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- [00:00]
A
It's still wild to me. And I know we talk about this every election year, that it takes this long in California simply to count the ballot.
- [00:09]
B
How is it that banana republics are able to count their. It's almost like when you have Democrats running the elections. They run it terribly on purpose. The elected officials there, like Ashbrook says, as part of a machine, do not care about the citizens.
- [00:27]
A
If you don't remember Tom Steyer. I love this guy because I mean, he just spends hundreds of millions of dollars to get ass beat. Bench is pretty thin in the Hamas caucus.
- [00:37]
C
Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet. Now they're messing with your credit card. Your credit card and the security it offers are under attack. The Durbin Marshall credit card bill would change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. That means higher risk of fraud, greater chance of stolen personal data, and the loss of rewards programs just so corporate mega stores can pocket billions of dollars in higher profits. Tell Congress to guard your card. Visit guardyourcard.com to take action and and learn more. I've worked at Coca Cola for 21 years.
- [01:37]
A
We're delivering Dr. Pepper from our brand
- [01:39]
C
new facility in Dallas, Texas.
- [01:41]
B
We're really proud to still make Pepsi products in America. You don't need a college degree to
- [01:45]
C
work here, but I put four kids through college by working here.
- [01:48]
A
This is a great place to work with great people and great American brands.
- [01:52]
B
Grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, they all depend on us. We deliver great paying jobs.
- [01:58]
A
We deliver beverages people love.
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B
We deliver for our community.
- [02:04]
C
Learn more@wedeliverforamerica.org Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.
- [02:14]
B
This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.
- [02:19]
A
I love the personality.
- [02:20]
B
You guys are killing it.
- [02:21]
A
I just saw you're number one.
- [02:22]
C
So congratulations.
- [02:23]
A
It's an honor and a pleasure to
- [02:26]
B
welcome the great Sean Hannity. Guys, I love you.
- [02:30]
D
Congratulations on all your success.
- [02:32]
B
This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast. Cause nobody else would ask that question. Political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast. It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast.
- [02:45]
A
Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I'm Michael Duncan along with Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. No Josh Holmes today, but we soldier on in his Stead. He's out on assignment. We have great news. There were Tuesday, the. The primaries in California and a lot of places across the country provided a lot of content for the ruthless variety program today. I would say, fellas.
- [03:08]
C
Oh, yeah.
- [03:09]
B
I mean, there's a lot to spike the football on because a lot of these results are basically ideas we've been putting forward for months now of how things are going for Democrats, what this is. And they take it hook, line and sinker. Everything we're predicting is happening, unfolding right before our eyes. And all of it is hilarious. Yeah.
- [03:29]
A
Especially in California with this jungle primary situation where you've got these Democrats clawing over each other to try to win and make the runoff that will be in November. You get to see some great, great content out of California. But the one thing I wanted to flag first is the great work of Spencer Pratt. Let's put up graphic five, please. So as of recording now, he's in the runoff.
- [03:55]
B
Yeah.
- [03:56]
A
Which is pretty incredible. The top vote getter being the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, the person who let his house get burned down.
- [04:05]
C
Right, right. And, you know, I think it's kind of amazing that first of all, Spencer Pratt is one of the most exciting things to happen in American politics this year. Just flat out, everything about his campaign has been interesting. The ads have been like, must see content.
- [04:23]
A
And he's got like an army of creators out there making AI videos and all this sort of stuff. Like, guy definitely had a lot of energy.
- [04:30]
C
He really, he really does in, like in his message to something that you always say, once you have their attention, what do you actually saying and are you using that attention wisely? His message is actually perfect in my mind. You know, angry citizen upset with the government not doing what they're supposed to do to help the people who live in the city. And he's standing up, he's doing something about it. But it's actually amazing to me that he has done as well as he has in the city of Los Angeles. You got to remember that in the state of California, every common sense, or not every, but a lot of common sense, people who are interested in change, who are actually interested in good government, are people who move to other states. And so of the remaining people there, he's still competitive. I think it's. Look, I think that this guy is going to remain competitive. There's a lot of vote left to count. I think he's going to remain competitive, and I sure as hell hope he does well in November.
- [05:31]
A
It's still wild to me. And I know we talk about this every election year, that it takes this long in California simply to count the ballot.
- [05:40]
B
That's the thing is like, you know, can we get that graphic 5 up again? That it's like 63%, I believe, expected. Like, this is just for the city of Los Angeles, just the county. No, it could take a while to get. The entire state of Florida gets results in within, like, two hours. You know, like, how is it that banana republics are able to count their. It's almost like when you have Democrats running the elections, they run it terribly on purpose. It's pathetic. It's unacceptable. Again, it goes back to why we need to save America act.
- [06:18]
C
Well, you know, it's a machine in California, especially in Los Angeles. I mean, Spencer Pratt's not just running for office. He's running against a machine that has elected Democrats over and over again since, you know, for 25 years. There's a reason why the city's in shit.
- [06:34]
D
Yep.
- [06:34]
C
It's because it's been run by Democrats. But the reason it's run by Democrats is because there's a machine that ensures Democrat reelection over and over again.
- [06:42]
B
That's it.
- [06:43]
A
Yeah. And look, there's still a lot of votes to count. I hope Spencer Pratt can hold on here and make the runoff. He has brought together a very interesting coalition of frustrated Angeles. And so we got to go to this clip from NBC News of some of his supporters on election night because
- [07:01]
B
he's speaking out against communism and socialism. And it is real big problem in our cities, especially in L. A where it's turned to crap. It's not an accident. They're doing it by design. Karen Bass wants to destroy our city. And it's nice to see someone like Spencer. I can simplify it, because those buzzwords are, like. They melt the brains of, like, left, you know, leaning people. So let's just say it this way. He doesn't want you, a human feces, to be a part of your life. He doesn't want homeless children outside. Thank you. That's awesome. We appreciate you. We appreciate you. We appreciate you. We talked a lot about the homelessness. Thank you. All right, listen. Don't appreciate you, ma'.
- [07:47]
D
Am.
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C
Hold her accountable.
- [07:50]
B
No, we can.
- [07:51]
C
We can.
- [07:53]
B
I want to shout out June Cutter, the chief of staff of Spencer. She's incredible.
- [07:56]
C
Thank you.
- [07:57]
B
Okay, Halle.
- [07:57]
C
I'll say is that.
- [07:58]
B
Clearly, they're. They're taking a few shots. They're feeling good out here. The margaritas are flowing there at Don Antonio's. Perhaps. I don't know for sure. I love it.
- [08:09]
A
And I love the first guy in that, like, sort of sequin pinstripe blazer with the extra wide lapels, or like, he's out of Studio 54.
- [08:17]
D
Right.
- [08:18]
A
And then you got this other guy just in the trucker hat, like, what an incredible coalition.
- [08:22]
C
Right. It really is. And, you know, you always wonder, like, thinking about the type of people who are coming out to vote for Spencer Pratt. He has said that he's had Democrats come up to him in droves saying, we're with you. We're not saying it publicly, but we're with you. And this number, I think this number bears that out because this city is all Democrats. You know, it's a city where there are very, very few Republicans. And look, I mean, I think that this guy has the kind of message that can catch on in cities around the country.
- [08:56]
B
I mean, I think especially in Los Angeles and in California at large, but specifically in Los Angeles, I feel like it's a potent message. Because if you've been to Los Angeles a bunch, if you went there before COVID if you've been there since, it's a wonderful city. It's an incredible city. There's wonderful things to see, there's people doing exciting things, and it's been allowed to just fall apart and turn into a nightmare because the elected officials there, like Ashbrook says, as part of a machine, do not care about the citizens. They don't care about the history of that town. They don't care about all the amazing things that were done there. It's falling apart. And I think it's like. Like I said, by design, is they have this machine in place which only cares and about maintaining power, Whether that's with these NGO groups who have turned homelessness into a source of profit, they haven't solved it. They've spent more money to try and solve the problem than if they bought every homeless person in Los Angeles a house. Which tells you they're not actually trying to get homeless people in homes. They're trying to turn it into a profit for themselves.
- [10:05]
C
Yeah. And Pratt's message is not partisan. It's not like, oh, you gotta be the Republicans and not the Democrats. It's like this city is in shambles.
- [10:14]
B
Bingo.
- [10:15]
C
And every half of it burnt to the ground. The school's burnt to the ground. The house is burnt to the ground. You got homeless people everywhere. And the only thing the service industry for the homeless seems to be interested in is making more money for themselves, not solving the problem. The only thing that the NGOs helping the drug addicts seem to want to do is make more money for themselves. Like he's just raising problems that everybody walking around can see with their own two, not two eyes.
