Overtime with Bill Maher: Ted Cruz, Kid Rock, Jim VandeHei (HBO)

[0:00] All right, here we are in overtime with the founder and CEO of Axios and co-author of Simplified, Jim Vanahy. [0:06] He's a rock star. His new album is called Halfway to Jesus, Kid Rock. [0:10] And he's the Republican senator from Texas. [0:12] And author of Going Further, Senator Ted Cruz. [0:17] First one is for you, Senator. [0:19] Do you think Tallarico will win Texas? Simple question. [0:22] God, I hope not. I don't know. [0:23] Look, look, right now we are early vote. [0:27] Democrats are showing up more in early vote than Republicans. [0:29] So if the election were over today, the answer would be yes. [0:33] Now, from my perspective, the good news is there are a lot of Republicans still out there that can show up on Election Day. [0:39] But it's going to come down to turnout. [0:40] If those Republicans don't show up, not only could Tallarico win, you could see Democrats win every statewide race in Texas. [0:47] But your guy in Texas running there, what do you think of him? [0:50] He seems to be sort of a malfeasant fuck. [0:53] Look, I'm not going to convince you to love Ken Paxton. [1:01] But you've got to admit, Tallarico, I think, is a very weird dude. [1:06] Why? [1:06] Because he is like the ultimate woke social justice warrior. [1:11] This is a guy who stands in front of a church. [1:13] He thinks Jesus has multiple genders. [1:15] Yeah. He says God is non-binary. [1:17] He says there are six genders. [1:19] He stands in front of a church and says he weeps for his whiteness and weeps for his masculinity. [1:24] That's just weird. [1:25] That is weird. [1:25] I couldn't agree with you more. [1:27] Maybe he's just gay. [1:28] What? [1:29] Maybe he's just gay. [1:30] That'd be easier to say. [1:32] But instead, he doesn't say that. [1:35] But why are we inferring because he thinks Jesus is non-binary, which I don't think he means as... [1:41] I know what he meant. [1:44] What do you think he meant? [1:46] He's trying to go into this whole, what's a woman? [1:48] Like, it's like, I'm like, are we really talking about this 250 years later? [1:54] No, I just think he... [1:55] Look, I don't know that much about it, but I have heard those quotes. [1:59] I think what he meant by the Jesus is non-binary thing is that, you know, there are a lot of people who believe in God. [2:05] I mean, your whole album is about Jesus. [2:07] But in a more sort of, like, ethereal way, more spiritual way. [2:12] Like, it's not as, you know, he's not the man in the sky with the beard. [2:18] You know, that kind of thing. [2:19] So, Bill, all of these, he's on video. [2:21] He was asked, who do you really love? [2:23] And his answer is trans children. [2:27] Well... [2:28] I don't know anyone else who would answer that question that way. [2:31] And it's, you know... [2:33] Is that the full answer? [2:34] Yes, I promise you, you can pull up the video. [2:37] He was asked, who do you really love? [2:38] And he pauses and thinks and says, I really love trans children. [2:43] This is a guy who voted repeatedly. [2:46] Like, that's... [2:47] And part of it is, he's of a younger generation, [2:49] where he came of age during COVID lockdowns, [2:52] during all of this woke, radical stuff. [2:54] No, he didn't come of age during COVID lockdowns. [2:57] He's 40. [2:58] Politically. [2:58] No, he's, like, 35. [3:00] Okay. [3:01] Politically, he was a state legislator. [3:03] It was five years ago. [3:04] Okay. [3:04] Come of age means he wasn't 14. [3:08] Well, he still looks like he's 14. [3:10] He also says, on video, that his objective is to, quote, [3:14] dismantle capitalism. [3:16] Yeah, that's... [3:16] Look, I am not for any of that shit. [3:19] I know. [3:19] You're right. [3:20] I just think your guy is even worse. [3:22] All right. [3:22] What are your thoughts on Democrats saying they'll impeach Pete Hegseth? [3:33] Oh, yeah. [3:34] Hakeem Jeffery says we're going to run him out of town. [3:36] I know your friends... [3:37] For what? [3:37] I know you're friends with him if they retake the majority in Congress. [3:40] For what? [3:42] Well, I assume... [3:43] He must say, this is what we're going to impeach him