong, they’re like, oh, he’s on the spectrum.” [05:29]
• Issue raised about the sheer number of vaccines children receive today.
  • Greene: “72 vaccines up to the age of two. That is outrageous.” [06:02]
• Concerns about the cumulative effect of multiple vaccines and modern environmental exposures.
  • Scarborough: “Is there some sort of mixing and matching… that we never had?” [07:10]
• Maher distinguishes between long-standing vaccines (measles, mumps) and new medical trends (e.g., Ozempic).
• Scarborough expresses a general openness to questioning medical orthodoxy but stops short of endorsing conspiracies.
  • Scarborough: “I’m sympathetic to the idea in general. I think he’s [RFK Jr.] a big picture guy… Not very often with where he gets into the weeds.” [07:55]

3. Trump, Foreign Policy Focus, and the ‘Discombobulator’

[08:49–10:40]

• Discussion turns to Trump’s claim about moving an “armada” to the Middle East and something called a “discombobulator.”
  • Maher: “You’d ask in the show about Republicans. I mean, one of the problems that Republicans have is the fact that you’ve got a White House that has been focused on foreign policy so much.” [09:45]
• Critique that U.S. political focus is being directed away from affordability issues (healthcare, rent, groceries) toward foreign policy and conflict.
  • Maher: “Affordability is not [being discussed]. The cost of health care is not… rent is not… groceries, which went up at a faster clip in December than, I think any time since 21 or 22.” [10:10]

4. Protest Movements, Gender in the GOP, and Double Standards

[10:40–12:56]

• Scarborough references gender divides in GOP and claims about women’s mental capacity from Republican politician Mike Johnson.
  • Scarborough: “Mike Johnson… went on some podcast and said he doesn’t think the women have something like the mental capacity to compartmentalize.” [11:29]
• Maher criticizes U.S. campus protest culture, noting the lack of demonstrations over mass killings in Iran versus sustained protests over Gaza.
  • Maher: “Thirty thousand Iranians have been slaughtered. Not one campus protest. Nobody’s talking about it.” [12:16]

5. Ilhan Omar and Grievance Commentary About America

[12:56–16:16]

• Scarborough references Trump’s attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar but also critiques Omar for appearing to lack perspective on America’s virtues.
  • Scarborough: “[Trump] said… she comes here and all she does is complain and bitch… there is a kernel of truth… it just seems like she does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here and never seems to have anything good to say.” [13:18]
• Maher defends Omar’s right to criticize:
  • Maher: “She’s every bit as much of an American as you are or me… She has just as much right as Donald Trump or any other billionaire.” [14:00, 14:15]
• Spirited debate ensues over what constitutes valid criticism versus lack of gratitude.
  • Greene: “Everyone has free speech and all of us complain, but be grateful.” [15:09]
  • Maher: “Over the past decade, all [Republicans have] done is bitched and moaned about how horrible this country was. When we're the most powerful country on the planet…” [15:13]
• Greene brings up Gen Z’s economic stress and doubts about the American Dream.

6. Government Shutdowns and Congressional Dysfunction

[17:26–21:39]

• With another possible government shutdown looming, panelists air their fatigue with recurring brinkmanship.
  • Greene: “Why can we not fund the government? Why is this so complicated? Why can’t we have a balanced budget? Why is it always overspending?” [17:38]
  • Greene: “They’re going to fight on TV so they can make all of you at home mad… outrage fatigue, just constant outrage fatigue.” [17:55]
• Scarborough and Maher recall differences in congressional process then vs. now; more negotiation, regular appropriations, and bipartisan respect in the past; now huge omnibus bills are springing on lawmakers.
  • Maher: “They didn’t do it when you were in Congress… We balanced the budget four years in a row.” [18:24–18:31]
  • Maher: “There’s not buy-in from the members. So that's why you’re more likely to have government shutdowns.” [19:12]
• Lack of camaraderie and civility now compared to previous Congresses.
  • Scarborough: “Was there more congeniality than… when you were there?” [19:17]
  • Maher: “Oh, my God, yes.” [19:19]
  • Greene: “There was no congeniality when I was there.” [19:22]
• Scarborough shares stories of building cross-aisle friendships; contrasts current “political industrial complex,” where polarization fuels fundraising and careerism.
  • Greene: “It’s an entire industry where so much money is made… based on creating this hate among the two parties… [It] feeds off of hate and fear.” [20:49]

