Democrats’ Money Problem: The Fall Of ActBlue

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Democrats’ Money Problem: The Fall Of ActBlue"

Release Date: March 11, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug (Michael Duncan), John Ashbrook

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Overview

In this episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook delve into the crucial issue facing the Democratic Party: the potential collapse of ActBlue, a pivotal online fundraising platform. Released on March 11, 2025, the episode titled "Democrats’ Money Problem: The Fall Of ActBlue" provides an in-depth analysis of the internal turmoil within ActBlue, its implications for Democratic fundraising, and the broader political landscape influenced by Donald Trump's presidency.

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The Fall of ActBlue

The discussion kicks off with Josh Holmes highlighting the significance of ActBlue's potential downfall:
Josh Holmes [00:00]: "The fall of ActBlue would send shockwaves through politics."

Michael Duncan echoes this sentiment, comparing the mass departures to "rats leaving a sinking ship":
Michael Duncan [00:04]: "Feels like when there's smoke, there's fire."

The hosts emphasize the irony of ActBlue's struggles occurring during Donald Trump's presidency, a period when Democratic fundraising through small-dollar donations typically peaks:
Josh Holmes [00:14]: "Especially because Donald Trump is president again. When do Democrats raise the most small dollar? Fundraising? When Donald Trump is there."

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Impact on Democratic Fundraising and Politics

John Ashbrook provides context on the political maneuvers surrounding ActBlue, particularly the actions of Senator Dick Durbin:
John Ashbrook [00:24]: "Senator Durbin has a new scheme. A government takeover of your credit card... less competition and less security."

The hosts discuss the internal chaos within ActBlue, referencing a New York Times article and the resignation of seven senior officials:
Andy Barr [08:07]: "All at least seven senior officials have left the group, setting off deep concerns about its future."

They draw parallels between ActBlue and the Republican counterpart, WinRed, noting ActBlue's expansive role in Democratic fundraising:
Andy Barr [11:08]: "ActBlue is roughly like 5 or 6x what WinRed ever was... It's not just every Democratic candidate, but every 501c4 nonprofit and left-wing entity."

The discrepancy in fundraising efficiency is highlighted, with ActBlue managing to raise funds at a rate five to one compared to Republican efforts:
John Ashbrook [12:16]: "Everybody's been talking about it... something weird has happened."

The hosts express concerns over potential fraudulent activities, such as straw donations and unknown donor contributions, questioning ActBlue's security measures:
Andy Barr [31:24]: "There's something to suggest... maybe somewhere, some way this could have happened."

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Listener Comments on President Trump's Speech

The episode features a segment where the hosts read and discuss listener comments related to President Trump's recent speech:
John Ambrose [34:02]: "Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you."

Josh Holmes [36:17]: "There's also this completely false line from the Democrats that Republicans are attacking trans children."

The comments emphasize positive messaging and countering negative narratives, aligning with the hosts' conservative perspectives.

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Interview with Guest: Congressman Andy Barr

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to an interview with Congressman Andy Barr from Kentucky. The discussion covers:

• Bourbon Industry and Trade Policies:
  Congressman Andy Barr [57:07]: "It's a new distill district called the Garrett County Distilling Company... the sweet corn-based Kentucky bourbon matches perfectly with the spicy Indian palate."

• Foreign Affairs and Commerce:
  Barr discusses the Trump administration's successful negotiation to regain control over the Panama Canal, highlighting the $23 billion deal facilitated by leveraging American dominance:
  Andy Barr [38:25]: "The Panama Canal was something Jimmy Carter signed over for a dollar... President Trump is like, no, this belongs to America."

• Local Politics and Authentic Representation:
  Barr shares anecdotes illustrating his commitment to representing Kentucky authentically, resisting partisan labels:
  Congressman Andy Barr [76:22]: "I am an Andy Barr Republican. My voting record is my own, and it's transparent."

• Opposition Research and Personal Integrity:
  The hosts humorously address a piece of opposition research alleging Barr's past possession of a fake ID, which Barr acknowledges with levity:
  Andy Barr [73:37]: "Guilty as charged... I was researching."

Barr emphasizes the importance of loyalty to Donald Trump and the "America First" agenda, asserting his role in advocating for key Kentucky industries:
Congressman Andy Barr [77:37]: "I'm for Kentucky, the horse industry, auto manufacturing, the coal industry... I am all about Kentucky."

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Other Segments

Beyond the main discussion and interview, the hosts explore varied topics to provide a "ruthless variety":

• Air Travel Incident:
  A humorous recounting of a Southwest flight interruption caused by a passenger stripping naked, highlighting perceived declines in air travel standards:
  Andy Barr [47:17]: "Can anyone guess the airline? Yeah. Can anybody get zero?"

• Scientific Advances:
  The conversation shifts to the creation of "woolly mice" with woolly mammoth DNA, blending scientific progress with satire:
  Michael Duncan [51:36]: "They're working towards bringing back the woolly mammoth, which I fully support."

• Merchandise Promotion:
  The hosts introduce their exclusive Ruthless Variety Program golf gear, "Gaza Riviera," blending self-promotion with humor:
  Josh Holmes [19:07]: "If I see Donald Trump on a golf course and he's got some of this stuff, I'll just quit."

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Conclusion

The episode "Democrats’ Money Problem: The Fall Of ActBlue" offers a comprehensive look at the challenges facing Democratic fundraising machinery amidst political contention and internal strife. Through expert analysis, engaging listener interactions, and insightful interviews, the Ruthless Podcast provides listeners with a robust understanding of the shifting political dynamics influenced by ActBlue's instability and Donald Trump's leadership. The variety of topics ensures a well-rounded discussion, appealing to those interested in conservative perspectives on current political and social issues.

Notable Quotes:

• Michael Duncan [00:04]: "Feels like when there's smoke, there's fire."
• Josh Holmes [00:14]: "Especially because Donald Trump is president again. When do Democrats raise the most small dollar? Fundraising? When Donald Trump is there."
• Andy Barr [08:07]: "All at least seven senior officials have left the group, setting off deep concerns about its future."
• Congressman Andy Barr [57:07]: "The sweet corn-based Kentucky bourbon matches perfectly with the spicy Indian palate."
• Andy Barr [73:37]: "Guilty as charged... I was researching."

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This detailed summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and humorous interactions from the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for both regular listeners and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

The fall of ActBlue would send shockwaves through politics.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, it really does feel like rats leaving a sinking ship when you've got seven senior people at the same time leaving. I don't know, man. Feels like when there's smoke, there's fire.

[Josh Holmes]

Especially because Donald Trump is president again. And when do Democrats raise the most small dollar? You know fundraising? When Donald Trump is there.

[John Ashbrook]

With Donald Trump back in office, one of his biggest adversaries, top Democrat Dick Durbin of Chicago, is leading the char to derail President Trump's agenda at every turn. And now Senator Durbin has a new scheme. A government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, all with equal strong security. But Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security. That means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republican senators, stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late. Learn more at www.guardyourcard.com. ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a catching strays over here.

[Andy Barr]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[Michael Duncan]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Andy Barr]

A very good Tuesday to all of you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan. John Ashbrook, left to right across your radio dial. As always, a full cast and crew here. Fellas, it's good to see you.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a great day. When I'm rolling up to the studio today, they're, like, dismantling BLM Plaza with Jackhammer.

[Andy Barr]

Did you notice this?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm like, man, we are winning.

[Andy Barr]

Did you notice that?

[Michael Duncan]

I certainly did.

[Andy Barr]

We had talked about this, like, I don't know, six, eight months ago about how they had repainted that thing every quarter for the last four years. Yeah, I mean, the untold amount of taxpayer expense that went into just repainting it, and then all of a sudden, it's getting jackhammered out of the ground, and there's all kinds of protesters around, like, all, like, chardonnay moms, by the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I told the driver, I was like, slow down. I want to enjoy this.

[Andy Barr]

But did you guys see that?

[John Ashbrook]

I did see it. And I saw, you know, they were pulling the bollards up, which eliminated an entire lane of traffic. I mean, 16th street, which is what it used to be, was a place where everybody would turn. It's not. It's not like it was an unused road.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's like A major thoroughfare in the middle of the city.

[John Ashbrook]

And then all of a sudden, it was basically inaccessible.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Imagine how the old Hay Adams has to feel about that. They're like, right in the corner of. What is it? H and 16th. And their corner was entirely eliminated, basically by the BLM plots.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But if they complained, they'd probably get firebombed. Like the church across the street.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Remember that?

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And then all the journalists were like, well, they actually. They tried to burn the annex between, you know, the main church.

[Andy Barr]

That was the burning.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And so then it wasn't really terrorism.

[Michael Duncan]

And then the church went and put a BLM sign to be like, please don't firebomb us anymore.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like, okay, the protection rackets.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

It was actually Mariel Bowser, the mayor of D.C. who made the ultimate decision to remove the street and change it into something else, and she blamed it on the White House. My guess is she had so many complaints from people who were like, wait a minute, we actually need to use that street. Well, the story to maybe just remove some of the.

[Andy Barr]

Ballard.

[Michael Duncan]

The story I heard is Trump told her that she needs to actually start fighting crime in D.C. or else they're cut off from home rule funding.

[Andy Barr]

Home rule.

[Michael Duncan]

And she was like, well, damn, I wouldn't want to be out of a job.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, he's gonna home rule that thing. What that means is basically, look, the District of Columbia was never meant to be a government in and of itself. It was never meant to be a state as Democrats had advertised. The only reason of which would be that they would get two United States senators. You've heard a lot of discussion about that, but it was all political, no matter what. I mean, since the deception of this country, the District of Columbia was the federal government was made to be that for a reason. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So that. That wouldn't be more important than every other state.

