Democrats Race to the Bottom + Will Trump’s Primary Strategy Work?

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Democrats Race to the Bottom + Will Trump’s Primary Strategy Work?
Date: May 21, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Description: The Ruthless crew breaks down a politically charged week, focusing on the Democratic Party's leftward descent, controversy around some of its candidates, sharp contrasts with GOP primary dynamics, and a detailed look at Trump’s primary intervention strategy. As ever, the tone is irreverent and unsparing, blending political insight with humor and pop culture references.

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Main Theme

The episode centers on the increasing extremism within the Democratic Party—highlighted by controversial candidates and rhetoric—and contrasts this with Donald Trump’s dominating and effective interventions in Republican primaries. The hosts analyze whether Trump’s strategy will carry the GOP to victory and delve into the potential consequences for party dynamics, upcoming elections, and congressional relationships.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Democratic Rhetoric and Extremism

• Hakeem Jeffries’ “Break Them” Speech

  • The hosts dissect House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries' assertion that Democrats must "break" MAGA extremists:
    • “He said what he believes. That’s the thing— their hatred of Trump and constantly, constantly losing to him has broken them. They are completely broken. They believe in nothing except power.”
      —Ashbrook [00:27]
  • The team criticizes Democrats’ framing of Republicans as extremists while displaying hard-edged rhetoric themselves.

• Texas House Race: Maureen Galindo

  • The Democratic primary winner in TX-35, Maureen Galindo, is called out for pledging to turn a former migrant detention site into an "internment camp for American Zionists" and a "castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists".
    • “She’s not done. It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
      —Duncan [09:03]
  • The hosts mock the party’s quiet response and note how quickly ambitious Democrats scrambled to distance themselves after the story gained traction on the right.

• The “Hamas Caucus” and Michigan Senate Race

  • The crew points to an openly pro-Hamas candidate leading a critical Michigan Senate primary, suggesting that extreme anti-Israel sentiment is moving from the fringes to the party’s foreground.

• Media Double Standards

  • Consistent frustration is voiced over how the mainstream press downplays left-wing extremism while intensely scrutinizing Republicans for far less:
    • “If she were a Republican who said something like this, it would have been nonstop…every single day this week.”
      —Sherry Jacobus [12:21]

2. Graham Platner Controversy

• Criticism of Senate Candidate Graham Platner

  • Much time is spent reminding listeners of Platner’s Nazi iconography and resurfaced posts mocking a wounded US soldier, Ted Daniels:
    • “This video never gets old. Dumb mother blanker didn’t deserve to live…at least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt.”
      —Duncan quoting Platner [13:57]
    • Duncan clarifies Daniels’ heroism and the absurdity of Democrats rallying behind Platner:
    • “This is a person that all Democrats around the country are rallying behind as their ticket to a majority…How could you live with yourself when…”
      —Duncan [14:31]

• Media and Establishment Embrace

  • The hosts note that mainstream progressive outlets like Pod Save America have endorsed Platner, demonstrating what they call the party’s “power at any cost” orientation.

3. GOP Primaries and Trump’s Power

• Kentucky Senate Primary

  • Big wins for establishment Republican candidates, notably Andy Barr, who “won going away” and is framed as the archetype of a responsible legislator.

• Thomas Massie’s Defeat

  • Trump’s intervention against Massie (a libertarian, anti-Trump incumbent) is credited for a decisive ouster:
    • “Trying to be like, vote for me because I stand in the way of the guy you voted for…a very stupid thing to do.”
      —Ashbrook [25:46]
  • Massie’s concession speech is called a “classic cautionary tale of getting lost in the sauce”—i.e., pandering to online extremist cliques and indulging anti-Semitic tropes.

• Electorate Lessons

  • The show praises the notion that legislators should focus on constituent services, not online performance:
    • “You’re not a Twitter spokesperson. You are not a think tank leader. You have to legislate…”
      —Duncan [29:46]
    • “Doing the job of a congressperson or a senator is an actual real job that people need to do.”
      —Smug [30:49]

• Horseshoe Theory

  • The hosts push the idea that political extremes ("horseshoe theory")—especially around antisemitism—now fuse the far left and right, with figures like Cenk Uygur (Young Turks) and Massie both playing to anti-Israel sentiment online.

4. Texas Senate Primary & Trump’s Strategic Risks

• Trump Endorsing Ken Paxton Over John Cornyn

  • Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Paxton, after lobbying around the “SAVE Act,” is called a “genius move” [37:07].
  • The stakes are high: if Paxton wins, Democrats claim they’ll make Texas their main target, seeing an opening with “Tal Rico” (the Democratic Senate candidate).

• Will the State Stay Red?

  • While recognizing that Cornyn is reliably electable, the hosts express confidence that Paxton can still win, though it may drain more resources and intensify the national map:
    • “Texas is a red state. I think that we’re going to hold on to this Senate seat…But guess what, Donald Trump can raise money.”
      —Sherry Jacobus [41:28]

• Senate Dynamics After Anti-Incumbent Endorsements

  • The hosts discuss the risks: when a president endorses against sitting senators, “you essentially make them free agents as voting members” [43:03], and lose leverage in legislative bargaining, possibly hurting Trump’s agenda even if he wins.

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• On Democrats’ Rhetoric:

  • “They're trying to break all of us with all their policies…until you allow us to do socialism.”
    —Smug [06:53]

• On Mainstream Media’s Double Standards:

  • “If a Republican were to be like, ‘I didn’t really care for that restaurant sandwich,’ he’d be hounded…”
    —Ashbrook [15:43]

• On Online Political Extremes:

  • “If you’re following, like, 300 nutjobs who are like, the number one issue is ‘Jews control the weather,’ you’re gonna get some bad ideas, folks.”
    —Ashbrook [24:40]

• On the Effect of Primarying Incumbents:

  • “If you want to know a good member of Congress, look at the ads that they run based on the casework their office does…”
    —Smug [30:49]

• On the Young Turks & Pro-Hamas Sentiment:

  • “They’re just anti Israel, anti Semitic, like, just throw it all out. And it’s such a weird niche, bizarre online…”
    —Duncan [33:39]

• Press Conference Media Theater:

  • JD Vance handling a loaded question:
    • “There are different ways to ask a question, okay? You could just ask a question…Or you could do like a speech where you say, ‘You’re a terrible human being, and so is the President…’ And then your question is, ‘how dare you’. Come on, man, have a little objectivity.”
      —JD Vance via Smug & Duncan [53:05]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Democratic Rhetoric and Maureen Galindo Discussion
  03:10 – 12:21

• Graham Platner’s Controversies and Media Coverage
  12:53 – 18:30

• Kentucky GOP Primaries and Massie’s Downfall
  21:11 – 30:49

• Texas Senate Primary, Trump’s Strategic Moves, and National Map
  35:01 – 42:46

• Senate “Free Agents” and Legislative Consequences
  43:03 – 48:49

• Media Ignorance: Declaration of Independence Flub
  50:50 – 51:57

• JD Vance Press Conference Performance
  53:05 – 56:44

• Signature “King of the Hill” Game (Twitter Cringe-Off)
  56:47 – 64:40

• Variety Segment: Mr. Feeny’s Open Marriage
  64:40 – 70:47

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Tone

• Confrontational, irreverent, and humorous: The Ruthless crew freely mixes mockery, sharp analyses, and playful banter. No one is spared—Democrats, fellow conservatives, and even themselves are targets for barbs and jokes.

• Pop Culture References: Frequent nods to Twitter culture, “horseshoe theory,” the Young Turks, and sitcoms like “Boy Meets World” keep things light through heavy political content.

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Conclusion

The episode demonstrates the hosts’ view of a Democratic Party increasingly driven by radical rhetoric and controversial candidates, while highlighting Trump’s iron grip on GOP primaries. The consequences of such realignments—for party unity, upcoming elections, and actual governance—are discussed with characteristic Ruthless wit and savvy. The overarching question for listeners: Will Trump’s high-risk, high-control primary strategy deliver ultimate victory or sow new chaos?

Transcript

[Sherry Jacobus]

I guess part of how we as House Democrats view this moment, either MAGA extremists are going to break the country or we're going to break them. And our goal is to break them. He says break them.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

And the media is like, well, you know what, maybe he has a point, Jeffries.