7. Empathy, Dialogue, and Personal History

[21:39–22:56]

• Scarborough recalls his first meeting with Maher, when, as the lone conservative on “Politically Incorrect,” Maher stood up for him against an unfair label.
  • Scarborough: “You stood up for me, and I never forgotten it… I’ve never forgotten that 34, 35 years later. And that’s the sort of thing you don’t see in Congress.” [22:05–22:56]
• The importance of meeting people outside your comfort zone and defending fairness in discourse is emphasized.
• The show closes on a moment of camaraderie:
  • Scarborough: “Let’s hug it out, bitches.” [22:56]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Marjorie Taylor Greene [03:05]:
  “I totally believe in parents' rights to choose to vaccinate or not... I don’t think the government should mandate.”

• Bill Maher [04:24]:
  “There have been so many studies… that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn’t.”

• Joe Scarborough [07:55]:
  “I’m sympathetic to the idea in general. I think he’s [RFK Jr.] a big picture guy… Not very often with where he gets into the weeds.”

• Bill Maher [10:10]:
  “They’re not talking about that right now. They're talking about a lot of things.”

• Bill Maher [12:16]:
  “Thirty thousand Iranians have been slaughtered. Not one campus protest. Nobody’s talking about it.”

• Joe Scarborough [13:18]:
  “It just seems like she [Ilhan Omar] does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here and never seems to have anything good to say about.”

• Bill Maher [14:00]:
  “She’s every bit as much of an American as you are or me.”

• Marjorie Taylor Greene [15:09]:
  “Everyone has free speech and all of us complain, but be grateful.”

• Greene [17:38]:
  “Why can we not fund the government? ... Why can't we have a balanced budget?”

• Greene [20:49]:
  “It’s an entire industry… based on creating this hate among the two parties… [It] feeds off of hate and fear.”

• Joe Scarborough [22:56]:
  “Let’s hug it out, bitches.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Nicki Minaj/Trump Gold Card: [01:02–01:55]
• Vaccine/Measles/RFK Jr.: [01:55–08:49]
• Foreign Policy/Discombobulator: [08:49–10:40]
• Campus Protest Double Standards: [11:41–12:56]
• Ilhan Omar/America Criticism Debate: [13:18–16:16]
• Government Shutdown Dysfunction: [17:26–21:39]
• Empathy and Cross-Aisle Friendship: [21:39–22:56]

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Tone and Dynamics

The conversation is fast-paced, passionate, and, at times, combative, particularly between Maher and Scarborough when debating patriotism and criticism of America. Yet, it is also marked by moments of camaraderie and self-awareness about the state of national discourse, underscoring Maher’s thesis about the value of dialogue and friendship, even with ideological opposites.

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Closing Thoughts

This Overtime segment offers an unfiltered view of American political debate—complete with disagreements, cross-talk, mutual respect, and exasperation. It underscores the challenges—and potential—of having real conversations across political divides. For listeners wanting insight into the contemporary fault lines of U.S. politics and the personalities navigating them, this episode is characteristically Real Time: both combative and, ultimately, hopeful for honest engagement.

Transcript

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

The official Game of Thrones podcast is back to break down the brand new HBO original series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

[Joe Scarborough]

Set one century before the events of.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Game of Thrones, this series tells the tale of a lowly hedge knight, Ser.

[Joe Scarborough]

Duncan the Tall, and his squire Egg.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I'm Greta Johnson. And I'm Jason Concepcion. Together we are your guides to Westeros, unpacking every episode of this brand new series immediately after it airs on HBO Max.

[Joe Scarborough]

You can watch us on HBO Max.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maher.

