Loading summary
Michael Duncan
So weird.
Josh Holmes
I hope everybody understands how insane that is. Like, that is. We're talking lunacy. It's Apex.
John Ashbrook
Yep.
Josh Holmes
And they're like, no, she's the best.
Michael Duncan
The heart of this whole problem is that the devs have wedged themselves into such a corner where like, again, it's these. The inmates are running the asylum and.
Josh Holmes
They immediately transition into like, nonsense that has nothing to do with representing people across this country. But it's even worse than you think, fellas.
Michael Duncan
Every year corporate insurers get richer while Americans pay more and get less. Their greed has broken the system, even shutting down our government to protect their taxpayer funded profits. And now their schemes are finally being exposed. Big Insurance and their Democrat allies have rigged health insurance against hard working families. Government bailouts, record profits, rising premiums. America can't afford to ignore it any longer. Conservatives must do more than hold the Must fix it. Paid for by American Resolve Action.
John Ashbrook
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.
Michael Duncan
Keep the fate, hold the line and own the lids.
John Ashbrook
It's time for our main event.
Josh Holmes
Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left a right across your radio dial. And as always, it's been a banner week for the Democratic Party here in Washington DC. They got their asses rolled over in a 42 day shutdown they couldn't explain. Any two of them anyway had the same straight story about how or why they did what they did and they immediately transitioned into like nonsense that has nothing to do with representing people across this country. But it's even worse than you think, fellas. It's even worse. The standard bearer, you know, typically the standard bearer for a party is like the last person who held either a nomination or a presidency for a political party. And in this case, luckily enough for Democrats, it's Joe Biden. Yeah, well, he hasn't gone totally away. He was back in the DMV over this week and made a, well, I would say an exceptional appearance at a restaurant locally. Let's take a look at clip one.
Smug
Ah, jeez, I miss you.
Josh Holmes
Oh, of course.
Michael Duncan
Oh, they clap for the folks who are only listening. There's these like libs in the restaurant who are like clapping was like, I miss you. And this looks, honestly, this looks sad.
Josh Holmes
Because it's like barely make his way in.
Michael Duncan
Yeah, he's, he, he's having extreme difficulty moving and it's like everyone's clapping. Like if a baby takes its first steps, you're like, all right baby, you did it. But in this case, it's a former President of the United States. And they're like, okay, he took three or four steps, and he didn't fall. Everyone be polite. Let's clap for him. He's alive.
Josh Holmes
All the vibrance that you'd like to see out of a standard bearer within a political party. But one thing I want to highlight in particular in that clip. I don't know if you saw the dude.
Smug
Yes.
Josh Holmes
There's this black guy who's sitting at the table who just wants to eat his dinner.
Michael Duncan
I didn't sign up for this.
Josh Holmes
And he's like, all this is going on. Can we play? Can we play this? Like, focus on clip two on this cat.
Michael Duncan
Look at him. Look at him.
Josh Holmes
Rolling eyes, head down. Oh, man, I didn't see that. Oh, look at that dude. That's golden.
Smug
That poor man is all of us.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, he's all of us.
Michael Duncan
I didn't sign up for this. I try to have a meal. It's like, even if someone's having a birthday at a restaurant, it's one thing if you're doing it to, like, haze your buddy of, like, you know, he goes to the bathroom. Oh, by the way, it's his birthday today. Let's all embarrass him. You bring a cake. But if people are doing it, thinking it's a nice thing to do, and it disrupts the whole restaurant, it's like, I was here for a meal. You know, I didn't sign up to be a part of this ridiculous battleship.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, I don't need a conga line. I just want my apps.
Michael Duncan
That was that guy. He was like, I'm trying to have a meal. And now everyone's clapping because the dead guy isn't dead yet. You know, There it is. That's my reaction.
Josh Holmes
Jeez. I know, I know. Well, I mean, look, I think we lead the show because it kind of perfectly encapsulates where the Democrats are right now.
Michael Duncan
Tough.
Josh Holmes
It's not good, folks. And, like, look, it's been a rough few weeks for them. There's a civil war, as we covered yesterday, and it's only getting hotter, and they're just trying to figure things out. Out. And, you know, if you're a political party, you're like, okay, yeah, I mean, we. This is a tough time, but we'll kind of work through these things. If you're a Democrat, this has got to be what you're thinking. You're like, what do we got going on at the. At the dnc? Like, sure, Surely people are preparing for an upcoming critical midterm. If we're not going to get it jammed completely up our ass for two cycles in a row like you need to rely on.
Smug
We have to build off that momentum of electing the Muslim socialist in New York.
Josh Holmes
Exactly.
Smug
Carry that right on into the midterms.
Michael Duncan
Yeah, right.
Josh Holmes
Two pieces of Wonder Bread soaked in chardonnay in Virginia and New Jersey and a Islamic jihadist socialist Marxist in New York. All this momentum. Yeah, but what are we looking at? Like, are we capitalizing on that? Well, in New York Times, the old.
John Ashbrook
Gray lady, Ashbrook, all the news that's fit to print.
Josh Holmes
That's exactly right. They had something to say about all this. Shane Goldbacher.
John Ashbrook
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Wrote a story. It's entitled, the DNC Ordered Workers back to the office. Its union isn't pleased. Can we put that. Look at that. All right, so this is the headline I thought. I genuinely thought, and I mean this sincerely, you know how sometimes, like, you're on Twitter, the algorithms fit, you know, they serves you up stuff they think you're gonna see or whatever. And then some people, they just basically bot accounts. They just try to keep on putting up content. When I clicked on this, I thought what I was looking at was a 2021 article. Yeah, it's yesterday. It's not 2021. And the crux of the piece is thumbs down emojis flowed on screen. Washington area employees learned, when they learned that they would have to show up five days later a week, their union called the move callous.
Michael Duncan
Amazing.
Josh Holmes
What we're talking about is the Democratic National Committee, which, unlike all of you who are listening to this, who have spent, I don't know, the better part of the last four and a half years back at your job doing it. Because we had a pandemic in D.C. more than almost any other city not named Manhattan. Closed everything down. But even then you had people back at work within a year. Not the case for the Democratic Party. They have lived in a time capsule for four and a half years where. This is the next paragraph. The pandemic is long over, but the fight inside the Democratic National Committee over a full time return to its office has just begun.
Michael Duncan
Just.
John Ashbrook
It's insanity. But can I back up before. I know. You guys are gonna have so many dunks. I just wanna. They have a union. Like, they're longshoremen. They're stuffing envelopes and sending out press releases and raising money from George Soros. Why do they have a union?
Josh Holmes
Dude, it's so funny. For so many reasons, not the least of which is like when you're in politics, we all grew up in this. I mean, you caught it a little bit later after a finance career. But like when we started 20, 21, 22, you start working in politics, it's anything but unionized conditions. Right? But you accept that, you understand it for one of two reason. One, you want to work your way on up, you want to make a real difference, or two, you're just purpose driven.
Smug
It's a mission oriented organization.
John Ashbrook
Yes.
Josh Holmes
It's not like you're there. It's not a career.
Smug
It's not a clock in, clock out situation.
Josh Holmes
It's not a career.
Smug
Right?
John Ashbrook
You're grinding it out. You're smoking cigarettes, you're drinking at night, and then you go back in the next day and you bust your ass again. It's like you do that for a few years and you go on to a different job. That's what the party committee is.
Josh Holmes
That's what it is.
Michael Duncan
Also the reason that a lot of the people on the left do this. And the funny thing is they won't say publicly, privately, like if they were at the green room or something waiting to do their hit. Dems are like, I can't believe our campaigns and shit get unionized because they know it's ridiculous, but they have to do it because it's a larp. It's a larp. It's a bunch of people who went to Ivy League schools and they're like, I'm with the working class. I'm a member of Communication Workers of America. Like, get out of here. Get out of here. You're not a longshoreman. You, you've never lifted anything over £10 in your life. You've never worked a hard day in your entire life. So you have to LARP as like, oh, yes, I'm here for the working class. Even though daddy paid for me to go to Cornell.
Josh Holmes
You know, dude, it's. Dude, it's so true. Like your average committee staffer, they come in first job, you're doing shit, and you're doing it 90 hours a week. You're busting your ass on both sides. Best you can hope for is to get absolutely hammered at happy hour and hook up with the staff assistant. Like, that is what politics is, right? It is in the campaigns. It is at party committees over at the dnc, they act like you're a longshoreman. Exactly what you said. Like, it doesn't matter if you're 22 or 20. Well, what does My union representative have to say about this? What do we have to say about that?
Michael Duncan
Back in the office more than two days a week. I'm gonna contact my union representative also.
Josh Holmes
It's no excuse at this point. If we can't beat these people like a drum everywhere because of like, listen to what these people are doing. Years after many companies have ordered their employees back to work, DNC workers in the Washington area got the surprise news. Surprise, surprise. It's 2025, you fucked. They got the surprise news. Ken Martin, he's the chairman.
Michael Duncan
The biggest shock to a Democrat is having to work, like in general. Yeah. They're like, oh my God, wait a minute, I was told this wouldn't be happening.
John Ashbrook
Second biggest shock, our chairman's a guy named Ken Martin. We've never heard.
