Fake Hate - How Democrats Manufacture ‘Extremism’ - SPLC Indicted

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Fake Hate – How Democrats Manufacture ‘Extremism’ – SPLC Indicted
Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guests/Attributions: Michael Watley, Maximum Boot, Sean Hannity

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Main Theme

This episode centers on the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), exploring allegations that the group has not only failed in its civil rights mission but has actively manufactured hate and extremism for political and financial gain. The hosts discuss how organizations like the SPLC have become integral to Democratic political and media strategies—accusing political opponents of extremism, fueling division, and working behind the scenes with government agencies and corporate partners.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SPLC’s Role in Democratic Strategy and Censorship

• The SPLC is described as “an important cog in the wheel of the Democrat machine” (Michael Watley, 03:44), pressuring corporate America, tech companies, and media to blacklist, demonetize, or otherwise punish personalities or groups labeled as “hate groups.”
• The SPLC’s original civil rights reputation gave it credibility, which has been leveraged to silence critics to the right of mainstream Democrats.

  “They used their original reputation as being like, oh, this is continuing Martin Luther King's legacy...and they eventually became a center cog in the left machine...smear anything to like, the right of Bernie Sanders as being a hate group and a Nazi...”
  — Maximum Boot (06:48)

• SPLC's influence permeates through regular visits to the White House and close cooperation with the Biden administration, especially through the DOJ and FBI.

  “The White House logs...showed that they had visited the White House 11 times during the four years that the Biden administration was in there.”
  — Josh Holmes (10:07)

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2. The SPLC Indictment: Manufacturing Extremism

The Allegations

• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche indicted the SPLC for channeling donor-raised funds meant to dismantle racism into payments to actual hate groups, including Ku Klux Klan informants.

  “The Southern Poverty Law center is raising money, asking folks to give them money to dismantle racism...and over a very long period...they were using some of the money...to pay...leaders of KKK and other groups to continue their operations.”
  — Attorney General Todd Blanche (11:04)

• SPLC reportedly paid at least $3 million to eight individuals tied to extremist groups and used the resulting “work product” (reports, stories, photos) to bolster their fundraising and media campaigns (13:52).

• Memorable comparison:

  “Our work funded creating the problem that we now need more money to solve—it's the self licking ice cream cone.”
  — Michael Watley (15:02)

Notable Quotes

• On the business model of NGOs and SPLC:

  “The problem with white supremacy in this country is that the demand for it far outstrips the supply for it...So if the SPLC is like, oh, no, white supremacy's down yet again, whoa, yeah, I don't know. We'll create it so then we can get donors.”
  — Maximum Boot (12:17)

• On the sheer audacity of the crime alleged:

  “What an indictment is now...is saying is that the SPLC...was actually taking that money...and repurposing it to hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Because if you're trying to solve a problem that you'd have a hard time finding, you're certainly going to have to create the problem.”
  — Josh Holmes (11:43)

• Comic relief about SPLC and the Klan:

  “Does the SPLC at least get a table at the annual [KKK] dinner?”
  — Maximum Boot (16:26)

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3. Real-World Consequences and Further Allegations

• Charlottesville: SPLC allegedly paid a member (F37) in the planning group for the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally, including arranging transportation and stoking online hate, with payouts over $270,000 (18:53-19:40).

  “If you're listening and you wondered where the hell did this Charlottesville thing come from in the first place—now we know.”
  — Comfortably Smug (19:40)

• The media and Democratic politicians—from Joe Biden to Jamie Raskin—based much of their extremism narrative, even campaign launches, on these events.

  “The reason I'm running, Jack, is because of Charlottesville. This whole thing...paid for under the supervision of the SPLC...”
  — Maximum Boot quoting Biden (20:55)

• SPLC became a “hate group map” source used explicitly by the FBI to target traditional Catholics, parental rights groups, and conservative organizations (29:10).

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4. Mainstream Media & Democrat Deflection

• Media outlets (e.g., USA Today) are accused of downplaying the indictment, framing SPLC’s conduct as standard informant practice and minimizing the seriousness of the wire fraud and false statement allegations (23:07-24:03).

  “It is more than that—you’re actually funding the mechanism for the people to show up at the rally.”
  — Michael Watley (24:03)

• Question raised: Was SPLC a “cutout” for off-the-books government informant operations? (24:53-25:20)

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5. Commentary on Gerrymandering, GOP Defeats, and Party Strategies

• Intense segment on the GOP’s failure to respond to Democratic determination in Virginia’s recent special election, leading to significant redistricting losses.
  (38:24–52:48, especially 40:06–41:45)

• Debate on whether national Republicans did enough and what it means for future “power politics.”

  “Democrats will stop at nothing.”
  — Maximum Boot (41:31)

• Strategic mistake: GOP failed to anticipate coordinated Democratic gerrymandering and was outmatched in resources and focus.

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6. “King of the Hill” Segment

(54:01–62:33)
A humorous competitive segment where Adam Kinzinger and Maximum Boot are pitted against each other for the most outlandish or hypocritical social media/political takes. Highlights include:

• Kinzinger’s posturing on gerrymandering despite being a victim of it (57:55).
• Maximum Boot’s devotion to Ukraine even at the expense of US interests (54:51).
• Judges (Comfortably Smug/Ashbrook) offering tongue-in-cheek verdicts.

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7. Interview: Michael Watley, NC Senate Candidate

(63:42–81:49)
Michael Watley discusses his campaign against Roy Cooper (Dem.), crime policy, Cooper’s record on criminal justice (notably pandemic-era prisoner releases, soft on crime), economic policy, and the importance of winning North Carolina for Senate control.

• Watley lays out his biography, campaign stops, and core message of “good policy is good politics” (64:16–75:11).
• The hosts emphasize the importance of defeating Cooper and the overall cost and intensity of the race (79:53).

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|----------------------|-----------------| | 06:48 | Maximum Boot | “...they eventually became a center cog in the left machine...smear anything to like, the right of Bernie Sanders as being a hate group.” | | 11:04 | A.G. Todd Blanche | “...the Southern Poverty Law Center...was paying the leaders of KKK and other groups to continue their operations.” | | 13:15 | Todd Blanche | “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it proposes to oppose...”| | 15:02 | Michael Watley | “...our work funded creating the problem that we now need more money to solve. It's the self licking ice cream cone.” | | 18:53 | Comfortably Smug | “If you're listening...and you wondered where the hell did this Charlottesville thing come from...now we know.” | | 20:55 | Maximum Boot (Biden) | “The reason I'm running, Jack, is because of Charlottesville...This whole thing...manufactured, paid for under the supervision of the SPLC...” | | 23:07 | Comfortably Smug | (Reading USA Today headline) | | 24:03 | Michael Watley | “...you're actually funding the mechanism for the people to show up at the rally.” | | 29:10 | Holmes | “The FBI utilized a so-called hate map from the SPLC...as it was going after traditional Catholics and labeling them domestic extremists.” | | 41:31 | Maximum Boot | “Democrats will stop at nothing.” | | 62:22 | Comfortably Smug | “Adam Kinzinger wins round.” (King of the Hill verdict) | | 64:16 | Sean Hannity (Watley interview) | “You're absolutely right. This is going to be the top of the ticket nationwide...” |

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Segment Timestamps

• [03:10] – Main political news intro
• [04:08] – SPLC indictment discussion starts
• [11:04] – Attorney General Todd Blanche on SPLC paying KKK
• [13:52] – Allegations of SPLC funding hate groups with donor money
• [18:53] – Charlottesville rally and SPLC involvement
• [23:07] – Media coverage of the SPLC indictment
• [38:24] – Virginia election/gerrymandering discussion
• [54:01] – “King of the Hill” segment begins
• [63:42] – Interview with Michael Watley (NC Senate race)
• [81:52] – Closing comments

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Overall Tone & Style

The episode is brash, irreverent, and at times darkly comic. The hosts take a no-holds-barred conservative stance, mixing deep skepticism of left-leaning institutions with rapid-fire quips and inside-campaign baseball. Tangents, hyperbole, and recurring inside jokes elevate the energy, but the central focus remains on exposing what the hosts characterize as institutional corruption and manipulation by Democratic-aligned groups.

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For New Listeners

This episode offers a fervent, highly critical look at the mechanisms of left-wing political influence in the U.S., especially concerning the SPLC. If you haven’t followed the SPLC story or recent Virginia politics, this summary provides the context, key arguments, and tone of the show, omitting digressions and ads for brevity and clarity.

Transcript

[Michael Watley]

The Southern Poverty Law center is an important cog in the wheel of the Democrat machine because it plugs into so many things that allows them to exert control.

[Maximum Boot]

They would work hand in glove with the Biden administration to be like, this is an extremist group. This is an extremist group. And Biden's FBI was like, oh, okay, so you're telling us that these moms who show up to school board meetings are extremists? And SPLC was like, yes, go get them.

[Josh Holmes]

And in this case, allegedly funding a Klu Klux Klan. Right, in order to actually convince people of all of this?

[Maximum Boot]

Well, white supremacy wasn't the problem. The problem was the SPLC needed to raise some money.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[NetChoice Representative]

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[Sean Hannity]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

[Sean Hannity]

I love the personality. You guys are kids killing it.

[Michael Watley]

I just saw your number one.