[Andy Barr]

Exactly. And then all of a sudden, they started expanding, you know, all kinds of homeownership. It just became a dump. And the. The Marion Barry days, where it was like, basically the drug and murder capital of the world. And then they reined it back in. It was actually kind of good for a few years. And then over the last. Well, certainly. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

During the Trump years, it's like Navy Yard became this, like, thriving community where all these conservatives were moving in. And then it turned into, like, the carjacking capital of the world when Biden becomes president.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. I mean, it was basically the George Floyd inception. The people not going back to work. The city Sort of emptying out all the things that the Trump administration is talking about, federal workers not going to work and whatever. And then now she takes a look at it and she's like, look, I got bigger fights to pick here in terms of, like, my dealing with the Trump administration.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, she shouldn't be picking a fight. You should be thanking Donald Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

Seriously.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know if you guys noticed, but, like, I think they reported that in February, Metro, which is like DC's version of a subway system, had its, like, highest fare gates in five years because of Donald Trump and Doge and this administration forcing these federal workers to show up for work.

[Andy Barr]

Well, they can't say that. They certainly can't say that. But it is what it is. We've got a great show for you today. We're gonna talk a little bit about something that we've discussed on this program for, I don't know, a year and a half probably, which is ActBlue. It was, I would say, a seminal moment when the New York Times, which had reported an awful lot about the small dollar political fundraising institution that had become in the United States of America, but only exclusively on Republicans and how they raised small dollars, all of a sudden turn the table here in the last couple of months. And some very good reporting about Act Blue and some problems that they have.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, no.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, yeah. No, it's troubling.

[Michael Duncan]

Couldn't happen to worse people.

[Josh Holmes]

I am heartbroken.

[Andy Barr]

It's troubling. So we're going to pick up on what where we left off. For those of you OG listeners of the program, you'll understand exactly what it is that we start. But we're going to reset the dial and give you a full lay of the land on that. We also have some exclusive reporting here on the Variety program about the Panama Canal, how that whole deal got done. We've got sources, people who talk to us, they discuss these things and some things that you haven't read about in the newspapers, we're going to have all of that. And then we got a great guest, Andy Barr, great lineup. He's a considerable congressman from the great Commonwealth of Kentucky, but he also is running for United States Senate. And we're going to talk to him about a whole bunch of things. Guy likes bourbon and horses and. Yeah, we like that, too.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

So he's welcome here. And then we have Variety on the Variety program, which is today's Variety is excellent.

[Michael Duncan]

We could not be more thrilled.

[Andy Barr]

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[Michael Duncan]

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[Andy Barr]

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[John Ashbrook]

That's energy in progress.

[Andy Barr]

Visit chevron.com anchor to learn more. Let's start off with the ActBlue piece, shall we, fellas?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, please.

[Andy Barr]

All right. So there's a New York Times piece entitled Act Blue. The Democratic fundraising powerhouse faces internal chaos. This is where this thing starts. At least seven senior officials have left the group, setting off deep concerns about its future as he confronts scrutiny from congressional Republicans. Well, it should face scrutiny from everyone, but only when Republicans are in charge does anybody actually pay attention to these things. ActBlue, the online fundraising organization that powers Democratic candidates, is plunged into turmoil. The New York Times says with at least seven senior officials resigning last month and a remaining lawyer suggesting he faced internal retaliation. The departures from ActBlue, which helped raise money for Democrats running for office at all levels of government, comes. The group is under investigation by congressional Republicans. They had advanced legislation that some Democrats warn could be used to debilitate what is the party's leading fundraising operation. Last graph that I'll cover here and then we'll throw it open. The exodus is set off deep concerns about ActBlue's future. Last week, two unions representing the group's workers sent a blistering letter trying to get out from underneath this, obviously to ActBlue's board of directors that listed seven officials who had left the letter described in a quote, unquote alarming pattern of departures that was, quote, eroding our confidence in the stability of the organization. Now, let me just set the table at some level so what ActBlue is for those of you who are not. You don't do this for a living or whatever. It's the payment processor in the back end of all digital contributions. It doesn't control the advertising or the solicitations that people respond to, whether they're text messages or Google Ads or Facebook ads, whatever. It's the processor when you click on whatever you intend to donate and then you go to the donation. It's the thing that rings the till for you. Right? The analog to this is Win Read on the Republican side. And Democrats somewhere along the way over the last two years decided to empower left wing attorneys general like Keith Ellison, for example, to try to raise questions about Win Read and how they have Done business with all kinds of different things, filed a bunch of lawsuits and did whatever and all that did. And then they had the New York Times dutifully write it up and everything. Like Republicans are the ones that are the scandal.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right here.

[Andy Barr]

But all it did really is highlight the problem.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, that's, it's so common. It's like what Democrats always do, where they project, where they're like, we don't want anyone to look at us, so let's accuse the other side of it. And you're right. All it did was be like, okay, so what's Act Blue up to?

[Andy Barr]

Because ActBlue is roughly like 5 or 6x what win red ever was. And part of the reason for that is that it's not just the candidates. And winrad does this too. But it's not just the candidates that are on ActBlue. It's every single 501c4 nonprofit deal that raises money for every single left wing entity that you can imagine. And then they get into the 5016 game, which is those unions that you saw here. So literally everything that is left of center is on ActBlue.

[Josh Holmes]

And they had a 10 year head start over Republicans when Republicans started Win Red and basically modeled the technology off of a lot of the things that ActBlue was doing. Because, I mean, honestly, it's smart. It's like you create this network effect where you get everybody on the same platform and a rising tide lifts all boats. You know, the unions are raising money on on it, the nonprofits are, and the political campaigns can come in and benefit from the work that has been aggregating over years from all these various left wing groups.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, but you put everybody who follows these Senate races closely, always wondered in 2020 and 2022, in 2024. And how is it that these Democrat senators who nobody has ever heard of, had these incredible quarterly fundraising hauls? It just like, I mean, you look at the greatest fundraisers over 2016-2014-2016-2018 on both sides. And then all of a sudden in 2020, 2022, 2024, Democrat Senate candidates were raising outrageous sums of money. And the conclusion is not that, oh, they're saying something so wonderful that everybody is like, yes, I need to be on board with that. Because obviously President Trump blew the doors off of their $1.5 billion fundraising for Kamala Harris. So there's something going on in Democrat fundraising. Everybody's been talking about it for everybody in the industry.

[Andy Barr]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Has been talking about it for years. Something Weird has happened just to just.

[Andy Barr]

Level set for a minute. I mean even Senate races which are the most expensive other than a presidential race where Republicans have won, the fundraising discrepancy on this low dollar hard dollar which is the most valuable in all of politics, has been significant. It's like a 4 to 1, 5 to 1. You look at somebody like Jon Tester for example, absolutely blew out of the water what any Republicans could do in terms of their own low dollar digital advantage and they still get beat by a mile. But it makes things more interesting when you have these tens of millions of dollars of advantage in all of these races and they've had this year over year over year. And there had been a lot of reporting done by independent media folks over the last couple of years where there's a donor had no idea that they had contributed. There are old people who were on reoccurring.

[Michael Duncan]

You get these interviews with like 90 year old people who some reporter will show up to their house and be like, did you make like 140 donations to Jon Tester? And they're like, no, I never did that. And they're like, well, ActBlue's got a record of all these transactions of you donating.

[Unknown Speaker]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And what Democrats would have you to believe is that, oh, Jon Tester supports men playing women's sports and it just happened. That's very popular. People want that. So therefore they're donating on a small dollar basis to let men play women's sports and Jon Tester is their hero. And everybody is like, wait a minute, I'm not so sure that's as popular as you're leading us to believe.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. And so look, all of this smoke has been arising and I don't know whether or not there is fire here. I mean we're talking about billions of dollars being processed on the Democratic side, certainly suspicious that there is such a significant advantage by Democrats forever. And then when you hear stories about people who didn't know that they donated, actually donating creates something, well, it's worth looking into. So congressional Republicans have done that. And according to the New York Times in recent weeks, Congressional Republicans have demanded answers from ActBlue about its security and fraud prevention measures, as well as how the group prevents certain foreign donors from illegally contributing to candidates. The letter from ActBlue unions. Now this is the people who are actually, they have accounts there and they have written in saying they warned that the group was under quote unquote increased scrutiny and that the target of bad faith political attacks at the hands of Ill attentioned operators. Right. So they're trying to like have it both ways here. They want to send a strongly worded letter saying like, we would never under any circumstances endorse any sort of nefarious behavior. But the fact that anybody else has raised it, that's certainly bad faith.

[Michael Duncan]

They're like, these are bad faith attacks. Unrelated seven board members have left.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a huge development though. I want people to understand if you don't work in politics, you might not get it. I mean, political campaigns these days are funded 70%, 80% by these small dollar donations. When you're looking at a statewide race, like a Senate campaign. So like the fall of Act Blue would send shockwaves through politics?

[Andy Barr]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, to me it really does feel like rats leaving a sinking ship when you've got seven senior people at the same time leaving. I don't know, man. It feels like when there's smoke, there's fire.

[Josh Holmes]

Especially because Donald Trump is president again. And when do Democrats raise the most small dollar, you know, fundraising point? When Donald Trump is there.

[John Ashbrook]

This is a good point because like.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, politics, our politics today, like it or not, is all negative mobilization. It's like what the other guy said. I mean, some of the biggest Dem fundraisers in Senate campaigns. Think about it. Amy McGrath, who was she running against? Mitch McConnell. Right. What's his name? Jamie Harrison. Who was he running against? Lindsey Graham.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, running against Ted Cruz.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Beto O'Rourke. I mean, what it is, is like it's not that they're so great, it's that people don't like Democrats, don't like their opponent. And it's like, so the idea that people at ActBlue, who should just be seeing dollar signs with Donald Trump in the over deciding to hit the exits.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Tells you a lot.