Josh Holmes
They said they were getting shot. Who's Ken Martin?
Michael Duncan
Why is he telling me to come to work?
Josh Holmes
Ken Martin, how dare he? Last time they punched the ticket, it was like, who's the guy from South Carolina? Or whatever, right?
John Ashbrook
I don't know any of that.
Smug
Jamie Harrison.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, Jamie Harrison. Well, anyway, Ken Martin showed up and you see, he announced that an all staff meeting, that in and of itself, if you go through the thing was a little bit of a. That was an affront, like all staff meeting. We have to go to a meeting.
John Ashbrook
Yeah, like, oh man, I'm a machinist, damn it.
Josh Holmes
So this is on Wednesday afternoon of this week. They would be expected to work in person at headquarters five days a week beginning in February.
Smug
Come on, dude. Four months from now.
Josh Holmes
Four months.
Michael Duncan
Four months.
Josh Holmes
You're gonna have to get yourselves prepared. And immediately they're like, fuck you. No, we don't want any part of that.
John Ashbrook
It's an election here.
Josh Holmes
Mr. Martin explained that a full time return to the office was necessary to ensure information wasn't being siloed. And that staff members would not miss out on time sensitive decisions that had to be made quickly in an in person ahead of a highly contested election. Right. If you run a six person auto parts company, you know why it's important to have all six right in the office? Right? Someone's shipping stuff, someone's fixing stuff, someone's putting it, you know, like you gotta have those conversations on a day to day. It is eluded Democrats, they're like, holy cats, we're five years removed from COVID and these people are like, I gotta go to work, I gotta go to work. Well, the complaints began almost immediately, both in the room. This is my favorite.
Smug
This is my favorite too.
Josh Holmes
Here it Comes and on. Zoom. Yeah, so.
John Ashbrook
Oh, not everybody.
Josh Holmes
No, that's the best part. We had a mandatory all person, all staff meeting as a zoom Z.
Michael Duncan
So funny. So shout out to everyone working at the DNC who's like, I can't make it. I'm just going to stream the meeting.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah. The copsing streamed to those working remotely. People who have participated in the call described a flurry of thumbs down emojis and other online expressions of discontent.
Smug
Yeah, well, what I love about that is it's just like what we've witnessed in the media industry, right? It's like the inmates are running the asylum. The Slack Channel determines policy for an organization. We've seen how that's destroyed media in this country, and now we're seeing it destroy the Democratic Party, which I would mind. Let's not lose sight of the fact they lost everything last year. Like, they ate shit. They lost the presidency, they lost the Senate, they lost the House. And the DNC is obviously a major cog in the wheel of that entire thing. And none of those people are like, man, maybe he has a point. Like, maybe we could do better if we change this policy.
John Ashbrook
Michael, what you just said convinced me. I'm with these kids. They shouldn't have to go in. They should stay in the Hamptons. They should stay in Park Slope. They should work from whatever house their parents bought for them.
Josh Holmes
It's your birthright.
John Ashbrook
For one hour a day, it's your birthright.
Michael Duncan
The thing is, if I'm. So, I have a couple questions. First off, I side with Ashbrook. None of these kids. Do not let them drag you in there.
John Ashbrook
Don't do it.
Josh Holmes
Don't do it.
Michael Duncan
Do not do it.
Josh Holmes
Nope, they're not. And the thing is, is that oppressors.
Michael Duncan
If you start 100%, this is pure oppression. If you let them bring you in once, they'll never stop, kids. They never will stop. So don't show up. Don't show up. Just, you know, imagine you're an Italian. Talk to a union rep. It's a no show job. Don't do anything.
John Ashbrook
Right.
Michael Duncan
Just live your life as an Italian. Be a free person. You don't have to work. You've got a union republic. They'll get you a no show job. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine.
John Ashbrook
It's called collective action, and it's what you need to do. And if your union's not doing the job, do another union.
Josh Holmes
Well, and obviously the tide, we need a double union in this building. The tide is Turning their way. It's the rise of the proletariat. We see it in New York City. The time is now. How dare they? They can't see the wave that's happening out there. Well, it turns out that at one point, Mr. Martin responded to the frustration being aired at his employees and said DNC staff members did not like those return to work policies. They should consider finding a job elsewhere. You imagine what the union reps have to say about that. He also suggested that the change in attendance policy had been a band aid that was overdue in being ripped off. Two of the people said many DNC officials are currently expected to work at least three days a week. At least three. So the leadership of the union's gotta show up on all this, right? I mean, you have a union they've elected, and presumably they pay these people to be representatives of the interests of the 23 year old staff assistant at the fucking Democratic National Committee. Pause for one second. They spent $2 billion on Kamala Harris campaign and lost, Right? And they're still covering debt. And this operation has not only not leaned itself down, but it has remote employees.
John Ashbrook
That's what I'm saying. They're still paying Kamala's attorneys. His kids aren't getting shit. You should think of that like they're telling you you are shit. Hit the bricks, pal. Get out of there. They're not treating you the way you deserve to be treated, 100%.
Smug
You know what? We should find that, you know, in D.C. that giant inflatable rat dude. You know, we should get that shot in front of the DNC and we should start a picket line.
Michael Duncan
We should picket. None of those kids should cross the picket line. Don't go in that building.
Smug
And then we should scab.
Josh Holmes
We should go in undercover. We should scab work.
Smug
We create the strike and then we scab.
Josh Holmes
But honestly, if you were scab working, would you do anything different than the Democratic Party is doing right now?
Michael Duncan
No.
Josh Holmes
Let's shut the gun.
Michael Duncan
Yeah. All the to do list, it seems to be going great for them, to.
Josh Holmes
Be honest with you. If you were given the opportunity to be a scab at Democrat National Committee headquarters, they're like, okay, here's what we're gonna do.
Michael Duncan
We're gonna come in, we're gonna have a shutdown. We're gonna blame President Trump for it. And then we're gonna get mad at all the Democrats who agree to reopen it. We don't know who's to blame for anything.
Josh Holmes
Let's just keep this up let's see, we got candidates. I want two pieces of Wonder Bread soaked in Chardonnay and a socialist Islamist.
John Ashbrook
Check, check.
Josh Holmes
Got it. Okay. Next. Open borders.
Smug
Right?
Michael Duncan
Good.
John Ashbrook
Done.
Josh Holmes
Let's go. Higher taxes on everybody. Does that sound great?
John Ashbrook
Great.
Josh Holmes
Great. All right.
John Ashbrook
There's a platform for you, dude.
Josh Holmes
I mean, what would you do, right? What would you do to try to make yourself more unpalatable than they're already doing, apparently, three days a week?
John Ashbrook
Right. And that's my point. That's why they don't need to go in. The platform is already set.
Josh Holmes
They already have. So the leadership of the union representing the DNC staff members, which is a part of the Local 500, it has a number. It's an SE.
Smug
It's an SEIU union.
Josh Holmes
SEI certainly.
Smug
Like they're a dishwasher at the back of a restaurant.
Michael Duncan
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
So to give you an IND not versed in union activity, the Service Employees International Union, one of the heavy hitters within Democratic politics, where all the people who are a part of it vote Republican. And everybody who's in the leadership takes dues out of their paychecks and sends it directly to the worst side of the Democratic Party. Right. That's what modern labor is. Anyway. What they did is issued a statement strongly worded to the New York Times on Wednesday calling Mr. Martin's remarks shocking.
Michael Duncan
Dude, if you ever tell a union to show up to work, they are shocked. Like, they are so anathema to it. They're like, that is against our guidelines. This is not what we do here. Right.
John Ashbrook
We're bargaining.
Josh Holmes
It was shocking to see the DNC chairs disregard of staff's valid concerns. On today's team call, the union leadership wrote DNC staff has worked extremely hard to support historic wins for Democrats. They're talking about Virginia.
John Ashbrook
They won in New Jersey. Okay.
Josh Holmes
Congratulations. Republicans had a couple of W's in Mississippi and Alabama, too, you know, so win, win, I guess. Anyway, they said up and down the ballot last Tuesday, so that's a confirmation that this model has worked for them. It's been steadfast. Anyway, this change feels especially callous considering the current economic conditions created by the Trump administration. So this is like the best part. So there is actually no real. Like, their job really isn't, as most of these senior leadership unions aren't. It's not really to represent the people that they're talking about here. Cause they actually don't need representation. Like, again, if you get into this line of work, you know what it is you're getting. You either care about the outcome of elections and are willing to work towards it, or you don't. That's about it. But these people have taken it and it was like, okay, here's an opportunity to just wedge in Trump criticism.
Michael Duncan
And also, I mean, the heart of this whole problem is that the Dems have wedged themselves into such a corner where, like, again, it's these. The inmates are running the asylum. And so they're trying to come out and be like, guys, Covid has ended years ago. It's time to get back to work. Because then you'd be like, well, if Covid ended years ago, why do we need the Obamacare subsidies for Covid? They're like, oh, shit. Well, that was working for December.
Josh Holmes
We're on the exchange. The employees are on the exchange. That's why we need these things. But imagine just telling it your major donor, your average major donor of Democratic politics. It's like, okay, look, we need to. We need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars because it's vitally important that we defeat Donald Trump in these midterm elections. And they're like, okay, just tell me a little bit about, like, what it is that you guys are doing. They're like, well, we have staff there at least once a week.
