since we last got together in 2019. maher is a voice that does what we need. he challenges conventional wisdom, regardless of who is in power. it's about 40 years since he started performing at comedy clubs, quickly becoming a late night fixture on television. anyone who has watched him knows it's usually about more than laughs, okay? he is perhaps best known for "real time with bill maher" on hbo, which like cnn, as you know, is owned by warner media. he continues with comedy shows across the country, with good reason. in the days after the 9/11 attacks, he asked, "can we change." it's a pleasure to welcome you back to "prime time." >> great intro. >> thank you very much. i didn't write it but i read it like a champ. >> you did. you didn't say what they usually say about what i said about 9/11, saying that i got canceled. that is a much more interesting question that you cited, "can we change." >> i believe in giving people the benefit of context. and i lived through what happened with what you talked about after 9/11. and of course someone who echoed and greatly upped the ante of what you were saying about the united states military was donald trump. and it worked out just fine for him. remember him with bill o'reilly, when o'reilly was talking to him about putin and said, this guy's a murderer. he goes, what about us, we're so good? now, that was an order of magnitude different than what you had said. the question about can we change, i remember it as an appeal of you saying, we've done things in a way that has provoked animus, can we do better. we've now done things in a way that provoked animus. do you think we can change? >> the evidence isn't good for that. i don't think we're on a great trajectory. i keep trying to preach on my show that the thing we have to do long range is stop the hate. the two sides hate each other to such a degree, i don't think anybody's hearing each other. when people hate each other, it doesn't matter what the policies are. democrats keep thinking they can somehow break through to the people who hate them and don't vote for them, would not vote for a democrat. anyone with a "d" next to their name is completely toxic, if they just tinker with the policies, we'll give you health care. some things that absolutely seem to benefit the people they're talking to. they constantly ask that question, why do republicans vote against their economic interests? because they hate you. because they really hate you. i mean, look at the election we just had in virginia. i mean, the democrats lost some of those rural counties by 80%. we don't do 80% or we never used to in america. a landslide was a guy got 58% of the vote. that's what made us great. and you saw in other countries, oh, you know, castro got 99% of the vote, we would laugh. oh, i don't doubt that republicans were getting 80% of the vote in some of those counties. i think in 45 of them they got over 70% of the vote. that is beyond policy. and until we figure that out, until you figure out why they hate us so much and obviously it comes back the other way, when people hate you, you tend to hate them. we're never going to fix any of the problems in this country. >> let's question the premise for a second and then continue the discussion. has it always been this way? they win the exurbs, what we now call rural. democrats win the urban. and the fight becomes over the suburbs. is it really any different than the typical notion of a third are for you, a third are against you, and you fight for that other third? have things changed? >> yes, i think things have changed. you look at the electoral map, over the decades, some states flipped back and forth and some states were in play. now the election is run in 12 different states, that's the maximum, those are the battleground states. >> probably 30 counties across the country decide a presidential election. >> right. we never see anybody running for high office in california because we're in the bag already. probably here in new york too, you only see people come out to wisconsin and whatever the -- north carolina, whatever, arizona now. i mean, these are -- georgia is in play now. but the upper midwest usually is where it's decided. but as far as, is it as bad as it ever was? i think it's worse. i don't know, i wasn't around at the beginning of the republic, i know there was a lot of vitriol towards the people who succeeded the founding fathers. as far as the people in this country, i don't think it's ever been worse. i don't think people had this idea in so much of the country that the democrats write off right away, these people will never vote for you, these people would never vote for a democrat. a guy in the midwest was telling me how he was coming out of a store, trying to get his car out of the lot, and a car next to him had a hillary bumper sticker on it and the child, a little 4 or 5-year-old father, was screaming at the mother, screaming, and the mother was apologizing to the child. this is the car with the hillary bumper sticker. and he said to me, i just can't let people like that take over this country. you see, it wasn't about policy. it was about that. he sees people who have no common sense, who are letting a different -- each side sees the other side as an existential threat. now, i think what the republicans are doing is an existential threat. they are playing with a kind of fire we have never