John Ashbrook (1:37)

Yeah, Yeah. I had spring break with the kids down in the Bahamas.

Michael Duncan (1:41)

Terrific.

John Ashbrook (1:42)

Water park time.

Josh Holmes (1:43)

Okay.

John Ashbrook (1:44)

Yeah, it was fun. It was maybe a little ambitious.

Josh Holmes (1:46)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (1:47)

But.

Josh Holmes (1:47)

But you survived it.

John Ashbrook (1:49)

Survived it. I. I have a couple of observations, if you'll indulge me, please.

Comfortably Smug (1:52)

Can't wait.

John Ashbrook (1:53)

So, number one, and I'm the sentimental type, you know? You know this. I love love.

Josh Holmes (1:59)

Well, he does love. Love. For those of you who. Who just want to know how much he loves love, when. At his wedding, when his bride turned to come down the aisle and the music played. You've never seen a more contorted face.

Michael Duncan (2:13)

No way.

John Ashbrook (2:14)

Right.

Josh Holmes (2:14)

In your entire life.

Comfortably Smug (2:15)

It was. Including the shoulder, like the. It was a full cry.

John Ashbrook (2:21)

I cried at my wedding. I cried most weddings.

Josh Holmes (2:24)

Yeah, you cried.

John Ashbrook (2:24)

I even cried at a rehearsal dinner once.

Josh Holmes (2:26)

That's true.

John Ashbrook (2:29)

I can't help it.

Josh Holmes (2:30)

Fact check. True.

John Ashbrook (2:31)

But I have a sentimental thing to say. And that is, first of all, I love you guys.

Josh Holmes (2:35)

Oh, we love you, pal.

John Ashbrook (2:37)

And I don't really. I guess I don't really realize it very often because we've We've optimized our lives in so many ways.

Josh Holmes (2:44)

Yes.

John Ashbrook (2:44)

That we surround ourselves with people that we like to hang out with.

Josh Holmes (2:48)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (2:48)

You know that when you go on a vacation like that where you are out in the general population and you like, you come across people who you would never hang out with, it's sort of like it's a shock to the system.

Michael Duncan (3:00)

Jarring.

Josh Holmes (3:01)

Dude. It's right.

John Ashbrook (3:02)

It really is.

Josh Holmes (3:02)

It's true.

John Ashbrook (3:03)

You know, and when you go to a resort like I went to, you know, and some people when they pay money to go to resort like that, they treat you like a non playable character in a video game. You know what I mean? Like they step in front of you in line, they're like, I paid to be here. And it's like one of my main observations for vacation is just how glad I am to be back amongst friends.

Comfortably Smug (3:26)

Oh man.

Josh Holmes (3:27)

You know, I hear that.

John Ashbrook (3:28)

And then the other, my other observation, one more. Sorry, I had a lot of time on the airplane.

Josh Holmes (3:31)

Yeah, please.

John Ashbrook (3:33)

Is how much I want smug to have kids.

Josh Holmes (3:36)

Yes.

Comfortably Smug (3:37)

Yep.

John Ashbrook (3:37)

I want it so much.

Josh Holmes (3:39)

Yeah, I do too.

John Ashbrook (3:39)

Because I had a couple. And I want this for you for one reason in particular. And that is, and this is me selling you on it, pal, is the greatest thing about having kids is you get to live life over again.

Josh Holmes (3:53)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (3:53)

Like.

Michael Duncan (3:54)

Well, that's the plan.

John Ashbrook (3:54)

You get. You get to see them enjoy things for the first time through their eyes and it's awesome.

Josh Holmes (4:00)

Now what's the other side of that coin, old man?

John Ashbrook (4:02)

Well, the other, the other side of that coin is a lot of long lines and kids who are very tired and meltdowns. But when your kid gets on a boogie board for the first time, it makes it all worth it, you know?

Josh Holmes (4:16)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (4:16)

Well, I mean it makes it my operating theory. I thought this is universal is like, you know, for every, every man. The purpose of having a son is now you get one more chance, but you don't make any of the mistakes. You know what I mean? Like now I can do it one more time.

Josh Holmes (4:31)

Like he's.

Michael Duncan (4:31)

But I won't make any of the mistakes this time.

John Ashbrook (4:33)

He's just iterating on a program. Yeah, yeah.

Josh Holmes (4:36)

That's the whole purpose. Playing his son, he's like, congratulations son.

John Ashbrook (4:40)

You get to speed run my life.

Michael Duncan (4:41)

That's it.

Josh Holmes (4:42)

That's the plan.

Michael Duncan (4:43)

I thought that was understood. I thought that was the whole point.

John Ashbrook (4:45)

Ye.

Josh Holmes (4:46)

And I just gotta say, I mean Ashbrook, you had a trip yourself, so I'll let you get into it. But it Feels like Easter has become like four or five days of Easter, of which for a dad, it is. Well, look, we celebrate Jesus Christ. He is risen and it is what it is. You know, I mean, there is that, but then you've got all of these various eggs things and like the commercialization of it where, like, dad has got to wear pastels.

John Ashbrook (5:18)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (5:19)

Dad's got to go.

John Ashbrook (5:20)

The indignity.

Comfortably Smug (5:21)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (5:21)

Got to chase kids around forever. It's basically a guarantee of four straight days of just being the most undignified that you could possibly be. And that's, like, where I found myself over the last few days. Fine. I love it. I love the pictures, I love the memories. And my dad always told me it's like, look, these memories, they're going to be some of the best, but they are going to be the most painful at the time. And he told me this years ago and I was like, yeah, I got it. True. A true fact. The stuff that, that makes the best memories, in retrospect, really difficult.

John Ashbrook (5:58)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (5:58)

At the time.

Comfortably Smug (5:59)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (5:59)

Smash, how about you? How's your trip?

Comfortably Smug (6:02)

It was wonderful. I mean, it really, like spending a little time with the fam with my girls, it really, like, just is life giving. And I did miss my friends.

Josh Holmes (6:11)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (6:12)

I'll have you know, I did wish that I was here on Wednesday. I wish I could have flown back and been here Wednesday and then flown back and spent the rest of the weekend with them. But it just, it really is one of the greatest things that you can. You can do is spending time with your kids. So I mean, I highly recommend.

Josh Holmes (6:30)

Gotta unplug every once in a while. Listen, we got a big show in front of us today where I talk a little bit about a Democratic implosion. It seems to me, if you're paying attention at home. And I think, Duncan, you put this well in that Democrats in the first time around, they had a whole bunch of things to make the thing. Yeah. And this time around, they're like just picking common criminals.

John Ashbrook (6:52)

Well, yeah, it's really interesting. The first Trump term, they picked a lot of like former Republicans, like Robert Mueller. They were putting him on candles. They were praying to Robert Mueller, literally. And talking about this guy at dhs, Miles Taylor, and this book, Anonymous, and making it a bestseller or making Liz Cheney a hero. You know, like, okay, that was embarrassing. Now they just support criminals.

Michael Duncan (7:15)

It's insane.

Josh Holmes (7:17)

Of course we're talking about the Abrego Garcia case. And there's a lot of developments over the weekend, including a full Ginsburg by Van Hollen. For those of you unfamiliar with a full Ginsburg. It refers to Ben Ginsburg, not the former Supreme Court justice, in which, during the 2000 election, he was the first person to do every single Sunday show. This was back when Sunday shows were a thing. They're not really a thing.

Michael Duncan (7:43)

Are they not like they used to be.

Josh Holmes (7:46)

No. I mean, it's just not.

Michael Duncan (7:47)

When you get people like, I mean, look at our hacked madness. It was like CBS was essentially every one of their folks were on our biggest hacks of the year tourney. So they're not what they used to be.

Josh Holmes (7:56)

They're not what they used.

Comfortably Smug (7:57)

Yeah, they've really turned into just another content creation machine. And it's on Sunday morning, you have people who have. Who generate clips that people share on X. I mean, that's really the only purpose of a Sunday show.

Josh Holmes (8:10)

So, like, when I started in politics, the Sunday shows set the table for the week. They were the most important interviews about who was driving the news for the next calendar week. And they would set the message and that basically everything you heard Monday through Friday was some element of what it is that they laid down.

John Ashbrook (8:32)

Now most people have to wait till Tuesday and listening to the ruthless variety program to do that.

Josh Holmes (8:36)

That's exactly right.

Michael Duncan (8:37)

Honestly, that is what has happened.

Comfortably Smug (8:38)

But you used to build entire strategies around, like, how do I get my principal on these shows for Sunday? Because it set the tone for the week. Yeah.

Josh Holmes (8:48)

You need some deference from, like, leadership or president in order to say, like, this person is okay to go out and do it. I mean, it was a big hierarchy type thing. Now it's like you can book anybody. And of course, there's no better anybody. Anybody that Mr. White Bread himself, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who of course went down to incredibly El Salvador because of his quote, unquote constituent that he was very, very concerned about. We've got a whole lot of conversation on that coming up. Along with some variety. Our guests, we got MK Ham and Carol Markowitz.

Michael Duncan (9:26)

Excellent.

Comfortably Smug (9:27)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (9:27)

Good friends of the program.

Josh Holmes (9:28)

Good friends of the program. So you'll hear a little something nice to get a little perspective from them at all times. Before we get into it, I got one update on Gus.

Comfortably Smug (9:38)

Oh, the murder donkey.

Josh Holmes (9:40)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (9:40)

Oh, boy.

Josh Holmes (9:41)

So Gus, the murder donkey. You know, I. I was reliably informed he was just taken off the premises. Well, he sort of was taking off. He no longer has contact with the sheep, which I think was in everybody's best interest.

Randi Weingarten (9:55)

Yes.

John Ashbrook (9:57)

Considering the murder and the violations.

Josh Holmes (10:00)

Yeah, the murder, the violations in front of the bachelorette party, all of that kind of thing. But they put him in a cage. Well, it's not a cage. Fenced in like a compound.

John Ashbrook (10:12)

Okay.

Josh Holmes (10:13)

But they. They separated cell. Well, they separated him from the smaller animal.

John Ashbrook (10:18)

Smart.

Josh Holmes (10:19)

A sheep.

Comfortably Smug (10:20)

Okay.

Josh Holmes (10:20)

They put him in with much larger animals.

Comfortably Smug (10:23)

Oh, boy.