[Andy Barr]

It does tell you a lot. But somebody decided to look into it. Right? And here's the other thing. Elon is now on this and he raised this. We're going to get into Elon stuff and all of that, but we have to tease one merch piece.

[Michael Duncan]

Fellas, so excited about this.

[Andy Barr]

Before we get into this, we have talked for the last couple of weeks about how we have. It's golf season, the weather's getting nice, people are stretching out there, ready to go. And golf thing, we got something brand new for folks. Can we pop this up? Can we pop up graphic 2. What you're looking at is the very first ruthless variety program golf gear entitled Gaza Riviera. Yeah, it is what I imagine The President Donald Trump had in mind when he decided we're going to just rejuvenate this area a little bit. It's the most beautiful place in the world. So Gaza Riviera is what we have in mind.

[Josh Holmes]

I love the subheader Casino Golf Spa. It's just like, Mr. President, if you're listening, we are trying to manifest this, make it happen. If I see Donald Trump on a golf course and he's got some of this stuff, I'll just quit. That'll be the highlight of my life.

[Andy Barr]

So it's so good. So you Remember, go to RuthlessPodcast.com you can get it in the header of where you're listening to this here at the YouTube on the Variety problem. I can subscribe while you're there. But that, that's, this is a nice high end piece of material.

[Michael Duncan]

They're premium because you want to show up with your best.

[Josh Holmes]

If you're on the driving range wearing a Gaza Riviera, your boys are going to love it. It's a conversation piece.

[Andy Barr]

I mean, your boys are going to love it.

[John Ashbrook]

And as soon as we finish recording here, Michael Duncan is going back to the sewing machine and he is going to put as many of these together as he possibly can so that everybody who wants one can have it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I'm going to rub some Tiger Balm on my knuckles, get rid of that carpal tunnel and I'm going to be right back at it.

[Andy Barr]

I love it. So coming, when we come back, we're going to get to Elon. What he had to say about ActBlue. How's that relevant to this larger conversation.

[Josh Holmes]

Right after this American investment, More jobs, higher wages. It was President Trump's promise when he championed the Tax Cuts and Jobs act and American businesses delivered investing in US Manufacturing and equipment, increasing wages for American workers and creating over half a million new jobs. That's why he's fighting to do it again. For families, workers and businesses. Tell Congress to extend and strengthen President Trump's tax reform. Paid for by the Business Roundtable. Learn [e-mail].

[Andy Barr]

Before we get into the Elon stuff, I just browsed through the Gaza Riviera stuff. I'm buying it all. Yeah, I'm buying it all. We have a golf trip coming up here in the next few weeks. I'm going to buy this for you guys. I think it's, I think it's essential.

[Josh Holmes]

You're paying full price.

[Andy Barr]

I know.

[Josh Holmes]

No discount.

[Andy Barr]

I know it. I don't want a discount. I want to make sure That I get. Exactly. I don't want a stitch out of place. I want the Michael Duncan threaded.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[Andy Barr]

Like he would do for all of our listeners. God, it's great stuff. All right, so anyway, Elon weighs into this deal about ActBlue and he claims that George Soros, LinkedIn co founder Reid Hoffman are funding the protests against Tesla. Can we put up graphic one, please? All right, so what you're looking at in graphic one is a fire, essentially, and this is one of what I understand is several different attacks against Tesla over the last few weeks. You'll noted that the Tesla stock has taken a bit of a plunge because lefties see an attack against Elon Musk's signature industry of Tesla is like their best way of just sort of protesting this situation. Which is so classic. So classic. Right. You can on one hand, accuse a man who decided to volunteer to go in to try to make government more efficient as somebody who's profiteering off of it. On the other hand, watch his company suffer as an complete result of that and then not see the disconnect between the two.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, and when most people are upset about something with their government, they write a letter to their congressman, they write a letter to the editor or newspaper. When the left is mad, they start fires on public infrastructure. We just saw this picture. If you could put that picture back up. I mean, imagine what goes through your head when you're like, okay, I'm going to take gasoline and I am going to light a fire on all of these electric charging stations.

[Michael Duncan]

That's how you see the planet.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. I thought that like, oh, I thought.

[Andy Barr]

We were electric people.

[Josh Holmes]

Thought that the world was gonna end.

[Andy Barr]

Well, only when there's Democrats producing the electric vehicle.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, only if Stacey Abrams gets a cut. That's it, then it matters.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. That's how you save the climate.

[Andy Barr]

That's exactly right. Unless it's entirely wired, we're not interested in your clean energy. Well, anyway, the protests at dealerships and other locations have occurred even at some tech Tesla vehicles and charging stations that have been damaged, destroyed. And it's not clear that the protests and vandalisms are linked, but there is some. Again, more smoke. More smoke to suggest. And this is according to Fox News. That investigation has found that five ActBlue funded groups responsible for the protests are troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise and Resist, Indivisible Project, and Democratic Socialists of America. This is what Elon wrote. All of these operations are in fact on ActBlue.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Andy Barr]

On ActBlue I'm shocked. So here's the thing.

[Michael Duncan]

ActBlue getting money to the Democrat socialists of America.

[Andy Barr]

But for you OGs you've been following, as we've discussed this, it is not like Republicans have, where we have a singular processor, where you know, your money's going where it should be. Democrats over the last 10 years have expanded this out to literally all of these 501C4s that are left wing billionaires, including Hansberg Wyss, who is a foreign national contributing to Democratic nonprofits. They're all on ActBlue.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell, even Pod, save for the California fires, ran it through ActBlue. So ActBlue gets a piece of the action when it's supposed to go to help people who've gone through this horrible.

[Andy Barr]

Horrible situation ingesting the data that good, well intentioned people would want to have to provide. Philanthropy given off the top too.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, okay, allegedly, we don't actually know that. But at the very least, what's a.

[Michael Duncan]

Percentage of every controversial.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Act Lewd Blue does as the payment processor. But that's, I mean that's sort of besides the point. But the thing is, it's the data. They want all the data there in on ActBlue so then they can bombard you for emails from the DNC and you know, raise money to fight Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

But the thing is, the type of schemes that are being discussed here online are schemes that would never cross a Republican's mind because they know that the media is going to pin them to the wall.

[Michael Duncan]

That's a good point.

[John Ashbrook]

And Democrats have carte blanche. They are never held accountable for anything that they do. And when they know that they can get away with absolutely anything and the media is not only not going to question them, they are going to praise them. Until this New York Times story that you opened the show with. Josh, they had carte blanche. Any scheme that they could come up with, whether it's Stacey Abrams giving away the stoves, whether it's these like anarchy groups who are starting fires to public infrastructure, they know that they can get away with it. Cuz nobody's ever gonna call him to the carpet.

[Andy Barr]

Nobody's gonna, nobody's gonna say anything. And here's the thing. This has been going on for a long time. All of this like it never really occurred to anybody whose job is the political beat to ask questions about why Democrats raise roughly five times what Republicans do, despite the fact that even when they win elections, it's by an eyelash. Like is it just cultural? The Republicans are just not Interested in donating to politics? I doubt it. Right. And part of that is the ecosystem that they've built with all of these nonprofits, foreign money, which we've come to understand a lot of different things that go into raising money for these sort of niche concerns. The one that always caught my eye was Mark Kelly when they became very involved after the assassination attempt of Gabby Giffords, his wife, in the anti gun community. And they partnered with Newtown families and everything else. Bunch of Bloomberg operations, but then a bunch of big funded anti gun, anti second amendment type operations. And he built lists, huge lists. And all of a sudden he announces he's running for Senate. Now, I don't know if you've seen Mark Kelly on television. This is not Barack Obama. This guy is not Ronald Reagan. I mean, this is one of the most boring, vanilla individuals this side of Chris Murphy. You know, I mean, he is not great by any stretch of the imagination. But in quarter one, all of a sudden he's raising tens of millions of dollars. Like people just happenstance just organically just dropped by and saw that there's an important Senate race that's going on and oh, you know, he may be worthy of my support. No, he spent years building this anti Second Amendment coalition on a nonprofit basis through ActBlue, doing list sharing agreements that the second that he decided to run for Senate, capitalized upon that. And what that means to all of you is there's a bunch of rules that apply to C4s. One, it's non disclosed. Two, as we've come to find out, there are people like Hans Borg Wyss and George Soros and others that are involved in it. And then three, if you have like, you know, lockdown list exchange agreement, you've basically built on the back of what is a cause to try to eliminate the second Amendment. A political list that they used quarter after quarter to try to get some guy who's not that impressive to look like a political juggernaut.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, think about that. It's a nonprofit group who builds this list of donors and then it just gets handed over to a Democrat running for office.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and it's not just that Hans Jorg Weisz also was funding state ballot initiatives in 2024, you know, to pass pro abortion laws and to try to drive up Democratic turnout in swing states in 2024. He's a Swiss national.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he doesn't even live in the country. He's a Swiss citizen.

[Josh Holmes]

And you know, the department of dirty tricks for the Democrats is long and deep. And I think you did a great job, Josh. Talking about some examples of that Reid Hoffman, you know, Elon mentioned him in this as well. It shouldn't be forgotten that back in, I think it was 2017, the special election in Alabama between Roy Moore and Doug Jones. Reid Hoffman funded a PAC that bought Russian troll accounts on. On Twitter.

[John Ashbrook]

So he was colluding with the Russians and then.

[Josh Holmes]

And like actually it was a false flag operation. What the, what the PAC did is is bought R troll accounts to tweet pro Roy Moore stuff and then pitch to the media that Roy Moore is a Russian asset just like Donald Trump.

