Democrat Meltdowns & The Truth About The Midterms

Summary

Ruthless Podcast – "Democrat Meltdowns & The Truth About The Midterms"

Date: May 15, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Episode Overview:
The hosts deliver their signature irreverent, incisive take on current Democratic politics: highlighting what they see as the party’s performative tactics, internal contradictions, leadership crises, and how those issues shape the looming midterms. The fellas roast prominent Democrats, break down key happenings in Virginia and Tennessee’s redistricting, analyze House and Senate electoral maps, and close with their routine lightning round of cultural riffs.
(Note: Ads, intros, and outros are skipped per instructions.)

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Main Theme

Authenticity Crisis and Disarray in the Democratic Party

• The hosts argue that today’s Democrats are increasingly detached from reality, focused on performative politics, and lack authentic representatives who connect with “normal” Americans.
• They explore how this disconnect feeds into electoral prospects for 2026—especially with redistricting outcomes.
• Throughout, they blend biting humor with critique, painting their opposition as driven by theater rather than principle.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Democratic Identity Crisis & Performative Politics

• The hosts repeatedly assert that modern Democrats must either “take leave of reality” or constantly shift personas depending on the ideological demands of the moment.

• Example: Justin Pearson Clip

  • The Tennessee state representative acts "like an Eddie Murphy bit" at a graduation, while years earlier as a college student he called for centrist, bipartisan dialogue.
  • "You're either faking to be a reasonable individual or you're a reasonable individual faking to be an insane person. But it all depends upon what crowd you're in front of." (Josh Holmes, 14:08)

• Code Switching & Authenticity:

  • John Ashbrook jokes: "This is like Brian Gumbel becoming Malcolm X. Like, what the hell was that?" (14:48)

• The analysis extends to national leaders who shift messaging—Chuck Schumer’s “Hamas caucus” pivot cited as disingenuous posturing (15:11+).

  • "They're trying to surf a wave of immaterial bullshit to try to mirror back what they think is going to get them the most publicity, progressive contributions, and they don't believe in a goddamn thing." (Josh Holmes, 15:01)

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2. Race, Redistricting, and Narrative Contradictions

• Discussion covers:

  • Virginia Supreme Court’s map decision: Democrats denounce it as a disenfranchisement of Black voters.
  • Tennessee: A white Democratic seat becoming a Black Republican one—ignored by “the narrative” because the party label changed.

• The hosts lampoon the selectivity of Democratic outrage and what they call the hypocrisy of "identity politics" that only values racial progress if it benefits Democrats.

  • "It's the funniest thing about identity politics when it comes to the Democratic Party because they're all for representation, right? As long as the representation is a Democrat." (John Ashbrook, 07:55)
  • "People in Tennessee are like, oh, hey, great, we get a black Republican to represent us. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. You need to accept this white guy who's worked his way up through our system." (Michael Duncan, 07:31)

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3. Leadership Vacuum & Lack of Credible Messengers

• The core critique: Democrats in 2026 have “no messenger who can go on television and command respect”—unlike previous eras with figures like Bill Clinton.

  • "They really don't have any messenger who can go out on television and command, respect the American people." (John Ashbrook, 29:18)

• Modern Dems are compared unfavorably to Clinton:

  • "Say what you will about Bill Clinton...But he had a message, you know, he was a pretty good salesman. He was trying to bring people from the middle into their party [...] Bill Clinton was not this." (Michael Duncan, 21:33)

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4. NGO Politics & Power Machines

• The group outlines a cynical picture of Democratic power—alleging the party exists as an engine to benefit NGOs, consultants, and an inner circle through a taxpayer-funded patronage system.
  • "They represent themselves. NGOs. They represent the NGOs. They represent the power structure in Washington." (Josh Holmes/Michael Duncan, 19:14–19:16)
  • "Your taxpayer dollars are basically directed in a place where they have no benefit to the American taxpayer whatsoever." (Josh Holmes, 22:22)

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5. Unseriousness & Reactionary Governance

• The hosts riff on reasons for the Democrats’ inability to connect: embracing performativity, extreme partisanship, and lack of accountability for policy failures (inflation, infrastructure, crime, etc.).
  • "When you look at the opposition, it is so fundamentally unserious, unschooled, unscrupulous, theatrical and just made up that at the end of the day, this is not a serious opposition in any real way." (Josh Holmes, 27:53)
  • Laughter about Dems threatening to remake the courts after an unfavorable decision:
  • "No custodian of the American Republic. Like, I'm mad. And so you're gonna. I'm gonna destroy everything." (Josh Holmes, 29:00)

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6. Midterms Map: Polls & Electoral Analysis

(Timestamp: 39:09 – 47:31)

• Holmes introduces the 270towin map showing Republicans with a 10-seat majority post-redistricting—a contrast to pundit consensus that Dems would win the House.

• Ashbrook describes how quickly the districting winds shifted, noting Republican gains in several states and limited Democratic redistricting wins.

  • "On net. And on, like, net. Net, after VRA, you're looking at that swing of like, yeah, like, districts, which is just crazy..." (John Ashbrook, 42:29)

• Discussion includes money problems for the DCCC and why national Democratic resources have shifted away from the House to the Senate.

  • "The Democrats don't have any money. An unfunded mandate, you say from the Democratic Party. Their favorite thing." (John Ashbrook/Josh Holmes, 45:33/45:36)

• The Senate, they agree, remains tough for Democrats, and Republican optimism is noted.

  • "You find no one in the political prognostication game who hasn't told you that it is a foregone conclusion that Democrats are going to take the House. But if you actually look at the map, that's a heavy. It's a heavy lift." (Josh Holmes, 47:02)

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7. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Calling Out Democratic "Performance"

• "If you're today's Democrat, there's nothing authentic about what it is that you're presenting to the American public." (Josh Holmes, 14:08)

On Identity Politics

• "It's the funniest thing about identity politics when it comes to the Democratic Party because they're all for representation. Right. As long as the representation is a Democrat." (John Ashbrook, 07:55)

On “Theater Kid” Politics

• "For a lot of these state reps and Democratic politics, they see a flashpoint issue that has national import and they're like, now is my opportunity to be that theater kid I always was growing up." (John Ashbrook, 11:03)

On Midterm "Normalcy"

• "Whichever party is the party of normal people has a good shot." (Josh Holmes / John Ashbrook, 37:34)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–02:30 – Opening critique of Democratic authenticity
• 04:10 – 06:06 – Clips of Hakeem Jeffries and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on judiciary reform and redistricting
• 09:56 – 14:48 – Justin Pearson: performative politics and “code switching”
• 21:33 – 23:33 – Nostalgia for Bill Clinton and contrast to present party
• 27:53 – 31:25 – “Unseriousness” and lack of credible Democratic opposition
• 39:09 – 47:31 – Deep dive into House/Senate race outlooks and redistricting
• 55:09 – 56:30 – "Mom Prix" NASCAR joke segment (comic break)
• 57:21 – End – Tunnel to Towers charity race competition between the hosts (with comic relief and mutual ribbing)

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Lightning Round & Pop Culture Riffing

- LA Mayoral Race Ads

• Satirical reaction to union ads against Republican Spencer Pratt:
  • Mock the use of phrases like "unhoused" and "LA is on the right track."
  • "The whole ad felt like a funny, fake ad that SNL would run to support Spencer Pratt." (John Ashbrook, 53:47)

- “Mom Prix” NASCAR Segment

• The hosts tease women drivers after a women’s race group follows the pace car into the pits, missing the start.

