former DNC chair Donna Brazil took some heat on last week's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher for the pronunciation of GOP candidate V ramas Swami's name let's listen and VC needs to just shut the hell up and go home I'm tired we all hate V okay it's it's v v v ever would would you say that about other I'm Donna V is it v ramasama r Swami ramas Swami thank you so much I learn so much when I come on this show I know but v v m needs to go home I I agree he he runs I just I just feel like there's something wrong with everybody refusing to learn to say his name I just feel there's a little racism there it's just a little V I'll say it all right just saying just like I know we don't like him but you know just say his name right this is a really interesting turnabout for Bill Mah I can kind of imagine I can't prove it I haven't watched all of the hours of tape of his show but him being broadly indifferent to these kinds of flubs and also really frustrated by people who call racism at every relatively minor slight I do specifically remember many many many people who until very recently and maybe still pronounce kamla Harris Kamala camela all these other kinds of things and I don't recall a lot of discourse happening about how racist and inappropriate that was including people on the left who refused to learn how to pronounce her name so I do I I I don't disagree with him I do think we should all make a really you know dedicated effort to pronounce people people's names and I didn't like uh uh the the whatever comment when she was corrected but is this really consistent with Bill Maher's approach to these issues since we are TV hosts uhhuh I can never ever I won't do it um criticize someone on TV for getting a name some wrong because someone have made a Sizzle real of all the times I strug It's hard out there for so I'm I'm not going to get on her about the initial it it was kind of I'm sure called back the couple first times I was listening closely cuz oh my goodness gracious what am I saying went the right wayct um and I don't think and I don't think he cares about I think he but but her issue then she kind of doubled down on it and she got a little disrespectful afterward and the whole he needs to go home or go away that was yeah that's it was unnecessarily sassy that was not uh that was not ideal um it it but yeah mispronouncing people's names is not I so I like Bill Mah and I usually agree with him I don't think it's we should be very cautious about kneejerk accusing people of racism for mispronouncing names the the names in Congress I struggle with are are all the white ladies Kiran gillibrand Gill brand that's the one that throws me the most because it's the Kirsten Christen and the I don't know we've said um every every person with a Stein name I guess branty said adl's going to come for us because we can't do those our dear the late um senator from Califoria it's different and you just don't remember which one does which way and I've tried to come up with pneumonics I never remember them it is it is challenging yeah the the the specific thing also is it it is absolutely true that people who have non-anglo names get their names butchered more although not exclusively that gilbran seems like it's probably from my last name wrong I'm sure they do constantly I don't care it seems unbelievable that you would have as good a last name as Suave like it feels like oh that has to be like a a stage name at very least you know what I mean um you want to force it into something else wo or something that seems more plausible so I I get that and there is there is like this cultural Dimension to the name pronunciation because of course the names that are more familiar in a country that was has uh predominantly was founded by and have popular names uh that are from England are going to be easier to say and more common to us and everybody else whether they have a long Greek name or a long polish name or a long Indian name or a long African name do tend to get butchered so there is this kind of racial component of it but it's it is a little bit more complicated than straight race and it is very very interesting to see Bill Maher who thinks everybody's being too sensitive all the time the college kids are doing safetyism everybody's crying racism at the dop of a Dr dime to so quickly in defense of a candidate that he likes start to try to wield the accusation of racism notably at a black guest on his show who I'm sure has talked about race a good deal not just in her career but on Bill Mar show itself frankly I think I used to think his name was bill Mayer for like a while indeed right 100% yeah um anyway it's it so you know she got a little disrespectful there I butan she doesn't like him that's fine she's she's probably doing a doing a feminism on behalf of Nikki Haley a little bit um let's get into this a little bit why is it that um there was an article that was written um shortly after I think the last debate that was titled something along the lines of VI's big problem is that he still has to be liked you know at the end of the day he has to figure out how to get people to like him and he does keep coming out of these debates largely because of his interactions with Nikki Haley capturing the eye of people not because of his policy positions I think there are people who actually substantively agree with a vague more than Nikki Haley at least on these foreign policy issues but still find him grading because he does take these Jabs at her you know if you were raising your child right they wouldn't be on Tik Tok kind of a Jabs the bringing up her heel height things you know things that are very gender coded with respect to Nikki Haley um a kind of a very cocky perhaps overconfident attitude that he has in those debates and in interviews where he ends up in these exchanges with people like Shan Hannity who I again don't agree with him versus V when it comes to these foreign policy matters but still he has a tendency to say I didn't say the thing that I'm very much quoted as having said and it's making I think in some ways he's his own biggest obstacle at this point I don't know I I think um look I I think the younger more online right um really does like Viv a lot and absolutely thinks he comes out the better in these battles with Nikki Haley I think they enjoy spectating them I think there's a lot of mainstream commentary uh even sort of you know mainstream right that's uh that finds his conduct toward Nicki Haley deplorable and look yeah if I was him I wouldn't have said all the things he said exactly the way he says them that's just not my style it's his style but on the underlying policies he's absolutely so much more in Step uh which is what you just said um than Nikki Haley is W with the Bas and so Nikki Haley is is almost is the candidate that I think Ma mainstream or established people want to foist on the right and and that's so obvious that they're doing it it's transparent and so no one is is crying too much over VI saying a couple not so nice things ncky and you know they're combatants on the debate stage it is not it's not the wildest thing that any that's ever come out of somebody's mouth on the debate stage even close so it's is it a harsher is it the way you should no but it's not like it's not it's not so beyond the pale right what he's saying to her no it's not he he's skirting the line so um in August Michelle gold Goldberg wrote a column in the New York Times titled VI ramaswami is very annoying it's why he's surging in the polls and she argues that I suspect ramas Swami's fans are drawn to him for all the reasons as critics find him insufferable conservatives love being championed by representatives of groups that they think disdain them despite the rights deep resentment of the entertainment industry Republicans tend to adore celebrity candidates from Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump that he's he's a performer he's a superstar that's part that's part of the draw she's saying think well sure but but he is saying there are some differences on that debate stage on issues of foreign policy on issues of of cancel culture and Free Speech where V was markedly different than the other four people up there and I think more in step with what an online younger newer right wants and the the mainstream doesn't really understand that um they're not acknowledging it but they don't they don't even really get it they don't get this base of people which is a a lot of people I think a lot of fans of our show from the right fit into that category um I see obviously that um videos where we talk about V do very well there's a lot of interest in his candidacy do you think there's more interest among younger voters younger Republican voters in VI for sure absolutely do we do we have polling on that I don't think we do but that's my sense I mean it is interesting Michelle Goldberg and again I disagree a lot of her with a lot of her takes but she does argue here that he's a younger candidate that's running an a an anti- youth campaign pointing to uh his called to strip voting rights from people under 25 unless they pass the Civics test um and also he's very much out of step with young people on those woke culture issues young people are more woke well young Republicans specifically sure but even o overall I know young people young people are Republican precisely because of those kinds of issu young Republicans are I mean I I I don't think raising the voting age is a good idea but are more worried about losing their job cuz they shared something super right-wing online and that's an issue he speaks to a in a you know both sides kind of way that they appreciate I think that's my interpretation of where his fandom is uh we will continue to follow his candidacy we'll have more Rising right after [Music] this