Josh Holmes (10:24)

So he like got supermax type situation on the farm. So now he's dealing with like big old horses and stuff. He's being humbled and we'll see. Yeah, I mean, people are concerned. People are saying that have been, you know, thinking about Gus. They're worried that maybe he's. Maybe he's getting a little of his own.

John Ashbrook (10:46)

Oh, no.

Josh Holmes (10:47)

Medicine. No, they're concerned. People are concerned. I have no evidence to suggest.

John Ashbrook (10:52)

Oh, my gosh.

Josh Holmes (10:53)

But they're concerned.

John Ashbrook (10:54)

This is like prison. It's shank or be shanked.

Josh Holmes (10:56)

Yeah. So. But you know, you never know. Maybe Gus is just like a feisty little donkey.

Comfortably Smug (11:00)

Look, I've got faith in Gus. I really. I don't think that. I don't think that he is going to be any shrinking violet. You put him in any situation and he will thrive.

Josh Holmes (11:10)

The murder donkey is. Is not somebody to be trifled with. No question about it. But like, you know, we'll see long lasting in a supermax cell. I don't know. I just glad I'm not there. Anyway, we're going to talk about the news today. This is the Democratic unraveling. So the way that we've prefaced a lot of things that we've done on this show is Trump does something, media reacts. And the initial media reaction is always to find a single case study that they can blow up into something that tries to refute the entire premise for why it was done in the first place.

Comfortably Smug (11:52)

Right.

Josh Holmes (11:53)

This has been done countless times. And after eight years of this guy in the political scene, what you found out is that like two or three weeks down the road, everything the media is talking about, well, it's not true. And this is the case of Abrego Garcia, you recall that immediately, is wrongly deported. This is like a Maryland man who's just, you know, sitting out, playing.

Michael Duncan (12:21)

I mean, the branding of him as Maryland man, like that alone should be such a just example. Number 5,000,029 of this insidious media. That's just like trying to hold on to any sort of relevance while yet again showing us they're just liars.

Comfortably Smug (12:41)

No, that's exactly right. Marilyn Mann.

Michael Duncan (12:42)

Marilyn Mann. Just a lie.

Comfortably Smug (12:44)

Mostly peaceful protests.

Michael Duncan (12:45)

That's it.

Comfortably Smug (12:46)

It's Joe Biden is sharper than you think. It's the exact same.

Michael Duncan (12:49)

Exact same thing.

Josh Holmes (12:51)

So they raised this as a Maryland man, and the administration comes back and says, well, actually, two courts have said that he's a member of Ms. 13, one of the most violent gangs in the world and whose initiation in America is actually murdering people. Like, that's. That's what they do. And that was the whole premise of the whole deportation of the MS.13 crew to begin with, of which the media characterized his as a mistake. Right. And then they had some fodder because the administration, in and of themselves in court argued we may have made some mistakes along the way. And, you know, I mean, they basically conceded that do full due process for each one of these individuals may not have been the case. This is what they were arguing in court. So the media seized on that, and all of a sudden you get Chris Van Hollen and all the Democratic Party going down. Well, so we figure out shortly thereafter, this is according to lawfare in a gang field interview sheet. And this is, like, amazing that they have these things. Submitted by ice. This document from Prince George's County Police Department claimed Abrego Garcia was a member of MS.13's Western Clique, quote unquote, with the rank of chiquejo and a moniker of Chile. It is cited as past and proven and reliable confidential informant, and noted that his clothing, a Chicago Bulls hat, and a hoodie with money imagery is indicative of his Hispanic gang culture. All right, so the point is, is, like, they did all of this. They said, this guy's not a part of MS.13. They tried to just change the narrative. And ICE is like, well, two quarts. And then all this, like, he kind of is. And then they were like, let's just take a look at his tattoos. So graphic. One, please. Okay, so there are the tats for our listeners.

Michael Duncan (14:58)

The symbols on each knuckle represents Ms. 13.

John Ashbrook (15:04)

Yeah. I don't know.

Michael Duncan (15:05)

How do you think he's on in Ms. 13. He just wrote it on himself.

Josh Holmes (15:08)

Yeah, no, it's just. It's by happenstance. By happenstance. Knuckles said Ms. 13.

John Ashbrook (15:14)

Just your everyday Maryland, man.

Josh Holmes (15:16)

It's your everyday.

Comfortably Smug (15:18)

Just. Just rooting on the Orioles.

John Ashbrook (15:20)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (15:21)

Just eating crabs at Cantler.

Josh Holmes (15:24)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (15:25)

Just Cal Ripken with the marijuana leaf and the skull on his wrist. I'm fucking unbelievable.

Josh Holmes (15:31)

Well, and then they also unveiled, as Chris Van Hollen's plane is in the air to El Salvador, that he was actually served a restraining order from his wife for, like, domestic violence purposes. In serious allegations, mostly peaceful Maryland man, mostly. So, like all that, all of that came out, that did not stop Chris Van Hollen from going there. We showed on Thursday his visit. Well, here's how he sounds on his way back. Clip one. Now, President Trump says that some of.

Randi Weingarten (16:08)

Abrego Garcia's tattoos signify that he's a.

Josh Holmes (16:12)

Member of Ms. 13. In 2019, police alleged a confidential informant claimed that Abrego Garcia was an active MS.13 member. His wife and his attorney deny that, of course.

John Ashbrook (16:26)

Can you say with absolute certainty that.

Josh Holmes (16:28)

He is not, nor has he ever been a member of the Ms. 13 gang? And did you ask him point blank?

Chris Van Hollen (16:36)

Well, Dan, what Donald Trump is trying.

Josh Holmes (16:38)

To do here.

Chris Van Hollen (16:41)

The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights.

Comfortably Smug (16:53)

I mean, it's just incredible. You've never seen a softer politician in your entire life. I would bet you that he doesn't have a single callus, nor has he ever had a single callus on his hands. This is the softest guy who ever set foot in the United States Senate.

Michael Duncan (17:08)

But Donald Trump.

Josh Holmes (17:10)

But they've got, they have a media plan here and it's not to answer the questions. Look at clip two. This is Abrego Garcia's wife.

John Ashbrook (17:19)

And, and I know this is a sensitive question, but I have to ask it you, you did take out a temporary order of protection against your husband in 2021.

Comfortably Smug (17:27)

Were you in fear of your husband?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (17:35)

Husband is alive.

Randi Weingarten (17:37)

That's all I can say.

John Ashbrook (17:40)

But okay, I'm not going to push on that apparently. But push on that, apparently.

Josh Holmes (17:46)

He's alive, guys.

John Ashbrook (17:48)

He's alive.

Josh Holmes (17:48)

He's alive.

John Ashbrook (17:49)

But it goes to your whole point, Holmes, about like lifting up this one thing as part of the narrative for the Democrats. That was, that was Good Morning America.

Comfortably Smug (17:58)

I know.

John Ashbrook (17:58)

That is Good Morning America. We're not talking about a Sunday show or political show or, you know, political show or cable news show.

Josh Holmes (18:05)

You got a defensive end from the Giants. Ask questions.

John Ashbrook (18:12)

It goes to your whole point of like they're trying to break the containment of political news and raise this guy up as some person who's been horribly treated by Donald Trump and they want to make sure everybody in America sees an ungodly.

Comfortably Smug (18:25)

But you're right. You're right. Every gear and pinion of the mainstream media is just a mechanism to deliver the Democrats message.

John Ashbrook (18:33)

Hilarious.

Comfortably Smug (18:33)

It's unbelievable that they still do it, but thank God because it's terrific content. He's Donald Trump's number one Enemy in.

John Ashbrook (18:42)

Congress, Chicago Senator Dick Durbin. And now Dick Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, consumers have thousands of choices and.

Josh Holmes (18:53)

Credit cards, all with equal strong security.

John Ashbrook (18:56)

But Durbin's plan is less competition and.

Josh Holmes (18:58)

Less security, and that means more risk.

John Ashbrook (19:01)

For your credit and your identity. Tell Republicans in Congress, stop Dick Durbin's takeover of your credit card before it's too late.

Josh Holmes (19:11)

The basic premise of all of this is that the Trump administration basically characterized MS.13 as a terrorist organization, state directed terrorist organization that could bypass the elements of due process in the name of national security. That much of which is not disputed. Like, if that fits the walls of that, they're fine, they're good. The question was whether or not there were people who were not a part of a state administered terrorist organization that fell outside of that. And they got this guy and they're like, no, this guy doesn't belong there. This is a Maryland man who has not done anything. And they just seized upon it for their entire political narrative to say, like, no, this is the man that we need to bring back to the United States. And then you find out, it's like, oh, okay, Ms. 13 wife files domestic violence allegations against him, gets a restraining order, all of those things. And then they're interviewed and they're like, well, he's alive.

John Ashbrook (20:28)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (20:29)

By the way, nobody's disputing the fact that he's here illegally, right? Nobody.

Comfortably Smug (20:36)

Right?

Josh Holmes (20:37)

Nobody. Like, don't let that, like, just sit. I mean, that's the whole point of deportations, is finding people who have been here illegally and sending them away. Now, if they have criminal backgrounds, then they are at the top of the list. Well, I'm sorry, but this dude qualifies.

Michael Duncan (21:01)

And that's the thing is I love situations like this. And with President Trump, we find ourselves here so frequently, shockingly frequently, that the Democrats are here trying to argue some process story.

John Ashbrook (21:16)

It's the TPS report.

Michael Duncan (21:17)

It's insane.

John Ashbrook (21:18)

It's the TPS report argument.

Michael Duncan (21:19)

No one is denying the man is here illegally. And for a little while there, Democrats tried to make this conspiracy theory that President Trump holding up that photo of the tattoos on his hand. Can we get that graphic back up again? Graphic one. Democrats tried saying that, like, this was made up. And then people pulled up the wife's Instagram and every photo has that on his hands. He's got a billboard saying, I'm a member of Ms. 13. And this is the ground that Democrats are trying to fight on.

Josh Holmes (21:50)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (21:51)

How does this happen? Like after they got their clocks cleaned in November, they're like, no, we're gonna fight for an illegal alien who's a clear member of MS.13. We're gonna be like, this is the guy. They're traveling to El Salvador.

John Ashbrook (22:04)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (22:05)

These people are so dumb.

John Ashbrook (22:07)

They didn't even, like, travel to North Carolina. That's the thing, you know, during the flood, they don't care about the wildfires in California, but they'll travel to El Salvador.

Josh Holmes (22:16)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (22:16)

To argue for the merits of returning this guy.

Josh Holmes (22:19)

Well, the White House. The White House did an admirable job at putting a victim whose. Whose daughter was murdered by an illegal immigrant. Horrific story in Maryland on the podium last Friday by explaining, like, we didn't hear from Chris Van Hollen.

Michael Duncan (22:36)

Nope.

Josh Holmes (22:36)

That's. That's an actual constituent who was murdered and, like, no concern whatsoever. But travel down to El Salvador to try to make a political point against Donald Trump.

Comfortably Smug (22:50)

It's such a good point, dude. Democrats, not only are they weak, not only are they controlled by these, like, forces like George Soros, but their priorities are so out of whack.

Michael Duncan (23:02)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (23:02)

They don't care about regular people they represent. Chris Van Hollen is not the only Democrat who's gone to El Salvador for a photo op. There's a woman who is a congresswoman from Oregon. She represents an area with, like, replete with poverty outside of Portland. And what has she done for them? Basically, nothing. It's getting poorer and poorer and poorer. And she flies to El Salvador to try to get the release of some guy from Maryland. Like, their priorities are so out of whack. And I'm telling you, it just makes sense why people vote for Trump.

Josh Holmes (23:35)

I want to wait one more clip, and then I want to just sort of encapsulate this. Can we play clip three, please? Because this is Van Hollen when he got to El Salvador, claiming shenanigans. Clip 3.

Chris Van Hollen (23:53)

Now, I just want to take a moment. I hadn't planned to do this, but as I was landing on the airplane, I. I got a transcript of some questions President Trump was asked at the White House today about what I would call margarita gate. I don't know if you guys have been following this, but.

Comfortably Smug (24:13)

No, we haven't.

Chris Van Hollen (24:14)

Bukey. You know, after I met with Kilmar, did this tweet showing us at a table with these two glasses. So here's what happened. When I first sat down with Kilmar, we just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee. And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice. And I don't know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but they look like margaritas. And if you look at the one they put in front of Kilmart, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me. In front of me to try to make it look, I assume, like he drank out of it.

John Ashbrook (25:05)

What?

Josh Holmes (25:06)

This is where we're at.

Michael Duncan (25:08)

This is where we're at.

Josh Holmes (25:08)

The Democratic Party is hitching their wagon to a convoluted story about whether or not there were hosts of a press conference that put margaritas down in front of him.

Michael Duncan (25:23)

It's amazing.

Josh Holmes (25:23)

Or not.

Michael Duncan (25:24)

This is the ground they're fighting on. This is their argument right now. Like Duncan said a second ago, you didn't see any of these Democrats stepping up demanding that the folks in North Carolina get help that they deserve, the folks in California get help that they deserve. They're out here arguing. So when I met with the illegal MS.13 guy in El Salvador, trying to bring him back into this country, I think the margaritas were fake.

John Ashbrook (25:47)

We can't talk. We can't talk about the tattoos or the domestic violence. We don't talk about tattoos or domestic violence. Because. Because of margaritas. Yeah.

Michael Duncan (25:55)

Like, what is happening?

Josh Holmes (25:58)

It's so good. I mean, it truly is.

Randi Weingarten (26:00)

It's like.

Josh Holmes (26:01)

Yeah, no, you know, the guy with the. With the restraining order and the beating, the wife who's in Ms. 13, who's in the United States illegally, who's a part of MS.13 that they actually shipped out, that I'm trying to get back in. Yeah. The margaritas.

John Ashbrook (26:15)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (26:15)

Were half full.

John Ashbrook (26:16)

This stunt goes too far.

Josh Holmes (26:19)

I mean, dude, what are you talking about? Like, I don't know if you've noticed. The economy is not awesome. You know what I mean? Like, there's a bunch of stuff going on. There are many things, if you have a democratic perspective, where you're trying to take down Donald Trump, which, by the way, is what they're trying to do. They don't have an ideological point of view whatsoever. They have no ideas of how they can improve your life one way or another. But their whole goal, from soup to nuts, is just try to take down the Trump administration. And they have decided that a rocky bond market, a stock market up and down, the threat of tariffs, you know, uncertainty of tax reform with a thin majority, all these things are, like, not our best stuff. We gotta fly to El Salvador.

Michael Duncan (27:03)

That's amazing, dude.

Josh Holmes (27:05)

These are the dumbest people on the face of the planet.

John Ashbrook (27:07)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (27:08)

I mean, they are completely locked in on this, on this guy covered in MS.13 tattoos being like, here's where we get Trump. Here's where we get Trump. They've learned nothing from this election. Nothing.

Josh Holmes (27:22)

Absolutely not. So when we come back, we're gonna tell you why Democrats are doubling down on this collapse narrative, which, you know, we covered a little bit on Thursday. But listen, there are progressives all over the place, and this is part of the issue. Margarita Gate isn't even the most insane part of this conspiracy theory that Democrats are pushing. We'll tell you all about the sensational fake news involving President Trump and Abrego Garcia and the gang tattoos and all of that right after this.

Dick Durbin (27:52)

For too long, weak politicians have sold out America's steel workers and allowed China to flood our country with cheap foreign steel. President Trump is fighting back for American manufacturing and American steel.

Josh Holmes (28:07)

We're going to build our future with American hands, with American heart, American steel. And we're going to build it with American pride like we used to.

Dick Durbin (28:15)

The U.S. steel and Nippon Steel Partnership advances Trump's agenda. This historic investment will pump billions into US Steel, modernize aging plants, protect steel workers jobs, and empower our country to compete against China. The US Steel and Nippon Steel Partnership will ensure more steel is made in America, strengthening our economic and national security. President Trump is fighting for our steel industry and to create more manufacturing jobs. The U.S. steel and Nippon Steel Partnership puts America first. Learn more at americafirststeel.org, paid for by the America First Steel Alliance.

Josh Holmes (28:52)

Hardworking Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy to create jobs, secure our future, and make life better, more affordable, and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn more@lightsonenergy.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. All right, so it's a good, good question, right? We covered this. Smug. You and I covered this a little bit on Thursday where we were talking about, like, why. Why is it that you are, if you're just a Trump antagonist and the only thing you want to do is try to take down the Trump administration. As we saw the first four years, the only goal was to take down Trump. It didn't matter if it was Russiagate or, you know, Ukraine or whatever. It was just they would do whatever they could do to try to take him down. And so they're seizing upon these weird things. And we're like, whoa, jeez. Like, this doesn't make a lot of sense. And then we talked about the backstop of that with the Bernie aoc, like, full tour that they're doing with tens of thousands of people showing up AOC raising $10 million from liberal activists when they're not really in the mood to give to a party that's failing in elections. The power and the energy within the Democratic Party, all behind insanity.

Michael Duncan (30:26)

Yep.

Josh Holmes (30:27)

Right. And so that's where people like Chris van Hall and Mr. White Bread decides like, okay, now's my time. And we joked about it. We was like, yeah. I mean, this entire Senate office is like, this is it, boss.

Comfortably Smug (30:41)

This is our time. This is your moment.

Josh Holmes (30:43)

This is our time. This is 2028 shortlist material.

Comfortably Smug (30:47)

They've been waiting for you.

Josh Holmes (30:50)

Well, it turns out there's a whole bunch of other Democrats who are like, I mean, they can't fight it. I mean, they know where the base is and all that stuff. But they also know that they'll never be elected to anything in the world if Abrego Garcia is the thing that they think is going to bring them back from obscure Amy Klobuchar clip for it.

Amy Klobuchar (31:12)

And my point is they have picked out this case and this man because it's about a subject that they want to keep in the news. So it's even more cynical than just flaunting the law. They're doing it because they want to distract people from the fact that our economy is in a tailspin thanks to them, their tariffs, the fact that you've got businesses that are looking at closing down or not investing, that costs are up, chaos is up, corruption is up, and the market is down. So for the most cynical reasons, this is a case they've picked to not obey the law. Maybe one they will all of a sudden they'll just send it back, or maybe they'll be held in contempt. But I think it's really important for people to realize they're following the law. In other cases, they just decided not to follow the law with this guy.

Josh Holmes (31:58)

So she may eat salad with a cone.

John Ashbrook (32:00)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (32:01)

She may actually physically assault her staffers. But she's kind of smart on the political side of things. Like, she actually gets what moves the American people in one way or another. And she's basically saying, like, well, this is all a distraction to what we were just talking about, like, other vulnerabilities that actually could be vulnerable abilities.

Comfortably Smug (32:23)

Yeah. What's interesting to me is this hot war Between Democrats on rhetoric. It will never be covered by the press because they do not cover Dems in disarray. They will not cover the infighting among Democrats the way they cover infighting among Republicans. But what she did there was completely repudiate soft Chris Van Hollen. You know what I mean? She didn't go to talk to the ms.13 gang member. She's trying to pretend like she's not part of the party that supports Ms. 13, even though she is. She's trying to pretend like she's part of something different and cast a vision that puts her in a position to be a leader in that party.

John Ashbrook (32:59)

Yeah, yeah. But you know what I gotta say, like, it has that sort of ham fisted Selina Meyer quality to all of it. You know where like, you know, Klobuchar in the car ride over to the studio for CNN was like looking at the topics being like, I don't want to fucking talk about this.

Josh Holmes (33:18)

Yeah, all right.

John Ashbrook (33:18)

I'm make this about the economy, okay? Corruption up, chaos up, economy down. That's what I'll do. I'll do that. I'll do that whole thing and then we're going to change the conversation because that's what I do. I mean, Amy Klobuchar.

Josh Holmes (33:28)

Yeah. You know I ran for president, God damn it.

John Ashbrook (33:31)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Michael Duncan (33:33)

I think it's hilarious because she is trying to act like she's the adult in the room. She's like, listen to me, folks, I know, I know what's happening here. We shouldn't take the bait. But in the process of it, she shows that she's still captured by this like left wing brain worm shit when she's trying to be like, folks, this is a trap. This MS.13 guy is a horrible place for us to try to die. This is not the hill to die on. She makes a good point there. And she's like, the Trump administration is forcing this into the news. It's like, no, your body is all taking turns flying to El Salvador trying to free this MS.13 guy and bring him back to America.

Josh Holmes (34:14)

The guy that preceded you on the Sunday show just did a full Ginsburg every single one of the Sunday shows to try to make this the single argument that your party carried into the week. And she's like, why are we dealing with this distraction? Well, I don't, I mean, this isn't.

