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- [00:00]
A
Campaign season is upon us, which means the socialists are out, fellas.
- [00:05]
B
I don't support the filibuster. I don't support elements of this institution that we know, you know, were founded on Jim Crow.
- [00:18]
A
Part of what she's doing is doing Senate campaign stuff. She's broadening the aperture of her political profile yet again. And if anybody thinks that this lady's not running for president, you're crazy.
- [00:30]
C
She is.
- [00:31]
A
And if anybody thinks you can't win, you're crazy. She can't.
- [00:34]
D
Take a look at what the DSA has done in their hostile takeover. The Democrat Party. Black lives matter. Like they give a about black lives. Health care is a human right. No person is illegal. It's all bumper stickers. But you know what? Bumper stickers work. Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee took an important step in addressing the abuse of the 340B program, which was designed to help low income patients access affordable health care by allowing certain hospitals to purchase prescription drugs at heavily discounted prices. But recent scrutiny by lawmakers has revealed widespread abuse of the program. For example, hospitals, clinics and their for profit partners pocketed over $100 billion in profits from 340B medicine markups in 2024 alone. With no rules requiring that money be used to help patients afford medicine. Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith said tax exempt hospital empires look less like hospitals and more like hedge funds making stock investments, purchasing stadium naming rights, and even participating in political activism. That's why the Ways and Means Committee passed Congressman Greg Murphy's Tax Exempt Hospital Transparency act, which will increase transparency into hospitals and help rein in waste, fraud and abuse. Visit americansforopengoverment.com to learn more.
- [02:07]
C
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.
- [02:11]
B
This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.
- [02:16]
E
I love the personality. You guys are killing it.
- [02:17]
D
I just saw your number one.
- [02:19]
C
So congratulations.
- [02:20]
E
Thank you.
- [02:20]
A
It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.
- [02:25]
E
Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.
- [02:29]
F
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.
- [02:36]
A
It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast. Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Comfortably Smug is on assignment today, but I can promise you we've got a show full of yucks and some serious stuff. Senator Haggerty is with us today. Talk Iran. So if you're interested in the ins and outs of what I think the news media has missed in the texture of all that. Stay tuned to the end of this episode and you'll hear him kind of walk through everything that you need to deal with. In the meantime, campaign season is upon us, which means the socialists are out, fellas. AOC 4amongst. Foremost amongst them, I should say. She was out doing multiple events in multiple different states and. Well, I'm going to leave it to all of you to be the judge. It turns out she has a. Perhaps a touch of a different vernacular depending upon.
- [03:49]
D
Yeah, the left would call this code switching.
- [03:51]
A
Yes.
- [03:52]
D
You know, yeah, I, I learned that
- [03:55]
A
that's what it is.
- [03:56]
D
It's called code switching. Like, you speak differently to different audiences to pander to them, and that somehow makes you a good person.
- [04:03]
A
Yeah. Because I do think like a big. There's been now a couple of different reports about how DSA Socialists have been media trained and they are perhaps foremost amongst their peers.
- [04:20]
D
Did Al Jazeera do the media training?
- [04:25]
A
Well, they never answer the question. They just sort of like try to mirror back whatever the question is at some level. And so it goes to stand that if you're in Tennessee, you sound like someone from Tennessee, and if you're in a Hispanic crowd, you sound like someone from a Hispanic crowd. Well, you be the judge. Clip 3.
- [04:44]
B
His same ICE agency that has shot Renee Good, Alex Preddy, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo,
- [04:51]
D
and Johan Sebastian Durang Guerrero.
- [04:53]
A
Oh, okay. All right.
- [04:55]
C
That's in Michigan. Yeah, that.
- [04:57]
A
That one's in Michigan. Rapido. Rapido. It's like Speedy Gonzalez at some level. Right. I mean, and. But she has a Hispanic background. And then she's brought that. And so you're like, okay, there's a level of authenticity.
- [05:16]
F
Sure.
- [05:16]
A
That comes with that.
- [05:17]
B
Sure.
- [05:18]
A
Let's see how she is in Tennessee. Clip 1.
- [05:21]
B
We cannot afford to leave Tennessee behind. We cannot afford to leave Kentucky behind. Alabama behind, Mississippi behind, Georgia behind.
- [05:33]
F
Behind.
- [05:34]
B
South Carolina behind.
- [05:35]
C
Behind.
- [05:37]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. So this is what's happening. The Democratic Socialists are. They're out now. They're. They're leading the Democratic Party.
- [05:45]
D
She's stumping, barnstorming the country. I mean, she's in hot demand.
- [05:49]
A
Hot demand. No question about it. So she's code switching, as you say, Michael. It just reminded us of. Clip 4.
- [05:58]
C
I don't feel no ways tired I
- [06:02]
A
come too far from where I started from Nobody told me that the road would be easy I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me
- [06:19]
D
My favorite part of that old C Span Clip is as she's doing this ridiculous over the top. I assume she's harkens back to her time in Little Rock, but the chiron beneath her says Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator, New York.
- [06:39]
C
You're exactly right. And I feel like this is sort of foisted upon the rest of the country by consultants who began in New York and politicians who began in New York and who are surrounded by the publishing empire that is New York. And it's like, oh, you need to talk. Like the audience where you're addressing, you have to become them. And so they are so obtuse that they, they actually believe that the people watching them in those localities think that they actually are connecting with them in the way that they think they're connecting.
- [07:19]
D
I don't know if I agree. Like I, I think that is definitely true. Like there definitely are consultants that probably tell their candidates to do that. But like we also live in the age of the Internet, right? Like all this is going to be on video for everyone to see. So like the idea that you could micro target a campaign to some local constituency like you're on a whistle stop tour. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's, we don't live in that world anymore. So I, I, I think it's more just like sociopathic politicians disassociating on camera for our amusement. Like they really think they're smart enough to be able to get one over on all these people. I think it's more the politicians than the consultants, I guess is what I'd say.
- [08:02]
A
But I, I think there's some truth to that because again, there I go back to the, the reporting on the media training that has gone into candidates that are acolytes. Bernie Sanders, aoc, Mamdani and others. Their whole goal is to not tell media or mass crowds basically what it is that they believe. They use that in their own little ecosystem and pretend like it's not going to go out. But they, it's code switching. It's, if you look at any of the interviews that they've done, you know, they'll ask me like, hey, so why is it that you were like, I don't know, hanging out with terrorists.
- [08:45]
E
Yeah.
- [08:47]
A
Who wish to destroy this country. And they're like, well, you know, Donald Trump is. And it's like our old game hard pivot.
- [08:56]
D
I'd hate to see AOC code switching around a bunch of Muslims. Who knows?
- [09:02]
A
Who knows?
- [09:03]
D
Who knows how far she'd go?
- [09:04]
A
You never know. You could get there. Well, but part of what she's doing is doing Senate campaign stuff. She's broadening the aperture of her political profile yet again. And if anybody thinks that this lady's not running for President, you're crazy.
- [09:20]
C
She is.
- [09:21]
A
And if anybody thinks you can't win, you're crazy. She can. But she showed up in a whole bunch of different places and she's got some views in particular on the Senate which are interesting. Consider the rights view of the United States Senate right now, in particular with the SAVE act and the filibuster and all of this stuff. This is her take clips of it.
- [09:43]
B
I don't support the filibuster. I don't support elements of this institution that we know were founded on, on Jim Crow.
- [09:57]
A
It's just so ahistorical and dumb. And that's the thing that I keep coming back to with aoc. She does. She's got an intellectual vacancy that is so omnipresent within her argument that despite all of her eq, her intellectual or her, her whole emotional quotient that I do think she understands. She comes, she says like that and you're like, oh my God. She, she thinks, she thinks that the entirety of the United States Senate was created not by the founding fathers, but it was created later in order to be subversive to minority populations. Evidently. Like, it's like you don't have to do anything more than just Google.
- [10:52]
C
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's further evidence that elimination of the filibuster is exactly what the hard left has always wanted because they see that as their surest path towards socialism in this country. They know that a 60 vote threshold in the United States Senate is what's blocking them from enacting all of the things that they want to enact. And as soon as that's gone and it is, Katy bar the door for socialists, they can come in, they can take over the Senate. They know that they can do whatever they want. So socialists, hard leftists have always wanted to eliminate the filibuster in this country.
- [11:29]
D
Well, because they want radical change. And the only way you get to that radical change quickly is eliminating institutional resistance to it. Like the filibuster I just had. What's funny about it though, dude, is like, our enemies used to be so much smarter.