Michael Duncan
We need 75,000 Pro Zoom memberships because our remote staff refuses to work in the office. And the donor's like, you're fucking kidding me, dude.
Josh Holmes
Like, I just refuse to believe, you know, and there's so many left. Billionaires, I suppose they just kind of look through it, but, like, even most of those that aren't like, daddy's money type billionaires, they've gotta be like, what are you. Seriously? You got a quadruple masked staff assistant answering the phones, like, six hours once a week. And, like, this is what I'm paying for.
John Ashbrook
But they are the industry that is supporting one side or the other of the Civil War. It's like Tredegar Ironworks. You know, who was building, building the weapons. They fought the Civil War. This is one of the. This is. This is one of the great industries of the Dem. Civil War. And they are billionaires, and they have endless amounts of money and they're going to fuel both sides. And I cannot wait to keep watching.
Josh Holmes
It's so good. And that's just a taste of what's to come. We're going to have a lot of fun because there's a lot more out in front of us.
John Ashbrook
Lazy.
Josh Holmes
The crazy Jasmine Crockett, one of the favorites of the Ruthless variety program, is Going to make an appearance. There's a Kennedy failson involved. The Schlossberg character. I can't wait to get to that. Pushing conspiracy theories. They've got all kinds of them. That's great. We've got a whole lot more right after this.
John Ashbrook
Only 58% of Americans today say they're proud to be American, the lowest number ever recorded. That's not just sad, it is very dangerous. Because if we forget what makes America special, we risk losing it. That's why Americans for Prosperity is launching the One Small Step Campaign, a bold nationwide initiative to reconnect Americans with our founding principles that sparked unparalleled innovation and prosperity. It's not just a celebration, it's a call to action. Through the 250,000 Steps for Freedom challenge, AFP is partnering with the grassroots in all 50 states to take meaningful steps that defend freedom and advance opportunity. Call your representative, attend a local event, knock on a door, talk to your neighbors. Every single step counts. And every step moves us closer to a more perfect Union. Go to takeonesmallstep.com to learn more. Then join the challenge@AFPvolunteer.com.
Josh Holmes
Okay, welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. Remember, like and subscribe. We got a whole bunch of good stuff on its way. This has been a good month, and it's only getting better. We're gonna close the end of the year very, very strong. How we're gonna get into this next segment is with our old friend Jasmine Crockett, who's a little bit of a shape shifter in herself. I mean, she's just, you know, presents in very different ways, but she's got some things that she doesn't intend to get externally consumed. Right. She talks to a whole bunch of different groups, some crazier than others. She's invited to all of the craziest of the crazy. But what we've seen out of her in recent years is that the crazier the group is, the crazier she is. And she hopes it just stays there.
Smug
Yeah, she just reflects back their insanity because she's insane, too.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, so she did some great stuff. Clip 3.
Katie Miller
We do know that one of his friends has purchased Dominion. So it's going to be really important for us to educate all states that we can to make sure that their Secretary of State, they're like, we don't want the Dominion machine because, yeah, that's Mark Elias that, that Ally purchased Dominion so that he could potentially play with the machines because we know that they're trying to cheat by changing the lines for the midterms. And I think that they're trying to solidify their cheat potentially with the voting.
Josh Holmes
Machines now, as we know.
Michael Duncan
Did he look off camera to be like, is this like, legally permissible? Can I be, like, held accountable?
Josh Holmes
He did.
Michael Duncan
Because that guy like, like, like Duncan pointed out, that's Mark Elias, who is like the kingpin of left wing dark money law firms of, like, whenever there's an election happening, he's filing as many lawsuits as possible to allow as many, like, restrictions to be removed from showing ID to, you name it. And so when he's on there feeling uncomfortable with the shit that she's saying of like, you know, dominion voting machines looks like they're rigged. He, like, looked off the camera, he's like, he's like, I make my money spreading this kind of shit and I think that's a bit much.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah.
Michael Duncan
Like, that's incredible.
Josh Holmes
I look forward to the litigation. Yeah, that's right.
Smug
Well, not to mention he spent the entire 2020 election in litigation talking about, like, conspiracy theories about voting machines are crazy.
Josh Holmes
Yeah. And then he's got her on, and.
Smug
He'S got her on.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Smug
And she's doing the exact same thing also.
Josh Holmes
Can you just imagine how boring Mark Elias's podcast must be?
Smug
Can you imagine?
Josh Holmes
Like, this is a real highlight. You got Jasmine Crockett. She's gonna say some crazy shit. Otherwise, it's just gotta be the worst amount of just un.
Michael Duncan
Consumable information.
Josh Holmes
Unlistenable, unlistenable stuff. So, like, look, when you say something like that, you know, you know you're somewhere near the mainstream of either party and you're like, it's not good. Well, how does the left react to something like that? Because, you know, I mean, you don't want to disqualify yourself ahead of midterms. Clip for can you confirm that I.
Katie Miller
Just kissed your sneakers?
Josh Holmes
That's liberal radio host Stephanie Miller kissing the feet of Jasmine Crockett.
Katie Miller
I am, I am. We're doing it.
Michael Duncan
Future senator of the great state of Texas.
Josh Holmes
I'm a miss Ted Cruz so much. He's so likable.
Michael Duncan
This is, it's like that stuff is just so weird. So weird. Like, I saw some of this stuff in the wake of like, the riots, the Summer of Love 2020, where you had just like, you know, your standard SSRI brain worms, Chardonnay type of liberal doing these like, weird over the top gestures to be like, no, you don't understand, I'm anti racist. I'm one of the good people here, and all you do is make yourself look like a deranged idiot.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah.
Smug
These liberal white women become. There's a patronizing component to it that, like, politics gives them the opportunity to be like, I know a black person.
Michael Duncan
Oh, yeah.
Josh Holmes
100%. They come over to my house all the time.
Smug
Right.
Michael Duncan
Like, I fight for their freedoms.
Smug
They just become the personification of the. Like, in this house, we believe something, you know, gather.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's basically a Pottery Barn siding.
Smug
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
To what you're talking about.
Smug
But, like. Like, these people have no religion, have no life, and so politics becomes the religion. And that's how you genuflect and kiss the feet of a politician.
Josh Holmes
Kissing the feet of all politicians. Jasmine Crockett, who had just done an interview saying, watch out, this election's going to be rigged because our understanding is that a Republican bought Dominion voting. Voting machines.
Michael Duncan
Like, dude, that is just so weird.
Josh Holmes
I mean, dude, so weird. I hope everybody understands how insane that is.
John Ashbrook
Yes.
Michael Duncan
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Like, that is. We're talking lunacy at its apex.
John Ashbrook
Yep.
Josh Holmes
And. And they're like, no, she's. She's. She's the best. But just when you think you've gotten to the bottom of the barrel, it gets worse. They got a new candidate. Oh. A new guy who's coming up. He's a Kennedy. And, like, RFK has made it a little more complicated than it used to be in recent years.
Michael Duncan
Chris, I have to say myself, not all Kennedys.
Josh Holmes
Who do you thought. Yeah, we used to take a baseball bat to the Kennedys, like, on the reg here and never worry about it at all. But, like, you got. RFK is doing good things. So it's not everyone, I guess. But it sure looks like the crazy has taken hold here. Jack Schlossberg. Mm. He's. He's running for Congress. He's gonna be the next Kennedy to work his way, in my understanding is that almost all of them give it a run at some point. Some end up in shallow creek waters.
John Ashbrook
Others.
Josh Holmes
Have to bail out for acute substance abuse or maybe the occasional sexual assault. But all of that notwithstanding, Jack might be the finest product that they've produced in quite some time.
John Ashbrook
Oh, boy.
Josh Holmes
Jack Schlossberg has made a lot of creepy comments. And according to the New York Post, John F. Kennedy's grandson made his name spreading wild comments on social media, including a series of creepy posts aimed at the second lady, Usha Vance. I think before we get into that, you're gonna have to just see the Video of this cat, remember, like, and subscribe and get on the YouTube just to see this. You can get back on audio after. You gotta see what we're talking about here because it really contextualizes this whole thing, I think. Clip 4, 8. She's got a ticket to ride.
Michael Duncan
My God, she's got a ticket to ride.
John Ashbrook
She's shirtless.
Michael Duncan
Got a ticket to ride, but she don't care.
Smug
Oh, what is that?
John Ashbrook
Yeah, here's the thing. They're Democrats, but they're old Irishmen from Boston. And I, I don't know what his grandfather would have thought, but I think his great grandfather who made his money running booze would have rolling in his grave disapproved of that sort of thing. I don't care how hard of a Democrat he was. I mean, I'm sorry, RFK strike me down as I sit. I literally do not think that his great grandfather, who made a family fortune running booze against the feds, would watch that video and think this weird video.
Michael Duncan
Of him like shirtless and prancing around. This was suggested by Wolf. Wolf, were you a Marine or Navy?
Josh Holmes
Jeez.
Michael Duncan
And says here he's running for Congress in New York's 12th district. That's the one. That's his name. Fat Nadler's.
Josh Holmes
Fat Nadler.
Michael Duncan
Vacating.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Michael Duncan
Hell of a seat. Must be a massive one, buddy.
Josh Holmes
I hope Nadler, when he gets out, gets on the old vitamin. Oh, right. I mean, he's just a real health condition.
John Ashbrook
I don't think he wants vitamin O. I think he just wants Reuben sandwiches. But let me tell you that that could be a crowded primary because there's another guy who may seek the Dem nomination there. Have you heard about this guy? He's clean shaven and on the market. George Conway. Are you that George Conway himself may be running against this guy for the seat? And I'm telling you, if that's actually the race, that no house race in the country will receive more attention.
Michael Duncan
Dude, can you imagine how much money all of these grifters are going to raise to just like spend destroying each other?
Smug
Well, they all have such amazing. They all have such great experience. Jack Here is a 32 year old former Vogue political correspondent.
Josh Holmes
Oh my God.
Smug
He has more than 1.7 million followers across Instagram and TikTok and has a history of crude and bizarre rants ranging from mockery of his cousin RFK Jr. Spasmodic dysphonia to posting a recipe that calls for Jew blood.
Michael Duncan
Are you? Yeah.
Smug
What?
Michael Duncan
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Well, here's the thing, like, I've debated. Now that you've said it, I have to do it.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Like, it's just. It's not thinly veiled antisemitism. It's just straight up anti Semitism, which apparently is very in vogue. Invoke. So. So, you know, that's the thing that they do over there. He's got a very unhealthy obsession with the second lady, which he. I mean, like, honestly, he kind of seems like a Secret Service risk case in some of the stuff that he's hearing.
Michael Duncan
So now it's only that it's. Yeah, it gets extremely weird because he's like, this is a quote from him. True or false. Ushavants is way hotter than Jackie O. And then people responding to him. Gotta be honest, man. I think most people don't do hotness rankers involving their grandma. This guy's got a lot of problems.
Josh Holmes
You got issues, dude.
Michael Duncan
But, like, I guess that makes you exactly what they're looking for in a Dem primary. Like, if you have severe mental problems, Dem party is right. Your place. That's where you want to be.
John Ashbrook
I think what you've just done is put your finger on the reason why the DNC staffers do not want to show up to work.
Josh Holmes
Imagine the dude they're like, you've got.
John Ashbrook
To be kidding me. This guy. We got to stick up for this guy who's calling his grandma hot.
Josh Holmes
Dude, it's not. He said that Alan Dershowitz killed his wife.
Michael Duncan
My God.
John Ashbrook
Right?
Josh Holmes
Fucking notable OJ Attorney. Just like, off the rant. This guy was employed to be a political correspondent. He accused him all kinds of just absolutely nefarious thing. But then you mentioned the true blood thing. I really didn't want to get into this.
Smug
I think you did psychotic stuff.
Josh Holmes
I honestly didn't. It's a since deleted post. Apparently you can't run for the 12th district with this kind of thing because he's gotten rid of it, unfortunately. Him. For him, the Internet is forever. It's a Maha energy ball is what he. He calls it. And the recipe, he says 2 ounces of jew blood. What?
Smug
Ashkenazi, not Sephardic.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, we're getting deep into the anti Semitism. It's not just like surface level stuff. Like, we're getting specific.
Smug
Yeah. This is like Nazi race science lore.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Then he adds to it four cups of male jizz.
Michael Duncan
Oh, come on.
Josh Holmes
You didn't have to say it. He said you forced me to say it.
Smug
Yeah, but there's. There's an M to it in the article.
Josh Holmes
Oh, I'm gonna say J and Z. You forced my hand. I wanted to avoid this.
Smug
J and Z.
Michael Duncan
That's what I was hoping.
Smug
I was saying this is a family show.
Michael Duncan
It was. It was.
Josh Holmes
I wanted to avoid it. You better blame your co host over there.
Michael Duncan
He's the one who listened to this. You've also put that in after you put a show's dude. Again.
Smug
Apologize on behalf of everyone at the ruthless variety program for the conduct of.
Michael Duncan
Josh Holmes, cheapened the day.
Josh Holmes
I gotta tell you, your son made this happen. He forced my hand. I have no choice. But he's not done. You gotta put that mixture together and bake it at 300 degrees until it's, quote, totally dry. Like your wife.
Michael Duncan
My God. My God, the things you put in here.
Josh Holmes
Wolf, I just don't know what to say about stuff. But this is.
Michael Duncan
There's gonna be some accountability. This is a family program.
John Ashbrook
Think of the old Irishman who died running booze for his great grandfather. They didn't die for this.
Michael Duncan
Exactly. They used to make an honest living. A bunch of Irishmen just running liquor. It's in their blood. And then they get this and this.
Josh Holmes
You know, now you got Schlossberg.
Michael Duncan
Like, what is this? Is this what the Kennedys were all about for this? You know, God knows how many people they had killed. God knows what all they did. The CIA maybe even tried to take care of that problem. But who knows?
John Ashbrook
And think of how many of them were criticizing RFK Jr last, last year because he was like saying something different from what the rest of the family said. I think.
Josh Holmes
And they got all that going on.
John Ashbrook
I think it proves he was the.
Josh Holmes
I don't know that they thought Schlossberg was kind of be like, I want to put my name in the ring. You hide that stuff from even the closest family member, like, they don't come out.
Michael Duncan
I'm.
Josh Holmes
Excuse me.
Michael Duncan
If he runs, I guarantee he finishes top three.
Josh Holmes
Schlossberger.
Michael Duncan
Yep.
Josh Holmes
I mean, the only thing that the.
Michael Duncan
12Th is nutty dude. You've got. It's the west side. It's the west side.
Josh Holmes
But if his name.
Michael Duncan
If the Looney Tunes are there, if.
Josh Holmes
His name was Kennedy, I'd give you that. But people are going to have to do some math on the Schlossberg thing. And I'm just not sure that's going to get him home.
Michael Duncan
I bet he does it. Dude.
Josh Holmes
I don't know.
Michael Duncan
Top three, top three.
Josh Holmes
All I know is this is your modern day Democratic candidate, that's your choice.
Michael Duncan
Conway.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Him or George. I mean, wow, what a choice. Congratulations. 12th district. Great representation cometh for you. That leads us to our question of the day. What is the craziest moment from Democrats over the last year? We've discussed a lot of them over the last five weeks. In this 42 day shutdown. You get Jasmine Crockett's situation there. There's been Jasmine moments along the way. Remember all the Doge stuff with like the we'll all die if we don't fund trans studies in Tanzania. Like that certainly qualifies. But there's a whole bunch of things that are top of mind for you that were like escaping us right now. And so we're asking you what is the craziest moments from Democrats over the last year? Just cuz we wanna refresh ourselves. We're getting to the end of the year.
John Ashbrook
Mm.
Josh Holmes
And we start thinking about how we present shows at the end of the year. Because we like to. We like to end extremely strong. As those of you who've been around for a while know. We like to give you the best stuff. And so maybe we'll use some of these fan wrecks to put together sort of a summary show. What do y' all think? Yeah, should we do something like that?
John Ashbrook
Great idea. And I feel like there's gonna be a list a mile long that they put into this thing.
Josh Holmes
It has to be. I can't wait to see what you guys when you like. And subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program. We read every one of your comments and we get back to you the very next episode. In this case, we may even include an episode itself based on your recommendations. Get on that. In the meantime, fellas, look, we are creeping into the weekend. I'm not sure how much more Schlossberg type content I can consume without just getting like buried with bourbon. But before I do, yeah, I'm going to take a zbiotic.
Michael Duncan
That's right, there it is. ZBiotics. And let me tell you folks, the reason we love Zbiotics is because it works. Bottom line. The other week we're at the Patriot Awards and I run into an elderly gentleman, Will Kane. And so I said, will, you know, we'll be having a couple drinks tonight, but before you get started, especially a man of your age, you should take this because here's what it does. A lot of people think that, oh, if you drink alcohol, you're dehydrated, you gotta drink water. That does nothing for you. Alright? If you want to feel Great. The morning after you have a big night out, you have a ZBiotics first, because alcohol in your stomach, it breaks down these like toxic byproducts, and that's what's making you feel bad. But if you take Zbiotics first, it knocks it right out, and you feel like a million bucks in the morning.
Smug
And I gotta say, smug. We ran into Will at the airport the next day, and he looked right as rain.
Michael Duncan
He said to me straight up. He was like, it actually worked. It actually worked. And that's the thing is any. That's why I carry these to events and I give them out, like I mentioned last year, is because I love being the guy who everyone's like, you were right about this.
John Ashbrook
And he was living, breathing proof that there is no tomorrow without ZBiotics today.
Josh Holmes
There it is. So when you go to ZBionics.com ruthless you can learn more about all of this. You get 15% off your first order when you use Ruthless at the checkout. If you're unsatisfied for any reason, you get 100% money back, guarantee they'll refund it without any question. So you got to go to ZBionics.com Ruthless and use Ruthless at the checkout for 15% off.
Michael Duncan
So.
Josh Holmes
Our question of the day from Thursday was a good one. I mean, we covered a lot of the Civil War thing. So we just kind of put a pinpoint on it. Which side will win the Democratic Civil War? And you guys had some ideas on all of that to do it? We always start with a voice.
John Ashbrook
Okay, first one comes from Josh. And Josh writes, with any luck, the ultimate winner of the Democrat Civil War will be the Republicans. I like the way he thinks.
Josh Holmes
Well done and a good name.
Michael Duncan
Shout out me. Nicely done. Shout out me. Tunks.
Smug
Comment 2, here is from Al Weir. Al writes, I think the outcome of this Civil War depends on the definition of winning. There will not be a winner in this Civil War given that no matter which faction quote wins, it will be a loss for the electorate.
Michael Duncan
That's right.
Josh Holmes
I think that's fair. I think that's fair. There's no representation in insanity. Yeah, no question about that. All right, comment three.
Michael Duncan
Smug comment three comes from Kevin Blades.
Smug
What a great name, by the way.
Michael Duncan
And Kevin writes, out of the rubble and smoke, the heroic hoodie John Fetterman will emerge like Bill Belichick, heading back to the NFL to coach the New York.
Smug
Hell, yeah. Although I saw that recent news that he took a fall.
Josh Holmes
Who did?
Michael Duncan
Fetterman.
Smug
Fetterman oh, really?
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Smug
I didn't know that he was out on a walk.
Michael Duncan
I think out of an abundance of caution, they took him to a hospital. His monitor, they thought it might have been some. He'll be okay. I think that's the last I saw.
Smug
Pairs up to him, dude.
Josh Holmes
Totally. Oh, man, I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea. So in Variety, a new documentary reveals how this.
Michael Duncan
It's not the documentary. It was just a report.
Josh Holmes
Oh, it's just a report on the spiders?
Michael Duncan
Yes. And I'm so thrilled about this.
Smug
Why do you know so much about these spiders?
Josh Holmes
Yeah, no, no.
Michael Duncan
You could not stop reading hard on.
Josh Holmes
For these things for a week.
Michael Duncan
Yes.
Josh Holmes
I mean, really, it must be an incredible story.
Michael Duncan
People need to stick around for this after this break because this story is completely insane.
Josh Holmes
Okay, okay. So Variety always takes different shapes and sizes. In this case, smug. You've been hunt on these spiders. I failed to see the genius behind it initially. I think you've kind of gotten me there. But give us a story of what's happening here.
Michael Duncan
So this is the most horrifying and crazy thing that I've seen in some time. This is from the New York Times, which specializes in reporting on horrific things. The title is Stinking, Spongy, Dark, Huge, A spiderweb unlike any seen before. Can we run the B roll? As I read about this. So what you're seeing, that's not like the surface of Mars. That is one dense super web. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of spiders.
Josh Holmes
Wait, we're not looking at like a rock wall up.
Michael Duncan
Do you see how dense it's become? It's like. It's like a cake of web. And so there's hundreds and hundreds and thousands of these spiders in a Balkans cave. And there's two types of spiders. They were typically enemies where they would fight and kill each other. But they've united and they've built this hell web.
Smug
Oh, no.
Michael Duncan
In this dark cave, it stretches for about 1100 square feet, about the size of a small home in a low and narrow passage in a cave spanning the border between Albania, Greece. What scientists recently found in a sulfur cave, a network of rooms and passages carved from limestone, surprised them even more than the size of the web. Inside the spider metropolis, over 100,000 spiders, two species that were known to try to kill each other, are now on the same team. They're working together. What they do is they've built this hell web, right? And they will kill animals. They'll bring them up and they'll all work and they'll rip it to shreds.
Josh Holmes
The spiders.
Michael Duncan
The spiders will, because there are hundreds of thousands of them. So they could capture an animal and they all just bite it and bite it and bite it and kill it instantly. And then they rip it to shreds and they bring it up to this web network, right? And here's the thing is, so far they're happy here in this hell cave. So far they're happy here. If some dumb deer or someone wanders by the cave, they all just like pounce, rip it to pieces, bring it up to the web. They just have more eggs and babies and they feed them all and they just populate. And there's more and more of this, right? Well, but they are staying in the cave for now. Okay, well what happens if they get it?
Smug
I've got a suggestion. Okay.
Josh Holmes
I think burn the fucking cave.
Smug
Well, no, I think they have to be satiated. I don't want to burn the cave because I think we're missing, we're missing a great opportunity here. It's in the Balkans. It's in a nondescript area in the Balkans. This could be a great CIA black site.
John Ashbrook
Wait, are you suggesting that we send more money to the Iraqi Ukrainian so they can take it out?
Smug
I'm suggesting next time we extraordinarily rendition.
Josh Holmes
Some terrorists, send this, send them here. The spider cave.
Michael Duncan
My thinking was that like, you know.
Josh Holmes
They can't escape though.
Michael Duncan
This could be where we set up like a deportation site, you know, like Ghana. You don't know what happens. There might be some like left wing NGO that'll that'll fetch him from Ghana and bring them right back. I don't think anything comes back from this cave. I think the spider cave is like the answer to a lot of problems. You don't want to go there and we can't let the spiders out. But it could solve problems.
Josh Holmes
I mean, we could repurpose some USAAD funds, I think so, you know, like it used to be trans studies in Tanzania or like monkeys fucking or something like that. Like now it's. You have to go live with the spiders and just see if you make it. We'll just see if you make it with the spiders.
Michael Duncan
Can we run the video again to show people the. This is not normal, this web. They're growing in numbers. I mean, this is the insane thing is like these spiders. So the scientists wore like a full body suit to protect himself from being able to be bitten by them. Because see those little cape they've built like Little tunnels.
Josh Holmes
Like they're poisonous?
Michael Duncan
Yes. They come out and they just jump on things, poison it, rip it to shreds, and then they take it up to there in little pieces. Like if a person goes down there and they're not wearing one of these suits, they'll kill you. They'll rip you to shreds. Okay. They'll rip you to shreds.
Josh Holmes
Okay.
Smug
I don't think they're gonna rip you to shreds. Are they giant?
Michael Duncan
Go to the cave.
Smug
Are they giant?
Michael Duncan
Go to the cave. Duncan, how are they gonna ride the shreds? Look, here's the other thing is that's with the light. So they've developed these super eyes that they can see in no light. These spiders, this is complete pitch black. So like, these animals, they'll wander in here, they won't realize. They'll be like, maybe. What's the sponge?
Josh Holmes
Can I give an alternative take?
Michael Duncan
Oh, okay.
Josh Holmes
Well, it says here the study showed that the spiders inside the cave had genetic differences from their relatives outside.
John Ashbrook
Interesting.
Josh Holmes
Suggesting that the residents of the spider metropolis had adapted to their environment to build a singular community. Sounds like an assimilation. Oh, maybe a national compact that these spiders have come to. Maybe it's.
Michael Duncan
They're united by something we could learn. Death.
Josh Holmes
Maybe. It's touching. The spiders have now progressed beyond humanity. It's in some ways. And they've figured out how to live together. Common cause.
Smug
And they put their differences aside.
Michael Duncan
No, this is like ISIS and Al Qaeda being like, okay, truce, let's just kill everyone else. This is a horrible thing. I think the answer is napalm. It the idea of scientists to be like, let's go down there and study is the wrong idea. I want to see just like canisters of napalm dropped in this thing and I want to hear them squeal because, you know, spiders squeal when they burn. I've seen it in the movies. I want to hear that story. Why do you know that?
Josh Holmes
What is going on?
Michael Duncan
They gotta go. All of them gotta go.
Josh Holmes
Dude, I had no idea you had such a spider thing. What are you looking at?
Michael Duncan
Horrible. They're bad animals. What's a good thing a spider's ever done?
Smug
They kill other insects.
John Ashbrook
Well, Smug knows a lot about spiders.
Michael Duncan
Well, you can kill them yourself. I don't need someone to do the job.
John Ashbrook
He's been an expert on spiders for quite some time. And I remember when he told Michael Duncan's five year old son that spiders were actually the reason that the dinosaurs are now extinct. Yeah, it's true.
Smug
The last time a smug was at my house, he was there for five minutes before he started filling my son's head with disinformation. It's one of his favorite things to do.
Josh Holmes
It is a favorite.
Smug
Like, I come downstairs and he's like. And just so you know, half of those dinosaurs you have are fake. They never exist. They're fake. And also, the ones who are real were killed by the spiders.
Michael Duncan
Spiders. And that's all true.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Okay.
Michael Duncan
And I told him, tell all your friends at school. Tell all your friends.
Josh Holmes
Tell your friends in school. He's gonna send his kid home.
Smug
I can't wait.
Josh Holmes
Oh, geez.
Smug
Can't wait till I can return the favor.
Josh Holmes
Well, look, we got a good interview for you today. Katie Miller. You will know and recognize her. She hosts the Katie Miller podcast and up and coming operations. She's also the wife of Stephen Miller, you know, and love from Fox News and Trump administration. A lot going on. We get into her. Her life, a conversation. It's terrific. Check it out. I want to welcome to the program a very good friend, an old friend. I feel like I've known you forever. Katie Miller. How are you? I mean, this is, like, interesting new. You're a podcaster now.
Katie Miller
So are you. Yeah, I remember you back in 2014 when I was babysitting your sweet dog. Chloe.
Michael Duncan
Chloe.
John Ashbrook
God rest her soul.
Josh Holmes
Those little Boston terrier. She was never in sweeter hands with Katie. She loved you.
Katie Miller
She did. Except I'm not a dog person. So it was because at the time, Josh was the chief of staff to Mitch McConnell, and I was like, this is what you do.
Josh Holmes
I don't feel like I abused the.
Katie Miller
Power, but, you know, I offered.
Smug
You did.
Josh Holmes
Those were fun times, though.
Katie Miller
We won the majority together.
Josh Holmes
Exactly. We've seen a lot. Yeah. And now you've been a part of so many different things. Obviously served in the first four years of the administration. Your husband been like, sort of the centerpiece of the entire Trump administration, both first and second term. What's going on? You got this podcast.
Michael Duncan
It's hot.
Katie Miller
Thank you. I decided to launch a podcast because there's a lot of podcasts out there for men. Look at three beautiful men sitting next time.
Josh Holmes
Honestly, I'll take this all day. You can keep talking.
Katie Miller
We have Joe Rogan. We have the Nap Boy. We have the Ovant. Right. President Trump went on all these podcasts leading up to the 2024 election, and there isn't a female comparable that talks about life and culture that isn't Political.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
And I thought in order for us to succeed and win with women in the future, we have to talk to them, right? President Trump did phenomenally at closing the gap in 2024, but in order for us to continue doing so, as we just saw in the midterms, we have to talk to those women. And so what I want to do in the next few years is build that audience so when we have the next election in 2028, there is that space for us to reach that targeted demographic.
John Ashbrook
You know, it's so funny you say that, because I hear this from my wife over and over again. She's like, I love your show, but it's like a lot of bros. It's like the girls need something too. And so what you're talking about, I feel like the market is right there ready for.
Josh Holmes
And something that's not like explicit sex talk. Call her daddy or something. Actually, you can get information and hear interesting conversations.
Katie Miller
She has a lot of people on that talk by, here's why I'm waiting to have kids, or here's why I don't need a man. And like, I'm here to say kids make you better. Yeah, your husband also makes you better. I can tell you this. He's my number one supporter. There's not many things in life I feel like I don't call him for or get his advice on or wake him up in the middle of the night in Japan to say, hello, I need your advice.
Josh Holmes
He's like, katie, he's like, what are you doing?
Katie Miller
He's like, did you need to call both my phones?
Josh Holmes
You're like, hi.
Michael Duncan
Hi, how are you?
Katie Miller
It's me. What flavor of coffee should I buy you?
Josh Holmes
I'm not sure my wife would confess to me her better, but I get. I like the sentiment. I get the sentiment. So a lot has gone on. You've been in, you know, not all your own sort of making, but in the center of a public eye a lot. And one thing I wanted to talk about, you had to move. You lived in Northern Virginia, Beautiful house, you, beautiful family, incredible people. Like the kind of people you would want to move from next to one of the Millers, take care of stuff, take care of their neighborhood and things like that. But you move to a neighborhood immediately, people are, like, showing up, doing chalk drawings on your sidewalk, basically trying to run you out of there, became unsafe. And this is what we're seeing from the modern left. You've done nothing to any of these people, and yet here you are.
Katie Miller
No, I would also Say we were great neighbors, we improved the value of our neighborhood. Right. Like I made sure to keep up my grass and put new plantings in and we passed out banana bread at the holidays and for Thanksgiving and my kids would go around, pass out cookies and things like that. Right. That make you a good neighbor. But unfortunately, it's become pervasive in our societies that people can't look past politics and all they do is they see red. And what really became apparent to us, and it was probably prior to what happened with the chalking, was that there were people who drove by my home, there were people who sent us death threats, who knew where we lived and it was no longer safe for our children to play in our front yard.
Josh Holmes
And that's a thing. Right. It's like one thing when you and Steven are dealing with this.
John Ashbrook
Sure.
Josh Holmes
We got kids in the middle of it. And as any parent knows who's listening to this, immediately you put this in a different category.
Katie Miller
Absolutely. And I think if Steven and I were just the two of us ourselves, we would have stayed and not moved. But unfortunately, what happens when you have little kids who are impossible to get in and out of car seats? Right. How many parents can relate to a kid throwing a tantrum?
Michael Duncan
Totally.
Katie Miller
How many parents can relate to their kids talking or learning to ride a bike? And that to takes a while. And your heads are not on a swivel looking around for who's coming fast with a high powered weapon. And that society in which we're living in is that at 9:30 the day after Charlie Kirk was murdered, we had someone who came outside who had taunted me and passed out fires to our neighbors with wanted signs that said, you know, here's your neighbor, Stephen Miller. Here's where his home address is, here's all these apparent crimes he's committed. And it leads you to only one conclusion when you're doing that 9:30am the day after Charlie was. Was murdered, this was happening prior to that. They passed him out at the Metro, they put him up at multiple of my children's parks on purpose. And so if the intention isn't to intimidate, harass and scare, I don't know what it is.
Michael Duncan
Right.
Katie Miller
Because no sane person, no, no parent, no mother will ever do that to another family. I know you guys and we all live and breathe politics, would never dream, never even think of something to somebody else.
John Ashbrook
No, no.
Katie Miller
And I think some of the most supportive people, and I will say this is both on the left and the right who understand, who are public Servants themselves, who understand this crosses the line and leave us alone in public. And that's all we ask, is the ability to take our kids somewhere safely.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, this is the modern left.
John Ashbrook
It is. It's just. I don't even understand what gets somebody to that headspace. But somehow the left in this country cannot just live with people who think differently than them. And that's what makes America so great, is that everybody's got a different take on everything. And I will never understand the left for, like, doing what you just described they're doing to your family and have done to your family. Like, under what circumstances would anybody who you've ever come into contact with socially in your life. Not everybody's a Republican, a lot of Democrats. But, like, I don't. I can't even imagine why somebody would do something like that.
Katie Miller
I mean, you look at Jimmy Kimmel's wife, right, who has to cut ties with family members because they voted for Donald J. Trump. That's insane. Like, I don't know how I've gotten to a place in our country where you can't just be friends with somebody without you can disagree with people, by the way, in a civil manner. There are people. And I think this is the case for people who live in D.C. who live in free politics. Like, some of my friends are Democrats. I'm sure some of your friends are Democrats. People who live here can see past it. People who are on the periphery can't. And I think it's really gross that I think that the violence in our country as it relates to politics only gets worse. I know our death threats. I get at least a very serious one each and every day that's directed at me and my children. They come through my website, they come through Instagram, they come through straight text messages. They find me, they find my husband. In terms of very specific threats, these are not just saying, oh, I wish you were dead. These are saying, here's how I will do it. Here's where you should look around your back. They cite my home address. They cite things that are very specific to our time and location.
Josh Holmes
Jeez.
Katie Miller
And so it's definitely reshaped how you think about the events you do with your children, how you take your children places. Again, I'm willing to take on a lot more risk by myself, and so is my husband. But when your little kids are involved, by the way, who don't walk well, who trip over themselves, and you're focused on making sure that they don't, like, fall down the stairs, you're not. Your head's not on a swivel looking for who has a weapon near you.
Josh Holmes
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I imagine a huge part of that too is just trying as best you can to give them a normal childhood. Yeah, right. I mean, that's like the thing as a mom and a dad. You look at all of it and you're like, I got all this going on, but how do I just make sure that I'm doing all the things and they're getting all the experiences that I had as a kid or that, you know, their peers are having?
Katie Miller
It's very different. I mean, right now, my kids are homeschooled. We don't go anywhere on a specific routine or specific schedule on purpose. You know, I know it's been reported that we moved to a military base. My kids, we moved a few times before we settled there. And you know, as any little kids, they're like, why are we moving? We never fully explained it. Why would you explain it? The only thing. And like, I feel bad that I'm sure I was on a phone call and slipped up. My 4 year old turned to me when I said, oh, I'm gonna go back to the old house and, and pick up some clothes. She goes, mommy, you can't go back there. It's not safe. And who wants a four year old to say that to them?
Josh Holmes
No. It's heartbreaking.
Katie Miller
And so at the military base now, the kids are so happy they can run free. They love seeing soldiers. It is a once in a lifetime experience. And I'm so grateful to our men and women in the armed services for, honestly, them stepping up, honestly, them making us feel safe and for taking us in. And, you know, I talk about this now frequently with friends, but I think this is the beginning of future administrations remaining in some of the homes that this administration has moved into because of the political violence in our country.
Josh Holmes
That is a really strange.
Katie Miller
I don't think it subsides. I think it gets worse. And I think future administrations, Democrat or Republican, will have this problem.
John Ashbrook
I hate to say it, but I think you're right. I mean, we saw what happened at Berkeley when they were just hosting an event for Turning Point, and then that guy who was standing out front got just bloodied up by some. I mean, we talked about on the show this guy, some guy's actual name is Jihad. You know what I mean?
Josh Holmes
Like, it's unclear what he was up to.
Smug
Yeah, we may never know his true intentions.
Katie Miller
It was mostly peaceful protests.
John Ashbrook
Exactly right. But I think you're right. I think it just seems like the left is just going further and further down a very dark place. And I don't see how it. How they pull it back, which is so.
Josh Holmes
It's interesting. I mean, look, when we started working in this line of work, it was basically a company town. It's like 1950s Detroit. You either work for Ford or Chevy, you know, gmc. Like, people understood you're on different teams, you're doing different stuff. But, like, y' all kind of figured it out.
Katie Miller
Everyone got drunk together, right? Now we're not doing that.
Michael Duncan
No.
Katie Miller
We're all drinking like lemon hot tea these days.
Josh Holmes
Oh, man, don't get me started. But I mean, it is a thing. And now that your family has had to experience that, I can only imagine the internal, like, they're very bad people. But I think the vast majority of people who are trying to intimidate you are trying to get you to quit, trying to get you to shut up, try to get your husband to basically say this is enough is enough, because he's been effective at it. They want him to move out. Well, they're not very successful at that component.
Katie Miller
No. I think that day after Stephen goes on Hannity and just almost like 12 out of 10. Right. And so I think, if anything, I.
Smug
Feel like he's always 12 out of 10.
Katie Miller
Go back to the September 12th Sean Hannity episode. Watch him.
Smug
I've heard rumors. I've heard rumors.
Katie Miller
It's intense.
Smug
That Steven will periodically decide he'd like to have a fight, and that's when he decides he wants to do adversarial media.
Katie Miller
Well, I will share this is that he does ask to go on CNN now and one of the CNN hosts said she didn't have enough time to prepare.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, fair.
Katie Miller
He's very good. But I will say this is that Stephen won't back down. Neither will I. I've done more media since then. So has he. And he's done more things to reshape our government and reshape our country for the better since that's happened. Right. Whether that be writing our national strategy on combating domestic terrorism, using some of the things we've experienced in our own life to apply that for all Americans. And I think that's so incredibly important is also the experiences we've had personally has been able to have lessons applied for everyone else on how law enforcement should respond and behave for these antifa attacks that happen, you know, across our country, like what happened in Berkeley and what our government needs to do in order to Quickly respond to say, this will never happen again. Because why is it on a college campus it's acceptable for a liberal to go and speak, but every time a conservative goes, and I'm sure you guys know this, you have to have armed security?
Josh Holmes
Yeah, totally.
Katie Miller
Why is that? It's changed everything for one side versus the other. That's just when universities started tolerating violence against conservatives on their campus. Where you had to have armed security is when we lost those. Those students should be suspended or expelled immediately and it would cease to have happened.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it became a safe haven for leftist violence. No question about it. Do you ever get. Because both of you and your husband are outspoken. You've always have been. As long as I've known you. I think I've known your husband almost 20 years at this point. But you're more outspoken now than ever. We know everything you're up to. Do you ever get to the point where the two of you are like, hey, like, maybe that was. Maybe that was a touch more than you needed to do? Because, like, you know, I could just say, for my own personal experience, every once in a while, I'll do something where my wife will come home and be like, really? Did you have to do that? And I'll be like, ah, yeah, I kind of did. Like, do you guys ever have that conversation?
Katie Miller
So I never have it with him. There are times. Never, never, never. I will say this, never amazing. And there are often times when he'll come home so excited, he's like, did you see the thing I did today? And I'm like, the drunk boats, like, the tweets, I don't know. And he gets so excited and he's so proud of what the work they're doing. And there's times his tweets go viral and he'll never mention to me, and I won't be on my phone the whole day, and I'll see. I'll be like, whoa, man, you made news today. But he's more attuned to what I'm doing. I think now that I'm, I would say, new at this. Right. I wasn't new at politics or communications. Right. I'd been the communications director for Mike pence, for Martha McSally, for Steve Daines. Like, I had worked for Elon all.
John Ashbrook
The way up to.
Katie Miller
Right. Like, and I. Three kids in between. But there are times he calls me during the day and he's like, so that last tweet went a little too far.
Josh Holmes
See, this is what I was thinking.
Katie Miller
Could you delete it? And I'm like, don't tell me what to do. Five seconds later, I'm like, delete.
Josh Holmes
Steven's not on board.
Katie Miller
If it's too far for Stephen Miller, it's too far for Katie Miller.
Josh Holmes
Oh, that's so great.
Katie Miller
And he also won't bring up when he thinks I could have done better in interviews, because I think he watches all of them. He often doesn't tell me, but, like, the next time I'll go do something, he's like, you know, this thing. Can I tell you to do it a little bit better?
Josh Holmes
He.
Katie Miller
He's like, I've been doing this a bit longer. And I'm like, well, then you go do the hit. You turned it down tonight. He's like, you're batting my cleanup.
Josh Holmes
That's a husband wife conversation if I've ever heard one. Oh, you think you can do better than you do it? So listen, this podcast, obviously, you just launched this. I mean, relatively recently, right? Last couple of months, big hit. You've had some incredible guests. One in particular that is just, like, for me, a category of just a couple people that I just. I'm obsessed with is Mike Tyson. You talked to Mike Tyson on this thing. Did you know him before you did this?
Katie Miller
No. And I will say, the very humbling thing about starting something new, and I'm sure you guys experienced this when you kicked off Ruthless, right? You call all of your friends, you ask for help. Some of the people you expected to be there did not return your phone call.
Josh Holmes
That's always the way it works.
Katie Miller
And some of the people you least expected call you right back. So someone who was just a tangential friend I called said, hey, I'm doing this thing. Do you know anybody? He's like, I know Mike Tyson. I got this.
Josh Holmes
You're like, really?
Katie Miller
And I'm like, really? So he connects me with Mike's wife, Kiki, who's so nice, so friendly, so lovely. She's like, yeah, I'll have Mike do it. I'm like, what? Like, I've never taped a thing. This is a new concept. Do you want the deck? She's like, no, he'll do it.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, this is like, right off the jump.
Katie Miller
So wait, this gets better. So I fly down. We end up taping it in Florida, since that's where he predominantly lives. I met Kiki for dinner the night before. So lovely. She gave me tips. I had never interviewed anybody in my entire life. I'd like to reiterate, I had never interviewed anybody in My entire life. The night before, I was calling just to get advice on how to interview people, and I was on the phone with the great Sean Hannity.
Michael Duncan
Oh, yeah.
Katie Miller
And Sean's like, one of the toughest interviews I've done is Mike Tyson.
Michael Duncan
Good luck.
Josh Holmes
So good. So good. I'm like, sweet. I'm glad we're starting here.
Katie Miller
So then what happens is I get there that day. I've never interviewed anybody. Right. And he shows up, you know, a bit high.
Josh Holmes
As one does.
Katie Miller
But Keke had given me such great advice, and it was, you know, here are some of the things that nobody knows about him. Start with this. He'll get relaxed. So if you see in the first 10 minutes of tape, it's a bit more.
Josh Holmes
You're, like, relaxing.
Katie Miller
And then. And then it became so fun.
Michael Duncan
Yeah.
Katie Miller
And one of the advice I also got was don't waste all your best guests first, because you're going to get better as you keep going.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
I'm like, well, I wasted one of my best guests first.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
But it was great to pop. I need to pop.
Josh Holmes
Yep.
Katie Miller
I'd started with J.D. and Mike Tyson. I mean, wasn't a bad run, right?
Michael Duncan
Totally.
Katie Miller
No, it wasn't a bad run.
Josh Holmes
No, it was. It was awesome. And that was a great interview. But what I found so interesting about it, you never see the champ just sort of lounging around with some gal, talking, you know, just opening up. And that was like an interesting viewer experience.
Katie Miller
Yeah. The goal here is to talk to people whom we know and respect or love from public settings and get them to really have these discussions about what they're like in private, who does their wife know them to be, or their husband, their kids, their friends, their family? Because it's often the time. And I know you guys know famous people, whether that be politicians or celebrities, and they're so much more normal.
Josh Holmes
Totally.
Katie Miller
Than people think. And what I wanted to do is say that for moms out there, right. We all have the same struggles with bedtime, bath time, dinner time, feeding, like, naps, go down the list. Right. No matter your income level, no matter what job you have, it is so similar across income levels and geographic areas of our country. And yes, for some moms, it's easier because they have nannies or families or can afford the private chef or the housekeeper. But predominantly mothers, truly. And fathers care about their children. And so this is meant to be something to them that shares that. If we tell more women that you can succeed in the workplace and have kids at a young age, maybe more Women will be keen to do that. Because I know, for me, I didn't have kids. The youngest. I didn't have kids. The oldest, Stephen, was much older.
Josh Holmes
Well, yeah, we won't let him.
Michael Duncan
No, we'll just let.
Josh Holmes
Nobody's listening. Yeah.
Katie Miller
But like, Adina Friedman, who I had on the podcast, she had kids at, like, 23 and 24 at the beginning of her career at Nasdaq, and she's now the CEO.
Smug
Right.
Katie Miller
And if we told more women. It's possible. If we told more women that Jennifer Stallone, Sylvester Stallone's wife, also had those struggles where she didn't have a nanny and she could have. And she raised now three beautiful, adjusted, respectful children, then you can do it, too.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, no, I think it's a really good point. It's definitely a service. And I know a lot of women are looking forward to each and every episode that you put out. I assume you can get this anywhere.
Katie Miller
Anywhere, you know, YouTube, Spotify, Rumble X Lovex.
Josh Holmes
Anywhere you get a podcast.
Katie Miller
Anywhere you get a podcast.
Josh Holmes
That's awesome. You having fun?
Katie Miller
The best time of my life.
Josh Holmes
Are you.
Katie Miller
It's really nice to be able to say what I think. There was a New York Times article about me that was like, the woman in between of Elon and Donald Trump. And I was like, what crap is this? I don't know if I can say crap.
Smug
You can say crap. You can say much worse.
Katie Miller
What BS is this? And I was like, this person doesn't know me at all. But it said in there, they're like, no one knows who Katie Miller is. She's just a chameleon for whomever she speaks for. And I was like, let me tell you, people, I got more opinions than Stephen Miller, and they're a lot more spicy because I'm way more radical than him.
Josh Holmes
It's true. I can vouch for that.
Katie Miller
I am way more radical. And these people are saying I'm a chameleon. Well, hold your hat, gentlemen. Cause, like, you don't know what's coming.
John Ashbrook
Oh, that's so great. I got a.
Josh Holmes
Well, look, everybody was trying to put you in a box, right? Stephen Miller's wife, or your spokesperson for the previous vice president, or you're, you know, a consultant. And then the whole Elon thing and that, like, look, it blocked out the sun for this entire spring. I mean, it's everything that everyone was talking about. You're like the spokesperson for this operation. I mean, I gotta imagine that was a little bit of a head twister.
Katie Miller
So I've had the luxury and pleasure of being at the center of just about every crisis of the Trump administration. To roll you back the tape. I was the communications director over at DHS when we shut down the government to build the wall. I was the chief spokesperson during family separation in the first Trump administration. Let us remind that one. Let's go back. And then I was Mike Pence's communications director during COVID Yes. And I was at those great Covid task force briefings from the podium every day. And then I got the great job of doing dosh.
Michael Duncan
Yes.
Katie Miller
So you tell me, guys, was I battle tested or what?
Josh Holmes
If anybody seen what negative press looks like and can battle through it, Katie's your gal.
John Ashbrook
But I mean, it's gotta feel therapeutic for you going from a career where you're a press secretary and you're fighting for a quote in the eighth paragraph of some story that's stilted by a left wing editor, forcing the journalist to write what they want them to write. And now you have a microphone in front of your face and you can say whatever it is that you want and you can give your side of the story. It's got to be therapeutic.
Katie Miller
It's definitely therapeutic. And it's also fun to see all the negative articles because I always say no press is bad press. But like, people intentionally want to get it wrong. And I find that so amusing.
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Katie Miller
And the best advice I've now gotten was like, don't read it, don't respond to it, don't engage with it. And I wish I'd have had that like, perspective 10 years ago because I actually don't think any of it matters.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Michael Duncan
It's hard to say.
Josh Holmes
I mean, maybe 10 years ago it did, but it certainly doesn't anymore.
Katie Miller
No. And I, you know, I really love X because you can just cut through all the BS very quickly.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
But it's a lot of hoax out there on purpose to get one side right. Like what happens, like when one person from the left gets a nasty article. It's like, I've seen that once in my career.
John Ashbrook
Right.
Josh Holmes
Elon. Pretty easy to deal with.
Katie Miller
He is, yeah. He's a great boss. I don't know why people think he isn't. He is.
Josh Holmes
Well, it seems like there's some ups and downs. Downs from the external point of view.
Katie Miller
I've worked for many, many people. I've worked for men and women. Mike Pence, Martha McSally, Steve Daines, Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk. Like, he is, say next to Donald Trump. He is the Nicest, most gracious man when it comes to being a boss. He cares about his employees, he cares about the future of the world in a very passionate, driven way. There was not once he raises his voice, not once he does anything where you'd feel embarrassed, ashamed, whatever. He strives for excellence and all of his employees know he do. And it creates a great culture. There's really no drama. It's a very low drama workplace. Because when everyone's striving for greatness, you're not striving for the next promotion or title.
Josh Holmes
Yeah. I mean, I find that fascinating. Right. Because it like where most of us know Elon both in his public Persona, but then so much of it driven by his ex account. Right. And like between the 40s is not exactly how I would explain the X account. Right.
John Ashbrook
But.
Josh Holmes
But then you hear firsthand testimonial on all of that and it's like, huh, Well, I mean, it's a blind account.
Katie Miller
Who's running these politicians X account? Right. It's not them. Oftentimes there's rare exceptions in which it is the politician who's running their own account. Right. And so what I wish more people would do is tweet what they're thinking, say what they're thinking, because you get into a lot more insight into who that person is and what they think about in a day and what they care about in a day.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
And you would want a CEO to be as engaged as you see him on his own platform.
Josh Holmes
Yeah.
Katie Miller
Right. There are so many other platforms where you find that the boss doesn't know exactly how the inner workings work. He does. And to me, what's so great about it is it removes that layer that we're just talking about with the media where they intentionally spin and you hear it from that individual. Oftentimes you don't. From the politician accounts. Right. It's not. It's a staffer who's tweeting and who's doing that for clicks or for news. And to that point is how many politicians are trying to get booked and bookers don't want to take them because their boss doesn't say anything interesting. You know, if people said more of what was actually on their mind, people would do well and much better in our country. They're not doing that. They're shielding themselves.
Josh Holmes
Discourse overall.
Katie Miller
Exactly.
Josh Holmes
Yeah. Well, listen, you're doing plenty for discourse.
Katie Miller
Thank you very much.
Josh Holmes
Both you and Steven are doing a lot of discourse.
Katie Miller
We do a lot of discourse publicly.
Josh Holmes
We appreciate it more than you know, Katie Miller. You can check her podcast out, the Katie Miller Podcast, anywhere you can get a podcast and on YouTube. Thank you so much for joining. Welcome back anytime.
Katie Miller
Thanks, guys. Fun times had by all.
Josh Holmes
Absolutely.
John Ashbrook
I mean, what a great conversation and so good to see her again. And obviously she's doing great things with this podcast and everything else she's been up to and hope to have her back soon.
Josh Holmes
Yeah, yeah, totally. It's been a crazy week this week. I mean, really, it's been nuts. I had Martina Navratilova show up in my menchis.
John Ashbrook
Absolutely wild.
Josh Holmes
One of the all time greats.
Michael Duncan
Tis this season, right?
John Ashbrook
Yeah.
Josh Holmes
Turns out she's a psycho lib.
Michael Duncan
It's like I said, it's the most treacherous time of the year. It's the most treacherous time of the year, folks.
Josh Holmes
She asked me why I was protecting my pedophile president. I was like, is there no more litigation involved? Like, how do we, how do you say something like that? Not fear. Like she's got shit to lose.
John Ashbrook
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's wild. I mean, I get, you know, she's not playing much tennis.
Smug
I think everybody's getting fighting shape for family Thanksgiving.
Michael Duncan
Oh, yeah, that's what it is.
Josh Holmes
We're gonna give you our very best on all of that before Thanksgiving. So remember our question of the day when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program. We read all of them. Get back to the very next episode. This question is what's. What's the craziest moment from Democrats over the last year? We're going to use that. We're going to put together a special package at the end of the year based on your responses. So think about it. And if one pops into mind that we haven't thought about, boy, oh boy, you might be in luck. And we'll credit you while we do so like and subscribe. Get that done. Check out a little merch while you're there with that, fellas. I think we did it.
Michael Duncan
I think so. So banger of an episode, gentlemen, thank you so much, Katie Miller. And thank you you to listeners like Homestead, if you have not yet go to the YouTube hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug ("Smug"), Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Date: November 14, 2025
This episode of the Ruthless Podcast delivers the hosts’ signature scathing, humorous take on the state of the Democratic Party and broader American politics. The conversation covers dysfunction and malaise within the Democratic National Committee, bizarre antics from left-wing politicians and candidates, internal divides among Democrats, and a unique, news-based variety segment. The fellas are joined by special guest Katie Miller, who discusses press, politics, and public life from a conservative perspective.
The episode’s running theme: Democrats are mired in chaos, from their standard bearers’ public appearances to the messy intraparty battles and an inability to adapt post-COVID. The hosts lampoon Democratic leadership, the entitlement of staffers, and the unchecked rise of bizarre left-wing figures.
The episode is brashly comic, with a relentless, irreverent conservatism. The hosts employ frequent sarcasm, cultural references, and inside jokes. Their critiques are often delivered through extended analogies and personal anecdotes. The Katie Miller interview provides a more earnest, reflective interlude, while still maintaining the overall conversational and sardonic tone of the show.
“Democrats Are Weaker Than You Think” is a wide-ranging, satirical roast of the Democratic Party’s current woes. Through a mix of sharp commentary, comedic flair, and news analysis, the Ruthless crew lampoon the party’s leadership, staff revolts, and alarmingly odd emerging candidates. The episode also delivers a substantive interview with a major conservative media figure and closes with their signature variety banter and audience engagement. The show is both scathing and rollicking, accessible for listeners—conservative or otherwise—who want to understand the latest right-wing critiques of the Democratic Party and modern progressive culture.