seen anyone play before in this country, talking about elections that don't matter, votes that don't count, whatever happens we're just going to say we won. that is the greater threat. >> slow moving coup. >> yes. >> what is a slow moving coup? >> that was a phrase i was using before trump was even elected. >> so that is slow. >> it's really slow. last time i said, he's never going to concede the election. i was interviewing many democrats, the ones you talk to on this show, they would laugh at me, "you smoke too much pot." no, i smoke the right amount of pot. he still hasn't conceded the election. he was hoping republicans would be on his side, like that guy in georgia, brad rav ffensberger w he called up and said find me some more votes. that alone, how is that not a crime? and mr. raffensperger said, no, we can't do that, this is america, we don't find votes. but what he's doing now is behind the scenes, he has spent all his time since he lost putting people in place who will find the votes. that's what is so disturbing, because next time it happens i think they are going to find the votes. he is purging the republican party of people like that. people who -- i think only ten republicans voted for his impeachment. two of them are already gone, because they see that they cannot win an election. he will primary them. he will destroy their reputations. and by the time we have the next election, i bet you none of them are running. liz cheney, certainly, is not going to win that election in wyoming. and so the republican party, as much as i keep hearing about, oh, trump, he's not as relevant anymore, trust me, he's going to run, absolutely. he's going to get the nomination. and i certainly wouldn't be surprised if he just won the election. but even if he doesn't win the election, he will say he won the election. there is no doubt that he will say he won. no matter what the numbers -- doesn't matter how much you run up the score. that's what democrats would always tell me, we've got to win big. it doesn't matter. if they don't believe in the election and the integrity of -- what does it matter what the number is? they're just going to think it was rigged. they think the last one was rigged. two-thirds to three-quarters of republicans think he won the last election. that is different from other times in our history. >> so the question then becomes why it's different, why trump, comma, still, question mark? because he was supposed to fade. you're saying you don't buy it. let's take a break, come back, why you don't buy it, why it's still him and what that means. >> okay. >> bill maher. there's more. heartiness? yes! living life to the flavor-fullest? heck yes. panera. live your yes. now $1 delivery. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ kevin! kevin? kevin. oh nice. kevin, where are you? kevin?!?!? hey, what's going on? i'm right here! i was busy cashbacking for the holidays with chase freedom unlimited. i'm gonna cashback on a gingerbread house! oooh, it's got little people inside! and a snowglobe. oh, i wished i lived in there. you know i can't believe you lost another kevin. it's a holiday tradition! that it is! earn big time with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? 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( blowing ) balanill maher is back. we discussed all through the commercial and i'll let you in on what we were talking about. it's a rare opportunity. not to flatter, but you know me, you have a gift for thinking through things in a way that the group is missing. and more than anything else, i would have done this off tv, just for the benefit of the analysis. trump. things are different. the animus is harnessed in a way that you haven't seen before. trump, you believe, as a clear and present threat to the democracy. he will run again. he will be the nominee. and you believe he will give the democrats all they can handle. why trump still? >> well, he talks to people in a way that doesn't sound like a politician. people were choking on -- and still are, political correctness, i did a whole show about it some years ago. >> i was on it. >> that's right. and it's only gotten worse. here's a guy -- but when you think about the kind of people who vote for him, they could not be less like him. here's this new yorker, with the accent, billionaire, you know, five kids by three different wives. i mean, everything that the republican party used to stand against. but he doesn't talk like a politician. you know, we make fun of him because of his limited vocabulary. to a lot of people that's how people talk. and he never backs down. even when he's completely wrong, and done something horrible. but in a world where everyone is always apologizing for everything, that comes off as refreshing. >> they also don't believe he's really guilty of anything, that they don't think about the rest of the political class anyway. >> maybe. i think -- oh, please. i think they are not benighted to the idea that he has not done things that nobody has ever done. messing with porn stars while your wife is pregnant? no, i don't think bob dole did that. i don't think they think anyone else did that either. i don't think they think anyone else made fun of handicapped people or cheated students at his fake university or robbed charities. i mean, he is everything wrong that you could stuff inside of one man. >> but they