- [10:43]
A
Well, I'm glad you guys raised the homelessness issue because the woman currently in third place in that mayoral race is Nithya Raman, City councilwoman. One of her key issues that she was leading on the city council was homelessness. Done a bang up job, I would say. You know, look, I. I think Spencer's going to hold on here and make the runoff as they continue to count all of these votes based solely on her speech from Tuesday night. Let's play that clip.
- [11:12]
B
I've been a candidate for something as long as you can remember, and you've had to live through it with me. Is that a story? And you've been so patient through all of it. Thank you, Karna and Kaveri, I hope you know that everything every person in this room is fighting for in this campaign has been about building a city that's worthy of you and every child in this city. These people are. Her tears make me feel so good. Because these people are monsters.
- [11:48]
C
Yeah.
- [11:49]
B
What they have done, like these socialists throughout history, they try to get people to destroy a society under the guise of. No, you don't understand. This is good for the working class. None of her. She is not. None of her supporters are working class people. The same as, like all the AOC people, the same as all the Bernie Bros. These are all a bunch of trust fund kids who think that the way I can help the working class is by running the town into shit and stealing money from people who have earned it and created things and distributing it to my friends. Like her being in charge of homelessness and then Los Angeles being the way it is. How does she think she should be allowed to run for office? Should be scared of going into prison for what she's allowed. That's the problem. So when you see someone like that cry, number one, it feels great. But people like that need to start having real consequences because these are all trust fund kids. And the reason she's crying is she's like, oh, you know, I've been running for office for so long and been on city council longer than you could remember. It's like these are people, these trust fund kids, who have never faced consequences and whenever they face hardship, all they can do is cry. They've never had to work hard. She's crying in their life.
- [13:04]
A
She's crying because the gravy Train is finally over. That's why, you know, that's why. Oh, it's so telling. You're absolutely right. Smug. I love that. Well, another third place candidate we got to get to here in the gubernatorial race, Tom Stier.
- [13:18]
C
Oh boy.
- [13:18]
A
Remember Tom Styer? Let's put up graphic number one. So as of recording this, Steve Hilton, great friend of the program, is in first place in the gubernatorial primary. Then you got Javier Becerra, who rose, he's the crab that got to the top of the tank, clawing over all of the other Democratic foes, including Katie Porter. And who's the guy?
- [13:43]
B
Smoked.
- [13:44]
A
Smoked. Absolutely smoked. It was hilarious. Which they did on purpose. Obviously. They knew they had to thin the herd a little bit, otherwise maybe two Republicans would end up as the top two for the runoff. Heard maybe that would have been the handiwork of Tom Steyer, the guy who occupies third place.
- [14:01]
B
So this is very interesting to me because this is yet again another example of what happens when you try to run the Bernie playbook. All these, all these Bernie people, like, you know, Platinus Camp, all the people behind him think that the playbook is to run as a far left socialist. You had Tom Steyer, a billionaire, running and just saying Bernie Sanders speeches from the podium, thinking that was going to work out. They are convinced that if they're socialist, like look at Nithya Rahman, it la. They weren't buying that shit. Tom Steyer is spending millions of meals, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, acting like he's Bernie Sanders and still loses to Xavier Becerra, who is part and parcel damn machine. Like he's Obama machine guy. And he was getting attacked from the far left. He was getting attacked by all the Bernie Bros. Is like this guy is. He's essentially a Republican. Yeah, this is the guy who worked for Obama. Okay, let's.
- [14:56]
C
Tom Steyer spent a hell of a lot of money. I mean like what did he spend in this?
- [15:01]
A
He spent a couple hundred million dollars in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent when he ran for president. Remember he ran in that Democratic primary. And listeners and viewers, if you don't remember Tom Steyer, I love this guy because I mean he just spends hundreds of millions of dollars to get his ass beat. When he ran for president in the South Carolina Democratic primary, he got juvenile. Remember the rapper Juvenile?
- [15:29]
B
Okay.
- [15:29]
A
To his election night party. Okay, let's play that clip.
- [15:47]
B
Unbelievable. Honestly. That is good use of Dem campaign funds. I want them to spend it on like bringing juvenile in to do Events.
- [15:55]
A
He is like the Brewster's Millions of Democratic candidates.
- [15:59]
B
It's amazing the amount of money that he has spent multiple times now. Just like lit on fire, dude.
- [16:06]
A
So I actually asked Grok all about this, and in total, Grok said He has spent $558 million between this gubernatorial campaign and his failed presidential campaign camp.
- [16:20]
C
Did he win either of those?
- [16:21]
A
He didn't win. He didn't win either.
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B
58.
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A
$558 million. And then I asked Grok, in $1 bills, if you laid them end to end, how far would that take you around the world? Twice. All the way around the world.
- [16:43]
C
It's a lot of dollar bills.
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A
It's a lot.
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B
So I was thinking that was an insane amount of money. 550 million. I just googled, folks, you may not remember. Michael Bloomberg ran for president.
- [16:55]
C
Billionaire.
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B
Guess how much he spent on running for president.
- [16:58]
C
How much?
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B
Just that one run.
- [16:59]
A
Guess. 100 million?
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C
200 million?
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B
1.1 billion.
- [17:04]
A
Wow.
- [17:04]
B
Dude, that is insane. Dude. These people. $1.1 billion.
- [17:10]
C
That's almost Kamala money.
- [17:13]
B
Dude. That is insane.
- [17:14]
A
Tom Steyer has spent more money losing a race for president and for governor of California than the GDP of Anguilla.
- [17:24]
B
Is there a country's GDPs that you're spending more to lose?
- [17:27]
C
Get the message.
- [17:28]
B
Get the message.
- [17:29]
A
It's unbelievable. All right, so when we, when we come back, you're not going to believe who the Democrats nominated for a House seat in New Jersey. Is he the most radical candidate to ever run for office? The nominee with Al Qaeda ties? We also have Ken Paxton at the end of this interview. You're not going to want to miss that. Now that he is the nominee from the great state of Texas for United States Senate. Coming right back.
- [17:55]
C
American energy is growing with a renewed focus on American oil and natural gas. We're rebuilding our industrial strength and driving investment. Energy demand is rising, and the United States has the resources to meet it. Here's the challenge. If we can't build the infrastructure to move that energy, pipelines, transmission lines, and power plants, Americans won't feel the benefits. And while projects stall, China moves faster. Not because America lacks energy, but because Washington's permitting system is outdated and broken. Energy affordability depends on getting energy where it's needed, when it's needed. Yet critical projects remain stuck for years in delays and endless litigation. We have the energy. We have the workforce. Now it's time to build. Let's secure American energy leadership for generations to come. When America builds, America wins. Pass permitting reform now. Learn more@ permitting reformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.
- [18:55]
D
The Trump administration has made fighting waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system a top priority. Few industries have more of it than tax exempt hospitals that game the system. Washington used to look the other way, but House Republicans have had enough with health care dollars funding everything but health care.
- [19:11]
B
Real estate investments, stadium naming rights, green energy initiatives and political activism.
- [19:17]
D
Ways and Means Republicans are doing their part.
- [19:20]
B
I would say that non for profit
- [19:22]
C
hospitals, Andrew, look like hedge funds with hospital beds.
- [19:25]
B
340B programs.
- [19:26]
D
Why are those used today?
- [19:28]
C
We have to tear this Entire system down. 163,000 spent on board meetings in Europe, Canada and Mexico.
- [19:35]
B
You said give us tax exempt status,
- [19:37]
C
give us rule and designation and what did you do? We got less charity care and you raised your prices.
- [19:43]
D
Thank you to Ways and Means Republicans for protecting patients and taxpayers by fighting for transparency and accountability in the runaway tax exempt hospital system.
- [19:54]
A
All right, we're back. And assalamu alaikum to the great people of New Jersey who just elected a guy with Al Qaeda ties.
- [20:02]
C
Okay, I gotta hear about.
- [20:04]
A
I saw this blowing up on Twitter. Shocking really. From the New York Post. The headline here squad backed New Jersey Democrat who volunteered with Al Qaeda linked group wins primary to replace Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. The candidate is Adam Hamowi. Hamui, an Egyptian born, former combat surgeon who once volunteered with an Al Qaeda linked group in Bosnia, emerged victorious Tuesday in the Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman's New Jersey seat. He's a staunch critic of Israel. Wow, Shocker there. Who is endorsed by squad members Ronna Ilhan Omar, aoc, Rashida Tlaib, as well as Bernie Sanders. Wow. A murderous row of idiots.
- [20:53]
B
That is some shit.
- [20:54]
A
And he was the top vote getter in the crowded Democratic primary. This is the 12th congressional district, however.
- [21:01]
B
I love this.
