Ep. #739: Hunter Biden, Dana Bash, Jeremy Peters

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you. All right. Thank you so much. I can see it in your eyes. I know why you're happy today. Megan Markle and Prince Harry are going back to England. I tell you, that ice doesn't fuck around. That's not that. It was Harry's idea. He just wants to be closer to the family that's not speaking to him. And I think that may be getting out just in time. I don't know if you saw this week or big news. The national debt now is crossed $40 trillion and not in the right direction. This is the only thing that we do in a bipartisan way. You know, we just spend money we don't have. Both parties are totally into it. It has doubled in 10 years and quadrupled in the last 20, like Russell Crowe. I love Russell Crowe. But remember, don't freak out about the debt because it only matters when the Democrats are in power. Speaking of that, we have a new attorney general. Have you seen this guy Todd Blanche? He was on meat the press this week. They asked him if he would refuse to make a pledge that he would act independently from the White House. And he refused. This is sort of the main thing the attorney general is supposed to do. I thought it was also very concerning that every time he used the phrase "the law," he used air quotes. That's just me. But let me tell you. The Democratic Party has a new attack dog and he's very good at it. Senator John Ossoff of Georgia. Okay, he's got fans here. He really went after Trump this week and in the middle of it, he mentioned Natalie Hart. That's the young lady who works for Trump when he got on the catering cart. She came with him off the plane. So this is set all sorts of rumors going on now about their relationship. Okay, let me tell you folks, I got sued about this once. No, not the orangutan. This was just a couple of years ago, Laura Lumer sued me. Okay, I won, by the way. Okay, but it's expensive and unpleasant to get sued. So you know what, I took one for the team on this, you handle it. All I'm going to say. Now, Natalie is kind of Trump's emotional support employee. That's true. Well, she travels with him everywhere and she brings a portable wireless printer so she can print out flattering news article. And Trump is old school. He wants hard copies of the smoke blown up his ass. But that's on him. I don't know why you have to go after her. You know, she seems incredibly devoted to her job, never takes a day off. Sometimes she's worked so hard she forgets to eat and sleep. And now everyone in America is saying the same thing. Why can't I get a millennial of works like that? You know, and there is, you know, a little more to the story. She had bone cancer in her 20s. She likes Trump because he speeded up experimental treatments, which he believes helped her. But you know, in America it's just like, oh good, someone new to hate. But did the podcast of Michael Cohen this week, remember Michael Cohen, his fixer, who once called Trump a cheater, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, and a con man? His own vice president, Vance, once said he might be America's Hitler. His secretary of state, Rubio, at the debate, made fun of his dick size. And let the man have one fucking friend. Okay, let him. Because, look, the war is not going well. I mean, we had a 60-day ceasefire that ended, so for all our ships in the region it means battle stations, for those who haven't already jumped overboard. Well, you know, we had some, some bad reports about what's going on in those ships. It doesn't mean to bother Pete Hegseth, Pete Hegseth, or Secretary of War. He was at the Iowa State Fair this week, and he said, we do training, not training. Well, it went over pretty well with that crowd, although the bearded lady did walk out. But, you know, our whole argument about the straightover from Moose was always that international waters, no country can claim it. Well, now Trump has claimed it. Of course, he said, quote, he said, it's new U.S. territory. It's the straightover Moose is new U.S. territory. I don't know if this is related, but today it turned green and the bottom is peeling. But, I don't know. I ran, heard about this, they called on Trump, and I quote, they said, accept reality and defeat and stop indulging in delusions. Yeah, guys, we tried that. It didn't work for us. I don't know if it's going to work for you, but. No, Trump says he's not going to do that. He is a new strategy now. Economic strangulation. That's where we're going now. He's done firing missiles, because we don't have any. Okay, but. He says, we're going to destroy their economy, and I'm with the President on this one. If there's one thing I know he can pull off, it's driving something into bankruptcy. Alright, we've got a great show. We have Donald Bash and Jeremy Peters. Wow. What a panel. But first up, he is a contemporary American artist, best-selling author and recovery advocate. Hunter Biden, ladies and gentlemen. Hunter. Hello. Thanks for doing it. Thanks for being here. Alright. Alright. Hunter Biden. Alright. Don't be nervous. We only have like. We only have like ten or twelve minutes. I'm so sick of all the things that we get into the weeds with, and I see you with another. Your laptop, your obituary, the third word will be laptop. I know everything about the laptop. More things than I want to know. I've seen you with your dick out. I've seen you with a crack pipe in your mouth. My question, are you running for president? I'm here to announce. Have you thought about that? No, I haven't. Here's my thing. If I announce for president, then somebody should check and see if I relapse. I don't know if everybody is aware, but you have been completely sober for seven years. Yeah, June 1st, 2018. How do you like it? Yeah. I love it. I do. I do. You know, my whole reason for being out there as much as I have been is, at least from my perspective, they built this platform to beat the hell out of me for about a seven-year period of time. And when the crowd went home, the platform was still there. And you know, there's 50 million Americans that are still sick and suffering every day from addiction. And I get to go out there and I get to speak to them. And even if it's one person that sends me a message any day, it says, you know, I saw your message and I didn't drink today. And I've done something that I think is incredibly worthy. I think I would say to you what I said to Charlie Sheen, you did some bad things, but I don't think you're a bad guy. Yeah, you know, the thing that's the most, um, has been the most edifying for me over the course of my life. course of this last few months is this, is the realization that my addiction isn't something that disconnects me from people, and the experience that I went through. And the fact that I had to have it all play out on a national stage, and then, you know, I was on the cover of the New York Post more times, and I think anyone ever in the history of the paper. Right. And the thing about it, though, is what I realized is that all those things that they thought were going to kill me were the things that people identified with. They're not necessarily, you know, crack or, you know, but, and I mean, like that, that's like the shocking part, right? When you say that word, it's kind of like, ugh, but everybody, everybody has a brother who's suffering from addiction. Everybody, including themselves, has gone through periods in their life in which they've struggled, and not just with addiction, but with grief and loss, you know, I was speaking about my dad's health, and, you know, the thing that is the most astonishing to me is all of the things that we all experience, these painful things, are things that everybody's gone through, but we never speak about it, and nobody ever comes on a show like this and openly talks about it. Well, I don't know about that. This is America. We talk about it a lot. Well, I don't know. Come on, let's be real. Yeah. We talk about addiction, we talk about grief. Yeah. I don't, but, you know what? But I think that we talk about addiction and grief, but not in terms of our own personal experience in which the vivid, um, technical, or pictures have been released to the entire world. No, you don't. I think, and there's that piece of it. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Well, I think a fair person, and there's so few left in America, because everyone just likes to, as I was saying about Natalie, you know, everyone just, oh, good, someone to hate now. Someone we can hate. I don't know. Bill. I don't know. Here's the thing. Can you imagine if this 35-year-old staffer that wrote this note that has this relationship, and we were talking about Barack Obama, what would be the, what would be the reaction that? Do you think that there wouldn't be a how from the right that this is inappropriate? Of course. Because everybody loves to hate. That's what I'm saying. Oh, I'm not saying that. Does that make it right? It doesn't make it right. It's on him. It's on him. Okay. Let's not talk about her. That's not the point. The point I was making is that, you know, I think a reasonable person who's not filled with hate would say, you both took advantage of some of your privileges by being a son of a president and vice president, and you also were a target in a way that a normal person would not have been. Is that fair? There's a part of that that is fair. One of the things that people, I think, don't understand is that when my dad was president, I didn't do any business. I sold paintings. And I sold paintings to people that then had to testify before Congress under oath. I made an average of $225,000 a year. But would you have been working for an energy company out of Ukraine? Was that really the thing you studied in school? No. I'm not that job. I'm going to be a law school. I got that job because you were -- Okay. No, it just did. Yeah, 100%. As I've said on a million interviews, you know, I'm incredibly privileged. I mean, beyond anyone's wild imagination, not only because of who my dad was, but because of the father that he was. And so a lot of privilege comes from that. And I don't deny that. And also a target on your back. Yeah. By the way, and also a target on your back. And also a resume, though, that includes being -- you know, I taught at Georgetown University's master's program in the School of Foreign Service. I served on a dozen boards. I went to Yale Law School. I worked for Boy's Schiller Flexner. When I took that role, I was a chairman of the board of the U.S. UN World Food Program at that time, which serves 70 million people in 82 different countries. It's the largest humanitarian organization in the world. I was chairman of the board -- a vice chairman of the board of Amtrak for over five years. And so it wasn't about whether or not I had experienced my judgment. However, it was absolutely, completely ridiculously off. I didn't realize the snake pit. And I was naive in that sense. And I gave them something -- I gave them something on a silver platter. Yeah. I'm going to ask you that. And by the way, let me also say this. I did it for the money. And that's what other people won't say. I absolutely 100% did do it because it gave me a sense of freedom, particularly when Bo was diagnosed with cancer, but all for -- for me. And so 100% all happened when the last year and a half of my father's vice presidency. None of what happened that they have created and spun off these conspiracies have anything to do when my dad was president. And just from perspective, I mean, whatever you made, it's pennies compared to what -- Not even in New York. Don Jr. This making -- -- a fraction of a penny. I mean, billions. That's what it's really. And the last 500 days of this administration, Don Jr.'s company has made -- has taken in over $3.4 billion in Department of Defense contracts. He got a $640 million loan pushed through by the White House. The largest single loan to any private company ever give it out by the Department of Defense. And that's just a fraction of it. Forget about what they've done with cryptocurrency, now, which is a bank in which they are able to go and longer the money. It is a bombination. And that doesn't even include what Jared is doing and Ivanka are doing. He gets paid over $100 million in fees by the Saudis. The Saudis alone for a $6.5 billion fund that he controls, which is all Gulf State money. And he is -- are unelected, unappointed, emissary to the Middle East for a war that nobody asked for. It is absurd. It is not "nobody." It's not "nobody." Not "nobody." Well, that's true. It's not "nobody." It's not "nobody." That's true. I mean, you're father. You're father. Among every other Democrat. Excuse me. Yes. Every Democrat said Iran can have nuclear weapons. And every single Democrat in every president said Jimmy Carter refused what the -- what the -- they -- refused what the Israelis wanted, was to bomb Iran. Every single one of them. The only person who fell for it was Donald Trump. Yeah, true. Yeah. Okay. So let me ask you this, because you hit on this a minute ago. You created a tough situation for your father. Yeah. Because politics is the roughest game there is. It will look for any vulnerability, any opening, and you kind of gave them one. Like you said, on a silver plate. Yeah. Did you ever apologize to your father about the game? Really? You said to him, "Look, I know I gave him." From the moment it started, every day. It's the -- it's one of the greatest heartaches of my life. I talk about this in terms of the -- the trouble with recovery is this. Is I going to get out here and I talk about how I've been healed, how I'm -- you know, I'm stronger than I've ever been. I've taken all of this. And I'm -- you know, the people that get the most hurt, for those of us that survive, those of us -- the addicts that make it through, the rare ones that make it through. The real harm happened to all of the people around them. And the trauma for them goes very, very deep. And they don't get to come out on the show and talk about how well they're doing and everything is all great. And, you know, I think about my daughters. I think about every day. And the fact that, you know, for a two-year period of time between 2017 and 2019, they lost the most important person in their life and also the other most important person, my brother. And I was not there for them. And I can never make up for that. And same with my dad, my dad is unconditional love, is not love without consequences. It's not a love that doesn't have a limit. It has -- it's a love that is limitless in this, is that no matter what, he would always be there for me. But it doesn't make up for the fact that, you know, every night he had to go to sleep when I was in that state and wonder whether or not I was alive, just after losing both. And, you know, guilt is an appropriate thing. It's absolutely as the addict. You got to go and you got to make amends as much as you can. And sometimes, the greatest demand that you can make is just live it a life by doing the next right thing. That's what I hope I'm doing right now. Well, I know -- I know your father is struggling right now. Yeah. Would you tell him, myself and the audience wished him a peaceful rest of his days for us. He's watching this. Thank you for being here for the -- I'll see you on my podcast, I hope. All right. Dr. Biden, everybody. Thank you, Hunter. Let's meet up now. Hey. All right. Yeah. All right. Here's your national car. It's morning for the New York Times. And all throughout the insurgency, how Republicans lost their party and got everything they wanted. Jeremy Peters. She's an anchor in chief political correspondent for CNN who's forthcoming book The Elections that Chains the World is available to pre-order now. Donna Bash. Hey. How you doing? Okay. So, it's almost Labor Day. Wow. We blew through another year. I can't believe it. Merry Christmas. Because what's coming next. They say that people don't pay attention until Labor Day, right? So, let's pay attention for them. Because we had been having primaries, right? A lot of them. A lot of primaries. And they do tell us a lot. I feel like people are reluctant ever to say that, oh, Trump is toast because people said it so many times before and it's not been true. I think he's toast. I'm just going by. Thank you. The approval rating now is 33%. That's the floor. Well, maybe. No, I think it is. I think that is the people who just absolutely hate Democrats. So it really doesn't matter whatever he does. It's just that. I think I don't think it ever gets. They used to be called birchers, then they were birthers, their tea party. That's the 33%. That's also the Democratic Party's approval rating, by the way. I mean, they're in as a party, as a party, and Chuck Schumer's approval rating is actually lower than that. So as a party, they have not managed to move up in favorability since Trump took the oath the second time around. And that's pretty damning. OK. Endorsements, though. Yeah. Trump used to win all his endorsements. Now he's winning almost none of them. That's right. He lost Wyoming, a race there. Five governorships have not gone his way. Two people in Florida, which he calls his home state. The people are kind of over the corruption. That message got through inflation and gas prices, which is what they hated Biden for. He always got in front of that banner that said, "Promise is kept. The war." They see that as a promise not kept. I wouldn't get you into war as Epstein. They didn't like that. I think this election coming up, the midterm, is a referendum on the president. It almost always is. So I don't think there's any way the Democrats can possibly blow this, although they will try. But I feel maybe I feel like this election is, no, we have to be mad at Trump first. And then the Democrats will lose the 20-28 president. Except, I agree with you on everything you said about the endorsements, because I think it's up to 10 or 11 now. House endorsements, governors and endorsements. She did pretty well in some races that Republicans who want to win are really pissed at him about, like in Texas. They're really not sure that Ken Paxson is, I mean, it's Texas, so we'll probably win, but it's not a shoe. And like John Cornyn would have been-- So, very hard right-winger Ken Paxson, right? And he's got some ethical issues. And James Telleriko is a young Democrat, Christian and so forth. But I will add a-- Well. He wears his faith on his sleeve in a way that he believes will help him. Well, in the Democratic party, as long as that faith isn't Jewish, you're good. Which, well, you said it, but-- I said it because it's true. I do want to put one more data point into your thesis there. And that is that if you look on the Democratic side, one thing that happened this week is that Alexander Binman lost. If he was a Democratic socialist, let's remind the audience who isn't political junkies. So, Alexander Binman was in the military, and he went and testified against President Trump in Trump one, because he heard the phone call between President Trump and-- The perfect call. The perfect call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader. So, he's a big hero of the left. Exactly. He is a part of-- And he lost. And he lost, but he's a part of the Trump resistance, and another pattern that we have seen is people who have become prominent in the Democratic party as part of the Trump resistance also losing. So, it's not just that the president is not doing as well with the people in his base. He's lost his lustre with the people who hate him on the left. And let's not forget that the Democrats have a real enthusiasm problem, right? I mean, a lot of voters are looking at the Republicans in Trump and the Democrats and saying, "I'm not thrilled with either choice." And so, that enthusiasm problem, even though Bill E. Wright Democrats would really have to screw something up to lose in this midterm election, it's really not clear how well they will do even if they have a majority, because the Democrats in the House, I talked to, are really worried that if they don't pick up a dozen seats, they're going to be beholden to the new squad, and this handful of Democratic socialists who will essentially have veto power over the entire Democratic establishment agenda. That's a big concern. Will they? They will. Well, if it's a slim majority, just like you're seeing on the right with the Tea Party and a little bit less so now, if it's slim majority, minority rules within the party. And so, if you have, let's say, I mean, you had four members of the squad and then it was growing, let's say you had ten people who were absolutely, I'm not going to do anything unless you pass Medicare for all, just for example, how came Jeffries, if he doesn't have a majority more than ten people, he screwed. Almost like a parliamentary government, where you bring in a, like an Israel, and the government only exists because they had to bring in like four or five members of the far, far, far right wing party, and they do control in a lot of ways what goes on in that government. Yeah, absolutely. We do, and they're not running to be members of the Democratic Party, they're running many of them anyway, as Democratic socialists. It's a totally different political organization, and in fact, they want to take out the Democratic Party. I mean, that's their state of goal. They not only want to take out the Democratic Party, they want to take out the entire constitutional system that the Democratic Party is allowed to participate in government. And they like communism. I proved it here a couple of weeks ago, just by quoting them, they use the word a lot. They're not actually trying to hide it, although if you ask them, they will deny it. Yeah. It's so interesting. But some of them, I mean, this is why L.S.I. did quite well in Michigan. This is why the woman who is running against Karen Bass as mayor of L.A. is doing quite well because they've learned how to sand down the rougher edges, and they don't talk about socialism. They don't talk about seizing the means of production and stuff like that. They're getting many of them. Some of them are not quite ready for prime time, let's be clear, but a lot of them have really done a good job of selling themselves to the public as quite reasonable mainstream politicians. How Angie Nixon, who beat Alexander Bimman in Florida this week, explained who that is. She is a Democratic Socialist who raised not even a million dollars. And he raised about 16 million dollars. So I'm not a mathematician, but I think that's like 16 to 1. She crushed him. Absolutely. In Florida. Which is a red state now. Yes. But this is, of course, the Democratic primary. It's a Democratic primary. A lot of people will say it. But she did it by, she's a Democratic Socialist, but she did it by really narrowing down her message about affordability, about money, about trying to, you know, live the American dream in a way that people have. But again, this is a race within the Democratic Party. Correct. So when she runs in the general against the Republican for governor, she's very hard. She's going to run against Ashley Moody, who's the sitting Republican Senator. And it's, I mean, I don't want to say impossible, but if there is an impossible race, that could be-- So what do you think of this new star, John Assoff? I mentioned in the monologue. I mean, we've mentioned him before. He's been there for a couple of years in Georgia. He's kind of Obama-esque when he speaks. And he really lit into Trump in a way that people seem to be certainly on the left thirsting for. And the problem is he's Jewish. Mm-hmm. I mean, I know we don't want to talk about that. We need to talk about that because that is the situation in the Democratic Party. They think Gaza is a genocide. It is not. There's an actual meaning into the word genocide. It doesn't come close. But as long as you tag that name, genocide, of course, what kind of normal person would not hate someone who's responsible for a genocide? And they've all just signed on to this because they're just big on buzzwords and long signs and bumper stickers. That's as deep as they go. And likes on their social media. And likes. So they-- you have to say it. There was a Congressman Scott Wiener. He's, I think, going to take Nancy Pelosi seat in San Francisco. And he wasn't saying genocide. And they surrounded him, a mob, and yelled at him and said, "You're not gay. He's gay." They're not really gay. And I said, "What