How To Respond To Riots W/ Speaker Johnson

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "How To Respond To Riots W/ Speaker Johnson"

Release Date: June 12, 2025

Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook
Guest: Speaker Mike Johnson

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with a brief advertisement break before welcoming Speaker Mike Johnson, the current Republican Speaker of the House, to discuss pressing national issues, particularly the recent riots and the legislative agenda known as the "Big Beautiful Bill."

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Speaker Mike Johnson on Republican Leadership and the Current Political Climate

Timestamp: [01:30] - [03:32]

Josh Holmes introduces Speaker Mike Johnson, highlighting his leadership amidst challenging political dynamics. Johnson emphasizes the perseverance of the Republican majority despite skepticism:

• Mike Johnson [01:56]: “I mean, it's an advantage to be underestimated sometimes. We worked so hard to win that majority in 2024. We defied expectations to do that.”

He underscores the narrow Republican majority in Congress, noting the cutbacks initiated by the Biden administration that reduced their numbers to a single vote. Johnson asserts the importance of steadfast leadership to uphold law and order:

• Mike Johnson [02:33]: “If the local and state officials in California or elsewhere are unable or unwilling to keep law and order, to uphold the rule of law, then the President must. That's called leadership.”

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Responding to Riots and Illegal Immigration

Timestamp: [03:32] - [09:07]

The conversation shifts to the surge in riots across major cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, and Chicago. Johnson attributes these disturbances to the administration's handling of illegal immigration, which he claims has led to a significant influx of illegal aliens:

• Mike Johnson [04:06]: “We think the number is about 20 million illegal aliens came across the border in four years. So we'll be dealing with fallout of this for the rest of our lives.”

He highlights the administration's response, including deploying troops to Los Angeles, and critiques the opposition's stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):

• Mike Johnson [05:28]: “We're going to hire 10,000 additional ICE agents...they hate ICE. What is ICE? They don't want to enforce federal law.”

Comfortably Smug interjects with statistics on public opinion regarding troop deployment, linking it to strategic political advantages through census-related apportionment:

• Comfortably Smug [05:08]: “Polling shows that 60 to 40 Americans support the troops being sent to Los Angeles.”

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The Big Beautiful Bill and Legislative Challenges

Timestamp: [09:49] - [19:45]

Johnson elaborates on the "Big Beautiful Bill," a comprehensive legislative package aimed at fulfilling the economic and border security promises made during the 2024 campaign. He outlines the bill’s key components, including regulatory reforms, military funding, tax policies, and the debt limit extension:

• Mike Johnson [10:12]: “One big beautiful bill because it's got everything. From the border we talked about to regulatory reform...spending less, carving it out.”

He discusses the intricate process of passing the bill through Congress, emphasizing the necessity of reconciliation to overcome a slim Senate majority:

• Mike Johnson [12:01]: “We have to do it on our own. Democrats are not going to help us do any of this agenda.”

Johnson addresses the difficulties posed by misinformation in the digital age, highlighting the challenges of maintaining legislative progress amidst a toxic social media environment.

• Mike Johnson [13:06]: “The social media thing is toxic to politics totally because every single member has their own comm shop and they can go every 2 minutes online and say what they're disgruntled about in a piece of legislation...so I'm constantly having to put out fires all the time.”

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Interaction with President Trump and Legislative Strategy

Timestamp: [10:16] - [20:09]

Johnson shares anecdotes about collaborating with President Trump, including negotiating aspects of the Big Beautiful Bill and maintaining a united Republican front:

• Mike Johnson [10:16]: “He named it, the Big Beautiful Bill...we have all of our priorities in there.”

He recounts the strategic discussions with Trump, ensuring the bill aligns with Republican objectives without adding unnecessary emphasis that could hinder its passage:

• Mike Johnson [10:31]: “I convinced him that we were not going to put an exclamation point on it.”

Johnson emphasizes the importance of consensus-building within the Republican caucus, acknowledging the diverse interests across different states:

• Mike Johnson [14:26]: “We got to come to an agreement. You have to find that balance...preserving as much as you possibly can in delivering President Trump's promises to the American people.”

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Listener Engagement and Audience Interaction

Timestamp: [27:00] - [57:55]

The hosts transition into engaging with listener comments, focusing on the central question: “Should Trump send in the Marines?” They feature several listener perspectives, blending historical references with contemporary satire:

1. Jimmy Major [30:28]:

   • Jimmy Major: “Quick, decisive action and overwhelming force prevented a bad situation from devolving into chaos.”

2. Joe Walsh’s Comments [32:17] and [70:27]:

   • Joe Walsh: “Fuck you, Donald Trump. I have a constitutional right to protest your stupid Kim Jong Un parade...”

3. Robert Spitalnick and Robert Wright’s Views [33:42]:

   • Robert Spitalnick: “Trump sending in the Marines is a win. The rioting must be stopped...”

The discussion highlights the polarized responses, with hosts humorously critiquing the listener submissions and maintaining a strong pro-law-and-order stance.

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Satirical Segment: King of the Hill

Timestamp: [59:13] - [73:55]

In a lighthearted interlude, the hosts engage in a parody of the classic TV show "King of the Hill," pitting the hosts against each other in a mock debate. This segment serves to inject humor and showcase the camaraderie among the hosts while reinforcing the podcast’s political viewpoints.

• Josh Holmes: “Exhibit one, please... Trump is turning us into a police state.”
• Michael Duncan: “Exhibit number nine... Donald Trump is America's enemy.”

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Critical Analysis of Media and Public Figures

Timestamp: [73:55] - [75:00]

The podcast concludes with a critical take on media figures like Jen Rubin, whom the hosts portray as emblematic of the misinformation and biased reporting they contend with:

• Josh Holmes: “It's easy to tweet and be like, why didn't we solve the national debt in this one bill? But actually having a leader who knows... is good to know.”

They commend Speaker Johnson for his legislative efforts and resilience in navigating the complex political landscape, urging listeners to support policies that align with Republican values.

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Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with the hosts thanking Speaker Johnson for his participation and encouraging listeners to stay engaged with the podcast's content through various platforms like YouTube. They reiterate their commitment to providing no-holds-barred conservative analysis and bid farewell until the next episode.

• Josh Holmes: “Until next time at Ruthless, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lid.”

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Notable Quotes

• Mike Johnson [02:33]: “If the local and state officials in California or elsewhere are unable or unwilling to keep law and order, to uphold the rule of law, then the President must. That's called leadership.”
• Mike Johnson [04:06]: “We think the number is about 20 million illegal aliens came across the border in four years. So we'll be dealing with fallout of this for the rest of our lives.”
• Mike Johnson [10:12]: “One big beautiful bill because it's got everything. From the border we talked about to regulatory reform...spending less, carving it out.”
• Mike Johnson [13:06]: “The social media thing is toxic to politics totally because every single member has their own comm shop and they can go every 2 minutes online and say what they're disgruntled about in a piece of legislation...so I'm constantly having to put out fires all the time.”

---

Conclusion

This episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers an in-depth discussion with Speaker Mike Johnson on handling civil unrest, legislative strategies, and the challenges facing the Republican majority in Congress. Through a blend of serious dialogue and satirical interludes, the hosts provide listeners with a comprehensive overview of current conservative strategies to maintain stability and push forward their legislative agenda amidst a tumultuous political environment.

Transcript

[Mike Johnson]

We have dangerous, criminal, illegal aliens. They emptied out jails in Central America. All the things President Trump was saying were right and everybody knows it and they can see it. And so we represent. The President does. Our party represents bringing stability and order back. And the fact that he had to, you know, send troops to LA was, of course, appropriate. I mean, I've been asked about this a thousand times this week and all of the press and they're hounding me as I walk up and down the halls of the Congress. And I said, listen, if the local and state officials in California or elsewhere are unable or unwilling to keep law and order, to uphold the rule of law, then the President must. That's called leadership. It's called leadership. We need to do it.

[Dick Durbin]

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[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

Keep the fate, hold the line and own the lids.

[Announcer]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and Josh John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dial, except we added one here. You may recognize him. Speaker Mike Johnson on the far right. Far right, yeah. No, you, you indicated this was your preferable position here. Listen, you got a pretty, pretty difficult job these days, but it seems like you're getting things done.

[Mike Johnson]

Yeah, a lot of prayer and a lot of patience. You know, they've written my eulogy 10 times. They said that the Republican majority cannot deliver. But we keep doing it. We keep defying the odds. Democrats, the media trying to divide us. We're not going to allow that to happen.

[Josh Holmes]

This is undeniably true. Duncan and I were having a conversation on the way in here and you were saying he's got to be the most underestimated.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, it seems like since you got the gavel, you've been doubted, you know, from that vote on the budget and then, you know, BBB and all of these things. And I'm curious, going through all that and listening to all the media noise, how does it make you feel to prove him wrong over and over again?