[Joe Scarborough]

All right. He's the co host of Ms. Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough. And she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Okay. Okay. What does the panel make of Nicki Minaj bragging about getting a gold card from Trump after declaring herself his number one fan? Are you a Nicki Minaj fan?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I like her music.

[Joe Scarborough]

You do?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yeah.

[Joe Scarborough]

Look at that. See, people just didn't know you, Marjorie. They didn't know. Really?

[Bill Maher]

I have no idea. I would think you would have been.

[Joe Scarborough]

Listening to country music, which you might also. I do like country music and Nicki Minaj.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Sure.

[Joe Scarborough]

Why?

[Bill Maher]

She likes all kind of music.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah, I do too.

[Bill Maher]

There you go.

[Joe Scarborough]

Right. So what do you think? But I'm wondering if Nikki's fan base is going to be okay with this, you know? Yeah. Anyway, what's the question? What does the panel make of this?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, first of all, I think people in the Trump administration said the gold card is not what she thinks a gold card is. So I don't even. I don't even think she has the real deal. So it's gonna be fascinating. Watch this space. Cause, yeah, I. I think it's good.

[Joe Scarborough]

Whenever people get out of their boxes. I really do. I mean, I just think it's good when the message goes out. We don't all have to follow. We don't all wear pink on Wednesday. Okay. For whatever reason, Measles cases have reached a 30 year high with a fast growing outbreak in South Carolina. Are anti vax voices in the government like RFK Jr. Responsible? Well, yes.

[Bill Maher]

The question answers itself. It's insanity. I mean, you know, his kids all had the four, five, six vaccines. We all had the vaccines.

[Joe Scarborough]

No, I don't. Well, I got measles.

[Bill Maher]

What did.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

As a child.

[Joe Scarborough]

We all did.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yeah. Before the vaccine.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, but I'm just saying, just in general, like, our kids all got like, you know, the vaccines and we Did a pretty good job and getting rid of measles and getting rid of the other things. So yeah, of course it's RFK's false.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I don't think you can blame Secretary Kennedy. Look, I totally believe in parents rights to choose to vaccinate or not vaccinate their children. And I don't think the government should mandate that. And I don't think, I think children should be able to go to school or any kind of activity without being forced to take a vaccine. And I think that's incredibly important. A lot of people care about that.

[Bill Maher]

I mean some of the poorest states in America actually wiped out diseases because they had, if you look at Mississippi, Alabama, some of the deep south states that I lived in, you know, they had the most stringent requirements because we used to make fun of people in San Francisco. The anti vaxxers used to be on the left. They used to be the hippies, the old hippies. The freaks.

[Joe Scarborough]

Still are.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but now for some reason you have southern governors that have decided they're going to emulate what happens in San Francisco. And you're starting to see these states that had eradicated these diseases now have rise up again. Like measles.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Potential links to autism?

[Bill Maher]

Not really that.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Actually a lot of, a lot of parents think that it is linked and they have been ignored for a very long time. And I think it's such a sad case. This is something that really needs to be studied.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it has been studied for 30 years. And I will say I was a lawyer, I was an attorney, I talked to RFK Jr. I have a son who's on the spectrum. I had questions in the early 2000s about this. There have been so many studies. There's been one study after another study after another study that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn't.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I think there's people that would argue with you. There are many parents that link it to vaccines and I really think it's.

[Joe Scarborough]

Up to the parents if it's not the vaccines. Well, I'm not saying it is. What is your gut as to why the rates went up so high?

[Bill Maher]

Why they've spiked so much? Because we all had kids, or at least I did. We all had kids that we went to school with and they were a little off, they were a little different. You know, they may have been some of the smartest kids, but they didn't know how to relate to us. They were the ones that sat alone in the cafeteria. And what happened by the time we get in the 90s it was always.

[Joe Scarborough]

There, we just weren't counting it.