the fuck does that have to do with genocide?" Say it. Because the Democrats are cowards. What a coward. And this is factual. Do you know the only country in the Middle East that has gay rights? Of course. Yeah. Yes, that's why the people with the queers for Palestine t-shirts are so out of their mind. And can I say one thing about the-- because I actually, earlier this summer, I interviewed Josh Shapiro, governor of-- Another Jewish Republican. Governor of Pennsylvania, running for re-election, but also very much in the conversation about 2028. And I asked him this question point blank, "Do you really think that a Jewish politician can win a Democratic primary for president in this environment for Jews?" And he gave an answer about how he's been talking about his faith a lot. He doesn't hide from it. Pennsylvania is a purple state. He's very popular in Pennsylvania. And you know, I thought a lot about it. We'll see. But the other thing that I thought about, Bill, is that even-- or maybe despite this climate, you have Josh Shapiro, John Ossoff, JB Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel, I don't remember a time where there were more Jews who were even thinking openly about running for president in the Democratic primary. We'll see what happens when they get asked about Israel. Yeah. Bill has a good point is that they twist themselves into knots over it because the activist left has done such a good job of making this a third rail. Like, you know, you have to buy into the rhetoric, just like you used to have to say. I want to defund the police, or I want, you know, there to be-- - So let me just tell you. - Yes, exactly. And as often the case, and this is something I think Democratic strategists worry about privately, is the absolutist nature of some of the activism rhetoric on the left is a real problem. Because they're always trying to explain it away, right? Well, we don't really mean defund the police. Well, we don't really mean that Donald Trump is a king, or they're using kind of jargony language, like let's, you know, stop the oligarchy, or, you know, whatever that tour is. And ordinary people don't know what that means. They don't-- it just doesn't resonate with them-- - Or care. - Or care, right? And this, in less Democrats, learn how to talk to voters in a way that is more to their hearts, rather than to their heads, and, you know, to a political dictionary that you need to translate. What they're saying, you know, this will be a difficult year. But I think back to what you said about Jon Ossoff. That is one of the main reasons why he's taking off. I watched that whole speech that he gave last Sunday, and it wasn't just the line that everybody's talking about about, Natalie, the whole way that he wove in the heart and the soul of fighting for affordability, but also fighting against Donald Trump was incredibly unique. Well, again, these issues like corruption. I mean, the world's financial, is that Trump's crypto-- he's got his own crypto company, and I see today, another letting them have a bank. It's just-- it's very close to just backing a truck up to Fort Knox. And people get that, you know, it's like, we're struggling. You said you were going to stop our struggling. You said gas prices and inflation were going to go down. They're not, but you guys are making out great. All right. It is back to school time. So that includes college, and for some reason, college includes Arizona State. I've never had a school down. But there-- it's true. They are in the news because they have a Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Guess what the new curriculum is about. You're going to get it-- be able to get a course in influencing. I wish I was just making this up. You can literally get a BS in BS now. Would you like to hear-- would you like to hear-- we've got a hold of the syllabus. Would you like to hear something in the course? I'm sure you are. So, for example, there's an intro to influencing. Ducklips, peace signs, and you. Any of that intro course, of course. Strategies in making a toilet seat look like a private jet. Oh, yeah. Biology 301. Diagnosing yourself is something you Google this morning. Math 101-- why you don't need it. A camera phone, mechanics. How to make your tits the focus of whatever you're yammering about. Unboxing 101. Losing your shit of her new material goods in an age of socialism. Intro to public speaking, tips on shaming people in public who aren't really even doing anything. Career development, explaining to your grandparents, what exactly it is you do. And, senior seminar, when to call a quits and transition to only facts. [LAUGHTER] So, let's talk about higher education. Shall we begin? This is not the only story in the news. Quite a few. University of Michigan. Mm-hmm, where I went, yes. That's where you went. I did, yeah, okay. I wish I wouldn't have had grades. That would have been great. Right. They're going to know grades now. And the reason given-- Just his freshman or for the whole thing? I'm not sure about that. But it doesn't matter. It's ridiculous. And they're saying it because sometimes a kid gets a bad grade and it makes them sad. I can't. I'm not making that up. I mean, no grades. And what is that school cost? It's not cheap, right? It's not cheap. I can tell you what it was 25 years ago. But no, but look, this is part of the cobbling of the American mind effect. You know, we've been reading about and scholars smarter than I have been writing about for 15 years. And I don't see how when you have a student-aged population that is already losing its jobs to-- we're losing what they trained for to AI and how they're basically, as a generation, having to face what a future looks like on a planet that is so hot and so inhospitable, that it's rejecting human life. I mean, yeah, it's not a great outlook. I grew up-- I'm Gen X. So I grew up basically feral, like the rest of our-- [LAUGHTER] The rest of our generation. I'm a boomer. You're saying yes, I am. I mean-- And so-- I was again at the dump, yes. I mean, literally. So the idea that we can't-- I mean, look, I understand there are very real mental health challenges that people, not just kids, but people have for many, many reasons, including their phones. And there's a cultural issue. But like, come on. It's-- I mean, I know Trump University is a scam. [LAUGHTER] But when there's no grades, isn't that a scam, too? I mean-- [APPLAUSE] I mean, what-- goes to the question of what college is what a four-year degree is really training kids for. Well, let me answer that. No, this is-- [LAUGHTER] Nothing. This is the second. This is even scarier. AI, which in the old days, like two years ago, was writing the papers. And sometimes grading them. Now it can take the course all by itself. This AI taking college courses, this is from your paper, with simple commands like log in and complete my quiz. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. [LAUGHTER] It can watch lecture videos, take tests, write papers, and chat with classmates about reading assignments. Students may never meet with their professors or their peers. What's the point? What the fuck? [APPLAUSE] I was really-- let me just fan it and take a little bit of an unheard of approach here and defend the kids, because I don't actually think that all of this is their fault. They've been told by CEOs from AI companies that this technology is going to replace them. So to a certain degree, it seems like a lot of them by adapting to this technology, having to do everything for them, are basically saying, all right, let's get on with it. But at the same time, what they could be doing with this, how Dana uses AI, how I try to use AI, how I'm sure you do, is to make yourself better at the job that you're doing more efficient. I know you, is it? What they're doing. I don't want it. At all, nothing. I didn't want it in my phone. The second-- the second people started having it and telling me what it did. And it knows everything about you. It's in your phone. It sees every one of your pictures. It knows every text you ever send. You think I want that in my fucking phone? Your people are crazy. Yes, you're doing this. You're crazy. Well, what have done you? And I can't do my job. That is for sure. What people have told-- [LAUGHTER] --I roll. What the hell is that being said? Thank you. What the whole of these AI companies have been all to eager to tell us is that this technology is going to replace us, that it will do everything that you used to do. When really, it's not going to do that. It's never going to replace human beings. It's going to make our jobs easier. And in some ways, make workers more efficient. So people should really-- if you're teaching students how to use this as a way to not do their work, instead of using it as a way to improve their work, it's just not going to ever be a tool that they learn how to use appropriately. But I think one of the-- if there is a benefit from AI, I think it is. If you think about it, it is a reminder of why human interaction is so important. Like, I mean, just even here, you can't have this as an AI experience. There are real human beings here watching a-- [APPLAUSE] [INAUDIBLE] And I can't be bothered with meeting a AI just now. It just can't. And for the students, I understand that there are some reasons why students want to go online. But it is also a reminder of how great it is to have a human interaction with fellow students in a classroom, with a professor, to-- there are things that you just can't learn or even pretend to learn if you're dealing with AI without that human interaction. I take your point. It's not all there for. But it's also-- I've said this before-- what we talked about, AI. It is also their place to stop it. They're the younger generation. When they want to protest against something, they're not shy about it, OK? So they're using it. If AI can do the job of going to school for you, completely? Why wouldn't it be able to do the job you were going to get trained for in school? So you're building your own gallows. It's up to that generation to stand across history and stay up, stop. And I don't think you can look to the Silicon Valley companies for any type of moral leadership on this issue. I mean, and that's a big, you know, when you talk to the heads of these companies, which you and I have both done as part of our jobs, they, what's striking is how often they liken their work to a humanitarian cause, to saving civilization. I'm not kidding, they really see it this way. And if this doesn't sound too much like Facebook as, you know, the promoter of democracy and free speech in the town square that was going to be good for us all, then, you know, I think you should take another look at how you're reading this. And you also talk about something I think you and I about to agree on that it's just not just the beginning. I mean, I mean, the end of the rot in higher education. It started long ago when they stopped teaching people things because they became indoctrination centers. Two stories from this week. I think we'll show you that this has now infected our political discourse. Megan Romer, she is the co-chair of the DSA. She was on David Remnik's podcast. And she talked about taxing the hell out of them. And he said, what do you mean by that? And she said, well, you know, I don't really have a solid and then just rippled off. And he said, but shouldn't you? Shouldn't you be more specific about what taxing the hell means? They don't know anything, OK? OK, then Lindsey Graham's sister was running. And is now running on South Carolina. She was asked about Taiwan. And she said, I'm not informed on national security. Well, you're running for the Senate. That's not an answer that is acceptable. I'm not that informed. I guess my question is, does it matter that people don't know anything? Yes. I'm so worried about it. Yes. I don't answer. Yes, it matters a lot. It matters a lot. But I will say that that interview that David Remnik did with the DSA chair was something that everybody should watch as, hopefully, an antidote to what you just said. This isn't real life. This isn't just a string of slogans put together. It's actual policy that when you get to a place where you're running for elected office, or