BILL MAHER, REAL TIME: What do you think about what Obama's doing because he was asked about [Edward] Snowden. He said, 'I don't think he's a patriot' and then he went on to say, 'Hey, you know what, a lot of the stuff he was talking about I was going to do.'



But it seems like it wasn't going to happen without this.



LAURA POITRAS, FILMMAKER AND JOURNALIST: No, certainly not. It wouldn't have happened without Snowden coming forward. Obama also promised to close Guantanamo and Guantanamo is still open.



MAHER: Well, that's not his fault. That's a Congressional thing.



POITRAS: He could have -- the Democratic [party], they had the House and the Senate. They could have made it happen.



MAHER: I disagree with you on that. But I don't understand why he is perhaps the worst president we've had on clamping down on the press. I mean he's used the Espionage Act more than any other president, right?



POITRAS: Yeah. It's more than any other president. I think it's nine times, nine people have been charged under the Espionage Act and many journalists being put under investigation for doing their job. (HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, January 30, 2014)