- [21:02]
A
I love a turn in a New York post article. His 1994 internship with the Benevolence International foundation in Bosnia and his association with the infamous Blind Sheikh. Reminder. This is the guy who plotted the first bombing in the World Trade center has drawn scrutiny. The 911 Commission report described the now defunct benevolent International foundation operation in Bosnia as part of an impressive array of offices that covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities by Osama Bin Laden. This is the state of the Democratic
- [21:38]
B
Party and of all places, New Jersey who had so many people murdered on September 11th.
- [21:46]
C
It's outrageous.
- [21:47]
B
It's disgusting.
- [21:48]
C
It's absolutely outrageous. I just like what's an internship for Al Qaeda involved? You Know what I mean?
- [21:56]
B
Amazing question.
- [21:57]
C
Are you licking envelopes to send the ricino letters? What are you doing? What do you do in an internship for Al Qaeda? What do you suppose happens? You know, because in your typical internship in here in America, you're clipping out things from the newspaper. At least that's what you're. Back in my day.
- [22:16]
A
Maybe you're booking the airline tickets.
- [22:18]
B
Oh, my God, that's tough. You sure you don't need round trip? No, no.
- [22:23]
A
One way.
- [22:24]
C
What the hell do you do as an intern for the Al Qaeda. For Al Qaeda money bags?
- [22:29]
A
I don't know.
- [22:30]
C
Run into the bank, I guess.
- [22:32]
B
You get elected to Congress from New Jersey.
- [22:34]
A
Well, so it gets more bizarre here. Okay, so he's affiliated with this group that had ties to Al Qaeda and all that. He also testified at the trial of Abdel Rahman, the Blind Shake. The Blind Sheikh, the guy again who plotted the first bombing of the World Trade Center. From the article at trial, the future Democratic congressional hopeful also testified that comments Abdel Rahman made about conquering the land of the infidels were being taken out of context by prosecutors, according to a transcript of proceedings. I think the voters of New Jersey have a right to know why Dr. Hammawi felt so strongly in defending a violent jihadist leader, the Blind Sheikh, that he repeatedly lied under oath in the 1995 terrorist trial, said Steve Emerson, founder and executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
- [23:32]
C
How is this real?
- [23:33]
B
That's the thing, is if you take a step back, you're stunned by this because it's beyond the pale. It's the most atrocious thing. All of you remember what it felt like on that day. It was the most horrific event probably in our lifetimes. And this is not an isolated thing. The fact that you had New York City elect a mayor who's like, no, you see, like these, the radical Islamists are actually the victims here. This is starting to become a pattern across the country. And the squad has jumped aboard on this train. You've got the whole Michigan problem with the Hamas caucus. This is not like some outlier of, like, boy, somehow this guy just like, squeaked by in a primary. It was an absolute surprise to all of us. No, this is a guy who was endorsed by aoc, Rashid Tolab, Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders. Like, this is what they want to do. This is what they think of this country. And it's horrific and it's unacceptable, and something needs to be done about this. I don't want this guy in Congress. I want this Guy in jail. If you're testifying for a terrorist being like, this guy's actually a hero and you work at an organization which was sending money to bin Laden to commit terrorist acts, he. You're like, that's cut and dry, criminal. How is this guy on the ballot?
- [24:48]
A
It's like, how is he just not a co conspirator?
- [24:50]
B
That's the thing.
- [24:51]
A
You know, it's unbelievable, but like, they kind of have a long history of this. Do you remember when Ilhan Omar first came on the scene and got into Congress, and there was that video of her talking about 9 11.
- [25:02]
B
She's like, oh, you know, it's just something happened. Some people did something.
- [25:05]
A
Some people did something.
- [25:06]
C
I mean, just outrageous.
- [25:07]
B
It's like.
- [25:08]
A
It feels like in the last 10 years or so, the left has sort of rewritten the history of 911 and radical Islam and to try to make it more palatable in general.
- [25:19]
B
Their whole position has become less of, like, a singular ideology, which is how you end up with things like, oh, it's queers for Palestine. When in Palestine they would kill every queer they could get their hands on. But it's part of the whole left is anything that's against America is actually what we stand for. Because the whole framing has been like, what Was that? The 1619 project? All that is basically like, actually America bad.
- [25:40]
A
Yeah, all the history's wrong.
- [25:42]
B
All of their whole, like, they're like, no, no, no, we want to rewrite everything and make kids in school because the teachers are pushing the same kind of shit of like, actually America bad. Actually Columbus bad. Actually George Washington bad. Actually, everything America's done is bad. Actually, all the statues of American heroes are bad.
- [25:59]
A
Well, bad. And maybe we deserved it. That's the thing, you know?
- [26:03]
C
And remember during the Biden years, when they tried to bully people who would hang an American flag in front of their house, they were like, oh, it makes them. It. Some of our neighbors feel uncomfortable to
- [26:13]
B
see in America or the flag that, like, George Washington's army was hanging. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. That's actually a dangerous extremist flag. They want to make anything American bad so then they can subvert culture, our government, and everything that's made this country successful.
- [26:27]
C
Because the greatest threat to international terrorism, the greatest threat to international terrorism is how America came together after 9 11. And they want to prevent that from ever happening again. Because when Americans were together, when Americans came back so strong from that horrible, horrible day, everybody overcame them. You know, it was like people were so sad. People were so angry. And people were ready to fight. And what they want to do is prevent America from coming together and being ready to fight again. Because I'm telling you, if they did it once, they'll try it again. We all know this. And that's why it's so important. I mean, it's not. We're not close to September 11th now, but, like, it is so important to never forget. It's become like, you know, oh, you say that every year, and we do the thing, and it's just part of, like, a forgettable ceremony or something. It's not. It's actually one of the most important things that our generation can do is never forget what actually happened on that day and how everybody came together afterwards. And they are trying to prevent that from happening. And we have to do everything we can to push back.
- [27:38]
A
Yeah, you're right. You're right. I have another dispatch from the Hamas caucus. Did you guys know that AOC is, like, chief of staff was running for Congress on Tuesday?
- [27:49]
B
Yes.
- [27:50]
A
This is wild.
- [27:51]
C
So in New York.
- [27:53]
A
No, this is in California. Yeah. So this was Chakrabarti. So this cat was endorsed by Hasan Piker. Let's go ahead and check out the results of that election. Oh, he came in third.
- [28:05]
B
Smoked.
- [28:05]
A
Smoked. Distant third. He got 14.9. Is that 14.9% in this primary? Scott Wiener is in first place. Heck of a name, that guy.
- [28:16]
B
I mean, he's got horrific theory.
- [28:18]
C
Yeah, he's a lunatic lefty.
- [28:20]
A
So, yeah, this Chakrabarti cat could only get 14.9% despite being AOC's chief of staff and DSA aligned. And, you know, they're the resurgent power in the Democratic Party, and you're out in California, and they're not buying it.
- [28:38]
B
It gets even better. So. So the story of this guy is it's not just that AOC endorsed him.
- [28:45]
A
He was. Well, I don't think AOC endorsed him, actually.
- [28:47]
B
Or. That's correct. AOC did not endorse him. Not only did he, he's cosplaying as if he's, you know, one of these, like, Bernie broke progressives. His backstory is he was actually one of the first employees at Stripe and had equity in Stripe. This guy's net worth is like, north of hundred mil. And he's like, so here's what I'm gonna do when I run for office. I can't be obvious about, like, again, it's one of these people, these young kids who's got a ton of money, but it's like, the only way I have a shot is if I'm like, power to the people, comrade. Please do not look at my. My bank statements.
- [29:25]
C
Yeah, so he was 100 mil stripe guy before he worked as AOC's chief of staff. Okay, all right. So then he's like, makes a little bit more sense.
- [29:32]
B
What you have to do is if you. These ambitious kids think that, like, I have to launder my past, I cannot be known as successful guy in tech who made a lot of money. I have to be like, we must confiscate the means of production, comrade.
- [29:46]
C
Exactly.
- [29:47]
B
But do not mind the money that I've stashed away, dude.
- [29:50]
A
It's always the case with these DSA people, right? Is that they. They, like, come from very affluent backgrounds and stuff, and they try to hide it, and then they adopt all these luxury beliefs about how they'd remake Tom Steyer.
- [30:03]
B
Like, this happens again and again and again. It's like, dude, like, how are you gonna be like, no one in this country has a chance. It's not like you could come up with an idea and create a company and make lots of money. It's like, you actually did that. Now you're trying to, like, it's almost like you're kicking the ladder behind you of like, no, now all money must be distributed equally, and no one can have a chance. It's unbelievable. And that's, to me, the most offensive thing about people like this, people like Tom Steyer, is the reason America is so great is because it is the land of opportunity. Because it's been the land of opportunity. And the thing that happens is when you have government get in the way of that, that's when you get the problems. And they're like, no, this country's given me such opportunity and I've been able to create such wealth. I want to prevent that from happening.
- [30:49]
A
It's funny you say that smug, because I saw this video recently from Bernie S.M. sanders just proclaiming that the government should get 50% of all of these AI companies. Just give it. Give it to the government.
- [31:01]
B
Totally.
- [31:02]
A
Like, that's his answer for everything. He just gets to be a five year old and be like, I get my share of all these companies.
- [31:09]
B
And that's the thing is, like, it's actually not hypocritical for these, like, Bernie Bros to have a lot of money and then be like, I am actually communist now. Is because, like, Bernie himself has perfected that model. He used to be like, tax the millionaires. He became one. He owns multiple Properties. Now he's like, tax the billionaires, you know, like, this is always them just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. Of like. No, I'm actually here to help you. They've done their part. They've made their money. They just want power. That's what this is all about.
- [31:40]
A
Yeah. So Chakrabarti losing is obviously very smooth. Funny. But even funnier is the crash out we got on Hasan Piker's livestream. Let's play that Pittsburgh and Philly are
- [31:52]
B
far more progressive than San Fran in la.
- [31:54]
A
Yeah,
- [31:56]
B
yeah. You know what it is? I know what it is.
- [32:00]
C
Fucking car reliant infrastructure. The more cars you have, the more
- [32:05]
B
chuddy the fucking city is. That's it. No public transit. Dude, that's an amazing.
- [32:10]
C
No fucking people living close to one another. No close quarters to one another.
- [32:14]
B
No public transit at all. Massive wealth disparity.
- [32:21]
A
It's just fucking rich liberals who just
- [32:23]
C
want homo fascism in the country.
- [32:25]
B
That's it.
- [32:25]
A
They want gay fascism, they want gay techno fascism.
- [32:32]
B
The thing is, it's amazing this guy is able to make a living off of any kind of political analysis where he's like, yeah, you know the state of Pennsylvania, way more progressive, the state that Trump won, by the way, than these cities in California. Like, he's an absolute moron. And it's hilarious to see how the Democrat Party is trying their hardest to appeal to him to get their endorsement. And it's essentially a kiss of death. Like, voters do not buy the stupid shit he's selling. Right. But online Democrats. So I think the lesson that the Dems took from 2024 is they're like, Trump won because of memes and Internet. Can we make memes and appeal to Internet?
- [33:17]
A
Yeah.
- [33:17]
B
And they went way down the rabbit hole on that one. It's like, if you do not have the grassroots enthusiasm that Trump did, of course this is all gonna come off as fake and voters are not gonna buy this shit. And thinking that Hasan Piker's endorsement is gonna lead you to win is how your candidate gets 15% and gets smoked.
- [33:33]
A
I do love the idea that the DSA can't win in elections where people own automobiles.
- [33:39]
B
Yeah. What a take. What a take.
- [33:41]
C
Real communism has never been tried.
- [33:43]
A
Yeah, it's so funny.
- [33:45]
C
I just can't make excuses.
- [33:47]
A
I can't believe being a Democratic campaign and watching that livestream, being like, that's the guy I need on the campaign trail.
- [33:53]
B
It's amazing.
- [33:54]
A
I need that guy barnstorming the state with me. So smart knows how to win, right? Unbelievable. Which brings us to the question of the day. Who is the worst candidate nominated by Democrats this cycle?
- [34:08]
B
This is a great question.
- [34:09]
C
Is it Graham Platner?
- [34:11]
B
Is it James Talarico? Do you want a guy? Is it the Al Qaeda guy? Is it Al Qaeda guy? Dude, this is an insane question.
- [34:18]
A
It's an insane question.
- [34:20]
B
What is worse? Is it. Is it main comp. Is it Al Qaeda in New Jersey?
- [34:25]
A
Like, chic.
- [34:26]
B
Yeah, like, this is an insane question.
- [34:28]
C
Their party is insane in a bad place.
- [34:30]
B
Huge, huge problem for these guys going into this. Or is it Talarico who's like, you know what I think about his trans kids? Like, dude, what is happening right now with the Demps? I think it's a great question. Who is the worst? I mean, there's so many to choose from at this point.
- [34:43]
A
Like, and subscribe. Leave your comment we read everyone when we come back, your answers to our question from last episode right after this.
- [34:57]
C
Who helps America go farther, fly higher, and dream even bigger? People do. Since 1879, our people have been more than a source of energy. They've been a source of progress. Today, that same progress is helping deliver record US Energy production, fueling the workers, the makers, the boundary pushers and risk takers who spark the breakthroughs that move America forward. Learn more about what our people do@chevron.com USA250
- [35:29]
A
well, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments and we picked out some choice ones for this episode, all about Graham Platner. And to do that, we always start with the voice.
- [35:41]
C
Okay, first one comes from Jeffrey six Ultra Hutchins. Jeffrey writes, I have a vegetable garden in my backyard that makes me as much of a farmer as Platner
- [35:54]
A
6 Ultra. Do you think, you think he likes the Michelob Ultras?
- [35:58]
C
I. I don't know. I'd be interested to find out. But I'm, I'm quite confident that, that the meaning of that nickname will make us all laugh.
- [36:07]
A
Yeah, I'm sure of that. All right, smug, what do you got?
- [36:10]
B
Comment 2 is from Eric Lenhart. Eric writes, the first thing anyone would notice about Platner's profile pic is that he left the seat up. Definitely a loser.
- [36:21]
A
Oh, it's tough man. Guy can't catch a break. Unbelievable. All right, so America is approaching its 250th birthday at a moment when belief in the country itself is trending downward. For decades. Among young people, trust dropped to around one in five, according to a polling dump by Politico. It's from our friends at AFP. They write to secure 250 more years of American exceptionalism. We need young people in this country to love it as we do. That's why they launched the One Small Step initiative. We've talked about it a lot here on the show. An opportunity to step up and make a difference in securing our nation's founding principles for generations to come.
- [37:07]
B
That's right. A good example. Saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school has been a hot button issue. I can't believe that over the last several years. But pledging our allegiance to the United States shouldn't be controversial. Absolutely not. So stand up for our country and go to a 250-toolkit.com ruthless to sign the pledge and show your support for America and its heroes. Again, that's a 250-toolkit.com ruthless.
- [37:31]
C
Such an important pledge effort they're doing here. And I mean, they're spending an entire year focused on this specifically. And I'm so glad to be talking to them. I'm so glad that, you know, we've had so many of their people coming on the show, and I can't wait to have somebody else because they always have a new program to highlight America. Yeah.
- [37:51]
A
And why should the pledge be controversial?
- [37:53]
B
It's unbelievable.
- [37:54]
A
It's unbelievable. It goes back to what we were saying earlier in the show about how they try to rewrite history on everything and make America the bad guy. It's the pledge.
- [38:01]
B
It's a pledge.
- [38:02]
A
My son does it. He loves doing it. They love learning it. You know, why can't they just do it in school?
- [38:07]
C
But the left has to dismantle that because they want to dismantle our country. They want to dismantle every good thing about our country. It's just something you're supposed to say at the beginning of class. It's not something you're supposed to get outraged about. You're lucky to be able to say it.
- [38:21]
A
Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right, we got to get to our next big story here on the program, and that is CBS News firing Scott Pelley. This was a circus.
- [38:35]
C
Yep.
- [38:36]
A
Scott Pelley threw a hissy fit at CBS and Barry Weiss, and there was a lot of back and forth in meetings, and then the C suite had to be called in and all of that sort of stuff. Well, it all ends with his firing here from the New York Post after they talked to Barry Weiss about the incident. They write CBS News Editor in Chief Barry Weiss addressed the firing of Scott Pelley during a staff meeting Wednesday morning, telling employees that the network had no choice but to part ways with the veteran correspondent following his public confrontation with management. Public confrontation, I think, is a nice way of putting it. Yeah, I would say, I don't know. Childish meltdown. In a Monday morning meet and greet gone wrong, Pelly took aim at CBS News editor and Jeep Barry Weiss, claiming she was, quote, murdering 60 Minutes and that she, quote, was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that, according to a source briefed on the meeting, quote, she has no qualifications for her job, Peli said of Weiss, according to the source. The changes she's made at the Evening News have been catastrophic. So why should we expect any of this is going to be any better?
- [39:47]
B
Amazing. Amazing. And so this is the thing is, Scott Peli is a terrible guy. He's a terrible reporter. He's not a journalist, he's an activist. And when he says that, like, who does she think she is coming in with any direction for a media company? Well, here's who she is, buddy. Is someone who actually started a media organization that was able to grow, which is very different from what you were accomplishing where at CBS with Scott Pelley. The evening news numbers went down. So they're like, let's just throw his ass to 60 Minutes. Scott Pelley's at 60 Minutes. Their viewership numbers go down. CBS News as an organization has their numbers start going down. And so he's an individual essentially throwing a hissy fist because he's a left wing activist being like, who does this individual think they are? His track record is one of losing viewership.
- [40:39]
A
Yeah.
- [40:40]
B
And hers. She had to start a news organization from scratch. She wasn't able to show up at a show called 60 Minutes that people who actually were journalists decades before you built up. And then you're allowed to just take a seat and be an idiot on that show. It was handed to you.
- [40:54]
A
Yeah. You were handed the flagship Sunday night news hour. Right. Like, it's 60 minutes. It's like a staple of our childhood. As Ashbrooke always says, you knew the fun was over and he was there
- [41:08]
B
when it first started. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
- [41:10]
C
Started after the weekend's over. School's about to start again, you know,
- [41:15]
A
but it used to be a good show with good programing when we were
- [41:18]
C
growing up, it was something that people watched.
- [41:20]
B
Yet Andy Rooney, Andy Rooney was always,
- [41:23]
A
yes, Andy Rooney was the best.
- [41:25]
B
But now it's like it basically became the We're Mad at Trump Hour. And no one wanted to watch that.
- [41:32]
C
Did you guys see this clip? It's floating around on Twitter. There's another podcast, it's called the Fifth Column. Yeah, I've not listened to it, but I saw some of their clips. In this conversation about Scott Pelley, one of the guys on there had one of the funniest. He was like talking about Pelly's chin, how he's always.
- [41:49]
B
Oh, he's.
- [41:50]
A
He juts it out.
- [41:51]
C
He's always sticking the chin out like he's in his nose is up in the air and he's just so much better than.
- [41:56]
A
He's just self important. He's a self important ass. Well, I think he's smarter than everyone.
- [42:00]
C
Here's the thing. If you watch football all day on cbs, you see Bill Cower. You see like somebody who you want to listen. There's a chin and that's a real chin. Kelly I think feels a little bit sheepish that he's not. He's not quite as good as Bill
- [42:14]
A
Cower or maybe Jay Leno. Well, we thought we would send off Scott with a lowlights of his career. Let's start with clip three.
- [42:28]
C
Late Thursday, we met President Biden at the White House. It had been a rough week and
- [42:32]
A
we could see it on him. Mr. Biden will be 81 next month and he has said that when he's tired, his lifelong stutter can creep back in. But he wedged us into his schedule. Does the dysfunction that we've seen in
- [42:47]
C
Congress increase the danger in the world?
- [42:51]
B
Yes.
- [42:52]
A
Look,
- [42:54]
C
this is not your father's Republican Party.
- [42:57]
B
30% of it is made up of these MAGA Republicans who are. Maybe democracy is something I don't. They don't look at it the same way you and I look at democracy. He's opening it basically giving an apology of like here's the thing, Biden, he might appear old, but it's because he worked so hard. He wedged us into his schedule and did you see the number of cuts? That was an insane number for more cuts than TikTok.
- [43:22]
A
It's like he's not a reporter. He might as well be the comms director.
- [43:24]
C
But for what?
- [43:26]
A
For what?
- [43:27]
C
By any objective standard, there wasn't anything interesting about that exchange other than the fact that the. The president's brain dead and Mr. Chin is a loser. He asked him, do you think Congress is a problem? And the President from a different party, of course is gonna say yes. What the hell kind of question is that? That's not journalism. Like you could ask that of any president at any time. You go in and ask Donald Trump, do you have a problem with Congress? He's gonna be like, well, I sure wish they would be better. Ask Bill Clinton. Boy, is Congress, is Newt Gingrich doing enough for you? He's gonna be like, well, I have disagreements with him. It's not a real question.
- [44:02]
A
It's a question a five year old could write.
- [44:04]
B
Also, the fact that Biden was comfortable enough to be like, you know these MAGA Republicans, they don't look at democracy the way you and I do. Cuz like he's being obvious in that moment that Pelly, you're on the same team as me, you know what I mean? And Pelly's 100% there with him on it. I found an actually completely unhinged clip of Scott Pelly that I wanted to play. Could we go to clip 4?
- [44:27]
C
It left many Republicans feeling that they were banging on the cockpit door of a party that had been hijacked with
- [44:34]
A
no idea where the GOP was headed or whether it would land in one piece.
- [44:40]
B
Dude, he is straight up saying that like Trump winning the Republican primary is like Al Qaeda hijacking a plane and killing Americans. This is the most unhinged, insane take. That was him on the evening news. This is not like Scott Pelley saying this.
- [44:58]
A
Yeah, not Ms. Hotel.
- [44:59]
B
Yeah, he's not dropping that take.
- [45:02]
A
He's on the evening news, broadcast news.
- [45:04]
C
He read it off of a monitor, meaning somebody probably him, wrote it and edited. And don't take that word out. No, you know, somebody, I hope to God somebody was like, hey, Scott, don't you think this is a bit much? But maybe not. Maybe he was just like, no, I insist, Trump is Al Qaeda.
- [45:22]
B
This is CBS Evening News, which has a broadcast license, but from, from the U.S. taxpayers. And he's out there being like, so the thing is Donald Trump, same thing as Al Qaeda hijacking a plane and killing Americans. This is someone who's been out of control for a very long time. And when CBS was run by a bunch of left wing idiots, he got a free pass. They encouraged it, like, oh, fewer viewers, who cares? Keep going off.
- [45:46]
C
There are so many things that happen in this world day to day to day, and so you forget about stuff like that. But every time you see a clip like that, it reminds you that the mainstream media ended themselves over and over the overindulgence on their own political preferences. Like they did it to themselves.
- [46:03]
A
Well, now that he's looking for a job, maybe he could be comms director to that Al Qaeda guy linked to the blind sheikh in New Jersey. Honestly, he can finally live his dream. One more clip here of Scott Pelly. This is at the Wake forest commencement in 2025. 2025.
- [46:20]
C
This is a treasure. You need to watch this on YouTube.
- [46:23]
A
Our sacred rule of law is under attack.
- [46:28]
C
Journalism is under attack.
- [46:31]
A
Universities are under attack.
- [46:35]
C
Freedom of speech.
- [46:36]
A
Speech, attack. The hands, the fear to speak.
- [46:40]
C
Wait till you see this in America.
- [46:44]
A
Oh, my God.
- [46:46]
C
Power can rewrite history. Yeah. Okay, this is what I. Grotesque false narratives. They can make criminals heroes like George Floyd. Heroes.
- [46:59]
A
Criminals.
- [47:00]
D
Look at that.
- [47:02]
A
The of the words we use to
- [47:06]
C
describe reality, like men and women.
- [47:08]
B
Like, the thing is that, like, he does not see. Like, the words that he's saying are actually damning the left of what had happened, with the left having total control over media and culture in Hollywood and government or Joe Biden and. And the way that they had. Essentially, the DOJ under Biden was hunting down Catholics or parents showing up to school board meetings, and he was like, no, you see now that people are allowed to actually have the truth and judge facts for themselves, we're in danger. Like, this is a guy who had zero interest in bringing the truth to the American public and 100% protecting what the journals used to have in this country before Elon got Twitter, before you were allowed to actually express your views online without fear of the Biden FBI showing up at your house or asking you at a school board meeting what you're doing here. Calling moms, showing up to school board members, adding them to the terror list. So think about that. And he was completely fine with that system. He loved a system where him and his partisan nut job friends had total control over the information you were allowed to hear. And for him to give a commencement address celebrating what they had is unbelievable.
- [48:21]
A
And the gesturing. Like a drama teacher. All he needs is the black turtleneck, that stupid French hat.
- [48:28]
B
Right?
- [48:28]
A
And you would think he was a. Like a high school drama teacher overacting for your benefit.
- [48:35]
B
Look at that. I mean, that's like, who's this guy? This is unbelievable. That's why you need the YouTube. See that?
- [48:42]
C
That is the funniest thing. Like, do you think he.
- [48:45]
B
Again, he practiced that?
- [48:48]
C
Exactly.
- [48:49]
A
Scott Pelly. Happy trails. Yeah. You guys ready for some variety?
- [48:55]
B
Always.
- [48:56]
A
Okay, so, interesting story. I saw just the other night on Twitter, George Santos under investigation for insider trading on cow sheet. It's interesting here.
- [49:07]
C
Guy can't stay out of trouble.