if you actually are successful in elected office, you got to know stuff. And by the way, there's been a slew of interviews just like this, where candidates who represent the Democratic Socialists of America have really struggled to articulate how they don't subscribe to Communism, whether or not they really believe in Marxism. And basic facts about how their ideology would help them govern the United States out of this affordability crisis. Look, a lot of these people are really talented politically. I think, you know, Mamdani is a generational political talent. He's out of the Democratic Socialists of America. And this saeed in Michigan is also very talented. He's not a Democratic Socialist, although they do claim him as one of their own. But by and large, a lot of these candidates come out of the activist wing of the party. They're very academic. They're, you know, very, you know, reading Karl Marx and left wing theory. And we've seen time and time again that a lot of them just don't withstand the scrutiny. There was a story. I mean, if you're going to talk about academics this week, I just have to bring this up. This Jason Ardae's story. He's a professor. He's really sad. Very sad. It's turned into, it was a suicide at the end. I mean, a week ago, it was not that story. He was the first black professor at Cambridge, I think. Yeah. Young. The youngest. OK, whenever I hear a story like this, first of all, I don't believe anything. I don't believe anybody says. After reading two or three more articles, do a deep dive. But the first story was, OK, this guy was just wanted by the left to be what they wanted him to be, which was the first hero, professor, black professor. But really, he was guilty of plagiarism, and all sorts of incredible lies. And because they're so captivated by DEI and wanting this, they just let him pass. Well, I'm going to check this out. No, that's exactly what happened. It's the soft, bigotry of low expectations. And that's just that they let him pass. It's that they ignored the glaring red flags, like grammatical errors in his thesis and things in his back and his back sort of just didn't add up, like running 30 marathons in 35 days. And to me, Cambridge has a lot of explaining to do about how they seem to have really cynically used this person who was obviously struggling with mental illness to rather their own diversity. I mean, he said he didn't learn to speak until he was 18, right? He said he was autistic. He said, a number of diseases, he said he was-- Where is-- oh, I can't find it, but he was just crazy. Oh, he's a titular cancer, brain tumor, epilepsy, locked-in syndrome. I don't know what that is. He said he ran the marathons with a broken leg. He said he was mute until age 11 and illiterate until 18, and then became the greatest professor. And I mean, it's like a prank. Like, can we make liberals who want to believe this actually do it, and they did? And it's not much more complicated than that. Well, white people are crazy. And to back that up, what is sad and tragic is, as you said, perhaps Cambridge let him down, but once this got out and the investigation began, then the mob went after him. And it was in the UK, the press are tough, to say the least. And kind of what you were talking about before, about sort of the hate mob, and that's what happened to him. Now, if he had underlying-- I mean, obviously, he had underlying mental health issues. He took his own life. But it's those two things combined that is such a cautionary tale of where we are right now, societally and culturally. The system played a huge role in his death. And if Cambridge is doing an honest examination of this, they should address that. They should. All right, thank you, guys. Time for new rules. [APPLAUSE] OK. All right. New rule, everyone in the media who's having a good time mocking Kaya Gerber for revealing that when she was a child, she had an exorcism performed on her with a dirigidu is missing the point. It works. Because when Sun Hippie starts playing the dirigidu, even evil spirits say, let's get the fuck out of here. [APPLAUSE] New rule, drug companies have to make at least one ad for prescription medication where no one becomes a DJ. [LAUGHTER] Or-- [APPLAUSE] --or at least listed as a possible side effect. Stop using SkyRizzy if you're a white man in your 40s, and you experience the uncontrollable urge to drop sick beats. [LAUGHTER] Uh, new rule, now that researchers have proven that dogs can tell if people are happy or sad by reading our faces, they must teach dogs to do that with legs. [APPLAUSE] Which they always seem to read as asking for it. New rule, don't be surprised that Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris, says he would make her finish her homework before he'd let her go outside and play. That was Michael's way. He was always very hard with kids. [LAUGHTER] New rule, now that Air France decided to close the sauna area in its Paris lounge because passengers were using it for inappropriate activity. [LAUGHTER] I have to ask, what happened to you, France? [LAUGHTER] You gave the world inappropriate activity. The French kiss, the topless beach, lingerie, the manajatois, that thing where husbands and wives don't ask each other where they were from 5 to 7. And now you're Utah with Corson? I'm sorry, but if two, possibly three, consenting adults can't do it between connecting flights in the airport, then maybe Tucker Carlson is right. Why did we even defeat the Nazis? [APPLAUSE] And finally, new rule, free the workplace romance. Let's go back to letting love connections happen at the office. It's funny, all I hear about these days is the loneliness epidemic and how nobody socializes anymore and Gen Z is in dating, Gen Z isn't fucking. Here's a crazy idea. Stop being overly paranoid about power imbalances and one of the last places humans actually interact anymore and let people fuck at work. I don't mean literally have sex in the supply closet, but flirt, acknowledge mutual attraction and maybe get into a relationship and then have sex in the supply closet. But that's not really where we are because America always over