[Smug]

They're telling on themselves here because it really isn't even just half the country. It's the whole damn thing.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Smug]

They're trying to break all of us with all their policies.

[Ashbrook]

He said what he believes. That's the thing is their hatred of Trump and constantly, constantly losing to him has broken them. They are completely broken. They believe in nothing except power.

[Sherry Jacobus]

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[Ashbrook]

This program has become one of the

[Sherry Jacobus]

most influential podcasts in America.

[Ashbrook]

I love the personality. You guys are killing it. I just saw you're number one, so congratulations.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Thank you.

[Duncan]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Kennedy. Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Ashbrook]

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

[Duncan]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. It is my profound honor to welcome back our friend and colleague, comfortably smug. How are you, sir?

[Ashbrook]

Terrific, terrific. Great to be back. You gents have been doing an amazing job.

[Duncan]

Well, we held it down. We knew you had stuff to do.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, my son is born, he's healthy, my wife is healthy. I could not be more thrilled. Everything you guys said about having a kid being the best thing in the world is 100% true.

[Duncan]

It really is. It's life changing, isn't it?

[Ashbrook]

Very cool.

[Smug]

It's sort of a line of demarcation in your life before and after, that's for sure. Changes your perspective on everything.

[Duncan]

Totally.

[Smug]

What's important, what's not important, you know.

[Duncan]

I hope you haven't lost your luster for making fun of the libs.

[Ashbrook]

No, no, not. If anything, I'm like more fervent now because I have something to fight for.

[Duncan]

I love it because we got a lot to work with. I don't know if anybody noticed, but it's been sort of an action packed week on the political front. Some of the stuff that we do at the very best here at the Ruthless Variety Program is campaigns and elections and typically, you know, you have a new president, new Congresses, takes a, you know, year and a half roughly to settle in, get agenda item and we can talk about all that. But I feel like this is sort of barrel of the bat stuff for us. And there's been an awful lot of primaries, of course, our map and all of the interviews that we've done to give you a sense of the candidates. But that's the serious stuff. Also people just lose their ever living mind when it comes to primary election left and right. And the people that seem to have the microphone are like the craziest motherfuckers on the face of the planet. Like they relate to nobody, but that's like the only thing you hear. And of course for our standpoint, terrific content. Yeah, great stuff. So let's just start out with the guy who wants to be speaker of the House. This would happen if Republicans somehow lost the House of Representatives. This cat here would have a gavel.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I guess part of how we as House Democrats view this moment, either MAGA extremists are going to break the country or we're going to break them. And our goal is to break them. We will defeat them. We have to beat them electorally, and then we have to break their spirit because of the extremism that's being unleashed on the American people. That's completely and totally unacceptable.

[Ashbrook]

He's like, I want to break this spirit of my opponents, and they're the extremists. Think about that being like, I want to take half of Americans and I want to break their spirit. I want to crush them.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I want to break them. I mean, President Trump said, stand back, everybody. And they were like, oh, no, you can't say that. He can't say it. He says, break them.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

And the media is like, well, you know what? Maybe he has a point. Team Jeffries.

[Ashbrook]

I mean, Timo, Obama needs a lot more media training. But the thing is, it's not because of. He said anything wrong. He said what he believes. That's the thing is their hatred of Trump and constantly losing to him has broken them. They are completely broken. They believe in nothing except power. He wants, like Holmes said, he wants that gavel. He wants to be speaker, and the power's all that matters to him. If he breaks half of Americans, dude, they are supporting illegals coming to this country that they will give all these handouts to and try to get to vote. He doesn't care about Americans in this country.

[Smug]

Country. But it's sort of my. My thinking in it is, is that smug. It's like they're telling on themselves here because it really isn't even just half the country. It's the whole damn thing.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

They're trying to break all of us with all their policies. Right. I mean, none of this is inspiring. None of it's about a great vision for the future of America. It's. Things are terrible all the time, and we're going to make them worse until. Until you allow us to do socialism.

[Duncan]

Yeah. And there's no real candidate quality, mechanism involved in it. I don't know if you've noticed. I mean, the last few episodes we've done our Graham Platner routine, which is fantastic. I mean, this guy. Every single episode. We could do a full line. We're going to add. We're probably added to that today. Some today, but this one caught my eye.

[Smug]

I do love that, by the way. The idea that you're like a disc jockey and you're like Graham Platner with another new lick off his latest Nazi record.

[Duncan]

They're all good. They're all good. You can play. It's like a old Tom Petty Wildflowers album. You can go 1 to 14 on that bad boy. They're all good. They're all good. But there was a House candidate, and this is somebody that Hakeem Jeffries would want to be elected to give him the power that he so desperately wants. Named Maureen Galindo. Can we just. Let me. Let me wait for the primary. She won her primary. She had something very interesting to say to the San Antonio Current. She says that she pledged to transform a site south of San Antonio now used by the Trump administration to detain migrants. It's a nice facility, that she's going to turn it into an internment camp for American Zionists.

[Ashbrook]

Think about that, dude. Think about that. She was like, so here's a problem. The Trump administration has started capturing and deporting illegal aliens, people who have broken the law in after this country. I want to free them, but that's not the point. I want to put Zionists in there and make it an internment camp. She's just an honest policy platform. She's putting forward.

[Duncan]

She just. New ideas surfacing. New ideas. You'll feel free to knock them down. Yeah, we got stuff for you and her. She's not done. It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.

[Sherry Jacobus]

And she. She's the Democrat nominee in that.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Race.

[Smug]

Well, she's. She's in a runoff right now. She was the highest vote getter in the primary.

[Duncan]

Right.

[Smug]

But she's currently in a runoff with another candidate.

[Ashbrook]

And that's the thing is, like, Deb's heard it and they're like, let her cook.

[Duncan]

Yeah. Let's see what else she's got.

[Ashbrook]

I think we're on board with this insanity.

[Smug]

Well, I thought this was interesting, the castration processing center. I thought that was just what happens when a man registers to vote for the Democratic Party.

[Duncan]

That's pretty good. That's pretty good, but so graphic. One is her results from that primary. And you're absolutely right. She was the leading Democrat in a primary in the 35th district of Texas. So she, you know, if that carries on through a runoff, she will be the Democratic nominee for a House seat. Like, this isn't some, like, dog catchers election. Like, this is the thing that would be the difference between Hakeem Jeffries and the role that he's in now or speaker of the House of Representatives. And God knows what he has in mind if that goes on. But this is a woman, just in case you need a decoder ring for what it is that we said she's like, no, illegal immigration is good. We have to open the borders back up. We cannot detain anybody who's broken laws. What I'm thinking is Auschwitz.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

That's insane what she's talking about.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I mean, if she wins this primary, they might have a run for president.

[Ashbrook]

Has Platner endorsed, You know what? Has Platner jumped in and been like, you know what? I kind of like what I hear.

[Sherry Jacobus]

It's interesting.

[Duncan]

Kind of like what I hear.

[Smug]

It's interesting. There's some Democrats out there who are denouncing her, you know, because of all this rhetoric.

[Duncan]

There was a real race. I noticed that. I, I caught this pretty early yesterday and I retweeted it and I noticed within like 25 minutes, all of this hyper ambitious Democrats were like, oh, we don't stand for, yeah, this.

[Smug]

But it's not that they really care. I think the reality is, is it holds up a mirror to what their party has become.

[Duncan]

That's exactly what it is.

[Smug]

And they don't want people exposed to the shit that they're putting out there in the ecosystem.

[Duncan]

It's the Abby Spanberger routine. This is the base of our party. We hate it when you tell everyone what it actually is. And that's what was going on yesterday with people falling all over themselves to try to denounce this situation. But it is out there. And like, if you doubt for a second. We've been talking about the Hamas caucus and the Democratic Party for like three years. If you doubt that for a minute, have a look at that. And now watch what's happening in Michigan. There's a Michigan Senate race. Democrats haven't lost that race since the 90s. They have a three way, very competitive primary. And all of a sudden, literally a Hamas candidate is leading that race in the center of the Rust Belt. This is, this is their ideology now, right? This is the energy behind Graham Platner and this psychopath from Texas. And it's about to go on display in Michigan in a must win race. And they're going to turn around and be like, no, you misunderstood. Like the, it's not.