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Closing Thoughts & Call to Action

• Hosts urge listeners to comment on what Republicans need to win: authenticity, messaging, highlighting Democratic "corruption," or simply more resources.
• Plug for their charitable Tower Climb challenge.
• The episode closes with their trademark mix of satire, rivalry, and a repeated call to "own the libs."

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Summary in a Nutshell

This Ruthless episode is a turbo-charged, sarcastic takedown of the Democratic Party’s current political performance, painting Dems as lacking authenticity, discipline, and real leadership—while making the case for Republican optimism in 2026 due to Dem overreach, unforced errors, and a disconnect from ordinary voters. If you haven’t listened, you’ll get both the substance and the tone: irreverence, inside-beltway knowledge, and plenty of comic jabs.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

If you're today's Democrat, there's nothing authentic about what it is that you're presenting to the American public. What has become a more apparent function of the Democratic Party is that you have to take leave of reality to be a Democrat.

[Michael Duncan]

The left drives people to performative, dishonest insanity.

[John Ashbrook]

It's wild that they really don't have any messenger who can go out on television and command respect for the American people.

[Josh Holmes]

Zero.

[Michael Duncan]

They literally don't care what they run over. In the process of achieving that power,

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[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Michael Duncan]

This program has become one of the

[Josh Holmes]

most influential podcasts in America.

[John Ashbrook]

I love the personality. You guys are killing it. I just saw your number one. So congratulations. Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

[John Ashbrook]

Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Josh Holmes]

This is why you list to the

[John Ashbrook]

Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question. The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast. It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I'm Josh Holmes along with Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Historic overseas engagement between the President of the United States and the President of China xi.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's boring from our standpoint. Listen, it has huge global ramifications in so many ways in that it's. There's part Iran, there's part trade, Ukraine. There's huge components to our domestic economy

[Michael Duncan]

as it pertains to trade, everything.

[Josh Holmes]

We're gonna figure all that out after everyone comes back. And honestly, it's a little bit boring for us. So we're just gonna make fun of some stuff here for, for a bit.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what you do on Friday.

[Josh Holmes]

If you, if you, if you don't mind. And it's occurred to Us as we've looked at what is the modern Democratic Party. Of course, we did on Tuesday a big thing on aoc. And then we saw all of the meltdowns as it relates to the Virginia Supreme Court decision that these folks, well, they're not well adjusted by any measure, but they also. It almost. You have to take leave of your senses to be a modern Democrat. Like, you can't actually just observe the world around you. You have to pretend like it's something else. And there are people who know reality and they choose not to express it. And then there are others who just don't know reality because you've got this base of support that. Well, it's just disconnected in. In many ways. And Hakeem Jeffries seems to be a ringleader of all of these things.

[Michael Duncan]

Timo Obama.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Speaking of China.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I feel like that's right. Let's play clip one and react to it.

[Michael Duncan]

And we are going to have to explore massive judicial reform state by state and at the federal level. And everything should be on the table as far as I'm concerned. Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

All right. So. So what you've got there is somebody who is in line, if you listen to prognosticators, to be the speaker of the House of Representatives. And what he's saying is that there was one state that decided not to fall in line in terms of dogma. Liberal, partisan, Democrat, just acquiescence. And so he wants to remake the entire judiciary, federal, state, like, redo. Everything is on the table, which gives you a good indication of where these people are at. They are not in a scenario where they want to win the argument. They're not interested in democracy in the classical sense.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. They're in the temper tantrum stage. Yeah. Of reacting to the reality of the situation. And instead of maybe thinking through a coherent strategy or being responsible, they're just going to break all the China.

[Josh Holmes]

They're going to break all the china. Which leads us to another clip in clip 1A where we have AOC weighing in sort of on the similar topic across this country as the Supreme Court, to the Reverend's point in Virginia, overturned the maps 10 to 1 to literally draw black Americans out of power. We are living in terrifying times.

[John Ashbrook]

I love the weight. I love the weight she puts on the end of that sentence, you know, like the beginning of it. She totally conflates the Virginia Supreme Court with the United States Supreme Court in the VA redistricting camp, you know, with the VRA decision at the Supreme Court.

[Josh Holmes]

We all know that you're dumb enough to conflate all of this. So I would just do it for you.

[John Ashbrook]

And in that conflation, terrifying times.

[Michael Duncan]

What they were talking. What Democrats have talked about in Virginia is removing the state supreme court justices, one of whom was the first black woman to ever serve on the Virginia Supreme Court. And they're like, how do we get

[Josh Holmes]

her out of there?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What they will not tell you is that in the state of Tennessee, a white Democrat will likely be replaced with a black woman Republican representing the district. They won't tell you that. They won't talk about the gerrymandering they've done over the last 20 years in states like Oregon, in Illinois. Have you seen the districts in Illinois? Makes no sense whatsoever unless you're a Democrat trying to draw everything to give you the best chance.

[Josh Holmes]

Hold on, Johnny. I want to make sure I get this straight. What we're talking about is actually, in the case of Tennessee, a greater black representation. It's just ideologically not a fit.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly. What they want is power. And they don't care what anything. They literally don't care what they run over in the process of achieving that power. People in Tennessee are like, oh, hey, great, we get a black Republican to represent us. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no. You need to accept this white guy who's worked his way up through our system.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it's the funniest thing about identity politics when it comes to the Democratic Party because they're all for representation. Right. As long as the representation is a Democrat.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, 100%. And they're. But the top line national level is like, you're disenfranchising black people.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I don't know. We went from a white Jewish guy to a black person. Like, doesn't that feel more representative?

[John Ashbrook]

No,

[Michael Duncan]

no,

[Josh Holmes]

not the case.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It's just. It's unbelievable. So we stumbled upon. Because the Tennessee thing has been sort of undercovered in a lot of ways in that they naturally.

[Michael Duncan]

Because it doesn't fit their narrative.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. And. But. But it's also in response to the Virginia situation and everything else where Republicans stand to pick up some seats. And so you've got a bunch of state reps there that I think are indicative of a larger. Oh, how best to put this. It's a total leave of their senses in terms of what reality is and what it looks like and what has become a more apparent function of the Democratic Party is that you have to take leave of reality to be a Democrat. Like, you have to argue Two sides of the same coin simultaneously have no logic whatsoever behind it. And we've known that when it's come to, like, math over the years, but now it's gotten more complicated. And they've. They've also just. Everything they've taken for granted in terms of, like, race and identity politics and everything else, they have to actually work that all in the same thing. And it just. None of it really makes any sense. And it's perfectly embodied this week by a guy named Justin Pearson, who's a Tennessee state rep. Clip. Dude,

[Michael Duncan]

You really need to subscribe to YouTube.