[Josh Holmes]

That's got to feel pretty good.

[Mike Johnson]

I mean, you know, it's a, it's an advantage to be underestimated sometimes. You. And we're working with one of the smallest majorities in history. We had the literal smallest majority for a big chunk of the first hundred days. You know, we worked so hard to win that majority in 2024. We defied expectations to do that. I mean, there were, there were articles the night before the election in November saying we were going to lose the majority. I mean, I never believed that. So we just charged through and we wound up with 220 Republicans, 215 Democrats. And then the President started culling my herd, you know, one, this one, this one. Taking them to the admin. I call him Mr. President. What? We're down to one vote. What are you doing? I'm so sorry, Mike. Did I do that? Yes, you did that. So we had a one vote margin, you know, so I mean, there's no margin for error. And it just takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, a lot of prayer. You know, you sit down with everybody and work through their issues and get them to. Yes, and I'm so confident that we're going to do that because we have an opportunity to save the country and everybody knows that. So the stakes couldn't be any higher.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no question about it. I want to get to BBB and everything associated with it, but let's start with the riots. I mean, look, the American people delivered what is an unquestionable mandate on the issue of illegal immigration. One of the principal issues of the 24 campaign. The administration is going about the work of delivering on their promises and all of a sudden LA erupts into riots. Now you see, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, there's a Chicago, there's a big plan this weekend for all around the country. What's your take on this?

[Mike Johnson]

It's crazy. It's no question. The border was the number one issue in the election. I mean, there were a lot of issues, but that in every poll across the board, that was it. And we made a promise that we would bring order to the chaos. And the President has done that in record time and by the way, demonstrated what we had been saying all along. We had existing federal law. The President had the authority to do it. Biden tried to argue with us. He never had the authority. It was all just a big lie. They opened the border intentionally. We think the number is about 20 million illegal aliens came across the border in four years. So we'll be dealing with fallout of this for the rest of our lives. I mean, you can't flip a switch and fix that. But he secured that border. It's more secure than it's ever been. The one big beautiful bill. One of the biggest components of it, one of the most important is to provide the funding to make sure that that border stays secure. We're going to hire 10,000 additional ICE agents. We're going to give bonuses to border patrol and customs agents and money for new facilities and deportations and all the rest. But that's what has the left in a full out panic. They hate ice. What is ICE is Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They don't want to enforce federal law. Don't get lost in the acronyms. I tell everybody these people are on the wrong side. They're defending dangerous criminal illegal aliens being in the country. If that's your political angle, go for it. Right? Like, I mean, they are doing this to themselves and I don't understand it. I do not understand it.

[Comfortably Smug]

So on that very subject, politically, it would seem like, especially after, you know, the election we just had in November that wake up, the American people support a strong border. They want to get rid of the illegal aliens who are here just now. What? The Polling shows that 60 to 40Americans support the troops being sent to Los Angeles. I brought up the point last week and now it's starting to echo all over the place that Democrats support this because of apportionment. They know that every census decides where the House seats go and illegal aliens get counted in that census. So when you're talking about 20 million illegal aliens came in under Joe Biden and roughly 750,000 per representative is what apportionment comes at. That's the majority right there for the Democrats that they're hoping for.

[Mike Johnson]

That's exactly right. That was the whole thing. It is their avenue, they think, to hold on to power because they can't win on their policies. They're so unpopular. Right. So they got to bring in more people and they're going to. That was the idea that they would be able to swing elections and they would be able to change the apportionment through the census. It's dangerous stuff. And you know, it's diabolical because they didn't care about all of the untold damage they've done to the country in their quest for power. I mean, fentanyl, just one metric. I mean, it's the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 49. And they knew that it was flooding over the border and they did not care. We have dangerous criminal illegal aliens. They emptied out jails in Central America. All the things were. President Trump was saying, we're right and everybody knows it and they can see it. And so we represent. The president, does our party, represents bringing stability and order back. And the fact that he had to, you know, send troops to LA was, of course, appropriate. I mean, I've been asked about this a thousand times this week, and all of the press and they're hounding me as I walk up and down the halls of the Congress, and I said, listen, if the local and state officials in California or elsewhere are unable or unwilling to keep law and order, to uphold the rule of law, then the President must. That's called leadership. It's called leadership. We got to do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you astonished, I know we are, at just how much bait your Democratic colleagues take on this particular set of issues? Right. I mean, you got like, you know, Senator Chris Van Hollen down with the Abrego Garcia thing three weeks later. Boy, oh, boy, does that look pretty dumb. You got riots, you've got, you know, all these protests out in front of ICE facilities or federal detention centers. But they're literally just ironing in a political problem that they've got. And it's like they can't help themselves.

[Mike Johnson]

They have an uncanny ability to do exactly the wrong thing at every turn. I mean, they. It's incredible. It's really stunning to me. You know, I got asked about the call to arrest Gavin Newsom, you know, yesterday in my press conference, and I don't know where that came about, but I was sitting next to the President at the Oval Office when he said, yeah, maybe. Maybe it's deserved. So they asked me about it, and I said, look, I'm not going to get in. I'm a constant constitutional law attorney. I'm not going to get into the legality of whether or not he should be arrested, but he ought to be tarred and feathered, you know, and of course, the media quoted me, literally.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Johnson]

You know, and so there was, like, stories yesterday, right? Speaker wants to torture Gavin Newsom. It was a metaphor. I'm saying they ought to be politically tarred and feathered for this nonsense. And they were in the election, and they're going to be again. Listen, that's why we're going to win the midterm elections in 26. We have to defy history to do it, because there's only two times in the last 90 years that a sitting president has picked up seats in that first midterm cycle. Lots of reasons for that. But the last One was George W. After 9 11. So that's kind of an anomaly. You got to go back to the 30s to FDR. But we're going to do it this time. We're going to make history because these guys are so bad at what they do and we are delivering for the people. And that contrast could not be any more clear.

[Josh Holmes]

I couldn't agree more. When we come back, we're going to talk to you about the Big beautiful bill.

[Announcer]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Some rescissions, packages and everything that you're hoping to get done here in the next couple of months, right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

Learn [e-mail] all right, back here with Speaker Johnson. Big beautiful bill. Obviously, this is the cornerstone of the economic agenda that President Trump had promised in his campaign in 24. And it's now kind of like, oh.

[Michael Duncan]

We'Ve got, look at this.

[Mike Johnson]

If the President interrupt us.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm sorry, we're very professional.

[Mike Johnson]

Yes, I know.

[Josh Holmes]

This is, this is.

[Comfortably Smug]

I apologize.

[Mike Johnson]

He heard you talking about the Big beautiful bill and he called it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's right.

[Mike Johnson]

He named it, by the way. Do you know that? Well, I guess, I mean, it wasn't. But I did have one small victory because I convinced him that we were not going to put an exclamation point on. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. We debated it.

[Josh Holmes]

Did you tell him that was like the Jeb thing?

[Mike Johnson]

I should have thought of that. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No, we can consult on things like that.

[Mike Johnson]

Yes, we should do that. He said, mike, it. So it's so powerful because everybody knows. And I said, you're right. One big beautiful bill because it's got everything. I mean, it's all of our priorities in there. I mean, everything from the border that we talked about to, you know, we've got regulatory reform in there, we've got returning peace through strength and making sure we're properly funded. The military industrial base. We, of course, the tax piece is huge. If we don't get this done, we're going to have the largest tax increase in U.S. history. At the end of the year, all of this is going to have a, it's going to be jet fuel to the US Economy because we have pro growth policies in there. Again, incentivizing US Manufacturing, keeping tax rates low and making them permanent for people. That's a huge thing to job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And, and it's also got, you know, the, extending the debt limit in there, which is a huge thing because that cliff is approaching quickly. And so we have to do it on our own. Democrats are not going to help us do any of this agenda. And that's why reconciliation is so important, because you only need 51 votes in the Senate, not 60 as the normal course of action, as you all know. Well, so that's why we got to get it done. And no margin for error. The Senate is dabbling with it right now. Okay. I went to their lunch a couple weeks ago, two days before we passed it, and I told him it was, that was on a Tuesday. I told him we were going to pass it on a Thursday. I think half the senators didn't even believe me when I said that. But I said, I'm going to send you over a package and it is very delicately balanced. I understand how this works in the House of Lords and you want to put your fingerprints on it, but. Well, we'll see about that. Yeah, that's right.

[Michael Duncan]

So important.

[Mike Johnson]

I said, please, I am crossing the Grand Canyon on a piece of dental floss. You cannot load me down on either side because we're all going to fall together. You know, and so they get that. But there's a lot of bluster and they're going through the five stages of grief on it that we did. It took us 14 months.