- [49:09]
A
In February, four months after being released from federal prison, former Republican congressman Jorge Santos took to social media to express his enthusiasm about attending President Trump's upcoming State of the Union address. Quote, I'm going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys, A Santos said in a video he posted on X. At the time, traders on the prediction market Psychoshi were placing millions of dollars worth of bets on who would attend. Santos's video confirming his presence sent odds soaring, but he didn't show up, Quote, watching State of the Union from an airport TV was not part of my plan, FML Santos wrote on X. He posted the message as Trump was speaking, making those same odds in the Kalshee market plummet. What Santos didn't say was he had already placed bets on Kalshee that he was not going to appear at the State of the Union. Unbelievable. Well, so apparently Kalshee detected this. Oh, the unusual activity on their platform with the trade and everything, and did their internal due diligence and reported this to authorities, and that's why he is currently under investigation. This is where it gets kind of funny. Reached by npr, Santos said about this investigation, well, that's news to me.
- [50:39]
B
Oh, man, do you not want to hear about a CFTC investigation and the Justice Department investigation by NPR calling you and being like, that's news to me.
- [50:49]
A
He said they asked him if he, you know, he was doing this insider trading. And he says, I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no.
- [50:59]
B
That's what Glenn asked about if he had a couch account. Yeah, dude, dude, that's a tough look. That is a tough look. Like, I don't know, like, if. If you get a pardon. To me, it kind of is like, okay, I got a new lease. You know what I mean? I got a new lease on life. This is now when I walk the straight. And like, how much do you think he. I wish this article had numbers. How much did he net, in theory off of this, according to the article? Like, how did they not put that number in first place? Of like. Because he. If all the reporting is accurate, he did a good job of selling this. Of like, the night before putting a video up of being, like, excited to be there. I'm definitely going to be there. And then placing the bet that you want. That's like diabolical shit, right?
- [51:47]
A
Diabolical.
- [51:48]
B
What's the number that he's netting?
- [51:51]
C
You know, I wonder. But some people get so crazy with big numbers and betting not just on Kalshee, but also on sports. Yeah, this is not Santos's number. But I saw a guy after The Myles Garrett trade away from the Cleveland Browns. He bet $200,000 that the Browns would not win the super bowl right after the trade, and it pays $201,435.
- [52:16]
B
So he.
- [52:17]
C
He $200,000. He just throws out. Throws online. I don't know what. What it's also Santos is putting on there, but, like, the amount of money that people are throwing online is a lot.
- [52:29]
A
So it's also really stupid to bet $200,000 for a market that won't resolve for nine, ten months to make a thousand dollars buy like a CD.
- [52:40]
B
Right?
- [52:42]
A
You get a better return.
- [52:43]
B
Now I'm rooting for them now you want the Browns to win for that guy.
- [52:46]
A
Financial advice from the ruthless variety program. You love to see it. Okay, this one's funny. Kind of a Looney Tunes moment. This woman fell down a manhole cover. Let's go to that clip. Okay. Walking. Oh, man. Jeez.
- [53:04]
C
Horrific.
- [53:04]
A
That was more violent than I thought it would be. Wolf, why did you put this in the sheet?
- [53:09]
B
Dude, that's actually horrific.
- [53:10]
C
Dude, that is terrifying.
- [53:11]
A
Well, she's fine. She's fine. She went to the hospital. She was released. Honestly, I didn't know if you guys knew this. I didn't know that manhole covers sort of rotated like that.
- [53:23]
C
I didn't either.
- [53:24]
A
Like a trap door.
- [53:25]
C
I thought that was the reason they aren't square.
- [53:27]
A
Right.
- [53:28]
B
That's a horrific video, that. Wolf, that would be a good idea to. This is shocking, sad video. I hope she's okay.
- [53:35]
A
She is okay, apparently. This is from the New York Post. The footage from Sunday Scare shows Fabian Rosa, 32, staring at her phone while walking down a quiet street in Rio de Janeiro. Soon after getting off a motorbike taxi, she steps on the covered manhole just for the metal cover to flip up, sending her plummeting straight into the drainage system below. The COVID was incorrectly positioned after two, bro.
- [54:02]
B
Hitting your face on a manhole and then falling into a Rio de Janeiro sewer.
- [54:07]
A
Brutal. But it wasn't like. Because the department of Public Public works screwed up apparently. Two would be metal thieves apparently moved it during the night. Security footage around 2am the previous night showed two men removing the manhole cover before attempting to reposition it without being seen. So this is sort of like a scrap metal thing, like meth heads due to the copper.
- [54:31]
B
My God. Horrific video.
- [54:33]
C
It's just. It's terrifying. And, you know, I know I'm not the only one when I'm walking down a city street.
- [54:39]
B
You know what?
- [54:39]
C
Maybe I'M not gonna avoid all that.
- [54:41]
B
Yeah, all the greats, everything.
- [54:42]
C
You're staying on the concrete.
- [54:43]
B
Yeah, I'm not taking a risk on this.
- [54:45]
A
So we have one more piece of Variety. Cold variety.
- [54:48]
C
Okay.
- [54:49]
A
My friends here do not know what I'm about to play. It is Thursday, and we have Will Kane here.
- [54:56]
B
If you.
- [54:56]
A
If you haven't watched us on Will Kane show on. On Fox News, we usually come in around 4:40 4:50pm so definitely tune in. That's east coast time. We also have a great time on that show. Last time we were on the show, our friend John Ashbrook had a little bit of a mishap. So to let you guys in on the magic of television, sometimes there's a tease before you're live. Oh, I remember this on the show. And so they'll. They'll cue to you on video before they come to you after a commercial break. Well, last Thursday, they went to us to tease. And our friend John Ashbrook wasn't ready. Let's play that clip.
- [55:37]
B
I have a lot to say about this, and so does the Ruthless crew.
- [55:41]
A
They're here next.
- [55:44]
C
Hey, Made the most of it. Made the most of the situation.
- [55:47]
A
Okay, so they tell you in your ear that they're coming to the tv.
- [55:51]
B
Okay, get ready. In three seconds, we're gonna show you.
- [55:53]
A
Get ready.
- [55:53]
B
Get ready. Brooks just, like, he doesn't hear, and he lifts up.
- [55:56]
A
For those who are audio only, he lifts up his mug. He goes, coffee cup.
- [56:01]
C
Yeah.
- [56:01]
B
He's having a sip, and then he realizes, like a raccoon in a floodlight. Look at that.
- [56:06]
A
And he's just like.
- [56:07]
B
And then he thinks it took a photo. Like, he just froze. It's video, dude.
- [56:12]
A
Bro, we're on television.
- [56:13]
B
It's amazing.
- [56:13]
A
What were you thinking?
- [56:15]
C
I didn't hear it, but my headphones weren't. Weren't working or something. I didn't hear the. I didn't hear the. Hey, heads up. It's a tease.
- [56:21]
B
The guy get him those. What are they called? The. The new Miracle Ear.
- [56:23]
C
Yeah, yeah, we'll get you those.
- [56:25]
A
Like a hearing aid.
- [56:26]
B
We'll get you those. Ashbrook.
- [56:27]
A
Well, he has very wide ear canals. We know that.
- [56:29]
B
That is true.
- [56:30]
A
Yeah, he's like the Mariana's Trench.
- [56:32]
C
Yeah, yeah, Right to the eardrums.
- [56:37]
A
All right, well, we got to get to this interview. Now. The nominee from the great state of Texas for United States Senate, Ken Paxton. Well, you've heard from him before here on the Ruthless Variety Program, but now he is the Republican nominee for United States Senate. From the great state of Texas, Ken Paxton. How are you?
- [56:56]
D
I'm doing great. It's been a pretty good week.
- [56:58]
A
Yeah, you had a great week. We're really glad to have you back on. We had such a great time last time you were here in studio.
- [57:08]
D
Hopefully I won't let you down this time.
- [57:11]
A
Well, that's impossible. But you got a lot of meetings. You're a busy man. People want your time these days up
- [57:18]
D
here in D.C. well, I'm fortunate, obviously. There's a lot of people here that are important to my life going forward and important to Texas and making sure that the team comes together and we're all working together. And I think, obviously I have some good meetings up here with the president, United States.
- [57:34]
A
How did that go?
- [57:35]
D
It was pretty awesome. I was there for quite a while.
- [57:38]
A
They can be long.
- [57:39]
D
Yeah, they were long, but it was good.
- [57:40]
B
Clearly a fan of yours. Give you that.
- [57:41]
D
Well, look, I've, I've always enjoyed being around him. It's, you know, he's, he's not a predictable meeting. Right.
- [57:47]
A
It's.
- [57:48]
D
You never know where it's going to go. It's one topic to the next and it's always, you know, I find it interesting and very enjoyable.
- [57:55]
A
Yeah, no, that's, that's great.
- [57:59]
C
You also. But you also met with Senator Thune this morning.
- [58:03]
D
That's correct.
- [58:04]
C
And that was apparently a great meeting. Well, wonder if you could talk about that one.
