AOC’s Thanksgiving Scam + ICE Director Todd Lyons

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Title: AOC’s Thanksgiving Scam + ICE Director Todd Lyons

Date: November 25, 2025

Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug (“Smug”), Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook (“John”)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Ruthless blends the show’s signature irreverent, combative conservative humor with sharper news analysis and an in-depth interview. The fellas set the scene for Thanksgiving Week—promoting their special holiday episode—before diving into high-profile liberal hypocrisy (with particular focus on AOC’s now-infamous “turkey giveaway” campaign fundraising), the saga of Democrat Eric Swalwell’s awkward gubernatorial campaign launch, and outrageous D.C. media gossip. The main event features ICE Director Todd Lyons, who gives a candid, eye-opening account of the border, deportations, backlog, and the day-to-day realities of immigration enforcement under the current Trump administration.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Thanksgiving Spectacular Promo and Show Spirit

• The team reminisces about their Thanksgiving tradition—their annual “Thanksgiving Spectacular”—emphasizing how its irreverence “put this show into orbit.”
• They frame the episode as a palate cleanser before facing “lib relatives” over the holiday:

  "Listen to this and have a couple of yucks before you go into that lion's den. You won't regret it." (Josh Holmes, 02:36)

• Tone: Unapologetically unserious, fun, overtly anti-liberal.

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2. AOC's "Thanksgiving Scam" — Fake Charity, Real Fundraising

Context:

• AOC’s campaign sent out an email soliciting donations for “turkey giveaways,” but the funds actually went to her campaign, not charity (per New York Post reporting).

Panel Reaction & Breakdown:

• Smug: “Unreal.” (04:17)
• Email with turkey emojis and images of AOC handing out turkeys, but donation link goes directly to her ActBlue campaign page.
• Holmes: "It's the Salvation Army. Except you're the army and she's the one who receives the salvation." (04:40)

Notable Criticisms & Quotes:

• John: “If you made a recurring monthly donation off of this page, they're not sending you a turkey every fucking month.” (07:22)
• Josh Holmes: “Most people stuff their turkeys with breadcrumbs. She's giving you the opportunity to stuff hers with cold hard cash.” (06:14)
• Smug: “It's a blue state machine. It atrophies all the talent.” (15:56)
• Liberal campaign fundraising is lambasted as insincere, self-serving, and “part and parcel of the newfound Democratic Party.” (Michael Duncan, 08:58)

Local Commentary:

• City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens): “Socialists like AOC and Mamdani love to promise everything for free, but somehow it always ends up shaking them down, working people under the guise of community goodwill...typical bait and switch.” (08:26)

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3. Eric Swalwell's ‘California Campaign’ — DC Address, Mortgage Issues, and Hypocrisy

Situation:

• Eric Swalwell appears to have filmed his California gubernatorial campaign launch video at his Washington, D.C. residence, not in California, raising questions about his connection to the state (New York Post).
• Further allegations about not owning property in California for a decade and constitutional questions about residency requirements.

Panel Skewering:

• John: “California sucks so badly that the people that want to run the place don't even want to live there.” (11:44)
• Smug: “Trump’s got the National Guard out here making sure I don't get robbed or shot. This isn't LA.” (11:58)
• Constitutional rules declared “unenforceable” by the secretary of state; panel ridicules this loophole.
• Michael Duncan: “One guy doesn't even pretend to live there...His only thing is making an ass out of himself online and then, you know, allegedly sleeping with Chinese spies. And then the other one is just an absolute volcano, right?” (15:34)
• Conclusion: The Democratic Party offers voters “just slop, slop, slop.” (Josh Holmes, 15:58)

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4. Liberal Elite Gossip: Olivia Nuzzi, Mark Sanford, Ryan Lizza & RFK Jr.

Recap:

• Panel dissects the ongoing, increasingly scandalous media drama swirling around journalist Olivia Nuzzi—including an alleged affair with RFK Jr., a “digital affair,” and even—per Ryan Lizza’s Substack exposé—her writing an imaginary tabloid article about her own relationship with Mark Sanford.

Notable Moments:

• Josh Holmes: “He’s a real poet. Some people might call him Edgar Allan Pogo Stick.” (22:28)
• Smug: “Meanwhile, Lizza’s, like, arranging her high heels. He’s a weird feet dude.” (23:16)
• The “Drink from My Love” poetry exchange is parodied at length, descending into farcical readings and disbelief (23:32–24:13).
• The group admonishes young men to value their sanity:

  “You should never stay with someone who’s fucking crazy.” (Smug, 30:12)

• Cultural pretentiousness in D.C. journos ridiculed ("James Thurber-inspired tattoos," age gaps, and at-home-with-the-dogs rationalizations).
• Josh Holmes: “They’re pretending to be American and yet they live in New York. They are so out of touch. And then normal people are like, what are you even talking about?” (38:54)

Wildest Quote:

• Josh Holmes: “Columbia University is passing out flying in pilot's licenses so that all these journals can do 9/11 on our minds.” (39:22)

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5. Listener Mailbag—Nuzzi's Music and Media Mockery

• The hosts play a clip of an old Olivia Nuzzi song and mock her book and writing style.
• Listener album title suggestions: “Living La Vida Viagra for the B Side of Jail Bait,” “Fail Bait,” and “Hitting Below the Beltway.” (45:27–46:25)
• John: “That’s the best writing she’s done.” (44:48)

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6. Variety & Sports — Football Lamentations

• Lighter, inside-joke banter about the hosts’ losing teams (Bengals, Colts, Vikings, Eagles) and sports misery.
• Michael Duncan particularly sullen about the Vikings; theme of “dragging my ass in here today.” (48:00)

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7. Home Depot "ICE Out" Protest Ridiculed

• Panel displays viral video of activists engaging in an ineffective, confusing “protest” at Home Depot by buying and returning putty knives as "ice scrapers" to protest the presence of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
• Josh Holmes: “These people are insane.” (51:13)
• The group points out these demonstrators don’t even know what an ice scraper is, revealing their unfamiliarity with basic American life.

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FEATURE INTERVIEW: Todd Lyons, ICE Director

[52:36 – 79:42]

A comprehensive, candid, and occasionally wry conversation with ICE Director Todd Lyons, covering:

a. Professional Background and Getting the ICE Job

• Lyons describes a career from Air Force to Tampa cop to ICE field agent to top director (“Got a call...I'm gonna announce you as the ICE Director. New phone, who's this?” 53:00)
• Strong Boston, Southie roots; self-awareness and humor about ending up in DC as a top cop.

b. Trump Administration Policy Shifts

• “When you’re chosen to be the tip of the spear of the president’s number one agenda, it definitely gives you some gray hair real quick.” (53:37)
• Contrasts enforcement under prior (Biden, Obama) and current (Trump) administrations; Biden era characterized by “processing as enforcement,” resulting in migrants qualifying for benefits, and massive enrollment inflating "enforcement" stats.
• “People were just released into the country...Once they get settled...they get state benefits." (55:57)
• Describes crazy backlogs: "Court dates were going out 2034, 2035." (56:42)

c. Current ICE Priorities

• Focus on deleting dangerous criminal aliens first, but states:

  "If we encounter someone that's here illegally, that's got to go." (60:40)

• Sanctuary city complications — local officials refusing to cooperate with ICE leads to repeat violent crimes.
• Lyons tells stories about sanctuary jurisdictions leading to preventable crimes:

  “This guy rapes a young lady, gets arrested...They don’t honor it, they release. Goes, rapes another person. We finally arrest him...They release him again. Goes, rapes somebody again.” (71:51)

d. Recruitment, Expanding ICE, and Public Perceptions

• Lyons expresses surprise at recruitment success: “We have over 200,000 applicants…it keeps growing every day.” (69:30)
• Discusses working to “make it attractive” to join ICE despite negative public/media perception.

e. Fentanyl, Human Trafficking, and Local Cooperation

• Draws direct line between sanctuary policy and drug trafficking/fentanyl:

  “Lawrence [MA] is the number one hotspot for fentanyl distribution...Dominican nationals in Lawrence.” (73:45)

• Personal connection: lost a cousin to fentanyl overdose due to a previously deported illegal alien trafficker released by sanctuary policies (74:27).

f. Security Threats and Challenges

• Many “military-age males” from dangerous countries have been allowed in, some even receiving real IDs or CDLs. “Mohammed, no name given” on a CDL in New York. (64:49)
• “That’s our best chance of stopping any attack in the future...that’s the key thing that’s my biggest fear.” (63:20)

g. Political Obstacles

• Frustration with Congress writing laws but not supporting enforcement: “You all write the laws. You can change this…But this is how it’s written right now.” (60:50)

h. Dedication to Officers

• Repeatedly highlights the vital and dangerous work done daily by ICE field agents, rising assaults on officers, and the “God’s work” they’re assigned.

Closing Thoughts from Hosts

• Smug: “These are horrific things…ICE and this administration are doing everything they can to make America safer and put an end to this human trafficking.” (79:54)
• John: “This is a guy who’s been out on the streets, you know, trying to stop crime his entire life...hard-nosed Boston cop.” (80:44)

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Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• "It's the Salvation Army. Except you're the army and she's the one who receives the salvation." – Josh Holmes [04:40]
• "If you made a recurring monthly donation off of this page, they're not sending you a turkey every fucking month." – John [07:22]
• "Most people stuff their turkeys with breadcrumbs. She's giving you the opportunity to stuff hers with cold hard cash." – Josh Holmes [06:14]
• "California sucks so badly that the people that want to run the place don't even want to live there." – John [11:44]
• "You should never stay with someone who’s fucking crazy." – Smug [30:12]
• "Columbia University is passing out flying in pilot's licenses so that all these journals can do 9/11 on our minds." – Josh Holmes [39:22]
• "These people are insane." – Josh Holmes, about "ICE out" protesters [51:13]
• "You all write the laws. You can change this…But this is how it’s written right now." – Todd Lyons [60:50]
• "If you pull someone over and someone in your passenger seat has a warrant for unpaid child support, you're not gonna leave that guy." – Todd Lyons [58:41]

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Important Timestamps

• [04:17] – AOC’s “turkey scam” breakdown
• [11:44] – Swalwell DC residency scandal
• [22:28 – 24:13] – RFK Jr. poetic “affair” parody
• [39:22] – “9/11 on our minds” journalistic rant
• [52:36 – 79:42] – ICE Director Todd Lyons interview
  • [53:00] – How Lyons got the ICE director job
  • [55:57] – Fake “enforcement” as processing
  • [56:42] – Court backlogs to 2035
  • [71:51] – Sanctuary city releases leading to recidivist rape
  • [74:27] – Personal loss to fentanyl, illegal re-offense

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Conclusion

This Ruthless episode fuses scathing and funny analysis of leftwing political theater with rare, unvarnished insight from ICE’s top cop. More than a news recap, the show delivers a raucous, ruthless critique of elite insularity, blue state complacency, and progressive hypocrisy—all delivered in the hosts' trademark, rapid-fire, “barstool politics” tone. The interview with Todd Lyons is a must-listen segment for anyone who wants to understand the human and political realities of the border, the criminal justice system’s failures, and the complicated, often thankless work of ICE in 2025.