[Josh Holmes]

You worked everybody through all five?

[Mike Johnson]

Yes. They got to do it in four weeks. We did it in 14 months.

[Josh Holmes]

How frustrating is it that you're not able to sell what you just talked about? Right. The core of this is delivering on huge promises that the American people overwhelmingly said, yes, we want all of that. And you have to, it seems like not only talk about process more than you'd like because of this process, but also seems just the undereducation. It's not, I'm not just blaming your, your members, but the media, outside sort of pontificators. You have to like, educate people on the basics of what it is that you're trying to accomplish. Right. I mean, there's people talking about discretionary spending cuts and all these things. You're like, I actually have to go and now explain the reconciliation process, which is no fun. I mean, it's no fun for me.

[Mike Johnson]

It's a challenge because there's so much misinformation out there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Mike Johnson]

The difference between Congress right now and Congresses in previous generations is we have a 24 hour news cycle. We have, you know, social media, we have podcasts, all these other outputs, you know, avenues for information. And the social media thing is toxic to politics totally because every single member has their own comm shop and they can go every 2 minutes, 30 seconds online and say what they're disgruntled about in a piece of legislation that was not a thing that previous, you know, generations had to contend with. So in the midst of all that, you have all this false information that's put out and people go off on these tangents that aren't true. And so I'm constantly having to put out fires all the time.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I can't even imagine Johnson sitting in his office having to be see something online from one of his members about something that quite obviously can't go.

[Mike Johnson]

I don't sit in my office. I pace nervously around the floor.

[Announcer]

It's like head and hands. But now it's not just your own members. You were talking about the Senate and how delicately balanced things are in the Senate. And I know that you've been in touch with them and nobody knows how to count votes better than you. You've demonstrated that over and over and over again. So I just wonder, some of these changes are talking about on salt or, you know, Cassidy was talking about opening up Medicare. What, what sort of changes scare you to death about, you know, what, what, what could they do to actually take votes away from the moderates in the House?

[Mike Johnson]

Well, there's a, there's a lot of concern. Every time I see a senator on an interview or something, say, you know, open a Pandora's box that we can't close, I try to call them immediately, reach out and say, let's talk this through. Running a hotline over there. Right, right. I mean, we did all this week, I mean, 14 months. We began the process in March of 2024. Endless, countless hours of listening sessions and whiteboard sessions and, you know, meeting with this caucus and that caucus and getting the caucuses together. And, you know, we've been through all that. So I know every argument that'll come up and already know the answer that has been reached in the House. And so I'm trying to short circuit those, you know, tangents and make sure they don't happen. You know, the salt thing is a good example. I mean, it took us a year to negotiate the point of equilibrium on it. And no one in the. No Republican senator likes the salt raising the salt cap. I don't either. I'm from a red state. But I told them the reality is our majority runs through states like California and New York. I mean, I explain this to people in layman's terms. We can elect Republicans in red states. Everybody's seen the election map. It's all red in the middle. And then you've got the coast that are blue. I have to have Republicans in the districts in California, New York, New Jersey, or we don't have a majority. And I mean, it's down to a handful of seats. So I'm trying to tell my Republican senators we can't do what we prefer. We have to do what is possible. And I'm telling you, that's a fun message to say. Yeah, right. I mean, and I tell my members, like, look, I'm never going to ask you to compromise a core principle, but you have to give in on your preferences. This is a deliberative body. We have 220 of us. You know, we got to come to an agreement. So finding consensus between the disparate caucuses is a. It takes a lot of work. And we did that in the House, and I told them in the Senate, please don't send over, you know, your perfect product that you prefer, because I won't be able to pass it. I mean, it's going to be down to a couple of votes.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, look, it drives us nuts that people talk about debt and deficits in the context of the big, beautiful bill. Because, of course, what they're talking about is a failure to raise the taxes on the American people from the rates they played last year. That's what they say. We used to be, as Republicans, all on the same page about that, what constitutes debt and what doesn't. But apparently that's part of the conversation. But secondarily, you're also moving a rescissions package.

[Mike Johnson]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Which. Where do we see all that?

[Mike Johnson]

Look, we got five steps to fiscal sanity here, okay? And the reconciliation bill is just the first of a series of events that will take place. We're the team that's going to restore fiscal responsibility, but you cannot do that overnight. I mean, people walk around with this assumption that, oh, we won the election, let's flip the switch and go back to, you know, to sanity. It doesn't work that way. I use a metaphor of an aircraft carrier. My son just Finished his first year at the Naval Academy, and I was grilling him for his final exams. And they have to, you know, study all the naval vessels and all the specs, and it's fascinating stuff. But an aircraft carrier doesn't turn on a dime. It takes a mile of open ocean at full speed. And that's what the US Economy is. And it took us decades to get here. And we're not going to fix it overnight. But the biggest turn on that wheel thus far as long as I've been alive, as long as we've been alive, is this reconciliation bill. We're going to cut $1.6 trillion in spending. There's never been a legislature on the face of planet Earth that's ever done.

[Josh Holmes]

That's true.

[Mike Johnson]

Okay. Is it enough? No. And I told my good brother Ron Johnson over in the Senate, no. But this is the first of many steps. Rescissions comes next. That's Russ Vogt at omb is putting together all these packages. The first.

[Comfortably Smug]

Great guy.

[Mike Johnson]

Great guy. I mean, he's a budget hawk, fiscal hawk. The first rescissions package is 9.4 billion. It'll be the first of several that we're going to process. Then we go to the appropriations process, which is the actual spending, and we're going to spend less, carve it out, continue to downsize the federal government size and scope. And then we're going to do another reconciliation bill for the next fiscal year and a third one, we're going to try three reconciliation bills in this Congress for FY26, FY27. So you're going to see a series of events that take place where we gradually and methodically and with great stewardship turn the trajectory.

[Comfortably Smug]

So that is critical information. We were speaking about how, like there's on social media, you'll hear things that are just completely wrong. Stephen Miller has been wonderful.

[Mike Johnson]

He's great.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wonderful for going out there. If you want to get an actual source for truth of what this does. Stephen Miller, who's been pointing out exactly the reconciliation package and how this cuts the deficit. And the assumptions are being made by OMB that like, oh, growth will be at 1 point percent when the last CBO. My mistake by CBO, that growth will be at 1.8% when the last time this passed, it rockets to 3%.

[Michael Duncan]

CBO has been wrong.

[Mike Johnson]

Every time the CBO does some calculations, okay. But every time they project the effect of tax cuts, they're off dramatically. Okay. We did the Tax Cuts and jobs act in 2017. They missed it by $1.5 trillion with a T. So we're supposed to believe that's the Bible right now? No, I'm not lying. So they don't give any credit for growth assumption. They're saying 1.8% growth over 10 years. Never in US history have we sustained less than 2% growth over 10 years. It's not even real. And so it's just kind of a joke. And the fact that some people are grasping onto that and claiming that we're not really cutting is just simply not true. Stephen Miller's been great on trying to help dispel some of the false information. I mean, people said, oh, you're not doing enough of the Doge cuts. Well, Doge cuts is discretionary spending, not mandatory spending. We can't do it in reconciliation. Literally.

[Comfortably Smug]

The other day I saw Elon Musk apologize to President Trump. I always think that an apology is one thing. Making amends is how you actually do it. He needs to get out there and be like, so I was wrong. I was wrong about reconciliation. I understand rescission is where the Doge cuts are, because, I mean, the work that you guys are putting in, that's for the American people, what we voted for. And he has such power and influence to be able to get the message out and say, I was wrong. This is great.

[Mike Johnson]

He's got the biggest platform in the world. And I've come to love and respect Elon. We became friends through this whole process and we've traveled together and, you know, and he's a genius. He knows things that I can't even fathom. But I told him, I said, I don't argue with you on how to build rockets. Don't argue with me on how to, you know, draft and pass legislation, because this is a. There's a nuance to this, and it's not a field that he ever spent any time developing expertise in. So, you know, step by step for the last year. I got to imagine last Thursday.

[Josh Holmes]

I know you don't drink, but I bet you're tempted.

[Mike Johnson]

I almost started. Yeah. I'm trying to be a peacemaker in the thing because these two titans cannot be at odds. And it looks like it's resolving now. And I think that's great for the country.

[Josh Holmes]

A level headed speaker. One thing I got, it's very close to your heart that I got to hit your baseball team down there.

[Mike Johnson]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Lsu, Shreveport.

