Michael Duncan (2:06)

Did you notice how many vests there were on this side of the table?

Josh Holmes (2:10)

Very vesting, yeah.

Michael Duncan (2:11)

Did you know that you were gonna step into like a trading desk today? Like we're gonna start offering bonds at cost to our. Every dentist that dials into.

Josh Holmes (2:21)

No, it's true, it's true. You guys seem very well prepared for.

John Ashbrook (2:26)

All of a sudden it's like winter just hit, you know what I mean? Like, we were blessed with a long summer and a long autumn. And then it was like, boom, freezing. It's gonna be dark outside. And that's, you know, real quick. Everyone, congratulations. Because now when you leave for work in the morning, it's gonna be dark. When you leave work, it's gonna be dark. It's gonna be perpetual dark. You're gonna work at your desk, you're not gonna see light, and you're not gonna see light for like six months.

Michael Duncan (2:49)

He's trying to change the subject from the fact that we got one normal guy on that end of the table and then three vests bros on this end.

Josh Holmes (2:55)

Well, I'm also keenly aware that it's 107 degrees in this studio at all times. And so a vest I didn't feel like was appropriate. I think about that kind of thing in the morning.

Michael Duncan (3:05)

Very smart.

Josh Holmes (3:05)

Listen, for those of you who grew up with the Variety Program, you know that election analysis is something that we do, I think, probably better than most and that we've all done it individually and collectively at kind of every level. We've resisted the temptation to get into that because you can do campaign stuff all year long. There was a bunch of news to cover. But now that you passed this off, your elections, we like to kick that off. Which is why we're doing an interview today. Joint interview. The only place you're ever gonna see this joint interview with the people who run the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund. Alex Latcham and Chris Winkelman. Today on the show, huge get. They are going to lay the groundwork for how the House and Senate majorities are both in place. Play what their plans are to try to keep all of that. It'll kick off, you know, what you're going to see here over the Next, you know, 11 months or so, which is a bunch of candidate interviews and everything else. But this is kind of the way we like to do it these days.

Michael Smith (4:05)

Well, and it's valuable for you, dear listener and viewer, because the people who are setting the stage for the next election are people like Alex or like Chris, who are going to be spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars on research, on polling, on advertising, all these sorts of things so they can provide a level of insight for our audience that there aren't a lot of people who can.

Josh Holmes (4:27)

So it's not just influencers showing their ass.

Michael Smith (4:30)

Yeah. That's actually people who professionally do this for a living.

John Ashbrook (4:33)

Got it.

Josh Holmes (4:34)

Okay. Yeah. Well, that's what we like to do. Well, we like to do candy.

Michael Smith (4:37)

We like to do vegetables. This is more of a vegetable interview. But it's very important information for you.

Michael Duncan (4:42)

Yeah, valuable.

Josh Holmes (4:43)

Exactly. But we're gonna do some candy up front, boys. I don't know if you guys had as much fun with this on Friday night. As I did. But there's this guy. He's a congressman.

John Ashbrook (4:55)

Oh, my God.

Josh Holmes (4:56)

This. Yes, this cat. So long term, he's probably been in Congress a thousand years.

Michael Duncan (5:04)

Right, Right. As Democrats tend to be.

Josh Holmes (5:07)

Guy's been. Well, anyway, he was taking a flight home. Did not go as anticipated for him. And that he had the old iPad out. And like every, you know, boomer in that era, like, it's. You want to make sure you've got good screen width, like nice, you know, full screen of what it is that you're looking for.

Michael Smith (5:28)

Yeah. Brightness level set to 100.

Michael Duncan (5:30)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (5:30)

And so for those of you who didn't follow this particular story, this congressman in graphic 1A is.

John Ashbrook (5:41)

My God, for our viewers. This is why you want to go to the YouTube subscribe. He's not reading like an appropriations bill.

Josh Holmes (5:49)

Sure isn't. Sure isn't. He's got some racy photos on there. Right. And so he's just scrolling through this. And passerbys and fellow passengers couldn't help but notice that congressman who's flying back home is. Well, he's looking at something other than appropriations bills. 1B, please. There he is. It's not a one off occurrence. He's just scrolling all the way through. Yeah, I just. Bad boys.

Michael Smith (6:18)

What I love is he's got one hand, one finger, and he's just sort of scrolling very nonchalant, you know, like he's just flipping through a Playboy.

John Ashbrook (6:29)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (6:29)

Just super shameless.

Michael Duncan (6:31)

Modern versions.

John Ashbrook (6:32)

Super shameless on a flight. So this is according to the New York Post. It says Dem Rep. Brad Sherman caught looking at scandalous photos on flight. So it says here that he's trying to blame the X algorithm, the Twitter. I mean, some X's on what he's looking up, but he's trying to blame Twitter's algorithm for this. Which I think as someone who spends a lot of time on Twitter, who's built a career off of Twitter. That's bullshit, dude. Like, the algorithm will send you like, violence. Like, you will get straight up violence. Like, here's a carjacking that's happened. It will not straight up. Put like naked photos on your feed. That's a complete lie.

Michael Smith (7:12)

Unless maybe you're liking those sorts of photos.

Josh Holmes (7:15)

Yeah.

Michael Smith (7:16)

And the algorithm's gonna reinforce the sort of content you engage with. So in saying it came on my for your tab, it's sort of telling on yourself.

Josh Holmes (7:23)

Yeah. For those of you who are unaware of how the Internet works, blaming a platform for the kind of content, unless it's your first Day on that particular platform is not going to work because it's basically just reinforcing your preferences.

Chris Winkelman (7:39)

Yeah, right.

John Ashbrook (7:40)

Do you have some algorithms? Like, this guy loves the vinyl.

Michael Duncan (7:44)

Something else I noticed about the image. If we could just throw 1B back up again. I think I saw. Yeah, there it is. A cup of coffee.

Josh Holmes (7:51)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (7:52)

So the guy is caffeinating himself for a long flight from Washington D.C. to California and settling in for a scroll session like he was waiting for all week as Democrats had the government shut down.

Josh Holmes (8:06)

In honesty, I'm glad that you wanted to zoom back in. 1A is my choice. If we can pop that back up.

Michael Duncan (8:12)

Okay.

Josh Holmes (8:13)

Look at the mouth agape.

Michael Smith (8:17)

He's really locked in.

Josh Holmes (8:18)

Look at the mouth. They gave.

Michael Smith (8:20)

Well, and of course his mouth is agape. You know, he did an interview after this photo.

Josh Holmes (8:24)

Is that with Brez?

Michael Smith (8:25)

Yeah, he did.

Josh Holmes (8:26)

John Bresnahan Punchbowl.

Michael Smith (8:28)

What a good quick get he had there.

Josh Holmes (8:30)

Yeah, I love that he answered the phone. He was like, oh, sure, I'll talk about that.

Chris Winkelman (8:35)

I'm not ashamed of this at all.

Michael Smith (8:36)

He says, the congressman says, I must have looked at more than a thousand.

John Ashbrook (8:40)

Posts.

Michael Smith (8:44)

And this is the best part. If I see a picture of a woman, I might look at it longer than a sunset.

Josh Holmes (8:51)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What of it?

Michael Duncan (8:55)

I'm scrolling for the articles.

Josh Holmes (8:57)

It's the algorithm. Would I say it? Yeah.

John Ashbrook (8:59)

That is like the least flattering photo of a person imaginable. Also, his comm staff must be like, I hate you, Dude. Take this call, Dude. Talk to Bresnahan about why you were on this.

Josh Holmes (9:10)

Can you imagine? You're like some young comstaffer and you're.

John Ashbrook (9:13)

Like, oh, tis, I hate this guy so much.

Josh Holmes (9:15)

What do I have to do?

John Ashbrook (9:16)

Please take this call. Talk to this reporter.

Josh Holmes (9:18)

Congressman vigorously disputes his algorithmic experience.

Michael Duncan (9:22)

The other thing, can we put 1C back up? Because there's one thing I've learned about people who are getting a little bit older is that they need to set something they're looking at apart from themselves, at least arm's length. Because if they don't have their readers on, they're not going to be able to see it and appreciate.

Josh Holmes (9:40)

Not in the perfect sort of distinction that it deserves.

Michael Duncan (9:45)

Right, exactly.

Josh Holmes (9:46)

Which is what he's done here. He wants to make sure that not only he gets a good look at it, but the entire row he wants to appreciate, Dude.

John Ashbrook (9:54)

And like Duncan said, the brightness that is 100. Like, the windows are down. People are trying to sleep on this coast to coast flight. And he's just like locked in like bat signal.

Josh Holmes (10:06)

According to the New York Post, the pictures on Sherman's tablet show several women in scant clothing, including one sticking her tongue out while wearing only a bra. While no full nudity was visible, the lawmaker's feed appeared packed with scandalous photos one after another. I did see just a little bit of the back and forth outside of the New York Post, what Braz was talking about, the questions that he was asking. I was like, do you have a problem with porn?

John Ashbrook (10:31)

Oh, my.

Chris Winkelman (10:32)

Are you serious?

Josh Holmes (10:33)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (10:33)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (10:33)

And it was like just a hilarious question and answer. And like, my only thought on that was like, kind of depends on your definition of a problem, doesn't it? I'm assuming it. Sure.

John Ashbrook (10:46)

Cause this guy thinks pulling out the iPad at 30,000ft in a plane of people is not a problem.

Josh Holmes (10:52)

It's so good. We're not done. There's another situation that has befallen the Democratic Party. And if you recall, last week, they were trying to show a united front. It was not a full throated effort by any stretch of the imagination. You had AOC side attacking the Schumer side, House Democrats attacking Senate.

Michael Smith (11:15)

But they're coming back from this shutdown and they want to put on a united front as Democrats.

Alex Latcham (11:20)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (11:20)

So right afterwards, there's this Rep. Glusenkamp who's on CNN with Jake Tapper, and there's this situation about Chuy Garcia. And Chuy Garcia got in a little bit of trouble within the Democratic Party because this cat decided what they wanted to do was sort of like walk out and retire, but to do it at a filing deadline to ensure that only their chief of staff could amazing. Get themselves on a ballot. You've seen this, like, over the years. It never goes particularly well because it's shenanigans. Yeah, right. It's electoral shenanigans. It's. It's like, you know, this sort of nepotism at times or just trying to keep it all in the family. Like you. You game the system to ensure that the people of your district have no real choice but to elect who it is that you want them to. Well, this has become a problem within the Democratic Party. And right when they wanted to show the most unity, it all spills over. Clip one. You accused Congressman Garcia of, quote, undermining the process of a free and fair election, unquote. And it is very rare for a.

Michael Duncan (12:33)

Democrat to so publicly call out a.

Alex Latcham (12:35)

Member of their own party.

Josh Holmes (12:36)

Why did you feel the need to speak up? Because I believe election subversion is wrong, no matter who's doing it. And I think that right now we're seeing a profound, very loud call from Americans for Transparency and Accountability. And it's part and parcel of that, that you don't just turn a blind eye to wrongdoing or unethical behavior when it's, you know, politically convenient that you do it consistently. Oh, well, apparently nobody in the Democratic Party has informed Glusonkamp Perez what it.

John Ashbrook (13:13)

Is that they do here.

Michael Smith (13:14)

Yeah, they're like, look, Joe Biden, his brain became pudding. And then we didn't have a primary. We just installed Kamala. Get with the program.

Josh Holmes (13:21)

What's up? This is the way it rolls.

Michael Smith (13:23)

This is we do things.

Josh Holmes (13:24)

Come on, Marie, what's up? Well, she wasn't having it spilled over. It became kind of a thing at the end of last week. So funny. Showed this, like, larger disunity that they're really trying hard to try to prevent from coming out. But at the same time, AOC still at it, right? This whole AOC thing, every time they're like, no united front. Like, we're going to go out and we're going to win. We're all moving forward. We're talking about. We're talking about, you know, something other than to try to help the American people. Clip to the lesson that they're learning is that Democrats are elite, and next time we just need to hurt working people and working Americans more to get them to hold. And I don't want them to learn that lesson. Senator, what do you say to that.

Alex Latcham (14:10)

Argument that Democrats projected weakness here so twofold? I have 320,000 federal employees in Virginia, and together with their families, that's probably, probably 700,000 dependents getting them all back to work with two paychecks that they've missed restored with protections against future firings. You know, some folks like AOC may think that's nothing. Virginians think it's an awful lot. And second, if the goal was to try to get health care front and center, she was not at the table with the Republicans in the Senate.

Josh Holmes (14:47)

And so maybe she thinks that the.

Alex Latcham (14:49)

Republicans would have caved. Would it have been another week of SNAP recipients losing their SNAP benefits, another month of air traffic or air travelers enduring chaos and even danger, Another two months of federal employees losing their paychecks? I was at the table with the Republican senators, and I knew if we wanted to get to the health care discussion, we had to open up government.

Michael Duncan (15:13)

Oh, boy.

Josh Holmes (15:14)

Tim King coming at hard. Yeah, yeah, right. But, but self admitted he was at the table. It was just after that Tuesday election, because before that, he wasn't.

Michael Smith (15:24)

He was too busy.

Josh Holmes (15:25)

He was what he said. He said he was, like, too focused to understand just how committed Republicans were to governing the country.

Michael Duncan (15:33)

And when I hear him say that directly in response to AOC's comments, all I can think is that the civil war among Democrats is rolling as hot as ever, and it is going to keep on rolling. They're nowhere near Appomattox Courthouse. They can't even begin to think about reconstruction for their party.

John Ashbrook (15:53)

I'll tell you what, okay?

Michael Duncan (15:54)

It is going to continue on and on and on. And that's why you have to be here for the ongoing coverage.

John Ashbrook (15:58)

It's very clear what he's trying to do. There is also run some cover for Schumer, because everyone on their side knows that Schumer is going to be facing a primary from aoc. So, number one, that's what he tries to do. He tries to dismiss her as like, well, she wasn't at the table because she's just some House member who doesn't know what she's talking about. Further, everyone on the Democrat side knows there is, like an X on the back of every one of these extremely old Democrats.

Michael Smith (16:25)

And leadership, too.

Michael Duncan (16:27)

I mean, it's not just the old ones. Michael, we were talking about this guy who is primarying Hakeem Jeffries Chiosi, who's.

Michael Smith (16:34)

An acolyte of Mamdani up there in New York.

Josh Holmes (16:36)

Looks just like Stefan Diggs, by the way.

John Ashbrook (16:38)

GLC is in Chicago, right?

Michael Smith (16:40)

Oh, no, wait.

John Ashbrook (16:42)

He must be in New York if he's primary.

Chris Winkelman (16:43)

Yeah, yeah.

Michael Smith (16:45)

I mean, so it's like, it's the leadership. It's not just Schumer.

Josh Holmes (16:48)

They're taking it all.

Michael Smith (16:49)

Specifically.

Chris Winkelman (16:49)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (16:49)

And it's not just the Youngs. It's also, I mean, it's T moo Obama.

John Ashbrook (16:54)

It's incredible to see the situation that they are putting themselves in. Straight up. Like, he. I mean, his talkers were essentially, before he found religion, they were the Republican talkers of, like, you're accomplishing nothing. Come to the table. Open the government. Let's make a deal. And then for him to, like, follow up AOC and be like, listen, she wasn't at that table. She doesn't know what she's talking about. It's incredible. He's just dismissing her completely.

Josh Holmes (17:21)

Listen, if it all boils down to a conversation of who makes sense on these kind of things, like, I don't think the Democratic Party's heading in the right direction. If the Republican Party can just be fucking normal, like just do what you do. Hey, you know, you're not paying $5,000 more in taxes. We're doing our best on the account. We're trying to bring jobs back. Like if that's what we ultimately end up with in this midterms. I like our chances. We're going to cover the rest of this throughout the week in that, like we got our own challenges here. No question about it. But what's really interesting here in our, in our interview after the break is that we're going to talk to two guys. You're not going to get this anywhere else. Nowhere else will you have two guys who are actually responsible for the nuts and bolts. Maybe you could argue the two people most responsible for electing and keeping House majorities and Senate majorities, which as we know is absolutely imperative for the last two years of this Trump administration. We saw what they did in 2018 after they got a House majority.

Michael Duncan (18:26)

It's a really important interview. It's why the show is basically like baseball tonight for politics.

Josh Holmes (18:31)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (18:31)

You know, you're getting the actual stats, you're getting the actual outlook for what to expect this season and that's why it's such an important conversation.

Josh Holmes (18:39)

The decisions they make and why right after this.

Chris Winkelman (18:46)

America's demand for energy is rising rapidly and at a time when American families can least afford an energy shortage.

Michael Duncan (18:54)

But for decades, critical energy projects have.

Chris Winkelman (18:57)

Been blocked, limiting our access to reliable, affordable American energy and putting American, America's energy dominance at risk.

Michael Duncan (19:04)

The solution is obvious. Overhaul the broken energy permitting process, make it faster and simpler. Innovation, a strong workforce, abundant oil and gas. We have it all right here in the usa. Let's put America first and political agendas last.

Chris Winkelman (19:23)

We can power our own country, create thousands of good paying American jobs and unleash American energy to be bigger and.

Michael Duncan (19:31)

Better than ever before.

Chris Winkelman (19:33)

Because when America builds, America wins.

Michael Duncan (19:36)

Read API's plan to secure America's future at permitting. Reformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

Josh Holmes (19:48)

For those of you who have sort of grown up with us on Ruthless, you know that campaigns and elections and that kind of thing are something we like to do a deep dive on. We've held off until we have this particular panel because in every year there are a couple of people that are more responsible than others in terms of holding majorities, winning majorities, that kind of thing. In this case, we always start with the president of CLF and the executive director of slf. That's the Senate Leadership Fund, Congressional Leadership Fund. In this case, we've got two all Stars here, and Alex Latchem and Chris Winkelman. How are you fellas doing?

Chris Winkelman (20:29)

Great. Thanks for having me.

Josh Holmes (20:31)

Yeah, it's nice to have you. So listen, we've got a line around the block from candidates wanting to come in, and I know this is like the early season, but we wanted to put the midterm or the off year elections behind us before we started talking about midterms. But in order to do that, you know, we've got to sort of set the table. And I want to start with you, Chris, in terms of setting the table for what it takes on a House majority and holding that, what do we need to do here?

Chris Winkelman (21:01)

So our party has not performed well in midterms in over a decade. And the sad, cold, hard fact about that is that folks who show up in presidential elections and are animated to vote for Republican candidates in presidential elections and Republican policies generally have a distaste for politicians, generally in the system, generally. So our challenge is moving through that into this midterm. But what's different about this midterm is that we're dealing with an executive that's extremely action focused.

Josh Holmes (21:32)

Right.

Chris Winkelman (21:32)

Typically you get through a presidential year. Republicans have voted for their presidential candidate, they won. We have unified control of Washington. And then people go, ah, what did I get for it? Well, you cannot argue that there has been an extreme amount of action out of this unified leadership team in the House and the Senate and the White House. And with that, I think the working families tax cut, what the President's been doing on a daily basis is going to deliver these low and mid propensity voters for us in 2026.

Josh Holmes (22:01)

Yeah. And of course, on the Senate side, a different calculus. Right. Because maps matter here. And not every senator is up every cycle. There's a, a direct correlation to how you did six years ago. And there's some opportunity up there, some, some liabilities. How do you see this thing, Alex?

Alex Latcham (22:18)

Yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that this cycle is relatively narrow map.

Josh Holmes (22:22)

Right.

Alex Latcham (22:22)

We've got 22 Republican seats that we're defending, but some really great opportunities in states like New Hampshire, in Georgia, in Michigan, to expand the map and pick up a few seats. We also know that we've got some seats that we need to defend in Maine, in North Carolina, in Iowa, in Ohio. And recognizing, though, that in many of those states, in many of these states, these are all states that the President won, President Trump won in 2024, sometimes by double digits. And so, you know, at the end of the day, looking at the results from just a couple of weeks ago, I mean, candidate quality matters, which is why we have.

Josh Holmes (23:02)

I've heard that before.

Alex Latcham (23:04)

Indeed, indeed, we. Which is why, you know, at the end of the day, we have put such an emphasis on recruiting top tier candidates, in some cases trying to avoid contentious, costly primaries and ensuring that we position our people to be successful next November.

Josh Holmes (23:20)

Yeah, Michael.

Michael Smith (23:21)

So I want to ask both of you this. If you look around, you know, your respective maps, you know, what is, you know, the most vulnerable Democratic seat as it currently is, and what gets you excited about that race. So let's start with Alex first.

Alex Latcham (23:38)

For me, that's very easy. It's Jon Ossoff.

Josh Holmes (23:41)

There you go.

Alex Latcham (23:41)

I mean, Ossoff is.

Michael Smith (23:43)

Are you surprised that he hasn't really tacked to the center? Because, you know, there have been a few times where I would have thought, like, here's an easy spot, like a government shutdown.

Chris Winkelman (23:51)

Correct?

Alex Latcham (23:51)

Government shutdown.

Michael Smith (23:52)

Right, right. To show that he's bipartisan.

Josh Holmes (23:54)

Whatever.

Alex Latcham (23:55)

No, I mean, his voting record is more akin to Bernie Sanders than it is to somebody like Joe Manchin. I mean, it's incredible. And he's wildly out of step with the Georgia electorate. And, you know, our role is going to be to prosecute his far left liberal voting record to educate the voters, particularly as we work through the process of identifying a nominee. It's. We've got a pretty competitive three way primary there, but our role at Senate Leadership Fund and our associated C4.1 nation, again is to educate Georgia voters about just how wildly out of step Jon Ossoff is.

Josh Holmes (24:31)

Chris.

Chris Winkelman (24:32)

Chris. So structurally we are. We actually have an offensive map this cycle, despite the fact that the House is increasingly becoming a smaller competitive map. There are 16 Democrats sitting in seats that Donald Trump won right now. Bad spot for them. There are only seven Republicans sitting in seats that Kamala won.

Michael Smith (24:50)

Does that count? Like golden. And some of these Dems who are just.

Chris Winkelman (24:53)

Yes.

John Ashbrook (24:53)

I'm glad you mentioned Jared Gold there.

Chris Winkelman (24:56)

Yeah, Jared ejected, which is just great.

Josh Holmes (25:00)

News, as one does.

Alex Latcham (25:01)

Yes.

Chris Winkelman (25:02)

He had a primary coming from his left. He saw the writing on the wall. I thought it was pretty hilarious. He put out an op ed that said, I'm now I'm leaving because I'm. I'm more scared of winning than losing. That sounds like something a loser is gonna say. So we were prepared to beat Jared, but he beat himself. I'd say right. Right behind him is Marcy Kaptor, who probably should also see the writing on the wall and go ahead and get out just like Jared did. But she's been here for 42 years. She has been here my entire natural life.

Josh Holmes (25:31)

Yeah, yeah.

Chris Winkelman (25:32)

If the Democrat party hasn't left Marcy Kaptur, then it hasn't left anyone. And trust me, it's left everyone. There is nowhere in the middle. There is no. The chair of the Blue Dog Coalition right now is Marie Glusenkamp Perez, a woman who during the antifa riots in Portland opened up her auto repair shop for free repair of leaf blowers for antifa rioters who were using leaf blowers to bully and harass the police. That's the Blue Dog Coalition.

Josh Holmes (26:00)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Blue Dog Coalition, these are the self styled moderates. So this is the antif of moderation.

Michael Smith (26:06)

Used to be like your Baron Hill, you're Heath Schuler.

Josh Holmes (26:09)

But let me ask you about that because look, it's not coming as a surprise to our audience who's followed this pretty closely, but the Democrats do have this civil war going on. And you know, typically, I think over the last 15 years they've been able to just stifle any sort of uprising from the left and they sort of pick and choose on the candidate side or try to make you believe that people are more moderate than they are. But this thing has spilled out into the open, particularly after the government shutdown where they're just at war with each other. It's the AOC crowd versus like this old establishment crowd. And when it happened to us, it always resulted in weaker candidates that came up through the primary. Are you guys watching this?

Alex Latcham (26:55)

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, in my case, I mean, you've got Chuck Schumer who is objectively the least popular politician in America. And we've been been the beneficiary of a couple of competitive primaries where on the Democrat side where exactly as you say, I mean there is a war of the ideological future in Maine, for example, with Graham Platner, Janet mills who is 77 years old, and Chuck Schumer managed to convince her to run for governor, excuse me, Senate this cycle and pretty incredible stuff. And then of course in Michigan you've got three candidates who again are fighting amongst each other with Representative Haley as the Chuck Schumer aligned candidate and Abdul El Said as the far left insurgent candidate endorsed by Bernie Sanders and others. So, you know, we are seeing this across quite a few key races for us and certainly we encourage vigorous debate on their side.

Josh Holmes (27:58)

How about you, Chris?

Chris Winkelman (27:59)

Well, good news for Hakeem Jeffries, he gets to sharpen his political skills this cycle. He just drew a primary challenger, a Zoran backed primary challenger for Hakeem this cycle. And that's exciting and it's good because it causes their leadership a real challenge with what policies they're actually going to be behind. But I'm more interested in where they have primary problems in competitive races. Yeah, it's entertaining and it's fun to watch. Safe seat Democrats get primaried from the left. It causes them problems in messaging nationally. That's fundamentally true.

Josh Holmes (28:30)

Yes.

Chris Winkelman (28:31)

But when they pile up in the competitive seats, man, is that good news for us?

Josh Holmes (28:36)

Yeah.

Chris Winkelman (28:36)

We get to watch their mainstream candidates in primaries get dragged left, right and, and left and left. And we're going to use that audio and that video and we're going to hit them with it in the general because they don't know how to find a middle right now.

Michael Smith (28:48)

So when it comes to Chris at the top, you were talking about, you know, what the President has accomplished.

Josh Holmes (28:55)

Right.

Michael Smith (28:55)

In his first year of his administration, what he will accomplish between now and the midterms in selling that agenda and what we've done. I think it's important for our listeners and viewers to know the reason why we have you guys in here is because you too will spend and have spent the most anybody will in a midterm to figure out how you sell this agenda. The polling, the research, all of these sorts of things at this point a year out. What does the research, what does the polling tell you? How do we go out and close this deal with the American people?

Chris Winkelman (29:24)

Well, the first thing is something that Latcham is doing and that we're doing as well. In fact, we ran our first joint issue ad together that's ever been run between the two lfs.

John Ashbrook (29:35)

Nice.

Chris Winkelman (29:36)

Which I think is a great indicator of just how well these organizations are working together, together with the White House. I mean, this is truly a focused effort among all of our groups. So collectively, we're messaging the working families tax cut.

Alex Latcham (29:50)

Right.

Chris Winkelman (29:50)

We're messaging child tax credits, we're messaging no tax on tips. These are policies that people will be excited about. And the amazing thing from having the Senate and the House and the White House worked together so well over the last year, that bill got passed by July 4th. That is was incredibly unexpected. And as a result, we'll see those policies go into place so people feel it when they're voting in 2026.

Josh Holmes (30:13)

Is latcham, is the economy the thing in the mid. That's right, right.

Alex Latcham (30:18)

That's Right.

Josh Holmes (30:19)

And that's, I assume, is your view.

Alex Latcham (30:21)

Yeah, absolutely. Affordability, inflation, the economy. We see that in all of our polling. We saw that again in the off year elections, all of the polling and the survey work coming out of that as well. I mean, fully over half of voters cited the combination of those factors as being their most important issue. And so we again, fully expect to run a very comprehensive messaging campaign across either out of One Nation, again, our C4 or SLF, and positioning our candidates to best tell their story about how they're going to tackle those problems and deliver for the American people.

Josh Holmes (31:00)

Let me ask you this, Chris, because you mentioned up top that historically we've not done particularly look historically macro from an American standpoint. Any party that has unified control their first midterm is challenging. It's gotten tougher for the Republican Party here in the last 10 years in terms of replicating what is the Trump base in these presidential elections. When we started in politics, Republicans did pretty well in the midterms in large part because our base voter that would show up at a pretty high, you know, high 70s to 80% during a midterm was aligned entirely with the Republican Party. Democrats at the party with these low propensity voters that had sort of flipped.

Alex Latcham (31:42)

That's right.

Josh Holmes (31:43)

And you see these presidential election voters that are like a 55, 57% when it comes to midterms, they're at 80 during the presidential. Messaging is obviously a huge component to it. I imagine that this is something you guys stay focused on all the time, constantly.

Chris Winkelman (31:59)

I think this is just political realignment. This is what it looks like and we're seeing what it looks like in 20, 25 and 26. I've heard Latcham talk about this as well. I think both of our groups are just relentlessly focused on the most efficient use of media as humanly possible. We have better data than we've ever had about where people's eyeballs are at all times and where they're receiving a message. So we are going to be able to be more surgical than we've ever been before with our advertising. So the message that resonates in New Mexico too, might be different than the message that resonates in Texas 28 or Michigan 7. But whatever it is, we're going to find the way people consume media, whether it's on YouTube, streaming or broadcast, and we're going to hammer it and make sure that they see the message in the way that's as efficient as possible.

Josh Holmes (32:45)

That's right.

Alex Latcham (32:45)

And so much of this is just an educational aspect. Right? Just not only identifying your voters. Our voters exist and our issues are righteous and they believe in the cause, but it's reminding them that, hey, there is this midterm election next year and it is critical that you show up. And here's why. You have to support the president's agenda or else, you know, he's going to be impeached or you're going to have your taxes increased on you or any one of these many different issues that actually are important to them.

Josh Holmes (33:15)

And so much about your gigs is about tuning out the noise. Right? It's about building the infrastructure so when you need it, you have it down. In the last 90, 60 days towards an election, which is what you guys are up to now, you don't go kind of chasing around with the like day to day conversation of anything. It's about recruitment, raising money, making sure you got the resources, accumulating the data. Is that kind of where your heads are at?

Chris Winkelman (33:46)

It's the best part about this, you know, it is. It is the best part about this. Yes. Part of that noise and conversation is certainly a part of our jobs and we deal with it. It's part of the conversation for our party and for political discourse generally. But we get to be incredibly focused on the competitive battleground and the issues that are moving the competitive battleground and the candidates who are appropriate and correct to run in the competitive battleground. And all the other stuff falls aside because at the end of the day you win. And that's all that matters. Yeah, all that matters is so clarifying. I mean, at times it's horrifying and all that is true, but it's so clarifying. Your job is to win. And if you can't go to work every day and say, I get to beat Democrats today, that's my job and.

Josh Holmes (34:28)

You shouldn't be going to work here.

Chris Winkelman (34:30)

I mean, it's not like the DNC where they go a couple days a week, hope it all goes okay and they don't have to show up.

Josh Holmes (34:37)

The union rep shows up. But listen, Alex, you have a interesting and unique challenge. You're both new guys here to your current slot, but this is the first time that SLF has new leadership in its history. That's right. And I imagine there's a huge transition component re looking at. I think it's healthy to re look at the way that everything is being done, but then making sure that you also can raise the money. It sounds to me like you guys are doing great on that front.

Alex Latcham (35:05)

Yeah. I mean, look, Steven law and Mitch McConnell built a juggernaut, and tremendous credit goes to them, because to your point, I mean, SLF was essentially the post first post Citizens United super pac, and so they revolutionized outside groups, and in the case of slf, they did a fantastic job securing our majority. And there are some things that we've done differently. We are spending earlier. We are defining our opponents earlier. We are getting into the nitty gritty of messaging through different channels because we know that the media environment is so fragmented, investing in digital advertising and streaming more than ever before. But ultimately, it does come down to resources. And, yeah, thankfully, you know, again, thanks to Leader Thune and the Senate conference and their stake in the organization, we have raised well over nine figures at this point. And so I don't want to get ahead of myself with the final fundraising number by end of year, but it's. It's healthy.

Josh Holmes (36:07)

You don't want to just make a declaration here?

Alex Latcham (36:09)

No, not yet.

Josh Holmes (36:10)

Not yet.

Alex Latcham (36:10)

We'll come back.

John Ashbrook (36:11)

Are you sure?

Michael Smith (36:14)

Okay. So, I mean, look, we're all political animals here, and you guys have some very important jobs in this midterm. What is like, the thing that keeps you up at night to think about what. What we just can't get wrong here?

Chris Winkelman (36:27)

Failing to have enough money. Yeah, that's it. I know we can win this. I know that ideologically, the country is with us. I know that realignment has told us that our voters are with us. I know that we have the tools to reach those voters. I know that our data is better than their data. I know all those things are true. The question is, are we going to have the resources needed to drive the message home?

Michael Smith (36:52)

Yeah.

Alex Latcham (36:52)

It's resource allocation and not only having the resources, but expending them wisely because we know that the Democrats, at the end of the day, will outraise us. They'll outspend us two or maybe even three to one. But we have to be smarter in what we do. We have to be more efficient, which is why, again, having an open and constructive relationship between our two organizations is so critical. Also having an open line and working relationship with the White House is so critical. But ultimately, it's, you know, if you decide, we make tough decisions. If you decide to put, you know, 10 or 15 or $25 million into one race, that's 10 or 15 or $25 million that you can't put in into another.

Josh Holmes (37:31)

Yeah, it's gonna be really fun. I can't wait for you guys to experience that for the first time, by the way.

John Ashbrook (37:35)

No, thank you.

Alex Latcham (37:36)

Appreciate that.

Josh Holmes (37:38)

It's always super popular when you have.

Alex Latcham (37:40)

To make those decisions.

Josh Holmes (37:41)

There's never a downside. Nobody ever sees that.

Alex Latcham (37:43)

I've got a lot of friends right now before we've started to spend. Absolutely.

Josh Holmes (37:47)

You're the smartest guy in the business until you make that first reservation. It's so true. So listen, I think a big part about your jobs, no day is the same. Right. I mean, you're dealing with a whole bunch of things that you can't control. You're not on the official side of things. Clearly everything is downstream at some level of perceptions of the job that the Trump administration is doing. House and Senate Republicans are doing what the economy looks like. Big macro questions, but I mean, your job is to try to at some level just provide the infrastructure to take advantage of opportunities, mitigate liabilities from just a brass tax starts with recruitment. I mean, you guys feel pretty strong about where you're at with that for sure.

Chris Winkelman (38:34)

When I ran the NRCC last cycle, top priority was making sure that we had no unelectable candidates in general elections. That's an easy thing to say, but incredibly difficult thing to do when you start getting into the personalities and the timing of primaries.

Josh Holmes (38:49)

Plus there are cottage industries, not all of which rely align with Republicans keeping majorities that are spending an enormous amount of money to try to make sure you don't get the right.

Chris Winkelman (39:00)

Yeah, not everybody's a good actor. Believe it or not, there's some bad dudes out there. But it is certainly true that having the right recruits is a huge piece of this map right now. We've got it. I think this is part of the low propensity voter discussion. These folks aren't just going to show up to vote because of Republicans on the ballot. They're going to show up to vote because there's someone there with whom they can identify and who believes they will go fight for them every day. It's a huge part of the job.

Alex Latcham (39:27)

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, on our side, John Thune has taken a very aggressive, very aggressive steps to ensure that we do have the right candidates. In North Carolina, when Tom Tillis announced his retirement, Leader Thune went to the president and said, look, we have got to get behind Michael Whatley. This guy has a national fundraising profile and network. He's well tested, well vetted, and we quickly consolidated support in North Carolina and avoided a very contentious and expensive primary. Same thing in Iowa when Joni Ernst, my home state, when she announced her retirement, we immediately saw Look, Ashley Henson is going to geared up, ready to go and is going to be a fantastic candidate. And even in Michigan, with Mike Rogers, very early on, Chairman Tim Scott and again, John Thune came together and they said, this is a guy who last cycle came up short, 19,000 votes. He's learned some really critical lessons, and he's launched his campaign six months earlier than last cycle. He's ready to go. And so we avoided again, a contentious primary there. So taking steps early on, in many ways, the work that we do this year sets us up for success next year.

Josh Holmes (40:40)

Yeah, it's funny, primaries are an interesting deal. Having wore some version of your hats over the years, there are kind of two ways to look at it. The one way is it's an obvious drain of resources, right? And you can expend a whole lot of resources that you have to allocate to competitive resources at just making sure that you've got the electable candidate here. And our party's not immune to that. It's a little bit easier when you've got a president of your own party, which fortunately, we're. We're in now. But as you guys look across what you've got going on, I imagine, like, Texas is the big one for you. Alex, you have a fair number of these things that you're still trying to sort out, like, give us a flavor of where you think we're at.

Chris Winkelman (41:32)

Well, we have to be always conscious that just because we are DC Strategists doesn't mean we know exactly how primary should roll in any particular part of the country. But we have data to work through on that. And I think the best way you can handle that as an ecosystem is to make sure that the. The party committee, the super pac, the White House, everybody sees the map the same way, right? So you can treat the House map. The House map is huge, right? So you just triage the thing and you go, all right, here are 15 seats at the very top where the majority of the money and investment is going. And it's really critical that we find a particular type of candidate to come out of here who's going to win the general election. Very simple question. That's not a question about what your connections are or who your consultant is. That's just who's going to win the general election.

Alex Latcham (42:18)

That's right.

Chris Winkelman (42:18)

Let's be real honest.

Josh Holmes (42:19)

That was the hardest thing to explain when I was doing this to people who were invested in all kinds of different things, is that this isn't about ideology. This isn't about adherence to one particular side of the party or another. It's like just cold hard numbers.

Alex Latcham (42:35)

That's right.

Josh Holmes (42:36)

Who's winning and who's losing. And that's the core of the job.

Chris Winkelman (42:39)

And the ideology is driven by the voters in that district. Yeah, right. And that's not something that we create here.

Josh Holmes (42:44)

Exactly.

Chris Winkelman (42:45)

It's told to us in survey form and research form. And that, that is how we get down to the nitty gritty on primaries.

Alex Latcham (42:51)

Yeah, Alex, 100%. I mean, I couldn't agree more. And you know, you mentioned Texas. Right. I mean, that's, that's a cold, hard business calculation for us, which is that John Cornyn has never won a general election by less than nine and a half points.

Josh Holmes (43:05)

Right.

Alex Latcham (43:06)

And you even hear Jasmine Crockett herself say that if John Cornyn is the nominee, a Democrat can't win in Texas. And so that's, that's our perspective. Look at Maine, for example, with Susan Collins. I mean, here is a candidate who has defied political expectations, political history. She's got the, you know, the teardrops to prove it of all the, the opponents that she's vanquished in the past. Yeah. I mean, she's just an institution. And legitimately is the only Republican that can win statewide in a state like Maine. So at the end of the day, we are looking for candidates who will win the general election.

Josh Holmes (43:43)

It's interesting. You know, part of this is it's so much easier to look across the aisle at the other side.

Michael Smith (43:49)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (43:50)

And diagnose exactly where their problem is going to be. Because, you know, I mean, you look at your own side, there's all kinds of institutional and different opinions on candidate quality. What that means, you know, is there energy behind a certain kind of. Can they raise money? All these kind of things. You look at the Democratic side and you're like, oh, man, they're gonna put so much of this side.

Michael Smith (44:12)

Like, it's big.

Josh Holmes (44:12)

I mean, they're going all in. You got the Bernie side all in on people who couldn't win a Berkeley general election. That's right. And it's happening both of your necks of the woods. And so it's just about try to mitigate your own situation on your own playing field. Try to go up against what I imagine are going to be some opportunities given to you by this left wing brand that they are putting out there.

Alex Latcham (44:36)

That's right. I did not have Nazi tattoo on a Senate candidate's bingo card this cycle, but here we are.

Josh Holmes (44:44)

I gotta imagine the oppo Files are a little bit more entertaining.

Alex Latcham (44:47)

Very much so.

Josh Holmes (44:49)

You feel good about that? You got the oppo files working?

John Ashbrook (44:52)

Tell us.

Alex Latcham (44:52)

We've got a few. We've got a few.

Chris Winkelman (44:54)

Yeah. We've made some investments in research.

Alex Latcham (44:56)

They're critical.

John Ashbrook (44:57)

That's right.

Michael Smith (44:58)

I like the way you said that.

Josh Holmes (44:59)

Think he'll come back and give us a little taste at some point?

Michael Smith (45:02)

I hope so.

Josh Holmes (45:03)

At the appropriate moment. Yeah, let's do it at the appropriate moment.

John Ashbrook (45:07)

Let's.

Josh Holmes (45:08)

Let's talk shit. That's what we do the best here on the.

Alex Latcham (45:11)

That's why we come.

Josh Holmes (45:14)

So, listen, you got members that are helping out, and I think if you were to take kind of a media, macro, media point of view in both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, they would say, oh, it's all bifurcated. Everybody's arguing with each other. Seems like from a team perspective, by and large, within your respective conferences, everybody's sort of pulling the wagon.

Chris Winkelman (45:35)

Yeah. A tremendous amount of credit to Speaker Johnson and this House Republican leadership team across the board. These folks have found a way to stay laser focused on winning being what matters. And they knew that their first priority was to make the working families tax cut law.

Josh Holmes (45:52)

Yeah.

Chris Winkelman (45:53)

And they worked their tails off for it. They worked incredibly hard and incredibly fast to get everything they possibly could into that bill so that voters could feel it next year. This leadership team, this speaker, deserves a ton of credit for working this hard and together and, you know, I can't say it enough together. Hand in glove with the Senate and the White House.

Josh Holmes (46:13)

Yeah. That's what makes positive.

Chris Winkelman (46:15)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (46:15)

You guys have a good interplay.

Alex Latcham (46:17)

100%. And not only at our level, but at the principal level, too. I was with Thune the other day, and he got a call from the speaker and they were talking about, you know, some legislative, you know, item, and.

Josh Holmes (46:27)

Just spill the beans. Where are we going?

Alex Latcham (46:29)

But we wouldn't. We wouldn't be able to have accomplished everything that we've done so far. I mean, on our side, this has been the most productive Senate by any objective measure so far. And that's despite historic Democrat obstruction, Chuck Schumer throwing up roadblocks every which way. But we've managed to get a lot done just in the first 10 months here.

Michael Smith (46:51)

Well, and to the point earlier about the timing of this, when it comes to the working family tax cuts, I remember the first Trump administration, we didn't actually get around to passing TCGA till, I think, this time. Yeah. A little after this time, you know, last. Last term. So there is A hope. Right. That, you know, the impact of that is felt earlier by the electorate ahead of the midterm.

John Ashbrook (47:14)

Right.

Chris Winkelman (47:14)

I think it's a fair case to be made. I think it's like a very good case to be made that people will feel that they're going to file their tax returns, they're going to feel more money in their pocket. They're going to realize that one party is more interested in you feeling the benefit of your work, and the other party doesn't value your work whatsoever.

Michael Smith (47:30)

And the dnc, in fact, called the no taxes on tip crumbs.

Chris Winkelman (47:33)

Crumbs.

Michael Smith (47:33)

Yeah, they called it crumbs.

Chris Winkelman (47:34)

I mean, it's insulting. There's a Democrat firm, Democrat research firm called Navigator Research. They put out their own poll in the first quarter of this year that said of the voters they surveyed, 44% said the Democrat Party doesn't value work.

Josh Holmes (47:52)

Sounds about right. So, but look, there is macro themes here. I mean, you talked about the importance of the representation of each district and making sure that you're diving into the data to. To ensure that whoever you're trying to elect is a perfect representative of that point of view. But the macro themes here are not insignificant. I mean, majority of people saying you don't want to work, like, that's a. That's a hard sell across the center of this country.

Chris Winkelman (48:18)

Yeah. It's a. There's a huge gap between not wanting to work.

Josh Holmes (48:22)

Yeah.

Chris Winkelman (48:22)

And wanting the work you do to be valued.

Josh Holmes (48:24)

Yeah.

Chris Winkelman (48:25)

And we value that work by giving you more of your own money. And it's not giving it to you. It's insulting, frankly, to say it that way. I shouldn't. By taking your money, take less money from people who work for a living. It's just. It's real simple and straightforward, and thank goodness, it's a tenet of this party and it's a winning tenet of this party.

Josh Holmes (48:42)

Yeah. No question about it. So I got to imagine, like, for those of you guys who don't understand sort of the nuts and bolts of the party and the whole campaign apparatus as it enters this critical midterm year, there are two guys that, like, every Saturday night some headline comes out and they're not going to sleep. Right. They're like head and hands. And frankly, I feel like you guys are holding up pretty well for this. This staging.

Alex Latcham (49:10)

Like, there's still plenty of time.

Chris Winkelman (49:11)

Yeah.

Michael Smith (49:12)

We got through Colonel Jessup. Like, we need them on that wall.

John Ashbrook (49:15)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (49:15)

You know. Yeah. These are the guys you want on that wall. So, like, you know, it's changed the lifestyle a touch, I bet, fellas. I mean, look, you've both been involved in this for a long time, so you know what it's about. But now you're like in charge of the whole ball of wax for a bunch of people counting on you. I mean, how heavy is that yoke?

Chris Winkelman (49:32)

Yeah, we're all counting on you.

John Ashbrook (49:33)

Right.

Chris Winkelman (49:35)

Well, I had the ability to, I had the opportunity to run the party committee at the NRCC last cycle. And that, that in itself, like, what a thrill. What an incredible thing to do. And I love it so much. I'm doing this.

Josh Holmes (49:48)

Yeah.

Chris Winkelman (49:49)

There's no better thing to be doing right now than being engaged in this fight and in this cycle too. I mean, it's a midterm. We just said our biggest challenge is getting people who are a little bit disengaged in politics engaged in politics.

John Ashbrook (50:01)

Good.

Chris Winkelman (50:02)

Because if we do it in 26, we hold it in the Senate and the House in 26 and then we go win the presidential in 28. Well, redistricting is coming right down the pipeline again next decade, folks. And they are going to lose seats in the House on the census. They're going to be gone for a while. 2026 is a critical election year. I couldn't be more excited.

Josh Holmes (50:22)

Yeah, it's a prescription for a center right country for a foreseeable Future.

Alex Latcham (50:26)

No question, 100%. And our map in 28 looks fantastic.

John Ashbrook (50:29)

Yeah.

Alex Latcham (50:30)

And so it's not lost on us that, you know, since 1932, Republicans have only had unified control of the government four times, including now. And for only one of those times was it more than for one Congress. And so we do have our work cut out for us to defy history. But I am very confident that with the leadership at both of our committees and leadership over in Congress and certainly with the President in office, we will do exactly that.

Josh Holmes (50:58)

Last question. Specifically, on the donor front, you all rely on all kinds of different donors, but predominantly this main super PACs here in the major donor category of people that you're interacting with off year and midterm stuff is a process of getting people back engaged again and you all the numbers speak for themselves, doing quite well outraising Democratic counterparts and everything else. How do you feel like that whole process is going? Is everybody going to be on the same page? Given now we also have Trump entities here for the first time. So this is kind of a new playing field that you all. It's not a monopoly as it was for the first 15 years of the existence of these things. How do you feel like everything's going for us?

Chris Winkelman (51:44)

It's pretty clear. Everybody knows what's at stake here. Everybody knows what 27 and 28 are going to look like if Democrats control the House. We're going to have impeachment. We're going to have nonsense. It's going to slow down this agenda. The economy is going to go backwards. It is fundamentally true that our investors are invested in the long term in Republican policies being in place in the House, and that is exactly why they're engaged. We outraised the Democrats in the first six months of this year by $20 million across our two groups. I hope to do it again in the six months.

Alex Latcham (52:16)

Couldn't agree more. And, you know, our challenge has been to emphasize early money. Right. Come in, invest early, because that allows us to be more efficient with your resources down the line. When we start making 10, 50, $75 million ad reservations in February or March of next year, we're able to do so at a much, much lower rate.

Josh Holmes (52:36)

Yeah, it goes a lot further late. That's right. No question about it. Fellas, good luck to you. We're all counting on you. I really. You have done a sensational job. I know it's going to be a challenge, as all midterms are, particularly when you hold all the power. But look, you're doing everything from my perspective, and I know from Duncan's perspective. Right. So far. So you let us know when you got some oppo you want to dump. We're going to come have the conversation.

Chris Winkelman (53:03)

You got it. That's great.

Josh Holmes (53:05)

Thanks, fellas.

Michael Duncan (53:08)

I mean, just a ton of factual information that you get right here on the Ruthless Variety Program. You're going to get it over and over again between now and the 2026 election. And that's why you need to stay here for. For your election coverage.

Josh Holmes (53:20)

There's so much about this stage of an election, particularly on our side, where, again, you get the influencers involved, you get a bunch of people who have never actually run or won anything, but they got heavy opinions about everything, trying to make judgments about why it is that people like Alex and Chris make the judgments that they do. The one thing that, if you're gonna hold out is a takeaway based on that interview for my discussion purposes, is these people are all about W's and L's, and that's it. That's it. Right.

Michael Duncan (53:56)

If.

Josh Holmes (53:56)

If there's somebody who's young and ideological and captivates a district or a state in a way that this like old time establishment person is not, that's their guy. If there is somebody who just fits the demographic and representation, has relationships and the ability to raise money in a way that makes them more competitive in a purple state than somebody else, that's why they support them. And this has been just thrown through the Laundromat over the years where you look at these organizations like CLF and SLF and you see them as some sort of like faceless establishment organization. And like we've had to fight those wars ourselves. It's not the case. Like they literally just are there to win. That's it. Because they know the difference between winning and losing is Trump's impeached, constant investigations, no personnel, no Supreme Court, no judges whatsoever. Like the panoply of shit that happens if you lose the House or Senate in a midterm is real. And we already saw it in the first four years of this Trump administration. That's why what these guys are doing is so important. I think they did a nice job of laying it all out. But it leads us to our question of the day and our question of the day is how do Republicans win the midterms? You got a lot of grist for the mill in that discussion about different areas that they're worried about. What's your take in your state? You may have a competitive Senate race, all of you basically have some kind of competitive House race or something else. What's your take?

Michael Duncan (55:33)

You know what, buddy, it's going to be really interesting to look at what people are saying now and then next year to go back and see what our audience suggests. And I have a feeling that what our audience suggests will be the determining factor in what these elections ultimately decide.

John Ashbrook (55:53)

They've nailed it on the insights the whole way through.

Alex Latcham (55:58)

Every year corporate insurers get richer while.

Chris Winkelman (56:01)

Americans pay more and get less. Their greed has broken the system, even shutting down our government to protect their taxpayer funded profits. And now their schemes are finally being exposed. Big Insurance and their Democrat allies have rigged health insurance against hard working families. Government bailouts, record profits, rising premiums. America can't afford to ignore it any longer. Conservatives must do more than hold the line. We must fix it. Paid for by American Resolve Action.

Josh Holmes (56:30)

So when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read every one of your comments and we get back to you the very next episode. And that includes last episode which was a fun time Friday. And we asked what's the craziest moment from Democrats over the last year? Very fun topic of conversation because They've given us a lot to think about to do that. We always start with a voice.

Michael Duncan (56:51)

Okay, first comment comes from H. CG and he writes hands down, the craziest dem moment was Chris Van Hollen flying to El Salvador to take an MS.13 gang member out for happy hour cocktail. Followed by oppressor where he doesn't even recognize the wife. Can we go to graphic two?

Josh Holmes (57:12)

That's what it is.

Michael Smith (57:13)

There it is.

Josh Holmes (57:13)

That's what he's talking about. That's exactly what it is. Margarita or two shared under that circumstance.

Michael Duncan (57:21)

Did you look at the hands on Chris Van Hollen?

Josh Holmes (57:23)

Very soft guy.

Michael Duncan (57:25)

Very soft guy.

Josh Holmes (57:26)

He does look. He's got a very soft look. But meaning business down in El Salvador with alleged traffickers and the like. All right, comment 2runks.

Michael Smith (57:38)

This is from Mel Pop. Mel writes mad Maxine trying to break into the department of ED like a psycho because does he know who she is? She is a member of the United States House of Representatives. She looked like a psychotic dementia patient who escaped her facility.

Josh Holmes (57:57)

That's such a good one. I forgot all about that clip when we covered it. Everybody stand back and let the camera see. They're calling out these gun loading people out on us. Gun loading.

John Ashbrook (58:09)

They're gun loading people.

Michael Duncan (58:10)

Look at that guy.

John Ashbrook (58:11)

Look.

Josh Holmes (58:11)

Look behind this door. Look at this seat back there. The doors will open. Do they have guns on them? What do they have? Are they prepared to shoot us? She's a lunatic. Gun loading people. Well, that is certainly a quality conviction smuggle. What do we got coming?

John Ashbrook (58:40)

Three is from Larry Franek. Larry writes so hard to choose the democratic moment. But my first choice is Ed Markey quote talking to the girl on TikTok. It does look quite weird with his arm movement. Was reminded of this when I saw the article on rep Sherman on his iPad on a plane looking at porn. Can we get clip 5?

Josh Holmes (58:59)

My name's Pink and I'm really glad to meet you. You're recommended to me by some people. Hey, is this illegal?

John Ashbrook (59:10)

It feels illegal.

Josh Holmes (59:13)

I have so many thoughts on that.

John Ashbrook (59:15)

It's like, dude, he's 900 years old. Stop trying to like the devs have really tried to do this thing where they get their oldest people especially. Is that. Is that like house rep from Oregon. She's got like purple hair and she's 900 years old. They try to do this stuff.

Michael Smith (59:28)

Oreo.

John Ashbrook (59:28)

Yeah, yeah. Where they like put them in these, like, hey, this is a big meme that's happening on TikTok that like see 17 and 16 year old think is cool. Let's have 900 year old mummies do this. It just like never works.

Josh Holmes (59:40)

Victoria Hammett, why would she do something like that?

Michael Smith (59:44)

I don't know.

Michael Duncan (59:45)

It's a good question.

Josh Holmes (59:45)

I don't know anything about her, but I assume she's like a progressive influencer. That seems like a degrading of her platform.

Michael Duncan (59:53)

But you know what? I think they solved the climate crisis right there in that.

Josh Holmes (59:56)

That was it. Just that handshake solved. That was done because she could probably solve a climate crisis at South. I don't know. We got some variety next. There's a dog that shoots his owner. We've talked about this kind of thing here before. I'm sure Smash has got a hot take on that. Got a lunatic walking amongst us with wolves in Yellowstone and we've got a bunch of good stuff right after this. Okay, we're back with some variety. And this is the thing that's popped up on a couple of occasions here in the war against humans, I think, as you call it. Smash.

Michael Duncan (60:39)

Yep.

Josh Holmes (60:39)

The New York Post has reported that a dog accidentally shot its owner in a freak accident as he cleaned the gun. The perfect storm, quote unquote. What do we think about all of that?

Michael Duncan (60:48)

Well, there's been sort of a lull in coverage of animal violence against humans. And our show is the first show that has started a movement, blown the whistle, people for the ethical treatment of people. You have to start thinking about what is good for people and not just what is good for animals. You have a dog shooting its owner and everybody in the media has bent over backwards to say it was an accident. Did you notice that?

Josh Holmes (61:16)

Well, I noticed that even in the New York Post they lead with growl plays not suspected it. Well, so they've.

Michael Duncan (61:23)

That's very funny, but it's not funny to the family.

Josh Holmes (61:26)

Well, it sure isn't funny to the guy. No. A Pennsylvania man blamed his dog for shooting him in the back with a shotgun in a freak accident that landed him in the hospital for surgery. As a 53 year old Shillington man who was not identified. He told cops he was cleaning his shotgun when he placed it on the bed and sat down. A move the over enthusiastic pooch took as an invitation to join his master for some cuddles. Next thing he knew, weapon went off, striking the dog. Dad in the lower back. Gun safety class would have done this cat some good.

John Ashbrook (61:59)

Just a loaded shotgun. Why is it loaded when you're cleaning it?

Michael Smith (62:02)

Why is it loaded when you're cleaning it?

Josh Holmes (62:03)

No safety.

Michael Smith (62:04)

Why are you laying it on the bed?

Josh Holmes (62:05)

No safety.

Chris Winkelman (62:06)

Loaded.

Michael Duncan (62:07)

Why are you guys dismissing the fault of the animal?

John Ashbrook (62:09)

This guy's probably. I have no reason to think this many people are laughing. This is parody. Maybe he's tired of his wife give him a hard time. He lays down with the rifle, like, next to him. He's like, all right, dog, do your thing. And it hits him in the back. And he's like, ugh, that's not good enough. No one wants to bleed out to death.

Josh Holmes (62:29)

He's like, this isn't gonna do the trick.

John Ashbrook (62:30)

I mean, like, who's like, oh, actually, I was just cleaning the loaded shotgun and it went off by accident.

Michael Duncan (62:36)

Come on.

Josh Holmes (62:37)

Meanwhile, the pup walks free.

Michael Duncan (62:38)

Exactly. It's not a conspiracy. Remember when those monkeys turned over the truck in Mississippi?

Josh Holmes (62:44)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (62:44)

And they were all over the place, spreading their disease.

Michael Smith (62:47)

Okay, but we gave him those diseases.

Michael Duncan (62:49)

Those.

Josh Holmes (62:50)

Yeah, we did gave him the diseases. It doesn't give him the right, though, Michael.

Michael Duncan (62:53)

Okay.

John Ashbrook (62:54)

No, it does give them the right.

Michael Smith (62:56)

Like, a lot of victim blaming is going on.

Chris Winkelman (62:58)

It doesn't give him the right.

Josh Holmes (63:00)

He's unsure if the dog's paw may have gotten caught inside the trigger. The safety was accidentally. Or if there was some kind of. Clear.

John Ashbrook (63:08)

The safety's off. Like, what is this guy talking about?

Josh Holmes (63:10)

Well, he doesn't.

John Ashbrook (63:10)

No, he's got the magic gun that shoots from. The safety's off.

Josh Holmes (63:13)

At any rate, he got shot and the dog done it.

Michael Smith (63:16)

I mean, lower back. That's gotta be awful.

John Ashbrook (63:18)

That's gonna be awful for the rest of your life.

Josh Holmes (63:20)

The dog maybe done it deliberate.

Michael Duncan (63:22)

Of course the dog did it deliberate. As for the alibi, the dog simply said bark and he got away with it. They always do.

John Ashbrook (63:30)

Either way, you have to kill the dog afterwards. You gotta shoot him next. Eye for an eye.

Josh Holmes (63:35)

Let the dog know who's boss. All right, so there's another thing here. An idiot.

Michael Duncan (63:41)

This is according.

Josh Holmes (63:41)

This is on Instagram first. And the New York Post wrote something on that idiot dares death by approaching a wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park. This is a wild video. Can we play that clip three. I know it. This guy is going down to wild wolves, dude.

John Ashbrook (63:57)

This is not smart at all.

Josh Holmes (64:00)

He's literally just walking up to a pack.

Chris Winkelman (64:02)

He's twist spraying bear spray.

Michael Duncan (64:04)

Did he?

John Ashbrook (64:05)

Yeah, dude. Now? Yeah, let's provoke the pack now. Make sure they bring in the reinforcements, bro. Okay, this is why you want the YouTube to see the. Oh, my God. Dude.

Josh Holmes (64:18)

What? Now it's running at him, bro.

John Ashbrook (64:21)

Did they get him.

Chris Winkelman (64:22)

Or somebody over there had to call law enforcement.

Josh Holmes (64:27)

Dude, wild thing. The clip showed a man and a wife's scarf striding across an open field towards a group of five, five black wolves while a crowd of park goers watched them in alarm on October 6. This could end very badly for that guy. Someone was heard saying on the video, which is first paced posted on a Facebook group called Yellowstone National Park Invasion of the idiots. So they got a nice little niche following, I imagine. Invasion of the idiots.

John Ashbrook (64:58)

Yeah. So I've been in Yellowstone. I spent the night there. It's really. I mean, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. At night you can hear the wolves, right?

Michael Duncan (65:07)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (65:07)

And your first thought, if you're a sane person is, I'm glad I'm in here with the doors locked instead of out there with the wolves. And this guy's like, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna approach these. Cause here's the other thing. A lot of people think wolves are like the size of dogs. No, wolves are huge. And they're built to kill things. Like that's their job. And for this guy to be like, I'm gonna approach the whole pack and he thinks that like mace is gonna scare off one spear.

Josh Holmes (65:31)

Spray mace.

John Ashbrook (65:32)

One of these guys, they're gonna just bring in the reinforcements. And you saw that. And I don't know how this video ended. I mean, I guess he lived.

Michael Duncan (65:39)

Yeah, he lived.

John Ashbrook (65:39)

Unfortunately, you know, nature should be allowed to resolve where, like you, there's consequences for stupidity.

Josh Holmes (65:45)

So this is a pro animal. Take from your perspective.

John Ashbrook (65:47)

I mean, feed the wolves. That's what this guy's got one use in his life, clearly, to feed the wolves.

Josh Holmes (65:51)

It does feel dwarwinian.

John Ashbrook (65:52)

That's what his purpose was.

Josh Holmes (65:53)

It does feel Darwinian.

John Ashbrook (65:54)

I'm on the side of the wolves with this one.

Michael Smith (65:56)

I am too. I mean, like, what is your motivation? Like, what's he trying to accomplish by.

Michael Duncan (65:59)

Going up and maybe see the park? Teddy Roosevelt. Think of how much work Teddy Roosevelt put in to make these parks accessible to the American people. The guy wants to walk out and observe nature and the wolves are up on him. I mean, for crying out loud, why is everybody taking the side of the animals?

John Ashbrook (66:18)

Dude, look at the.

Josh Holmes (66:18)

Look at the wolves.

John Ashbrook (66:19)

Dude, I like wolves. Wolves are a good animal, helpful animal.

Michael Duncan (66:21)

Wolves are good animals.

John Ashbrook (66:22)

They are. They kill a lot of things. You know, they do the job.

Michael Duncan (66:26)

Yeah, okay. They're great for the ecosystem.

Michael Smith (66:28)

This is the land of wolves now.

John Ashbrook (66:29)

It is.

Josh Holmes (66:30)

You generally want to stay away from.

John Ashbrook (66:32)

Them, that's the thing. Let them do their work. Let them kill the animal.

Michael Duncan (66:34)

The guy is simply trying to take a picture of the Grand Prismatic.

John Ashbrook (66:39)

Okay.

Michael Duncan (66:39)

Yellowstone has some of the greatest scenery that our country has to offer. The guy wants to take a picture of it with his iPhone. And the wolves are packed, like coming, surrounding him in a pack.

John Ashbrook (66:50)

No one wants to see. A shitty iPhone photos, dude. No one wants to see.

Michael Duncan (66:53)

Well, he wants.

John Ashbrook (66:54)

The wolves would have got him, dude. If I'm being honest, I wish we had the video of that. I'd watch that.

Michael Duncan (66:59)

I stick up for the people.

John Ashbrook (67:00)

Just that that would show up on my axe algorithm. I guess I just like violence. I'd 100% if the wolves had torn pieces, it end up in my algorithm. 100%.

Josh Holmes (67:07)

Just checking the till on this. Did you come out for against the dog?

John Ashbrook (67:12)

I still think the dog should have been shot either way. So you're.

Josh Holmes (67:15)

You're kind of an even split on the animal news today.

John Ashbrook (67:17)

Dog is bad, wolf is good.

Josh Holmes (67:19)

You're. You're like pro. You were pro dog, pro wolf, very animal. And gun safety is important.

Michael Duncan (67:25)

I'm pro American.

John Ashbrook (67:27)

Okay.

Michael Duncan (67:27)

Americans should be allowed to walk in a park and take a picture with their iPhone without getting mauled by a wolf.

Josh Holmes (67:34)

Speaking of pro American or anti American in this sense, MSNBC is dead and gone, folks.

Michael Smith (67:42)

I will remember you exactly.

Josh Holmes (67:46)

Exactly. So to almost no fanfare whatsoever, the brand MSNBC was retired last weekend. Signed off for the final time. And this is the graphic that they've. That they've got now. Like, that was the msnbc. The new one is on the right that they officially rebranded if I watched. So there was this clip that they had, like, Stephanie Rule signing off on the left for the last time. And it was. It was just like such a perfect reminder of, like, why it didn't work.

Michael Duncan (68:22)

Yep.

Josh Holmes (68:23)

You know, it's like, oh, so many memories and so many important things that we've done here on msnbc. And like the tens of people are watching. You're like, all right, dude, what, like, give me another race riot or, you.

John Ashbrook (68:37)

Know what I mean?

Josh Holmes (68:38)

Like, whatever it is that an MSNBC person comes there to watch. But they didn't watch. And so now they're just going to change the logo and reboot the whole thing.

John Ashbrook (68:49)

But it's like an official break from, like, the newsmaking part, right?

Chris Winkelman (68:51)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (68:52)

Right. So it's. They separated it for the first time from NBC News. It's now its own thing. And the thought process on that, in a lot of ways, Was that they were going to try to sell the whole kit in caboodle.

John Ashbrook (69:05)

But that seems to be the move. Like, a lot of these companies are like, we're just trying to sell piece by piece. Find some. Because, like, like Holmes is saying, MSNBC ran itself into the ground by ruining the reputation. Like, they didn't become a serious. They lost any resemblance of being a serious news operation. It just became just like wine mom takes 24 7. Until their audience was so small, no one wanted to. Like, if you're a sponsor, it's like, I've got five people who are probably drunk off their asses watching this. Why would I pay any money to this station? But hold on.

Josh Holmes (69:37)

So there's a. There's. There's component parts to this in that the rebrand. This is. According to Variety, the rebrand is a part of a parent company, Comcast, efforts to spin off most of its cable networks into Versant, something that they only they've heard of. But it is by design. Yeah. And Ms. Now assured its audience this is an important component to what they're doing. Amis now assured its audience that the channel's mission remains unchanged. So you too can continue to enjoy this content with tens of your best friends.

John Ashbrook (70:11)

We will continue to give you brain damage.

Josh Holmes (70:14)

Adding that viewers will still hear from the same hosts and the same journalists. What a rebrand it is.

John Ashbrook (70:21)

Yeah, right.

Josh Holmes (70:23)

What a rebrand it is. I didn't see this as a divorce. Nighttime host Michael Smith. Oh, Jesus. They have Michael Steele as the spokesperson.

Chris Winkelman (70:32)

On this brutal, rough.

Josh Holmes (70:33)

I mean, this is one of the least competent spokespeople anyone has ever seen in the world. He doesn't see this as a divorce. Great. We're all satisfied with that. According to the Associated Press. I see this as a kid growing up and leaving home. We all know what that's like.

John Ashbrook (70:52)

Boy, the best part is, like, we're all gonna see. We're all gonna get to see, like, the fact that NBC wanted nothing to do with them. And they're like, it's not a viable business. They straight up have said that, like, we're trying to spin off and sell this shit. And they're just bringing this all down. So we're trying to, like, get some separation. That is proof positive that it's a failure of an organization. They're like, we're trying to pull all our resources out. And then you have Michael Steele come out and be like, no, this is good news. What?

Josh Holmes (71:20)

I see this as a kid growing up and leaving home. What I left out there was like and joining antifa in a haste of anti Semitism.

John Ashbrook (71:29)

Unbelievable.

Josh Holmes (71:32)

Well, that is all the news that's fit to print here on the Ruthless Variety program. Remember our question of the day, how do Republicans win the midterms? You heard an awful lot from Alex and Chris about the nuts and bolts of it, but you probably have thoughts. We'd love to read about them when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program. We do all of that. We read all of them and get back to the very next episode. In this case, it's on Thursday. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.

John Ashbrook (71:58)

I think so. Episode Banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Alex and thanks so much to Chris and thank you to our listeners. Remember, just like Holmes said, go to the YouTube hit that subscribe because it's more fun and video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.