[Sherry Jacobus]

But the reality is, you know, the media will never draw attention to this. I mean, there was one or two stories and then people on the right tweeting about, how can anybody, you know ever say something like that? And a handful of Democrats who were like, no, no, trust me, this isn't what I believe. But like, if, if she were a Republican who said something like this, it would have been Non stop all 30 minutes of every broadcast. News evening news broadcast 100 every single day this week.

[Duncan]

So that brings us back to Platner because you can't really do a show without doing any something on this guy because every day there's something brand new. Wolf, of course, wanted to do the jerking off in the Porta Potty story, but we put it, oh, it's a disgusting wolf. It's a family program.

[Smug]

I love that we're just blaming Wolf for the sexual content math.

[Duncan]

Well, I mean, look, if the shoe fits. But this one's considerably, in my view, worse.

[Ashbrook]

Despicable.

[Duncan]

It's a despicable thing. And he's commenting on a guy named ted Daniels, the soldier, 37 year old father of two serving in Afghanistan in 2012. And well, let me play clip two

[Smug]

because there's a recently resurfaced post that appears he's mocking this US Soldier that

[Ashbrook]

was almost killed in.

[Duncan]

It was a viral video.

[Ashbrook]

And he's watching the video. It's from the helmet camera of the,

[Smug]

of the military man named Ted Daniels.

[Ashbrook]

He's being shot at four times by the Taliban.

[Smug]

And you have Graham Platner who's making

[Ashbrook]

fun of him and wishing that he had died.

[Duncan]

This video never gets old. Dumb mother blanker didn't deserve to live.

[Smug]

At least his stupidity and fat a wheezing are available for all future infantrymen

[Duncan]

to witness and hold in contempt.

[Ashbrook]

And to clarify on what happened in that video, the guy who Platner's trying to make fun of there stepped into the open to deliberately draw Taliban fire away from his fellow soldiers so his squad could get to safety. Daniels was shot four times in the video and ultimately earned a Purple Heart. That's who he's mocking.

[Duncan]

That's what it was, right? So I mean, look, there's something with this guy every day. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes his excuses are hilarious. The idea that he's just like stumbled upon iconography of the Nazis and decided that it looked good on his left tit, like, you know, like there's all kinds of insanity. But then you get to this and you see the darker side of who this person that all Democrats around this country are rallying behind as their ticket to a majority. They want, like Chuck Schumer wants nothing more than Graham Platner at this stage to win and beat Susan Collins in the state of Maine. How could you live with yourself when

[Sherry Jacobus]

you see that Democrats aren't even sheepish about supporting this guy. They're like trying to get close to him so that they can get the clicks that come from these lunatic leftists all over social media. And it's the exact opposite of what you would expect. You would expect at least somebody on their side to say, oh, you know what?

[Duncan]

Maybe not my cup of tea.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Yeah, maybe he wasn't our best choice. Maybe there's another Democrat among the 3 million Democrats or however many live in Maine that we could have nominated. But no, we have the Nazi who's making fun of a hero.

[Ashbrook]

Part of the problem there is the media. The mainstream media exists to attack Republicans. And if a Republican were to be like, you know, I didn't really care for that restaurant sandwich, he'd be hounded. Yeah, everyone would be. Manu Raju would be chasing him around with the mic, being like, did you say that sandwich is bad? Do you hate the working class of this country who make those sandwiches? There is no one out there holding this guy accountable in the media. To the opposite extent, Pod Save America has endorsed this guy. They're essentially part of the Obama Inc. Operation at this point, which means that Obama's given them the go ahead. So Obama and all of them stand with this guy. He's got an SS Nazi tattoo on his chest out here attacking US Troops who are putting their own lives on the line to save the folks that they're out there in combat with. And the left is. They're beyond okay with this. They just want the power.

[Smug]

What I see when I see Graham Platner is a angry, misanthropic Internet edgelord,

[Duncan]

which is the base of the Democratic Party, you know, and it really is,

[Ashbrook]

sadly, like, Hasan Piker. Just like. Or angry.

[Smug]

How about Tyler Robinson? Yeah, dude who murdered Charlie Kirk. And you know, that guy's on trial. Hopefully he gets capital punishment. And this guy's running for Senate. Yeah, and just think about that, too. That is a great comparison to Ashbrook's whole point here is like, if this was a Republican, that comparison would be made.

[Duncan]

Oh, 100%.

[Ashbrook]

Well.

[Duncan]

And it's hard to ignore at this point the nexus between violent far leftism and mental health.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

And a danger, because we've just seen it over and over and over again, and I think he's a perfect representative of that. And yet now this is a standard bear. This guy is going to be the face of the Democratic Senate candidates, whether they want him to be or not. They'd prefer to Abby Spanberger, the thing, but he's too far out now. Now they got to rally around him and pretend like he's a normal human being. I saw some. Some lefties out trying to defend all the various, like this and everything else. And they're like, well, you know, what everybody really wants is somebody who's authentic and real. And with that authenticity and realness, it's the, the humanity. And it's not always pretty, but that's what. Graham Platner. No, dude, not this.

[Ashbrook]

Nope.

[Duncan]

I don't know any well adjusted human beings who say stuff like this. I don't, I certainly don't know anybody I would want representing me who says something like this that they wished a service member, a heroic service member, hadn't lived. Like, Jesus. That's just, it's crazy.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Well, I mean, and you think of your average Maine voter, they're like, hey, can we get lower taxes on these lobsters? Or can we, you know, can you, can the government get off our back? Yeah, they're not like, hey, how do we get the guy with the SS tattoo that's making fun of troops? I mean, that's, that's the furthest thing from their mind.

[Duncan]

Yeah. No, it's true. Well, coming up, the Republican side of the coin. Trump has been deeply involved in shaping these Republican primaries around the country. We've got some results from this week and some things that are happening next week that we're going to want to talk about right after this.

[Sherry Jacobus]

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[Duncan]

Okay, so a big election on Tuesday in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place that some of us have spent an awful long time. And you heard from two of the three Senate candidates, the two that we talked to made it to the finish line in terms of their name being on the ballot, and that was Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron. Andy Barr won that going away. He's a very good man. I love this guy. I feel like I sort of grew up in politics with him and was able to watch his career and really he just became what you want in a senator over the course of this campaign. He's always been a good congressman, but this is stuff.

[Ashbrook]

And also I appreciate he won that primary. They called it like 14 seconds after elections were closed. It was that big of a win. And I love that because it was like, okay, now I can put my son to sleep. I don't have to stay up all night being like, is Andy gonna, you know, is he gonna win this? I mean, I thought he's gonna win this thing. And he did. And he won it nice and quick and early. And I love that. That's my favorite kind of election.

[Duncan]

Yeah. Good friend of the program. He's been on here a whole bunch. I'm sure you've heard him. But he's going to make for a hell of a senator because he's going up against this Charles Booker guy on the Democrat side.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

Who runs like every two years for some.

[Smug]

Him and Amy McGrath both.

[Duncan]

Yeah. And he beat.

[Smug]

It's like a contest of who can lose worse.

[Ashbrook]

Right.

[Duncan]

And that's going to be a big number, by the way. He's going to post 20 on that deal. But anyway, so the other election got most of the attention in large part because Thomas Massie, sitting 12 year Congressman from Northern Kentucky, provoked President Trump very deliberately, basically the whole time, the first four years, and then, you know, the last two since he's been president and didn't think that he could be touched. Basically, he thought, I can do whatever the hell I want. I'm going to be reelected over and over and over again. Well, Trump thought the better of that, and ultimately he fielded a candidate, Ed Gallerain, who trounced Thomas Massie. 55. 45 wasn't particularly close.

[Sherry Jacobus]

No.

[Duncan]

Is a district that Thomas had won 80% or more in the primary for a long period of time. But it's multifaceted. Right. If you listen to Thomas Massie, there is some really ugly shit that basically became his core message of his campaign down the stretch. And just in case you thought that you sort of, like, misinterpreted what he was getting at in one form or fashion, his speech at the end, his concession.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

It.