Michael Duncan (34:32)

This isn't like President Trump is forcing Democrats to fly down to El Salvador and demand the gang member be returned to America. No, this is your party. This is it. The problem Is your party believes in what this Ms. 13 guy, that he deserves to be brought to America. And they all raised their hands on that stage saying that, oh, illegal aliens, free health care, free education for everything. And this is in practice, right? That's not like, oh, well, you know, we said that we've learned our mistakes. We saw what happened in this past election. We're moving on from that. No, this is doubling, tripling, quadrupling down the same idea they're showing the American people right now. We're gonna fight for this guy who beat his wife, this illegal alien ms.13 gangster. We're gonna fight for him more than we ever fought for you on anything you ever needed. It's insane.

Josh Holmes (35:19)

It's wild. It's wild. But I have one more like tie of the knot, because even Democrats like Chris Van Hollen can't quite get there, so they expect the punditry to get there. And this is basically anybody who's employed on television, sans like anybody at Fox or Scott Jennings, every single other person has to carry this water. Just another ledge that your average politician wouldn't in order to just really try to strike fear into the hearts of people. Let's go to clip five, please. To me, that is why Kilmar Abrego Garcia's specific case, the case of the gentleman who's a makeup artist out of California who was also sent to that prison. That is why the more the 75% of the folks who have been sent.

John Ashbrook (36:12)

The men who have been sent there.

Josh Holmes (36:13)

That don't have criminal records, that is why this is so important. Because if they could do it to them, if they could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it's going to be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are next to. Here we go, here we go. So Ms. 13 equals people of color.

Michael Duncan (36:37)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (36:38)

You know, I mean, it's just crazy. It's a wild leap that, you know, like even Mr. White Bread wouldn't be comfortable making. But they can make it on MSNBC with that hysterical panel, by the way.

Michael Duncan (36:54)

I mean, come on, you would think again, you would really think, because the most hard headed individuals learns from their mistakes after they've been beaten again and again and again and again after November, you'd start to think that, like, you know what, maybe this kind of shit doesn't work. Maybe people are sick of it. Maybe people don't want to hear that, oh, you know, America is a horrible country. Everyone in America is racist. This is a racism infused nation. It cannot be salvaged. That message lost in November big time. You saw every community, doesn't matter what the demographic is. Trump made gains among them. And they still are trying this playbook. You can't understand. It's like, what is that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over. This is insanity. It's same thing over and over and over again.

Josh Holmes (37:43)

It's complete insanity. Just to put a fine point on what we're talking about, the reason that we're doing this, I mean, I understand you've probably heard far more than you want about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I know I have. But the point is, is what Democrats are doing with Kilmar Abrego Garcia is what they did with Russia. Gate is what they did during the entire course of the Trump first term, which is find something they can ball up the media with and basically stop any agenda that he is trying to get done. I mean, everything that, that from Doge to tax reform to like trade deals and all these other things. You notice we're not talking about it, right? Yep, we're not talking about it. We're talking about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That's their whole goal, right. If you thought for one second that they gave a shit about due process.

Michael Duncan (38:43)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (38:44)

You were out of your mind.

John Ashbrook (38:46)

They made prayer candles of Robert Mueller. They made a comic book about Michael Avenatti. These people are unwell. They are unwell people.

Josh Holmes (38:55)

They don't care. They don't care. And like, look, in a theoretical sense, I understand the argument which the Supreme Court talked about that people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia are afforded some sort of due process before they are is sent out of this country. Okay. If he has an asylum claim or whatever it is. I like, I understand that intellectually, but honestly, he was elected to get people like Kilmar and Brego Garcia the hell out of this country. And that's exactly what he's doing. And he's doing it effectively.

Comfortably Smug (39:33)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (39:33)

Efficiently. And, and doing it maybe in a way that I think the mainstream media didn't appreciate how good he could get it done. And so they try to seize upon this. I mean, do you think anybody think that like Kilmar Abrego Garcia is going to like Chris Van Hollen's Thanksgiving dinner next year? He doesn't give a shit. It's all about trying to take down the Trump administration.

Comfortably Smug (40:01)

Can I just read you a poll you guys may have seen from cnn?

Michael Duncan (40:05)

Okay.

Comfortably Smug (40:06)

This is cnn. The number, the percentage of Americans who want to deport all undocumented immigrants is 56%.

Josh Holmes (40:16)

Yeah, it's a majority.

Comfortably Smug (40:17)

All undocumented immigrants. This is not. Ms. Ms. 13, gang members. I mean, I'm sure that that number is much higher. But every single undocumented immigrant in this country, 56% of Americans want them deported. Do you know what that number was in 2016? It was 38%. So there has been a massive movement toward deportation among normal, regular Americans who are like, what is going on here? We need to move some of these people out. They shouldn't be here in the first place.

Josh Holmes (40:48)

It's.

Comfortably Smug (40:48)

Well, that's cnn.

Josh Holmes (40:49)

Yep, that's cnn. It's objective. Objective. Your numbers, folks.

John Ashbrook (40:54)

This is an apple.

Josh Holmes (40:54)

This is your. This is your numbers. So our question of the day is, will all this Garcia, el Grego Garcia stuff and all of these shenanigans, will it be enough to stop Trump's deportation agenda? Will it, Will it be enough? My sense is not, because the American people are on his side here. And as much as they're making these, all these arguments, they're missing that bigger picture that you just talked about with that CNN poll, like, nobody cares. And like, poor Amy Klobuchar is trying to go out and be like, yeah, but what about your checkbook? And Democrats are like, shut up, shut up.

John Ashbrook (41:33)

What are you doing? What are you trying to do?

Josh Holmes (41:34)

When we're not, we're not happy until MS.13 is back in the United States.

Comfortably Smug (41:39)

Where it belongs, make them an agency of the federal government.

Josh Holmes (41:43)

So when we come back, we're going to get to your comments from last week's episode where Democrats, they're encountering the David Hogg, show me your hog.

John Ashbrook (41:53)

I missed this.

Josh Holmes (41:53)

Democrats said, show me your hog. And.

Comfortably Smug (41:56)

And he did.

Josh Holmes (41:57)

And he did. So your responses to all that right.

John Ashbrook (42:00)

After this, you did all the right things. You worked hard, you worked your way up, and you invested your money in a 401k or other retirement plan. Your future is all set, right? Wrong. The retirement system as we know it is currently under attack from misguided policymakers in D.C. the Trump tax cuts are set to expire this year. Renewing them will be a big fight in Congress. Right now, the tax code protects 401ks IRAs and other plans that help you save. Some people want to change that. Your representatives in Congress must protect the tax advantages that more than 100 million Americans rely on to save for retirement. You deserve policies that build on the current retirement system to secure your financial Future, not jeopardize it. If Americans know one thing, it's resilience. To stay resilient, we need immediate action from our leaders. Head to helpusretire.org to take action. And reach out to your representatives in Congress today. Help us Retire is sponsored by the investment Company Institute, representing asset managers, serving individual investors.

Josh Holmes (43:11)

All right, so our question of the week, just to remind you was which Dems should David Hogg target in primaries and why? Which Democrats are saying, show me your hog and why? And to do that, we always start with a voice.

Comfortably Smug (43:31)

Well, it's a pressing topic and an astute question, I might say, my friend. First comment comes from Daniel Friedrich, and Daniel writes, qotd. There are plenty of Dems. David stolen Valor Hogg could primary, but the matchup I'd love to see is in New York's 12th district. And Jerry, how is he still alive? Nadler, this is, of course, the big fat guy from New York.

John Ashbrook (43:58)

The pants get higher and higher every year.

Josh Holmes (44:00)

Well, hasn't he. You would know more than about this than I do, but, like, it seems to me like he's had three or four different procedures.

Michael Duncan (44:07)

I mean, God knows what he's done. I mean, the thing is, is that we discussed previously about how, like, New York has this, like, political machine and the Democrats, you know, that's why it's going to be if AOC primary, Schumer, tough thing. This guy Nadler was one of the architects of the creation of the New York machine. That's why he's there.

Comfortably Smug (44:24)

No.

Michael Duncan (44:24)

Yeah, that's why, like, Maloney lost her redistricting. Like, this guy for being such a massive. You know, the guy is essentially New York's job at the hut, right? He's like the gangster that runs that island.

Comfortably Smug (44:34)

His belt is longer than the chains at an NFL game.

Michael Duncan (44:40)

We're just going in on that. Friedrich.

Comfortably Smug (44:44)

Friedrich continues. There will be nothing funnier than watching the waddler try to look energetic against Hog and his gang of crazies. Stay ruthless.

Josh Holmes (44:52)

That's right, Daniel. That's fantastic.

John Ashbrook (44:54)

Great.

Josh Holmes (44:55)

I can't believe it's not Nadler's charming good looks that have gotten him through this long of a political career.

John Ashbrook (45:01)

He looks like the penguin dude.

Josh Holmes (45:02)

He does.

John Ashbrook (45:03)

He does.

Josh Holmes (45:04)

He does. The thing is, he's not even really good, though. You know what I mean? It'd be one thing if he was, like, super cunning and super, like, astute, but they, like, shoved him off all the impeachment stuff on the Democratic side because they didn't think he could do the job anyway. Like he's not even smart enough to do that. He's just like fat in there.

Comfortably Smug (45:22)

They did. Can I, can I, can I just, can I just go back to our spring break conversation? Because at the airport, I don't know if you guys have ever noticed this, but at the airport there are people in wheelchairs who are not obviously handicapped. They are simply fat. Have you ever noticed this? Literally 385 pound people who are shoved into a wheelchair and shuffled in front of everybody else when they're trying to board the plane. Right. Jerry Nadler is the kind of guy who would be in a wheelchair boarding first.

Josh Holmes (45:58)

They're not hitting yet, they're just fat.

Comfortably Smug (46:01)

You tell me you've never noticed.

Michael Duncan (46:03)

I've seen it.

John Ashbrook (46:04)

That's puts a fine. Well then you get.

Josh Holmes (46:05)

But dude, that, that is the existence of the belt stretch. You know they have the extender.

Comfortably Smug (46:11)

Yes.

Josh Holmes (46:11)

Which I've always found completely fascinating. Have you ever sat down in a, in a seat in an airplane where they have the extender extended?

Comfortably Smug (46:18)

Oh, dude, you're standing in line to get on the plane and you see an 800 pounder and you're like, my God, please do not be in my row. Please do not be in my row. They always are.