[Bill Maher]

Now if somebody looks at a teacher wrong, they're like, oh, he's on the spectrum. So maybe there's been more of a diagnosis over the past 20, 30 years that have caused those numbers to go up. You look at a state like California where the numbers have gone up higher, I think than other places, probably more diagnoses than in other states.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

It also correlates with the number of vaccines. The amount of vaccines that children have to have now is outrageous. And thankfully Secretary Kennedy, they changed that.

[Bill Maher]

What's outrageous about the vaccines that 72 vaccines.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

72 vaccines up to the age of two. That is outrageous. Versus when we were kids, I have four. We had, we didn't have that many vaccines.

[Bill Maher]

I have four kids and I didn't, I didn't give them 72 vaccines.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

But nowadays, up until.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah, they did up the schedule a lot. 72, I don't know. I mean, I don't know the number, but I've heard those high numbers. Yeah. And who knows, I mean my thing with vaccines, I wasn't an anti vaxxer, just always was long term. Do we know if there is a long term problem? Like I'm talking about 50 years down the line if you have taken everything that your immune system is supposed to do naturally.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Joe Scarborough]

And made it so that you're. Because usually when you do something with your body and you say that your body doesn't have to take care of it itself. It doesn't.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. But you know, we have a lot of these vaccines that have been around for 30, 40, 50 years. I don't know what the impact of Ozempic. I don't know what the impact of ozempic is going to be 20, 30 years from now. Exactly.

[Joe Scarborough]

That's the point.

[Bill Maher]

Right, right. But as far as vaccine for measles, a vaccine for some of these other things, they've been around for decades.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah, but we're talking about the accumulation of all these vaccines plus all these different elements that we never had in our body for like so many different chemicals that we know. Is there some sort of mixing and matching of all these different elements that we never had? Electromagnetic energy, cell phone, whatever. I don't know. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

There has to be.

[Joe Scarborough]

I'm not saying there is, but is that so Until I can go to a doctor and have him say, you know what you got cancer. But you know, we know exactly what caused it and we know exactly what can fix it, I'm just going to be like, open minded about everything.

[Bill Maher]

Are you sympathetic toward RFK Jr. S position on vaccines?

[Joe Scarborough]

I'm sympathetic to the idea in general. I think he's a big picture guy. Not very often with where he gets into the weeds.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Joe Scarborough]

No, he.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

And I'm right on track.

[Joe Scarborough]

Yeah, you're right on track. Oh, I am definitely not on track with everything he says in America.

[Bill Maher]

Great. We can all disagree.

[Joe Scarborough]

What I said to him when he was on my podcast or the show or one of the two, maybe both. I said, you know, you made your bones as an environmental lawyer. You connected our terrible environment with our ill health. This is the. You need to transfer this now to this other. This is really kind of what you're doing now. But instead of with a river, you're talking about the river of shit that we put in our bodies from the pharmaceutical companies. And on down the line, he just goes to. I also said to him at one point, is there a conspiracy theory you don't believe?

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Joe Scarborough]

I mean, unfortunately.

[Bill Maher]

And his answer was no.

[Joe Scarborough]

I don't know. I know. I don't know. Okay. Trump announced he was moving a huge armada to the Middle East. And he also said, we have something called a discombobulator.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yeah, heard about that. I think the people in Venezuela found out about that as well.

[Joe Scarborough]

The discombobulator.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Apparently they did, yeah.

[Joe Scarborough]

What is a discombobulator?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Well, I don't know. We have one and it was used in Venezuela. And so I put out a post today. I said, well, now that files have been released and then deleted, I think it increases the odds that we'll be bombing Iran tonight. Well, it's a Friday.

[Joe Scarborough]

Oh, sure.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Weekends and holidays.

[Joe Scarborough]

Absolutely. Sure. You got to do it on a Friday night.

[Bill Maher]

Wag the dog. Wag did I do it?

[Joe Scarborough]

People have plans on Saturday.

