[Smerconish:] I did "Real Time" with Bill Maher last night on HBO. I think it was my fifth appearance and it's why I'm in Los Angeles this morning instead of Philadelphia. For me the most interesting exchange of the night was about the #MeToo movement and how it has impacted the writer Mark Halperin and former senator Al Franken, one of my co- panelists was former senator Heidi Heitkamp.
[Bill Maher, Host, "real Time With Bill Maher":] It's kind of a good week to talk about this #MeToo redemption issue because Mark Halperin, remember him? He look, I always say it's a case by case, and we don't know. He denied the worst of it which was accusations that he used to rub his hard-on against women at the office. He admitted to like inappropriately asking them out, denied the worst but of course he's going to. And then there's Al Franken who I have defended many times. I said, I don't think he did that shit. OK? So it depends We need like a court, like a redemption court, because like Mike Halperin he has been gone two years. He did lose everything at the time but now he has got a book out. So, he interviewed a lot of Democratic strategists and now they are all having to back pedal saying, people are saying why are you in his book, Mark Halperin, and I'm asking, what who decides, what is the does he never get to come back?
[Smerconish:] I will own this because
[Maher:] Yes, you've had him on.
[Smerconish:] He re-emerged on my program. My calculus, as one who is privileged to have this platform, and am I going to extend the invitation to him, was this. Has he owned it? And has he been punished? You know that he wrote "Game Change" and "Double Down."
[Maher:] Yes.
[Smerconish:] He lost the deal for what he would have written about the last one.
[Maher:] Yes.
[Smerconish:] Lost the HBO movie that would have been adapted by it, lost all of his gigs, sat out for 500 days and I thought had been punished enough. And if not, then I asked the question, are we advocating the professional death sentence for someone like them
[Maher:] Right.
[Smerconish:] because I'm not comfortable with that.
[Maher:] Right. And you said you regretted
[Heidi Heitkamp , Former Senator:] Yes.
[Maher:] Helping push Al out.
[Heitkamp:] Right. So if it turned into groupthink, which is what you're talking about.
[Maher:] Right.
[Heitkamp:] All of a sudden there is a huge litmus test out there, and you're either peer or you're not peer and you can't do any critical thinking, any kind of nuance discussion, and I knew at the time that I did it, and I'm not proud to say this, that it was wrong. I mean, my parents taught me doing that kind of groupthink was wrong but we did it because we were in the panic of the moment and I told Al that, and Al said, well, will you tell that to anyone who asked you? I said absolutely, I will own it and I will own it even if I were in the Senate because at some point we as the accuser, we as the judgers, have to make a decision on when is enough is enough.
[Smerconish:] Halperin has been my guest I should point out on SiriusXM radio, not here on CNN, and the social media reaction to my hosting him has been vicious at times. We can put up a montage of some of what I get constantly. In contrast, I should say to the radio callers who are free to dial in and offer a reaction and are almost universally appreciative of hearing his insight on the 2020 race. Still to come, the last three recessions were all preceded by a drop in RV sales. What does this bellwether category tell us about the U.S. economy, is it more accurate than the economists?