[Josh Holmes]

It looks like an Eddie Murphy bit in Coming to America or something, but he is at a graduation ceremony, okay, where he's losing his mind and he's stomping and he's doing all this stuff in, in front of a graduation ceremony. Not a partisan event. It's certainly not a party rally.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, when you see that video, you'd think, well, maybe this guy is losing his district. But he's not. This has nothing to do with him. It has nothing to do with his district. It has nothing to do with the Tennessee state reps of which he's a member. This is about congressional representation. And what we just said is that a white man is about to be replaced with a black woman because she's the Republican and the white guy is the lunatic lib. And people in Tennessee are like, hey, maybe we should have somebody different.

[John Ashbrook]

Don't you feel like for a lot of these state reps and Democratic politics, they see a flashpoint issue that has national import and they're like, now is my opportunity to be that theater kid I always was growing up.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, think about those Democrats from Texas, from the Texas legislature, when they abstinence, bonded from the state and came to D.C. and then look at the career of James Talarico. He was one of them, and now he's a candidate for United States Senate. So I think if you look at a guy like this in Tennessee, he's like, now's my 15 minutes.

[Josh Holmes]

But I think that's our larger point here, that in order to be involved in Democratic politics, nothing real and nothing tangible in terms of results for your constituency. I mean, call me old fashioned, but I thought representatives were there to service a constituency. That's why they're representatives. They're there to bring the thoughts and the concerns of people that they represent to a state legislature, a Congress, a Senate, all the way up to the White House. But these folks increasingly are just subjected to whatever national movement is happening at the time, so they'll reinvent themselves. And part of that shows up, like Abigail Spamberger, where she knows the only way that she's going to be elected to a place like the Commonwealth of Virginia is to become, you know, oh, Monroe worked together with Republicans and Democrats. And then she shows up and she's like, I'm going to tax the fuck on your dog walker.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

You know?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And like, that is one. And then there's the, like, the Mandani side, where they're just have a progressive thing and they're just going to be progressive and they're kind of the leaders in all of that. And then you get guys like this who show up. Can we get one more clip of that? Let's get one more clip of clip two. I want you to see. So he is jumping up and down. He's doing in what he looks like a chicken dance. Yeah. And he's saying it didn't work. And he's. What he's talking about is basically disenfranchisement at some level and saying that, like, Republicans are trying to disenfranchise black people. I want you to see what that individual looked like just a few years ago when he was running for student body president at Bowden College in Maine. Clip three. Hey, everybody, I'm Justin J. Pearson.

[John Ashbrook]

What?

[Josh Holmes]

I'm running for president of bsg. There are a few reasons that we're running this campaign this year. One has to do with representation. How can we represent all voices in a conversation? I want to do this by partnering with organizations from the Boon Democrats to the Bowdoin Republicans. I want to bring together different voices, dissenting voices, voices that may be more liberal or more conservative, in order that we can reach a point of sort of the radical middle.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, he wanted. He wanted to. He wanted conversation among people who disagreed on things. Sounded very reasonable.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we get another play of clip 2? Okay, so you kind of get our thesis here, which is if you're today's Democrat, there's nothing authentic about what it is that you're presenting to the American public. You're either faking to be a reasonable individual or you're a reasonable individual faking to be an insane person. But it all depends upon what crowd you're in front of. And that is the model of their party.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, I've heard the term on the left code switching. But this is like Brian Gumbel becoming Malcolm X. Like, what the hell was that?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's wild, right? I mean, you see where he Was. And what he was talking about meeting in the middle.

[John Ashbrook]

Jazzy Jazz did the same thing, by the way.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but it's. It's not. And this isn't just about CBC or black representation. It's everyone. You watch it happen with Chuck Schumer, where this guy can be a champion of Israel until the Hamas caucus comes calling, and then all of a sudden, he's like, well, I got a lot of questions about, you know, killing kids in. In Gaza. And it's like, oh, okay. Well, like, October 7th didn't cross your radar. I thought you were kind of like a champion of. Of all that. And what they're doing is basically just nonsense, complete bullshit. It is across the board. I don't care if you are everyone from Gavin Newsom on down to the state representative in Tennessee. It is all the same thing. They're trying to surf a wave of immaterial bullshit to try to mirror back what they think is going to get them the most publicity. Progressive contributions, and they don't believe in a goddamn thing.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what their movement is all about. Dude, the left drives people to performative, dishonest insanity. I saw a white NGO consultant tweet that South Carolina will never be represented by a black. And Tim Scott replied. He was like, what about me?

[John Ashbrook]

I'm the senator here. He's like, what are you talking about?

[Michael Duncan]

They just erase people if it doesn't fit with their performative bullshit.

[Josh Holmes]

And just in case you thought it was limited to issues of public policy or performance or identity, there was an article in Politico that we saw not long ago about this El Sayad guy who's the candidate in Michigan, one of

[Michael Duncan]

three Democrats in that primary. In Michigan, it's a different party line.

[Josh Holmes]

He's running a little Moss ticket of the Democratic primary. And he, you know, this is a physician, he's a doctor, learned man who's treated the most vulnerable amongst us. And he discusses it at great length. Well, this political piece goes on to describe that he's never been medically licensed in either Michigan or New York, where he previously lived.

[Michael Duncan]

What? Well, I think it's awfully convenient that Politico is reporting it right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And some Democrats might not think he is their best foot forward in a general election against Mike Rogers. And I feel like that just proves once again that the mainstream media only attacks a Democrat when it's in service of another Democrat. So is that Haley Stevens? Is that McMorrow, whatever her name is? We don't know, but they would not print that Unless they thought that one of those other two had a better

[Josh Holmes]

shot, by the way, in the service of the whites in this regard, which seems interesting.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what?

[Michael Duncan]

Interesting? Yeah, interesting. I thought that's what they cared about. Like, they are so all over the place. They get themselves so twisted up. It's like, how about you just treat people like people?

[John Ashbrook]

I know.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, what is wrong with that?

[Josh Holmes]

They're literally clinically unable to look at a human being as anything other than a human being with interests in a diverse set of interests and economic conditions. They're like, you're a white guy or

[John Ashbrook]

you're a black guy, or you solve our dearborn problem.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They're like, I'm a doctor, and I perform neurological surgeries where it's like, motherfucker,

[John Ashbrook]

what do you fuck about?

[Josh Holmes]

Fuck. And that's the way the two silos that they see. That's the most demeaning form of politics. That is today's Democratic Party. I am blown away. Do we still have an argument.

[Michael Duncan]

How is it acceptable.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm blown away that we still have an argument about whether or not these people represent anybody at all? Right. Who is it that the Democratic Party actually represents in any way? Like, they don't.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, they rep.

[Michael Duncan]

They represent themselves.

[Josh Holmes]

NGOs.

[Michael Duncan]

They represent the NGOs. They represent the power structure in Washington.

[Josh Holmes]

The. The. The cyclical money chain of people who are in proximity to power can like, divvy out a little bit of street cash to people to deliver their votes. But, like, in terms of their interests, it's. It's.

[John Ashbrook]

It's laughable.

[Josh Holmes]

It's completely hilarious.