reacts, usually on the side of too much safety. We did it with overprotecting our children. We did it with drugs because some people get addicted for decades, no one was allowed to even smoke pot legally and we do it with sex. In Congress they already have a rule that says you can't date anyone in your own office and now they're considering one supported by Speaker Mike Johnson that would ban members from dating any staffer from any office because telling people who they're allowed to love is repulsive when the Bible does it but it's okay when it's a weirdo like Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson who has an app on his phone called Covenant Eyes which scans everything you open and reports any porn use to a sponsor which in this case is his son, ew. But you know Mike is not the only one who supports this, it's bipartisan. AOC agrees, yeah, she says no one who works on Capitol Hill should ever date anybody else who works on Capitol Hill, okay but where else are they supposed to meet. It's where they spend all their time. They rent home to get four hours of sleep, eat a toaster strutal and run back to the office to write the actual bills that their boss's, the elected representatives don't even read. But AOC says there are a lot of fish in the sea. If someone is seeking a part what we don't need to necessarily do that here, no you don't have to. But maybe if you did your eggs wouldn't be in a freezer on 14th Street. [Applause] Please, I'm all for it, freezing eggs or whatever you want to do. That's consensual and that's the point. Stop punishing all the people who want a consensual relationship because offices contain some male creeps as does everywhere in life. The question is, is it this smart thing to throw out the baby-making with the bathwater? [Applause] And according to a recent article in Inc. called Gen Zers and Millennials Want Workplace Romance Normalized, even if it breaks company rules, no, it's not because here's the thing. While there are plenty of fish in the sea, there aren't a lot of seas. That is not a lot of places to meet fish. The workplace is where most people have always done it. It's where most married couples caught their fish. Forbes did a study and found 43% of workplace romances ended in marriage. The other 50%, 57% ended on the jumbo-tron at a cold play-con. [Applause] Is the workplace the perfect place to meet? No. But what's better? Dating apps? Bars? Which are now places where people go out and yet somehow are still on their phone? Of course, no woman in an office wants the guy in the next cube who's giving unsolicited back rubs or making comments about a appearance unless he's cute and then it's, "Why is he ignoring me?" [Laughter] But that stuff is already, if not outright, illegal, very frowned upon. This is 2026. Every company has an HR department now. When a true predator, like Eric Swallwell, was finally exposed, people said, "What took so long?" Well, what took so long is nobody reported it for a long time. Now, does it take guts to do that? Sure. Yes. But call me a radical feminist. I think women in 2026 are capable of guts and of handling both clumsy overtures without an act from Congress. There is a congressman from North Carolina, Chuck Edwards, Republican Christian married to the same woman for 40 years—not really my jam—but I also don't think he should have been forced out of his race, which he was, for what he did, which wasn't much. A bipartisan House Ethics Committee did a full investigation and found zero evidence of sexual activity, physical contact, or fluid propositions. No, what Chuck did was buy the women in his office gifts—a lot of them. He bought shoes, jewelry, purses, cell phones, laptops, massages, kitchen appliances, spot treatments, you know, a real monster. One time, after a step or a bad break up, congressman Edwards paid for her and a friend to go to New York and see Hamilton. And without him on the trip, the only thing this guy couldn't keep in his pants was his credit card. There's a song in Hamilton called The Room Where It Happens, and this tragic castrado literally couldn't get in the room where it happens. A room he paid for, which explains his campaign slogan, "I still believe in a place called the Friend Zone." I tell you, thank goodness we stopped this sick-demented fuck before he sends another poor defenseist woman on a spa weekend. This maniac even wants to range for a singer at a staffer's birthday party, and this was so traumatic that one staffer confided in a friend that she was "lokey-scared." The Congressional panel also found some women were uncomfortable with the gifts. Yeah, but not so uncomfortable they didn't take them. Maybe let's all try a little more romance and a little less hypocrisy, you know. We hate it when people have sex in the office, but you know what, TV show we love The Office. The most popular sitcom of all time reproduced all over the world and the entire show is an HR department's worst nightmare. Everybody is either fucking or trying to fuck everybody else, and it doesn't make anybody low-key scared. Jim and Pam, Jim and Karen, Michael and Jan, Michael and Holly, Erin and Gabe, Erin and Andy, Erin and Pete, Ryan and Kelly, Angela and Andy, Angela and what? There was less incestuous fucking in Fleetwood Mack. All right, that's our show, I want to thank Jeremy Peters, Jennifer Bash, and Hunter Biden, Club Redden, and Drops Every Monday at Lixon, or listen where you get your podcast. I'll go watch overtime on Lixon. Thank you very much. That's right, we've got to make-- thank you. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Marr every Friday night at 10, or watch him anytime on HBO on-demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com. Larry David is back in their new HBO original limited series. What a pleasure to be a part of such a historic occasion. Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness and almost history of America. This is a declaration of carbon sand. Those who don't know history. You are the world's worst butter channel. Our doom to watch Larry David repeat it. 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