Overtime with Bill Maher: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene (HBO)

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on the recent controversial statement by Nicki Minaj regarding her support for Donald Trump and her claims about receiving a "gold card" from him, as well as the implications of vaccine hesitancy on the resurgence of measles cases in the U.S., tying back to the influence of anti-vaccine voices in the government. The panel reflects on the impact of celebrity politics and the historical context of vaccinations in public health.

Key takeaways

• Nicki Minaj's gold card from Trump: a clever crossover or a branding misstep? Fans may not be amused.
• Measles resurgence alerts: Anti-vax rhetoric is backflipping from hippie past to southern governors—how did we get here?
• Autism and vaccines: Over 30 years of studies, yet myths persist, showing the power of misinformation in modern parenting.
• The vaccination debate: Parents' freedom vs. public health—who should decide what's best for the kids?
• Diagnostic inflation: Increased autism rates reflect evolving understanding rather than vaccine villainy—a sober reality check.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Bill Maher (Host) · 9 min speaking
• Joe Scarborough (Guest) · 8 min speaking
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: RFK Jr. / RK Jr., Marjorie Taylor Green, Nicki Minaj, North Carolina
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Venezuela, Marjorie Taylor Green
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Ilan Omar, Donald Trump, Joe Scarborough
4. 15:00 – 20:00: North Carolina

Notable quotes from "Overtime with Bill Maher: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene (HBO)"

• All right. He's the co-host of NS Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarboro, and she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Okay. What does the…

  about Marjorie Taylor Green · at 0:00

• Outbreak in South Carolina. Are antivax voices in the government like RFK Jr. responsible? Well, yeah, the question answers itself. It's it's it's insanity. His kids all had…

  about Alabama · at 1:40

• This is something that really needs to be studied. Well, it has been studied for 30 years. And I will say I will say I was a lawyer. I was an attorney. I talked to RFK Jr. I…

  about California · at 3:46

• Whether you're talking about Venezuela, whether you're talking about Greenland, whether you're talking about Iran, what the we've got a country well, Republicans mocked and…

  about Venezuela · at 9:18

• No, he's not. And he went on some podcast and said he doesn't think the women have the something like the mental capacity to compartmentalize. Did you see that? Wow. Yeah. What…

  about Ilan Omar · at 10:53

• And it's over a thousand pages or more. And so there's not buy in from the members. So that's why you're you're more likely to have government shutdowns. No. Was there more…

  about North Carolina · at 18:33

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Marjorie Taylor Green — Person · Main guest / panelist · 3 mentions · first at 0:00
  A central panel voice arguing for parental choice on vaccination and discussing partisan conflict, foreign policy, and political discourse.
• Joe Scarborough — Person · Panelist / referenced media host · 2 mentions · first at 3:46
  Introduced as a TV host and participates in the panel discussion, weighing in on vaccines, Trump, and Ilhan Omar.
  All right. He's the co-host of NS Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarboro, and she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Okay. What does the…
• RFK Jr. / RK Jr. — Person · Referenced government official / debated figure · 3 mentions · first at 1:40
  Used as the focal point for a debate about anti-vaccine rhetoric, measles outbreaks, and whether vaccine-autism claims have merit.
  I would think that you would have been listening to country music, which you might also. I do like and Nicki Minaj. Sure. Why? She likes all kind of music. Yeah, I do too.…
• Donald Trump — Person · Referenced political figure · 3 mentions · first at 12:00
  Appears across multiple segments: alleged 'gold card' for Nicki Minaj, foreign-policy announcements, and attacks on Ilhan Omar and others.
  All right. He's the co-host of NS Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarboro, and she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Okay. What does the…
• Ilan Omar — Person · Referenced public official (name variant) · 4 mentions · first at 10:53
  Discussed in the context of Trump’s attacks and a broader argument about immigrant perspective, gratitude, and free speech in America.
• Nicki Minaj — Person · Referenced celebrity · 2 mentions · first at 0:00
  Serves as a pop-culture entry point into political discussion, via claims about receiving a 'gold card' from Trump and being his fan.
  I would think that you would have been listening to country music, which you might also. I do like and Nicki Minaj. Sure. Why? She likes all kind of music. Yeah, I do too.…

