How Trump Beat the Media & Academia

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "How Trump Beat the Media & Academia"

Release Date: July 3, 2025

Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook

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The latest episode of the Ruthless Podcast, titled "How Trump Beat the Media & Academia", delves into the multifaceted strategies employed by Donald Trump to navigate and manipulate media narratives and academic institutions. Hosted by Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook, the episode combines sharp political analysis with humor, providing listeners with an engaging exploration of recent political developments.

1. Legal Settlements with Corporate Media

The episode opens with a discussion on recent legal settlements between Donald Trump and major media corporations.

• Josh Holmes highlights the financial implications for the media:

  "What Trump has done is put a down payment in not only Paramount. CBS paying $16 million. You forget back in December, ABC George Stephanopoulos had to pay $15 million. He's $30 million in the black just based on settling disputes with the corporate media." (00:00)

• Michael Duncan adds a layer of irony to Trump's settlements:

  "It's probably the most Trump thing possible. It's like, no, I want my throne to be the skulls of my enemies. It's amazing." (00:21)

The hosts discuss how these settlements not only provide financial gains for Trump's campaigns but also signify a strategic win against media adversaries.

2. Corporate Media's Decline and Fox News' Ascendancy

John Ashbrook shifts focus to the broader media landscape:

"Trump country is booming. We're building, hiring and winning in America because energy tax credits create jobs and put America first." (00:45)

The conversation critiques CBS News' declining ratings compared to Fox News, emphasizing a perceived shift in media influence and trust. Michael Duncan reminisces about past interviews with Kamala Harris, criticizing CBS's editorial decisions:

"If you've watched Kamala Harris speak for, like, I don't know, one time, you would say that that is a virtual impossibility." (15:12)

3. Presidential Libraries and Media Influence

The hosts explore the concept of presidential libraries, focusing on Trump's unique approach:

"What Trump has done is put a down payment... He's $30 million in the black just based on settling disputes with the corporate media." (24:26)

John Ashbrook humorously suggests potential names for the media-funded wing of Trump's presidential library, highlighting the blend of politics and branding:

"Gator Gitmo is much easier to say. It's much easier to say President Trump's." (08:28)

4. University of Pennsylvania and Transgender Athletes

A significant portion of the episode addresses the legal battles surrounding transgender athletes in collegiate sports, particularly focusing on Riley Gaines and Lia Thomas.

• Josh Holmes underscores the importance of Gaines' stand against perceived unfair competition:

  "She had a great head on her shoulders. She had a lot to risk, but she decided to do it." (30:48)

• Michael Duncan praises Gaines' bravery in the face of cancel culture:

  "You really have to salute her and her efforts. And I mean, she is just a real hero." (33:13)

The discussion culminates with the University of Pennsylvania's agreement to ban transgender women from competing on its women's sports teams, marking a legal victory for conservatives:

"The agreement resolves a federal civil rights case centered on transgender swimmer Lia Thomas." (30:53)

5. Audience Engagement: Questions and Comments

The podcast engages listeners with a "Question of the Day": "What should Trump name the media-funded wing of his library?" The hosts encourage creative listener responses, fostering community interaction.

Paul Renali from Canada contributes:

"I do not think the BBB will pass both houses by July 4th, but I don't think it matters. It will get passed eventually..." (36:27)

Earl Scott offers pragmatic optimism despite skepticism about meeting the deadline:

"There's no chance they will make the July 4 deadline because there are too many people not with the program." (37:54)

6. Critique of CBS News and Its Legacy

A critical analysis of CBS News' transformation over the years is presented, lamenting the loss of journalistic integrity and talent.

• Comfortably Smug reflects on the decline of beloved figures like Morley Safer and Ed Bradley:

  "Morley Safer has gone completely out of, like, all their talent has gone crazy." (19:00)

• John Ashbrook emphasizes the shift from high-quality journalism to sensationalism:

  "They had these titans that were very interested in telling a story to the American people that they thought they ought to hear." (20:40)

7. Trump's Branding and Media Strategy

The hosts discuss Trump's creative branding efforts, notably his "Alligator Gitmo" concept for Alcatraz, blending humor with political messaging.

"Alligator Alcatraz, which is where Donald Trump went down with Ron DeSantis to visit where they're keeping some of the most dangerous." (08:38)

Michael Duncan applauds the ingenuity:

"Gator Gitmo is much easier. It's much easier to say President Trump's." (08:49)

8. Popular Culture and Legal Cases: The P. Diddy Verdict

The podcast transitions to popular culture, discussing the high-profile legal case involving P. Diddy. The hosts dissect the verdict, public perception, and its implications for celebrity culture.

• John Ashbrook summarizes the verdict:

  "He was found guilty of two, and he was found not guilty on the racketeering, the more serious charges." (76:32)

• Josh Holmes compares the case to other celebrity scandals:

  "It's a sentence worse than anything you can do in the hole." (79:27)

9. Signature Game: King of the Hill

Adding an element of fun, the hosts engage in their signature game segment, "King of the Hill," where they humorously critique and "judge" each other's comments and social media antics.

• Sherry Jacobus becomes the inadvertent champion after delivering offensive remarks about "Alligator Alcatraz":

  "That's what Trump wants. It's cheaper than gas chambers." (63:03)

The playful banter underscores the hosts' camaraderie while maintaining the podcast's critical tone towards opposing viewpoints.

10. Fourth of July Preparations and Special Episode Teaser

As Independence Day approaches, the hosts hint at a special Fourth of July episode, promising fresh content and continued political commentary.

"Heads up to the audience. We're going to do another show. We're going to do a Fourth of July." (03:00)

Comfortably Smug reinforces the love for America:

"The only thing we like more than politics is America." (03:26)

11. Closing Remarks and Listener Encouragement

The episode wraps up with encouragement for listeners to stay engaged, subscribe, and participate in upcoming discussions.

"Subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program right there on YouTube and you put your comments in, we curate all of them." (34:18)

The hosts reiterate their commitment to providing a platform for conservative voices and combating what they perceive as media and academic biases against Trump.

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Notable Quotes:

• Josh Holmes (00:00): "He's $30 million in the black just based on settling disputes with the corporate media."

• Michael Duncan (00:21): "It's like, no, I want my throne to be the skulls of my enemies. It's amazing."

• John Ashbrook (19:00): "Morley Safer has gone completely out of, like, all their talent has gone crazy."

• Comfortably Smug (63:03): "That's what Trump wants. It's cheaper than gas chambers."

• Josh Holmes (34:18): "Subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program right there on YouTube and you put your comments in, we curate all of them."

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Conclusion:

In this episode, the Ruthless Podcast delivers a robust critique of mainstream media's handling of Donald Trump, legal battles, and societal issues surrounding transgender athletes. Through sharp analysis, humor, and interactive segments, the hosts provide a comprehensive perspective aimed at engaging and mobilizing their conservative audience. The blend of serious political discourse with lighthearted segments like "King of the Hill" ensures the episode remains both informative and entertaining for listeners.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

What Trump has done is put a down payment in not only paramount. CBS paying 16 million. You forget back in December, ABC George Stephanopoulos had to pay $15 million. He's 30m in the black, just based on settling disputes with the corporate media.

[Michael Duncan]

So funny. It is hysterical because, I mean, it is. It's one thing like Trump would not have any difficulty fundraising for his presidential library, but to have his enemies have to fund it is just. I mean, that's probably the most Trump thing possible. It's like, no, I want my throne to be the skulls of my enemies. It's amazing.

[John Ashbrook]

Trump country is booming. We're building, hiring and winning in America because energy tax credits create jobs and put America first.

[Josh Holmes]

Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. More production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.

[John Ashbrook]

And America's comeback depends on American energy. President Trump keep what works, don't repeal energy tax credits. Learn more at BuiltForAmerica US paid for.

[Josh Holmes]

By Built for America. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Michael Duncan]

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

[Comfortably Smug]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

It is your favorite day of the week here on Thursday. The Ruthless Variety program is coming at you at our favorite day. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dial. As always. We talked a lot on Tuesday, which was prescient about what an incredible week Donald Trump was having. Republican party conservatives throughout this country. Folks, it's only gotten a little bit better. It is really good fortune. What, what good fortune have we. As the. What's the Nathan's hot dog guy?

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, the announcer, which he's coming up.

[Josh Holmes]

He'S got a big day on.

[John Ashbrook]

What greater fortune? His whole run up that he had on Joey Chestnut, if you haven't seen that, it's legendary.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's a legend.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta look it up. And the Nathan's hot dog contest comes up every fourth of July. And when they do that, they have this guy in the top hat and he is just a showman.

[John Ashbrook]

Showman.

[Josh Holmes]

The kind that we really appreciate.

[John Ashbrook]

We like a little pageantry.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

We like to sing and dance and entertain. So we respect when we see, you know, folks putting their back into it like he does.

[Josh Holmes]

His line was, what greater fortune have we? Yeah, and that's.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like, to see Joey Chestnut compete.

[Josh Holmes]

Like to watch A man eat 80.