[John Ashbrook]

I think that's part of it. I think there's another component, too, and that is the intense negative partisanship in the age of Donald Trump when it comes to the Democratic Party.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like they're willing to accept terrible candidates with no credentials who are dumb as rocks, as long as it gets them closer to impeaching Donald Trump. You know what I mean? That's their only qualification is will you vote to impeach Donald Trump?

[Michael Duncan]

Michael? I think that's right. You're exactly right. That seems to be a unifying principle they have. But think about what position their party is in, that they can only get people to support them if those people are on the payroll. They literally have to pay people to support the ideas. That party. That is not a party. Like, that's a machine. That's Tammany Hall. This is what happened in New York a hundred years ago that was fought against their Party is nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm convinced that we won't.

[Michael Duncan]

And I'm not saying they can't win. They can still win. But the basis of their party right now is as terrible as anything we've ever seen in our history.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm convinced 100 years from now people will look back at this iteration of the Democratic Party like they looked at Tammany hall, where there is a series of kickbacks and preferential treatment for pseudo private businesses that are primarily on the government dole. NGOs that are exclusively on the government dole. The payout money. Hundreds of millions of dollars that employ a whole bunch of people in the expectation that they kick back a percentage to the party in power.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. It's their time to keep them going. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And say what you will about Bill Clinton, he was Stuppen the intern. He did all these things that were untoward beneath the office and the dignity of the President of the United States. But he had a message, you know, he was a pretty good salesman. He was trying to bring people from the middle into their party. There was somebody who wrote a headline that Bill Clinton, the first black president, because he inspired a lot of people. He had that poem from Maya Angelou that all of us read when we were in school, you know, and a

[John Ashbrook]

good saxophone player too.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, not bad.

[Michael Duncan]

Arsenio Hall.

[Josh Holmes]

A lot of soul in that. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

He was not this, you know, like as much as you want to attack Bill Clinton and Whitewater and Travelgate and the Rose Law Firm and everything else that our great luck Rush Limbaugh used to tell us about on a daily basis. Bill Clinton was not this.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's. Yeah. I mean, you'd rather have a president engaged in like a multi party orgy in the Oval Office than you would somebody who is just signing off on this waste of your taxpayer dollars to friends of the program that then go back into the system to fortify the political party, that means them no good. Right. I mean, your taxpayer dollars are basically directed in a place where they have no benefit to the American taxpayer whatsoever. Whether they're NGOs overseas, whether buying $50 diapers as we covered on Tuesday, or you know, the, the Georgia situation with the. Remember the stoves?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gas stoves.

[Josh Holmes]

A billion dollars for gas stoves that never got installed from an LLC that was invented yesterday before they got a billion dollar contract. Like that's the work. I, I would much rather full on

[John Ashbrook]

like orgy and the oval Eiffel Tower situations. You had to get even more graphic

[Josh Holmes]

pig Roasts in the Oval, then I would deal with something like that because it's much more pervasive. Is it? The goal is to try to represent the American people.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Whatever that pig roast is all about, like, I don't know, it doesn't really affect you one way or another. But stealing your taxpayer dollars and throwing it into a political fortification plan, that means you never lose power, but you could steep keep stealing your money and sending it elsewhere. And then you wonder why you got potholes in your roads and crime in your streets and open borders and higher taxes. Like that's the problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know, man. It's pretty bad, but it's not. Look, that's just some of it. There's also this just what we covered a little bit on Tuesday. It's the deliberate misconstruing of what's happening because in order to compel an already extremely open electorate to your argument that you're actually on the right track. If you're a Democrat, if you're a liberal in this situation, you actually, you can't tell the truth. You can't tell the truth. No. Right. I mean, if you're talking about, oh, they're like, oh, higher prices, oh my gosh, how do we get these higher price? I don't know. You got 23% on your watch because you just flooded $6 billion trillion dollars into the marketplace. And then you turn around a day later and you're like, oh, it's the price of eggs. And then they fix the price of eggs and you're like, oh, it's the price of gas because they're around and like tomorrow it'll be something else that somebody else's fault other than they own. They can't, they can't actually take responsibility for it. So they have to like deflect and make up different narratives. Ted, Lou is somebody, I think is sort of perfected the art.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I love this guy. He's such an idiot.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he's so dumb. It just, it just. Take a look at clip four.

[John Ashbrook]

So what the Virginia Supreme Court did was not only wrong, it was disgraceful. They basically said, hey, Virginia, spend all this taxpayers money holding election, do all this stuff. And oh, by the way, just kidding, that election didn't count. The court could have stopped stop this by not having the election in the first place, they suckered the people of Virginia. It was a complete disgrace.

[Josh Holmes]

Hmm.

[Michael Duncan]

Thanks, Ted. You know, what you didn't say is that the newly democratically elected Attorney General in the state of Virginia Sent his plea to the Supreme Court of Virginia. Do not stop this election from happening. And they said, okay, we won't stop the election from happening. You can have the election, but we'll review it afterwards.

[John Ashbrook]

And the previous attorney general was like.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, I know, you know, this is unconstitutional in our state. And in October, before this is all going to happen, these are the various things that you're going to find that are sort of irrefutable. If you want to stop it now, you can. And they were like, I don't know. The current attorney general says that we got to keep this thing going. We'll make a decision once there's an aggrieved party. You held your election. Now there's an aggrieved party. Yeah. What the guy in October said.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just so funny to think that Democrats can say the Supreme Court tricked us into trying to steal the election. It's so good. It's so good.

[Michael Duncan]

It gets better. I'm sure you guys saw this, but the first legal document Democrats filed in the state of Virginia after the Supreme Court ruling, it misspelled the word Virginia. Oh, yeah. And then they went back, they were like, oh, no, no, no, it was a mistake. That was a mistake. And then they filed something else to the Supreme Court of the United States, as if. As if they are going to rule on what happens in the state of Virginia. Except it was addressed to the Supreme Court of Virginia. They intended it to go to the Supreme Court. I'm not kidding you. I am not kidding you. The stupidity has no bounds.

[John Ashbrook]

That's why the rules are. When you're ready to write an angry letter, you put in the nightstand just for a day, then you figure out how you're gonna send it.

[Michael Duncan]

That's a good life lesson.

[Josh Holmes]

I think this is the point of this whole segment, right? Which is like, I kind of don't care what you think about Donald Trump or Republicans or anything else. When you look at the opposition, it is so fundamentally unserious, unschooled, unscrupulous, theatrical, and just made up that at the end of the day, this is not a serious opposition in any real way. Like, you can want to go in a different direction from a policy perspective on any of these things that we're talking about. There are plenty of people who can articulate that well, none of which inhabit an electoral office for a Democratic Party. None. Because every single one of them that shows up is like doing the Justin Pearson routine. Chuck Schumer, which I would argue is the Justin Pearson routine. Hakeem. Jeffries, which we played at the top. He now wants to destroy, like, the third branch of American governance and the entire balance of powers because he's angry about a redistricting fight. Like, the no long view whatsoever.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

No custodian of the American Republic. Like, I'm mad.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

And so you're gonna. I'm gonna destroy everything.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It is a wild. I mean, for those of us who've been around for a little bit, it's a wild thing to watch a party do.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's wild that they really don't have any messenger who can go out on television and command, respect the American people.