[Bill Maher]

You know, you'd ask in the show about Republicans. I mean, one of the problems that Republicans have is the fact that you've got a White House that has been focused on foreign policy so much. Whether you're talking about Venezuela, whether you're talking about Greenland, whether you're talking about Iran. You, you know, we've got a country. Well, Republicans mocked and ridiculed Democrats for not focusing on affordability, not focusing on the price of butter. And now they're talking about foreign policy all the time. We've got wars all over the place. They were bombing, you know, they were bombing boats going out of Venezuela for a very long time. And that's in the news. Affordability is not the cost of health care is not the Cost of rent is not the cost of groceries, which went up at a faster clip in December than, I think any time since 22, 21 or 22. You know, they're not talking about that right now. They're talking about a lot of things.

[Joe Scarborough]

And no one talking. Where's the protesting about what's going on in Iran?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I protested.

[Joe Scarborough]

You did?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I was so outspoken on no more foreign wars. That was part of. I got in trouble. I went to the principal's office on that. I kind of stuck with the whole maga. Make America great again. America first. No more.

[Joe Scarborough]

You said the weak Republican men. You used that term. And, I mean, I read a story in the New York Times about the. We're talking about the split in the Republican Party. Apparently, it's very gender oriented because Mike Johnson. Johnson. Not popular with the ladies.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

No, he's not.

[Joe Scarborough]

No, he's not. And he went on some podcast and said he doesn't think the women have something like the mental capacity to compartmentalize. Did you see that?

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yeah.

[Joe Scarborough]

What do you make of that?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I make a lot of that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Yeah, I sure do. I want to go. I want to ask you this, though, because I think you were starting to touch on it. I want to know how many people the Iranian mullahs have to slaughter in the streets before one person, one student on Columbia, goes out on their campus grounds and protests. Or do they only protest when it's Jews who are fighting the war?

[Joe Scarborough]

Correct.

[Bill Maher]

Because it's outrageous. It is. It's up to 30,000. And it only proves. It only proves what supporters of Israel said at the time. And a lot of times they were focused on me. They go, where are you focused so much on Gaza? Why are you focused? Why don't you focus more on in the middle of all these other things? Well, I will tell you, Columbia, other universities are proving them right because 30,000 Iranians have been slaughtered. Not one campus protest. Nobody's talking about it.

[Joe Scarborough]

You know, Trump tweeted some horrible things about Ilhan Omar, which is wrong and.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Despicable, but he tweeted some bad things about me, too.

[Joe Scarborough]

Of course he did. But you know one thing?

[Bill Maher]

He called me a murderer 13 times. I mean, we can all go to that party.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

It's a big club.

[Joe Scarborough]

I mean, I still get the text yelling at me, but it's better this way. It's better to have a dialogue than just be yelling at each other across.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Dialogue's great.

[Joe Scarborough]

Dialogue's great.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I agree. And you do a good job at that.

[Joe Scarborough]

Thank you. But There is a stunning lack of perspective often on the left on these kind of issues. Now, he said something terrible. Among his things, he said about Ilhan Omar. And I'm not. I don't have the quote in front of me. But basically what it was is she comes here and all she does is complain and bitch. Okay. There is something. There is a kernel of truth in that, that somebody comes from a country like Somalia. And then it just seems like she does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here and never seems to have anything good to say about. We don't think that way about America.

[Bill Maher]

The second she came here, my family.

[Joe Scarborough]

She's allowed.

[Bill Maher]

My family's probably been here for 400 years. The day she came to America and raised her hand and took the oath. She's every bit as much of an American as you are or me.

[Joe Scarborough]

And I would say this is every other American.

[Bill Maher]

Have some perspective. She has just as much right as Donald Trump or any other billionaires in his administration. We're not talking about rights, Joe.

[Joe Scarborough]

I'm not saying she didn't have any right. I'm saying have some perspective about this country versus a country like Somalia.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Right, I agree.

[Joe Scarborough]

It just makes sense.

[Bill Maher]

Are you saying she shouldn't complain about America?

[Joe Scarborough]

I didn't say that. You're saying that.

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm trying to figure out what you're saying.

[Joe Scarborough]

What I'm saying is have some perspective about this country, not just her, but. Yes. I mean, if she's from a country like Somalia, which is a country you wouldn't live in.

