Political Autopsies and Retiring Politicians

Welcome to an HBO podcast, from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Ma. Thank you very much . Thank you very much, Peter . I appreciate it. How you doing? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Please just uh I appreciate it, but we have to start withs just it's have to start there's so much news to get to. I'm not even gonna tell you what happened with the Iran situation this week because you you'll think it's a rerun and turn the show off . Really? I'm telling you. This is this is not a rerun. Uh I mean unless they're showing it in a couple of months, then I guess it is a rerun. But it's May 29th today. That's where the day is. But every week it's uh we're so close. We're so close We're like that store that's been going out of business for 10 years, you know, just every week. Out of business. And and the rhetoric it's just getting uncomfortably sexual for me. They want it so bad. We're almost there. Jesus Christ. I need a cold shower after I watch Jake Tapper now. It's just ridiculous . Trump says Iran is negotiating on fumes. Yes, and we're driving them. And uh but a little good news, a little light at the end of the tunnel, for the first time in 88 days, Iran got their internet back. They had been living without any internet, and uh everybody in the country got it and said the same thing. Spencer Pratt is gonna be the mayor of Los Angeles . Just didn't know But I tell you , due to the war and the gas prices and like nine other things , Trump's approval rating lowest ever , 34%, even underwater with white uh people who did not go to college. That was always his base. That's like Taco Bell losing stoners. I mean, that's I mean, really . Losing the losing the non-college educated white people. What's he have to do? Stage UFC fights on the lawn ? Oh, we're doing that. I forgot. We actually are doing that. That's right. My bad. I forgot. Uh but uh oh no, not just that. A lot of exciting things happening back there. We're having a big 250th birthday party for America concert. They announced the lineup. Vanilla Ice . I'm not making that vanilla ice, Millie Vanilli, Morris Day, Brett Michaels. I think this is very admirable about the president. It shows he's concern for the unemployed. And then after they announced this all-star lineup, uh a lot of them said, no, what are you talking about? We're we're not playing. That's gotta hurt a lot when you can't close the deal with Millie Vanilli. And I guess we should have seen this coming, given the pattern of this administration, the uh Justi Jceustice Department is opening criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the woman who sued Trump successfully about sexual harassment and defamation. And uh Trump is mum on it. He says he cannot comment on an ongoing retribution. Okay, but this is such a pattern. If you cross Donald Trump , oh my gosh, they will come after you with anything. It doesn't ma they will find anything. They're going after Eugene Carroll for alleged perjury and also bringing more than four items into the changing room. I I mean Country, uh Trump is put the they're putting out a $2 50 bill with Trump's face on it . I guess it's commemorative, but I think maybe you can also spend I don't know, Republicans in Congress are thrilled about it. They cannot wait to carry it in their wallet. What a switcheroo, having Trump's face next to their ass. Oh we can gentle good gentlemen. Gentle good gym though, that's all . And look, sorry I have to report this. This is horrible news, but I have to report. People get their news from the show. Ebola is in Africa and it's b apparently not completely under control . Started in a gold mining town. Trump is very concerned. He asked today, is the gold okay? Uh I killed. And uh no but this is especially concerning because the the the heads of our health departments are Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Ox. And well, they are. And there was a video of them this week. They were hanging out at Dr. Oz's house, and Bobby Kennedy is wrangling snakes. I don't know if you know pet snakes or they just found them in the garage, but there's Bobby Kennedy wrangling snakes. And I have two questions. One, is it right for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be engaging in such risky behavior? And has Bobby ever come across an animal and just left it the fuck alone ? All right, we got a great show. We have former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, wow, and Katie Turr are here. But first up, he is an astrophysicist and director of whose new book is called Take Me to Your Leader, Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter. Neil deGrasse Tyson there is My brother, how are you? Wow, you really brought it tonight. Wow. Well, I must lead off by congratulating you on the Mark Twain question. Oh, thank you very much. I feel this. I appreciate it. Um it goes to people who simultaneously piss you off inform you and make you laugh. Yeah. And you do this uniquely Well I pissed them off because I'm right. But anyway, there's this thing . But I gotta get right back at you because you know I've read all your books and this one I feel like you hit your stride. I think they're all good, but this one I think it your's best, and I think you don't get the shine you deserve as a writer because you became a TV star. You did. And people forget that only happens because the books come first. Because the real work is there. I feel like this is your best one. First of all, it's the most personal to me it was. I mean the fact that you for example, say when you were a kid, you wanted to be abducted by Elliot. Yeah, oh yeah. You really w not to leave Earth. I mean I like E arth, but the Bronx. It was the Bronx, New York. But it was I just thought the immensity of the universe called to me. And the only way I can get there, given the state of any science or technology on Earth, I would need help from aliens. So I wanted a beam of light to come down from the sky and take me away. Yeah . So you're disappointed that didn't Yeah, kinda a little bit. Uh a little bit. Yeah. Even after reading what they do to people. So I maybe that was before I read about the body orifice. Okay. Curios ity. But it you gotta admit it'd be curious. It's odd that aliens would cross the galaxy to go look in your butthole. That would just be that that that's No it's not. Oh it was not That's where you would look. Uh not not well but wait, up through there . That's medically that's what we do anyway. We we look we look in there before and it's yes. Well b okay so so dogs do it dogs go up the butthole. No they just sniff there. We have instruments. They have instruments. They're looking it's not about the butthole. It's about getting inside the body through the butthole. What would be interesting is if the aliens had some of these dog elements to them and you greet them and the first thing they want to do is go around and sniff your butt. Let's talk. No, no, but seriously we they might have habits that would be strange to us. Okay. I knew we were waylaid with this. Okay, go. Because you're the book is I love that editorial you do. Thank you. I appreciate it. Right. And and you you actually say there's a near certainty that there is alien life in the galaxy. I know you're more skeptical about what we're seeing now, some of the things we've talked about that. You're more skeptical about the fact that I mean it has changed. The the peop the very serious people are saying these things. The narrative have shifted significantly from the farmers back forty saying they saw it f floating over his crops to revelers coming out of the bar at two A.M. to So that was decades ago, and now we have high-ranking people who, speaking sincerely, under oath, saying they've got aliens in the back shed or reverse-engineered technologies, crash saucers, alien body parts. So what it it what it says to me is, okay, is it now too much to ask to say, bring out the alien ? Age of disclosure, yeah. Age of disclosure, that it's sometimes not even the president who seems to have the authority. It seems to be disparate throughout the government. Even the president himself does it. And I don't know what that means, but I'm not sure that that's not uh very possible with the way our government would be in on it. So that's not news to me that that's a possibility. Well all I'm saying is we have enough information to the point where if they did bring out the alien, it would be almost anticlimactic. Given given what's been described about it and given how we've been treated to every possible imagined alien that you can come up with in a century of storytelling on that subject. So uh you know what would surprise me if they did bring out the alien and it was humanoid, because that's weird . Most life on Earth does not look human with whom we have DNA in common. We have 20, 25% identical genes with a banana. So an alien from another galaxy that has no genes at all should look at least as different from us as we in bananas look from each other. The same . So be so be creative. Be creative. And if it actually looked humanoid, I would be shocked, but fine. I'll accept it. But I'm I'm waiting for that to happen. And it's it would be anticlimactic because I've already told you it's there. It is amazing the lack of imagination that we have when we make movies and the aliens are always just some variation. They look like us, but they got weird ears or they got uh you know ridges in the Ridge or four fingers instead of five. Something like that. It just uh did you did you see uh Yes I did. So so that was Andy Ware, the author, all also wrote um The Martian, and actually he handed me my one of my highest compliments ever. He's a software engineer turned novelist. He was writing the Martian. There's a lot of science in that. When he was gonna play loosey goosey with the physics, he imagined I was looking over his shoulder. And he didn't want me tweeting about it later. So so he doubled down on the science. Really? Well on on pr on on The Martian with Project Hail Mary, which is kind of like a alien buddy movie, a little bit. Yes, with a rock. With a rock, okay. Rocky. So was his name. So what I liked about it was he tried to break open the Hollywood trope of the humanoid alien. This was crabo id and it was made of rocks and it lived in a different air condition uh air pressure and and air compos ammonia, uh atmosphere. So he's just trying to break the mold. You shouldn't fault him for doing that. No, but it still seems like whenever they go to another planet in a distant uh uh part of the universe, it still looks like San Bernardino. Broadcast that we've ever made has gone into space, like anything that was put put out in the airwaves. Yes, some some airwaves will go out better than others. Like FM goes straight out. AM remember in the old days? You can hear AM radio stations from neighboring cities, but FM you couldn't. On a clear night, you could hear Atlanta from the case. Yes. So these are waves bouncing off the uh one of the layers of the atmosphere. So not all waves would get out, but television would, FM would , and other sorts of radio projects. Everything that's been on TV. Yes. Or you know, a speech by Hitler has been is out there. S comms are out there. Yes. Honeymooners. Well, not if you were cable most of your life. No, I did a show on P Politically Incorrect was on A. It wasn't that's correct. Right. But they might like my But they might like my earlier work. So it's a radio bubble. So it's a radio bubble. I hear they're a little woke. No, though they will they don't know to like or dislike. They will use you, the early signals that are available to them, as uh as a emissary of what it is to be human on earth . Okay, now what preceded you was like the honeymooners and howdy duty. And you know, and the honeymooners, you remember, we we all laughed when Ralph Cramden threatened to punch his wife to the moon. Right. And that was considered funny. If the aliens first get a hold of that, I don't know what they'll think of us. I know. But I I mean if they're if they're that smart , they'll see that and then they'll see everybody loves Raymond and they'll go, okay . They grew up. Okay. They advanced. Okay, I would like to think that.. Right But if they did visit and really looked around the world, what forms most of your content in your monologue would be evidence to the alien that there's no sign of intelligent life on Earth. Okay, well is that why you're not here? Because they immediately went back home. That's one of the points I made in that editorial I did was that we used to panic about them coming here, and now I welcome it. Because one of the reports said that they may have stopped uh you know, they have dis what? You making that face at me. No, no, I'm listening. That there was a uh a a they said it hovered over this Air Force base and that it it absolutely made the nuclear missiles unable to fire. If they're doing that, I say bring it on. Yeah. In fact, that's the subtext of the original and the subsequent films, Day the Earth's There's Still. The aliens found out that we had developed nuclear powers in nineteen fifty one, and they said this has destabilizes the solar system and all other life forms. They came here to stop it. Right. So this has been a subtext for quite some time. AI. I got to ask you, what is the connection? Broad question, but AI and aliens. I mean, is there any connection? Are they you think they're more present possibly here because we got onto AI and this worries them or it encourages them or is there a connection? Yeah, in the book I make a very simple point that if AI is the exemplar of human intellect and the alien is much smarter than us, that's a pretty low bar for them to be worried. Okay? It's it impresses us that computers can be the sum of all of our intelligence. But if we are, if chimps are to us what we are to aliens, consider we have ninety-eight percent identical DNA with chimps. Yeah. So there's a lot going on in that two percent. So imagine an alien species that's two percent beyond us in that same vector, what would we look like to them? We might be babbling chimps in their presence. And so so if we say, oh, we got this AI and it's brilliant, they'll just laugh us off the street. And uh It'd be like the chimps building an apparatus to reach the bananas instead of them having to stack boxes to do so and they'd be really proud of it, and that'd be their Einstein chimp, and then we just look at that and laugh, because our toddlers can do that. That's what we would look like to that. So the idea that we're let's look for other intelligent life in the universe comes with a really big assumption that we're intelligent. And who def who said we're intelligent? We did. Okay ? Well not some exterior measure of our life form versus others. Well, I don't know. I everything I've learned about science after sixth grade , I know from you. So I'm just gonna take that as gospel. Alright, I gotta get to the panel. Always good to see you, my friend. Thank you so much. It's a great book. Everybody should read it. All right, let's read our panel. Hi . Kevin's back. All right. He's a former Republican congressman who represented California's 20th district and served as the 5 5th Speaker of the House. And he came back to this show, Kevin McCarthy . Unbelievable . And she's the anchor of MS Now as Katie Tower Reports and best-selling author of Unbelievable, her new show, The Moment with Katie Turr, launches Monday, June 15th. Katie Turr. Great to see you. Okay . All right. I I want to start with Texas tonight because, that's a little political news for people who don't um junkies who follow this. There was a primary down there. And I think it tells us a lot because you know, a lot of what I read and hear is just bullshit. It's just people's opinions and this and that . Elections are real. Those, that is the one thing that's real. It tells us what people are thinking and it what matters to them. Okay, so they had an election Republican primary. John Cornyn, he was the old school there,. he is Yes, the Crocker German. Like just you know, just like very what was he, a judge or something before this? Attorney General. Attorney General and four terms. He's Republican classic. He lost by almost 30 points to the nut. I'm sorry, but he is. Ken Ken Paxton. The current attorney general. The current attorney general. And this this guy is right of Attila the Hun. I mean, I'll just if if you watch MS now all the time, turn the sound down for 30 seconds because I'm gonna tell you what he believes in and it'll blow your fucking mind. Uh near total abor abortion ban. Eighty percent of Americans are are against that. Uh he sued five cities that decriminalized marijuana. I take that personally . Gay marriage said county clerks had religious objections they could opt out of uh issuing them 69 percent of Americans are for gay marriage. Okay. And he still won, uh also an election denier, still won by almost 30 points. Now he's gonna face the Democrat. They've been saying forever a Democrat could win. Is this the time it could happen? I mean, if you're going to talk about a perfect storm, isn't this the moment for the I I would put my own money that the Democrats are. Paxton is a uniquely vulnerable candidate, as you laid out. He's extremely far to the right. That's not so out of step with Texas. But at the same time, he's been accused of fraud and corruption over and over again by his own party right in Texas. He's not the ideal candidate for them. You know this. John Cornyn was the ideal safe candidate. The Cook political report, the second that Paxton won, went from likely to lean Republican. That's a that's a decent swing. The internal conversation, and you tell me if I'm wrong about this, because you know probably know better than I do. Two hundred and milli fionfty dollars to protect Paxton in that race, two hundred and fifty million dollars that can't be spent on Georgia or North Carolina or Alaska, so maybe not Texas. Well, you're saying the Republicans have to spend that. They have to spend that to defend Texas to defend Paxton against James Tallerico. I mean, as Trump better than anybody knows, money doesn't really win the elections. No. Hillary outspent them by a fortune in twenty six. Okay. But in some places, if you're going to play money, look, I I like Corny, I thought Cornyn did a tremendous job, came close to be something . But there comes a point when maybe you serve too long. He spent $100 million and still lost. Now, remember what this is. This is a runoff from a primary, so there's fewer voters going . But he overwhelmingly lost. He lost because Trump. Trump endorsed. He voted with Trump ninety-seven percent of the time, or as Trump calls it not good enough . And Trump wanted the other guy. So again, just one more thing and then I'll shut up. But like again, to my point about elections tell us things. What does this tell us? That Trump said I throw my thunderbolt at John Cornyn and the people obey. Yeah. So you're reading into Paxton. What it really means is President Trump is probably stronger than any president in our lifetime, stronger than Ronald Reagan in a Republican Party. There's another election that took place there that Trump was-it was a Chip Roy who was a congressman, who was running for attorneyal Gener. Trump did not endorse. Simply by not endorsing, he lost. Ted Cruz was 100 percent behind him, out there campaigning. The president can determine who's going to win in a Republican primary. Yeah, but is that going to win a general election? Yeah, but I will bet the Republicans win Texas. But will it be closer than it should be? All right . But this is the problem. You have to read into it. If Republicans are spending money in Texas, that means it's less money for Ohio, Iowa, Alaska. So that's it. And money is not equal in politics. This Democrat is raising a lot. The more money the candidate raises, the stronger you are because you get TV time at a lower rate. Paxon doesn't raise great money, so the party has come in. But if you currently add up all the money from all the can from all the parties, Republican versus Democrat, Republicans have 800 to the Democrats 200. Republicans may have a negative feeling. Democrats are 10 points lower. Democrats are in the hole money-wise. They put out a report that they denounce about why they lost the races. Their leaders are very unpopular. This should be a year where the Democrats have this unbelievable year and they're not going to have that. See, they're not going to have an unbelievable year but for the redistricting that has been happening. If you asked me this question a month ago, I'd say Democrats are going to win the House. Okay. Now what's going to happen though, Republicans just added nine more points. Now, I don't like this redistricting idea. My f my first bill in the state legislature was to put it with a commission. I like competition. When I became leader in the Republicans, Pelosi became speaker. What are you what are you looking at me for to stop? Stop him, Bill, stop him. Four years later, we won the majority by five seats. I picked up five more seats in California and didn't have to redraw the lines. So I it makes you have better candidates, better message, you should have competition. It's the way the founders designed America. Why are you calling President Trump and telling him that? I fought it the whole time. But for the same point , for the same point, why didn't we call New Mexico when they did it? Why didn't Illinois when they did it? Why didn't we do in in New York when they did it? This has been going on by both parties for a long time. But I've called it. That's true, and now they took it to another level. Yeah. And it's going to harm the country because there's less than twenty seats in the U.S. Okay. Can I get back to Texas here? Oh, yeah. Paxton. Okay. So you have Attila the Hunt on this side. Then we have this guy, James Tallerico. We we had him on the show recently. I mean, uh he seemed like a nice guy. He seemed very reasonable. They're spreading rumors that he's gay. Or even worse, vegan. In Texas, vegan is worse. No, I'm telling you. He said he ran a vegan campaign. What he said what? He's on video running a vegan campaign. That doesn't play well in Texas. No. He he's he he said he said some things that don't play well in Texas, like God is non-binary, which if there isn't. It is a silly thing to say because it's just it just looks bad on a poster or at hand. Okay, but listen to this. So Stephen Miller of the Trump administration, uh right there with Attila. Uh he said the Democrats made history by nominating their first transgender Senate candidate. That he's just pulling out of his ass. Even if they did, it should not be disqualifying. I mean Jewish for the Democrats, yes, but not transgender. Uh then the Democratic Twitter account fired back, shut up, you ugly fuck . This is the official Democratic Twitter account. And then Stephen Miller's wife fired back at the woman who ran the Twitter account and said, She's thirty, unmarried, no kids. Uh first of all, I love it that that's the worst insult they can think of Everybody I know who's unmarried with no kids, that you know, that that's good, you know. It's so ugly and and our politics I mean listen, politics has always been dirty and to a degree, but it is so much uglier now than it ever was. And there is one person that opened the door to that. The question is, how do we get it back? And especially right now, I don't think Americans, there might have been a time where people were amused by that, but they're paying $4.50 for a gallon of gas in most places, much more here in Los Angeles, as everyone in the crowd knows. Much more here. Six ninety-nine. But how do we get out of that? How do we I think you have to look for somebody that's gonna help you rise above it. I mean, um the Hungarian election that happened just the other day, ousting Viktor Orban. This guy came in, he went county to county, sometimes uh multiple times, and he told them that the leader is corrupt, they are stealing from you, they're taking money from you from you, they're making their your life worse. I'm gonna bring this country back together. And he he had a more inspiring message, not getting down into the into the mud the way that a lot of Democrats have been doing with uh Donald Trump. I think it's gonna take somebody who comes in and finds a way to bring us all together. What about Matthew McConaughey ? Wow. He makes good movies. You knew you said that out loud. I know, I've been thinking it. I thought that maybe that was just your inner boyhood. Hey Matthew McCarthy, he would be All right. Um I have to move on. Changes in sexual performance are more common than most people realize, and support doesn't need to feel awkward. With MedExpress, everything happens privately online. Start by completing a short consultation reviewed by UK registered clinicians. If eligible, treatment is delivered discreetly to your home, with ongoing support whenever you need it. You're not alone in this. Visit mediexpress.co.uk slash podcast to learn more. Uh I had Spencer Pratt on my podcast the other day. I think it drops. You know what? I know I'm supposed to hate him. I don't. He runs great ads. Yeah, I mean He's a nice guy. He's uh he's what's charming about him is he has no advisors. I mean confronted him on like, you know, this and this, you're gonna have to think about. No, I only care about the issues I care about. So he's very honest about that. Uh it's funny because he's running as a Republican and doing quite well. Everybody out here is like, what do you think is Ben Sopratt? He's on everybody's mind. I was asking him about that. He's very un-Californian in that way for a guy who's from Califor nia. But then I found out he's actually very Californian because he sells crystals. Uh he sells I'm not kidding . He sells healing crystals , which Which yeah, there I mean things like this, which look I people have gifted me with these. Uh I should try I'm a little under the weather this week. Maybe I'll go home and sit on it. I don't know what how you but uh maybe they work like uh uh this is real, like clear quartz, they say it's always a little vague. Good for amplifying energy and focusing intentions. Uh amethyst promotes tranquility, uh citrine invites wealth. Well, those aren't all of them. Would you like to hear the oh I thought you would. There's so many crystals. There really are. And here's what some of them will do. You might want to get in on this. Like Himalayan salt naturalizes the dark energy in your home after your in-laws watch Tucker cars . That could be very valuable . Uh sapphire clears mystical pathways that allow you to recognize when your girlfriend gets a haircut. Uh oh, pink, pink calcite, that's good. Brings alignment with forces that silence your Uber driver. Uh oh, Opal, very good. Helps you stay grounded when your chatbot starts blowing smoke up your ass . Uh Tiger's Eye absorbs negative thoughts to make shower sex seem slightly less awkward and disappointing. Uh this lith removes resonant blockages so you can read the redacted names in the Epstein file. That's uh lithium light quartz harmonizes all of the natural world to make your dog shit quickly when it's raining. And Micah, harnesses spiritual energy in a way that keeps your Guinness Poultrow vagina candle from starting a wildfire. All right . That's I know because we could . Um So uh not to be picking on Donald Trump all the time, but you know, what can I say? Even after ten years, I must say he does things that you'd think after all this time we would see coming, you know, things that nobody ever did, but he still thinks of them. That a president could do that nobody did as president but and one of them now is suing the country that he is leading . This was the big story this week. If you don't know about it. Now he there was a crime here. I mean somebody leaked his tax, not just his, by the way. They leaked a lot of rich people's tax. And that and this guy's going to jail for five years. Yeah. Okay. Not supposed to do that. But a president suing his own government, so he's the and then he settled. He settled with them settled with himself, a lot easier than settling with Iran, apparently. But um But he's very The sewer. I I I don't know. But the uh this okay, so anyway he settled, and now the money is going instead of what the lawsuit was, it was for ten billion dollars, he said, nope, we don't have to do that. But the money is going to what they're calling an anti weapon Which will go to the people he thinks have been uh guilt have been victims of lawfare, would we call it? So that means the January 6 people. Means the January 6th people now, not only did they get a pardon, now they're getting paid . They're getting paid for attacking the Capitol. Is this the right incentivization, Kevin McCarthy? Okay, I I believe this. You can condemn the violence on January 6th and still believe some of these defendants had excess persecution and political treatment. Because I do. I do both of those. They don't automatically get any money. Give me one example. But people who were put in solitary confinement, not allowed to get out. Look, there are people on January 6th that I I condemned that violence, but there were some people that were caught up just walking through. But let me let me give you some . How do you go back at your government? Were you still in Congress? Yeah, I was escorted out. Okay. Let me ask you this. What if your government, say you are in power, you control the presidency, you control the Senate, the other party has the House. You have an individual that wants to go after these people. So they go after the speaker's cell phone. But they don't tell the carrier who the person is. They don't even tell the judge who the number is, because when they they get asked, say we're afraid of the person leaving the country, even though they have 24-hour surveillance. You know what that person was? Me . So our own government went after my cell phone records , when I became Speaker of the House, when I was the highest ranking Republican, never asked me for them, I'd hand them to you, but I think we have separation of powers. What recourse does anybody have? I'm not going to sue. But how do you make sure that doesn't happen to somebody else? If they would go after the Speaker of the House the second in line to the President, they can go after anybody. And if they can lie to the judge and say, I can't tell you who the number is because I'm afraid this person is going to leave the country? I think we're stretching it. Was this in regards to investigating January 6th? But they didn't get the information in your conversations. It was just the calls that were made between you and the White House that they were looking for. No, they went they went for the whole month. They never told me. But they didn't get the content of the call, did they? But why do they have the right to my number as is? But weren't they investigating Donald Trump and they were just trying to find out what he did on that day in the sequence of events and it just happened to only call me? Why do they ask for the whole month and why do they wait to the speak the highest ranking Republican, the Speaker of the House, the second in line to the Presidency, and you think not even asking him for it, but you lie to a judge whose number it is, you lie to the carrier who it is, and then when you get asked about it, well we had to lie to you because we are afraid they would leave the country. That's a concern with all the power that prosecutor has. So if the administration wanted to say, okay, we don't think that was fair and this is what we're gonna look at. Or did they hide it? How do we ever find it out? Then why are they not saying we want to create this fund, but the January 6th rioters, the ones who beat up cops, are not allowed to apply for this, why not put a structure around guardrails around the other thing. I think you have three questions here. Okay? And why pardon all of them blanketly. Well okay. Be pardoned all of them. I don't that's a difference of opinion. Do you think we're going to have a But the first thing that has to happen is who is allowed to get recourse from this? Who makes that decision, who what type of money does it come from, and does Congress authorize it? I think that's the criteria. I think you're bringing it to a different place. What is making this so insane for a lot of people is that the January 6th writers are clearly who this is intended for because the administration keeps saying, of course they're allowed to apply, we're gonna consider each case. They're not saying people like Patrick, or I'm sorry, David Dempsey, who stomped on an officer's head, went on an hour-long rampage, beating up officers, using metal poles, pepper spray, broken furniture to go after cops, sentenced to 20 years in prison. Donald Trump pardoned him. And now we're gonna pay him? Nothing says. But nothing says you're trying to do it. Nothing says we're gonna pay him. Nothing says we're gonna pay him. But why is the administration not saying, of course we're not gonna pay this guy Of course we're not going to pay Andrew Paul's. The President gets to gets to dismiss any one of these panelists if if he so chooses. So how does he not get to be the same? I think the Senate is correct in asking the criteria. They would not put any guardrails or Democratic. No, it doesn't make sense that Biden didn't just go after my cell phone numbers, went after a number of s Republican senators too. Didn't go after any Democrat, and then didn't ask him and didn't But let me ask a political question. Yes. Because I'm starting to get bored. Um does this kind of thing hurt him? I mean his approval rating is the lowest ever. I feel like that's because the people, even his people, sense there's just so m so much self-dealing. So much stuff like I mean, stock trades, money managers for the president made more than thirty, seven hundred trades in the first quarter, including, for example, Nvidia on January 6th. Oh oh, and coinc identally, a week later they cleared Nvidia to sell chips to China, which we always said was something we really shouldn't do. You know, China not exactly our best friends. I mean stuff like that. I mean, look, I never traded one stock, individual stock when I was a member. I'm not talking about you. I know, but I don't I watched Nancy Pelosi do quite well. I don't think any member should trade stock, and I don't think they should be able to. Okay. I'm just saying something like this you know I mean look the I know Martha Stewart's pit the thing that hurts the most is the the price of gas is going to determine a lot what's going to happen in this election. Where where is the price of gas going to be? Where where's uh the economy at? And the people are going to have questions. But that's rightfully so. Why the Republicans in the Senate are asking the questions they're asking. I think forty-nine percent of the population uh uses the word corrupt around Donald Trump. I they see it. They're not comfortable with it. Yeah, I think they do. I think they see that there's always a side deal. There's always something for the February. It looks like he has this idea in his head, like I'm doing this job. I could be just relaxing in Mar-a-Lago, but I'm doing this job. I gotta wet my beak a little. It's not a little. No, it's not a pouring the whole swamp on the water. Well in his mind maybe it's a little The Democrats will have the opportunity to say Donald Trump is self-dealing, look at these stock trades. They'll have the opportunity to say that Nancy Pelosi is the leader and So the Republicans are going to continue to run against Nancy Pelosi. That's a strategy. No. I I I I look forward to Nancy retires. I don't know we're in the majority though . All right. I have one final issue I want to get to. The Pope. Whenever me and the Pope agree on something, I feel like there's something with the planets going on. I I don't know what it is. But I I mean I've been all over this AI thing. I said a f a few weeks ago, month, I don't know when it was, but I said like of all the issues I've ever covered, this is the one I find literally the most alarming. When the father of AI, Jeffrey Hinton, says it is a 10 to 20 percent possibility of an extinction event, an extinction event. And the Pope is on my page. The Pope put out an encyc lical and would artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed, he said. Also, I thought really interesting the commencement addresses are going on at colleges right now around the country. Yes. And people got some rude awakenings who were doing the speaking because they thought, oh the kids, kids love new stuff, I'll bring up AI. Boo . The kids are booing AI . The kids don't like they get it that they're gonna take all their jobs. Yeah. I mean listen, you have all these tech CEOs, these AI CEOs coming out and saying twenty percent of the jobs are gonna be gone. This is gonna change everything. You're not gonna need workers. Well, how do you expect the population to confront that and to accept it. Also we can end the world. Okay, great. Let's keep going what is the plan? You're right. Dario Amoti, he's the CEO of Anthropic unemployment, he says, could spike to twenty ten to twenty percent. That's what it was in the Depression. Yeah. Uh Ford CEO said uh AI will leave a lot of white collar people behind. Uh could replace half of all white collar workers. I mean, and what is the plan? I don't get it. It's like, oh well, no no one will work anymore, but so we'll give them a universal basic income. With what? If they don't work, that money has to come from the government . How are they gonna get it to the government if the people aren't paying taxes? I think Kevin will agree with this. I think people want it's not even just a universal basic income in the way that doesn't make sense. People want a purpose. They don't want to sit around and do nothing. They want to do something with Well there's this seven million young men who are not unemployed. They're not working. But it's di unemployed is your you want to work and you can find a job. Seven million people who are just what they call NILF, not in the labor force. Not working, not in luck . So not all of them think this is a bad thing. But you want to send it. Look, we're living through an industrial revolution that's going to be faster than we watched before. Our policies are not keeping up with it. This is going to be a real challenge. For all of the for all the fear you have of AI, there's also positive things that can afford to. So I think what you really need, you need the policymakers to get ahead of this. Create a formation that you still allow AI to grow here in America , but at the same protections at the time. But there is going to be disruption. And you you ought to acknowledge it and find the policies ahead of time to get ahead of it. Time for new rules, everybody. New rules . Okay . All right, new rule. Uh now that Spirit Airlines is no longer with us. Algilean Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and Jet Blue must all participate in a new reality competition called America's Next Top Terrible Airline . Where the pilots say I'm not here to make connections . That's right, America's next top terrible airline. Flight attendants prepare the cabin for sucking. Uh uh Neuro, the makers of this $10,000 toilet have to tell us what's happening in this picture . I get that this smart toilet represents Kohler's commitment to blending artistry with innovation, offering homeowners a contemporary aesthetic that complements diverse styles and elevates everyday spaces. But why outside? Other than that, you totally have me. I mean my God, it seamlessly fuses sculptural beauty with effortless functionality to embody a work of art made to empower self-expression and elevate the bathroom experience. Plus you can shit in it. Um before visiting the New Jersey doctor who claims he can increase the girth of your penis by injecting it with filler made from the bell belly fat of dead people . Consider that you might be creating an even bigger problem. Sure, you sure you have a little more self-confidence, but now your dick is haunted. Uh New World the OnlyFans models who are upset at Sydney Sweetie's portrayal of one of them on euphoria must be honest about why they're upset. It isn't because she's inaccurately portraying the OnlyFans industry or mocking the women who do it or setting back the cause of sexual liberation. It's because she's doing the same thing you do with better tips. Uh no well someone has to tell the woman who's racked up over one million views with this video of a mysterious creature lurking in her back alley. Um that's a tree. I thought I smoked a lot of weed . All right, and finally , no . The next time the Democrats need an autopsy, they have to hire an actual coroner. Because he or she couldn't do worse than the gutless stiffs they have doing it now. You probably heard the party released their autopsy on the November 2024 loss last week in May of 2026 . Because the Democrats are like Don Corleo. They insist on hearing bad news immediately. Oh, nobody remembers the movie, huh? What a shame. What a shame. You ought to check it out. It's very good . Well, I've spent a good part of my life trying to get straight answers out of politicians. And I gotta tell you, while they're in office, you kind of have to trick them. This statement from the administration: the president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest. That's too vague for you? Totally vague. Okay, because that's from Obama. And he's one of the good ones . But you know when politicians get super honest when they're retiring, or even better dying. And especially when they're dying politically. If you're at four percent in the poll s, oh goodbye bullshit, hello bull worth . Make you talk? We can't get you to shut up then. I see it here all the time. Politicians who are intransigent partisans or lackey water carriers, and then they're out of office, and it's read my book where I say all the things I should have said but didn't during my 500 years in office. Recently the press has gotten very excited about some Republican senators who've had just about enough of Trump's shenanigans . Yeah, because they're retiring. Like Senator Tom Tillis. Ooh, Tom's mad. Tom is mad these days. As we were previously discussing , the January 6th rioters are now gonna get paid for participating in the lucrative new field of insurrecting . And Tom Tillis is all over the news now saying this is stupid on stilts. Suddenly Tom doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks. You can tell by his tie . Same with Senator Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary, so now he found the courage to say the words sludge fund, and Mitch McConnell, who coincidentally also has nothing to lose . Goes even further and says it's a slush fund to pay people who assault cops and that it's utterly stupid and morally wrong. And for once he means in a bad way. And And that's progress, I guess. I just wish he talked that way when he was alive. These guys are all the same. They're like this serial killer who's about to get the chair, so he figures, what the hell, I might as well tell the cops about the other 20 girls I buried in the woods . Republican Lee Atwater and Democrat George Wallace were both lifelong racists who somehow found the courage l ate in life to renounce those beliefs. And when I say late in life, I mean after they got shot and after they received a diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer. Two-term President General Dwight Eisenhower delivered one of the most important messages a president has ever uttered when he said we should beware the military industrial complex. He said it forcibly, he said it clearly, and he said it three days before he left office . He's the guy who yells fuck you as the elevator door closes You know, maybe instead of asking what would Jesus do, people should ask, what would I do if I were in hospice? A frequent guest of this show, who I always called my favorite congressman, was in hospice recent ly. Barney Frank died this month. But on the way out, he said, I want to use my unfortunate situation to say something that I think is very important. He said the key to liberal democracy, being able to come back is to get rid of the perception that we have allowed to grow, that the entire Democratic Party is committed to a series of very drastic social reconstructions that go beyond the politically acceptable. And there, in one sentence, is the autopsy the Democrats have been so desperately searching for. From a guy who delivered it right before he needed one himself. It sounds a lot like what Obama said after he left office. The average American doesn't think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. They just don't want to see crazy stuff. Is this really so hard a message for Democrats to say? There's a Democrat who's running for governor here in California now who's saying it, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan . Yeah, because he's at 4% in the polls. Everybody has been calling me lately saying, you gotta have this guy on. He's the sensible Democrat we've been looking for. To which I tell them, one, this is a national show, it's not all about you and your life in California . Two, how did you get this number ? And three, what's his plan to get the leaf blowers to shut the fuck up in the morning ? But also, you're right, he does sound sensible. Because he's at 4% . That's when everybody's brave. If he got to 40%, would he still be saying, as he does say, we need Democratic leaders in California who are willing to say no to their friends . Mmm. That would be the unions, the bureaucrats, the lawyers, the consultants, the regulators, and all the special interest friends who make living in this state such a frustrating , maddening experience. It's why the railroads don't get built, the potholes don't get filled, the homeless don't get housed, the kids don't learn. Did you know that a black fourth grader in Mississippi is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in math and reading as one in California. Mississippi is kicking our ass in education and for way less money. We're thirty-seventh in fo urth grade reading. They're ninth. Texas is kicking our ass in green energy. The average time to get solar panels connected there was three to four months. About a thousand days faster than it took me. Remember when I was trying to get my solar hooked up ? It would have been quicker to build a windmill. So Texas has passed California in solar and blows away California when it comes to wind and energy storage. How does a state with no pro-climate policies produce better climate results than a state where here, even though we have so much better stickers on our bumper Prius . Bumper stickers on our Prius , you know what I'm saying ? I'll tell you why. Because you're allowed to build there. Because every third person in Texas isn't someone whose job it is to make sure nothing gets done. Democrats, these are your issues. Education, race, the environment, and I say this with love. You're losing to the Waffle House car on the lawn states. All right, that's our show. I want to thank my guests, former speaker, Kevin McCarthy, Katie Turr, and Neil DeGrasse Dyson. Reparandum drops every Monday on YouTube or listener if you get your podcast. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. And I thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much . Catch all new episodes of real time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch him anytime on HBO on D emand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.