[Josh Holmes]

Zero.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what I mean? Like, I mean, I don't like to give advice to the Democratic Party, but, like, put Timu Obama on the shelf. Like, yeah, he doesn't need to be out there carrying the message of your party party because it's not doing too well. But, like, I feel like every era of Democratic politics, sort of, to Ashbrook's earlier point, like, there was a messenger, whether that was Bill Clinton or somebody who, like, the American people, writ large, respected. Yes. Took seriously.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They were like, didn't think.

[John Ashbrook]

Was a ridiculous person. And I know a lot of, like, sensible Democrats who I could have a conversation with about politics now. They're partisan and they're probably going to vote for Democrats. But if I asked them, hey, would you pull the lever for the fake doctor who loves Hamas in Michigan? He'd be like, fuck no. You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Also, like, not a great idea to blow up the third pillar of the. You know, the things that we have here in the balance of powers for America. Like, every time I get a bad court decision, I want to, like, completely destroy the court system.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, like, the people who are reasonable individuals. And I'll say this to our own side, we've had this problem too, over the last few years where you've got a minority of people who feel extremely strongly about blowing up the American experiment because they're not satisfied with the specific now impact of what it is that they care deeply about. And we've said to those people at the time, like, dude, that's just. This is our system. Them. And I might not agree with it, but now you have in the entirety of the Democratic Party, who's, like, along for the ride?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

The craziest amongst them, the most, like, bipolar, schizophrenic, psychotic, sweatpants in the basement with the boner, playing. Playing the video out of nowhere, playing the video game. Like, that Guy has got more of a sense about what is right and wrong than your average elected Democrat anywhere in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

But your average person to this point, okay, your average person in this country is gonna be like. Your average person in this country is gonna be like, okay, well, you know, Republicans have had a few years in the sun. Maybe it's time for Democrats to have a few years and just keep things balanced. You know, your average person is not as overtly partisan as, you know, people working on either side. And yet what you guys are describing makes your average person be like, what are they even talking about? Why in the world would we turn over our government to Mamdani? Isn't there some Democrat out there who is like normal, who is like, ah, we're going to do things a little differently, might raise taxes, or we might like fund these programs that Republicans are against, but that we're doing things differently? Like, your average person expects that as the counterpoint. And what Democrats are giving them is something that's unrecognizable in this country.

[John Ashbrook]

I just don't think they're ever going to find it. And I think a lot of that is because of who their leadership is. Stupid people like Timu, Obama and then like the steady diet of blue sky and Ms. Now that they've taken in for the last 10 years has rotted their brain.

[Josh Holmes]

The silo of information is so, so

[John Ashbrook]

perverted and so like there is a feedback loop to that system and that if those really are your primary voters in the electorate, you're going to give them what they want. What they want is. Yeah, but Manja, Manja, Manja, they're going to eat the shit.

[Josh Holmes]

They are. They're going to love it. But every one of them, and I can't think of a deviation like Federman, obviously, but like without deviation, they're almost all of them. You get to a point where that if you encountered them on your kids soccer sideline and you're watching a game and you hear them sort of start chirping, they're the kind of people, you just take the half step, shuffle down the sideline from right and you're. It's not like you want to make a scene about it, you don't want to talk to them or whatever, but you're just like, I don't want to. These are, these are people that I, they're not part of like the normal kind of society that I live in, you know, but increasingly I think that's the case. And I've always thought that that's like, the key to success in national electoral politics in that, like, if these are people that you can't relate to at any real level, it's not going to work.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not going to work. And so you extrapolate that out in terms of a midterm, which Democrats should roll everything tells you Democrats should have a full takeover, the House over the Senate. They should be massive majorities. They should be, you know, governor's mansion, doing what they say they want to do in terms of impeaching Trump and everything else. And yet you look at these polls, nobody likes Democrats. But it's this. It's what we just discussed is why they don't like Democrats. They may not be in love with everything about the direction of the country, but they're really concerned about giving, like a madman, keys to the kingdom.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

For anything they care about. Because these aren't people that you would like. You know, if they brought, like, slices of oranges and apples, you'd be like, ah, why don't we take a pass on that? Yeah, why don't we take a pass on that kid?

[John Ashbrook]

Like, I don't know where they probably have ssri.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Serious.

[John Ashbrook]

But no, I know you look at

[Josh Holmes]

your kid and be like, ah, we're good. Like, I'll get you a juice after.

[John Ashbrook]

I guess what I wonder, though, is, is like, is it really just a small, small minority of the Democratic primary electorate that just is driving the train, or there just a lot of people who are very polite and normal in society who are also crazy? Because I like, I remember when Charlie Kirk died, you saw so many people, like, people who were just like teachers or nurses who became crazy, became crazy people. And it's like, is it all just under the surface? Because it makes me worry about the future of our country. You.

[Michael Duncan]

It makes me worry about it, too. I think one honest answer is that there are an awful lot of Democrats in this country who really just do not like President Trump. Yeah. They just don't. And the establishment of that party uses that opposition and that feeling to drive what it is that they want. And then when you contrast what the establishment is doing.

[Josh Holmes]

Hold on. They're like, you don't like President Trump. That's great. We don't like President Trump either. So therefore, you're down with chopping pricks off kids.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly, exactly. They go. They automatically go to the 11th degree. Right. Like, the way the establishment treats a guy like John Fetterman, I think, is all you need to know. Because Fetterman I'm sure the guy disagrees with basically everything we say on this show, except most of the people listening are like, well, there's a Democrat. I could listen to him. It's like, why aren't there more Democrats like him?

[Josh Holmes]

Him.

[Michael Duncan]

They treat him like dirt. Yeah. And yet he is like the kind of Democrat that most Americans would be like, oh, you know what? If we're going to give Democrats power again, maybe it should be more people like him. You know what?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, he's on an island all by himself. So much so that the most establishment person that anybody has ever met in Bob Casey.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Is threatening primary challenge against Bob Casey, of all people. There has never been a Wonder Bread

[John Ashbrook]

candidate more that'll inspire them.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this guy. This guy could. He could put you to sleep in 10 seconds or less.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You sit on that guy's couch for five minutes and, like, you're gonna be fast asleep like it's Sunday at the Masters.

[John Ashbrook]

But if. If the choice is him or the fake doctor who likes Hamas in Michigan,

[Josh Holmes]

they're like, okay, we'll take it.

[John Ashbrook]

We'll take him.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And so I do think in submission, I would say, I don't know who's going to win the midterms, but whichever party is the party of normal people

[Josh Holmes]

has a good shot.

[John Ashbrook]

Has a good shot.

[Michael Duncan]

I think so, too.

[Josh Holmes]

They have a good shot. Which again, when you're the party in power, when you're having that conversation in May of an election year, it's a lot more optimistic than I imagine it to be. And when we come back, we're going to take a look at the new map as is drawn out by nonpartisans. In terms of what it all looks like, it has been a foregone conclusion that Republicans are going to lose the House. Maybe not. Take a look at this map when we come back.

