Fraud & Hypocrisy: Democrats Reeling After Fed Raids in MN

Summary

Ruthless Podcast – "Fraud & Hypocrisy: Democrats Reeling After Fed Raids in MN"

Episode Date: April 30, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook (Comfortably Smug absent, “on assignment”)
Main Theme:
A week of major political news, dominated by federal fraud raids on Minneapolis childcare facilities, exposes Democratic weakness, hypocrisy, and the slow wheels of justice. The show presents a biting, irreverent conservative analysis on Minnesota’s political fallout, troubling trends in Democratic fundraising, mismanagement in blue states, and the ongoing rot in higher education—with a major guest interview with Rep. Elise Stefanik.

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles two main storylines:

1. The High-Profile Federal Fraud Raids in Minneapolis – Hosts break down the scope, political ramifications, and Democrat hypocrisy exposed by sweeping federal fraud probes targeting largely Somali-owned childcare centers in Minneapolis, and the nonchalant response from state officials.
2. The Decline of Democratic Institutions & Leadership – Through analysis, mockery, and a scathing guest segment with Elise Stefanik, the hosts discuss systemic problems in Democratic governance, ideological groupthink in education, and the cultural and political fallout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Minneapolis Childcare Fraud Raids: Justice Deferred, Then Delivered?

• [00:00–06:00] The show opens with news of the FBI and federal law enforcement raiding over 20 Minneapolis childcare sites as part of a years-long fraud investigation targeting largely Somali-owned businesses, previously downplayed or ignored by state Democrats and media.
  • Holmes: “Governor Walz pretended like he had no culpability in any of this whatsoever.” (00:03)
• Hosts express long-running frustration that such crimes have been politically obfuscated, with Democrats protecting key constituencies and pretending nothing was wrong:
  • Ashbrook: “It’s happening and I can only hope it took this long because they had to... make sure the case was ironclad... If this doesn’t end with people going to prison and every unindicted coconspirator... being deported, then it’s a waste of time.” (00:27)
• [06:05–09:31] The crew laments that exposure of blatantly indefensible public fraud often results in political indifference rather than consequences: “...there’s things that you learn about that are absolutely indefensible... and yet it doesn’t seem like there's any ramifications whatsoever for any of it.” (Holmes, 05:23)

Notable & Memorable Quotes:

• Duncan (sarcastic summation): “Democrats in Minnesota were making the argument that they're allowed to do fraud because they're foreigners...so we should allow them to steal our money, put it in briefcases and fly it back to their countries of origin.” (08:05)
• On Democrat hypocrisy:
  • Ashbrook: “It's incredibly brazen to see a Democrat who fought tooth and nail to stop any investigations...now claim to support law and order.” (11:05)
  • “It turns out when you're a sanctuary city and you allow criminals to live in your midst, other crimes are created. It becomes a magnet to thievery and crime.” (12:39)

Segment Timestamps:

• [00:00–03:21] – Opening banter, introducing the fraud topic
• [06:05–08:05] – Minnesota fraud deep-dive and “Nick Shirley” whistleblower’s role
• [08:05–11:05] – Electoral ramifications and Democrat hypocrisy

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2. Democrat Fundraising & ActBlue: Skepticism and Connections to Fraud

• [17:42–21:42] The hosts tie the Minnesota fraud scandal to broader concerns about Democratic fundraising through ActBlue, suggesting a corrupt feedback loop between public dollars, NGOs, and partisan campaign coffers.
• Holmes (on Dem candidates): “There is no chance on earth any of them could persuade 700,000 people to contribute to them. You wouldn't hire any of these people to mow your fucking lawn.” (18:44)
• Connection made between taxpayer slush funds, ActBlue, and politicians cushioned by unaccountable systems.
  • “...They use your taxpayer dollars to flush into the NGO network ... and all these libs who are recipients ... are also contributors to the Democratic Party...” (Holmes, 18:52)

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3. Quality of Democrat Leadership: Ilhan Omar Gaffe & Institutional Incompetence

• [22:20] Montage mocking prominent progressives:
  • Ilhan Omar’s “World War 11” flub as emblematic of shallow, unserious Democratic leadership.
  • “Saying World War 11 should make you eligible for the alien enemies act... You immediately become deported.” (Ashbrook, 23:18)
• Hosts stress, with both humor and frustration, the incompetence and radicalism of Democratic representatives.
  • “We are not being hyperbolic about this. This is what they've got. It is Hasan Piker, it is Ilhan Omar...” (Holmes, 24:10)

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4. NYC & Socialism on the Ropes: Mamdani’s Budget Bailout

• [27:07–33:41]
  • The crew pivots to New York City Council member Zoran Mamdani’s failed “socialist” experiment, which ran out of cash months in.
  • “Margaret Thatcher had an awesome quote back in the day—‘the problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money.’ And that is what's happening.” (Holmes, 27:23)
  • Hosts ridicule the inefficiency (“...three years to build a grocery store?”), the economic cost (“the jobs creator…thousands of jobs…No, fuck that guy.”), and the PR stunts directed at billionaire investors.

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5. Reckless, Blame-Obsessed Political Culture

• [34:15–35:46]
  • AOC is chided for blaming corporations like Deloitte for environmental disasters:
    • “I had no idea that PowerPoints could poison rivers.” (Ashbrook, 34:36)
  • This confusion of targets leads into discussions about unserious leadership, virtue signaling, and shallow discourse in national politics.

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6. Congressional Hearing Highlights: Lee Zeldin Exposes Democrat Legal Ignorance

• [38:13–39:37]
  • Airs a tense hearing between Rep. Lee Zeldin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, where DeLauro demonstrates unfamiliarity with landmark Supreme Court cases related to climate regulation.
  • “She didn't know the law as it pertains to the thing that she was arguing.” (Holmes, 40:50)
• Meta-theme: Democrats’ easy press coverage leads to lazy, weak argumentation and a lack of accountability.

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7. Redistricting, the Supreme Court, and Representational Rebalancing

• [44:23–55:49]
  • The hosts celebrate a recent Supreme Court ruling limiting the Voting Rights Act’s influence over redistricting, predicting it could result in multiple new GOP House seats and break the Democratic machine in the South.
  • Analysis: “You could have a 12 seat swing for Republicans in the Southeast.” (Duncan, 47:11)
  • Broader argument: Race-based districting has mutated well past its civil-rights origins into a tool for Democratic incumbency and racial identity politics, to the detriment of genuine representation.

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8. Variety & Lighter Segments

The King of England’s Visit

• [56:13–59:46]
  • Hosts appreciate King Charles’ wit at the White House state dinner:
    • “I am delighted to present...the original bell which hung on the conning tower of your valiant namesake.” (British Official, 56:30)

“TopGolf Car Incident”

• [60:05–62:39]
  • Viral video: Driver crashes SUV onto TopGolf range, golfers respond by pelting it with balls.

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Feature Interview: Rep. Elise Stefanik on Poisoned Ivies and Higher Ed

[63:08–81:14]

Main Points

• Stefanik recounts the viral hearing with Ivy League presidents (“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct?”), their evasive answers, and the moral/administrative rot in higher education.
  • “They said it depends on the context. And they didn’t realize that that was so wrong and so deeply out of touch.” (Stefanik, 64:42)
• She highlights the benefit of asking simple, accessible questions in hearings, inspiring a new congressional approach.
• On policy: Urges supporting alternative and innovative education models, vocational training, and reform in faculty tenure and foreign funding flows to universities.
• On generational churn in Congress: Critiques current congressional talent drain and over-tenured elderly leadership:
  • “When you have octogenarians that have been there longer than I’ve been alive…something is deeply, deeply wrong.” (Stefanik, 67:31)

Notable Quotes & Takeaways

• On the Ivy League rot: “Their initial missions are timeless. They've just shifted so far away...founding principles…now focused on political indoctrination.” (Stefanik, 78:26)
• On alternative education: “Every single week...entrepreneurs...literally weekly, these entrepreneurs, they're 21 years old, billionaires coming in my office solving real major issues. I'm thinking they're onto something.” (Stefanik, 72:38)

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Key Timestamps

• [00:00–11:05] – Minneapolis fraud raid, Dem denial, local and federal reactions
• [11:05–17:42] – Sanctuary cities, political consequences, fraud’s downstream effects
• [17:42–24:10] – ActBlue, Democratic fundraising, campaign finance skepticism
• [24:10–27:07] – Leadership quality, notable Democrat flubs, congressional strategy
• [27:07–33:41] – NYC socialism, Mamdani’s budget flop, “Ponzi scheme” politics
• [34:15–40:37] – Reckless blame, environmental scapegoating, hearing highlights
• [44:23–55:49] – Supreme Court redistricting decision, constitutional implications
• [63:08–81:14] – Elise Stefanik interview: Ivy Leagues, cultural change, congressional future

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Concluding Remarks & Tone

• The Ruthless crew deliver their signature blend of razor-sharp cynicism and biting humor, skewering political hypocrisy.
• Memorable moment: Recurring refrain on Democratic mediocrity and the baffling endurance of poor talent in Congress.
• Episode closes on a hopeful note: Stefanik’s book is praised as a catalyst for change in higher education and congressional oversight.

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Best Quote to Capture Episode:

"If you could just have an honest conversation with every single American, I feel like this would be a 90/10 country."
— Josh Holmes, on the disconnect between elite narratives and everyday reality (31:14)

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In Summary

In a week defined by the exposure of Democratic fraud and fecklessness, Ruthless delivers a compelling, acerbic analysis: from daycare scams and socialism’s failures, to the degeneration of once-hallowed universities. The cast underscores growing American disenchantment with elite leadership, the need for accountability in government and education, and the emerging opportunity for a political realignment—should their side learn how to seize it.

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Notable Quote Excerpts:

• “There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. There are some who are better at hiding their intentions than others.” – Holmes, 25:29
• “Nobody and nobody stops to ask, why the hell does it take till 2029 to build a grocery store?” – Duncan, 31:26
• “Harvard is older than the founding of the United States. Their initial missions are timeless. They've just shifted so far away...now focused on political indoctrination.” – Stefanik, 78:26

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For New Listeners:
This episode offers a thorough, caustic rundown of current political besetments, a portrait of Democratic decline, and a smart, actionable critique of higher ed—with enough humor and inside-the-Beltway snark to either amuse or infuriate. Highly useful for anyone tracking the right’s cultural and policy arguments in 2026.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

FBI raids, Minneapolis childcare facilities. Part of a sweeping fraud investigation. Governor Walsh pretended like he had no culpability in any of this whatsoever.

[Michael Duncan]

For a long time, Democrats in Minnesota were making the argument that they're allowed to do fraud because they're foreigners. And we want to make sure that this is a welcoming country to the foreigners, so we should allow them to steal our money, put it in briefcases and fly it back to their countries of origin.

[John Ashbrook]

It's happening and I can only hope it took this long because they had to move, make sure the case was ironclad and that these raids aren't the first time they're finding information. But it's how they close this, the the jail cell door on these people. Because if this doesn't end with people going to prison and every unindicted co conspirator who is in this country illegally being deported, then it's a waste of time.

[Michael Duncan]

Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet. Now they're messing with your credit card. Your credit card and the security it offers are under attack. The Durbin Marshall credit card bill would change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. That means higher risk of fraud, greater chance of stolen personal data, and the loss of rewards programs just so corporate megastores can pocket billions of dollars in higher profits. Tell Congress to guard your card. Visit guardyourcard.com to take action and learn more.

[NetChoice Representative]

Congress must not take away parents control over their kids personal information. The App Store Accountability act forces you to upload your child's sensitive documents like a birth certificate. And it would share that information too broadly. A calculator doesn't need to know how old your child is. A better approach puts parents in control while keeping kids safe online. Parents should decide what of their children's information is shared with an app developer. Tell Congress. Prioritize parents and keep them in control. There are better solutions to keep kids safe online. This is America. Parents should be in control of what's best for our children. NetChoice is dedicated to making the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise. Learn [e-mail] keepappstoressafe

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Elise Stefanik]

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

[Michael Duncan]

I love the personality. You guys are huge.

[Announcer]

Killing it.

[John Ashbrook]

I just saw you're number one.

[Michael Duncan]

So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity. Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success. This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[John Ashbrook]

The only political podcast worth listening to

[Michael Duncan]

is the Ruthless Podcast. It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, why don't we have a great Thursday right here with the Ruthless Friday program? I am Josh Holmes along with Michael Duncan. John Ashbrook, comfortably smug, is on assignment today. So, you know, we're probably not going to insult people gratuitously, although we may insult.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You never know.

[Josh Holmes]

You never know.

[John Ashbrook]

If he's on assignment for too long, we might start insulting him.

[Josh Holmes]

We might. You never. You. You never can tell. Listen, it's been a hell of a week. The King. The King of England was in town this week. Didn't do a great job with the traffic.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

In Washington, D.C. i found it problematic.

[John Ashbrook]

Nothing will make you an isolationist faster than living in Washington, D.C. during the visits of foreign dignitaries.

[Josh Holmes]

There was a period in February, you could probably tell from our tone of the program where they had, like, Zelensky and Netanyahu in even rotation every other week here, and they would literally shut down all. I mean, that's what, that's what a foreign takeover looks like of the capital of the United States of America. But this wasn't that bad. In fact, it was. It was kind of great. And there was a bunch of things that happened. A big state dinner this week, which I assume was great, although we don't get invited to this kind of things. If only we had more.

[Michael Duncan]

All we had to do was win the masters like Rory McElroy. And, you know, President Trump called Rory out and asked him to stand up and receive applause and said, I was giving a speech. And then I, I had to stop because I wanted to watch you win that tournament.

[Josh Holmes]

That's good.

[Michael Duncan]

Is one reason to love Trump because he's like the rest of us. He wants to watch golf on a Sunday.

[Josh Holmes]

Although you pointed out dunks, the Northern Ireland, Rory McElroy showing up for the King is.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. For the King of England, it's a

[Josh Holmes]

little bit of a. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I thought Trump should have made a joke that they should restart the troubles tonight.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. Well, there are troubles everywh. And we've covered a lot of them as it pertains to Minnesota. But I think our first segment is in the category of things that pissed you off that you learned about, that you are absolutely sure nothing will come of it. Right. Because I think that's what's bothering an awful lot of conservatives these days is that there's things that you learn about that are absolutely indefensible that the left has promulgated upon taxpayers and everybody across this country. And yet it doesn't seem like there's any ramifications whatsoever for any of it. Like you just learn to be pissed and like nobody pays the piper.

[Michael Duncan]

Right on the deal.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, change on some of that in this case. The whole fraud thing in Minnesota of which was going on for years and it wasn't until Nick Shirley showed up and filmed the Quality Leering center that anybody paid any attention to it whatsoever. Well, it turns out the feds have been paying some attention to it takes a little bit to try to put a case together. Make sure you got that all locked down. Well, they made an effort this week try to bring some people to justice. And FOX News in particular has got this piece, FBI raids Minneapolis childcare facilities, part of a sweeping fraud investigation. And I'll just read a couple of paragraphs as a jumping off point. You guys can talk about it. Federal authorities raided more than 20 locations including childcare facilities in Minneapolis on Tuesday as part of a sweeping fraud investigation into a largely Somali owned businesses. Sources confirmed at Fox News, quote, today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in a court authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation. Authorities executed 22 federal search warrants in Minnesota this week. And it's not immigration related, it's fraud related, which of course, the blending of the two became somewhat of an issue in January and February as state authorities and chiefly amongst them Governor Walsh pretended like he had no culpability in any of this whatsoever. Sources told FOX News that two of the raids were conducted at the Quality Leering Center. So, you know, here you go. I mean, this is a full circle on what you learn. And ultimately it looks, at least from my perspective, the federal government's following up on this.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. For a long time, Democrats in Minnesota were making the argument that they're allowed to do fraud because they're foreigners. And we want to make sure this is a welcoming country to the foreigners. So we should allow them to steal our money, put it in briefcases and fly it back to their countries of origin. And voters are not interested in that sort of thing. I mean, in Minnesota, we talked to the leading candidates in the Senate race, Adam Schwarzy and Michelle Tafoya. And I think both of them have a very strong case to make. Josh, you point out over and over again the Republicans have not won a Senate race in that state since you worked on the Norm Coleman race in 2002. But if the Democrats candidate is actually Peggy Flanagan, the Lieutenant governor who was in charge when all of this fraud was overlooked or not cared about or whatever they were doing, billions of dollars stolen from people who actually need it. I think there's an awfully persuasive argument that could be made to your run of the mill Democrat who is like, listen, I just think that government needs to work. I was told that government would work if I continued to vote for my party, and it hasn't. So send a message to your own party and vote for something different and then you get a different result.

[Josh Holmes]

So one of the things that Democrats bank on when it comes to high profile domestic national news is not to believe your lying eyes. Right? And one of the reasons why this became so controversial is Democrats essentially convincing the national news media this is all backfiring on President Trump. This was not an nobody in Minnesota was concerned at all about being stolen from like a thief in the night that they were. What they were concerned about was the mere presence of federal agents. And the touchstone for that was Governor Walz and Jacob Fry and all these politicians locally being like, get the hell out of here. And being the most confrontational that they could possibly be. Okay, so this goes down. It'd be interesting to just go check up and see if the political calculus has changed at all. And Governor Walz puts out an interesting statement. Graphic one. You toss this up, puts out a tweet. If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you're going to get caught. And that's exactly what we saw yesterday. We watch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. What a fucking mind blowing turn of events. That statement is. Joint investigations work they do amazing. And securing justice depends on it. Oh, it depends on it. What an incredible. I mean, this guy's only not running. Remember, he suspended his reelection campaign because of all this.

[John Ashbrook]

It's incredibly brazen to see a Democrat who fought tooth and nail to stop any investigations into any of this now claim to support law and order. It's almost as funny as when Kamala had that plan to secure the border during the 2024 campaign. But what I love most about the statement in particular is the way he uses language to basically obfuscate the reason why local officials were opposing any investigation. Well, you know, all these we got to share information. And if only Kash Patel had filed the right TPS report, we could have solved this a long time ago. But now we're working.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No, joint investigations work.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's amazing. It doesn't evidently portray to any of the illegal immigration issues because they have said there is no joint. It's a sanctuary state. And sanctuary city. Well, city of Minneapolis, a little different constituency than the entirety of the state of Minnesota had a response to that in graphic too. The city of Minneapolis is not involved in the federal operations being reported around Minnesota today. And as of 9:30am MPD, that's the Minneapolis Police Department has not been asked to assist with the execution of federal warrants.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, so local police are like, don't look at us, we're not enforcing the law. Don't worry.

[Josh Holmes]

Have no fear. Yeah, have no fear. You know, amnesty continues. Fraud continues.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it turns out when you're a sanctuary city and you allow criminals to live in your midst, other crimes are created. It becomes a magnet to thievery and crime.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's really the heart of the problem here. And I think as a conservative has been frustrated with the slow wheels turning of justice in this country on this entire thing. It feels like Lucy in the football on all this stuff is like we hear about these investigations, something's going to happen, something's going to happen. Then nothing ends up happening here. It's happening. And I can only hope it took this long because they had to make sure the case was ironclad and that these raids aren't the first time they're finding information. But it's how they close the jail cel door on these people. Because if this doesn't end with people going to prison and every unindicted coconspirator who is in this country illegally being fucking deported, then it's a waste of time and it took too long. But if they lock them up, I'll be happy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep, I totally agree. But again, I go back to the initial point that I was making about how nothing to see here because the politics in Minnesota is just anti Trump and they're just not interested in the federal government. They're not interested in actually getting rid of the fraud and all these things as evidenced by walls or whatever. And you heard that statement that he just gave that was effusive in its praise about the work together to eliminate fraud. And of course you can't get away with that kind of thing. Well, can we flash back? I mean this is just a couple of months ago. Let's throw his last statement up.

[John Ashbrook]

You mentioned this fraud investigation and the

[Josh Holmes]

reason that they're here. Is there anything you think when you

[John Ashbrook]

look back, you could have done differently

[Josh Holmes]

to prevent them from showing up and doing what they're doing here?

[NetChoice Representative]

No, no.

[John Ashbrook]

They were coming anyway.

[Josh Holmes]

It was all make believe.

[Michael Duncan]

Their problem is that what they've been preaching to us for way too long is the poem on the Statue of Liberty says, bring us your tired and huddled masses. Let them steal from us and take it to another country. That is what Democrats in the state

[Josh Holmes]

of Minnesota terror in the name of Medicaid.

[Michael Duncan]

That's their creed. Okay? That is. That is what they do. And you know, a guy like Tim Wall saying there's. There's no evidence of fraud. Like, all I can think about is that his campaign for vice president, when he put on the camo hat and he pretended like he knew how to load a shotgun, There was no evidence of competence from Tim Walls. There was no evidence that he was capable of being vice president of the United States. Everybody saw it in Technicolor. And the fact that Democrats continue to trot this fraud out as like some kind of like a national spokesman for their party, I think only tells you how terrible of a situation they're in.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, they are. None of this would have ever happened without Nick Shirley.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Which I think look good on Nick Shirley, good on independent journalism, good on a new media environment where these kind of things can come to light. We can talk about them. But this is kind of the basics of government.

[Michael Duncan]

It is. And Democrats over and over again, have. Have done everything they could to stand in Nick's way. Right? He's like, wait, they're stealing from taxpayers. Here are the receipts. Here are the basics. And they're like, no, we cannot have this get out. Remember, in the state of California, they want to pass a law called the Nick Shirley Law so that California can't be exposed for the same fraud that they're committing that we've all seen in.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's in every state in the union because you have these metropolitan areas that rely on slush funds provided by the federal government. That is your taxpayer dollars, honestly, that they use to just pay out political constituencies one way or another and never provide a service to the taxpayer itself.

[Announcer]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is what's happening all around, everywhere. But, like, look, the politics of this are changing. They want you to focus on all kinds of different stuff. The reason that we raise it is that there's a lot of news out there. Obviously, we're what? Four days, five days removed from yet another assassination attempt on the President of the United States. You've got a war in Iran going on. There's a ton of things to consider. But the fact of the matter is, is that in four short months, this thing went from just printing paychecks sent to Mogadishu to fund God knows what to people behind bars.

[John Ashbrook]

But you can understand, when it's such an important part of your political project, why he could so confidently say, there's no fraud here. Right? Because all of this fraud fills the coffers of the Democrat Party. It's an important constituency for them. And the other reason I think, and I've said this previously on the Variety Program, is, is I think for Democrats, they see this as USAID through other means. It's a way for them to make Mogadishu great again, you know?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, as long as Mogadishu is paying it forward, you know, which I think is the bigger issue that we're gonna get into, as this whole thing uncovers, is that all of this is just a great big Ponzi scheme to fund the Democratic Party to retain incumbency of Democratic politicians who've never accomplished a human goddamn thing for the people they claim to represent and then just continue to flush out cash accounts. I mean, you look at some of these idiots that they have running in states around this country who are raising like, 10, 12, $15 million in, like, $50 increments through this ActBlue situation. There is no chance on earth any of them could persuade 700,000 people to contribute to them. You wouldn't hire any of these people to mow your fucking lawn. You just wouldn't. If that guy showed up and he was like, hey, listen, I'm gonna install free solar panels on the back of your house. You'd be like, get the fuck off my yard. You would. But yet somehow we are led to believe that this money ecosystem that Democrats have created, where they use your taxpayer dollars to flush into the NGO network, whether it's domestic or foreign or what, that all of a sudden all these libs who are recipients of this largesse, who are also contributors to the Democratic Party, that. That's disconnected.

[Michael Duncan]

That.

[Josh Holmes]

That is. Somehow we're just. Nope. It is just the charisma of James Tallaric, this fucking douchebag who, like, literally, if you were stuck at a cocktail party and that guy sidled up next to you, you'd be like, let me get the hell out of here as fast as I possibly can. And you just would just look at him, just him and I, you know, it's not even a partisan thing. You know, like, you look at him, that guy comes up and he's like, oh, let me tell you about the Bible. It's gay.

[Elise Stefanik]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean? Like, I'm just like, dude, I, that is the kind of person that if you're a well adjusted human being that you see and you're like, I don't want any part of a protracted conversation. Like, maybe he's a nice guy in person, but like, you know what's coming, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not, it's not just James Talligan. Mary Peltola. Okay. In Alaska, she. This woman has been a politician for 30 years. Yeah. And they pretend like she's this upstart. Oh, she's coming up fresh faced. And that's why she raised $9 million in the first quarter. That's why she doubled Dave McCormick's number. Okay. I'm not trying to.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, she's out there banging the indigenous drum one day and decides to get in her canoe and paddle over and all of a sudden she's got $15 million just waiting, waiting for. Because of. She's just so charismatic.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just the charisma.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, we just, we, we have a, we have a really good system. You know, we, like, I don't believe any of it. I think that Act Blue is going to be uncovered as something very nefarious.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just connected and like, look, we're going to find out. But there's been just smoke. There's enough smoke around here. I just, I do not believe that there are enough insane people that hand over their money in whatever increment to people who you wouldn't want representing you on any stage. Like if you had to hire any of the people the Democrats have put forward as their candidates to represent your interests in a court of law, for example. They are the ones that are going to make a law. So would you want any of those people standing representing your interests in a court of law? Like, of course not. Not of course not. And that's like a big barrier, particularly Senate races where you're talking about statewide elections. I mean, you got like 20, 30 million people that are being represented by a single individual. You would think they would have to at least complete a sentence without stuttering and being an asshole. Like, they can't.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's not a prerequisite to raising $10 million because of what ActBlue is.

[Josh Holmes]

Because of it.

[John Ashbrook]

And if this is the first time, if you listen to the Ruthless Variety Program, we're not freewheeling here. There was a New York Times investigation. There were lawyers who raised records, red

[Michael Duncan]

flags, Dash Brooks Point Democrat lawyers from Eric Holder's own firm.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. So, I mean, there's something to that. And I hope we learn more soon.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I hope we learn more, too. But just in case you were worried that they're just so quick and fast and smart that they could outsmart everyone once these schemes are uncovered, I'll point you back to Elon Omar, who is sort of a ringleader in an awful lot of this in Minneapolis in clip one.

[Elise Stefanik]

The last time the Alien Enemies act

[Josh Holmes]

was invoked, it was used to detain

[Elise Stefanik]

and deport German, Japanese, Italian immigrants during World War 11.

[Michael Duncan]

I just, I love this one so much. And if you're listening, maybe you already saw this clip on X, maybe, maybe you've been laughing with your friends about it for two days. But, like, we had to play this. This. The stupidity cannot go unacknowledged here.

[Josh Holmes]

I am so convicted and serious about the history of this particular piece of legislation that I'm going to be incensed. I'm gonna talk about how this has never been invoked since World War 11. And straight face, like, that was the end of the clip. I mean, it's not like they corrected it.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like Saying World War 11 should make you eligible for the

[British Official]

alien.

[John Ashbrook]

The you immediately become deported.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

But I mean, this is, again, this is the quality of representation that Democrats are talking about. Like, I'm eyes wide open about the struggles that Republicans have to hold majorities in a midterm election where you have universal control. Like, it's historical, it's 100 years. It's tough to do. And I am also eyes wide open about the fact that, like, everybody's voting in the economy and people don't feel that great about it. They're a little concerned about war in Iran. They shouldn't. Shouldn't be. But they are, and they're just not. They're unsettled at some point. And Democrats have a lead in polls in key races. And the likelihood, if the election were today, that Republicans would not only lose the House, they could lose the Senate with President Trump's last two years. If the election were today, I think that could happen.

[Michael Duncan]

Possible.

[Josh Holmes]

All that being said, what you just saw is the quality of the representation that Democrats are attempting to provide. We are not being hyperbolic about this. This is what they've got. It is Hasan Piker it is Ilan Omar. We're going to get some AOC stuff and Mamdani and everything else. But like, to the extent that they even can complete a sentence and understand in historical context of what it is that this country is, they don't represent your interest and they're not even attempting well.

[John Ashbrook]

And I think the frustration that you are animating here is important, especially ahead of, ahead of an election, because elections are always a referendum or a choice.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And it is critical for the Republican Party and anybody who works in Republican politics who's listening to this, all of these characters in the Democrat Party, you got to hang that around these candidates that they're running in all of these swing districts and states. If we don't do that, if we don't force the American people to make a choice between what Donald Trump and the Republican agenda is doing in their lives and these cats, then it's going to be a referendum. And those are very difficult for the party in power.

[Josh Holmes]

Man, you deserve to lose. I mean, it's true. There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. There are some who are better at hiding their intentions than others. And the others largely are people where it works for them to say their true intentions. The Hasan Pikers and the Mamdanis. We're going to get into that next as we talk about socialism is sort of on the ropes. What are we, three months into it in New York?

[John Ashbrook]

It's never been tried.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not great. It's not great. We've got more on all of that right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

All right, so yesterday I was on Fox and I was talking with Dana and Bill about Mamdani and how he, like Basically doxxed Ken Griffin. He filmed a YouTube video outside of his apartment.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Where he's like, this is a perfect example of what I'm going to tax and run out of the city. And it's Ken Griffin. And Ken Griffin just so happened at that time to have a $6 billion investment that's about to break ground in Manhattan that's going to put thousands of people to work, of which all of them are like, maybe we won't do it, maybe we won't do it. Like, imagine the runoff of wages and whatever as a result of that stunt. But it got me to thinking more largely, I mean, Margaret Thatcher had an awesome quote back in the day, was the problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money. And that is what's happening to Zoran Mamdani. One quarter into his promise to the world that socialism works. And so, from NBC New York, NBC 4, the local station out there, Mamdani begs state of New York for a bailout after already running out of money.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, that was pretty quick.

[Josh Holmes]

New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani. I'll just read a couple of paragraphs here. And Council Speaker Julie Menon are urging the state to approve a budget that will help fund a multi billion dollar budget gap that the city is facing while supporting the state in extending its final budget deadline to June. So they just want to do like this, the Ponzi scheme.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, why is it that every time Democrats are in charge, there is a budget gap? I just want to ask you this because it seems like, what do you think it seems like? Every school board around the country who is, you know, stocked with Democrats, every blue city around the country stocked with Democrats, Every blue state around the country stocked with Democrats. Every year there's a budget gap. And is it because they're promising things and funding things that they can't deliver on? Is it because they're like, you know what, let's just give the Somalis all the money and let them fly it over to Mogadishu? Is it some combination of the things? Like, at what point are people like, wait a minute, even if you're like a run of the mill Democrat, at some point, why aren't you like, wait a minute, this is not being managed properly. Isn't there some Democrat who can, like, manage a situation? But that doesn't seem like that's possible.

[John Ashbrook]

That's not the point of socialism. Like, socialism is the cure all for an irresponsible, incompetent moron. Who's trying to run a system. Like, think about it. If you're Zoran Mamdani and you're looking at the numbers and you can barely do math and you're a fucking idiot, and you think free grocery stores work. Like, you're in that meeting, you're like, how do we dig out of this hole? And it's like, all right, well, find me the richest guy in New York and let's go out of his. Outside his house and make an ad. And then everybody will be mad at me. They'll be mad at him. I mean, this is a tale as old as time. They don't actually need solutions to fucking anything. They just need to blame someone. That's what it is. That is the essence of socialism.

[Josh Holmes]

But even beyond that, more sinister is it's not just about casting the blame, is that they actually don't give a shit about the people that they're purporting to represent. They genuinely don't care. It's power is the issue. He's more interested in being the mayor's office than he is about actually helping people out of homelessness. If he was, why would you do the things that you're doing? The jobs creator? I mean, this is like, literally a guy who within weeks is going to deliver thousands of jobs to the place that you're sitting, and you're like, no, fuck that guy. Get him out of here. I want to make sure that I pass something that gets him out of here so then they can go to my grocery store. That costs $30 million, by the way. It's not going to be up till 2029. Because socialism.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I mean, it's just. So if you could just have an honest conversation with every single American, I feel like this would be a 9010 country.

[Michael Duncan]

Nobody and nobody stops to ask, why the hell does it take till 2029 to build a grocery store?

[John Ashbrook]

People eat food every day. The demand's there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I don't know how to build shit.

[Michael Duncan]

What are they putting in that grocery store, for crying out loud?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know how to build shit.

[Michael Duncan]

That it's 20. That's three years. I mean, is it like specially handcrafted studs in each of the walls?

[Josh Holmes]

I can promise you that three of us could figure out how to brick and mortar in less than three years and build a grocery store.

[John Ashbrook]

100% promise.

[Josh Holmes]

I can promise we can do that.

[Michael Duncan]

Without a doubt.

[Josh Holmes]

Probably in the next month.

[Michael Duncan]

There are poor people around this country every day who walk out to the Sidewalk and set up a fruit stand in the morning and take it down at night, and then the next day they set it up. You know what I. These aren't educated people like Zoran Mamdani, whose parents were so rich and so influential in the media intelligentsia, that he was able to come all the way from Uganda to the United States and take Bill de Blasio's job, you know what I mean, like, and run out

[Josh Holmes]

a guy like Ken Griffin. Exactly. Who has done more for taxpayers. I mean, I think I read that his company paid something like 278 billion over the last 20 years in taxes in New York City. And that the charitable giving that he and his companies and all that have done far dwarfed the budget of what it is that Zoran Mamdani. But he's the problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Let's get this guy. Let's film him. And by the way, not for nothing, but, like, I don't know if you've noticed, there's a touch of leftist violence out there. So maybe doxing somebody and giving the address to somebody that the socialist mayor of New York City is opposed to. And this is not the greatest public policy for safety either in this country. I mean, these people are. They're lunatics.

[Michael Duncan]

What if you're one of these guys who's like, oh, thank God somebody's doing a project. I'm gonna get on. On that project. I'm gonna get a job. It's gonna maybe last a year or two. I'm gonna do what I, you know, I'm gonna get paid. And then Mom, Donnie shows up and he's like, sorry, Pat. Yeah, that paycheck's not coming because I need a Internet.

[Josh Holmes]

You're welcome to buy groceries for three in three years.

[John Ashbrook]

I love that. Ken Griffin's basically like, all right, I see your Communist Manifesto and I raise you Atlas Shrugged.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, dude, kind of.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, kind of. Well, he's surrounded. And you see, maybe a precursor to the whole Mum Donnie situation was a safe. Well, she has got away with words, fellas. And she's very rarely reckless about who it is that she blames for the ills around this country. Clip three, please.

[Elise Stefanik]

Rivers in rural areas were on fire because of corporations poisoning the people who lived in those areas. Poor middle class communities getting poisoned and dumped on by corporations like Deloitte and 3M pouring chemicals into these places. And they want to call it a democratic priority.

[Josh Holmes]

Deloitte.

[John Ashbrook]

I had no idea that PowerPoints could poison rivers.

[Josh Holmes]

Right, this is for those of you who are unfamiliar with Deloitte, it is an accounting firm, services a bunch of different corporations and individuals across this country. They do math.

[Michael Duncan]

They're just dumping barrels of accounts receivable, toxic profit and loss statement right into that river you won't be able to drink for 10 years.

[Josh Holmes]

I gotta tell you, when I think of things that I'm outraged by, it's those fucking green visored bastards,

[John Ashbrook]

Deloitte.

[Josh Holmes]

These nerds that are sitting in cubicles doing the nation's math. They are poisoning all of us.

[Michael Duncan]

The number two pencils alone would just ruin our environment.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, but it's, it's indicative. Like clearly she screwed that up. She doesn't know or didn't care to get it right in what she's talking about to a national audience. Right, I'm sure that's great for the executives of Deloitte. By the way. You're trying to run a business and you've got, you know, somebody who could be the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party saying that you poisoned people when you're like, dude, we do math here. That's it. But it's just indicative of how stupid and how vacant and reckless. And reckless today's Democratic Party is. There is no adult leadership whatsoever. You have Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who are apparently the most powerful elected Democrats. You've seen what's happened out of Chuck Schumer, a self avowed, sort of like Zionist defender of Israel who's ushered in the Palestinian pro Hamas caucus on his watch where he's hiding from it. And the only answer is to shut down the federal government or shut down the Department of Homeland Security in the hopes that the pro Hamas caucus kind of sees tangential benefit of fight. Not that it makes any sense, but that's what he's doing. Meanwhile, you got Timu Obama in the House of Representatives who is like, I mean this guy, I don't even think this guy can tie his fucking shoes. But he shows up and he's like, maximum warfare on President Trump and Republicans. Well, a couple of days later there's an assassin, yet another assassination attempt on President Trump. And they ask him about it on Tuesday and he shows up and he's like, I don't give a damn about your criticism. It is maximum warfare. Dude. There used to be a time it didn't matter if you were a Republican or a Democrat, when you were a leader of one of the two parties, you understood that you couldn't just be a mirror, that it's reflected the base anxieties of your Party, you had to try to protect the country at some level. These are people who have no interest in that whatsoever. They don't care a lick about your country. If you hand him the speaker's gavel, you could destroy. Like he would be more than happy to have a speaker's gavel in the fucking ruins of Chernobyl than he would presiding as a minority leader over a thriving country.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is honestly where the Democratic Party is if you can't push back on this shit. Well, there is a couple of people that are pushing back on it within the administration. Lee Zeldin, good friend of the program, has been on here a lot.

[Michael Duncan]

That guy is so smart.

[Josh Holmes]

But he unmasks this stupidity as has been done in a lot of these hearings lately. If you're paying attention, we like to highlight them here on the Ruthless Variety program. Look what happened this week in clip 4.

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

When climate change is flooding our streets, poisoning our air, driving up health care and disaster courts, how can the EPA justify abandoning that duty to protect Americans to appease polluters under the false flag of economic growth following the law?

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

Section 202 of the Clean Air Act. Where does it say anything about fighting global climate change? Loper Bright court case?

[Elise Stefanik]

Hell yeah.

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

You familiar with it?

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

No. Maybe others are not. But let me ask.

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

But that's really important. As a member of Congress, Loper Bright says that we as an agency don't have the authority to get Creative if section 202 of the Clean Air Act.

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

No, but you don't have. Excuse me. You do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it's a hoax and that's where this administration is.

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

You're upset that you don't know what Loper Bright is. Do you know what the major policies doctrine is?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm upset because you know what the

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

major policies doctrine is.

[Michael Duncan]

You're a member of Congress.

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

You should know.

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

Well, you're, you're. You. You have.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh yeah.

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

From someone who defended the environment to

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

all of a sudden very defensive about not knowing the two biggest landmark Supreme Court cases of the last year.

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

You are very defensive about changing your policy and your positions with regard to the environment. Now you just tell me.

[Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro]

You want me to tell you what the two biggest Supreme Court cases are of the last few years?

[Congressman Lee Zeldin]

This is what I want.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, dude, what a just a maestro.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's just only a part. Like we played you a snippet, but he basically gave a lesson to a demagogue who are there. They're like you change your climate change. And he's like, well, even if I believed what you're saying, which I don't, here is the law of what it is that I'm restricted to do. And what you are articulating is well outside the bounds of two Supreme Court cases and the statute, as is laid out in front of me. I'm happy to read it if you'd like.

[John Ashbrook]

Almost like these Democrats don't care about the law.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe they think they're above it, many such cases. But also very funny that he. He just like, asks her, are you familiar with the Supreme Court?

[Josh Holmes]

She's like, no.

[John Ashbrook]

And she looks like the angry, like, gargoyle Muppet, you know, and she's got all these jangling. I don't know what they are, bracelets on as she's sort of losing her mind.

[Josh Holmes]

Just glide past the purple hair.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I mean, yeah, that goes without saying.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like, dude, what are we doing?

[Michael Duncan]

He kept his composure, you know, because the facts are on his side. He was educating her on how the government works, which is surprising considering she's been in Congress for 40 years. Something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

You just have to be so much better if you are a reasonable individual than you do if you have purple hair and jangly things around your wrist and can scream about climate change. They don't know the basics. She didn't know the law as it pertains to the thing that she was arguing. And when attempting to explain what that law is and what binds the hands of the epa, she's not interested.

[Michael Duncan]

I'll tell you, I have my theory. I'm not going to go on a stem winder. You guys have heard it a thousand times. But I think that easy press for Democrats makes for weak arguments from their side. I think that the fact that they've just gotten away with anything they wanted and getting, like, a headline, you know, Democrat man of Action, as a matter of course, from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and every single network for 30 years. I think that makes them weak. It makes them incapable of carrying an argument to stick up for their side in an honest debate.

[Josh Holmes]

And they also just don't have to talk with anybody who disagrees with them.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't ever, because they get all the publicity in the world without.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's how you come up with Deloitte poisoning our rivers, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's so true. So it leads us to our question of the day, like, and subscribe, remember, do that in numbers, because Michael here, our poor friend was not escorted to safety on Saturday night in large part because of our popularity.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I think if they looked around the

[John Ashbrook]

room, Secret Service looked around the room and they're like, not enough subs. Sorry. You gotta stay sheltered in place until you get to a million subs on YouTube.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So if you could tell your friends so our friend Michael can be escorted to safety if he's ever in any danger, it would be greatly appreciated. But when you do like and subscribe, we ask you a question each and every week, we read all of your answers and we get back to you the very next episode. Our question is what's the best own the libs moment from congressional hearings. There's been dozens. Our boy Brandon Gill, who I think he did some work this week, we're going to get to on Friday, but he's got a million of them. NPR I'm thinking of about, but there's a lot of Senate Judiciary stuff in there too, where there's been good work. Josh Hawley and others have just like really pinned him down. Give us your favorite. And when you do, we read all of them. Get back to the very next episode. And when we come back, good news for Republicans. And it comes at a pretty good time. Supreme Court offered a very important decision that could have impact on majorities next November right after this. Okay. We're going to get to more significant congressional hearings and all of that with Lisa Stefanik here after a bit. But we wanted to get to the Voting Rights act decision at the Supreme Court because it actually has some impact. Big news like this is a, a big deal. You probably read about it yesterday, a Supreme Court decision that came down on the side of Republicans. And a lot of people are estimating that perhaps this is a significant development in the race to hold a House majority. And let me just read you a FOX piece. Just a couple of things in here and then we can jump off from there. Fox News Supreme Court rules on key Voting Rights act rule is Republicans Democrats wage redistricting war. Supreme Court on Wednesday limited the scope of key Voting Rights act provision that restricts how states draw districts affecting minority voters, constraining states use of race as a factor when redrawing congressional maps.

[Michael Duncan]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

So this has been around since the Voting Rights act in the 1960s, essentially. And this has been a thing that I think a vast majority of America probably can't relate to at all. But it was in response to some old school Southern racism back in the, in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s where but black populations were disproportionately unrepresented because of district lines and whatnot. And the Voting Rights act, at least a provision of that, sought to remedy that by making sure that there was where you had a substantial black population, that they were represented and had at least one majority minority district. And this ha. This is. I mean, it was well litigated the Supreme Court for many, many years. It is long, in my estimate estimation, surpassed its usefulness in terms of what it attempted to accomplish. But you know, here we are still working on this. And this came to as an issue because of Louisiana. They redrew, as all the states did, their districts here at this decade. And their map was challenged because basically 30%, as I understand it, of the voting public in Louisiana is black. And they had one district that was majority black. And they argued that to be in compliance to the Voting Rights act that they should have two majority black districts which were just really redrawn to a point where it was. It was evident that this is just too deeply Democratic districts.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. It was just sort of like a sash along the middle of the state. It wasn't like broken down by region or anything like that. It's very interesting that the court rules on this today here when we're talking about the Virginia vote and possibly Florida taking up redistricting. I mean, all of this redistricting conversation seems to happen at the same time. But one of the things that caught my attention on this Supreme Court ruling was Clarence Thomas himself wanting to go further than the court itself ruled. I mean, this man has a point of view on this particular issue that is very locked down and he wanted to go a little bit further than the court did itself. But this could have a huge impact on the house map for 2026. I mean, if some of these states redraw their districts according to what the court court ruled yesterday, you could have a 12 seat swing for Republicans in the Southeast. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And all of this has been such a perversion of the original intent of represent representative democracy. Right. It was like like minded neighbors and communities that have representation in Washington. And of course, you know, look, all the intent of the Voting Rights act and probably right at the time in terms of providing a majority minority district and representation in states across the south had long since passed its usefulness, where it was just basically a Democrat income and protection machine, where they saw it as codified in statute and upheld by courts throughout a series of decades, the right to have disproportionate Democratic representation in states where they were far outnumbered from A voting standpoint.

[Michael Duncan]

And consequently, you have Democrats talking to very narrowly tailored constituencies rather than regions of people who live in an area and are expecting Congress to represent them. I mean, if you live in one city and five minutes down the highway, the next person is in a completely different district and you have. Have the same point of view, and yet you're represented by a Democrat. The other person is represented by a Republican. Your point of view may not be carried to Washington. You, you may vote Republican. You're going to be shouted down by a district that is drawn by national Democrats in Washington. This is my biggest problem with the way Democrats approach gerrymandering and, and the way Democrats in their party have evolved, particularly over the last 15 years, and we talked about this on the show before. They've evolved into a party that takes what Washington wants and what they think is best for you, and they represent that back to the states. That's not the way Congress is designed. Congress is designed to be representative of the people who live in the states, who actually control this government. Government what they want to Washington. And Washington is supposed to take that and react rather than the opposite. And I think this could have an impact that sort of rebalances, that sort of like constitutional demand that the people matter first over Washington.

[Josh Holmes]

We're going to show you a map here in a minute where, you know, you could see how this could significantly change if states decide to redistrict district post this decision. But if you think about it, if you just sort of like take a step back and realize how it is that we've been operating here in the 90s and the 2000s and the tens, and today, what Democrats have relied on in terms of codifying these deeply blue districts in the south is the idea that you draw representation based upon your skin color, which is the exact opposite intent of what the original thoughts and ideas in the Voting Rights act, the whole civil rights movement, the Martin Luther King and everything else had in mind. It was the whole content of your character, not the color of your skin deal.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

And where it's become now evident. And it helps to shed light a little bit on why it is that the Democratic Party is so enthused about discussions of race and gender and not representation of people. As if you can't be the same because you have a different skin tone.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Or a different gender, you couldn't have the same concerns about things.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly. And you know what, Black guys like lower taxes too, you know, and all of a sudden they're forced to be represented by Democrats who are like, no, no, no, no, trust me, we're going to raise your taxes and then we're going to give it to Somalis who take it to a different country. We're not going to actually deliver the services. And I feel like there is a level of, you know, there is a level of accountability that Democrats have never had to deal with, with, you know, they, they, they claim that they want to help certain populations and they never actually do. They never do. This is, this is, I think, one of the greatest indictments on the last 10 to 15 years of their party.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

And now everybody gets the same say, no matter what you look like.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So I just want to read a couple of things here from Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion on this. And justices acknowledges, according to Fox, that compliance with the Voting Rights act act maybe can be a compelling interest for states. They ruled that it did not require Louisiana to create a map with a second majority black district as the lower court had held. Compliance with Section 2 of the Voting Rights act, quote, as properly construed, can provide such a reason. Samuel justice, or Justice Samuel Alito said, writing for the majority, correctly understood, section 2 does not impose liability at odds with the Constitution. It should, should, or it is at odds with the Constitution. Rather, it should not have been imposed liability on Louisiana for this map. Meaning you can't just simply create a black district for partisan purposes as Democrats had done in Louisiana. So what does that look like? The reason we raise all of this is because of this Virginia thing. Last week you got Florida. That's in the middle of the redistricting process. You got a bunch of states who are sort of on the precipice of trying to pull the trigger on some kind of redistricting. And this is a big catalyst for an awful lot of that. In graphic 20, the New York Times put together what a post VRA south could look like in the House of Representatives. As you can see on the left, real mix of blue and red. On the right, not so much blue, not so much blue. Blue. That's because they're really Republican states. And what has happened is that you've got a Democrat majority that has landed on top of an interpretation over years where you need to create these districts that aren't representative of the broader population, but rather entirely race based, where they pick up seats and deliver congressional majorities for Democrats.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, and here's the thing, dude. There are inside of the Republican Party a lot of very, very effective black leaders at the local level who have never had the opportunity to rise up. These districts, give those guys the chance to rise up. I mean, some of these guys can, can deliver a message like nobody's business. And you know, they've, they've been sort of shut out because, oh, you have to be a Democrat in order to rise up. And they're like, well, I don't like higher tax taxes. I don't like more government in my pocket. I don't, I don't like more people coming in from overseas on vetted 20 year olds from Uzbekistan. You know, they're like, how about we just have a regular place with regular Americans and we can get along with. I think that this is going to lead to a rise of representation like, you know, we haven't seen in a long.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think that's probably right. Now. Whether or not, whether or not that comes to fruition in this cycle, I guess remains to be seen. Because states would need to act, legislative bodies presume, in many ways would have to choose to go about the process of redistricting. But it does. I mean, the top tier of what people estimate is you could pick up 12 Republican seats with this. I don't think that's going to happen in this particular cycle, but you could see a few. And I think if you look at these maps, it's not likely to be divided by more than five or six either way.

[Michael Duncan]

I am not kidding. I've talked to so many black guys who are like, hey, the Democrats take my vote for granted. You know, they're like, oh, you're gonna vote for me? And it doesn't matter what we do when we get to Washington, you're just gonna vote for me. They're, they, they're just, they're offended by it. They're like, hey, wait a minute, I, I think a little bit differently. You, I'm telling you, this will lead to a rise in black leadership in this country like we haven't seen.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think it's a good thing for the country. No question about anytime we can knock down walls of race based representation or education or anything else, I think it's a good thing. So anyway, we wanted to cover that for a second. We've got some variety in here. I don't know if you saw, obviously the king was in town. King Charles Charles. I did, did a number of things. He was funny, which I didn't know.

[Michael Duncan]

I didn't expect it either.

[Josh Holmes]

I didn't know he was a funny guy.

[Michael Duncan]

I didn't know.

[Josh Holmes]

But he, he also presented a gift to President Trump, the bell from a World War II era Royal Navy submarine, the HMS Trump. Clip 5.

[British Official]

Speaking of submarine alliances, there was one particular orca's predecessor, launched from a UK shipyard in 1944, that served for the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron in Australia, playing a critical role during the war in the Pacific. Her name, HMS Trump. So tonight, Mr. Brady, President, I am delighted to present to you as a personal gift the original bell which hung on the conning tower of your valiant namesake. May it stand as a testimony to our nation's shared history and shining future. And should you ever need to get hold of. Of us or just give us a ring.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow. I. I didn't know he had it in him.

[Josh Holmes]

Well done.

[Michael Duncan]

I did not know he had it in him.

[Josh Holmes]

They still have some operative. You know, you look around at the Parliament and all that and, like, it just kind of depresses you.

[Michael Duncan]

About what, Kier Starmer.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. What they've been up to. And then you see the King show up and he's got quick wit.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And a nice gift.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And. And that was pretty thoughtful.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I didn't know that existed.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, they claim Keir Starmer is the popularly elected leader of that country, but it sure as hell seems like the King is in charge.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the King certainly has his act together. He was very funny, as we added. Clip 5a.

[British Official]

And if I may say so, it is a particular pleasure to be back in this wonderful building, the heart of your democracy. On this occasion, I cannot help noticing the readjustments to The East Wing, Mr.

[Josh Holmes]

President,

[British Official]

following your visit to Windsor Castle last year, and I'm sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814.

[Michael Duncan]

I didn't know he had it in him. I mean, it's fantastic.

[Josh Holmes]

What he's referring to, of course, is their attempt to burn it down.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But that's good humor, Right? You know, he gets our jokes.

[Michael Duncan]

He does.

[Josh Holmes]

Gets our yucks and our irreverence.

[Michael Duncan]

He does. And. And, you know, you only see the King. I mean, at least in America, if you turn it on the news, you only see the King cutting a ribbon for some kind of, like, children's hospital out in Derbyshire or some ridiculous place you would never, ever go to because, you know, it's across the sea, everything

[Josh Holmes]

is very formal every time you see him. Right. In England, you know, it's like you said, it's very, very ceremonial.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And then all of a sudden, you see him at this thing, which is very Formal. No, no question. It was a white tie dinner. I think the first one that's been held at the White House in a long, long time. But a state dinner at the White House where he's just cracking jokes about burning down the house.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? A little bit of self deprecating humor. You know, he's got these gigantic fat fingers everybody talks about on the Internet. And everybody's like, oh, no, that's a condition. You're not allowed to talk about his sausage fingers. But then everybody does a close up and shows the picture and it's like, well, his fingers are pretty big.

[Josh Holmes]

He does have big hands.

[NetChoice Representative]

They're.

[Michael Duncan]

They're gigantic, dude. I mean like if he shook the hand of Larry Tunisol, Larry's gonna be like, wow. I didn't expect the King of England to have hands quite, quite formidable grip, as they say. You would think.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Bangers and mash.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, anyway, that's, that's the king's visit. We had another little piece of video evidence that flash across our radar. You know, we like to golf.

[Michael Duncan]

We do.

[Josh Holmes]

And Topgolf is a great spot. If you don't have a club or a course near you, you can go get some swings in at Topgolf. Well, somebody took it upon themselves. And I think this was from Golf Digest who actually published this to put video out of an alleged inebriated driver navigating his SUV onto a Charlotte University city Topgolf driving range a little after midnight on Sunday. It did not go well. Clip, fix six. There's the car driving in. What do you do if you're at the driving range and you see this?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, they're hitting golf balls at it.

[Josh Holmes]

There you go. You immediately start. You immediately start hitting the golf balls as hard as you can at the car.

[Michael Duncan]

Everybody in there, the game had just changed.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is. It went from like a fun little driving competition to now like, can you. Oh my God, the car is all banged up.

[Michael Duncan]

This is one of the greatest videos I've seen.

[Josh Holmes]

People are just firing at this thing.

[Michael Duncan]

What was this guy thinking?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know, but I can't imagine that it has to be a stolen vehicle. Right. According to a report from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, the suspect damaged property and threatened staff. There are of course, many videos of the incident. It does not say. I mean, it seems like maybe this person who drove on this, it was actually their car. It doesn't say anything about a stolen vehicle.

[Michael Duncan]

It says here the man was spotted urinating in the parking lot pre joyride. So There's a possibility he had had a couple of drinks and he thought, now's the time. Time. I'm gonna. I'm gonna drive right through the net and see what happens. Well, now we know what happened.

[Josh Holmes]

Now we know. So, I mean, as you guys know, I mean, it's just kind of the thing when you're at driving range, even when the guy comes out and tries to pick up the balls.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And he's in that caged little cart. You fire drivers, you try to get that back in your stance, get a load, you know, hum dinger on the side of that thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Without a doubt.

[Josh Holmes]

But if there's an actual chance you could break glass on a car, like you're gonna give it.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And.

[Michael Duncan]

And topgolf is such a great spot, dude. I mean, you can go with your friends, you have a couple of pops, you know, they got a lot of different games you can play. Yeah, it's really a great idea.

[Josh Holmes]

And now you can urge one of your friends to go out and get up and drive their car to the middle of it and see if you can ruin it. Apparently that's a new thing that they've got going on at topgolf. I absolutely love it. All right, we gotta get to our guest. So Lee Stefanik is a friend of the program. She's been with us almost since the very beginning and she's written a new book, all things you're going to want to hear about. One of our first guests, Elise Stefanik, welcome.

[Elise Stefanik]

Great to be back on Ruthless. Look at you guys. Look at this set.

[Josh Holmes]

A little better.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes, a little better. You've matured in the world. I'm so excited to be back.

[Josh Holmes]

No, listen, it's great to have you and it's been a while since we've caught up. You've now written a New York Times bestseller.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Poisoned Ivies, my first book.

[Elise Stefanik]

So you all remember the hearing heard around the world, which was university presidents, mit, Penn, Harvard. Iconic, Iconic. The most viewed testimony in the history of Congress. More than Watergate, more than impeachment. One billion views in one week. And it showed the moral bankruptcy, the moral rot, the academic rot in higher education. It set off an earthquake in higher ed that's still playing out today. So this is a behind the scenes look at all of these challenges we're facing in higher education. It's flying off the shelves. It's the number one best selling nonfiction book in America, which grateful for all the readers and support and it shows that you can have very effective congressional oversight on an issue that matters and make a huge impact to change the course of higher education.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, one of the things that I've found about politics and what resonates, what goes viral and what becomes a thing, as this has, is that you are unmasking something that everybody already knows and nobody's talking about, but you're also doing it from a place where, you know, you're Ivy League educated and, you know, these people, you know what it is that they've sort of built as a, you know, for lack of a better word, cult within Ivy League education. And you just blew it out in this hearing in a way that everyone was like, yep, I knew it.

[Elise Stefanik]

The crazy thing about the hearing, Josh, is the question that went viral was not even my prepared question. I thought it was going to be an easy, straightforward, simple question. And the question was, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university's code of conduct? I assume they would say yes. They said it depends on the context. And they didn't realize that that was so wrong and so deeply out of touch. My initial intent was I was going to follow up, expecting them to say yes, on what disciplinary action, But I couldn't even get to that point. And it just, to your point, it encapsulated so much of the disconnect that the American people feel writ large about how higher education has lost its way. So this book is a deep dive. It goes into Harvard, and I come at it not only from a member of Congress, but as a graduate. It was not like that when I was an alum, when I was a student there 20 years ago, but it allowed me to ask the questions in a way, knowing the ins and outs of these schools does a deep dive of Harvard, does a deep dive of Columbia, deep dive of Penn, and then it highlights the schools that are getting it right. University of Florida, Vanderbilt, which has seen a skyrocketing of admission. So it was a three year process to write this book. This is my first. I love the process, even though this is a very challenging subject. So I encourage everyone to read it.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, one of the things that really caught my attention at that time, that iconic moment, was that your questions were very straightforward. It wasn't like you asked a trick question. You just asked them a basic question expecting a basic answer, and the answer they gave you just shocked the world.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes. So I've learned over time, there's like the traditional legislative ease that's given to members where you have a paragraph, paragraph, long statement, and then ask questions. That's not the most impactful way the questions, and I really honed this during the impeachment hearings. If you go back to 2020, ask simple, straightforward questions that are oftentimes the most revealing. That was an example of this. In this hearing and other freshmen members who I know you guys have highlighted, study the way I asked those questions, like Brandon Gill, he said he studied how I asked impeachment. And this hearing he's mentioned in the book, the more strict, straightforward, and accessible, I would say, to just voters across the country, the more impactful it can be. And I found that to be very useful.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's, that's very well said. I want to get back to the book in a minute, but just on that score. Listen, you were young, dynamic, smart, energetic, driven, ultimately became a member of Congress and worked your way through to become one of the most noteworthy members of Congress while you were there. Does it surprise you to look around and see, like, the profound lack of talent around you? Because you were talking about how, like, everybody's like, here's the paragraph that I'm gonna read and then I'm gonna push it aside, all done here, and we're moving on. I mean. Cause it shocks us, it shocks me,

[Elise Stefanik]

and it's changed over time. I mean, I was elected six speakers ago, so I've been there quite a time. I've seen six speakers go through. And while they're very talented up and comers, I will be honest on ruthless. When you have octogenarians that have been there longer than I've been alive. I'm 41, I came in at the age of 30. Something is deeply, deeply wrong. That's one of the reasons. I mean, I'm excited for this next chapter for our family, professionally and personally. But I think that's why you're seeing some members choose not to seek reelection, because, and that's a problem broadly in this country, just making sure the best and brightest are running for office.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I've always, always, maybe I'm naive about it, and I think, you know, an era of just fierce partisanship has probably exacerbated this issue. But when you're electing somebody to represent you, like if you're, you know, if you're hiring a lawyer to represent you in court, you'd like to think they could complete a sentence and make your case. And that's not dissimilar from a member of Congress or a senator or what have you like to think that they're sort of the best and brightest and thoughtful and, you know, you've thought about long term ramifications of things and they can articulate their thoughts and I'm like dumbfounded by just the acumen. It's so bad.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes. So the other thing that's interesting, the Education committee is not known as a blockbuster committee. And now it's one of the most sought after committees because of that moment and because you can focus on an effective way to make a huge impact and touch a cultural touchstone that people care deeply about. But yeah, the quality and caliber, I'm very concerned about that long term. You need to have churn though. You know, this is why I think voluntarily choosing to take on another chapter, first of all, it's what the founders envisioned. It's something that I strongly support. But we need to see more of that. So new voices come to the table. But again, you look at Brandon Gill and some of these new up and comers, there are bright stars coming up tonight.

[Josh Holmes]

There's a ton of talent, no question about it. I just, I feel like it's so often drowned out by, you know, the one paragraph you read and we, we did on this show, the Lee Zeldin exchange with what's her nuts with the purple hair DeLauro. Yeah, Lee did great. He did great. But like, what a perfect example. She reads this political statement and he's like, are you aware of the law that you're talking about? And she's like, not really.

[Elise Stefanik]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

She's been there for like 155 years. I mean, that's problematic.

[Elise Stefanik]

That proves the point. Lee did a great job. Lee, fellow New Yorker. We were elected together, both flipped seats. And I think again, the preparation for these hearings it came goes a long way. The witnesses at the hearing with the university presidents, they were so ill prepared that now there's an entire cottage industry about how to avoid what happened to the university presidents who are coming before Lee Stefanik at hearings.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's also some arrogance involved in that because it's not ill prepared in the sense that they didn't hire 100 people to tell them what to say.

[Elise Stefanik]

They did. They hired the same law firm. And what was interesting about the clip, in addition to the being deeply morally disturbing, it was so intellectually lazy because they repeated the same terms. It depends on the context. It depends on the context. And it depends on the context. Instead of thinking, hey, maybe we shouldn't just be repeating whatever the talking points are and think about this question like

[Josh Holmes]

they're in litigation rather than public opinion.

[Elise Stefanik]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Michael Duncan]

So going back to the book for a second Okay. I want to ask you about a trend in higher education. When we were growing up, our parents and our teachers and everybody said you need to get good grades, you need to go to an Ivy League school if you want to make something of yourself in this world. And it seems like people of our generation are telling their children something very different.

[Elise Stefanik]

Absolutely. I mean, I myself am an example of that. I'm around the same age as you guys. I was the first member of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college. It was a big deal when I got accepted into Harvard. I, I had a great experience there. I was classmates with Mark Zuckerberg, really talented people. And yet something changed in the past two decades where first of all, I would not want my son to go to these institutions that are not focused on academic excellence and preparedness for the workplace. They're not focused on innovation, they've become focused on political indoctrination. That's not to say though that there aren't institutions that are getting it right. Usually they're the ones thinking outside the box with stronger leadership. And I do highlight that in the book. Not just the Poison Ivies, but I highlight the good schools as well. And I also think this one size fits approach where everybody has to go to a four year college, push, push, push, and be saddled with these student loans. You're seeing vocational training programs that are wildly successful with better paying jobs on the back end.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right. There's so much social pressure that I feel like goes into kids that's going away. Well, that's, it's interesting to me because you know, if a kid makes a choice to go to a vocational school, a career, technical school school, they can have an incredible career. And when we were kids, it's like, oh, you have to go to a four year school. And now it's like, wait a minute, if you're an electrician, actually you're going to be the guy who has the lake houses and all of us are

[Josh Holmes]

going to be wishing we were like you.

[Elise Stefanik]

And it's not just those sort of trade opportunities. Every single week in my office, I'm meeting with these entrepreneurs who started at mit, started at Stanford, were there for a year, said, you know what, this is worth my time. I'm going to go found a billion dollar business, billion dollar company that's solving a national defense problem literally weekly. These entrepreneurs, they're 21 years old, billionaires coming in my office solving real major issues. I'm thinking they're onto something. They have this Right, Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So you've got this skyrocketing career of which everyone is paying attention, you're appointed by the Trump administration, you end up for a lot of things that I'm sure you've got stories about end up back in the House, decide to run for governor and then you're like, no, I have a four year old and I wanna be a mom and I wanna kinda reset the dial. Can you walk me through what the last year of Elise Stefanik says?

[Elise Stefanik]

Wow, what a year it's been. Listen, I was honored to be nominated by President Trump to serve in his cabinet. It became very clear quickly that the House is hanging on by a thread every single week, getting these bills across the floor. I was the deciding vote for reconciliation, which is the major achievement of this term. And New York has a bad history of special elections for Republicans. And I am proud. I over perform Republicans in my district by a lot, been proud to earn that support of voters. So agreed to stay in the House, put America first, put my district first, and really help deliver these results. We looked at the governor's race and I started that process, but it wasn't the right time. For a variety of reasons, both for our family, but also I still have to be in the House voting on these bills to make sure they pass even this week. So excited for what's opportunity ahead. I'm looking forward to being a normal human being, but also having the opportunity to speak out on issues I care about, to lead and to innovate in new ways outside of office. And to my point, when you said some of these people are there too long, it was wasn't envisioned as an institution where you're there for 40, 50 years. And that's been the case for some of these people that have been there way too long.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're super young. I mean most people who accomplish what you've accomplished, I mean they're well into their 60s and 70s. Like you're doing this in the early 40s.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes, I did it in my 30s, Josh. 40, I'll be 42 this year. Yeah. So my 30s. And it's incredible to think back when I first ran, ran, no one thought I could win my district. I was 28 years old at the time in a two year primary, smug, who I knew before you guys, who was like cheering on our election. We flipped a district that Republicans had really struggled to win for years and won it by the largest margin ever, put up the highest number of votes ever. Then I never would have predicted the twists and turns in The House. Then I'm on the impeachment defense team. I have a very sort of contested leadership race and became the highest ranking woman among Republicans, helped unify the party to lead us to 2024. So a lot has happened and really proud to have given my constituents a seat at the highest level. It's the first time a New York Republican has been at this level in 100 years in the House.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you, can you give me a little just sort of under the hood what you were thinking? Because I. Look, when I became chief of staff to the Senate Republican leader, I was 30, and there was a lot of imposter syndrome involved in this, where I'm looking around, I'm like, geez, these people don't know just what I don't know, which is basically everything. But, you know, I mean, I think I even had fake glasses at that point to try to. Try to seem like I was a little older than I was. But you were 28, you're running for Congress, all of a sudden you're surrounded by a bunch of 60 year olds. You didn't seem to be intimidated by any of it. But, like, internally, were you like, my God, I can't believe I'm here.

[Elise Stefanik]

Of course it was, I can't believe I'm here. But I also was very cognizant that being a very young member, but also a young woman member who was getting some national coverage, I was very focused on making a good first impression to my constituents as a workhorse and really locking down the results I delivered. Being a really strong committee member and a substantive member to earn the respect of my colleagues. Not all young members do that. Many young members take a different approach. And while the national media were covered a lot in those early years, we really dug down and locked down that district, which is an important lesson for many of these members as they're facing, in some cases, their first midterms.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's the only way to get through it.

[Elise Stefanik]

It's the only way to get through. I was one of the only New York Republicans that survived 2018 and held down the district by the largest margin in the Northeast that time. So. Yes. But then as years went by, Josh, you say, you know, what am I doing here? I'm thinking, what are these other people doing here?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, totally.

[Elise Stefanik]

What are these other people doing here?

[Josh Holmes]

At some, at some point you open your eyes and you're like, jesus, I'm a lot more qualified than I ever imagined.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Elise Stefanik]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, listen, you've had an incredible career just in the short amount of time that you've put in. But you've got this book. I just got to ask you about the future of higher education.

[Elise Stefanik]

Sure.

[Josh Holmes]

Because I do think everything you guys have talked about in terms of the,

[Michael Duncan]

the trends are real trade schools, the

[Josh Holmes]

alternatives to four year liberal arts and everything are a very real thing. And I have a whole bunch of friends whose only consideration is like going on SEC visits now where they, you know, this is a crew by and large that would have been exclusively in the northeast up until this day and age. Is it possible to resurrect a genuinely high performing higher education system overall or are we just kind of in the place where we're going to have to pick and choose about who's doing things right at the particular moment?

[Elise Stefanik]

We need to demand better as the American people. And the interesting part of writing this book was I got to go back to the founding missions of places like Harvard, Penn, Columbia. So much of them were very tied into the founding principles of our country. Harvard is older than the founding of the United States. Harvard was founded in 1636. Their initial missions are timeless. They've just shifted so far away. Think about Penn Co founded by Benjamin Frank Franklin, Columbia. Alexander Hamilton was one of the earliest students of King's College, which became Columbia University. I think it's important to use every tool which the Trump administration is doing through executive orders. They're doing this through withholding funding, DOJ lawsuits. We've worked incredibly closely with my office. Not only do you have to hold those schools to account, you need to support through the marketplace these schools who are doing it differently. That's why I do think you see the success at the Vanderbilts of the world, at University of Florida, at UTX, which is the university at Austin founded in 2021. And then parents. I come at this from a parent too. Although Sam is in 4 year old. We're just getting ready for kindergarten this September. But as I think about what I want to look for, it's no longer these schools, it's just demanding better.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. How much of it do you think is? I mean, look, the institutional component as you've covered is remarkable, but there's also just this monolithic ideological production of, of who the professors are, who the administrators are. And it's basically of one brand for a period of time that just becomes so ingrained in the identity of higher education it's almost impossible to unwind it in some ways.

[Elise Stefanik]

Yeah, I mean I talk about that in the book. If you look at the faculty tenure Tenure was initially envisioned as a protection for academic freedoms. It's now becoming for provocative thought, but now it's becoming a like minded, increasingly radical single perspective. So they've gone so far to the left. You have many of these departments which are 88 to one liberal to if they have one conservative. And that is part of the problem here. The other piece is the foreign funding that we're allowing flowing into these institutions that's sowing this discord. And just to connect it to sort of political real life, the pro Hamas encampment at Columbus literally had the same organizers as the people that organized Mamdani's campaign. Literally a direct line. Yes. They're hosted that Gracie Mansion. So we're seeing what's happening on higher education playing out in the political atmospherics that we're experiencing right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, one of the smartest people in politics and I'm glad you are sticking around and staying involved even if you're not serving. You've made, I think, think a series of very wise decisions on that front. Elise Stefanik, thank you so much for joining us.

[Elise Stefanik]

Thank you. It's always fun to go on Ruthless with the fellas.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, it's always interesting to hear from her and I will be equally as interested to see what she does next. I mean, obviously this book is a huge success, but we were kind of getting at this. All of our friends who have kids at college age are looking sad south. And even though their kids are growing up in cities and you talk to other guys from other major cities, their kids want to go south. Whether it's ACC schools or sec.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean the population of people who are highly educated, extremely talented, that typically were Ivy League targets, don't have any interest in it whatsoever. They're all going south. They're all going to SEC ACC schools. They're trying to figure out how to get to big state schools where they don't have this just like liberal dogma hanging over their head. It's a different deal.

[Michael Duncan]

It is. Because the reality is you can get an education without getting an indoctrination.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And if you're going to one of these schools where you're getting indoctrination, chances are you're going to be around people who want to be indoctrinated, not people who are normal who are going to rise up and be something successful.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, you show up for class and somebody's got a Hamas flag, you know, you're probably in the wrong place,

[Michael Duncan]

probably the wrong spot.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, anyway, she's done an awful lot to bring that. That too light to the American people. And I think she deserves a round of applause for that and a great new book, Poisoned Ivies. I encourage all of you to go check that out. You can get it wherever you buy your books, online or in the bookstore. So with all that being said, we've got a question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we read absolutely all of them. And when we do, we get back to the very next episode. Our question is what's the best own the libs moment for from congressional hearings? I would submit Elise has got a pretty good case on a lot of that because of those hearings that were, you know, now four or five years ago. But they still resonate in a very, very big way. And I think it's changed culture in addition to just, you know, the moment, the news cycle.

[Michael Duncan]

I think that's exactly right.

[Josh Holmes]

So good program. Appreciate everybody, and I think we did it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think we need to go to Hollywood. Hen for the glory.

[Josh Holmes]

Closer.

[Elise Stefanik]

Another banger of an episode, folks. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs.

[Michael Duncan]

Sam.