Michael Duncan (2:42)

This program has become one of the

Josh Holmes (2:44)

most influential podcasts in America.

Michael Duncan (2:46)

I love the personality. You guys are huge.

Unknown Narrator 2 (2:48)

Killing it.

Comfortably Smug (2:48)

I just saw your number one.

Michael Duncan (2:49)

So congratulations.

Josh Holmes (2:50)

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

Michael Duncan (2:59)

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

Josh Holmes (3:13)

Well, you're gonna have yourself a good Tuesday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. My name is Josh Holmes. Comfortably Smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dials. Absolutely always. Fellas, I couldn't help but notice over the weekend, you put yourselves in grave danger. Smug and I, we were concerned deeply.

John Ashbrook (3:35)

Obviously, I know you were.

Josh Holmes (3:37)

And, of course, what we're talking about is the White House Correspondent's Dinner, of which there were family obligations that we had. And so our two adventurous souls dear down in the end, were there, and I thought we were gonna have to take one for the team there. Fellas. When I first saw the.

Donald Trump (3:57)

The.

Josh Holmes (3:58)

You know, the unveiling of what had happened, and whether or not I was like, you know, if they could have just winged Duncan, yeah, we would really be popular. Oh, the old man.

Comfortably Smug (4:12)

You know, when. When Secret Service was climbing on all the tables with, you know, submachine guns and pistols drawn, my first thought wasn't content.

Michael Duncan (4:25)

And so this is what happened.

John Ashbrook (4:28)

Here we go.

Comfortably Smug (4:28)

Smug.

Michael Duncan (4:29)

I got Matt Gorman sends me a text, and he's like, dude, something has happened. There's, like, a shooter at the wireless correspondence dinner. And my first thought, this is. I don't know how he's so plugged in. He got this, like, within 60 seconds of it happening. So, like, whoever in there was like, forget my family. I'm gonna. I'm gonna text Gorman that this shit's going down. Shout out Gordon for being that plugged in. My first thought, I texted our chat with us four, and I said, oh, my God. Ashbrooke and Duncan, are you okay? Are you okay? Genuinely concerned.

John Ashbrook (4:59)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (5:00)

And that lasted about two seconds.

Michael Duncan (5:02)

Ashbrook was like, we're fine. Thank God. And then I said, start filming. Go live on YouTube. I'll tweet up the link.

Comfortably Smug (5:10)

And I did the responsible thing. I followed the instructions of law enforcement.

Josh Holmes (5:14)

You did.

Comfortably Smug (5:14)

And kept my head down as they could clear the room and make sure the threat was neutralized.

Josh Holmes (5:18)

Well, when a Secret Service agent gives you explicit directives, the chances of you not following that are to your own peril.

Comfortably Smug (5:25)

And Smug's like, go live. Go live right now.

Michael Duncan (5:27)

We should. Honestly, we should have. We should have screenshot the text chain, because it was incredible. I always. I was the. I was telling the truth. I was like, listen, it's like, turnkey. It's one button. You go live on YouTube. Ash Brooks got his new little iPhone, you know, with the new cameras on it. I was like, just point that shit at Duncan. Duncan, tell Us what's going on? Go live. I'll tweet out the link. Because you saw, like, days later now, you know, you've got journos who are like, oh, my God, like, I feel like the Marines in Fallujah because I experienced, you know, the heart of combat. Yeah, but you saw, like, big ass potato. Steltzer jumps on stage and is, like, filming. Like, I've seen video. Like, Tapper's got, like, the phone sideways. He's got, like, sideways cam and just uploading with no caption.

Comfortably Smug (6:11)

And the thing that really bothered me about that, because I saw Salter's potato ass up there taking a panoramic shot of the entire crowd. As we're, you know, we're following what law enforcement said, which was, keep your head down, get under the table, because we want to make sure they have line of sight to clear the room,

Josh Holmes (6:27)

which is the most important part.

Comfortably Smug (6:29)

That's the most important part.

Michael Duncan (6:30)

Right?

Comfortably Smug (6:31)

And he's filming the whole thing. And then I see him on television on Monday talking about how the journalists are processing the trauma of the event. He's like, you didn't seem that traumatized, you know? And honestly, I mean, as Secret Service was climbing those tables, I actually felt pretty secure that they had locked down.

John Ashbrook (6:48)

I did, too. But there was a period of time when nobody really knew what was going on. And you sort of wondered, is there a shooter in the room? They were looking down and you're like, could somebody be in here? And there was all kinds of, like, stories everybody was telling. Somebody said, like, oh, the. A guy fired a gun over Todd Lyon's shoulder. Oh, there was a shooter. Up above in those cutouts were production cutouts. There was so much, like, misinformation in the room that you really didn't know what to think. And you're like, I'm not going to get waxed on behalf of a podcast. I mean, I've got a family. I have a family at home, so I'm going to do what the service is telling me to do. And then at the end of it, you're like, thank God I'm still this side of the grass. But there's no. The number one way dramatizing.

Michael Duncan (7:36)

Number one way you could have helped law enforcement is to get live cameras in there scanning the situation, providing, like, real time information. And you're just like, what? Chilling and having a creme brulee.

Josh Holmes (7:46)

It took you all about 30 seconds to turn into, like, where's the content, fellows?

John Ashbrook (7:50)

Which is what you would expect.

Michael Duncan (7:51)

He said, you're safe. He said, we're good, we're okay.

Comfortably Smug (7:54)

I did notice, Okay, I did notice that Smug was tweeting out a storm and obviously, you know, prayers to Donald Trump and the administration officials. Nothing for his friends.

Josh Holmes (8:05)

No, I did notice that too.

Michael Duncan (8:06)

That was obvious. You know, I don't have President Trump's phone number. I can't text and, and be like, are you okay? So I said, I want us all to pray for President Trump.

Josh Holmes (8:14)

You're not locking down what you had in the context.

Michael Duncan (8:16)

I didn't have my buddies and they said they were good.

John Ashbrook (8:19)

But here's the thing. The text messages were iterative because my cell phone really wasn't getting good signal. Even when I signed into the WI Fi, I couldn't really send anything out. I had to borrow somebody's phone next to me and her phone seemed to be working, so I was able to text my wife. But the stuff that you were sending, some of it came in later that night. You know, I would try to send something and it would just give like

Michael Duncan (8:44)

a grandpa excuse of like, oh, you know, I was looking at the phone and you know, how did these crazy things work? Because I saw everyone else in there firing out content non stop. There was that one gal, I don't know what her name is. She's like taking a selfie of being

Josh Holmes (8:58)

like, oh, no, we'll get to her, we'll get to her.

Michael Duncan (9:00)

But if they can get content up,

John Ashbrook (9:02)

you know, I mean, I don't know if it's my.

Michael Duncan (9:05)

Surrounded by journals. How do you not pick up the journo instinct? Like, if there's one place you can embrace your inner journey.

Josh Holmes (9:12)

Well, you know, I, in the time that it took me to concern myself about your well being, fellas, I missed out on a couple of good auction items at my kids school. You know, I was, I was too focused on my phone.

Comfortably Smug (9:24)

Thank you for your service.

Josh Holmes (9:25)

I missed vacations, I missed all kinds of different good offerings.

Comfortably Smug (9:30)

I'm really sorry you were inconvenient by me being in an active shooter situation.

Josh Holmes (9:35)

Apology accepted. Apology accept. Okay, so we got to get to all of this. I mean, clearly, look, this, it's the talk of the town. This kind of thing has been far too prevalent. But very rarely do journos have any sort of call like any receptivity to it, because it's not them. But in this case, it's their event and so takes on a life of its own. The one that you mentioned right off the top, I think her name was Olivia Rheingold. Just to have a look at clip

John Ashbrook (10:11)

one,

Josh Holmes (10:21)

We were just seated over. I'm seated near one of the doors, and. People are shouting, USA Now. I don't know. I just heard, like, four huge knocks by this door. Everyone.

Comfortably Smug (10:47)

I mean, get out of here.

Josh Holmes (10:48)

Oh, wait.

Michael Duncan (10:49)

I want to see Ash like that, bro. I want to see that.

Josh Holmes (10:52)

I'm not doing that.

John Ashbrook (10:53)

This is what journos do, makes people turn off.

Josh Holmes (10:56)

You couldn't have filmed your buddy in that prone state?

Comfortably Smug (10:59)

Well, I would just think in an active shooter situation, you probably shouldn't be standing up and filming. But if you are going to film, give people the view of what's happening rather than the selfie of yourself.