[Mike Johnson]

Lsu, Shreveport Pilots. Okay. It's a small. I graduated lsu, big lsu, down in Baton Rouge. Four hours north to the northwest corner. My hometown is the, you know, branch campus. Well, their baseball team went 59 and 0. It's the greatest college baseball season in history and they won the NAIA title. Just a flawless performance by some guys that just really worked hard and defied the odds.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you trying to work them into the parade on Saturday up here?

[Mike Johnson]

They should be. I wish I'd thought no, but. But I did get him an invitation to the White House.

[Josh Holmes]

There you go.

[Mike Johnson]

With the President. And I got to announce that over the loudspeaker at their big rally thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I bet they love that.

[Mike Johnson]

It's, it's awesome. It's well deserved. And they're great guys, great character, you know, they just pull together as a team. And I'm using that as a metaphor for the House Republicans. Look at my Shreveport Pilots, man. If they can do it, we can do it, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Very funny. You get a well adjusted guy, just a, you know, guy from Louisiana. All of a sudden you're in charge of all this mess and you're trying to make the best out of it. I imagine team mentality goes a long way.

[Mike Johnson]

Chance in office. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Right. And I, look, I genuinely love all my colleagues and I know what makes them tick and I know the dynamics of their district and I know where the red lines are. And so the challenge of the modern speakership is to get all these disparate groups together to the point of consensus. And we'll do it. We're going to keep doing it. We're going to keep defying the odds.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, underestimate Speaker Johnson at your own peril because this man has delivered time and time again. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Mike Johnson]

So good to be with you guys. I love it. Keep going.

[Michael Duncan]

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[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's nice to have Speaker Johnson with us. Very kind of him to drop by the old studio.

[Michael Duncan]

How about Smug's phone going off during the thing?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I feel so terrible about that.

[Josh Holmes]

Very profound.

[Comfortably Smug]

I apologize to the audience and to the Speaker.

[Michael Duncan]

I also noticed you changed outfits for the second half of our recording.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, well, I mean if it's just you guys, what do I care?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. There's nobody that could have that happen to who would be bothered by it more than you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. I mean, again, I mean that was such a tremendous value add for our audience.

[Michael Duncan]

It was unbelievable. And what a dude like only that dude could get it done with the slim majority we have.

[Mike Johnson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And look, I. We're sympathetic, obviously. A couple of us served in leadership capacities in Congress who are sympathetic about what they deal with on a day to day basis. And we understand there's an awful lot of anxiety about not getting exactly what you want out of everything. But you gotta understand the role of somebody like Speaker Johnson, which is to try to preserve everything you can, try to pull everything as far right as you can with figuring out where you can get to a majority status in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and actually pass something to law. There's so many people that are involved in politics that dedicate their lives to telling you exactly what it is that you want to hear that aren't ever a part of actually delivering it. And that is a problem from my standpoint. Yeah, right. I mean look, there's so age of social media. Like I love social media. I think it's fantastic. Best thing to happen to us for sure. But there's a lot of armchair punditry involved of people that don't know what 215, 216 members have to deal with in their own districts. That guy does.

[Announcer]

Yeah. And I thought one of the best points he made is in important reminder that if you're going to have a majority, it will be made up of people from different parts of this country who represent different types of constituencies. A California and a New York constituency doesn't necessarily look like a Tennessee constituency, but if you Want a majority. You have to have all of them.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, getting something done doesn't mean that you roll out to, you know, all of our favorite shows and tell an audience exactly what they want to hear. It's about finding the balance that gets as much as you need and want to get done with actually getting it into law. Because, as he said, look, the difference between success and failure here is magnificent. I mean, 1 is $1.6 trillion of budget cuts either gets done or it doesn't. You have $3.5 trillion of tax increases. They're either levied on the American people or not. There are important border reforms, securing the.

[Announcer]

Border, build the wall.

[Josh Holmes]

All that stuff either gets done or it doesn't. Right. It's in there currently. Senate's still working on it. We're going to see what reserve judgment until final product comes out on that. But that's what he's working for. Right. So look, for those of you who get frustrated with the process, I understand it. But having served in it, I can tell you it's tough. It's hard to find where your votes are in comparison to what you need to get done. And once you find that balance, it's a special skill set. And I think Mike Johnson has done an incredible job at trying to figure out what that balance is, preserving as much as you possibly can in delivering President Trump's promises to the American people. I know they're gonna get it done, but I really think he deserves an awful lot of credit for doing it.

[Comfortably Smug]

How did you describe it? He said it's like walking floss across the Grand Canyon.

[Josh Holmes]

I was like, yeah, that's pretty good.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's pretty good.

[Josh Holmes]

It's pretty good. All right. We got an awful lot of show in front of us. We're gonna do a lightning round. We're gonna get to your comments. We got a question of the day. Our question of the day. After you listen to all of that. Because I found myself basically asking myself this, like, how would. How long would you last in that job?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

As speaker of the House, like, knowing your own personality.

[Michael Duncan]

I wouldn't last a day. I wouldn't last a day. That's the first time somebody came to me. It's like. But. But I've got a concern about me tendering my resignation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want to deal with this.

[Josh Holmes]

I'd love to see, like, Thomas Massie and the old man in a room for one second talking about what's going on achievable versus what the reality.

[Michael Duncan]

Hey, I'm realistic. And, you know, a true man knows his own limitations, and I know what I can't do. And it's herd those cats.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, having served Ashbrook and I in a leadership capacity, I can tell you it's a very nerve trying deal. It's very difficult to listen to everybody sit on a couch, basically, and tell you all their problems and you try to fix them on an hourly basis and they come back to you with more problems after you solve them. So how the question of the day is for you as a listener, as you're listening to that, you're hearing what it is that this guy has to deal with. How long do you think you would last as a Speaker of the House? Maybe some of you feel like you're well situated for that kind of thing. Maybe you have tactics that you deploy that are unconventional. And if so, we'd love to hear about them like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program. And when you do, and you leave your comment, we read them all. And we'll get back to you next Tuesday with your answers. But we always like to read the last episodes. And our question of the day was, should Trump send in the Marines? Prescient in many ways.

[Comfortably Smug]

We've been on a roll with that. By the way, if you listen to our show, guess what? You know, what's gonna happen in the next 36 hours?

[Josh Holmes]

Tomorrow's news today.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it's.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you think maybe Trump. Trump listens and he's like, that's a great idea.

[Announcer]

Potentially.

[Josh Holmes]

Potentially. We know a lot of their people, but, you know, the LA riots and everything else. And the big question was, how do you secure these people when you've got local law enforcement that are hemmed in by political leadership that don't want to do their job? And what do you do as President, United States? Should you send in the Marines or not? That was our question to you. This is how you commented. We start with a voice.

[Announcer]

First one comes from Jimmy Major. And Jimmy writes, question of the day. I was 11 years old and living in Washington, D.C. when Martin Luther King was assassinated. Understandably, black Americans flooded into the streets in angry protests. Soon after, rioting and looting broke out. Within a day, lyndon Johnson ordered 13,000 National Guard troops deployed into the city and imposed a citywide curfew. Uniformed soldiers were on every single corner. Over 6,100 arrests were made. And within four days, the rioting and looting had stopped. Quick, decisive action and overwhelming force prevented a bad situation from devolving into chaos. Jimmy Major writes It looks like Trump may have learned some lessons from the Summer of Love and taken a page from the Lyndon Johnson playbook. The best response to civil unrest is with maximum counter forces. Let's hope the American public doesn't go wobbly when we see it unfolding.

[Josh Holmes]

Jimmy Major with a historical reference. Very interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm curious, Ashbrook, do you agree with his assessment of Martin Luther King? Because you were alive back then, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

What was it like that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. What was the Selma march like?

[Josh Holmes]

He was just buzzing with some Buddy Holly on the radio and, you know.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ashbrooker just had his first kid.

[Announcer]

Not gonna respect the country, still remember.

[Comfortably Smug]

Kennedy been shot so recently.

[Announcer]

Not gonna respond to that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Raising kids in such an environment. It was tough. Ashbrook, you got it done.

[Josh Holmes]

Thrilled the prospects of Medicare and Social Security coming to fruition.

[Announcer]

Michael, if you need help. If you need help reading that next comment, I'm happy to help you read it.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, just. This is a transition.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a transition.

[Mike Johnson]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment two here. Question of the day. If Rockstar would just release GTA 6, we would not have to deal with these protests. POTUS should pick up the phone and call Rockstar and the FBI should investigate what caused the delay. If fall 2025 was the original planned date, then the beta may have been out by now. Release the GTA 6 beta. I love this take.

[Comfortably Smug]

Great.

[Michael Duncan]

Take number number one. I think, you know, a lot of these riots have to do with these college kids who are out of school with nothing to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, as we said, six months of Marxist theory and now they go out and they practice. But I think the other thing here is, like, maybe if they could digitally burn down cities, they wouldn't have to do it in person. So I guess they could get it out, you know? You know, they could steal a cop car, you know, maybe beat up a prostitute. Yeah, that's what you do in that.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe some, like, LED lighting on an inside. You know, something to really flash bang it.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they have. They have Molotov cocktails, deals in gta.