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so one of the fun widgets online that I play with all the time is this.270 to win.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I've done this for years where either take presidential electoral votes or Senate or House districts and they have a full interactive map where if you just change a couple of things and they've got four different options of like lean or you know, whatever, where you can kind of do the math on who's going to get majorities or whatnot. It's super helpful as a political operative as you get closer to the election where you're looking at real time polling and you can kind of like figure

[John Ashbrook]

out if they get this one, we get this one. What does that do?

[Josh Holmes]

If you're a visual learner like I am. Yeah, it's super great. Like there is a lot of people who, they would listen to what I'm saying, be like, you're an idiot.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But like I, I have to see it. And so I've all, I've always gone to this thing and they do maps that are in addition for the interactive, they just prognosticate out what things are current day. And if you pull up graphic one on our deal, you'll take a look. That's a big red country, folks. A big red country. And this is the most recent addition, a May 8 updated map. This is post Virginia where they have done all the redistricting and what they have currently in terms of Republicans now that's lean, likely lean and what they call tilt, which is kind of a third category on both sides. But if you were to add those up on the Republican side, you get to 217, 207, a 10 seat majority for the Republicans. That is a very different world than the one that you have been told on the news media and everywhere else that you can can learn about where the status of the House of Representatives is. I'm not saying that that is like etched in gold, but in terms of current status, that is a 10 seat majority. And it's kind of hard to ignore at some level, isn't it?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it all happened so fast with the invalidation of the new Virginia map. You look around the country at what Democrats did in redistricting and they basically did California and they got that one out of Utah. Yeah, right. And then you look at what Republicans did in redistricting. You got Texas you got the new seat in Missouri, you got the new seat in Ohio, Tennessee, Tennessee, the Florida, the redraw in North Carolina and Florida, the Tennessee one is going to be taking effect, if they can, after the VRA stuff. And then there might be changes in Louisiana and everything. So, like, on net. And on, like, net. Net, after vra, you're looking at that swing of like, yeah, like, districts, which is just crazy when just a few weeks ago it was looking like a net loss for Republicans on the redistricting effort. It's just wild how quickly it all changed, but it really has, I think, shaken up the likelihood that Republicans can maintain the chamber. I don't think the. The battlegrounds really have changed that much, but it's a much smaller map than the maps that we remember from, like, 2010, 2012. Well, there's fewer battleground districts.

[Josh Holmes]

You used to have 40 to 60. Yeah, they were in play that were. I don't know if they're legitimate swing districts, but if you had a bad thing going, and it was particularly the case in a midterm, like 06 is a good example where everything slid south with the Iraq war and everything else with George W. Bush. And you got to basement levels of party approval, presidential approval, economic approval, handling of all kinds of different issues where 40 to 60 seat losses were possible. This is not the case. You look at this map and, you know, you could see a pathway for Democratic majorities, no question about it. But it is a lot more uphill than they will concede.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, it is. I mean, for all the reasons you guys have said. And we're Republicans, so for us, history is some guy. You know, you just, you don't want to forget history. And usually in midterm when your party's in power, that's not good for you, at least in terms of a House election. And, you know, I'm looking at this map, and I think there are some difficult districts for Republicans. You know, this one gives the Toledo area district, which is currently controlled by a Democrat. That gives that to Republicans. I think that's going to be a difficult race. You know, I think North Carolina 01 is going to be a difficult race for us. We had the candidate on our own show, and she is so good.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, Lori buck out.

[Michael Duncan]

And she is.

[John Ashbrook]

And they redraw. They redrew that map a little bit to make it more friendly for her. And that is an incumbent Democrat, Don Davis.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. But if she's going to knock him off, she's going to need all the help she can get the woman is working son up to sun down. And there's a reason for that. It's not because, you know, it's because, because it's a very difficult thing to win, to beat an incumbent. And so any help that you can provide for somebody like her, I encourage you to do it it. But you know, I also look at Louisiana and they give this is this map is sort of drawn and predicted before Louisiana may give two more seats to Republicans. Anyhow, I don't want to get too far into the weeds on this. We have another show that we can do that on. But I do think that this is in play for Republicans. One other, I really do and I've been down on it all year.

[John Ashbrook]

One other thing I think that's worth adding in here is the money component of this because if you talk to well connected Republicans who are working on this effort of keeping the Republican House, you know, they put out a bunch of media reservations for those of you listening or watching at home. That means like television and digital advertising that they're pre booking for the fall. And very quickly Democratic groups put in their reservations as well, basically cribbing most of the homework that the Republican Party had done already. The difference being, as we've talked about a lot here in the ruthless variety program, the Democrats don't have any money.

[Josh Holmes]

An unfunded mandate, you say from the Democratic Party.

[John Ashbrook]

Their favorite thing. Their favorite thing. And so I say that to say in the context of what we've seen with the shifting battleground map and now the potential that Republicans have more seats in the bank, that Democrats are not only unfunded, they can't risk a situation where this is a NASCAR election and we're trading pink and we get one, they get one, we get one, they get one. Because their map does not work to a majority.

[Josh Holmes]

They need, they need a 10 to 1 advantage. Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And when you say they're unfunded, I just want to be very specific so people understand what we're talking about. We are talking about the House map. We are talking about their national party and the various apparatuses they have to fund their House.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

We're talking about how there's a reason for that. It's because Democrats have changed their infrastructure so that all of their money goes to the inside of Senate candidate campaigns. And some of that money we've talked about here on the show might be coming from foreign sources. That might be why a candidate you've never heard of in the state of Alaska who's a Democrat, all of a sudden raises $3 million more than the best funded Republican last cycle.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And so you got to watch the Senate. I feel like the Senate, you know, we're talking about the House here, but I do think that the Senate is something the Republicans are really, really going to have.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it goes. Totally agree with that. It's an interesting theory though. I mean, you find no one in the political prognostication game who hasn't told you that it is a foregone conclusion that Democrats are going to take the House. But if you actually look at the map, that's a heavy. It's a heavy lift. It's a very heavy lift. More heavy maybe even than the Senate in some regard.

[Michael Duncan]

And wouldn't it feel great, you know that every Democrat in Washington D.C. spent the month of February and March measuring drapes and picking out furniture for their majority offices in Washington D.C. after this election, wouldn't it feel so great if all that work went to nothing?

[Josh Holmes]

Nothing better than that.

[Michael Duncan]

You have an opportunity to give them that feeling.

[John Ashbrook]

Ted. Lou will be out there and being like the Supreme Court tricked us into having an election.

[Josh Holmes]

Imagine the Arlington and Alexandria rally. No Kings rallies after something like that. Right. All their NGOs going tits up.

[John Ashbrook]

Horrific.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it'd just be awful, wouldn't it?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, the humanity.

[Josh Holmes]

So when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday, remember we asked you a question of the day and our question today that we'll get back to you next week on is what do Republicans need to win? Is it a message? Is it is highlighting the corruption that we've talked about off the top, the inauthenticity off the top? Is it just simply more resources from your standpoint, from what you look around and see in your local communities, what do you think that is like? And subscribe. Leave your comments. We'll be back to the very next episode. And while you're doing that, have a drink and have some fun. But before, before you do Zebiotics, you've got to have some zbiotics. We're a firm believer here on the Ruthless Variety program. It's the only pre alcohol drink that we're interested in and it's because it works. I got to tell you, it's a game changing thing for us. We've been involved with this for a couple of years now. It's been ridiculously effective.

