Overtime – Episode #718: Chris Christie, Chrystia Freeland

Summary

Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime – Episode #718

Guests: Chris Christie, Chrystia Freeland, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Date: February 10, 2026
HBO Podcasts

Episode Overview

This Overtime episode of Real Time with Bill Maher brings together former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a lively, candid roundtable conversation. The discussion weaves through current U.S. political norms, partisanship, recent quirky news, the evolving world order, and the contrast between American and Canadian political discourse—with each guest sharing unique perspectives and plenty of humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Presidential Lawsuits & Trump's Unchanging Nature

Timestamps: 00:40–02:47

• Maher and Christie riff on Donald Trump’s habit of suing critics and adversaries, reflecting on Maher’s own experience being sued.
• Christie clarifies: He never apologized to Trump for the “orangutan” lawsuit, and is known for calling out Trump publicly—even after they had dinner together.
  • Quote:

    "If you watch the show, who's harder on him than I? No one. So no, I didn't apologize."
    (Chris Christie, 01:29)

• RFK Jr. and Christie agree: Trump hasn’t changed at all over the years, despite the office’s supposed gravitas.
  • Quote:

    "The majesty of the responsibility does not weigh upon him."
    (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 02:15)

• Constitutional Reflection: Christie jokes that the Constitution never anticipated a president suing his own government—it would’ve been like banning a werewolf.

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2. New York’s Snowstorm and Leadership Critique

Timestamps: 02:50–03:49

• RFK Jr. grades NYC Mayor Mamdani’s snowstorm response with a "C," criticizing pile-ups of garbage except around official residences—implying self-interest over public service.
  • Quote:

    "You know the one place, Bill, that is pristine ... the sidewalk in front of Gracie Mansion."
    (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 03:15)

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3. Diets and Pop Pseudoscience

Timestamps: 03:49–04:29

• Panel pokes fun at the trending keto diet and its exaggerated claims, including supposed health miracles.
• Christie mentions the cyclical return of diet fads.

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4. Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and Gendered Spaces

Timestamps: 04:29–06:39

• News item: Pentagon/WAR Department cutting ties with Boy Scouts; confusion about historical naming.
• Panel debates the logic of single-gender youth organizations.
  • Christie and Freeland argue there’s value in single-gender groups, especially for girls during formative years:
    • Quote:

      "Very important for girls sometimes not to have boys around."
      (Chris Christie, 06:23)

    • Freeland agrees, noting her experience growing up in Canada, where such groups remain common.

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5. Trump’s Naming Deals & Shamelessness

Timestamps: 06:47–08:41

• Christie introduces a report: Trump is supposedly willing to bargain federal funding to get his name on Penn Station or Dulles Airport.
  • RFK Jr. lampoons:

    "He's brought shameless to an art form."
    (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 07:18)

    • The panel imagines a future where Trump names major landmarks after himself for political deals—“Trump Kennedy Center,” “Gulf of America.”
    • Joke:

      "AUDIENCE generally, no. But specifically yes. ... If tomorrow was Donald Trump presents the Gulf of America."
      (Chris Christie, 07:47)

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6. The Politics of Privately Spoken Republican Dissent

Timestamps: 08:49–10:12

• Freeland presses Christie: What's really said among Republicans when the public isn't watching?
• Christie admits: Many GOP members privately criticize Trump but praise him on camera for political survival.
  • Quote:

    "In the green room at ABC, they'll say, ‘You're so brave... He's nuts.’ And then they go out on camera ... ‘the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.’"
    (Chris Christie, 09:10)

• Names dropped: Lindsey Graham called out as an example.

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7. U.S.-Canada Politics and Global Order

Timestamps: 10:12–13:01

• Freeland & Christie touch on the civility of Canadian campaigns versus U.S. attack ads.
• Christie references: Mark Carney’s speech at Davos, about global order shifting—specifically, the declining reliability of the U.S. and China's growing influence.
• Freeland offers a heartfelt plea:
  • Canadians like and respect America; it’s sad to see democratic decline and possible reliance on China.
  • Quote:

    "The world, especially the world's democracies, will be really much poorer if you guys don't get your act together. Because a world in which we need to start relying on China. This is not a world where human rights matter. ..."
    (Chrystia Freeland, 12:19) "I think Winston Churchill was right when he said America does the right thing after trying everything else first. So could you please, finish trying the other stuff and start doing the right thing?"
    (Chrystia Freeland, 12:56)