[Andy Barr]

Because it's the narrative.

[Unknown Speaker]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

That was Chair McGowan who runs acronym and that whole left wing dark money operation.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean these people are the worst.

[Michael Duncan]

They are, they're the worst people.

[Josh Holmes]

Just completely fraudulent people. Just liars and they lie on purpose and they get away with it and like they have no shame. Just back in politics, doing it all over again.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

So we listen, we brought this up a year and a half ago because we thought this was something worth keeping an eye on. It's now something the mainstream media is interested in. You followed along along the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Our listeners knew way ahead of everybody else.

[Andy Barr]

Like, I don't know where this thing ends. I truly don't. But clearly there's. You wouldn't just have all your senior staff quit if there's nothing.

[Michael Duncan]

And like Duncan said during what should be a great fundraising cycle for dunks.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, you really should. So like one of the things that they were accused of is straw donors, meaning you put the name of somebody who's been a regular contributor, you fund it elsewhere, it's disclosed as the regular contributor. Although they didn't fund it, somebody else did. Right. So it's all what they call a straw donor scheme. I don't know that and I don't have any proof of that. There's people been reporting throughout the allegations underway about that six months that would suggest that maybe somewhere, some way this could have happened. But that's our question of the day to you. If you had to donate to ActBlue, what's your straw donor name?

[Michael Duncan]

So good.

[Andy Barr]

Because I grew up with a guy whose dad was named Harry Peanut.

[John Ashbrook]

Are you kidding me?

[Andy Barr]

No, his name was Harry P. Nass. Harry P. It looked in the phone book. Back in the day was where you had phone book Harry P. Ness.

[Josh Holmes]

He went by Harry.

[Andy Barr]

And I don't know if I can improve on that, you know, so like what are your names? What would you come up with? You guys got him. Any ideas?

[Michael Duncan]

Great question.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, Ben Dover.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. Bend over is a good one. Always. Just a rock solid 30 years. Ben Dover's been a terrific dog to choose from.

[Josh Holmes]

Mom, I'm not gonna say one. Cause I know you're.

[Unknown Speaker]

Here we go, man.

[John Ashbrook]

Come on.

[Andy Barr]

Here we go. Smug.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm gonna leave it to the comments. Cause I wanna read what they get.

[Andy Barr]

Okay. All right. Listen to these PG assholes. Anyway, we're gonna get your comments from last Thursday's episode, which was about the President's speech and your favorite line right after this.

[John Ashbrook]

Hardworking Americans know when it's time to.

[Andy Barr]

Roll up our sleeves and get the job done.

[John Ashbrook]

Now is the time to unleash our.

[Andy Barr]

Nation'S energy, to create jobs, secure our future, and make life better, more affordable, and full of opportunity for all Americans.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Andy Barr]

Okay, so remember, we're in the comments section. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Appreciate everybody that's been in doing that. If you do, you leave us a comment. We're going to read all of them, and then we choose a few that we think are representative of the whole. Very smart. And to do that, we always start with the voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, this first one comes from John Ambrose. And Mr. Ambrose writes, My favorite moment from the joint address. After reciting the litany of Social Security recipients who are more than a century old and ignoring the Democrat chance of lies, lies, lies. President Trump, with his impeccable comic timing, turned and said, we have a healthier country than I thought. Bobby, that was great. That was such a great moment.

[Andy Barr]

So good.

[John Ashbrook]

Ambrose continues. It was a MAGA masterpiece of highlighting a serious issue while squishing his critics with mocking irony. We are so lucky to have President Trump and his team working every day to make America great again. Stay ruthless, fellas.

[Andy Barr]

John, hit the ball out of the park.

[Michael Duncan]

That's it.

[Andy Barr]

It's. It's not enough. And one of the reasons we exist here on the Ruthless Friday program, it's not enough to show why they're wrong. You have to make fun of them while you do it 100%, you got to do it. That's exactly what Donald Trump does better than anybody else. John, great comment. Dunks. What do we got?

[Josh Holmes]

Comment 2 is from deep Root Acres. They write a statement that stuck out to me during President Trump's speech on Tuesday was, quote, our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you. He continues to crush and blatantly refuse the woke indoctrination and instead upholds the true biblical and godly principles, also known as common sense. I believe God will bless a man, a president, who fights against blatant evil and manipulation. Love the podcast. Keep it up. Blake C. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

[Andy Barr]

Blake, great comments. He did falls. Great town, by the way. I've spent some time there. That is one of the things that stuck out to me too. It was like, you know, we're in such a hyperbolic era that when you say something like that, that all of us, you know, not all of us, but many of us believe it's as God intended. It's so simplistic, but so rooted in who we are. He's right. Well, there's also stuck out like a sore thumb is like, oh, my gosh, here's somebody who just kind of gets it.

[Josh Holmes]

There's also this completely false, you know, line from the Democrats that Republicans are attacking trans children.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so it's nice to see President Trump turn that around and say, you're perfect the way that God made you.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's like, man, maybe if we had more positive messages to children rather than talking about how broken they are and how wrong everything is and like, our first solution to every problem is put them on medication, maybe we'd have a better country.

[Andy Barr]

Gosh, really, really good point. I love that comment. Smugglesworth, what do you got for the third comment?

[Michael Duncan]

Three is from Karen Robinette, and Karen writes, my favorite line was 40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. I laugh hysterically every time I listen to it again. It was great.

[Josh Holmes]

So good is the comedic timing.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude.

[Josh Holmes]

The other one that I loved where he's like, this is real. When he's like, reading off all the programs. Yeah, dude, he's just. He's the funniest because of that comedic timing. He just. He gets it.

[Andy Barr]

Yep, yep, yep. It doesn't have to be serious when they are fundamentally unserious.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Which is why you listen to the ruthless variety program. Listen, a big part of the president's speech last night, or I mean last week, I should say was about the Panama Canal. And it's funny because right after the election, he did a series of sort of declarations, Greenland, whatever. Everybody thought he was just like, losing his mind. And the Panama Canal thing came up. It never came up in the context of Joe Biden and everything. I mean, they never were concerned about it. I didn't even know it was. It's like the Venezuelan hostages never knew they existed until Donald Trump said something about it. But I remember I was talking to my dad and I was like, you know, it strikes me as something this dude's gonna get done. If he says this and he means it, it means it's a problem. And if it's a problem, I don't think anybody's gonna out leverage Donald Trump in finding a solution.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Andy Barr]

And it's a big fricking deal.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Andy Barr]

The Panama Canal was something that Jimmy Carter signed over for a dollar after the blood, sweat and tears of Americans were shed to create it, to create a passageway from the east to the west, essentially to ship commerce. And we had all that work and they just handed over to the Panamanians as if that was just going to work. And everybody sort of lost sight of it because, you know, you don't pay attention to that kind of thing until it's a problem. Well, Democrats didn't pay attention to it even when it was a problem. Donald Trump highlighted it and it's like, well, I don't know, this seems like something Donald Trump would fix. Well, lo and behold, six weeks in, the man fixed it. And there was a Wall Street Journal piece that was highlighted last week about included some of these details about the buyer, BlackRock US based investment firm. The seller was CK Hutchinson. It's a Hong Kong based conglomerate that was controlled by Li Ka Shing, one of Asia's richest individuals. Huge Chinese connection there. Obviously the whole deal was like $23 billion. And you're like, okay, well how does a Trump administration unwind what obviously was seen as a great investment by the Chinese to control both access points, which.

[Michael Duncan]

Is insane when you think about that.

[Andy Barr]

Insane because it's military and commerce.

[Michael Duncan]

Like the US Military was being charged to move warships through the Panama Canal.

[Andy Barr]

Through our own hemisphere.

[Michael Duncan]

Americans died digging it.

[Andy Barr]

We're protecting the whole hemisphere in the process. So this is really interesting. So this whole thing, this is original reporting by the Variety Program. We spoke with multiple people who were involved in the negotiations and it started coming together after the Rubio remarks about Chinese ownership constituting a treaty violation for possible violations of international law. I mean, this is like step one. When I saw those, I was like, okay, they do actually have a plan. This isn't like we're going to take Greenland, which we might do that too. But like they actually have a game plan on this. They're going to try to do this. So the previous owner, C.K. hutchinson, as I talked about the Chinese entity brought on Goldman Sachs, an American company, to try to figure out a way to get out of this. They're owning it. They're looking at Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

And they're like, okay, don't be the way of that. Yeah. Like, I can figure out how to get my money out of this or I can have the U.S. marines involved.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, right.

[Andy Barr]

Isn't that. That's basically my take.

[Michael Duncan]

It comes simple choice at that point.

[Andy Barr]

That's basically my take. And it was like 45 ports. It wasn't just the Panama Canal. There's a whole bunch of stuff. Larry Fink, who runs BlackRock, called DJT a couple of days before the State of the Union to alert him that they were going to make moves on this deal. And the Chinese, his basic point was like, the Chinese can no longer shut down this canal if we take over. Like, this is an American company. This is what we're going to do. State Department helped facilitate all of this. And the end of the deal is, you know, it's $23 billion. It's a big. A, big deal. But I think the leverage that the Trump administration put on on day one made it clear to this Chinese operation, we gotta get out one way or another.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Andy Barr]

And this American company was, you know, it's situated in a place, by the way, not for nothing. It was like, we should probably make good on. I mean, it's probably in our best interest of our shareholders, no matter what, but it's also probably in our best interest, no matter what, to make sure the Trump administration sees that we are for good here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I think this is just another. This is such a marquee moment in the generational leadership that President Trump has provided. You know, digging this canal in the first place with Teddy Roosevelt and all of these Americans who basically gave their life to shovel through from one ocean to the other over time, by Democrats. You mentioned Jimmy Carter. They're just like, you know what, China, if you really want it, you can have it. We don't want to get in your way. And President Trump is like, no, this belongs to America. America first. And I just think, like, without his leadership on this particular issue, it would never happen. The Chinese would have encroached even further into our hemisphere.

