Democrat Caught in Another Massive lie? And Bill Barr Joins the Progrum

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Democrat Caught in Another Massive Lie? And Bill Barr Joins the Progrum
Date: December 19, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Bill Barr (Former U.S. Attorney General)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This “Variety Progrum” of Ruthless delivers a characteristically irreverent and sharp-edged analysis of current political news, viral moments, and the persistent “fake news” of the day. The episode breaks down Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest high-profile controversy, offers commentary on Eric Swalwell’s latest attempts at relatability, roasts Kamala Harris’s late-night comedy turn, and, in a standout segment, sits down with former Attorney General Bill Barr for an in-depth interview on Venezuela, climate “lawfare,” and the Epstein investigation. Throughout, humor and biting banter define the tone.

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Key Discussion Segments & Insights

1. Ilhan Omar’s ICE Story – Debunked (00:00–14:32)

• The episode opens with a clip of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar recounting her son allegedly being pulled over by ICE agents after a trip to Target.
  • Quote: “So your son went to Target last night with his passport.” – Josh Holmes (06:54)
• DHS/ICE quickly refute Omar’s claim, stating they have “absolutely zero record of [their] agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son.”
  • Quote: “ICE has absolutely zero record of agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son and have accused you of seeking to, quote, demonize ICE as part of a PR stunt.” – Bill Barr (09:01)
• The hosts skewer Omar for alleged habitual exaggeration, referencing past controversies and alleged fraudulent behavior.
  • Running Joke: “When she says son, she may actually mean neighbor. Sort of like when she says husband, she actually means brother.” – Michael Duncan (08:35)
• Discussion expands into the longstanding allegations and ongoing investigation regarding Omar’s family and immigration history.

Memorable Moments:

• (10:47): “She made a claim that her son was picked up by ICE. ICE looks into it and is like, there's no proof of this. She's confronted with this, and she's like, I have no proof that this happened.” – John Ashbrook
• (13:33): “I'm gonna be interested to see what [Tom Homan] finds. He seems like the kind of guy who gets to the bottom of this.” – John Ashbrook

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2. Eric Swalwell’s Taco Shop Video & Tex-Mex Debate (17:08–22:47)

• The hosts riff on a viral video of Rep. Eric Swalwell visiting a taco shop as part of his current campaign—lampooning the “cringy” efforts by politicians to appear relatable.
  • Quote: “Dems who try to like go on TikTok and act like they're just one of the kids—it never ends well.” – John Ashbrook (17:54)
• Tangent leads into a debate over authentic tacos vs. Tex-Mex and Cincinnati chili, with extended banter over food tastes and regionalisms.
  • Quote: “Tex Mex is trash. It's basically, you just take Mexican food and throw a can of Cheese Whiz on top of it.” – John Ashbrook (19:02)

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3. Kamala Harris’s Kimmel Interview: DOJ & Trump Files (23:47–29:18)

• The crew reviews a clip of Kamala Harris struggling to deflect a question from Jimmy Kimmel about unreleased files during the Biden administration.
  • Quote: “We strongly and rightly believe there should be an absolute separation between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did.” – Kamala Harris (23:46)
• Satirical deconstruction of Harris’s response, with emphasis on perceived hypocrisy concerning DOJ independence and the administration’s willingness to attack Special Counsel Hur when the findings weren’t favorable to Biden.
  • Quote: “Right up until the point where you criticize Joe Biden with a special counsel... Then he came back and said, like, I can't charge this guy because he's too old and frail.” – Josh Holmes (27:39)
• Collective agreement that mainstream late-night comedy has become thinly veiled Democratic PR.

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4. San Francisco’s "Managed Alcohol Program" for the Homeless (29:30–36:12)

• Hosts mock a $5 million / year San Francisco city program that gives free controlled doses of alcohol to homeless alcoholics, including kegs-on-tap.
  • Quote: “Inside the lobby, they had kegs to set up taps where they were basically giving out free beer to the homeless...” – Josh Holmes (33:07)
• Amazement that this “solution” costs $77,000 per participant, with little evidence of effectiveness.
  • Quote: “I have to think [full time inpatient rehab] is less than $77,000 a person, I would think.” – San Francisco Wolf (33:27)
• Jokes and dark humor abound about governance, misaligned incentives, and government inefficiency.

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5. Lightning Round: Listener Responses & Commentary (39:12–41:41)

• The hosts read and react to audience comments on “How do we get liberals on board with solving the problem of radical Islamic terrorism?” Notable responses:
  • “Drop a couple polls showing that extremist Muslims are suddenly identifying as Republicans in droves. The Dems will suddenly decide they are a threat to our democracy.” – Listener (40:01)
• Shared laughter over the idea of shifting partisan coalitions altering what is considered a “threat.”

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6. World Cup "Pride Match": Egypt vs. Iran in Seattle (41:45–48:43)

• The hosts delight in the irony of Seattle's World Cup "Pride Match" featuring two teams (Egypt and Iran) from countries where homosexuality is criminalized.
  • Quote: “It's featuring the team from Egypt and the team from Iran.” – Josh Holmes (43:00)
• Discussion of the inevitable culture clash and local progressive obliviousness to international realities.
  • Quote: “This is what they think is happening...being like belly of the beast.” – John Ashbrook (45:09)
• Running humor about “Gays for Gaza” and the paradox of left-wing support for anti-LGBT regimes.

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7. Feature Interview: Bill Barr (49:58–73:43)

A. Venezuela & Narco-Terrorism (50:38–56:48)

• Barr details parallels between Venezuela and the Panama/Noriega situation of the late '80s, emphasizing Maduro’s cartel running state-sponsored narco-terror.
  • Quote: “They do constitute a real national security threat... The law enforcement system will never work because the countries are complicit in these activities.” – Bill Barr (50:56)
  • Quote: “They have an operation going that includes Hezbollah... Their purpose is to put cocaine into the United States.” – Bill Barr (51:28)

B. Use of U.S. Force/Legal Authority (56:48–59:12)

• Barr walks through the legal justification for using military force against the Venezuelan regime and its facilitation of drug trafficking.
  • Quote: “If you decide to go after this enterprise, this lawless narco terrorist group, and use military force to do it, you can attack their transportation, their operations and so forth.” – Bill Barr (57:12)

C. Lawfare & Environmental Litigation (59:12–65:16)

• Analysis of Democrats’ aggressive legal strategies in using the courts to advance their climate agenda, tying up energy production and the American economy.
  • Quote: “Judges feel that they're equipped to make any decision from spanking a kid to going to war... So we've judicialized everything... America cannot get shit done.” – Bill Barr (59:56)
  • Quote: “They are trying to strangle energy the way they are, so we end up like Europe. And look at Europe... their economies are collapsing.” – Bill Barr (62:25)
  • Quote: “God bless these six Republican justices on the Supreme Court. They're all great, and they are basically the thing that's standing between us and oblivion, in my opinion.” – Bill Barr (64:31)

D. Supreme Court Succession Prospects (66:03–66:43)

• Barr briefly speculates on possible retirements (Thomas, Alito) but offers no insider information.

E. The Epstein Files & Trump (67:38–73:43)

• Barr strongly dismisses the idea that Trump had criminal involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, detailing years of civil/criminal investigation with “not one person” alleging wrongdoing by Trump.
  • Quote: “Not one person can come and say, you know, Donald Trump did anything wrong. In fact, Virginia, Jeffrey said he was very friendly and pleasant. Nothing happened.” – Bill Barr (69:20)
• Recounts personally informing President Trump about Epstein’s suicide in custody. Emphasizes bureaucratic incompetence, rebuffing conspiracy theories.
  • Quote: “I called the President and I said, ‘You won't believe this, but funny thing, Epstein committed suicide.’” – Bill Barr (71:54)
  • Quote: “Don't ascribe malice where stupidity is a sufficient explanation.” – Bill Barr (73:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start Time | |--------------------------------------------|------------------| | Ilhan Omar ICE controversy w/editors' jokes| 00:00 | | Omar responds to ICE denial | 09:01 | | Eric Swalwell taco shop / food debate | 17:08 | | Kamala Harris / Jimmy Kimmel DOJ segment | 23:47 | | SF homeless alcohol program | 29:30 | | World Cup “Pride Match” comedy | 41:45 | | Bill Barr Interview Begins | 49:58 | | – Venezuela & Narco-Terror Overview | 50:38 | | – Climate Lawfare/SCOTUS | 59:12 | | – Epstein Files | 67:38 |

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• (08:35) Michael Duncan: “When she says son, she may actually mean neighbor. Sort of like when she says husband, she actually means brother.”
• (23:46) Kamala Harris: “We strongly and rightly believe there should be an absolute separation...between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did.”
• (51:28) Bill Barr: “They have an operation going that includes Hezbollah...Their purpose is to put cocaine into the United States...explicitly are doing it to weaken the United States.”
• (59:56) Bill Barr: “America cannot get shit done. Look, the reason Trump has to do...some of the stuff he's doing is the immigration system doesn't work...”
• (69:20) Bill Barr: “Not one person can come and say, you know, Donald Trump did anything wrong. In fact, Virginia, Jeffrey said he was very friendly and pleasant. Nothing happened.”
• (71:54) Bill Barr (on Epstein): “I called the President and I said, 'You won't believe this, but funny thing, Epstein committed suicide.'”