[John Ashbrook]

We have stress tested the product. I would say efficiently, we make it our first drink of the night because there's no tomorrow without Zebiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he just absolutely stole It.

[Michael Duncan]

That's okay. It's a great line. And you know, one of our.

[John Ashbrook]

I've always wanted to steal it.

[Michael Duncan]

One of our dear friends, comfortably smug, believes in it so much that when he goes out with his pals, he hands these things out like it's Halloween candy. He's like, please take this. Trust me, trust me. And the next day, nothing but thank you. Invariably, he gets a thank you text message from somebody else. And we know it works because. Because it was developed by PhD scientists and it's based on the idea that when you drink alcohol, it creates this toxic byproduct inside of you that Zbiotics breaks down and takes care of on your behalf. So, like Michael Duncan said, a phrase he coined so eloquently, there is no tomorrow without Zebiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

No question about it. So go to zebiotics.com Ruth Ruthless to learn more. Get 15% off of your first order when you use Ruthless at the checkout. ZBiotics is backed by a hundred percent money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. You go to zbiotics.com ruthless and use ruthless at the checkout for 15 off. All right. You guys want a little lightning? Yeah. So this is back in the Pratt thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Great talk.

[Josh Holmes]

And we've kind of been obsessed with this dude since he's come on the program. I, I can't help but say, like, I feel like we helped usher in a real national awareness.

[John Ashbrook]

I hope so.

[Josh Holmes]

This guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, he was on his

[Josh Holmes]

way and I don't want to take anything away from the great campaign that

[John Ashbrook]

they've been running, but great viral ads and stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but ever since he came on this show, I, I look at like the TV and this guy is, that's nothing but, but Pratt stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

That's why they say this is the most powerful, influential podcast in all of America.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, that is what they say. No question about it. We heard it right there in the header of our show. But if you look at clip 5, what it is, is the unions who are opposing Spencer Pratt. This is what they've come up with. Clip 5.

[American Petroleum Institute Announcer]

Republican Spencer Pratt is the last thing Los Angeles needs for Mayor Pratt. Pratt opposes using taxpayer money to build brand new houses for our unhoused neighbors, saying it's time for the homeless to get help or get out. Pratt thinks LA needs thousands more police officers rather than more social workers. And Republican Spencer Pratt thinks public employee unions should have less power, not more LA is on the right track and needs to stay the course. Vote no on Republican Spencer Pratt.

[Josh Holmes]

My only question is whether Spencer Pratt funded that ad.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right. If not, it's an in kind contribution to his campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

I think. Ashprick, I think you made the observation during that debate that you were taken aback by the tenor of the questioning in the candidates, in that it was already a foregone conclusion. Everybody accepted that LA was a shithole. What are we doing to get out of it?

[Michael Duncan]

Which is surprising because usually when you have a debate that's put on by mainstream media outlet, you expect that the Republican is gonna get these stilted questions and that the Democrats are gonna get the questions like how great you are. And that's not what happened in that debate. Because these reporters, these producers, everybody working at that news station are living in the hellhole that these Democrats have created. And it was really striking, really. You could not watch that debate and walk away with the conclusion that everybody behind the scenes is comfortable with the way things are going in that town.

[Josh Holmes]

Really struck by the takeaway. You know, you don't. I mean, you obviously expect that public employee unions are going to say like, yes to public employee unions. And like, that's of course going to be part of the message. But LA is on the right track. The tagline to all of that in opposition to Spencer Pratt. Seems like everything we know about the polling, whether or not you think this guy's got a shot to win or not, not that flies in the face of reality. Of what people in la, the whole

[John Ashbrook]

experience just flies in the face of reality. Who calls them unhoused people? Like, unless you are some partisan Democrat who got your decoder ring from the dnc, nobody uses language like that in their everyday lives. It doesn't make any sense. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, the whole ad felt like a funny, fake ad that SNL would run to support Spencer Pratt.

[Josh Holmes]

It was. It was like a. Like an onion, like Operation I. Spencer

[John Ashbrook]

Pratt says fire is bad. Claims it burned down his house. Don't vote for him. You know, like, totally.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. You know, so weak. He got his home burned down.

[John Ashbrook]

Can you believe it?

[Josh Holmes]

Spencer Pratt, can't trust him.

[John Ashbrook]

He doesn't even have a house. Not tough on fire.

[Josh Holmes]

Also housed. It's ridiculous. All right, so I wish we had Mary Katherine Ham on this because you know who we like every time she comes on the program to answer for all of the ills of women.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, we, we make her. It's not. She doesn't come in and be like, I'm ready.

[Josh Holmes]

She doesn't want that.

[John Ashbrook]

Spokesman for women here.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, she doesn't want that. But we usually make her. We do do that. And she's a good sport.

[John Ashbrook]

She is.

[Josh Holmes]

But we found something here and she's not here that we just simply must highlight. Yeah. This is a. An outfit that does what they call the mom pre over Mother's day where there's a bunch of race car drivers where they get their moms to drive. To drive. One race.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

And they cover it as though it's a real race. You just have to see the clip. Clips it. I mean, they look great out there. Not that I'm shocked. I'm not saying women cannot drive where they curve wheels all the time or anything. Definitely not saying that they're not as good of drivers as us. I'm not saying that we're better. I'm just saying I'm shocked.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow. Wow. Oh, they follow. They're following the face truck. They follow the face truck. Wait, wait, wait. You got to be kidding me. Defense truck. They drove diving. Hey, dude, stop. They drove off the truck. No, they didn't. Again, I'm not saying we're not. Follow the pace truck. They drove off the track.

[Josh Holmes]

There's no way that's ever happened before.

[John Ashbrook]

They drove off the truck.

[Josh Holmes]

Audio only listener. What happened was they were going around behind a pace car, and the pace car, as is traditionally done after the requisite lapse to get things warmed up, pulls off into the pit, and the race begins. Well, the women just simply followed the pace car back to the pits. All of them. I can't believe every single one of

[John Ashbrook]

them

[Josh Holmes]

in the mom Pretty.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like anything I'm gonna say is gonna get me in trouble with my wife.

[Michael Duncan]

Me, too.

[John Ashbrook]

Me, too.

[Josh Holmes]

No word yet on dinging the rims.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my goodness. Dude, I can't believe that's real. I didn't see that. I don't know how that didn't show up in my feed. I feel like I get everything.

[John Ashbrook]

Corey, I was just gonna say it's a good thing that there's no curb on pit row. Every mom would have hit it there.

[Michael Duncan]

It.

[John Ashbrook]

I got you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Now Karen's coming after you first.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, my mom will probably come at me, too. Sorry, mom.

[Josh Holmes]

Another announcement in the Variety. You boys have signed yourselves up for something fun. You're gonna do Tunnels to Towers in a Duncan v. Ashbrook. So if you haven't heard it here before, Tunnels to Towers. Great foundation. Been a part of extremely important work over the years, and they have an annual. What do you would. How would you.