[Josh Holmes]

It's such a perfect encapsulation of the problem that Donald Trump is trying to fix when he says America first. And that is like, for far too long, the altruism of the United States of America has not been reciprocated by the rest of the world. It just hasn't.

[Andy Barr]

It hasn't.

[Josh Holmes]

It hasn't. And so when you do things like unite two oceans for an entire fucking continent, and then people want to be like, oh, well, you just. You got to pay to go through this thing.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Now we're going to say, no, not doing it. We're taking it back.

[Andy Barr]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

It's as simple as that.

[Andy Barr]

And in a matter of weeks, you have American. You've seen this. It's not just on this deal. You've seen it with Apple. You've seen it with the AI announcement. You've seen it with a number of manufacturing outfits across the country. They're like, yeah, we'll step up, we'll do it. We'll change the way our business works. We understand what you're saying, because that's how big.

[John Ashbrook]

That's how Americans are. And, I mean, I think that's why so many people are excited about President Trump, because he gives Americans permission to be themselves.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, and to win and to innovate and to just continue to thrive. And, you know, for the last four years, that whole idea was like, anathema. You're not allowed to try. Yeah. You just have to take what the government gives you. If Joe Biden and these Democrat NGOs want to do it, okay, maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get a call from Tara McGowan and she'll want to do something with our company. No, it's like, hey, Americans have something to contribute. We have the greatest country in the world. Let's act like it. You know, and like this. This is one of the greatest wins, I feel like, of the. Of the last people.

[Andy Barr]

People will underappreciate it because it is done so quickly and seamlessly without a whole bunch of drama involved in it. But make no mistake, like, this is an extremely big victory.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know what? I think that what you just said is starting to become a hallmark of this second Trump administration. It's the sharp use of leverage. It's getting results. It's no drama. You've got already the greatest negotiator on the planet who can bring leverage to bear like no one else. Djt, he said, we're taking it back, so you guys gotta figure out how to get this done. And they got it done.

[Andy Barr]

So I think in the end, like, what they ought to do is a celebration, because you're right, this has gone under the radar. Like, they ought to have a codell announced down there. I mean, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a delegation of American officials that go down there and celebrate this. Because he is worth celebrating.

[John Ashbrook]

Great idea.

[Andy Barr]

Hell will MC the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Oh, even better.

[Michael Duncan]

I'd be happy to be down there.

[Andy Barr]

We'll emcee this.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you think we could get some of those? Great.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what I'm in it for with the big bill.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Maybe like a DJT signature on the.

[Michael Duncan]

Side while they play Panama by Van Halen. See, we're the right people to celebrate this.

[Andy Barr]

We are. We are. There's nobody that they'd rather see.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[Andy Barr]

Nobody would bring diplomatic certainty like the Ruthless Variety Program. Anyway, we got that information. We thought it was worth passing along because it's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

You only get it here.

[Andy Barr]

You only get it here in the Variety Program. You guys ready for some variety?

[Michael Duncan]

Boy, am I ever.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

For this.

[Andy Barr]

We got a couple of things that you guys are just not gonna believe. For one, it fits right back in your airline thing. It feels like it's so much, so much lately.

[Michael Duncan]

We had like 500 people tweet this story at us. So, I mean, like we said, we listened to the minions. They wanted this on the show and you got it.

[Andy Barr]

You got it. Let's play clip one, if you don't mind spaghetti.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a naked, naked person on a plane.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

She's. Is she hitting herself in the head?

[Michael Duncan]

No, I think those are two middle fingers.

[Andy Barr]

Is she doing that or is it double guns? What do we got going on?

[Unknown Speaker]

All the way, Front to back, Girl, stop.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. For our audio only, listeners, this is a naked passenger going up and down the aisle.

[Andy Barr]

She. She's got her arms spread out, like, turned around.

[Josh Holmes]

She's like Dick Nixon.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Boarding the helicopter.

[Andy Barr]

And she's completely naked.

[Josh Holmes]

If I post it, put some emojis over.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Andy Barr]

Put some emojis. Mushrooms or acid or something.

[Josh Holmes]

Mushroom or acid?

[Michael Duncan]

Can anyone guess the airline?

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. Can anybody get zero?

[Michael Duncan]

If you guess Southwest, you would be right. Is it a zoo? Is it a circus in the sky?

[Andy Barr]

So according to Southwest, according to the New York Post, screaming Southwest passenger strips naked on a plane. Shocking fellow flyers, including children. People are wearing less and less on the Runway. We've talked about this. Aside from this situation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Usually it's pajamas, shorts in the open, toed shoes situation.

[Michael Duncan]

Disgusting.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, thong sandals.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. It's just. You can't do it. You can't do it. A Southwest flight bound for Phoenix, Arizona, was forced to return to the gate after an unruly passenger stripped naked and began screaming at the top of her lungs before takeoff. It came as a complete surprise to everyone. One female eyewitness who opted to remain Anonymous, told 12News.

[Michael Duncan]

Is it a surprise?

[Andy Barr]

Shocking.

[Michael Duncan]

Is it a surprise when you sign up for Southwest that this kind of stuff happened? Is it really a surprise? They don't even assign seats, I'll tell you.

[John Ashbrook]

Can you imagine if you were going to visit your in laws and Phoenix and you're like, hey kids, we're getting, we got a great deal on the flight. We're boarding in the C group. They pushed them to the back. Your family, like your kids are sitting in a different row and all of a sudden some crazy woman walks down the aisle naked. You can't even cover your kids eyes because you're not allowed to sit next to them because they're sitting in the middle seat between two other people.

[Andy Barr]

I mean, nightmare. Air travel has become too accessible.

[Michael Duncan]

That's 100% it.

[Josh Holmes]

I just think it's the whole thing sort of breaking down. You remember like the super nintend, like they had the cartridge and when the game didn't work, you took it out and you blew on it and then you flipped it up and down, you hit the reset and you put it back in and it would work. I think the American air travel system.

[Andy Barr]

We need to blow, we need to.

[Josh Holmes]

Blow on the cartridge. Well, I feel like a 24 hour shutdown where we can figure out what the hell's going on.

[Andy Barr]

It's.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I think Holmes is right. It's become too accessible. First off, Southwest, they just advertised, hey, we will be the cheapest people in the air. Except for what are the crazy ones like the green airline where it's like they will charge you to use the.

[Josh Holmes]

Overhead bit like allegiant Frontier.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So Southwest essentially opened the gates of hell where there's like the next step is now just like pure zoo in the sky.

[Andy Barr]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Southwest was like, we're the first that the idea is gonna be you don't even get assigned a seat. You know, our boarding procedure is we open the door and get out of the way and then the animals just run aboard. And this is what you get. That's what you get. Like this is, this has been all along. When you're going to advertise, we're going to be as cheap as possible to put people in the air. And what happens, Let the chips fall where they may. This is what you sign up for.

[Andy Barr]

Toot smug dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's like they throw the hay on there. There's not even seats sometimes. It's essentially just like animals behind the bar.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I really dislike about Southwest is the indignity of the drink ticket.

[Andy Barr]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like you're waiting at the deli counter. Yeah, the indignity. And the people who put up with that are the people that strip naked on an airplane.

[Michael Duncan]

That's it.

[Andy Barr]

I think you're right.

[Michael Duncan]

No coincidence.

[Andy Barr]

I think you're right. It's a big problem. We've got a second piece of variety for you today, one that you highlighted. Smug. Yeah, this has to do with scientists. And this was on X time, I think tweeted this out. They don't have a magazine, but they still have an X account. And it has to do with the breeding of woolly mice. Yeah, can we play that one, please? So what you're looking at is three mice and they appear to have a much more robust coat than your average mouse. It's more like some kind of a fur ball. Yeah, like the kind of thing that you would purchase for a young child.

[Michael Duncan]

And the reason for it is because they've got woolly mammoth DNA. So this has been a process. We've talked about this before, that scientists are working towards bringing back the woolly mammoth, which I fully support. Fully support.

[Andy Barr]

For hunting purposes.

[Michael Duncan]

For hunting and recreational purposes. Like if you. If we get to the point where you can go to a ranch in Texas and they'll take you up in a helicopter and you just mow down woolly mammoths running across the field. Like in Jurassic park. When I first saw Jurassic park, you know, they drive up in the Jeep and you see like all these dinosaurs rolling around and they're in awe. And I was like, but what if you had a machine gun on the jeep? Right? Like, that would be the dream. And so the fact that science is finally doing something worthwhile, right, like we're finally getting to the point where they've got it in the mice. They've got them that small. All we got is hopefully, you know, in a couple years we get to the point where they bring the whole damn thing.

[Andy Barr]

Well, the actual mammoth, it's been gone 4,000 years according to this outfit. And it's an 8 ton, 12 foot elephant like beast that walked the earth. They've done a lot of stuff. It turns out they say our three flagship species for de extinction. De extinction.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Is what they're calling all this. The mammoth, thylacine or a dodo. I don't know what those other they.

[Michael Duncan]

Said the thylacine, the Tasmanian tiger, which is like, okay, whatever, but like, yeah, everyone wants the mammoth back. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

A dodo is a flightless bird.

[Andy Barr]

Oh, is that what that is?

[Josh Holmes]

We don't. We don't need that.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't need that.

[Andy Barr]

What do you need that for?

[Josh Holmes]

We need a woolly man.

