Ep. #734: Sam Levinson, Rep. Ro Khanna, Jonathan Martin

this episode is brought to you by palm olive family time isn't just the big moments it's weeknight dinners sitting around the table everyone talking all at once so when the plates are empty and the sink is full use palm olive ultra palm olives most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 of grease leaving your dishes sparkling clean and the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together shop now at palm olive.com endless summer escapes start here travel the worlds of netflix irl inspired by fan favorites like stranger things and squid game brave the upside down face off with the front man play leveled up arcade games shop exclusive merch and enjoy themed food and drinks beat the heat play eat and shop on repeat at netflix house at galleria dallas bring your crew and save get your tickets today at netflix.com welcome to an hbo podcast from the hbo late night series real time with bill maher welcome to an hbo podcast from the hbo podcast from the hbo thank you thank you very much wow oh i appreciate it what i do thank you thank you very much wow this is a this is a this is gonna be a great show that is a pumped up crowd you're scaring the shit out of me i know why you're happy we have an iran deal finally a deal with iran and i i love this deal we got everything we wanted except for everything we asked for it's actually it's actually a very simple deal they're gonna stop enriching uranium and and trump is gonna stop enriching his family no uh we didn't even get that we didn't get that we can get anything i just hope we play iran in the world cup so we can beat them at something because this first of all it's not a deal it's it's a memorandum of understanding it's about as legally binding as the sign in the break room that says please clean microwave that's it's it's nothing i mean you know we started with unconditional surrender operation epic fury and now it's memorandum of understanding last thing i got hosed this bag was my dog i mean so much where's the big deal maker what happened to the art of the deal this is his big clothes i got news for you the emperor has no clothes all right i'd say it donald trump when he gets tired of a relationship he's just out i think he just said to the supreme leader you know i think we should take a break um i i just want to bomb other countries yeah other countries they're looking at this they're seeing all that iran got out of this they're getting three hundred billion dollars plus sanction listed lifted assets unfrozen they're all like bomb us bomb us remember when obama unfroze money it was like the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world and now three hundred billion dollars which apparently is going to come from our gulf allies where have i seen this strategy before oh yeah i think i would call it the stormy daniel strategy it's the uh a third party is going to send you money and then we're going to pretend this never happened i mean iran got things in this deal it never had before the straighter her moose is a money maker now you seen that first they had that whole thing about they started tolls they never had tolls there we said you cannot have tolls and they agreed no tolls fees fees oh you know what iran you think you can scare us with this we invented bullshit fees okay wait till you can't get through the straighter her moose unless you get your ticket at ticketmaster okay then talk to us about bullshit fees and i i know what you're saying bill is there any good news yes it's father's day sunday i think that's good news for me i'm not one it's love it's a wonderful thing father's day and fathers and everybody is everybody gets in the mood i i see that uh christine noam's kids uh call her call their father pop because that's what happens when there's balloon tits it's it's something sharp oh i kid but uh no here's some good news you want good news bobby bobby bobby kennedy is getting rid of the blue m&ms all right it's something yeah the blue dye in the m&ms is very bad for you and they're going to get rid of the blue dye out of the m&ms and pour it directly into the lincoln memorial reflecting pool have you seen what's going on with that with the reflecting pool drain the swamp now there's one in the middle of town i mean so if you haven't been following this trump uh thought that the pool was looking a little tired you know used to be a 10 and it was like a six but okay so you know what i'm not against spiffying up the capital but is there anything they try to do that they don't fuck up i mean trump wanted it bluer and now it's green with algae and they can't figure out how to get the algae under control but they did get it to sign a memorandum of understanding okay we got a great show we have representative rocana and jonathan martin are here you but first up he is the creator writer and director of euphoria one of my favorite shows and yours streaming now on hbo sam levinson oh sam how are you looking forward to this for a while it's great to uh be able to talk to you for more than two minutes at a party and you know usually i don't uh do stuff with an hbo show because you know you get accused of pimping for your own stuff for your own network but i feel like your show deserves pimping it's uh it's because it just touches on so many real issues that are in this country of ours in this world but i got it before i get to it i have to say when i told people you were coming on this week everyone said you got to ask him is there going to be a season four of euphoria nope this is it i think in terms of what we set out to do and over the course of three seasons you know we we told the story we wanted to we gave birth to a generation of actors that are incredible craftspeople crew members and feels like the natural conclusion yeah i agree three is a good number yeah two was good for the godfather yeah i can't uh yeah uh is part of it because it's tough to film in la because uh i've been reading how difficult it is that people will go halfway around the world to film something that is supposed to be in la rather than actually do it in la i mean it definitely has its complications i think the price the price season one has almost doubled between season one and season three and the the amount of red tape the kind of bureaucracy the permitting it's all very difficult so part of part of the equation of why you're yeah okay so that's not the reason that we're not doing a season yeah but let's talk about the ending yeah because uh you know it's funny everybody in the world has an idea for a movie you know what they don't have an ending the ending is the whole thing yeah because an ending has to be somehow paradoxically a surprise and also inevitable and i feel like you accomplish that with this because it's a show about addiction and uh so spoiler alert you had to kill the main character yeah i'm i mean look it's doing drugs today is not like it was when i was a kid when you were a kid it's a whole different beast i think you know um 2023 you had over a hundred thousand people die of fentanyl overdoses and the number is is still enormous i think now it's maybe 60,000 70,000 so you're talking about one decision one pill that can just wipe you out and i think it felt like the responsible thing to do if you're if you're experimenting with drugs today the likelihood that it'll kill you is extremely high and and i wanted and i know how much the audience loves this character of rule and i thought if i can put the audience in the shoes of family members who have lost their children their parents their brothers sisters then it was it was the right thing to do and if it can you know give people a a pause before they take a pill then yeah she died but you didn't yes and you right and you spent most of your high school years in rehab yeah is that not right yeah from 11 to 19 11 yeah 11 11 holy fuck yeah that just shows the difference in our generations well you know yeah i mean look i i had a i had a couple of different issues at the time you know i i i struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder all this stuff and i i got put on a lot of medications when i was younger and then i started sort of experimenting with them and you know medications like pharmaceuticals pharmaceuticals yeah don't you think that's a lot of the problem is that yes kids are always going to be confused and have problems and some of it does yeah i'm sure require that kind of intervention but when you start messing with the kids mind i mean look i'm no one to talk about drugs i've done a lot of drugs in my life but i didn't start till i was 19. i didn't know what it was like to bend reality and yeah so i felt that if you start it when you're at 11 yeah or even before if they were giving you medication of course they talk about you know what's the gateway drug is it pot is it beer it's whatever the first thing you ever do is it goes oh there's reality and then there's this yeah this is kind of cool to live over here isn't that what happened to you i mean by and large yeah i mean i my gateway drug wasn't weed it was it was pills it was pharmaceuticals um that the adults gave you yes okay yeah no i mean look it's look i i think there's obviously certain people who need medication for certain reasons but it is there's no doubt that it is over prescribed and is you know messing with people's brain chemistry at a very young age well i'm glad you lived through it because i love the show i know it's the uh i was surprised to learn this uh the network with the sopranos and so many big shows it's the second most watched show hbo has ever had after this yeah no it's not that funny all right after game of thrones but uh but i want to get to the other issue which i think is almost as big an issue as the addiction one that i know you got a lot of heat for it's like okay so you had the first two seasons and then we had the pandemic so there was a lot of gap between when they were in high school which started out as a high school show yeah and then it became this other thing and and okay so now they're out of high school by three or four years and you put them in i mean one works as a strip at a strip club yeah uh one is uh on only fans yeah one is kind of a sugar baby with a sugar daddy i thought this was the exact right choice for the america i see yeah not personally but what i see no but i did an editorial there one we called the masturbation economy yeah a lot of this economy is it just looks like a lot of young women who don't go to college they wind up in some form of the masturbation who have money masturbate somehow that's what only fans is that's what strip clubs that's what all of this is and i feel like that was the right place to put these girls who didn't go to college well it's also look if you look at only fans it is making as much money as hollywood i mean essentially it's on par you're it's not a niche business it is a massive enterprise and so if you're young and you're going you know look i don't want to go work you know nine to five at this place or that thing well maybe i can just start taking photos of myself and you know the question is what are the long-term consequences of that what happens when you know as a young person you're on instagram and these things and so and you're told that you're the product you're the brand and now you're out you're 18 years old and you're going well how do i make money and i just thought chasing that that desire that kind of fast cash was a was an interesting thing to kind of explore and also at the same time you know we caught a a lot of criticism for it but you know there's a part of me that wonders if if the show kind of affirmed this life and how empowering it was whether we would get the same criticism you know we we take a fairly critical look at it it's it hollows out the individual it's you know you're you're constantly just the likes and external validation i i thought the moral center of the thing was always the maddie character i know she wasn't the one that got the most heat from the press yeah i always thought both the actress and the character were my favorites she's wonderful yeah and she's the one who says it's so i forget what the scene was but she says this i guess to the other one i'm not a hooker right because i'm not a hooker and i feel like that said it all yeah like she kind of and she was participating in it to a degree she was mad managing the girls which is a whole new industry um it's sort of light pimping but it is astounding how much of this economy and how many people are in how many young women are involved in this i mean if you can scroll through pornhub i hear like endlessly and you will never see the same girl twice it looks like every girl who didn't go to college is doing this for a living i mean that's why i thought it was an important point to make whether they criticize you or not and also the the sort of grooming of social media yeah you think i mean that that's something i didn't have as a kid i don't know if you did you're a little i didn't i didn't have social media as a kid but it's i mean if you're if you're constantly taking photos of yourself and selling yourself online it's it's the natural evolution of it it is the natural evolution of it that's right so okay i'll let you go but i want to know what you think about these new movies that were out that did so well obsession and back rooms that were made i mean this is something you can comment on probably better than anybody you you're an auteur who just does the whole thing yourself and now we have people who just went right from tiktok to 100 million dollar opening weekends what do you see as the future for this industry you're optimistic about it is that a good thing i'm extremely optimistic about it i think look we've gone through this kind of strange period in hollywood where i always think about it this way in the in the country we've gone through maybe the most politically and socially tumultuous time in recent memory for the last 10 years yet the artistic response to it has been rather timid and i think that that's starting to to break away and whatever the future holds i think that a lot of new voices are going to come in who don't care about the old rules who just want to make something great something entertaining the fact that you know these this kid you know made a movie 750 000 and it's made i think over 200 million is is incredible and i think we're going to start to see more of that um i'm i'm very bullish on on the future of storytelling and hollywood i know i don't i don't know why a lot of people aren't so we're gonna have like 70s movies again oh that's the dream we're like movies like your great father made yes you sound just like him by the way tell him i said hello i will great to see you thank you for the great work all right sam robinson everybody let's meet our panel hey hi guys all right he is the senior political columnist for politico wow and host of the podcast on the road with jonathan martin jonathan martin welcome aboard and you know this guy a democratic and in california silicon valley ranking member of the house china committee former co-chair of bernie sanders 2020 campaign rokhana all right so uh you are in the news right now for you if you don't realize it because you represent silicon valley and i was looking i mean this week was the g7 meeting if you're not familiar that's when the uh big the big economies who aren't china can we put it that way get together right the seven biggest economies in the world okay and you know who else was there sam altman OpenAI. Dario Amodei from Anthropic. The dude from Google DeepMind. Alex Wong from Meta. In other words, the AI guys are now sitting at the table at the G7. Roe, are you proud of this or alarmed? Alarmed? Let me say this. I know these folks. You represent them. I represent them. As we're approaching the. Some of your best friends. Not all my best friends. Some of them don't like me. They spent a lot of money trying to defeat me. But the point is this. As we approach the 250th year anniversary of this country, let me just say this. We didn't fight a revolution to be ruled by tech billionaires. And right now, right now, these people are acting like they're entitled to rule. One of the things, one of the reasons they don't like me is I've called for a billionaire or trillionaire tax. Think about this. For one tax on Elon Musk, 5% tax on Elon Musk, you could pay for child care $10 a day for every American. You could pay for free public college for every American. They don't want to pay a few percent tax. Well, I mean, there's very few people. In fact, there's nobody like that. He's five times more rich than the next richest guy in the whole world. That's incredible. So, we're talking about maybe just an Elon tax? I mean, that'd be a story. You know? What do you think? You've been traveling the country. I mean, is there any part in America? You've gone all over. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, where if you said you want to tax these billionaires, or a trillionaire, a few percent, they'd say, no, no, no, don't do that? No, it's an obvious populist issue. I think it's sort of the horseshoe theory. Far right and far left are coming together in their deep dissatisfaction with the tech oligarchs, and it does remind I think a lot of people of the 19th century and the rail barons, because they had so much power, not just culturally, but economically and politically too. Bill, I think about when Trump was inaugurated a second time, and they had to move it inside because of the cold in D.C. Who was behind him? It wasn't the CEOs of Caterpillar or ExxonMobil. Who was it? It was the top execs at the information economy companies, right? That, to me, was symbolically so important, because it told me a couple things. Trump knows where the power is today, and also those folks know that access to power themselves is everything to dictate their own rules going forward. Okay, well, information is a little different than A.I. I mean, obviously they cross over, but this is a whole different kettle of fish here. I mean, this week we had a situation, where the administration apparently is trying to get is it Amodi's company? No. Not to release. Okay, it's called Fable 5 or Mythos 5. These are the people who make Claude. And they say it's just not safe. That it can penetrate almost all of the government's classified systems. I mean, is it too late already? Don't these handful of on-the-spectrum incels excuse me. Don't hold back. Well, Elon is not an incel. I said Elon is not an incel. There's evidence about that. Yeah, that's true. Okay, but, I mean, how are we going to get the cat back in the bag? I mean, these people already have this kind of money, and I assume this kind of power. I assume if they're inviting them to the G7, they're already afraid of them. They're already calling the shots. I think it's going to be maybe the central issue of the 2028 campaign is because the A.I. impact not just on the economy but also on kids and what kids are seeing and also the basic fact of what's real and what's not. You know, there's an old quote that everybody's entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. Pat Moynihan said that. Well, now we're entering this world where we are sort of living in our own version of reality, and every day that goes by the deep fakes are getting better and better, and it's not just going to be people who are elderly who can't figure out what's real and what's not. It's going to be us trying to figure out, is that video real? Did that guy just say that? Is that commercial actually legit? And it's getting harder and harder every day. You know, but if we want to regulate them, maybe we start by not having three 80-year-old presidents in a row. We need someone who actually understands technology. Give me ideas. You know, you had Mark Zuckerberg. Well, that's ageist, first of all. Well, fine. It is, but it's interesting the way the Democrats who are also always against the prejudiced. That's the one prejudice that's okay. You're fine with having another 80-year-old president? I think it's a case-by-case basis when you're 80. I've certainly known people who are 80, which I'll be in 10 years, and I don't intend to be like Joe Biden. Are you going to announce? No, but no, you first. You know, what's fascinating is this issue squeezes both parties because Trump has been sort of laissez-faire about this, and Vance knows that. And Vance is going to have to take a much more populist hard line because he knows the votes in his party are much more skeptical of AI than Trump has been. At the same time. Vance's whole strategy is, let me just contradict everything the president's doing. War in Iran? Oh, I was against it. Releasing Epstein? And Democrats, obviously, are the party of California. This is their economic base, so both parties are going to have to pick a side here. It's not going to be easy. I'm talking about guardrails. This is really what we're talking about. Both sides are talking now about guardrails, at least talking. But it's moving so quickly. And are you, who represents them, going to be able to have the strength to actually implement those guardrails? Is anybody. Yes, because I've stood up to them. I've stood up to them on the billionaire tax where they went against me. I've stood up to them and said, why don't we have an AI regulatory agency? Look, if you think this is this. Why don't we? Well, because people are putting money in and Trump said, I'm an accelerationist. China's going to eat our lunch. Let them do whatever they want. And how are you going to defeat that? We're going to defeat it by telling the American people, you have a vote, and we should be voting for sensible guardrails and regulations. By the way. There are three things we should be doing. First of all, you know, you hire someone. You hire someone on your staff. You've got to pay their payroll tax. And you've got to pay their health insurance. But you want to automate them with a robot, no tax. We actually incentivize the elimination of jobs. Change the tax code. Actually tax the Gentic AI. Then you want to make sure that we actually have a regulatory agency like we have for nuclear energy or electricity. We need people who understand technology, who have the guts to stand up to them, and who are going to be on the side of the workers, not the tech billionaires. Only 16% of Americans now think AI will positively impact society. Which it definitely will. It definitely will. It'll probably make 80-year-olds sharper. The numbers don't lie. But, Ro, you guys can barely keep the lights on in Congress and fund the government. How are you going to do a sweeping new regulatory agenda to regulate this massive industry when it's hard enough to keep the government open in Congress? And secondly, if you look at other countries around the world, Bill, places like Australia, the UK, are banning social media for 18 and under-year-old kids. So, I just don't see that level of activism and that political possibility happening here because the Congress is so gridlocked, even when one party's in power like it is now. Well, we need leadership. I mean, Donald Trump ran and he said, give these tech billionaires all that they want. And Elon Musk poured $300 million into getting him to win. But if you had leadership that said, you know, we have a nuclear energy regulatory commission, we have it for electricity, let's do it for AI, you don't need Congress doing all the details. You need an independent agency doing that. And then what about a jobs program? All these young people, they can't get a job. Why not have a Work for America where you hire young people into a job to rebuild communities or rebuild the federal government? What we lack in this country is leadership. Either people don't know AI or they're afraid to stand up to these billionaires. And now we're entering, I think, an era of lame duckness. Really. I think we can talk about the Iran war, although I doubt there's going to be a lot of debate about it because even those of us who thought it might be a good idea to try to defang Iran, as we've been saying for so many years, they just fucked it up so badly. Trump never was going to have the attention span to get that done, right? It was going to take a period of months, protracted war, damage to the economy, at some point having to put troops on the ground. He was never willing to do that. No, there could have been an uprising. They just missed the timing, I think. I just think they should have done it while the people were in the streets. January, February? Yeah. Instead of waiting until they all got shot and then doing it. Anyway, it's fucked up now. Here's the bright side of it, I think. I don't think the Republicans are scared of Trump anymore. For the first time in almost ten years. I don't think they are. I'll tell you. When you read the quotes from the Republicans, they sound like Democrats. Ted Cruz, he said, dollars to theocratic lunatics. John Kennedy of Louisiana, unless you were homeschooled by a day drinker. He says, no one's confident that Iran is going to do anything. Bill Cassidy, he said, Reagan is rolling over in his grave. I don't remember them ever doing this. It took Trump ending a war to get Ted Cruz to start criticizing him. No, go do more and more. I'm glad he didn't. Losing a war. Losing a war, yes. But, you know, how about even you agree, Bill? You can't be giving them $300 billion. He says it's not taxpayer money, it's money from the coast. What happened from the Gulf countries? Why not put that money in Pennsylvania and Ohio? What happened to America first? We're giving $300 billion to Iran? Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. That's why he's lost, I mean, he's two years coming up on two years from out of office. They're going to lose the midterms. And he's not that popular with his own party. So what is that two years going to look like? I mean, certainly it's got to be an opportunistic moment for the Democrats. So I think there's one of two approaches. How are they going to blow it? Well, the more likely the more likely approach is that this is going to be a protracted, ugly subpoena and investigation, and court battles. because Trump and his family are not going to want to testify and his allies aren't going to want to either and Democrats are going to be out for blood and the pressure on the liberal base to impeach Trump will be immense. That's the most likely scenario, I think, especially if Trump tries to fuck around with the election this fall. That's only going to further radicalize Democrats. The other scenario that's possible, I think unlikely, Bill, is this. Trump is desperate for a domestic victory. He needs a legacy going forward beyond cleaning out their fucking pool, which isn't going so well now, right? And so Trump, as Nixon, goes to China and tries to do a big immigration bill with a Democratic majority in Congress because Democrats like Roe are savvy enough to know you're probably only going to fix immigration in this country with a Republican president just because the politics of it are so hard. I think that's unlikely, but that'd be a fascinating effort because Trump would sell out Stephen Miller and his party so fast to get a big legacy walking away because right now, what is his second-term legacy, at least domestically? There ain't much there. I'd be open. If he's. If he wants to have a pathway to citizenship for hard-working immigrants who are paying taxes, there'd be people who are open to that, secure borders and do that. What are you guys talking about? This is the farthest thing from his radar. He closed the border. He thinks he won this. This is over for him. I'll tell you what'll happen. First of all, the crack in the Trump coalition was when Thomas Massey and I passed the Epstein files. They have J.D. Vance in the Situation Room covering it up. We're going to get those files released and we're going to make sure we get justice. We're going to get justice for survivors. Then we're going to start passing bills, raising the minimum wage, child care for all Americans, paid family leave, figuring out how we get people homes by 35, and let them either veto them or sign it. He lost the immigration issue when he enacted Stephen Miller's policies and had ICE agents go in and get housekeepers and gardeners and throw them in jail and then had two Americans killed in cold blood in Minneapolis. He lost the best issue he had. He doesn't have any issues now domestically, so he's going to need a legacy. I think it's. Unlikely, but I'm just saying, if there was one issue where the two parties could get something done in the final two years, I think it's that. You know who gets to crow about Iran? Obama. He does. Oh, and even Biden, with the way they got on him, the way he got out of Afghanistan, at least he got out of Afghanistan. But especially the. I mean, I was always trying to defend that. When I talked to Trump, I was defending that. And look, there were reasons why it may not have been the right thing because they probably were cheating the whole time. But it turned out Obama was right. There really is no other. There's no other better way to do this. You know, it's always the best of the worst possible options. Well, and now we know that they have the leverage, which is closing down the straits. And they can turn that on and off anytime they want. So any future American president threatens Iran, goes back into Iran, well, guess what? We'll close the straits down. We'll jam you on gas prices back home politically. And we'll wait you out. There's no midterms in Iran, right? It's not just about scoring a political point. I mean, like Jonathan, I was at the Obama Center. And Obama's speech. And I think here's the lesson for Americans, that sometimes tough diplomacy is better than chest-thumping brute force. Obama got the enriched uranium out, 97% of it. Trump's agreement, it's simply dilution. We don't even get it out. Obama got a United Nations Security Council resolution that actually had enforced inspectors. Now we don't have enforced inspectors. We don't know. They've gotten a weaker deal. You agree it's a weaker deal. It is. Oh, absolutely. No, it's a terrible deal. I mean, either deal, the Iranians are going to fudge the nukes, right? And that's just, we kind of know that, I think. I think it's a terrible deal. Endless summer escapes start here. Travel the worlds of Netflix IRL. Inspired by fan favorites like Stranger Things and Squid Game. Brave the upside down. Face off with the front man. Play leveled up arcade games. Shop exclusive merch. And enjoy themed food and drinks. Beat the heat. Play, eat, and shop on repeat at Netflix. Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. Bring your crew and save. Get your tickets today at Netflix.com slash house. Gray roots entering the chat. Uninvited? Garnier's got you. Garnier Color Sensation Root Retouch covers up to 100% of grays in just 10 minutes. No ammonia, no mess, and the color lasts up to four weeks. It's as easy to apply as shampoo. Plus, it's vegan and cruelty-free. 10 minutes. Sensational color. Sensational price. No savings. Your next girl's night is basically free. Find your perfect match at Walmart.com or at a store near you. Okay, so another issue. Down in Texas, there's a race going on. I'm sure you're watching it closely. Everybody in politics is. We had him on the show, James Tallarico. He's a charismatic new Democrat. And he could be the next Beto O'Rourke in Texas. Or he could be the guy who finally flips Texas. Anyway, you know, you mentioned deep fakes. That's not the only way you can cheat with advertising. Because he's running against this guy, Ken Paxton, down there. And I want to show you the Ken Paxton ad that Ken has been running against James Tallarico. Take a look. This is Texas. This is not. Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front. Okay, that's what he ran. And that is what James Tallarico said. It's just not all he said. He cut off. He cut off the part where he went, there should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door. He cut that part off. That small thing, yeah. That's how you run a dirty campaign. And that's not the only one. Would you like to see some other example? I thought you would. Because there's just. There are other times where he just showed part of what Tallarico said and then didn't show the whole thing. So I'm going to show you both. I'm going to show you what he showed and then what the whole comment was. Ready? Yes. Okay. For example, he has Tallarico saying, "I think a lot about children, having good schools." He showed him saying, "I want Texas grandmothers to know I'm hard and work protecting Social Security." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. uh christmas makes me want to throw up some tinsel and lights this guy is this is a sneaky guy every time i visit our classrooms i come to the conclusion that we can do better i wake up every day to a big black cock crowing outside my window like most rural texans thank you god blows a strong wind of faith that guides my life and uh you white people need to get the hell out of the sun i'm telling you all right so so you mentioned deep fakes let's show that one there's a there's a talarico uh deep fake that's going around and this is you know i could tell that this is not really him because i think it's ridiculous but i mean what i've seen move people in elections show that this is this is not him this is a deep fake of james talarico boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes girls dust with hormones till they grow mustaches see they're trying to this is texas and they're trying to say he's gay i got that yeah i picked that up but i'm gonna make it stuff about his past girlfriends i don't understand that i'd say yeah you gotta pick one side right they're tripping they're calling him a vegan too the poor guy's cardiologist can be so mad at him because he's got to eat barbecue every day the rest of the campaign to show he's not a vegan you know that's incredible so that's that's what goes on in a state like texas let's talk about california because this is your state and uh i was reading farid zakaria's column this week it was well i'm sure you did i'm sure it wasn't good news to you now look they've called california a progressive laboratory for a good reason it is a progressive laboratory it made me think about something i covered many years ago maybe 10 years ago kansas there was a governor there named sam brownback remember this of course and he did he did the opposite he did the republican laboratory which was cut taxes for everybody and magically will grow more revenue of course it was a giant disaster and we had a lot of fun calling it out and democrats won ever since there yeah what democrats have won ever since they're yeah that's right okay but the progressive laboratory if it is a laboratory that means it's doing experiments we do need to have to call them out when they fail hasn't a lot and i can go through the stats in farid's column and i've read them everywhere for years now. I mean, it's not good. We constantly take more money from the people and get less results. Is that not true? Isn't that what one party rule has given us in this state? Look, it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, we've done certain things right. We have excellent higher education, the UCs, the California states. And it's led to, of course, a lot of innovation, $20 trillion in my district, right? Education, healthcare. But we've messed up housing. Because that's where all the AI guys are. That's what that money is. Well, it's been more. There's been a lot of innovation, technology, but we've messed up housing in this state. We have too much regulation, zoning where we don't build. We've made it very, very hard to build. And that's been a failure. I mean, and any person being honest about it needs to acknowledge that we've put roadblocks onto building housing. And that would be, in my view, be the biggest failure. And that's what Fareed was saying, that the housing policy here has been bad. It's going to be a big challenge, I think, if Governor Newsom is the nominee for Democrats in 28, because you'll see a lot of folks in his own party who aren't from California use the stats and the images against him. And certainly you'd see it in the fall as well. Look, it's a tradeoff, I think, you know, in exchange for getting great weather, great schools, you know, opportunities. Great schools. What's that? The schools. Higher ed. Higher ed. Higher ed. Higher ed. Right? How do we know they're so good? I mean, it's a big challenge. I mean, it's a big Well, the UC system is, you know, I don't know who's coming out of it and what they're learning. I mean, from what I see from the elite schools on the East Coast, they're shit. Right. The UC has produced a lot of Nobel laureates just this past year. They take a lot of kids who don't are first in their families to go to college. I mean, the UC system genuinely is working. Cal State is working. K through 12, there are issues. I mean, honestly, there are issues. I see kids demonstrating for Hamas, but I'm sure there's other stuff that's going on, too. And there are structural challenges, too. And it's very simple. The cost of living. People are voting with their feet, going to Arizona, going to Nevada, going to Idaho, because it's cheaper to live there. And they can sort of see their dollar go farther. And until California addresses that, they're going to have a serious challenge. I agree with that. I think the housing is the key issue. It's the it's the biggest cost of living. And then the child care cost. If you can get universal child care and if you get the health care costs down and you have housing policy, it would help move the state forward. But gas being seven bucks is kind of hard to people in this