[John Ashbrook]

A climb. A climb of the Freedom Tower in New York City.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Where you go up all the stairs and you two suckers signed up for this.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So you. You two. When is it?

[Michael Duncan]

Here's the thing. It's in June. I think it's June 7th as a Sunday morning. And it's a great cause. I mean, Tunnel to To is just one of the all time great causes in this country. And if you meet anybody associated with them, you'll be convinced instantly about the good work that they do. And Duncan had this great idea that he would set up two websites. He's the Internet guy. He does that sort of thing for a living.

[John Ashbrook]

Some vanity URLs.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So I'll let him tell you what those websites are, but it's basically like, do you want to donate on Ashbrook's behalf? Do you want to donate on Duncan's behalf? A little bit of a competition, which is an awful lot of fun. And Duncan wants this to be. Be like also a competition about who reaches the top fastest.

[John Ashbrook]

I do. Well, because this is how it happened.

[Josh Holmes]

He's been training.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't care about that part.

[John Ashbrook]

Is that our agent got Ashbrook to sign up to do this thing. And then I also.

[Josh Holmes]

Because he liked his body.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He said he looked like he was fit enough to take care of that. He was like. I saw him.

[Michael Duncan]

What he couldn't see were my knees. Okay. And my knees are not in great shape. And so all I'm hoping is that if people contribute the money to this program, Tunnel to Towers, it goes directly to them. And I'll take care of my knees. If they hurt, I'm gonna have to gut it out. That's how it goes.

[John Ashbrook]

I think that's very honorable, John, but I think what's even more important than raising the money is that I beat you in this race. I have been training.

[Josh Holmes]

Ha ha.

[John Ashbrook]

I've been training. I've been getting into better shape.

[Josh Holmes]

Shape.

[John Ashbrook]

With the goal, the singular goal of beating you up the Freedom Tower.

[Josh Holmes]

I. I have noticed this. You're going to have a mixed reaction on that.

[John Ashbrook]

Why?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, because I feel like you training to beat one of our colleagues in a race up a tower.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

On stairs. It just, it. It's just. It sort of connotes some kind of a vacancy there, Michael, that we just need to come to grips with is.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know why anybody would try to do something and not try to win.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

All I'm saying, I think it honors

[John Ashbrook]

the cause to try to compete for victory. And in fact, I suggest you donate to me and not agent doing.

[Josh Holmes]

Is our OJ Is our agent doing this, too?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, but I'm worried.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't beat John McCon if you don't beat him.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's the problem. Here's the problem problem, Holmes, is that Ashbrook's being all, like, coy about it, like, oh, you know, but he's gonna work his.

[Josh Holmes]

He's gonna work,

[John Ashbrook]

like, he's just gonna saunter on up 100 flights of stairs, and he's not.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm gonna enjoy the company of the others.

[John Ashbrook]

The second we get there, he's gonna lock in and he's gonna zip, zip, zip around me, and I'm never gonna see him again unless I train and prepare to beat him. And that's what I did. Because you know how he is. He's gonna such a hilarious psychological. He's gonna o shots, the whole thing, and then we're gonna show up, and he's gonna have on, like, a new set of hokas, you know, and, like, compression socks, and he's gonna be ready to roll. He's probably gonna have a GoPro on his head.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, can you wear a GoPro?

[John Ashbrook]

I don't think you can, actually.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think that's against the rules.

[John Ashbrook]

Look at this. The rules stickler.

[Michael Duncan]

I. I'm just telling you, my knees are not in great shape. You know, you place every single sport, every single season for your entire life, and you become guy, and your knees aren't what they used to be. And so I'm hoping that I can make it.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

We don't have to raise, pal. I just want your friendship.

[Michael Duncan]

You'll have it, okay?

[Josh Holmes]

I have no doubt where this is going down.

[John Ashbrook]

Please, please, please do donate. If you want to donate to Ashbrook, you can go to donatetoashbrook.com. if you want to donate to Michael Duncan, donate to duncan.com and you'll get redirected to the fundraising link. It's a great cause.

[Josh Holmes]

And I think at some point, before you all go, I will throw my weight behind one of the.

[John Ashbrook]

One of the ponies over here.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Who I think is. Is going to win. And at this point, I. I've heard persuasive arguments on both sides.

[John Ashbrook]

I have an. I have an indomitable will. I will not lose.

[Michael Duncan]

And let me. Let me just assure everybody listening. Despite the way that Michael Duncan wrote these web addresses, when you go to donateto ashbrook.com, money does not go to me, it goes to Tunnel the to. Which is where it belongs.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

This is a fun.

[Michael Duncan]

What?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, no. He's critiquing your. Your. Your website addresses.

[John Ashbrook]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is a fun side game.

[John Ashbrook]

It's.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want it to be clear.

[John Ashbrook]

It's donate.

[Josh Holmes]

If you can't win the competition, he's going to take a shot at your character.

[John Ashbrook]

In my integrity. Like, this is a lush fund. Like we're some liberal ngo. No, the money goes to Tunnels or Towers. I went out of my way to set up these URLs. You grateful piece of shit. For a good cause. For charity.

[Josh Holmes]

Just so you know, I will not

[Michael Duncan]

be taking it down Dime, in case that wasn't clear.

[Josh Holmes]

Despite the way it's been set up by my partner.

[John Ashbrook]

The point was we'd have a lot to be understood. The whole point of having those be the domains was like, people could choose their horse. You know, like, donate to Ash, donate to Duncan.

[Josh Holmes]

That's one interpretation.

[John Ashbrook]

It all goes to Tunnel. Tough. Great charity. Please donate.

[Michael Duncan]

You tried your best.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what? Donate to me. Don't donate to Ashbrook. God, that's fantastic.

[Michael Duncan]

I love it.

[Josh Holmes]

So remember, when you like and subscribe program, you get all of this fun for absolutely free. Just like and subscribe, we ask you a question. Today's question is, what do Republicans need to win? You all know better than anybody else because you're out there checking things out in your own neighborhood. And we could learn a little something from it. So leave that comment. We get back to the very next episode. Subscribe, though. Like, and subscribe. And when you do, maybe check out a little bit of merch while you're there. There. And then don't be fooled by the web addresses of Donate to Ashbrook and Donate to Duncan. They're not going to them.

[John Ashbrook]

It's our fundraising page. We each have to raise, I think, $300 or something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

They're not going to keep it.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you for making that clear, because it was on.

[John Ashbrook]

I was.

[Michael Duncan]

I was. Yeah, I thought it was important to clarify.

[John Ashbrook]

They're not going. It goes to, like, homes for fallen officers and first responders. It doesn't go to us. Could have fooled me. You never know.

[Josh Holmes]

It's important to be clear in times like these.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm gonna kick your ass in this. He's now gonna be just, like, go proing from the hundredth floor. I'm gonna be up there with the professionals at the starting line.

[Josh Holmes]

I absolutely love it with that. Fellas, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think we did it. What a great fun time Friday. Let's go to Hollywood, hen.

[Josh Holmes]

Another banger of an episode, folks. So until next time, minions, keep the

[Michael Duncan]

faith, hold the line and own the libs.

[Josh Holmes]

We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless, Sam.