[John Ashbrook]

Hot dogs like it's Michael Jordan doing the three peat repeat. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Splitting the atom or just jamming lips and assholes down your throat. 80 at a time.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. But it's. Look, this is a fun time of year. It is for all of us. Heads up to the audience. We're going to do another show. We're going to do a Fourth of July. We've done this the last couple of years. We're going to do it again. Another Fourth of July. You're going to get fresh content on Friday as you enjoy 4th of July with your families. Because it means a lot to us.

[John Ashbrook]

It does. The only thing we like more than politics is America.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. And so we're gonna. We'll give you a little something on Friday that gets you through that. But in the meantime, what a show. Yeah, we got a lot to talk about here, folks. A lot of really great stuff. It turns out that, well, the corporate media is funding the entirety, what it appears to be the presidential library for Donald J. Trump. The irony of not of that, notwithstanding the manner in which he's doing it, is completely hilarious. We're gonna get into it. Lawsuits. Lawsuits settled. This is now the second big installment into a presidential library that I find. I mean, fellas, it's good humor if nothing else.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's pretty much, I mean, as great a week, as great a month, as great a second administration it's been for Trump. That bad to have been an adversary of his. Like, the guy's just collecting more pelts than, I mean, any fur trapper in the history of this country.

[John Ashbrook]

Like Davy Crockett.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Davy Crockett's got nothing on this.

[Josh Holmes]

Guy, so doesn't even need a barter system with all those pelts. He can just collect them. There's another incredible victory for the conservative movement that happened beyond the Supreme Court stuff that we were talking about in that Upenness settled with the feds, some litigation dealing with Lia Thomas. And as you recall, Riley Gaines came to prominence in conservative circles as a competitive swimmer who had to compete against this dude who identified as a woman. And the rules at that time, as administered by Upennial and others, allowed this dude to just like, blow away the women's competition.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he went from. He was like 492nd ranked male swimmer, and then the following year, he became.

[John Ashbrook]

The number one ranked woman swimmer, national champion.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're all aware of this story. She's been on the show a couple of times, but you've also seen her on Fox and everywhere else telling your story. She's really led a movement in this regard, but through the courts. This has actually gotten to A place where there's justice involved, which is a conservative in the political arena. Yeah. Boy, that is. You gotta celebrate it when you get it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Not often seen.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just not often seen.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I think often as a conservative, like, you're operating under, like, the idea, like, you're never actually gonna get even. Like, at most, you can get people to stop doing terrible things because you.

[Josh Holmes]

Win the political argument.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Cause you win the political argument makes.

[Josh Holmes]

It unsustainable to do the nefarious things that they're doing.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly. What's unique, I think, in the conservative movement in the Trump era is we're not just being. We're not just standing pat.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

We're actually winning.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because usually the conservatives make the intelligent argument, and all of the smart people in the country are like, you know what? They're exactly right. And the libs are like, wait a minute, nobody's paying attention to our idiotic talking points anymore. What do we have to do to change it?

[Josh Holmes]

And then they go defecate on the street, and all of a sudden everybody's like, oh, yeah, no, these guys are too much. We're gonna have to just, like, settle all this down. It's conflict. It's concerning. This is a divisive. That's, by the way, what happens. Somebody takes a shit on the street and, like, throws a flag up in the air and it pretends to be aggrieved and gets, like, 20 of their buddies. All of a sudden, anything conservatives want to do is divisive. Yep. It's concerning. Let's not bring all this up. It's a problem. We should seek to heal society. Which is, by the way, part of the problem we have with, like, the cuck element of the conservative Party, too, is that, like, when you are. When you play that game.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

That you have granted a premise that never should have been granted in the first place.

[John Ashbrook]

Just live and let live.

[Josh Holmes]

These people should apologize.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

In the cuck element of the conservative movement and the lib talking, point points like flourishing out there in conversation in America doesn't come from nowhere. It's obviously been delivered ad nauseam by broadcast media over the last who knows how many decades. And now, because of their dishonesty, that broadcast media is funding the victory wing of Trump's golden library in a way that every school group will be able to see until the end of time.

[Josh Holmes]

Study. Study is its greatness. Well, listen, they've got a lot of things that have happened this week. They're going to go into that library where do you get into it? We're also going to talk about where the Democrats are again. A repeat of Tuesday. Not good.

[John Ashbrook]

Not good.

[Michael Duncan]

Tough.

[Josh Holmes]

Not good. It's a real tough. Wait till you see some of this stuff. You're going to get a kick out of it. Alligator Alcatraz. Like kind of a tongue twister.

[John Ashbrook]

It's an alliteration.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an alliteration. Alligator Alcatraz, which is where Donald Trump went down with Ron DeSantis to visit where they're keeping some of the most dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what you know. My suggestion.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. What's that?

[Michael Duncan]

Gator Gitmo.

[Josh Holmes]

Gator Gitmo is much easier to say. It's much easier to say President Trump's.

[Michael Duncan]

The king of branding. But.

[Josh Holmes]

No, that's better.

[Michael Duncan]

Gator Alcatraz or Gator Gitmo.

[Josh Holmes]

Gator Gitmo is a lot easier. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't confuse with his previous announcement that he'd like to reopen Alcatraz. The actual Alcatraz. Gator Gitmo is much better. God, you're good at this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Great idea.

[Michael Duncan]

Just trying to help.

[Josh Holmes]

You're good at this. It's almost like you make your living branding things online. That's incredible. Anyway, we've got a big, beautiful bill update. Obviously, that is the cornerstone of the Trump agenda. And we're on the precipice as you're listening to this, about whether or not that is going to be the 4th of July deliverable from Congress to President Trump. And then we're gonna play a game. It's King of the Hill. It's Thursday. We play King of the Hill on Thursday. We're gonna also talk about the Diddy verdict, which, I mean, I don't know if you guys follow this or not. It's certainly going to eclipse the moon in terms of what pop culture and news media. So you're gonna be inundated. You might as well get the fella's take on that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I think, like, the greatest crime he committed was forcing me to have to read up on this bullshit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Just discuss.

[John Ashbrook]

Because I have done everything in my power to not learn about this trial, because I find all of it reprehensible and disgusting. And the only time I'm exposed to it, typically, is when my wife puts on Good Morning America.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all over it.

[John Ashbrook]

It's all over.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's filthy and I hate it.

[Josh Holmes]

But you also said something poignant this morning, Michael, in that you're like, I'd like to see who all was involved in this nefarious behavior. And I think that like, much like the Epstein thing, like there ought to be an element of transparency to it. If you're bringing charges or whatever, like, I understand you've gotta build a case or whatever, but like public ought to know. Unless it's Carl Winslow.

[John Ashbrook]

If it's Carl Winslow. If it's Carl Winslow, it's gonna destroy my childhood.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't think it was him. I believe in him.

[Josh Holmes]

So for those of you who are not OGs, for those of you who are not OGs, to the ruthless Variety program we covered, gosh, several months ago, a discussion that some like, random rapper had done on some random podcast where he was talking about all the nefarious things that Diddy was involved in. And he's like. And he even banked Carl Winslow. Now Carl Winslow was the dad on family matters.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a rare condition.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a rare condition.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a rare condition in this day and age to read any good news.

[Comfortably Smug]

On the newspaper page.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, exactly. And also was like a father, a father figure to many of us of a certain generation.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

He was where you really looked up.

[John Ashbrook]

To that good dad cop. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

A sex idol. He was not.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

And so that news struck us as particularly alarming.

[John Ashbrook]

Very alarming.

[Josh Holmes]

And now he had since come out immediately afterwards and was like, I don't know what that dude's talking about. I've never met Diddy. I've never been there. But then the mere mention of his name, it concerned the Ruthless variety program enough that we. It stuck in our head like a brain worm.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's hard. Like, I don't want that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Nobody wants that more than Diddy being guilty. I want him to be innocent.

[Josh Holmes]

I want him to be exonerated once and for all.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Because Carl Winslow doesn't deserve this.

[John Ashbrook]

He doesn't.

[Josh Holmes]

He doesn't deserve this.

[John Ashbrook]

Our nation is standing up for American workers.

[Josh Holmes]

Restoring the pride of making products here at home. That's what we do every day. We're America's beverage companies. Making American products with American workers in America's hometowns. Delivering brands that have been enjoyed for generations. Creating good paying jobs, the kind that require only a strong work ethic.

[John Ashbrook]

Because we believe in the promise of.