Don’t forget to tune in to their Thanksgiving Spectacular, which the hosts promise will be the wildest, most useful guide to surviving family political combat this holiday.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

It's the Salvation Army. Except you're the army and she's the one who receives the salvation.

[Michael Duncan]

The libs fellas are not exactly in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

[John]

Hmm.

[Michael Duncan]

They're doing what they do.

[John]

California sucks so badly that the people that want to run the place don't even want to live there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Democrats have zero respect for voters. Yep. Period.

[Smug]

It's a blue state machine. It atrophies all the talent.

[Josh Holmes]

We're gonna win. It's a blue state. We don't have to put a good salesman up. We don't care. Just slop, slop, slap.

[John]

You're gonn.

[Smug]

Dude, that's 100% right. He's 100% right.

[Michael Duncan]

I've worked at Coca Cola for 21 years.

[John]

We're delivering Dr. Pepper from our brand.

[Josh Holmes]

New facility in Dallas, Texas.

[Smug]

We're really proud to still make Pepsi products in America. You don't need a college degree to.

[Michael Duncan]

Work here, but I put four kids.

[Smug]

Through college by working here.

[John]

This is a great place to work with great people and great American brands.

[Smug]

Grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, they all depend on us. We deliver great paying jobs.

[John]

We deliver beverages people love.

[Smug]

We deliver for our community.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Smug]

Keep the fate, hold the line and own the lids.

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. It is Thanksgiving week. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John, left to right across your radio dial. One of our very favorite weeks here at the Ruthless Variety Program. I think the kind of thing that brought us into, well, a conservative mainstream in a lot of ways is what we've got coming up on Thanksgiving Day. Our spectacular.

[Smug]

Yeah, the Thanksgiving Spectacular. The first time we did it in the first year. Now it's been five years we're doing this. It kind of just like took off. I feel like that's what really put this show into orbit. We all had a great time and every year it's become a traditional. So everyone, all our listeners, everyone on YouTube, you've got a lot to look forward to.

[John]

Yeah. If you're one of the new listeners or viewers of the Ruthless Variety Program, you don't know what we're talking about here. I mean, you're really going to want to fire that thing up first thing.

[Smug]

First thing in the morning.

[Michael Duncan]

Thanksgiving, more or less a playbook on how to deal with lib relatives.

[John]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And if you're looking for something that is sort of a solemn introspective component to the holiday, that's not your spot.

[John]

What I'm thankful for this year.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John]

It's not. It's not that it's unhinged.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. No, it's offensive and it's fun. It's the opposite of what you're gonna experience with your lib relatives who are judging you and telling you you're wrong and you're the worst thing on the planet. Listen to this and have a couple of yucks before you go into that lion's den. You won't regret it.

[Michael Duncan]

No question about it. Before we get to that, we've got some work to do here, fellas. This week we've got Todd Lyons, the ICE director, a lot of people asking for a little bit of information about what it is that they're up to. It's obviously a cornerstone in terms of what this administration has been focused on during the first year here under the Trump administration. But, you know, like, there's questions, and we get to all of that at the back end of this very episode. Todd Lyons, very good guy. Nice of him to come in. It turns out that the libs, fellas, are not exactly in the spirit of Thanksgiving. They're doing what they do. And it starts with aoc, who clearly runs at least one, I would say the majority component of the Democratic Party at this point. And there's an awful lot of what happens around the holidays where politicians sort of posture as though they share your values. Right? They're feeding people. They're doing all of these things. Well, I think AOC is perfectly embodied. What it is that some of the libs are up to. In a New York Post piece that has caught on to something that she's doing. AOC email seeks donations for a turkey giveaway, but the money goes straight to her campaign coffers.

[Smug]

Is unreal.

[Todd Lyons]

I can't believe it.

[Smug]

There it is on screen. The email. See, look, if you see that, like, for listeners only, you see an image. This is the email that AOC sends out. It's like her handing a turkey off to someone in need. You know, like one of these donation centers. And the contribute button even has the little, like, turkey emoji. You're thinking you're helping people in need here, right?

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's the Salvation army, except you're the army and she's the one who receives the salvation.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, she has, in years past raised money directly for organizations that were having turkey drives. Essentially 20, 21, she reported raising $33,000 for three local charities. You know, like, there's a. There's a Can we pop this up one more time? Do you guys notice the logo? Yeah, she's got the exclamation part point.

[John]

The AOC logo.

[Michael Duncan]

Like the Spanish. Like you know when they put the exclamation points on both ends and one's upside down?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

I think that's a nice touch.

[John]

It is a nice touch.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, that's something that's unique. Anyway, what she's done is power hungry squad member AOC has cooked up a new way, this is according to New York Post, to have her cake and eat it too this Thanksgiving by tying her annual turkey giveaway to her massive re election campaign enterprise. And critics are crying foul fowl like.

[Smug]

These artists at the Post.

[Michael Duncan]

It's so good. Thanksgiving is two weeks away. The self described Brock Skirl wrote in the email pitch. Will you chip in $5 or anything that you can today to help bring the joy of the holiday season into homes around New York City this year? But clicking on the contribution link sends people directly to a campaign fundraising page operated by ActBlue where donors are prompted to make a one time or reoccurring monthly donations.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right. Most people stuff their turkeys with breadcrumbs. She's giving you the opportunity to stuff hers with cold hard cash.

[Michael Duncan]

So this has become a little bit of an issue and there are some people locally that are having a problem with a campaign. Is a quote from minority leader City Council Minority leader Joe Borelli.

[Smug]

Former. He used to be. He used to be former.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, he's a former. Yeah. No, you can't have any Republicans anywhere near that kind of thing these days. A campaign is not supposed to be a pass through for charitable work, said Joe Borelli. What if she raised enough money for millions of turkeys? Would she buy millions of turkeys or would she keep $990,000 for a campaign and then throw the rest of the turkeys out?

[John]

Well, it's an important point.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John]

Because if it's going through your ActBlue page and like, okay, benefit of the doubt, what they're trying to accomplish here is that they still control all the data for what they're doing. Okay. Like there's a lot of campaigns who. It's not a good look.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. No.

[John]

You remember when POD Save did that thing for the. I think it was for the fire.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John]

And they were running it through their Act Blue page.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John]

Now, I don't want to cast dispersions on people and think that they're somehow skimming off the top here, but it raises A point here. What Joe's saying raises a point. Is like if it's going through her ActBlue and it has the option for a one time or recurring monthly donation. If you made a recurring monthly donation off of this page, they're not sending you a turkey every fucking month. Right? They're buying one turkey and then you got 11 turkeys worth of donations to AOC.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's a way to grow your list, so to speak. More people to try to raise money off of in the future. Not to mention the fact that there's always a transaction fee. And in this case, there's political fundraising. Digital operations that take a piece, act like, who takes a piece? All these. If you wanted to give money just for like hungry people to get turkeys, you wouldn't certainly go through a political organization to do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's exactly right. They always give you a chance to split the wishbone, but somehow they usually end up with the bigger half.

[Michael Duncan]

So City Councilman Robert Holdman, A's a D from Queens, who's hosted turkey drives of his own without seeking donations from the public. Agreed. Socialists like AOC and Mamdani love to promise everything for free, but somehow it always ends up shaking them down. Working people under the guise of community goodwill. He told the Post. It's a typical bait and switch. Pretending to be for the people while quietly pillaging them for every dollar they can get.

[Smug]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, well, it seems like this is part and parcel of the newfound Democratic Party, isn't it, fellas?

[Josh Holmes]

It sure is. It sure is. And I feel like if they want to find out what the future could be like under that sort of leadership, they should call the poor Russians who may still be alive today, lived under the USSR and their opinion of the government is different from the rich people who were involved in the USSR who've somehow found their way into everybody's social media feeds over the last few years.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, Nave got a few boats taken.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, that's exactly right.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not all good.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not all good. That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

They had a few boats taken during the Ukraine crisis.

[John]

Need to think of the oligarchs.

[Michael Duncan]

You got to think of St. Barts at these times.

[John]

In trying times like these.

[Josh Holmes]

Who else will?

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly. So Swalwell's back in the news, fellas.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, boy.

[Michael Duncan]

So you guys have been aware of the fact that he has had somewhat of a mortgage and tax issue here lately?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, so many Democrats have. It's hard to keep Up. But what's this?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, so the New York Post reports that Eric Swalwell seemingly used a D.C. house at the center of a mortgage fraud allegation for California governor campaign law.

[Smug]

Oh, wow.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

That's a tough look.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So Swalwell apparently used this. It is at the center of a Morgan tax fraud investigation in a video announcing his gubernatorial campaign. Can we put up graphic two, please? Okay, so this is the home.

[Smug]

Oh, this is a tweet from friend of the program, Rob Pires.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. So Pires writes, judging from the stairway banister and the kitchen island lights, Eric Swalwell appears to have filmed his campaign launch video for California governor at his primary residence in Washington, D.C. that's so good.

[Smug]

Incredible. That's incredible.

[Michael Duncan]

So he's launching right from his own home right there in Washington, D.C. which is somewhat problematic when you're trying to represent the good state of California. Far be it from us to suggest that you ought to have some kind of a residence in California if you're trying to represent that. But then to run for governor is quite another thing.

[Smug]

I mean, to be honest, you know, Gavin, the current governor, a lot of folks who have residences, had residences in California. They caught fire, they left. So, like, you know, a California residence isn't the best indication of being a Californian these days. They'll burn your house down. They'll let it burn. And you're like, well, what are you gonna do about it? You get the surrender cobra photos of Gavin, and he's still their governor. Like, the guy honestly should be in jail for what he's allowed to happen to that state. So I would not be surprised that someone running for governor is like, I don't care.

[John]

I'll fly in D.C. exactly right. Smug. It's like, California sucks so badly that the people that want to run the place don't even want to live there.

[Smug]

Yeah. You know, he's like, well, I want it in a safe location.

[John]

All right, D.C. yeah.

[Smug]

Trump's got the National Guard out here making sure I don't get robbed or shot. This isn't la.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, maybe it's his campaign team protecting him from himself. They don't want him to fart at the announcement ceremony.

[Michael Duncan]

There is that.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's possible.