[Andy Barr]

It seems like maybe it's the easiest want to do.

[Michael Duncan]

And why not the T. Willie mammoth, T. Rex, maybe the raptor.

[Andy Barr]

So you can.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, we saw the movie. But that's the thing is, I think.

[Michael Duncan]

If they're careful, we can do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Andy Barr]

But Duncan's a big fan of the vestigial arm.

[Josh Holmes]

The vestigial arm. That arm meat would be so tender because it doesn't. It doesn't get worked out at all. It's like a turkey leg from the state fair. It's got to be so succulent. That would be.

[Michael Duncan]

So maybe.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe B Dubs would sponsor something.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. And they have some of the best flavors. Asian zing. Like a T. Rex Asian zing wing would be fantastic.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, lemon pepper T. Rex arm.

[Andy Barr]

So good. Anyway, keep your eye on all that. Once they get it here, we're probably gonna hunt it.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, God, I hope it's.

[Andy Barr]

Somebody's gonna invite us.

[Michael Duncan]

I want that so badly.

[Josh Holmes]

If Smug can't get a bear rug, he should get a woolly mammoth rug.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, we should hunt it or these animals should fight each other. I mean, one thing I noticed about these mice, they didn't have the tusk. I think as soon as they get those tusks built into the mice, we need to have a situation where those mice fight regular mice and we see who wins. I mean, the pay per view receipts on that would be enormous.

[Michael Duncan]

And I mean, who knows? Maybe like they'd be good at taking out rats. So then you just unleash them on the New York City subways. And then I think the woolly mice are better than having the rats.

[Andy Barr]

No question.

[Michael Duncan]

With the tusk, they'd be cleaning house.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, I mean, we ask the important questions here in the ruthless variety program. Where are the tusks? Where are the tusks? You say you've replicated the woolly mammoths.

[Michael Duncan]

Great point, great point.

[Andy Barr]

Actually, where are the tusks?

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Andy Barr]

I mean, it's important. What they could have done is just sort of soap and watered that thing, fluffed up the coat a little bit, been like, hey, we got a mammoth.

[Josh Holmes]

I think the follow up story is going to be like, congratulations, they now have the tusks also, all of their necks immediately snapped.

[Andy Barr]

They can't drag little mouse heads across the. Anyway, we'll fight them. We'll fight them. Nevertheless, we're on all of that, as we are all animal news and air travel news just for you. With that, I think we're gonna have to get to our guest, Andy Barr. I want to welcome to the program an old friend of ours. He's been here several occasions, although I think this is his first time in studio. He's brought some gifts, folks, that we're gonna get into in a minute. Andy Barr. How are you, sir?

[Unknown Speaker]

Josh. Good to be with you. It's an honor to be with an official White House correspondent. Thank you.

[John Ashbrook]

From our own region in any area. You grow up hoping that you can make the big time, and then you ask a question at the White House and all your friends hate you because of it.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

You really can't get better than that.

[Unknown Speaker]

And by the way, and also my wife's favorite podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

I learn more about the job that I do every day from my wife after she listens to your podcast than what I hear learn about my job on the House floor.

[Andy Barr]

And it's well understood in the bar family that Davis is our favorite of the bar family.

[Unknown Speaker]

Definitely.

[Andy Barr]

No question about that.

[Josh Holmes]

Congressman, you. You are a congressman from Kentucky, and I have one request for you because I have to hear from my friend here from Cincinnati constantly about the state of Ohio. I was wondering, is there anything in the works here maybe to annex Cincinnati into Kentucky so that we get less Ohio talk here on the ruthless variety?

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, we don't need to do that because we've already taken over their airport. You know, the Cincinnati airport is in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In fact, it's CVG for Covington, Kentucky. The metropolitan. Metropolitan area of Covington, Kentucky, is actually the code for the Cincinnati airport.

[Andy Barr]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

And a lot of the guys who play for the Bengals and a lot of the big wheels in Cincinnati live in Northern Kentucky.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

For a reason.

[Unknown Speaker]

Exactly.

[Andy Barr]

We got limited time with this guy. Listen, one of the things that you are amongst a senior Congressman, a policymaker, a valued voice within the Republican Party, is a chairman of a bourbon caucus.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. The chairmanship of the financial institution subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Federal Reserve System. The bank regulars. Not nearly as important as chairing the Bourbon caucus. That's right, exactly. And the White Oak Caucus, of course, we all know as bourbon lovers that bourbon by law, by statute, has to be aged In a virgin brand new white oak charred barrel.

[Andy Barr]

Yes, exactly right. And if it has any authenticity whatsoever, it has to be in Kentucky.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right. That's right. 95% of all bourbon whiskey is distilled and aged in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The other 5% is counterfeit.

[Andy Barr]

I remember passing many sense of the Senate resolutions indicating that you may have whiskey, it may be great, but if it's in Kentucky, it's a bourbon, and if it's out, it's not.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it tough to be chairman of the bourbon caucus? That must have been like a knife fight in a toll booth trying to get that job. A lot of guys who would want.

[Unknown Speaker]

It, I'd say absolutely, absolutely. But it is a bipartisan caucus. I'll say Morgan McGarvey, the Democrat from Louisville, and before him John Yarmouth. They're my Democrat colleagues and they, they act like this tariff thing is a big problem. But I want to share with you all a story about working with Howard Lutnick in this America first trade policy and how the, the administration's policy is really opening up markets for, for Kentucky bourbon. So there's a, there's a new distill district called the Garrett County Distilling Company. It's, it's really an American dream story because it's owned by an Indian American, first generation Indian American named Shashi Reddy. He came to the country with $700 in 1995. He's become a billionaire and a serial entrepreneur. He took Budweiser to India. He invented Casemate, the cell phone accessory company. But now he has started this distillery with this vision that the sweet corn based Kentucky bourbon matches perfectly with the spicy Indian palate. And it's a 1.4 billion population market.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And the only whiskey really that's penetrated that market is the legacy imperial British Scotch. It's the Scotch whiskey. No good, no good, no good. And in fact it's blended down scotch, so it's really the crappy, crappy whiskey. So. So the taste tests in India are just off the charts.

[Andy Barr]

Well, you imagine you drink Dewar's all your life and all of a sudden you show up with one of these things.

[Unknown Speaker]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Paired with a vindaloo.

[Unknown Speaker]

And so, but here's the challenge is that it's a protectionist country and they have 150% tariffs on our bourbon exports. And so there's no market penetration. So in comes Donald J. Trump and Howard Lutnick, the new commerce Secretary. And they say, no, no, we want reciprocity, we want, we Want access to this, this 1.4 billion person market and, and the threats of tariffs. Guess what, like three weeks in to the new administration after we met with Lutnick and we told the American dream story of Shashi Reddy. Guess what? India reduced their tariffs by 50%.

[Andy Barr]

Wow.

[Unknown Speaker]

And we now have actually an advantage, a competitive advantage over the Scotch exports into India.

[Andy Barr]

That's not a story you read about.

[Unknown Speaker]

You don't read about this. And so this does illustrate the power of the Trump tariff policies. And the conventional wisdom is that the retaliatory tariffs from the eu, it's going to wreck the bourbon industry. Obviously we're watching that, but we want reciprocity and this is how we can actually help the bourbon industry increase massively their exports.

[Andy Barr]

It's a really good, I mean again you get a very one sided set of circumstances in terms of how people are looking at tariffs. And whatever you saw, Canada, for example, totally retaliate against the bourbon industry. All kinds of different fears. They seem to have remediated some of it and some of it comes back. It's all kind of back and forth. It strikes me as a negotiation. But what you just laid out is the negotiation actually can be a net help in the end. Certainly if you got another 1.5 billion people who are now in the marketplace.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. And Howard says we're just getting started. I mean the Commerce Secretary says we're just getting started. And you know, if we can continue to bring down, down those tariffs in a, in a, in a market as, as huge as India, this is absolutely game changer for Kentucky bourbon.

[Andy Barr]

Ah, that's amazing. So what do we start with here? I mean this is like. I'm not going to let this sit here as a display piece. I mean this is something else.

[John Ashbrook]

I'll tell you. I'm starting with Colonel Taylor.

[Andy Barr]

Are you really?

[Unknown Speaker]

That's a smart.

[Andy Barr]

I think I'm going to have a sip of that. Weller, I'm going to go with so good for you. What do you want?

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm going to start with Double Oaks Brown Foreman.

[Andy Barr]

Right in your backyard.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. So this is Woodford County, Kentucky in my district. And Woodford Double Oak is a Louisville, Kentucky based headquartered company.

[Andy Barr]

But beautiful grounds.

[Unknown Speaker]

And the distillery itself is right in the center of my district in Woodford County. And this is, this is a really, really tasty. Cheers guys. Cheers.

[Michael Duncan]

Cheers fellas.

[Unknown Speaker]

Cheers.

[John Ashbrook]

Thanks for bringing this in.

[Andy Barr]

Cheers on down.

[Unknown Speaker]

You got it.

[Andy Barr]

Oh man. My goodness.

[John Ashbrook]

So smooth. It's no wonder why the Indians love this. I mean you just One taste and they're like, yes, it's so much better than what the Brits have been shoving down our throats. Two generations.