Josh Holmes (46:28)

They always are. But if you ever sit down in one of those seats, you could stand up vertically in your, in your like with feet on the ground, vertically not enough and you can still not get to the end right. Of that situation.

Michael Duncan (46:42)

Right.

Comfortably Smug (46:42)

And how do you.

Josh Holmes (46:43)

And you know, it's like, I got a good idea. I'm going to fly commercial.

Comfortably Smug (46:46)

When you're traveling with children, they're gonna make a comment, they're gonna ask a question. Their questions are never whispered. You know, the questions are like, out loud, like, dad, what is this?

Josh Holmes (46:57)

Why is Free Willy sitting in our row?

Comfortably Smug (46:59)

Try to explain that one.

Josh Holmes (47:01)

Why is there a blue whale in our section?

Comfortably Smug (47:05)

Literally, like, there's a difference between, there's a difference between just like a little bit overweight and like 800 pounds. There is, there are 800 pounders who are flying and yet you check in the bag and they're like, oh, I'm sorry sir, that's £51. You're not allowed to take that bag through. And it's an 800 pound person.

Michael Duncan (47:25)

I'm always puzzled by that. I'm always puzzled by that. Why is my check in got to be under 50 pounds, but the dude can be like 5 tons.

Comfortably Smug (47:31)

Exactly.

John Ashbrook (47:32)

Weigh the people and the bags.

Josh Holmes (47:33)

Totally. And the flight is at least a 50% risk of like going down for a sugar foot attack. You know what I mean? Like it's a problem.

Comfortably Smug (47:44)

Right?

Josh Holmes (47:44)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (47:45)

Right.

Josh Holmes (47:45)

Anyway, good comment, Daniel. Let's go to number two. Congrats.

Michael Duncan (47:49)

Congrats. Jerry Nadler. You just caught that one.

Josh Holmes (47:52)

It's gonna comment too. Runks, what do we got?

John Ashbrook (47:55)

This is From Free Fallen 68. I hope it can compete with Daniel.

Josh Holmes (48:01)

What a springboard.

John Ashbrook (48:03)

The rate at which states like Maryland, Massachusetts and Connecticut churn out stupid politicians is mind boggling. That said, they should stay their current course as the damage they're inflicting on their party is greater than any we could do.

Josh Holmes (48:18)

That's right.

John Ashbrook (48:19)

It's no longer a party, but a suicide.

Michael Duncan (48:21)

Bingo.

John Ashbrook (48:21)

We make this point often.

Josh Holmes (48:23)

It is. It is exact. Well, it's the whole point of today's program. Right. Which is there's a lot of things that we're doing that you could take question in and make political headway on. That is not what they have chosen.

Comfortably Smug (48:37)

Nope.

Josh Holmes (48:37)

Free Fallen 68 has put their eye exactly on that point.

John Ashbrook (48:42)

Set it and forget it.

Josh Holmes (48:45)

Right. All right. Comment Three Smuggles.

Michael Duncan (48:48)

This comes from John D'Arcy and they write, if Hogg is smart, he'll primary Maxine Waters, Al Green, Chewy Garcia, Rosa DeLauro, and might see Hirono.

John Ashbrook (48:57)

Maisie. Maisie, Maisie, Yeah.

Josh Holmes (48:59)

Oh, don't forget Maisie dog.

Michael Duncan (49:01)

They look and act like aged, aged Batman villains. One caveat. As a Republican, I'd be sad to see them go. Those guys generate endless bad publicity for Dems. And the wildest thing about them is these like cast of idiots have the most incredible committee assignments.

Josh Holmes (49:18)

Yes. They're all women. Yeah. They're all ranking members of everything, which.

Michael Duncan (49:23)

Is the most insane place.

John Ashbrook (49:25)

Rosa DeLauro wears like, like purple streaks in her hair. Like she's a Goth 14 year old.

Josh Holmes (49:30)

You know what's funny? Here's what's hysterical. If you talk to Democrats, like on the K Street community, like the lobbying community, where they're like, who's the Democrat that we can talk to that actually understands that we live in a market based economy and you can't bankrupt every company and you can't do all these things, they're like, wow, it's only. It's really only a few. I think Rosa Delaro is one of them. And then you look at Rosa Delaro and she has like purple fucking hair. She looks like she's 97 years old and she like. That's who they're hooking this to. Yeah, like, no, I'M not kidding you. When they say, when the business community comes into D.C. and they're like, who should we talk to purple haired gargoyle about?

Comfortably Smug (50:09)

But, but, but the key to being a successful Democrat and also having relatively normal viewpoints is you have to wear a disguise.

Josh Holmes (50:17)

Yeah, yeah.

Comfortably Smug (50:18)

You, you cannot, you cannot achieve what you just described and be the person that the business community wants to go to.

Josh Holmes (50:26)

Right.

Comfortably Smug (50:26)

And be a successful Democrat if you don't have a disguise.

Josh Holmes (50:29)

Yeah, no, it's true. So maybe she's done that effectively.

Comfortably Smug (50:32)

Could be.

John Ashbrook (50:33)

It's possible.

Josh Holmes (50:33)

I mean, she looks like a Halloween costume every single day. It's. It's truly unbelievable. Anyway, Maisie Hirono, the single dumbest member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, House or Senate, I will say it, and I defy you to try to prove me wrong on that. It is absolutely incredible.

Michael Duncan (50:51)

The filibuster.

Josh Holmes (50:53)

It's broken.

John Ashbrook (50:55)

There, there it is.

Michael Duncan (50:57)

Soundboard is back, baby.

John Ashbrook (50:58)

It's back, baby.

Comfortably Smug (51:00)

Maisie Hirono, ladies and gentlemen.

John Ashbrook (51:02)

Now we're cooking with gas.

Josh Holmes (51:04)

She's just so dumb. She. Well, it's, you know, it's not broken when it comes to.

Comfortably Smug (51:09)

She's using it now.

Josh Holmes (51:10)

Yeah, she's using it now. It's not broken. Remember to like and subscribe if you like what you've heard. And if you do and you put down your answer to today's question of the day. We'll read them all and get back to you on Thursday's episode. But coming up, we got some variety for you. We got some. There's some China stuff in there. China robots.

Michael Duncan (51:31)

Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Holmes (51:32)

Which I think is. I think this is like a new thing that we're going to get to right after this.

Dick Durbin (51:37)

For too long, weak politicians have sold out America's steel workers and allowed China to flood our country with cheap foreign steel. President Trump is fighting back for American manufacturing and American steel.

Josh Holmes (51:51)

We're going to build our future with American hands, with American heart. American steel. And we're going to build it with American pride like we used to.

Dick Durbin (52:00)

The U.S. steel and Nippon Steel Partnership advances Trump's agenda. This historic investment will pump billions into US Steel, modernize aging plants, protect steel workers jobs and empower our country to compete against China. The US Steel and Nippon Steel Partnership will ensure more. Our steel is made in America, strengthening our economic and national security. President Trump is fighting for our steel industry and to create more manufacturing jobs. The U.S. steel and Nippon Steel Partnership puts America first. Learn more@americafirststeel.org, paid for by the America First Steel Alliance.

Josh Holmes (52:36)

The next phase of our plan is to pass tax cuts for everybody.

John Ashbrook (52:41)

President Trump won on a promise to cut taxes to keep American businesses competitive. So why are some Republicans pushing to raise taxes?

Dick Durbin (52:50)

Our tax rate is already higher than Communist China.

John Ashbrook (52:54)

The current basalt plan is a tax.

Dick Durbin (52:56)

Hike on American business. And when business taxes go up, workers and families pay.

John Ashbrook (53:01)

Tell Congress, make the Trump tax cuts permanent.

Dick Durbin (53:04)

Stop the basalt assault.

Josh Holmes (53:08)

All right. I think when we're dealing with like, variety, you know, this comes in so many shapes and sizes. You know, we've been very into AI and tech development and the race against China for all of that kind of thing, but we found one that I think is apropos of many things that we've talked about this. According to TechCrunch, China's first robot marathon runner trips emits smoke and falls apart. Can we, can we go to clip six just to kick this thing off? There it is. It's running, but not really. I mean, that doesn't look like a good pace. Where is it?

Michael Duncan (53:58)

This story is actually really interesting.

Josh Holmes (54:01)

Oh, here it is. It, it's, it's running. It.

John Ashbrook (54:06)

It looks like more of a speed walk, if I'm being honest.

Josh Holmes (54:09)

Yeah, it's exactly. It looks like more of a.

John Ashbrook (54:11)

And they have a human handler behind them. It's not exactly encouraging.

Josh Holmes (54:15)

Oh, no. It went down. And it went down.

John Ashbrook (54:17)

It goes down, goes Frasier.

Josh Holmes (54:18)

For audio only, the robot is, is no longer. It's, it's laying down. So in an emitted smoke, it like to burst into all kinds of problems. This is apparently the robot that the Chinese.

Michael Duncan (54:34)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (54:34)

Think is. According to Bloomberg, the winning robot, Tianjiang Ultra, was built by the government backed research institute EX humanoid and finished the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Now, that particular robot that I saw did not appear like it finished the race at all.

Comfortably Smug (54:53)

No. They maybe carried him across the field.

Josh Holmes (54:55)

That feels like a Kim Jong Un 18 hole in one.

John Ashbrook (54:58)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (54:59)

Situation.

John Ashbrook (55:00)

Yeah. That's the toughest thing with China that I can't really get straight here. Like, you look at things like Deep Seek, where they put out that AI large language model that everyone was like going gaga over, and you're like, oh my gosh, China might be like a serious threat when it comes to tech and AI and quantum computing and all these things, and then you see something like this and it feels more like the Soviet Union painting over the rust on their tanks with new paint to make you think they're still strong. Like, I don't know what to make of this.

Josh Holmes (55:28)

I don't know what to make of it either. But apparently they started several of these robots, and some of the robots barely made it past the finish line or the starting line.

John Ashbrook (55:37)

Starting line, sorry.

Josh Holmes (55:38)

For example, Shenang, one of the robots, tripped a human support runner. They have support runners, I don't think.

Comfortably Smug (55:48)

Yeah, they didn't have that in Terminator.

Josh Holmes (55:51)

Have that. Didn't have that. And they slammed into a fence and shatter.

John Ashbrook (55:55)

Hell, yeah.

Josh Holmes (55:56)

Yeah. And then at one point, Little Giant, the shortest competitor at 30 inches in height, which also feels a little bit like. It's like running a remote control car.