[Michael Duncan]

There is that. It's a $1.2 million Victorian style bungalow in the nation's capital, where the screenshots from his campaign spot came from. The California Constitution requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to have maintained residency over the last five years in the state. Put Secretary of State Shirley Weber's office said it is. A legal opinion is that this provision violates the US Constitution and is unenforceable.

[John]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, it violates. I see. It's a constitutional crisis when you don't live in the state to uphold people.

[Smug]

Dude, this is. They're so ridiculous. It really is.

[Josh Holmes]

Democrats are so ridiculous. I can't take them serious.

[Smug]

So this is a good point right here. The Tyler IT Post review of public records did not show Swalwell currently owning any property in the Golden State. In fact, revealed that the congressman hasn't been associated with any address there for at least a decade, around the time he began gearing up to run for Congress. I'm sure he's just like a DC Animal.

[John]

I'm sure Fang Fang has a property. Unless she's back in China.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? Yeah.

[John]

This was the spy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, they were quite close at one time. Many people are saying perhaps it's strange. Too close now, though, you know, that we got onto it at some level. Anyway, the guy doesn't have any property records, and he's now filming his California gubernatorial ads at the D.C. house.

[John]

I guess, ultimately, what I think is funniest about this is it shows how little these liberal politicians give a shit about the people that they represent.

[Smug]

Yeah. Yeah.

[John]

You know, I mean, this is the most populous state in the Union, a huge economy, and you want to be the governor of this place. And, like, you can't even just find the time to, like, get a camera crew and record an ad.

[Michael Duncan]

Go to California.

[John]

Somewhere in California.

[Smug]

Like, blue states. I'm sorry, give me one second, Ash. Blue states take their voters for granted to such an extreme extent, and that's why you see them spiral and get worse and worse.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. For them, it's just a stepping stone. You know, it's just, like, a chance to stay alive in the political system and hope that they can rise up and get another job somewhere in the Dem ecosystem. And it is not about a set of responsibilities and people who are depending on you to execute on those responsibilities. Eric Swalwell's not gonna rebuild the Palisades any more than Gavin Newsom's gonna rebuild the Palisades. Eric Swalwell, if he wins the governor's race, is going to sit over a state with more wildfires, and then he's gonna just blame it on climate change, and he's gonna blame it on somebody else until he can get a job in the, you know, Kamala Harris or AOC administration. Democrats suck at governing.

[Michael Duncan]

Can we talk just the second about how they're just not sounding their best.

[Smug]

Never do. Right now, I think the two leading candidates in that primary are Swalwell and Katie Porter.

[Michael Duncan]

Can you imagine having to choose between Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell about who's going to be your governor?

[Josh Holmes]

It's a good point, man.

[John]

Want to elect ISIS or Al Qaeda?

[Michael Duncan]

It genuinely amazing. I mean, one guy doesn't even pretend to live there. He's got a D.C. place that he's, you know, all kinds of. He has no property records whatsoever in California. His only thing is making an ass out of himself online.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

And then, you know, allegedly sleeping with Chinese spies. And then the other one is just an absolute volcano, right?

[Smug]

Just a monster of a person like any Republican living in California that she's like, she does not care about you point blank.

[Michael Duncan]

She's like Jabba the Hutt screaming at you every day.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, it just proves that Democrats have zero respect for voters, period.

[Smug]

It's a blue state machine. It atrophies all the talent.

[Josh Holmes]

We're going to win. It's a blue state. We don't have to put a good salesman up. We don't care. Just slop, slop, slop.

[John]

You're going to vote for dude.

[Smug]

Dude. That's 100% right. He's 100% right.

[Michael Duncan]

So in like two of the bluest nations or bluest states in this country, you've got one soliciting campaign contributions for a turkey giveaway that they just put in their campaign coffers. And the other side of the coin, you got one just hideous fat ass volcano against a dude that doesn't live there who's just like sort of an ex reply guy, right? In some ways.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the choice that they've provided Democrats. And they seem perfectly comfortable with it.

[Josh Holmes]

They sure do. And it's just, it is just continuing to like, drive our country into the dirt. Like, say what, say what you will about Barack Obama. Guy was a good salesman. Democrats will attack Donald Trump to the end of the earth. The guy's the most famous person on the planet. Great salesman, great deal guy. Different. Different from anything we've seen before. We are like on the heels of great American figures in, you know, in their own eyes. And now we're dealing with slop.

[Michael Duncan]

Slop.

[Smug]

That's it.

[Josh Holmes]

Slop.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, speaking of slop, we've got some updates to a Funtime Friday story. Recall, we talked about Olivia Newsy and that saga about Ryan, Lizza and the rest. And Smug, I think you promised that there would be part two and part three of all that we were unaware of it. Well, part two is dropped and there are components pieces of it. If you enjoyed I found this. It was almost like a Rorschach test with our audience where it's like if you get the comedy and you get the art, you just loved it. If you hear for us just to stand on Libs, you're gonna have to bear with us a little bit because.

[Smug]

It is that I must have gotten more this has been your best episode, like ever messages than I think I have for almost any episode. Like, folks loved it. If you haven't seen it, you know it's not the one that you're listening to when you're picking the kids up from school.

[Michael Duncan]

But no, that's right.

[Smug]

It's a fun episode.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? And so if you're gonna have to listen to this without the kids in the car, just when we come back, do that.

[Josh Holmes]

America's demand for energy is rising rapidly and at a time when American families can least afford an energy shortage. But for decades, critical energy projects have been blocked, limiting our access to reliable, affordable Americ energy and putting America's energy dominance at risk. The solution is obvious. Overhaul the broken energy permitting process, make it faster and simpler. Innovation, a strong workforce, abundant oil and gas. We have it all right here in the usa. Let's put America first and political agendas last. We can power our own country, create thousands of good paying American jobs and unleash American energy to be bigger and better than ever before. Because when America builds, America wins. Read API's plan to secure America's future at permitting reformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Michael Duncan]

Why was the government shut down? Because big insurance greed knows no limits. The same insurance companies pocketing billions in profits were demanding billions more in taxpayer funded subsidies again putting millions of families at risk. Shutting down our government. Now unless they get their billions, the big insurance companies are threatening to raise your premiums even more. Putting greed and profit before patients. It's time to hold them accountable.

[John]

Paid for by Americans for Open Government.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so picking up where we left off on Good Time Fun Time Friday, it was about Olivia Newsy in her book and trying to get out in front of the whole RFK rumor mill and her fiance front running it essentially and saying, well, it's not all you need to know. She also had an affair with Newt with Mark Sanford and it became somewhat of a scandal. Well, he's now given a second component to all of this which has changed different Components of how we see all of this.

[Smug]

Before we get into that, I want to give credit to. I think you. I want to give credit to Duncan. I think Ashbrook also said. This is. When we discussed it on the Funtime Friday. I was like, do you think he's going to Paywall Part two? And you were all like, he absolutely is.

[John]

And then he did.

[Smug]

And he did.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he did.

[John]

But we still have the whole thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, we do.

[John]

Which we're going to tell you all about right now. Here's the thing, guys. And I saw it. We read all the comments, and people. There are a lot of people who are like, I am here for it. Like, as we were discussing before the break, I'm here for it. I don't even know what this is. And you guys are having so much fun. So I love that you guys are having fun.

[Smug]

Good for you.

[John]

You know, but, like, you have to understand, we don't have a lot of gossip in our lives.

[Michael Duncan]

Not a lot. No.

[John]

You know, we're just some. Some guys with young families.

[Todd Lyons]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

We're performing football teams under performing football teams.

[John]

We're pretty well tethered to reality. We don't watch a lot of reality television, but. But in our line of work, this is the closest thing to Real Housewives that you get in politics.

[Michael Duncan]

This is it.

[John]

And. And at the end of the first Ryan Lizza piece was the reveal that she had done this with Mark Sanford. Obviously, we knew the RFK thing. So the title for the second piece from Ryan Lizza was she did it Again. And you're like, oh, my God. Banger. You're like, banger.

[Michael Duncan]

So, because everybody was hoping for a narrative on the RFK front, because that's the one we knew about, and it was public, a digital affair, as it were. Well, we found out about the Mark Sanford thing. So now when are we going to get to this other thing? Well, it starts with she did it Again.

[John]

She did it Again. And immediately Lizza goes into some of the. Well, we'll call it poetry.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what.

[John]

That they were writing to each other.

[Michael Duncan]

They were writing poetry. And this had. This had been discussed publicly, and it was phrased as poetry.

[John]

The title of which RFK wrote a poem called Drink from My Love.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a real poet. Some people might call him Edgar Allan Pogo Stick.

[John]

Well, yeah. Look, look, I'm not trying to condone the alleged affair.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John]

I will not.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John]

I'm gonna be courageous here. I'm gonna say monogamy is a good idea.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, well, it's a bold stand.

[John]

But I have to acknowledge. I have to acknowledge writing that I am a river and you are my canyon is kind of. That's kind of cool. It is. It's good. It's good writing. Well, it's like, imagine being Ryan Lizza and you were working your entire professional career, and he's a very talented writer, don't get me wrong. And then this just Kennedy rolls up and tells your fiance, I am a river and you are my canyon.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what I'm saying. Edgar Allan Pogo stick.

[Smug]

Meanwhile, Liz is, like, arranging her high heels. He's a weird feet dude. I bet RFK got the vibes. And he was like, well, if you're just a weird feet dude, it's a wrap. I'm gonna roll up.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm gonna roll up with phrases such as your open mouth awaiting my harvest.

[Smug]

No, it's a bit much. It's a bit much.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, to squeeze your cheeks to force open your mouth. I'll hold your nose as you look up at me to encourage you to swallow. Don't swallow.

[Josh Holmes]

Drop.

[Michael Duncan]

Come on.

[John]

Come on.

[Smug]

This is all alleged by Lizzo. This is all written by Lizzo.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. We didn't write any of this.

[John]

We wrote none of this.

[Michael Duncan]

This is none of it. I'm reading word for word.

[Smug]

Attorneys are like, please make it clear.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

This is all.

[Smug]

This is written by Ryan Lizza.

[Michael Duncan]

And then you get to the canyon.

[John]

The canyon.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John]

I am a river, and you are my canyon.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, to flow through you.

[John]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean to subdue and tame you. My love poetry, as we were saying, it's.

[John]

It's something. I don't know if I'd call it poetry. Oh, I would.

[Michael Duncan]

Wadsworth Longfellow.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

It's all in the Longfellow Great orders of our day. No question about it.

[John]

Okay, so. But it gets worse, dude. All right, so obviously it's about the RFK thing and yada, yada, yada. And of course, you know, Lizza and Nuzzy, at least in his telling of it, there's like, a spiraling out of this whole thing, you know, where she's. She's like, well, I didn't actually cheat on you. It was digital fare, and I never actually consummated this relationship. It was love letters and poetry and.

[Smug]

Yeah, I read the first couple paragraphs of part two before it hit the paywall, and it was just like. It was really. It got really very graphic and unhinged, and I checked out. I Was like, I'm done.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I mean, you are sensitive to that.

[Smug]

Well, so that's the thing. So I checked out. But does he go into at all being like. After he finds out about Mark Sanford, he was like, I'm done here. And bounce. And somehow she tricks him into staying with her. Does he address that at all?

[John]

So he does. He does. He does. And that's the turn in this that I'm getting.

[Smug]

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

[John]

So this is the point where it moves beyond, I think, just like infidelity or poor decisions or crossing boundaries into actual insanity. No, this.

[Michael Duncan]

I know where he's going. And that is. That's correct.

[John]

Hold on, let me wet my whistle.

[Smug]

Insanity. I'm not at the edge of my seat on this.

[John]

I'm loving this. This is the best.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, this is the sociopathic component.

[John]

So Lizza finds this fake article, tabloid style article that Nuzzy had written. You know, remember he. He found like all of these. She would. She would doodle and draw and write things constantly. Just like drafts of things or poems and things like that.

[Michael Duncan]

An artist does.

[John]

She's an artist. Not quite. I've read some of American Kanto. This shit sucks, by the way. She's a fucking terrible writer. Liz is a good writer. Dude, I'm sorry you went through this. It's actually your fault. And you should have known that when you were trying to get her out of Keith Olbermann's house for 10 years, dude, that she was crazy. But you're a good writer. She sucks. American Kanto sucks. Don't read this book. It sucks.

[Smug]

Dude. This is good stuff.

[John]

Olivia Nuzzy, she wrote a article. Tabloid star article. Quote, sources in Washington, D.C. and Charleston have been buzzing recently about an unexpected romance. Mark Sanford and Olivia Nuzzy.

[Smug]

She's writing this.

[John]

One of the most famous political reporters in America. Blonde beauty who gained critical acclaim as a skilled profile writer. She's writing this about herself.

[Michael Duncan]

She's writing this about herself.

[John]

She is famous. Fantasizing about her affair becoming public. That psycho behavior.

[Smug]

I do found this on, like, allegedly.

[John]

This is all according to Lizza. Allegedly.

[Smug]

So he. Liz is saying that he found this written on, like, hotel stationery.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I do want to pause.

[Todd Lyons]

Like on her laptop or something.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, I do want to pause just for a second. One of the many reasons why we find this so entertaining for you all, dear listener, is because these are the people you've entrusted in to tell you the story of who your candidates are.

[Smug]

Lot of unreliable narrators, important context. Right? We learned in school about Unreliable narrators. You gotta be careful when you're reading a story with one of these.

[Michael Duncan]

But these are the people.

[Smug]

These aren't just, like, unreliable narrators. These are just unhinged humans. These are like, a threat to society in themselves. And then they've been entrusted as, like, the gatekeepers and the scribes. Unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

Her profiles of Republican candidates dating back to 2016 have become somewhat conventional wisdom in press circles. Little did we know that we were dealing with, like, a sociopath about.

[Smug]

So that's why I've for years, made the blanket statement, every last journo to Gitmo, because, listen, there may be, like, one or two who are not, like, a threat to society, but are you gonna take that risk? Because I feel like the most vast majority of these people are crazy and unhinged and dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

She's writing an article about herself that is not an actual article. It's what it would look like in her mind's eye.

[John]

And so this is the point in which we diverge. Me and Ryan Lizza and all the other stuff is obviously horrible. And I would have said no and ran away as far as you know. But, like, this is the one where I'm like, I question you, dude, to your core, that this wasn't the final straw that broke the camel's back. Because you read that and you're like, okay, well, now I'm dealing with a crazy person. If you really believed that, if this is really true, what Ryan Lizza is sharing about what she wrote about this fake article, he chose to stay after this. He stayed with her now, he claims. And this quote here is, yes, I know I should have run far away, but COVID lockdowns had just descended on Washington, bro. Blame Covid for this. Yeah, yeah. So he's like, you know, I want somebody around when Covid was going on, so I'll take this crazy person who cheats on me.

[Josh Holmes]

Me all the time.

[John]

She can't cheat on me because we're locked down, dude.

[Smug]

That is insane.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, do you want to know how she describes this to him, please? When he's like, hey, what's up with that? Yeah, she says, olivia told me she wrote a fake article as an exercise to think of what might be the worst that could be publicly said about if the affair had become known. The worst that could be was that blonde beauty.

[John]

Yeah, that would be the worst blonde beauty.

[Michael Duncan]

And, like, describing herself as, you know, one of the most famous political reporters in America.

[John]

Yeah, that'd be the worst.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, just terrible. I mean, dude, you Start to get the real.

[John]

You get real.

[Michael Duncan]

You start getting to it, you know? And this is like, this is part of what you deal with.

[Smug]

Can I give a quick value add? Because I think we probably have a lot of young men who listen to this show, and this is me being, like, serious for a little bit of time. You should never stay with someone who's fucking crazy. Like, sometimes it takes a while to learn something like that, especially in college and such. And you can just, like, bypass all the, like, awful time that you have to spend with a completely insane person. You can always just hit the door because there's hundreds of thousands of women out there who are extremely normal. Normal and worth spending your time with.

[John]

There's billions of them that will love you, dude. It is an important point. Smug. I'm so glad you mentioned that because I do feel like at some point in your life, and usually earlier on when you're naive and stupid and you end up in bad relationships, like, you're gonna run into a human hurricane. You're gonna run into somebody who could destroy everything. Yeah. And you, like, having courage is running away. Yeah, it is.

[Smug]

It is.

[Michael Duncan]

It turns out free will. It's biblical.

[John]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

It's out of the whole Adam and Eve.

[Smug]

It's better. Better to just grab beers with your dudes, watch the game, than waste your time with a crazy person trying to hurt you. It's that easy, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Another little vignette that I think plays in both of these characters with RFK and with Sanford is in a Texas change. I also asked Olivia if she'd sent Mark any pictures that might embarrass us if it became public. She insisted that she only sent one. Oh, my inappropriate photo. Only one. Before or after you had sex with him? I asked. This is her fiance. She said after.

[John]

What the fuck?

[Michael Duncan]

So why did you send it? I mean, dude, like, the funniest part about all of this is they're having a discussion about her sleeping with.

[Smug]

How's this dude having this discussion instead of leaving?

[John]

Dude, it's like, it's all. What a weirdo.

[Smug]

I mean, does he say that, like, I'm busy organizing her shoes and asking these crazy ass questions, But.

[John]

So that is the sort of weird and detached thing about Liza and his entire presentation through all the recitation of these facts is. And he uses this metaphor, the bamboo in his backyard. In the first article and this one.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John]

And it's like you start to get this sense that, like, while he's in a relationship. Relationship with Olivia Nuzzy, he's really just maintaining her. The spread of her crazy. Like he's maintaining the bamboo in the backyard of the house they own.

[Smug]

Also, I want him to just cutting it down.

[Michael Duncan]

I want him firebombing when necessary.

[Smug]

He needs to take a second and get down off his cross and be real with himself. And it's like you kind of reap what you sow. I mean, of course, when you've left your wife and kids.

[John]

Yep.

[Smug]

You think God's gonna let that slide? He's like, here's what you get. Here's what you get. And if we're gonna speak about. Real quick, an aside. If Nuzzy's sending her nudes, I wanna bring this up. Can I get Graphic three up here? This is, I thought, another unhinged angle to this. This is a blue skyey, or whatever you call the tweets over there from Oliver Darcy.

[Josh Holmes]

My God.

[Smug]

In this context, Fucked up saga. Oliver Darcy says the forthcoming print edition of Vanity Fair includes an abstract nude portrait of Olivia Nuzzy.

[John]

What is an abstract nude?

[Michael Duncan]

Is that like.

[Smug]

Like maybe like an artful one that's, like, blurred or, like from outside or something?

[Michael Duncan]

It's like where they put, like, triangles for boobs.

[John]

Oh, triangles.

[Smug]

It's not like a Picasso, dude. I think it's like, you know, it's a photograph, but I think it's going to be just like. You know what?

[Michael Duncan]

Like, mirrors and abstract just means you've lost your mind. Right. It's just like you kind of rose.

[Smug]

Like they got. They brought Picasso back to life to paint her.

[Michael Duncan]

They're like, kind of knowing what you're getting at, and then they throw, like, trade towers on boobs or something. You know what I mean?

[Smug]

Like, it's my God, dude.

[John]

Yeah.

[Smug]

I'm gonna let that just hang out there. Our audience out there. I'm not gonna do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know.

[Smug]

I mean, look, I haven't seen it, bro.

[Michael Duncan]

I haven't seen it. But Darcy got into a larger component of all this, which is, well, she's in trouble. And it turns out that the Vanity Fair folks are looking into whether or not they have made a potential mistake as all of this spirals. Because, again, Liz is a good writer. He's gotten out in front of this. And everything that she hoped to reintroduce herself to the American public and re. Become sort of a preeminent biographer of Republican politicians has now come into, well, I would say, some question. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. She was on her way to becoming Doris Kearns Goodwin.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right, exactly. And so, like, The New York Times all of a sudden gets on this and New York Times.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

When New York Times is writing about a journo, it ain't good.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

Especially a lefty journo at that. Can we put up this graphic? Graphic 3A. And this is about Keith Oberman and what? Mr. Oberman had lived with her for a while in a Trump building. Interesting.

[Smug]

On the Upper east side.

[Michael Duncan]

On the Upper east side, if you can believe the irony. You told me. He said he discovered a writing on Twitter where she provided witty political analysis as a student. And he wondered if she might be a good fit for the TV show he'd hosted in those days. They met for dinner. She was 18, he was 52. Instead of working together, they began dating. He said they got two Maltese puppies and James Thurber inspired tattoos. I don't even know what the hell that is.

[Josh Holmes]

Duncan, can you please just.

[Michael Duncan]

What's a James Thurber inspired tattoo?

[Smug]

Ashbrook might know. He's old as hell.

[John]

I think it's one of those things. And we talked about this with the first release of the first part of Liz's substack. Is it. Is that lefty liberal journalists love to litter their writing with these cultural signifiers along the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. You know, to prove their intellect.

[John]

Their intellect.

[Michael Duncan]

And I have read many leather bound books.

[John]

Their pedigree.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Smug]

Dude, you're right.

[Michael Duncan]

Names that you will undoubtedly never heard are inspiring me to go on to great things.

[John]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a good. It's a good indicator of a fraud. And Michael has pointed out on numerous occasions, instances on the right of people who dog ear certain books to make it look like they know more than they're talking about. The left does this every day of the week.

[John]

Sure.

[Josh Holmes]

And something to watch for, dear listener.

[Michael Duncan]

So any. Any case, he said that their relationship was marriage. E. Mr. Oberman said it was very much an at home with the dogs sort of thing. One of the things that drew us together is that neither of us really liked people.

[John]

So that's a huge tell.

[Michael Duncan]

Also, like, entirely consistent with what you know of the modern day lib.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Everything. Everything.

[Smug]

They're misanthropic monsters. And then like this from Liz's story. She's an absolute monster. Right. And listen, he allowed himself to get involved with this monster and it's hilarious. But the New York Times piece continued. So Olbermann's like, oh, it was very marriagey says. The day after our conversation, Mr. Olbermann College clarify something that had not come up. He wanted it Known that they did not begin a physical relationship until Ms. Nuzzy was 19. What a saint. You know? Well, good for him.

[John]

What's self control? He waited a year. He's only three times her age.

[Smug]

It says Ms. Nuzzy apparently does not consider her relationship with Mr. Olbermann to have been marriagey. I have not ever before and will not now acknowledge any claims made by this person. She wrote in a text. I think these are just such messy, insane people.

[Josh Holmes]

They are messy, insane people. And you wonder about the disconnect between the people who write about Washington and the people who actually live in America. And the people who write about Washington describe their lives as marriages. The people who live in America have a marriage. They don't describe their lives as anything.

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

The people who write about Washington talk about an at home with the dogs sort of thing. The people who live in America have dogs and they live at home sometimes.

[John]

Yeah. They're like, we watch Jeopardy and we watch the office and we hang out.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. For them, it's like pretend. They're pretending to be American and yet they live in New York. And they are so out of touch. And then normal people are like, what are you even talking about? This is my life.

[Michael Duncan]

This was a real thing. I tell you. We got James Thurber inspired tattoos.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that is the most insane thing I've ever heard. And I have an observation that I do not possess the courage to share with the audience.

[Todd Lyons]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

To myself?

[Michael Duncan]

No. Why would you say.

[Smug]

Would you say.

[John]

Why would you even say that I have the courage. What is the point of having a show called Ruthless if you don't have the courage? Say it.

[Michael Duncan]

Say it.

[Josh Holmes]

I just think that Columbia University is passing out flying in pilot's licenses so that all these journals can do 9, 11 on our minds.

[John]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, that's why I wasn't gonna say it.

[Smug]

Thank God you did. That's like the best thing I think I've ever said on here, man.

[John]

I gotta be honest. I read the excerpt from American Kanto. That's better metaphor than anything Olivia Nuzzy's done.

[Smug]

Dude. It took a while for that to.

[John]

Hit, but it did that hit.

[Smug]

Thank you for that aspect. That did take courage.

[Michael Duncan]

Just so you know, James, Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright who is best known for cartoons and short stories published in the New Yorker and collected in numerous books. None of you who are well adjusted humans have ever or will ever seriously.

[Smug]

Oh, the New Yorker cartoonist tattoos. What a reference.

[John]

You're so cool.

[Todd Lyons]

Dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Let me get a James Thurber.

[Smug]

It's like congrats, you talked an 18 year old to get a tattoo with you. You're a real hero. You're a real hero.

[John]

What an intellectual. Hey, I convince an 18 year old to live with me. I'm so cool and mature.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you think he made her get it as a tramp stamp?

[John]

Oh my God.

[Michael Duncan]

If he did, it's the most disgusting.

[Josh Holmes]

Thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

[Michael Duncan]

Are you.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine that if that's the truth? Olbermann has got to be the most twisted person in American history. I mean, how did he go?

[Smug]

He still haven't recovered from that.

[Michael Duncan]

How did he go wrong?

[Josh Holmes]

He was reading sports stats and making everybody happy in the 90s and then all of a sudden he has his, his 18 year old girlfriend get a Thurberg tramp stamp.

[Michael Duncan]

Like we don't know it to be the case that it's a tramp stamp. I'm just merely parody.

[John]

Parody.

[Michael Duncan]

We're laughing, I'm positing a question. They're the ones that said that they had James Thurber inspired tattoos. I'm just simply wondering where those tattoos. Because it's not on their face.

[Josh Holmes]

From John Kruck to James Thurber. Yeah, this guy is falling.

[Michael Duncan]

It is where it is. All right, so listen, that's our update. He's gonna keep producing these things and we're gonna keep providing you a little bit of analysis as to why we think it's relevant. And plus, it's fun.

[John]

It's just funny.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just fun and funny. And it is what it is. But don't forget, Thursday morning, we've got a huge show. And I'm not kidding you, this is going to be the best one that you've ever heard. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we show up shot out of a cannon. You're dragging your ass out of bed and you're like, okay, it's going to be a big day. I got to get my mind wrapped around family and cooking and I'm going to try to watch some football. We're going to give you the absolute playbook on how to deal with your day, your lib relatives and everything else. And we're coming out with a lot of energy. Trust me when I say you're going to want to get in early. You're going to want to wake up early, put the earpods in and just watch the hell out of this thing. Cause it's great. It's great stuff. And when we come back your comments from last episode. Remember when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read every single one of them. We provide you a little analysis and a little spit back of what it is that you've come up with. The question that we left you with on Funtime Friday is about Newsy and her pop hit in the cut off the old album that she produced as a 17 year old. And if she picks up singing again, what are the names of the new album right after this?

[Josh Holmes]

Only 58% of Americans today say they're proud to be American. The lowest number ever recorded. That's not just sad, it is very dangerous. Because if we forget what makes America special, we risk losing it. That's why Americans for Prosperity is launching the One Small Step campaign, a bold nationwide initiative to reconnect Americans with our founding principles that sparked unparalleled, unparalleled innovation and prosperity. It's not just a celebration, it's a call to action. Through the 250,000 Steps for Freedom challenge, AFP is partnering with the grassroots in all 50 states to take meaningful steps that defend freedom and advance opportunity. Call your representative, attend a local event, knock on a door, talk to your neighbors. Every single step counts. And every step moves us closer to a more perfect Union. Go to takeonesmallstep.com to learn more. Then join the [e-mail].

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so where we left off on Funtime Friday, we gave you a little insight into a piece of art that was produced by Olivia Newsy before anybody knew who she was as a 17 year old. Let's play that clip.

[Smug]

It is so insane.

[Michael Duncan]

Just a catchy tune.

[John]

That's the best writing she's done.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John]

I'm being honest. I'm serious. I read the excerpt of American Kanto. This book sucks. It is so bad. She does these thing with this. She has this, this crutch, you know, she's. She's done good feature writing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John]

The crutch here is she has to write about herself. And she's not good at that.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like staccato.

[John]

Staccato small sentences, repetitive stuff, and none of it means anything. It's really bad.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like reading a million little pieces.

[John]

Yeah, it's bad.

[Todd Lyons]

All right.

[John]

Sorry, that's my side. Okay, let's get into it.

[Michael Duncan]

Anyway, we asked you the question of what is the name of the new album she comes out within. And to do that, we always start with the voice.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. First one is from Lori Kirk and Lo writes song living la Vida Viagra for the B side of jail bait. Very funny, Lori. Very funny.

[Michael Duncan]

It seems as though she has entered a demo where that is particularly.

[Smug]

Those are type.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude. Yeah, that's a thing. All right, comment too.

[John]

This is from David M. David writes fail bait. You guys, the episode was fire. I was rolling. How do these people sleep with themselves? I don't know how they sleep with each other, let alone themselves. All of these people are disgusting.

[Smug]

Yeah, that is the biggest takeaway.

[Michael Duncan]

Pretty tough. Pretty tough. All right, last comment. Smugs.

[Smug]

Comment 3 is from Nick Napier. Nick writes hitting below the beltway. We got like some New York Post caliber listeners.

[John]

Yeah. Might I add one.

[Michael Duncan]

Ooh, sure.

[John]

I am a river.

[Michael Duncan]

You are my valley Canyon.

[John]

Oh, sorry. Yeah, Canyon, Canyon.

[Michael Duncan]

No, it's a grander.

[John]

It is grand.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a grander vision. It's simply a valley that was cut deeply into the glacier era. Oh, God, I'm sorry. It's just, it's too much.

[John]

We didn't do this to you. They did it to us.

[Smug]

They did.

[Michael Duncan]

We're simply reporting.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What they've done. All right, so when we come back, we have some mystery variety that I have no idea what it is. And usually when that happens, it is a fun time.

[John]

Oh, pal, I have it.

[Todd Lyons]

I'm doing it.

[Michael Duncan]

Only, you know.

[John]

I know.

[Michael Duncan]

And then we'll reveal a little bit more variety right after this. Okay, Duncan, I. I don't know where to begin with this, but mystery variety where. What are you doing to us?

[John]

Well, we had a horrible weekend in football at the ruthless variety. Bengals lost, Colts lost, Vikings lost.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John]

And I just thought it would be useful to maybe encapsulate all of that in one clip. And I think that's probably clip number two. So let's put that on the screen.

[Michael Duncan]

You son of a.

[John]

Unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course, it's the Viking van with a broken out tie. Yeah, listen, I have so little.

[John]

Yeah, I, I. Buddy, I didn't want to do it.

[Michael Duncan]

You did. No, you didn't. You hid it from me.

[John]

No, I didn't really want to. This was foisted upon me by Wolf. He loves the meat up front.

[Smug]

It's tough because even your Eagles lost, so, I mean, you didn't even have.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm just dragging my ass in here today, you know, I got nothing. My team is the worst it's been since 1985.

[John]

I feel like this one actually kind of broke you. And so I don't feel great about this joke, you know, because I love Goofing on my friends. But I don't like them seeing. I don't like seeing you actually sad. And I feel like today was the first day you were actually sad.

[Michael Duncan]

I was actually.

[John]

You know, you've been frustrated before by the quality of the play from the Vikings, but like today, I don't think you could even muster up a skull.

[Michael Duncan]

Nope.

[Josh Holmes]

You always get a hint on Sunday when the text chain goes silent from one side or the other. You know, somebody's taking it hard. And what we always text each other ahead of the game says, gentlemen, prepare your minds and bodies, because today is gonna be a bad day.

[Michael Duncan]

And it was.

[John]

It was a terrible day.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, God, don't make me root against your teams. I'll do it. I won't love it.

[John]

It's okay. Go right ahead.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

A little bit of variety, it turns out. So there's these psychos that, according to Newsweek, are. They've got nothing better to do with their time. They hate ice. They hate ice. And they don't like the fact that they are shipping illegal immigrants out of our country. And so what they've done is taken it upon themselves to harass the good people of Home Depot. Can we play clip 3?

[Smug]

So what you're seeing, for the folks who are audio only. So what you're seeing is there's a line of people who are buying what they think are ice scrapers. They're. They're putty knives. They think they're ice scrapers, and then as soon as they buy them, they get back in line to return them, essentially to try to just, like, waste the time of everyone who works there and make it more difficult for people to shop at Home Depot because they're blaming Home Depot for allowing ICE to arrest illegal aliens. Like, I think they want Home Depot to. To tell their employees to begin, like, attacking ice if ICE shows up.

[Michael Duncan]

What are you buying?

[John]

Nice Graver.

[Josh Holmes]

Thanks. Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Clever, smart. What are you guys buying?

[John]

We are buying.

[Michael Duncan]

Look at this.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, Done that.

[John]

That works. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Where are you buying? Oh, he's got a mask.

[John]

He's wearing a mask. Nice creamer.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah. What are you buying today?

[John]

I'm buying Ice scraper.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah.

[Smug]

It's a putty knife.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. It works. It's great. Yeah. America's changed now. Yeah. Just like when you sit in front of traffic to. To make the climate better.

[Michael Duncan]

I've got no fear about the future of our country. I mean, are you kidding me?

[Josh Holmes]

These people are insane.

[Michael Duncan]

There are. There are people. Enough people to fill up Home Depots across this country buying and returning ice scrapers. That's their level of productivity.

[Josh Holmes]

Insanity.

[John]

Dude, go volunteer at a soup kitchen. Seriously, go do something to actually better the life of people, dude. It's like, you know, criminal, illegal aliens are going to get shipped out of this country whether you like it or not. How is this Home Depot's fault?

[Michael Duncan]

They're wearing stickers on their clothes that says Ice out of Home Depot. Great work, fellas. Yep, great work.

[Smug]

Wonderful.

[Josh Holmes]

They are so good.

[John]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Psycho.

[John]

They don't even know what an ice scraper is.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, they had. They're buying putty knives.

[John]

Putty knives.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't have any idea. Manual labor is like.

[Smug]

You grew up in Minnesota? I grew up in Denver. You know the actual ice scraper thing with a brush on it? You keep that in, like the trunk of your car. You keep it your car.

[John]

Well, and they're in their plastic and they're. And they're transparent, you know, they're like clear plastic. They're not a black putty knife that you use when you're painting shit.

[Smug]

They're the biggest idiots.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolute idiots.

[Josh Holmes]

Parents are probably idiots, too.

[Michael Duncan]

It does provide a pretty good transition to our guest, the ICE Director, Todd Lyons. Well, there are some people who are super important in Washington, D.C. and it turns out when the President of the United states has a. A1 a priority and the guy that he chooses to lead, that becomes a pretty important individual and he's up to important stuff. Very happy to have the ICE Director, Todd Lyons. How are you, sir?

[Todd Lyons]

Good. Thanks for having me. It's great.

[Michael Duncan]

So, look, let's start with a little background, right? You don't just wake up and become the ICE Director. How did you get into this line of work? Where'd you grow up?

[Smug]

Sure.

[Todd Lyons]

Well, it's funny, you say you wake up and come to extract. That's how it actually happened.

[Smug]

Fair.

[Todd Lyons]

Around March 6, I got a call from the Secretary. It's like, hey, I'm. I'm. Sunday morning. Hey, going on Face the Nation, ten o', clock. I'm gonna announce you as the ICE Director. New phone. Who's this? What? Really?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, you didn't have any heads up?

[Todd Lyons]

No, I mean, you know, you never expect you're gonna be the top guy, right? Yeah, you know, I. I was doing some senior adviser roles and I was running enforcement removal operations. Yes, I was the EAD over there, kind of running that on the deportation side. And I mean, it's great honor, but. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Came as a surprise.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. I Mean, you know, again, like, when you're chosen to be the. The, you know, leading the tip of the spear of the president's number one agenda.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, it definitely gives you some gray hair real quick. No kidding.

[Michael Duncan]

No question about it.

[Todd Lyons]

No, but I. I grew up, Born and raised, Boston, Massachusetts, South Boston. Boston. Went in the military, did almost 10 years in the Air Force. Came out. I was a police officer in Tampa. Tampa area for about eight years. It's kind of getting up there in age. And, like, everybody else was like, hey, gotta get with the federal government before I turn 34. And Isa just came out, and I applied all these other agencies and get this manila envelope. I'm dating myself now, right? It comes in the mail. I ain't been selected for Immigration Customs. I don't remember taking the test. All right, here we go.

[John]

So good.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know what this is, but.

[Todd Lyons]

I'm gonna do it. So I did. I said, oh, hey. Told my wife, hey, I guess we're going to Dallas.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You're based out of Dallas, doing the ICE for years.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. Yeah. I considered kind of Dallas my home. That was my main field office. I spent almost. God, almost 12 years there.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Doing fugitive operations and all the cool stuff.

[John]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

And it was great. Kind of moved my career up in the ranks down there. And then I was the assistant field office director. Kind of ran our enforcement side of the house, which was like a criminal alien program. Getting the guys out of the jails. Fugitive operations, special operation. I did all that. And then I got promoted. I went up and I ran the Boston field office, which was good.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

You know, got to go home. Ran all six states, all New England. So that was great. You know, people didn't tell me I had a weird accent, so that was kind of good.

[Michael Duncan]

Sounded normal.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. I mean, when I was in Dallas, I remember the first time dealing with a real county sheriff. He asked me how long I'd been in the country. I said to him, I said. I said, where do you think I'm from? And he's like, you must be from, like, one of the islands.

[John]

I'm like, rhode Island.

[Todd Lyons]

Which one are you talking about? Rhode Island.

[Michael Duncan]

That's great.

[Todd Lyons]

So went up there and came back down to headquarters, did a bunch of headquarters stuff. I was deputy assistant director of the southwest border during the Biden administration. So it was hectic.

[Michael Duncan]

So that's what I wanted to ask you about. I mean, look, you spent a number of years seeing different administrations. The priority that they put, or lack thereof, on what it is that you do for a living. Like, give us a little compendium of how that's.

[Todd Lyons]

You know, one thing I always say is it's, it's super hard to do in law enforcement when it ebb and flows every 40, 80 years. How do you change your work?

[Josh Holmes]

Right, right.

[Todd Lyons]

And it was super hard the last administration, because, you know, they counted things as enforcement actions or we were making arrests, but it really wasn't, you know, prime example. Like we'd have people come to the Boston office who were just released into the country and to turn themselves in within 30 days and once they get settled. Right. I used to always sound like a Travelocity ad. I was like, oh, you know, Massachusetts is number one, number three destination site for all new non citizens.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Because they all come for the benefits and they would come to get processed to get the paperwork saying they're in proceeding just to get state benefits.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Todd Lyons]

So wic, welfare, housing. So it wasn't like we were arresting them, but the last administration counted that as an arrest.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Todd Lyons]

But we just let them right back.

[Michael Duncan]

And really all you're doing is letting them right back out and then giving them the opportunity to get taxpayer benefits 100%.

[Todd Lyons]

And the big one big thing with that is too, is the backlog we're dealing with now. So, like for instance, New York field office, they used to have lines all around 26 fed downtown going to the Brooklyn Bridge, and their court dates were going out 2034, 2035.

[Smug]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you kidding me?

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. And it's just like these people are gonna be here forever. Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's crazy.

[Michael Duncan]

Nine years before a court date that they're supposed to show up for. And one of the chances, the honor system works on that.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. And there was this, you know, the poor border patrol was so overwhelmed back in the day, especially like with the Del Rio bridge incident when all the Haitians were under the bridge. And it got to the point where it's just like, hint, like, hey, where were you going? I'm going to the New York office. Here's the address. Report when you get there. There.

[John]

Unbelievable.

[Todd Lyons]

So it was kind of. It was scary now. And that's what the part we're dealing with now is, because we really don't know who really came in the country during that time.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. You're trying to clean up the mess that was made by an abject ignoring of any sort of border policy whatsoever.

[Todd Lyons]

Right. Yeah. And I mean, this has to be frustrating. It was. And that was my fourth. So you Know, I started under President Bush, and then we went right to President Obama for eight years. President Trump, President Biden, back to President Trump. And each time, you know, Trump 45 was great because we were out there doing stuff, but it got slammed right away with injunctions, things like that. So, you know, come out the gate full speed, then you're stopped.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Then Covid hit that threw the world upside down. But then to come in and have the momentum we had get overturned on the Biden side, it was tough. You know what I mean? So the good thing I would say now is one executive order President Trump gave was enforce the law the way it's written. So it's great. You know what I mean? And I think that's a lot of the frustration we're seeing, or is the fact that people just can't believe, oh, my God, I've been here eight to 10 years, now you're arresting me. Well, yeah, you're here illegally.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

That was part of the deal when you came in.

[Todd Lyons]

And that's our biggest complaint. When people are like, you all. You're arresting collaterals. Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Like, if we go out there, we're just not gonna turn a blind eye. It's kind of like a city cop, Right. If you pull someone over and someone in your passenger seat, you know, has a warrant for unpaid child support, you're not gonna leave that guy. You're gonna take him.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Todd Lyons]

So.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's a really good point.

[Michael Duncan]

There's a ton of misconception out there. Right?

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, because, like, we follow this stuff pretty closely. And as you know, Wolf has got family in the. In the industry, but. So we don't know. We know what you're up to, but obviously, Democrats in Congress and the whole partisanship against anything that President Trump wants to. To do is sort of tried to shift the Overton window on what it is that your core mission is. And, like, we've heard you speak extremely clearly about where the priorities are about getting violent criminals out of this country. And it seems like that part has never changed, despite the fact that they would lead you to believe you're rolling through deporting everybody's favorite waitress.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean? And so if you. Can you talk about that just for.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah. I mean, like, obviously, we always. I was one of the first field office directors under the last administration, too, that was kind of beating the Bush up there in Massachusetts with, like, worst of the worst.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

If you're totally against immigration, there's no way you can Argue with us deporting and arresting a child sex offender.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Please come have that argument with me. I'd love to have it publicly, please. Yeah. We used to always have protesters at the Boston office and they would always be outside. Don't keep kids in cages. And it was great because we called it the Lexington Book Club because they were all retired, middle aged white people out there with no, like, coming from Lexington. Lexington, Concord area. And I'm like, yeah. So I used to get my Dunkin Donuts and I'd walk out and stand there with them. I'd be like, I don't have a kid in a cage, but I'll show you a gang member Fentanyl deal. If you want to come in to see them, you know, come in and.

[Michael Duncan]

Play a hand of cards, maybe a margarita.

[Todd Lyons]

But they don't want to. They don't want to have that argument. So what they're seeing now is if we do go out there, obviously we're going to prioritize. Until the big beautiful bill came online, we were one of the smallest law enforcement agencies.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes. Right.

[Todd Lyons]

So we would have to. If you're thinking about those numbers, when you're like, we have 1.5 million that have final orders deportation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

With 5,000 deportation officers.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

It's not going to happen. So you do have to, you know, hey, let's get the worst of the worst. No one's going to argue with it. But we go out there and if we, like I said, if we encounter someone that's here illegally, that's got to go.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Right. And all we're doing is enforcing the law. Which really makes us mad, too, because every time we get pushback from either the House or from the Senate, you all write the laws.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

You can change this. We'll do what you want to do. If you go on immigration reform, we'll be the first ones to say, hey, let's do it. Let's change it how you want, but this is how it's written right now.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I got a question for you. You mentioned all of the people who came in under Biden, and there's so many people who are here that nobody really knows who they are because they just walked across the border when somebody wasn't looking. We saw so many videos of these guys from North Africa fighting age men from Eastern Europe and from China, and. And I know you guys are going, you know, working overtime to make sure that you get those guys out of here, but they don't have a final deportation order yet. They don't have, you know, they probably walked into our country and spread out. Now they're working at some restaurant off books or just living in an apartment. That is one of the things that really terrifies people. We hear it from our audience all the time. Can you talk about what you're doing and how you feel like the progress is going on that specific type of population?

[Todd Lyons]

So, yeah, I think really what's good for us is the fact that under President Trump we got rid of catch and release, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

So everyone's talking about, oh my God, immigration detention skyrocketing. So you have so many people in custody. Well, we're not going to just arrest someone to give you a chance to go out and do something again once you like. We finally figure out, hey, you're a known suspected terrorist.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

Come back in three or four years.

[John]

A wild policy.

[Todd Lyons]

Right. So we're going to keep, we're keeping everybody in custody. Now what we're really seeing a lot of good help with is with our 287G program with the state and local agencies because honestly, like that's our wider net.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

If you think about how many state troopers and counting people on the side of the road, you all probably seen the successes we've been having with the CDL licenses, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

And that's one of the things I always say, you know, ICE is an agency born out of 911. And you think about it, you have now you have illegal aliens, military age males, Uzbekistan, you know, all these different countries driving a rig. Most of them have a real ID that can get them on an airplane, get them on a base. Right.

[John]

Scary stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. They just give them out licenses and.

[Todd Lyons]

Now they're driving this missile pretty much down the road. You don't even know what they're carrying. It could be anything.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

So having states like Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana that are out there doing stuff like that, that's where we're making the headway. And I wish people would kind of appreciate that and more agency would work with us because it's helping the local cops as well. But I mean, they're our eyes and ears. They see it every day.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

You know what I mean? And that's our best chance of stopping any attack in the future. That's my biggest fear. We always talk about what ICE is doing on the immigration side, but we do do a lot of national security and counterterrorism investigations. And that's, I mean, because that's the key thing that's my biggest fear too is out of all these, especially these military age males we let in, who do we really let in?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, totally.

[Todd Lyons]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

We've been saying this for forever.

[John]

That's.

[Josh Holmes]

And lost. And we're all wondering which states are the states where they are the least vigilant against these, these military age men? California.

[Todd Lyons]

Look at New York. I mean, when we first started doing the. The CDL thing, they, they authorized them. If you didn't want to give your name, you didn't have to. So, yeah, it was a first name and it said no name given but last name.

[John]

They put that on a license.

[Todd Lyons]

And the state of. The state of New York's argument was, well, the person at the RMV couldn't understand them. I'm like, no, they just gave him the option of not. And it's a real id.

[Michael Duncan]

So.

[Todd Lyons]

So that person couldn't.

[Michael Duncan]

So it's like Cher and Prince, like.

[Todd Lyons]

They just like sitting next to you.

[John]

On the airplane is a guy whose last name is Reddit.

[Michael Duncan]

That's unbelievable.

[Todd Lyons]

So, like, I think about the whole rail ID thing, right? So you got, you go in there, you know, you pretty much have to give a blood test to get in there, right? Yeah, I know. I went and I brought. You had to bring so many supporting documents. I bought my Veteran affairs, my latest thing from the va. Yeah. And they were like, well, it didn't come in the original envelope. We can't take it.

[Michael Duncan]

No kidding. I mean, that is the experience most people have getting it. So you're telling me these people were like, yeah, you can call me Bob if you want.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, Here.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Todd Lyons]

Here you go. It literally said Mohammed, no name given. Oh, and you're sitting here just, how does this happen? Right? And then you, you know, you have Governor Newsom just. He just rescinded 17,000 of them. But, you know, a guy in an Indian national kills a family of five in Florida doing a crazy U turn, right? And it was a California real id, driver's license, cdl.

[John]

Yeah, right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

Just given out haphazardly.

[John]

Can you, can you help me understand and the complexity and how bad this issue is of the deportation order backlog that we are dealing with right now? Because I saw this tweet from Senator Van Hollen about, you know, it's like their new Maryland man thing about this, you know, immigrant who's being removed from the country. And Trisha McLaughlin, who is doing great work on Twitter trying to correct all the misinformation on this stuff, was talking about how this woman, you know, from Vietnam was convicted of grand larceny. Multiple counts of forgery and fraud and all these sorts of things. An immigration judge had given her a final order for removal in 2004.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[John]

Are you kidding? You know, so like how much of that stuff still going on and how do we, how do we cut through that backlog?

[Todd Lyons]

So, you know, one thing is we have all these recalcitrant countries too. With Vietnam's one, that was Cambodia, Cuba, different countries, like, would come up with ways not to take their people back. Give you a prime example, Pakistan had a thing where it was like, okay, we have a passport, we need a travel document. Oh, he, we can't take him because he didn't get the national ID card that was issued in 2006. Because he's been here since 1998. Right, right. You can't help him. Right. But that was the problem. Like, so we have so many people now that were on our non detained docket, which is pretty much like ICE probation if you kind of think of it like that. They have to check in so many times a year because all these countries wouldn't take them back. But now with President Trump and Marco Rubio in the State Department, Secretary Rubio, they're killing it and putting the pressure on these other countries to take people back. But the other thing too is. And the media lost their minds because they thought it was something crazy. President Trump's breaking the law again. But to save third country after act. Yeah, it's a part of the immigration, nationality. I've been there since 1958. That we can have an option. If another country will take these people back, they'll take them back. So we're not, I mean, honestly, you hate to say, but we're not playing games anymore, right?

[John]

Yeah, right.

[Todd Lyons]

Hey, great, you're a sex offender from Cuba. Well, I don't, we don't want you here. Yeah, they don't want you here. South Sudan will take you and then we'll, you know, place to wake up. And of course we get, we got a lot of push but like, I can't believe sending people people.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, what's the option?

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, we're just not going to.

[John]

Well, the other option is they just leave and they go back home. Like, you know, and that, and that should be the policy. United States. Right. It's like, if you're not willing to leave, we'll send you somewhere.

[Michael Duncan]

We're going to send you somewhere.

[Todd Lyons]

It's funny, you know, we start doing those third country removals and miraculously all of a sudden these countries now want, you know, they'll take their people back. Yeah. President Maduro sends a plane for Venezuela. I'll send you my own plane. Okay, great, thanks. Come and get it.

[Michael Duncan]

Fantastic. Sounds great.

[Todd Lyons]

Save us some money.

[Michael Duncan]

It's almost like running a travel agency.

[Todd Lyons]

It is, it is. So on the deportation side, enforcement, removal operations, those deportation officers, I mean, they do God's work. They're out there, they deal with all these countries. They know exactly how you know, what country needs what travel document, how they, how many, you know, can we put on Korean air this time of the week. It's a, I mean it's a well oiled machine, the work that they do. And we're doing it even bigger now, which is crazy. Crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Because you're scaling the agency after a big beauty pass.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I imagine there's a challenge in that too.

[Todd Lyons]

It was, I, I mean it's amazing. You know, I was blessed to. The fact that we got it. I mean, you know, I don't think they checked my credit score before they gave me a budget of 175 billion. But the Boston Cop, a couple of.

[Michael Duncan]

Blockbuster returns that didn't go back.

[Todd Lyons]

God, that library book didn't make it, did it? The way we treated it was, we got, you know, I got the leadership team together. I think back to like when, you know, I was up, I was a brand new deportation officer agent and I was like, you know, I remember buying my own holsters. Yeah. So we did it. Now is if you're going to come work for us, you can have the best gear there is. We're going to take care of everybody we didn't take care of before. It's not have to ask for anything. They're going to, you know, safest equipment, best vehicles.

[Michael Duncan]

People want to come and work for us.

[Todd Lyons]

We want to make it. Yeah. We want to make it attractive.

[Smug]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Because it's, you know, I thought it was going to be hard. Hard to recruit a lot of people just because we're getting beat up so bad in the media, right? Oh yeah, totally. It's, it's. There's really no middle. It's either left or right.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Whatever way you think about it, you're really pro immigration or you absolutely hate us.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

But.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

We have over 200000 applicants.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Todd Lyons]

You know, that's great. It keeps growing every day.

[Josh Holmes]

That's.

[John]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You got to scale up the old employment agency too, right?

[Todd Lyons]

Oh gosh, people.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's. I mean that probably didn't exist.

[Todd Lyons]

We had a, you know, we had A it luckily enough to work with FEMA came to our aid with a lot of hr. Department of War helped us up. We did a lot of private contracting with, like, you know, you know, PR firms and HR firms. Vetting. Yeah, it's crazy. Just the amount of people that was. It was amazing. I thought it was great. First time I start getting phone calls like, oh, my God, there's an ice ad on Monday Night Football.

[John]

That was pretty awesome.

[Todd Lyons]

Never thought I'd see that, but that was awesome.

[Michael Duncan]

So there's a couple of these cases that I just wanted to talk about for a minute. There was an issue in Massachusetts where you found three unaccompanied alien children living in an apartment. And I think that people just don't hear about this stuff. Right. I mean, there is a assumption, and anytime you read about it in the mainstream, mainstream corporate media, it's all just the, you know, the most difficult story to try to translate. But what they are not hearing enough about, in my view, is you're saving.

[Todd Lyons]

People 100% every day, saving people's lives.

[Michael Duncan]

As a result of this conditions that you find some of these people, and then, you know, there's just like absolute terrorists that within the last month, you guys are detaining and getting the hell out of here.

[Todd Lyons]

I'll give you a prime example. Out of Massachusetts, right? So it's obviously a big sanctuary city, and all we're asking for is them to notify us. Yeah, hey, please notify us when you have this person in custody. So when I was up there in 2018, we worked with the state Supreme Court. Like, hey, if we arrest somebody, because the big thing was like, victims needs justice. If you'll deport them, victim will never get justice. Hey, work with us. Give us a. Yeah, give us a writ from the court. We'll give them back and forth. You'll see his day in court. So caped out, issued out of Barnesville, Massachusetts. Beautiful them on the Cape Cod. Never think there gonna be any crime. This guy rapes a young lady, gets arrested. We try to put a detainer on him. They don't honor it. They release. Release him local. Local. He goes, rapes another person. We finally arrest him. They're like, hey, we want to try him for this first crime. Okay, give us a court order, we'll give them to you. They give us the court order, give it to him. The judge sees it.

[Josh Holmes]

It.

[Todd Lyons]

It was like, we're not honoring this release. Goes rape somebody again.

[John]

No way.

[Todd Lyons]

So that. But then we tried getting that story out yeah, no one wants to tell.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't want to tell that story.

[Todd Lyons]

No one wants to tell a story.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean that is, it's a prime.

[Todd Lyons]

Example of what like sanctuary jurisdictions do.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

We just had a, a case two nights ago. We, we hit a club in San Antonio, known TDA gang spot. Over 150 arrests, 27 TDA gang members arrested. One was wanted for human trafficking. There were two year old children in this club at 3 o' clock in the morning.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh my gosh.

[Todd Lyons]

Heartbreaking, you know, so what are we, yeah, what are we doing? It's like, please argue with me about what we're doing.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[John]

Do you ever talk to some of these local cops? Like I have to imagine and you tell me, but I have to imagine there's a lot of people who signed up to put criminals in prison and when they know that they're, you know, they're a cop in a place that's a sanctuary city, they don't feel so great about letting the rapist back on the streets.

[Todd Lyons]

No, you know, and you know, I've said it all the time, like there's so the worst thing you want to do is pit law enforcement against each.

[John]

Totally.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

That's just, doesn't make anybody safe.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

But we have like so many local cops. They'll be like, hey, if you happen to go to this intersection, I have this guy right now. Right?

[John]

Yeah. Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Because they see it too. Because a lot of it, it kind of goes back to like the broken windows theory in New York where you start arresting people for smaller things. Absolutely broken, you know, stall jumping, littering. But these guys deal with these same knuckleheads heads all the time. Prime example, Massachusetts city of Lawrence. It is the number one hotspot for fentanyl distribution. It's not even ICE was saying it. It was back National Geographic on Drugs Inc. There was episode seven, if you went to the 36 minute marks. I said it all the time. They always blaming us for everything. The DEA said 90% of all the illegal heroin and fentanyl in Massachusetts was coming out of Dominican Republic's nationals in Lawrence.

[Josh Holmes]

So you think, you think there is a clear overlay between sanctuary cities and fentanyl distribution networks?

[Todd Lyons]

100%.

[Josh Holmes]

That's crazy. So, you know, I mean that seems that just, that validates the entire purpose of the effort, you know, to try to break this stuff up.

[Todd Lyons]

And that's, that's one thing that frustrates me the most. So I had my cousin, one of my best friends had a heroin addiction Died of a fentanyl overdose. And the Massachusetts State Police and the Boston cops were great about it. You know, Homeland Security investigations were working for me at the time. Investigated, guy came out of Lawrence, was an illegal alien that did it on the tainer. So for me to lose a family member.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

From my own field office, where, you know, they did it on a detainer, it hits home. I tell people all the time, like. Like some of the best people you meet are these angel families, and I love some of these senators and congress people that are so against us. Hey, have you sat down with all the angel families in your district who's actually lost somebody?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's right.

[Todd Lyons]

You know, we just did operation Midway Blitz in honor Katie Abraham. Her dad Joe's an amazing guy, but he's out there singing the praises of ICE because he sees firsthand, right, there was a guy killed. His daughter and her best friend had DUI crash. That shouldn't have been here in the first place. Yes, Right.

[John]

So did you track down that drug dealer at a Lawrence who.

[Michael Duncan]

Who.

[John]

Who sold him the stuff?

[Todd Lyons]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

Not funny.

[Todd Lyons]

He's still my white whale. Eventually we'll get him, but.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, you know, I can imagine.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

From this perch, it feels like you're gonna find that guy.

[Todd Lyons]

Well, you know what? For me, the big thing for me is I. You have so many politicians that run on the fentanyl issues.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Right.

[Todd Lyons]

And, you know, for all the delegation in Massachusetts, I always say I could solve the problem right now.

[John]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

Let us support these guys. But instead, they'll get arrested, get $50 cash bailout. The same night. It'll be a different name next day. What's frustrating for us, especially when it comes to sanctuary jurisdiction, is most of these guys are prior deports. They've been formally deported back to their home country. So it's 8 USC 1326. It's re entry after deportation. It's a felony. So you have these poor state cops, local cops, that. It's a felony committed in their presence. Yeah, it's a felony that they persons their own evidence.

[Michael Duncan]

Your body's here.

[John]

Right, right, right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

And they can't even.

[Todd Lyons]

And they can't even. They can't even push him. But the jail already knows he's been deported multiple times. Fentanyl dealer. 50 bucks, you can get back up.

[Michael Duncan]

It is an incredible thing that they have developed in these cities a federal statute crime that they will not enforce.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. And I wonder. I mean, you've been. You've been at this for so long. Do you notice a difference in the local cooperation from these sanctuary areas, from these sort of like, blue cities? Do you notice a difference between their cooperation today and during the Obama administration? In other words, Obama was deporting people too, just like President Trump is doing and following the law and all that. And it seems like the locals are just a little bit more involved with the human trafficking right now than they ever have been.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, I think just because we've been doing such a great job messaging campaign on that. Because I think that's one thing people just don't realize is that the exploitation that goes on in the human trafficking side.

[John]

Yeah.

[Todd Lyons]

That these people go through such horrific experiences and then it keeps going when they're still here. Right. Whether it be, you know, slave labor, sex labor, child trafficking. It's so abundant that I think, you know, if any cop you signed up to do. To say you signed up to do the job. Right. And they want to do the job and they want to do the right thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Todd Lyons]

So like the trafficking cases, that's something you can get behind. Because again, I'd always say to any elected official, explain to me in your constituents why you don't want to help us take down a human trafficking house that has a bunch of children, bunch of young girls that being exploited on sexual violence.

[John]

Somebody make an argument against it.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, please come explain me why we're not going to do this.

[John]

Right, Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, listen, you don't have a lot of time for golf, but we did stumble across something thing. Can we put up graphic? Graphic one. All right, so here's flip flops. Here's direct. I'm aggressive.

[Todd Lyons]

I'm aggressive.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait. Not to bust balls, but, oh, well, I'm busting my. My fat ass. This falls into the category of like, you're going to swing a club when you can because you don't have a lot of time for that. So flip flops, I guess, had to make do.

[Todd Lyons]

You know what? I try to get golfing when I can.

[John]

We love the visual.

[Todd Lyons]

Yeah, very good. It's even worse. So, you know, my dad had the opportunity to go with my father to go play Pebble Beach.

[Michael Duncan]

Did you?

[Todd Lyons]

Two years ago. Yeah. A kid from Southy should not be at Pebble Beach.

[Michael Duncan]

I was just gonna say I thought.

[Todd Lyons]

It was like caddyshack. Pools open at 1:15 to 1:30. That was me. I'm going up and it's free beer. I come back with two. Everyone's looking at me like, what? Not everyone else is doing it.

[Michael Duncan]

They let the Boston kid It's not good. Not good. Now, listen, we appreciate what you're doing, and we know that you and all the officers that are charged with trying to do what they can under President Trump's leadership are under enormous amount of stress, political and physical. I mean, you've got a lot of.

[Todd Lyons]

Guys who, you know, assaults are up over a thousand percent. I mean, it's scary.

[John]

It is.

[Todd Lyons]

You know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And the more you've got the Gavin Newsoms of the world and the Pritzkers of the world inciting people to basically attack your agents, it's gotta be a tough thing to do. We recognize that. We appreciate it, what everything that you're doing in the face of all that, because it's a very, very important thing.

[Todd Lyons]

No, we appreciate the sport. Really. You guys been great with having our backs and, you know, that's one thing I'm just super proud to leave. I'm really. The thing I care about the most is men and women of ICE that they go home every day because they're out there, they're doing a mission and they're just cops. End of the day, just cops trying to do the right thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep. Yep. Well, you're doing a great job. Director Lyons, thank you so much for stopping by.

[Todd Lyons]

Awesome. No, thanks for having me.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you.

[Todd Lyons]

Great day.

[Josh Holmes]

Really, really good to have him in here to talk about everything that they're doing as an organization. And I feel like we learned an awful lot. I did too, here in hearing all that.

[Smug]

And it's horrific. And that's the thing that I think is important, that our listeners have a full appreciation when he describes, like they're raiding a club at three in the morning and they find like two year olds there. It's like these are horrific things that are occurring. And ICE and this administration are doing everything they can to make America safer and put an end to this human trafficking and the millions of other horrible effects of illegal immigration. And then right ahead, we show you the clip of like these idiot lefties who are like, no, we're opposing you. We support the human trafficking. It's just. It was great to hear the story from someone who's out there trying to make a difference because the media doesn't do it.

[John]

But he's also been out there his entire career. And what I really appreciate about him is this is a guy who's been out on the streets, you know, trying to stop crime his entire life.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[John]

And you can hear it in his voice. He's a real southy Boston guy.

[Michael Duncan]

No, I know, I know.

[John]

It was hard. I felt like I was listening into the Departed.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, that was the Departed or the Town. Anything with Affleck. Really?

[Smug]

Yeah, really.

[Michael Duncan]

Or Damon.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John]

How you like them apples?

[Michael Duncan]

No, he's a great guy. I'm glad they're doing what they're doing. He's welcome back anytime. But it's nice to get a story that you're never going to get on your mainstream media about what it is that they're actually up to. Very, very different than what's reported. Do not forget Thursday. Do not forget. If there's one thing you take away from this entire episode, set your watch, set your alarm. Look at the alert that comes in on your phone about Thursday's episode, the Thanksgiving Spectacular. It's the best thing that we do all year. You got to listen to it before you get up into the family spirit because it's going to provide you incredible guidance. Get all that when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen. Thank you so much, Director Lyons, and thank you to listeners. Just like Holmes said, go to the YouTube hit that. Subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.