[Josh Holmes]

Like an immersive experience is my point.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, that you could.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, like maybe get some VR.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I love that idea.

[Josh Holmes]

He takes care of it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, we're going to take this right to the top.

[Josh Holmes]

Thoughtful. Thoughtful. A riot at every corner. Just inside a local drugstore or somewhere, you can check yourself in and work things out. I love it. All right, Comment three, Smuggles.

[Comfortably Smug]

This comes from Robert Spitalnick and Robert Wright to the question Trump sending in the Marines is a win. Win. The rioting must be stopped and the message must be sent that there's a new sheriff in town. The nation cannot afford to let this keep happening. It's also good politics to humiliate Newsom and the rest of the left.

[Josh Holmes]

I agree. Robert.

[Comfortably Smug]

Nailed it. Nailed it.

[Josh Holmes]

Robert, you are a wise man.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That is exactly our take. And to that point, we have a clip at what's happening here, if we don't mind. Spaghett's Clip 1. These are, in fact, our United States Marines conducting a sustainment training in the LA area ahead of a deployment.

[Michael Duncan]

See, I've watched Mighty Ducks, and what I saw there was a flying V.

[Josh Holmes]

It was a flying V, which I appreciate with perhaps a little bit more sustainable force pattern behind it.

[Announcer]

They're operating on a soccer field, which is something Michael's very familiar with. However, they are operating with some force and strength which you don't see in soccer often. I'm wondering, Michael, when you were playing soccer, how scared would you have been if you saw men like that coming your direction?

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't even know how to answer that. If I saw guys in riot gear on a soccer field.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a lot more American than you typically see on a soccer field.

[Announcer]

Certainly is.

[Michael Duncan]

We're hosting the World Cup. I have some goddamn pride.

[Comfortably Smug]

Did you hear that? That, like, that might not happen.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, bullshit.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, the mayor.

[Michael Duncan]

There's too much graffiti. It's like, if you can clean up. If you can clean up San Francisco for she.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

You should be able to clean up L. A for our World Cup.

[Announcer]

I'm glad we're hosting it. We have French restaurants in this country. We have sushi and vegan restaurants in this country. And so, of course, we also are big enough to have the World Cup.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, we're cultural like that. Also. Let's not act like the dumps in Europe that they've hosted this thing at are, like, free of graffiti.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is great.

[Announcer]

Point.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I remember the Olympics in Paris where, like, people were getting, you know, bacteria infections by swimming. Jump in the water. In the water. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

My take is sending the Marines to the World Cup. Make it stop.

[Michael Duncan]

Now we're talking.

[Josh Holmes]

Force them to play NFL football on their field and have every soccer player watch it.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's two O's in football, not a U.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I would love?

[Announcer]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Is you get some of these guys in riot gear, and anytime somebody flops on the field, they come out, they get the billy club.

[Josh Holmes]

You get the Flying V. The Flying V comes out in the billy club.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's good. I like that.

[Announcer]

Great. Wonderful idea, Michael.

[Josh Holmes]

Coming up, Mexico wants to build that wall. And plus, Katy Perry loves colonialism. A little different take on colonialism. You're gonna love this Katy Perry. I mean, Jesus, this lady, she's just not. Well, she didn't make her way all the way through school, I don't think. Because she's got some things that we'd love to comment on. We're gonna get to all of it. Ready for this? You've heard us talk before about the effort by legacy media to stop you from accessing shows like this one. They do it by eliminating spectrum available to consumers like you to access shows like this one. They say it's a national defense issue, absurdly enough. While Trump isn't buying it, neither is Senator Ted Cruz. In the big beautiful bill, Republicans have heard your voice and they're providing more spectrum. So what does that mean for you? It can reduce your monthly broadband bill and preserve your ability to watch, listen, and stream all the content that you choose, not what's chosen for you by some big cable provider. The sale of spectrum will also generate tens of billions of dollars to reduce our national debt. What's not to love about that? Don't let the giant cable providers and legacy media continue to filter your information. Tell your senator and your member of Congress to work with Senator Cruz and President Trump to expand spectrum and end the legacy media monopoly for good. You can learn more at End the cableopoly. Okay, so last time, I think we had discussed at some level, and I forget exactly how you framed it. Dunks. But it was basically like these. These students.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, these are the. The grad students who did six months of Marxist theory. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And then all of a sudden they're now.

[Michael Duncan]

Now they're doing praxis, as they say in Marxist literature.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And I think it's important for us in the ruthless writing program. We've. We've shown you the violence, we've shown you the cars on fire. Let's see the lighter side of the left's reaction to these riots. I just love, because they just. They just force themselves into these logical pretzels and it's very hilarious.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. Let's go to clip two. Spaghett's.

[Mike Johnson]

There's people dying out there.

[Michael Duncan]

So they're confronting these cops. As long as you feel okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

That'S all you, man.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what that even means?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes, I'm in College.

[Josh Holmes]

An imperialist state. So he's lecturing a cop. A cop, right. Who is, like, kind enough to have a discussion. The cops are sitting there with, like, a full front line. They could have mowed these guys down in, like, two minutes. The guy's screaming at him. The cops entertaining the conversation out of the. I would say, the generosity of his heart.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I would have advanced that line.

[Josh Holmes]

I would have advanced fast.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, I'm the 300 at Thermopylae.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But he starts talking about the imperialists.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, the racist imperialist. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And. And, like, I noticed there was. There was both a Mexican flag. And then I think I. I caught wind of some Palestinian action in there, which, I mean, look, you've got to work hard to figure out the nexus there.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Other than that, it's the. The modern left. And. And he says he don't even know what that means. He's like, yeah, I'm in college.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm in college.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

It reminds me of this great bit from south park where, like, all the boys are, like. They're at this music festival, and these, like, burnouts come up, and they're talking about, like, capitalism, how evil it is. And he's like, we just got back from our first semester. Our professors opened our eyes, man. It's just like south park is a show that's just always been way ahead of its time.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally. Well, the faux intellectualism of the modern left is fantastic. And it's really, really apparent in this younger generation finds themselves in the middle of a gay pride rally with Palestinian flags. And they're like. They don't get the mutually exclusive nature of what it is that they're doing, but they're absolutely certain that the imperialist, racist forces are to be battled wherever they are. And, like, they don't understand the nuances of all of these things, but it extends not just, like, to this dumb shit, also to people who are making tens of millions of dollars because they're entertainers, have no higher education.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Than these folks. Katy Perry dunks. Will you mind setting this thing up?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So, Katy Perry. Do we have the graphic one up here? She. She puts this status up on her Instagram story. She says, Los Angeles, a place that literally began as El Pueblo Dinestra Sonora.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

This is America now. Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's America.

[Michael Duncan]

Founded by Mexican settlers in 1781, this was once Mexican land. And the people being targeted today are often descendants of those who have lived here for generations or who came seeking safety, work, and dignity. The thing that's Fascinating about this. And back to your point earlier, Holmes, in that intersectionality of all the bullshit that the left pretends to believe in, they don't even understand when it's not. There's no continuity. Because when they talk about Israel and Palestine, they're like, we don't believe in the settler colonialism and these Jews shouldn't be here in the Middle east and they need to go back to Poland.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Holocaust be damned.

[Michael Duncan]

But. But if you happen to be a Mexican, then settler colonialism is cool by Katy Perry. Suddenly we're not doing land acknowledgments for the native Americans anymore because they're not white people. This is the Mexicans land. Yeah. They only care about settler colonialism when it happens to be a white guy who came over on the Mayflower.

[Josh Holmes]

So let me just do this. I was just going to say, just to get this straight, maybe. Maybe you can put a finer point on this. Smash. What she's saying is basically the land inhabited by, at that point, indigenous groups, they were taken over by Spanish settlers.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. So, like, I don't want to completely dismiss her because it was an absolute W when Cortez rolled up and stopped the child sacrifices. Like, I think history has shown Cortez huge W. He made the child sacrifices stop.

[Josh Holmes]

He saved a lot of money for Cortez. That is not where I saw this show going.

[Announcer]

I did not either. I didn't either.

[Josh Holmes]

No, but you were gonna say Smash.

[Announcer]

Well, you know, you were talking about land acknowledgments. And when I saw this Katy Perry story, I wondered, where does she live? And I saw a headline of a story that said she was slammed for suing an 85 year old veteran she evicted from her 15, $15 million mansion in Montecito.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh my gosh.

[Announcer]

And so I wondered who occupied Montecito in this property before Katy Perry and.