[Duncan]

It confirmed all of your suspicions about which direction this thing was headed. Clip 3 I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed G. In Tel Aviv. I did get the call through, though.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I have.

[Duncan]

I have called and conceded the race.

[Smug]

We've been honorable.

[Duncan]

Oh, yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

The whole time.

[Duncan]

We're going to stay that way. There's no better heel turn than light antisemitism into how honorable I've been.

[Ashbrook]

I mean, this is. This really feels like just a classic cautionary tale of getting lost in the sauce. He got lost in the sauce thinking that, like, and, and listen, nothing against online influencers. I think they're the best among us. But he. He also goes on in that speech to be, like, shout out to, like, an online influencer who's been, like, pumping me on Twitter. And it's like, dude, it's very clear. Because there's all people who are like, twitter's not real life. Twitter is real life. It just depends who you're following. If you're following, like, 300 nutjobs who are like, the number one issue is that Jews control the weather. You're gonna get some bad ideas, folks. And he got lost in the sauce for so long, he tried to wear it like a badge of honor of being like, I'm so principled. I vote against President Trump. And it's like, okay, this is number one, a very stupid thing to do because Trump steamrolled, like, 15 of the best Republicans of a generation to win the first time, and he steamrolled everybody and anyone who opposed him to win it the second time. And trying to be like, vote for me because I stand in the way of the guy you voted for.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

First off, that doesn't seem like the brightest idea. But then to get completely lost in the sauce of the fever swamps of online being like, you know, I got a lot of retweets from a guy named German artist 1943. Maybe this is what voters are after.

[Duncan]

And for more, let's talk to Tucker.

[Ashbrook]

It's not a great approach. And he got what he had coming.

[Duncan]

He did.

[Ashbrook]

The American people have said multiple times and voted multiple times. Let Trump Cook. If you try to make your platform, I will stand in the way of Trump. This is what happened, man.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Cook. He did in this particular race. I mean, he went all in to defeat Massie, and he won in spectacular fashion. We were talking about how quickly that Andy Barr race was called. We all knew when the early votes started coming in in that Thomas Massie race. And it showed Ed competitive in Campbell County, Boone County, Kenton county. Those are northern Kentucky counties. A lot of libertarian conservative voters there. That's the only place that Thomas Massie had any hope of collecting enough vote to be able to hold on to his seat. And Trump prevented him from being able to do that. And I'm telling you, that was over just as fast as the Amy bar one.

[Duncan]

It's also a cautionary tale in a lot of different ways, for getting lost in the sauce in multiple ways. I mean, for one, he became a caricature of himself. I've known Thomas for a long time, and there was. I mean, look, he's done a lot of principled things that he views as principled. I don't think he ever really understood the role of a legislator, that you're not like King, and you can't just proclaim things and never be a part of a solution, which is. Which is part of it. The other thing is, like, what he ultimately was in his identity is like if a Branch Davidian had sex with aoc. Like, it was this bizarre cultish weirdness around all of his stuff with a heavy anti Semitic hue to it, where he blamed his entire loss on three donors to his opponent in a very expensive race. What were those three donors? Well, they happen to be Jewish. They also happen to be the most dependable conservative donors this party has had for 25 years. They are Trump's biggest supporters. They've been supporters of the Republican Party's efforts for House and Senate forever. But, like, nope, they're Jewish and it's a Jewish thing. That's the problem.

[Smug]

And what, what Thomas Massie and some of these, you know, influencers he retweets on Twitter would tell you as well, Trump's now compromised To Donald Trump. Yeah, Donald Trump. This guy is compromised by somebody else and doesn't do exactly what he wants to do every single day, for good or for bad.

[Ashbrook]

Right.

[Smug]

I just fundamentally don't believe it. And the thing is, is, like, you can be very principled. There's some things that Thomas Massie does on principle that I agree with 100%. But there's a difference between being principled and becoming a useful idiot of the

[Duncan]

left, which is where he.

[Smug]

And that's what he's done firmly landed. And he did it on things like this Epstein files thing. Everybody wants to lock up pedophiles. Do you want to name them? And we can fucking do it right now. I would love to lock up every pedophile associated with Jeffrey Epstein, but what he did was give the Democrats a talking point to say, well, we're not releasing the super secret, double secret files on the Epstein list. And there's actually the smoking gun in Prague. This is just like Russiagate all over again, by the way, folks. And Thomas Massie was along for it, hook, line, and fucking sinker, because he was getting the engagement on Twitter from these people, and there was no there there. But because he's, quote, unquote, leading the fight, he thinks he's doing a good job. And all you are doing is providing the Democrats a fake argument for the midterm, just like they tried to do with Russiagate in 2018.

[Ashbrook]

100%, right?

[Sherry Jacobus]

That's exactly right.

[Duncan]

It also provides a valuable lesson to incoming congressmen in that it is pretty important at some level that you represent the people who sent you there. You are not a Twitter spokesperson. You are not a think tank leader.

[Sherry Jacobus]

That's a great point.

[Duncan]

You have to legislate. You have to take the concerns of your district in mind. All of the commentary that we got from the media that was all surrounding this race, all secretly hoping, by the way, that Donald Trump came up short so they could write the end of Donald Trump's political influence. We're interviewing people, and to a person, the quotes that I saw were like, I've been really frustrated with this guy for a long time. Doesn't feel like he really represents us, but it's like, we never really thought that there was ever an opportunity to get him out because it's a really red district and he's got, you know, name ID and a base of support. And this was the first real opportunity to that I've had to vote against him. And I would have done it for a long time. And that tells you as an incoming senator or congressman, like, there's work to do. This is not like political famous dude.

[Smug]

Holmes. It's a really good point, and it's one that's often lost, especially in the punditry class, is that doing the job of a congressperson or a senator is an actual real job that people need to do. And there's constituents that depend on you. If you want to know a good member of Congress, look at the ads that they run that are based on the casework that their office does on Capitol Hill. 100%, the people that they help who have trouble with Medicare or Social Security or, you know, some. A farmer. You know, you can always tell the offices that are actually doing the job every single day that when they run a campaign, they got some testimonial, the camera of some constituent saying, this person saved my life. And that's the shit that really matters that nobody talks about.

[Duncan]

Well, it insulates you from good environments and bad environment.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

People just like you because you're doing the job. You were there for them when it mattered. He never did that. And what he became was a receptacle that is indistinguishable on the right from the left. It's the horseshoe that you talk about a lot, Duncan.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

Where you have this crazy on both sides and now it's largely fused by anti Semitism. Where you've got a guy like Cenk. Can we put up graphic, too?

[Smug]

This is the Young Turks guy.

[Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. Israel won in Kentucky.

[Ashbrook]

Ah.

[Duncan]

They will 100% control the Republican Party now. They will not serve America. They will only serve Israel. Is that what happened?

[Ashbrook]

Like, also, they're, like, really clawing for any kind of a victory, a narrative that they could have. Because what the media was kind of like stirring the pot and hoping to roll out is like, maga's dead. They're hoping that, like, all these people that. Trump's sick of that. He basically. I mean, he like, it was like Godfather, bro. He just like, wiped him out. Right. In one swoop. They were hoping it would have gone the other way so they could be like, MAGA is dead. They wanted that going into the midterms. Like, guess what, guys? Trump lost. Maga's dead. It's all over.

[Duncan]

Yep.

[Ashbrook]

And they didn't get that. Didn't they? So now they have to be like, Israel. Right, Right.

[Sherry Jacobus]

And they. They can't say, this guy will not say the most obvious thing that, hey, Donald Trump is pretty popular with Republican primary voters. That's the thing. So if he says Something, Chances are they're gonna be like, oh, you know, that makes sense to me. I'm with this guy, I'm gonna support who he supports. Like, it's pretty simple.

[Duncan]

It's pretty simple.

[Sherry Jacobus]

But, you know, the fact that he's doing this, I think goes to what Duncan was saying, that this issue is really sort of Russiagate 2.0 for them.

[Ashbrook]

Yep, it really is.

[Smug]

Yeah. I mean, they can't have Donald Trump win. It has to be MAGA is ending. Right. Or Israel's in control.

[Duncan]

Israel's in control.

[Smug]

It's the only way they can turn a Donald Trump victory into some sort of victory for themselves. Just like Smug was saying.