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Tone & Language

• Irreverent, punchy, and often sardonic.
• Heavy use of inside jokes and cultural references.
• Relishes in the hypocrisy and absurdity of “the news” and current events.
• The Barr interview adopts a more serious, instructive tone, but humor prevails.

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Conclusion

This episode of Ruthless blends hilarious conservative banter and topical skewering with substantive, news-making insight from one of America’s most experienced legal experts, Bill Barr. The team exposes media narratives (Ilhan Omar’s ICE claim, Democratic legal tactics, progressivism’s collision with realpolitik), lampoons politicians’ pandering and bureaucratic folly, and pulls back the curtain on key legal and national security issues—from Venezuela to Big Climate lawsuits to the enduring Epstein rumors.

Listeners leave with a blend of comedic relief and candid analysis unavailable anywhere else.

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For further details, listen to these moments:

• Ilhan Omar’s ICE controversy: 06:40–10:50
• Kamala Harris DOJ defense: 23:35–28:59
• Bill Barr’s Venezuela analysis: 50:38–56:48
• Bill Barr on Epstein & calling Trump: 71:54–73:19

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

Let's start with Ilhan Omar.

[Ilhan Omar]

He did get pulled over by ICE agents and once he was able to.

[John Ashbrook]

She's talking about her son.

[Bill Barr]

ICE has absolutely zero record of his officers or agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar's son.

[Michael Duncan]

When she says son, she may actually mean neighbor. Oh, sort of like when she says husband, she actually means brother.

[Bill Barr]

Amazing.

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[Bill Barr]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. We're running out of these in 2025, so we're gonna make it count here. We've got a lot to laugh at. Democrats have another massive lie. Elon Omar in particular. You're going to love all of that. We got Bill Barr in the House. A bunch of variety fun things to laugh at. I am Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial. Fellas, let me start with a bar thing. So bars in here. And I found over the years that when you have somebody who has a resume of doing all of the things that whatever the political environment is of the moment, it's worth talking to somebody like this because they probably have a perspective on what is happening based on their own real life experiences. This guy was the Attorney General for George H.W. bush. They dealt with things and you're looking.

[Michael Duncan]

At Venezuela and he was involved in Panama back in the day. Not too dissimilar.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And so there's a similarity there and there's all kinds of. And then you get to know this guy and he's a 10 at 10.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He can tell a story, but he's also been involved in a whole bunch of things that are now current events. Epstein is one of them. Environmental extremism. He's got a hard opinion on that. He's going to share. So you're going to enjoy the heck out of that interview with some news and some things that I promise you, you have never heard before about a little under the hood. Look at some of the things that we have just previously discussed.

[San Francisco Wolf]

It's one of the most rewarding things about doing the ruthless Variety program is being able to bring somebody in with like just the stature of a Bill Barr in, in a freewheeling interview to talk about their experience and how it relates to stuff today. And there's not enough of that, I think, out there in the discourse.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, there's certainly not.

[NetChoice Advertiser]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well, and also people sort of self sabotage in many ways, like legends sort of self sabotage. And like Bill Barr, he's not a never Trumper. They had famous disagreements with the President of the United States, which are well documented. President Trump has reacted obviously in a very public way, but he's not. I mean, he's the same guy always has been. And his perspective on the last, you know, 40 years of American history and what we're going through now, very, very valuable. So you're gonna get all that and.

[Michael Duncan]

That'S what you get with the Variety program.

[Josh Holmes]

What's Variety?

[Michael Duncan]

The hottest, most influential podcast in Washington.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what they say.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Many people are saying, there you go.

[Josh Holmes]

You see, like even Mediaite, yeah, we.

[John Ashbrook]

Did make the most.

[Josh Holmes]

Bestowed the most influential status upon the little program that could.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I thought was funny? Did you happen to notice who won position number 69 on Mediaite?

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, it was a shared award, wasn't it? Yeah, it was.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Ryan Lizza and Olivia Nuzzy.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, come on. They knew what they were doing. They knew exactly what were doing. Dude, they got a better sense of humor than I thought they did. Yeah, everybody thinks they're so stiff and then you see something like that, you're like, it's funny.

[Michael Duncan]

I see what you're doing.

[Josh Holmes]

That is funny.

[Michael Duncan]

It is funny, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, well, we've had a good experience with Them, I mean, they, we, we understand, they understand where we're coming from and, and we know what their job is.

[Michael Duncan]

And so vice versa.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, let's, let's start with Elon Omar. I feel like boys self confess here. My people don't love being the center of national ridicule in Minnesota.

[John Ashbrook]

I think. It's not ridicule, it's Minnesota's being held accountable.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't disagree with that. And normally I'd like to argue with you about that because I like to stick up for my state. But some of this stuff is just richly deserved. Not to mention this lady who's the queen of all of it. She's basically like, what? I don't know if they have a president or a prime minister of Somalia, but she might as well be, you know, cause she's presiding.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I don't think they have much of a government at all.

[Josh Holmes]

It's evidenced by helicopter downings in the 90s. Yeah, they just continued. Anyway, so she got into a little bit of a, you know, she's always talking, which is one of the things I think that gets her in a lot of trouble. She's got like far left extremism positions or whatever, but she never like takes a beat, swings at every pitch. And like if you offer, you know, hey, come talk about this, she's like, no problem, always out there. So she has to fill content. Well, you'd be interested in one of the things that she tried to fill content with. Check out clip one.

[Ilhan Omar]

But yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by ICE agents. And once he was able to get his passport id, they did let him go.

[Josh Holmes]

So your son went to Target last night with his passport.

[Ilhan Omar]

He always carries it with him in.

[Josh Holmes]

Case he gets pulled over.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Which he did by ice.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes.

[Bill Barr]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, all right.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

So that's wcco. It's a local CBS affiliate. Familiar with it, famed in many ways. It's had a rich history of producing anchors that go on to big thing. Michelle Tafoya.

[Bill Barr]

That's right.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Oh yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, that long list of anchors who have anchored that particular. It's kind of like a hub of Midwest news.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Real farm system there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. And anyway, so she goes, it's a big audience in terms of Minnesota local stuff. And she's like, yeah, my son was pulled over by ICE agents and had to like, you know, work to do all of these things. And so the Department of Homeland Security can only imagine there are good friends over there. McLaughlin and all those people are like, hey, we need to look into that because that's a member of Congress. And like, this is something that we need to be aware of. So they did some homework. Graphic one. DHS says Rep. Omar son was not pulled over by ICE despite claims.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Oh, would you look at that?

[John Ashbrook]

You know, I'll give. I'll give credit to that local CBS affiliate. That lady seemed like. So your son always walks out of the house with a passport on him at all times. And yeah, yeah, it is a Tommy.

[Josh Holmes]

Whatever. Flanagan. Tommy Flanagan.

[Michael Duncan]

Pathological Liars Anonymous. But you know something? You know, I'm gonna stick up for Omar here.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I'd like to hear it.

[Bill Barr]

I am.

[Michael Duncan]

Because when she says son, she may actually mean neighbor. Sort of like when she says husband, she actually means brother.

[Bill Barr]

Amazing.

[John Ashbrook]

That's pretty good.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we're about to get it to all of that because that has progressed apace as well. But she was given an opportunity to sort of refute the dhs. In clip two, the Department of Homeland.

[Bill Barr]

Security says, and I'm quoting them, ICE has absolutely zero record of agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar's son and have accused you of seeking to, quote, demonize ICE as part of a PR stunt. Their words. What do you say to that?

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, if ICE is saying that they have documentation of every single person that they have pulled over in Minneapolis, we would love to see that record because we've certainly. Myself and the governor have been asking them to share information with us, the ways in which they have interacted.

[Josh Holmes]

What about the sun?

[Ilhan Omar]

They have not.

[Michael Duncan]

What about the zebra she killed for that headscarf?

[Ilhan Omar]

Amazing that they're able to put out this statement definite in saying definitely that they did not pull my son over when they haven't been able to answer anything else. And ICE has been known to lie when it comes to their enforcement.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Not you, though.

[Josh Holmes]

No. You know, she's never been accused of lying. I mean, but it's pretty incredible, right? You can ask a direct question. They're saying that your son was never pulled over. And she's like, oh, they have lists.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Oh, show me the TPS report.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, there's lists.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, shit, it's so amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

They told me I didn't have lists.

[John Ashbrook]

I want to clarify, because she spent 30 minutes running in circles. This is what happened. She made a claim that her son was picked up by ice. ICE looks into it and is like, there's no proof of this. She's confronted with this, and she's like, I have no proof that this happened. But if they're Proof that they've picked up all these other people.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Like, show me the proof it didn't happen.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing that's the next step is like, I want to see the proof that it actually didn't happen. It's like, why are you giving airtime to this lady? Right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

And Wolf, while you're at it, give me $8 billion.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I've got some friends back home.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, I mean, there's some light terror to fund.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah, that's what. That's what Maryland or that's what Minnesota does.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah, yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Incest and fraud.

[Josh Holmes]

Come on, now. I'm not gonna let that stand.

[John Ashbrook]

That should be the license plate.

[Josh Holmes]

We turn our elected leadership takes a blind eye towards the fraud. The incest, at least in one case is, you know, perhaps it's alleged.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Well, in a clarification, we don't actually know that the relationship is consummated. Maybe just the marrying of the brother was just for the immigration fraud, not actually consummating a relationship.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like the first 10 minutes. My God.

[Josh Holmes]

What is consummation? You think? Is that. Is that like, in the eyes of the government? Do you think that's an important step?

[San Francisco Wolf]

You know, I really hope not.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe there's a list and the darkest episode we've had. We have a list.

[Josh Holmes]

There's a list of that. There might be. You never know. Well, if there is, she's in an awful lot of trouble because there's been a ton of subsequent reporting. Free Beacon and others have done reports about this allegation that's gone back to how she and her brother received American status. And like, look, we're not in a position to verify one thing or another here. All we know is what we read. But allegations are real. Trump talks about it all the time about this allegation that has surrounded her. And according to Tom Homan, it's enough to take a look at. Clip three.

[Bill Barr]

Congresswoman, can I ask you your response to Tom Homan saying you're under investigation for immigration, possible immigration violations? Just any response you have to what he's saying in the public?

[Ilhan Omar]

I have a response because I don't know what they'll be investigating.

[Bill Barr]

So you don't think they would find anything?

[Josh Holmes]

Absolutely not.

[Bill Barr]

Why do you think they keep bringing this up in the media? Okay, all right.

[John Ashbrook]

So she confirms. It would be sick if true. That was a fair, fair questioning right there, to be honest.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I don't know who did that.

[John Ashbrook]

Is it like Ikolas Balsi at the top?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, very Familiar with his Twitter feed. That guy is constantly posting video.

[Josh Holmes]

So he's doing work, the shoe leather stuff. He deserves credit for that because that was a fair line of questioning, got elicited responses. And of course, the allegation is what we just covered. But at this point, Tom Homan has weighed in the king of all things immigration to say it's worth taking a look at.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm gonna be interested to see what he finds.

[Josh Holmes]

I am, too.

[John Ashbrook]

He seems like the kind of guy who gets to the bottom of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Kind of well, because there's never been a clear cut answer. It's not like. And I don't, you know, I mean, I just show some evidence one way or another. But it was a salacious claim when it first came out. It's like, yeah, she married her brother.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So they could both get.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I want to say it was. Over the past week, Elon's been like retweeting and tweeting a bunch of people who have.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[John Ashbrook]

So, like, that's, I think that's part of the reason that, like, Homan can look into this is that, like, there's, there's documentation one way or the other.

[Josh Holmes]

Many people are saying.

[John Ashbrook]

Many people are saying. And home is going to get to the bottom of it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So anyway, that, that's. We start off.

[John Ashbrook]

That's how we start on Funtime Friday.

[NetChoice Advertiser]

Yeah, that's.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what consummation. Is there a list of consummates?

[San Francisco Wolf]

We don't have proof of that, but Tom Homan's going to get to the bottom of that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. To Homan In Agenda 2026, a list of consummates is a part of the plan.

[Michael Duncan]

I sincerely hope it stops with people in her own generation.

[Josh Holmes]

I do, too. So anyway, coming up in our lightning round, Eric Swalwell back. You know how we love to make fun of this guy, but he's got more that you just cannot believe. Each and every week, he's got something for Fun Time Friday. I feel like he's like a producer on the show at some level. He's got great stuff. Kamala Harris came back out. She's doing late night television. You know, the fair and balanced, of course, the very bipartisan. Just fun, just comedy.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But she's made her way to Jimmy Kimmel. Cause that's what one does when you're just in the middle of the road, remember, for some laughs.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Remember, she couldn't do any interviews when she was running for president. But now the dance card's wide open.

[Josh Holmes]

He has asked her, maybe even unintentionally, a brutal question that she cannot answer. We have clips on all of it right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

Coach and an alum of girls on the run. Kids today carry a lot of stress from school pressure to social isolation to overuse of devices. We create a space where girls can connect, build confidence and learn skills like managing emotions, setting goals and speaking up. Each child's experience is different and families need support. I'm proud to be part of a comprehensive solution to youth mental health. Get involved [e-mail] okay so we got a little more and swalwell is what we tease us well is what we will provide it. It's always good but you know he's.

[Michael Duncan]

Running for governor wild to me and.

[Josh Holmes]

Like a big thing with the democratic part you got a silo off populations and make sure like divide and conquer. Nobody actually votes in their economic well being more you know, value based. It's just race.

[San Francisco Wolf]

It's identity.

[Josh Holmes]

It's identity and, and whatever and so he's got something forum clip 4 just.

[Bill Barr]

We'Re at the town hall at the Fresno Convention Center.

[Josh Holmes]

We had hundreds of people in the area and now I'm going to get.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Some local tacos at Dab Tacos.

[Josh Holmes]

How you doing? We are hungry and in need of tacos and beer. Seems like the place to go. Rolls Dab Tacos. Jesus.

[Bill Barr]

It's pretty good.

[John Ashbrook]

See this is what I was talking about when I had my like a list of grievances of like dems who try to like go on tick tock and act like they're just one of the kids like it. It never ends well. You always look ridiculous and stupid like that. And he's like can we get some tacos. And the person who's working there's like, who's this? Just like, order your damn food.

[San Francisco Wolf]

We're here for tacos and beer.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Something I do all the time. This is me. Authentic, man.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm here to appreciate all of the Mexicans. So I'm going to get a Texas taco. I mean, it's just like the most ridiculous thing of all time that this guy, you know, wants to see this.

[John Ashbrook]

Idiot just like chewing tacos. Like, half the video is him just like wolfing down tacos, looking like an idiot, sitting alone, having a meal. He's sitting alone at Dab Tacos, being like, looks good. And it's just like wolfing over, listening to this shitty music.

[Josh Holmes]

And I don't know, I like, I don't know the history of Dab Tacos, but the reason I said Texas, that was the most Tex Mex looking taco I've ever seen in my entire life. Like, I mean, we all know the difference between an authentic taco, which I'm not. I like Tex Mex better than I.

[John Ashbrook]

Think Tex Mex is trash.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you really?

[John Ashbrook]

It's just Tex Mex is basically, you just take Mexican food and you throw a can of Cheese Whiz on top of it.

[Bill Barr]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the cheese.

[John Ashbrook]

Especially in Austin, Texas, which has the worst Tex Mex.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Hold on.

[John Ashbrook]

In the country.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I mean, this is just blasphemy.

[John Ashbrook]

What's the truth?

[Josh Holmes]

What a necessity.

[San Francisco Wolf]

It's the truth.

[John Ashbrook]

What's the name of the place? Is it Trudy's or something like that? What's the name of the Chewy's? Not Chewy's. There's another place that's like, oh, go here. When you're in Austin, Texas, for the Tex Mex and it's like, get a good plate of Mexican food and just pour a can of Cheese Whiz on top of it. And they think they did something. It's like Cincinnati thinks they did something. Putting chili on spaghetti.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, you redeem yourself with that.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, it's like just making raccoon dumpster food doesn't, you know, make it unique or interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

I hear the shots and I understand that you are as pure of a taco man as they come, but I like Taco Bell and I don't care what anybody says, I love Taco Bell. I think it's delicious. I think it's delicious.

[Josh Holmes]

And we've talked about this a lot with Taco Bell, whatever your order was your, like, junior year of High school.

[John Ashbrook]

Is your order for the rest of your life.

[Michael Duncan]

It's so true.

[Josh Holmes]

And, like, they'll take it off the menu, but you can still order it.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Mine was a double decker with nacho cheese.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I. I like.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't serve double deckers, but they can make you one.

[Michael Duncan]

Three tacos.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah. The supreme or the regular?

[Michael Duncan]

Regular.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Oh, I like the spaghetti.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he doesn't like the flavor.

[San Francisco Wolf]

He doesn't like the flavor.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I just don't like flavor.

[San Francisco Wolf]

He hates flavor. He wants just the dog food. Ground beef. He doesn't want to trollop it up with sour cream.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't want the.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want the sour cream.

[Bill Barr]

I don't need the trollop.

[Michael Duncan]

The ground beef does it.

[John Ashbrook]

He's like, I eat spaghetti with chili. You think I got taste.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't get you. Make fun if you want.

[John Ashbrook]

You think I mean different.

[Josh Holmes]

Red water over noodles.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Why does he deny himself flavor?

[Michael Duncan]

It's delicious.

[Josh Holmes]

He denies himself flavor all the time.

[Michael Duncan]

I love flavor.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, they have nothing in Cincinnati. He's like, why do I need flavor.

[Michael Duncan]

Now they have everything.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Ashford eats like he's in the Great Depression.

[Michael Duncan]

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with steaks. Nothing wrong with steaks, buddy.

[John Ashbrook]

My.

[Josh Holmes]

My long since past grandmother ate very similar to, like, the.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, that's. It's like if. If you survived hard times of the.

[Josh Holmes]

Steak, where you go, like, medium well because the steak is probably six weeks old.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is, like, if you survive hard times, but that's like, Cincinnati is endless hard times. If we're getting the people who escape from there, it's like they make it a point of pride of, like, the horrific poverty conditions. They came. They're like, you know, I still like my food the Cincinnati way, where we put a trash can on top of spaghetti. And that's our chili. We're proud of it. It's like, you know, you can be happy with life now that you've escaped. Like anyone who's made it out of Cincinnati, live your life. You know, it would be like that.

[Michael Duncan]

It is delicious. It is delicious. I will not apologize for a single thing. But if anybody listening to this wants to know the genesis of these shots about depression and Ashbrook's food takes, it's because I told them a few nights ago when we were at dinner that I like margarine. If I can have margarine on bread, I would take it. Margarine, chocolate chip cookies. I will take it. It's delicious. It's delicious. It's not Maha. But it spreads so easily.

[Josh Holmes]

Stop talking about it, man. I love Somebody is bleeding with aspirin to stop the bleeding. No. Put a tourniquet on it.

[Michael Duncan]

There is no bleeding.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, your wife has done such wonderful things in trying to make you a normal person. Go back to Cincinnati. Of like, no, I like the garbage.

[Josh Holmes]

She's also from Cincinnati, but she is not.

[John Ashbrook]

But she's not one of these people who wear it on their sleeve. I guess that's her. She realized when you escape those conditions, you know what I mean? It's like the people can't. Who can't adjust when they get out of jail. She spent Cincinnati. People just can't adjust.

[Josh Holmes]

She's not.

[John Ashbrook]

But they're always going to be bad.

[Michael Duncan]

She's not. Not with me on the margarine. Definitely not with me.

[Josh Holmes]

So red from Shawshank from Cincinnati.

[John Ashbrook]

Just can't get over it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it is good.

[Michael Duncan]

It's good.

[Josh Holmes]

Margarine is nothing for me.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, you don't need Cincinnati anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

Margarine is good.

[Josh Holmes]

All right. So Kamala Lizzo, we've had enough fun with swalwa. Kamala's back. And like, I just find it completely hilarious that we just went through like a month of debate about whether or not Jimmy Kimmel was like a real show, whether he did a comedy show. And like, you look at the guests for like 95% just average Democrat. They'll bring like a rank and filer up that doesn't even have a committee position, right? And they'll be like, oh, look at this great guy. And it's unfunny and shitty. And they'll be like, oh, yeah, this is is great. This is what we do. And this is the future network comedy television, right? A Johnny Carson time slot. And they're like, okay, well, we're into. So Kamala was who no one wants to hear from. Literally no one has booked herself on this show. And she comes out and it's going to. She thinks it's going to do what it's going to do. Not quite.

[Bill Barr]

Clip 5 why didn't the Biden administration release those files? Was that something that they felt would look bad while with running against this guy or why didn't they come out.

[Josh Holmes]

During your administration to give you an answer that will not satisfy your curiosity? I will tell you, we perhaps to our damage, but we strongly and rightly believe that there should be an absolute separation between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, really?

[Josh Holmes]

Absolutely adhere to that. And it is Right.

[John Ashbrook]

That's such an insane take. You know, the audience is shouting or.

[Josh Holmes]

Groaning, like, independent of any political or personal. No, no. Vendetta.

[John Ashbrook]

You mean like a Mar A Lago.

[Josh Holmes]

Race and that's the way it worked?

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, that's how it worked, dude. Like, we all forgot the, like, 900 cases that were brought up against Trump and Biden. Hilariously, this was after he called Trump supporters trash. And then Trump drove in the dumpster, the trash truck. After that, Biden was like, we gotta lock Trump up. And this is like, after Kamala's taken over, he still ruined it for her because he's admitting what every Democrat knows. They weaponized the legal system against Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

But also, just as a point of fact, there were members of the Biden administration's Department of justice that relocated during a certain point of time. They were working at the Department of justice in Washington, D.C. overseeing federal justice. That, of course, is blind and had absolutely no interaction whatsoever with the White House. And they just so happen to be reassigned to Manhattan with Letitia James. And a couple of charges that dropped up there, which is quite obvious. About what? The intention. You're telling me that the Department of Justice just decided to, like, get rid of their top brass and send them to the place where they were bringing felony charges against the President, United States.

[San Francisco Wolf]

What a coincidence.

[Josh Holmes]

What a coincidence. And then we read recently about how the Mar A Lago raid in and of itself has a lot of questions about it, because there are people who felt as though there wasn't probable cause for anything, and somebody signed off on it. Now there's a big back and forth about who signed off. I think we know.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Or like, set Donald Trump aside for a second and think about that. The fact the Biden administration, from the podium were attacking special counsel her for merely stating. I don't know, man. Biden seems like he. He might be too old to be prosecuted.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[San Francisco Wolf]

And they attacked him viciously.

[Josh Holmes]

Great point.

[John Ashbrook]

All the journals jumped aboard with them. All the journals jumped aboard. When the Journal had that article where they're like, Biden's looking kind of old. The Biden administration got all these journals to go after them.

[San Francisco Wolf]

The independence and the purity of the Department of Justice. And now let me harangue this man, you know, public from the podium of the White House.

[Josh Holmes]

The point that you just raised is the one. Right. Because there's. Everything else is muddy and they've. They've figured out how to cover tracks where you can't just, like, smoking gun, something. We may get there on a Couple of these different things. But the idea that. Her answer right there. Well, we just respected the Department of Justice entirely. Right up until the point where you criticize Joe Biden with a special counsel that, oh, by the way, you yourself, as an administration supported. And then he came back and said, like, I can't charge this guy because he's too old and frail. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And they went from the White House podium with the White House spokesperson for the President of the United States directly at the credibility of the person working for the Department of Justice. And then now you turn around, you're like, well, we never, never would do that. He would never.

[San Francisco Wolf]

The sanctity of the thing. I mean, it's all on.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all. It's all just a public record.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, what a clown.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Clown. Also, you know, Jimmy Kimmel's is back on television, so the fascism has been defeated in America.

[Michael Duncan]

I was reliably.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's that kind of scintillating comedy.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

It's that kind of scintillating comedy that keeps people coming back.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But she. I mean, to the, to the underpoint that I think we've made several times on this program, and you're going to hear from later with Bill Barr, they didn't release the Epstein files. And she's claiming we never looked at them. Right, right. They weren't interested at all in any of that. No. And it's because of the obvious that there was no culpability there. If there was, we would have heard everything about it. But that is the underlying pin. I can't believe he actually asked her that question.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it must have been.

[Josh Holmes]

You notice the way he phrased it? It was like. Did you just think that? Like, can we play it one more time? I actually, this is.

[Bill Barr]

Why didn't the Biden administration release those files? Was that something that they felt would look bad while running against this guy?

[Josh Holmes]

Listen to that frame.

[John Ashbrook]

He framed it 100% of.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, he preferred.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, Trump would have something that he'd be scared of.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

He provides the cop out.

[Josh Holmes]

He frames it in a way that Trump has a liability.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

In that. Yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

You didn't release them because you, Madam Vice President, you just have so much integrity. You wouldn't release these.

[Bill Barr]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They do. It would look. It would look bad.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, it's great.

[Josh Holmes]

Why would it look bad?

[Michael Duncan]

It's great comedy. You know, everybody's laughing in the audience. Everybody. Everybody's tuning in at home.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like a Dave Chappelle show.

[Michael Duncan]

That's exactly right.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Anyway, just as good.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so the next thing we have to get to here. This is fantastic. So, San Francisco Wolf, your people, your people.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Look what they've done.

[Josh Holmes]

So they're getting slammed again. This is according to New York Post. If we can pop up this headline, they're slammed for a $5 million a year program to give free alcohol to the homeless, quote, unquote. This isn't working. Oh, no shit.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it depends on your goal.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it does, actually.

[San Francisco Wolf]

My God, that's dark.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I thought I took us to the dark place.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it does depend on the goal at some level. A program that offers free booze to the homeless alcoholics that roam San Francisco caught flack this week when a tech CEO questioned the logic of feeding the addictions of the city's street dwellers. Adam Nathan, a founder and CEO of small business AI marketing tool Blaze and the chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco. I mean, he's also a philanthropist who's, like, looking around. He's like, what are we doing here? He posted a thread on X slamming the program after watching a string of unhoused drunks line up for shots. Shots.

[John Ashbrook]

They're medicine. It's a clinic.

[Josh Holmes]

Stating it just doesn't feel right. Yeah, no kidding. Nathan, did you know that San Francisco spends $2 million a year on a managed alcohol problem? He undershot it by 3m, by the way, when he gave that quote. Yeah, it provides free alcohol to people who struggle with chronic alcoholism and are mostly homeless. Nathan wrote on the social media site. His estimates were actually just 40% of the total cost. The program was described by the Chronicle. Sees nurses to dispense controlled doses of vodka and beer to street people at specific times in the day. I would love, love to know, because, you know, like any government. You know, like any government program, you got to study the shit out of it first. Right? Because they have to.

[Bill Barr]

They have to.

[Michael Duncan]

So you're saying they have to try it?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, no, they have to take a third of the budget out for administration because they got to figure out how to pay themselves to administer the program. Right.

[San Francisco Wolf]

A working group.

[Josh Holmes]

So. But what that is supposed to do. Like, I'm just reading between the lines here. When you. When they talk about how the controlled doses at certain times of the day, they're like, what time?

[San Francisco Wolf]

Think of how much the person who came up with controlled doses got paid. You're talking about a shot. You mean a shot. A shot of alcohol, controlled doses. I hope that PR firm got paid on that.

[John Ashbrook]

So this story gets even crazier and how badly they administered this program when it says the program started with 10 beds and has now grown to 20, the Chronicle reported over the four years.

[Josh Holmes]

When does that become a part of cause?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, you have it on doses.

[Michael Duncan]

You're trying to lean back after they're dosed.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, you're trying to have a good time. You get a few shots of alcohol and a few beers. You might want to take a little bit of a nap until your next dose. But it says it served 65 clients total, the report says, with the goal of keeping the participants out of the ER So they're like, maybe some cots and some booze will help that.

[Josh Holmes]

I have so many questions.

[John Ashbrook]

That's 77,000 per person they spend on this.

[Josh Holmes]

$77,000 in alcohol per person on this program. I have so many questions, starting with if there's only 65 people enrolled in this. What do you think the criteria is to be involved in the alcohol program?

[John Ashbrook]

Be friends with someone who works at the agency? Pretty much like, you know, oh, you know, my cousin, he's a bum. He just drinks all day. But at least he's not doing it on the family's dime anymore. I got him into a program I administer. So he just shows up on the cot and I bring out vodka to him, and then I feel good about myself. That's how government works.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen to this quote. Inside the lobby, they had kegs to set up taps.

[John Ashbrook]

Amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

Where they were basically giving out free beer to the homeless who'd been identified with an alcohol use disorder.

[Bill Barr]

What?

[John Ashbrook]

It's set up so people in the program just walk in and grab a beer and then another one all day. Amazing.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Dude, look, I don't know what full time inpatient rehab costs for alcohol abuse. I have to think it's less than $77,000 a person, I would think.

[Josh Holmes]

I think the most bougie Hollywood rehab center is going to probably get you in for less than like 100 grand, you know, I mean, I would think.

[San Francisco Wolf]

And that that comes with spa service and all that, right?

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you probably get a Robin tug for all that, but like the.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Well, maybe.

[Bill Barr]

Mom.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I'm sorry, Mom.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, it's San Francisco.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, you never know what the.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, you might. You might have to compromise a few moralistic issues there in the process, but you're probably going to get serviced one way or another. Hey, it's a free shot of vodka.

[Michael Duncan]

I hear this, and it sounds to me Open kegs. Well, to your point, it sounds to me like a nationwide campaign plank for. For Gavin Newsom when he's trying to make inroads into the SEC campuses around.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh. He's like, I used to do this for free.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, I think he walks into Oxford, Mississippi, and he's like, listen, I'm gonna set up a program. We have free alcohol for everybody. You just have to vote for me. And they're gonna be like, yeah, yeah.

[San Francisco Wolf]

It's like Tammany hall and the Irish.

[Bill Barr]

Right?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, true. Pretty much the same program.

[Bill Barr]

It's true.

[Michael Duncan]

Gavin Newsom wins the state of Mississippi.

[Josh Holmes]

We always used to make fun of, like, the. The clean needle thing.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Where they were like, well, we can't stop them from doing drugs. We just got to make sure that they do it safely or whatever. This is in a different level.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a lot cheaper. But the thing is, again, like, you know, there's that saying that, like, systems do what they're supposed to. The question is, like, what have you set the system up to do? If they're trying to get rid of the homeless that are alcoholics, why don't they just give them the unlimited vodka? You know, like, oh, my God, that's dark. If you have 20 available COTs, be like, we listen. It's not kegs of booze, it's kegs of vodka.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the Christmas season cried out loud.

[John Ashbrook]

No one leaves this room alive.

[Josh Holmes]

A fight to the death.

[John Ashbrook]

20 guts.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

[Josh Holmes]

The Christmas. Merry Christmas.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Comfortably. Scrooge.

[Josh Holmes]

That's so good. It leads us to our question of the day, which is, what are you drinking? If it's on the house, great. And by. On the house, it's on the stage. State or city?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, great question.

[John Ashbrook]

Good question.

[Josh Holmes]

What are you going to drink? I'm going to have a lot of whatever it is, but I'm certainly not. I mean, can you imagine the vodka that they're providing? I can't imagine. That's top shelf stuff.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Aristocrat.

[John Ashbrook]

77,000 a person. Might be.

[Josh Holmes]

It actually might be. No, you're right. You're only talking about 65 people. They might be serving the good stuff.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah, it's probably.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like. And here is a shot of Pappy Van Winkle. Enjoy it to your heart's content.

[San Francisco Wolf]

I think it's probably the leftover. I think it's the. Probably the leftover. Leftover Ciroc. Not a lot of people drinking the Diddy alcohol anymore.

[Josh Holmes]

We haven't had one of those in a while. I watched the documentary. There's plenty to talk about. Well deserved.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Blast.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it is. So that's our question. What are you drinking? If it's on the house when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we read all of your comments and get back to you the very next episode. Feel free to weigh in on all that. And with all that said, I feel like the synapro time to talk about the drinking. And if you're going to be doing that, you ought to take Zbiotics.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. Great friend of the program, Zbiotics. Basically, folks, this is before you have a good time, before you're gonna go out, have a few drinks. You have a Zbiotics. Because a lot of times people think you feel, you know, rough the next day because you're dehydrated, so you're like chugging Gatorade. None of that does anything. Well, what you're actually supposed to do is have a Zbiotics before, because when you drink alcohol, you. It breaks down in your body into this, like, toxic byproduct. And Zbiotics knocks all of that right out.

[San Francisco Wolf]

And smug knows what he's talking about. This man is not only talking about it on the show, he's talked about it in real life.

[Josh Holmes]

He's the Willy Loman. He's the Zbiotic.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Quite a salesman. Their number one salesman at Zbiotics is comfortably Smug.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, whenever we go to, like, an event or we're on the road, I have like a sleeve of Zbiotics on me at all times. Because, like, there's still somehow so many people who have not heard about Zebiotics. And, like, if you're gonna go out, have one of these and thank me in the morning. And we've gotten so many tweets, he doesn't fucking listen.

[Josh Holmes]

He thinks that everybody's gonna come thank him in the morning, and they do.

[John Ashbrook]

But I'm owed the thanks for being right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. When he starts the pitch, you're like, next thing he's gonna open his coat and be like, set a steak knife. But then the next morning, they always show up and they're like, you were right.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So when you go to zbiotics.com ruthless and learn more about all of that, you put 15% off when you add Ruthless into the checkout counter. Zebiotics is backed by 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, they're gonna refund your money. No Questions asked. You're not gonna need that. Remember to head to zbiotics.com ruthless and use the code ruthless at checkout for 15% off. All right, our question of the day from last episode. What's it gonna take? How do we get liberals on board with solving the problem of radical Islamic terrorism? We've talked about this far too often over the last couple of weeks, but it truly is amazing about how every time this comes up, it's a Michigan problem, or it's a gun problem, or it's a, you know, foreign policy, we like to protect ourselves problem. Like, all the things that they can come up with, except for saying, like, maybe there is a Islamic jihadist element that we should take a closer look at and do something about. We asked you when you like and subscribe. You provided us your answers. And to do that, we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

First one comes from Falcon Lancer. Falcon writes, there is no way to get the Democrats on board. Look at Europe, Australia, Canada. They don't care. It's part of their agenda. The Democrats ideology is more important to them than America.

[Josh Holmes]

It seems that way, Falcon. It seems that way.

[Michael Duncan]

What a great name too, by the way. Falcon Lancer.

[Josh Holmes]

If that's the real name, that dude is just Scorpion.

[Bill Barr]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine that name in high school?

[John Ashbrook]

Falcon Lancer.

[Josh Holmes]

You would have to beat him off with a stick.

[Bill Barr]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And by beating him off, I mean the women. I don't mean Merry Christmas. Sorry, Falcon. You know, he loved it. You know, Falcon loved it. Coming to dunks or unks.

[San Francisco Wolf]

This is from Hermana de Maria Arepa. Drop a couple polls showing that extremist Muslims are suddenly identifying as Republicans in droves. The Dems will suddenly decide they are.

[Josh Holmes]

A threat to our democracy. That's 100% true.

[San Francisco Wolf]

And they will reclassify them as Middle Eastern white supremacists.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, this is 100% true.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a great point.

[John Ashbrook]

They did the same thing to, like, Latino men after election day, when they turned out for Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, obama did it to black.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Where he was like, what's up with this? And, like, all of a sudden, black men were the enemy of the Democratic Party. But you're entirely right. I mean, that dude.

[Bill Barr]

What a.

[John Ashbrook]

That would do it.

[Josh Holmes]

That is true. All of a sudden it would be like, they'd be like, all for mass deportation. Yeah, like, get him out of here. We need more French. There's a crisis in Paris. Let's ship them over here and have them vote in Dearborn.

[John Ashbrook]

Comment 3 Comment 3 is from Curmudgeon. Curmudgeon writes, take away the money that radical Islam is giving to the Democrat communists. He's not wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's not wrong. That's not bad either. It's good stuff. Thank you for weighing in on all of that. When you like and subscribe, we read all of them. Next in Variety, a Pride themed World cup match. It's complicated. Yeah, it's complicated. We at the Variety program, for all the obvious reasons when we get to this story, find this to be one of the most hilarious things that we've seen in a long time. We have the details right after this. Okay, so look, you've followed the news. I'm an American, so don't follow this all that closely. But Duncan does that. There's a World cup here next summer.

[San Francisco Wolf]

We're hosting it. Have a little pride.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, America's hosting.

[John Ashbrook]

I think that's exactly what this is about.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. That is what it's about. But it's in, in cities, in states throughout the country, Midwest, east coast, west coast, they spread things out. And so there's a bunch of different matches in the way that they're sort of branded, if you will.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

And on June 26, the Seattle group contingent is hosting a match at Lumen Field. I think that's the Seahawks.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Seahawks stadium.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think that's the Seahawks stadium.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Good venue.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a good venue like always been and I imagine for a soccer crowd, a good place to go to. A bunch of libs out there.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Euro supremacists routinely over credited for crowd noise.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep, routinely. Routinely. Anyway, they have the distinction of hosting the quote unquote, pride match.

[John Ashbrook]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And just in case you thought they got their vernacular wrong, it's just a gay celebration.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, oh, Gay pride. Okay. It is. It's okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Which was particularly interesting when the teams were assigned to the Pride match.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, boy.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's featuring the team from Egypt and the team from Iran.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Okay.

[Bill Barr]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I wonder, like, first off, are they going to keep this? Yeah, because I know, I know these, these countries are not going to be pleased with being like, hey, we're the rainbow match for Pride Day over there. Secondly, is, is the World cup going to be like, oh, okay, well, like backpedal on this and like reassign it and not be like, oh, dear, why are you such bigoted nations? Like, how does this end up?

[Josh Holmes]

No, because they can't say that because they're on their side.

[John Ashbrook]

That's.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a pro Palestinian like, if you ask anybody in Seattle, but the pro Palestinian movement index is over 80%. So you can't acknowledge the obvious, which is the Iranians and the Egyptians are pissed. They are furious about this. But according to a local news station, Seattle organizers say the pride match programming was planned well before the teams were assigned and organized by Seattle FWC 26, independent of FIFA, to celebrate Washington state pride events and create lasting cultural impact.

[Michael Duncan]

So it sounds like they're sort of apologizing for. They're excusing scheduling rather than like, for example, if this was like a Republican event and they were like, no, no, no, we have a local thing that we have to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They'd be like, oh, the Republicans are rejecting what we're doing. But they're like, nah, you know, we scheduled a.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we did it before. We didn't realize their cultural objections to all that. But we have to go forward anyway. Anyway, Mehdi Taj, he's the head of Iran's football federation. You can imagine he has something to say about this. And indeed he does. He called the branding irration an irrational move. Iranian state television and Tehran would appeal to FIFA and the Egyptian Football association. And they wrote to FIFA rejecting activities supporting homosexuality during the match. During the match that, like, I mean.

[John Ashbrook]

Look what's happening in those stands.

[Josh Holmes]

It is long been the case, and we've argued completely absurdly that Major League sports, across hockey and baseball and whatever, they've had Pride days, which we find completely absurd. But I don't think anybody has accused anybody of operating sexually during that. This is like, this is what they think is happening.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like belly of the beast. Like, so it says right here that Seattle Pride Fest, which attracts over 200,000 participants, will follow the match on 27 June with community programming and art displays proceeding. So, like, this is kicking off like pride week in Seattle where like 200,000 people show up.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And like, I hope they keep these teams. This is going to be incredible, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the best thing of all time. FIFA faces renewed scrutiny after the Pride matches. Egypt and Iran criminalize same sex relations. I mean, this is now new news to the people of Seattle.

[John Ashbrook]

By the way, I'd love to get.

[San Francisco Wolf]

A statement from the gays for Gaza. Yeah, I wonder what they think about this.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's weird that irony is now all of a sudden becoming a reality to these people because Iran can impose the death penalty for gay stuff. Right? I mean, that's just like part of their law there. So they're challenging FIFA's neutrality and anti discrimination rules on the other side.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Hilarious.

[Michael Duncan]

It's ridiculous. Dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude. I mean, just think about the irony, the grand irony, given the debate that we've had over the last year about these nations, Iran in particular, about their total lack of Western values in any real and meaningful way. And then you get a left wing which is basically arguing the most sadistic and weird stuff on the planet, being like, no, we're for Iran, right? Gays for Gaza, gays for whatever. Like, this is our thing. We love it. And then the actual country, we are filing a complaint like, we hate Israel, which is like the only place in the Middle east that allows gay people to operate. We hate Israel. We love Iran. Hamas, Hezbollah. Gays for Gaza. Let's go. And then we're like, all right, we're going to slap a pride parade on your soccer match. And they're like, well, fuck, no, no, we can't have it. We can't have it. We're going to appeal this. We can't. It's discrimination that you're coming after us for. Our long held views statutorily in place that we execute people who are doing this kind of thing. And like, I can only imagine the head explosion that's going on to the extent that like local activists understand what.

[Bill Barr]

It is that they're doing.

[John Ashbrook]

If there's any local conservative activists in the city of Seattle, I suggest you try to get involved on the like local planning commissions or whatever they set up for this and try to make the halftime show for this soccer match.

[Josh Holmes]

The, the parade, the gayest.

[John Ashbrook]

The parade come through the stadium.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I think the local community.

[Josh Holmes]

Was tolerant here in the upper Midwest.

[John Ashbrook]

The local supporting upper Northwest appreciate that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, I think they should do as much gay stuff as they could possibly do on the field.

[San Francisco Wolf]

And otherwise, I think, I think gay. I think gay pro Palestinian activists are learning a lesson we all learned as young sports fans. Never meet your heroes.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, that's good, dude. That's good, that's good.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so. The irony is so great. You know what's funny though? Nobody's going to follow up. This would be a fantastic. If you were like a real cbs, abc, NBC evening news, this would be a real magazine story that you tack onto the evening news about the contradiction of culture here and that the most supportive of your terrorism are people who have just come to realize that you'll execute them on the spot if they are who they are.

[Michael Duncan]

It's real conflict.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean? It'd be a Great piece. And you get like back and forth little interviews. They're like, yeah, we execute. That's in our laws. And they're like, I don't think they mean it.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah, you know, not so sure Death to America is just a slogan.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, no, no. It's all, it's a political discussion. We're gonna move the ball legislatively. Hilarious. All right, so we got a great, great, great, great interview. Bill Barr, former two time Attorney General. I want to welcome to the program an old friend of the program. I think this might be the second or third time we've had him on. He's the two time Attorney General of the United States, Bill Barr. How are you, sir?

[Bill Barr]

Great. Great to be here, Josh.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's great to see you. There's a lot of important topics. It turns out that when you're facing international crisis in matters of legality and things, there's some wisdom behind talking to people who have gone through this sort of thing before and seen the movie and watched how it's played out and maybe getting some insight into what it is that we are about to embark upon. And there are a few issues that we want to talk to you about. The first one that we really haven't delved into too deeply, but I think is an issue that like, honestly seems like it's heating up and it's Venezuela.

[Bill Barr]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And I know that you were Attorney General back when the United States was involved in Panama, Manuel Noriega days.

[Bill Barr]

There are some similarities, a lot, a lot of parallels. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And I'm just wondering your thoughts on all of this.

[Bill Barr]

Well, you know, I felt for a long time, even in the first term, I talked to President Trump about it, I've written since then about it, that we do have to start looking at these narco terrorist groups and cartels as national security threats, not as, you know, criminal matters, that we're going to prosecute these guys one by one. There are a lot of reasons for that. They do constitute a real national security threat. And the law enforcement system will never work because the countries are complicit in these activities.

[Josh Holmes]

So is it that, let me just ask, as a threshold question, complicity, I think we have plenty of proof on. It's either looking the other way or outright endorsing narco terrorist behavior and trade and whatnot. I mean, your sense about Venezuela, it might be all the above.

[Bill Barr]

Well, we indicted them in 20, 20, 15 of them for running a criminal enterprise, starting with Maduro and his henchmen. They set up their own cartel. The Cartel of the Sun. They're in league with the cocaine cartels in. In Colombia, with Mexico, Hezbollah. And they have an operation going that includes Hezbollah, is that right? Yeah. And their purpose is to put cocaine into the United States. And when we indicted them, we said that we had evidence that they explicitly are doing it to weaken the United States. This is not just making money for them.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Bill Barr]

It's not a commercial group of criminals. They make money, but they were also doing it for ideological reasons and to weaken the U.S. yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So, I mean, it sounds like an act of war in many ways. I mean, if we're talking about a simple drug trafficking operation that is about trying to print some dollars, nefarious as that might be, that is in a category by itself.

[Bill Barr]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But when you're talking about the intent, as you've laid out here, to actually weaken American, it may go beyond cocaine. We might be talking about fentanyl and everything else at this point too.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. They facilitate the activities of the Mexican cartels. They facilitate Hezbollah's involvement in financing of these activities. They fly the stuff up themselves through Central America into the United States. So, you know, it's a big enterprise. Furthermore, they are a base for Hezbollah in our hemisphere.

[Josh Holmes]

So, I mean, that's international in nature. I mean, we're talking about. It's not just a Venezuela in and of itself and the cartels associated with it, but it is a business proposition for whatever reason, with America's enemies. Terrorist organizations known to attack America and our allies like Hezbollah.

[Bill Barr]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That are now. That's a facilitator.

[Bill Barr]

Right. And they have Russia. It's a. They have Russians. They're helping them with their military stuff, setting up air defense systems. The Chinese have a presence, so they've. They're in league with all. Yeah, all our enemies.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Bill Barr]

So it is a national security threat.

[San Francisco Wolf]

The, the Hezbollah component of this, I think is interesting because as I recall that there was a huge investigation into the drug trafficking by Hezbollah, this global network that during the Obama administration, they stopped because they were in the process of that Iran nuclear deal. And they didn't want to get crossways on investigating Hezbollah at the same time they were pursuing the nuclear deal with Iran.

[Bill Barr]

Right.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Which, you know, I think is a huge.

[Josh Holmes]

Neutered our ability to take care of.

[San Francisco Wolf]

A huge scandal of our time, really.

[Bill Barr]

Right, I agree. And the other thing is, just like Panama, this is not a legitimate government. The United States does not recognize him as a legitimate leader. And for good reason. Just like Noriega, Noriega suppressed an election a Free election. He declared victory when he wasn't the victor. And same thing happened here. And the United States has not recognized them. A lot of people don't realize that under our law, the president's decision as to who is the legitimate government is dispositive. That is the law of the United States. So they are not a legitimate government. And in Panama, what we did is, you know, President H.W. bush sent in 26,000 troops.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it was over pretty quickly.

[Bill Barr]

It was over pretty quickly. But what we did right on the eve of that, in fact, as the troops were on their way, we brought the guy who actually won the election, a guy named Indara, brought him onto a military base, swore him in as the new president. The president recognized him and he asked the United States to come in to support him.

[Josh Holmes]

And that was, of course, well, these.

[Bill Barr]

People who were talking about international law and all that kind of stuff. It was belts and suspenders. But that is dispositive. We were asked by the government that we consider legitimate to come in and support them.

[Josh Holmes]

So as you look at what is happening now, there's obviously huge naval presence around Venezuela, and it's sort of on the back burner in terms of news. It's always an issue that we're covering every day. But the intensity of which, it doesn't seem to fit the significance of the situation from my standpoint. I mean, been a long time since we've had a hemisphere issue here where American assets are involved in a meaningful way like this. Like, what do you think is going to happen here?

[Bill Barr]

Well, I hope what happens, and I think what's probably going to happen is I think the president's made a decision that Maduro has to go. And I think that they are. You know, one possibility is a much more aggressive use of force in Venezuela. The other is to put more and more pressure on and sort of play it by ear as we go along. But in either case, I think we need more intelligence. I believe there's a lot of intelligence collection going on to prepare for all the options that would be available to us.

[Josh Holmes]

And what is your take on the drug boat situation? I mean, what we've rattled around here is the whole idea of Democrats getting to a point now where they're talking about international law and what constitutes a second strike. You've made a decision that an act of war is one of these drug boats, and you either take it out or you don't. But once that decision is made, that's the decision.

[Bill Barr]

Right. And it's not just the drug boat. If you decide to go after this enterprise, this lawless narco terrorist group, and use military force to do it, you can attack their transportation, their operations and so forth. So these boats are legitimate. Furthermore, all these people say, well, we can stop them and get on them. We've been doing that for 20 years. Right. We can only get a very teeny percentage of them because it's a lot of work to intercept a boat at the water and then board it and maybe get less than 10% of the targets that you see. So this is a much more efficient way.

[Josh Holmes]

No question about it.

[Bill Barr]

You'll get 100% of what you see.

[Josh Holmes]

Right, exactly.

[Bill Barr]

And the other thing is. So I think it's a legitimate use of force. Now, the United States, when we're in a conflict like this, we follow the Geneva Convention, and obviously you don't shoot prisoners and things like that. But this particular episode strikes me as, you know, it's one of these tactical situations where you could argue it either way. The guy had legal advisor right there giving him advice. You can agree or disagree, but this wasn't a wild decision.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. The agreement is on a threshold matter. Right, right. I mean, once you've got the attorney present, you know what the authorization is for the mission itself, that decision has been made.

[Bill Barr]

Right. So even if people would have made a different decision, fine. But this is not a. This is not a, you know, lawless kind of decision. And in all our wars, you have some situations like this and we don't get fixated on these close calls. You know, there are situations in World War II where, you know, some of our troops got a little, maybe cross the line. We didn't then stop, you know, stop the war and focus just on that. Yeah, right. So the big picture is, I think we're right to use force against, you know, the Maduro regime. And I think we're going about it in a prudent way.

[Michael Duncan]

I want to shift gears for a second to something that the left has been doing in this country for a very long time. They're obviously extremely well funded on their side, and they have used this strategy to tie up the courts in service of their climate agenda over and over and over, I mean, for at least a decade, if not longer. And. And their strategies has not only tied up the lower courts, but it's gone all the way to the Supreme Court. And I just wonder if you have a point of view on this lawfare strategy that the left is using to push the climate. And I mean, it has a terrible impact on our economy and on people who are trying to make it in our country. So I just wonder what your thoughts are.

[Bill Barr]

Yes. Here's my perception of things. One, it fits into a general syndrome that we've fallen into, because over the last 50 to 60 years, our system has broken down in this way. The people who should be making decisions, the legislative branch, have essentially abdicated, leaving the courts to run wild in essentially setting the rules and making law and making virtually all decisions in society. Judges feel that they're equipped to make any decision from spanking a kid to going to war, you know, and, you know, just tell me what the record is. What's the record evidence and all this stuff. So we've judicialized everything and we've. And being the nature that it is, and lawyers being the kinds of people they are, this has become like a black hole of process that almost never ends. And it is completely abstracted from reality. This is worse than an ivory tower because you have all these people, you know, so making fine distinctions that bear no relationship to the real world. So what's happening? America cannot get shit done. Look, the reason Trump has to do and is doing some of the stuff he's doing is the immigration system doesn't work. Even though it's clear someone should be deported, they can stay here forever playing legal games. The criminal justice system is dysfunctional in many ways. Not so much the federal, but, you know, in a lot of states. And now they've moved in to the basics of society, which is energy production and business processes, and energy is civilization, okay? That is where everything comes from, energy. And so this is part of. This is part of that picture. And what they're doing, the other aspect of it is having lost in the federal level, they're now shifting the fight to the states, and they're trying to. And what's going on here, what you're talking about, the lawfare, is they're going into the state courts in blue states and they're trying to get them, like, to decide tobacco cases against the entire oil and gas industry, saying you're responsible for global warming and you have to pay damages under our local tort laws and consumer protection laws. And this is an abomination in our system. Not only is it terrible that they're trying to strangle energy the way they are, so we end up like Europe. And look at Europe. I mean, their economies are collapsing, okay, Because. And they're trying to do the same thing to us. So that's bad. But what's really bad here, it is completely a reversal of our constitutional system because it's saying the state can make rule not just for itself, not for the people, within its sovereign boundaries, but a state can make a rule that's binding on everyone else in the country.

[Michael Duncan]

And California.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. And so what they're saying is, under our law. Under our law here in Colorado, this case is pending now, and whether the court takes. I hope the court will take it, but under Colorado law, your company in Texas that's, you know, pumping oil, you know, you owe. You have to pay for global warming under. Under Colorado law. Okay?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you deal with these people. I mean, obviously, it's hard for us to comprehend, but, like, you know, let's say everything gets turned upside down and they're successful on some of this stuff. Energy companies go out of business, you can no longer produce domestic energy, supply, huge national security risk, not to mention what happens to our economy.

[Bill Barr]

Costs go up for everybody.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, do they give a shit?

[Bill Barr]

Not the people pushing this, but what I want is the Supreme Court to give a shit.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Bill Barr]

Which is, you know, they have to remember this is not an academic exercise, okay. Where they're writing for history and law journals. They're part of the government of a republic.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, okay, right, right.

[Bill Barr]

Fair point. Okay. And governing the republic is their job, and it means responding to the imperative needs of society. And what bothers me sometimes is they'll allow these things to drag on. Well, you know, we'd like to let it fester a little bit longer. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. By the time they get around to it, the damage is done. There's hundreds of billions of dollars hanging over the heads of these. These companies. That affects investment, yo, for sure. Right? And they feel they can just drag this out because, you know, they don't want to be criticized in a law journal for being active or something. Now, by the way, God bless these six Republican justices on the Supreme Court. They're all great, and they are basically the thing that's standing between us and oblivion, in my opinion. But I think they have to be more aggressive. And something people have to remember, yes, a democracy and a free government will win over the long run. Okay? The question is whether we'll have the long run, because a regimented society like China, they have an advantage over the short run. And so we have to act fast sometimes. Look what we did in World War II. You know, boom, within one or two years, we're turning out 53 carriers. Okay? We can't even put that on paper now in two years right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is just 10 of 10 stuff. I feel like we've got like a 600 level collegiate master's class on all this. I mean, just bring old Bill Barr and he'll tell you everything you know about this stuff. I didn't realize it. It's crazy, but I mean, if you look at the justice system, you mentioned the six that are on the Supreme Court, obviously there's a lot of question when now we have a Republican president. Republican Senate Democrats made the grave error, I would suggest, of missing opportunities to take care of this sort of thing. Do you see any sort of retirements potentially with a Thomas or, you know, maybe Alito? It's mostly Thomas that people are talking about on the spring. I mean, you run in these circles, you know, people talk about it.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. I mean, everyone's trying to figure it out. I don't think anyone really knows and I'm not advising anyone to do it or even press, you know, suggesting they do it.

[Josh Holmes]

But go ahead. I mean, there's all.

[Bill Barr]

I mean, I think if you go by history, you know, I think it's possible that Justice Thomas would retire and make sure that a Republican president gets to fill his seat. It's also possible that Sam Alito would do that. But that's their own decision to make.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And you feel pretty confident about the bench that we've got to pick up.

[Bill Barr]

The mantle where those. We got great judges from the first Trump term and now he's putting in good judges, too. There just. We have a lot of legal talent out there. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

These are the people you hang with. So, you know, every time I get into a situation with the, you know, the kind of crowd the bar hangs out with, I feel so insignificant.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know anything about what I'm talking about. These are very smart people. I'm glad to hear optimism about the bench because I do think that there is going to be an opportunity at some point. I don't think Republicans are going to do the whole RBG situation that the Democrats found themselves in. It's interesting. So one last piece of business that. Listen, I think you've had testify on this. You clearly were ag on the Epstein situation. Our take here at the Ruthless Variety program is like, I can't believe that we're having a discussion about this in the way that we're having a discussion about it.

[San Francisco Wolf]

Democrats are very animated about releasing the Epstein files despite the fact Joe Biden did not mention it once when he was president. Boy, I wonder why it's not because they're interested in the truth or some new revelation.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Mike, what do you make of all of this? I mean, you had an inside view about.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah, well, I mean, I agree with the president. It's deranged. At a time we were faced with, you know, very serious problems and questions we have to deal with to have this, you know, playing out in the background, which is just rubbish. I mean, there's nothing there, in my opinion.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just like almost baseless. I mean, we obviously know what the crimes were that were committed.

[Bill Barr]

Right. When I say nothing there, I mean, I don't think, you know, they're gonna have any evidence that Trump did anything illegal. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. I mean, we know about that. We know about, you know, whatever the situation that was handled back in the early 2000s on all of that. I mean, your Justice Department got a handle on it, incarcerated him, he killed himself. And now it turns out they find a picture very difficult to understand how Donald Trump, living next to Jeffrey Epstein, would have associated with him in any way, both being New Yorkers living in Palm Beach.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. Going back and forth to Palm beach, you know, okay, can I hitch a ride on your plane? I mean. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But like the implication the Democrats have seized upon for their newfound interest despite eight years of the Obama administration presiding all over the same information. Four years where they have 47 odd indictments against President Trump. Never looked into this, evidently, because it never came up. But now here we are. This is barking up a. Yeah, I.

[Bill Barr]

Mean, this has been going on 20 years. There have been civil cases. The victims have brought civil cases. There have been, you know, investigative journalists all over the place. They've been criminal investigations. Not one person can come and say, you know, Donald Trump did anything wrong. In fact, Virginia, Jeffrey said he was very friendly and pleasant. Nothing happened. So. So now the other thing is this, the group that was handling this up in New York, if they found something on Trump. Believe me. Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Believe me.

[Bill Barr]

Well, I was. I would have heard about First Date. I would have heard about it, and they would have gone full steam ahead.

[San Francisco Wolf]

They chopped up a business records case into 40 felonies up in New York. I mean, if they could find something on Trump and Epstein, they would have found.

[Bill Barr]

And if they weren't hot to trot enough for you, do you think that the Biden Justice Department that was doing anything to get something on Donald Trump, they had four years with the evidence right there, and we haven't heard peep. So come on, let's get serious. Yeah. You know, there's just. This is not the thing that is going to show that Trump did anything wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody walked into your office, said Here, the following 17 names are running the world and are all in a pedophilia ring to destroy all of America. Right?

[Bill Barr]

And a newsfight. This guy was a socialite. He had big parties. There were a lot of people at his parties. He was a businessman. He had a lot of business partners and stuff. There were a lot of people in normal life that would have contact with him. He's also a pervert, okay, who. Who exploited young girls. You know, was he. Was he running a big human trafficking thing where he's, you know, renting them out to many customers? There's no evidence of that. Was he sharing them and, you know, doing things for friends? It appears that he might have done that in a few cases, but there's no evidence that he did that with relation to Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

I have one last question on this. So listen, your Attorney General, at the time, when he's in federal custody and you have to inform the President of the United States. And, like, you know, I mean, people forget now because there was a lapse of about five years when people talked about Jeffrey Epstein. But at the time, it was pretty hot button issue. I mean, this was, like, front page everywhere that this guy had been incarcerated again. And of course, there was a big outrage about how in the world he could be. And we know the story about the lapses of detention and everything else, but at some point, you gotta call Donald Trump and tell him what the situation is, because you're gonna read about it front door.

[Bill Barr]

I called him as soon as I heard about it. Yeah. I was sitting in.

[Josh Holmes]

Tell me about that conversation.

[Bill Barr]

I was sitting in my library at home, and my chief of staff called and said, hey, Bill, there's been a real.

[Josh Holmes]

That scotch went down a lot quicker, I imagine.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. And he said, you know, he committed. It appears he committed suicide. And he, you know, he was an important prisoner. Totally. Yeah. And so. God, Jesus Christ, you know, what the hell's going on here? And. And he went through what we knew, which wasn't much. So I called the President and I said. And I. And I. The FBI was already looking at it. I had the inspector. I called the inspector general, said, get all over this. Investigate it. Bureau of Prisons was investigating, but of course, it was their own system. So the three investigations. I called the President and I said, you won't believe this, but funny thing, Epstein committed suicide. What? Oh, man.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm sure he was just like, yeah, outraged at some level, right?

[Bill Barr]

Yeah, he was outraged. I mean, how in the hell did that happen? But he had been president long enough to know that the government is capable these kinds of things.

[Josh Holmes]

See, that's the thing for the conspiracy theorists. Anytime you think there's more sophistication than there is.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah. One of my mentors when I first went into government, which was during the Reagan administration, he always said to me, don't ascribe malice where stupidity is a sufficient explanation.

[Josh Holmes]

That's been our experience.

[Bill Barr]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, nothing truer has ever been said about, seriously.

[Josh Holmes]

But we appreciate your perspective and thoughts on all of this stuff. I feel like every time you come in here, I learn an enormous amount that I'm never going to learn in the corporate media these days.

[Bill Barr]

It's always fun to be with you guys. You're the best. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So come back anytime. Anything you have to say, any history lesson, or if you just want to tell stories.

[Bill Barr]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Anytime you come on.

[Bill Barr]

Can I tell you some high school stories?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll keep that. Keep that between us for now. The whole Barr family sat up in their chair.

[John Ashbrook]

You're the best. Attorney General Bill Barr.

[Bill Barr]

Thanks.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, that guy brought an awful lot of news, fellas. Venezuela, all of everything he was saying about climate, lawfare, and then Epstein, I mean, he made big news. You gotta love having somebody of his stature come in here and talk about everything he did.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, I think it's part of what you get with the variety program is that we've got relationships with people where like, we just want information, we just wanna know. Right. I mean, this is a guy who was the Attorney General of the United States when the United States took the action that the Obama administration failed to do, which is rearresting Jeffrey Epstein and putting him in prison, and then he killed himself. And his reaction to all of that was something I was just always curious about. But then I was really curious about, like, okay, what was Trump's reaction to.

[Michael Duncan]

Great question. It was the perfect question.

[Josh Holmes]

And because, I mean, I think we all know the truth on this and this is all just a nonsense thing. Democrats have no footing whatsoever. So they're like digging in saying, like, oh, Trump's got big liabilities on Epstein. As if the Kamala Harris segment didn't prove that that is not in fact the case, but, like, what was the reaction? And I think that that reaction that he described totally disabuses any fair minded person. The human reaction that President Trump, as Bill Barr described, had to the News that he killed himself about, like, this is his best friend.

[Bill Barr]

They're all.

[Josh Holmes]

They were so close. He was like, how the fuck did you do that? Right? He was pissed. He was angry that somebody could possibly allow this to happen on his watch. And Barr was like, you know, at wit's end about it. But I think that's super revealing. It's the kind of thing that we do here on the Ruthless Variety Program. You're not gonna get everywhere else.

[Bill Barr]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

And I'm glad we did it. Big thanks to the former Attorney General for coming in.

[Michael Duncan]

Always welcome and can't wait to have him again.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we'll just have story time. You know, I mean, the stuff that that guy's seen, just absolutely incredible. Remember our question of the day. What are you drinking if it's on the house? If the state is playing paying for all this, what are you drinking? And how much of it are you drinking? When you like. And subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program. We read all of your comments, get back to you the very next episode. Keep liking and subscribing, by the way, because, well, it matters. Yeah, it matters because it turns out our audience. And this week has been particularly rewarding as we've weighed into a couple of thorny topics where you understand us, we understand you. We're having this conversation in real time, and it just.

[Bill Barr]

It's.

[Michael Duncan]

It's.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a thoughtful way of interacting. And so when you like and subscribe means a lot to us. So do that. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Bill Barr. And thank you to the listener. Just like Holmes said, if you have not yet, go to YouTube and hit that. Subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.