[Maximum Boot]

So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

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

[Sean Hannity]

Congratulations on all your success. This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Maximum Boot]

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast. It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right across your radio dial. Been an eventful week here in our nation's politics. We're going to get to all of it here in this particular program. But there's one thing I think that happened that was actually super significant that you're just not going to read about because it's, well, it's problematic for libs.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I mean, everybody, I don't care where you were at, you have assuredly heard about the Virginia special election. The ballot question that made a 6, 5 congressional delegation a 101 outcome by the skin of their teeth. Because that's good for libs. So you've heard about that. There was an other side of the story that happened the very same day that happens to deal with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[Michael Watley]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

So the Attorney General Todd Blanche, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, announced an indictment. And I was like, wow, that's really interesting. This is one of those outfits that has operated under the guise of being an old school civil rights organization. It was developed in the early 70s, sort of a corollary to Martin Luther King, Legacy of Martin Luther, founded by attorneys that were charged with the idea of exposing and either prosecuting, litigating in one form or fashion, white supremacy. Where it existed at the time under the guise of a lot of things that were sort of agreeable at that point in time. It had become, over time more and more partisan, where at some point it just straight up became a, not just a tool of the Democratic Party, but like a fringe tool that even the Democratic Party was like distance. Right. And they didn't, they didn't, wasn't like entirely in ca, they didn't send out press releases from the Southern Poverty Law center in the same way that they do like the aclu, for example.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They're not touting endorsements from the Southern Poverty Law. They're just there to do the dirty work. And this became more prevalent when we got into the era of them breaking the Internet.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Remember when we.

[Michael Watley]

This is really important for people to understand because we have talked on the Variety program ad nauseam about the Democrat NGO complex and how those two things work together. And the Southern Poverty Law center is an important cog in the wheel of the Democrat machine because it plugs into so many things that allows them to exert control homes. You just mentioned censoring on the Internet. They were a major part of that. They would go to huge multinational conglomerates and pressure them to stop ad revenue from going to sites or personalities or organizations or media companies that they didn't like what they said. It was a way to stifle free speech. And if anybody ever asked about it, it was like, well, Southern Poverty Law center says Southern, this is a hate group.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not me that's saying it. You want to Southern Poverty Law.

[Michael Watley]

You want to fund hate groups. Of course, you can't allow ad revenue to go to this, you know, YouTube channel or whatever.

[Maximum Boot]

That's the thing is like, so if you look at the modern left right now, how they, how they exist and how they exert their force, whether it's organizing boycotts via companies, being like, well, your ad revenue can't go to the Daily Caller because the Daily Caller's a hate group. They listed Charlie Kirk and TPUSA as a hate group. Think about that. So they used their original reputation as being like, oh, you know, this is continuing Martin Luther King's legacy. This is a civil rights group. And they eventually became a center cog in the entire left machine of being able to smear anything to like, the right of Bernie Sanders as being a hate group and a Nazi and someone who's dangerous. And they'd pressure companies to have nothing to do with it. They pressured Amazon into being like, you can't carry books by this individual because this is a hate group. They were the group that's responsible for labeling moms in Northern Virginia as being radicals. If you attend a school board meeting and saying that Catholics are. That's a hate group, what they're doing out there. They labeled the number of group Moms for Liberty, the number of groups that the Southern Poverty Law center acted to smear that then they have pressure on media companies to be like, call these people a hate group. Call these people a hate group. And you have folks like CNN, MS, now, all of these groups would jump on and be like, well, the Southern Poverty Law center has designated this person a member of a hate group. And it gets even worse.

[Josh Holmes]

And in very important tools, when you can't argue the merits of your support or opposition for policy of the Democratic Party, is just to simply label everything racist or sexist. But the weapon by which they use to support that claim is the Southern Poverty Law center and this has been the case forever. Now. They don't again, they don't go throwing out press releases about it, but they use it in the backdrop for censoring purposes or labeling purposes. The Charlie Kirk thing is a perfect example. It was what, two, three, four months before he was assassinated that they labeled him an extremist and part of a racist hate group. I mean, think about that.

[Maximum Boot]

Think about that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Insane.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's a wild accusation to make about somebody who's running a really pretty mainstream. What they said at the time was that anti government extremist group. Anti government extremist group. Well, they were anti Biden administration. So that's where they hang their hat on.

[Maximum Boot]

And that's the other thing is eventually the Southern Poverty Law center, whenever you had these elected Democrats, especially the Biden administration, is they would work hand in glove with the Biden administration to be like, this is an extremist group. This is an extremist group. And Biden's FBI was like, oh, okay, so you're telling us that these moms who show up to school board meetings are extremists and SPLC is like, yes, go get them.

[Michael Watley]

The FBI, again, just to put a finer point on it, Biden's FBI was leaning on this organization, which had become incredibly partisan, to be investigating crimes in this country. Think about how whacked.

[Maximum Boot]

That's insane.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just the wildest thing of all time. And just to enforce that point, the White House logs during the Biden administration showed that they had visited the White House 11 times during the four years that the Biden administration was in there. 11 times. Right. I mean, that's a look, if you get 11 meetings in the White House, that's huge. You got a lot of swat. And so it all came to of great interest to us who followed this and over the years and various iterations that this group had presented itself when Todd Blanche showed up and announced an indictment yesterday.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well Clip 1 I just want to

[Michael Watley]

make sure I understand you're alleging that the Southern Poverty Law center was paying the leaders of KKK and other groups to continue their operations.

[NetChoice Representative]

Is that.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

I'm not alleging it. The grand jury returned an indictment that says that. And so what the investigation found, according to the indictment that was returned today, is that they were paying. So Southern Poverty Law center is raising money, asking folks to give them money to dismantle racism. And over a very long period of time, they were using some of the money they raised from donors to pay to. They called them field, basically to Informants for information, for access, to just pay them for certain, to do certain things. And so, yes, that's exactly what the indictment charges.

[Josh Holmes]

So let me just cut to the quick on that. What an indictment is now that's been returned by a grand jury is saying is that the Southern Poverty Law center, which is raising money under the guise of eliminating racism from our country, was actually taking that money, or at least a portion of it, and repurposing it to hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Because if you're trying to solve a problem that you'd have a hard time finding, you're certainly going to have to create the problem.

[Maximum Boot]

This is something I've been saying for a long time. It's probably been over a decade. But at least for a decade, the media has been regurgitating and saying the biggest problem that we have in America is white supremacy. You had Biden's FBI director say, the biggest threat that we investigate is white supremacy. The problem with white supremacy in this country is that the demand for it far outstrips the supply for it. So if, again, you're One of these NGOs, I talk about the same thing with homelessness in California, where they've spent enough. These, like homeless NGOs have spent enough to be able to buy every single homeless person in that state a house. They're not trying to defeat homelessness because the checks stop coming. So if the SPLC is like, oh, no, white supremacy's down yet again, whoa, yeah, I don't know. We'll create it so then we can get donors.

[Josh Holmes]

When you're a professional revolutionary, there's not a great business model when the revolution has been settled.

[Maximum Boot]

Dingo.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is basically what we're finding out about this. More from the press conference. Clip 2.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it proposed reports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.

[Michael Watley]

Straight up.

[Josh Holmes]

Think about that. I mean, that's just right. Straight from the Department of Justice, you know, and there's an indictment that's been returned on that one that I can't imagine you'd get a pool grand jury pool to agree with unless you had the sum and substance of it. And I'll find out in a trial what all else is there. But, I mean, look, we're not done yet. Next clip, please.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

Between 2014 and 2023, SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight individuals. At least. After SPLC paid members of these extremist groups, it created work product that reported on these activities that the members participated in or contributed to. And to that end, it was doing the exact opposite of what it's told its donors it was doing. Not dismantling extremism, but funding it.

[Maximum Boot]

That's insane.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, look, it was hard not to be a conspiracy theorist in an awful lot of iterations of political activism over the years, but you saw it pop up from time to time. I think we talked about the Virginia stuff when Governor Youngkin was first elected, where there were people who showed up with signs, like racial signs, where they would get the media to report on it and be like, oh, look, all these hate groups are there. We're like, it doesn't seem like there's a bunch of people in Fairfax.

[Maximum Boot]

And then in one case, it was the Lincoln Project. I guess the folks who that they paid should have been with the splc. Yeah, they got more money, they're giving millions.

[Michael Watley]

It's not uncommon for nonprofits to raise money from donors and then produce a product. Right? Like you hold events, you bring people together, you advance the cause and mission of the organization. You take a lot of photos, you put it in the end of the year annual report, you send that back to donors. Look at all of our great work. This takes that entire model and flips it on its head and is like our work funded creating the problem that we now need more money to solve. It's the self licking ice cream cone.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. It's like, you know, we would do a lot more business if there was just more racial animus out there. So let's go and see if we can figure out how to create some, which is what this indictment is alleging. So he went on Ingram last night and I think put a finer point on some of these things that he's talking about in clip four.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

And it's extraordinarily egregious. You just talked about it. But imagine a donor to the SPLC if they were told, by the way, we're gonna give the money you're giving us to the Ku Klux Klan. Okay. Like in some cases over a million dollars. I mean, it's incredible.

[Michael Watley]

Ku Klux.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, dude, just what is going on?

[Maximum Boot]

So im the like Ku Klux Klan does their like annual donor report. And they're like, the other thing I'm trying. We want to thank our generous donors at the SPLC who accounted for what, like 90% of our annual budget this year?

[Josh Holmes]

How do you find a contest?

[Maximum Boot]

Does that SPLC at least get a table at like the Annual dinner.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, who's the guy that we call at the kkk?

[Sean Hannity]

What's his name?

[Josh Holmes]

What's his name? I mean, how do you find a contact for the clan?

[Michael Watley]

Our activist of the year. Everybody stand up and clap for David Duke.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the grand wizard himself, ladies and gentlemen.

[Maximum Boot]

He's here at the splc.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it just. It blows the mind, but these are all real things. One more clip from Ingram. Clip 5.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

All we know is that they set up these fictitious bank accounts, fake names

[Sean Hannity]

like the Constitution Group or whatever it was called.