[Josh Holmes]

America and the people who make it great. It's been crisis after crisis. COVID lockdowns, Biden's inflation, open borders and rampant crime. Now liberals want tax hike in history crushing families unless we stop them and bring America back. President Trump and leader John Thune's plan will cut taxes for working families, strengthen our border and our economy. With no tax on tips or overtime wages, America is ready for President Trump and leader John Thune's working family tax cuts. So let's get into the just the immediate wins that we're talking about. So what happened first was a very significant verdict of Paramount and CBS, the parent company of CBS, settling a lawsuit with Donald J. Trump for $16 million over an argument about what they did with their 60 Minutes product. In interviewing Kamala Harris, the allegation from the Trump campaign and I guess the library, because they were the recipient of the settlement, was that it was selectively edited to provide for a better public image than what normally would happen just during the course of an interview with Kamala Harris. Now, they had good reason to stand on some allegations. And then if you watch the interview, succinct, snappy, quick answers, periods at the end of sentences. If you've watched Kamala Harris speak for, like, I don't know, one time, you would say that that is a virtual impossibility.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, right, because, like, if you would have listened to the edited version of the interview that 60 Minutes put out, you would think that, like, snappy answers, punctuation at the end of every sentence. No run on any of these sorts of things. But like, if you watched actual, the visual presentation of the thing, there were more jump cuts than a TikTok video, you know, and so it left you as the viewer watching it and thinking to yourself, well, I'd love to see the transcript of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Felt like a dating music music video.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it comes at a very difficult time for CBS News, who everybody knows has taken a complete bath this week. The new second quarter numbers came out. Fox News, at least as far as linear television is concerned, Fox News has surpassed CBS News in terms of audience, broadcast station. No surprise. It's sort of, it's a huge fall from where Bill Haley and the founding fathers of cbs, Edward R. Murrow. Yeah. Where they started the network and today's network hasn't sort of lived up to that legacy. And so not only are they paying Donald Trump, but they're also playing second fiddle to Fox News.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know, speaking of Fox, I remember this like 60 minutes Kamala interview. It was like in close range of her super disastrous interview with Fox where. Yeah, yeah. With Brett Bear. If you'd seen that, you're like, wow, she just, she's just not.

[Josh Holmes]

We're not surprisingly, Fox and Brett only does this, but Fox only does this, too, which is they're just going to tape it and show it to you. They're not the arbiters of what it is that the voter ought to see. They just show you it and, like, you make your decision. And I understand that they've had a magazine format on 60 Minutes for years, but they. They didn't used to, in the last. Before the last 10 years, get to a point where they selectively edited to make things look good or bad. I've had this experience on the press side with Republicans where you can sit down for an hour and a half and the most salacious thing that you could say or the most confrontational component is always in there. And the part where you are telling the audience the facts that they should be aware of that would inform them as citizens of this country are omitted. Right. I've seen it with my own eyes. And so the Trump campaign actually had a good sense of what they were going into when she did this interview. And she did it. And then all of a sudden, despite the previous five interviews that she'd done, including the View and, like, the most sympathetic places on the Breakfast Club, the most sympathetic place. She shot the bed every single time and run on sentences and, like, got herself into trouble and everything. And all of a sudden she goes in 60 minutes and she's, like, providing perfect diction and punctuation for everything. And they're like, what's up with that? Let's see the transcript.

[Comfortably Smug]

Completely ridiculous. But the problem for 60 Minutes, I think, goes a little bit deeper than that. For anybody from our generation, the ticking clock of 60 minutes has always been synonymous with the end of fun that you had watching the NFL Sunday.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Every single weekend, it's like, okay, the weekend's over. The fun is gone. Gotta start Monday. CBS 60 Minutes is coming on. I'm gonna have to change the channel.

[Josh Holmes]

Son, why don't you come in here and learn a little something about our world?

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

So that's how my house went.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's exactly right.

[Josh Holmes]

So they have a.

[Comfortably Smug]

They have a brand problem that is very, very deep that I don't know if they're gonna be able to fix.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and it's a shame because they are capable of incredible news. Like, I'm A fan of 60 Minutes, not. Not in this current. I just gotta say, like, I saw the special they did with Alex Smith and how he recovered from. Dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible.

[John Ashbrook]

It was incredible.

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's the thing. They have. They're capable of it. Talented people there.

[Michael Duncan]

No, they don't.

[Comfortably Smug]

Listen, most of the Talented people who work for CBS work on the sports side. CBS Sports has excellent coverage of golf, excellent coverage of football.

[Michael Duncan]

Even the sports coverage is trash now, man. I watch AFC games.

[Comfortably Smug]

I disagree.

[Michael Duncan]

I watch AFC games. They do a bad job. But 60 Minutes is fucking especially horrible. It's unwatchable. Morley Safer has gone completely out of, like, all their talent has gone crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, he's been dead for years, dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

If you see Morley Safer on television.

[Michael Duncan]

At the end of Morley Safer's tenure, he had lost his mind. He'd gone full left wing. There's no talent left at cbs.

[John Ashbrook]

And how about that Ed Bradley, huh?

[Josh Holmes]

No. What a disaster.

[Michael Duncan]

And here's the thing is, like, who do they replace these people with? Is. They've got. You're seeing like, Margaret Brennan and what's her name, who used to be on the morning show or at the 6 o' clock. I think all the, like, nut jobs.

[John Ashbrook]

All got the point.

[Comfortably Smug]

They need to take the talent from CBS Sports and just transport that over to the news site.

[Josh Holmes]

And where has Andy Rooney been? He's been on vacation for about 15 years.

[Michael Duncan]

See, Andy Rooney was the only good thing they had going.

[John Ashbrook]

That was a great.

[Michael Duncan]

Andy Rooney was the only good thing they had.

[Josh Holmes]

You ever wonder why it's so good? I love that you're like, where's morally safer? Yeah, I think part of the problem, you put your finger it was 2012.

[Michael Duncan]

When 60 Minutes changed. Ever since then, they started veering further left.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you had. You had Mike Wallace, you had Morley Safer, you had Ed Bradley, you had these, like, titans of industry where they could get any interview that they wanted.

[Michael Duncan]

And real quick, this is not like in isolation, because remember, they tried doing this to. Wow. Like, there's a history.

[Josh Holmes]

Dan Rather, which. Which is when it changed. Which is when it changed because they.

[John Ashbrook]

Did 60 Minutes 2.

[Josh Holmes]

It's when they did 60 Minutes 2, which is where that thing ran. That's where it all. They had these titans that were very interested in telling a story to the American people that they thought they ought to hear. I'm not saying that they weren't biased. I'm sure now, knowing what we know about news media was probably more biased than we recognized at the time. But there was a moment in time and it was that Dan Rather situation that he did with W, where they took basically a DNC research doc and aired it live under the COVID of 60 Minutes to try to pretend like it had the same gravitas of what Ed Bradley and morally safer and all the legends had done for years. To pretend like this is a story that is grounded in fact. And then you found out within six weeks that it was all a lie. Like everything about it was a lie. And they've been chasing it ever since. And then as these people have died off, they've replaced them with people who've been trained up in. And I don't even think they're necessarily bad people in a lot of ways. It's like they're trained up in a culture that has bred them to be antagonistic to one ideological point of view. And so that's what they pursue. Those are the stories that they pursue.

[Comfortably Smug]

And this is the reason why I think they should start moving CBS Sports into people into the CBS News slots, because the CBS Sports.

[Josh Holmes]

I'd love Jim Nance to give me the news.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's my point. It's like this guy won. And here's how. And told you the story about how this guy won, not what he dislikes about the person who won.

[Josh Holmes]

Have you ever met Jim Nance?

[Comfortably Smug]

I've never. Never in my life.

[Josh Holmes]

I met him one time down at Pinehurst. Couldn't have been a nicer guy. I mean, just exactly what you want him to be. You know, like, just. He enjoys golf. He's there with his bros. He's hanging out. Gives you all the time that you want. More like he wants to have a conversation. It's not like you're imposing upon him.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's just, like, interested in the game.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a tenant.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm more of like a football than like a golf and country club kind of guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but you shadow shit, so you shadow.

[Michael Duncan]

Honestly, I feel bad because I wish Fox had AFC games, too, because their coverage is actually decent. I can't stand cbs.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. Terrible. Well, listen, that's a. It's a valid. It's a valid.

[Michael Duncan]

And, you know, I don't think this settlement's enough. I think they need to lock them up.

[Josh Holmes]

Here's the. Here's the.

[Michael Duncan]

Should be criminal, not civil. These journalists are criminals.

[Josh Holmes]

The upshot is they are now paying them $16 million. And by them, I mean the Trump library, which anybody who's involved in politics at any different level, you understand that there is a presidential campaign that raises a bunch of money, and then you try to raise a bunch of money for the midterms, and then towards the end, if you're lucky enough to serve two terms the last two years, the president and all of his apparatus are interested in raising presidential library money, right? So they go back to all of the donors They've talked to, to try to get them to do some kind of a thing. And it takes time because these things are expensive. They're like, you know, seven, $800 million, maybe a billion dollar proposition. Obama still doesn't have one, right? Like I don't. He still doesn't have one. I would have thought that he would have been able to lean on some of his Middle Eastern allies for that, but he hasn't. What Trump has done is put a down payment in not only paramount. CBS paying 16 million. You forget back in December, ABC and George Stephanopoulos had to pay $15m. He's 30m in the black just based on settling disputes with the corporate media.

[Michael Duncan]

It's so funny. It is hypothetical because, I mean, it's one thing like Trump would not have any difficulty fundraising for his presidential library, but to have his enemies have to fund it is just, I mean, that's probably the most Trump thing possible. Is like, no, I want my throne to be the skulls of my enemies. Amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

There's a couple of interesting, like, wrinkles to this and then we'll just, we'll get out of it. But the way that CBS and Paramount has tried to frame this thing is basically like they're victims of circumstance in that the people who own cbs, Paramount want this merger to get done. They want this whole thing over with. They can't have hanging litigation against the President United States. Like, they just want it over with. So if you believe their version of the bullshit, it's like we just had to pay the till to make this whole thing go away. Even if we didn't do anything just because we want our larger business interests taken care of. You don't as a, as a company that makes its living assuring the American people that you are providing accurate information as best as you can. And you are the best in the business if that's how you make your living. You don't compromise that. You don't. The larger stories are probably afraid. They're probably a little bit afraid of what discovery brings. They're probably a little bit afraid of what prolonged litigation looks like. Even if they thought that they could win, the reputational damage is probably pretty significant because you can wrap in. I mean, look, discovery is whatever it is. You can go back and take a look at every Republican interview that you've had over the last 20 years. I've been a part of at least three with 60 minutes where we've had an interview and what shows up on the show as absolutely no bearing on what the Context of the interview was it's a soundbite to validate a narrative they'd already built in the opening of the show with the ticking clock behind them.

[Comfortably Smug]

And imagine the idea that there is a way to do more reputational damage to their brand with that information than the information they put out every single night. Because what they do in their evening newscast and what they do in 60 minutes and once a week has done enormous damage.

[Michael Duncan]

Nor o' Donnell, that's her name. Nor o' Donnell. Like her tenure has ended at six o' clock. But like my God, how did they let a person like that run that broadcast? And secondly, I mean we all saw what happened at that VP debate when JD Body balls. But it was like no, o' Donnell, Margaret Brennan, it's like the twin towers of the worst people in journalism.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I like more than anything about this? Forever. If you come at an issue from the center right immediately, you're dive bombed by litigation armies where you're gonna have to pay the freight one way or another. You just have to make a decision one way or another of what is the least, what's the cost benefit analysis of going to trial and doing all that. But that's what the way that you operate in conservative world. These guys have been living a free lifestyle, lying to the American people forever. It's the first time in my view that's 100% this has actually turned to take in any real way. Anyway, we're going to come up to another landmark legal victory that we talked about at the top and it deals with University of Pennsylvania in the Lia Thomas rally gain situation right after this. America is built on hard work and powered by American energy. Chevron has spent $44 billion with local businesses across all 50 states since 2022, fueling infrastructure and communities, all while strengthening local economies. Last year, Chevron increased U.S. production nearly.

[Comfortably Smug]

20%, powering communities and businesses from the.

[Josh Holmes]

Heartlands to the coasts. We're helping to fuel America's energy advantage, building a brighter future right here at home. Visit chevron.comamera to discover more. Okay, so look, you've heard Riley Gaines on this show a couple of times. I'm sure you followed her in her comments. She was the swimmer from the University of Kentucky who was very competitive, who had the unfortunate set of circumstances of having to swim against a man in the ultimate prize in collegiate athletics, a man named Leah Thomas. And she had a problem with that. She was the first athlete that I know of. I mean, maybe there was others that didn't have prominence. But the first one that I know of who was like, you know what? I'm not cool with this. I'm actually going to risk the full attacks of the left knowing that it's coming to talk about just how unfair it is to have a biological difference in the pool.

[Michael Duncan]

That context is so important because I know today it seems like, okay, you know, good for her that Riley stood up. But at the time, like, it's easy to forget the world we lived in, this horrific world of where that's like, you are now shunned. You know, the university's gonna try to have a crackdown on you, the media is gonna attack you and say that you are a bigot. And they did, and you will never get a brand deal. And the rest of your life, you're going to be hounded by left wing activists who call you a Nazi.

[Josh Holmes]

She. She entered this conversation at the height of cancel culture. Right. Also at the height of, like, nil deals, you know, when that started to become a thing and like, famous athletes getting paid to represent things. She's an attractive, accomplished athlete, a young woman with a great head on her shoulders. She had a lot to risk, but she decided to do it. I think she would say, in retrospect, well worth it in large part because of what happened this week.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's play clip 2. The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to.

[Michael Duncan]

Ban transgender women from competing on its women's sports teams.

[Josh Holmes]

The agreement resolves a federal civil rights.

[Michael Duncan]

Case centered on transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

[Josh Holmes]

She was on the Penn women's swimming team several years ago, and Penn says it will restore all individual records to.

[John Ashbrook]

Female athletes who lost to Thomas as.

[Josh Holmes]

Part of the agreement. So here's the thing. I don't like making historical comparisons to things, and I certainly don't make comparisons to, like, the civil rights movements and the heroes that we had, like, you know, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, folks like that. I don't think this is a historical parallel in any form or fashion, but what she did for women at a moment when it was very, very unpopular for women athletes to actually express their view that they couldn't compete with a woke culture that ultimately made men who just woke up and decided to be men women, was really brave.

[Michael Duncan]

You wouldn't see now, like, you know, in the past few months, you've started seeing these competitions where women will say, I refuse to compete because some guy has shown up. Those folks wouldn't have been able to take that stand if it wasn't for Riley, who drew the line in the sand right there.

[John Ashbrook]

What a sad indictment on our culture. It took this long.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know that, like, it's a very common sense thing. I don't think it's really a conservative thing. You know, in fact, you'd find a lot of allies on this issue who wouldn't agree with you on anything else.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

But it took us all the way here to 2025 to admit the sky.

[Josh Holmes]

Is blue and years after the fact, the women who competed in that event will be rewarded. Do you imagine the difference, the psychological difference and the difference in their lives if they had been awarded at the time? You can't put it, you can't give it back. You can't put a price on. I mean, we all know things happen. Your life, you react, you carry on with life differently as a result of it. Some for the better. I would argue for Riley Gaines for the better. Right. She has become part of a movement that's trying to do the right thing for girls. Even when women's organizations say that she is a pariah, you know, because it's political.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right. No, it took a lot of bravery. You really have to salute her and her efforts. And I mean, she is just a real hero.

[Josh Holmes]

So anyway, people are being rewarded. It's just, it's a great, it's a great piece of the story and we thought we ought to cover it because it, like, you know, you don't get. Again, wins.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep, that's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Just wins. Appreciate them. Like, we have all have a lot to complain about, but when you get these W's, like, hey, hats off, man. You guys were all part of it. You all cast your ballots. It changed the world.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

It really did. All right, so we have a question of the day. Goes back to our first segment. What should Trump name the media funded wing of that library? Such a great question because there's two pieces of this for one, you know, Donald Trump's library is not going to only be $30 million.

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is what he's collected. So it's going to have to be maybe an exhibit in that library. What would you name it? What would you name it?

[Michael Duncan]

Great question. I want the creative. I'm looking forward to the comments for that.

[Josh Holmes]

I want the creative caps on this. So let's work it out, everybody, if you like. And subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program right there on YouTube and you put your comments in, we curate all of them. We take what we think are representative of your comments and then we read them the following episode and we're gonna do this on this. And I can't wait, by the way, to do that. It's gonna be very, very fun. Coming up, we're gonna get to your comments from last episode, which we asked in a very tumultuous environment where it looked like the Senate was not going to pass the big beautiful bill. Will we get this done by the 4th of July? Will they adhere to Donald Trump's deadline of the Fourth of July? Well, we're a lot further down the road. We're going to get to your comments right after 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 [e-mail] okay, you've liked and subscribed to the ruthless Friday program. You've given us your comments and we read them. To do that, we always start with the voice.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, first one comes from Paul Renali, who found it within himself to like and subscribe and decided to opine. And Paul wrote, I do not think the BBB will pass both houses by July 4th, but I don't think it matters. It will get passed eventually, and that is what does matter. I'm a Canadian fan of your program.

[John Ashbrook]

Nice.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I want to offer my best frozen wishes to you and all the proud Americans for a great Fourth of July. Nonetheless, hats off, Paul. And a reminder that while, like today's tight but momentous Senate vote, the Declaration of Independence Day did not seal victory for the breakaway colonies, it took seven more bloody years. The declaration was a necessary gauntlet thrown down. Happy Fourth guys from the Great white North. Paul Renali, you know, I mean, just.

[Josh Holmes]

When you're ready to give up on Canada just when you're ready to give up.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're exactly right. There are a ton of Canadians up there. They're swinging their hammers and drawn their pay in building a very, very good country. It's not all idiots up there. There is probably, I mean, their elections notwithstanding, there is probably a greater share of a silent majority of normies who live in Canada than anyone would ever know.

[Josh Holmes]

I love that. That's very interesting. All right, Dunks. Ron, comment two, please.

[John Ashbrook]

This one's from Earl Scott. Earl writes, there's no chance they will make the July 4 deadline because there are too many people not with the program. Some of the objections are principled, but we need to pass what we can pass and not a wish list of every member. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Note my record on prognosticating political outcomes is not stellar, as evidenced by my Romney bumper sticker.

[Josh Holmes]

I love that. It look, it's. It's well taken because there is an army of people who fall into the category that Earl does, including us. Like, you know, I thought there was basically no chance that July 4th was attainable. I looked at that debt ceiling component to it in the middle of July as like that this is the drop dead situation. But as you're listening to us, it's a possibility. It's a. Oh my gosh. They just like hoist the sun back up in the sky over there. What do we got for comment 3?

[Michael Duncan]

Comment 3 comes from Brandon Blewett, and Brandon writes question of the day. Yes, because like every other low protein guy who hogs the leg press on Wednesdays, £25 on each side. Rep. Massey will make a sad face. Confronted.

[Comfortably Smug]

What an oh.