state do think that it has been a failure. I mean, even in this city, even the Democrats. This is why this guy, Steve Hilton, who's running for president now for a governor here. I don't know much about him. He was on Fox News. I don't watch Fox News. Generally, they're assholes on Fox News. I go on Fox. You go on. Yeah, right. And that's good. I'm glad you do. I always know. I always encourage Democrats to do that. I'm doing it Sunday. Good for you. If if this was not a, I think, big Democratic year based upon Trump backlash, that race would be a lot more interesting for governor if it was about state issues and the performance of this state and direction of the state. And you had a better, I think, GOP candidate. I think that would be a very competitive race, the most competitive it's been here in a long time. The problem, Bill, is all politics is now national and everything's about Trump. It's a one man election. Exactly. And so all Becerra is going to say is Trump, Trump, Trump. And that's all the ads are going to be. If you were to litigate the. Actual direction of the state, it would be a competitive race, but you can't do that in the Trump environment. The other thing, Jonathan, obviously, Schwarzenegger was a larger than life personality. Hilton's not a celebrity, but Schwarzenegger had the common sense to say, I'm going to be pro choice. Right. I'm going to say that climate change exists. I'm going to be for gay rights and equality. Right. And you keep having these Republicans and they keep running who don't give up on want to bash gay people like who want to deny climate science, just run someone like Schwarzenegger. Show you how to compete. The same reason all politics is national. So that candidate can't get through the primary or what counts as the primary here because their hardcore base won't allow it. So you're left with these candidates who are Trump light, who are walking the line of those issues who aren't viable in the fall. It used to be a moderate candidate for governor in California or Vermont. New York was acceptable. We'll have a chance to win, but you can't do it anymore. I think you're exactly right. The problem is that I used to talk about the toxic D. Why Democrats just are not. Not competitive in so many states in this country. And there's it. But there's a toxic R like in California. As long as long as Trump is president, no matter how bad it gets in California, no matter how many people think and a lot of people do think it's a failure. The city is a failure. The state is a failure. It's still not. They will vote for failure over someone with an R by their name. My advice to Steve Hilton would be distance yourself from Trump. If you want to have any chance of winning in this. State and you don't think he'll ever do that. I'm skeptical. A because Trump would would lash back at it, but also because he'd help him. He'd but he'd alienate the hardcore GOP voter in the state. If you don't have them, if you don't have your base, you can't win in the fall. But you're right, Bill. And by the way, the same thing still applies that toxic D Democrats can't compete in half this country. And the reason why they're never going to have an enduring Senate majority unless they change is because they can't compete in places like the Dakotas or like Texas or Oklahoma because of that same challenge place. I think we can compete in 26 and 28 because most of this country doesn't want us in foreign wars. Most of this country wants us focusing on the manufacturing and economic building here. And Trump has failed that he said I was going to focus on America. There are no factories. There's no economic rebound in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan, Wisconsin. If we run on economic renewal of the heartland, no more wars invest in Team America. I think we can win in almost any state. I mean, if Gavin Newsom, with all the California baggage, is trying to try to win over America, isn't he going to have to say some version of our two woke policies just didn't work here? We wanted less testing because that would be something to do with equity and it made the kids stupider. You know, we were we didn't want to tell the homeless they could get off. They have to get off the street because that would be, I don't know, interrupting their life. I think he's flexible enough that he would do it in the general election if he thought that that was the direction to win. I think he'd be up for that. Look at the trains issue. He's moved on that more to the center politically. So I think he'd be willing to do it. The challenge is, are the votes and quotes, as they say, from his past. And they hold that against him because previously he said other stuff. You know, that's the challenge. I always say I'm a Pennsylvania born and raised California representative. OK, well, I got that. That was a big brag. Why? I love Pennsylvania. I think you need to have. I think whoever I think for the Democratic Party, we need to make sure that it is California in the service of the country. It can't be California lecturing the country. So you guys were both at the Obama library. Do we have a picture of the Obama library? Because it it looks like that star. It looks like something aliens built in Dubai. I like the affair. Why do it cost eight hundred and fifty million dollars? Yeah, I don't understand why. Progressives like this. Couldn't that, you know, money be better spent on something else? Who's going to go to this? Why do we need a. Yeah, well, what do you think? Why do we why does anyone need a presidential library? These these monuments to somebody's ego out of office? I don't. Are you anybody here in this audience planning to go to the Obama presidential? There you go. Really? Elon Musk is talking about sending people to Mars. You're telling me that spending up to a billion dollars, one billion dollars on commemorating the first and only African-American who's ever been president isn't worth it. First of all, we don't need that building to do that. That's in our hearts and minds. That already happened. But this is to inspire people. You know, Michelle Obama gave one of the greatest speeches. I'm telling you, don't listen to me. Just listen to her five minutes. And here's what she said. Racism was hurled at Barack Obama. Insults were hurled at Barack Obama. And he never