[Bill Maher]

Right, right.

[Joe Scarborough]

Okay. Well, just be honest about it. Instead of. It just seems like it's always completely negative about this country. It also sometimes seems like we have.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I agree. Say something positive.

[Joe Scarborough]

Say something realistic.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yes, I agree with that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I could say this.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Everyone has free speech and all of us complain, but be grateful.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I could say the same thing about Republicans. Over the past decade, all they've done is bitched and moaned about how horrible this country was. When we're the most powerful country on the planet, we have the most powerful military, the most powerful power.

[Joe Scarborough]

That's when they're out of power. This is horrible.

[Bill Maher]

No, but here's the thing, though.

[Joe Scarborough]

As soon as they take office, we're the perfect country.

[Bill Maher]

But when they're out of tower, what do they do? Donald Trump talks about how the American dream is dead. No, it's not. That's bullshit. The American dream's not dead. We're stronger militarily, we're stronger economically. We're stronger. Stronger culturally, we're stronger with soft power. We're stronger in every single way.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I don't know about that. Ask Gen Z. They're not feeling so good.

[Bill Maher]

But I don't see. Okay, so now you're talking.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I'm just saying Gen Z.

[Bill Maher]

Now you're talking badly about America. How dare you do that. I think it's a great country.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

No, I said ask Gen Z.

[Bill Maher]

Well, would Gen Z rather live in America or Somalia?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I'm just saying the American dream is hard. Harder to realize the value of the dollar has gone down so much they don't see the ability to ever own a home possibly.

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

It's. It's a much bigger hill to climb than it was for all of us.

[Bill Maher]

And that's your right to say as an American. No one's saying it's not. You're not.

[Joe Scarborough]

You're trying to turn this into a argument that doesn't turn it into a.

[Bill Maher]

It is a argument.

[Joe Scarborough]

No, it isn't.

[Bill Maher]

Saying if you're from. You can't. About what's wrong.

[Joe Scarborough]

But I didn't say you can't.

[Bill Maher]

Straw man didn't come to the show, Joe.

[Joe Scarborough]

Straw man? No, no, I didn't say that either.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Joe Scarborough]

It's like having a fight with your wife which I don't even have.

[Bill Maher]

If somebody comes something that never lens it ain't.

[Joe Scarborough]

I said have some perspective so. And I would say to anybody if you're from everybody.

[Bill Maher]

I would say that to the Republican Party that says the Americans.

[Joe Scarborough]

I would too.

[Bill Maher]

Good for people to agree about this. So why are you yelling?

[Joe Scarborough]

Because.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Why not?

[Joe Scarborough]

Because I don't like when people put words in my mouth.

[Bill Maher]

That's why I did not do that.

[Joe Scarborough]

You did it over and over again. I could show the tape.

[Bill Maher]

Show me the tape. Show it to me.

[Joe Scarborough]

Can't believe this guy has his own show. By the way, what are the chances Congress averts another government shutdown? So where are we with the. You would know that. Government shutdown. Is this the only.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Aren't we all disgusted with it? So it's like every news. I mean you have to talk about it every morning and then you talk about it once a week. And I lived in it and I just thought the word cr. I'm like, why can we not fund the government? Why is this so complicated? Why can't we have a balanced budget? Why is it always overspending? But are they going to fund the government? No, they're going to fight on TV so they can make all of you at Home mad. And, and to the point where we all have just outrage fatigue, just constant outrage fatigue.

[Joe Scarborough]

It seems like it's the only weapon that they ever pull out is we're crashing the game board over and we're not playing anymore.

[Bill Maher]

Right. That can't be again. And both sides do it.

[Joe Scarborough]

I mean, they didn't do it when you were in Congress.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, we shut down the government to balance the budget. We told Bill Clinton we were going to keep fighting, so.

[Joe Scarborough]

But you didn't do it all the time, right?

[Bill Maher]

No, we balanced the budget four years in a row, so we were happy.

[Joe Scarborough]

So you're saying it's a good thing?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, it's a. It's. Sometimes it has to be used. But the problem with what's happening now compared to when I was there, total different. We'd have all of our appropriation bills. They would all go through. Usually the President would sign them. And then at some point about 15 years ago, they say, okay, you know what we're going to say? Stop having what's called sort of like regular order. And we're just going to get the three Republican leaders and the three Democratic leaders together. They're going to do these huge omnibus bills.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

That's right.

[Bill Maher]

And then they're going to tell Everybody with like 24 hours left, here's the bill, vote on it.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

And it's over 1,000 pages or more.

[Bill Maher]

And so there's not buy in from the members. So that's why you're more likely to have government shutdowns.

[Joe Scarborough]

Now, was there more congeniality than.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, my God, yes.

[Joe Scarborough]

When you were there?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, when I was there, there.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Was no congeniality when I was there.

[Joe Scarborough]

No congeniality.

[Bill Maher]

When I. When I was there, you was again. I know it's hard to believe, but I was considered like one of the most right wing members. I would come in and what did I do? I would go sit and talk to Ron Dellums, who was a Black Panther in the 60s. He's from Berkeley.

[Joe Scarborough]

And you hugged.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, and I did. I went over there and I said.

[Joe Scarborough]

Who did you hug?

[Bill Maher]

Max and Waters.

[Joe Scarborough]

And that was the beginning of the MeToo movement.

[Bill Maher]

Max and Waters, of course. Thank you so much. Please, please don't put words in my mouth. Words are strawberry. But you know what I found was when I go over there, you talk to somebody for 5, 10, 15 minutes and you're like, wow, this guy has lived this extraordinary life. And we became lifelong friends. Most of my friends that I met, I knew how Republicans felt and what they believed, because. But we were able to do that then. And I will tell you, chairman of the committees. Most of them were chairman of the committees. They did not put up with you trashing the ranking member. I can remember one time Floyd Spence from South Carolina started to say something about whoever the ranking member was, and he cut me off. He goes, no, don't talk about him. He's a great guy. We disagree, but we work together. And the longer you're here, you're going to. But I have a lot of friends.

[Joe Scarborough]

I remember John McCain that were there.

[Bill Maher]

Who said, it's miserable there now that this doesn't happen.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I call it the political industrial complex. It's now the two parties. It's an entire industry where so much money is made on both sides of the aisle. You've got the political consultants, email, fundraising, all types of people that generate income based on creating this hate among the two parties. And the Democrat Party and the Republican Party message on it. And they message it home to the people at home, because if they can build hate and fear to the other side, they drive people to donate and vote. And I think that is what has completely destroyed the ability to work in Congress and work across the aisle is because of this political industrial complex that feeds off of hate and fear. And it's just destroying our ability to get along.

[Bill Maher]

Because people have seen me setting up straw men and then knocking them down and setting next year knocking down. I wanted to tell everybody here, as you're talking about dealing with people who think differently than you, I was telling Marjorie the story about when we first met, and I'd love. Since they saw that last little thing that I did, I'd love to just say for those, everybody here probably doesn't know it, but I was here, what, 90, maybe 96.

[Joe Scarborough]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Bill Maher]

The old show, Politically Incorrect. And, you know, I was from the South. I was conservative. I was a Southern Baptist. And somebody on your show called me a racist and a bigot. And of course, at that time, 99.9% of your audience was really left wing. There would always be one guy with a NASCAR shirt that would be the one guy that cheered for me. But you stood up for me, and I never forgotten it. And you said, you said, hold on a second. The only bigot I see here is. And you pointed to the comedian who was trying to get a cheap laugh. I mean, and I've never forgotten that 34, 35 years later. And that's the sort of thing you don't see in Congress. You don't see people getting out of their comfort zone, you know, and it makes a difference, you know?

[Joe Scarborough]

Let's hug it out, bitches.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Come on.

[Joe Scarborough]

Thank you, Joe.

[Bill Maher]

Catch all new episodes of Real Time.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

With Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch him anytime on HBO on Demand.

[Bill Maher]

For more information, log on to hbo.com.