believe that political insiders in the media made a lot of that stuff up and they don't watch us or read us so they don't know what the proof is behind it and his people and his outlets either don't talk about it or say, eh, it's not real true and the same stuff is true about biden or clinton or harris or fill in the blank. >> something like hunter biden, i mean, if don junior had done what hunter biden had done, it would be every night, all night on msnbc. but the fact that it's hunter biden and joe's on the blue team, that's the problem with america, everything is so binary. everything that the red team doesn't like goes in the blue bin and vice-versa. so, you know, every democratic politician has to wear on his sleeve every silly, stupid woke thing that the fringe left does. and the red team has to wear kids in cages and, you know, lock her up and all that kind of stuff. but -- a quick question. woke. the response from the people that you put it on will say, no, woke is aware and inclusive and there is no cancel culture, it's just accountability, these are not bad things, they are good things. disagree? >> well, woke, yes, i don't remember the day the term was born, although i hear aoc says only old people use it now. well, you gave it to us, like five years ago. so, sorry we didn't get the memo. right away that's such a high school thing, we're not using that anymore, we all wear pink on wednesdays. okay, whatever term you want, i don't care. again, i just got used to this one. and yes, in its best sense, if we're talking about being aware of things that we always should have been aware of more, reckonings that we've had with sexual malfeasance, with racial injustice, that's all a good thing. but there's a reason why the term "woke" has come to signify going too far and doing things that don't make sense. i keep saying this to the democratic party. the reason why you're so toxic is because you have become the party of no common sense. and people see this on their news feeds. you were saying to me in the break, people mostly go on with their lives, they do, but they see things on their phone or their facebook page, people pass things around and it's a constant drip, drip, drip of, oh, these people are nuts, in a way, yes, they're not oblivious to the fact that trump is nuts. when he ran, one of his big selling points was, you got no choice. he was saying, yes, i know i'm nuts, you know i'm nuts, but they're nuts in a very different way that's closer to home to you. it's that guy in the parking lot. i can't let people like that take over the country, people who regard children as just shorter adults who should have an equal say. >> i get it. why would anybody embrace, if they want normal, a group of people slash party who want to destroy all of the institutions that secure our normal? >> they don't care about institutions. they don't even know about institutions, a lot of people. >> so they don't care about the election is rigged, let's lie about all of these different ways and make it so people don't trust? >> some people do. i've seen surveys. ask how many people in this country know that there are three forms of government. how can you defend the government and the institutions if people don't know what the government is made up of? why is it important, they might ask, that we have, you know, checks and balances? what are those three branches of government? that's the essence of what made this country great, is that the founding fathers, who have been canceled by a lot of people, which again, strikes a lot of people as crazy, that was their genius, is that we check each other. and so, you know, that kind of person is not going to care as much about that as something that is much closer to what happens in my home. if my kid comes home from school and tells me, uh, they're telling me i'm a racist, what does that word mean, mommy? as a young kid old enough to process that? or, you know, comes home and says, i think i'm a girl now. and the school says that i think in california you have to go by that, you know, if the child wants to change his name to a girl's name. that stuff is right in your home. that's at your kitchen table. that is the kind of stuff that is going to get people who go, oh, you know, what he was doing, trump, in ukraine, it was wrong, as much as i read about it, but ukraine is a long way away and this is my house and these are my children. >> now, the proof of that was the race in virginia. and i want to talk to you about it because youngkin went heavy on the school issue. and it was plattered for him because terry mcauliffe who was obviously running against him said, just let them touch, you shouldn't have a say in what they did and that resonated with deplorables. let's talk about what the new state of play is with bill maher. who knows better? certainly not me. right after this. your skin isn't just skin, it's a beautiful reflection of everything you've been through. that's why dove renews your skin's ceramides and strengthens it against dryness for softer, smoother skin you can lovingly embrace. renew the love for your skin with dove body wash. ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ small businesses like yours make gift-giving possible. now, comcast business has an exclusive gift for you. introducing the gift of savings sale. for a limited time, ask how to get a great deal for your business. and get up to a $500 prepaid card with select bundles when you switch to the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. or get started with internet and voice for $64.99 per month with a 2-year price guarantee. give your business the gift of savings today. comcast business. powering possibilities. three words is the perfect sell. more bill maher. it's good to have you, it's good for people to hear this. it's kind of a resetting of the palate, there's a fancy word for that in restaurants. we were talking about schools, and boy, did that resonate as an issue in virginia, the democrats didn't see it coming. you can explain it away as ignorance of what crt is. here's my problem with it, and i want to get your take. crt means nothing to anybody. they don't know what the acronym stands for. it's really not taught anymore. >> you're not even saying the three words it stands for and people are already going, crt? >> i don't like it, i don't want it. >> say what the words are. >> critical race theory. and the people on the left will mock the ignorance. they're too stupid to know. here's the problem. they still get to vote. and fear overwhelms facts all the time in elections. that's nothing new. people vote on feel. >> and it's not a phantom either. there's something going on in the schools that never went on before. i'm not in schools, i have no interaction with children. but i do understand this issue because i read accounts from parents, from educators, from -- and this is all over the country. if -- when you say critical rate theory, again, this is the binary situation we always find ourselves in in this country. if you say that on msnbc, people think that's a great thing because they're finally teaching an honest history of racism in this country, which i know no one who is against that. i'm certainly not against that. i think -- you know, i remember what my education was with american history. we learned about the civil war. i mean, they mentioned racism, we understood slavery and lincoln and blah blah blah. but they didn't really go into it any more than "gone with the wind" goes into it. it was there but you didn't feel it viscerally. now we're doing that and i think that's a good thing, people should understand that. that's different than teaching that racism is the essence of america. that's what people get upset about, or involving children who are probably not old enough or sophisticated enough to understand this very complicated issue with a very complicated history. >> so it's that you have families, we saw this resonate in virginia, and i have people on all the time who reject this premise, but we just saw it play out so it must be real to a lot of people, which is you want to make white kids feel badly about what happened before them and that their lives should be a function of making up for it. and i don't want that put on my kid. >> yes. people are -- kids are taught and sometimes separated into groups, oppressor and oppressed. again, does a kid even know what those words mean? would they gravitate toward that if you hadn't told them? i mean, you're taking something that was getting better, race relations in america, and we -- i think everyone recognizes, everyone right-thinking, in my view, that still a lot of work needs to be done. remedial efforts need to be taken still. racism is part of america. but i did a thing one night about progressive-phobia which is a term stephen pinker coined which means somehow liberals got afraid to acknowledge progress. you know, it's two thoughts in your head at the same time. you can acknowledge that we have made great progress on all the social issues. and yet there is still more work to be done. we're not saying mission accomplished. we're saying let's live in the year we're living in. you can't come up with good solutions unless you're realistic about what the problem is. i mean, it was only like 10 or 20 years ago that no state in america would vote for gay marriage. it was on the ballot like 35 times. now it's the law of the land and no one is against it. i mean, when i was a kid, i grew up in new jersey, which is not a southern state, and it was a completely white town. now a vast majority of americans want to live in a racially diverse neighborhood. that is a sea change just in my lifetime. again, not mission accomplished, but can we just acknowledge how far we've come and where we are right now. >> and the pushback becomes, it's just the truth, we're just telling them the truth, is that racism conditions, it's systemic, it's around us, but you have to be taught where it is everywhere because that's how we remedy it. and otherwise you're just hiding from the truth. >> that's nuts. that's just silly. it's just virtue signaling. i mean, here's the problem. >> you say that all the time. why aren't you concerned that whether it's hbo or whoever owns them in that minute, or your audience or some group, comes and says, maher said too much, he's got to go. >> they do it every week. i tape the show friday. >> that's called tuesday. >> exactly. friday night, saturday some people who haven't seen the show yet say to me, how did the show go? i always say, if i haven't been canceled today, it went fantastic, it was a giant success. >> you don't change. >> no. they come after me every week for something, both sides, which i think is great. >> maybe that's what saves you, that you have both sides coming after you. >> and that's fairly new, because -- not because i've changed. my politics have not changed. i'm an old school liberal. we were talking about the race issue. they changed, not me. i was the old, we should be moving toward a color-blind society where we don't see race. that's the old way to look at it. i think that's still the good way to look at it. he's how you win, it's not your character, not the color of your skin. that's not woke-ism. woke-ism is we have to see it all the time. i'm on the road now playing very often to a politically mixed audience. that never happened, ever. and i don't think it happens hardly anywhere else in america. >> why, do you think there's an increasing separation between real people and the people who are in power over them? >> i think there is a lot of old school liberals like me who don't like what's going on on the far -- on the left. i keep saying, when you're doing something that sounds like a headline in "the onion," that's when you've gone too far. land of lincoln cancels lincoln. that really happened, they tore down lincoln. lincoln isn't good enough for them. seattle, the city council, voted to decriminalize crime. this is an "onion" headline. i saw one very recently, maybe babies should vote. that's what i mean about the party of no common sense. >> new york city, they took down thomas jefferson from the front of city hall. >> yeah. aclu official advocates banning a book. these are "onion" headlines. and yet this is where this party is. or i don't think that's where the party is. it's where the faction that gets all the headlines. and again, it goes in the blue bin. and the average voter sees that and attaches it. there was a -- i think it was tommy tuberville, the republican senator from alabama, wanted to catch the democrats and he put defunding the police up for a vote. it lost in the senate 99-0. no democrat voted for it. but if you asked the average person, are the democrats for defunding the police, oh, yeah. that's the disconnect that the democrats really better address. >> dave chappelle and senator josh hawley are two very different men who are in the mix of what i think is the defining concern culturally about how we handle what we don't like. let's take a break. i want to go through both of them with you and see what you see as the same, different, and if, god help us, there is a solution. i know you're not looking up. it's just lights for you up there. bill maher, right after this. and that's just basic wavy guy maintenance, right? 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mmmm... and our son just started working. oh! do you offer a complimentary retirement plan for him? as in free? just like schwab. schwab! look forward to planning with schwab. welcome to this world. you have some big shoes to fill. people will tell you what to eat. everyone will have an opinion. and, yes, there will be tears. lots of new introductions. sleepless nights. that's normal. okay. so many new toys. it's not going to be easy. but, together, we got this. kaiser permanente. thrive where we are is a function of where we will or will not be very soon, maybe not even a full election cycle away. let's discuss it with bill maher. dave chappelle and josh hawley. two guys who are in the crosshairs of helping culture reconcile what is and is not acceptable. chappelle has a long rhistory o going after trance people, maybe a little bit lgbtq. he says this is going to be my last one for a while, it's called "the closer," and he says he's being cancelled because he makes jokes about that group. what's your take about it? >> i defended him, i'm team dave and free speech. >> why? >> first of all, you say going after, you use terms like homophobia. i was speaking recently about phobia, there is a word that's traveled quite a bit from its original meaning. a lot of mission creep on that word, phobia. it's become really just a way people -- a word they use to say i don't like something. phobia means an irrational fear. spiders, aarachnophobia. he's not afraid of homosexuals. it's not transphobic. this trans stuff is very knew. i don't think he or myself or any other, again, right thinking person, thinks there aren't such things in the world as people who are trans, who are born in a body whose brain doesn't align with it, that's okay. but now we're talking about children. a woman in her 40s said to me somewhat recently at a birthday party, she says when she was a kid she was what used to be called a tomboy. she said, i was never interested in wearing a dress, i only wore pants until i was 14 or 15. she said, if i was around today, they would have made me into a boy here in california. that's what we're talking about. this is new. so don't put it into this category of this is settled science, anything that deviates from the one true opinion on this means you're some horrible bigot and transphobic. that's not what's going on here and i don't think dave chappelle is transphobic. a lot of that special is talking about his opening act. who's trans? can we take a breath? maybe we are going too far with the children part of this. kids should not be really making decisions about their gender. mario lopez was almost cancelled for suggesting that maybe 3-year-olds shouldn't decide their gender. this is the crazy stuff that makes you a bigot. >> having the opinion obviously has