BUCK: I wanted to point out for all of you where even some liberals out there are finding out that it’s just too absurd — and this has been all along. I’ve been begging Democrats that I know, liberals that I know, “Please, can we all just agree that the mask policy in airplanes and in airplanes is ultra-moronic? Can you stop just give me that? I don’t want to talk about shots and vaccines.

“Let’s focus in on that — or you have to mask when you go up to the counter to do takeout, but not if you sit at the counter because you’re going to sit and eat there. Can we agree that’s stupid?” You will only get a minor percentage of Fauciites who even concede that, and finally there are voices that are breaking through on this from the left, mind you.

As I always tell Clay, I know Bill Maher a bit. He’s been kind enough to have me on the show number of times in the past. It’s very interesting. It’s the lion’s den. You have a hundred people in that audience that are just booing you, the whole thing. Although they like sports, so they might like you. But they boo. They’ll boo you for your conservatism; that’s for sure. It’s a difficult show to do as a conservative.

I’ve done it a few times. Enjoyed it. Bill on climate change is a doctrinaire leftist. He thinks Greta Thunberg should somehow get a Nobel Prize in science, but on speech issues and on some rational covid things, he’s starting to see the light. He’s maybe got a piece, Clay of a red pill. He’s taking a sliver, a slice of a red pill that he’s taking right now. Can we…? Let’s hear what he says about masking alone outside.

MAHER: And just a little massaging. I mean, I see it all the time — I saw driving in today — people outside alone walking with a mask. It’s so stupid. It’s an amulet. You know, it’s a charm. People wear it, like, just ward away evil spirits. It means nothing. I mean, can’t we get people to understand the facts more? I mean, listen to this for unvaccinated hospitalization risk unvaccinated: 41% of Democrats thought it was over 50%. The hospitalization rate for the vaccinated is actually 0.01%, and the rate for the unvaccinated is 0.89%. So in both cases, the correct answer is “less than one percent.” They thought it was over 50. How do people, especially of one party, get such a bad idea? Where did that come from?

BUCK: Everything in that question, Clay, we should be thinking about this every day. People should be listening to that sound bite and saying… By the way, I like that description, amulet. It is. Masks are now an amulet for people. It’s like wearing garlic around your neck to stop the vampire from biting you.

CLAY: The basic lack of comprehensive of risk from so many people in this country associated with covid has been an utter failure, and it’s funny. People always say when I share stats — you know, in Florida, for instance, the cases are plummeting. The losers out there sometimes hop in my mentions and they’re like, “I hope you get covid!” I’ve had people saying, “I hope you get covid” for a year and a half now.

I had covid, and it had almost no impact on me. And I understand that some people get covid and they have significant impact, but if you look at the age range and if you analyze what is likely to be dangerous to you, the fact that kids are in masks, the fact that anybody’s wearing a mask outdoors, the fact that masks at all are even remotely a thing…

I got into it, you saw — we talked about it a little on the show — with Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner because he was requiring vaccines in order for Dallas Maverick fans to go to the games, the basketball games in Dallas. He suddenly on Sunday — Halloween evening, he puts out the news — “Hey, we’re doing away with the vaccine requirement,” because, for one thing, with booster shots, are you gonna be…?

What’s fully vaccinated going to be considered? If you have to get a booster shot, are you again check vaccination cards for every year into the future? At some point, the madness is going to end, and I don’t know what that looks like or how it’s going to happen, but I feel like many reasonable people — and Bill Maher is one of them.

Remember we talked about Jon Stewart a while back, Buck, when he went on with Stephen Colbert and ridiculed the idea that the virus hadn’t come out of the Wuhan labs and many liberals laughed at his jokes there. I think the vast majority of people are slowly waking up to the reality that we have made an awful decision.

BUCK: It’s a moment here, Clay, where you do the… See, you were right and Mark Cuban was wrong and, by the way, I’ve heard from people. He’s liberal but I’ve actually heard… I don’t know him at all. I’ve heard he’s a nice guy. But, yeah, he was wrong so okay. This is in U.S. News & World Report right now. “Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota is talking to lawmakers about extending vaccine mandate protections to private employees.”

Wait a second. That’s so weird, because I feel like somebody was telling her to do that back in August, and he got a talking-points lecture about the Constitution, and now she’s trying to do the thing that somebody may have told her on the show to do because Texas and Florida are doing it because that’s the only way you’ll have any protection. Gee. I don’t think I’m going to get an apology anytime for being told that I don’t know the Constitution, but, Clay, it’s fun to be right. I’m just gonna put that out there. Fun to be right.

CLAY: It is fun to be right, Buck.