[Duncan]

Yeah, well, and what he's saying here is the Republican Party is now pro Israel and don't you worry, there's going to be an alternative. Have you seen our fine candidate in Texas? You know what I mean? Like, they're just lifting the veil on the whole thing at this point. They're not even hiding it. They're just anti Israel, anti Semitic, like, just throw it all out. And it's such a weird niche, bizarre online.

[Ashbrook]

And that's because they get the engagement. They get the engagement. It's like catnip for these people. And like, the thing is that this guy Cenk, the young Turk guy, like his, his nephew or whatever, is Hasan Piker. These are people.

[Sherry Jacobus]

That's his actual nephew.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah. Oh, these are people whose bread and butter the family business is clicks. You know what I mean? Like, that's all they are focused on. And you're having demos because, like aoc, a number of actual Democrats, their top tier Senate candidates have gone on Hasan Piker show because he gets clicks, he gets eyeballs. So they're willing to do whatever it takes for attention. They'll do anything it takes because they think that attention is going to translate into power no matter how nutty they have to get. Yeah, Russiagate was catnip from last time, but the time has run out on that. Everyone's finally like, yeah, I guess it was a bunch of bullshit. What do we have next? Yeah. And that's what this is.

[Duncan]

Well, this was a free win for Trump in a lot of ways because Thomas Massie, from a vote counting standpoint, was indistinguishable from Hakeem Jeffries. He was never there for the party when they needed him. He was always in a three vote majority. You could always count one Republican vote out because he always dealt himself out of any solution for whatever reason. It gets more difficult when he went down to Texas this week and endorsed Ken Paxton over John Cornyn, the sitting Republican senator. Cornyn. We had them both on the show. Really appreciate that. I think both of them had great discussions.

[Ashbrook]

Go to RuthlessPodcast.com map and you hear it straight from them.

[Duncan]

Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, I think that there was a prevailing theory of the case when it came to a runoff. So what happened? Obviously, if you haven't been following along, early March vote, very, very close. John Cornyn narrowly prevailed in the first slot over a point or so above Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt was eliminated at that point, and they went to a runoff, and that is next week, next Tuesday. And there was a widely held belief amongst Republican operatives that a Texas runoff at this point is sort of custom made for Ken Paxton's base of support, which he's always enjoyed. Heavy wheel, hardline base of support in Texas. So he was going to be formidable no matter what. When you talk to the Cornyn people, they thought that they could win this thing, and they had some polling that would suggest that they. They could. And amidst all of this, there was this discussion about, well, where does Donald Trump land? And both of them made their pitches over a long period of time. Immediately after that primary, John Cornyn and his team felt fairly confident that now that they had posted the largest vote total, that an endorsement was a real opportunity. And I think there was a lot of evidence to suggest that the Trump team was very close to doing that. Then Paxton pulls a rabbit out of the hat.

[Ashbrook]

Genius move.

[Duncan]

Genius move. By tying the whole thing into the SAVE act, which is the number one priority of this administration, and had run aground, frankly, in the Senate because of the filibuster and all this other stuff, that if they pass the SAVE Act, I'll drop out tomorrow.

[Ashbrook]

What a genius.

[Duncan]

It was like a Hail Mary at the very end with one second on the clock, but it landed and it got caught and it was a touchdown. Ultimately paved the way for him to build his case over the last couple of months and get to a point where evidently they've suggested to the President of the United States that he's in a good position to win enough to get the Trump endorsement, which went over like a BombShell in Washington, D.C. because there is a, I would say, conventional wisdom at some level that John Cornyn, who had been elected time and time again with margins, where we've had some problems in Texas in a statewide Senate race, he'd always had a margin, he'd be the more electable candidate.

[Ashbrook]

That's a good Reminder for me, because I saw. I want to verify that it's true. I saw a tweet saying that Ted Cruz beat Beto by two points. Is that accurate?

[Duncan]

It was tight. I don't know if it was two or three or. But it was. It was not comfortable. And Cornyn always had a more comfortable thing and. And honestly raises a hell of a lot more money. I think he's raised. I think I saw a stat that he'd raised, like, over $400 million for Republican candidates in his career. So he's. I mean, he's an epic fundraiser. John Cornyn.

[Ashbrook]

So just to do the fact check, this is 2018. Ted Cruz versus Beto O'.

[Duncan]

Rourke.

[Ashbrook]

Ted Cruz, 50.89. Beto 48.33. That's like two and a half points. Yeah.

[Duncan]

I mean, it can get tight. It can get tight. And with Tal Rico, Democrats are all in. They're excited. He's raising a ton of money. They think they have a real shot.

[Ashbrook]

And Schumer even cleared out what's her name, Jazzy Jazz. Jazz, to clear the way for his baby boy, Talrico.

[Duncan]

Yeah. So all of this is to say that Democrats have told everybody under the sun, if. If Paxton's the guy, we're going to win this race. We're going to make our real first push at Texas that we've ever really made. I mean, the Beto thing notwithstanding. And yet Trump jumps in, endorses Paxton, and now he's obviously got a huge advantage going into next Tuesday. The world would be shocked if Paxton didn't win that primary. And that's the matchup in Texas. You boys have any reaction, any of that?

[Ashbrook]

So I think that's the thing, is when I saw that number, that Ted Cruz, who cleared Beto in Texas by two and a half points is shocking. And here's the thing, is that race, the Democrats raised, like, presidential amounts of money and put it for Beto, and I think they're going to replicate that for Tal Rico. They did not want to risk our voters going to be against voting for a black candidate or voter is going to be against voting for a woman. Can they want to take any risks or, like, can we find some white guy and be like, oh, you know, he's just like a regular Texan. That's what they're hoping to. I mean, when the oppo comes up, you'll find out he's not a regular guy. But anyways, that's what the banking. That's what the Democrats are banking on right now. However, I think this is not gonna play out the way that Democrats want. I think part of what we have seen is whenever you have kind of like a vigorous Republican primaries, it energizes Republicans in that state. Even after the primary. I don't think you get an effect or like, lots of people argue that, like, oh, you should never have a primary, because then voters, they get, like, low about voting afterwards if their candidate didn't win. And they still. I haven't really ever seen that play out. I think, if anything, this is going to energize Republicans in Texas to show up on election Day in the general election, whether it's Paxton, whether it's Cornyn. I think what President Trump has been doing as he weighs in on these races is be like, listen, I hear your frustration, folks. There are people like, like Massie who have not been, you know, like, ride or die with the agenda you all voted me in office for. And if anyone stands in the way of this agenda, we want them gone because we want full speed ahead.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Yeah. And look, Texas is a red state. I think that we're going to hold on to this Senate seat. Maybe it costs a little bit more money because a guy like Cornyn was going to be able to raise more money than Ken Paxton. But Ken Paxton's one statewide there. Dan Patrick has won statewide there. This is a state that elects Republicans. So maybe MAGA Inc. And the national party is going to have to spend a little bit more money. But guess what? Donald Trump can raise money. He's got the ability to do that. And so I think the resources will be there. I think the votes will be there. And the other thing that a lot of people aren't talking about is that Democrats are going to have to spend more money in other states than anybody's talking about, like Michigan, for example. They're going to have to spend a hell of a lot of money to hold on to Michigan if that lunatic from Dearborn is their nominee. They're going to have to spend a hell of a lot of money if they want to be in the game in Maine with the Nazi tattoo guy, Platner. So they have their own problems across the map as well. And I just. Until game day. Time will tell. But until game day, my mindset is Texas is a red state and we can win this.

[Ashbrook]

My quick prediction, too, is I no longer think that North Carolina is going to be the most expensive Senate race. I think Texas is.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

I think the money is going to be insane.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I think that's.

[Duncan]

I agree.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Markets Alone presidential level spending.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

So the other piece of this, and one of the reasons why presidents are loathe to endorse against incumbents in their own party is because you essentially make them free agents as voting members.

[Ashbrook]

Great point. You brought up great point.