[Maximum Boot]

Then they had one called Fox Photography, right?

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

Completely fictitious as far as the investigation has shown, shown. And they were using it simply to funnel money to these individuals. The indictment talks about a situation where they paid an individual to steal documents from the organization and then return the documents. And then when somebody else took the hit for it, they paid that person, too.

[Maximum Boot]

My God.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, dude, this is like the worst of the worst. It's the kind of thing that you just like when somebody would allege something like this that doesn't come from a long investigation in a grand jury indictment, I'd be like, yeah, right, right. Like, no way. That's not possible. Like, nobody's that devious and horrible. Yeah, they are.

[Maximum Boot]

And one thing I think needs to be said about the SPLC is they accomplished one of their missions, which is to have a tremendous impact on the country. Because if you think about what this country has gone through for over a decade of every day you turn on the news, you could even watch, like, abc, NBC, cnn, and you're getting endless lectures about how this country, America is so racist and there's so much white supremacy. Think about all these narratives that you've had hammered at you and at your kids in schools, elementary kids, being lectured that. Did you know that white supremacy is the biggest problem? And all the white kids in here, I think you should really feel bad and you should think about what you've done here. All of this was a lie that was manufactured and money's being exchanged hands to ruin this country. Because that's. That's what this is doing. This is setting Americans against each other. They did this for donations.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, everything that you guys have said is just jaw dropping. But what really stuck out to me is this whole episode with the Charlottesville.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So to put a fine point at graphic two, if you want to put this thing up, F37, that's an SPLC informant that they were paying, was a member of the online leadership check group that planned 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia. You'll remember that. Well, it was a line of demarcation. Early on in the First Trump administration, F37 made racist postings under the supervision of SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees. Between 2015 and 2023, SPL secretly paid this F37 group more than $270,000.

[Comfortably Smug]

So, you know, if you're listening and you're like the rest of us and you wondered where the hell did this Charlottesville thing come from in the first place? Now we know.

[Maximum Boot]

And here's the thing is again, when you go back to the impact that this nonsense had that created the very fine people on both sides hoax that, then the media went and they pushed that lie. It's a straight up lie over and over again. And then it goes on. You have Biden say, the reason I'm running, Jack, is because of Charlottesville. This whole thing that was manufactured, paid for under the supervision of the splc that was spread across TV screens across the country of like, look at how bad America is. Look how racist America is. Trump is the one responsible for this. All of that was fake. It was all manufactured.

[Comfortably Smug]

And while their bullshit was ruining our country, it meant an awful lot to their bottom line. There was one source that said that they raised $63 million before Charlottesville and over 100 million after.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, and it also provided the impetus between somebody who was ultimately elected president, United States, deciding to run for president according to himself, as you said, Joe Biden. Clip 6 I ran for president in

[Maximum Boot]

2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville.

[Josh Holmes]

Think about that. In August of 2017, extremists coming out

[Maximum Boot]

of the woods carrying torches.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, okay, it was, it was F37 on some chat group ginning up other SLPC or whatever, being paid $300,000 by

[Josh Holmes]

the Southern Poverty Law center to provide transportation and some online postings to generate hate in a particular area at a particular time, that then the White House, ultimately Joe Biden decides he wants to run for president, according to him, because of that event. But at the same time, they maintain really close connections with the Southern Poverty Law center, meeting with them over 11 times, having the FBI of the Biden administration working hand in glove with them to identify potential problematic actors like moms in Fairfax county or Tampa, Florida. And like you just makes you wonder how much of it is just a complete theater at entire level.

[Maximum Boot]

And then like Ashbrook said, real quick, how their fundraising almost doubles as a result of this disaster that they Created because they knew that. They've been doing this for years. This is their formula. Create the product to be able to fundraise off of. And so they do, they succeed. They get that huge 100 million influx. But that also becomes a springboard for them to go further in Corporate America, where PayPal, they start having meetings with PayPal, where they're like, you can't allow these groups, these individuals, debank these people. Debank these people.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's a real thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it's not just Dem politicians who this group is kind of like meeting with and has ties to on the sly. I think they're very deeply involved with a bunch of mainstream media. Let me just read you a few of the headlines of the way the mainstream media characterized this indictment. Okay, this from USA Today. The Southern Poverty Law center was indicted for paying sources to infiltrate hate groups, a tactic federal agencies have used for decades.

[Maximum Boot]

Real quick, real quick. I just want to say that is not what. What, what the indictment is for. The indictment is for wire fraud and making false statements. They're trying, number one, the media who has been so dependent on this. I mean, the media is in on the grift, too.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is a press release. This is. This is published by the USA Today. It's probably written by the USA Today, but it looks indistinguishable from what this organization would put out on their own website.

[Maximum Boot]

And secondly, them trying to put out the message that, like, well, this is a tactic that's used by federal authorities. This is a nonprofit group.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Maximum Boot]

Are nonprofit groups allowed to have SWAT teams? Because federal agents have SWAT teams. Like, who thinks that's even a good idea to begin with? But, like, that shows you how deeply enmeshed the SPLC is with today's modern media. And why, for over a decade, you've heard America's problem is white supremacies because the media saw it's also a product that they can make money off.

[Michael Watley]

And I'm not shocked that the SPLC and the liberal media is trying to minimize this by framing it around the idea that they're just paying for informants. But clearly here in the indictment, it's more than that. You're actually funding the mechanism for the people to show up at the rally. Right. Like, so you're funding the thing. And look, all of these are allegations. We don't know if they're true or not. We're going to find out in a court of law. There's an indictment, but we have a grand jury. And to your point, it's a grand jury. It's not Trump voters deciding that this case has merit. But I'm curious about maybe even more here. We saw Russiagate. We saw the way the deep state and our intel and law enforcement in this country can be weaponized by the left to take out people. It happened to Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

Is it possible that SPLC was a cutout for some of these government people to do some of that informant work that they wanted off the books? You know, and maybe the people of the SPLC just got a little loose with the cash they were given. That's all an allegation. I don't know if it's true, but it would make a lot of sense that they're. Why they're minimizing it now around the idea of, well, we were just paying for some informants. We were gathering intelligence, just like our law enforcement does.

[Maximum Boot]

Just like our law enforcement.

[Josh Holmes]

You see what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, it's smoke. No, I mean, look, you're right, and it's scary. But, I mean, look, if you just take a step back and you realize that there's not a single Democrat policy that has been promulgated by this Democratic Party when they were in power. At any point that has worked for the American people in the last 50 years. When you consider the fact that at no point other than a brief amount of time after the election of Barack Obama were they ever popular whatsoever. The only time they were over 50% was in that period of time. So you would think their electoral chances would be pretty low. You've gotta work pretty hard to try to win elections. We're gonna talk in a bit about, like, their redistrict and their gerrymandering over the years and how they've maintained power just simply by consolidating voters in different blocks and whatever. But this is part of it. They have to do the most nefarious shit on the face of the planet in an attempt to try to hold power in this country. It would never occur to any Republican to get involved in something like this. It just wouldn't. Like this is absolutely insane. And yet you have the Biden administration meeting with this outfit that's doing this shit. And the guy who ran the impeachment proceedings against President Trump, Jamie Raskin. Let's hear from him.

[Michael Watley]

Clip 7 Now, in other times, Democrats and Republicans alike would rely on the Southern Poverty Law center to help us keep track of the movements of violent white supremacy in the country. The Southern Poverty Law center has been a vigilant voice in civil society against radical white nationalist violence and extremism, neo Nazism and other forces across the political spectrum that spread organized hate from any quarter. The president, however, wants to undermine civil society organizations and to reduce our ability to defend ourselves against the virus of racial violence.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, they're the ones paying the Ku Klux Klan.

[Maximum Boot]

That's a thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, what the hell are we supposed to.

[Maximum Boot]

It's all fake. It's all, all fake and it's all been fake. This country was in such a great. Like you constantly talk about how growing up is like in America, racism is solved, everyone treats each other cordially. We had unity in this country. And that's the other thing is like, you'd hear people say things like, I don't see color because that's how it was. You actually accomplished the whole Martin Luther King thing of judging individual by their character, not the color of their skin. And Dem said, not on my watch, not on the SPLC's watch. We're gonna judge people by the color of their skin.

[Michael Watley]

Smug. You sort of alluded to it. But in the era of Donald Trump, from the moment on election night in 2016 when Van Jones declared this election was whitelash. Yeah, from that moment. They then needed the supply of racism to be able to call Donald Trump a racist every single day.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

The only way they could perpetuate that for four years and now another four years is if they had that supply of racism out there in America, they could point to that the liberal media that's now running interference for this organization reported on and got paid on.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, that's really well said.

[Maximum Boot]

That's it, that's it right there.

[Josh Holmes]

So our guy Brandon Gill, who's just extraordinary on all issues, but I think he encapsulates a lot of this. Well, in clip 8, the FBI utilized a so called hate map from the splc, the Southern Poverty Law center, as it was going after traditional Catholics and labeling them domestic extremists. Do you think that that's an inappropriate source?

[Comfortably Smug]

Absolutely not.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you know some of the other groups that the SPLC labels as hate groups or extremist groups?

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I don't.

[Sean Hannity]

Off the top of my head, I

[Josh Holmes]

can name a few. They also name the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Revolution Research Council, and Moms for Liberty as hate groups as well.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, Moms for Liberty. Notoriously terrible society.

[Maximum Boot]

I'm just getting to get out of here. And that's the thing is they had that reputation that they've been leaning on of like, don't you Know, splc, we're the civil rights group. And we have members of Congress like Jimmy Raskin say that we're a trusted source for fighting white supremacy. Well, white supremacy wasn't the problem. The problem was the SPLC needed to raise some money.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Maximum Boot]

And so they created it and they funded it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, I think we've seen this for a number of years in that you do have a supply and demand problem when it comes to making a living accusing every American of being inherently racist. Remember structural racism? Remember we went through that period in the George Floyd era. But you find out that these groups are doing basically what the ham handed version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were doing in the late 80s by creating the racial animus in and of itself, convincing everybody that this was omnipresent and in this case, allegedly funding the Klu Klux Klan in order to actually convince people of all of this. I mean, we all talk about this ad nauseam. We talk about it a lot on the show. But we grew up in an era where like, dude, I have four posters on the wall. It was Kirby Puckett, I had Daryl Strawberry, I had Michael Jordan. They were all. I never thought once about whether my heroes were white or black. Just the society that I grew up in. It wasn't until I became a professional adult deep into the Obama years that I was like, what the hell? Why is everyone just talking about race? And like, now you find out that there is an institution within the Democratic Party and the far left that their whole business model is to try to create racial division in this country in order to get paid to solve the thing that they start. That's a hell of a allegation. And this is a big deal. It's not just a one off. Like we wouldn't cover at the top of our show if it was some like, random lefty group that got themselves in trouble. I mean, fuck, that happens every day. This is. This is. You don't understand the significance that the Southern Poverty Law center has had on American politics and in particular the left's ability to label everything that they don't like as racist and dangerous and harmful.

[Maximum Boot]

Like, you hear anything that they disagree with, they're like, well, this could be harmful. This is an issue of safety. Because they want the public writ large to think anyone who disagrees with us is evil. They need to be taken out. So I'm gonna change up. Actually, the question of the day for today. No, go ahead. I want to reiterate how important this is. And we've Been hearing about these NGOs and how Doge tried to have a crackdown on it for our listeners. You're out there, you see it across the country. Do you think this is going to have an impact? Do you think we're going to be able to begin dismantling the NGO problems? We see the fraud in Minnesota, we've seen the fraud in California. This SPLC is one of the center spokes of all of this. For their whole left wing machine to work, being able to label their enemies and to have the media run with it. And then, I mean, for 10 years, everyone in this country has been told that you're a racist. All of it was lies. Do you think anything will come of it? You think we're going to see people in handcuffs?

[Josh Holmes]

That's a good question, because I would

[Maximum Boot]

like to see them.

[Josh Holmes]

When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we read all of your comments and we're going to do that in this case on Funtime Friday. Make sure you like and subscribe. Leave your comments on the discussion that we opened up with and when we come back, your comments from last episode where we asked, uh, what's your favorite Democrat humiliating themselves moment? There was a lot that we were reminded of that. I totally forgotten all that coming up next. Okay, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program and leave us a comment on our discussion, we read them right back to the very next episode. I think we've come up some great ones here. To our question of what's your favorite Democrat humiliating themselves moment? To start with your comments, we always start with the voice.

[Comfortably Smug]

First one comes from Fat Sonic Fatsonic submits for me. It's gotta be the Howard Dean scream. Let's pull up clip nine, deep cut.

[Josh Holmes]

And then we're going to Washington D.C. to take back the White House.

[Maximum Boot]

That ended him. That really ended it.

[Josh Holmes]

That was it.

[Michael Watley]

What an error.

[Josh Holmes]

It was all over after that. He was the front runner. He was the front runner for President United States. He was before.

[Michael Watley]

Kind of like Bernie before Bernie.

[Josh Holmes]

He was. No question about it. Just. But he just had a special anger about him and weird.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah, yeah. Everyone was dropping that. I know that. We actually had late night comedy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I know it.

[Michael Watley]

We should get that in the board, by the way.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good idea.

[Josh Holmes]

That's good. All right. Comment 2.

[Michael Watley]

This is from Mad Libs 07. They write, My favorite moment of a Democrat humiliating themselves has to be Biden playing Despacito from his phone into the mic during the 2020 presidential campaign to appeal to Hispanics clip 11.

[Comfortably Smug]

People clapping.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, literally, there's no clapping. I just have Ukrainian flag in the middle.

[Maximum Boot]

Hang on here.

[Attorney General Todd Blanche]

All right,

[Josh Holmes]

Come on. Dude, I forgot how awkward.

[Michael Watley]

And that was so insane about it, too.

[Maximum Boot]

It was.

[Michael Watley]

It was the whole thing. Do you. I mean, this was the COVID election. Do you remember the. The honking car rallies, how pathetic the whole thing was?

[Josh Holmes]

But, dude, he had a staff member that convinced him.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

To go out and appeal to Hispanics by playing a Justin Bieber song.

[Michael Watley]

Are you sure? Are you sure that wasn't just Biden himself?

[Josh Holmes]

There's no way.

[Michael Watley]

Lancing.

[Josh Holmes]

Because if you were an aide, like, I would like to think I would never work for anybody who would think that that was a good idea. But if you did, you'd lean on a train track to stop that.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Wouldn't you?

[Maximum Boot]

Well, that's the thing is, like, we've discussed this. Of like, is there any normal Democrat option?

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Maximum Boot]

Cause they're all like, way too online. They're on TikTok way too much and they're like, yeah, voters will think this is cool. And you saw there were like five claps at the beginning when he's walking up. There were no claps when he started doing that shit.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And he's bobbing his head and everybody's like, oh, God, what is this?

[Maximum Boot]

Is he gonna die?

[Josh Holmes]

Despacito. Unbelievable. All right, comment three smuggles.

[Maximum Boot]

This is from Nadias Maximus. Question of the day. It's a pretty low bar given how seriously Dems try to take themselves, how out of touch they are, and what lengths they will go to to pander to voters. With that, the most humiliating moment has to go to the queen pandering Hillary Clinton and her hot sauce. She was dragged by everyone. Let's run that clip.

[Josh Holmes]

What's something that you always carry with you? Hot sauce.

[Maximum Boot]

Really?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah, really. Are you getting information right now? Hot sauce.

[Michael Watley]

Hot sauce in my bag.

[Maximum Boot]

Swag.

[Josh Holmes]

Hot sauce. Really?

[Maximum Boot]

Yes. Now listen, I just want you to

[Michael Watley]

know people are going to see this and say, okay, she's pandering to black people.

[Maximum Boot]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Ok. Is it working?

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah.

[Sean Hannity]

Oh, gee.

[Maximum Boot]

Oh, that is incredible.

[Sean Hannity]

I forgot she had the.

[Maximum Boot]

Is it working?

[Josh Holmes]

Unreal. And by the way, she's sitting there at the Breakfast Club, which is, you know, where all the Democrats went and continue to go. And she says something that outrageous, which absolutely nobody. Like, mayonnaise is too spicy for this gal.

[Maximum Boot]

I mean, my theory actually is. I bet she actually does. I bet she actually has the hot sauce. Because think about it. If you're Hillary Clinton, you've got a reputation. Sometimes you leave a place and there's like, it's like a crime scene. There's bodies found, whatever. She could be like, nah, it's not blood sauce.

[Josh Holmes]

It's hot sauce in my house. What are you talking about?

[Michael Watley]

Parody.

[Comfortably Smug]

Parody.

[Michael Watley]

We're laughing.

[Maximum Boot]

The bottle of hot sauce is in his left hand. The bottle is in his left hand.

[Josh Holmes]

I thought you were gonna say she'd use the hot sauce. Like May Sunville. Yeah, yeah, in the eyes, little pepper spray action. But I mean, like, she's sitting there, nobody asks, like, all right, let's see your bag.

[Maximum Boot]

No, no, actually got a gun.

[Josh Holmes]

She's literally just sitting right there.

[Maximum Boot]

I've seen this mom.

[Michael Watley]

Or like the left handed guy. What type of hot sauce?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, what kind of hot sauce are we talking about?

[Michael Watley]

We didn't get any. No, no color.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow, okay, interesting. Thank you for that. Like, while you're pandering, she's like, yeah, is it working?

[Maximum Boot]

That's the best part.

[Josh Holmes]

She's like, yeah, I really have no regard whatsoever.

[Maximum Boot]

Can we just get this over with and give me the White House?

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so we gotta touch on somewhat of a more uncomfortable topic, which is the fact that Republicans got absolutely jammed in the ass on Tuesday. I mean, the worst possible ass beating.

[Michael Watley]

So graphic.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it just did, dude.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so Virginia had this election with a single question on it in every county, every precinct across the Commonwealth of Virginia, which was the question was basically a redistricting where you would take a state that's 45, 55 Republicans to Democrats. It's a 6, 5 delegation. One of the most currently one of the most fairly drawn congressional representations of anywhere in the country. Because Democrats have not had these kind of super majorities and probably Virginia, where they can just sort of like take liberties the way that they do in Illinois or Massachusetts, where they just gerrymander the shit out of it. And they changed it to 10 1, some 6, 5 to 10 1. That was the question that was on the ballot. Now, Democrats have been running ads on this bad boy since the super bowl

[Comfortably Smug]

at high level to the tune of $95 million.

[Josh Holmes]

$95 million was spent. And their wager was that the entirety of the case for a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was right in Virginia. If you can win that one, you've got yourself a majority. So they went all in, pushed all the resources into it for them.

[Maximum Boot]

And they played it this way, is they considered the Tuesday night election the midterms Right there for the House.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Maximum Boot]

And they played accordingly.

[Josh Holmes]

They did. And it was a little bit. For those of us in Virginia, it was a little bit startling knowing the stakes of all that and watching Indiana in particular refuse to take up a similar partisan effort there. You had the Texas and California redraw of the district maps that basically canceled each other out. Other states were involved, plus one, minus one. So it comes down to Virginia. And it wasn't at all evident that anybody in the Republican Party was focused on this until like maybe two weeks.

[Michael Watley]

I mean, we've talked about it maybe six times, different times on this show. Yeah, I don't feel like I heard very much of it anywhere else I

[Maximum Boot]

had guests on, but to me it was. It's pathetic. You had Virginia Republicans who saw, oh, shit, we took our eye of the ball and Abigail Spamberger won. And we see she's just like left wing as all hell. Makes Mamdani look like a centrist. Where like day one, she's like, police in Virginia no longer cooperate with ice. Our elections are going to be crooked as shit. They're going to allow, like mail in ballots. We'll accept them. If you get it a month later, it's fine. That works as far left as you can go. And Virginia Republicans were like, wow, maybe we should do nothing. And so they did nothing. And it's pathetic to see these numbers when, like I said, the Democrats saw this as the House midterm is Tuesday night. Play accordingly.

[Michael Watley]

I don't think it's.

[Maximum Boot]

Did not see that kind of a concentration like this is. We're talking about four House races in one night. The cc, yes, the NRCC should have been out there in force. They should have gone ham. They should have treated it like the Democrats did of this is a midterm race. But also I want to go back to a grievance of something that I've mentioned is Indiana Republicans are traitors, not cowards. They're traitors. It's pathetic what they've done and for so long. And this is very endemic to Virginia Republicans of being like, now, now, come on now. You can't. You can't just exercise power when you have it. Are you crazy? You have to respect the norms which Democrats never will. Please let that election be a lesson in your heads. Get through your thick skulls. Democrats will never, ever, ever restrain themselves. Never worry about, well, if we do something, then Democrats are gonna do it. Because look, Indiana didn't do it and Virginia still did it. So get that through your heads. Democrats will stop at nothing.

[Michael Watley]

Okay, so I gotta disagree with you. Smug. I don't think it's fair to say they did nothing. I saw Governor Youngkin out there doing events, doing media organizing, grassroots activists to vote. No, a lot of stuff. There were people that were working in Virginia on this obviously very hard. But the disparity between the way the Democrats were committed to this and the way the national Republicans were committed to this is just embarrassing.

[Maximum Boot]

Barack Obama was rolling through Virginia.

[Michael Watley]

It's embarrassing. But I mean, you know, it, you know, close doesn't work unless it's horseshoes and hand grenades. But it was very close. Two points. I mean like that's like the closest we've gotten since like Youngkins election right back in, what was that, 2021.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

Here's my complaint is I'm 100% with you on these Indiana Republicans. Like hopefully this is a very important lesson that Republicans finally learn is that Democrats are never going to stop seeking power. And you have to do everything in your power to get power when you can. But if we're, if national Republicans are gonna spend money trying to unseat these state senators and state reps who opposed the redistricting in Indiana, but not spend money to save four seats in Virginia, what the hell are we doing?

[Maximum Boot]

Great point.

[Michael Watley]

What the hell are we doing, guys? And I saw also the, the other thing that really bothers me is we can't get one day from an election that is, you know, demoralizing for the Republicans before nobody takes accountability and just starts pointing fingers at everybody.

[Maximum Boot]

Totally.

[Michael Watley]

And I fucking hate that shit. Everybody get on the same page and start winning.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, there's also just stupid shit, right? I mean, what we aim to do in the Ruthless Variety program is give you like real information, you know, And I did see Glenn Youngkin out doing stuff and I think people in Virginia were sufficiently motivated to do it. But you didn't have the national cover. I'd love an explanation for that because there was Democratic full weight of the national party behind that. And I've seen this very week nothing but these triumphant fundraising numbers from every group, committee, super pac, everything on the Republican side, six to one, fundraising against Democrats. Everybody's running victory laps, meanwhile they shove this thing up your ass with a hot fire poker. Like, okay, somebody explained to me why four seats in one election isn't worth pursuing at like a Mach 10 level, because it seems like it was. Maybe there's a reasonable explanation for it. I just haven't heard one.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you know, you guys make some very, very Good points. And in the department of silver linings, very, very small as it may be.

[Maximum Boot]

Bro, I don't want to hear a silver lining. I want us to move on this. It's time to jail, Dems. We gotta go play hardball.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, that's the point of the silver lining, and that's in rural parts of the state. The turnout was a little bit better than 2024 for Republicans. So that means.

[Josh Holmes]

Better than the presidential.

[Comfortably Smug]

That means. Interesting that rural Republicans are motivated to get out and cast their ballot under the right circumstances when Trump's name is not at the top of it.

[Maximum Boot]

And now they're all going to get damn congressmen for it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you know, like that's, I mean, that raises, it raises a question about whether in the first place.

[Michael Watley]

Can I say something that's kind of funny? Add a little levity to this segment. Yeah, that has been pretty graphic, by the way. Holmes, how dare you?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I feel like it's all, I feel like it's all warranted.

[Maximum Boot]

It is. I feel like I appreciate it. Yeah. But like, it is warranted, man.

[Michael Watley]

What I thought was, was kind of funny and ironic and all of this is like, you know, when Democrats accuse Republicans of gerrymandering, they're always like, this will disenfranchise black and brown voters, minorities who are not going to get representation.

[Josh Holmes]

Just look at this release from the splc.

[Michael Watley]

Exactly right, yeah. And then you look at like actual turnout in this referendum. And yes, the, the gerrymander plan of the Democrats did better with black voters, Asian voters, and Hispanic voters than Kamala Harri.

[Josh Holmes]

Really?

[Michael Watley]

So the people that they hold up as the victims of gerrymander were like, give me the gerrymander, give me that,

[Josh Holmes]

give me that thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want it, I want, I want it, I want that.

[Maximum Boot]

And I think, like, looking forward, I think Florida's essentially become like the last stop, the last chance.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's make sure, just even the map,

[Maximum Boot]

let's get everyone to make sure that the ducks are in the row. Like, let's not be like, okay, let's just open it up again and let's see what happens. We can't do this kind of half assed, roll the dice, let's see where shit lands kind of thing anymore. If you're gonna do something, do it to win it and play to win.

[Josh Holmes]

I think, dude, that's exactly right. But I mean, it raises a larger question, which is the fuck are we doing in the first place? Like, you go to war with a bunch of Democrats. Oh, in a gerrymander contest. They've been. They're literally the authors of gerrymander.

[Maximum Boot]

This is like Obama and Eric Holder's full time job now. Like, the Netflix is the side money. The real money is on this shit.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the only reason that the Democrat Party exists. They have done this since the beginning of time. And when they couldn't do it, they got the Supreme Court to intervene to make sure that they could do it. In Southern states, they are literally the best of the best, the absolute gold medal winners at a gerrymander contest. It's like challenging a serial killer to a murder contest. Like, you are going to lose that. But we started this whole thing with Texas and then it immediately was canceled out by California. And at that point I was like, okay, right, maybe this wasn't a great idea, but everybody was like, all right, if Republicans just gerrymander to the max here, you can get another six to seven seats out of it, hypothetically, without ever just sort of thinking about whether or not Democrats were going to try to do the same fucking thing. Like, never occurred to anybody that the people who literally authored the fucking gerrymander were going to try to do the same thing.

[Maximum Boot]

And I don't think it's a great argument to try to be like, no, no, no, you don't understand. It was like New York did it first and it doesn't matter who.

[Josh Holmes]

No, but this is what happens when you don't think that fucking shit through. This is what happens.

[Maximum Boot]

It does not matter who started what. What matters is are you willing to go out there and win it and if I actually can give a real silver lining to this if you want

[Comfortably Smug]

to finally, I think not your fake silver.

[Maximum Boot]

I want to make Trump voters matter.

[Comfortably Smug]

If you want to know, you're going to. You're going to run over Trump voters and say they're insignificant. You can say that if you want.

[Maximum Boot]

Here's the real silver lining and what folks should focus on is what we need to do to end all the gerrymandering shit is get illegals kicked out of the census, because that's how I actually do it.

[Michael Watley]

You're actually right.

[Maximum Boot]

We get that done and it's a wrap. It's a wrap.

[Comfortably Smug]

Getting illegals kicked out of the 2030 census would have done gangbusters for last night's election. I mean, it would have made a big difference if we get them out in 2030. It would have made the difference in I want to. Virginia and 20.

[Maximum Boot]

I want to say this again and again. The fact that illegals are allowed in the census is why blood states have these members of Congress to begin with and why they created these sanctuary cities, because they're like, well, if our city's a sanctuary for illegals and we fill this place with 2 million illegals, that gives us 4 more congressional seats. That's how they've been playing.

[Comfortably Smug]

We gotta win in 28. If Democrats win the White House in 28, illegals will have two votes for every citizen's vote.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I mean, look, that's right. I've said from the beginning, I can't believe that we've ever even had an argument about the census and whether it counts legal and illegal. I mean, it's literally in the Constitution. Like, it's to count American taxpayers and they get apportionment and representation because of their citizenship. And that is the end of the story. There is no other interpretation of all that. It ought to go right to the end of the mat to try to figure that out. My only point on the redistricting thing is if you are going to pick a fight. And listen, I've been in a lot of them in 20 years, if you're going to pick a fight, you can't just pick what the first punch looks like. You can't.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's true.

[Josh Holmes]

You just. You have to think through and line up the counterpunch, the counter punch, the counterpunch, and what this ultimately ends in, what you think a reasonable end goal would be. It's not as if the most corrupt party in the history of American democracy is going to lean back and say, like, I guess we're fucked this year. Like, they're not gonna do that. And as evidence, they took one of the most purple states in the union from 6, 5 to 10 1. And they're just looking at it. It's like, what else you got?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

What else you got, you bitch? I mean, that is literally what's happening right now. They're all running circles. Abigail Spamberger couldn't be happier. You got Barack Obama sending out press releases. Hakeem Jeffries is literally taunting the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, like, what else you got, bitch? I mean, that's literally.

[Maximum Boot]

Alex Soros was doing a victory lap on Twitter. Like, yeah, dad gave me money. We made this shit happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. So if you're gonna get involved in that, you need to think about one Indiana. If you're gonna go beyond the Texas, California cancel out, you better make sure you can fucking haul that thing in before you make a public case out of it. You better make sure that Missouri gets more than a seat, you better make sure you don't lose one in Utah, which they did. You better make sure that all these other states that are trying to kind of work through the mid district bizarreness have something more than what it is that you've produced. Now you're counting on Ron desant, which is a. It's a difficult law down there, from what I understand, to try to figure.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's not the same as apparently a 60% threshold.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. It's not the same as what you just saw in Virginia in order to get this done. But that's just to even the score. Not a fight you picked. And like, look, I know retrospect. I hated it when I was an operative and you're making these kind of high profile calls and everybody does the Monday morning quarterback routine and whether you were smart or not. So I. Look, I don't question whether or not the intentions were correct. I'm certain that they were. And I like being aggressive versus passive when it comes to.

[Maximum Boot]

Take the.

[Josh Holmes]

Take the power when you can because they're going to do the same thing. But you can't put the country through a $300 million experiment and end up in the minus column. You just can't fucking do it. Midterms are hard enough. They are hard enough without putting yourself in this kind of position. And that's where everybody finds themselves today. So anyway, great news out of Virginia.

[Michael Watley]

That was a good segment, though. Yeah, I had fun.

[Josh Holmes]

It's Thursday, and when it's Thursday, it means we play king of the hill, fellas.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, that's right. You're defending champion.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I got boot.

[Michael Watley]

You got maximum boot. And I'm challenger today and I'm bringing Adam Kinzinger.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, my God.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, And I think.

[Maximum Boot]

Oh, my God, of all days too. Yeah. Like his story ties into gerrymandering so well.

[Michael Watley]

It does.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm actually nervous about this. I didn't know you were.

[Michael Watley]

A little bit of foreshadowing there. From comfortably smug, who will be our bailiff today? Bailiff.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

And Judge Ashbrook. Let's go ringside.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from an an empty campaign office, Adam.

[Josh Holmes]

Cut, cut, cut.

[Sean Hannity]

King zinger.

[Comfortably Smug]

And now in the blue corner, fighting from under a tilted fedora. Maximum boots.

[Maximum Boot]

It's such a goofball hat, dude. People have told him, why does he still do it?

[Michael Watley]

Defending champion must go first.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so he's still deeply involved in war.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, boy.

[Josh Holmes]

As he always has been. His. Very different. Take this one. I just. I love it. I hope you love it too. He is tweeting out a link from the center for Strategic.

[Maximum Boot]

What's the number on this exhibit?

[Josh Holmes]

Exhibit 2. So it's a CSIS link and it's talking about missile inventory. Right. CSIS says the US has used as many as 1400 Patriot missiles against Iran, while Ukraine received roughly 600 of them since the start of the Russian invasion. Talk about misplaced priorities.

[Maximum Boot]

That's an insane take.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, think about this. We have literally thousands of troops, like, in theater. I mean, they are firing missiles at Americans.

[Maximum Boot]

He's like, we gotta send ammo to Ukraine now.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, that.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Is this dude gonna be hard to beat.

[Josh Holmes]

His commitment to Ukraine has now gone beyond the American soldier, which I think is just something.

[Michael Watley]

Well, I see Ukraine, and I raise you Iran itself. Adam Kinzinger, exhibit number 13, please. Kinzinger writes, Trump announces an indefinite ceasefire because Iran called his bluff. Everyone knows Trump is all talk and a scared little boy. The consequences of his failure will be with us for ages, even after he's mercifully out of office. And MAGA will say he's tough because he tweets.

[Comfortably Smug]

Now, I do think that that is a pretty ridiculous take. Can we put that back up? Because I wanted to point one more thing out that caught my attention. He retains the Slav Ukraine in his name. However, this just seems a little bit typical for a guy like Kinzinger. And I know that he has a lot of other great stuff. And I am not going to rule for Kinzinger here because of Max Boot saying that the Ukrainian army matters more than the American. So Max Boot wins round one.

[Josh Holmes]

Happy to pocket it.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Wise decision making as always.

[Michael Watley]

The Ashbrook Court, we know.

[Maximum Boot]

I find it more crooked than splc.

[Michael Watley]

All right, fine. I think you guys all know what I'm going to play, so just go ahead and give up. Holmes. Adam Kinzinger, exhibit number nine, please. This is in the aftermath of the gerrymander in Virginia. God, he goes, hey, guys, I was gerrymandered twice. It was done when all states redistrict. I don't like it. But when Trump started pushing states to do it mid cycle because he's afraid he will lose. The only way to fight back is to make it backfire. Then. Then maybe we can fix the system. He's literally out of Congress because Democrats gerrymandered him out of Congress. He has now become a Democrat to defend gerrymandering.

[Comfortably Smug]

Counsel. It Looked to me like he was, quote, tweeting somebody. Is that. Is that correct?

[Michael Watley]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

What's the nature of that?

[Michael Watley]

It's a Stephen Miller, not White House Stephen Miller.

[Maximum Boot]

Red Steve clowning on him.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, he was clowning on Kinzinger for. Basically the point here that he's being a huge hypocrite. He was gerrymandered out of Congress.

[Maximum Boot]

He's literally a cock.

[Comfortably Smug]

So then.

[Michael Watley]

Literally, I think.

[Josh Holmes]

I think. But it's like multiple Steve. He said it's a rare triple Cuck.

[Comfortably Smug]

Doesn't get that name from nowhere.

[Michael Watley]

I call it Cuckception.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a good tweet. Let's toss up exhibit seven, please. This is bout. And he says Trump might be more cautious now that he has seen in Iran what can go wrong with a little excursion. But he might also be eager for a diversion from the Middle east mess. Cuba is much weaker than Iran and therefore an inviting target for a bully like Trump. What I find so fascinating about this is that here's a guy who's called for war with Iran for 25 years, and as soon as Trump does it now, I would argue one of the most successful military excursions, if that's what he wants to call it, that we've had in my lifetime, is currently happening in Iran, where you've got basically full control over the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. And he's like, now that you've seen what's gone wrong, what exactly has gone. What exactly has gone wrong here? And so he's suggesting that Cuba is next on the list.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's what stood out to me. Because he always does that thing where he has to let you know that he's paying attention. He's trying to call the next thing to look smart, but it just in no way stands up to what Kinzinger making himself. The story about Virginia and I was gerrymandered and whining because Red Steve gets in his kitchen. Kinzinger wins.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Round two.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll accept that. Once again, win or lose, I find this judge to be credible.

[Michael Watley]

I wonder.

[Josh Holmes]

Full of integrity.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

At this time, I'd like to call Exhibit 4, where Max Boot is retweeting a tweet from the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, where he announced that they're not going to mandate the flu vaccine. I didn't know that. That. I forgot that that was a thing that we actually mandated that to, like, in addition to the COVID thing. Like, we did that. So, anyway, he now makes that announcement this Week. And Max Boot says, is he also going to make body armor optional?

[Maximum Boot]

Amazing.

[Sean Hannity]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

That's an incredible comparison, right, Max?

[Maximum Boot]

Same amazing take, same thing. The Washington Post runs this kind of. I can't believe they pay this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

It's incredible.

[Michael Watley]

I'm gonna put the judge in a tough spot here. Exhibit number eight.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, boy.

[Michael Watley]

In this tweet, Kinzinger is, quote, tweeting

[Josh Holmes]

he's going after Whitlock.

[Michael Watley]

Great friend of the Ruthless Variety Program, Matt Whitlock.

[Maximum Boot]

Shout out Whitlock for getting under Kinzinger's scale.

[Michael Watley]

Great, dude. Again, it's Whitlock's tweet. Here is about the gerrymandering and the hypocrisy of Kinzinger. Kinzinger quote, tweets it, your party became a cult and you dropped to your knees in obedience. And I will work overtime to defeat the cult. And I love how you guys are panicking that the thing you started is going to backfire.

[Maximum Boot]

The rare triple cuck.

[Michael Watley]

The rare triple cuck. I mean, Whitlock, like, one of the

[Josh Holmes]

nicest people in all of politics.

[Maximum Boot]

It's hilarious how he got under his skin. I gotta text him and be like, outstanding work.

[Michael Watley]

Well, don't only text him. If Ashbrook sides with clients, I will not have supplemental Ashbrook. Tiffany, stand up for you.

[Maximum Boot]

Here comes the crooked court. I. I would.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's crooked court stuff right there. I don't care for it. You can tweet whoever you'd like. Bailiff.

[Michael Watley]

I love this game.

[Maximum Boot]

It all hinges on Ashbrook. Was he awake?

[Josh Holmes]

I trust him. Was he awake?

[Maximum Boot]

What do you think, Grandpa?

[Comfortably Smug]

Listen, Max Boot is similar to other stuff that he said. Adam Kinzinger wins round.

[Maximum Boot]

Let's go.

[Michael Watley]

Let's go.

[Josh Holmes]

I take it all back.

[Comfortably Smug]

Matt Whitlock.

[Michael Watley]

What a fair court.

[Comfortably Smug]

Tweet something, and all of a sudden he's like, oh, you dropped down to your knees on Trump, and now we're going to get you in the end. Like, get. Get the hell out of here, dude. Come on.

[Josh Holmes]

Flu vaccine, body armor.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ridiculous.

[Michael Watley]

It was good.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ridiculous.

[Michael Watley]

Fair court, rare.

[Maximum Boot]

Fair judgment.

[Josh Holmes]

I feel like, you know when every once in a while you get worried about Roberts because, like, the left is attacking the court too much.

[Maximum Boot]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

And you feel like, you know, there might be a part of it where he feels the pressure, where he has to, like, give the other side a win.

[Michael Watley]

Just give him something.

[Josh Holmes]

I feel like maybe some of that leaked in here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just balls and strikes.

[Michael Watley]

Well, doesn't matter, because I'm the winner.

[Josh Holmes]

A lot of balls.

[Michael Watley]

Strikes, big ones.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, we got a big interview, fellas. You talked to Mike Watley, who is our great hope in North Carolina. If the Senate Republicans are gonna hold the Senate, they're going to need Mike Whatley in North Carolina to win and retain that Senate seat. Let's go to that interview.

[Michael Watley]

Well, you've heard him here before, and he decided to come back because this race is so important. The former RNC chairman and current United States Senate candidate from the great state of North Carolina, Michael Watley.

[Sean Hannity]

It's great to be back with you guys.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, you know, it's important because we got smug to do this interview.

[Sean Hannity]

It's all about North Carolina.

[Maximum Boot]

Exactly. You got to show for the home state. And this is a lot of people are saying the most important race of the cycle, possibly the one where Democrats are going to spend the most money because they know how important this race is. How are things looking out there so far?

[Sean Hannity]

Things are looking great. You know, you're absolutely right. This is going to be the top of the ticket nationwide. Democrats are going to be putting hundreds of millions of dollars in and we know it. Right. So. But it is great on the ground, I got to say. You know, we've been in for, you know, several months now. We've been moving around the state and the response has been very, very good. You know, the fact is, people don't want to elevate a guy like Roy Cooper. They don't want somebody who's going to raise their taxes. They don't want somebody who's soft on crime. They don't want somebody who's going to denigrate our military and our veterans. So, yeah, this issue set in this race really does very well for us. And I love the response we're getting around the state.

[Maximum Boot]

I mean, real quick, just. It feels like in North Carolina, where I live, folks are starting to get the message when it comes to Roy Cooper, especially on the soft on crime. You know how that tragedy that happened with Irina Zarudska, and that's just part of Roy Cooper's legacy the last time he was in office is he let habitual criminals out who went on and committed more crimes. They kill people, they hurt North Carolinians. And it's starting to sink in with people of this is who Roy Cooper is. Because for so long he's been able to be slippery and get away with dodging his record. It's really coming back.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah, look, you think about it. What is the number one priority for any government? State government, local government, federal government is protecting its Citizens. And this guy is an abject failure. You know, back in 2020, when Antifa and BLM are burning down our cities, he's out there marching with him. Right. And then he released, you know, 3,500 hardened criminals out of North Carolina prisons because he didn't want them to get Covid.

[Maximum Boot]

Right.

[Sean Hannity]

He sealed the list. He said, oh, trust me, none of these are violent felons. Wrong. The guy lied through his teeth. You know, the fact is, hundreds of them, you know, are committing, you know, had committed sexual assaults and rapes. Hundreds of them. Violent assaults. You had 51, you know, who'd been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, you know, that he let back out there. So, yeah. And then, you know, he also vetoed legislation to, you know, force sheriffs to honor ICE detainers and get criminal illegal aliens out. I mean, this guy truly has fought harder for criminals throughout the course of his career than he ever did for the citizens of the state.

[Michael Watley]

So just to put a finer point on it, I know the Republicans in North Carolina are leading the effort on this commission to sort of investigate a lot of these early releases during the COVID era, when Roy Cooper was governor. What more can you tell us about that?

[Sean Hannity]

Well, I think it's really important that you've got. The House and the Senate, both in the legislature, are going to be conducting hearings into this, you know, because Roy Cooper did, as soon as he signed off on this settlement to let these guys out of jail, sealed the list. Hit the list. Right. Put it on court order and said, hey, trust me, none of these are violent felons. You know, and. And, you know, you think about the number of them that have gone on to commit truly atrocious acts. You know, Decarlos Brown Jr. Is probably the most famous guy on the list. Right. So he, you know, gets released, gets rearrested, and re released 13 more times, 14 total. Before last summer, he gets on a light rail car in Charlotte and murders Arena Zarotska. You know, beautiful, young, you know, Ukrainian refugee in cold blood. Right. You know, how many other instances like that are there? And how did that guy get on that list? Who put him on the list? Right. You know, it was clearly a settlement in a lawsuit with the ACLU and naacp. Did Cooper pick the people? Did they pick the people? How did that happen? And I think that he owes North Carolina a lot of answers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, he really does. And, I mean, that case is the most famous one, but as you said, it's not the only one. There was a. A Marine who was murdered. Right.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah. Just on Easter.

[Maximum Boot]

Right.

[Sean Hannity]

You know, 21 year old Marine down in Wilmington, North Carolina, got killed. And the guy who killed him had been arrested 60 times and released 60 times. 60 times under Roy Cooper's policies.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

I mean, who's doing the vetting on this? You got these criminals with a rap sheet as long as a CVS receipt. You know, I mean, is it the ACLU is being driven out by liberal national interest and then the governor's just signing off on it or. I mean, that's the thing that's wild to me is like, why would anybody, any reasonable person, a guy who says he's a moderate Democrat. Right. Represents a purple state, be doing the bidding of these far left groups that want to open our prisons with violent criminals.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah. And it's not just on this issue. I mean, we can take any other issue. When we talk about taxes or we talk about transgender issues, we talk about him vetoing the Parents Bill of Rights. I mean, we've got, you know, a laundry list, like you said, as long as you're armed to talk about the places where he is clearly not a moderate. You know, this guy was. Was auditioning for a slot in the Biden administration or something, you know, because he very clearly was following the far left of the far left of the Democratic Party.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah. I mean, that is the double edged sword of being a two term governor is everybody knows your name, but you got a long record now.

[Sean Hannity]

Right.

[Michael Watley]

And so part of your job is obviously exposing that record. What is it you're doing to help build up your profile across the state as you're traveling and all that sort of stuff? Give us a little insight on what you're doing.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah, Look, I mean, the biggest thing that we want to do is make sure that we just introduce me. Right. You know, because most people know that I was the RNC chair. Some people know that I was the Republican and party chair. Maybe a few people know I was Elizabeth Dole's chief of staff. But people don't know. You know, I grew up in Blowing Rock, Tiny little town up in the mountains on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 534 people, right. We had one stoplight in a Hardee's today. They got three stoplights in an outback. So I guess that's gross, you know, and, you know, worked. Right. I got my first full time job at 14. I paid, you know, worked all the way through high school, I paid my way through college, paid my way through graduate school, paid my way through law school, you Know, I graduated from Notre Dame on a Sunday. Monday morning, I drove south, got to Tennessee, turned left, went back to North Carolina. Three weeks later, I met, you know, Susie on a blind date. We've been together 28 years since.

[Michael Watley]

Well, I was lucky.

[Sean Hannity]

Absolutely. You know, so I've really lived the North Carolina version of the American dream, you know. You know, to get an education, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, raise them in a safe environment. That's the American dream. I got to live that in North Carolina. I want every other family, every other kid, every other grandkid to be able to have that same opportunity. So that's the story that we're talking about when we're going around the state. You know, we've got 100 counties in North Carolina. I've already been to 81 of them in this campaign. When I was the state party chair, I went to all 100 every year. And, you know, it just really, truly matters that you have the boots on the ground. Roy Cooper's running from the basement. You know, It's Joe Biden 2.0 kind of campaign where they're hiding him. And, you know, so we're going to go out and be everywhere and talk to everybody about the issues that they care about.

[Michael Watley]

Very typical of a Chuck Schumer recruit.

[Comfortably Smug]

It sure is. And, you know, it's such a big state, and you mentioned you've been to 81 of the hunter counties for this campaign, and you're from the mountains, but it is such a big state. And I know that you mentioned the crime issue and everything else, but I'm wondering what are you hearing most from the people you're talking to when you're out there on the trail?

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah, you know, it's. It's economy. Economy, economy. Right. And, and crime, obviously, is going to continue to be a big factor, you know, but it, it is about jobs.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Sean Hannity]

And it's about not just more jobs, it's about better jobs. Right. People need to take home more money. We need lower taxes, so they're going to keep their money, you know, and, and, and what are the jobs? You know, and the issue sets that. That really matter there. You know, it's tax policy, it's regulatory policy, it's trade policy, you know, to help our small businesses, to help our manufacturers and our farmers. You know, these are the things that really are going to matter when we talk about affordability is a very real issue. Right. And that cuts on both sides. If somebody takes home more money, somebody gets to keep more of their money, then things are more affordable. Right. But we need. We need to move forward on those policies. And. And that is something that we hear no matter who we talk to. It's always going to be kitchen table issues. You think? Go back to 24. Trump really ran on making sure that we're rebuilding our economy, restore the border and keep our kids and our communities safe, make sure America is the strongest country in the world, and honor our veterans and make sure that our men and women in uniform have what they need. Those are the issue sets that he carried that state in three times. Those are the issue sets we're going to carry in 26.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. There's such a great culture in the state. That's probably why Smug and his lovely wife and oncoming son settled there. Right. I mean, it's just a beautiful place. Your mom is there. That's where you want your family to be. And the thing that. If I could just finish. The thing that really stands out to me about what North Carolina has done in coming back from that terrible hurricane and the way that everybody has come together to rebuild communities in the western part of the state. You see Amish people out there rebuilding homes. You got Samaritan's purse. You've got locals who have really come together as a stopgap to what Roy Cooper refused to do, which is help in the weeks after that.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah, it was stunning. And then the fact that he showed up for one press conference and then he left. Left. And he was never back up there. You know, when President Trump got sworn in, you know, he and I talked that night, and he said, hey, let's go back to North Carolina. First trip. Right. So literally four days later, we were on Air Force One going back to North Carolina. And, you know, he had a conversation with. With Chuck Edwards and Virginia Fox and said, what am I going to see? And they said, well, you're going to see the same thing you saw when you were down here on the campaign in October. That's unacceptable. FEMALE Complete failure. Roy Cooper and his administration were a complete, complete failure. You know, and I think it says a lot that his protege, his successor, Josh Stein, literally the first thing he did when he was sworn in was to abolish Cooper's hurricane recovery program and set up a brand new one.

[Comfortably Smug]

Interesting. That guy's a Democrat.

[Sean Hannity]

That's right. That's absolutely right. You know, when President Trump asked me, you know, help get federal resources down here, you know, to date, $9 billion that the federal government has put into western North Carolina since Trump got back into office. And we've seen 99% of the roads have been rebuilt, 99% of the bridges have been rebuilt. We've seen the wastewater systems, the drinking water systems. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure just reopened last year. This was a lake that literally you could have walked across with all of the debris that was there after the storm. And for it to be reopened is really nothing short of a miracle. So, you know, you're right that the people of western North Carolina are amazingly strong, and those communities are very, very resilient. And I'm just proud that we've been able to play a part in helping to get the resources back there to get them back on their feet.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah. One of the things that I think is also important to highlight with your record is when you were the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, that's when we engineered this, like, super majority at the state level, in the House, in the Senate, and that has been. That's had such a success across North Carolina. Part of what a lot of North Carolinians are worried about is there's been an influx of folks. Word got out that North Carolina is tremendous.

[Michael Watley]

Just a research triangle.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Maximum Boot]

Everyone who grew up in North Carolina knows what a great state it is. But then the word got out to, like, New York and these other folks. And so there's a worry that, like, okay, let's not ruin a good thing. That's what I'm most worried about with this race, is because Roy Cooper is a left wing wacko. He's tried tricking people into believing he's a centrist. Look at his record. He's soft on crime. He'll do anything that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats want. He'll run that state into the ground. He doesn't care.

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah. You know, you think about it, North Carolina, we're true purple. So we're 30% Republican, we're 30% Democrat, 38.5% unaffiliated, which is our version of independence, 1.5% other. So, I mean, we are truly there. And the way that always manifests itself is Democrats win Governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, Republicans win in the legislature. They win the House seats, the Senate seats, and the presidential seats. And all of the. The things that we've seen have come since we flipped the state house and the state senate back after the 2010 election cycle. So all of the tax cuts that Roy Cooper vetoed, by the way, six of them. Right. You know, came under Republican control. The infrastructure, investments, teacher pay, Raises, police pay raises, you know, those are all things that Cooper vetoed and is now trying to take credit for. And when we look at that state, the population, you know, we picked up one seat in Congress with the apportionment in 2010. We picked up a seat in 2020. We'll certainly get another one in 2030. You know, there are a lot of people coming, but, you know, we need, as Republicans, to talk to them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Sean Hannity]

You know, the way that we win is by actually talking to the voters, understanding the issues they care about, and putting solutions on the table.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah. And just to go back to the. The flooding and everything in western North Carolina, I remember the big controversy at the. The time, again, under Roy Cooper's watch, was the Biden administration basically stealing all of this FEMA money to house illegal immigrants. Right. And so it's just such a huge contrast between what I hear from you and how much you care about the people of the state and how obviously you did a lot with President Trump to bring those resources to people who desperately needed it. But when that was Roy Cooper, he outsourced that to national Democrats.

[Sean Hannity]

Well, and Roy Cooper, the night that the hurricane landed September 27, was up in New York at a climate change conference, rubbing elbow with all the elites. He wasn't even in the state.

[Maximum Boot]

Incredible.

[Sean Hannity]

You know, and people forget FEMA actually had a memo that told their staff, don't go to houses that have Trump signs in the yard to offer them help. I remember that, you know, and, you know, President pointed me to the FEMA Review Council. Believe me, if there's any agency that needs to be reviewed, that's the one. You know, and so we're in the process of. Of kind of finalizing, you know, the recommendations that we're going to be giving to, you know, Secretary Mullen and President Trump in terms of what changes need to be made to that. But, you know, since President Trump got in, it has been a whole of government response. Usda, you know, we've seen hud, we've seen the Small Business Administration. You know, the Department of Transportation gave the largest block grant to North Carolina in the agency's history.

[Michael Watley]

So. So what is the problem there that people are still dealing with the most? Is it the transportation is. It is. It's just so rural there in the mountains that they're having to rebuild still.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah, there's.

[Sean Hannity]

There's a lot of rebuilding. You know, part of that is going to be insurance issues that they're dealing with in private insurance issues. You know, part of it is the fact that FEMA did not want to give money out, you know, for. They call it the hazard mitigation grant program, which now they're started, you know, to kind of finally move that they're doing with it, you know, so. But it, it really is remarkable when you go back into the area and you see the progress that's been made. I mean, certainly not ready to hang up a mission accomplished banner by any stretch of the imagination, but the, the improvement over the course of the last year has been very real.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, it's incredible. Well, it's obviously going to be a very expensive race, as you've alluded to. And I saw that people are already making big investments and reservations for TV ads in the fall and that all that sort of stuff. I imagine Roy Cooper's campaign is going

[Sean Hannity]

to be well capitalized, no question about it. I mean, we think overall probably 600 to $800 million will be spent in North Carolina, most expensive Senate race in the history of the country, you know, and we know, right, we got to raise a ton of money because Cooper is going to raise two tons of money, you know, and he'll have, you know, the actual blue machine has already been cranked up, you know, to an absurd level, and that's fine. Right. But you know what we know from 24 and in other elections, good policy is good politics. You know, Kamala Harris outspent us on the Trump campaign by a billion dollars. You know, and we won all seven battleground states because, you know, we were working very hard to make sure that we were common sense. And Kamala was crazy. And it helped that Kamala helped us by being crazy.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah, that always helps.

[Sean Hannity]

That's really kind of what it's going to come down to in North Carolina. Our voters do not like crazy. They don't like crazy. Left, they don't like crazy. Right. They want somebody who's going to put solutions on the table and fight for them.

[Michael Watley]

Well, yeah. And you know how to do it again, those seven battlegrounds, this guy was a part of it.

[Maximum Boot]

That's why President Trump picked him.

[Michael Watley]

Exactly.

[Maximum Boot]

For folks in North Carolina, even across this country, if they want to get involved, where do they go?

[Sean Hannity]

Yeah. So michaelwatley.com, nice, easy website for you. You can follow me on X at watleync. And we've got a really good team that's coming together, a lot of support from the president's team. And, you know, we really, truly have the best boots on the ground as we need it. But the issue sets are the ones that are going to matter. And we certainly want people to go to michaelwatley.com and support the campaign because we're going to need the resources to get our message out.

[Michael Watley]

We will not have a Senate majority without this one, folks. So if you can go ahead, go to michaelwatley.com, chip in.

[Maximum Boot]

Get involved.

[Michael Watley]

Get involved. Michael Watley, thanks so much for joining us.

[Sean Hannity]

It's great to be with you guys. Thanks again.

[Maximum Boot]

Thanks so much.

[Josh Holmes]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Michael Watley]

I don't know if you knew this

[Josh Holmes]

but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you

[Michael Watley]

to Mint Mobile today.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail]

[Maximum Boot]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3

[Sean Hannity]

month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full [e-mail] I'm

[Comfortably Smug]

glad we were able to get him back in. I mean it's obviously a very tight race and it sounds like he is all over that state. He said he's been to 81 of the 100 counties so far just in this campaign. And I mean it seems like he's getting a good reception to hear him tell it.

[Maximum Boot]

And that's the thing is his focus on the message of crime and how his opponent Cooper was just like let any criminal out of jail, they go out and they commit murders. We mentioned what had happened, that tragedy with the Aruna Zyritska. He is getting the message out. It is getting into voters heads. They are realizing Roy Cooper who's been shielded for so long for being a left wing lunatic because we had a super majority that Whatley helped engineer giving him cover that he can be like look how successful dude. They overrode all his vetoes. But he's responsible for the crime and that's what's going to get pinned on him. We need Whatley to win that one.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, well said. Okay. So don't forget like and subscribe. Check out some merch items while you're there. We had a great generational war that's still going on where we still have some things up that we can weigh in one way or another and get a great T shirt in the process.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do your part. Think a boomer.

[Maximum Boot]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

And there's just a whole bunch of really great stuff out there. So, like, subscribe. Leave a comment on our discussion that we had with your questions.

[Maximum Boot]

Yeah. Is there going to be comments? Consequences? Are we going to start seeing NGOs and SPLC? Are we going to start seeing handcuffs? Because that's what's needed.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Watley]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No question. That with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Maximum Boot]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Michael Watley. And thank you to the Minions. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that. Subscribe, because it's more fun in video. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Friday. Friday. Stay ruthless.