Michael Duncan (56:06)

Yeah, 100%. We had that technology and Bloomberg even had in that article that the robot that we saw that was doing the, like, weird slow run because it was a half marathon, it took damn near three hours for this thing that wasn't actually just like some AI that's just like, running on its own. Apparently, it was just falling. There was a runner ahead of it with sensors on, like, all their limbs that was running. And the robot's just, like, mimicking the move. It's.

Comfortably Smug (56:33)

It's. It's all made up. That's in. It's in China. It's all made up in America. It's real. We've had robot heroes for 40 years. You guys remember Johnny Five?

Michael Duncan (56:47)

RoboCop?

John Ashbrook (56:49)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (56:49)

Johnny Five was knocking out bad guys, and all he needed was a Radio Shack and a defibrillator.

Josh Holmes (56:54)

Those of you of a certain age, Johnny 5 alive is short Circuit. I mean, that's a wonderful movie, that. Is that Dennis Quaid or was that what.

John Ashbrook (57:03)

Johnny 5 is alive.

Michael Duncan (57:06)

Didn't RoboCop end up getting a statue in Detroit or something? I remember there was, like a movement, I think so.

Comfortably Smug (57:11)

I think that the Detroit Super Cop, another example.

Michael Duncan (57:14)

But on the along those lines, can we get clip seven, which is showing.

Josh Holmes (57:18)

What American is a Boston sign? Boston Dynamics, I should say. So this is our robot.

John Ashbrook (57:25)

Oh, hell, yeah.

Josh Holmes (57:26)

Oh, yeah. It's doing flips and shit thing.

John Ashbrook (57:29)

What are we doing now?

Josh Holmes (57:30)

It's. Oh, boy. What is it?

John Ashbrook (57:32)

Like break dancing?

Michael Duncan (57:33)

It's doing a break dance.

Josh Holmes (57:34)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (57:35)

So here's the other thing is. Is, you know, I know Boston Dynamics, they put these videos out on Social. Everyone's like, oh, this is so cool. You know, the, like, robot can do, like, you know, there's break dancing and cartwheels and everything. But the real application we know, folks, is you put a handgun, this thing, if it can do a cartwheel, it can hunt people down.

Comfortably Smug (57:53)

That's exactly right.

Michael Duncan (57:54)

And that's what it's gonna be used for.

Comfortably Smug (57:55)

Let's be honest, right? One million of those can take the beaches in China.

Michael Duncan (57:59)

That's what I'm saying.

John Ashbrook (58:00)

One million of those directed at the Three Gorges Dam.

Michael Duncan (58:04)

Bingo.

John Ashbrook (58:04)

And we win.

Michael Duncan (58:06)

Remember, Trump sent that dog to kill the ISIS leader he killed. Remember the ISIS leader was, like, dying when the dog was sent after him. You get, like, hundreds of those. You just airdrop them on isis.

John Ashbrook (58:17)

That's what.

Michael Duncan (58:18)

That's what we're talking about. Like, yeah, it's great for the public to see this thing doing its little cartwheels and such, but we all know that's where this is headed.

John Ashbrook (58:23)

This is more impressive than watching ISIS swing on monkey bars.

Josh Holmes (58:27)

I'm a little concerned about the all four moves, though. I mean, I don't.

Comfortably Smug (58:31)

Yeah, we. They need to deprogram that move.

John Ashbrook (58:34)

We need to increase the. The quick twitch.

Josh Holmes (58:36)

Yeah, it needs a little.

Michael Duncan (58:38)

It needs a little something, but that's things. This is the one that's public. I mean, you know, the shit that's training with the seals is off the chain.

Josh Holmes (58:43)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (58:44)

When it. When it aims at something, you know, it doesn't miss.

Michael Duncan (58:46)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (58:47)

No, no, that robot, that's what I want to see.

Michael Duncan (58:49)

I can't wait until America unleashes the fucking robots on our enemies.

Josh Holmes (58:52)

That's.

Michael Duncan (58:53)

You know what I mean?

Josh Holmes (58:54)

It feels right.

Randi Weingarten (58:54)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (58:54)

You don't have to worry about boots on the ground. When it's robots, they got to worry about it, not us.

Josh Holmes (59:04)

So that's the future, folks.

John Ashbrook (59:05)

This is such a great episode.

Josh Holmes (59:07)

That's the future. We're gonna get to an interview here. MK Ham, one of the OGs here, the ruthless variety program coming up with Carol Markowitz.

John Ashbrook (59:18)

I want to welcome to the program two wonderful women who are joining us here. Carol Markowitz and Mary Kathryn Hamm, friends of the program. Great. Friends of the program. And they're bringing us a lot of news and a lot of, you know, stuff that they're working on. So thanks for joining us.

Randi Weingarten (59:34)

Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (59:35)

So good to be on with you guys.

Randi Weingarten (59:37)

She's here from the beautiful free state of Florida, so we thought we'd make a visit while she's in town.

John Ashbrook (59:41)

Yeah. Yeah. So you've been in Florida now three years? Couple of years, yeah. Yeah. Coming from Brooklyn.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (59:46)

That's right.

John Ashbrook (59:46)

Right. You were like neighbors with Smug.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (59:48)

That's right. He and I used to hang out sometimes, you know, when I hung out with liberals like him.

Josh Holmes (59:54)

Perfect.

Randi Weingarten (59:55)

It's a different time.

John Ashbrook (59:56)

And he didn't Even have the decency to show up here for the interview.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (59:59)

I was thinking that, you know, it's my second time on Ruthless and both times. No. Smug. I think he's just like afraid, you know.

Comfortably Smug (60:05)

I think you're exactly right. He can't take the heat.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (60:08)

He can't handle it.

John Ashbrook (60:09)

He knows you'd bring up the old stories from Brooklyn.

Randi Weingarten (60:14)

I have Covid again.

John Ashbrook (60:16)

But you're like, in Florida.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (60:17)

I love it. Yeah, it's really great. It's as good as everyone said it would be. And it, you know, we moved during a really crazy time for New York and really good time for Florida. So really happy.

Randi Weingarten (60:30)

This New Yorker in this 40 degree weather, freezing to death is like, nope, I can't do it.

John Ashbrook (60:35)

Yeah, I think. I think you spent a little time down there in Florida and the blood.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (60:38)

Thins out or something.

John Ashbrook (60:39)

Right? Like you acclimate to it pretty fast.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (60:41)

Totally.

John Ashbrook (60:42)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (60:43)

So I hope to do that at some point in my life. I really want to be in Florida and let my.

Randi Weingarten (60:47)

She's recruiting openly all the time.

Comfortably Smug (60:50)

It's just an incredible place to live.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (60:52)

I'll say. Sending you Zillow listings, like right away.

Randi Weingarten (60:56)

She's like. She's like an IL guy, but for Florida. Yeah, she's always trying to make deals.

John Ashbrook (61:01)

No, look, I get it.

Comfortably Smug (61:03)

My parents portal's open.

John Ashbrook (61:04)

My parents live in Sarasota and they remind me all the time how wonderful their weather is. It feels like, you know, telling us how bad our weather is is one of their favorite things to do.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:14)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (61:14)

Bad day up there.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:15)

And the politics, you know.

John Ashbrook (61:17)

Yeah.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:17)

I don't know if you've heard. We have some good politics.

Randi Weingarten (61:19)

I know.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:20)

In general.

John Ashbrook (61:22)

Yeah. So what are you guys working on? I mean, obviously, Carol, you've a lot of work at the New York Post, which, I mean, it's an embarrassment of riches. The headlines. I think we read one on every single episode of Ruthless. So what are you working on?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:38)

So Mary, Kathryn, Ham and I have a relatively new podcast together called Normally, where we have a normalish take on the news.

John Ashbrook (61:46)

Refreshing.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (61:47)

I feel like, you know, where the female counterparts are ruthless a little bit. We don't get crazy. There's no screaming. Mostly.

Randi Weingarten (61:55)

Well, you gotta guide the libs. Cause they forgot how to be normal.

Comfortably Smug (61:58)

Totally.

Randi Weingarten (61:59)

And so we lure them in with this show called Normally. And we lure other suburban women in with this show called Normally. And then we react to things in a normal fashion and we find that that does wonders.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (62:12)

It works.

Comfortably Smug (62:13)

Yeah, it's great. I've listened to the show. A few times, and it is really, really good. I mean, I think you guys are onto something in exactly, like, the right way because the libs are so insane and conservatives are now basically the normies in this country. And I know you got. You guys have been at it for, like, a couple, like, a few months now. Right. I mean, just.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (62:33)

Yeah. It started in October.

Randi Weingarten (62:34)

Yep. We got to ride the wave of that election season.

John Ashbrook (62:37)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (62:37)

Always fun. And. And now we get to react normally to Kid Rock's totally normal appearance in the Oval Office.

John Ashbrook (62:45)

So I'm curious about that. You know, is. Is it. Is it tough or is it fun to do a show like that in an environment like now?

Michael Duncan (62:57)

Well, the.

Randi Weingarten (62:57)

The thing I always say is that conceded Donald Trump not normal. Right. Lives an extraordinary lifestyle, is an extraordinary person, and frankly, very different from most of us. Right. Hence the Kid Rock in the Oval Office. He does things differently. That was part of the pitch. Libs got so weird. That's the far more.

Josh Holmes (63:22)

Option.

Randi Weingarten (63:23)

People are like, I don't know, like Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock. I get them.

John Ashbrook (63:27)

Yeah.

Michael Duncan (63:28)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (63:28)

Unlike the. The displays on the south lawn, occasionally from influencers from the left.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (63:32)

Oh, yeah.

Randi Weingarten (63:33)

Which were sometimes obscene.

John Ashbrook (63:35)

Yeah. So I think the thing I said on. On Ruthless recently was that, like, Donald Trump has a couple superpowers, you know, and one of them is he makes everyone so crazy that he can be the most normal person in the room.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (63:49)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (63:49)

Which is just a wild, wild thing. And his life is totally different than ours. Like, he put. But he'll put out a tweet bragging on the fact that he won the member guest at his club, which I think is hilarious, is awesome. And he also mentions in that tweet that his. His partner, like, when I play my member guest, I'll bring a ringer. I'll bring somebody who's really good. I'll bring, like, a really good friend. He brought the president of Finland to be his guest. And it's like he lives a very abnormal life than most of us, but somehow finds himself being the most relatable person versus all of these other people.

Randi Weingarten (64:24)

I do think he's good at transcending that because he's very much 100% himself all the time, but also seems to get, like, what other people care about and has that streak in him.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (64:35)

I mean, he's definitely not a normal guy, but he's not faking the funk in any way. He is who he is in every single way. Like, even when he was building his golden palaces and golden toilets and all that, he Wasn't embarrassed about it. He was like, look at my golden toilet. I have this. Isn't it awesome? So the fact that he's so real is what makes him appealing, I think.

Comfortably Smug (65:00)

Yeah, it's refreshing. I mean, you just don't get that in politics. And that's what people have been so hungry for. After just like years and years of politicians who read you talking points and just tell you what their poster tells them they should say, say. It's very, very refreshing.

John Ashbrook (65:14)

People just put a premium on authenticity. Right. Like, I remember Mary Katherine, when you came in, this was the old setup of the studio and this was in the run up to the election. And you asked us, you're like, all right, so like all these podcasts that he's going on, like, do you think this is a good strategy?

Randi Weingarten (65:32)

Right.

John Ashbrook (65:32)

And I think like our take at the time was like, yeah, because it's a presidential election where everybody's got universal name ID and you know, you're gonna bring in a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't get involved in the process and they want to hear from a politician, probably listening to a politician for the first time that they ever cared.

Randi Weingarten (65:48)

Right.

John Ashbrook (65:48)

And that, like, that authenticity, like, matters a lot. Like going on Theo Vaughn, and Theo Vaughn's telling you about, like, what it's like doing cocaine and staying up like an owl, homie. It's like you don't get that from most.

Josh Holmes (66:02)

You don't.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (66:02)

No, you don't.

Randi Weingarten (66:03)

And what I wondered was, is there a path from those listeners who've never voted before, in all likelihood, many of them, to the voting booth. And, oh, there was, it turns out. So they figured that part out.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (66:15)

Yeah, the two step process was the concern, I think, for us. Like, yeah, you're listening to him on a podcast, but then are you registering to vote and showing up on election day? I guess that's three steps.

Randi Weingarten (66:24)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (66:25)

Yeah. So that leads me to, like, another question about the, like, the premise of the show is how do you get people, normal people, people with busy lives, to care about politics at a regular cadence, you know, to show up in a. You know what I'm saying? I'm curious, you know, how do you feel like that shapes the content that you do on a show like that?

Randi Weingarten (66:53)

I like to think of myself as Normie adjacent.

John Ashbrook (66:56)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (66:56)

Because I care way too much about this stuff to be actually normal. But I'm like, close to it. And one of the things that I think the new media does is it allows normal people who are way too busy to be Spending all of their time figuring out the 17 stories a day that are happening is to choose me as an editor for them or to choose Carol as an editor for them. And let us sift through it and pick three things that are relevant to us. We do a lot of education talk. We do a lot of COVID reckoning revenge talk. Things that matter to moms, things that matter to the people in our lives who maybe don't have the time to be involved in politics all the time. So that's how we try to approach it.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (67:34)

Yeah, we pick three topics every episode. Kind of. We try to do a serious topic and then like maybe another serious topic and a lighter topic. We get into like, you know, bachelor drama sometimes.

Randi Weingarten (67:45)

Occasionally.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (67:45)

Yeah, I don't watch it. Mary Catherine tells me all about it.

John Ashbrook (67:48)

Some vegetable. Some vegetables. And some candy. That's it.

Comfortably Smug (67:52)

And some candy. And I mean, there's so much opportunity out there, you know, like every time I talk to my family, they're like, what should I be reading? What should I be listening to? There's such an appetite for content where people feel like they're not being lied to. You know, there's media just pulling the wool over everybody's eyes. And you guys are delivering that on normally, on a routine basis.

Randi Weingarten (68:14)

Yeah, we try. And it's, you know, and as a result, sometimes it's not all. It ain't all cheerleading all the time for our own side. Sometimes it's like, well, this seems like we're playing with fire. Why are we going this direction? And I think that's part of earning trust from listeners as well.

John Ashbrook (68:26)

Yeah, I think that's right. Because it's like, you know, I like to think about it when we do Ruthless about would my buddies back home in Indiana care about this? Right, right. It's like if there's this, I think a seductive part of media in crafting media, made for other people in media to talk about media, you know, and it's like, that isn't. That is a way to have a conversation with yourself rather than the people who you're actually trying to bring into this audience.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (68:55)

Right, that's right.

John Ashbrook (68:56)

Yeah.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (68:56)

Yeah. It's so important to know who you want to talk to and not just to be talking to each other, because what's the point? Right.

Randi Weingarten (69:03)

And the bubble is just so powerful and so damaging for so many people in this town. If you've been here for any length of time, you know that I think being a right of center person, just by virtue of that, you are enough steeped in liberal thought and enough connected to right leaning thought that you end up sort of by default kind of normal. You're hearing a lot of things. You don't bubbleize as easily, although you can.

Comfortably Smug (69:30)

But the libs are all over the place. Ezra Klein, who is sort of a famous lib out there who's trying his best to recenter himself, had this big piece about abundance and I know you guys have been talking about that a little bit. I wonder if we can get your take on, on that.

Randi Weingarten (69:44)

Yeah, this is like the revamping. I think the Democrats don't know exactly what to do and they're attempting to crawl out of this hole. And what Klein is doing and I actually appreciate the fact that he's saying, hey, our policies aren't working. What he's saying is we can't be the party of the people we're trying to help if we're not actually helping them. And then he points out some of the ways in which these programs that he in the past has supported and that were Biden and Obama led, that in fact, you don't get results out of them. In fact, they're hurtful sometimes to communities. And I just like, the only part that bothers me is that I've been saying that since I was 16 years old. And like we've been, we've been talking about that for a while.

John Ashbrook (70:25)

Right?

Randi Weingarten (70:26)

Like when he runs through the list of things that you have to do for rural broadband to get through the pipeline. Insanity with the federal government. And Jon Stewart's like, are you kidding me?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (70:37)

And I was like, how does Jon Stewart not know?

John Ashbrook (70:40)

How do you not know?

Randi Weingarten (70:41)

Did you really think it was working smoothly?

John Ashbrook (70:42)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (70:43)

That's what you thought. They thought when you call it Affordable Care Act. They thought when you call it Inflation Reduction act, well, well, well done.

John Ashbrook (70:52)

Don't have to worry about the details here.

Randi Weingarten (70:53)

I think we solved that problem.

Comfortably Smug (70:55)

But until Democrats can be honest with themselves about how bad they actually are at government, they're never going to come back. I mean, I did a panel with a guy will not say his name, but he's a Democrat, prominent Democrat. And he looked at the audience, he was like, do you want to live in San Francisco? Do you want to live in Chicago? Do you want to live in Detroit? Those cities are run by Democrats. Nobody wants to live there. And until our side figures out that we can't do the job that we're claiming we're capable of, we're never going to win again.

John Ashbrook (71:26)

I think Obama, I think this is all Obama's fault. Most of the things on the left, I think, are Obama's fault. Like, I think like they won the messaging war on a lot of this stuff during the time in which he was president. And then they stopped worrying about the details. You know, it's like Nancy Pelosi, we have to pass the bill to figure out what's in it sort of thing. And they felt like they were just winning on the politics and the rest didn't matter.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (71:47)

Exactly.

John Ashbrook (71:47)

You know, and that's where I think all of their coalition frayed. And I think at the same time, not just in the regulations, but I think the entire Democratic Party changed into a party that wasn't for the working class or, you know, I mean, Bill Clinton said, you know, the era of big government is over. And in the era of Obama, the opposite happened in which it was like, we're going to pass this huge thing and then all of our friends and special interests are going to be at the trough to figure out how they can get rich off of it. And it became less about the people who actually put, you know, their trust in them and voted for them.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (72:18)

Right.

John Ashbrook (72:18)

And those. There's an entire generation of Democrats who. That's all they know, you know, and so now they're all figuring out. It's just, it's fun to watch.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (72:26)

Yeah. You know, I just, it's galling. It's a little galling where they're becoming abundance Democrats and I'm like, that's just a Republican. And are you a deregulation Republican to watch them discover all this stuff that we've known for so long and also to say we're the ones who caused this problem and we're the ones who are going to fix it. It's a little unfair, I think.

Randi Weingarten (72:51)

And this is why we cover Covid reckoning frequently. Because anytime you can trader Francis Collins, who caused the problem for a J. Bhattacharya who clearly got it right.

John Ashbrook (73:00)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (73:01)

That is a rare example of when you are earning back public trust and that's what we have to do.

John Ashbrook (73:05)

Yes. So, Carol, I'm so glad you mentioned that about like, we caused this problem, we're the perfect people to fix it, which I think is hilarious way of looking at it. But like mk, so you've got this new project on public sector unions and I think that's such a perfect example of this phenomenon which is like Democrats can't pass anything unless they have support of like that critical part of their coalition who are part of the reason we find ourselves in such dire straits financially in this country. So, like, please tell us more about this project.

Randi Weingarten (73:35)

So, yes, I'm an advisor with the Public Labor Union Accountability Committee. Nice plouack.

Josh Holmes (73:40)

Very fancy sounding.

Randi Weingarten (73:41)

Right? And the thing is, as Elon Musk is doing his work, or Doge is doing his work, or Trump is talking about federal government all along the way, you're learning. Oh, interesting. These folks have a lot of protections that normal. There's that word again. Workers do not. And you find out that one of the reasons is they have public sector unions that collective bargain against the taxpayer, who is you.

Josh Holmes (74:05)

Right.

Randi Weingarten (74:05)

They're like, in a normal union situation. Look, I'm not a huge fan all the time, but they are organizing to negotiate with employees who create something because they create something in the government. They're not creating a thing. There's no profit. And so what they're doing is just negotiating with your money, which must be a blast. I mean, Randi Weingartner does seems like she's having fun during a Democratic administration. But I think getting the word out to people about how different those two things are, a private union versus a public employee union and how much money those guys take of your to then funnel to Democratic politics to make the cycle start again, it just continues. It is wild. And you know what? FDR was against it from the beginning. He wrote to at the time saying, hey, when the government has a union and it strikes, it's actually just striking against the people who are their boss. So we can't have that. But, you know, then they figured out how much it paid and they were like, maybe we should do that. And so now a lot of this, the unwinding of that, and Trump just the other day signed this executive order banning collective bargaining for a lot of these public labor union employees.

John Ashbrook (75:14)

It's amazing. Where the hell do you find the time for all of this? Like mk, I swear, you're like the Ryan Seacrest of conservative media. I feel like I see you everywhere also.

Randi Weingarten (75:25)

You do everything.

John Ashbrook (75:26)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I've seen you on Bill Maher. I see it. You got your podcast. You're just doing everything.

Randi Weingarten (75:33)

You know how you diversify a portfolio? I diversify my career.

John Ashbrook (75:36)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (75:37)

Like, it just like, you know, you can't take me out with one shot. I'm all over the place. Yes, but you can. You can check out my Twitter account @mkhammer. I'll be doing some educational stuff with the Public Labor Union Accountability Committee. You can learn more about these crazy deals they make with your money. And enjoy. Yeah, yeah. And why you can't fire them.

John Ashbrook (75:56)

You can't fire them.

Randi Weingarten (75:57)

And also, three years later in court, maybe you can fire them.

John Ashbrook (76:00)

They're working out these deals with politicians that they then get to reelect.

Michael Duncan (76:04)

Yes.

John Ashbrook (76:04)

You know, two years later.

Michael Duncan (76:05)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (76:06)

They're like, oh, give. Randy Weigran says, hand me the money, I'll get you reelected. The money goes to my people. The children do not go to school. But that's a side issue. It's a side issue, yeah.

Comfortably Smug (76:17)

So do you think some of these changes Trump is making on public sector unions, do you think those are going to take and those are going to, like, hold, you know, into the future?

Randi Weingarten (76:25)

Look, they're going to be in court for a while because. Because that's what unions are great at, is building these protections in and then fighting over them. However, I think the American people are getting an education in exactly how the federal government works through this Trump administration and how it had worked against them for a long time. And by the way, the moms who we are friends with, many of whom listen to our podcast, they got their first dose of that through the Randy Weingartens of the world during COVID where they were like, wait a second, this person's not just not agreeing with me. She's an adversary to my children and me. And that is a dynamic that was news to people. And I would like to make sure everyone knows.

John Ashbrook (77:03)

Well, even people who would consider themselves left leaning or moderate, who would go along with all the COVID restrictions or the restrictions in schools or the closing of the schools. Then we got to a point with her in these unions where Biden comes in and they're like, oh, we're going to reopen these schools. And then it's like, you know what? Schools have never been safe.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (77:27)

Right?

Randi Weingarten (77:27)

Yeah.

John Ashbrook (77:27)

You know, this isn't actually a Covid thing. It's. Schools have never been safe. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Pause. And it was like, you knew they had a gun to our heads. And it was. I think it opened a lot of people's eyes who otherwise would have been agreeing with Randy Weigar.

Randi Weingarten (77:44)

They ransomed those kids education.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (77:45)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (77:46)

And they got paid handsomely for it.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (77:47)

Even, even if you're not on the left, I always, you know, oppose teachers unions. I always knew that they were indoctrinating kids, pushing really bad policies in schools. I never thought that they would destroy education for poor kids. I never thought that they'd be like, you know what? Poor kids can't go to School. Right. That was news. I didn't know that they were evil like that. I thought it was just. I thought we had a policy disagreement. I didn't realize that they didn't care at all about these kids. And that was, I mean, again, smug. And I lived in Park Slope, and in Park Slope, all the wealthy people sent their kids to open private schools, or they got them a tutor, or they formed a pod or they moved to their beach house where the schools were open and they were marching for equity and didn't say a word about any of the poor kids around the city who weren't going to public school. And that's the leftist unions alliance right there. They couldn't say anything to help poor kids because that would mean opposing teachers unions.

Comfortably Smug (78:49)

And what's wild to me, Carol, is teachers unions don't seem to care about teachers either, because you have more administrators.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (78:56)

Exactly.

Comfortably Smug (78:56)

You have the unions making more money. You have more bureaucrats in the government, and yet somehow teachers are not paid what people think they. They earn. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you have these normie women out there who are busting their ass trying to help kids and, like, emailing the parents back and everything, and the teachers union is pretending to have their back.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (79:18)

Right.

Comfortably Smug (79:18)

And they're just enriching themselves.

John Ashbrook (79:20)

It goes to the whole conversation about this abundance thing that Ezra Klein and these folks, these thought leaders on the left are talking about, and it's like, it fails on purpose. Like, it's set up to fail. Like, you can pass the biggest budget in the world to increase education funding. The system, you know, is designed to not help teachers and not help students. It's designed for a situation where it's like, well, we got to help black and brown kids in poor communities, but, oh, during COVID we're going to let them fall down behind the worst. It's like the system set up to be bad.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (79:54)

Yeah, it is.

Randi Weingarten (79:55)

And the answer to bad for Democrats has always been, well, y'all didn't give us enough money. Yeah, give us enough money. And that's just. I think people are waking up really, truly to the. To the idea that that ain't what makes it happen. Yeah. The money and the good education are not correlating.

Michael Duncan (80:13)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (80:13)

The giant ness of the Department of Education and the number of, you know, good public servants who work there is not correlating kids actually learning, but it is correlating with a bunch of 200k jobs.

John Ashbrook (80:24)

Yes.

Randi Weingarten (80:24)

In administration.

John Ashbrook (80:25)

And this is what I love about the Doge stuff. Is I feel it's exposing the system like the institutional rot for the first time in so many ways for normal people who maybe don't consume a lot of politics or look through the federal budget, you know, I mean, it's like one of the reasons I'm a Republican is I thought we all wanted to do this sort of thing. And so, like, you see some of these people out there, like, that's why I just don't understand. Understand the never Trump people. I don't care if you like Donald Trump or don't like Donald Trump, but, like, if you are conservative in this country, like, this is what we signed up for, like, to do this sort of thing, not talk about it and never do anything about it.

Randi Weingarten (80:57)

Well, and I think it got so out of hand that the way to do it is to do it swiftly.

John Ashbrook (81:02)

Yeah. And publicly.

Randi Weingarten (81:04)

And to do it with a bunch of really smart techie guys who know what they're looking at and can dig through a bunch of numbers very quickly.

John Ashbrook (81:10)

Because the old way. The old way to do this was like, all right, new blue ribbon Commission panel. We're gonna have a lot of policy prescriptions, and then we're gonna take that right up there to Congress. March up there, and then it's gonna never happen. Right.

Randi Weingarten (81:23)

There's a former version of me who would have been like, yes, I like.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (81:26)

The idea of panel, this is the.

Randi Weingarten (81:27)

Proper way to do things. And now I'm like, man, we in a new world.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (81:31)

Yeah. Slash and burn. That's it.

John Ashbrook (81:33)

Yeah. Right.

Randi Weingarten (81:34)

When it comes to the size of government, y'all gotta pass for a long time. We gotta do something about it.

Michael Duncan (81:39)

Yeah.

Randi Weingarten (81:39)

And we're getting out the public labor unions while we're at it.

John Ashbrook (81:42)

Oh, it's great. It's great. So you've brought a gift for us. Our favorite thing on the Ruthless Variety Program.

Randi Weingarten (81:47)

It's a gift for you today. I made this last night.

John Ashbrook (81:51)

Oh, my gosh.

Randi Weingarten (81:52)

I like to be creative.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (81:53)

I love it.

Randi Weingarten (81:54)

It's been a while since I brought you guys a gift. So this is a commemoration of a very important moment.

John Ashbrook (82:00)

Oh, my gosh.

Randi Weingarten (82:02)

In Ruthless history.

John Ashbrook (82:03)

John Ashbrook, White House correspondent.

Randi Weingarten (82:06)

This is a picture of John Ashbrook asking his question. And he has the deal with it. Glasses on.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (82:12)

Love it.

Randi Weingarten (82:13)

So I didn't even AI that. I had my dad photoshopped that real old school human way.

John Ashbrook (82:22)

You've done a horrible thing. Because his head is going to get so much bigger now that he has this.

Randi Weingarten (82:28)

I mean, look at that.

John Ashbrook (82:29)

All.

Randi Weingarten (82:29)

All eyes on him. That's right as the camera podium.

Comfortably Smug (82:34)

We are the media.

John Ashbrook (82:36)

That's great. This might be better than the Advent calendar.

Randi Weingarten (82:39)

How could it be? That's still in the office. I'm excited about it. We gotta go check it out.

Comfortably Smug (82:44)

Thank you, M.K. that's outstanding.

Randi Weingarten (82:46)

And look, is there no glass on it? Because one of my kids knocked it off a wall. And I used this that I found in my house for this. Sure.

Comfortably Smug (82:52)

It makes it even better.

Randi Weingarten (82:53)

It's fine. You guys will play safe with it.

John Ashbrook (82:56)

Yeah. Well, that's great.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (82:58)

That was made with some love. I can't believe your dad knows how to Photoshop like that.

Randi Weingarten (83:02)

He's a very good Photoshopper.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (83:03)

Wow. Nice job, Mr. Ham.

John Ashbrook (83:05)

That's wonderful. Well, ladies, thank you so much for coming in here. Like, subscribe. Subscribe to the pod. Normally. Listen to these ladies. They're very, very smart and very, very normal.

Randi Weingarten (83:18)

Thank you so much.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (83:19)

Very normal. Thank you.

Randi Weingarten (83:20)

Normalish.

Comfortably Smug (83:22)

I mean, such a great interview and such a great conversation with two very dear friends. Their podcast normally is something everybody should check out, but MK is just. She's OG Ruthless.

Josh Holmes (83:34)

Yeah, she is. She is. She is the best. We appreciate it. Check out that podcast and while you're there, like, and subscribe under Ruthless. Do it right now. If you haven't done it yet, do it right now. It's the only way that people will be able to see this kind of thing, like, and subscribe, for crying out loud.

John Ashbrook (83:52)

Yeah.

Josh Holmes (83:53)

Anyway, I think our question of the day was, is this a Brigo Garcia thing going to stop the Trump deportation stuff? You let us know, like, and subscribe. We'll read all of it and we'll get back to you on Thursday with that. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. And check out the merch while you're there. Had a lot of, like, good Gaza Riviera reviews, by the way. People have gotten their stuff. They love it. It's great stuff. I got mine. It's fantastic.

Comfortably Smug (84:20)

Brilliant.

Josh Holmes (84:21)

Check out all that merch. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.

Michael Duncan (84:24)

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, mk. Thank you so much, Kel Markowitz. And thank you so much to the minions. Like Holmes said, like. And subscribe to that YouTube immediately. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold line and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.