on, [3:45] because he did this, this, and this. [3:47] What? [3:47] Well, he has fired people in the Pentagon. [3:50] Yeah, he got woke out of the military. [3:52] Some of those people were the farthest thing from woke. [3:54] We talked about it at the White House the other day with the president. [3:57] I remember. [3:57] Yes. [3:58] I forget the guy's name, Chris Donahue, maybe. [4:00] Maybe I'm getting there. [4:01] But this guy was exactly who you would want in the Pentagon. [4:05] So I don't know what they got rid of him for. [4:06] And he was very high up. [4:07] He was, like, head of the entire Middle East Command or something. [4:11] He's done a lot of that. [4:12] He also seems to have used up all the missiles. [4:18] You think they're going to tell us how many missiles? [4:21] Maybe the senator knows, but I don't even think he's going to tell us. [4:24] I think we have enough missiles. [4:26] I love Pete Hegseth. [4:29] I think the case against Hegseth that is a fair one, [4:32] and senators should weigh in, [4:33] is there's a lot of really, really, really highly competent people [4:37] who are serving in the military at the highest level, [4:40] who he ran out of town. [4:42] And at a moment where we're at war, [4:44] and it's not like we have a surplus of super talented people [4:47] ready to fill in that void. [4:49] And I think the reason that a lot of Republican senators privately [4:52] dislike the man profoundly, [4:54] the senator probably won't say it, [4:55] but I can't think of a single Republican senator I talk to [4:57] who does not profoundly dislike him. [5:00] No, I like Pete Hegseth. [5:01] I'll say that, definitely. [5:02] And you think he's been an awesome defense secretary? [5:04] Look, I think he... [5:05] You like the way he's prosecuted the Iran... [5:06] Seriously, I'm not... [5:07] Yeah, but look, I think one of the most important things he did [5:10] was try to get the Defense Department back to a war-fighting culture. [5:15] You look at the enlistment rates that are skyrocketing. [5:18] I think young men and women are eager to come serve this country again. [5:22] And he's someone that was on the front lines fighting. [5:25] And you look at it as he goes out and works out with servicemen and women. [5:30] I'll tell you, they love him and believe in him. [5:33] And will the House impeach him? [5:35] They probably will. [5:36] But it has very little to do with him [5:38] and it has everything to do with the Iran war. [5:40] And if the Democrats take control, [5:42] they'll want to do months of impeachment hearing [5:45] to just attack the Trump administration all day long. [5:48] That's what... [5:48] Maybe the rank-and-file of him. [5:51] I seem to remember him talking to a room full of generals. [5:54] Do you remember that? [5:55] Yeah. [5:55] I remember the looks on their faces [5:57] when he was going through his SNL impression of himself. [6:03] And the looks on the faces of the general was, [6:05] who the fuck is this guy? [6:07] And why is he talking to us like this [6:09] about beards and weight and all this shit? [6:12] They were not happy. [6:13] How many of those generals actually served? [6:15] How many of those generals actually served like Hexas? [6:18] Probably almost all of them. [6:19] No, not a lot of them, as you would think. [6:20] Really? [6:20] At this point, they're graduates of these big schools, [6:23] this, that, and the other. [6:23] Yes, a lot of them are. [6:24] I've done a lot of these tours for a lot of these long wars, [6:27] Afghanistan, Iraq, all over the world. [6:28] He did a fly-by over your house. [6:30] He's right. [6:30] The troops absolutely love him. [6:32] He did a fly-by over your house. [6:33] He did not do a fly-by over my house. [6:35] What, what, what was that? [6:37] Two Apache helicopters did a fly-by over my house. [6:40] Okay, okay, right. [6:42] Now... [6:42] And it was fucking awesome. [6:43] Um... [6:43] Okay, fine. [6:49] Like, you know me, you heard me the other night. [6:51] I don't give a shit about any of this. [6:53] The ballroom, the pool, all the stuff that doesn't really matter. [6:56] This doesn't really matter. [6:57] But, just tell me, look me in the eye and tell me, [7:00] if Obama was president, and he did that over Jay-Z's house, [7:07] you guys... [7:07] Jay-Z would say that was fucking awesome. [7:09] Yeah. [7:10] Your heads would explode. [7:14] I don't know that I would particularly care [7:17] where a couple of Apache helicopters flew. [7:18] Really? [7:19] Yeah, really. [7:20] I can't remember ever talking about it. [7:21] Because I know how much it means to these guys and girls [7:22] to do this work, to have something, [7:24] a little something like that, [7:25] a little out of the norm, [7:26] something, you know, [7:27] they didn't come by and show a little respect, [7:29] to have a little fun. [7:30] There's too many big things to worry about. [7:31] I would have no problem with that at all. [7:32] Okay, all right. [7:33] Invite me there for the next one. [7:34] Go by Jay-Z's house next time. [7:36] Yeah. [7:37] Uh, Ted, what's your reaction to Flavio Bolsonaro? [7:42] Oh, fleeing to Miami. [7:43] Oh, boy. [7:45] This, this, I find disturbing. [7:46] I don't know that much about the Brazilian election. [7:50] I know his father ran. [7:51] His father tried to do a Trump, [7:53] and they put him in jail for it. [7:54] And I remember doing a whole thing here about, [7:56] I admire Brazil for doing the right thing there. [7:58] But this is his son. [8:00] He lost the election. [8:01] He thought he was going to win. [8:03] Yep. [8:04] And then the next day, [8:05] he's on a plane to Miami. [8:06] I don't want to see, [8:08] what I'm saying is, [8:08] I don't want to see this come here. [8:10] I don't want to see a guy loses an election, [8:12] and he has to get out of the country [8:14] because he's going to be arrested. [8:16] Now, maybe this guy deserves to be arrested, [8:18] but I don't know. [8:19] This is dangerous stuff that I see possibly coming here. [8:23] Yeah, look. [8:24] Lula, who's the current president, [8:26] is a communist who hates America. [8:28] By the way, I'm not putting words in his mouth. [8:30] That's what he says. [8:31] He ran as a communist who hates America. [8:34] Bolsonaro, what did Lula do when he came in? [8:36] He locked up his predecessor. [8:38] You say, well, that's great [8:39] because he did something wrong. [8:40] I think he just threw his predecessor in jail [8:42] because that's what Latin American dictators do. [8:45] I understand why the son got out of town [8:47] because with Lula coming back, [8:49] I think he had every reason to think [8:50] he'd come lock him in jail. [8:51] And I will say, [8:53] one of the fascinating data points, [8:56] beginning of the Trump administration, [8:57] they cut 83% of the funding to USAID. [9:00] Do you know what happened after that? [9:02] Seven consecutive elections in Latin America, [9:05] America, every one of them, [9:07] the pro-America, more conservative candidate won [9:09] and the anti-America Marxist candidate lost, [9:12] which raises a pretty strong inference [9:14] that that money was funding the candidates [9:16] who hate America. [9:18] This was the one exception. [9:19] This was the eighth election. [9:20] And this one went the other way. [9:22] But prior to that, it was, [9:24] and by the way, among others, [9:25] the New York Times has written about [9:27] how this is unprecedented, [9:28] this shift towards pro-America, free market candidates. [9:32] I want leaders of other countries to like America [9:36] and not hate America. [9:37] Yeah. [9:38] I didn't know he was a communist. [9:39] Mondami is a communist. [9:41] Yes. [9:41] I agree. [9:42] I mean, I read the quotes on the air. [9:45] You can't say things like, [9:47] we want to take over key industries. [9:49] We want to take over the means of production. [9:52] That's what communism is. [9:53] I don't know about this Lulu guy. [9:55] You're sure about that? [9:56] Yeah. [9:58] He's quite open about it. [9:59] Okay. [10:00] All right, Jim, a suspected Chinese spy [10:03] reportedly got close to NVIDIA CEO Jason Wong. [10:08] How concerned should we be about China's efforts [10:10] to infiltrate America's biggest technology companies? [10:14] Super concerned. [10:15] I mean, you go back to, [10:17] I do think artificial intelligence [10:18] is going to be 100 times more powerful [10:20] than anything we've ever had our hands on. [10:22] The Chinese are in a fierce competition [10:24] to beat us to it. [10:25] We're happening to beat them right now. [10:27] It's widely known that there's a ton of espionage going on, [10:30] particularly in Silicon Valley, [10:32] where they've planted folks from China [10:34] into these companies to try to steal their secrets [10:36] so they can get better equipment than we do. [10:39] That's why I don't understand at different times [10:40] where we start to play footsie with the Chinese [10:42] and start to give in to them [10:44] in areas where we have real dominance, [10:46] like around chips, [10:48] when you know that they want to eat our lunch [10:49] militarily, diplomatically, financially, [10:52] internationally. [10:53] And they've written it down. [10:55] They have a 2025 plan, a 2050 plan. [10:56] Their whole game is to come after us. [10:59] And the whole game is artificial intelligence. [11:01] I don't mean to keep harping back on it, [11:02] but if you think about warfare, [11:04] one of the things about, [11:05] I think it is right that we needed to return [11:07] toughness to the military. [11:08] The thing that we're missing is, [11:10] the future of war is not dudes on the ground. [11:12] It's going to be really smart people figuring out [11:14] how do you win war with satellites, [11:16] with spaceships, with what's happening, [11:18] with cyber. [11:19] That's where, look at the war in Iran. [11:21] Look at what's happening in Ukraine. [11:23] That's why Hanks have just now, [11:24] he's putting all the bases off the grid, [11:27] electricity-wise. [11:29] So if this happens and they shut down power grids, [11:32] all our military bases can still function. [11:34] Every word Jim just said is exactly right. [11:37] And it is China is fighting a thousand-year war with us. [11:41] They're fighting with technology. [11:42] They are funding propaganda online. [11:44] They're twisting our kids. [11:46] They're pushing garbage at our kids. [11:47] They're ripping apart our country. [11:48] You know, China is funding, [11:50] on university campuses, [11:51] they were funding the anti-Semitic protests. [11:53] Why? [11:54] Not because they care about Israel or Jews. [11:55] They care about ripping America apart. [11:57] And you look at this country, [11:59] they are pushing on our divides [12:00] and trying to rip us apart. [12:02] And you're right, AI, [12:03] the growth of it is exponential. [12:06] And if China wins the race for AI, [12:10] America's screwed. [12:11] They're working too hard. [12:12] We can fuck ourselves that way. [12:15] That's true. [12:15] I don't think we need any help in dividing ourselves. [12:20] All right, one more. [12:22] Bob, you've gotten to know Trump personally over the years. [12:27] What's something about him that people would be surprised to learn? [12:31] Oh, you want to tell the Macron story? [12:33] The what? [12:33] Or the Macron, the golf cart story? [12:37] Oh, yeah, that was funny. [12:39] Yeah, we're out golfing. [12:40] And I hate speaking out of school, [12:42] but this is just a fun one. [12:44] And I mean, the guy's taking calls all day. [12:46] He's working while you're golfing. [12:47] The guy does not stop working. [12:48] That's true. [12:49] I think we can all agree on that. [12:50] He works. [12:50] He sleeps like me four or five hours a night. [12:52] Right? [12:53] So we're out there. [12:54] Macron calls. [12:55] And he's like, blah, blah, blah. [12:56] He's talking. [12:57] I'm kind of standing. [12:58] You're on the golf cart, right? [12:59] I'm standing next to his golf cart. [13:01] And he's like, hey, I'm here with the great Kid Rock. [13:03] Like, Macron knows who I am. [13:04] And he's like, Bob, say hello. [13:09] So he gives me the phone. [13:10] I'm like, hello, Mr. President. [13:11] And I'm like, I'm from the Paris of the Midwest, des Trois. [13:18] And Trump leaves. [13:20] He gets in the golf cart. [13:22] He leaves. [13:22] I'm like, I love that. [13:26] He leaves Macron on the phone with Kid Rock. [13:29] What else have you been up to? [13:33] All right. [13:34] Thank you very much, you guys. [13:36] I appreciate it.