- [58:08]
D
Yeah. So I don't think I'd ever met him actually in person. Obviously, most people know who he is. Very gracious. You know, I think a good conversation about the future and working together and making sure that we make sure that Texas stays Republican because we need it to. If we lose Texas, I think the whole country's in trouble. So I think not just Texans should care about it, but so I always want to put in a plug for my. Kenpaxson.com Go give. There you go. We need help from, from the entire country to make sure that we save Texas.
- [58:37]
A
Well, yeah, anytime that you have have a hotly contested primary situation, you know, and you're running aggressive campaigns as these things are, you know, you, you. Everybody always worries about. Does everybody come together, you know, for the big win in November? You feel that energy now?
- [58:55]
D
Yeah. I think you. Even for the most part, I mean, I'm. You can't make everybody come together, but you can certainly try to reach out. And I'm personally just move on from any things that were said you didn't appreciate. But they. And you know, it's a campaign. You know how they are. And, you know, this one was somewhat tough at times. But you know what? It doesn't matter anymore. We got to go on and beat the Democrat. That's the key. The guy that I'm running against, as you well know, is quite radical and maybe would have trouble getting elected in California. He's so radical.
- [59:24]
B
One thing about your campaign that I thought was so brilliant is it became very clear to voters that for you, this is about the country and what's good for America more than it is about you getting elected to office. When you made that statement that if this current Senate can get the Save America act done, you'll bow out. And their inability to do that, I think also showed why voters were ready to have you in the Senate. Was there any time that you had with Leader Thune that you could discuss the importance of the Save America Act?
- [60:03]
D
So we didn't really get into issues. We really talked about the campaign. There'll be time for me, I can't affect the issues other than I tried to give, you know, I tried to give them a chance to pass that it mattered to me. It's the most important issue that I've seen in decades to make sure that our elections are not fraudulent, because I know they are. I know that there's a lot of fraudulent elections because I've sued a lot of people over fraudulent elections. It's what part of what we've been doing for a long time in my office. So I know it exists, and I know where it exists. It exists in a large degree in mail, in ballots.
- [60:32]
A
They're still counting in California, by the way.
- [60:34]
B
The thing is, it's very timely when California just has their primary and they're like, we may not know for weeks. This is in America.
- [60:44]
A
What a country.
- [60:45]
B
There's like third world republics that are faster at counting votes.
- [60:48]
D
Most banana republics are because they have a very sophisticated system of photo ID and making sure you're the right person voting. If you don't vote right at the right time, they don't have extra days to vote. It's very simple. Everybody gets it. Everybody follows rules. In our country. We're very lax whether it's photo id. And I think most of the Democratic states don't verify that it's really you voting. Walk in with a utility bill and say, I'm that person. You get to vote. Mail in ballot fraud is just rampant because we don't know when those are mailed out. If you just mail them out to everybody, you don't have any idea who's sending them in. There's no verification. So we're like, we're, we basically have a system in many mostly Democratic states that says police cheat. We, we expect it, we expect large scale cheating and we don't care. And, and there's some benefit to that. Whoever's running that system that keeps it the way it is.
- [61:33]
A
Well, that means why they don't want voter id, you know, photo id. Any verification.
- [61:37]
D
Photo ID is a problem because it verifies who you are and that's the last thing you want if you're going
- [61:42]
A
to cheat or, or some like chain of custody for these mail and ballots. Right. With like a barcode and id, you know, because I remember after Covid, there were some states with their mail in process that they tried to provide voters with confidence that like you can trust this system if we have these safeguards in place. But the Democrats oppose those, like at all levels.
- [62:06]
D
It's difficult. I mean, even in Texas, I think it's too liberal. We have, you know, you can mail in ballot, if you're over 65, you're disabled, you're out of town. But it's, we really, we do our best to have a signature verification for that, but it's not super reliable. You could still fake a signature. So we need to be honest about mail in ballots. They're not highly secure. And if we are saying, well, it doesn't matter, we don't care, we'd rather just let everybody vote by mail because it's convenient. We don't really care if the right people are voting or if they're cheating. We're willing to accept large margins of fraud to let people have a convenient way to vote. I find it scary that that's how our elections are decided.
- [62:49]
A
So I have a question. I always want to ask candidates this. After you won that runoff, did you get any interesting outreach from people you weren't expecting? Like, what's the craziest one where someone called you to congratulate or sent a note or something?
- [63:09]
D
You know, that almost never happens. I mean, you, it's. I don't, I can't think of a single one that was, that was a surprise, really. I can say I got 3,000 text messages and I'm still behind. I don't know when I'm ever going to catch up because I keep falling further behind.
- [63:24]
A
Well, that's a good activity to do if like you're stuck on an airplane, you know.
- [63:28]
D
Well, exactly. But 3,000 is a lot because people carry On a conversation, then.
- [63:31]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Follow up.
- [63:33]
D
Yeah. Because. And then some of them I actually have to do stuff with. So it's a, you know, it's a challenge. But no, I don't, I don't think I got any real surprise. Congratulations.
- [63:41]
C
Well, one other thing that's not a surprise is your opponent, this guy is somebody who is a complete lunatic. And they are trying to reshape his image into something that everybody knows it's not. I mean, you can see their tweets. You can see they're all working overtime to try to pretend like this guy is some kind of moderator. And we know that he is a left wing lunatic. I wonder if you could just. I know we have, we have some, some quotes and stuff that we wanted to get your reaction to, but I wonder if you could just set the table on this general.
- [64:11]
D
Oh, you have actually noticed something. That's very true. They clearly are trying to walk back all these things he said over the years, especially as running as a Democrat in the Democratic primary, he felt very comfortable saying all of them. And they're trying to act like. He even commented that I was, I was just focusing on his cringy statements. Well, they are your. You admitted they are cringy statements.
- [64:31]
B
Right.
- [64:31]
D
And there are a lot of them. What do you expect? You're not responsible now because you're in a general election for what you actually said. You believed, you don't believe now that these crazy things that you said. And it's not like you said one accidental nut job thing you said. I don't know, many, many, many crazy things.
- [64:49]
A
There is a pattern of behavior, and I think this is a good opportunity for us to get into it. We're going to kind of rapid fire these and you just give us.
- [64:56]
D
But isn't it interesting that now they're just literally, you'll notice they're trying to reshape who he is. Like, he don't believe any of that stuff. And now, you know he's got a girlfriend and all this stuff.
- [65:05]
C
Right.
- [65:05]
A
Just wipe the slate clean.
- [65:06]
D
Yeah. Listen, nothing about me was true. I. All that stuff I said about me, he's. He's unfairly saying I said this. Well, I did say this, but I don't really mean it now.
- [65:15]
B
They put photos of him out on X and people took that image and then they put it next to Billy Bob Thornton and Lamb Man. They just bought Billy Bob Thornton's outfit to make him look like he's a real. It's like he's in camouflage okay, let's
- [65:33]
A
get started here with my personal favorite. God is non binary.
- [65:38]
D
I don't really know what to say about that, except I don't know exactly what he's trying to say, but I guess he's saying God is not male or female, it's something else. And of course he believes there are six sexes. Right. So it's hard to. Hard to pin down exactly what that means. But I can tell you this. I think that most Texans are not going to like that. You're saying God is non binary.
- [65:58]
A
Well, you've already previewed the second one here. There are six biological sexes. Biological. Well, first of all, he's a scientist.
- [66:07]
D
Now, biologically wrong. Factually wrong. That should be a good indication of where he's going. He makes up science because we all know that's not science. They're, you know, male and female. That's pretty much. That's all we got.
- [66:21]
A
This one is wild.
- [66:22]
B
This is. I mean, this is beyond blasphemous.
- [66:25]
D
Can you believe this is Texas?
- [66:27]
C
I can't believe this is Texas.
- [66:29]
A
Might have some buyer's remorse. Jasmine Crockett's looking pretty good for the Democrats. Mary's annunciation, he. He looks at a passage, you know, from the Bible and says, well, when God came over Mary, he asked for her consent. He. Therefore, this has happened during the Joe Rogan interview, says that that justifies abortion. Wow.
- [66:54]
D
Yeah, that's a. That's really hard to follow.
- [66:57]
A
Yeah, that.
- [66:58]
D
First of all, you have to assume that Tellerico was there.
- [67:01]
A
Yeah.
- [67:02]
D
To hear the conversation.
- [67:04]
B
Right. Yeah.
- [67:04]
D
I mean, I'm a lawyer. My mind thinks like that. So he was there.
- [67:08]
A
He's a witness.
- [67:09]
D
He had have been a witness. That's the only way to explain that description. I was there. I heard it. It's all good. Abortion is good because he asked Mary for consent. And then he makes a jump from consent to abortion. Abortion, which has nothing to do with even his story. So we know he's not a straight line thinker. He thinks very outside the box. None of it based on science or truth.
- [67:31]
A
Okay. This one's good too.
- [67:33]
D
They're all good.
- [67:36]
A
I mean, they keep getting better. Racism as a virus. This is what he said. This is back in 2020 when the world lost its mind. And this is really when they let their freak flag fly on the left. White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it everywhere. We go through our words, our actions and our systems. We don't have to be showing symptoms like a white hood or A Confederate flag to be contagious.
- [68:06]
D
Again, very strange comment. I really think that what you actually think and how you act and what you believe matters, not accusing somebody based on their skin color, that they're racist. And that's basically what he's doing. He's saying you are automatically racist if you're white. I disagree with that. But you're not automatically racist if you're another color. You can be racist whatever color you are, or you can be somebody that doesn't care about race. I thought we were moving in a direction where skin color shouldn't matter. As Kennedy says, your character.
- [68:35]
B
I thought after the 2024 election, seeing how much Trump ran up his victory among black voters and Latino voters, that Dems would have gotten the message that the race hustling stuff clearly doesn't click with voters. But this guy is still running the playbook of all places. Texas is what really shocks me.
- [68:54]
A
I think the thing that's most shocking about this is in 2020, we had an actual pandemic. And think about what a far left radical you have to be to see that happening and be like, you know what the real virus is? Yeah, whiteness.
- [69:07]
B
Yeah. Lunatics.
- [69:10]
A
Yeah, lunatics. One more here for you.
- [69:12]
D
There are more. We all know there are.
- [69:14]
B
Oh, tons.
- [69:15]
A
I'm sure this is only the scratching the surface of the opposition research. Jesus Christ himself was a radical feminist.
- [69:25]
D
Again, just.
- [69:26]
A
Was he there?
- [69:27]
D
There's nothing in the Bible that says that this is just made up mumbo jumbo that is not going to fit with. I think most values that Texans have. First, they don't like you lying about the Bible. And I think most people know that's a lie.
- [69:41]
C
Right.
- [69:41]
A
Is it fair to say you got a lot of material to work with?
- [69:44]
D
It's pretty fair to say I have a lot of material to work with. And the key is being able to get that material out. You guys, thank you for getting it out. Yeah, that's that. People need to know what he believes, because now he's trying to hide from it, run from it, and there's a reason, right?
- [69:57]
A
Yeah.
- [69:57]
D
He knows that's a problem. Oh, my gosh. I got a problem. I said all this stuff, all this cringy stuff, and now you're bringing it up indignant that I would actually bring up his own words.
- [70:05]
B
So I think that also goes, you know, hand in hand with a major problem, is the reason Jasmine Crockett is not the Democrat candidate is because Chuck Schumer wanted Talarico. And Chuck Schumer has lined up donors ready to give unbelievable amounts of money For James Talarico to completely lie about his past to make Texans think he's a normal guy. That's a tremendous problem. Like it's already being predicted. This is going to be the most expensive Senate race in the history of this country.
- [70:36]
A
Yeah.
- [70:37]
B
What do you hear from when you go around and you meet voters in Texas? Have they heard about this lunatic stuff that Tahrika.
- [70:43]
D
Most people don't know him well enough to know what he believes. So obviously the mainstream media is not going to cover this. Right. They're going to hide it and they're going to go with his new version of him, which is not the real version of him. The real version we got before he was running the Democratic primary when he was just acting as his role of state rep. It's not like he had a private conversation with like two or three people and said this stuff. He said it like in committee meetings. He said it on Joe Rogan. He said it in other interviews. I mean, there's the interview where they ask him, so other than your family and friends, what do you think about in your spare time, trans kids?
- [71:16]
B
That was the weirdest thing a person could say. Weirdest thing a person could say.
- [71:19]
D
I don't. There's something wrong with you to say
- [71:21]
A
that if that's what comes top of mind, you know, not like sports or that's like FBI.
- [71:29]
D
But I think this is profiling. We need a profile.
- [71:31]
B
Serious guy.
- [71:32]
D
We gotta put him away.
- [71:34]
C
I mean, I think it's pretty clear that this guy is a left wing robot who has built his entire career to try to achieve political office. You know, he's been thinking about himself and what's the craziest thing I can say to the left so that I can get this office and I can get this job when people in Texas are only interested in who's going to represent me, who's going to make my life better, who's going to actually carry our concerns to Washington. It doesn't seem like he fits that bill.
- [72:00]
D
No, he doesn't. He doesn't. There's nothing about him. First of all, he was a state rep. I don't know of any great accomplishments. He's young and he's. I think it's fairly presumptuous to run for U.S. senate when you have very little show. And then thinking that Texans are going to believe your lies, which is, I don't believe any of this. Now that I'm in the Democratic. Now that we're done with the Democratic primary. I want you to accept that all of that isn't true anymore. Believe me now when I say I love meat and I love to fly.
- [72:30]
C
And smug mentioned the Billy Bob Thornton picture when he's sitting in the truck.
- [72:34]
B
They bought all the clothes Billy Bob is wearing and had him wear it and do a photo shoot like he's a Texan.
- [72:40]
D
It's the most absurd thing I want to tell you. I know Billy Bob and he's no Billy Bob.
- [72:46]
A
I like that.
- [72:46]
B
So I mentioned earlier that Chuck Schumer has lined up these donors. They're going to try to flood Texas with a bunch of left wing money to fool Texans into thinking James Tall Rico is a normal guy. Where can folks go to help you out, make sure that you get across the fence?
- [73:01]
D
I appreciate that question. Kenpaxson.com is where you can go donate. And believe me, we're going to need a lot of help because he's already raised 27 million in the first quarter. He's had a whole almost second quarter is almost over the end of June. He's had two months of that that I didn't have. I was raising money for something else. So he's going to have a huge fundraising advantage that we have to catch up to.
- [73:21]
A
Yeah. If you put all of these quotes on that website, should be good for fundraising, I would say I have a
- [73:28]
D
very good suspicion that my team knows that.
- [73:30]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [73:31]
D
And there are, like I said, there are more just like the trans thing and the meat thing you didn't mention.
- [73:38]
A
Oh, we've talked extensively.
- [73:39]
D
I can tell you. I don't think There's a single US center from Texas since 1845 when we joined the union that didn't eat Texas barbecue. And this guy, now suddenly he does.
- [73:49]
B
That's one way you don't want to change history. We can't have him. Kenpaxon.com thank you so much.
- [73:54]
A
Yeah, thank you.
- [73:55]
D
I enjoyed it.
- [73:55]
A
Appreciate it.
- [73:58]
C
Well, very interesting conversation with a guy who is up against an absolute lunatic. We talked about all the crazy things that James Talarico said on the show. It sounds like Ken Paxton is doing everything he can to reconsolidate Republicans around him. And it sounds like he had a great meeting with John Thune, with Trump, you know, with other Republicans while he was out here. And that's what you got to do in order to get everybody together in Texas to beat the Democrat in November.
- [74:26]
B
100%. The primary's over now, everybody. It's time to circle the wagons and make sure we beat The Democrats. That's just the story. It's gotta be done. Let's do it.
- [74:33]
A
I mean, the guy's got a full dance card. They were telling us before we recorded all the meetings he's doing around town. And obviously they got to raise a lot of money. It's going to be, you know, at least $100 million race for sure, probably more. And it could ultimately determine who controls the United States Senate. So if you can help Kentucky, go to that website again. It's kenpaxton.com, chip in if you can. Also, if you happen to be on your computer or phone, like, and subscribe. I tried to get this Friday program. You're watching the content. You like it. Hit that old subscribe button so you see us, so you get the notifications so you can Watch us on YouTube, follow us in your podcast app, all of that good stuff. Also, go to the merch store. We got some great merch, especially the America 250 merch. It's summer. Got some stuff with an American flag. You got an AI version of us on Mount Rushmore. Also a beach towel. My mom thought about buying the beach towel, by the way. I was like, please do not buy the beach towel.
- [75:29]
B
You gotta hook her up with it, dude.
- [75:30]
A
No, I do. I don't want to go to the pool with my mom and the kids. And there's a picture of my face that my, you know, my kids are sitting on.
- [75:37]
C
Let's be honest. You don't want to sew the towel for your mom. It's just like one more towel. You have to sew. Michael, just be honest about, like that. You don't want to do the work.
- [75:45]
A
Okay, yeah, whatever. Whatever. Don't forget our question of the day. Who is the worst Democrat that has been nominated this cycle? I look forward to reading all of your answers and we'll get back to you next episode. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.
- [76:02]
B
I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Ken Paxton, and thank you to our listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun and video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Friday. Stay ruthless, Sam.