Places & events

• Venezuela — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 8:20
  Mentioned in discussions about U.S. foreign policy and military actions.
• California — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 4:41
  Referenced in the context of rising autism diagnosis rates and vaccine discussions.
• North Carolina — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at 1:05
  Mentioned regarding a measles outbreak and vaccine policies.
• Alabama — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 2:47
  Mentioned alongside Mississippi in discussions about vaccine policies and disease eradication.
• Mississippi — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at 2:47
  Discussed in the context of stringent vaccine requirements and disease eradication.
  Outbreak in South Carolina. Are antivax voices in the government like RFK Jr. responsible? Well, yeah, the question answers itself. It's it's it's insanity. His kids all had…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 All right. He's the co-host of NS Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarboro, and she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Uh Okay. What does the panel make of Nicki Minaj bragging about getting a gold card from Trump after declaring herself his number one fan?

0:00 Are you Are you a Nicki Minaj fan? I like her music. You do? Yeah. There's Look at that. See, people just didn't know you, Marjorie. They didn't They didn't know really.

0:00 I had no idea. I would think that you would have been listening to country music, which you might also.

0:35 I do like and Nicki Minaj. Sure. Why? She likes all kind of music. Yeah, I do too.

0:35 There you go. Right. Um, so what do you think? But I'm I'm wondering if Nicki's fan base is going to uh be okay with this, you know?

0:35 Yeah. Anyway, what's the question? What does the panel make of this? Well, I mean, first of all, I I I think people in the Trump administration said the gold card is not what she thinks the gold card is. So, I I I don't even I don't even think she has the real deal. So, it's going to be f we'll we'll watch watch this space because Yeah. I I I

1:05 I think it's good whenever people get out of their boxes. I really do. I mean, I just think it's good when when the message goes out. We don't all have to follow. We don't all wear pink on Wednesday. Okay.

1:05 For whatever reason, um, uh, measel cases have reached a 30-year high with a fast growing outbreak in South Carolina. Are antivax voices in the government like RFK Jr. responsible? Well, yeah,

1:40 the question answers itself. It's it's it's insanity. I mean, you know, His kids all had the four, five, six vaccines. All we all had the vaccines.

1:40 No, I don't. Well, I got measles. What did Were you We all did. Yeah. before the vac.

1:40 No, no, but I'm I'm just saying just in general like our kids all got like, you know, the the the the vaccines and

2:17 we did a pretty good job and in getting rid of of measles and getting rid of of the the other things. So, yeah, of course it's RFK's fault. Junior,

2:17 I don't I don't think you can blame Secretary Kennedy. I I look I totally believe in parents rights to choose to vaccinate or not vaccinate their children and I don't think the government should mandate that and I don't think I think children should be able to go to school or any kind of activity without being forced to take a vaccine and I think that's incredibly important. A lot of people care about that. I I mean some of the some of the the poorest states in America uh actually wiped out diseases because they had if you look at Mississippi, Alabama, some of the deep south states that that I lived in, you know, they they had the most stringent requirements because we used to make fun of people in San Francisco. The antivaxers used to be on the left. They used to be the hippies, the old hippies, the freaks.

3:16 Yeah. They still to Yeah. But but now for for some reason you have southern governors that have decided they're going to emulate what happens in San Francisco and you're starting to see these states that had eradicated these diseases now have have have rise up again like me

3:16 potential links to autism not really that actually a lot of a lot of parents think that it is that it is linked and they have been ignored for a very long time and I think I it's such a sad case this is something that really needs to be studied.

3:46 Well, it has been studied for 30 years. And and I will say I will say I was a lawyer. I I was an attorney. I talked to RFK Jr. I have a son who's on the spectrum. I had questions when in in the early 2000s about this. There have been so many studies. There's been one study after another study after another study that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn't. I think there's people that would argue with you. There there are many parents that link it to vaccines. And I I really think it's up to the parents.

4:18 If it's not the vaccines, well, I'm not saying it is. What What What is the What is your gut as to why the rates went up so high?

4:18 Why they've spiked so much? Because we all had kids, or at least I did. We all had kids that we went to school with, and they were a little off. They were a little different. You know, they they may have been some of the smartest kids, but they didn't know how to relate to us. They were the ones that sat alone in the cafeteria. And what happened by the time,

4:41 you know, we get in the the 90s, we was always there. We just weren't counting.

4:41 Now, if now if somebody looks at a teacher wrong, they're like, "Oh, he's on the spectrum." I mean, so maybe there's there's there's been more of a diagnosis over the past 20, 30 years that have caused those numbers to go up. You look at a state like California where the numbers have gone up higher, I think, than other places. Probably

5:05 uh more diagnosis than in other states. Well, it also correlates with the number of vaccines.

5:05 The amount of vaccines that children have to have now is outrageous. And and thankfully, Secretary Kennedy, they changed that.

5:05 What's outrageous about the vaccines that kids vaccines up to the age of two? That is outrageous versus when we were kids. I think we had we didn't have that many vaccines.

5:33 I have four kids and I didn't I didn't give them 72 vaccines. But nowadays up until

5:33 Yeah, they did up the schedule a lot. 72. I don't know. I mean, I don't know the number, but I've heard those high numbers. Yeah.

5:33 And and who knows? I mean, my thing with vaccines that wasn't an antivaxer just always was

5:33 longterm. Do we know if there is a long-term problem like I'm talking about 50 years down the line. If you have taken everything that your immune system is supposed to do naturally, right,

6:02 and made it so that your because usually when you when you do something with your body and you and you say that your body doesn't have to take care of it itself,

6:02 it doesn't. Yeah. But you know, we we have we have a lot of these vaccines that have been around for 30, 40, 50 years. I don't know what the impact of oimpic serious. I don't know what the impact of oimpic is going to be 20 30 years from now.

6:02 Exactly. That's the point. Right. Right. But but but as far as as vaccine for measles, a vaccine for for some of these other things, they've been around for decades.

6:26 Yeah. But we're talking about the accumulation of all these vaccines plus all these different elements that we never had in our body for like so many different chemicals that we know. Is there some sort of mixing and matching of all these different elements that we never had electromagnetic energy, cell phone, whatever? I don't know. I don't I don't know. I'm not saying there is. But is that is you know, so until I can go to a doctor and have them say, you know what, uh, you got cancer, but you know, we know exactly what caused it and we know exactly what can fix it. I'm I'm just going to be like openminded about everything. Are you are you sympathetic toward um are you sympathetic toward RFK Junior's position on vaccines?

6:54 Uh I'm sympathetic to the idea in general. I think he's a big picture guy. Not very often with where he gets into the weeds. Right.

7:23 No, he and I'm right on track. Yeah, you're right on track. I'm not Oh, I am definitely not on track with everything he says.

7:23 But the idea ain't America great. We can all disagree. What I what I said to him when he was on my podcast or the show or one of the two, maybe both, I said, you know, you you made your your bones as a environmental lawyer, you connected our terrible environment with our ill health.

7:49 This is the you need to transfer this now to this other this is really kind of what you're doing now, but instead of with a river, you're talking about the river of that we put in our bodies from the pharmaceutical companies and on down the line. He just goes to I also said to him at one point is there a conspiracy theory you don't believe

7:49 right I mean un and his answer was no I don't know I I don't know um okay Trump announced he is moving a huge armada to the Middle East and he also said we have something called a discombobulator

8:20 yeah heard about that I I think the people in Venezuela found out about that as well.

8:20 The discombobulator. Apparently they did. Yeah. What is a discombobulator? Well, I don't know, but we we have one and it was used in Venezuela.

8:20 And and so I put out a post today. I said "Well now that files have been released and then deleted, uh I think it increases the odds that we'll be bombing Iran tonight." Um tonight?

8:51 Well, it's a Friday. I mean, it's a Oh, sure. Weekends and holidays. Absolutely. Sure. You got to do it on a Friday night.

8:51 Wag the dog. Wag waged. People have plans on Saturday. You know, you'd ask in the show about Republicans. I mean, one of the problems that Republicans have is the fact that you've got a White House that has been focused on foreign policy so much. Whether you're talking about Venezuela, whether you're talking about Greenland, whether you're talking about Iran, what you know, the we've got a country uh well, Republicans mocked and ridiculed Democrats for not focusing on affordability, not focusing the price of butter, and now they're talking about foreign policy all the time. We've got wars all over the place. They were bombing, you know, they were bombing boats going out of Venezuela for a very long time. And that's in the news. Affordability is not. The cost of health care is not. The cost of rent is not. The cost of groceries, which went up at a faster clip in December than I think any time since 22, 21 or 22.

9:46 You know, they're not talking about that right now. They're talking about a lot of things that don't

9:46 talking. No. Where's the protesting about what's going on in Iran? I protested.

9:46 You did? I I was so outspoken on no more foreign wars. Uh that was that was part of uh

10:17 No, I mean I just I got in trouble. I I went to the principal's office on that.

10:17 Yeah. I kind of suffered the whole MAGA make America great again. America first called out you said the weak Republican men.

10:17 You use that term and I mean I read a story in the New York Times about the we're talking about the split in the Republican party. Apparently, it's it's very gender oriented because Mike

10:17 Johnson Johnson Yeah. not popular with the ladies. No, he's not. No, he's not. And he went on some podcast and said he doesn't think the women have the something like the mental capacity to compartmentalize. Did you see that?

10:53 Wow. Yeah. What What What do you make of that? Uh I make a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

10:53 I want to go I want to ask you this though because I think you were go I think you were starting to touch on it.

10:53 I want to know how many people the Iranian mullers have to slaughter in the streets

11:28 before one person, one student on Colombia goes out on their campus grounds and protests or do they only protest when it's Jews who are fighting the war?

11:28 Correct. because it's outrageous. It is. It's up to 30,000 and it only proves It only proves what supporters of Israel said at the time. And a lot of times they were focused on me. They go, "Why are you focused so much on Gaza? Why are you focused? Why don't you focus more on and then the list of all these other things?" Well, I will tell you Colombia, other universities are proving them right because 30,000 Iranians have been slaughtered. Not one campus protest. Nobody's talking about it.

12:00 You know, Trump tweeted some horrible things about Elon Omar, which is wrong and despicable. But

12:00 tweeted some bad things about me, too. Of course, he did. But, you know, one thing he

12:00 called me a murderer 13 times. I mean, we can all go to that party. It's a big Yeah. I mean, I I still get the text yelling at me.

12:32 It's But it's better this way. It's better to have a dialogue than just be yelling at each other across. Dialogue's great.

12:32 Dialogue is great. Totally agree. And you do a good job at that. Thank you. Um but the UH

12:49 but there is a a stunning lack of perspective often on the left on these kind of issues. Now he said something terrible among his things he said about Elon Omar and I don't I'm not I don't have the quote in front of me but basically what it was is she comes here and all she does is complain and

12:49 Okay. There is something uh there is a kernel of truth in that that somebody comes from a country like Somalia and then it just seems like she does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here and never seems to have anything good to say.

13:17 We don't think that way about America. The second she came here. My family my family's probably been here for 400 years.

13:17 The day she came to America and raised her hand and took the oath, she's every bit as much of an American as you are or me. And I would say this of every other American have some perspective.

13:17 She has just as much right as Donald Trump or any of the billionaires his administration.

13:45 I'm not talking about rights, Joe. I'm not saying she didn't have any right. I'm saying have some perspective about this country versus a country like Somalia. It it it just it just makes you shouldn't complain about America.

