Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (2:15)

I'm searching for intelligent life on earth. So I'll be very. I'm not into that.

Anna Paulina Luna (2:21)

Well, I think we're in a boogie first.

Paul Begala (2:25)

You may not be into that, but they're into you. Okay. I mean, whether you want and believe it or not things, why do they

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (2:32)

always put the probes there if they're that sophisticated? Can't they just, like, stand this?

Paul Begala (2:37)

But, you know, but see, there's. Okay, but if you want to be serious about it. There was an era where we heard a lot about probing that ended because, I mean, we never heard about any of it before we got nuclear weapons. Right after the nuclear bomb went off in 1945, suddenly the aliens were like, maybe we ought to pay attention to these people.

Anna Paulina Luna (2:55)

Well, there are reports of sightings and whatnot dating back into even, you know, for many, many, many, many centuries.

Paul Begala (3:03)

If you're talking about some of the stuff like we see in hieroglyphics and drawings, I think it could be, yes. It could be like they built the pyramids. That's true.

Anna Paulina Luna (3:12)

Well, I think that there's a lot of theories, but based on what we're seeing, evidence wise, there is one specific agency where multiple members of Congress, to include myself, received a briefing from. All of that information will be declassified. And the stuff that we saw in that briefing, we can't explain.

Paul Begala (3:25)

But, I mean, I get back to the anal probing.

Anna Paulina Luna (3:29)

Odd topic.

Paul Begala (3:31)

It seems like there was a time where they needed to do that to find out about it. I mean, like, so many people have this almost the exact same recollection. Now, maybe it's some psychological phenomenon that we don't realize, but people independently seem to have this kind of vague memory and they lost a little track of time. Maybe it was the ghb, I don't know. But it seemed like the aliens were trying to find out what makes these people tick, who are these humans. And then I think they got that information. And in the last 10, 20 years, it's not been that. What it's been has been very, very serious people. I'm talking about military people who are constantly saying, we see things we cannot explain. Either China has a weapon we don't know about, which is unlikely, or it's just something. You're going to have to tell me what it is.

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Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (4:52)

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Anna Paulina Luna (5:06)

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Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (5:17)

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Paul Begala (5:25)

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Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (5:31)

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Paul Begala (5:32)

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Anna Paulina Luna (5:34)

Rated PG13. What we've seen in the briefings, and I actually asked this question to Secretary Clinton, as she was actually going to, had she won her election, be in charge of disclosure and actually releasing some of this information. And she thinks that the American people. I think this is one of the most bipartisan things in Congress currently and bicameral in the Senate as well. But we should be able to release the information that we have specifically pertaining to this and let the American people decide what it is. Look, some of it is balloons, some of it is drones. And then there is a portion of it that we can explain where you have credible people from all walks of life confirming it. And I will tell you, based on the evidence that we have seen, there

Paul Begala (6:12)

is something there and credible people, not just in the military, but in government, including Democrats.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (6:18)

I was struck by what President Obama said, and I agree with it. The vastness of the universe is such that the arithmetic makes it pretty likely.

Paul Begala (6:24)

Right.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (6:25)

And the vastness of the university is such. The universe is such. It's pretty unlikely that we're going to cross paths. And I think that's also true. I mean, it just. It seems to. I'm a skeptic, but I like what you're doing, Congresswoman. Put it all out. Let people decide. I'm a skeptic. Maybe you can do well.

Anna Paulina Luna (6:40)

No, I think this gets into deeper. If you have time, listen to the Joe Rogan podcast. I did. But this gets into a deeper discussion on where you are at spiritually. And I think there's just a lot that we have and can't explain. But look, my biggest concern and why I got involved is because I had the Department of Defense at the time tell me that we were not allowed access and I have the highest clearance possible. So if you have a duly membered, elected member of government, not just myself, but other members being denied access, you have this aspect of then who's really in control if we're writing the checks. If you have the Pentagon failing audits being denying access, this is a problem. And so there is this aspect of government Transparency going back to how do we actually fix this country? And you have to start with transparency.

Paul Begala (7:24)

Okay. What do you make of the. This is for you, Paul. What? What do you make of the recent polling that suggests California may be choosing between two Republican candidates for governor?

Anna Paulina Luna (7:37)

I love that. I'm sure you do.

Paul Begala (7:40)

We have jungle primaries out here, right? I mean, I think that means you can have as many candidates and the top two, it doesn't have to be from different parties. It's the top two no matter what party. And the top two polling now are both Republicans.

Anna Paulina Luna (7:53)

That says, join me, come on.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (7:57)

It just means the Democrats got to get their act together. I don't live in a state that does this, but I kind of like the idea of these jungle primaries. The idea is, I think, to produce more moderate nominees.

Paul Begala (8:07)

Totally. Yes.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (8:08)

Seems like a good idea if it produces two Republicans. That's what it produces. Democrats got to get their act together and hone in on one or two of their strongest instead of having 20.

Paul Begala (8:17)

Let me ask a follow up question. What does that information tell you about Gavin Newsom's chance to get the nomination? Because obviously he's running for president and Josh Shapiro is running for president. And I mean, Josh Shapiro, he was here last week. He has a really good story to tell about his state. Now, I like Gavin a lot, but that's a lot harder story to tell.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (8:38)

Oh, I think my party has more talent than I've ever seen. This is part of the tragedy of Joe Biden running is that he had the best bench behind him that I've ever seen. And Gavin is part of it, and Shapiro's part of it. Wes Moore, Andy Beshear, Now I'm naming people. My buddy Rahm Emanuel has been on your show. He's seriously thinking about he's winning the ideas primary.

Paul Begala (8:56)

You have a fan favorite among us.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (8:57)

Well, Rahm is one of my closest friends. Okay. So if he runs, I'm for, period. I mean, he and I, wow, we're like brothers.

Paul Begala (9:02)

Right?

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (9:02)

But, but in terms of talent, let's put them, we don't know until they're on the track. Let's put them on the track. And, but I want, unlike in 2024, I want a primary and I want it to be vicious. I want fighting.

Anna Paulina Luna (9:15)

So you want maga?

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (9:15)

Steel, sharp and steel.

Anna Paulina Luna (9:16)

So you want maga?

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (9:17)

I don't, but I think I certainly don't want maga. But when Hillary ran against Barack, I was a part of that group. I was for Hillary, but I was like, oh, this is Terrible. It wasn't. It wasn't. The toughest primary I ever saw in my life was Hillary versus Barack. And it made Barack tougher and stronger and smarter. It made Hillary Secretary of State, party united. So I'm now for tough primaries. You know, my Uncle George always says this. Uncle George's law is about these kind of family fights. He's like, you know why God gave his family? So we wouldn't have to fight with strangers.

Lowe's Advertiser (9:52)

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Paul Begala (9:55)

I heard Gavin use this phrase culturally normal. Did you see that?

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (9:59)

No.

Paul Begala (9:59)

He was asked about, I guess, how the Democrats can win. And I think that phrase is going to bubble up. He said, they have to learn to be more culturally normal. How do you think that? Put some meat on those bones. What does that mean?

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (10:13)

We used to be the part, and now we're the party of the faculty lounge. And I say this. I'm a faculty member at uva, but this elitism, this intellectual elitism on my side is so off putting. And the sanctimony, the judgmentalism. I saw Andy Beshear recently. He told me that someone talked to him about and the phrase was justice involved populations. Do you have any idea what that is?

Paul Begala (10:37)

Prisoners.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (10:37)

Prisoners. I grew up in a prison town. We did not call them justice. We call them crooks. Prisoners, Convicts. Inmates.

Anna Paulina Luna (10:43)

I think Gavin made a big mistake with his reading comment. And I just think that, you know, I actually know Nicki Minaj. She's now, as, you know, very Republican. But I think that she pointed out, you know, this aspect of politicians make these comments and they're not themselves.

Paul Begala (10:59)

What are you referring to? Tell them what you're referring to. Well, he was talking to the mayor of Atlanta.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:03)

Yeah. I don't want to misquote him, but basically the implication was he wasn't, you know, good at reading.

Paul Begala (11:07)

He was trying to say, I'm one of you.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:09)

Yeah.

Paul Begala (11:10)

So he basically said, you know, I'm dyslexic, I don't read very good like you guys. And it just came. It just was.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:17)

But it's insulting, right? It's like the. It's like.

Paul Begala (11:19)

It's insulting. And it's also a function of. When you're on a book tour, running for president, you do a million events a day, your brain is fried at 8 o' clock at night, and you're trying to, like, not step on a landmine. And you do. And I think we all have to show some grace when people do that. Look, no one thinks he's really a racist.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:39)

I will say. I will say this, though. There have been a number of occasions I actually reached out to him directly on helping out with the Tory Lanez case. As you know, Tory Lanez is convicted for allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion. Right, Allegedly. But there's a lot to that with the evidence, really. Yeah, there is.

Paul Begala (11:56)

This is important.

Anna Paulina Luna (11:57)

And his office actually was contacted about potentially pardoning. And what I will say is that, you know, I think that there's a lot of people that had reached out to him, but he's not the only one. There's another case specifically. It's pretty high profile, and I just, you know, that'll come up if he runs.

Paul Begala (12:11)

This rose on your list of, like, important issues.

Anna Paulina Luna (12:14)

These are. You would be surprised. Megan Thee Stallion case, there's. Well, we had someone reach out and this was kind of following the whole issue of, you know, gun law, chain of custody, improper prison and prison reform. And so, yeah, it's like kind of one of our things.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (12:30)

I dabble in that justice involved populations. Congresswoman gets you.

Anna Paulina Luna (12:33)

Yeah, prison reform. Right.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (12:35)

They're not prisoners anymore.

Paul Begala (12:40)

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a new warning threatening broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions. Does the administration have legitimate gripes or are they just unhappy with negative coverage? Yes, the chairman of the FCC is threatening people. Threatening. I mean, God, the hypocrisy on both sides. But really, I mean, this is the country of everything's terrible unless our side does it. Well, look, when Biden was president, it was terrible infringement on free speech. And now this guy, the head of the fcc, basically saying, we're going to take your license if we don't like the joke, you do.

Anna Paulina Luna (13:15)

Well, I think joking's a big difference than running foreign propaganda. And I think this gets into a bigger.

Paul Begala (13:20)

Who's running for.

Anna Paulina Luna (13:21)

Well, getting into bigger kind of discussion here. What we're finding specifically with, you know, our amazing country and having our First Amendment is that countries use it against us. And there have been instances, and I think that this time ties into kind of the conversation of influencer disclosures on who they're taking money from, whether or not people are advocating on behalf of a foreign government. And so tying to. That I had read loosely into this, and what I will say is that if you have someone that's knowingly engaging in pushing propaganda for a foreign country and you actually can catch them, that's a little bit different case. If you have people that are knowingly making false statements, you know, drive by character assassination, different than joking.

Paul Begala (14:02)

Okay, but this is. That's not what this is about. They're threatening people. They're threatening. They're threatening networks.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (14:08)

The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect us from the government.

Paul Begala (14:12)

Yeah.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (14:12)

Okay, Corporations. CNN could fire me tomorrow. They have a perfect right to. Okay, fine, that's not censorship. That's just, I did a bad job. They fired me. But the government weighing in, saying, you have to fire Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher. That's bullshit. That's fascism.

Anna Paulina Luna (14:29)

I think there's a line, though. I think there's a line like certain networks, you can't say certain things on television. Right. Or else you're civilly liable. And I think that this kind of ties into. Look, admittedly, I have to look into it more, but what I will say is that I think the fcc, if people have licensing. I'll get into this real quick before we move on. When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I actually contacted the FCC and I asked them to take down the videos that were being reposted of him because there were other outlets that were posting it very quickly and they were refusing a takedown and the family wanted those videos down. And they contacted the different social media platforms and they basically said, like, your terms and conditions say that you have to adhere to a certain guideline, and if you guys are not going to do that, we have to reevaluate. And it did admittedly force these people, people to take down that assassination.

Paul Begala (15:21)

And anybody who made fun of that was repulsive.

Anna Paulina Luna (15:24)

Yes.

Paul Begala (15:25)

And yet in a free country with free speech, bad taste cannot be outlawed. I mean, after he was assassinated, we basically had blasphemy laws here for a couple of months. I don't know if it's still going on, but you just could not say anything about Charlie Kirk. And, you know, to be people.

Anna Paulina Luna (15:44)

People said certain things, but I think there's a big difference between saying things and actually glorifying his assassination and wearing shirts with blood on it, calling and saying that he was rightfully executed.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (15:53)

Horrible.

Paul Begala (15:54)

Horrible.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (15:54)

Just like When Donald Trump Jr. Mocked Paul Pelosi when he was fighting for his life.

Paul Begala (15:58)

Yeah, exactly.

Republican Congresswoman or Political Commentator (15:59)

Animal bashed his head. That was appalling. Everybody criticized it. Who said those things.

Paul Begala (16:03)

Everything's terrible until our side does it, and then it's perfectly okay.

Anna Paulina Luna (16:09)

I'm not making excuses, but what I will say is there is an aspect of our own First Amendment currently that's actually being exploited by places like China that's inundating with propaganda. And there are people, there are very wealthy people that are currently being investigated without saying too much, that have been caught tied to terrorist networks and other countries like China pushing propaganda in an effort to break our country apart. That is a fact. I will come back and explain. And I can do an entire segment on China.

Paul Begala (16:38)

You're all good. You're good at this. You're good at your job.

Anna Paulina Luna (16:44)

It's my job. I believe in this.

Paul Begala (16:45)

No, I know you do. Final. Final question for you. Who better represents the future of Maga? J.D. vance or Marco Rubio?

Anna Paulina Luna (16:59)

Oh, that's a dirty question. That is a dirty question you can't answer. So I just. Well, I don't know if it's true, so I don't want to speculate. I think them as a ticket would be a winning ticket.

Paul Begala (17:10)

But who's on top?

Anna Paulina Luna (17:11)

Well, I think they'll have to battle it out. But I think that Secretary Rubio has done a phenomenal job in foreign policy. He really has. He was the only Cabinet appointee that was actually unanimously voted into the position. And he also has, I think, one of the higher approval ratings currently.

Paul Begala (17:33)

Okay.

Anna Paulina Luna (17:33)

And so he's done great. But JD Is also someone that I campaigned with actually in California during the presidential primary, and someone that I think has the ability to connect with people on a level. You know his story, Hillbilly Elegee. He's the type of person that did come from a normal upbringing. We need more of that in Washington,

Paul Begala (17:51)

D.C. okay, thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Anna Paulina Luna (17:54)

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.com.