-(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
-All right. Hi, CNN. Here's our panel.
He hosts the ESPN's<i> First Take</i> and<i> The Stephen A. Smith Show</i>
podcast. -Stephen A. Smith is over here.
-SETH MACFARLANE: All right. And he's a comedian,
writer, producer, whose new series,<i> Ted,</i>
is streaming on Peacock. -Seth MacFarlane is over here.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) And the Democratic congressman
from California, Adam Schiff, who's gonna be the senator
from California. -Bill, thank you.
-BILL MAHER: Okay. All right, here's what
people wanna know. What are the panel's thoughts
on the jury awarding-- Oh, this happened just before
we went on the air. The jury
awarding E. Jean Carroll -83.3 million dollars...
-(SETH CHUCKLES) ...in damages in her suit
against Donald Trump. Donald Trump. What do we think?
Not good, right? -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(CHUCKLES) This was the suit that he got
threatened to be thrown out of -several times, right?
-BILL: Right. Like, how toxic
do you have to be -where you're too rude to be...
-(BILL LAUGHS) ...on trial for sexual assault? -Right. (LAUGHS)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) ADAM SCHIFF: I think it's, uh... I think it's true justice. The only thing he cares about
is himself and money, and going after the money is a way to bring about
some real justice. BILL: Do you think he did it? ADAM: (CHUCKLES) Yes, I do. -BILL: You do?
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) You think he raped her
in Bergdorf Goodman? I do, yeah. Damn right I do. BILL: You think he raped her
in Bergdorf Goodman? I have no idea.
Here's what I will tell you. -It means absolutely nothing.
-(GUESTS LAUGH) STEPHEN A. SMITH:
Doesn't mean a damn thing. -BILL: Right.
-And I get tired of people tryna act like it.
First of all, the man is running for President
of the United States, and part of the reason
he's running for it is because he's getting
those campaign dollars, so he can pick up the money
to pay for his legal bills. -That's what he's going to do.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -He's not gonna lose any money.
-BILL: Right. Secondly, it ain't gonna be
83.3 million dollars. He'll appeal it.
It'll get knocked down. And I'm just getting tired
of seeing so much stuff targeted in his direction, but somehow,
some way, he still survives. I mean,
we're talking about a situation where he's still going to be
the GOP nominee. He's still going to be running
for president. You're President Biden,
that's the individual that you're going
to have to beat. Four indictments, 91 counts. They ain't even bringing up
the bankruptcies. They ain't even bringing up
this particular issue -with this civil case.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And somehow, some way,
he puts cats to shame because he clearly has
more than nine lives. -I mean, come on now.
-(GUESTS LAUGH) -Come on now.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) Come on. You bring up
the most perfect disparity between these two people. It's like,
he cares about himself. He cares about money.
And you have Joe Biden, who put forth
the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains
climate provisions that are gonna
probably bear fruit -long after he's gone.
-Mm-hmm. -Long after he's gone.
-Oh, yeah. Absolutely. What does he have
to gain by that? Nothing. Except, God forbid
I use the word "altruism." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
-Yeah. Well, you know, look. I don't share your pessimism
about this, or your pessimism
about the general election. The reason why Joe Biden
is gonna beat Donald Trump is because
at the end of the day, America is gonna want
a president who is a decent human being. -Who doesn't shit...
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -...on other people.
-STEPHEN: Yeah. Yeah. Who has some interest
in the American people, some interest
in something beyond himself. I think at the end of the day,
people are gonna reject this bigoted, divisive figure. They're not gonna wanna put the country
through four years of that. Well, they have every time,
except that one time. -(GUESTS LAUGH)
-No, really. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
-BILL: I mean, he didn't--- He really lost
every election except the 2016. And that, of course, he didn't really
win that one either. He didn't have the popular vote. -ADAM: Right.
-And I also, you know-- I don't know whether he did it, but I don't put anything
past him. I also think Bergdorf
should have better security. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(GUESTS CHUCKLE) Has there been any point
in history in which-- Not to say it's a cult. But has there been any point
in history in which the same candidate
has been put forth three times in a row
or three elections in a row by the same party? Three elections,
that's a great question. Three elections in a row. It could have happened with,
who's the guy? SETH: Teddy Roosevelt. -Well, Roosevelt.
-ADAM: But I guess-- Well, Franklin Roosevelt
won four elections in a row, so there you go. Yeah, but, you know,
given the circumstances. -(LAUGHS)
-STEPHEN: Right. -BILL: What about the second?
-Maybe-- Well, there's always something
going on in the country. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-You know? I mean-- Well, no, really,
you can't do that. You can't be like,
"Well, there's a war on, we have to stick with me." -ADAM: Right.
-I mean, that doesn't work. "It's a depression,
stick with me." STEPHEN:
He lost the popular vote in both elections,
but the bottom line is this. I respect the fact that you don't share
my pessimism, I truly do. I understand
where you're coming from. But I think
that's part of the problem. I think the Democratic Party
should share my pessimism. I think they should be
on high alert. I think they need to treat him with the seriousness
that it deserves. Because you're having
a lot of faith in the American people. The man did get
over 74 million votes. You've got people
that are looking at Joe Biden. I'm not going to call him
a cognitive mess or anything like that.
That's very disrespectful. I would never speak
about our president that way. But when you're 82 years of age,
it's not offensive to say you're no longer
a spring chicken, and you don't seem to have
the level of vibe and the energy
that you once used to have. And so, you take that
into consideration. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
-You take that
into consideration. You can't ignore the fact
that this man is a threat. Oh, make no mistake.
I take him as serious -as a heart attack.