13:45 I didn't say that. You're saying that. No, I'm trying to figure out what you're saying.

13:45 What I'm saying is have some perspective about this country. Not just her, but yes. I mean, if she's from a country like Somalia, which is a country you wouldn't live in,

14:12 right? Okay. Well, just be honest about it instead of it just seems like it's always completely negative about this country. Also sometimes seems like we have

14:12 I agree. Say something positive. Say something realistic you are to be here. Yes, I agree with that. Well, I I I could I could say

14:12 everyone had had free speech and and all of us complained, but be grateful. Well, I could say the same thing about about Republicans over the past decade. All they've done is bitched and moaned about how horrible this country was. When we're the most powerful country on the planet, uh we we have the most powerful military, the most powerful when they're out of power. This horrible country, but here's the thing.

14:41 As soon as they take office, we're the perfect country. But when they're but but when they're out of power, what do they do? Donald Trump talks about how the American dream is dead. No, it's not. That's The American dream's not dead. We're stronger militarily. We're stronger economically. We're stronger culturally. We're stronger with soft power. We're stronger in every single way.

15:01 I don't know about that. Ask Jenz. Yeah. They're not feeling so good. But I don't see. Okay. So, now you now you're talking now you're talking badly about America. How dare you do that? I think it's a great country.

15:01 No, I said ask Jenz. Well, would Jen Z rather live in America or Somalia? I'm just saying the American dream is harder to realize. The value of water has gone down so much. They don't see the ability to ever own a home possibly, right?

15:30 It's it's a much bigger hill to climb than it was for all of us. And that's your right to say

15:30 as No one's saying it's not. You're trying to turn this into a argument that doesn't turn it into a It is a argument. No, it isn't. Strawberry saying if you're from Somalia, you can't about what's wrong.

16:01 But I didn't say you can't. Straw man didn't come to the show. Straw man say No, no, I didn't say that either.

16:01 Okay. Jesus. It's like having a fight with your wife, which I don't even have. If somebody comes from the Netherlands,

16:01 I said have some perspective. Have some perspective. So So and I would say it to anybody. If you're from everybody,

16:01 I would say that to the Republican party that says the American I would too. Good for you. Agree about this. So why are you yelling?

16:29 Because why not? Because I don't like when people put words in my mouth. That's why

16:29 I did not I did not do that. You did it over and over again. I could show the tape.

16:29 Show the tape. Show it to me. Can't believe this guy is his own show. By the way,

16:50 what are the chances Congress averts another government shutdown? So, where are we with the You would know that government shutdown is the only

16:50 Aren't we all disgusted with it? It's like every news I mean you have to talk about it every morning and then you talk about it once a week and I lived in it and I just thought the word the CR I'm like why can we not fund the government? Why is this so complicated? Why can't we have a balanced budget? Why is it always overspending? But it it are they going to fund the government? No. They're going to fight on TV so they can make all of you at home mad and and to the point where we all have just outrage fatigue. Just constant outrage.

17:16 Seems like it's the only weapon that they ever pull out is we're we're we're we're crashing the game board over

17:16 and we're not playing anymore. That that can't be And both both sides do it. exhausting.

17:45 I mean, they didn't do it when you were in Congress. Yeah. We shut down the government to balance the budget. We told Bill Clinton we were going to keep fighting some

17:45 But they didn't do it all the time, right? No, we balanced the budget four years in a row, so we were happy.

17:45 So, you're saying it's a good thing. Well, I mean, it's a it's sometimes it has to be used, but the problem with what's happening now compared to when I was there,

17:45 total different. We'd have all of our appropriation bills. They would all go through. Usually the president would sign them and then at some point about 15 years ago they say, "Okay, you know what? We're gonna stop having what's called sort of like regular order and we're just going to get the three Republican leaders and the three Democratic leaders together. They're going to do these huge omnibus bills, right?" And then they're going to tell everybody with like 24 hours left, here's the bill, vote on it,

18:33 and it's over a thousand pages or more. And so there's not buy in from the members. So that's why you're you're more likely to have government shutdowns. No.