Josh Holmes (11:13)

Well, it is, in fact, a part of journalism that you film. What is the event that you're covering, not yourself, which is. I don't know.

Michael Duncan (11:23)

That's modern journalism in a nutshell.

Josh Holmes (11:25)

Somewhat of a golden rule. But I think in this day and age of complete narcissism, fellas, you could have filmed each other under the table.

John Ashbrook (11:36)

To be honest with you, buddy, I was like, there might be a shooter in here. I need to have my head on a swivel and be down and listen to the service. I mean, you do what Secret Service was telling me to do.

Michael Duncan (11:46)

Did you get nervous enough to hit the fucking life alert? To be like, I fall and I can't get up. I'm under the table. There may be an active shooting.

Josh Holmes (11:54)

Next thing you know, you got just, like, a crew, white coats that roll in. They're like, I'm sorry, we've got a life alert situation.

John Ashbrook (12:01)

Roasted.

Comfortably Smug (12:01)

The one thing that did make me feel a little bit nervous. So after, you know, Secret Service came in, stacked up and, like, running towards the stage, guns drawn and everything. Get Trump out, get JD out, get the whole diet out. And Hegseth and. And the various cabinet officials, then they started pulling out like. Like, Dan Scavino was. He's the one who was chaining usa. USA in that clip. And he was seated right next to

John Ashbrook (12:31)

us, right behind me.

Comfortably Smug (12:32)

And so, like, as they started pulling out more people, I was like, wait a second. I guess I don't have that score. I guess I'm just here by my lonesome.

Josh Holmes (12:41)

Hey, where's my guy?

Michael Duncan (12:44)

Hey.

Comfortably Smug (12:44)

I didn't know I needed a guy.

Michael Duncan (12:45)

Everybody's got a guy.

John Ashbrook (12:46)

Just a member of the shooting gallery.

Comfortably Smug (12:48)

Yeah. How do. How do I get out of the shooting?

Michael Duncan (12:50)

Like.

Josh Holmes (12:50)

Like a pin at a state fair.

Comfortably Smug (12:52)

Yeah, yeah.

Josh Holmes (12:54)

No, I. Dude, I. There's a lot of people that said that. By the way.

Comfortably Smug (12:57)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (12:57)

And they also said, I saw a hilarious commentary where it's like a new stat symbol in Washington, D.C. is like, who gets escorted out during a live shooter deal and who doesn't. And if you don't, like, you're not there yet. Yeah, you're not there yet.

Michael Duncan (13:11)

And it's a hell of a situation to find out where you are in the. On. On the totem pole.

Comfortably Smug (13:14)

You work so hard, you grind it out. I just want a guy to take me out.

John Ashbrook (13:18)

Well, you know, but now we know.

Comfortably Smug (13:20)

Yeah, now we know.

Michael Duncan (13:21)

We got to work harder.

Comfortably Smug (13:21)

We got to work harder, like.

Josh Holmes (13:23)

And subscribe to the ruthless variety program. So we can.

Comfortably Smug (13:27)

If we had a million subs on

Josh Holmes (13:28)

YouTube, we would have gotten it.

Comfortably Smug (13:29)

They would have escorted me out. So really, if you think about it, it's your fault.

Josh Holmes (13:34)

You haven't told your friends.

Comfortably Smug (13:36)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (13:36)

What are you doing to us? Our friends could have been hurt. Okay, so the other component that was. There's a bunch of sociological sort of experiments that go on during a thing like this. And you see it like, we've never been, thank God, in the middle of, like a, you know, shooting situation. But anytime there's any kind of evacuation or emergency, threat of which I've been a part of a ton of them. You can tell a lot about people in the way that they react, what their first instincts are. And I have mixed emotions about this next deal, which is a lot of journos, by the way. Once the room started getting cleared out, they're just all over the leftovers on the tables. They want the booze, they didn't get the dinner. They're going to take what they got clipped to. It's tragically, we've covered shootings. We've covered all sorts of.

Comfortably Smug (14:37)

They're taking pictures with the bottles, terrible

Josh Holmes (14:38)

events, but it's not. Look at that.

Comfortably Smug (14:40)

Everyone's taking the booze.

Josh Holmes (14:42)

One next to you.

Michael Duncan (14:44)

Round them up.

Josh Holmes (14:47)

And there was all kinds of selfies all night long about Chernobyl's. Basically, like, looking around the tables like, I don't know, we got nothing but full bottles of wine here. Like, this thing ended early. It's not going to drink itself.

John Ashbrook (14:58)

Here's the thing. I'm the guy who's going to stick up for journos, naturally. So I'll do it for them here. I'm not going to cast aspersions. A lot of these people have never actually been in harm's way. And they get to a difficult point in a night and they're like, I'M going to grab a bottle. So I'm not going to.

Michael Duncan (15:15)

So I will instantly pour water on that fake ass theory. Because here's the thing. I got my own story. So years and years and years ago, I'm at the New York State Republican Dinner, and this is young me. I have not been exposed to a bunch of journos, how they behave at these like, galas and such. And so at the end of the night, they're like, okay, everyone have a good night. And we like, you know, we're normal people, we get up from our tables and we start going home. And then I turn around, I look and like the table that I was seated at, where there's like, you know, half full bottles of wine, some full bottles of wine, like, you know, leftovers of bread, whatever. There's journals going like table to table. And they're. They take half full bottles of wine, they pour it into another half full and they're like getting bags and then close bottles of wine. They're pocketing those. I saw a giorno, putting dinner rolls in their bag, taking that home. And I was like, these people are locusts. They're going tables. It's like a boll weevil, you know, like if it's not, if it's not down, they'll consume it and they'll go table to table. And it was like the, the most horrific thing I'd ever seen. And I was like, these people are, are subhumans. They're not people.

Comfortably Smug (16:28)

Okay, well, the one thing I would say in their defense is they paid for the table. Like, it's, they wasn't pay for these weren't given away.

Michael Duncan (16:36)

Immediate organization paid for that table.

Comfortably Smug (16:38)

Well, okay, but I'm saying the company they worked for paid for the table. They paid for the wine. You know, and if you're going to have to stand there for two hours waiting for an Uber out of this Green Zone, I went outside and there were helicopters and the police had increased the barricade lines and everything. It felt like you were in Fallujah.

Josh Holmes (16:58)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (16:58)

You know, so I mean, if you could take a bottle of wine and hang out in the lobby and drink it while you wait an hour for an Uber. God bless.

John Ashbrook (17:04)

And it's not like it was great. It's not like it was chateau de Chateau 1922. It was basically MD 2020.

Comfortably Smug (17:12)

Famous double chateau.

Josh Holmes (17:16)

The only double shadow.

Comfortably Smug (17:18)

It's like a Michelin star.

Josh Holmes (17:21)

I had like an observation just on that point, which I. Look, I can't disagree. I probably would have Grabbed a bottle of wine. If he couldn't get out, I probably would have.

John Ashbrook (17:31)

Yeah, you want it?

Michael Duncan (17:31)

You wanted a bottle of wine.

Josh Holmes (17:32)

Once you know you're safe, like, you

John Ashbrook (17:34)

are where you're something to calm the senses.

Josh Holmes (17:36)

But this dinner has 2,600 people.

John Ashbrook (17:40)

It's a lot of people.

Josh Holmes (17:42)

The White House Correspondence Dinner has absolutely zero business having 2,600 attendees. I mean, when you filter through, it's supposed to be a dinner for, like, the most important operatives, administration officials, journalists who cover them and, like, you know, the people who, at that particular moment in time, contribute greatly to the national conversation. There is not 2,600 people in Washington, D.C. who do that. They're just not.

Michael Duncan (18:19)

You're 100% right.

Josh Holmes (18:20)

And then. And, like, you see some of the. I, dude, I laugh so hard because the people who should be invited to this kind of thing, like, they're in and out, you know, they just kind of do their thing. People who definitely should not be there are posting the fuck out of their, like, red carpet. They're like, oh, another. It's my 17th straight White House correspondents Dinner. And you look at it and you're like, what do you like exactly? There's not a single person there who knows who the fuck you are. Bingo, for starters. And the reason that that bothers me is not that it is what it is, because it's always been a shit show. The reason that I'm concerned about it is, like, there's a security problem with that.

Michael Duncan (18:58)

Yep.

Josh Holmes (18:59)

There's a reason why this became an issue in large part, is 2600 people. There's basically one, maybe two venues in all of D.C. that can handle that number of people. Just so happens that it's been consistently handled at the one other place where there was a presidential assassination attempt. The Hinckley Hilton.