- [11:46]
A
Totally.
- [11:47]
D
And she's clearly conflating the founding of the Senate and America with that old canard that the Democrats used to bring out, that it's a product of Jim Crow or whatever. But I remember in the days of Harry Reid, during the Bush administration, the Democrats Running a whole campaign on protecting and defending the filibuster.
- [12:10]
A
Minority rights.
- [12:11]
D
Yeah, right.
- [12:12]
A
It was minority rights.
- [12:13]
D
Right. Say what you will about Harry Reid's leadership at the time, he made some critical mistakes, some that they regretted a lot sooner than they thought, you know, nuking the judicial filibuster. But he was much smarter than aoc, that's for sure.
- [12:32]
A
No question about it. But you have to tap down just a layer deeper to figure out why she's a mouthpiece for something as dumb is that in Clip two The Senate
- [12:45]
F
is a very undemocratic institution. We want democratic representation of all people who live in this country. So the Senate represents. It's two senators per state. And it's very undemocratic at a basic level because a state with a small population has the same representation as a. A state that has 500,000 people gets the same representation as a state that has.
- [13:12]
D
You'll get there, buddy.
- [13:13]
F
California does, which are the most populated states in the country, but they have the same representation as a much smaller population. So we do believe that government should be proportional to the population. And that's a very basic core principle. So the House of Representatives is more democratic that way. And we just don't see the point of the Senate. Historically it was meant to serve very wealthy people who owned a lot of land.
- [13:39]
A
So would you like to abolish the Senate?
- [13:41]
F
That's. That's part of our platform.
- [13:45]
C
Okay, okay, there we have it.
- [13:49]
D
Shout out again to C Span. Yeah, man, we got some C Span.
- [13:53]
A
That's kind of tough stuff there. C Span.
- [13:55]
C
Democrat Socialists of America. Abolish the Senate simply because there are two Senate. I mean, it's like the guy didn't go, maybe he didn't go to high school in America. We don't, I don't know his background, but maybe he doesn't understand the bicameral nature of the American legislative body. Like our Constitution set things up very specifically for a very, very specific reason. And it is no wonder that the socialists who want to turn America into a country that answers to them want to eliminate a part of the constitutional legislative body.
- [14:34]
A
Yeah, well, I mean, it goes back to the bicoastal argument of the socialist elite, all of which, as we know, are well funded, well heeled, from prominent backgrounds along America's coasts East and West. They've never met a Midwesterner. And as it turns out, there are a few people within the Founding Fathers who are aware of, of this sort of dynamic. And the only reason that you call it the United States of America is that fucking principle, you dumb shit.
- [15:08]
D
We got all the states to join because we were gonna protect the states with lower populations from the tyranny of the majority in places like New York. And all these years later, we're still having this argument. Like, this wasn't settled 250 years ago.
- [15:21]
A
It's like they just woke up and they were like, oh, well, here's a new argument. Yeah, read a history book, you dumb shit.
- [15:28]
D
Don't we teach civics in this country?
- [15:30]
B
We.
- [15:31]
A
Apparently, we have no interest in any, like, even remedial history. American.
- [15:36]
D
I noticed he didn't reference, like, I don't know, Rhode island or Connecticut, you know, but half the Northeast in this country that elect two Democrats to have the Senate.
- [15:47]
C
His argument fundamentally is, I don't like that rural states actually matter in American government. He does not like that. He wants only the cities to matter. You know? You know, they want to get rid of the electoral college. You know, they want to eliminate every rural voter's chance to have an equal say in this government. And I don't think people are going to buy it. Like, this is why there's such a big fight on the Democrat side for this rise, on this rise of socialism.
- [16:17]
D
I think you're illustrating a good point here, Ash.
- [16:19]
A
Brooke.
- [16:20]
D
That can be supported by another thing he said in that video. You referenced rural American voters in states. I don't think his interest is voters. Can we play that clip again? I'll tell you where to stop it.
- [16:33]
F
The Senate is a very undemocratic institution. We want democratic representation of. Of all people who live in this country.
- [16:41]
D
Oh, stop. So all people who live in this country, maybe in sanctuary cities and liberal jurisdictions where you're desperate to allow them to vote.
- [16:51]
C
Okay.
- [16:51]
D
Maybe places.
- [16:53]
C
Okay.
- [16:53]
D
Huh. That feels kind of undemocratic.
- [16:58]
A
Not for nothing, like, I've made a lot about the sophistication of their communications. What would do them some good to have, like, a Johnny Jones or, like, a Billy McAffrey. Yeah, or like, you know, like, every one of them is just so predictably in one silo of immigration within our country that it's like, yeah, no, I get that you don't get it, but there's a reason you don't get it.
- [17:28]
C
You counterpoint. They tried that. His name was Graham Platner.
- [17:32]
A
Oh, okay. All right, all right.
- [17:35]
C
I don't think that there is any regular. Like, here's the thing. And you know, I'm reluctant to admit this here on the conservative variety program, but there are an Awful lot of Democrats in this country who do not like what this guy is saying. I think it's just true. There are an awful lot of. Because they see the rise of the DSA as an extinction level event for them. Think of a guy like Henry Cuellar, okay? He is running in Texas and he is about to lose. He's a Democrat, longtime Democrat in the House by President Trump, and he is about to lose this election. And what has he spent his entire campaign doing separating himself from the dsa? He's not the only Democrat. Now, we can argue, and I think it's probably the right argument that the DSA has overcome the entire Democratic Party. However, there are an awful lot of Democrats who represent, you know, bluish areas in flyover country who are like, what the hell is that? I don't want anything to do with it. And that is why they're spending so much money to try and stop them.
- [18:46]
D
Holmes, you brought up the point that these people don't share our love of American history, our founding principles, all of these sorts of things, this sort of like tie that binds our American heritage. Did you happen to see that clip of Mila Quiros? She beat Deget in Colorado.
- [19:09]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [19:11]
D
She was at some symposium, you know, highfalutin, thinking about things, talking about how we need to elect more candidates from the global South.
- [19:24]
A
Wait.
- [19:25]
D
Immigrants into the United States need to be our representatives in Congress.
- [19:29]
A
So that United States representation within our own Congress from people who are not from here, but rather the, the, the
- [19:37]
D
prototypical global cycle as like, as like America's reparations for colonialism and international trade and all of these things. We owe a. Reparations back to the global. This is like third world ism run amok. And it's here in our country now.
- [19:57]
B
I think it's particularly important not just for our community in Tigray, but, but communities of the global south, period. Right. There's a certain reckoning that we are going to have to have with the global world order as it exists today. And the way that it fundamentally will have to shift going forward. Right. The responsibility that we have as Americans, the recognition that is going to be required of us of the exploitative and extractive nature that we play on the global scale.
- [20:25]
D
And the global
- [20:28]
B
stage is only going to be challenged if we are getting represented by people who understand that on a fundamental level. Right. And that means getting more immigrants into office. That means getting more people who have heritage in the global south into, into office, because that's where those decisions are made specifically.
- [20:44]
A
But I think that's a larger point here, is you're dealing with a whole bunch of folks when you use AOC's code switching, when you use. We've seen a lot of El Sayed did. The Michigan Senate candidate did a ton of different interviews. We'll get to hopefully some stuff in this show where he's never really answering questions about like, you know, what's your relationship with terrorists or whatever. It's all Donald Trump or what have you, where the whole point is obfuscating true intentions to try to monopolize the sort of ill intent on Donald Trump and everything else. And that's what today's Democratic Party is. They're not providing an alternative to what Republicans are talking about. They're not seeing things differently. They're not making policy arguments. You've got the vast majority of Democratic primary voters instructing their candidates that are now general election nominees to become basic terrorists with different instruction to try to obfuscate their true intention. That's what's happening.