[Michael Duncan]

Also honored to get my news from a number one source that doesn't spike my blood pressure, though. 42 counts as young. I'm starting to think age brackets are as fluid as pronouns. Keep the laughs and facts coming, America. I love this guy's pretty good.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude. I love this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Blew it is terrific. Also probably finds himself in the category of people during high school that, like, were working with. Their last name is a real nickname. Yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

That's tough.

[Josh Holmes]

Sorry, Brandon. Like blew it is.

[Michael Duncan]

I think I got that as a reference to let's go Brandon. That was my guess.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. Well, we all look at it, but that was a fantastic tenant comment. Very, very smart. Very, very funny. Thanks for listening, Brandon. So when you're in the minority, particularly when you have absolutely no power and no movement behind you, because they're like where Democrats are they're trying to like surf out of this disparate coalition that's nominating communists in New York City and like psycho pro Palestinian, pro Hamas constituency, which is now a constituency of the Democratic Party. Like they're trying to figure out how to manage all of these things. And the only thing that like leadership in the House or the Senate, which is now like guess the elected leadership of the Democratic Party can do, is just find a microphone and a camera and talk. Right. And they're just hoping something sticks, like someone's going to consume the thing. Hope to make Democrats, Democrats and Republicans, because they're just trying to just like fight out from no vision whatsoever.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

What have they come up with? Clip seven, please. We are the doctor's caucus.

[John Ashbrook]

The doctor's caucus looking at a handful.

[Comfortably Smug]

Of Democrats standing in a hallway and regular Americans just walking past them, not paying attention.

[Michael Duncan]

Look at the guy just standing there.

[John Ashbrook]

The white coats, there we go.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody can even hear them.

[Michael Duncan]

That's even more brutal. Like the journals followed that guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And that guy. I couldn't tell for sure.

[Josh Holmes]

The journals aren't even interested.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I couldn't tell for sure. But I think it might have been Hogan Gidley walking into that office. So they're asking Hogan questions and they're just blowing off these Dems and white guys.

[Josh Holmes]

So for our audio only listeners, what you just saw, what the YouTube audience saw was for people who I guess have medical degrees, who are part of a House Democratic conference, none of which I recognize and none of which would you would recognize, are holding a press conference, I guess about the big beautiful bill. They didn't make that clear. I couldn't really hear it and I couldn't hear it. But they're doing it in a way where the tourists who are touring the Capitol are doing it between the camera and their podium and they're all speaking and like having a good time and looking and enjoying whatever, to a point where the journalists are more interested in the tourists than they are the actual people who are giving the press conference. And you can't hear a word these people are saying.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, this is another reason to subscribe on YouTube to see this because it's laughable. It's pathetic seeing that this is what they've come to is they're like they're trying to do some kind of like a publicity that is Hogan. And like no one cares.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good friend of the program, Hogan Gidley surrounded by reporters who are ignoring these Democrats. That was amazing.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, did they do that press conference like at the rotunda in the Cannon House Office Building.

[Comfortably Smug]

That is right. It's in the Capitol building. It is right outside of the Speaker's office suite of the rotunda.

[John Ashbrook]

But you're picking a place with a lot of traffic.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I bet that was like, their thinking is they're like, oh, yeah, everyone will already be there.

[John Ashbrook]

Poor advance work.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't well advanced.

[Comfortably Smug]

No. And we all heard our great president. I know we're gonna talk about alligator Alcatraz here in a few minutes, but at his press conference, one of the things he drilled into everybody's head was that site selection mattered. None of these Democrats listened to his word.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, but this is what they're selling the American people that you imagine being a press secretary, by the way, going back and be like, well, here's our video, boss.

[John Ashbrook]

We'll have everyone's attention because we're all going to be wearing white coats and everyone will look at us for leadership.

[Comfortably Smug]

Don't worry about it, boss. All three broadcast networks and the two major dailies are going to cover it.

[John Ashbrook]

And they want shout out to the Daily Caller for getting that video, by.

[Josh Holmes]

The way, because nobody understands Medicaid reimbursement formulas like doctors practicing medicine. Right. I mean, it's just so. It's dumb on so many different ways, but I just absolutely love it. So, Chuck Schumer, we love this guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I hope they never replace him. He's literally like a. Is like a comic book strip of how inept Democrats are on a day to day beat. Let's put up clip three. I raise a point of order against page one, lines three to five of the pending amendment which violates section 313 of the Congressional Budget act of 1974. The point of order is sustained. The text will be stricken. So what he's trying to do is rename the big beautiful bill so. So this may sound arcane in what you heard there in that. You know, there's a bunch of jargon nobody understands, but. But rather than making an improvement in the lives of his constituents in New York or anybody across America, which he is obligated to do as a minority leader in the Senate, what he's decided to do is raise points of order against the title.

[John Ashbrook]

So that's the funniest thing of it to me is like his team clearly looked at this from his office and they're like, body bag, you got him? Yeah, Chuck, you got him. We're renaming the bill. No, we can't stop a single thing. And Donald Trump is going to shove this entire bill down your throat. But we renamed it. They put out on social media that clip with, like, the closer, you know, logo, you know, animation. Because they were so proud of this act.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

Like that he went here and he changed the name of the thing. It just tells you, like, how impotent the Democratic Party is right now. And in particular, Chuck Schumer, of all people, who can deliver nothing except this. And then he has to run around and be like, look at me. Look at me fighting for you.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, so here's a little vignette, one of which Johnny and I were a part of. So back in, like, 2009, when Democrats were trying to do Obamacare, you had to, like, put a top hat and cane on to get Democrats to do or journalists to cover any sort of negative aspect of what it was they were doing, because they just wanted to cover the process and how close Democrats were to just renovating the American health care system in a way. But they made a bunch of deals in order to give it, get over the finish line. So Johnny and I spent an inordinate amount of time coming up for nicknames of the deals that they had to cut. You may remember things like the Cornhusker kickback.

[Michael Duncan]

I remember that.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

No, wait, that was you.

[Comfortably Smug]

The Louisiana Purchase.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we did pull that off.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, this is home.

[Michael Duncan]

Good work, Ash.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is homes. Well, the Gatorade.

[Josh Holmes]

Gatorade, the Louisiana Purchase, like, all of these things.

[Comfortably Smug]

The Yukon.

[Josh Holmes]

The Yukon, which was, I think my favorite. Probably didn't get as much notoriety, but Yukon.

[Michael Duncan]

Great work, Ashbrook man, coming up with all these.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, Ashbrook gets all the credit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, 100%.

[Comfortably Smug]

This was all home. So Utah bench press, they traded some judge seat.

[John Ashbrook]

The fuck is that?

[Michael Duncan]

So the Cornhosker Kickback, that is like, all time.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it became. It became, like, ubiquitous in American politics with, like, what an unsavory deal would be made. And it forever helped us taint what Obamacare was, which is a very inelegant deal deal that we had no prospect of actually saving the American people any money whatsoever, providing you more access to health care. All they did was expand Medicaid.

[Michael Duncan]

Turns out it made everything more expensive. Like Republicans.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And like, you look at your premiums. You don't have to listen to me. You just look at your health care premiums over the last 15 years.

[John Ashbrook]

What? They went down, right? Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, they're like exponential. Every year your. Your health care insurance provider comes to you and is like, well, sad to Say, wait, wait, wait.

[John Ashbrook]

Premiums went up, but certainly I can keep my doctor if I like them. I was told he no longer has.

[Michael Duncan]

To run, like, year after year, saying that, oh, the health care system is broken in this country because they fixed it. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So Chuck Schumer comes out with this bill, and he. And the deal that they made with Lisa Murkowski on Alaska. He tries to brand what the Alaska. I don't even know what the fuck it is. It's like some terrible alliteration component where he's trying to do what we did back in 2009.

[Michael Duncan]

But he doesn't have Ashbrook. If you don't have Ashbrook on good.

[Comfortably Smug]

Luck, nobody remembers exactly right?

[Josh Holmes]

So, like, he says it into a. Like, it's a firecracker in a well. And like, that's the state of the Democratic opposition. And. But it also goes to show, like, the thing that we've been talking about forever on the program. Democrats led by Chuck Schumer in the United States Senate. The political acumen expired in 2009. Like, everything that he thinks is effective or not effective was what was effective in 2009.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

It has nothing to do with the last 16 years that we've dealt with in American politics. Just watch. Just watch everything he says, everything he does, and ask yourself whether or not that was going to be the talking point in 2008 or 2009. It is a perfect fit.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, he has no reason to wonder why, like, his literal neighbors made a communist the flag bearer for his party.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and he was like, I've worked with him for years.

[Michael Duncan]

Amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

Very, very, very smart fellow. We work to fleece taxpayers out of.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's crazy. He said he's worked with him for years.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's insane. Even Bernie Sanders was on Joe Rogan the other day and said, I never met the guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. No, he pretended like they were best friends.

[Michael Duncan]

Schumer's a piece of garbage.

[Josh Holmes]

This is where Democrats are. Like we said, there's not a dime's worth of difference between any of them. And it's. The difference is the guys like Mamdani or whatever he was in New York City has an ideological point of view that he wants to destroy you and your culture and everything about America. And then guys like Chuck Schumer believe in absolutely nothing, provided they can sit on top of that destruction.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

He's like, well, if my donors want that, then yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No, for real. That's what it is. So. But in terms of big, beautiful bill, I know that you wanted to get to, to something that had been done, I think by SLF or One Nation.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, one Nation.

[Josh Holmes]

Some polling.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, One Nation put out a poll by Fabricio Lee about the big beautiful bill and how it's being received by the American voters. There's a lot of, you know, consternation within media here in Washington about oh.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is so divisive.

[John Ashbrook]

And all this sort of, well, that's.

[Josh Holmes]

The last gasp of a losing campaign is to be like, well, it's unpopular, all going to lose their seats.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, right, exactly. So Republicans pass this thing and they put a poll in the field and I think the results of it are exactly what we've said here on the show for the last couple of months. You look at an issue like here, just from the poll on the Medicaid thing, you know, Democrats will tell you, oh my gosh, this is terrible. You know, you're going to kick off all these people from Medicaid, illegal immigrants. How will the voters react to that sort of thing? First of all, 66% of voters agree that there's waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid that must be addressed. 72% agree. And this is the thing that people are really shying away from, which was really disappointing. 72% agree that able bodied adults should demonstrate they are looking for a job or are employed to receive Medicaid.

[Josh Holmes]

You've been on this, you've been on this since that Wisconsin election years ago that happened years ago that we keep talking about time and time again on this show, which is Democrats have bullied and the media has bullied conservatives into believing that somehow there's vulnerability in making able bodied people go to work in order to serve taxpayer receipts.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

To get federal benefits.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe the truly impoverished with dependents or people with some sort of disability should get Medicaid and not able bodied adults who want to sit on their couch all day.

[Josh Holmes]

72%.

[John Ashbrook]

72%.

[Josh Holmes]

That's just like this mom and apple pie territory, right? It's crazy.

[John Ashbrook]

It's crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean this is the biggest, no brainer, the final thing that like this polling doesn't go over that we know because we've done these sort of like big reforms under the dome. It doesn't matter whether it's Democratic or Republican. Everything repolarizes, right? Anytime you have a big fight where you've unified an opposition, where you're not going to get any Democratic or Republican crossover votes, what you're dealing with are a split constituency with the media that's going to give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt. But how it lands on the electorate. It just repolarizes the electorate. So you've got a bunch of people who voted in November and then you've got like 10 to 15% of people who may not have voted for Donald Trump. They voted for Kamala Harris or whatever for a variety of different reasons. But they're like, look, I want my country to succeed, but they're Democrats or they're people like, I knew the establishment was gonna let me down Democrats. And they don't. They're not counted in the Democrat solidified vote or numbers. One way or another, this kind of fight just re solidifies people who are going to vote Democrat no matter what. In terms of independent voters, the risk in not passing something like the big beautiful bill is so much more acute and devastating to Republicans than any. Any risk.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, because. Because taxes would have went up under Republican control of both houses in Congress. And that's something as a Republican for your brand, you cannot allow to happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Cannot allow.

[John Ashbrook]

Also here from the poll, 54 to 34 voters prioritized locking in those tax rates that we currently have. Then worries about the debt or the deficit or the debt ceiling or any of those other sorts of things. Things. It's a political winner to say, we're not going to let your taxes go up. And yeah, sure. So should we address all of those issues on the spending side? Yes, absolutely. And there's going to be five more packages here over the next nine months that Speaker Johnson came here into this office and talked to us about. The rescissions package, the appropriations package, another reconciliation bill, and all of these things. We're not going to solve a problem of $36 trillion of debt in one reconciliation bill. Folks like that clearly is not going to happen. But don't wring your hands over the exact amount of spending reduction that we're doing in here. Again, it's historic what is already being accomplished. What the American people want when it comes to these midterms is their taxes not to go up. It's as simple as that. Lean into it, run on it.

[Josh Holmes]

Republicans, if you want a bumper sticker for all this. People for the last 50 years have voted for Republicans for two reasons. Reasons they keep them safe and they cut their taxes.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I think I feel like we need a screeching eagle sound in the board when you say something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's it, dude. It's it. Like, you know, there's all kinds of different stuff that pops up in different eras. That is important, but like look at the crux of what Donald Trump is talking. The immigration situation, the border. That's a safety thing. What he's doing in the Middle east. The safety thing, what he's doing with the big beautiful bill. It's not making. It's making sure that you're not going to get a tax increase. It's how you unify a center right country to be on your team. And if you want some social engineering and DEI and all kinds of other garbage, like, you got another party.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, imagine if we, if you could, you know, go back to 2017 and think that you could get a reconciliation bill that not only gets taxes here at this rate permanently, it also funds the border wall, Donald Trump's number one campaign promise. And you could make that happen. Imagine looking that gift horse in the mouth.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, imagine it. People would be.

[John Ashbrook]

And we fought. We have fought all these years for this to happen. And we are at the precipice of that. Like, don't shy away from it.

[Josh Holmes]

I totally agree. Republicans need to lean in on all of this stuff. Go out and sell it. Do your job and make sure people understand that the alternative is gonna cost you a lot of money and you're gonna be running around in your neighborhood trying to stock up on Second amendment goods. Try to keep yourself safe.

[John Ashbrook]

Second Amendment goods.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, Little Trump update.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Alligator Alcatraz.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yes. Love this.

[Josh Holmes]

Which gator?

[John Ashbrook]

Gitmo.

[Michael Duncan]

Gator Gitmo.

[John Ashbrook]

Smug. That was really good.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we get clip four, please?

[Michael Duncan]

And with the alligator alpha track, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

The idea that it does they just.

[Michael Duncan]

Get eaten by an alligator or a snake or something.

[Josh Holmes]

I guess that's the concept. This is not a nice business. I guess that's the concept. If you, you know, snakes are fast, but alligators are. But we're going to teach them how to run away from an alligator. Okay. If they escape prison, how to run away. Don't run in a straight line. Run like this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Serpentine.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what? Your chances go up about 1%.

[Michael Duncan]

We're so lucky to be live, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the content. We are truly blessed as a ruthless variety program to get stuff like this. You're the president. United States States advising prisoners of alligator Alcatraz serpentine on a 1% increase on their ability to escape by running in a serpentine manner. God, it's so good. It's so good. He goes on clip five, please. Hey, Biden wanted me in here. Okay. He wanted to me. It didn't work out that way, but he wanted me in here. That Son of a. He's standing in Alligator Alcatraz telling everybody what they already know, that Biden wanted to put him in prison. Something like he was in.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just never let anyone forget that.

[John Ashbrook]

Can you imagine what a surreal experience it must be to be Donald Trump right now? Like in the context of all that, that like he was with all these indictments and everything, and then somebody tries to assassinate him and now he's back in the Oval Office. It must feel so weird.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And I also think, like, you know, we all, everybody listening to this, you, you encounter something in life, something doesn't go right at work. You get in a car accident, like any little thing that's just like very difficult to deal with. And like, it occupies a space in your, your mind that you can tell it inhibits you from doing what you do best because it's occupying this space in your mind. He doesn't have that. Like somehow they indicted him 40 some odd times and he just won the presidency. And like now he's standing there at Alligator Alcatraz saying, well, this is where they wanted me. What a rewarding experience that must be.

[Comfortably Smug]

Has to be.

[Josh Holmes]

God, finally you're gonna enjoy all of this. This is the, is the governor of Maine. So this is the lady who showed up at the White House who was trying to make a. She was trying to like shout down Donald Trump at one point, like many, many months ago, and he just put her in a body bag. Well, it turns out it didn't end there. Oh, no, There were some allegations, like 36 year old allegations about her in her alleged use of cocaine that had surfaced. And it turns out there was an entrepreneurial cameraman who asked her some questions on that clip. Six, please.

[Michael Duncan]

Is sniffing cocaine at work a human?

[Josh Holmes]

Right, Janet? How much more does an eight ball cost with inflation? That's the best question. What surprise of an eight ball with inflation? Her reaction is, oh, what the fuck?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, even better than that though, is it stopped her dead in her tracks. She had to stop walking so she could mentally process the question she was just asked. She's got these two aids and when the question is asked, she falls behind by like three steps because she's just trying to process how she got this question.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God, it's so good. It's just so good. Anyway, keep them coming, folks. Those are great, great.

[John Ashbrook]

Shout out to that tracker, whoever you are.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that guy's earning his bucks doing the Lord's work. You know the difference in this game between a good tracker and a great Tracker.

[Comfortably Smug]

Really?

[Josh Holmes]

That's a great one right there. Would love to know who that was. It's time for a game, fellas.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Our signature game Thursday. It's the signature king of the hill. I'm going to be judge, and I.

[Michael Duncan]

Am returning champ with Sherry Jacob as.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, Smug has the cheat code, but I'm bringing King Zinger.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm very excited.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. All right, well, let's have at it.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's go ringside.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. It's time for king of the hip. In the red corner, fighting from who knows, Adam Kinzinger. And now, in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account and current champion of the world, call me Jerry Jacob.

[John Ashbrook]

Nice.

[Josh Holmes]

It's good every time. All right, bailiff, I'll instruct you to administer the court.

[Comfortably Smug]

Your Honor, we'll start with the challenge or the. Excuse me. The champion.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, he's already.

[Comfortably Smug]

Jacobs.

[John Ashbrook]

He's screwing it up.

[Comfortably Smug]

Your Honor, I'd ask you to take note of that chirping from.

[Michael Duncan]

Don't worry. This won't take long.

[Comfortably Smug]

Unqualified challenger, Michael Duncan.

[Michael Duncan]

Noted Exhibit one, please. Sherry Jacobus, commenting on a lot of Democrats were saying, boy, alligator, Alcatraz. It's. It's not designed to withstand floods. It would kill the illegals there. And then Sherry's comment is, that's what Trump wants. It's cheaper than gas chambers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, man.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

Among the most offensive things you could possibly. I mean, wow, she used to be a Republican.

[Michael Duncan]

Now she's just crazy. Shit.

[Josh Holmes]

My God. Is there algorithmic reward?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I really. I should have, like, stretched. Can we get that?

[Josh Holmes]

Can we get that? We may not have this. Can you put that. That tweet back up? Just. I want to see. Nope. It doesn't feel like there was a lot of traction on it.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not for the. For the fame. It's not for the numbers.

[Josh Holmes]

For the love of the game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's love of the game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Even the lunatics knew not to retweet something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

I almost find that that's an additional something.

[Michael Duncan]

Isn't that something?

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right, Challenger.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, when you. You go against Sherry. My Sherry.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You really need to sort of stretch and be prepared for a presentation in order to compete.

[Josh Holmes]

I am willing to afford counsel such.

[John Ashbrook]

A luxury, and that's why I appreciate you as judge. Good sir. Everything with Kingsinger has multiple levels. I think, being that he was an elected Republican, I think it adds something, and I think this was one. Can we put up Exhibit number eight, please. Spaghetti. Adam Kinzinger writes, imagine being a grown man waiting for Donald Trump to tell you what to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Lol.

[John Ashbrook]

Super Beta. Here's the thing I love about it. Every day Adam Kinzinger wakes up reacting to what Donald Trump does. This is a man with zero self awareness of what his life has become. His entire life is reacting what Donald Trump has done. If anyone's beta pal, it's you. The call is coming from inside the house.

[Comfortably Smug]

Your Honor, if I could ask Spaghetti to put that back up. The other thing that defines is this.

[Josh Holmes]

An amicus or are you acting as bailiff?

[Comfortably Smug]

What I'm just pointing out is that he continues to have Slava Ukraine next to his name in his Twitter bio.

[Josh Holmes]

Note noted.

[John Ashbrook]

Amicus.

[Josh Holmes]

I need to take a minute on this because there's a meta aspect.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you need to go to chambers?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I'm not gonna go to chambers, although I'd like to, if you know what I'm talking about. But the meta aspect. Look, Sher Mushari hits you with the fucking sledgehammer every time out.

[John Ashbrook]

Tough to beat.

[Josh Holmes]

She's gonna give you the craziest of the crazy. The job of a judge and jury in this is. Is it like, what's the uniqueness to it? Is it more offensive or less offensive than your average rote Democratic deal? Knowing that it's coming from a former Republican, knowing that they're aggrieved and knowing that their brain damage as a result of that has affected many people in different ways.

[John Ashbrook]

What a wind up.

[Josh Holmes]

The idea that she landed on gas chambers is amongst the most offensive thing. It's true that I could ever even imagine. But it's also coming from somebody who is ad nauseam on a weekly basis quite called somebody a Nazi. Compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, discussed Stephen Miller as if he's like Goebbels. It falls into a category of things that she's done that is, albeit the most offensive things that I could ever even imagine. But the lack of self understanding that the literal words coming out of his Twitter account exactly describe himself and himself alone to me is a novel concept.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

This is somebody who literally put these words down in no other order could they have perfectly more described his lot in life than what it is that he did here. And for that I award round one to deck.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, second round. We'll start with the challenger.

[John Ashbrook]

That was critical. I'd like to stay on theme here.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I like to paint a picture. I like to tell a story with These selects Exhibit number 10, please, begets from Adam Kinzinger. This is in reference to the bbb, the negotiations between conservatives and moderates with what's ultimately going to end up in the package. Adam Kinzinger writes. Please track. As a former moderate Republican, I can say this with authority. They always cave. Always. So what he's saying is about himself, as someone who's been a cuck for my entire life, I know cuckoldry.

[Josh Holmes]

I know it when I see it. And they'll do it, and they'll do it.

[John Ashbrook]

As one who spent a lot of time in that chair, let me tell you, the view is not good.

[Josh Holmes]

But we do it because we love it.

[John Ashbrook]

Like imagine, Imagine. Imagine serving, you know, as a member of Congress. And your takeaway in that is all of that time I was there, I did a shitty job. Yeah, that's you.

[Josh Holmes]

I. That's how I know they're gonna do a shitty job.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, you are so much in service to your new job as being a mouthpiece for the liberal left that you'll torch everything in your credibility, your lifetime achievement. Your lifetime achievement of being elected representative of the people of the United States and your constituents. And you're going to say, by the way, I really sucked at that and I caved all the time.

[Josh Holmes]

It is a persuasive case, Mr. Duncan. I will move on to the champion.

[Michael Duncan]

So we had earlier discussed that, you know, does Sheri not care about metrics? What's her thinking on that? Why does she do what she does?

[John Ashbrook]

Love of the game, but she might.

[Michael Duncan]

To a little bit, to a certain extent, care about trying to go to numbers, try to become relevant, because you can't just, like, you know, shout into the ether.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Lord knows she doesn't have any.

[Michael Duncan]

Employer, so that we're aware of. What can she do for attention? Exhibit three, please, ladies and gentlemen. Feet pics.

[John Ashbrook]

What?

[Michael Duncan]

No words. Just a photo of her feet at the beach.

[John Ashbrook]

She's at the beach.

[Michael Duncan]

And feet.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, you know, honestly, I'm. I'm proud of her that she's getting out of her house.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

It's good for her. She needs the vitamin D. It's a.

[Josh Holmes]

Different genre and it's one that I didn't expect. I honestly didn't.

[Michael Duncan]

Of a demoralized coward.

[Josh Holmes]

The first exhibit that he provided in the first round. Can we pull that back up with some metrics?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, that's a great comparison. So here's the thing, all right?

[Josh Holmes]

So that thing gets. This is where she.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait, you're asking you're asking for Cherry Chicago.

[Josh Holmes]

That's Kinzinger. I'm talking about Sharon Macheri.

[Michael Duncan]

Exhibit one for this is where she.

[Josh Holmes]

Talks about the gas chambers.

[Michael Duncan]

So that got 6,370 views, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

And it got 15 retweets, I think I see there.

[Michael Duncan]

And then you. You throw it to exhibit three.

[John Ashbrook]

Nope.

[Michael Duncan]

2,325. So not even the feeder.

[John Ashbrook]

Only one RT.

[Josh Holmes]

And there's one retweet, but also shout.

[Michael Duncan]

Out to the shameless foot dude who.

[John Ashbrook]

Smashed the retweet, who's like, no, no, no, no, no. Not the retweet tweet. The shameless dude is the guy who bookmarked.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my. There's a book.

[John Ashbrook]

There's one bookmark.

[Comfortably Smug]

We cannot confirm, of course, because of the algorithm, whether that was Rick Wilson.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know why.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know why I'm helping my friend here.

[Josh Holmes]

No, but in the Elon X world, we can't actually tell.

[Comfortably Smug]

We don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

No, we don't know who the bookmark is.

[John Ashbrook]

The book would have Quentin Tarantino, because that guy.

[Josh Holmes]

I would have entered into evidence had I ascertained who that bookmark is, who he is as part of my consideration.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, the thing is that not being identified allows those bookmark dudes to. To do what they do.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine seeing Cherry Jacobus's feet and being like, hey, let's save this. Let's save this for later.

[John Ashbrook]

Look, all I'm gonna say is Adam Kinzinger said I sucked at my job. That's how I know they suck at their job. And he got 1,700 retweets to that, which is remarkable. People are like, yes, you are right.

[Josh Holmes]

I want to see around three minutes.

[John Ashbrook]

Unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

I want to.

[John Ashbrook]

How do I lose to a foot pick with one rt?

[Josh Holmes]

I just want to see around three.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, that seems unfair.

[Comfortably Smug]

Start with the champion.

[John Ashbrook]

Should have been a summary judgment.

[Michael Duncan]

Exhibit two, please. Okay, this is in response to Bailiff, please.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm competing under.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, bailiff, please.

[Michael Duncan]

Jonathan Chait is like kangaroo. What the hell? Why are. Why? You know, Republicans should be terrified of all the blowback that they will face if they support big, beautiful Bill and Sherry Jacobus's take is because they've been assured that there will be no midterms or that it's rigged for them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

There will be. He will cancel for the first time in 250 years.

[Michael Duncan]

And I love that she gave herself the backup that, like. But if there is a midterms, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

Rigged it's rigged no matter what. That's pretty hot. That's salsa.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, Challenger.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, what do we got out of Kinzinger? See, that's the problem is the depth. You know, I mean, she's got depth and she brings the. She brings stuff that, like, candidly, it's tough to compete with.

[John Ashbrook]

I want to noted for the record that after being admonished by the bailiff of this court, he requested a zinn from me.

[Comfortably Smug]

As tribute.

[John Ashbrook]

As unbelievable it was.

[Josh Holmes]

It was more or less like a. Like a payment.

[John Ashbrook]

Bribe.

[Michael Duncan]

Is it Cornhusker kickback.

[John Ashbrook]

We'll see if the bribe works. Spaghetti return exhibit number nine. Okay. Fuckers disagree with this one.

[Josh Holmes]

Cash bill.

[John Ashbrook]

Adam Kinzinger again, as noted by the bailiff, Slava Ukraine still in his name on Twitter writes, let's be clear. Elbridge Colby has blood on his hands. Pentagon halting some promised munitions for Ukraine. Ukraine from Politico. Okay, so first of all, Slava Ukraine is still being there. Hilarious. Number two, specifically calling out Elbridge Colby.

[Josh Holmes]

Like it's not an administration.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Position. Right. That he's executing.

[John Ashbrook]

Not saying like the Pentagon or like even Hegseth or Donald Trump, the President, United States. You're going to like tag him in this tweet and say, this guy's got blood on his hands.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unique in how specific it is. Right, right. I mean, I got to imagine in the X universe, they're like, who the fuck are you talking about? At some level. But he's like trained guns on this guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Who is a wonderful guy, by the way.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. He's been on the show. He's a good guy. We like him a lot. Can I see the first exhibit, please? From Sherry one more time?

[Michael Duncan]

Exhibit number two.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't. It's over. Sherry wins.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

Rigged.

[Michael Duncan]

Willing to play feet picks together.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know who I think?

[John Ashbrook]

You know who I think bookmarked that Sherry thing? I think Holmes did?

[Josh Holmes]

Look at him telling you loser.

[John Ashbrook]

I am unbelievable. I lost that round.

[Josh Holmes]

I am a sucker for the outside the box. Like feet pick.

[John Ashbrook]

I throw it to the audience. Comment.

[Josh Holmes]

We played this.

[John Ashbrook]

Was it Rick Duncan?

[Michael Duncan]

It was mediocre until he brought up those above, Mark.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, I mean, I did it.

[John Ashbrook]

Because I love my friend.

[Josh Holmes]

I know you did a good job.

[John Ashbrook]

And I advocated for your tweet better than you did.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, dude, I thought so. After I was robbed in the first round, I said, you know what? I got thief picks. I'm going to play him. If I'm going to lose, in fairness.

[Josh Holmes]

I feel like, this was the most, like, legitimate decision that I've rendered in a long time.

[John Ashbrook]

Because you agree with your own decision.

[Josh Holmes]

Not only do I think it was a fair decision, you better hope next time you're up, you're not going to see this court.

[Comfortably Smug]

Nobody disguises sour grapes more eloquently than the old man.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. Congratulations to Shira Maishari, who is, as we know, the new queen of the ruthless variety programs administration of King of the Hill. Last thing we wanted to cover here before we go, because you're just gonna hear a lot about this P. Diddy.

[Michael Duncan]

Speaking of bookmark guys and sickos.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. So it turns out he largely beat the rap. Like all the really significant stuff, the trafficking and the racketeering and all of that stuff that would have put him away for life. He beat the rap innocent. He was found guilty of a couple of. And I want to get this right, because I understand that we're in a litigious society, but he was found guilty.

[John Ashbrook]

Of the two, I think the two prostitution charges.

[Josh Holmes]

It was like transferred transportation.

[John Ashbrook]

And then there were three counts that he was found not guilty. I believe it was on the racketeering, the more serious charges.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So what do we make of this, fellows? This is like, captured the pop culture world for the better part of a year.

[Michael Duncan]

Disappointing. There were a lot of rumors that have been going around because, you know, he's friends with Obama and there was a lot of rumors about, like, when this news first broke is when things started looking like they were on the rocks between Michelle and Barak. And subsequently, you see Michelle basically just like attacking Barack whenever she's got a chance, being like, oh, glad I don't have a son. He'd be another Barack. We don't need that. And was she, like, getting ahead of the verdict? Did she expect some more to come out? Like, I want to see. I want to see names. This dude strikes me as like another episode type situation.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, that's the thing we talked about at the top. The names are actually sort of so disappointing. That's kind of what everybody was getting at, whether or not P. Diddy went to.

[Michael Duncan]

Because, like, if he's facing life in jail, he would have probably then just like rolled. Tried rolling.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. But we're not going to see that.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I say the obvious? Yeah. All right. So, like, the main thrust of this whole.

[Josh Holmes]

So to speak.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I did that on purpose, doing the thrust thing. The main thrust of. Of this whole controversy were these freak off parties.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

They were like sex Parties where they'd get, like, male escorts there.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, a lot of baby oil.

[John Ashbrook]

Baby oil, right. I'm just throwing it out there. Well, I mean, do you think Diddy dislikes prison? Do you think they have baby oil in the commissary? I'm just saying, if that's his thing, they got that in prison.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, my guess is that he probably was more interested in administering anything under his own control. Under what?

[Michael Duncan]

It's hilarious if Diddy's like, no, no, no. Tried to throw the ultimate freak off prison.

[John Ashbrook]

He's like, no, stop, please. Not time served. Give me a couple more years.

[Michael Duncan]

Amazing. That's a terrific take, actually. Probably the best take out there.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a hard take.

[John Ashbrook]

I thought of it.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm not sure we can improve upon it.

[Michael Duncan]

Steak Diddy was trying to.

[Josh Holmes]

It is interesting, right, that, like, all these guys, you know, it's good when smug laughs.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Great take.

[Josh Holmes]

And also when he's sort of offended. Yeah. Which is like, you know, hard. That is.

[John Ashbrook]

It's hard for you listeners.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what we're talking about. If you can actually get him to be like. It's tough. Yeah. I mean, look, he's gonna do some time, no question. We'll see what the sentencing looks like. Everybody kind of knows that he's a bad guy now. I kind of put that into the category of like Harvey Weinstein describing his hamburger genitals.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, gosh.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Which is like, it doesn't really matter how much time he serves after you've described to the world that he's got a meat pie in his pants. You know what I mean? Like, you can't come back from that. No, it's a sentence worse than anything you can do in the hole. I'm just telling you, like, that's. As a guy who trafficked in that world. Boy, oh, boy. So like Diddy, you know, he tries to. Like he threw himself out there as a self would do. There's all these allegations of, like, let's say, less than alpha experience, baby oil and the rest. And I think he's paid a pretty heavy price whether he goes to prison or not. This is a, shall we say, devastating last year of his life. Oh, don't you think?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I would not be surprised.

[John Ashbrook]

It depends if baby oil's in commissary. That's all I'm saying.

[Josh Holmes]

So the baby oil thing became kind of part of pop culture and how everybody's defined this kind of thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't eliminated in to how the press characterized the reaction. If we can go to this clip with cnn. It's amazing. Happening inside of a quorum. No, instead, I kid you not, people are pouring baby oil on one another outside this courthouse. Baby oil having a very big play in the freak offs. We heard about. You have people saying it's not. Not Rico. It's Rico. How is this real, Michael? I think you've characterized it as a garbage society.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a garbage culture.

[Josh Holmes]

We live in garbage culture.

[John Ashbrook]

But you might as well enjoy the ride down to the bottom if you.

[Josh Holmes]

Can'T just have some laughs along the way.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's make sure it's lubricated by baby oil.

[Michael Duncan]

My God.

[Josh Holmes]

Woof, woof. All right, well, you know, we'll let you decide what you all think of that. But it's not bringing Tupac back. I know that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, Suge Knight was right about Pet.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm not convinced Pac is dead. I'm just not God. But takes to believe he's alive.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if he's not, I'd like to hear a tune or two.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I want a mashup.

[Josh Holmes]

Back in the day.

[Comfortably Smug]

A mashup with an elderly Elvis Presley, Lee and Tupac Shakur.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he's still. Still.

[Comfortably Smug]

Think about that. That would bring the house down.

[Josh Holmes]

It would. It'd be a number one. No question about it.

[John Ashbrook]

Wait, are you. Is Elvis dead? Are you.

[Josh Holmes]

He says that he's not dead either.

[John Ashbrook]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. 76. I don't think either one thinks he's around.

[John Ashbrook]

He had a heart attack on the toilet.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what you think they found. They found a body.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, how am I just now finding.

[Josh Holmes]

The best part about Ashbrook is that, like, it's a. It's a significant boomer take.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, I love it.

[Josh Holmes]

Parents age where they're like, no, he didn't. He didn't.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ultimately, you're taking someone else's word for it.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, he wanted to just escape. He wanted to escape public life, and so he faked his death and of course, smashes up on that.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then sometime in 2026, the two of them will appear together and a sellout crowd, and no one will forget it.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, that's a hot take. My God, save it for the Super Bowl.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, as a reminder to all of you, we're gonna do a special Fourth of July show tomorrow, so you're gonna have to tune into that with that. I think we did it.

[Michael Duncan]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to the Minions. Remember, question of the day. What should trump name the media funded wing of his library. Like and subscribe. If you wish to opine, go to that YouTube. Leave your comments. We'll read them on the next episode. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you tomorrow. Stay ruthless.