18:33 Was there more congeniality than Oh my god. Yes. When you were there? I mean, when there was no congeniality when I was there.

18:33 No. When I when I was there, you know, I was, again, I know it's hard to believe, but I was considered like one of the most right-wing members. I would come in and what did I do? I would go sit and talk to Ron Dels, who's a Black Panther in the 60s. He's from Berkeley.

18:55 And you hugged. I Yeah. And I did. I went over there and I said, "Who did you hug?" Oh, Maxin Waters.

18:55 And that was the beginning of the Me Too movement. Max Waters, of course. Thank you so much. Please, please don't put words in my mouth.

18:55 But you know what I found was when I go over there, you know, you you you talk to somebody for 5 10 15 minutes and you're like, "Wow, this guy has lived this extraordinary life." And we became lifelong friends. most of my friends that that I met and and you know I knew how Republicans felt and what they believed because but we were able to do that then and I will tell you chairman of the committees most of them were chairman of the committees they did not put up with you trashing the ranking member I remember one time Floyd Spence from South Carolina I started to say something about whoever the ranking member was and he cut me off he goes no don't talk about him he's a great guy we disagree but we we work together and you the longer you're here, you're going to But I have a lot of friends,

19:57 remember John McCain, that were there who said it's miserable there now that this doesn't happen.

19:57 I call it the political industrial complex. It's now the two parties. It's an entire industry where so much money is made on both sides of the aisle. You've got the political consultants, email, fundraising, all types of people that generate income based on creating this hate among the two parties and the Democrat party and the Republican party message on it and they message at home to the people at home because if they can build hate and fear to the other side, they drive people to donate and vote and and I think that is what has completely destroyed the ability to work in Congress and work across the aisle. is because of this political industrial complex that feeds off of hate and fear. And it's it's just destroying our ability to get along

20:54 because people have seen me setting up straw men and then knocking them down and setting next year knocking down. I wanted to tell everybody here as you're talking about dealing with people who think differently than you. I was telling Marjorie the story about when we first met and I' I'd love since they saw that last little thing that I did. I'd love to just say for those everybody here probably doesn't know it but I was here what 90 maybe 96 97

21:24 absolutely well the old show politically incorrect and you know I was from the south I was a conservative I was a Southern Baptist and somebody on your show called me a racist and a bigot

21:24 and of course at that time 99.9% of your audience was really leftwing there would always be one guy with a NASCAR shirt that would be the one guy that cheered for him but you stood up for me and I have never forgotten it and you said you said hold on a second the only bigot I see here is and you pointed to the comedian who was trying to get a cheap laugh. I mean I I and I've never forgotten that 34 35 years later and that's the sort of thing you don't see in Congress. You don't see people

21:55 getting out of their comfort zone, you know, and it makes a difference, you know.

21:55 Let's hug it out. I bet you Thank you, Joe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Overtime with Bill Maher: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene (HBO)"?

Bill Maher (Host), Joe Scarborough (Guest), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Guest).

What is "Overtime with Bill Maher: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene (HBO)" about?

The discussion focuses on the recent controversial statement by Nicki Minaj regarding her support for Donald Trump and her claims about receiving a "gold card" from him, as well as the implications of vaccine hesitancy on the resurgence of measles cases in the U.S., tying back to the influence of anti-vaccine voices in the government. The panel reflects on the impact of celebrity politics and…

What is mentioned in this Real Time with Bill Maher episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Marjorie Taylor Green, Joe Scarborough, RFK Jr. / RK Jr., Donald Trump, Ilan Omar, Venezuela. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Overtime with Bill Maher: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene (HBO)"?

The episode runs 23 min; the transcript is about 4,293 words in 102 timestamped sections.

More from Real Time with Bill Maher

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on Real Time with Bill Maher
• People mentioned on Real Time with Bill Maher
• Topics mentioned on Real Time with Bill Maher