lost his. Cool. He never gave in to a temper. And he showed that hope and patience and aspiration can overcome that. What does that have to do with the building? The building tells that story. The building. So we didn't know that story without the building. Well, unless you go to the building like Obama. Who was he again? Well, you know, the center for education, you know, the center for education. But it's not it's not it's not that eight hundred and fifty million dollars versus going to Mars. I don't want to go to Mars either. It's eight hundred fifty million dollars going to the real causes of people who really need it. That's the money I'm talking about. You know, we spend money on a lot of frivolous shit. I'm just saying you can't be a hypocrite about it. I don't think most presidents need libraries. I do think that Obama's story is unique. I'm biased. I work for him. But it's a unique story of some telling the possibility in this country of some of someone who had no shot. You know, when I was in law school, when I interned, they said to me, well, you're Indian-American, you're of Hindu faith. Go to the Capitol because you'll never get elected to anything. That's what I heard. And then Barack. Barack Obama happened and he changed the direction of this nation for millions of people. Again, nothing to do with the building. But thank you. All right. Time for New Rules. OK, New Rule. Now that we've all seen this hilarious viral photo of mom and dad getting married while their three year old daughter is just not having it. Let me be the first to say this marriage will never last. Not because they'll fall out of love, but because this kid is going to kill you in your sleep. Now that Jack Schlossberg, the latest Kennedy to run for office, says RFK Jr. appeared to him in a dream and told him he'd win a seat in Congress, he has to consider the possibility that it wasn't a dream and that Bobby really was in your bedroom while you were sleeping. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing he's ever done. Newell, stop going down into caves. Every year, there's another cave tragedy story and a dangerous rescue mission. And why? You know what's down there? More cave. Unless it's where you keep wine, stay up here with us. And if you still feel the need to get stuck in a dark hole, try grad school. I'm kidding. I'm sure the colleges are going to do it. New Rule, stop acting like Americans were horrified when a broadcaster on Fox's World Cup pregame show called James Corden a full-kit wanker. First, we barely remember James Corden. Second, we have no idea what that means. And third, we weren't watching. The Knicks were on. New Rule, now that Florida Congressman Byron Donalds was out this week promoting literacy programs with a misspelled word on his sign. You have to admit, it kind of proves his point. But good on you for trying, Byron. And don't let it stop you from making America great. And finally, New Rule, everybody has to start getting a little more excited for America's birthday. Come on, our big 250 is coming up. It's on July 4th for the kids in our public school. And I think that's a pretty big deal. Problem is, there's kind of a stink on it because you know who is president right now. The left half of the country fears he'll make the anniversary about him. Of course he will! I even bet that on Kalshi. The question is whether we all will help him do it. We shouldn't. This is about America. He isn't America. He's the temporary caretaker of America. America's employee. Thank you. And the message should be that America isn't actually his. And that no one side gets to own being psyched about the country. So I'm not down with this attitude of, well, we're having a party, but if Trump's going, I'm not. That's so high school it should be in the Epstein files. Go to the party. It's a big celebration. You probably won't run into him. This country's 3.8 million square miles, and that's without Greenland. Look, I'm not saying Trump doesn't want to muddy the distinction between himself and the country. He sure as shit does. That's what wannabe authoritarians do. They try to blur that line. Don't be an accomplice. Especially since, for all of Trump's nonsense, America is still here. Still incredibly prosperous by world standards, still the place people want to get to, still free enough to let me put the word nonsense next to the president's name. You know, you do know it's not that way everywhere. Now, am I worried about creeping authoritarianism and attacks on free speech and politicizing the Justice Department and enemies' lists? Yes. As I have been since 2016, when I first used the term slow-moving coup. But we're 10 years on now. And while Trump, wanting to act like a king in many ways, is still a sorry, so is the fact that he's also been checked. In 2020, he became the first president to flat-out not concede losing an election, as I predicted. And yet, he didn't stay president either. In cases where a court has ruled for 10 years, in cases where a court has ruled for 10 years, in cases where a court has ruled for 10 years, And yet. And yet it didn't stop us from making 1976 one big P. Diddy freak-off for America. Because ask Joe Biden, you only turn 200 once. So. So, come on. It's the fourth. Don't let this year's fourth become another excuse for partisan sulking. Let it be an excuse to be really hungover on the fifth. All right, that's our show. I want to thank Jonathan Martin, Ro Khanna, and Sam Levinson. Club Random drops every Monday on YouTube. Or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Now go watch Overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, guys. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them anytime on HBO. On demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com. Play leveled-up arcade games. Beat the heat. Play, eat, and shop on repeat at Netflix House at Galleria Dallas. Kroger helps keep you moving with easy-to-prep meals and convenient snacks from our exclusive brands. Pack a microwavable cup of private selection mac and cheese for a deliciously quick meal that's ready in just minutes. Snacks like Simple Truth Baked Chickpea Crisps and Hot Honey Pistachios are perfect for on-the-go munching, delivering bold flavors and a satisfying crunch. Discover new flavors. favorites today. Kroger, fresh for everyone.