[Duncan]

The House and the Senate and I think I commented on this on, on X this week and I think people misunderstood what I'm doing. I like, I'm not giving you my feelings. I don't give a shit one way or another who the President endorses in this. But what it will do is put the Senate in a different situation than it's been up to this point. Because now you've got Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, potentially along with McConnell, Collins, Murkowski, Joni Ernst. You're talking about eight plus United States senators who wear the red flag, who don't really have a lot to lose if they go against Donald Trump, which the keys to the kingdom, if you were in the White House Legislative affairs office, is to make sure that you impress upon people, look, the President's gonna be against you here. If you're not on board, there's nothing you can say to these eight people. You wanna always limit that number. Not to say that you shouldn't try to primary idiots out of office when they present themselves, but you wanna limit that number so you can ensure that whatever is remaining on your agenda has the best chance of being passed into law. We saw this week they had this Iran powers vote that went down two weeks ago. Well, it got brought back up this week. Guess what? Bill Cassidy switched his vote.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Oh, that's right, I saw.

[Duncan]

And now it passed. Right. It's still not going anywhere because you know the President will veto it and House isn't going to take it up. So it doesn't really mean anything. But it's a good example of what it is that I'm talking about here, which is you now have a large number of free agents in the United States Senate. So if you're looking at like the seasons and the season finales of Trump and all of the various iterations from election day 2024 until Tuesday was a season, I think we started a new season here because you've got a United States Senate in particular that is not quite as receptive to the wishes and the wants of Donald Trump. I'm not saying that because I'm like that's a good idea. I'd love it if the entire Trump agenda, including the SAVE act and everything else, was auto rubber stamped the moment it showed up at the desk. But that is what's going to happen.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

And, like, that's part of the reason why you tune into the show, that we could tell you that kind of thing. Yeah.

[Smug]

Got to tell people what's. What's going to happen. I think there's a lot of people, sort of cynical people on X, kind of looking at these. That shifting dynamic in the Senate, and they're like, well, well, these people suddenly they're not principled on the thing that they voted on before. And it's like, no, it's more complicated than that. It's like so much of governing between the Senate and a president, not just Donald Trump, literally anyone. That's a partnership built on trust. And every president, not just Donald Trump, makes things difficult sometimes for members of the Senate or the House. That's a tough vote. It's a thing I need you to do. It's a. It's an evolving situation, whether it's a war in Iran or whatever. And so when that trust is broken, it's like, I don't know. This backpack is getting pretty heavy. Maybe I want to take it off.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

You know what I mean?

[Duncan]

I'm going out on a limb. And as long as I ha. You have my back. Yeah, I'm interested in doing that. But when they've made it very clear that they don't have your back, you're not going to go very far out in the limb. And there's one added piece of the Cornyn story that I think brings a little bit more gravity to it than just another member who is a free agent. And at this Congress, this Senate, this current Senate, 24 Republican senators voted for John Cornyn to be the leader of that Senate, this Senate, these members, 24 of them thought so highly of John Cornyn that they didn't just want him to be reelected, they wanted him to lead the whole goddamn thing. It was a tight vote with John Thune. So you're talking about somebody who has built a real relationship with a whole bunch of members in that conference. Does that have an effect? I think it does. Like, I think it will. Am I sad to see that? Totally.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Well, I think it goes to the third law of political dynamics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Bill Cassidy was against Trump a bunch of times. And so Trump was like, I'm against you. You know, and if one of these members feels like they were slighted by Trump, well, they might be against him. You know, like, it just. There are reactions. This is the way the Government works.

[Duncan]

It's politics. I just think that things are gonna get a lot more complicated. You're gonna have an ungovernable mess with a lot of these senators. And I am sensitive to the argument that, well, they weren't doing shit anyway. Well, not that you read about in the headlines. They didn't pass the SAVE act and all that stuff. No question about it. But they got a nomination thing on a convict conveyor belt over there. I mean, Trump so much as sneezes out a nominee, and they're putting him in the process as fast as they possibly can. I think they actually are way ahead of any previous president in terms of how they're doing that. I don't think that's gonna change because Thune is a commitment with the president that he's doing that. Whether they find 51 votes for some, for everybody, though, I don't know. I think that is a bigger thing in terms of its political ramifications. And ultimately the state of Texas, I think Ken Paxton wins. I really do. But I have a lot of concern about what these funding bills look like over the next four months and into the lame duck than I did before. I think that's a fair analysis of it.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I think it makes sense.

[Duncan]

So the question of the day, when you like and subscribe to the ruthless Friday program, reread all of your responses and get back to your the very next episode. Our question is, is Trump's strategy going to work? He's reshaping the Republican Party in real time and taking some real risks. And honestly, every single one of them, that he's put himself out there, he's won. There should be no question. This is Donald Trump's Republican Party. Every time the left or the media wants to question something like that, you see what happened in Kentucky or you saw what happened in Indiana, or you watch all the redistricting stuff. Like, he's anchored in. He's not going anywhere. And the question is, is that strategy ultimately gonna work to prevail not only in the midterms, but if they do prevail, having a different complexion of the House and the Senate for his final two years in office? We'll see. We ask you when you like and subscribe. We read all of your responses and get back to the next episode. When we come back, I think we predicted it here on the variety program, J.D. vance takes to the podium at the White House. We give you some review on some of that, and then we got some variety. And we're gonna play a game today, right after this. So I find it always interesting when these media types, lefty media types, have, like, some interaction with the real world and they just are utterly flummoxed by things that everybody have sort of, you know, anybody that we talk to is pretty much understood for years. And, like, I think we've discussed it a lot of times that, like, they look at us like zoo animals and every once in a while they tell on themselves that they, like, really are totally out of touch. Well, Katie Tur of Ms. Now had an episode of this this week, and she was trying to go after Speaker Johnson. I just don't think it came up like she wanted it to. Clip for what about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from governance, government. They come from you, our Creator and heavenly Father.

[Ashbrook]

Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?

[Smug]

Well, you know, I actually think that that idea is not wholly uncommon. I mean, the idea of rights that

[Ashbrook]

come from God can be read in a fairly benign way. That's amazing.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Even. Even her own guest on her own

[Ashbrook]

liberal to be like, oh, boy. Oh, Katie, I don't want to say you're a fucking moron.

[Duncan]

Can I do it politely? I don't know how to do it. Like, her own people, you saw, like, the dude in the middle, too, was

[Ashbrook]

like, yeah, no one's trying to swing at that pitch. Like, are you serious? She's like, the Declaration of Independence. Actually, the Constitution kind of outlines the laws, you idiot.

[Duncan]

You mean basic human inalienable rights don't go through the Commerce Committee.

[Smug]

She must have skipped over the endowed by our creator part.

[Ashbrook]

That's the thing, you know, Like.

[Smug]

Like, what an ahistoric idiot. And also, I love that McKay Coppins has to do this, by the way, the deep lore on that guy. I don't know if you guys remember this.

[Ashbrook]

He's why we have President Trump.

[Smug]

He's why we have President Trump. And I'm sure many of you listening and viewing this are learning that for the first time, but he is infamous for putting out that article. He was a BuzzFeed reporter, a BuzzFeed guy, you know, terrible outlet. They all they wanted to do was get clicks. And Trump was clicky at the time. And he was like, please, Mr. President or Donald Trump, run for President. And, like, then it happened. And so people were in his mentions for literally years being like, this is all your fault.

[Ashbrook]

This is all your fault, Trump. He was like, you won't run. You absolutely won't run.

[Sherry Jacobus]

He dared him.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah. How did that work out?

[Smug]

For Barack Obama.

[Duncan]

Yeah, just a good episode into the thoughts and the left. It is what it is. So we called here on the program when the Secretary of State did filled in for Caroline Levitt in the White House briefing room that obviously this is going to be Trump's updated Apprentice show and like, obviously he's going to have JD Come and do it. Well, we were right yet again, fellas. Surprise, surprise, J.D. vance came and did it this week. Clip 5 okay, so here, let me,

[Smug]

let me, let me answer your question here.

[Duncan]

That was a doozy.

[Smug]

Before I answer your question, I want

[Duncan]

to just observe there are different ways

[Smug]

to ask a question, okay?

[Sherry Jacobus]

You could just ask a question, try

[Smug]

to get your answer, or you could do like a speech where you say,

[Duncan]

you know, Mr. Vice President, every, you know, you're a terrible human being and so is the President, so is the entire cabinet.

[Smug]

And then I'm like, what's your question?

[Duncan]

And then your question is, how dare you. Come on, man, have a little bit of objectivity in the way that you ask these questions. Because there were a lot of things in that speech masquerading as a question that didn't actually get asked, okay?

[Ashbrook]

And that is so accurate because so many idiots in that room will have, they're just an angry left wing lunatic and they'll just have this like 30 minute speech of all their grievances. And it's like, so what are you going to ask a question? And I love that. JD Was like, here's the thing is, you know, this is a press conference. You're supposed to ask a question and get an answer like, what are you doing here? And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the reporter he was putting in place was Andrew Feinberg, who's a good friend of John Ashbrook's piece of garbage.

[Sherry Jacobus]

But his question asking style is quite different from the way that the ruthless variety program handled themselves. He gave a speech we asked very direct question. We said, Caroline Levitt, is the media out of touch? Very basic question.

[Ashbrook]

A White House correspondent.

[Smug]

She gave a great answer.

[Duncan]

She gave a great answer.

[Smug]

I gotta say, for J.D. what I saw in that was two things. Number one, a just awesome way of dealing with the media, which was a strength of Donald Trump's forever. And then the second part of it is the revealing the theater of politics part, which Trump also does really well. And JD Is both of those really, really well. We saw that a lot during that debate against Tim Walsh and in the way that he tussled with Margaret Brennan and Those other interviews and stuff, it really is a strong suit for JD the way he can disassemble the bullshit they're trying to get at, and also feels totally comfortable.

[Duncan]

And I can't tell you enough how uncomfortable standing at that podium ultimately is. I mean, you know, you've got 50 people staring you in the face that would love to just pants you if they could, and that's their whole job. That's why they're there. But him sort of playing on the inherent narcissism of the left journo with that is like a.

[Ashbrook]

And I think he has such experience in doing that. And I love that you brought up Duncan. His. His performance in the VP debates. I think folks continue to underestimate JD Vance. He has the ability to connect with the everyman because he is the everyman. He's lived the American dream. And at the same time, coming from nothing, he clawed his way up to graduate from Yale Law School. And so some idiot journo is gonna try to. Try to be like, this is debate Club. Okay, you're in the lion's cage now, dude. He'll take you from that angle, too. And that's what you got right now.

[Duncan]

You're famous.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

No, I mean, look, he's on a. A bit of a heater. I mean, I wasn't two, three weeks ago when Rubio did his. He. Rubio was on a heater. Well, J.D. vance is on a heater now. He had a big week last week with that fraud task force putting meat on the bone to actually deliver results, because I think he's correctly judged. Not only is it a right thing to do from a policy standpoint, but you can no longer complain about the problem. You got to do something about it. And so they rolled out what they were doing about it, of course, to absolutely hair setting on fire response from the left, which is exactly what you want. And followed that by a really strong performance behind the podium. I would feel pretty good if I was sitting in the VP's office.

[Ashbrook]

He's doing phenomenal.

[Duncan]

You're doing great work. All right, you guys ready for a game?

[Sherry Jacobus]

Always.

[Duncan]

It's our signature game here in the Ruthless variety program. We're going to play King of the Hill. Am I champion?

[Smug]

You are champion, Sherry. My Sherry, which, you know, I still contend you somehow save for whenever you need to play, but it's fine. It's whatever. And I'm the challenger, and I'm bringing smoking Joe Walsh.

[Duncan]

Oh, it's been a little bit.

[Smug]

We figured with your long maternity Leave. You'd be more comfortable in a judge's role. So you are the judge today. Smug.

[Ashbrook]

Happy to be the judge. Bring the order to this place.

[Duncan]

Put the robe. Get them robes on.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Smug]

And that is. That means Ashbrook is bailiff. So let's go ringside.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Ladies and gentlemen, you're attending. Attention, please. It's time for king of the hip. In the red corner, fighting out of an empty campaign office in Illinois, Smokin Jo. And now, in the blue corner, fighting from her Twitter account, and current champion of the world, Kagami Jerry Jacobus. I had to throw my. I had to throw my horse out there.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I was doubled up and I was like, I can't do the intro with two zins.

[Duncan]

12 mil, 12 milli.

[Ashbrook]

Spinning, riding the lightning. B's gonna be on the spot for this. Hey, don't mess around. This guy can see through time.

[Duncan]

He's not judging. Feels like it'd be an aggressive.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Got to reload here. I'm going to be the bailiff.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

Okay.

[Sherry Jacobus]

So I'm going to be on it. Smug. I'm going to be whatever you need. Just let me know.

[Ashbrook]

Tom Foolery in this court.

[Duncan]

Okay, so I think I'm going to start with something very, very simple from Sherry, where, of course, she's a big graphic person. So if you bring up exhibit four, what she's doing is highlighting something put out by the White House that basically talks from President Trump's mouth about if you, you know, you hurt Americans, we're going to find you.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Duncan]

She just simply says, Trump hurts Americans. Just no context. Just he's got this very patriotic. We've talked about it a lot. Like the Reagan era trust that our society had with our President, United States, that didn't matter where you were in the world. If you're ahead, a hair on your head was harmed. The American government was there for it. And he's repeating this, and she's like, no, Trump hurts Americans. It's just unbelievable.

[Smug]

Okay, I think I got something better. Exhibit number seven, please. Smokin Joe Walsh. I. I would notice still rocking

[Duncan]

the

[Smug]

no Kings hashtag, no Kings profile photo, which is like, man, the last Japanese soldier on an island. But he is, quote, tweeting a. Like one of these, like, classical liberals, you know, you know who's. Who's talking about. It's the.

[Duncan]

The.

[Smug]

The GOP is dead.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Sure.

[Smug]

Because Thomas Massie lost.

[Duncan]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Smug]

And so Joe Walsh, quote, tweets it to provide his thoughts here. I, too, come from the libertarian tradition and the Tea Party. And I echo every single word here by Josh Eagle. Which is why I became a Democrat.

[Ashbrook]

Amazing.

[Smug]

11 months ago. I'm not a Democrat because of policy. I'm a Democrat because democracy, the rule of law and pluralism are worth defending.

[Ashbrook]

I don't think we need to belabor this. I too am the legacy of the Tea Party. That's why I became a Democrat. That's a W, dude. It's settled. Like, that is the easiest win.

[Smug]

One other thing Smug, that I think is really funny about that is it reminds me, you know those people who are always like, I'm quitting social media. And then they never stop talking about how they're quitting social media.

[Duncan]

Totally.

[Smug]

Joe Walsh talks about leaving the Republican Party every single day. It's like, bro, nobody cares about this story anymore. It's been a year. Not to mention, like, you haven't been an actual Republican in like six. Anyway, okay, okay.

[Duncan]

Round two, round two.

[Ashbrook]

This could be a short game.

[Duncan]

Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

You know, that was kind of weak, that Sherry take was.

[Duncan]

You don't know what I have.

[Ashbrook]

Weak. I hope it's good. Dude. Two round loss for Sherry would be embarrassing.

[Smug]

Okay, this is another one on Massey. Dude, this guy just had bangers all over the place. Exhibit number nine, please. Joe Walsh is, quote, tweeting the clip we played earlier. You know the Tel Aviv. I had to call Tel Aviv. I swear, I'm just like, I oppose the foreign policy of the state of Israel and then like, mask off and it's like, I hate Jews.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Joe Walsh quote tweets it. I wish Massey had won because he's a principled, independent, limited government voice in the House who wasn't afraid to call Trump out for what Trump is. But Massie, like Tucker and many others on the right is an Israel hater. And this is an ugly, anti Semitic, cheap shot that will only feed more anti Semitism on both the right.

[Ashbrook]

That is an amazing take, dude. He's like, I wish Massey had won. Also, he's kind of an anti Semite. I said what I said.

[Smug]

And also, I'm a proud Democrat now. Bro, your entire New party is anti Semites.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I said what I said.