to be protected. his choice to make jokes about them, this is the argument, the luxury for me is, i just have to present the argument that's out there, it doesn't matter where i ascribe to it or not. but the argument that was made that i don't think he handled well, i will say that, you're punching down at this group. this is a discrete minority, they've got a lot of problems of being targeted and hurt. you've got a powerful voice. and you making fun of them empowers the people who want to hurt them whether you know that or not. now that we've told you that, stop doing it. is that a bad suggestion? >> i don't know. i don't know what's in dave's head. i'll admit -- >> if it were you. >> he is a little obsessed with this one issue. >> it made him a lot of money. >> i don't think he's doing it for the money. >> i'm not saying he is. >> he certainly has lost some things. that movie he's now taking around like door to door should have been available in different forms. but we see that happen to a lot of people. but i think what's going on, i'm surmising, i haven't talked to dave in a long time. i think as a back man in america he sees there are other groups, you're right, trans people have been targeted. nothing -- nobody in america except the indians have had it anywhere near like the back folks have had it in america. i can see why that would get under the skin. >> he did it very eloquently, he opened a lot of eyes, did he it in the context of jealousy, look how far you guys have come so quickly and we're still struggling and if you made these kinds of jokes about us, the situation is nothing like if you go after the trans community or the gay community, i get it. i just wonder if his fix for it made things better or is that the point of comedy? >> before we get to that, what does this have to do with josh hawley? >> josh hawley -- >> i've been wondering that for about 15 minutes now. >> so dave gets attacked for making those jokes and that's about what's okay or not okay. josh hawley is on the other end of the spectrum of -- >> to say the least. >> -- of weaponizing what is okay and not okay. so dave is doing it as a way of let's approach our freedom and let's talk about what we can talk about here. he's doing the same thing, hawley. on, like, you know, the opposite spectrum. here is the piece of sound i'm talking about that i think spells it out. >> the left wing attack on manhood says to men, you're part of the problem. it says that your masculinity is inherently problematic as conservatives. we've got to call men back to responsibility. we've got to say that spending your time not working, and we have more and more men not working, spending your time on videogames, spending your time watching porn online while doing nothing is not good for you, your family, or this country. >> interestingly, the second part of that, is old school republicanism, it's just value speaking, virtue signaling, that's fine, put that aside. the first part, white's no good anymore, they're blaming you for everything. >> toxic. >> and it's not just white men, look at the commercials, you don't even see guys like you that often. and that is a very dangerous thing. same category. what can we talk about, what's okay, what isn't. hawley is doing that also. but he's creating a weapon that i think the left and the media don't see coming. >> right, i think you're right about that. and there is a sense that just being male is toxic or just being white is toxic. your whiteness. it's like, what are you talking about, i've always tried to be an ally, that's what a lot of people are saying, and now you're coming after me? this whole idea of, like, you have two choices, you're either a racist or you're a racist and you don't know it. people who have lived a right-thinking life their whole life, why are you coming after me? have i turned my life over to this issue? no, but i can't, i have a job and kids and a wife and stuff to do. i can't do that. now, josh hawley is a dangerous guy. let's get to the essence of josh hawley. he's not wrong about this particular issue. but it's minor to someone who does not acknowledge what happened on january 6th. a much bigger question is, what do you do when there are people in our government who don't believe in our form of government? and he is one of them. >> he'll say, no, no, i believe in it, january 6th was bad and wrong, said and settled, you guys are only upset about it because you get to use it as a cudgel but you didn't care about the back people and their allies running around burning down all those cities in the is it your testimony before. >> it's a false comparison and it wasn't the capitol and they weren't trying to stop a duly elected officer at the highest level of government from taking office. i mean, it's a pretty sobering thought that the republican with the most backbone was mike pence. >> but for pence it could have been a very different scenario, by the way. >> yes. when i mention liz cheney now, the audience claps. i'm like, oh, we love her now. >> let's see if she comes after biden a couple of times. >> that's okay, that's her job, to go after biden, that's what republicans do, we did that forever, republicans and democrats were cats and dogs. but tip o'neill and reagan could have a drink after work. how are we ever going to work together? how many qanon members of congress now? how do you negotiate with people who think the democrats eat babies? >> that's right. >> where does that -- >> that's an obvious problem. i think the bigger problem, and i'll take a break and we'll discuss about this, is what goes unsaid, that people won't stand up. i believe the pandemic for us was a low point on a lot of different levels. we made ourselves sick on purpose. and then we kept ourselves there. i want to talk to you because you have a very interesting take on the whole situation. one more break. when we come back, bill maher on where we are. what can i du with less asthma? with dupixent i can du more... yardwork... teamwork... long walks.... that's how you du more, with dupixent, which helps prevent asthma attacks. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? 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(gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th last topic. we made ourselves sick. that's what the pandemic's about. what does bill maher think about it? we made ourselves sick, literally and figuratively. pandemic comes, people tell us okay, it's going to be here, there are going to be a lot of cases, let's prepare. top echelon of government, our president says no, no, no, it's not going to be that bad, we'll be fine, it will disappear in a few cases. of course it doesn't. but it created a line where now we see it almost exclusively on the basis of politics, who buys into things about covid and the treatment and the facts, who doesn't. how do you see it? >> well, you said we made ourselves sick. the bigger issue that is never discussed is that we were sick. you know, before you get sick you are sick. this is a very sick country. still is. i don't mean mentally. although that too. but physically. and why don't you talk about that? there is -- let's call it factor x. if there was a factor that was responsible for 78% of the covid deaths and the hospitalizations, wouldn't you have to really journalistically report that? >> the co-morbidities. >> i'm talking about obesity. people in the media, people in the government are afraid to even mention it. again, 78%. 88% of worldwide deaths are in high-obesity countries. 40% of covid deaths are people with diabetes. and yet no one will mention it. i do. but they hate me for it. >> i talk about it, but you're right. it's not the prevailing narrative. >> you cannot -- people have got to participate in their health. i said this before the pandemic. i said we will never get health care right in this country, i don't care if you take bernie sanders' health care plan, elizabeth warren's health care plan, joe biden's, nothing is going to work and it wasn't working unless people understand that they have some skin in the game. they have to participate in their own health. you can't expect just vaccines and pills or whatever else they have to do the job. and we never do that in this country. the last person that tried was michelle obama. and it did not go over well. >> when we talk again eight months from today, hopefully we'll talk a lot before then, eight months from today, do you think things are better or worse? >> well, they're not going better for biden and the democrats, and i think that's getting -- eight months is going to be close to the midterm election. i think they're going to get thumped in the -- i mean, that usually happens in midterm elections. i mean, joe, look, i'm glad he's there. but he has not exactly stuck the landing on a lot of the issues that he was dealing with. the time i'm worried about, that i keep talking about, is election day 2024 until january 20th, 2025, inauguration day. because again, if trump loses he will not say he lost. that will never happen. he will never concede. as i said last time. but this time it's not going to be like last time. i mean, he almost pulled it off last time. and this time he's had four years to get those people in place. so what happens on january 20th, 2025? when he shows up for the inauguration and joe biden, or whoever the democrat is shows up for that inauguration. what happens then? that's when i want to be, you know, on vacation in london. >> so now my hardest situation, how do i say until the next time? do we shake hands? do you want to fist bump? >> we shook hands when i came out. come on, let's get back to normal. >> listen, if normal is talking to you, i'll take normal all day long. bill maher, thank you very much. appreciate you as a gift to the audience. >> i appreciate that. >> thank you for watching. stay tuned because you know what continues on cnn, the news. next. hen my windshield cracked.. the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. humira helps people achieve remission that can last. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. learn how abbvie could help you save on humira. this is "don lemon tonight." the jury in the homicide trial of kyle rittenhouse, who shot two people to death and wounded a third during protests in august of 2020 over the police shooting of jacob blake wrapping up a second day of deliberations in kenosha without a verdict today. they're expected to get back to work at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. we've got a lot more on this. and in georgia the trial of three white men accused of murder in the shooting death of a 25-year-old black man, ahmaud arbery. travis mcmichael taking the stand today as the first defense witness and describing the