- [22:01]
C
And the media lets them get away with it, to be honest with you. Did you see what happened outside of the federal building in New York yesterday where the terrorist walked up and lit a firebomb in front of the federal building in multiple media outlets were like protest on immigration, fireworks outside of immigration facility. Not like terrorism on a federal building. You know, like it is that the media is letting them get away with this. And, you know, I guess we'll see what the outcome is in the election because I don't think that it's not
- [22:39]
A
working for them in the court of public opinion. Democratic. The Democratic Party is a low ebb that it's ever been. And you know, we've talked about this a lot, but typically in midterm elections, it's a challenging environment for the party in power. It gets more challenging when a presidential approval rating is where President Trump's is. It gets more challenging when economic right track, wrong track is where it is. And there's a number of different indicators, consumer confidence, a whole bunch of different things that roll into it. Where you would look at it and you'd be like, well, it's gonna be a tough election for Republicans. Other hand, what is it that people think of Democrats? They fucking hate them. They think that they're terrible. The question is whether they're like enough of just not that to win elections. Which is very different than you saw in 2018 or 2010 or 2006 or 1994. You know, when you had these wave elections. They were going against a party in power. I don't know.
- [23:49]
D
I have two thoughts on this. I waver back and forth between them like they're horrible. And you know what, what Ashbrook just mentioned is a perfect example of it. And the media is not going to do any of the heavy lifting force. It's incumbent on us to have to do that as Republicans and conservatives and talk to your friends and neighbors. And I hope a lot of good ads are run this. But at the end of the day, it's right track, wrong track. It's not wrong track, worst track. And when you are the party in power, you have to have stuff that you run on. You just do. And I wonder if it's enough to say they're terrible, they're socialists, they're coming for your rights, they're coming for your wallet. They don't know how to run anything. These idiots don't know how to count. If people ultimately care. And I just don't know ultimately which side I come down on. It's a little bit of column, a little bit of column B.
- [24:48]
A
Well, a lot of it depends on what the next 10 weeks, 12 weeks have in store. Right. Whether this is a referendum or choice. Election involves a lot of external events that we're about to see and we're about to cover all of them. Want to get to a question of the day before we do who's got the worst fake accent in politics? We saw a couple of them here, but there's a ton and you guys have clips of stuff that we haven't seen. So this is really a fact finding message. When you like and subscribe to the ruthless Friday program, we read all of your message and we get back to the very next episode with a selection of the absolute best. This one is who's got the worst fake accent in politics. And we'll get back to the next episode on that when we come back. The Dem freak show in the Senate is not just reserved to what it is you heard in segment one. Wait till you get a load of what happened in Maine to replace Graham Platner. I can't wait for you to hear it right after this.
- [25:51]
C
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- [26:40]
A
Okay, so we're saddened here at the ruthless variety program that Graham Platner, a reoccurring character. Well, they think the most entertainment value is probably not going to be a recurring character for some time. Like he's gotten out of.
- [27:01]
D
Good. Good board work.
- [27:03]
A
Good board work.
- [27:04]
E
That's good board work.
- [27:05]
A
I like that. But they went through a big process to try to figure.
- [27:12]
D
Thank you, Maine. Like, this is the thing that's so great. Graham Platner, exit stage left, far left, I would say. And you think to yourself, we're not going to get any great content out of Maine for the rest of the cycle. Susan Collins, you can set your watch to her. You know, she's not going to make mistakes. She runs a good campaign. Probably going to be a sleepy one up there.
- [27:33]
A
Nope. Yeah, no.
- [27:34]
D
You should see these people trying to replace Graham Platner.
- [27:38]
A
Look, in the Democratic Party of old, what would have emerged on the backside of Graham Platner was the most buttoned up, philanthropic, articulate spokesperson of our times. Just a real Northeastern gentleman.
- [28:00]
E
Yeah.
- [28:01]
C
Probably would have been well adjusted.
- [28:02]
F
Probably.
- [28:03]
D
Probably owns L.L. bean.
- [28:04]
F
Yeah.
- [28:04]
A
You know, who is like, employed half of Maine. Just been. Been like, well, it's time. I didn't ask to serve, but my country has called me and here I am. Yeah, here's what they did instead.
- [28:19]
D
Clip 5 oh, I ran for office several times. Didn't win, but they did run. And then I'm a songwriter and then I write my own books. And then suppose my transparency. I wouldn't lie to the people and I wouldn't deceive the people. Like we're being deceived right now. Like, we get lied. Smoke and mirrors. Like, what's going on with ice? And I suppose the biggest thing is, like, I'm just an angry citizen now, and if I got elected, I'd be an angry senator.
- [28:52]
A
Okay, so that was a. Was a man as a woman, which I guess is part of the hallmark of today's Democratic Party. Not sure that's a great campaign pitch. What else we got? Like, maybe we've got. Isn't there a candidate, Somebody who's sort of worked their way through the political system and risen to higher office? Yeah, there's somebody here.
- [29:18]
B
Clip 6 I threw Donald Trump off the ballot on January 6th.
- [29:23]
F
And then
- [29:25]
B
when Donald Trump came for your voter data, I said, hell no. Go jump in the Gulf of Maine.
- [29:34]
C
What does that mean? The voter data is on the Secretary of State website.
- [29:39]
D
How many times do you think she practiced that one in the mirror?
- [29:43]
C
More times than she would admit to Holmes. Point here.
- [29:48]
D
I, like you, would have actually web over that situation. At least she had a good closer. I'm an angry citizen. I'll be an angry senator. That's a pretty good closer. Of course, the top of it was more like a high school guidance counselor meeting.
- [30:01]
C
Right.
- [30:01]
D
You know, it's terrible, but at least it didn't sound so stilted and rehearsed like that second one.
- [30:06]
C
But to Holmes is.
- [30:07]
F
Give me that.
- [30:08]
A
I'm hungry.
- [30:09]
C
You would. You would have expected.
- [30:10]
A
Lay off me, I'm starving.
- [30:12]
D
You, like, expected something?
- [30:14]
C
Somebody. Somebody in, like, the Brooks Brothers suit?
- [30:17]
E
Well, I.
- [30:18]
C
You know, I finished at Exeter, and of course I went on to Princeton and then Harvard and Yale, then before I was at Cornell and, you know, like you would expect something like that out of the Northeast.
- [30:29]
A
Yes.
- [30:29]
C
And you're not getting anything close to it.
- [30:31]
A
No, I mean, that's bad. So that was Shana Bellows, and Collins
- [30:36]
C
beat her by 37 points in 2014, and it's no wonder.
- [30:42]
A
And she just demonstrated that. So out of all of that comes this guy, Troy Jackson, who held some state legislative seat. And, like, look, we can be tough at times on state legislators here on the ruthless Variety program, but, you know, that is the sort of ground truth for where you get higher office and real talent in political parties. Maybe he's one of them. Maybe he separates himself from both the establishment of the Democratic Party and Graham Platner, an accused sexual assaulter. How does he take this clipbait? Okay, now I have the distinct honor of introducing someone I've gotten to know over the last year. And that's why I'm so honored to have endorsed him. That's why I'm so honored to be here with him tonight. It is my honor to introduce your next United States Senator, Graham Platner.
- [31:50]
C
Ah, okay.
- [31:51]
D
How honored was he? Was he three times honored?
- [31:54]
A
It didn't seem like.
- [31:55]
C
Well, only because he'd gotten to know
- [31:58]
D
him also, by the way, could they make the Graham Platner sign bigger? Is it possible for it to be bigger in the shot? How many super PACs are going to run with that footage this fall?
- [32:10]
A
This hasn't been an allegation of platinum, but I wonder if he. Bill Cosby to all of his surrogates.
- [32:17]
C
It's horrific.
- [32:18]
D
Well, I mean, listen to the Guy,
- [32:20]
A
it didn't sound like he was. Had everything all put together. Who's like, here, it's like, have this drink now. Go introduce me. That's kind of feels like because he's not done. Clip nine. And that's why I was proud to
- [32:37]
C
rank Troy number one when I voted. Oh, okay. So Troy Jackson was Graham Platner's number one choice.
- [32:48]
A
If you recall, in the Ruthless Variety program, we did a little bit of deconstructing over the Democrats dilemma that they had with trying to replace Graham Platner in that the Democratic establishment for, I don't know, 16 long years has been interested in not having Democratic primary voters actually determine who you have to vote for in a general election. Done it with Clinton, they did it with Biden, they did it with Kamala. You know, they're currently doing it in Senate races all around the country. They want to eliminate all of your choices and just give you a general election candidate. And we were like, well, I don't know. This is a, this is a DSA win. The most high profile DSA win in large part because this is a Senate seat that they have to win in order to retain or regain the majority in the United States Senate. It's the most high profile Senate race in the country in a lot of ways. And so this was the crown jewel that they actually won with Graham Platner. So the idea that they could just sort of rip it away from Graham Platner and then show up with, well, I've gone to Peabody and we've done Skidmore and everything else, and here we are. Why I will say I will do best, by the way of the people.
- [34:08]
C
Angela Lansbury herself is right here in our campaign and she's going to get to the bottom of everything.
- [34:15]
A
So that became an impossibility in large part because most of these people walk on their hands.
- [34:20]
C
Right? Right. I mean, these are.
- [34:23]
A
This is legitimately the most troglodyte of Democratic bases that just won. I mean, these are people who literally want to eliminate Western civilization. They say it and they finally had a winner. So what are they going to do? Let's split the difference. Find a guy who's elected to something, Troy Jackson, and then have somebody not a threat to be anything like, intellectual, but he's got like a little bit of a common man, wears his hat sideways and he can be maybe part of the Platner coalition. Maybe we can bridge the difference. And this is what they've come up with. So they've got this Troy guy. Troy Jackson, who's now running against Susan Collins, best I can tell. Like I don't think he's. I can't find a single reason why you would vote for him.
- [35:13]
C
No, well, he's Teemu. Graham Platner. Yeah, it's like, but it's not even like he is. He is everything that the socialist left wanted and they've dispensed with Graham Platner. He's not on the ballot anymore. But this guy will give them the same voting pattern they wanted with Graham Platner. He's going to try to eliminate Western civilization which what they actually mean by that is eliminate America. We know because we've seen in their papers from the DSA and all these people who hate our country, they think that this guy will deliver the same sort of voting record that Platner would have. And so now they feel like box checked. Now we're on to Michigan with Abdul Al Said and now we need to get Syed through and if, you know, if they do. I feel like the DSA has officially taken over the entire Democrat party.
- [36:10]
A
I mean there's no question that they already have. The question is whether or not the media and everybody else will admit that the pure existence of Troy Jackson, this guy. Any one of you listening right now, if you're sitting your sweatpants in your parents basement are more qualified to run for United States Senate than this individual.
- [36:36]
C
I'll tell you fellas one more thing about Troy Jackson. Before Platner got off the ballot, I heard rumors from a number of people who are in the know, journos and others that said that man, if they put Troy Jackson up, he has problems.
- [36:55]
D
No, no, he has problems too with women.
- [37:01]
C
That's what I've been told.
- [37:03]
A
Domestic.
- [37:04]
C
I, you know, I, I'm not going to get into it. We'll see what the reporting bears out. But this guy has what I was told that, you know, you can't just get rid of Platner and replace him with Jackson because Jackson has Platner like problems.
- [37:20]
D
Well, let's, let's follow up on all of that at a later date because I don't think I'll survive a third main Senate candidate for the Democrats. Oh God.
- [37:28]
C
We just got to.
- [37:29]
D
They got to keep one.
- [37:31]
A
Yeah, yeah. Well, Shane is coming or the, the dude what's his. Ashley Webb.
- [37:37]
D
Who.
- [37:38]
A
Who we're not happy until Ashley's the candidate.
- [37:41]
C
I've. I've read registered to vote in the 2024 cycle.
- [37:49]
D
Recent convert, big change. I want to hear some of the tranny songs.
- [37:56]
A
What do you mean?
- [37:58]
D
She said she. He was a songwriter. You think ballads, folk,
- [38:07]
C
I don't know. But Christopher Guest could do a pretty good show about the Democrats running in Maine.
- [38:12]
A
If you're not on the YouTube now would be a good opportunity for you. Get on there and just have a look at Ashley and what she's providing and just sort of think what it would be like for her to drop a hip hop tune. It would be. Be fantastic. All right, are you guys ready for a little bit of variety?
- [38:32]
D
Yes, of course.
- [38:35]
A
Okay. So Olive Garden. Yeah, we've talked about it with great reverence here on the Ruthless Variety program. And they made a bit of a comeback. Remember, they went through some dark times, shattered some stores, but I think they reconsolidated Darden.
- [38:56]
C
Oh, Darden. Private Restaurant Group.
- [38:57]
A
Yeah, that's what it was.
- [38:59]
C
But they didn't franchise.
- [39:00]
A
Well, they didn't. They sure didn't franchise. And our good friend Burk always reminded us of that. I don't know if Darden still is a part of it, but they've, they've made a bit of a comeback. And Olive Garden has reintroduced the never ending pasta pass. For those of you in the 90s when you grew up, particularly in the Midwest where Olive Garden was like ethnic
- [39:25]
D
food, look, when you're here, you're family.
- [39:29]
C
Wolf is back there laughing. He's not wrong. Like, if you wanted to spin on the Monday through Friday variety, you went to Olive Garden.
- [39:38]
D
That's right.
- [39:38]
A
Yeah.
- [39:40]
C
Listen, it's delicious. Okay?
- [39:42]
D
Yeah.
- [39:43]
C
I don't want anybody attacking Olive. We're not. Because he's going to do the thing
- [39:47]
D
on the parts again.
- [39:48]
C
I know you guys know you guys aren't going to attack Olive Garden, but there are plenty of people out there who do because they don't appreciate the flavor. They just don't. There's such a great variety at that place.
- [40:01]
A
Well, there is, and they have a pasta pass. But what happened? There was a question put up graphic three, if you don't mind. So this is the back and forth on social media. And the question was, are you able to order pasta for family using a pasta pass or is that exclusively for the person with a card at the table? I don't know about you, but it feels really weird with just one person having unlimited pasta while everyone awkwardly waits. Fair question, right? If you just walk in with a pasta pass and everybody else has to just sort of sit there, you get the unlimited thing because you got the pasta pass, right? Olive Garden responded, no, the never ending pasta Pass is only for the use of the pass holder whose name is printed on the pass. Passes are personalized and non transferable. Pass holders must present a valid photo ID along with a pass at the time of order.
- [41:04]
C
I think that's fair, like business. Listen, before we get into the photo ID thing, I think this is a very fair policy from Olive Garden. So you don't get a table of 37 people where they're like, no, no, that guy's got the pasta pass and everybody's eating spaghetti nonstop. You can't support a business that way. Everybody should get the pasta pass. It's a wonderful restaurant. It tastes good.
- [41:28]
A
Well, that's very thoughtful of you. And so they've responded wanted accordingly. But it couldn't help pass our imagination and how that has sort of inflicted the world of politics. Olive Garden quite rightfully has decided that they can't do business. And if they sell a pasta pass, having a pasta pass just past willy nilly to anyone who wants to come in, they have to require some kind of a photo identification for doing that. How does Senate Democrats see all of that? Clip 9A.
- [42:03]
E
I understand that you and I think every other Democrat oppose this so called Save America act and there's a lot of reasons that you've put forward. But let me ask you very narrowly on the issue of photo ID requiring photo ID to register to vote to vote, is this something that Democrats should get behind?
- [42:22]
A
We have very.
- [42:23]
E
80 some percent of Americans, 71% of them of Democrats say they favor this.
- [42:29]
A
You know what, in Virginia we have voter ID and photo id. I got to show my.
- [42:34]
E
That's actually not the case. I mean I'm in Virginia. Hill, you don't need to show a photo ID in Virginia state.
- [42:39]
D
You are.
- [42:39]
E
There are a wide range of things you can show for id and if you don't show one of those, you can sign an affidavit saying sign an affidavit.
- [42:48]
A
Those become ballots that if you want to contest later can be contested. What a simple explanation why it is that you don't have to show a driver's license to vote. You gotta go to Olive Garden for it not to vote in the state Commonwealth of Virginia. These guys are fucked on this issue. It pains me that we have gone through a period of time over the last six months where Republicans quickly galvanized this thanks to President Trump. They galvanized around the idea that everyone should have to show a valid photo ID at the polls in proof of residentship in order to vote. And 80% of America agrees it crosses ideological, demographic, all that lines, and yet we just sort of like, mash this together in the SAVE act, which, you know, there's a couple of different versions. And Republicans have been infighting over this thing rather than taking it to guys like Mark Warner, who, by the way, might be the most articulate spokesperson that they have.
- [44:02]
D
And he's entirely flummoxed, and he doesn't
- [44:04]
A
know how to explain it. There's not a single Democrat who can possibly articulate their point of view in the public. That's not like a below 20% approval.
- [44:15]
D
I mean, his only defense, even once he spit it out of his mouth and was ignorant about his own state's laws, is to say, that is to say, well, in my state, it's not a problem. Well, what about the other states? You. You represent the United States Senate, you fuckhead. You know, what about the other ones where it's not. Can you defend. Can you defend that?
- [44:36]
A
You know, he's wrong about his own
- [44:37]
D
state, but it's our fault, honestly, as Republicans, that we have not taking that gas pedal to the floor on voter ID every single day because they can't defend it.
- [44:49]
E
Right.
- [44:50]
A
Let us just give you a lesson in how politics works, because we're not in the business of complaining about things that we didn't get done. We are in the business of getting things done. And if you're interested in politics in any meaningful level, this should be your guiding principle. What it is, is making an argument that is untenable for the other side, and in this case, a block in entirety, a unanimity within the Democratic Party to get on the other side of an 80, 20 issue, like showing voter ID at the polls. What you do when you have that opportunity presents itself very rarely, but when it does, you drive it through the back door. You don't figure out how to complicate it with things that split your party. You don't figure out how to have larger discussions that may require committee action or whatever. What you do is bumper sticker the shit out of it, put it on the forehead of every voting American and say, which side of this do you stand? And you drive it and drive and you drive it. And what happens ultimately on an issue like that that is indefensible, as we saw Mark Warner discussing it, is, it becomes untenable, and pretty soon you get candidates. It starts with the candidate level. Even with the socialists would be like, yeah, yeah, that's fine, because they look at the polling, too. That's, you know, yeah, we should all agree on something like that. And then it bubbles up and you get one or two, then you get three or four or five. You start to make inroads where you broaden out the aperture of the argument to the point where the people who are stopping this from coming to fruition become the problem that needed to be voted out. And that is how a bill becomes a law in modern society.
- [46:54]
C
And when you don't take that approach, you're left after the election scratching your head, looking back at elections day, wondering, man, we just had another election where people didn't have to show their voter ID to, to cast a ballot. Like, let's, let's just focus on this one thing and get it done. People should have to show their id. You got to show your ID to get the pasta pass. You should have to show your ID to vote. It's as simple as that.
- [47:25]
A
It's as long as you make it as simple as that. But as soon as you start complicating things, you know, you introduce the mainland thing. I'm sympathetic to the mail. I think the mail in thing is the most like, perverted post Covid change that we've had to our electorate. But as soon as you make a federal law that dictates to states that have been doing it for 25 years, which by the way, Republicans have done pretty well in, you start splitting constituencies. Mike Lee is a pretty good example of that. Utah is a place that has voted by mail for a long time. He's maybe the most foremost spokesperson for eliminating the filibuster and passing the SAVE Act. Nobody has asked Mike Lee which version of the SAVE act he wants to pass. Because if it's the second version that requires a federal mandate to eliminate federal mail in ballots, well, Mike Lee's gonna find himself on the other side of that argument. Right. But it's this problem that we've had internally about discussing this entire issue that has let Democrats off the hook. Can you believe that somebody like we are nine months into this debate and somebody like Mark Warner, who is amongst the most sophisticated and what Democrats say is the most well spoken. I could quibble with that. Democrats, in wading into these issues, did not have an answer, did not have an answer for why they oppose
- [49:02]
C
a
- [49:02]
A
photo ID at the polls.
- [49:04]
D
Yeah.
- [49:05]
A
Doesn't have an answer that tells you everything about how shitty you have been at prosecuting the argument. He hasn't had to answer it until July of an election year.
- [49:16]
D
And if you're listening to this and you're frustrated and you want to pass The Save America act or you want to pass voter id. Take a look at what the DSA has done in their hostile takeover. The Democrat Party. Black lives matter. Like they give a about black lives. Health care is a human right. No person is illegal. It's all bumper stickers. But you know what? Bumper stickers work. It's how they've won all these primaries. It's how they're upsetting the establishment all around the country. And it works in politics. We need to have better bumper stickers.
- [49:49]
A
Yeah, I mean, you know I, I just had this, my reaction on Sunday. He did this on a Sunday show. My reaction on Sunday was like imagine how screwed Democrats would be if this was an argument they had to confront on a day to day basis. If Democrat, if Republicans actually made this something the Democrats had to answer for rather than what we ourselves have to answer for. And like my immediate inbox stuff was like yeah, but Republicans. And I'm like that's look, that's the problem.
- [50:22]
C
Kind of the point and that.
- [50:24]
A
And that's what I'm saying here is, look, you're right in that there are Republicans who have been problematic on this unquestionably but you have a united Democratic Front. It's not 51 is never going to work for a wholesale sale election change in this country that is not going to be simply undone win the next election. The question is whether or not Democrats feel the legitimate 8020 pressure that they should feel in order to get on board for the big win, to actually make our country work and give people faith and trust in elections. And they may not, but they should pay the price if they don't. And they're not going to pay any price because we're busy fighting amongst the just ourselves. If they decide that they don't want to do it, fine. But when you walk into the voting booth, you should have some question about whether or not your vote's ultimately going to count or whether they're trying to rig it because they're the ones who are opposing the authenticity of your ballot. And that in and of itself should provide you the motivation to go out and vote Republican to go do the thing. And I just. We're missing a big opportunity is my only point.
- [51:43]
D
Yeah, it's. Can I do one more thing on the pasta pass. Just I, I don't feel like it got full scrutiny because we moved on to the Warner clip. Yeah, can we put that graphic back up for a second here? So I. Not Olive Garden's response, but I just think something needs to be Acknowledged in the question again. I'm going to read it again. Are you able to order pasta for family using the pasta pass, or is that exclusively for the person with the card at the table? I don't know about you, but I'll feel really weird with just one person having unlimited pasta while everyone awkwardly waits. Awkwardly wait? Awkward for who? For you. Not the smart guy who got the pasta pass.
- [52:27]
A
I know that guy.
- [52:28]
D
You're an idiot. Yeah, that guy signed up for multiple plates of pasta. He's trying to put on mass. And we're talking like 2,000, 4,000 calories. We're talking the pasta trio. He's going to get the quattro formaggio. He might even get the lasagna. That guy's living the dream. Nothing's awkward for him. You cheapskate. Need to get your own pasta pass. I can't believe we let that pitch go by without taking a swing at it.
- [52:54]
C
Can I. Can we put that back up one more time? Because I think I have an answer to Duncan's question. If you look at the handle on this one.
- [53:02]
A
Yeah, Superpower Mario.
- [53:05]
C
I think Mario once free pasta.
- [53:09]
A
Don't we have a. Don't we have a thing on that? I feel like Mario is understated here on the program. We haven't used him in a long time.
- [53:18]
D
Mamma mia.
- [53:20]
A
There he is. There he is.
- [53:22]
D
I mean, he's betraying his heritage, really, if he's trying to shortchange Olive Garden. Because again, when you're here, you're family, and that's not how family treats each other. Oh, no. Pay for the pasta pass, you cheapskate. There we go. There we go. I had to get that off my chest. Well done.
- [53:48]
A
Well done.
- [53:49]
C
It's a great restaurant. I can't wait to go back.
- [53:51]
A
We would be remiss if we didn't also note the vice President of the United States and his wife welcomed a new child into the world. Graphic two, please. Alec. Neil Vance. Big, big congratulations to the vice president and the second lady on a new delivery out there. And look, we're going to talk to him probably sometime soon. I can't think that this. This is going to be fantastic for them, their family. It provides a nice little perspective within the Oval Office to have a young one like that, doesn't it?
- [54:30]
C
Sure does.
- [54:31]
A
It really does. It's nice to have that you think about it from your average voter's perspective. Usually you get these old guys of kids are all graduated and off to their own thing. This guy's gotta think about somebody who's literally just. He can hold with one hand.
- [54:47]
D
I got one complaint.
- [54:50]
C
Oh, okay.
- [54:52]
D
I've got one complaint.
- [54:53]
F
There it is.
- [54:54]
D
Well, as a fellow elder millennial, I just hope my wife doesn't get any ideas.
- [54:59]
C
Oh, you know, okay.
- [55:02]
D
Oh, oh, you think we're done? Wait, the vice president. You're telling the vice president made time.
- [55:09]
C
You're telling me you guys aren't done, old timer? No, we're done. You're just declaring that
- [55:16]
A
shops closed. I absolutely love it. All right, we're going to get into some substantive stuff here with our old friend Senator Bill Haggerty. More than happy to welcome one of our best friends here of the Ruthless Friday program. You've heard him a lot of times. Bill Haggerty. Senator, how are you, sir?
- [55:39]
E
I'm great, Josh. It's good to be with you all again.
- [55:41]
A
Great to see you. Listen, a lot of stuff going on, a lot of important stuff, a lot of fun stuff. America 250, all this stuff. I want to start with Iran because we haven't covered a ton of it here on the Ruthless Variety Program. But you, your international expertise, I think you've got a perspective on this that is something we don't have here on the Ruthless Variety Program.
- [56:04]
E
My perspective dates back not just to the current involvement with Iran, but prior to that, I served as U.S. ambassador to Japan during the first Trump term. And you may recall we tore up the jcpoa, which was ridiculous, by the way.
- [56:17]
A
Yeah, totally.
- [56:18]
E
We tore that up and put maximum pressure on Iran. Part of that maximum pressure meant that we had to go to our allies and impose what is called secondary sanctions, meaning we're not going to trade with people who trade with Iran. And I had to have this conversation, a very tough conversation, with Prime Minister Abe, that it's a simple choice, but it's a tough one. You can trade with Iran, you can trade with the United States, but you cannot trade with both of us. And after much discussion, Prime Minister Abe agreed that they would stop buying Iranian crude oil. But he told me that it had been a 70 year relationship. And so he was going to fly to Tehran to let them know in person. He does this. He flies there, meets with Rohini, the President, that afternoon, and things seem to go well, according. According to the conversation I had with him that evening. The next day, he goes in to meet with the ayatollah. Their response was to send speedboats out and attach magnetic limpet mines to the sides of two Japanese cargo ships and blow them up.
- [57:14]
C
Are you kidding?
- [57:16]
E
That's who we're dealing with.
- [57:17]
C
Yeah.
- [57:19]
E
One of the best and most gracious diplomats in the world, Prime Minister Abe, was treated that way by the Iranian regime. So that has always been in the back of my mind as we deal with them today. And I think you've seen it manifest itself, massive amounts of frustration trying to deal with them. If you step back and just say, going in, there is a very clear target package that was established. Admiral Brad Cooper. Cooper runs Centcom, and Brad got through 75 to 80% of that target package before we went into ceasefire mode and started dealing with the straight of Hormuz. The remainder of that package will take two and a half to three weeks to execute. Looking back on it, it's only fair. It's not fair to, you know, armchair quarterback it, but looking back on it, I wish we'd finished the target package then. I think that we're going to find ourselves in a position where we're going to have to finish it now. And that seems to be the path.
- [58:13]
D
And you think that's sort of a product of who it is we're negotiating with, based on story and Trump, in good faith, trying to go to the Iranians with this memorandum of understanding, and then it just, you know, they violate the thing. It seems to me that Iran loves to talk and typically breaks most of their promises. It's like, how do we get them into a position where they actually negotiate in good faith?
- [58:43]
E
I think it's going to be crushing force. I think that's the way to do it. And look, I fully appreciate President Trump's perspective because he also realizes we're going to be responsible for rebuilding the economy once this is over. And so there's a real reluctance to destroy a lot of infrastructure that's going to have to be rebuilt, et cetera. I get that. And he's trying to create an opportunity for the Iranian people who I think the vast majority of them want to see things change dramatically there, certainly in the region. And I'll. I'll mention this, too, Josh, if I think about the difference between where we were with the jcpoa, no one in the region wanted that deal. Nobody and everyone in the region is supporting us right now in what we're trying to execute. And I think that's a significant sea change. Also the negotiating dynamic. At one point during the jcpoa, the Foreign Minister, Zarif, gets up and walks out of the room. Our negotiator, John Kerry, gets up and runs down the hall to bring him back to the table. Any of us in business know what you just did? You just gave it all away. And I think the sense was, and I'm trying to put any ill intent on anybody, but I think the sense was that there was more desperation to get a deal, to get a press release, to be able to announce something than to have a substantive impact. And what we found, of course, the Israelis demonstrated this. The Iranians never stopped their program. They've always been in pursuit of a nuclear weapon. And all we wound up doing, again in 2020 hindsight, was giving the funds to instigate more terrorism and put them back on the path with a little bit of a timeline to have a nuclear weapon. You come forward and you think about what drove the decision. For President Trump at the time that he made the decision, it was mathematics. The Iranians figured out if they could continue to build more cheap, cheap ballistics, more cheap drones, at some point, they could overwhelm conventional capabilities to take them out. And you know what? Our capability, it's exquisite. But when, you know, a ballistic missile comes in, we've got, you know, extraordinary technology that can take it out.
- [60:45]
D
Yeah, that's the Thaad missile.
- [60:46]
E
In the Patriot systems, we've got several. Several systems that will do it, but they're quite expensive. And the timeline to reproduce them is significantly longer than.
- [60:55]
D
So the conflict becomes asymmetrical because they
- [60:57]
E
can produce all the. These cheap. You look at the pace that they're producing these cheap, you know, these cheap ballistics, and at some point you're gonna. You realize they can. If they overwhelm our ability to stop them, then they have all the time they ever needed to build the nuclear program. So as you look at that math, you realize, wait a minute, we're moving in a direction. You can see where it's going. You need to act. And that's exactly where we were. The precise timing, I think, had to do with 40 people being in the wrong room at the wrong time. But directionally speaking, you could see where this was going. It had to be dealt with.
- [61:25]
C
Do you think that support exists in the Senate? I mean, and I know, you know, you're the House, too, but do you think the support exists in the Senate for the President to continue doing what he needs to do in Iran?
- [61:38]
E
There is support. The question is, is there enough support? You know, is there a majority support? Because every Democrat seems to be for the Iranians right now.
- [61:45]
F
Right.
- [61:45]
E
Which is incredible. But if you could hear what some of my Democrat colleagues are saying on the floor of the United States Senate, you would think they're pulling for the other side, and I don't believe that's true in their heart. But we're in a political environment right now where everything is oriented toward a loss for Trump. And if they can find a way to make this look bad for President Trump, they're going to pursue it, no matter what the implications are for the United States and for our people. So it's been quite sad for me, and again, I'm not saying this is true for everybody, but there have been Democrats on the floor saying things that have been, frankly, shocking to me in terms of their. It seems that they, they almost hope that we have a bad situation, a bad outcome there.
- [62:25]
A
Well, I, look, I think it's also important to just sort of level set about all of this because you have a good perspective on this, given your history and your, your experiences. But, you know, for 47 years, this is a regime that is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, killed more Americans than anyone in the world. And there is this permission structure in both conservative and liberal critics of what's happening in Iran, that if you just ignored it all, that nothing would happen, that it was a status quo that we all just continue to ignore, and there's no economic or life ramifications whatsoever. And I think what I, I am most gratified by President Trump's decision to do it is he's the first president who decided, I'm not going to leave this to another administration. It's going to get worse. It's going to keep getting worse. You get October 7th, you get the full funding of Hamas and Hezbollah. Who knows where it goes from there? If they get a nuclear weapon and everything else, we already know their intentions. This is not something to be ignored. It had to be dealt with at some point. And it's always going to be painful when you have to deal with an existential problem at some level.
- [63:45]
E
Well, you raise a great point. And politically, it always is easier to kick the can down the road. But as you mentioned that, Josh, it just brought me back to the Sunday morning after President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania. I was on the phone with him for about 20 minutes, and I just sensed, and I told him, you have the opportunity to be the one. You were just elected president. President. That was it. You can be the most consequential president we've ever had. And I think he's taken on that mantle. He realizes, but for the grace of God, he wouldn't be here. And he's taking on the tough problems. He's not backing away from anything. And I think what he's trying to do is change the status quo in a major step function so that we're not dealing with this crap in the next administration, the next administration in the next. And there have been great leaders that have come along. I think, about Douglas MacArthur in Japan. I was fortunate to live in the same residence he occupied for six years when he was stationed there. He executed the Korean War. After the rebuilding of Japan. I often wonder what would have happened if Truman had not fired him. If MacArthur had been allowed to finish the damn job, we wouldn't be dealing with a lot of the stuff that we're dealing with out there right now. And President Trump is going to finish the damn job.
- [64:57]
A
Yeah, it's really well said. Of course, there's a political cost that comes along with all of it, because everybody is sort of scattered in their opinions of a whole bunch of different things. And when you're in power, you just own everything. And President Trump's approval ratings in the historical norms that are a party in power going into a midterm, not a great history. Obviously, you got a map that you can work with. In the United States Senate, the House looks to improve their position with some redistricting and everything else. As you look out of the political landscape, what do you think?
- [65:33]
E
So if you listen to what they're saying in the mainstream media, the sense of malaise, the polling, et cetera, et cetera, they don't seem to take into account that there's been a major effort underway on redistricting. These districts have been gerrymandered in a way that give an advantage to Republicans. And the number of districts is pretty significant that we've gained. If you also think about this, the number of competitive districts dramatically shrinks. Right. Because of all the gerrymandering that's taken place. So we're talking about a small number of districts that can shift. I'll take you Back to Tennessee. Tennessee 7. The first time that we've seen President Trump deploy his super PAC was when Matt Venaps, who's now a congressman, was being challenged by the AOC of Tennessee. Kamala Harris came in and campaigned for all kinds of outside money coming in. The margins are tightening, et cetera, et cetera. And President Trump drops in there with a couple $3 million. Boom. He endorses, she's gone. It was game over. That kind of resource. A $1.3 billion kitty. I don't think we've seen that before.
- [66:35]
A
Well, you talk to these guys you're close to them. Do you get the sense that that is the sort of relationship that both House and Senate Republicans are gonna get from MAGA and the Trump Organization all the way through here?
- [66:46]
E
My sense is President Trump does not want to see us lose the House of Representatives. I don't think we're gonna lose the Senate either, but the House will be a primary focus point and where we have overlapping races. I mean, I'm working hard on the ground game in tough Senate races across the country, we're going to be helping our House members out as well. But President Trump is very focused on this. He doesn't want to see us lose. And again, I think what we're talking about is a much more narrow spread than people who talk about history seem to realize. And at the same time, no one seems to be taking into account the power of being able to drop in, airdrop massive amounts of resources as needed in the race. So I'm more optimistic about the House. I look at the Senate, I think we actually have chance to pick up seats. I look at Michigan, I feel very good about Mike Rogers race there.
- [67:33]
A
You're running against the Hamas cocks of the Democratic Party.
- [67:37]
E
I think that's a manifestation of really where they've gone. But let's watch that race and see how it goes. And take my own race. Rather than pick on my colleagues, I'll take my own race. I'm in cycle right now. If you poll me against a generic Democrat right now, I'll win by a certain margin. But as soon as I know which of the four Democrats that are in the primary that are going to come after me, they're a communist, a Democrat, socialist, whatever the rap sheet looks like, I'll begin to define that person. And that margin is going to spread dramatically. And that's going to happen all across the country.
- [68:07]
C
And AOC was in Memphis just a few days ago. She was trying out her best Southern Africa accent, and we've never heard her use it.
- [68:14]
A
Did you catch that?
- [68:15]
C
I don't know if you. I don't know if you saw one.
- [68:17]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [68:18]
C
But I mean, these, the, this, this DSA phenomenon that has worked in these blue enclaves in New York and in California, they're trying to make it work in other places like Tennessee and in the Midwest, where we're all from. And I just, I just don't see it happening. I mean, you just mentioned it yourself that when you name the candidate, when you say what this candidate is for, people are like, I don't want any Part of it. Of it. And I got to imagine that's what is frightening these establishment Democrats so much.
- [68:49]
E
Yeah, I think you're exactly right. And they're trying to navigate low turnout primaries where the AOC type of candidate can amass just enough to win. But that's a. I think, I hate to think that this is a majority view in the Democrat Party right now,
- [69:04]
A
but certainly it might be, though.
- [69:06]
E
They're pulling it. This very left. Allowed left, far left, is. Pulled the whole party in a direction that frankly, I just can't imagine. Certainly Democrats in Tennessee have got to be feeling some sort of cognitive dissonance here.
- [69:22]
C
Well, you've got your old school Democrats in East Tennessee who are much more comfortable in FDR's party than they are in AOC's party. And so that's probably why you've seen so many migrate to a guy like you.
- [69:34]
E
Yeah, yeah. There's been a massive transition throughout the entire Southeast, as you know, and we've seen it state after state. In fact, it was just 2010 that we moved from a Democrat governor in Tennessee to a Republican governor. So it hasn't been that long. Now you look at Tennessee and you say, gosh, it's a solid red state and it will be. I'm confident in that. But it's happened. That sort of transformation has happened. And you see it now in Pennsylvania, Ohio. These states are moving and they're moving in the right direction.
- [70:00]
A
Well, it's an interesting dynamic because lot has been said about sort of global economic numbers, approval of president, party in power, a lot of punditry that makes, in my view, sort of asymmetric connections to an awful lot of that. But nobody's really talking about the fact that Democratic Party in and of itself has not sold a single thing to the voter. I mean, this is at all times lowest approval rating of the Democratic Party as a whole. And if you're going to be an alternative to the thing, you kind of have to be at least as popular as the thing at some level and
- [70:45]
E
offer some sort of solution.
- [70:47]
D
Right.
- [70:48]
A
Other than like, you don't like Western civilization.
- [70:52]
E
That's a good point. That's a good point. But it seems that that is where they're persisting right now. Now, and I don't know who they're talking with, but the media that they talk with and the media that provides their echo chamber seems to be on the same page, and that is Trump hatred. And let's just denounce the United States of America and our Founding Fathers and all the principles of freedom and liberty and justice that we stand for. Let's go for centralized control. Let's attack other members of our population. Let's go for free stuff for everybody. I mean, this whole thing will not stand up to any sort of rational argument. But they're not trying to make a rational argument. It's just a bunch of bumper sticker stuff. And, you know, at the. At the root of it, at the very root of all of it, is just hate Trump.
- [71:37]
A
Yeah.
- [71:38]
E
I don't see that as a foundation for that.
- [71:40]
A
Can't be the only tie that binds.
- [71:42]
E
There are few people that would be inspired because they get jacked up on social media and they're ready to go. But I think for the vast majority of people, this is not an inspiring message.
- [71:51]
A
I think that's a very fair point. All right, so you look out the fall schedule. Obviously, we've still got a couple of weeks to go before August work period break. And then you get into a whole bunch of a stack up of stuff in a relatively short amount of time after Labor Day. How do you think things go?
- [72:10]
E
I think it's going to be a pretty challenging several weeks. Right now. We've got a lot of legislative issues before us that we need to be dealing with. The Democrats just voted against getting on procedurally to get onto the National Defense Authorization Bill, last time I checked, which is unbelievable.
- [72:25]
C
Crazy.
- [72:25]
E
We've had a major depletion of our munitions. We're at a point of vulnerability. If we don't follow through. We've got an exquisite military, an exceptional military. But if we don't provide for them, and we've never done this before, you all have been around this longer than I have. This is the first time we've ever seen this sort of behavior. They're willing to block funding in the military. They're willing to block funding of dhs. I was talking with the leader of the TSA in Nashville before I came up today. All of these shutdowns led to not only a loss of people at that time, but a lot of people putting their applications in for other jobs.
- [72:58]
A
They lost a lot of personnel.
- [72:59]
E
Yeah. And so they're still losing personnel even today because it took two or three months to get through the vetting process. Now they're getting their job offers and they don't want to deal with this again because they can see what's on the horizon in September 20th. Chuck Schumer's already said it. He's shutting the government down without care, without any notion of what's good for America without any care for the destruction of families, lives, their inability to make ends meet. Because he's doing this simply to obtain power for political purposes. Because they've come to some calculus that if they can shut the government down and throw it over to their friends in the media, that the blame will be shifted to President Trump and the Republicans and that will suffer in the midterms.
- [73:34]
A
Do you get any sense internally within, I mean, you talk to Democrats, they're your colleagues and they're around there. Do you sense that that is a winning strategy internally for Democrats? Because I mean, we've made the case that Chuck Schumer knows better in an awful lot of ways, certainly knew better than the government shutdown last fall. Record setting government shutdown over an issue that they haven't spoken about since, by the way, this Obamacare tax. They haven't raised the issue, haven't even discussed it. And then they shut the government down around ICE and ICE funding ultimately just to get Republicans to try to work it through a different way and get exactly what it is that was in in the first place. And so. But all of it is a kayfabe, kind of like a professional wrestling to his own base to show like, I'm a fighter and I'm doing the thing. But you get the sense even looking at his own conference, people are like,
- [74:31]
D
yeah, he doesn't get, he doesn't.
- [74:32]
C
But listen, Josh, I think you're making such a great, great point because he is vulnerable to being painted as a guy who is just given over to the chaos of the communist left that's rising up. And so if he is willing to shut the government down, I feel like he's going to get a lot of criticism from people saying, wait a minute, this is not what we want out of an alternative to Republicans. We don't want more chaos from communists coming in and running our government.
- [74:59]
E
Yeah. Certainly not leadership. But I'll say a dynamic that's taken place just recently. Recently on the floor of the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders brought forward some pro Hamas. I can't remember the specifics of the legislative thing he was trying to accomplish, but he was trying to get a vote. And Chuck only held six other Democrats with him. Forty went with Bernie.
- [75:20]
A
It's amazing.
- [75:20]
E
And Bernie's in a position to declare himself the leader of the Democrat Party right now, certainly in the United States Senate that's the case. And I don't know who's leading over in the House. If it's not, you can tell me. But Jeffries doesn't seem to be delivering any leadership either. And if you look in Jeffries own home state, it's just amazing how the Democrat socialists have taken over. Now, Mamdani, however you pronounce his name, seems to be the face of certainly New York politics, if not the rest of the country.
- [75:47]
A
It does. And it's shocking at some level. I mean, we're 25 years removed from 9 11, and we're having like an anti Semitic litmus test in these Democratic primaries around the country.
- [76:03]
E
He's going to arrest Bibi Netanyahu when he comes in.
- [76:06]
D
I read that.
- [76:07]
E
Yeah, yeah.
- [76:08]
B
It's just a.
- [76:09]
A
It's a wild. It's got to be a weird time to be up there, to be honest.
- [76:13]
E
I know, but if you can imagine an NYPD officer stepping up to arrest Bibi Netanyahu because Mamdani told him to do it. I. It's going to be. It's going to be really shocking to see that extra material. But he's saying this, right? They're all full of these. These bumper sticker talking points, right, that have no practical. You know, but they're holding Chuck Schumer hostage with them.
- [76:35]
D
That's the craziest thing.
- [76:37]
A
He's like, oh, okay. Well, I guess I'll say yes right up until the point where I have to do it.
- [76:41]
C
Yeah.
- [76:41]
D
Right.
- [76:42]
A
I mean it. Okay. So all of that and then the insanity of. We watched Mark Warner, who amongst Senate Democrats, I've never been convinced of this, but media and everybody else will say he's like, well, this guy, at least he has a business background. At least he's sort of like common sense in some regards, even if he's liberal.
- [77:05]
D
I've never seen statesman.
- [77:06]
A
I've never seen any evidence of that whatsoever. But he's out on the Sunday shows this week and he's asked. We played a clip earlier, asked about voter id, and he's like, yeah, no, Virginia, we do that. And Jonathan Karl is like, no, that is not the law there. And then he goes on to try to explain their position on voter integrity. They have nothing.
- [77:32]
E
I didn't know they had a position. I didn't see this. But I'm shocked that he even tried it would make an attempt like that.
- [77:38]
A
Well, it just, it literally, he. He doesn't have any ability to actually vocalize that.
- [77:46]
E
I can do it for him.
- [77:47]
A
Yeah.
- [77:47]
E
Would you give me a shot, please?
- [77:49]
C
Yeah, please.
- [77:50]
E
So we were taking advantage of the fact that congressional districts and electoral votes are allocated based on the number of people in the country not based on the number of citizens. Therefore, we're going to collapse the border, flood it with 10, 20 million people. a minimum, we get a reshape of the Electoral College. At a minimum, we get a reshape of the map in the US Congress. It doesn't affect the Senate, but it affects everything else. And that's because we can count these people that are here illegally in that allocation. So what do we do? We erect sanctuary cities in our big blue states that are otherwise losing population, by the way. So we put sanctuary cities in Los Angeles and San Francisco and Chicago and New York. This is the game plan. They want to be able to count these people. And I put it to the floor. Schumer and I got down to the wire on a government shutdown. We actually went 30 minutes into a technical shutdown. And he thought he had me because it was at this point close to 1am when they finally put it to a vote. Every single Democrat voted to continue counting illegals for the purpose solely the purpose of allocating electoral votes and allocating congressional districts. I was willing to give on allocating resources like infrastructure resources. The people are here. They make an argument there, but just for voting purposes. They acknowledged it because every single one of them voted against it. They want these people here to shift the whole voting dynamic and they don't want them to be identified because take the District of Columbia. I have a. You know, we all live either here or Virginia. I happen to be here when I'm just. When I'm serving in the Senate. My home's in Nashville. But I got a 64 page booklet to tell me how rank order voting works. I get these cards saying if you're illegal, you don't have to be a citizen to vote in the elections here in D.C. but nobody can legally ask you as you trip over and go into the federal vote and keep checking, there's nobody there to stop you from.
- [79:39]
A
Well, it's an on your honor system.
- [79:41]
E
On your honor system. Right. Somebody's already broken into the country. I can guess this is going to go. But this is just a microcosm of their game plan. They want to get the message in here. They want to find some way to get them into the voting booth and that. That is one of their major strategies to win in America. It's not the messaging.
- [79:57]
A
Yeah.
- [79:58]
E
It's. It's not the policies. It's in finding ways to get around the system that our founding fathers.
- [80:03]
A
Oh, it's just so well said. It's exactly right. It totally is. You cut to the quick again, Senator. This is exactly, exactly what we wanted to hear. Listen, let us know how everything's going in Tennessee. It seems like you're taking care of your own business. Sounds like we're gonna get.
- [80:17]
E
I think we're gonna be fine in Tennessee, Governor. Where.
- [80:19]
A
Tennessee's looking good.
- [80:20]
E
Tennessee's looking good. And Tennessee has something very special.
- [80:23]
A
Oh, what do we have here?
- [80:24]
E
Honor. Honor our host today with one of the special products from Tennessee. It's an agricultural problem. We're an agrarian state, as you know. But we've learned manufacturing along the way, distillation is a subset of that. And this is a, this is a very, this is, is. This is a favorite product of my home state. It's engraved by our master distiller of Jack Daniels. And it's also signed to all my friends at Ruthless, my Ruthless friends.
- [80:54]
A
Gonna make us feel bad about drinking it.
- [80:55]
E
Oh, you know, just, just save the bottle. But I'll pass it to you, Josh.
- [81:01]
A
Senator, that's fantastic. I love it. Jack Daniels, wow. It's just an iconic brand. I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining us.
- [81:08]
E
Great to be with you. Thank you.
- [81:10]
D
Thank you.
- [81:10]
E
Thanks.
- [81:11]
B
Gentlemen, meet Timothy. Because this is radio, you can't see Timothy. You can't see that Timothy has eczema. And you can't see that he's sliding down a slip n slide with his big brother. You see Timothy's on Dupixent. Dupilumab. It helps control his moderate to severe eczema. When prescription topical therapies aren't enough. And because this is radiation video, you can't see Timothy's clearer skin or how he's itching less. But kids as young as six months can see for themselves how Dupixent helps heal their skin from within and get ahead of their eczema. And it's not a cream, steroid or immunosuppressant. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue or throat swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of new or worsening eye problems like eye pain or vision changes, skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. Dupixent helps your child feel the heel. Ask your child's eczema specialist. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-dupixent well, just
- [82:14]
C
an outstanding conversation as usual with Senator Haggerty. I feel like we owe him a jacket at this point. The guy's been on the show so many times, but he always provides a perspective that you don't expect to hear when you're sitting there with him. I. Obviously, he's a great accomplished businessman, a great, accomplished senator. But then he brings stuff like that story about Abe. Exactly.
- [82:39]
D
Yeah. I mean, he was ambassador to Japan. If you ever wonder why President Trump during his first administration had such a great relationship with Japan, it's because you had great guys like now Senator Haggerty, who are out there doing the hard work of the administration. I mean, the guy's got such incredible experience and the wealth, wealth of knowledge he brings to an issue like Iran, I think is we're lucky to have him.
- [83:02]
A
Yeah, he always brings little pearls that we seek to provide to you here in the ruthless Friday program. Listen, fellas, we got a big week. There's a lot going on. A lot hit the cutting room floor. In terms of yucks today, we gotta save something. Gotta save a lot. So it's gonna be a fun week. Can't wait for you guys to join us throughout on Thursday and Friday with that, fellas, I think we did it.
- [83:24]
D
An absolute banger of an episode. Gentleman, but no smug. So we'll go to Hollywood hen
- [83:32]
B
another banger of an episode, folks. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs.
- [83:51]
A
Sam.