[Duncan]

I stand by the first sentence. Okay, well, I just. I was hoping to save this, but that is a good tweet. So I'm going to have to respond with something that I think is a real banger. Exhibit one, please. If real Donald Trump didn't have a tiny mushroom in tiny little hands, but rather was a normal sized man, I honestly think we'd not be where we are now with a destroyed, looted country. It's a straight penis commentary. And I feel like that's a. It's a callback to the stormy.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, that's the thing is, I don't know if this is necessarily like the storm. How. What year was that? Was that 2017?

[Duncan]

Yeah, like 2017, when they were saying,

[Smug]

like, tick tock, Muller time.

[Ashbrook]

Remember that? Yeah, like, dude, we're gonna have people who are like, it's 10 years old when that was going down who are gonna vote this year. Like, it's not really a throwback as it's stale. And this sucks because, like, usually Sherry Jacobus is, like, reliable for dropping.

[Duncan]

Hold on. Did you put up exhibit? Put it. Put it. The exhibit.

[Ashbrook]

Like, I mean, look at the imagery alone.

[Smug]

That's the thing.

[Ashbrook]

It's like, the cartoon market room is funny, but, like, dude, he just said that, like, I wish Massie had won. However, he's an anti semi, but with what I've said, like, that's just wild.

[Smug]

It's so.

[Ashbrook]

It's just so wild and hilarious, man. You can. You. You know, this is a show which. It's a meritocracy reward people winning and I can't believe Smoking Joe did it in two to share it.

[Duncan]

Wow. If penis content no longer does the trick on King of the Hill, I'm out of. I'm out of stuff.

[Ashbrook]

Oh, damn. Huge W. Like, how does Smoking Joe Walsh come through with this kind of content?

[Duncan]

The material, especially on the Massey stuff, it's sort of like barrel the bat for that guy.

[Ashbrook]

I want Massey to win, however. He's anti Semite, but I still stand with him. Guys,

[Sherry Jacobus]

I said what I said.

[Duncan]

All right, we got one more little bit of variety that we got to do here. Did you guys ever weep? Watch Boy Meets World?

[Ashbrook]

I did.

[Duncan]

So, Mr. Feeney, you know he was a teacher, right? Yeah, the mustachioed.

[Ashbrook]

I was a weird guy.

[Duncan]

Well, it turns out, yes, there was a page six expose on Mr. Feeney.

[Ashbrook]

Oh, boy.

[Duncan]

His name is William Daniels. He's 99. And Bonnie Bartlett, his wife, is 96. They're celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary next month. They're clarifying earlier remarks made about their open marriage.

[Ashbrook]

What? Yeah.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Just in time. 99 years old. No time like the present. Just in case, girl, you might be listening and wondering whether Mr. Feeny is available. Apparently, he is.

[Ashbrook]

Was anyone thinking about that? Nobody asked.

[Duncan]

Nobody asked the question, but Feedy's got the answers.

[Sherry Jacobus]

You know, he also played the role of John Adams in the Big screen presentation of 1776, who sang a song, vote yes. And apparently his wife did.

[Duncan]

Oh, my God. Several, several times.

[Ashbrook]

Where's his head? And there he was.

[Duncan]

Well, it turns out, as they explained, they never made the rules. Bill and I never sat down to make the rules. We never sit down and talk about these things. We just don't. We just live our lives. And if he's away for a year, he's away for a year.

[Sherry Jacobus]

A year.

[Duncan]

I can't imagine that's literal, but that's what she said. Our lives just went on, but we never got unhinged. We never got unhinged, but our lives go in different directions occasionally. And then she goes on to say, and it was a time when people were doing that. She continued. It was a time free love in New York where there was a lot of sex and a lot of people doing all kinds of things, you know, very free. Bartley confessed to having an affair that lasted a few months with a slightly boring actor in 1959.

[Ashbrook]

Wait, actor? Wait, who said this? The wife or the one?

[Duncan]

Yeah, but it's. It's Paige. It sounds like Feeny is like, it's Paige, so. Well, that's what you. Would you. If you're a normal human. But they don't call actresses actresses anymore when you're talking about.

[Ashbrook]

Oh, okay, okay, okay.

[Duncan]

So Daniels, meanwhile, stepped outside of their marriage with a producer in the 70s.

[Smug]

So they just cheat on each other?

[Ashbrook]

To clarify, we're just scumbag.

[Smug]

Yeah, it's like, 75th wedding anniversary. The key to our success. Not the wedding and not the. Not the marriage.

[Duncan]

It's like a time in your life where you're trying to do, like, the golden era. Like, oh, you know, life used to be so simple. I never would have made it this far without this person next to me. And like, oh, my whole family should revere that. I used to bang after.

[Ashbrook]

Here's the other thing is, like, I'm trying to. I did the math on this because I was like, is this some, like, Summer of Love nonsense? Dude, that was 57 years ago. These are 99. They were, like, in their 40s when Woodstock's going down. Being like, this is just, like, a normal thing. I think you're just, like, degenerate. There's, like, no excuse.

[Sherry Jacobus]

And speaking of the math, I mean, imagine the number of blue chews that this guy is taking down on the ray.

[Duncan]

Absolutely.

[Ashbrook]

He's on the IV, just devouring it, just walking around. 99.

[Duncan]

What are you doing? Arteries made of iron just Pumping.

[Sherry Jacobus]

He has a port.

[Duncan]

He wrapped the whole thing up to say, I wouldn't be with anyone else in my life.

[Smug]

I hope you're sitting next to me.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, you know.

[Duncan]

Well, there is no evidence to suggest that there was problems in that regard. Graphic 4, if we could pop that up. This is them today.

[Ashbrook]

It's not the only thing popping up with this guy. Shout out, Feeny bro. 99.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Thank God for that fake plant.

[Duncan]

Can I.

[Ashbrook]

He's out of control.

[Duncan]

That's all I have Say

[Sherry Jacobus]

the most merciful plant placement in the history of photograph.

[Duncan]

Can we pop the original graphic. Graphic three back up just so we can get a look at him? Look at this guy. Who knew that he was just a sorcerer.

[Sherry Jacobus]

He's looking at. He's looking at Cory and he's g. Telling him what's what.

[Ashbrook]

I know what's what.

[Duncan]

Let me tell you about that, Topanga. I'll show you a figure two, then.

[Smug]

A figure two.

[Sherry Jacobus]

You don't have to make any kind of commitment to her whatsoever, Corey.

[Smug]

God, I just feel like.

[Ashbrook]

I'll tell you what. How does this even become a story? Like, because. Because no one's out there being like, you know, pitching oppo on Feeny bro. And he's like, I want to clarify these comments, but this guy, this guy just like cold calls page six of being like, I got some thoughts.

[Duncan]

I think.

[Sherry Jacobus]

I think he's proud of it.

[Smug]

I think, like, look, you get to have some liberties when you're 99 and you're still say whatever the hell you want. You're entirely unfiltered because what the hell?

[Sherry Jacobus]

Well, and if you're a gamer like this, you've spent your life reading stories about Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and you're like, it's high time somebody writes about me.

[Duncan]

I think it's Wilt Chamberlain.

[Ashbrook]

Oh, yeah. They feel like you smeared cream. Don't talk about that, bro. I got a good marriage. Kareem.

[Smug]

Kareem's like, what the dude?

[Duncan]

Okay, fact check. Another second back guy, Will Chamberlain. Anyway, fe's got a stab in cabin everywhere he goes. I'm glad. I'm glad we've got all of that. Remember our question of the day when you like and subscribe to the ruthless Variety program. We read absolutely all of your answers and get back to the very next episode. Our question is, is Trump's strategy going to work? We covered it all in the first segment. Your thoughts and we'll get back to you on Fun Time Friday.

[Sherry Jacobus]

If you want to throw in an estimate on Feeney's number. Go ahead and put that in there.

[Duncan]

Just do the math on the days available.

[Sherry Jacobus]

Just don't undersell it or he's going to pitch another story.

[Duncan]

He's back out there to clarify

[Sherry Jacobus]

this time in the New York Times paper of record.

[Duncan]

Oh, I love it. All right. So with that, fellas, it's nice to have you back, buddy.

[Ashbrook]

Great to be back. And great episode, gentlemen. Absolute banger of an episode. So thank you to the Minions. Remember, question of the day, is Trump's strategy going to work? Go to the YouTube and hit that. Subscribe because it's more fun in video. So. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Friday. Stay ruthless.