Are leftists the dumbest criminals? + HUD Secretary Scott Turner

Summary

Ruthless Podcast — Episode Summary

Episode Title: Are leftists the dumbest criminals? + HUD Secretary Scott Turner

Date: January 23, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook

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Episode Overview

This “Fun Time Friday” episode of Ruthless blends the hosts’ signature biting, humorous analysis of current political news—especially left-wing movements, alleged criminality, and media collusion—with lighter fare, including a lively segment on former Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s tabloid troubles and a detailed interview with HUD Secretary Scott Turner. Listeners are treated to regular mockery of leftist activism, passionate calls for law-and-order, and a behind-the-scenes look “at the collapse of justice” in Minnesota. The latter half dives into Sinema’s scandalous news cycle, a dig at digital misinformation, whale hijinks, and, finally, insight from Turner on fighting fraud at HUD—with a side of NFL picks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Quick Justice and Minnesota Church Protest Aftermath

[02:28 - 13:09]

• Follow-up on the storming of a church in St. Paul, MN led by leftist activists, including Don Lemon and Nekima Levy Armstrong.
• Federal charges (18 USC 241) brought against activists for violating religious freedom.
  • "Religious freedom’s the bedrock of the United States and there is no First Amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion.” — Josh Holmes [05:00]
• The show mocks activists’ attempts to justify their actions (e.g., “We did not rush in… we participated in the service” – Nakima Levy Armstrong on CNN [06:59]) versus clear video evidence of planned disruption.
• Activist William “DeWoke Farmer” Kelly also arrested (“Perp walked” repeated with glee).
• Frustration vent at a magistrate judge’s refusal to charge Don Lemon, igniting a wider discussion of blame on “activist judges.”
• Hosts express satisfaction with “swift justice” but warn of deep corruption and leniency in Minnesota’s legal system.

Notable Quotes

• “Hats off again, Department of Justice, Kristi Noem and the Homeland Security Department, they made moves here.” — Josh Holmes [00:00 & 12:00]
• “You gotta have handcuffs on these people fast.” — Smug [11:44]
• “This is a huge problem… Minnesota has become so deeply corrupt and broken that the people in charge of law enforcement are making sure criminals are allowed to get away.” — Smug [13:09]

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2. Critique of Media & Left-Wing Activism

[13:47 - 18:07]

• Hosts argue Don Lemon is not a journalist but an activist (“he just becomes a full blown activist… he was a participant in this”).
• Parallels drawn between current activist tactics and Al Sharpton “pioneering the fraudulent playbook of the left.”
• Praise for independent right-wing citizen journalism (especially Nick Shirley) exposing stories mainstream media “will never touch.”

Notable Quotes

• “I think 90% of what we know about what the left is up to is not because of any of the corporate journalism…” — Josh Holmes [15:11]
• “Al Sharpton was a pioneer in this. It’s like you draw the charge on something, you put your face on camera and you make it a national news thing. This is how they distract people from things like fraud and crime…” — Michael Duncan [16:51]

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3. The Kyrsten Sinema Scandal Spectacle

[22:08 - 41:06]

• In-depth discussion of tabloid accusation: Sinema allegedly had an affair with a security staffer, according to the staffer’s wife’s divorce filing.
• Hosts oscillate between feigned outrage (“breaking up a family!”), political analysis (NYT “hit piece” driven by Sinema’s centrist record), and irreverent humor over Sinema’s fashion and sexuality.
• Extended riffing on bisexuality (Michael Duncan: “I don’t think being bisexual is real” [27:32]), the “attention-seeking” nature of Sinema’s career, and playful speculation over the “victim” status of the staffer.
• Summary of lawsuit details: alleged nudes, psychedelic drug trips, concert outings, and sexually explicit messages.
• Strong dose of parody around “reverse Me Too” narratives and silly banter on what would qualify as truly scandalous evidence.

Notable Quotes

• “She's a real supporter of the filibust, has been, kind of a bedrock [issue for her]…” — Josh Holmes [38:28]
• “This is the portion where I actually think you have merit in your argument, Smug… if what he is proffering on a sexting deal is missionary style sex with Sinema… he hoped that was gonna do the trick I guess.” — Josh Holmes [39:24]

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4. Digital Disinformation & AI Humor

[48:51 - 54:54]

• The panel mocks viral AI-generated thirst trap images involving political figures and the confusion they sow, especially for older internet users.
• Comfortably Smug posits that some “AI busty broad” accounts are actually engagement-farming schemes (possibly even run by disinformed celebs).
• Side discussion about online literacy, not shaming older or less tech-savvy people for digital gullibility.

Notable Moments

• “But that's a lesson… if there's an older person who doesn't know if something's real or not, don't be mean to them about it. Just, like, try to help them out.” — Smug [54:15]

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5. Animal Antics: Riding a Dead Whale

[55:07 - 58:39]

• The crew watches and laughs at a viral video of men climbing onto a dead whale at sea.
• Extended banter about whether it’s “dangerous,” trophy stuffing, and how to best use a whale carcass for fishing credibility.

Notable Quotes

• “You want to talk about your little marlin? Come across like just reeling Moby Dick on a walleye rod.” — Josh Holmes [57:02]

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6. Interview: HUD Secretary Scott Turner

[59:07 - 73:02]

A. Fighting Waste, Fraud, and Abuse at HUD

[59:33 - 64:23]

• Upon arrival at HUD, Turner discovered $1.9 billion misplaced, $84 million in improper payments (Minnesota), $5B in error payments nationwide, including thousands of dead people receiving benefits.
• DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) contracts “ended immediately.”
• “We found $4 million in DEI contracts. And so we ended those contracts immediately. You know, contracts like mindfulness, that has nothing to do with housing… And so we ended DEI at HUD.” — Scott Turner [59:41]
• Illegal immigration and misuse of HUD resources (“59% of illegal immigrant families use one or more welfare programs… costing us $40 billion/year”).
• Ongoing investigations into fraud and racial preferences violating Fair Housing Act (esp. Boston).
• “In Boston, we launched a secretary of investigation…they would use racial equity to preference and prioritize people of color… literally a violation of the Fair Housing Act…” — Scott Turner [63:31]

B. Housing Policy and Regulatory Reform

[64:23 - 67:22]

• Discussion of root causes of housing unaffordability; push for local regulatory changes and use of Opportunity Zones for more housing construction.
• Opportunity Zones “made permanent”; hopes for further reforms with Congressional action.

C. NFL Reflections & Predictions

[67:22 - 72:39]

• Turner details changes in the NFL (better pay, less intense practices, focus on safety and nutrition), praises the league as “a machine” and compares today’s players to his time.
• AFC/NFC title game picks offered (“I would love for my Broncos to beat the Patriots in the AFC championship game…” [68:36]).
• Anecdote of Turner’s playing career—pick-six in 2000 for the Chargers at Mile High Stadium.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Media & Activism Collusion

“This has been the fraudulent playbook of the left for a generation. This collusion between the activist base and the left wing media… Al Sharpton was a pioneer in this.”
— Michael Duncan [16:51]

On the Justice System

“You gotta have handcuffs on these people fast.”
— Smug [11:44]

“Minnesota has become so deeply corrupt… the people in charge of law enforcement are making sure criminals are allowed to get away.”
— Smug [13:09]

On Kyrsten Sinema Drama

“Just where’s the leadership? … I like the way she’s filibustering this dude with a towel.”
— Smug [38:22, 38:16]

“I would love to embrace it, but…at the end of the day, she picked a man.”
— Michael Duncan [27:27]

On AI & Elder Internet Users

“If there’s an older person who doesn’t know if something’s real or not, don’t be mean to them about it. Just, like, try to help them out.”
— Smug [54:15]

On Whale Hijinks

“Come across like just reeling Moby Dick on a walleye rod.”
— Josh Holmes [57:02]

On the HUD Fraud Problem

“$5 billion—that’s American taxpayer money going in this country. 200,000 ineligible recipients, including 30,000 dead people.”
— Scott Turner [59:55]

“In Boston…they would use racial equity to preference… literally a violation of the Fair Housing Act…”
— Scott Turner [63:31]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Church Protest and Minnesota Legal Fallout: [02:28 - 13:09]
• Media Collusion and Don Lemon Rant: [13:47 - 18:07]
• Kyrsten Sinema Scandal Breakdown: [22:08 - 41:06]
• Digital Disinformation Segment (AI): [48:51 - 54:54]
• Dead Whale Antics: [55:07 - 58:39]
• Secretary Scott Turner Interview: [59:07 - 73:02]

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Tone & Style

Irreverent, aggressively partisan, satirical, and gleefully mocking—especially of leftists, the media, and progressive activism. The show is conversational, with long-running inside jokes and banter, but also features substantive discussion during the HUD Secretary segment.

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Who Should Listen?

Anyone interested in right-wing media perspective, sharp takedowns of progressive causes, real talk on government accountability and fraud, or just fans of political media analysis with a side of locker-room humor.

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Episode Highlight — Must-Listen Segment

Interview with HUD Secretary Scott Turner
[59:07 - 73:02]
A rare, serious segment covering government waste, HUD reforms, and the mechanics of federal housing oversight—paired with some entertaining NFL history and predictions.
“We found $1.9 billion of misplaced funds. How do you misplace almost $2 billion? And so we took the appropriate actions and deobligated those funds and returned them back to the treasury.” — Scott Turner [59:41]

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Next Episode Preview:
More political fireworks, in-depth election coverage, and “an incredible election year in a lot of different ways.” [47:53]

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

This is relatively quick justice in a lot of different ways. I mean, hats off again, Department of Justice, Kristi Noem and the Homeland Security Department, they made moves here.

[Smug]

The only way you put it to an end is quick consequences like this.

[Michael Duncan]

This has been the fraudulent playbook of the left for generations. This collusion between the activist base and the left wing media to create. I mean Al Sharpton was a pioneer in this. Yeah, it's like you draw the charge on something. You put your your face on camera and you make it a national news thing. This is how they distract people from things like fraud and crime. All these patients complaining they can't get their medicines.

[NetChoice Representative]

Insurers and PBMs are often owned by the same giant company.

[Michael Duncan]

So middlemen like me decide what medicines you can get and how much you pay.

[Josh Holmes]

But don't worry if your prescription gets denied.

[Michael Duncan]

We know another one that works for us.

[Smug]

I mean you Washington should stop PBMs and insurers from driving up drug costs. Learn [e-mail] insurercosts paid for by PhRMA.

[NetChoice Representative]

In America, parents call the shots for their families, not bureaucrats. But the so called App Store Accountability act puts your child at risk. This bill requires app stores to collect children's sensitive personal data while taking away power from parents over how their child's data is handled by tech companies. Parents should get to decide if their child's age is shared with apps, not politicians. Parents should attest to their kids ages, not turn over birth certificates to tech companies. Congress don't put kids at greater risk online and box parents out of making decisions for their families. Tell your lawmaker to put parents first. There are better ways to keep kids safe. NetChoice is dedicated to making the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise. Learn [e-mail] keepappstores safe.

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless variety program. It is going to be a fun time. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial. We're going to have a lot of laughs here, folks. We've got everything from crime in punishment to sexual deviance.

[Smug]

Just another day discussing the left.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we got it all.

[Michael Duncan]

We got it all.

[Josh Holmes]

And by the way, we have a great interview that you conducted.

[John Ashbrook]

Smash Scott Turner.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Who runs Housing and Urban Development in this country. And we spent a lot of time talking about how he gets to the bottom of the fraud around the country. And then a little bit of time previewing the NFL playoffs this weekend. You know, he spent nine years in the league. So this guy's an expert. Yeah, he.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got. He's a. He's a real deal NFL guy. So, I mean, this is why you listen to the ruthless Friday program. You can talk about housing, or you can get, like, the football picks from a guy that was in the league, and he follows the stuff closely.

[Smug]

It's fun time Friday. Yeah, it's perfect.

[Josh Holmes]

It's fun time. It's gonna be a fun time.

[John Ashbrook]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

So you recall on Tuesday, we covered the Don Lamond church storming with this group of psychopaths, and now it was, like, very illegal what they did. I mean, they basically interrupted a church service, and you can't do that. They stormed the place. It was a look beside the law. It was one of those most immoral.

[Smug]

That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Things that I've seen.

[Smug]

Even if there weren't laws on the books, common human decency, most people would never even conceive of doing something like that, because that's just. It's literally a demonic thing to do.

[Michael Duncan]

It shows you how desperate people like Don Lemonade are for content these days. You know, they got fired from CNN just like the Jim Acosta thing. Remember where he did the AI interview with the kid who was dead? You know, I mean, these people are desperate for content. You got Don Lemon out there being like, well, I'm a journalist and a Christian. These people are the activists. And it's like, really, dude? You were walking the sidewalk in Minneapolis and you decided, I'm going to come go here and report. Like, nobody believes that.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he's like, verbally.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Verbally assaulting the pastor in the pulpit.

[Smug]

I'm just a journalist.

[Josh Holmes]

And the guy's like, you know, we're trying to sit. We're trying to. We're trying to worship here. And he's like, oh, I'm a Christian. Then bumps into him. Yeah, like what?

[John Ashbrook]

The left hates church.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they do.

[John Ashbrook]

They hate church.

[Smug]

They do.

[Josh Holmes]

But. Yeah, how you have a fun time with this kind of topic, because it doesn't seem like a fun time. Well, it gets a lot more fun if you look at graphic one here for a moment. This is where the Homeland Security investigators and the FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who played a key role in orchestrating the church riots in St. Paul, Minnesota. She's being charged with a Federal Crime under 18 USC 241. I don't know exactly what that is, but it sounds official. Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States and there is no first Amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion. That's from Kristi Noem, who the Secretary of Homeland Security. It goes on. Here is the subject of this arrest in graphic 2.

[Michael Duncan]

Perp walked.

[Josh Holmes]

Perp walked.

[Smug]

Love it.

[Michael Duncan]

Perp walked. And this was Nikima, who from our Tuesday show had helpfully posted on Facebook and tagged all of her co conspirators and smug had demanded consequences for this and looks like they delivered.

[Smug]

That's the thing, is there's nothing better than swift justice because that's the only way you send a message.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Smug]

I mean, we've been seeing in Minnesota, the entire state is basically just a bunch of horrible monsters running across the board. I don't think there's anything but horrible monsters.

[Michael Duncan]

Hold them accountable.

[Smug]

And you've been seeing them running them out. The only way you put it to an end is quick consequences like this.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, so she had to schedule in her arrest because she's been a busy lady. It's not just disrupting church services. You have to find networks that support that point of view and go speak to the masses about the absolute depravity that is your life. And so in clip one, this is Wednesday night. She was arrested Thursday morning. Wednesday night. This is what she's up to in clip one.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

And I do want to correct something that was said in the beginning. We did not rush into that church. We actually went and sat down and participated in the service.

[Smug]

This is on cnn. She's allowed to.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

And asked him a question in response.

[Josh Holmes]

Nodding along, by the way.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

And then I.

[Smug]

And he responded to me.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood and how is it possible for him to serve as both the pastor and. And the director of ICE from Minnesota. And instead of responding to me as soon as I said the name David Easterwood, the pastor says, shame, shame. And that is when I let us enchant justice for Renee.

[Josh Holmes]

Good.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

And hands up.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't shoot.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

So I want to clarify that we didn't rush in. We didn't bust in. We were a part of the service until I got up and posed that question to the past.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so she's posing. And obviously I'm not going to dispute your. Your, you know.

[Smug]

Why would you do that?

[John Ashbrook]

They don't do that.

[Smug]

Describing it. I obviously wasn't in the room. Yeah, yeah, no, she was like, so we've seen numerous videos of you guys storming the place. Obviously, I'm not going to dispute this. I'm only a journalist on cnn.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Smug]

It's not my job to try to figure out what didn't. Didn't happen.

[Josh Holmes]

We don't have the Internet here at cnn.

[Michael Duncan]

We don't.

[Josh Holmes]

We don't see what we see with our own eyes. But if you had the Internet, what you would have seen is. Clip 2. Tell us why you're doing this.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

This is Operation Pull up, more of a clandestine operation. We show up somewhere that is a key location. They don't expect us to come there and then we disrupt business as usual. We're about to go do right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so look, there's a little discrepancy between being fellow worshipers who happen to ask a question that they didn't get a satisfactory answer for and then decided to make their voices heard, as Nakima would say on cnn. And what we saw there, which was a planned event to disrupt a service, which of course is against the law, but that is what they were doing. And you would also have to just sort of Nazi again. Maybe the Internet is like a low usage at cnn. It does strike me from time to time that they don't have access to a lot of information from what they report. But. Clip 2A probably puts a finer point on it.

[Smug]

Comfortable white people who are living lavish, comfortable lives while children are dragged into concentration camps. You're living real life. Nice lives with your lattes, doing absolutely nothing for your Latino and Somali brothers and sisters. Doing this to people during a church service. Honestly, like everyone there deserves a medal because you would absolutely be doing the right thing if you grabbed a chair and broke it over his head. 100 like you hear this guy's voice and what he's saying, how he's speaking. These people.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at this kid, man.

[Smug]

Him saying you are a fake Christian to these people. Why do I not see you out at Whipple every day protesting this attack on humanity? Where are you? You're sinners. You're pretending to be Christians. But we know you live an easy life, don't you?

[Michael Duncan]

They were just there to ask questions.

[Josh Holmes]

Just simply asking a question of the pastor.

[Smug]

Out. Out.

[Announcer]

Now.

[Josh Holmes]

There was the subject in question.

[Smug]

Living real comfortable while the people starve. Live in real.

[Josh Holmes]

Who's even talking?

[Smug]

While children are dragged into concentration camps. You're all living real comfortable, aren't you? Shame on you. Do something. Stand with the Somalis. Stand with the Latinos. Quit ignoring this injustice.

[John Ashbrook]

They do look extremely comfortable in the driving snow and 15 degree weather.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well, this guy. So this guy's name is William Kelly. He's like sort of a renowned psychopath.

[Smug]

He goes by Dewoke Farmer.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Dewoke Farmer. Which seems like if the shoe fits. But he had a little something coming, too. 2a.

[Smug]

Love it.

[Josh Holmes]

Liam Kelly is also perp walked after being arrested on charges of conspiracy to deprive.

[Smug]

They always love the FA part, but it's the fo that you never see them smiling.

[John Ashbrook]

The woke farmer pulling in a big crop of bullshit.

[Josh Holmes]

Damn. Manure. Patty.

[Smug]

I genuinely love to see that. You really love to see that. Because that guy is an absolute scumbag. To go into a church and accost people like that. Families like that. Image I saw of a dad comforting his young son.

[John Ashbrook]

Mm.

[Smug]

Who is upset at their church being stormed by these maniacs. I was like, there's the only solution. You gotta have handcuffs on these people fast. Thank you to the Justice Department, Kristi Noem, everybody involved in this. We're seeing handcuffs put on these people fast. Thank God.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And it's also, look, I mean, I know there's a lot of black peeled people out there who are watching the Somali fraud or watching all this stuff. And, like, it seems to be a process story about a protest rather than holding people accountable for actual crimes. I mean, this is relatively quick justice in a lot of different ways. I mean, hats off again, Department of Justice, Kristi Noem and the Homeland Security Department, they made moves here. One disappointment, and it hangs around a Minnesota federal magistrate judge. We don't know much about this person, but I can only imagine. Graphic 2B. This is from Jennifer Jacobs, who tweeted out scoop. Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint bringing charges against Don Lemon in connection with the church protest on Sunday. Sources tell cbs. So it seems like our whole question of the day on Tuesday, which is like, what should happen to Don Lemon? Has been answered by a magistrate judge in Minnesota, at least temporarily, that they feel like they can't charge the guy.

[Smug]

This is such a problem. This is a huge problem. Is we've talked about activist judges, but this is a whole other level where you have on camera obvious to everybody that crimes are being committed. And Minnesota has become so deeply corrupt and broken that the people in charge of law. It's like a joke. It's like from 1984, the people in charge of law enforcement are making sure criminals are allowed to get away. It's unbelievable. Americans should be outraged. There needs to be action taken. That's far and Above. Well, maybe we just gotta vote harder, guys.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with any of that. In fact, I think in this particular case you're entirely correct. The one thing that occurred to me after we did our Tuesday episode was, look, we all know that Don Lamone is not a journalist, right? He's an activist. He had a journalism job for a while and people tried to pretend like he was one. And then he shows up after he gets fired from that and he just becomes a full blown activist. But he still has a camera and a microphone. And so, like, you know, I guess journalism is being done. I would argue that this, because of the tape that we saw before when we played on Tuesday about him, like, actively corroborating with these people who knew what they were planning disqualifies him from, like, the act of covering all. Like, he was a participant in this. And I'll go to the hilt to say that. But it did occur to me at some point that what I worry about a little bit is the right in particular is over indexing on super quality independent journalism. Like, you think about the Nick Shirleys of the world or all the people that protest the, you know, the antifa stuff, and all the footage that we get, like, I would say 90% of what we know about what the left is up to is not because of any of the corporate journalism that is.

[John Ashbrook]

They won't talk about it.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all independent, right? And so, like, I wondered a little bit, I tend to take a longer view of some of this stuff. I wondered whether or not it provides any sort of, like, liability for peeps who are doing real coverage. Like, I could see a Nick Shirley or somebody like that doing that coverage.

[Smug]

And so here's the thing is, I want Republicans to stop being like, boy, let's live in fear of what if the Democrats did this to us? It's time. Like, we've got the House, we've got the Senate, President Trump's in the White House. We've got to make a move. Because God knows what the left is always gonna do if they're in power. They tried locking up President Trump, they tried killing President Trump. They killed Charlie Kirk. These people never worry about. Boy, you know what I'm really worried if this legislative policy is gonna be used against us and brought on the floor, they never worry about that. How many conservatives did they lock up? They were sending moms showing up to PTA meetings. They're putting them on terror lists when they had the FBI. So I do not want to Be like, you know, I'm worried we might have to worry about some Democrats doing this. When the Democrats have power, dude, they want to put us against the wall. Like, you have to crush injustice. That's the only way it puts it to an end, is when someone learns there's consequences. It's the same thing as training a child. You can't let the kid get away with everything or they'll turn into a maniac parenting expert.

[Josh Holmes]

Hence my learned constitutional expert in parenting.

[Smug]

Exactly. So like, you know, the Constitution's not gonna jump up and start protecting us from these left wing maniacs out here killing people. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But silver lining of all this, it's.

[Smug]

Time to crush them.

[John Ashbrook]

I think.

[Michael Duncan]

Silver lining, I think in all of this, and none of this has surprised anybody who listens or watches the ruthless variety program, but like, this has been the fraudulent playbook of the left for a generation. This collusion between the activist base and the left wing media to create. I mean, Al Sharpton was a pioneer in this. It's like you draw the charge on something, you put your face on camera and you make it a national news thing. This is how they distract people from things like fraud and crime and make it an issue apart from itself. When the reality is the people like Don Lemon and others are entirely in collusion with those same people to do crime.

[Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And hopefully through this process of. Nakima, the woman who thankfully tagged all of her co conspirators in a Facebook post.

[Josh Holmes]

Hilarious.

[Michael Duncan]

Fucking genius. Through the process of discovery and all of that, we find out exactly what his collusion looked like. It won't be a surprise to any of us, but it'll destroy his entire credibility in the whole thing. And that is a silver lining.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Nakima, not a terrific criminal. No, I mean, she listed her co conspirators.

[Smug]

It's sort of like, like. And it went on cnn, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

Like those old Bonds movies where like the villain would lay out the entire.

[Smug]

Plan as they have Bond under a laser beam.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, they do that for us.

[Scott Turner]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh yeah, totally. So anyway, look, we're gonna keep following this stuff, cuz I do think there's a fair amount not only hilarity and just how dumb these people are, but how the whole justice system has collapsed upon actually prosecuting some of this stuff for the first time in my lifetime. Like, when's the last time George Floyd, all that. Nobody was prosecuted, like, very few. Anyway. I mean, it burned down the Minneapolis police station. I didn't see anybody go to jail for that. Maybe I missed something. But it certainly wasn't widespread. Mostly peaceful, they said.

[Smug]

Well, that's the problem and that's why we see it today, is because that didn't happen then.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but it seems like it's like.

[Smug]

We'Re at least making no mercy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we're making inroads. Anyway, listen, before we get a break, gotta remind all of you again. Philadelphia on January 29, 6:00pm the ruthless variety program is doing a live show. We don't do a ton of these these days. We got a pretty busy schedule. So we try to be selective about where we do it. But this is gonna be a big one because it's our first real celebration of America 250, something that we're gonna do for all 12 months. And I know the administration and a whole bunch of folks around the country are going to be celebrating 250 as best they possibly can. This is the best way that we can think to kick it off. When you go to a250philly.com ruthless, you can get a ticket. It's entirely free. You can see Ruthless for free.

[Smug]

And you get food and drink. Like, this is the best gift you get.

[Josh Holmes]

Food and drink.

[Michael Duncan]

Did we happen to get like a Danik's roast pork sandwich? Am I rider for this?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's good. I would like a cheesesteak.

[Michael Duncan]

You're more of a cheesesteak guy. Yeah, I like the roast pork with the broccoli rabe.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm going to put start. It's pretty good. If you want to just make a list and send it over.

[Smug]

I think Duncan's right.

[Michael Duncan]

We should clear that up.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, our buddy Guy Benson is going to be there, and I think the fact that Guy will be there calls for a game of hard pivot because that guy is the reigning.

[Smug]

He's pretty good at it on that one. He's pretty good at it.

[Josh Holmes]

That is pretty good. All right, so you got to go to a250philly.com ruthless to get your ticket. The venue location, which is downtown Philadelphia, will be provided after you sign up. This is in partnership with our friends at Americans for Prosperity. Go check it out. We hope to see all of you in Philadelphia on January 29th at 6pm when we come back, a salacious and shocking new detail is emerging from a former senator. One of our favorites, frankly, for a variety of reasons. She takes on all comers, as they say.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

Kirsten Sinema has run into a little bit of a divorce proceeding. Not of her own making, but no.

[Michael Duncan]

It was of her own making. Allegedly. Allegedly.

[Josh Holmes]

Allegedly. But well caught up. It's not her divorce.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Anyway, we got the details right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so you may have heard the news about former Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who again, one of our favorites here at the Ruthless Variety Program in terms of Democrats. You know, you don't have a lot of people to partner up with, shall we say, but she's one that held the line on a lot of the craziest shit the Democrats were trying to do. Made for a decent senator. When it was all said and done, she had a all encompassing approach to both of her job and her sexuality.

[Smug]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

And according to the New York Times, she's found herself former Senator Kirsten Sinema accused of an affair with a former member of her security team. Interesting, right? I mean, she's not a member of Congress anymore, so it's, you know, I guess that's interesting. Nah, it gets a lot more interesting, particularly when you know a little bit about Kirsten Simon. Let's reintroduce you a little bit. Graphic 3 so that's her at the.

[Smug]

State of the Union exhibit for the court. There's a fluffy yellow dress.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. For listeners, an understated number that she wore to a State of the Union.

[Michael Duncan]

She looks like a peep. Skin tight.

[Josh Holmes]

Peep. She did, my man peep. She did. Graphic 3A. There she is.

[Smug]

That's a bit much for the Senate.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you think it's a little bit much?

[John Ashbrook]

I don't, I don't. I honestly don't. I think that the New York Times is writing a hit piece on Kirsten Sinema.

[Smug]

I think he's right.

[John Ashbrook]

The way they wanted her to vote every single time.

[Smug]

So two things can be true.

[John Ashbrook]

Message to Democrats. If you don't Vote how we want in the New York Times is the ultimate arbiter of what's right and wrong for Democrats.

[Michael Duncan]

It's true.

[John Ashbrook]

So we'll vote how we want. We're going to write against it.

[Smug]

I think Ashbrook's right. I think the motive is that she was like, you know, a centrist or would vote with Republicans. And that pisses off the New York Times, which is why they were willing to run this hit piece. Can I get that, like, aluminum foil dress again?

[Josh Holmes]

Just pop that thing.

[Smug]

That's still a bit much, though. And so, like, you know, I think Paul Ryan didn't know what he was doing when he allowed this rule when he was speaker of, like, women can have bare shoulders when they're in the Capitol. And that was like, the floodgates opened where they're like, there's no blaming Paul Ryan for that. So he allowed them to have, like, bare shoulders. And it's like, okay, now it's gonna be just like an insane. Oh, like it's a free for all at this point. I didn't even know you've got Silver Surfer rolling up. No, because I was the only one who was holding the line. Many conservatives were like, Many conservatives were like, why not let women have bare shoulders? And I was like, you don't know what you're asking.

[Michael Duncan]

So many letters on this.

[Smug]

I can't believe when you let them run amok. Cause he probably didn't see this would happen. I knew, I knew. You can't let him go crazy because now you got that.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, if you'll recall, her career started in the House of Representatives under a Paul Ryan leadership, but she was heralded as a champion of the left. She had come from the code pink.

[Michael Duncan]

Anti war left, left, right.

[Josh Holmes]

The activists of the activists left. I think J? Mar at the New York Times wrote a lot about her troubled upbringing and everything else that sort of brought that whole thing to light bit when she ran for Senate in the first place. But then she gets to the Senate and everybody expects immediately the lgbtq every consonant. Afterward, alliance was like, this is our new champion. She's the first outwardly bisexual senator of all time. Like, she is the left's goddess, basically. Attractive, wore some skimpy stuff, and then like, you know, let your imagination roll a little bit. So they were like, sure, we love her. Well, they started not loving her very quickly when it turns out she had an element of principle to her voting record. And she saw a whole bunch of things that Chuck Schumer and the Democratic left were trying to do in the United States Senate and voted against them. You can think of like the whole Biden BBB thing. Like they wanted it as bad as the whole Joe Manchin version of all of that. Their initial version of it was like 10 times worse that she and Joe Manchin like single handedly stopped because they didn't have the votes to do it, so they turned on her.

[Smug]

Is that the one that, like, folks, you may remember this. She showed up in like a schoolgirl outfit and then hit him with the thumbs down on the tenant quote. You remember that one? Was that the vote?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Do we have a.

[Smug]

That made the lefties really lose it?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, she walked up to McConnell, gave him a wink and then hip.

[Smug]

Cause she did it with like a flare. She like did a little dance thing with the thumbs down. Like she was spiking the football. And she did it like in front of all the Dems. Just like in the.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

They were never the same.

[Josh Holmes]

They went nuts. And so they refused to sort of outwardly endorse her for reelection. Once was a champion of the left. As soon as she votes against one of the two of the socialist items that they had in front of them, including the elimination of the filibuster gonzo.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you guys want to know what the New York Times wrote about her before she started voting against what they wanted?

[Smug]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What?

[John Ashbrook]

Kirsten Sinema's style keeps us guessing. Sometimes a dress is just a dress.

[Michael Duncan]

Leaves us all guessing.

[John Ashbrook]

Sometimes it's a lot of guesswork.

[Josh Holmes]

A strategy. It does seem like a strategy.

[John Ashbrook]

They always. They always write it up.

[Michael Duncan]

Can I say something controversial but brave?

[Smug]

Oh, jeez. Yeah, please do.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't think being bisexual is real.

[Josh Holmes]

This is interesting. Okay, go on. Let's get canceled.

[Smug]

Go ahead.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm not trying to be cancelled. I just think you got to choose. Choose one. Be gay, Be straight.

[Josh Holmes]

You can't just welcome all comers.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it's just people who like attention.

[Smug]

I think he's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Really?

[Smug]

I think he's right.

[Josh Holmes]

You can't just embrace.

[Smug]

It's an attention thing.

[Michael Duncan]

I would love to embrace it, but like I. I just. I feel like it's just the attention.

[Josh Holmes]

You feel like it's not a thing.

[Michael Duncan]

I think you just gotta choose at some point.

[Smug]

But he just said he'd love to embrace it. Are you straight?

[Josh Holmes]

I did hear that. Well, he would love to, but you know, unfortunately conscious doesn't allow it. I just don't.

[Smug]

I mean.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's get to the rest of the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Smug]

I said Too much?

[Michael Duncan]

No, I haven't said too much, but here, look, I'm just saying at the end of the day, she picked a man.

[Smug]

That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

But we don't know all of the details.

[Smug]

All we know, is she married to a woman or is she married? No, she's never been married.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I don't know if she's never been married. She may have. Well, I don't have all the detail, but I do know what we do have. A indication on this particular scandal is not of her own making. It is of her security guard who's going through, unfortunately, a very painful divorce that is now all public as a result of former senator Kirsten Sinema. So in the New York Times they say the former senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Democrat turned independent, who served one term before leaving office last year, was accused in federal court this week of conducting an affair with a member of her security team in the Senate. A married father of three. Oh, yeah. And a complaint filed in North Carolina.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Your home state.

[Smug]

You can't allow that kind of thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they're just, just a 40 father of three. How dare they. Yeah, it's just, it's, it's discrimination.

[Smug]

Cinema should be held accountable. That's a bit much.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I feel like it's discrimination.

[Smug]

He's just doing his job.

[Josh Holmes]

She didn't vote.

[Smug]

She's wearing aluminum foil dresses.

[Josh Holmes]

All you libs down in North Carolina, you're.

[Smug]

It's unbelievable trying to hold her. I think we're. I think we're going to. I think we're going to lock her up. We should lock her up.

[Josh Holmes]

The ex wife of Matthew Ammo, who worked for Chris, Ms. Cinema's staff for two years, accused the former senator of seducing him and breaking up their marriage. I get it a little bit.

[Smug]

He's a father of three. The senator did this to him is horrible. Did this to him.

[Michael Duncan]

That's funny. That's way more offensive than me saying bisexuality is not real.

[Josh Holmes]

No, this man is a.

[Smug]

They had a victim. They had a happy marriage.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't think there's any victims in this.

[Josh Holmes]

This man is.

[Smug]

He was forced to do this. He's forced to spend time with her. It's like his job.

[Josh Holmes]

Perhaps his job was at stake. Smug.

[Smug]

That's the thing is like the dynamic of power here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, she accused the truth. She accused the former senator of seducing him and breaking up their marriage. Heather Amell claimed in a suit that Ms. Cinema sent Mr. Ammel sexually suggestive photographs See, See, there were rumors afoot about these.

[John Ashbrook]

Were there? Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

While she was on Capitol Hill that there were things unbelievably never.

[Smug]

Got to a point where I have a wild idea. How about senators just do their job? That's a crazy, radical idea. They're out here texting people nudes.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, wow.

[Smug]

Why don't you just work for the American people, bro?

[Michael Duncan]

Skin tight dresses on national television. She's attention seeking. You're telling me for the first time, like, am I wrong?

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

Am I wrong?

[Josh Holmes]

No. She sent these photographs on signal encrypted.

[Smug]

So it's obvious she's done it deliberate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, she done it deliberate. Encrypted messaging app. Chose him to accompany her on trips to Nashville, Napa Valley into the sphere, an events venue in Las Vegas. Pay for him to enter psychedelic treatment for post traumatic stress disorder and other issues. Encouraged him to bring drugs on work trips so she could guide him through a psychedelic trip.

[Smug]

She's grooming him. This is 100% her doing this, not just to him, but to those three kids and his wife. Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Sounds to me like she's trying to help.

[Smug]

According to what is being said here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

You know, if what's being said here.

[Josh Holmes]

She shows a little bit of compassion for someone.

[Michael Duncan]

Is she a trained medical professional?

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe. You don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

She could have all kinds of cures. Anyway, she showered him with gifts and concert tickets and eventually entered into a sexual relationship with him. It caused him to leave his family. Ms. Ammo seeking. This is where I laughed my ass off on this. Because the New York Times, right? Like, massive story, all this stuff, and like, it was the talk of the town for a week. She's seeking 25 grand.

[Smug]

You got to ask for a lot more, lady.

[Scott Turner]

You got to ask.

[Josh Holmes]

She miss a couple of zeros on that bad boy. She wants 25 grand from cinema. And why did cinema not just fork it over?

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, like, why go through all this? She's like, I want that. Maybe she wants attention, you know?

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know.

[Smug]

My God.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, with 25 grand, you feel like you'd settled something.

[John Ashbrook]

Something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

She's not a person without means. United States center, for crying out loud.

[Michael Duncan]

Anyway, I think she's probably thinking to herself, this makes me sound cool as hell.

[Smug]

Yeah, that's. And what a horrible thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

You know, isn't that a horrible thing, breaking up a family like that? Yeah, that's a horrible thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's terrible.

[Smug]

It is.

[John Ashbrook]

What is?

[Smug]

The bill hader.

[Josh Holmes]

The thing is, that's terrible.

[Smug]

And the worst part is that, like, the focus of the story isn't on how this dude is the victim of this. Like, imagine being assigned to a job. Somebody must be there, and then your boss is giving. Allegedly. Everything I'm saying is allegedly. Okay. Imagine being assigned to a job where you have to be there no matter what. Cause your job is to be next to this person who's trying to give you drugs, trying to get you to cheat, making you take drugs, and being like, I'm gonna join you on this psychedelic trip to Las Vegas. And you have to do it. You have to do it.

[Scott Turner]

You do.

[Michael Duncan]

You have to bring mdma.

[Smug]

It's his job. She's forcing him to do these allegedly horrible things, you know, and the guy's got three young kids at home.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, whatever the case may be, he's.

[Smug]

Just trying to make a living for these kids. And this is what she does to him.

[Josh Holmes]

The allegation includes my absolute favorite of all the judicial lexicon vocabulary words. There are many, you know, and you talk courts and justice. There's all kinds of stuff you don't say in normal life. But this one's my absolute favorite. What she's accusing her of is willful and wanton conduct. That means fucking bad. Wonton means, like, that's tough, tough stuff. You can do the conduct, but if it's wanton conduct, you know, you're off. You're just off the deep end with that. Anyway, after returning from the army, he joined her security staff and all of that. And the suit stated he soon found himself traveling with Miss Cinema on trips, including one to Napa Valley and one to see U2. That was at the Sphere, the one that we talked about.

[Smug]

Sick.

[Josh Holmes]

She also took him as a guest to the Taylor Swift concert. She had great ticks, by the way. I mean, those are tough venues to get at. You two at the Sphere and Taylor Swift, like, for those of you who try to get into, you know how difficult it was to get into that. Well, she took them along, I think a gesture of goodwill. Anyway, Ms. Ammel claimed that on March 2024, event in Phoenix. That's, of course, where she represented in Arizona. Ms. Sinema got handsy, quote, unquote, with Mr. Hamill.

[Smug]

And this is key.

[Josh Holmes]

He later confessed that he did not know how to extricate himself from the situation without offending his boss. Well, of course he confessed all of that. He's getting divorced, and it's not.

[Smug]

But the thing is that for a lot of Guys.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I didn't know how to do it.

[Smug]

That's the thing, is, for a lot of guys, you're like, you know, people in the public are gonna attack you and make fun of you when you try to do the right thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh.

[Smug]

You know, they're like, oh, wow, you're so soft. You couldn't get away from this little woman. And it's like, bro, he works for her. He has to be there. He's literally the bodyguard. He's gotta be near the body.

[Josh Holmes]

So what we're doing right here is like a secondhand assault.

[Smug]

I think this guy's a. Yeah. The power dynamic is out of control. Like, he's just trying to do a job. He's got kids at home. He's trying to make a living for them. And now this lady's getting handsy with him, taking him to concerts and giving him drugs. Allegedly. This is wild. I feel so bad for this dude.

[Josh Holmes]

This is like, Smug is doing like a reverse. Me too.

[Michael Duncan]

It's very funny.

[Smug]

But that's the thing is, like, it's not a reverse. He's the victim. What could he say?

[Josh Holmes]

That's the thing is, I couldn't possibly do anything.

[Smug]

It's like, you know, for so long how women have been like, every guy's a predator. You know, every dude is trash. All men are trash. And we've told boys in this country that, like, you're a predator, you're a bad guy. You know, when they're in grade school.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

And next thing you know, meanwhile, this is what's actually been happening. We gotta check women on power trips, running amok, breaking up families.

[Josh Holmes]

Willy Nilly rolls up in a tinfoil dress. And next thing you know, time to.

[Smug]

Go to Taylor Swift and take some drugs.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's take drugs.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, just to iron in my point from earlier, Taylor Swift concert, U2 concert wasn't Indigo Girls, you know, wasn't Lady Gaga.

[Smug]

Dude, this is good investment.

[Josh Holmes]

I do what you're doing.

[Michael Duncan]

Pick a leg. Be gay, be straight. Well, maybe it's like, I think bisexual sometimes.

[Josh Holmes]

Or maybe it's like a Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday rotation. You don't know.

[Michael Duncan]

Have you ever heard the Dave Chappelle bit about the LGBT stuff? And they're all.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Driving and all that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So that's.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

The derivation.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, the bees, you know, they get all the attention.

[Josh Holmes]

They do. Well, I mean, for obvious reasons, they take on the rest of the car. Anyway, Ammo claimed that ultimately she discovered a romantic and lascivious relationship and messages that Miss Cinema was sending to Mr. Ammel one message, including a picture of Miss Cinema wearing nothing but a towel, the suit claimed, which I feel like if we're going to do this in public when we still were dealing with a towel, I just felt let down by that.

[Smug]

Like, it's inappropriate for this woman to do this to her employee, and he's got a young family at home.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm just saying, if you're gonna send.

[John Ashbrook]

A pic, send a pic.

[Josh Holmes]

I will tell you, be a senator for crime.

[John Ashbrook]

I will tell you, be a senator.

[Smug]

Just where's the leadership?

[John Ashbrook]

For the record, and I don't know if you guys remember this before the record, even the New York Times raised questions about her background and how truthful stories may have been.

[Josh Holmes]

This was the J Mart thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes. At the time when she first ran for Senate. Yeah. Even the New York Times.

[Smug]

What, that this was the thing?

[Josh Holmes]

No, they didn't know how much of the LGBTQ thing is, like, a thing.

[John Ashbrook]

And she had these long stories that she was.

[Smug]

I like the way that she's, like, filibustering this dude with a towel. Well, I think this is a known thing, you know, she just likes the attention.

[Josh Holmes]

She's a real supporter of the filibust, has been, like, just critical, kind of a bedrock. Anyway, Ms. Also encouraged him to bring MDMA, and that's where this thing kind of takes a little bit of a darker turn. She said that she could help guide him through a psychedelic experience. According to the suit, the two also exchanged messages discussing. Discussing missionary style sex, which miss Cinema deemed to be boring.

[Smug]

She's sending these kind of messages to the employee. He's just trying to live. He's just trying to live. And then the poor wife who has to discover this stuff. I mean, if all of this is true, how are you only asking for 25 grand? You gotta go for everything.

[Josh Holmes]

I will also say to your, this.

[Smug]

Poor guy's probably losing his house. You might as well just go for broke, lady. Snatch it all up.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is the portion where I actually think that you have merit in your argument. Smug. Like, not up until now did I see him as a victim. But if they're exchanging messages and what he is proffering on a sexting deal is missionary style sex with cinema. He hoped that that was gonna do the trick, I guess.

[Michael Duncan]

What exactly was she guiding him through? Yeah, it makes you wonder.

[Josh Holmes]

He seems a little innocent. He's like, oh, I'd love to do the missionary sex thing. And she's like, boring. Bring the drugs.

[NetChoice Representative]

Bring the drugs.

[John Ashbrook]

I'll guide you.

[Smug]

Anyway, Miss Alice, wonderful take.

[Josh Holmes]

Told his wife he wanted a divorce, so he initiated all of this, but struggling to admit he was engaged in an affair. According to the suit, in 2024, Ms. Sinema announced that she would not seek reelection. Since then, Sinema has been involved in psychedelic science industry. She's an expert in the field.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, okay.

[Josh Holmes]

And discussed undergoing ibogaine treatment with the aim of preventing dementia. I don't know what that has anything to do with it, but the New York Times threw that in at the end to suggest that perhaps she has some kind of a experience with them.

[Smug]

Man, the Times is mad. They will not forget. Yeah, they're coming back.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like. And she's a little too interested.

[Michael Duncan]

No, not as mad as our wives for this segment.

[Smug]

Boring. I love that.

[Josh Holmes]

That's my favorite, actually. Smug. The New York Times turned me around to your position.

[Smug]

I had. I had the right take. The young family ammo was a babe.

[Josh Holmes]

In the woods and look what happened. Whole Kirsten cinema. Anyway, leads us to our question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your answers. I suspect you're gonna have a lot of responses to this particular one. Which is which politicians seems like the most fun to party with. Think about it.

[Smug]

That's a good question.

[Josh Holmes]

Open your mind to that. It's not like, oh, this guy's fun to have. You know, use all the inputs that you can think of and come up with an answer to all of that. And while you do take a ZBiotics, because if you're like us, when you discuss these sort of things, you're gonna need a cocktail. And when you do, you have a ZBIOTICS beforehand, because it is a scientific fact that these things help out an awful lot, don't they, Smug?

[Smug]

They do. So for folks, if you have not heard before, Zebiotics is what you're supposed to drink before you have your drink, before you have a night out, before you go have a night on the town, before you have some fun. You have a ZBiotics. Because if you have a ZBiotics before you begin drinking, your next morning's gonna be great. Because it's not dehydration which causes you to feel terrible the next day. It's actually these chemicals that are broken down from when your gut is breaking down the alcohol. Well, zebiotics knocks all that right out.

[NetChoice Representative]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's developed by PhD scientists.

[Josh Holmes]

It is.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, so you can trust the science.

[Josh Holmes]

It's real science.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and if you don't trust the science, you can trust us who are avid users.

[Josh Holmes]

I had my absolute first recrimination on the Z Bionics front. Oh. But I have to contextualize it. Somebody was like, I'm not sure about the zbiotics. Like, I can barely get out of bed. I personally witnessed firsthand this person drinking a gallon and a half of bourbon. I was like, it's not fucking magic.

[Smug]

You gotta have a little self control over some of it. Maybe in the hospital they told you you should have stopped.

[Josh Holmes]

So if you go to zebionics.com ruthless to learn more, you get 15% off your first order when you use Ruthless at the checkout. Zebiotics is backed by a 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, they refund your money, no questions asked. Go to zbiotics.com ruthless and use the code ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. All right, you guys ready for the last question of the day?

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

So on Thursday, we talked a lot about the Democratic dynamic of presenting voters with one situation and doing something entirely different.

[Smug]

Running as a moderate and then governing as a left wing lunatic.

[Josh Holmes]

Hello, lunatic. And so the question of the day is, what's the best way to help voters understand that there's no such thing as a moderate Democrat? Something that I think, and I think collectively we all think is the key to midterm success here in a lot of ways to do that, we always start with a voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Friend, before I get to comment number one, can I ask you to turn my headphones down just a little bit because I think you may have bumped the button and now I can't hear you.

[Josh Holmes]

I got so excited by that last segment that I think my leg may have inadvertently hit.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, your leg.

[Smug]

Okay, comment number one.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment.

[John Ashbrook]

Comment number one.

[Smug]

Oh, that old thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, apologies.

[John Ashbrook]

First one's from Eric Dinkazi. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Eric writes, as much as I would like to come up with a pithy and humorous response, what this comes down to is a countering the message of the Dems and the msm. They're continuing to flood the zone with misinformation and out right lies. Republicans have to grow a backbone and shout out the truth of all the good that is being accomplished. Also continuously pointing out the actual actions of the left as opposed to their rhetoric.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you, Eric.

[Smug]

Perfect.

[Josh Holmes]

That is exactly right. I totally agree with all of that. Really, really. Well Said all right. Dunks runks.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment 2. This is from Nancy. Nancy writes this one is nearly impossible. Showing my reasonable lib friends and family members examples goes nowhere because they don't trust my source. Fox News, conservative websites, et cetera and their sources continually lie or cover for the Dems.

[Smug]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

They are going to have to experience it personally at this point. I think it's rich that a constant complaint has always been about Trump's quote, mean tweets and how he has coarsened the culture. But are they not bothered by the behavior of the lunatic lefties screaming profanities even in a church?

[Smug]

That's it.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh Nancy, Nancy, God bless. Our listeners are the best.

[Michael Duncan]

Very right. I would say like one thing we had going for us in 2024 is Kamala Harris ran for president in 2020. So even if the media was in this full on cover up of who she was, remember brat summer and all of that sort of stuff, we still had her on camera many instances to camera answering questions and giving the most far left wing gobbledygook you could imagine. And so you know, sometimes it can be tough, especially when you get to a congressional race or like some of these local races of like having that.

[Smug]

Video permeating the information.

[Michael Duncan]

But whenever I just give this as advice to people like if you're, if you're talking to a lib, you know, family member or friend, if you can ever primary source this out of the mouth of the Democrat, do that, you know, because they want to use a Fox News or whoever to just dismiss the allegation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

But if you can show them the video proof, that's a whole nother thing as we learned in 2024.

[Josh Holmes]

Very well said, Michael. A professional through and through.

[Smug]

Don't try smuggles comment threes from young at heart and young at heart writes make an RNC campaign on quote no such thing as a moderate Democrat. T shirts, hats, coffee cups, et cetera, make them any Democrat, explain how they think they are moderate, then hit them with the truth. Gets the conversation started. I love that.

[Josh Holmes]

I love that great stuff.

[Smug]

There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. That's it. We need a new submerge. Can you get your hands ready? Let's do it. Get the thimbles out.

[Michael Duncan]

I just don't want to get carpal tunnel.

[Smug]

Sorry. I just want to save the country. Yes sir.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you know, we appreciate the country and everything. Maybe more than your fingertips.

[NetChoice Representative]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Not as much as Donald Trump. Cuz I'm hearing that chief of Staff Susie Wiles and some media reports recently said that Donald Trump is gonna treat this midterm like he's on the ballot in 2024. So he's gonna be out there and hopefully he's on a lot of these messages. Cuz I think that's the sort of like, united front we need in order to get a lot of these messages out there to be electoral 100%.

[Josh Holmes]

Tune in Tuesday. Cause I think we're gonna put a finer point on all and get you ready for what is going to be an incredible election year in a lot of different ways. But when we come back, we're going to get some variety. We got a lot to choose from. You're going to love every second of it right after this.

[John Ashbrook]

20 days. One historic move and an unbelievable journey. Melania from Amazon MGM Studios captures the one of a kind transition into the White House. Showcasing the planning, pressure and personal moments that come with stepping into the role of the first lady for a second time. From logistical complexities to decisions made behind closed doors, the film brings you closer to Mrs. Trump and her family as they return to the nation's capital, see what history looks like before the doors officially open. Melania arrives in theaters exclusively on January 30, 2026.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, fellas, you ready for a little variety?

[Smug]

Always.

[Josh Holmes]

So, like, one of the things that we are amused by the most is people who are sort of politically tangential, like, they've built followings over a moment in time, they know nothing, but they have to post content because that's like either the way they make a living or it's like their relevance. And one showed up. I think, Duncan, you may have flagged this initially.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's a misuse of the Internet.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a misuse of the Internet. And Lin Wood, you may recall Lin Wood, he was a very famous, very successful attorney back in his day. But in the 2020 context, of course, he was the, I would say not maybe the chief, but one of the chief individuals most responsible for invalidating the claims that Trump made about the election circumstances. Right. Everybody had reason to believe that there were a whole bunch of anomalies that happened. But the claims that this guy made were so bad that ultimately his message to voters in a Georgia runoff in 2020 was, don't vote because it won't count anyway. And he had a huge following at that point. And of course, Republican voters didn't vote and they lost two Senate seats. And the next thing we know, we get socialism on our doorstep for the next four years. As a result of it. So this guy's like, not my favorite, but he showed up this week in a hilarious deal dunks. You want to set the table on that?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he posted on Twitter. Well, I mean, I don't know how else to describe it, but like an AI thirst trap. Can we put that graphic up?

[John Ashbrook]

Oh my goodness.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Smug]

Wait, this is what you're bringing you?

[John Ashbrook]

Sure it was the misuse of the Internet that caught your eye there.

[Smug]

Right, son?

[Josh Holmes]

First thing you observed.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, helpfully, our production team has cropped out. But he posted this on X, a screenshot from Instagram with like his full screen, you know, so like with his.

[Josh Holmes]

Battery level and all that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's like in addition to posting it on X, he like, it was clearly not an on purpose tweet, you know, like he was saving the photo or something. Who knows?

[Smug]

Oh man.

[Michael Duncan]

But like this is an account and I hope this is a public service announcement to. You know, we've talked about this with people being tricked by AI, particularly older people.

[Smug]

Yeah, is.

[Michael Duncan]

I have no doubt. You know, I mean, we don't know for sure that he thinks that this is a real photo, but this is just one of those AI political accounts that just puts a very busty broad in photos with people in the maga movement.

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

People who are noticeable, recognizable engagement farming.

[Michael Duncan]

Both on recognizable people and. Yeah, busty broads.

[Josh Holmes]

Busty broads. So in this case, he has the press secretary for the White House of the United States of America standing next to an AI generated, shall we say, well equipped AI.

[Smug]

Can I say my theory on this? That I have no ground whatsoever.

[Michael Duncan]

Perfect. Like most of your theory.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly. No, this is exactly stays.

[Smug]

My theory is he owns that Instagram account. What's it called? It's like patriot 1776 or something like that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that post on patriot 77.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, he set it up as a bit.

[Smug]

That's nas, I bet. For just a click monetizing. Yeah, as a click machine. Because I went through his history and he's posted a bunch of photos with that account, with that AI generated like large chested woman. Like, like you said, with a bunch.

[Michael Duncan]

I feel like Razor here, maybe he's just horny.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what? But, but that's an interesting theory.

[Michael Duncan]

But he didn't post a link to the Instagram. It was just discreet.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just that.

[Smug]

But he's doing it repeatedly and he's forming engagement off of it. And the best is like there's people arguing. You think Grok is 3D chess.

[Scott Turner]

That is hilarious.

[Smug]

So people were replying to that, like, grok, is this real? And then they're like, grok is half the time just crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, there was the one of that same chesty woman Next to Ron DeSantis. And then someone's like, grok, who's the woman in this photo? The, like, fake AI lady. And it's like, oh, that's Casey DeSantis. Ron DeSantis. It's like, Grok. What are you talking about? It's not his wife. And he's like, Grok's like, upon further inspection, this seems to be an AI generated woman. And then the reply from that guy is like, you say that about any woman who's got jugs, right? The dude's pissed off. But, like, like Duncan said is, I think this is an important thing, is you have to discuss this, because you should not shame older people who don't know if this is real or not. Like, I'm not trying to put him on the spot, but that's what he's doing. Aphra constantly doesn't know if anything is real.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. I always wonder whether what smug tweets was written by him or by AI.

[Michael Duncan]

Usually it's AI.

[Smug]

No. So, like, oftentimes he'll text us with some photo, and it'll be like a dinosaur on a skateboard. Guys, is this real? And. And you can't be mean to him about it because you don't want to shame people for asking that question.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you don't want to intimidate them out of further use of the Internet.

[Smug]

Especially for older people, because, I mean, look, he's an older guy. He might not be as sharp as he used to be, but you don't want to be mean to people like that and shame them into, like, making them feel bad for asking a question, you know, especially if they're your friend, very thoughtful. So, like, that's a lesson. That's a takeaway from this is like, if there's an older person who doesn't know if something's real or not, don't be mean to them about it. But just, like, try to help them out.

[Josh Holmes]

Simply inform them there's a lot out.

[John Ashbrook]

There, and you never know.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay. You never know. It's always best to investigate.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I love Grock. Is this real?

[Nakima Levy Armstrong]

Always.

[John Ashbrook]

You got to know.

[Smug]

It's like a skateboarding raptor. He's like, guys, it's crazy. You can make fun. We brought him back and they skateboarded.

[John Ashbrook]

You can make fun. But thank God. Thank God that Elon Musk invented Grok. And that's the only way that you can know what smug is tweeting, whether it's AI or whether it's something that he actually wrote. If Elon hadn't invented Grok, If Elon hadn't invented Twitter, we would have. No smug.

[Smug]

Yeah. It was a great invention. It's a great invention.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, moving on. We've offended everyone over the age of 65. So we've been a big whale podcast, talked a lot about renewable resource.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Ashbrook has talked a lot about the best way to take out a whale.

[John Ashbrook]

We all know. Plug the blowhole.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. You gotta plug the blowhole. That's how you get it done. Well, a couple of guys, I don't know if they plugged the blowhole or they stumbled upon somebody who had previously plugged the blowhole, but either way, the whale didn't make it. It's an interesting clip. Clip for. These are two cats on a fishing. Whoa. Who are boarding a dead whale that's floating in the ocean.

[Smug]

This is so cool.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're getting on the whale.

[Smug]

This is so awesome.

[Josh Holmes]

They're taking pictures on top of the dead whale. And look, they kind of drive away a little bit.

[Smug]

This is such a tremendous win. Like, talk about having a good time with the fellas. You're on a fishing trip, and then you got the dead whale boat.

[Josh Holmes]

You're like, let's get on that thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So they're riding. They're riding a whale, which, you know, look, I don't know if you guys are followers of this kind of thing, but this is somewhat of a dangerous situation.

[Michael Duncan]

Very dangerous.

[Smug]

It's not dangerous. It's not dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

No, it's very dangerous. Because once you get beyond the rigor mortis of the situation.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Necrosis starts to.

[Smug]

And it only deteriorates on land. No water. They don't blow up.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like, maybe if you put your full body weight on it, you might sink right into that wind.

[Smug]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a carcass.

[Josh Holmes]

And if you do, it can blow up.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

These things are like. They're like floating a bomb.

[Smug]

This is. This is all the environmentalist nonsense.

[Michael Duncan]

Have you not seen environmentalist nonsense?

[Smug]

It's not true. So here's what you got to do is, number one, just like global war. After you take your. Your photo with your buddy, I would jump on that thing alone with, like, the. Get your. Get your rod and stick a hook in that thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

So no one can ever try showing you a photo of being like, oh, look at this marlin I caught. Be like, oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You're like, oh, you mean whale.

[Smug]

Here, amigo.

[John Ashbrook]

Stick a hook in the mouth like you caught it.

[Smug]

You want to talk about your little marlin?

[Josh Holmes]

Come across like just reeling Moby Dick on a walleye rod.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, you gotta have the camera in panoramic mode for something like that.

[Smug]

But you caught 100 pound fish, dude. This is measured in tons.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but you think, like, I couldn't tell whether the texture was a spongy, like a trampoline, like jump on the thing. Yeah, but then it can get dangerous.

[Smug]

Ah, it's safe. 100%.

[Josh Holmes]

I think it could explode.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, but if you get inside, you get to harvest that sweet, sweet ambergris.

[Josh Holmes]

You fuel a nation.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, you could. It's a renewable resource, as we all know. And it would be an igfa. I'll tackle world record.

[Smug]

Look at that.

[Josh Holmes]

Without tackle.

[John Ashbrook]

Without a doubt.

[Josh Holmes]

Stick the walleye hook. Get a jig in the eye of that thing.

[John Ashbrook]

But, you know, they should have towed it back with them and they should have stuffed it and they should have put it under plexiglass and in their front yard so everybody could see the trophy they had.

[Michael Duncan]

What do you think it costs to stuff a blue whale?

[Josh Holmes]

I bet that's a hundred.

[Smug]

That's not a blue whale.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, whatever.

[Smug]

It's a whale.

[Josh Holmes]

What kind of whale?

[Smug]

It's a whale.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it a sperm whale?

[Smug]

So in New York in the Natural Science Museum, they have a whale up there. So it's doable. This is doable. You could con your local museum into paying for it. You know, be like, the plaque has to say I caught it. But like, you guys can have it because, I mean, who's gonna put. You can't fit that thing in your yard.

[John Ashbrook]

No, you put it in your front yard, it covers your house.

[Smug]

I mean, I don't think anyone salutes you got a manor like the Ashbrooks. Yeah, we're just throwing a whale out on the front lawn.

[John Ashbrook]

Front yard, you know, covers the entire house.

[Josh Holmes]

The IGCA world record, all tackle holder for the sperm whale. Comfortably.

[Smug]

Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

Congratulations.

[John Ashbrook]

My bad.

[Smug]

I mean, what a win for those two.

[Josh Holmes]

What a win. They did a good sense of humor and we appreciate that here on the Ruthless Variety program. We appreciate you for tuning in. All week long, I think we've had a lot of fun, covered a lot of news, a lot of stuff going on this week. So thanks for Joining all of us, we've got a HUD secretary. Oh boy. You're gonna love this because you not only get a little update on a hot topic, which is housing in this country, you'll also get some NFL tips. You're gonna want to tune in.

[John Ashbrook]

We're very lucky today on the Ruthless podcast to welcome the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Sir, it is so great to be with you. Thanks a lot for being on the show.

[Scott Turner]

Thank you, John. I'm happy to be here here, sir. Thanks for having me.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Well, you've been on the job for about a year and my guess is there's been an awful lot of cleanup to be done on messes that Joe Biden and his administration created. I wonder if you could talk through some of, some of what you've seen and cleaned up over the last year.

[Scott Turner]

For sure. Well, let me start in the beginning. When we first came into hud, you know, our mindset was let's take inventory of every program that we have at HUD to make sure that one would be a mission minded. Do the programs that we have, do they help us to carry out the mission that we've been called to serve, which is really serving the most vulnerable people in our country as it pertains to housing, homelessness and disaster recovery. And so as we were taking inventory, I mean, very quickly in our tenure, we found there was $1.9 billion of misplaced funds. You know, how do you misplace almost $2 billion? And so we can took the appropriate actions and deobligated those funds and returned them back to the treasury for discretionary use of the American people. We found $4 million in DEI contracts. And so we ended those contracts immediately. You know, contracts like mindfulness, that has nothing to do with housing and disaster and homelessness. And so we ended DEI at HUD. When you look at illegal immigration, you know, over 12 million people came across or borders unchecked, unvetted during the Biden administration. And that really put a strain on housing affordability. It put a strain on rental demand. We saw data and report that said man, in America today, most of the housing rental demand in our country has gone up because of illegal immigration. In New York and California, 100% of the increase in rental demand is because of illegal immigration. 59%, John. Of illegal immigrant families, 59% use one or more of our welfare programs in our country, costing us over $40 billion a year. And so obviously, with the President and Secretary Noem and Mr. Holdman attacking and securing our border has been of utmost priority. Because we know, man, when you have illegal immigration to that status, not only does it squeeze our housing supply and increased cost, but there's a lot of fraud, there's a lot of waste, there's a lot of abuse. As you see now going in Minnesota. That's ground zero. And for HUD, we found $84 million in improper payments in assistance just in Minnesota alone, and 500 dead people getting housing vouchers, money going to tenants that aren't even living. And so that's a gross misuse of American taxpayer dollars. And our agency finance report, which just came out a couple of weeks ago, about $5 billion in error payments. Five billion. That's American taxpayer money going in this country. 200,000 ineligible recipients, including 30,000 dead people. And so you talk about waste and you talk about fraud. This is real. And if you hear, you hear me saying nothing about dead Democrat or Republican, this is taxpayer money. $5 billion of hard work and taxpayer money in waste and fraud and abuse. And so we're being very intentional about uncovering that and holding people accountable that are fraud of the American people.

[John Ashbrook]

I believe it. I believe it. And you mentioned the case in Minnesota. I know you're getting to the bottom of that. What, what happens when you find that money? You find that fraud? Is the government able to, to collect that back? I mean, you mentioned $84 million. Does that come back to the taxpayer?

[Scott Turner]

Yes, sir, but that's the goal. You know, obviously, you know, once it is secured and known that it is indeed fraud, then we have measures to take to hold people accountable that are fraud. And we'll use every extent of the law to make sure we do that and in hopes to claw back that money and put it back to good use for the American people. And so, yes, sir, there are steps that we can take, but indeed, people will be held accountable.

[John Ashbrook]

So are you seeing similar situations in other cities besides Minnesota? You mentioned billions of dollars across the country on a macro level. But I mean, in individual cities, are you seeing evidence of similar situations that we're seeing in Minnesota?

[Scott Turner]

Yes, sir. So we did launch an investigation in Minnesota. We have boots on the ground there, about $150 million there and used in housing assistance. And so we have people there to make sure that those monies are being used appropriately because, again, it's stewardship of American taxpayer dollars. Also in Boston, we launched a secretary of investigation in Boston because Boston was criminalizing, if you will, or weaponizing the Fair Housing Act. They made it known that in their Every level of government in their city that they would use racial equity to preference and prioritize people of color, indigenous people. When it comes to housing, when it comes to receiving loans from lenders, that is literally a violation of the Fair Housing act of which I myself hud. Our job is to uphold and enforce the Fair Housing Act. And that's just two cities that I'm bringing so far, but I believe there's more.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, you mentioned housing and outcome. Expensive. It is in the case of Boston. You know, in some cities it's just way, way through the roof. I mean, it's unachievable for some, some families and they're looking for relief. And I know that you and the President have been talking about a few things that, that you can do, like the 50 year mortgage, like maybe dipping into a 401ks or maybe, you know, stopping some of these institutional investors from buying up large tracts of single family homes. I wonder, what does that stuff can you do administratively? And how much do you need Congress to step up and do their part here too?

[Scott Turner]

That's a good question. As you said, there's a myriad of ideas that are going on and this is of utmost priority for the President, as you know, it's utmost priority for myself, for other leaders in the administration. We have meetings, we talk about it and you know, we're about execution. And you've alluded to some of the announcements that the President has made as it pertains to institutional investors from our standpoint, taking down burdensome regulations from the federal level, restoring local control back to localities so that they too can unleash innovativeness and build it in their said cities. Regulatory environment is a huge issue when it comes to housing affordability and home building and development. And obviously that's a local, more so a local issue. And so for myself, I've been encouraging, firmly encouraging localities to take a look at their regulatory environment so that we can build more homes. We need about 7 million housing units in our country. Single family, multifamily manufactured housing plays a big role here. About 22 million Americans live in manufactured housing. And I'm also excited about Opportunity, Opportunity Zones because Opportunity Zones give us that platform and give us the ability to build affordable housing in our country. The last Trump administration, you know, my job was to lead the Opportunity Zone initiative and There was about $90 billion of private money invested in Opportunity Zones. About 300,000 new housing units came online and those mostly were homeowners with our values inside of Opportunity Zones, zones were rising. And as you Know now opportunity zones have been made permanent. So that's another tool in our toolbox as it pertains to housing affordability.

[John Ashbrook]

So do you think any of those, any of those reforms could get done this calendar year?

[Scott Turner]

Yes, sir. Well, obviously, opportunity zones are a part of the one big beautiful bill.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

So those are now in statute, and they will. They have been made permanent. Every 10 years, governors will choose new census tracts to be certified by the treasury to become new opportunity zone. So that's already done. Obviously, in these other issues, you oftentimes need legislative help. But again, the president is the master of negotiating, you know, with Congress and others. And so we'll see in the days ahead, you know, the, the progress of that. But yes, I do think that we can get it done, but we have to have everybody working together.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Well, speaking of everybody working together, you are serving in a cabinet with a bunch of guys who like to prove their athletic prowess. I mean, RFK is doing pull ups to show that he could be an athlete, too. Nobody sees you doing pull ups because everybody already knows. There's one man serving in this cabinet who is a real athlete and who could probably beat them all in a race. Probably do more push ups and more pull ups than any of them. And he doesn't need to prove it because they all know. They all know. And that's because you have a history and a track record proving your athletic prowess. You were in the NFL for nine years. Accomplished track athlete in college, accomplished football player in college. And you know, super bowl is right around the corner. And I'm just wondering if you have a prediction on who's going to win the AFC and NFC championship games this weekend.

[Scott Turner]

Well, thank you for that. Thank you for your kindness. You know, I did do the push up, the Bobby and.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, you did.

[Scott Turner]

Okay. Who would. Oh, Bobby and Pete. Push up and pull up challenge.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

And Bobby said that I won, so I'll take it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

But yet he is very athletic and so are others in that cabinet, including some of our ladies.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

You know, we all got our gifts.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

But you know, I would love for my Broncos to beat the Patriots.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

In the AFC championship game.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

You know, Bo Nicks went down, but I'm believing in stead of my believing in him.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

They have a tremendous defense, so I would love to see the Broncos go to the super bowl from the other side. You know, I think it's up in the air, but I do believe this year that whoever goes to the super bowl, that it's going to Be a tremendous game. I think the right people in the playoffs.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Well, I mean, you can't argue with the Bronco defense. It might be the best defense in the league.

[Scott Turner]

They are very.

[John Ashbrook]

So good. Yeah. And I mean, it means a lot for you to say that because of course, you played DB in the league for nine years, like we were saying. And at one point you spent a little time with the Chargers.

[Scott Turner]

Yes, sir.

[John Ashbrook]

And I think that's. Were you with the Chargers when you got a pick six on Gus Farad?

[Scott Turner]

Yes, sir. Okay, so it was 2000, the year 2000. Remember Y2K?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

And it was the Chargers versus the Broncos. I was playing for the Chargers and we went to Mile High Stadium and it was like third and six or third and, and five, I can't remember. Third is short. And they came out in this certain formation. And I remember from my film study this formation that the receiver that I was on, which was a slot receiver, he kind of ran like a 5 yard in or a 5 yard slant that we call it. Well, lo and behold, he did. And I scooted in just a little bit before him and Gus Farat threw the ball to me and I took it back for a touchdown, I think like 75 yards. And so I'm very endearing to Gus Farrant. He gave me a great gift during Y2K.

[John Ashbrook]

And he was a teammate of yours at one time? He was.

[Scott Turner]

We played together at the Redskins prior to that.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, okay. So you've seen a lot of change in the league. Probably in your time in the league you saw change. But I wonder if you could talk about how is it different today from when you were playing, you know, 20 years ago?

[Scott Turner]

That's a great question. Several ways. One, the game is a lot more efficient to. The rules have changed from a safety and a health and safety perspective. So guys really are playing longer on average. I think the average is still between three and four years, but generally guys are playing longer. Now. Practices look a lot different. We used to have four padded practices, you know, every single week. Now in the NFL, you can only have 11 full padded practices for the entire season.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, wow.

[Scott Turner]

And so we used to have training camp for six weeks. Now training camp is nothing. The preseason game shrunk by one. So now it's three preseason games. Now they do have one more regular season game, but they also make more money, if you will. So the money aspect in the league today is far different. When I first came into the NFL, the rookie minimum was like $119,000, which in America That's a lot of money. Money. But here you are 30 years later, the rookie minimum is 850,000, you know, so even the. The compensation is different. The rules are different. Health and safety is different. The equipment today that they have, today is different. These guys have chefs, they have hyperbaric chambers, they have. The nutrition is so different. But I think we were a lot tougher. Haven't said all that.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't think we. There's a single veteran of the NFL that would argue with that. No, indeed.

[Scott Turner]

No, we were a lot tougher.

[John Ashbrook]

But it's still a great product. I mean, you look at every professional sport. I love basketball. I love baseball. I love hockey. I love football. I think the NFL puts on the best product in professional sports. They've got something special. And the way they've been able to keep it together all these years and make it better and better every single year, it's amazing.

[Scott Turner]

It is, is. It is. It's a machine. My dear brother, Troy Vincent, who's the head of football operations, he does a tremendous job, him and his team and the commissioner, you know, they've been dedicated to putting on a good product, if you will. I hate to use that word, you know, but it's sports and entertainment.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

But we also have a bunch of dedicated kids, young men in the NFL that practice and play various very, very hard and take the game very seriously. So I'm grateful for that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

There's always improvements to be made to every business.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

Which, you know, I hope to help them, you know, in the days that I have helped them, you know, through the years.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Scott Turner]

But right now, you know, I'm serving my country.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, you are. Which is great. Which is great. We're really, really happy you're doing the job. You're doing. It's very important job, and appreciate you putting in so much time on our behalf.

[Scott Turner]

Absolutely. Thank you, John.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, thank you very much.

[Scott Turner]

All right, brother.

[John Ashbrook]

Scott Turner, just an incredible guy. Obviously getting to the bottom of a tremendous amount of fraud in our system all across the country. As he said, it's not just in Minneapolis. It is in cities all over the place. And they're just finding it and finding it, and it's billions of dollars. But how about all of the things he was saying about the NFL, the changes in the league over the years from the time he was playing, and a lot of optimism for your Denver Broncos this weekend. Smug.

[Smug]

Yeah. I mean, it's going to be the best part of the weekend. I think we got a great shot. We got a great team. I think we do. I think we do.

[Josh Holmes]

Interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, listen, great defense.

[Smug]

I mean, everyone would feel better if Bo Nix was there. But like Duncan said, the defense is just tremendous.

[Josh Holmes]

Do we feel better or worse? As a program, if Smug's team wins and gets to the super bowl, isn't that telling?

[Michael Duncan]

I have no choice.

[Smug]

Think about that.

[Michael Duncan]

I have no choice because as a Colts fan, I cannot root for the Patriots.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I find it hard to, you know, so.

[Smug]

But it's a very Minnesota thing. They just love miserable. That's why the state's falling apart. Listen to that. He's like, do I want my friend to feel good?

[Josh Holmes]

Real agony, guys. That's how you know it's real. Yeah, that's how you know it's real. Well, listen, thanks so much for joining us. It's been a hell of a week with that. Fellas. I think we did it.

[Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Secretary Turner and thank you to the Minions. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that. Subscribe because it's more fun in video. So I'm. Until next time, Minions, Keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.