[Unknown Speaker]

So. So let me, let me tell you a story about this. I'm on the, I'm on the Foreign Affairs Committee as well. And this is really related to foreign affairs. So one of the first impressive people I met in this job was the ambassador from Lithuania to the United States. Guy named Shigamantes Pavlonis. Love this guy. Reaganite, freedom loving. I mean, this guy, this guy is our kind of guy. Like, he loves freedom. He's an anti communist and, you know, was kind of raised in the era of Ronald Reagan, but in Lithuania. So he becomes the ambassador. He meets me and he says, you know, Andy, Kentucky, Lithuania, we have lots in common. I said, really? He said, yeah, you love basketball? University of Kentucky basketball, University, Louisville basketball and Lithuania. We almost beat Dream Team. And I was like, wow, that's true. You've got a lot of NBA players from Lithuania. He said, we've got a population, about four million people. You've got about four and a half million people, similar sized place. And we like to drink, and you like to drink. But he starts drinking the Kentucky bourbon. I actually bring him to Kentucky. He brings his agriculture ministry. I take him to Rupp arena to a college basketball game.

[John Ashbrook]

I bet he loved it.

[Unknown Speaker]

Take him on a tour to Harvard. So, yeah, so we do all these taste tests at all these distilleries and we go to this Kentucky Chamber of Commerce dinner.

[Andy Barr]

Oh, God.

[Unknown Speaker]

And he's a little, you know, he's had a little too much to drink. And he stands up and he says, I want to propose a toast. And he raises his full glass of bourbon and he says, I have come to realize that vodka is the drink of the occupier, but bourbon is the drink of freedom.

[Andy Barr]

Well said, sir.

[Unknown Speaker]

I said this to my friend, my new friend, Shashi Reddy, and I, you know, the analogy is, of course, the British occupation. So Scotch is the occupier and bourbon is the drink. Freedom.

[Andy Barr]

It's the drink of freedom. There's no question about it.

[Unknown Speaker]

Cheers to drink of freedom.

[Andy Barr]

I can't thank you enough for bringing this on in. So, like, look, tell me we are, what, six, seven weeks in lots happening. Amazing change in almost everything. I know the Commonwealth of Kentucky not quite as well as you do, but pretty well. Pretty well, Pretty well. And I got to imagine that people are pretty pleased about the results of what's happening here.

[Unknown Speaker]

A lot of MAGA in Kentucky. Let Me tell you, my district's a little different, as you well know, because you helped me on my 2018 campaign. It's the only swing purple district in. In Kentucky. So we've. It's kind of like the. The House floor on the joint address night. You know, we had some cheerful people, and we've got a few grumpy people.

[Andy Barr]

You get a couple of bingo cards in there, like the auction pallets.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, yeah. So we've got the grumpies who have come out and protested our office, and they're calling for town halls. We haven't heard from these people since 2018.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, right, right. But we had no concerns about the Biden administration.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, no, no. They never demanded the town hall meeting. You know, I did the town hall meetings, and we still do copies with your congressman.

[Andy Barr]

I don't know anybody. Before you get into the explanation of that, I don't know anybody who's more accessible than you are. I mean, you. First of all, you worked very hard to get that district. As you said, it is a purple district. Didn't used to be. It used to be blue, just a flat blue district. It was for years, Andy, I remember when we were trying to talk you into running for this district, it was one of those, like, ah, you know, he's a good guy. We think he'd do pretty well, but he's probably too smart to do that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Tough assignment.

[Andy Barr]

It's a tough assignment, but then you, like, you came, you did it, you came back, you kept working at it. And then you look at the course of your congressional career and how you've served that district, and it's made a lot of people who are like, probably center left, center right. The right has become more right, more red Right. Your blue collar, which had historical ties to the Democratic Party, has gone entirely red. And then you, like, you know, cylindered off crazy part of Lexington that looks a lot like Berkeley, California, or like what I imagine the center of Harvard looks like.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, it is. It's a college town. So think Madison, Wisconsin, Austin, Texas, Berkeley. Yeah. We have the anti Semitic protests. It's the whole thing, which is why the whole thing. There was a. There was a story that I heard, and it was a friend of mine who heard at a cocktail party, probably drinking bourbon, that their daughter took a freshman class at the University of Kentucky. And the sociology professor. It's a sociology class at uk. At uk who assigned a paper to this young Republican freshman college student. And the assignment was the case against Congressman Barr. Oh, My God, no. And so my friend who overheard this.

[Andy Barr]

At the cocktail party, this was the assignment.

[Unknown Speaker]

The assignment from the sociology professor. And so he said, oh, well, I assume, like half of the class took the one point of view. The other side of the class took the case for Congressman. Oh, no, no. The grade depended on every student writing the case against Congressman Barr.

[Andy Barr]

At a public university.

[Unknown Speaker]

At a public university. So this is kind of what those of us who represent, you know, woke college campuses that we. That we deal with. We're not complaining. It's made me a better congressman. It really has the diversity of the district. And in fact, in 2024, there were 12,167 to the vote. Kamala Harris, Andy Barr, voters. Now, who are those people? They're not people who agree with me.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

They're people who. And I credit this entirely to my staff. They make me accessible. We do listen to them. We travel the district, we're accessible. But we also do outstanding constituent service.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

We get them their passports.

[Andy Barr]

Huge part of.

[John Ashbrook]

But you're like a lot of conservatives who are not afraid of people who have different ideas. In fact, you welcome it. You know that your ideas are better because you're conservative. And if somebody approaches you with a different idea, well, that's America. I mean, that's just the way it goes.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

And the left doesn't. Can't understand that. I don't get why they can't understand it, but they really can. And it's like conservatives are the only ones who are willing to have a conversation with. With somebody else.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And it's.

[Andy Barr]

Look, it's different, Andy, in that you. Look, there's an awful lot of your colleagues, redistricting, and this isn't a Republican thing, it's a Democrats bipartisan thing that they've been put into districts you can't possibly lose under any circumstances. You have not. Your district looks safe in large part because of the work that you have done year over year. But like, this guy got the first crack at Amy McGrath.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Remember that? In 2018, ultimately ran into McConnell.

[Josh Holmes]

Really funny, that, that. And then thought she deserved a promotion.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, that was a knockout. Knockout fight. Yeah, it was a big fight. You know, Josh helped us with that and preparing for some of those debates and whatnot. But, you know, she had a. She had, to her credit, she had quite the resume. She served her country and that. You know, she. After coming out of the primary, people thought she was Republican because she was a Marine fighter pilot. You know, my district is Interesting, because it's a swing district. Not because is it's like Fitzpatrick's district, a suburban Philadelphia district where it's all kind of anti Trump suburbanites. It's a swing district because it's got a little bit of everything. A blue university woke town surrounded by some of those swingy suburban voters who.

[Andy Barr]

There's a lot of people are going to resonate across the country that are listening to this. I mean, this is basically the new politics of a lot of different sort of urban, suburban, exurban areas in this country.

[Unknown Speaker]

And those suburban voters, you know, they were voting for Republicans pretty reliably and they switched, you know, after 2016, for whatever reason. But here's the. Here's the flip side of that. The flip side is that my rural areas, the small towns, the factory towns, the farms, the coal mining, coal adjacent communities, all maga. All maga. And in fact, those were the Democrats. Only, you know, a few decades ago, they were the Democrats. They were the yellow dog Democrats. In fact, in that campaign running against Amy McGrath, I'll never forget, I went to church in a rural part of the eastern part of my district. And as I was walking to my car after the pastor introduced me to everybody in the church, a lady came up and grabbed me and she was shaking her finger in my face. I said, oh, it's one. Oh, yeah, it's one of these. And she says, don't you ever cross my president. And I said, ma'am, you mean President Trump? And she says, you know who I'm talking about. And I said, well, yes, I do. In fact, you may not have known this, but President Trump was in my district last week. He was campaigning for me. And in fact, we were in a big rally. And she goes, I know, I was there. And so she goes on her way. And I, you know, I was admonished to make sure that I was loyal to Donald Trump, which of course I am. But the pastor, he said, you don't know who she is, do you? I said, no, sir, I do not. And he said, she is. There is a reason why you don't know her. She's the chairwoman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party.

[Andy Barr]

Are you kidding me?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yes. And so I have told this story to my liberal Democrat friends in Congress, and they can't believe it.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

But that's what's happened in rural America.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

Rural America is not about Republican, Democrat anymore. It's maga.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And you're either with them or you're against them.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And they want me to Be with them. And I am.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Man, that's such a great story.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

Andy, before. Before you get out of here, I got to hold your feet to the fire on a couple things I've noticed. There's a very damaging piece of opposition research that has come out about you. Democrats are really hanging their hats on this.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know this. What is this?

[Andy Barr]

Well, listen, Kentucky, there's a Democratic governor.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Andy Barr]

They've been known to be competitive statewide, and, you know, they look at ambitions of people and pedigree of people like Andy Barr, and they're like, well, let's make sure that we take him down a peg. So they've got what they think is an absolutely killer piece of.

[John Ashbrook]

I can't wait to hear this.

[Andy Barr]

As it turns out, Andy Barr here, in a moment of youthful exuberance, may have at one point been in possession of a fake id.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Andy Barr]

Is that possible?

[Unknown Speaker]

You know what? That's the rumor. That's the piece of D trip research. That's what they've got. They're those guys. Those guys are good. Those opposition researchers over there at the vccc that might actually help.

[Josh Holmes]

Help raise that Lexington.

[Unknown Speaker]

I think it's a prerequisite for the chairman of the. Of the Bourbon Caucus.

[Andy Barr]

I mean, I. I just.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's gotta be.

[Andy Barr]

You know, you're not trying to get in early. You're not. You're not eligible to be chairman.

[Unknown Speaker]

I mean, let me tell you, guilty as charged.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a youthful interest in the product.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's exactly it was. I was researching. Yes, I was researching. I knew that that was. My great ambition in public life, was to be the chairman of the Bourbon Caucus. I just. I was on spring break, you know, I was a pledge in the fraternity, and I just wanted. Just an early crack at it.

[Andy Barr]

I mean, it's amazing, right? I mean, look, you've been in a targeted district. Now you're not. I mean, they don't target you any longer because of where you're at, but you've been in a targeted district long enough that they just try to unearth anything they can against you.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, they did. They found that little tidbit, but that's okay. You know, here's the bottom line is, you know, if you want to win that district, any swing district, or I would argue, if you want to run, if you want to win Kentucky statewide, you've got to win the swing districts, right?

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And there's. There's no way in 2025, 2026, 2027 in the era of Donald Trump, that any Democrat can win statewide in Kentucky unless they do what our governor did, Andy Beshear, which is win my district, the swing district, the purple district, the central Kentucky district, where you've got the University of Kentucky and some of the more woke liberal elements there, he did it. And to his credit, he won my district convincingly by 19 points in 2023. So. And this is a district that I won by 25 points just a year later. It takes effort. It takes work. If you look at my colleagues in these swing districts, like a Lawler or Fitzpatrick man, or Valadao in California, man, I admire the heck out of them because their districts are a lot tougher than mine. A lot tougher than mine. My district did vote for Donald Trump because the MAGA areas in the rural areas just overwhelmed the liberal core. But, man, these guys and gals who win these districts that, you know, Biden won or Kamala won, man, kudos to them because they're working hard.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, yeah. No question about it. I mean, look, you again have changed a purple district to a red district. Your influence within Congress has increased as a result. Hell of a good guy, suburban caucus chair guy. I mean, look, one of the top five guys in all of Congress. And I mean this. You know, we hang out with everybody and we do these kind of things with everybody. One of the top five guys to hang out with. Consequently, people are talking a lot about you perhaps running for a statewide office, seeking the Senate. Andy, what do you think?

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, I've been doing that due diligence, just like maybe I did the due diligence when I was in college, but getting a lot of great encouragement and, you know, bourbon is kind of an emblem of that, because what I'm really proud about and maybe why Democrats who don't always agree with my votes in Congress, maybe what it is that they see in me and why they cross over, including people who don't like this president in my district, but know that I am Maga and I am loyal and I am America first and I'm backing him 100%. Why do those people vote for me? Because they know my work advocating for the signature industries of Kentucky. They see me, they see that guy is for Kentucky, right?

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm for the horse industry. I've been for the auto manufacturing industry because we're a powerhouse with the largest Toyota manufacturing facility in the world in my district. Everybody who knows me from my very first campaign knows that I campaigned on, you know, advocating for the Kentucky coal industry. So there's one thing that nobody can accuse me of. And that's not, you know, failing to represent Kentucky. They know that I am all about Kentucky.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, yeah. No question about it. You know what's funny? And you don't have to answer this, but what's funny from my perspective, and probably you guys, your perspective is, you know, we all work for McConnell. And this is a seat that I used to joke with McConnell, that my kid, who's now 5, would probably be the chief of staff for McConnell in 2050 or something like that, because it just seemed like it was just always in his. But all of us who have had any sort of tangential relationship to Kentucky at some level have had a relationship and probably started our careers in some way with McConnell. And one of the things that I really like about you and the way you handle your entire public career is a level of authenticity. And you haven't denied that you started like we all started.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I interned with Senator McConnell in the summer of 1993, the same summer that I had my little fake ID issue.

[Josh Holmes]

So I'm not gonna blame him for it.

[Andy Barr]

I'm not gonna blame him for it.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'll take the blame for you.

[Josh Holmes]

You were just working hard for the commonwealth.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's all on me.

[Andy Barr]

Listen, but this is one of the things. I mean, look, if you choose to get into this race and we'll see how this whole thing goes, like, listeners are gonna find out that this Kentucky Senate primary is one of the things that the media will focus most upon because it's a challenge amongst Republicans. And most significantly, it's against a McConnell Kentucky that has, you know, over 40 years, become a deep red Republican state under his leadership against a Donald Trump MAGA universe, which is not at all what it is. Like, these two things intersected for, you know, the better part of four years now.

[Unknown Speaker]

They, especially on the federal judiciary. And I think both Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell deserve credit for transforming the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court into an original Supreme Court. And they work together on that. And I'll tell you what that is. That is a heck of a legacy. And I'll tell you what, our country is better off because we have a conservative, originalist federal judiciary that is going to defend and uphold this president's agenda.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Andy Barr]

No question about it. I guess just to finish a point on this, everybody's gonna want to reinvent themselves. Right, in this race where, you know. Oh, we don't. You know, I've noticed already people trashing McConnell and trying to become something they're not. What I'VE appreciated about the way you've handled this is you've handled it the same way you've handled the 6th District, which is, I am who I am. I represent whoever you're gonna vote for me or you're not.

[Unknown Speaker]

Right.

[Andy Barr]

But it has nothing to do with anybody else making some sort of evaluation about what you think I am.

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, as the Congressman from the 6th district, I often, especially over the last, you know, decade, they have asked me so many reporters or sometimes constituents or others have asked me, are you. So you're from Kentucky. Are you a Rand Paul Republican or are you a Mitch McConnell Republican? And I tell them I'm neither. I'm an Andy Barr Republican. I'm my own guy, and my voting record is my own voting record, and it's transparent. And you can see how I vote. And you'll see I'm for Kentucky every time. Every single time I'm for Kentucky. And that's a reputation that I really. I really relish.

[John Ashbrook]

I appreciate that. And that's what people want. You know, the reason why everybody is so MAGA is because in Kentucky, you have a population of people who have been just completely run over by our society. Everybody in New York has run over everybody in Kentucky time and time and time again. And then all of a sudden, you have Donald Trump, who's sticking up for people who've never been stuck up for in the past, other than, like, people like you, who are looking out for the Kohl families, who their industry and their. Their livelihood has just been completely crushed, decimated by Democrats.

[Unknown Speaker]

Decimated.

[John Ashbrook]

And what they're looking for is somebody who is authentic, who is actually going to stick up for them. So what they love about Donald Trump, it's why you've been elected over and over and over again, because of that authenticity, because people are looking for somebody who is going to provide a voice for them.

[Unknown Speaker]

Exactly. That is exactly right. And that's exactly why that chairwoman of the Democratic Party in the eastern part of my district voted for Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

And not only voted for Donald Trump, but wanted to make sure that her congressman, who was a Republican, who Donald Trump campaigned for, was always gonna be with Donald Trump. So I always have to remember her, the Democrat chairwoman of the Montgomery County Party, about why, you know, I need to support this America first agenda and why I do.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No question about it. So, like, you know, when you're doing the Bourbon Trail thing, you look at these things, you can't pick amongst children, can you?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, it's like Choosing your favorite child. I'm not allowed to, but here's a secret that they're all great, but I love Blanton's. This particular Blanton's comes from the white oak caucus special barrel pick. This is an initiative to that Bruce Westerman is helping us with this GT Thompson, where we're going to try to reforest the white oak to regenerate white oak for the bourbon industry. And you know, this is, you know, who says I'm not an environmentalist. Right. But. But the other one is Weller and Weller, for your audience who likes bourbon or have heard of the Pappy Van Winkle, which is a very expensive, hard to get bourbon. Weller is a great bourbon because it's basically Pappy Van Winkle, Young Pappy. Yeah, it's the same thing.

[Andy Barr]

Young papa.

[Unknown Speaker]

Exactly the same thing. Just comes out of the barrel a little earlier.

[Andy Barr]

That's incredible. Well, it's a vibrant industry. I know. I've enjoyed more than anything else getting to know the people who put this stuff together, the passion involved in it. Uniquely American product.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely.

[Andy Barr]

You know, and if you're choosing your spirits, you can get tequila, you can get scotch. You know, we all enjoy a tequila night, no question about it. But this thing, I mean, this is supporting Americans. No question about it.

[Unknown Speaker]

You got it. This is. This is. Kentucky is the land of the pioneers. Daniel Boone. We're the. We're the. We've got grits. We're the toughest, tough people.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And we're the coal miners. We powered America. And every so often, we want. We want to relax. And you know, a great bourbon man once told me, don't leave a bourbon bottle unopened, Even if it's one of the premium brands, you got to open it. Because it's not about the juice in the bottle. It's about pouring a glass for yourself and your friend or your father. Enjoy and enjoying it, and then that's a memory.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's bourbon. Bourbon is not a drink. It is an experience. It is a memory.

[Andy Barr]

Unless you get to the bottom, in which case there's no memory at all.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, that's why they call it the drink of freedom.

[Andy Barr]

Listen, Andy Bar, thank you so much for coming in here. Really appreciate your time and keep us up to date with what you're doing.

[Unknown Speaker]

All right. Great to be with you guys and keep up the great work.

[Andy Barr]

Thank you, sir.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you, man. What a. Just an outstanding guy. He is in the bourbon. I mean, you cannot beat a guy from Kentucky Bringing bourbon to the variety program. He knows his way right into our hearts.

[Andy Barr]

It's been a good friend for a long time. No question. We got to love. I mean, he does know us. Yep, he does know us.

[Josh Holmes]

We're easy to please.

[Andy Barr]

We're easy to please. No question about it. Remember our question of the day? What fake name would you use on ActBlue to cover your tracks? We've got our ideas.

[Michael Duncan]

Great question.

[Andy Barr]

And I. You know what? Next time, you're going to have to. You're going to have to. Before we get back into the comments, I want you guys.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want to steal any, but from. From minions who reply to that.

[Andy Barr]

Yeah. And Harry P. Back in Minneapolis.

[Michael Duncan]

Amazing.

[Andy Barr]

Keep your ears on, pal, because it's coming at you like. And subscribe to the YouTube channel with that. I think we have done it.

[Michael Duncan]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen. Thank you so much, Congressman Barr, and thank you so much to our listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, subscribe to that YouTube. 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 Thursday. Stay ruthless.