-STEPHEN: Okay. I'm optimistic, but we're gonna have to
fight tooth and nail. And one of the biggest obstacles
we're gonna have to overcome is all the efforts
to prevent people from voting. -STEPHEN: Okay.
-We're gonna have to -turn out our people.
-STEPHEN: Fair. We're gonna have to work
like never before. We're gonna have to work like... -STEPHEN: Mm-hmm.
-...our democracy is on the line -because it damn well is.
-STEPHEN: Right. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
-And-- -BILL: Yeah.
-And I don't-- So, I take this seriously
all the time. Let's interject one thing
into this discussion about Trump that we've been having
all night. There was a question
I was gonna ask you. -We ran out of time.
-STEPHEN: Sure. <i>The Atlantic</i> put out an article
last year and it was called, "Separating Sports by Sex
Doesn't Make Sense." -Right.
-And talked about how we separate sports
like the WNBA and just because--
It's just socialization. -(CLICKS TONGUE) This is insane.
-I agree. Okay. That's why people vote
for Trump. -STEPHEN: Mm-hmm.
-Because there's stuff like that on the left,
that people just go, "I know Trump's horrible, but separating sports
by sex makes perfect sense." -Mm-hmm.
-And if you think it doesn't, -you can't leave the country.
-Completely agree. That's cutting off your nose
to spite your face. -STEPHEN: Well...
-BILL: Okay, okay. I'm just giving you the answer
to the question you're asking all night long. "Why do they vote
for Donald Trump?" It's not always
because they like him. -SETH: No--
-It's because stuff like that -is kookier to them.
-SETH: Well-- He-- -People--
-And there's lots of kooky-- It's kookier
than trashing the Capitol? -What the fuck? What-- I--
-BILL: Thinking-- Think-- -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
-In a way it is. -SETH: How is it...?
-BILL: It's apples and oranges. It's apples and oranges. One is more evil,
one is more horrible. But thinking that-- I mean,
what would happen if we combined
the WNBA and the NBA? Well, for example was...
Well, LeBron would go from averaging 25
to averaging 70. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-Because half the team, I mean, you mix it up,
and he'd hold the ball and create the mismatch and take advantage
of the mismatch. You know what the problem is?
You're both right. I'm gonna tell you something. Like, I-- When you donate
to the Democratic Party, which I have,
you get to do certain things. BILL: I didn't even get
a thank you. -(LAUGHS) I got on a--
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I gave them
a million dollars twice. -I didn't get a--
-I got on a Zoom- -Can I just say thank you?
-Thank you very much. -Yeah, yes. Thank you. Yeah.
-Thank you. (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) -Yeah.
-I got on a Zoom with Biden for, like, ten minutes. "Oh, you can talk to Biden
for ten minutes alone." -Like, "Okay, great. Wow."
-BILL: That was AI Biden. -(GUESTS LAUGH)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -That was not Biden.
-(CHUCKLES) Yeah. -Trust me, it wasn't AI Biden.
-STEPHEN: Right. -(BILL CHUCKLES)
-But what I took away from that was that, "Oh, this guy is not the world's
greatest public speaker." -BILL: That's right.
-But I'm now getting why people like Lindsey Graham
are defending him and saying like, "If you don't like
Joe Biden, there's something wrong
with you," which you can look it up.
He did say-- I'm paraphrasing
'cause I've had a 100 drinks. But-- -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-(GUESTS LAUGH) But he did essentially say that, like, "If you don't like
Joe Biden as a person, there's something wrong
with you. You need to look yourself
in the mirror." But there's a flip side.
And here's the flip side. You can like Joe Biden
but hate Capitol Hill. -SETH: Of course!
-As it has been for so many years. When you look at people
think about Trump-- You ever watch a Trump debate? This is why I was joking around and said I'd challenge him
to a debate. What would I have to
worry about? He doesn't say anything. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
-He goes up against Democrats, -"It's gonna be
very, very good."
-SETH: Yeah. "It's gonna be fabulous.
Watch. Wait and see." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, CHEERING)
-He hasn't said anything! Right? -If--
-And nobody-- Excuse me, sir. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
-Nobody on the Democratic side has, what is it, the pizzazz?
I know you got the substance. But you've got a lot of people
out there that are preoccupied
with their own lives, and they want somebody
that knows how to ingratiate themselves
with them-- But that's what in debates
is called a gish-gallop. -It's called a gish-gallop.
-I understand that. -But does it work?
-It's when you disseminate so much bullshit, you're like Biff
in<i> Back to the Future,</i> -getting fucking...
-STEPHEN: Right. That's right. ...dumped on
by the manure truck. -Hey, hey, we're on CNN now.
-But does it work? -If you think...
-We're on CNN. ...Trump doesn't say anything -during a debate,
you should see--
-SETH: Oh, shit! -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
-(GUESTS LAUGH) -Oh, man. Oh, boy.
-What, now you tell me? To-- I-- Well, granted.
All right. All right. If you don't think Donald Trump
says anything during a debate, -you should watch Steve Garvey.
-BILL: Right. -I mean, you got empty suits...
-SETH: The point is, in a debate you can't defend yourself
against an onslaught of lies and bullshit,
where you have to defend-- I just said we're on CNN! -(GUESTS LAUGH)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -We-- Yeah.
-What is this-- What is-- I'm on Fox.
What's the difference? I know, but we're
not supposed to swear. -SETH: Really?
-On CNN? -Yeah.
-BILL: No! You're gonna
lose this gig for me. -We gotta go. Good-bye.
-(GUESTS LAUGH) -(CHUCKLES)
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