Michael Duncan (19:16)

Right.

John Ashbrook (19:17)

Oh, the place is cursed.

Josh Holmes (19:18)

You know what I mean?

John Ashbrook (19:19)

The place is absolutely cursed. And I'll tell you one other thing, but there are a lot of reasons to be disappointed with the outcome of that night. One of them, I think, is that we didn't get to hear what Trump had to say.

Josh Holmes (19:31)

Yeah, you had some insight on that, dude.

John Ashbrook (19:33)

We talked to some of his people beforehand, and I will not divulge what we learned, because I do not want to step on this great president's ability to deliver what it is that he has coming, because he's earned it. You know, he went, you know, they say they're going to redo this in 30 days. I hope to God they do, because I think everybody Deserves the entertainment that will come with that guy's speech. It's going to be outstanding.

Josh Holmes (19:58)

He had some hot salsa.

John Ashbrook (19:59)

Oh, dude. And you know, it would have been delivered with perfection.

Josh Holmes (20:04)

Full showmanship, perfection.

John Ashbrook (20:06)

Nobody is, nobody has been prepared for that moment with the ability to deliver in that moment quite like Donald Trump.

Comfortably Smug (20:14)

He's gotten to think about it since President Obama roasted him totally 2011, you know, at the White House Correspondents Dinner. And now you look back at that video and it's like Obama got his comeuppance because he became president.

Josh Holmes (20:27)

I mean, I was at that one.

Comfortably Smug (20:28)

It's amazing.

Josh Holmes (20:28)

And it was, you know, I mean, people make a big deal of. It's like, was that the moment that he decided he was gonna run for president? Like, I don't know. Only he really knows that. But I can tell you from the room standpoint, there was like an odd spotlight or a, like, I don't know if it was intentional, but a light. Like you could see Trump and he was not happy about the whole thing. And he did not attend at any year of his first four years the White House Correspondents association dinner. And then this was going to be the absolute first one. So it really was like 10 years in the making. I know that he was ready to serve it back over. I hope we get that opportunity.

John Ashbrook (21:08)

I can't believe we were robbed of that.

Josh Holmes (21:09)

I know, I know. And what a psycho. What a psycho. So Donald Trump, in typical fashion, they deal with it. He does a press conference immediately afterwards, by the way, in a tux with everybody around in tux and formal wear. I like that look.

Comfortably Smug (21:28)

They should make that the standard uniform at the White House.

Josh Holmes (21:31)

It just looks great.

Comfortably Smug (21:32)

It looks great. It makes the photos pop.

Josh Holmes (21:34)

It just looks great. It's great stuff. But he's not done there. Somehow they decided to go do the 60 minutes routine and like, look, far be it for me to question why it is that the White House makes these kind of decisions. I know that they have some relationships and press that like, we don't understand and whatever, but they have Norah o' Donnell interview the President United States. Now this is predictable as the day is long. Like, it's going to be offensive. It's going to be ridiculous. You're less than 24 hours removed from yet another assassination attempt on the President of the United States. What is it that she asks? Well, I kind of get the sense that he's sort of ready for the worst because he just undresses her. Clip 3 the so called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President, he appears to raise reference, a motive. In it, he writes this, quote, administration officials, they are targets. And he also wrote this. I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction?

Donald Trump (22:40)

Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're.

Josh Holmes (22:43)

You're.

Donald Trump (22:44)

You're horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody.

Josh Holmes (22:52)

Oh, you think he was referring to you?

Donald Trump (22:54)

Excuse me, I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let's say, Epstein or other things. Things. But I said to myself, you know, I'll do this interview and they'll probably. I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I'm not any of those things.

Josh Holmes (23:29)

Mr. President's work.

Donald Trump (23:31)

Excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead.

Comfortably Smug (23:40)

It is disgraceful. It is disgraceful in the. Aw, shucks of it all.

Michael Duncan (23:44)

Like the.

Comfortably Smug (23:45)

Hold on. All right, Mr. President, I'm going to read the deranged ravings of a lunatic here. He says you're a pedophile and a rapist. How do you respond? It's like you know what you're doing.

Josh Holmes (23:55)

Do you remember when it was too dangerous to read manifestos?

Comfortably Smug (23:58)

Right.

Josh Holmes (23:58)

Wasn't long ago.

John Ashbrook (24:00)

Great point.

Josh Holmes (24:00)

But they all came from trans shooters that shot up schools. Too dangerous. It was too dangerous to read manifesto that is such. Because it actually, what it did is put out in the public a sick mind ideology that other sick minded ideological psychos would try to replicate. Well, not the case here. Why? Because it wasn't a 12 year old that was the target. It was the President of the United States. Like, what's the difference? We used to not do that. It was like in the last year we didn't read manifestos.

Michael Duncan (24:34)

Can I tell you what Nora's thinking? There is. I'm gonna get Trump. I'm gonna get him on my show and I'm gonna crush it on the ratings. And this is gonna bring a huge audience. And Barry Weiss is trying to clean up CBS and make it look respectable, and I'm gonna bring in such big ratings to be like, good luck. Try telling me what to do? I bring in the ratings and they got Trump and she got her ratings and Nora's happy.

Josh Holmes (25:04)

But again it goes.

Michael Duncan (25:05)

And that's it. It's like if you're gonna go on, on, on, on 60 minutes and you're going to go on Nora, she gets what she wants. Listen, you think calling her out for being a shitty monster matters to her? She knows she's a shitty monster, but she's a shitty monster, will do anything for ratings. And she got her ratings. You feed the beast. That's what happens.

Josh Holmes (25:26)

I mean you think just from a press like White House, like why do the interview? Right. Which is why how I sort of led this in. You would think that there would be a sense of decency upon yet another assassination attempt against our President of the United States that is now what, the third or fourth in a year and a half, two years. And you would think that that would be maybe a moment of unity where you could have a conversation with the audience that watches 60 Minutes. But of course not. But of course not. Right? So I don't really get it because this is just gonna be what it's gonna be.

John Ashbrook (26:11)

All of the efforts that everybody is trying to make to turn CBS into something other than a left wing machine for the absolute worst of our society are not working. You have this woman sitting in front of the President, United States, just hours after there was an attempted assassination against him. And you know, people in the room could have been killed. And it's not just Republicans who could have been killed. Journals could have been killed. Anybody could have been killed because there was a schizophrenic lunatic madman who ran in there with a gun. And she is like, oh, you know what, let me talk about why you're kind of the problem. Not we are the problem. The media will never self reflect, they will never take it upon themselves for what they are responsible for. And I'm telling you right now, everything that CBS is doing to try to be like, oh, you know what? Our network is actually trying to be middle of the road. We're not going to be like the other networks. None of it's working because the communists who control that organization are winning or

Michael Duncan (27:14)

got exactly what she wants. And that's the thing is like this isn't even like July 2024 again where they're like, hold on, like clearly we've gone a bit overboard. Let's have like they spent 24 hours where even the Dems turned off the ads. We don't even get 20 minutes anymore. They're right back at it.

Josh Holmes (27:31)

Yeah, I know it's getting sadder and sadder. And cnn, interestingly, has contributed to this in a couple of different ways. But the one that I found the most hilarious was they were about to launch a show that was entitled the Imperial Presidency. Can we get graphic 1A? This is Fareed Zakaria. First of all, I had no idea, like, what is he, what is he doing in this? Anyway, he says an update my latest CNN documentary, because that's the guy that you would definitely choose to do a documentary about a Republican president, United States. It's a CNN documentary. Quote, the Imperial Presidency will air at a later date. We'll keep you posted. Well, they didn't think that they could go after yet another assassination attempt with something that, I don't know, might encourage people for more assassination attempts. We'll give that a week or so.

Michael Duncan (28:30)

The Imperial Presidency. Unrelated, a bunch of these no kings protests reference to Trump being like an imperial president, a king. And also one that the assassin, the attempted assassin would attempt. But we got to push down the road a little.

Josh Holmes (28:45)

Got to push it down the road. So you were all over twits, as you said, and you were covering all of this and watching information flow in real time, including an awful lot of journalists that were acting like they were storming the beaches of Normandy at the time. Meanwhile, this is a environment where the four of us, anybody in the administration and basically anybody involved in Republican politics over the last six years has experienced firsthand. It's what we think about every day. There is a leftist violent thing. You've got to think about safety. It's just what we have to do. Journals don't have to think about that because they're always inside the ropes. They can always deal with the safety and security that is provided for them by basically associating themselves with the person that they're trying to cover. Rarely does this all come out, but there was a whole bunch of things that were involved in the Internet. You flagged a couple of posts.

Michael Duncan (29:43)

Yep. So specifically about that Free Zakaria one, there was a graphic one. Holden had a great tweet where he said they keep having to delay programming on right wing fascism because of left wing violence. And he's got a screenshot of that like Apple show that Apple Stream was gonna put out about a lady who goes undercover tracking like right wing radicalized groups and that had to get put on the back burner because another left wing psychopath had tried to kill Trump in 2024. And they're like earlier, like a month ago, Apple announced, they're like, okay, we're going to air this show. And then this happens. And it's like, that's the thing, I think, to really put all of this in perspective is we've been fed this lie by the media, by these left wing groups, by the splc, who's having to fund the right wing radicalism that they think is a problem of, wow, right wing fascism is a threat to this country. Yet time and time again there's an episode of left wing violence and then they're like, oh, shh, quietly, we have to put that shit on the back burner. Wait until we can air it.

Comfortably Smug (30:53)

Yeah, that only works when things are quiet and we can lie to people.

Michael Duncan (30:57)

It's all just this fake cottage industry where Fareed Zakaria is like, oh, I have a documentary about right wing fascist Donald Trump.

Comfortably Smug (31:05)

What the hell does he do at cnn? Is he like director of special projects? Who the fuck knows? I can't think of a person more divorced from like, having their finger on the pulse of Republican politics.

Josh Holmes (31:16)

Literally can't think of anybody. But listen, it is not an accident as to why it is that we

John Ashbrook (31:23)

are where we are.

Josh Holmes (31:25)

And we come back. We're going to get to you a little bit of the media stuff that led up to all of this that may put a little bit of a finer point for all of you about why we're in this situation in the first place. Right after this.

Unknown Narrator 2 (31:41)

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Josh Holmes (32:43)

Okay, Jimmy Kimmel, you know, very funny, late night host. Everybody just enjoys the comedy that comes out of abc. Nothing but yucks, right? I mean, it's a regular Shane Gillis routine each and every night. This asshole, I mean, this is just an absolute clown. This guy made his living creating the man show, grabbing boobs and telling dick jokes. And all of a sudden as a puritanical feminist who's left of the furthest left in this country and just begins to, you know, sort of soft pedal this basically Hamas left type mentality. And he, this is a precursor to what it is that we saw on Saturday. What is it that he's saying that may inspire crazy people to do crazy things? Clip 4.

Comfortably Smug (33:37)

Our first lady Melania is here. Look at Melania. So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

Josh Holmes (33:45)

Hilarious.

Comfortably Smug (33:45)

Yeah. And everybody laughs. It reminds me of that Colbert clip where they were cheering on all the Teslas being burned.

Josh Holmes (33:54)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (33:55)

You get the sense that like the audience now for these shows do agree with violence. They like it, you know. Yeah.

John Ashbrook (34:04)

You know, we can pipe in laughter too.

Josh Holmes (34:06)

Yeah, yeah. But I mean, it's genuinely incredible to me that if you, if you mainstream and normalize assassinations of the President United States, which is what that is, I mean, don't, don't make any mistake. That's not like a flippant comment or joke or whatever. I'm all for the edgiest humor you can possibly find, I really am. But when it's consistently partisan and in this case, edging on, assassinating a president, I don't care if it's Republican or Democrat. I really don't. It's President United States. You're in a different ball game. Like you're normalizing people.

Michael Duncan (34:44)

But I think that's a critical part of this whole story is the media environment and the political environment is only towards one direction on this. Like we saw. The SPLC essentially is funding any of the radicalism coming from the right. It's all fucking made up. And I hate always giving the example of, oh boy, imagine if Republicans did this. But imagine if you were a late night host and you crack a joke about, boy, wouldn't it be funny if someone assassinates Obama? Dude, done. Your career is over.

Comfortably Smug (35:20)

A rodeo clown put an Obama mask on at a rodeo.

Josh Holmes (35:24)

Yeah, it was done.

Comfortably Smug (35:24)

And it became national news because it was disrespectful of the President United States. Yeah, Think about that. Yeah, it wasn't that long.

Josh Holmes (35:32)

Well, this is what the gatekeepers do in their gatekeeping. Right. But everybody went to bat for this guy. No, you can't throw him off the air. He's a comedian. He's being funny, servicing his audience. No, he's not. Like this is agenda based. But it's also corrosive as shit. It's ridiculous. You're not gonna find anybody on Fox News doing shit like that, Right? You're never gonna find any like decent, well adjusted human being.

Michael Duncan (35:56)

And the only reason like that, the only reason he's in that position and losing his job, it's not cause his ratings because no one was watching his show to begin with. It's because he's a part of the machine, of the permission structure of the left, of like, oh, look, abc, they're on board with us, they're on the team because they've got their late night show attacking Trump. And that's what matters to us.

Josh Holmes (36:17)

Yeah, I mean, so you recall the last couple of weeks we've done segments, huge segments on Hasan Piker, who has basically been the de facto spokesperson for a Democratic majority takeover of the House

Michael Duncan (36:33)

and Senate, campaigning with their Senate. This is not hyperbole.

Josh Holmes (36:37)

And you have candidates falling head over heels to try to get any sort of time with him because he is activating the grassroots. The New York Times takes it upon themselves to feature him in a conversation about violence and about theft and about all kinds of just normalizing all of this shit. What do we got from him?

John Ashbrook (36:59)

Clip 5 and you actually wrote about

Comfortably Smug (37:02)

this and it was a great video where you talked about, you know, someone has to do it.

Josh Holmes (37:09)

See, when I say that, everyone knows exactly what I mean, which is, I

Comfortably Smug (37:14)

think that shows that there's a lot of anger, a lot of resentment and untapped potential, untapped revolutionary potential, as a matter of fact.

John Ashbrook (37:24)

And it's a great opportunity for organizing,

Michael Duncan (37:26)

I think, in these unprecedented straight up, someone has to do it. And he even says himself, everyone knows what I'm talking about. What he's talking about is attacking and killing the President of the United States. He's saying, straight up, everyone knows what I'm talking about. Assassinating Trump. And the crowd cheers. And he's like, but this is something that can be tapped into. The trouble with him is he's too honest.

John Ashbrook (37:50)

This is a great principle for organizing.

Michael Duncan (37:53)

Exactly.

John Ashbrook (37:54)

Get out of here.

Comfortably Smug (37:54)

But first he says this is a great opportunity. And then he catches himself and he says a great opportunity for organizing, which is the wink, wink of the whole

Josh Holmes (38:04)

thing, which if you're a maladjusted human being. You heard the first part, right? Loud and clear. So you might say to yourself, oh, well, they're the ruthless fellas. Again, highlighting this psychopath as if he's a spokesperson for the Democratic Party. He's not. He's Sort of a fringe player. All right, well, let's take it from the Democratic leader himself. Next clip.

Unknown Narrator (38:29)

We are in an era

Unknown Narrator 2 (38:32)

of maximum

Unknown Narrator (38:34)

warfare everywhere, all the time.

Michael Duncan (38:41)

That's critical.

Josh Holmes (38:42)

Okay. And to be clear, what he's not talking about is the war against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, people who have fentanyl. Fentanyl. People who've committed 46 separate terrorist attacks against American citizens over four decades, killed thousands of Americans that we were engaged in. Currently, he's not talking about that. Talk about Donald Trump. He's talking about Republicans. Warfare. Warfare. And, like, look, again, I'm not. I. I am not a fan of just, like, wringing my hands and being Pollyannish and weird about political rhetoric. It gets heated. It does what it does. But the consistency on the left of normalizing violent rhetoric, violent rhetoric against, in particular, Donald Trump in this day and age cannot be ignored. It can't be.

Michael Duncan (39:42)

And his supporters. And you saw it from Maxine Waters when she was like, you have to confront them wherever they are. You heard it from Nancy Pelosi of being like, we're gonna fight them everywhere. The message being that if you are a Democrat anywhere in this country, it's incumbent upon you, it's part of your responsibility as a citizen to confront any conservative and Republican, whether they're at a restaurant trying to have a meal. They've created this environment under the guise of, like, oh, you know, you're doing that good trouble of you're doing the activism by rolling up into restaurants. We saw this during COVID during. During the Summer of Love. We saw these activists going restaurant to restaurant, being like, you need to get out of this restaurant right now. You need to march with us or we're gonna destroy shit.

Comfortably Smug (40:31)

I mean, it's true and smug. You say it all the time. But, like, the left has enforcers.

Michael Duncan (40:37)

Yep.

Comfortably Smug (40:37)

They have shock troops ready to show up whenever they get a little uncomfortable with a policy outcome. A little uncomfortable.

Unknown Narrator 2 (40:45)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (40:45)

Right. They got armies of people, whether that's BLM or no Kings, or the transgender lunatics who decide to shoot up Christian schools and kill kids. Right. Or a lunatic who assassinates Charlie Kirk or Luigi Mangioni, who shoots the head of United Healthcare in the back of that, you know, in his back on the street corner. It's like they have these shock troops out there that they can activate either through that rhetoric. And I agree with you. Don't want to be wringing my hands about it. But, like, we have now very clearly a body of work, and the only way that exists on the Right. Is when the SPLC funds it in

John Ashbrook (41:20)

the main in the mainstream media will never condemn them for it.

Comfortably Smug (41:25)

I know.

John Ashbrook (41:26)

Never, under any circumstances. What the mainstream media does is quote them to the President of the United States. The morning after he was like, there was an attempted assassination.

Comfortably Smug (41:37)

It's outrageous.

John Ashbrook (41:38)

They only quote them.

Michael Duncan (41:40)

And it's the exact opposite is like, if you're Luigi, if you go commit left wing violence, the press is going to give you coverage of like, you know, there are girls who are trying to marry Luigi Mangione. There's a girl who's dating an AI of Luigi Mangion. That's the coverage you get. If you're one of their troops, if you're out doing violence in the name of the left wing cause is they'll be like, did you know that there's all these girls outside the court?

John Ashbrook (42:07)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (42:09)

When you push a boulder on level footing, you maybe make it a foot or two. When you push a boulder that's on a steep cliff of mental health decline, it can roll real fast and it can hurt a lot of people. And I think increasingly what we're seeing on the left is a real mental health issue 100% that is extremely significant. And it's not political in the nature that we talk about here on the program on a day to day basis. It's not like, do you have a different idea of how to accomplish the problems that we have society, homelessness, the economy, foreign policy. It's this sense of hopelessness and then a schizophrenia and then, you know, maybe more significant violent tendencies. All these other things that the progressive left is sort of wrapped around and said, how dare you criticize these things? Right. We see the same things with these trans shooters. It's how dare you question whether or not them identifying with things that aren't real are not just the same as you and me. And then you see how they react to rhetoric like what it is that we're talking about. It's pushing that boulder down a hill. That it is predetermined that it's going to be problematic. When Dave Chappelle goes out to a well adjusted audience, I don't care if they're Republican or Democrat, and he says offensive things, people laugh, maybe people don't laugh, but you all go home and you had a good time and everything was fine. When you say shit that is from elected leadership that condones or at very least minimizes violence against elected officials, the government of the United States and all these other things. And you do that to a concentrated audience that is predisposed to be problematic, you're going to get problematic outcomes. And that is what the problem is with the modern left. And there is nobody, nobody in the journalistic left that will blow a whistle on any of it ever. They just won't. They're still pretending like the real problem with us was white supremacy. Yeah. I mean, there's still like, it doesn't fucking exist. And by the way, they have the same mental health issues that we're talking about here. The only difference is that there isn't a single Republican that's giving them, feeding them something to work with. They are. And they're feeding these people on a consistent basis and they're convincing these people that their way of life, that they themselves are a target of a government that's coming after them. Why should we be surprised that you get crazy people who do crazy things when you just are a gatekeeper of misinformation to these people?

Michael Duncan (44:59)

That's the thing. Is this individual the latest. It's incredible to have to say that the latest would be assassin trying to kill President Trump attended no Kings protest, was an absolute sponge for the mainstream left message. I'm not talking about like, well, he existed in these secret online situations.

Josh Holmes (45:18)

Well, they're trying to surf it. Smug. They're trying to surf it. What they're doing is looking at a whole bunch of people who are chronically misinformed about what's happening on a day to day basis. And they are seeing the anger out of that misinformation and they're feeding it in the hopes that that whole mass of people turns around and says, like, yeah, you get power now you can run stuff because we're all coming out for you. Because apparently you get my anxiety about it. Instead of doing the thing where you're like, dude, let's just chill this thing out because it's more important for the power than it is.

Michael Duncan (45:55)

That's the thing. It really struck me this time is because I remember even people like Pelosi, in the wake of the July 2024 attempted at Trump's assassination, even they were like, it's time to tone down the rad. You did not see that for a second. Hakeem Jeffrey's out there like, don't forget right wing radicals, dude. They have zero reflection. Not only, not a second to wait.

John Ashbrook (46:21)

Not only did you not see it, the CBS News flagship program read the manifesto to the President of the United States. Like, it was a legitimate thing to read to him. Yeah, I mean, it was the exact opposite of what you expect Americans to be.

Josh Holmes (46:38)

Have we still. Have we seen the manifesto from the Nashville shooter several years ago?

John Ashbrook (46:43)

Nobody.

Josh Holmes (46:43)

Have we seen that. I was told that it was too dangerous to read manifestos. What do you suppose was the difference between that?

Michael Duncan (46:48)

Well, it was clearly going to be some left wing shit, thinking, regurgitating everything. Left wing people say they're like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Josh Holmes (46:55)

People could surmise that they were optimized and maybe weaponized by the left. Do you think maybe that that was the takeaway?

Michael Duncan (47:05)

And when you had elected Democrat officials wearing these shirts of like, protect trans kids with guns and knives on them, telling trans people that you realize Donald Trump is going to get rid of trans kids. This is gonna be a genocide. This is a fight for your life. And then they see these string of shootings and the messaging doesn't change is. Because that's what it was designed to do in the first place.

Josh Holmes (47:28)

Yeah, it's ridiculous. So you guys enc some of this stuff on the way in. We have a graphic in graphic 3. Some protesters outside of the White House Correspondent's Dinner. And this is before. I think it was before, actually. It looks a little dark, so maybe it's even after the shooting. But you encountered it firsthand on the way in.

John Ashbrook (47:48)

Dude, every single group of people was holding different foreign flags. They were all yelling at everybody, you should die. You're the worst. Like, fuck you. It was insane. Okay? It was insane. And the people walking into this room, it's not all were like conservative Republicans, like the old man and me. It's a lot of journos walking in and they're just yelling at them too. And so there were unhinged people from start to finish walking into this room.

Comfortably Smug (48:21)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (48:22)

And Duncan. Duncan saw some of them while he was walking out.

Comfortably Smug (48:25)

You know, I gotta hand it to him. Apparently some message had gotten out after the shooting because the police had cordoned off like multiple lanes there, you know, in Dupont Circle and everything. But they were very quiet as people were filing out, which I thought showed a little bit of organizing. So good on them.

John Ashbrook (48:45)

They were not quiet when I walked out. You walked out a little bit before I did. When I walked out, they were yelling the same old thing.

Michael Duncan (48:51)

Can we go into depth?

Comfortably Smug (48:52)

Depth about that?

Michael Duncan (48:53)

You.

John Ashbrook (48:53)

You should die. So all of that.

Michael Duncan (48:55)

So I want to go into depth about this. And it's probably not the way you thought it was going to go, but I'm going to be honest. So here's the thing is, is at the end of the night, it's Been a trying night that some unhinged person has tried to murder the president. And Duncan's like, I. I want to go home to my family and my kids. And he's like, all right, let's go, Ashbrook. And Ashbrook's like, I'm not going. I'm gonna hang out with my journal buddies. I want you to get the out there with these looney.

Comfortably Smug (49:17)

He made me walk alone. I had to walk a lonely road on the boulevard of broken dreams.

Michael Duncan (49:23)

They did say, nash, looks like my journal buddies are in here.

John Ashbrook (49:25)

They did say the president might come back. So I waited and hoped.

Michael Duncan (49:29)

That's not why you waited, bro. You waited for your journal buddies. You got to think about your real friends, I gotta say, because those journals aren't your real friends. Duncan is our real friend.

Comfortably Smug (49:37)

I felt. Yes. Smug. Was defending me that whole time.

Josh Holmes (49:42)

I could tell by his.

John Ashbrook (49:43)

Just look at his Twitter feed there.

Josh Holmes (49:44)

Concern. Yeah. It's acute concern for your health and well being.

Michael Duncan (49:48)

You're. You.

Comfortably Smug (49:49)

You wanted me winged. I can't wait for my mom to hear that in the beginning of the episode. She's gonna text me immediately. She's like, tell Josh you.

Josh Holmes (50:00)

It's jokes. It's jokes. Karen, we're having a good time, as we always do here on the variety program. We come back, there's some lighter moments from some people that I can't believe believe are actually invited to this thing right after this. All right, so the old fat man took a break from King of the Hill to show up. Dude, I find it when I talked about the fact that 2600 people. I don't know if he was invited. There's a whole lot of people who show up to, like, the parties, because every media group likes to pretend like they have the coolest party. It's the dumb. First of all, it's the dumbest thing. This is not the Oscars, and the Oscars aren't even the Oscars anymore. But, like, it's. It's just not. There was a time in a place where this thing was actually pretty cool.

Michael Duncan (50:49)

When me and Holmes went, it was different. It's not like anybody with a pulse get in the building.

Comfortably Smug (50:55)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (50:56)

You know, when it used to be a thing, it used to be a thing. And now that it's like, you know, whoever shows. That's why I was like, ash will take my ticket.

Comfortably Smug (51:04)

Very generous of you. Smoke. So Steve Schmidt is who we're referring to, but I think he was at the substack party. I don't think he was at the actual.

Josh Holmes (51:11)

So this dude didn't even get invited to it, but he flies from Utah or whatever it is that he lives.

Michael Duncan (51:16)

If you can't crack the top 2600

Josh Holmes (51:18)

in D.C. that's what I'm saying, you know, but Even the top 2600, I saw some pictures from inside there where I was like, I remember when you were a spokesperson, like, 26 years ago for something that mattered. Like, I have not seen your name.

Michael Duncan (51:31)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (51:32)

Since. And they're still involved. That's a way too big of an invite list if we're dealing with that. But Steve Schmidt, whether he was there or not, was in D.C. as a part of the celebration of the White House Correspondence Association. And this guy, Tim Rice, got him on camera. Check this out. Clip 6. Don't we have a. Don't you know? Is there a rhetoric problem?

Michael Duncan (51:53)

I mean, it's the third time they're trying to kill the President.

Josh Holmes (51:57)

I think that there's one person beyond and all, above all others, he's responsible for poisoning the rhetoric in America. That guy's name is Donald Trump. You're saying it's the President's fault that people keep trying to kill him? Yeah. What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? What do you mean, what do I mean? I asked. We have a rhetoric problem, he said. The President has done more to poison the rhetoric. I mean, the President's supporters are the ones shooting.

Michael Duncan (52:30)

He may not have been at the party, but I think he got his hands on some of the wine bottles that were taken out of that place.

John Ashbrook (52:35)

I hope. I hope he types it out so that we can play him this week, fellas.

Comfortably Smug (52:40)

That's why there's no tomorrow without zebiotics today.

Michael Duncan (52:48)

Well said.

Josh Holmes (52:49)

I don't think I can. I don't think I can. Add on to that. There was also this hilarious little parlor game that was happening inside of D.C. that had to deal with this cat, Michael Glantz. Well, no, no. There's two different things that are happening. First of all, let's play clip 7. Who's in the room? Secretary Pete Hegseth is in that room. You've got Scott Bessant. Watch this cat in the white hair here. If you're a YouTube subscriber, watch him sit here.

Comfortably Smug (53:20)

Watch.

Josh Holmes (53:21)

Going for the salad, naturally, the President of the United States. And as John mentioned, they've evacuated the room. Everybody's under the table.

Michael Duncan (53:28)

Amazing. Amazing.

John Ashbrook (53:30)

He was hungry. Guy was hungry. Was that Duncan? Was that a burrata or a mozzarella on the salad?

Comfortably Smug (53:39)

The consistency Struck me as more of a burrata. The cheese to vegetable ratio was all off. Way too much cheese. It wasn't very good. But he was not going to get under the table. He was going to demand to eat his salad.

Josh Holmes (53:56)

He was going to demand to eat his salad, which I appreciate. He's. I think he's the head of, or at least the top agent at caa. So this is like an important guy and he's doing his thing. But, like, what I found so hilarious about is the nonchalantness of the salad eating. It's not like he was totally unconcerned with the situation. He was just like, yeah, what else am I gonna do? You know, I need to eat.

Michael Duncan (54:18)

He's a CAA guy.

Josh Holmes (54:19)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (54:20)

Honestly, like, you know, I think that's a compliment. Because if you're thinking about. If you're in the market for an agent, literally, how do they behave under fire Rose? Literally, cool as a cucumber. He'll have his salad.

Josh Holmes (54:30)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (54:31)

He'll look out for. Cause guys still at work, their respect, you know, their esteem. In my eye, he's.

Josh Holmes (54:36)

He's got, you know, he's got to get.

Michael Duncan (54:37)

His substance is out on the line under the, you know, there's shots being fired. He's. He's still at it. Good for caa.

Comfortably Smug (54:45)

His body should be on top of one of his clients. That's. That would be a true agent.

Josh Holmes (54:50)

That would be a true agent. No question about it. All right, so there was also this shit outside where this leftist apparently. I don't know if it got the memo or didn't get the memo, but, like, when somebody tries to assassinate the President of the United States. Don't charge the motorcade, folks. Don't charge the motorcade. Well, this lady found out the hard way. Clip bait. No, mate.

Michael Duncan (55:12)

Hey, hey. Stay behind the perimeter.

Josh Holmes (55:20)

Do not.

Comfortably Smug (55:29)

You're locked up.

Michael Duncan (55:31)

Lock her up.

Josh Holmes (55:33)

Lock her up.

Comfortably Smug (55:34)

Lock her up. Oh, this is great.

Michael Duncan (55:41)

I was shocked inside.

Comfortably Smug (55:43)

Are you okay?

Michael Duncan (55:44)

I literally worked for le.

Josh Holmes (55:48)

I've been focused on the impeachment and

Michael Duncan (55:49)

removal of Donald Trump.

Josh Holmes (55:51)

And right now I'm a digital organizer.

Michael Duncan (55:54)

Just like so many a digital organizer.

Josh Holmes (55:56)

I'm a digital organizer. Free beach for people.

Michael Duncan (56:17)

Bingo. And that thing echoing exactly what's in the manifesto of this psycho. It's almost like the left has been pushing this out to unhinged people. Back up.

Comfortably Smug (56:30)

Listen to the screaming. These people are unwell.

Josh Holmes (56:34)

That's what I'm saying.

John Ashbrook (56:35)

But see, imagine. Imagine two dozen of these women and they were surrounding Duncan and I When we were walking in holding the Palestinian

Michael Duncan (56:46)

flags, gentlemen, how long was that clip? Was that 45 seconds or something like that? So here's the thing is part of the problem here is the left is like for, for, for folks who saw the first Jurassic park movie. You know, the Raptors, they always like, they're like, oh, they checked the cages. They look for weakness. How long are we going to let these lunatics basically test the cages? She ran out. She ran after the president's motorcade after an attempted assassination. Why did the cops there. I back the blue. That's great. Why did not baton her in the face instantly? Because here's the thing is the left has learned the lesson of test the cages. Oh, you'll be a hero. She'll put that video out on her Facebook because she's going to get let out in minutes. She's not going to have to post bail. It's a blue city across this country. If you commit a crime and you're like, I was fighting fascism and Donald Trump, the DA is going to let you out. No charges are going to be pressed. And they keep at it and they keep doing this shit. A guy tried to murder Donald Trump. We saw him barely miss a bullet came right within a quarter inch of his brain. And business as usual, they murder Charlie. Business as usual. If you see someone run out after the president's motorcade, after someone tried to kill him, you billy club him across the face. Get on the same page as everyone else in this country who realizes this is the thing is, it's not just Trump. They will kill anyone who is to the right of Bernie Sanders if they can. And they will be made a hero

Josh Holmes (58:11)

if they think they're a threat. Also, just, I don't know, maybe a public service announcement to parents out there. You don't have eyes on your kids during school. There's a lot of shit being taught to them. Them, they get, they pick up a lot of different things. If you think there is at least some possibility that your son or daughter could be a liberal digital organizer for the left, put them in a cage.

Michael Duncan (58:43)

It's even better.

Josh Holmes (58:44)

Put them in a cage, feed them water.

Comfortably Smug (58:48)

Yeah, but the guy who got arrested was a teacher.

Josh Holmes (58:50)

Beat them Samaritan.

Michael Duncan (58:51)

The guy who got arrested is a teacher.

Josh Holmes (58:53)

So they're going to like some beatings until.

Comfortably Smug (58:56)

Might I suggest something, though? Is that the genesis of most of the mental health problems in America in digital organizers on the left is they don't have a relationship with their parents.

John Ashbrook (59:08)

Oh, that's probably right.

Josh Holmes (59:09)

Okay.

Comfortably Smug (59:09)

They long ago cut off ties with their parents.

Josh Holmes (59:14)

I think you're right.

Comfortably Smug (59:15)

But now she gets to organize her way right to a jail cell.

Josh Holmes (59:17)

She can organize her way.

Comfortably Smug (59:19)

She'll be out.

Josh Holmes (59:20)

I mean, he's not wrong.

Michael Duncan (59:23)

She's going to be out and she's not even going to have to post bail. Yeah, and she's going to be out the next day because of Soros. Folks, that's the thing, is all the DA's in all these town, all the towns across America that you see this kind of nonsense, you know, it's that whole joke of like, try this in a small town is because this shit doesn't fly in a red state. But in blue towns, oh, all the DAs that are put in there by Soros, they'll let you out. There's no problem. That's the thing, is she knows that you're seeing the confidence of an individual who knows they will face zero consequences. Zero consequences. And they faced zero consequences. They gave her 45 seconds to be screaming and shouting. You've got 10 cops being like, okay, ma', am, can you please calm down? Billy club her across the face. You just rushed at the President after an assassination attempt. We used to have consequences in this country. That's why people didn't act up.

John Ashbrook (60:11)

That's true.

Josh Holmes (60:12)

You're not wrong. I mean, you're not wrong. I mean, for those of us well adjusted human beings, we all assumed that if you rushed a gate with a metal detector, you were gonna get shot on the spot.

Michael Duncan (60:25)

There were people who did time for doing a burnout on a pride flag over the summer of 2020 when we all had to be lectured about how America is a racist nation. And you're all horrible people. There are people who did jail time for doing a burnout on a pride flag drawn on the street. She's not gonna do time.

Comfortably Smug (60:47)

No.

Josh Holmes (60:48)

You'll be happy to know that the former President United States Barack Obama was on top of the news weeks. Or, I mean, it was probably a day after a manifesto was released. CBS News Reddit, Norah o' Donnell read it to the President of the United States.

John Ashbrook (61:03)

Of course she did.

Comfortably Smug (61:04)

The healer in Chief.

Josh Holmes (61:05)

And Barack Obama apparently didn't see any of that, so he posted a message. If we can pop that up. Although we don't have the details about the motives behind last night's shooting at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, we may never know. It's incumbent upon all of us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy. It's Also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice the US Secret Service agents show every day. By the way, that's just like back at. It's a self serving thing because those are the people who are around him all the time. I'm grateful to them, thankful to the agent who was shot and is going to be okay. We don't know. We couldn't possibly.

Michael Duncan (61:47)

It's like that meme of like, leftists make it impossible to have discourse because they act like they don't understand. Yeah, like, he's like, wait, this is hours after the dude, he everywhere.

Comfortably Smug (61:58)

He posted this at 5pm on Sunday.

Josh Holmes (62:01)

Yeah, it's already, dude, we've already run this.

Michael Duncan (62:03)

We may never know what caused it. The. The guy behind this sent a letter out which has now been broadcast. Like, you cannot get more obvious about what the motive was. Like, if you're in Times Square there, There's like size 500 font going across buildings being like, motive is known. Shooter says that he did this because he hated Donald Trump, attended no Kings. And Obama's like, boy, we'll. We'll never figure this out.

John Ashbrook (62:26)

He Listen, he 100% knew about that manifesto. He 100% knew the motivation behind this guy's assassination attempt. So you have to ask yourself why he would lie to protect it. And I think it's because he is so powerful among the Democrat Party and on the left, and he does not want to lose that far left support. He still kind of likes him. And the worst thing in his mind is that the Hasan Pikers and the Bernie Sanders supporters, AOC supporters, will somehow not like Barack Obama anymore. And unless he speaks to them directly, he will not continue to have their support.

Michael Duncan (63:09)

Ashbrooke is so right. That is the best analysis. And we have absolute proof of how right you are. Where last week you saw him go and do that event with Mamdani in New York, who campaigned with Piker because Obama knows he's like, shit, I can't be coming off as milquetoast. I can't get left behind by where the party's at. I want to be like, you know, Barack still gets it. Amazing. That's 100% right.

John Ashbrook (63:32)

Nobody's gonna look at my library and think it looks cool.

Josh Holmes (63:35)

No, I mean, it just doesn't. It just doesn't. Nobody's gonna like him for that.

Michael Duncan (63:40)

My library sucks and Michelle hates me. Fuck. Go hang out with loonies.

Comfortably Smug (63:45)

All I have is piker.

Josh Holmes (63:46)

Last thing before we take a break here. You flagged another post that we, generally speaking, we don't love the well if Democrats did it thing because we all know the answer to it.

Michael Duncan (63:57)

But this one puts a this really got me. Can I get graphic 12 Kyle Smith put up if that had happened to Obama, we would have had to embark on a six month national conversation on hate racism and gun control legislation would be proposed. Scarred kids would have the day off school. Obama would be a living martyr. The pundits like this is the thing. This is the thing. It's something that we've discussed for a very long time is the continued dehumanization of conservatives in this country by the media, by left wing elected officials, by Democrats of well, it doesn't matter. Well, Trump had it coming. Well, you know, Faree Zakaria is like, I will have to postpone my special the Imperial presidency. They don't care. They goad it, they encourage it, they enjoy it and they revel in it and they see it as a source of power, of encouraging violence. But if anything comes close to them, it's like, okay, if that would have happened to Obama, the SPLC would be like, yes, it worked. Yeah, now we got a fundraising drive, we talked someone into it and now we fundraise off of it. It's all fake. The only thing that's real is the inherent threat that anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders in this country faces because the media and elected officials on the left encourage it.

Josh Holmes (65:15)

Well, it brings us to our question of the day and when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your responses and get back to you the very next episode. Our question is what's the most outlandish defense Democrats offer when one of their voters does something violent? We've had a lot of opportunity to see this over the last year and a half, unfortunately, and there's been a lot of them. So you surface all of yours and have a discussion. We read all of your comments, get back to you the very next episode. And when we come back, we're going to get to you about our question of the day from last episode. Should Hassan Piker be deported?

Michael Duncan (65:52)

It's like even more.

Josh Holmes (65:54)

Even more feels perfect right after this. All right, question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we read all of your responses, get back to the very next episode. So like subscribe, leave your response. We read all of them when we get back to you on this question. Should Hassan Piker be deported? We always start with a voice.

John Ashbrook (66:16)

First comment comes from PattyGirl82. Patty Girl writes Piker Yelling at his poor dog is like Katie Porter yelling at staff in the background shot minus the electrocution Patty girl. I think that when Katie Porter saw what Piker had, she probably wished that she had a similar button to push on her.

Michael Duncan (66:38)

Don't give her any ideas.

Josh Holmes (66:39)

No kidding.

Comfortably Smug (66:41)

Dunks drunks again, like and subscribe. Share it with your friends. Because if we had a million subs, I would have had an escort from the shooting I was at. Right? This from Sigmund 225. Sigmund writes, the video clip of Piker shocking his dog is emblematic of the Democrat party position and goals. Quote, we own you and you will stay in your place or you will be punished.

Michael Duncan (67:10)

That's incredible.

Comfortably Smug (67:10)

It's true.

Michael Duncan (67:12)

Amazing analysis that is.

Josh Holmes (67:14)

That's very Good. Smugs.

Michael Duncan (67:15)

Comment 3 comes from Adam Sagal. Adam writes, first off, you guys are absolutely killing it. You've become one of only two podcasts that I almost never miss.

Comfortably Smug (67:24)

Nice.

Michael Duncan (67:25)

About the question, I am shocked and appalled that Smug was suggests deportation. I would have expected him to endorse firing squad or hard labor prison camp. This would be more in line with his idiom as he's slowly transitioning to a squishy, soft little. Just kidding, Smug. Go Broncos. Listen, deporting him is the moderate option.

Josh Holmes (67:42)

I mean, that's very funny. A well known moderate, comfortably smug. No question about it. He's the thoughtful guy I love.

Michael Duncan (67:49)

It's like you either become the villain or either become a hero, live long enough to become the villain. But that's the thing is I would support any option. I want Trump to actually become the person he is accused of. Enough is enough.

Comfortably Smug (68:03)

Jeez.

Josh Holmes (68:06)

Okay, terrific. Let's transition. Lots of variety.

John Ashbrook (68:09)

Yes.

Josh Holmes (68:10)

All right, so this is the thing that I was alluding to earlier, which is like a little mini drama that was happening online for like politicos in the D.C. area that we got a kick out of.

Michael Duncan (68:19)

So funny.

Josh Holmes (68:19)

And there's this cat named Michael Tracy. I don't know, I've never heard of. I don't know anything.

Comfortably Smug (68:25)

Michael Tracy is one of those sort of like left libertarian type of people.

Josh Holmes (68:31)

Okay.

Comfortably Smug (68:31)

Think like Glenn Greenwald. He was associated with young turks back in the day. I think he has a substack now, but think of that sort of mold.

John Ashbrook (68:40)

Okay.

Josh Holmes (68:40)

Okay, got it. Okay, so what, what ended up happening is Nathan Brand initially put something out. Can we put graphic six up? Okay, so who's this guy Brand? Not sure what to do with this information, but yeah, Michael Tracy started screaming at this Kate. I think That's Jim Acosta's handle.

Comfortably Smug (69:05)

No, it's Julie Brown.

Josh Holmes (69:06)

Oh, that's Julie Brown's handle. Okay. About Epstein. At the Substack Party, Acosta got involved threatening to fight Tracy outside.

John Ashbrook (69:16)

And then.

Josh Holmes (69:17)

And then you get a pick here in Graphic seven of Tracy. Right. This is apparently at the Substack Party. Looks like a.

Comfortably Smug (69:27)

Doesn't look like he's ready for a fight.

Josh Holmes (69:28)

Also looks like an event I would love.

Michael Duncan (69:30)

Was this the Substack Party? Is this brand at the Grinder Party? Which party is this was the Substack Party.

Comfortably Smug (69:36)

And I gotta say, like, this is the. I think we've seen a lot recently, you know, that the sort of new media influencer set.

Josh Holmes (69:46)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (69:47)

You know, has to learn to sort of be taken seriously.

Josh Holmes (69:53)

Yes.

Comfortably Smug (69:53)

We've seen that. I think in the fighting on the Right. You know, in some of the podcast wars and all that sort of stuff. The Substack Party, I think, really build itself as the alternative media podcaster party

Josh Holmes (70:06)

for it was like a magnet for this insanity.

Michael Duncan (70:09)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (70:09)

And it's like, that is my real complaint in all of this. And also you're making us all look bad. It's.

Josh Holmes (70:15)

But it's also like, just remember what Substack ultimately is, is a whole bunch of people who have been fired from their jobs.

Comfortably Smug (70:21)

Yes.

Josh Holmes (70:22)

Right.

Comfortably Smug (70:22)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (70:23)

I mean, look, I got nothing against Substack. I'm sure it's a serviceable platform. I'm sure they do great work. I don't have any problem with it. I haven't been on it myself, but, you know, it seems like it's successful in many ways. Provides information, news and information. But let's not ignore the fact that literally every sing. Left wing journalist who has been completely run out of town for being a complete maniac.

Comfortably Smug (70:46)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (70:47)

Has made their home on substance.

Comfortably Smug (70:49)

They're going to have to vet the guest list a little better next time.

Josh Holmes (70:52)

It's so. So this is. This is inevitably what's going to happen. And so what happens in Graphic eight is Jim Acosta threatened to fight me tonight. This is from Michael Tracy at the Substack Party. Okay. So he's confirmed both sides of this story. We now have a fight in the mix.

Comfortably Smug (71:10)

The plot thickens in.

Josh Holmes (71:11)

The plot thickens. Is this going to happen? Is this not graphic 9? Graphic 9 is still have no idea whatever went on with Trump tonight. Yeah. Not. That's Michael Tracy. That's not the news. What's the news is just know that Jim Acosta threw a fucking hissy fit. Pussy. Jim, meet Me in front of the Hampton Inn. And then he gives the address of the Hampton, and it's 6th Street.

Michael Duncan (71:37)

Can we pull that graphic up again? Yeah. 1:01am you know what's happening? This guy is loaded off of. Off of cheap booze that they give the Journal.

Josh Holmes (71:46)

Oh, he's ready to go. He's given Jim the coordinates. He wants to meet him right outside. So let's go to the next. The next one. Graphic 10.

Comfortably Smug (71:53)

He's got a picture.

Michael Duncan (71:54)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (71:55)

Jim, I'm literally waiting for you right

Michael Duncan (71:58)

now, you piece of.107am outside the Hampton Inn. Also, like that's genuinely accepted is like, if you're outside of Hampton Inn at 107, combat is happening, dude. And he's just like, who's involved?

Comfortably Smug (72:13)

It's basically like. Like being at a Waffle House.

Michael Duncan (72:15)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (72:16)

You know, but what I love about this is, so he posts the Original 1 at 101. Six minutes later, he fires, I'm at the Hampton. He fires out the photo. I'm ready to go. I'm ready.

John Ashbrook (72:26)

Here's the thing. President Trump, if you're listening, make this an undercard at your UFC Fight for America 250.

Josh Holmes (72:33)

Yes.

John Ashbrook (72:34)

These guys need to. To fight in front of the White House.

Josh Holmes (72:36)

I'd like to see it could even

Comfortably Smug (72:38)

be a fundraiser for charity. I think the ruthless variety program would contribute to that. In fact, if this was set up as an undercard at the UFC fight on the. On the lawn of the White House, I would happily donate to whatever charity to get those two fights.

Josh Holmes (72:54)

I'd love to see it. So somehow a journalist who's been in. In town for quite some time is pretty online, got by the name of Ben Jacobs, gets in the middle of this.

John Ashbrook (73:03)

Familiar with the scuffle.

Josh Holmes (73:05)

He puts up a post in graphic Living in D.C. it's easy to get blase about being close to so many important historical sites. So taking advantage of today's visit to this major cultural landmark, it's the Hilton. It's so funny. While Tracy sees this and he's not too pleased, and so he responds, hey, Ben Jacobs, I wish you'd let me know first that you were stopping by. Might have had to unblock me first.

Michael Duncan (73:32)

I would have loved to meet you

Josh Holmes (73:34)

outside for a spirited chat. So he's got. Now he's got, like, multiple combatants that he's. He's interested in taking on.

Michael Duncan (73:41)

I mean, honestly, like, you're really picking your opponents when you're going after Ben Jacobs, right? I mean, like, what's his record in Combat.

Comfortably Smug (73:47)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (73:48)

Well, I mean, the governor of Montana flattened with a body slam. That's. That's how. Now, if you remember the name Ben Jacobs, it is that he was a menace. Governor Gianforte.

Michael Duncan (73:58)

So I think the official story is. And widely accepted is he like attacked. This is another example of left wing violence. He like, attacked Gianforte. I don't think Gianforte defended himself.

Comfortably Smug (74:07)

That's not the same thing.

Josh Holmes (74:08)

I think so I don't feel like that's the full. What his version of the story was. You've body slammed me and broken my

Michael Duncan (74:16)

glasses and he put it in the museum and then the museum went bankrupt. This guy's what I like. Good luck charm.

John Ashbrook (74:23)

I'd like to see Ben Jacobs as the ref of the fight between Michael Tracy and Jim.

Josh Holmes (74:27)

I would vote for.

Michael Duncan (74:28)

What's this? Nick Brand, who works at Grindr. I think he should be. Who is it? Or the initial tweet. Nate Brand at Grindr. He'd be the referee.

Josh Holmes (74:36)

I don't think Nate works at Grinder.

Michael Duncan (74:38)

Was he the Grinder party? I think he should be the guy because he put out the tweet in the first place.

John Ashbrook (74:42)

I don't think he works at Grinder.

Josh Holmes (74:44)

I don't think Nate is.

John Ashbrook (74:45)

That's not the Grinder.

Michael Duncan (74:47)

The Grinder party. I think he's a Grinder party guy.

Josh Holmes (74:49)

Apologies to the Grinder stack party. It's a substance. My mistake just to be accurate, but. But anyway, this is kind of the. What was going on so you could Town on Earth. It's the worst town on earth, this thing. And it's not slowing down. Like, if you think for a second that it's anybody has sort of like readjusted their moral sites, they have no, if today was any indication, milling around the streets. It's business as usual around here. Which means great content for you, the listener on the Ruthless Friday program. Remember our question of the day. What's the most outlandish defense Democrats offer when one of their voters does something violent? When you like and subscribe, we read absolutely all of them. With that, fellas, I think we did it.

Michael Duncan (75:33)

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to our listeners. Remember, remember, if you have not yet go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun and videos. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Thursday. Stay ruthless, Sam.