[Michael Duncan]

Why is she deporting this elderly person?

[Announcer]

Well, but. But also, if. If you take it back to when Katie cares about land acknowledgments, there's a group called the Chumash people who occupied the land of Montecito at some point in history. And so I think that if she were an honest person, she would let.

[Michael Duncan]

Her property go back.

[Announcer]

Back to the Chumash people.

[Michael Duncan]

Give up your chums, Give up your mansion.

[Josh Holmes]

Everybody knows the Chumash has a right on that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no question. In perpetuity, forever.

[Announcer]

She should lead by example.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

But like, so her critique, just for those of you who don't follow along with the humor on this is to put a finer point on it. Like, her critique is that we shouldn't be deporting illegal immigrants because it's their land. It's A, not their land, but B, the people. If you want to talk about original settling of that land, you're talking about the settlers, the Spanish settlers that then took it from them.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

That she now is acknowledging the first taking, the second taking of the colonial, as she would put it, is. Well, it's less good, right?

[Michael Duncan]

That's the crazy thing about liberals when they talk about colonialism and settlers and all this sort of stuff doesn't matter really. Like where they look in the world. They like have a selective memory. And there's like, I would just love a liberal to sit down with me and like, pick a date. Like, you pick a date and you tell me when was the world at homeostasis and everybody deserved to be where they are, you know what I mean? Because it doesn't exist.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know, it just seems to me smug. There's a common thread on their critiques.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I'm just gonna be honest.

[Josh Holmes]

What's the common thread?

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's the thing is, it's always hypocrisy. They always try to do this of like, oh, well, they want to frame every narrative in that there is the conquered and the conquerors and that's what they use to wedge to pit people against themselves. This example that you give is just a million in the line of liberals in the left don't actually believe in anything. They just hope they can wedge you. Like when they say that, like, well, you know, Jesus was an illegal immigrant, they're like, I don't believe in the Bible, but I'm hoping I can use your own beliefs against you to do what I want. They believe in nothing. Yeah, this is the dumbest stuff. Cortez didn't burn his boats for this. He worked so hard to save those children.

[Michael Duncan]

He's still on the Cortez thing. I love it.

[Announcer]

Cortez.

[Josh Holmes]

It just seems to me like the conquering. Conquering is sort of an arbitrary situation, provided that the conquering isn't done by anybody with a white skin. At which point that becomes problematic if you're an American progressive, right? Like, it's the most mind boggling lack of history, lack of education, lack of logical situation of all time in that these people, they have but one goal and it's to suggest that A, America is always wrong, and B, there is only one constituency in the world that doesn't have to be defended. Yeah, that's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And everything else is problematic.

[Michael Duncan]

America's always wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

America's.

[Michael Duncan]

It's so funny. Like the idea that LA belongs to Cortez or to these Mexicans or whatever. It's as silly as like the Dutch sailing up and being like, we want New York City back, Give it back.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, just so.

[Announcer]

It's just so the New York Times building in Manhattan sits on once claimed native land. Why don't they give that back to the natives who had it?

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Announcer]

Well, I mean, it's all the corporation has to do. Surely she would agree. There were a lot of people with white skin working in that New York Times building. If they actually cared about what they claim to believe in, they would give it back.

[Josh Holmes]

It gets a little bit more dicey when we're talking about Christopher Columbus. Bit more dicey because, you know, he's Italian.

[Announcer]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So.

[Announcer]

Right. They don't, they don't like that.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you just. How do we categorize anyway? The Mexicans, not surprisingly, see the world very similarly to Katy Perry in this. I think you flagged this one. Clip 3 Haruncks, if you wouldn't mind taking this one.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. This is the president of the Mexican Senate and he's got a diagram up here of Mexico in 1830. Where he's just.

[Announcer]

Relevant time frame.

[Michael Duncan]

He's just like taking. He's just decided that they still own a quarter of the United States of America, including California, which is just so funny to me.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And this is. This is where presumably he's making the case.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, the Katy Perry case.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, with the Katy Perry case. That this was once Mexico, not that there was Mexican American war fought over it, but because of that, ICE deportations are in fact a wrong thing to do.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, right. This is just so funny, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, it's just.

[Announcer]

It is so funny. Clearly the guy has never heard of Sam Houston. You know, General Santa Anna fought valiantly, but he was crushed by the Americans and the Texans.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, but dude, we remember the element, isn't it?

[Josh Holmes]

But you go back to the first clip of the kid and then you look at something like that and then you look at basically the undergirding of the modern left and all these protests and all. It's this, it's this projection that they know more than you about everything, which is kind of the basis.

[Announcer]

That's what they always. They love to do this, of progressivism.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. It's like you're dumb, you're dragging your knuckles. We're highly educated and we know what we're talking about.

[Announcer]

I went to Williams College. I was at Bryn Mawr, for crying out loud. I know better than you. State school graduate.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. I've been opened to the world.

[Michael Duncan]

Professors, opened our eyes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Whereas you're like some idiot in Kansas. Right. But like, if you actually just poke a half centimeter in to any of it, it's the most faux intellectual dumb fuckery you will ever see on any, any level of illogical argument there. None of this makes any sense. All of it falls on its own fallacy. There's nothing about what it is that they're talking about that makes a lick of sense. And yet it's the basis by which they like, stand up to the man and they're going to protest in cities across this nation. They're protesting, by the way, on the same day that we're celebrating the 250th birthday of our army.

[Announcer]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

What is to protest about? That either you're American or you don't. If you don't want to celebrate that. And I understand, Wolf, you've got like a thumb marine thing, which, you know, it's a little, you know, there's, there's a rivalry. A rivalry.

[Announcer]

But the halls of Montezuma are allowed to do that.

[Josh Holmes]

But surely as a country we can celebrate the fact that we've had an army for 250 years defending this country. No. And that, in my view, is all you need to know. That's all you need to know. The 250th birthday of the army of the United States is something worth protesting, counter protesting against. They don't like it.

[Announcer]

They don't like it. It tells you everything you need to know about these people and like the idea that they're, that they're so much better educated. You really hit the nail on the head. They look at this credential from a Northeastern university like it's something to fly like a flag. And the rest of the country sees it as a punchline and they don't understand it. And I think that shows you exactly who they are and their eq, which is not very high.

[Josh Holmes]

Not high. It's not high. Well, this was fun. We've got one more clip that we want to show you.

[Michael Duncan]

I think this is the best clip of all the clips.

[Announcer]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Because it's, it's basically the apotheosis of this entire conversation.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, is it really?

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, hold on.

[Michael Duncan]

Just set it up a little bit here. You've got these, I mean, these two White liberals. You know the type. The people who like, look like they're homeless.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But clearly have a trust fund.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I call them the professional poor and.

[Josh Holmes]

Professional poor.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And they decide to have a confrontation with a African American woman. And we'll just take it from there.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's go to clip four.

[Mike Johnson]

What about my kids?

[Josh Holmes]

Then what happens to my kids? But you can't.

[Announcer]

If you could just move off the window to me.

[Michael Duncan]

Look at that guy.

[Announcer]

Is it the people protest?

[Mike Johnson]

If there's enough, there's nothing. How do you all, as white people feel about stopping a black woman from going to work?

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, no, not work.

[Josh Holmes]

So you don't care about stopping black.

[Mike Johnson]

People from line of work?

[Comfortably Smug]

Look at this line that you guys causing.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm not causing no problems.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm not trying to.

[Josh Holmes]

We're just trying to leave.

[Announcer]

Guys, guy has never worked a day in his life.

[Comfortably Smug]

Trustafarian. That is the most trustafarian take of like, oh, no, not work.

[Michael Duncan]

This guy in his man bun. This woman's just trying to go feed her family.

[Announcer]

She's like, I got a light bill to pay.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know that there's anything. And I'm trying to, like, calibrate myself. I'm not sure that there's anything in modern society that makes me more angry than that.

[Announcer]

Yeah, I'm with you.

[Michael Duncan]

Aren't you glad we saved it for last?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, the idea that you have these two good for nothing Fuckwitz standing out in his man bun, giving a lecture to clearly a young. I don't know if she's a working mom or if she's what she is, but this young African American woman who just wants to get to work and they're lecturing her about why they're gonna stop her from going to work.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And then when somebody asks the question, why are you stopping these people from going to work? He's like, oh, no. Work?

[Announcer]

Yeah, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, fucko. Do you have any idea what this country was founded on?

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, no clue.

[Michael Duncan]

They're just anti capitalist. They're anti American. People are Marxist. They don't care. They don't care. They want the system destroyed.

[Josh Holmes]

It's. But, but it's. I mean, look, for those of you listening, I think you'll immediately understand what it is that I'm saying in that. In the, in the neighborhoods that you grew up with, in the era that you grew up in and your parents and everybody. You wouldn't be listening to this if you didn't agree at some point that American exceptionalism is something, but it doesn't exist just simply because it exists. It exists all the way back to the founding of this country where, you know, you had a bunch of redcoats saying, get in line. We're like, fuck off. We're gonna do it our own way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It's like, what is it that Reagan said? Freedom is one generation away from extinction. Yeah. And it's true.

[Josh Holmes]

But every generation of American up to this point has figured out how to do something a little bit better than the rest of the world. It's why the economy grows. It's why the rest of the world at some level has to deal with the United States. Obviously, there's a big turning point Post World War II when you really had to deal with the United States because they were willing to throw it around and make sure the world order was, you know, copacetic with peace. And to listen to that, it's like, no, like we need to do nothing, Nothingness, nothing. Like, I can go home to my Soho apartment and like, cook whatever shitty meal I've got going on and not worry about all this trouble afterwards because I'm preventing people from doing things and I've done a good thing. Like you haven't actually internalized what it is that you're doing. You're preventing American greatness. And that woman going to work. She's not only trying to provide for her family and do all the things like that's the small stuff, the larger look at it. You're preventing people from working harder than everyone else. That makes America better than everyone else. That separates us from the people taking siestas in Mexico and the, and the four hour naps in Italy and the. All the other that's happening across this world. That's what makes us different.

[Michael Duncan]

In their defense, pasta makes you sleepy.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and if, you know, I mean.

[Michael Duncan]

It'S a lot of carbs, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, plus they've got, you know, what of the wrap on the Chianti? It's just, it's alluring. Yeah, but, but for real.

[Announcer]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's a thing.

[Announcer]

No, it's a great point.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, they've been indulged. I think a lot of us are at fault with this, is we got okay with letting these people block bridges and were worried that like, oh God, if we send the cops out to crack skulls, we're going to look like the bad guys. That could hurt polling. You know, Nixon didn't care about polling when he got elected. Crime was running rampant. Nixon now more than ever go look at those ads. Cuz they were. This country looked like what it looks like now. And what did he do? He sent in the National Guard. He cracked down on that crime the journalists were all crying about, like, oh my God, look at the National Guard. There's been a shooting. Two years later, he won a 49 state landslide. Yeah, America's worth defending.

[Announcer]

And our first comment came from a guy saying that Lyndon Johnson did the exact same thing. And there are Democrats who've sent in the National Guard. There are Republicans who have sent in the National Guard. Today's Democrats are captured by the global elites like Hans Borg. Vice is a guy you talk about all the time who want to destabilize and ruin our country because they think it's better for them.

[Josh Holmes]

There are tactics like sending in the National Guard or enforcing law and order and things and all that's important. It's equally important for us as a society to absolutely extinguish the point of view that that man bun idiot.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Has. Which is like, oh, work. Oh, work.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's because it's like mold. It's been allowed to fester. It's been a lot of fester.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta get rid of it.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's. It's time to crack skulls. If people is enough, we don't have to deal with this. This is America. People, people are done with this. They're done going to the drugstore and everything's locked up. Oh, because you know, we don't want to have the security guard get sued by a lawyer because he stops someone from stealing. Like every American is having to jump through hoops because we stopped caring about this country. Yep, enough's enough. Louisiana's a prime example. A president has been elected by the people in popular vote, electoral vote, tremendous success. Specifically because the American people want law and order. We were tired of what it became like under Joe Biden.

[Josh Holmes]

Lawless.

[Comfortably Smug]

And now you're seeing a president who's actually taking action on what he was elected to do. Do it.

[Josh Holmes]

If you're raising your kids with responsibility, integrity, commitment to this country, you're doing your job. And you look down the road, somebody else isn't putting an arm around that kid. I'm just telling you it's gonna take a lot. Because if that's the mentality, like we all have to do something about it. Listen, let's lighten things up and let's play a game. What do you guys think?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, let's play a game.

[Michael Duncan]

Signature King of the Hill is back.

[Josh Holmes]

King of the Hill is back. I believe I'm a champion.

[Michael Duncan]

You are a champion. And I think Ashbrook, you're the challenger. You're a champion. You have Jen Rubin.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And the challenger you're bringing Joe Walsh. Smug is judge and I'm going to be a very active and supportive bailiff. So let's go ringside.

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, you attend please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from his living room somewhere smoking Jo. And now in the blue corner, fighting from a cat filled living room somewhere in Washington D.C. and current champion of the world, the Queen Jennifer Rainworms Reuben.

[Josh Holmes]

The best, best part about the Reuben thing is I feel like it's added a full. Yeah, we got like, I got like a 20 seconder on it.

[Michael Duncan]

We got like three stanzas now. I love it.

[Announcer]

She deserves it. Puts up such good content.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, all right. So as the champion, I'm going to start. And who am I addressing? Who is the.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm the judge.

[Josh Holmes]

You're the judge. I'm addressing you. I'm going to start with exhibit one, please Begat Trump is turning us into a police state. To detract. I think she means distracting. But detract from X is mindless political insiderism. The story is Trump turning us into a police state. I'd like to deconstruct that if you don't mind, just for a minute. What she is getting at. First of all, wrong word, wrong spelling. There's also a couple of grammatical issues involved. The sentence doesn't read like a sentence.

[Comfortably Smug]

Friday only. But what time of day was this?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, so it is at 3:36pm and you know, it's a bit early to.

[Comfortably Smug]

Be in the sauce.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I don't know. Chardonnay rolls early when you have nothing else to do. Anyway, it was on June 10th. What she's getting at here is the whole Elon Trump dust up from last week happening June 10, four days later. She's gotten to that. But her suggestion is that she's. He's sending the Marines into LA to distract the nation from his Twitter spat. The X spat that he's having with Elon, which in and of itself is funny, but then a total misuse of the Internet and many, many ways misspellings run on sentence doesn't even capitalize anymore.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, no, I mean period lowercase the story.

[Josh Holmes]

Like no, no, but, but she, but.

[Comfortably Smug]

She did manage the Washington Post, right? Losing that job was tough.

[Josh Holmes]

She did manage.

[Michael Duncan]

She's out of practice, has not bounced back.

[Josh Holmes]

She did manage to all caps. Trump turning us into police state. Trump turning us into police state.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's tough.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, man.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's brutal when the take is bad, but it's like a cry for help.

[Michael Duncan]

What do you got, Ashbrook?

[Announcer]

Okay, your honor, if it please the court, exhibit number 11, please. Spaghetti. Joe Walsh writes. Fuck you, Donald Trump. I have a constitutional right to protest your stupid Kim Jong Un parade. I dare you to use the military to try to stop my first amendment right, you ignorant coward. This is a former Republican congressman.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's. That's an absolute banger. This guy is so unhinged.

[Michael Duncan]

He's like, please give me attention. I want it so badly.

[Comfortably Smug]

Seriously. I mean, he is. To be clear, folks, this is an army parade on flag day. This is like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.

[Announcer]

250Th birthday.

[Comfortably Smug]

I put you down with Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

He's like, I'm entirely irrelevant. Please do something to me so I can raise money or complain on the Internet.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that was a great pick. And I mean, I'll also say, I mean, honestly, that Jen Rubin tweet just made me sad. Like, it feel. It's like sent from, like, they're still Chinese food and like, the cat's not been fed in days. She's in a. She's in a bad place. Round one, Joe Walsh.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Mike Johnson]

Okay.

[Announcer]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

Will we see fun? It's like, man, a two round knockout.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, like every once in a while he'll show you a little new piece of his precedent making. Making him sad.

[Comfortably Smug]

We need a wellness check on Jen Ruben. Her cats are waiting to feast on her.

[Michael Duncan]

Who would have thought that smug had a heart?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, not me. Don't make him sad.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, those cats are looking at her like we're getting ready to eat her.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, geez.

[Announcer]

Okay, now I'm sad not to take. Wow.

[Comfortably Smug]

The cats are like, you only got a few more days.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't run out of food, lady.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Order in the court. Order in the court.

[Announcer]

Ashbrook spaghetti exhibit number eight, please. Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh in the form of a poem, maybe.

[Comfortably Smug]

What is this?

[Announcer]

He stood in front of our troops today and gave a mean spirited partisan speech. He stood in front of our troops today and attacked Americans by name. He stood in front of our troops today and goaded them into booing. Their fellow Americans never become desensitized to this. So it is sort of like an anti war Vietnam era.

[Michael Duncan]

Not exactly Maya Angelou.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, he saw something different. So he's my guess is referring to at Fort Bragg In North Carolina.

[Josh Holmes]

That's probably it.