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8. Closing Remarks

Timestamps: 13:01

• Christie lightens the tone: “All right, we'll end it there. Thank you, Krista. Thank you, people.”
• Freeland and Maher plug new episodes. [Ads and outros skipped]

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Notable Quotes

• Chris Christie:

  "If you watch the show, who's harder on him than I? No one. So no, I didn't apologize." (01:29)

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:

  "The majesty of the responsibility does not weigh upon him." (02:15)
  "He's brought shameless to an art form." (07:18)

• Chrystia Freeland:

  "The world ... will be really much poorer if you guys don't get your act together. ... This is not a world where human rights matter. ..." (12:19)
  "So could you please, finish trying the other stuff and start doing the right thing?" (12:56)

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Memorable Moments

• Good-natured cross-talk about the confusion between Girl Scouts, Girl Guides, and country-specific traditions.
• The panel’s comic riff on Trump potentially rebranding major American landmarks after himself.
• Chrystia Freeland’s earnest appeal to Americans about safeguarding democracy.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp Start | |-----------------------------------------------|----------------| | Presidential Lawsuits & Trump’s Consistency | 00:40 | | NYC Snowstorm & Leadership | 02:50 | | Pop Fad Diets Discussion | 03:49 | | Boy Scouts, Gender, and Group Identity | 04:29 | | Trump Naming Deals & Shamelessness | 06:47 | | Private Republican Opinions on Trump | 08:49 | | U.S.-Canada & Changing World Order | 10:12 | | Freeland’s Call to American Democracy | 12:19 |

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Tone & Style

The conversation is spontaneous, irreverent, and often comedic, with honest, sometimes biting opinions and jabs, especially around U.S. politics and Trump. Chrystia Freeland provides a counterbalancing earnestness, especially in her internationalist perspective and faith in American democracy. The overall vibe: playful, pointed, and ultimately hopeful.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

This podcast is sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. When you own your own business, you own every decision.

[Angus Wall]

I'm Angus, the founder of Elastic. We're the design studio that created the Game of Thrones main title. When you start a business, you're creating a world. I love that thing of like, I don't know how to do this, but I'm going to figure it out. You have to innovate and you have to travel into the unknown. Our small world can change the big world for business.

[Bill Maher]

World builders everywhere. The business card that rewards every decision you make. Chase Sapphire reserved for business cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval terms apply. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maher.

[Krista Freeland]

Okay.

[Chris Christie]

He's the former Republican governor of New Jersey who's a contributor now for ABC News, Chris Christie. And she's the former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Christopher Freeland. Okay, for the panel, should there be a law that says the President can't sue people? Well, he's suing everybody. I mean, he is. That is one thing that he never changed one bit from when he. I mean, he sued me, remember, with the orangutan thing, and. Let's not bring that up.

[Krista Freeland]

Did you apologize for that?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

No.

[Chris Christie]

Fuck no. Why would I apologize?

[Krista Freeland]

I thought you had supper with him and you talked about it.

[Chris Christie]

Yeah, I had supper with him. I didn't apologize. This is one of my frustrations. People get the facts wrong.

[Krista Freeland]

Sorry.

[Chris Christie]

That's okay. But you know, it's not whether I had dinner with him, it's what I said about him after dinner.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Right.

[Chris Christie]

Which as I have never pulled a punch. I came back on the show and did what I always did. Some people stopped watching the show because I had dinner with them. If you watch the show, who's harder on him than I? No one. So no, I didn't apologize.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

And by the way, why shouldn't you do that? Exactly right. And that's part of the problem with our country right now is that families won't have dinner with each other if they disagree on politics. And by the way, you said that's one way he hasn't changed. I've known him for 24 years. What way has he changed?

[Chris Christie]

No, none, none, none.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Like he's basically the same person.

[Chris Christie]

Oh, yeah.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

That I met in 2002.

[Chris Christie]

No, being President does not change his MO at all.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

The majesty of the responsibility does not weighed upon him.

[Chris Christie]

But the idea that you're. I mean, no, you know, we didn't put it in the Constitution that the president can't sue people or anybody or anything or his own government, which he's trying to do. Suing the irs, suing the Justice Department because they didn't think it would be like putting in a clause that said he can't turn into a werewolf. You know, it's like they just never thought it would come up.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Yeah, we can't. We can't get all over Adams and Madison on this one.

[Chris Christie]

No, they just. There was no. Who knew. Okay. How would you grade Mayor Mamdani's handling of New York's snowstorm last month? Well, you were in the area.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Yeah, I'd give him a C. Cause he seemed to move a bunch of the snow, but couldn't figure out how to do anything else when that was going on. He didn't pick up the garbage you walk through. All my kids live in New York City. I've been there since the snowstorm. The garbage is piled up everywhere. But you know the one place, Bill, that is pristine. The garbage is gone. And the stuff. There's no ice. Even on the sidewalk in front of Gracie Mansion.

[Chris Christie]

Is that true?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

It's absolutely true. So, like, socialist motalist. Like, take care of my thing first.

[Chris Christie]

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. I read this today in the paper. RFK says keto. The keto diet. You know what that is? Keto? Like, almost.

[Krista Freeland]

It's like, only protein.

[Chris Christie]

No, no, it's mostly fat, I think.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

And no carbs.

[Chris Christie]

No carbs.

[Krista Freeland]

No carbs.

[Chris Christie]

It's fat.

[Krista Freeland]

A lot of butter.

[Chris Christie]

Yes. You know what? It's what? Jack lalanne. Anybody remember Jack lalanne? I mean, even before my time, I just. But like in the 1950s, it was. He and Bodybub were saying. They were saying, let's do. And this is. It kind of came back into style. He's so suggesting it cures schizophrenia.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Who would know better? Who would know better? Medical expert Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Other.

[Chris Christie]

Items I just saw in the news. Pete Hegseth says the War Department, which we used to call the Defense Department, is going to. You still do.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Only they call it the War Department.

[Chris Christie]

I mean. I mean, it is a re. We used to call it that. George Washington called it that.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Yeah. A little bit different back then. Yeah.

[Chris Christie]

Anyway, they're going to. Whatever they are, they're going to cut ties with the Boy Scouts. I didn't know we had ties with the. I didn't know there was a liaison.

[Krista Freeland]

Or maybe the Boy Scouts asked them to do that.

[Chris Christie]

No, I don't think so. I think this is coming. I think. Well, first of all, the Boy Scouts did let in girls. That does seem crazy. That does seem crazy.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Then we have the Girl Scouts, too.

[Krista Freeland]

Girl Guides.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Girl Guides. They are. But why?

[Chris Christie]

Yeah, right.

[Krista Freeland]

It's Girl Guides. Boy Scouts. Right.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

It's Girl Scouts.

[Chris Christie]

Girl Scouts.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Girl Scout cookies.

[Chris Christie]

Girl Scout Cookies.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Am I missing something?

[Chris Christie]

You don't have that in Canada.

[Krista Freeland]

We have Girl Guides. We have Girl Guides. Boy Scouts.

[Chris Christie]

Girl guys.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Girl Guides.

[Chris Christie]

Guides. Okay, well, same thing. All right. Whatever country. We're talking about. What other name? We're talking about the fact that it's okay to have just a group of one sex, gender, whatever we want to call it in the formative years when they perhaps have interests that don't co. Align with the other group. I mean, boys.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

How dare you, Bill?

[Chris Christie]

How dare you? Is that not progressive enough? Should we always. Should the Boy Scouts have girls? It just seems ridiculous.

[Krista Freeland]

And I think for girls it can often really be great, especially young girls to be on their own.

[Chris Christie]

Much better for girls. Very important for girls sometimes not to have boys around. Yeah, it is even more important for the girls. Yes, I would agree. We heard you. Nine years of bring back the snack.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Wrap and you've won.

[Chris Christie]

But maybe you should have asked for more.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Say hello to the hot panny snack wrap. Now you've really go to McDonald's and get it while you can.

[Chris Christie]

Okay. Trump is going to want. We didn't even get to this story. That's how crazy this country is. He's willing to make a deal with Chuck Schumer. Oh, yeah. To unfreeze funding for infrastructure projects that Schumer wants. If Schumer agrees to name Penn Station and Dulles Airport after the President.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

I can't. He's brought shameless to an art form. In somebody's darkest moment, somebody's darkest moment, they might say they lived in New York City all their life. What?

[Chris Christie]

God.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Wouldn't it be great if Penn Station were named after me? But do you never say it out loud like it's. But you know what? You're not surprised, are you?

[Chris Christie]

Yeah. AUDIENCE generally, no. But specifically yes. I mean, like, if tomorrow. I mean, he already renamed the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico. The Gulf of America. If tomorrow was. Donald Trump presents the Gulf of America.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

The Trump Kennedy Center.

[Chris Christie]

Yeah, the Trump Kennedy Center.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Have you seen that yet? I drove by it with the name on it.

[Krista Freeland]

But Trump shut down for some reason.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Well, yeah. Well, because no one will go there but the Donald J. Trump. Here's the Interesting part, because he doesn't, again, deal in subtlety. The sign says the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Arts Center. I mean, I read the paper every day. I miss that.

[Chris Christie]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Krista Freeland]

I have a question for you, Governor.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Oh, sure.

[Krista Freeland]

I think one of the reasons that Epstein stuff has been so riveting is it's what all these rich and powerful people say to each other when we're not listening. So I want to know, what do Republicans say to each other when we're not listening about what's happening in America right now?

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Look, so many of my fellow party members, especially, come up to me because I say all this stuff out loud. And they. In the green room at abc, they'll say, you're so brave. That's so great. I totally agree with you. He's nuts. And then they go out on camera to be interviewed. They are the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln. And then they come back in the green room and they say to me, you know, I have to do that, but, like, I don't really mean it. That's what they say.

[Chris Christie]

Like, who specifically? All right, Bill.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

Overtime's not long enough to give you all the names, but I'll give you one. Lindsey Graham, Which, by the way, was what he was saying when he was running for president in 2016. But I guess if you get invited to play golf, then off you go.

[Chris Christie]

Well, knock me over with a feathered boa that I'm wearing with a silk robe. This is for Christia. Do you agree with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney? Is that who you ran against in the primary?

[Angus Wall]

It is.

[Krista Freeland]

He's also my son's godfather.

[Chris Christie]

Oh, wow.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

That must have been an interesting campaign.

[Krista Freeland]

We were friendly.

[Chris Christie]

Canadian campaigns are so different.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

They're so nice.

[Chris Christie]

They just. They don't. They don't get.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

They're nice.

[Chris Christie]

They really are.

[Krista Freeland]

Look, guys, we have a democracy, and we're not having a fight inside our country right now about how to count the votes. So I'd say please dismiss them, right?

[Chris Christie]

Oh, no, absolutely. I'm not dissing them.

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]

You have nice campaigns. We don't.

[Chris Christie]

I mean, I've been in Canada when elections were going on and saw on the local TV attack ads, and I just laughed out loud. I mean, they're just what they consider an attack. So, anyway, do you agree that he said Prime Minister Mark Carney said that we're witnessing a rupture in the world Order? He gave a very powerful speech at Davos a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure Trump didn't like that. But it seemed to be saying to a lot of the world, as you said before, we can't rely on the United States. And we seem to be driving China, you know, into the other countries, rather into other countries driving us into China. I mean, you know, there was an old song. I want to be around to pick up the pieces when somebody breaks your heart. Well, we broke a lot of hearts, and China's like, I'm going to pick up the pieces.

[Krista Freeland]

Yeah, Look, I think it was a brilliant speech. I think it was really, really important, and I think it's really sad. And, you know, I would say to you influential Americans, to Americans here, we really like you. Like, Canadians like America. Yeah, no, we do, actually.

[Chris Christie]

Oh, I know.

[Krista Freeland]

And we respect.

[Chris Christie]

And why wouldn't you? We're still fucking awesome.

[Krista Freeland]

No, actually, you are awesome. And you have done so much as a country.

[Chris Christie]

Yes.

[Krista Freeland]

And the world, especially the world's democracies, will be really much poorer if you guys don't get your act together. Because a world in which we need to start relying on China. This is not a world where human rights matter. This is not a world where democracy matters. And, like, I feel kind of weird saying this, not being an American, but, like, America's really great. And I actually. I think Winston Churchill was right when he said America does the right thing after trying everything else first. So could you please, like, finish trying the other stuff and start doing the right thing?

[Chris Christie]

All right, we'll end it there. Thank you, Krista. Thank you, people.

[Krista Freeland]

Catch all new episodes of Real Time.

[Bill Maher]

With Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch him any time on HBO on Demand. For more information, log on to hbo.com this podcast is sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. When you own your own business, you own every decision.

[Angus Wall]

I'm Angus, the founder of Elastic. We're the design studio that created the Game of Thrones main title. When you start a business, you're creating a world. I love that thing of like, I don't know how to do this, but I'm gonna figure it out. You have to innovate and you have to travel into the unknown. Our small world can change the big.

[Bill Maher]

World for business world builders everywhere. The business card that rewards every decision you make. Chase Sapphire. Reserved for business cards issued by JPMorgan, Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply.