Biden’s Embarrassing Return, Trump Dominates + MoH Recipient Dakota Meyer Joins the Progrum

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Biden’s Embarrassing Return, Trump Dominates + MoH Recipient Dakota Meyer Joins the Progrum
Date: June 16, 2026
Hosts: Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug, John Ashbrook (Josh Holmes out)
Special Guest: Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient

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Episode Overview

This "Ruthless Variety Progrum" episode offers a lively and irreverent take on recent political headlines, highlighting Donald Trump's high-profile week, the aftermath of a major new Iran deal, and Joe Biden's uncertain post-presidency. The centerpiece is a compelling, raw interview with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, whose account of service and perspective on life after war anchors the show in powerful realism. The hosts balance humor and analysis as they poke fun at both left and right, with particular attention to Biden's "embarrassing" efforts to stay relevant, liberal media missteps, and contrasts in American cultural programming.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Donald Trump’s “Unbelievable Weekend”

Main Points:

• Trump announced a peace deal with Iran, celebrated his birthday, and hosted UFC fights on the White House lawn (00:00, 02:23).
• The Iran peace deal is characterized as a major foreign policy milestone; hosts emphasize Iran’s apparent capitulation on nuclear materials and proxies (00:19, 04:40, 07:29).
• Market reactions: Crude oil prices dropped over 25% in the past month, which the hosts frame as a significant economic win for Trump in an election year (05:29).
• Trump’s work ethic praised: “Most people when it’s their birthday ... take a beat… Not Trump. He’s cutting the deal.” (06:16, John Ashbrook)

Notable Quotes:

• “The guy who has your job has UFC on his yard in the White House for his birthday.” (00:46, 15:52, Michael Duncan)
• “You saw the market reaction yesterday. The market absolutely loved the thought of peace.” (06:16, John Ashbrook)

Timestamps:

• Iran Peace Deal & Impact: 00:00–08:31
• UFC at the White House & Event Recap: 02:47–04:40

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2. Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency: Struggles and Embarrassment

Main Points:

• Biden allegedly attempts to reintroduce himself to Democratic activists, traveling to low-profile events and struggling to raise funds for his presidential library (09:05–16:27).
• Hosts, reading from New York Magazine, lampoon Biden’s public appearances, odd moments (e.g., kissing a woman who was not his wife), and Democratic fatigue with the Biden family.
• Financial woes: Speculation that the Bidens’ financial mismanagement is the motivation for post-presidency appearances and book releases. (14:07)
• Comparison to Trump: Emphasized repeatedly for comedic effect (15:52, 16:27).

Notable Quotes:

• “At a recent event, I witnessed him kissing a woman who wasn’t his wife.” (09:05, Comfortably Smug referencing NY Magazine)
• “They don't want to remind Americans of the time that they tried to deceive voters into thinking that Joe Biden was fit for office.” (12:33, Comfortably Smug)
• “When I told one former administration official that I was planning to write a book about Biden, they offered a dry reply: ‘An obituary.’” (12:54, Michael Duncan quoting NY Mag)
• “They need the money. Like, Hunter Biden has come out and said that ... he's pretty much bankrupt.” (14:31, Comfortably Smug)
• “This is going to end up with Joe Biden like the Delaware Public Library / Joe Biden presidential [wing].” (16:04, Comfortably Smug)

Timestamps:

• Biden’s Events and Reception: 09:05–17:03
• Biden Library Woes: 15:09–16:32

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3. Media Critique & Left-Wing Responses

Main Points:

• Hakeem Jeffries' failed attempt to score points on “Good Day New York,” confronted by host Rosanna Scotto and caught off guard by tough questions (20:06–21:21).
• Mockery of Jim Acosta’s “live stream” about removing Trump signage from the Kennedy Center, comparing it theatrically to the Berlin Wall falling—hosts laugh at Acosta’s self-importance (21:24–23:24).
• Leftist “counter programming” to the Trump UFC event: Hosts ridicule a musical performance by Bette Midler and a cringe-worthy amateur group, contrasting these attempts with the pageantry and patriotism of the White House event (24:07–26:41).

Notable Quotes:

• “No one is getting left behind this time. Not this time.” (26:05, Dakota Meyer reading performance)
• “How is it that you get 50 people on stage and no one has rhythm or can carry a tune?” (26:33, Michael Duncan)
• “It looked like a deleted scene from A Mighty Wind.” (25:50, Michael Duncan)

Timestamps:

• Hakeem Jeffries Interview: 20:06–21:21
• Jim Acosta Segment: 21:24–23:24
• Counter Programming Performance: 24:07–26:41

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4. Featured Interview: Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer

Main Points:

• Dakota Meyer joins for a powerful conversation on service, sacrifice, and transition to civilian life (28:26–69:36).
• Describes the experience and atmosphere of the White House UFC event, calling it “about service ... every foundation of this country.” (28:53)
• Shares a detailed, firsthand account of his actions during the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan, the loss of his team, and reflections on military sacrifice (32:45–49:18).
• Distinguishes between education and sacred knowledge—emphasizing wisdom gained by experience over academic achievement (49:18–51:41).
• Discusses his personal struggles with PTSD, alcoholism, and recovery upon return to civilian life, framing his journey with the concept of shifting from 'why' (victimhood) to 'what' (taking action)—the subject of his new self-published book "Why to What" (52:07–58:20).
• Critiques the designs for the proposed Global War on Terrorism Memorial in DC as unconnected to the reality and sacrifice of veterans (62:25–67:13).

Notable Quotes:

• “The best way to describe it wasn’t an event last night...it was about service, and it was about every foundation of this country and what it was founded on.” (28:53, Dakota Meyer)
• “Combat is what I call the sacred knowledge.” (49:18, Dakota Meyer)
• “Emotions rooted in logic are very powerful. Logic rooted in emotions is very dangerous.” (52:37, Dakota Meyer)
• “For something to live, something must die...the old version of you has to 110 percent die.” (56:24, Dakota Meyer)
• "I was sitting here...not even living a life that was worthy of their sacrifices. And it’s like, in doing it by justifying it by their sacrifice is the most unbecoming thing I’ve ever seen in my life." (59:12, Dakota Meyer)
• “Everything in life is black and white....Gray is there to keep you from having to deal with it.” (68:07, Dakota Meyer)

Timestamps:

• Interview begins: 28:26
• UFC Event Reflections: 28:53–32:03
• Afghanistan Accounts: 32:45–49:18
• Combat and Life Wisdom: 49:18–54:25
• Book Discussion (“Why to What”): 52:07–58:20
• Memorial Critique: 62:25–67:13
• Closing thoughts: 67:37–69:33

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Trump vs. Biden
  • “The guy who has your job has UFC on his yard...and you can't even raise money for your presidential library.” (15:52, Michael Duncan)
• On American Patriotism
  • “Every fighter in there gave thanks to all the men and women that served. You just seen uniforms everywhere...Everybody, American flags...you heard more scripture quotes in that ring last night than I've ever heard.” (28:53, Dakota Meyer)
• On Struggle and Recovery
  • “I had anxiety, I had depression...I was drinking every day...All the questions that I had was, why did I live? Why did my teammates die? ...There were no answers to why...what do I do to fix?” (52:07–55:20, Dakota Meyer)
• On Integrity and Self-Honesty
  • “The only thing we owe the world...is to be who we say we are, not who we want to be, but who we are.” (59:33, Dakota Meyer)
• On Memorials and Service
  • “That was not designed by a veteran...This should represent sacrifice...all service is the same, but not all sacrifice is the same.” (63:12–65:13, Dakota Meyer)

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Importance of the Episode

This episode stands out for the raw, striking narrative given by Dakota Meyer—a Medal of Honor recipient—whose insights on military service, trauma, healing, and personal accountability provide a sharply human angle amid the podcast’s usual pointed humor and political discourse. Between biting commentary on the 2026 political landscape, takedowns of media personalities, and a genuine interrogation of American legacy, the show both entertains and delivers an unvarnished look at the sacrifices behind America’s freedoms.

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Useful Timestamps for Key Segments:

• Trump’s Incredible Weekend & Iran Deal: 00:00–08:31
• Biden’s Post-Presidency Lampooning: 09:05–17:03
• Hakeem Jeffries & Media Critique: 20:06–21:21
• Jim Acosta Segment: 21:24–23:24
• Bette Midler/“Counter Programming” Mockery: 24:07–26:41
• Dakota Meyer Interview: 28:26–69:36
  • White House UFC Event: 28:53–32:03
  • Afghanistan Story: 32:45–49:18
  • Book and Recovery: 52:07–58:20

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For those who haven’t listened:
This episode combines the Ruthless crew’s trademark blend of unfiltered political humor with a deeply meaningful, motivating interview. It’s especially notable for Dakota Meyer’s detailed battlefield account and hard-won wisdom on overcoming personal darkness. Alongside, the hosts deliver their usual sharp—and at times savage—takes on the news of the day, making this a must-listen for anyone craving both entertainment and substance.

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

Kind of an incredible weekend for Donald Trump. I mean, he's had many, obviously, but they announced this peace deal with Iran, ending the conflict over there. He has his birthday and also UFC fights on his backyard. Unbelievable weekend for President Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

It sounds like the Iranians are going to be giving up all of their nuclear materials. And, I mean, that's. That's basically why what Trump demanded at the very beginning.

[Michael Duncan]

Having a good week. But you know who's not? Joe Biden.

[Comfortably Smug]

The Journal who wrote this on X, when they posted this, they're like, joe Biden is back. And at a recent event, I witnessed him kissing a woman who wasn't his wife.

[Michael Duncan]

The guy who has your job has UFC on his yard in the White House for his birthday, and you can't even raise money for your presidential library.

[Dakota Meyer]

China is waging a war in the shadows, stealing our technology to dominate the biopharma industry. And China has an unlikely ally here at home, Congress. Their plan to pass the Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity act would betray America by giving trade secrets to China. So they win their war while increasing government bureaucracy and doing nothing to lower drug prices for patients. Tell your senator to vote no and stop China before it's too late. Paid for by Coalition to Protect America's Future.

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

[John Ashbrook]

This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

[Michael Duncan]

I love the personality. You guys are killing it.

[Dakota Meyer]

I just saw your number one, so congratulations.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you.

[Michael Duncan]

It's an honor and a pleasure to

[Dakota Meyer]

welcome the great Sean Hannity. Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is why you listen to the

[Michael Duncan]

Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Comfortably Smug]

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I'm Michael Duncan, along with Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. Our friend Josh Holmes has the week off.

[Comfortably Smug]

Brutal.

[John Ashbrook]

The guy's out there on assignment.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, he's doing peace with Iran.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and I'm glad he is.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, it's kind of an incredible weekend for Donald Trump. He's had many, obviously, but they announced this peace deal with Iran, ending the conflict over there. He has his birthday and also UFC fights on his backyard. Unbelievable weekend for President Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

Absolutely.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it was. And also I think I mentioned this on on X, but I haven't seen a UFC fight. This is going to date how old I am, but it's fine. Since I was, like, a kid and I saw, like, you know, Ken Shamrock and then Fight. There's like, UFC 2 and 3 and stuff like that, and I haven't really watched since. And I watched the Flag day, the Freedom 250, and it was phenomenal. I mean, it was outstanding entertainment. The production value was, like, through the roof to begin with. And, like, when they'd first described this, and they're like, okay, it's going to be on the White House lawn. I thought it was gonna be like, okay, steel cage, White House lawn, and that's the end of it. But the way that they had, like, the intros of, like, the fighters coming through and, like, the. I think they were coming some in the eeob, like, okay, there.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, shout out to our production staff.

[Comfortably Smug]

Pulling it out.

[John Ashbrook]

And then, like, there's Dakota Meyer, too. Our guest for today.

[Michael Duncan]

Our guest for today.

[Comfortably Smug]

Again, how amazing is that?

[Michael Duncan]

Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer joins us in the back half of the program. So, yeah, I mean, they were doing the walkouts for you, audio only. They were doing the walkouts from the White House onto the South Lawn, which is just an incredible visual. Also, the flyovers. Can we play that flyover clip? So there's the claw, which is the structure over the. Wow, look at that.

[John Ashbrook]

Just incredible. Blue Angels.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a nice Sunday. It's a nice Sunday.

[Comfortably Smug]

And now going forward, I am going to be a UFC guy.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, how could you not be after that?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is, I enjoyed the hell out of those fights. There were tremendous, really great fights, really exciting, great sport. I'm super into it after that. So, like, when NFL season's over, UFC it is.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So for some details here on the Iran deal, of course, we have a lot that we still need to learn about all of this. They're over there negotiating now, and I know that the memorandum of understanding will be released here later this week where we'll know more of the details. We'll only know some sparse things now, but Trump was asked about it at the G7, so let's play that clip.

[Dakota Meyer]

The Iran deal that we made is going to bring a lot of. A lot of success to the world because the oil was really clogged up

[Michael Duncan]

there for a while.

[Dakota Meyer]

He would call me on occasion, say, come on, please, let's go. But the oil coming way down, so I'm very honored by it. I want to thank you for your help. You've always been a help, and it's an honor to be with you.

[Comfortably Smug]

So for audio only, that was Trump with Macron. Be like, the oil is a problem right in front of him, which is amazing. But that is probably the most significant part in my mind of getting this deal done is you look at markets subsequently, the price of crude oil is down over 25% now over the past month. And you love seeing that happen in an election year. It's critical. Like, we had that hot inflation number coming at 42 because of the rise in gas prices. You've seen the cost of so many other things going down, and then to have this literally bubble up was a problem. So getting that taken care of makes me feel way better about things going into this fall again.

[John Ashbrook]

You saw the market reaction yesterday. The market absolutely loved the thought of peace. And, you know, I'm really struck. Most people when it's their birthday day after their birthday, they take a beat. They're like, you know what? I'm just going to. I'm going to hit the beach for a day. Not Trump, not Trump. He's cutting the deal. They, they signed that memorandum of understanding digitally.

[Michael Duncan]

Apparently they use DocuSign for that, I think.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know that if that's the technology they used. But, but it is signed. And then like you said, I think this Friday we're going to learn a lot more about it when they meet together at the end of the week and start talking about some more of the details when those become available. But, you know, first blush, it sounds like the Iranians are going to be giving up all of their nuclear materials. And I mean, that's basically what Trump demanded at the very beginning.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and if you listen to senior administration officials, they constantly, you know, talk about this deal as basically, Iran gets as good as they're willing to work with the United States on issues like nukes, proxies.

[John Ashbrook]

Proxies. Huge part of the agreement that they were not, they were not allowed to fund these proxies that are, that are doing terror all over, all over the world, really, but all over the Middle east in particular.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also, I mean, the Wall Street Journal had a great, lots of great coverage over the past weekend. And what kept coming up in their coverage is the fact that when Trump did the, like, counter blockade in the straight or four moves where he was like, okay, well, no ships carrying Iranian oil are going to be allowed to pass either. That was the game changer because that started just like breaking the back of the Iranian economy. And that's what got them to the table.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, yeah, I mean, first we took out the Ayatollah, then we decimated all of their infrastructure. Right. And then you have this issue with the with the Strait of Hormuz. So for the Iranians, it kind of, from what I understand, brought them back to the table to negotiate in a real way. And they also had to figure out who they were negotiating with because there was a little bit of turmoil.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. Turns out every leader was killed. Next day, new leader dead. Next day, new leader dead. But a lot more details are coming out. We'll see how official Washington reacts to this sort of thing. And you never know you what you're going to get. You always get complaints here and there, but it seems like this is headed in the right direction. The right direction. It's going to take some time, I think, to work out the, some of the fine points. It sounds like at least when you talk to some of these senior administration officials. But, I mean, none of these guys are taking a day off.

[Michael Duncan]

Trump's having a good week, but you know who's not? Joe Biden.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oof.

[Michael Duncan]

So with all the news coming out over the weekend and great sports, you know, Stanley Cup, Cup, NBA Finals, all this sort of stuff, this will be easy to miss. But listener and viewer, that's why I exist, to find diamonds in the rough like this.

[John Ashbrook]

Very good at it.

[Michael Duncan]

This is from New York Magazine. The title is Building Back the Bidens, the urgent, embarrassing and occasionally convincing campaign to salvage their legacy. Basically, Joe Biden's hitting the road. He's going to the chicken dinners, and he's gripping and grinning with Democratic activists, you know, trying to reintroduce himself to those people and talk about the glory days, if he can remember them. This from the article. Joe Biden wanted the crowd to know he couldn't stay long. As he stood at the lectern at the Best Western In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on June 5, he told the audience of some 1200 Democrats munching on their first course of iceberg lettuce and ranch that he had to leave early to make it to his goddaughter's wedding. So when I run off the stage, it's not because I'm afraid to hear the response. He need not be worried of the reception. He spoke quietly, with sudden bursts of yelling. Hilarious that he always does that, and occasionally lost his train of thought. Yet the crowd ate up his attacks on Donald Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

Journos love to include the kind of color, like, what, what people are eating. And what I. What caught my attention here is when Republicans are eating a salad with ranch, they use it to, like, cast aspersions. All these Republicans are so uncultured. But when they use it to talk about Democrats doing the same thing. It's almost like, hey, Democrats are kind of normal too. Just like other Midwesterners.

[Michael Duncan]

They like ranch.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right. Exactly.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, that's pretty much the last normal thing in this entire article. So Biden stood for almost two hours in a back room, greeting hundreds of VIP guests and posing for photos. Okay, normal so far. I watched one of them, a slight 81 year old woman in a glittering green dress, approach the former president and kiss him directly on the lips. He was looking at me and I was looking at him and I was like, I just want to kiss you. Weird.

[Comfortably Smug]

So the best thing is the Journal who wrote this on X, when they posted this, they're like, joe Biden is back. And at a recent event, I witnessed him kissing a woman who wasn't his wife. And like, the replies to him were like, all these angry Democrats being like, why do you always have to like, go after Joe Biden? Can't you let it go? Like, really don't you? Like, it's amazing because they know that the Bidens are terrible for Democrats. Like bringing the Bidens up. And any news coming out about the Bidens is a problem for Democrats. They're super ready to turn the page on that. They don't want to remind Americans of the time that they tried to deceive voters into thinking that Joe Biden was fit for office, that he was fit to keep running. Then they had to drop him replacement. They don't want voters thinking about any of that. And then it led to that. That was why there was that whole consternation of like Jill Biden going after former staffers and, and people being like, why is Jill Biden have a. Jill Biden have a book coming out right during a midterm election? Like, please go away.

[Michael Duncan]

Please just go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Democrats who want to win are saying

[Michael Duncan]

that's all they want. And he refuses.

[Comfortably Smug]

He refuses.

[Announcer]

So.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, here's, here's the other thing. Just very quickly, you know, the New York magazine interpreted her action as a kiss. We don't know what she was thinking. Maybe she saw Biden and thought, this guy needs to be resuscitated. I mean, maybe, maybe she was starting cpr, doing palpitations.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, well, let's get a reaction from her husband Larry. Larry, who was standing right beside her. How did he feel about this? Well, twisting his handlebar mustache with a finger. I'd rather have had Jill there. Not the best reaction. Then there's others. Dude, there's so many good quotes in this article. When I Told one former administration official that I was planning on writing a book about Biden. They offered a dry reply, an obituary.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is a thing. They do not want him out there, the Democrat Party. It's like, they're like, how much clearer do we have to be that we want nothing to do with you than when we kicked you out from your own presidential ticket? They're like, is there any way we can be more clear about how we feel about you?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, smug. So why then?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, that's the question that you have to ask. Because this is embarrassing and you are a former president of the United States. Like, you could tip your cap, retire, you know, not do media, not do events for a little while. Nobody's making the Bidens do this.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the reason is I've brought it up, is because the Bidens were so lousy with their money. Like, if they earn a dollar, they spend 10. Like, look it up, folks. There's that whole story about how, like, Barack Obama offered to loan money to Joe Biden in office. Like, they've been fading. They make terrible with their money.

[John Ashbrook]

They make the rocket Ishmael look like Ray Dalio

[Comfortably Smug]

and they need the money. Like, Hunter Biden has come out and said that, like, he's pretty much bankrupt and still has that, like, huge mansion that he bought in California and the, like, Porsche. And he's like, I can't afford any of this stuff. And it's like he was put on the board of, like, an energy company. He was. When Biden's in office, is selling his paintings for, like, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. And still the fact that they're broke, that's why they have to come back. That's why Jill has to put a book out. And she's timing it during a midterm election because she feels that's a way to get more publicity to sell books. Like, she doesn't care about the Democrat Party either.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So more from the article. I think this article agrees with you. Smug. These days, at least, the Bidens don't have much of a choice. He's not getting any younger, he's ill, and it feels financially driven, said a Biden alum. Biden has been laying the groundwork for a presidential library foundation. So far, it's been a slog. Late last year, the New York Times reported that the Biden foundation had brought in a, quote, small fraction of what it needed, raising questions. This is brutal. Of whether a standalone library was even viable.

[John Ashbrook]

That is depressing.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, the Guy who, the guy who has your job has UFC on his yard in the White House for his birthday. And you can't even raise money for your presidential library.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like when they, when they brought up that point of they don't know if it's even financially viable to be able to have a standalone library. What is it like this is going to end up with Joe Biden, like the Delaware Public Library slash Joe Biden presidential. Like you can go check out a book.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also there's an exhibit on Joe Biden and guess what? That's his presidential library.

[Michael Duncan]

You think they're gonna put like another wing on that monstrosity of the Obama presidential library?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, that's the sad part is in essence, his presidency was predicated on like, whoa, this is like getting a Diet Obama, getting another Obama run. And it was all the like six string talent from the Obama White House

[John Ashbrook]

who push the Biden people out.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. It's just a mess. And that's what this whole article comes down to is it's a mess.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, sad. It's sad and it's pathetic. Which brings us to our question of the day, which is a great one. What would you put in a Joe Biden presidential library?

[Comfortably Smug]

Excellent question, excellent question, great question.

[Michael Duncan]

A lot of space to wander around. I don't know, maybe his like, brain in one of those.

[Comfortably Smug]

The baggie of Coke.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, the baggie of Coke. All the highlights of his administration.

[Comfortably Smug]

Seriously.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, when you leave us a comment, we read everyone and get back to you the next episode. So please do that like and subscribe. Hit that little button on the YouTube that says subscribe and then hit that little bell so you get all the notifications.

[Announcer]

Very important.

[Michael Duncan]

And when we come back, Jim Acosta humiliates himself. And highlights from the left's comically bad counter programming to fight night at the White House. We have the clips right after this.

[Announcer]

American energy is growing with a renewed focus on American oil and natural gas. We're rebuilding our industrial strength and driving investment. Energy demand is rising and the United States has the resources to meet it. Here's the challenge. If we can't build the infrastructure to move that energy pipelines, transmission lines and power plants, Americans won't feel the benefits. And while projects stall, China moves faster. Not because America lacks energy, but because Washington's permitting system is outdated and broken. Energy affordability depends on getting energy where it's needed, when it's needed. Yet critical projects remain stuck for years in delays and endless litigation. We have the energy. We have the workforce now. It's time to build. Let's secure American energy leadership for generations to come. When America builds, America wins. Pass permitting reform now. Learn more@ permittingreformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Dakota Meyer]

You know what's wild?

[Michael Duncan]

There's a federal program called 340B designed to help low income patients afford medicine. And tax exempt hospital systems have exploited loopholes to turn it into a billion dollar cash machine. They collect massive drug discounts, but families still pay full price. And when anyone asks where the money actually goes, hospitals lawyer up and they go silent. If they're helping patients, prove it. Open the books. Learn [e-mail] well, smug, as you mentioned at the top, oil prices down, stock market is up because of this Iran peace deal being announced. Things are looking pretty good in the Trump economy, but not to the Democrats. They have a constant refrain about how everything's Donald Trump's fault, the economy's terrible. Well, Hakeem Jeffries decided to go on Good Day New York to share that message of absolute fact. This is how he was greeted, which is gonna make their life.

[Dakota Meyer]

The gas prices were this high under Obama, too.

[Announcer]

So. Well, listen.

[Dakota Meyer]

And Biden, well, I'm not right. President Biden, didn't we have gas prices at over $5? Well, there were gas prices in the immediate aftermath. And I remember eggs were like a dozen.

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's the thing. So I lived in New York for a number of years on Good Day New York. Rosanna Scotto is an institution. Like, she is the best probably morning host you can have, period. And she suffers. No BS from anybody. It doesn't matter if you're Republican, doesn't matter if you're Democrat. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do. If you show up on her show and try to bullshit, you're going to get called out. Which is like Hakeem Jeffries thought, if he just shows up in a Knicks hat, that's enough. And it's like, no, you should have done your homework. She's so good at that.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I love about it is that Hakeem Jeffries comes on there in his Knicks hat thinking like, oh, well, this will just be a light interview. I can talk about the Knicks winning the NBA Finals and then I can talk shit about Donald Trump. No, no, no. And he's like, not prepared at all. Totally ill equipped to fire back at her because he doesn't know anything.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, good for her.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, she's like a moron.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good for Her. Good for her.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so did you guys follow this thing with the. Jim Acosta was live streaming.

[John Ashbrook]

This was very funny out in front

[Michael Duncan]

of the Kennedy center because, you know, Donald Trump put his name on there as well. But then I guess because it's by congressional statute named the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts or whatever, they got some judge to be like, oh, you got to take Donald Trump's name off. If you somehow miss that, that's basically the contours of the story. Well, Jim Acosta thought this was an opportunity. He was going to livestream it. Let's go to that clip. This is a giant waste of time, and it's a sign of.

[John Ashbrook]

Can say that again.

[Michael Duncan]

What a petulant man child he can be. He's talking about himself and saying all night long and all day long, for that matter. This is very much like watching the Berlin Wall coming down. It is a sign that. That mankind, that humankind can stand up against tyranny. Dude, how is that real?

[Comfortably Smug]

So it's. It's. It's amazing. So I want to give more context on that. He was apparently out there when it's. It was like a hundred degrees the entire. He stood out there the entire day streaming, being like, any moment staff could come out and. And. And I will be there live streaming. You will see the letters being removed. And then, like, staff came out and they like, put a sheet over it so you can't even see any of it going down. He spent his entire day trying to get that video clip, and then when he shows up, he sees nothing. He's like, my take is this is the same as the Berlin Wall. It was amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

Idiot comes from upbringing.

[Announcer]

Parents are probably idiots, too.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

Poor guy thought he was going to get his big moment on the live stream, and it turned out like Geraldo opening Al Capone's vault. You know, the other thing in there, I don't know if you caught it, where he was talking about, like, a great day for mankind. This guy thinks he's like Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon.

[John Ashbrook]

Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just unbelievable, the self importance of that dude. He's just the worst. Okay, so we talked about it at the top of the show. Incredible event at the White House for this UFC fight. I think it's the only time I've ever seen a entire card be knockouts and TKOs. Just unbelievable, like, finishes to all of these fights. Some huge upsets. Bo Nichols also did a great job. I don't know if you guys Saw his speech after he won. Incredible. Well, here's what the left had to do for counter programming.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, it is?

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

Hey there, all you fascists. Let me put you straight. When you come for the rest of us, we'll fight you at the gate. And you will lose, you fascist badaloo.

[John Ashbrook]

That's just terrible. I thought that was a librarian from the Biden library. I didn't know that was Bette Midler.

[Michael Duncan]

That's Bette Midler?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What are they doing? Well, it's apparently some organization that claims to, like, support the First Amendment. And I guess it was originally started during, like, the McCarthy era. And they're equating America today with the McCarthy era. I don't know, man. These. They tilt at windmills all day. If it's not no kings, it's this. There are choices.

[John Ashbrook]

Would you rather have jets flying over the White House and honoring all of our troops or that?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is the contrast. Right where you had the Freedom250 event, where, I mean, for everyone who caught it, you saw how amazing it was. Not just like the flyovers. It was visually beautiful. You had so many folks talking about how great this country is, how wonderful America is, the history. And they would have, like, in between fights, they play segments that are like, here's something about American history of. Here's something awesome that America did. Here's why America is a wonderful country. And then the contrast is like a star from, like, 30 years ago being like, all you fascists are going to lose. And it's like some local towns auditorium, like, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's a really clear picture of where things are. Is you've got a group of people who define themselves by being mad at Trump. And it's increasingly a smaller and smaller group.

[Michael Duncan]

It looked like a deleted scene from A Mighty Wind.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I was thinking waiting for Guffman.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, waiting for Guffman. A combination of those, but they weren't done. Let's play the clip with the guy in the safety vest.

[Dakota Meyer]

No one is getting left behind this time. No one is getting left behind. Not this time. No one is getting left behind this time. How do we get there together or

[Michael Duncan]

never get there at all?

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, if they're gonna be theater kids, they gotta be good ones.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They can't be off key singing like that. No rhythm at all. How is it that you get 50 people on stage and no one has rhythm or can carry a tune?

[John Ashbrook]

I. I just. I can't. You can't Explain it. You can't explain it. I. I got to imagine that Democrats who are hoping to take back the White House in 2028 are also hoping. Nobody saw that last night.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, God, it's just so cringy. Those poor people. They're sick. They're sick.

[John Ashbrook]

Terrible.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, well, we got to get to this interview. Medal of honor recipient Dakota Meyer gives a raw firsthand account of, you know, the price and sacrifice that our veterans paid in their blood in the global war on terrorism. His thoughts on coming home. He's got a new book, inspiring story right here. Strength, security, the global economy. What drives all three? Energy. But there are some that think America doesn't have a leadership role in that anymore. Well, there's one American company that's leading and innovating to deliver energy all around the world at a fraction of the cost, in a fraction of the time. Venture Global. From the shores of Louisiana to ports all over the globe, Venture Global is bringing liquefied natural gas to the people who need it most. That means supporting our allies, creating American jobs, and making sure the U.S. stays competitive. Yes. No matter what people say, America still delivers when the world needs it most. And Venture Global is a big reason why. Venture Global, unstoppable energy. I want to welcome to the program Marine Corps sergeant and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Dakota Meyer. How are you?

[Dakota Meyer]

Good, good. Thank you for having me.

[Michael Duncan]

So those are two ways of introducing you. Also best selling author.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

And now also UFC hype. Man, I saw you. I'm like, I'm watching the UFC thing on Sunday and, you know, get to the title card, and Gathi's coming out of the White House, and there you are.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What was that experience like?

[Dakota Meyer]

Oh, my gosh. You know, I was actually on the way over here.

[Michael Duncan]

I was.

[Dakota Meyer]

I was crafting. I'm trying to put into words, you know, everybody. That's what everybody's asked me. And I think. I think the best way to describe it wasn't an event last night. I mean, I went there with, you know. You know, you just. You didn't know. You really didn't know what to expect. I think we think everybody was kind of in that. That situation. And I went there, and I've got to tell you something, if I could sum up the entire night, it was about service, and it was about every foundation of this country and what it was founded on. I mean, you've seen fighters. Every fighter in there gave thanks to all the men and women that served. You just seen uniforms everywhere. Everybody, American flags, I mean, they all talk. I mean, you heard more scripture quotes in that ring last night than I've ever heard. I mean, the whole thing was about service. And I gotta tell you, I left there last night and as I walked home, all I could think about was just how proud I was that I have. I've earned the right to be buried with an American flag on my body. Like it's hands down. So, I mean. Yeah, I mean, being there last night was. The energy was crazy. I mean, you know, you just looked around and it was just. It was. At one point I turned around, looked, and I'm sitting. I'm sitting there and behind me I've got Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe. And I mean, it's just. You just look around and you just looked at a bunch of American loving people watching people fight. And you could tell in the fight, you could tell the fighters knew the significance of the sacred ground that they were fighting on. And they were fighting like that. I mean, you look at that last fight last night, and that is the epitome of really, you know, the American spirit.

[Michael Duncan]

It was so unique. Right. Because it was both a sporting event, but also a celebration of America and patriotism and all of those things. And what an incredible setup they had there at the White House. The claw and everything.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, no, I mean, it was. I mean, the atmosphere. I mean, you look around you just. Every detail, every piece of it. I mean, you just looked around and you just. It was. It was incredible. I mean, so it's such an incredible event.

[Michael Duncan]

We've got the clip of you walking out here looking badass. That's awesome.

[Announcer]

To do damage on opponents regardless.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it is incredible.

[Comfortably Smug]

Earlier in his career.

[John Ashbrook]

Look at that unbelievable walk.

[Dakota Meyer]

I'm gonna lose by knockout.

[Michael Duncan]

You see that?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And I mean, clearly the fighters had to have been super hyped. Every fight ended in a KO or tko.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, I. I think. I think most of them didn't even make it to. Some of them didn't make it. Second round. I mean, I think the only one that made it even to the third round was the last fight, you know, I mean, it was. It was awesome. I mean, it was. It was hands down probably the. The best event. Biggest event that I'll. I mean, I've been to a ton of events and it made the super bowl like it was, like it was nothing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And they were going all out, like you said. But the other thing you said that I thought was so important about it was the service background, all of the tributes that were paid to people who sacrifice so much just so that we can be sitting in here bullshitting into microphones every day for fun with our buddies. You know what I mean? Like, there's so much that has been given just for us to have that privilege. And you're not unfamiliar with service yourself. I'm going to ask you to tell the story you probably told a thousand times. Medal of Honor winner. This is the first time we've ever had a Medal of Honor winner here in the Ruthless studios. And I know you gave an awful lot to. To earn that, and I know that there are a lot of guys around you in that process. I wonder if you could just tell our audience what led up to that.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, well, first off, I didn't give anything. I. I honestly, I just. I got to do it. I mean, I was so honored to. To be able to be there and watch, you know?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

You know, I was on a team. I served in the marine Corps from 2006 to 2010. I went. I went to the Marine Corps right after. Right after high school in Kentucky. In Kentucky, yeah. Yeah. So I went to the Marine Corps, went over to Afghanistan. You know, I served in Iraq and then I went to Afghanistan. I was a sniper in Iraq and then Afghanistan. I was kind of in this unique mission of what's called an embedded training team. And, and basically what these embedded training teams are is you're like, they take four us, a certain amount of small number of us, and they insert them with, you know, our counterparts. So that was the Afghan National Army. And the. The theory behind it is, is we mentor them, guide them, and help train them up to where they can sustain taking over their own country, obviously. But what I'll tell you is, you know, so we lived. There's four US And AD Afghans on a base, and I lived there. My teammates were. You had Lieutenant Johnson, who was from Oregon, he lived out in Virginia beach, some, I mean, but just wasn't like, basically he had the Oregon spirit. Right. I mean, just loved hiking, things like that. Always smiling like, you just never seen the guy on a bad day. Loved CrossFit, all that. And then you had Staff Sergeant Kennefick, who then posthumously was, you know, made Gunny Kennefick. But Staff Sergeant Kennefick at the time, he was the old man of the team, you know, so just, just. He was from New York. He had that, that New York attitude. Right. You know what I'm talking about? Hardness. I call It. The New York hardness.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

Great guy. Just really incredible guy. And then we had Doc Layton and then myself. Doc Layton was from California. He was your typical, like, surfer guy. You know, he was the second youngest, and I was the youngest on the team. And then, you know, so we were going in and we were going to run this mission into place called the Gangegal Valley.

[Announcer]

It's.

[Dakota Meyer]

It's a valley that's notorious in the. In the Kun. The Kunar province at the time was a very dangerous place. I mean, when you look at. Majority of the medal of honors in Afghanistan came from up in the Kunar province, just because it was. It was word. I mean, it was. It was fierce up there. I mean, you had the Corn Goal Valley province, you know, famous valley. Marcus Latrell, Lone Survivor. You know, is that just because, like.

[Michael Duncan]

Because it was so mountainous. Mountainous or remote? What is it about that area of Afghanistan that made it so deadly for. For troops?

[Dakota Meyer]

I think it's just.

[John Ashbrook]

It's.

[Dakota Meyer]

It's the people. I mean, it'd be like you going in and trying to change West Virginia.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

You know what I mean? I mean, it's just. I mean, the hard people.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

I mean, like, the people who are willing to. They're gonna. They're gonna fight, you know, And. And the terrain. The terrain was another feature that, like, you couldn't just go through and clear everything. I mean, you know, it was. The terrain was insane. It was. You know, it's. You're just never going to be able to. To hold that land. Right. And that's always. You know, tactically, you got to be able to really. War is nothing more than taking something that somebody doesn't want you to have. Right. And which was the terrain made it impossible up there where we were at. And so. And the people were hard. And so, yeah, we were going to go and run this mission into the Gangegal Valley. We were told to come in. It's going to be a big team, big joint piece. We run it with the army. You had the Afghan national army, you had us. And so the Afghan Border Police, you had the Afghan National Police. So you bring in a lot of different elements. And really, one of the things that's, like, critical on these pieces is is it's really. We call it opsec, but it's more like not letting the plan get out. And. And sometimes you have malicious intent of. Obviously, you got bad actors that are in these. They're not vetted the same way. They don't have the same intentions or they don't have their loyalties and so they'll leak it to the, to the wrong side and then it screws you over. But sometimes it could be just as simple as, hey, they call home to their parents and let them know they're excited about running this mission. And then it gets leaked. Right. So, you know, always trying to control the information and things of what you're doing. As far as the mission goes, it's always something critical. And so on this mission, somebody leaked. I'm not aware of who leaked that we were coming in to run that mission. And the night before I got taken off of the mission, it was the first patrol I've ever not ran with my team. And so I was taken off and I was put in a, in like basically we were going to drive the vehicles in, park them and then go in. They were going to go in on foot. It gives a softer posture. It's more of a, hey, we're here to negotiate, we're here to help. More of a, that perception piece than when you roll in with Humvees and guns and you know what I mean? It's a softer posture. Why we did that? I mean, I had had a few disagreeances about how we were running this mission, but anyways, I was going to be left at the vehicles, where we parked the vehicles and they replaced me with a guy named Gunnery Sergeant Johnson. So Gunny Johnson was an incredible guy from Georgia. He has, you know, he had a wife, had kids. Really awesome guy. And so we went in that morning, parked, and they went into the valley. And you know, I'm sitting in, I'm sitting in a truck in the turret and I'm like using my, I have these thermal devices which are heat seeking. So just basically looking at the, the mountains and the terrain is just, I mean, it's insane. And I seen people running up the hills and try to make people aware of it. And then as soon as, as soon as the patrol got right to the edge of the village, all the lights in the village shut off simultaneously, which is never a good sign.

[Michael Duncan]

So they're ambushing.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah. So I mean, you know, and long story short, they were, we were, we were already set up basically. You know, the, the valley had like horseshoe and so they had three sides covered. And then there's a, there's a, there's a technique called closing the gate. And so what they did is they staged over on the, it would be the south side of the village in a school. They staged a bunch of people. And what you try to do is. Is once they get in, you try to close that gate right there. And now you got them surrounded. And so I heard my team come over. They, you know, any. In any gunfight, it's. Gunfighting is very simple. Like, it's. Where are they at? Where are we at? What do we have to get them to stop doing what they're doing? I mean, it's. It's. If it wasn't simple, Marines couldn't do it. So let me just start with that.

[Michael Duncan]

You got the producers back there.

[Dakota Meyer]

I mean. Yeah, they agree, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

I mean, it's not this whole. It's. It. But it is the ultimate. It's. It's ultimate creativity. Right. And so. So my team, like, they started taking contact, and usually in any gunfight, it's like any problem in life, like, emotions are really high, and then, you know, eventually they're, you know, those nerves go off and more. It's like, figured out, you know, you start getting into your reps, your SOPs, your training, all that stuff knocks in. But it was like, in this gunfight, it was like you. You didn't get into that rhythm. It was like every. Excuse me. Every time, every time, like you would expect to get in the rhythm, like they threw something else at you. And most of the time, the one thing we had against the enemy, especially in these places, was they weren't able to sustain themselves. You know, really, war comes down to logistics and being able to maintain the supply of ammunition and all this. So that was Lee's job, huh?

[John Ashbrook]

That was. That was Wolf's job.

[Dakota Meyer]

It's a logistic. Yeah. And listen, you know what we say, Bullets don't fly without supply, you know, and so usually they don't sustain themselves because they usually have what they can carry. And so we. They just kept hammering. And I heard my lieutenant come over the radio, and he said he started to call in a support artillery mission. And so what he was trying to do was place this artillery between the village and himself, basically to provide cover so that they could exfil. And I knew my team was in the front because I knew where they were going. You know, they were in the front of the patrol because they were going to go to the east side of the village to do some stuff up there. And so I heard them calling that in. And the response they got back from higher was, it's too close to the village. And what we didn't know was Stanley McChrystal had put in a rule of engagement in place that you couldn't Basically, you couldn't fire munitions within a certain radius of a village unless you had gone through and made sure that there were no enemy, that there were no friendlies in it, only enemy. Right. And so. So we. They said. They denied it, long story short. And he came back over the radio, and he said, if you don't give me these rounds right now, we're going to die. And the response was, we'll try your best.

[Michael Duncan]

Come on.

[Dakota Meyer]

I quote, we'll try your best. And so for me, that was the point to where I knew there was no. Like, we had to do something. And so I had, at the time, Staff Sergeant Rodriguez Chavez, incredible guy. It was a driver for me, was a driver that was sitting there with me, and he was sitting in the driver's seat. And I requested over the radio. I don't know how many times. I don't need to get on Reddit and all this other stuff for, like, he said three here. He said four there. Right. But requested multiple times over the radio to. To come in. And my. My idea was if I bring the vehicles in, I could provide cover and help these guys exfil.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Dakota Meyer]

And each time, I was told no. And so finally I come over the radio and said, be advised, we're coming in. And. And I asked Rod and I said, will you come with me? And he's like, absolutely. And so we. We started to take the first truck in and started taking contact. We. We got in the village, and I mean, it was like. It was. I mean, there was. It was fighting everywhere. There were bodies. The one thing I wasn't expecting was the number of casualties. I mean, like, it was. It was just people carrying each other out. It was insane. And so, long story short, you know, we. We made multiple trips in. And on the. I'll go back on the first trip in, I hear Gunny Kennefick come over the radio. Stats aren't Kenneth at the time, but Gunny now, and he said, we need a. We need a. A medevac, which told me somebody was hurt. And. But I did know that if he gave a medevac, he had to give a grid. And so if I had the grid, I could have their location. I knew where they were at. And I'll be honest with you, like, I didn't go in there to save anybody else. I went in there to go get my team. Those were the guys I was looking for. And on the way in, he started to give out the first three numbers of those of that medevac. And then, like, that Was it. And so I couldn't find them. And. And we pushed up in there as far as we could on the first trip. And my.50 cal started to shoot. Single shot. So we had to turn around because then I was having to shoot with my M4. And it turned into, like, a big show. And then second time. Second or third time we come in, I. I had the Afghans bring their. They had these Ford Rangers. And so what I would get out and do is, is I would try to help guys out, like the wounded, because they were all trapped. I mean, the first trip in, I. They got so excited to see that we were coming to health that they got up and started running at the truck, and they were just mowed down. Like, none of them made it to the truck. And it's just like the most helpless feeling ever of just, you know, you're trying to tell them to stop, and they're excited. They. They're scared. Like, is insane. And so. So then the remainder trips, on the way in, we would stop, Rod would stay in the truck and hold the truck because we didn't want to let that go. Yeah, because if you get out of the truck and nobody's controlling it, I mean, enemy gets in that thing, you know, I mean, you. I mean, it'd be like a cop car leaving cop cars. Then we're all stuck then.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, then we're all screwed, right? And so. So he stayed in the. In the driver's seat, and he killed a couple guys with the truck. I mean, he would run them over, and. And so we. I would get out, and I had my interpreter found him. He would get in the turret, and he would cover me with my. Whatever weapon system was there, whether it was Mark 19, 240, or my.50 cal. And so I would get out, and I would run to where the bodies were, and then I would give them aid if I could. Really, all you could do was pressure. You could do tourniquets, or you could hold them until they died. And so would do that, and I'd get them back, and I'd put them in the back of the truck and then in the back of the Ford Ranger. And then I would put the dead ones on the bottom or the ones that I knew were gonna die, and I would put them on the bottom. And then I would put the ones that had a chance to live on top, and I would just fill the back of the truck up and send it out with the bodies. And so we did that for whatever amount of time it was. And and then finally they flew over. We had Pararescue guys on station. They flew over and they said, hey, we found five bodies in a trench. And I still. I had thought my team had got into a. I thought they had gotten to, like, a. A house, and they were fortified up and just holding the position, and. And we just need to get to them, and maybe their comms are out. And they said they fried bodies. So, like, I thought it was just another five bodies because at that time, like, the helicopters were flying over there, like, spot, and wherever they were in the air, I knew there was a body below them. So I would run out there and try to bring them back. And then

[John Ashbrook]

I.

[Dakota Meyer]

So I took off running and I jumped off this terrace and, like, landed on top of Gunny Johnson. So he had been shot. Went a little bit around this trench. It's like a trench they were trying to fight out of. And there was Doc Layton. He was on top of Lieuten Johnson with all of his meg gear scattered out. And then a little bit further around the other side was. Was Gunny Kennefick still with his radio in his hand and. Or. Yeah, with his. Did he have his right. I think he had his radio. I can't. It's 15 years ago.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

And so carried them out and then put them in the freezers when we got back to base and then clean the truck out, helped the Afghans patch up their wounded, and then helped them find a spot in the freezer for their dead, and then went back and got dinner and turned around and four days later, in another gunfight.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, it is. Here's the. Here's the reason why I think that story is so important, because people listen to the show. They, you know, some of them served, but. But a lot of them read about it on the news or they hear a politician say, oh, freedom isn't free, or some other, like, you know, speech that sounds good, and it is good, but until you hear those words, it just. You don't really understand the sacrifice, you know, and even hearing those words, you don't understand the sacrifice unless you were actually there and doing it and is so much. You know, it's something you're something you. You live with every day, your buddies live with every day, their families live with every day. And. And I just think, like, to. What. To your point about last night and how important it was to celebrate these guys and these fighters in the ring, given their tributes to. To the guys who they look up to so much, and, you know, President Trump doing What he's doing, talking about how important it is you have. Like, it's so important to know this.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, I mean, I, I am thankful. I'm thankful for it. Right? I'm thankful for. Look, combat is what I call the sacred knowledge. And I think what we do in the world so often right now, and it's really what's causing us problems is we are, we are not differentiating the difference in education and knowledge. Huge difference. And I always give this perspective of, look, if you're going into surgery and a guy, a. A resident walks in who is. Got a 4.5, you know, valedictorian of whatever doctor school he's got, but he has never operated on anybody. Or you've got this guy over here who's done hundreds of these operations.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. You don't want your doctor shaking like a leaf, you know, which one do

[Dakota Meyer]

you want to operate on? And he. This guy maybe got D's all the way through it.

[Michael Duncan]

Which.

[Dakota Meyer]

Which one do you want to operate on?

[John Ashbrook]

Guys seen it.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah. And it's the same thing in life. And look, I, I don't. I used to walk through life and I was like, ah, you know, you know, it's not, it's not their. It's not anybody's fault. But the reality is, is like a lot of these people walking around here that are. That are talking, they might have a little bit of education, they've read about it, but that's all they know. They don't have any wisdom of it. And, And I, I'm so fortunate. I'm so fortunate because you know what? That day is the most defining day of my life. It's made me who I am. It's gave me sacred knowledge that most people never get. You know, I think combat, I think war, I think fighting is sacred knowledge. And I think it's. It's knowledge and it's sacred knowledge. Not in a way of negativity or fighting or anything, but it's like, I've got to see literally what love looks like. The ultimate piece of love. I. People who believe in something bigger than themselves. I've got to see this firsthand. And I'm so fortunate to be able to have served and to be able to watch all this and it. And it sucks. It hurts, right? It hurts. But I don't think that anything is like, I don't think that you learn any lessons without pain.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And I think this, you know, from what I'm hearing from you, it also gives you a perspective in life. Having seen all that over there and then transitioning to coming back home and living civilian life and everything that that means. And so I wanted to talk about this new book, the why to the what? Yeah, yeah. Why to what. It's a great title, which is a great title. Can you explain to our audience what you mean by that?

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, you know, I went. I went so long. You know, I came back and I. I struggled. I mean, I. I'll be honest with you. I. I struggled. I had anxiety, I had depression. I mean, whatever. You. Whatever. All these, like, labels that you want to put on it, right? Look, I. I'll tell you this. I was drinking every day, you know, just. Just trying to. Trying to find a way to silence and suppress and my own. My own mind, you know, because where our mind goes, our body follows.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

[Dakota Meyer]

And I just never could figure out. And all the questions that I had was, why did I live? Why did my teammates die? Why was I there? Why me? Like, it was just why. Every question I had was why? And guess what? There were no answers to why. And I just had this shift in my mind of it really comes down to what. Why is subjective. And it gives you. Honestly, it's an emotional train of thought. And what is a logical train of thought? And it gives you. It's objective. And really, that's what it came down to, right. For me to get back on the path that I need to be on. Like, look, emotions rooted in logic are very powerful. Logic rooted in emotions is very dangerous. And, you know, it's. It's. Especially as men. Men who are emotional are very dangerous. Men who are emotionally immature are the most dangerous things that are on the face of the planet. And so, you know, that's where I was at, right? I mean, I was physically strong, I was mentally strong, but I was emotionally immature and weak. And I had to look in the mirror and I had to stop blaming my service, my past, and I had to come up with this way. And so, like, you know, I wrote this book on really, like, my transformation of getting myself out of this victimization mindset. This, you know, I mean, literally, I could come on here and I could be some alcoholic, and I could look at both you all, and I could be the biggest asshole. And I could be like, well, you guys don't know what it's like to watch your whole team get killed. What are you gonna say to me?

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Dakota Meyer]

You know what I mean? Exactly. Right? And in our society, it is acceptable to be the victim of your circumstances. I mean, how many People you see walking around blaming everybody else, their parents, their parents. Well, my dad didn't love me enough, you know, my mom didn't do this. It's like, dude, you're an adult. Like, at what point does this stop being your excuse? And so for me, like, until I went to what. And that's the mindset. It's all about framing the question. It's all about framing the perspective. And so like, that was ultimately what I wrote this book on. And I basically put together, you know, kind of my, at the basic level, my format of my thought process to be able to, to pull myself out of this, this place of just basically not a great representation of what I wanted to be.

[Michael Duncan]

So how you can go from like, why me? To why, what do I do to fix?

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, because I do believe, and I think a lot of things that people, I think everything starts with believe. Because what you will never achieve more than you believe. And I do believe that most people want to be good. I believe that most people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. I mean, I think every thing I see out there in America right now, people are so hungry to be part of something they want to belong, that, you know, that's what humans are. I mean, it's all of us, right? And so we want to be needed and we want to matter. And so I think that, you know, for me, I just kept looking in the mirror and I real quick, I became the exact thing that I was against and I had to look in the mirror. And the only person that was causing that and the only person that was going to change, it was me. But the problem is, is once you frame it into what now you have to start doing, you have to do something about it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

And. And I think, I think that can

[Michael Duncan]

be scary for people too.

[Dakota Meyer]

Well, I mean, I think the one thing you're going to have to accept in life if you truly want to become the best version of yourself is this one thing, is that for something to live, something must die. And so if you want the new version of you, the better version of you, the best version of you, the old version of you, has to 110 die. And that is the reality of it. And, and you know, and so I think that like, for me, like I wrote this book, I self published it for the reason that I didn't want it to be changed. I didn't want anybody else's opinions in it. I self published it, got it all

[Michael Duncan]

written out because this is extremely personal, obviously for you.

[Dakota Meyer]

And I think it matters. I, I do believe that anybody who reads. I was. And I was sick and tired of books that talked about, like, you should be better. Yeah, yeah. No, but how, right? What can I do to be better? Like, I know why I need to be better. You know, it changes every day, but what can I do to be better? And I was so sick of everybody walking around and having this flop of this honestly, emotional porn of, yeah, you should be better. You should be, you know, and that's motivation, right? And really what you gotta get dialed in on is discipline. And, you know, so I was, I was sick of it. And so I just, I wrote, Wrote my book and I got it out there and, you know, I, I believe that anybody who reads it will. And applies it will be better from it.

[John Ashbrook]

So I think people are going to want to read this book. Where do, where can people find it?

[Dakota Meyer]

So it's. Yeah, I mean, Amazon, you can get it off my website, you know, dakotamyer.com. but yeah, I mean, I, you know, and so, like, I wanted to put something out there to help people, some, some guide that I can be like, here, take this. You know, I, I talk about one piece in it. You know, one of the biggest things is, is everybody knows what they don't. Like. Like, if I look at you and I was like, hey, you know, what do you think about this? I don't like this. Okay, what do you like? You talk about putting people in mental pretzels.

[Michael Duncan]

Start, start.

[Dakota Meyer]

The biggest thing we can all do is start conversation shifting. Well, I don't know. I haven't thought about it. Well, I got it. Like, everybody can point out the misses, right? But nobody knows. Most people don't even know the target they're trying to hit.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I feel like people point out all the misses because they don't want to look at inward, at the Mrs. Within themselves.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah. You know, yeah. No, 100%. And I'm not, you know, we, we don't have to get into the whole biblical piece of it, but it's, I mean, that's, that's, that is the ultimate form. And the biggest thing that's killing the world right now is hypocrisy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

And it's toxic. And I was that. I was that. And that's ultimately what the defining moment that made me look in the mirror was a guy I respect. I walked in one day, we were working out, training, and he looked at me and he's like, you know, people look at you and they want you around because they look at what you did as a warrior and what you accomplished was because you're a warrior. And he's like, go look in the mirror. Like, do you see a warrior? And I was like, man. He goes, you drink every day. You want the warrior title? Like, absolutely. I want to be a man. I want to be a warrior. I want to be a father. Well, all these titles. And I talk about this in there, like, all the titles that we hold and we represent and we identify with, with. And he's like, well, do you. Do you. What, do you walk in the room and tell people that, like, you drink every day? So what. What. What do you call somebody who drinks every day when. Alcoholic? He goes, so you're an alcoholic? I'm like, oh, man. You know, and so it was just really that mirror, somebody holding up that mirror of this, you know, because we all do this factual blending of. Well, I'm too busy to work out. Well, you're also fat, right? And so it's like. It's like, I think the only thing we owe the world the only thing we owe the world and people around us is to be who we say we are, not who we want to be, but who we are. So it's like, look, if you're a piece of shit, say you're a piece of shit. If you are only doing this because you, for the money, say that. Don't say you care about. Don't factually blend that you care about other people or you're trying to make a difference in the world. Say you're here for you and that's fine, but, like, just be who you say you are. Quit trying to factually blend to make this look like something it's not. And you know, me, I used to walk around, I was like, ah, you know, love America. You know, you gotta honor your teammates. As I was running around drinking my face off being the biggest piece of shit, like, I expected everybody else to honor my teammates, but I was sitting here and, like, not even living a life that was worthy of their sacrifices. And it's like, in doing it by justifying it by their sacrifice is the most unbecoming thing I've ever seen in my life. And, you know, it's a hard pill to swallow, right? I write on my mirror every morning, or not every morning, but I write it once a week. When my mirror gets. When I clean my mirror, I go, what did you expect? And I look at that every day and I'm like, what'd you expect? You don't like what you see in the mirror. Well, let's talk about the decisions you've been making. What did you. Did you expect to see something different? Like when you were drinking or you were eating this or you were missing the gym, did you expect to see something different? When you stood on that scale, what did you expect? Did you expect it to go down? No. You knew, you know the answers to all these questions. And so it's like just. You can fix it. We can all control. We can control more in our life than. And the book ultimately comes down to this. It's a. It's trying to help you build the blueprint to live intentionally.

[Michael Duncan]

Awesome. No, I love that.

[John Ashbrook]

Me too.

[Announcer]

I love that.

[Michael Duncan]

Really great, great message. I gotta ask you about this. This was some news recently.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Some designs came out for the G. Watt Memorial here in Washington, D.C. saw some of these renderings, and. Well, let's just put one of them up there. All right, so this is like the overview. It sort of looks like a horseshoe.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And there's been a lot of controversy with these renderings being released that veterans of the global war on terrorism are lambasting it. Can we. Can we put up the. The second one here? This is where it gets really weird for me. It looks like something from the Museum of Modern Art.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

It's got, like, grass on the top of it. I don't know how you would mow that thing, but it seems weird to me.

[Dakota Meyer]

I mean, I think. That was not designed by a veteran. And if it was designed by a veteran, it was not designed by a veteran, whoever had to sacrifice in a way of being shot at. And I'm not trying to. I'm not trying to degrade anybody who wasn't shot at. But what I am saying is, is that if you set on a FOB and we appreciate everybody's job, but this should represent sacrifice. And the ultimate sacrifice is the people who gave their lives. And down from that is the people who gave their limbs and their injuries. And the next one down is the people who gave their peace at night and their innocence to what the world is and to. To that. And so, like, I do think that there isn't. Not all sacrifice is the same. All service should. Is. Is. Is equal, and we should be thankful for it, and it's needed. But not all sacrifice. Service, all service is the same, but not all sacrifice is the same. And I don't think that that. I mean, that looks like some. That Bernie Sanders would have came up with. I mean, you know what I mean? I mean, him and Greta Thornburg, like, I mean, or whatever her name is. It looks like they. Those two came together and said, oh, you know, let's. Let's put this thing together that represents. There's nothing about that. You know, these memorials and these remembrances are there to spark emotional ties and remembrance of. Of. Of what was given and what was sacred, like the sacred knowledge of combat.

[Announcer]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

I just don't understand why it has to be so abstract, you know?

[Dakota Meyer]

Well, because it's. That's. It's so.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, we were there for over 20 years. We know what this war was.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah, well, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, that. That ain't it.

[Dakota Meyer]

Look, that's. But here's what I want. I do want to say, and I do believe this. I think. I think there's a lot of people that. That is their perception of. That's how out of touch they are with this sacrifice. You know, we've blended, we've lived, we've created. You know, you got to take. We've spent a lot of time in the last 20 years of tearing down foundational pieces of principles. You know, there's been a lot of people out there who have been doing everything that they can to try to change the principles of the United States of America. There's no arguing that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

And they've done it through the form of politics. I mean, again, just like last night, the hatred or disagreeance of one man is. Is going to literally clear the judge, cloud the judgment of so many people who have power, whether it's media outlets or this or that, of what last night was about.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

Honoring our country.

[Dakota Meyer]

About honoring the country. I mean, being a patriot is. Is. Is considered a representation of one party.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Dakota Meyer]

Which is insane in itself. It's crazy. We got to back off, you know, and so that. That right there represents. In my opinion, I'm one person, but I would say you'd be hard pressed to find a veteran that can relate to that or that can sit here and say that that represents their service. I mean, other than. Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I appreciate you coming in here and sharing all your stories. Go out there and buy that book.

[Dakota Meyer]

Why?

[Michael Duncan]

Do what? Or why did that?

[Comfortably Smug]

Why?

[Dakota Meyer]

To what?

[Michael Duncan]

Why? To what?

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Got it wrong.

[Dakota Meyer]

Why?

[Comfortably Smug]

To what?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, but I love. I love the way you explained it. I think it's an important book for a lot of people. And. And it's obviously true that, like, the worst lies you tell are the ones you tell yourself.

[Dakota Meyer]

Yeah. I mean, look, I think everybody. I think one thing that we can all unite on is that ever. Every household, everybody is struggling with something. And I think until we put into stone that. That your uniqueness is not your. Your struggles, Your uniqueness is not your problems or your. What you're going through. Because nobody at this point in life is going through something that somebody else hasn't gone through and came through.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Dakota Meyer]

Your uniqueness is you and your ability to get through that and what you do with that later on. And I think we've gotta. We've gotta get back on that message. And we've got to. You know, I hate to say it, but. And it's way unpopular, but there can. If you live in the gray. The gray, and I talk about this in my book, is in the gray is where all your depression, anxiety. Because there's no way to get out of it. There's no right and wrong. It's. It's subjective. Look, everything in life is black and white. It's right or wrong. It's good or bad. It's getting you closer to your goals or it's taken away from it. Like, everything is black and white. It's just gray is there to keep you from having to deal with it and keeping you from going where you want to go. And I always say, you know, you know how you get gray. Right? I learned this in, like, the third grade. You take black and white and you mix it together where there's no definitive lines anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dakota Meyer]

And that's the enemy of everything that we are, everything that we as human beings are meant to be. And it's the enemy of everything. And so I just think that, look, I think we're all struggling. Everybody's got something they're going through, but it. Where you are doesn't mean that's where you have to stay. And I think that. Look, one step at a time and. Yeah, go. Go check the book out. Let me know what you think.

[John Ashbrook]

Awesome. Wise words, buddy.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you so much for joining us.

[Dakota Meyer]

Thank you so much for having me.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I. I don't know how you can listen to what he had to say and not be inspired, you know, I mean, he told you every last detail. And some of it was, you know, it's hard to hear, but that's how difficult the situation was that he and so many other guys like him that fought and gave everything on our behalf. And I just. I think it's a real treat to have a guy like him in. And I think it is so important to keep hearing those stories. And the absolute worst thing that can happen in our society is that people forget what they did can't happen. It cannot happen. So I just really appreciate him coming in and talking about it and I

[Comfortably Smug]

love how so much of America 250 is focused on remembering the folks who did serve and who are why we have this country. And I love that we had that interview. It's terrific.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it was great. Really, really inspiring. And it's an interview that really makes you think. Only here on the Ruthless variety program, Fellas, a great show. I think it's a banger.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to our guest Dakota Meyer and thank you to our listeners. Remember, if you have not yet go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith. Hold, hold the line and own the lids. We'll see you on Thursday. Stay Ruthless.