[Comfortably Smug]

President Trump gave an awesome speech. I mean, the cheers that were going up, I mean, he crushed it. So I guess Joe Walsh is crying about the troops having a great time.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, I'm gonna blow that out of the water. Can we get Exhibit 3 up, please? This is Jen Rubin, who says she can't wait for Jake Tapper's book on how the corporate media conspired to cover up Trump's dictatorship by falsely hyping violence in LA and recirculating White House Media Talk talking points.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, that is pretty awesome.

[Josh Holmes]

She's been on one about the Jake Dapper book because she doesn't feel like Biden was actually brain dead when the rest of the world has come to consensus on this issue.

[Michael Duncan]

The irony being, of course, she has much culpability in the Joe Biden problem not stepping down. That's sort of the backdrop of this tweet that I find so hilarious.

[Josh Holmes]

Evidenced is our game claim to fame, where she wrote Klain's tweets in long form for the Washington Post. Anyway, she's taken that grievance, smashed it into the next grievance, which is what you're watching on television with the burning cars and the beating of police and stuff like that. That's corporate media that's trying to fool you into thinking something's happening in la.

[Comfortably Smug]

I could not be happier than when you're seeing a game where you hate both the teams and you're just rooting for injuries. It's like her going after Tapper. I'm there for it. Popcorn is out. Round two to Ruben.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Wow. Astute analysis.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. Yep. All right, so look, part of the problem with Rubin is that she's got so much shit going on, clearly, because it's. It's blue sky. You know, this was a landmark decision that we did here. And so she's unfettered by the confines of Twitter of being able to.

[Comfortably Smug]

No accountability. No one's like, hey, you're actually only.

[Josh Holmes]

People that are on there are clinically insane.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, that should be good for you. I don't know what you're complaining about.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, there's just a lot to work with. You know what I mean? And it's not all, I like the concise insanity. And there's just a lot. Yeah, there's just a lot there. So you kind of have to work through it. So here's what I've come up with. Exhibit five, please. LA is quiet. Wow.

[Announcer]

That's how you start.

[Josh Holmes]

Nice V. Notice the Capital H there. Attempt to. I mean, this is. Can I just stop? Right the fucking. Like. Can you imagine what's going on with the keyboard?

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

It seems like a thing. Anyway, the attempt to provoke is failing so far. Period. So far. Police officers and deputies from several agencies maintained a large presence across downtown Los Angeles. She's quoting. On Monday morning. But no protesters have been seen in the area. Cleanup effort has begun to clear debris from the streets. All right, so her. She's quoting from something, but she's not sourcing it.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is plagiarism. Oh, at some level. I mean, she's quoting, but there's no. There's nothing there. It's not linking. It's blue sky.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, so I don't think that they abide by the same rules, but she. Her. So her comment in. In some. And substances. LA is quiet.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. She's. She's trying to roll with the whole, like, Brian Stelter takes. My friends in gated communities say there's no problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. It's 9:00am none of the protesters have woke up yet. The streets are empty when we start work. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What's going on here? Yeah, I mean, they literally shut down the 405.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And she's like, it's quiet because I. I'm subjectively quoting an unnamed source that talk about how they're cleaning things up.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I did notice that they instituted a curfew in la.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

So apparently the Democratic leadership of LA seems to think they do have some problems.

[Josh Holmes]

They do have some problems.

[Michael Duncan]

Just maybe not in the morning.

[Josh Holmes]

There are still Marines training on a soccer field.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's just so wild. They're really trying to run it back. It's like with the whole, like, actually, Joe Biden is healthy. This like. No, LA is calm. It's like, really, you guys can't come with anything better than that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Also just picking the paragraph where it ends in an effort to clean up the debris. Yeah, yeah.

[Announcer]

But it's quiet.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. We're not going to talk about the debris, burnt cars.

[Michael Duncan]

But, I mean, I remember in 2020, we had journos here in D.C. being like, there's no riots here.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. We're having it outside of our door.

[Michael Duncan]

They're burning cop cars in front of our building every single night. Every night.

[Josh Holmes]

I would just like to say to Jen Rubin, Waymo would like a word.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

All right. That's what I got.

[Michael Duncan]

All right. Smash.

[Announcer]

I have a similar tweet with Joe Walsh saying that they're not Riots. But I won't play it. I'm gonna ask for exhibit number nine, where he's, quote, tweeting a description of President Trump's speech to our troops once again. And he declares, donald Trump is America's enemy.

[Comfortably Smug]

Man, this is tough.

[Announcer]

Troops were reacting to his speech, and the former Republican congressman concluded that because of the troop reaction, Donald Trump is America's enemy.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Announcer]

I don't think there's a whole lot of context that needs to be added there.

[Comfortably Smug]

The context I'd provide to Joe Walsh is, look at the scoreboard. Dude won a landslide. Dude took a bullet. I mean, what a take. That was a tough matchup. I got to give it to Joe Walsh.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't disagree.

[Comfortably Smug]

What a wild.

[Josh Holmes]

This is. What I was talking about with the difficulty with Jen Rubin is that now she's on Blue Sky. I don't get the. The four word thing.

[Mike Johnson]

That.

[Josh Holmes]

That was. That's my preference.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Particularly dealing with Judge Mug.

[Comfortably Smug]

She used to have an. Like, an office. She used to go to a workplace. Now I really feel like this is like a, you know, you got to have a wellness check situation. It's just her and the cat staring at each other.

[Josh Holmes]

Miscapitalizing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, there's stuff going on.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, the cats are cheering for it. They're like, drink more.

[Michael Duncan]

I see what you're saying. You're saying now cats are talking to her.

[Comfortably Smug]

They want it.

[Michael Duncan]

You think now that she's not the Washington Post, and now that you. She's posting on Blue sky, she sort of lacks the focus in the material.

[Josh Holmes]

I think the knife's edge has dulled.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. She gets to the same point. It just takes, like, three or four sentences.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, on Twitter, you're like.

[Josh Holmes]

It reads like a ransom note from the fucking. Like some Broadway killer.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, we should be. We should go back and see all the missed capitalizations to see if it spells something out.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my gosh.

[Announcer]

Interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe she's got a secret message and all that.

[Announcer]

That. That's very interesting.

[Josh Holmes]

I help.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe she's. Maybe she's the Zodiac.

[Josh Holmes]

It just says help.

[Announcer]

I do think there's something to what you're saying, that if she's not sitting in the newsroom and people aren't challenging her, and the biggest thing in her day is standing in the aisles at petsmart looking at the fish.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, she's ordering for delivery. She's not getting outside. Yeah, the, like, blinds are closed. The cats are like, she's our faux gras. But you see the franzia is going to make her liver more delicious. You keep her smug.

[Michael Duncan]

You keep making this sadder and sadder. Parody. Parody, we're laughing. Parody, we're laughing.

[Josh Holmes]

Parody, we laugh. Yeah, but, but, but he makes a point. But there's also, like, for those of you who have come to appreciate King of the Hill over the years, everybody has their eras. Like, she's really stood the test of time. Been a competitor since the very beginning.

[Announcer]

She's a champion.

[Josh Holmes]

But, like, if you look at like Sherry Jacobus, the isolation has done her good.

[Announcer]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

In terms of being a competitor, great.

[Comfortably Smug]

On King comparison, right?

[Announcer]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, so that is improved her.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But Sherry's just built different. Yeah, she's just built different. She's one of one.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

She's Michael Jordan.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Michael Duncan]

And like, Jen Rubin is sort of like LeBron out there now. It's like, it might be time to hang it up, Harrison, you know? Ooh.

[Comfortably Smug]

Brutal but true.

[Josh Holmes]

That is true. Listen, that's King of the Hill for this week. Hope you guys have enjoyed that. Hope you've enjoyed all of this. Thanks to Speaker Johnson coming on in here early in the morning to give us a whole rundown of what's happening with the big, beautiful bills and riot talk and just sort of what his plans are. I think he may have broken some news on that, like, four step thing.

[Michael Duncan]

That he laid out multiple reconciliation bills, like three reconciliation bills, appropriation process, all of that. And that's the important stuff. It's like, it's easy to tweet and be like, why didn't we solve the national debt in this one bill? But actually having a leader who knows, I've got a vision here for the next nine months of what I have to do to actually accomplish those things. Is good to know.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well. And also is working with others to try to get over the finish line. It's not enough to talk about it. Like, sure enough, we know over the last 40 years, talking about shit doesn't get it done. Like, he's working to try to do this. But the plan is in place. I really appreciated that. I think that is news. Listen, fellas, it's been a hell of a week. I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. John, again, thank you so much, Speaker Johnson, and thank you to the listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube hit that subscribe. It is more fun in video. So until next time at Minions, keep the faith, hold the wine, and own the live. We'll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless.