Is Mamdani a Midterm Curse for Democrats? - Election Debrief + Rep. Tom Emmer

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Is Mamdani a Midterm Curse for Democrats? - Election Debrief + Rep. Tom Emmer
Date: November 6, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Notable Guests: Rep. Tom Emmer, AG Mike Hilgers

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Overview

This episode of Ruthless offers a sharp, irreverent, and deeply “inside baseball” breakdown of the recent midterm elections—with heated focus on Zoran Mamdani’s unexpected win in New York, Democrat and Republican turnout mechanics, coalition and demographic changes, and the panel’s trademark mockery of progressive politics. Special interviews with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Nebraska AG Mike Hilgers explore congressional and legal battles on topics from government shutdowns to foreign influence in state ballot initiatives.

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Main Themes and Purpose

• Debrief on the 2025 elections: Dissecting surprising and notable results, especially Mamdani’s win in NYC and what it means for the Democratic Party going into future national contests.
• Coalition and turnout analysis: How Trump’s presence/absence shifts GOP fortunes, and what Dem GOTV (Get Out The Vote) now looks like.
• Mockery and satire: Relentless ridicule of left-wing talking points, progressive candidates, and the media’s election-night behavior.
• Special interviews: Rep. Tom Emmer on shutdown politics, Minnesota scandals, and House GOP prospects; AG Hilgers on foreign money in U.S. state politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Mamdani’s Win in NYC: A Blessing or “Curse” for Democrats?

• Radical victory: Mamdani barely clears 50% in an 8:1 Democrat city, with the party notably split (05:00).
  • “They voted de Blasio in and then they reelected him. And like, that's a city that does not want to learn any lessons.” – Smug (04:12)
• Speech highlights: Mamdani’s speech borrowing from socialist Eugene Debs drew laughter and alarm.
  • “I love how everyone knows Duncan's the guy who knows things…Eugene Debs, like the most radical socialist you could possibly name drop.” – Holmes & Duncan (03:38)
• Real vs. performative working-class appeal: Hosts mock Mamdani for LARPing as a tribune of manual labor.
  • “...this is for all those people who come home with their hands calloused—this guy's never had a real job in his life.” – Smug (07:12)
  • “Those people all voted for Cuomo, dude. To live with the consequences of your mismanagement.” – Smug (07:51)
• Democrats’ takeaway: National Dems, including Ben Rhodes, seem to misread the results as a green light for progressive candidates nationwide.
  • “Please run a Mamdani candidate for Congress in every one of these, like, Rust Belt states. Run them through the South. Let's see.” – Smug paraphrasing Dems (05:28)

Why Did Democrats Win? GOTV, Demographics, and GOP's Trump Problem

• Dem coalition: Higher-educated, female, urban voters were decisive. PhDs and young women “ran up the scoreboard” for Dems, while blue-collar and high school-educated voters leaned Republican but were outnumbered (06:03).
• GOTV via protest: The Dems' “new” missed turnout: protests, shutdowns, and local activism, not traditional field ops.
  • “Their GOTV now is protests, riots, this stuff...all these people with QR codes...I can take your ballot.” – Smug (23:49)
• Republican coalition struggles: Republicans can’t mobilize working-class, rural Trump voters during midterms/off-years; when Trump isn’t on the ballot, turnout collapses.
  • “Republicans have not been great in the last 10 years. If Donald J. Trump's name is not on the ballot, just haven't been.” – Holmes (16:02)
  • “This is Trump. He is one of one.” – Duncan (36:06)

Media and Establishment Democrat Spin (& Delusion)

• Van Jones' reaction mocked: The panel slams CNN’s Van Jones for being surprised at Mamdani’s hard-left speech.
  • “You just outed yourself as not knowing what you're talking about when your job is to be an analyst...I saw a couple of his TikTok videos.” – Smug (10:04)
  • “This feels like the Donald Trump ‘I didn’t hear that’ moment. ...Van Jones, I think, is a smart guy, but he knows he has to play this part.” – Duncan (10:59)
• Chuck Schumer’s discomfort: Schumer, knowing Mamdani would win, still avoids endorsing and even dodges publicly naming his own vote (12:12).
• Lesson for GOP: Radical urban Democratic victories can serve as “foil” for Republican campaigns elsewhere—if GOP figures out how.

Election Results Nationally: Blue States and the Midterms

• Don’t overread blue state wins: Panel stresses that Republicans always face an uphill climb in places like NJ/VA in off-years; keep perspective.
  • “Can we stop talking about New Jersey?...just look at what happened, right?” – Holmes (34:32)
  • “This is like pretending to be surprised that a Republican wins in Idaho.” – Duncan (35:25)
• Turnout and candidate quality: Key Republican failures are rooted in both turnout issues and lack of compelling candidates. Trump’s non-transferable appeal highlighted.
  • “Candidates matter, dude. ...Trump is a great, great candidate. And to your point, can anybody else be Trump? Nobody else can be Trump.” – Ashbrook (32:01)
  • “You throw your arm around MAGA and pretend you can lead it, you're gonna get your ass kicked 100%.” – Holmes (36:13)
• Women and Hispanics: Discussion on GOP struggles with women (especially younger women) and demographic shifts among Hispanics. Is the low turnout for these groups an issue or just a blip?

Practical Political/Electioneering Advice and Questions

• What’s the GOP’s ‘bumper sticker’ message?
  • “As cynical as it is, bumper stickers work. What's our bumper sticker? We gotta figure that out next year.” – Duncan (43:16)
• Suburban women and health issues: Suggestions that focusing on issues like school food quality and healthcare choices could help broaden GOP appeal.
  • “If you give these people concrete examples of what you will do...you show that you care. That's how you do it.” – Smug (27:28)
• Beware over-interpretation:
  • “Anybody who's telling you that right now is actually kind of lying to you.” – Duncan (37:44)
  • “We respect our audience enough to be like, we're not going to be like one of these talking heads who's like, I'll say anything to get three minutes of airtime.” – Smug (37:45)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Mamdani & NYC

• “This is such a theater kid communist revolution…” – Smug (07:12)
• “People with high school or below...tried desperately to save their city...and then you had, like, the PhDs...it's like 31% of the electorate has, like, a doctorate.” – Holmes (06:04)

On Democrat Coalition and GOTV

• “Their GEO TV now is protests, riots, this stuff...you go out there and then there's all these people with QR codes—have you registered to vote here?” – Smug (23:49)
• “You gotta show them that you care. And you gotta have something to address their clothes, or else they'll stay home.” – Smug (27:28)

On Trump’s Unique Appeal

• “Donald Trump is a one of one. ...There is nobody else in the Republican Party...that can carry the issue matrix that Donald Trump does into an election and execute it…” – Holmes (24:28)
• “You just throw your arm around MAGA...you're gonna get your ass kicked. ...You need uniqueness.” – Holmes (36:13)

On Democrats' “Takeaways”

• “Please run a Mamdani candidate for Congress in every one of these, like, Rust Belt states. Run them through the South. Let's see.” – Smug (05:30)
• “Chuck Schumer...famously didn't endorse Mamdani...was asked on election day who he voted for. Walks away.” – Holmes (12:18)

On False Media Analysis

• “Van Jones...he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that's not the Mamdani that we've seen on TikTok...” – Van Jones, quoted and mocked by hosts (09:40)

On Republican Messaging

• “Bumper stickers work. As cynical as it is, bumper stickers work. What's our bumper sticker?” – Duncan (43:16)
• “2022. Abortion. 2020. George Floyd. ...the modern day turnout mechanism that Democrats use to amp up enthusiasm for these elections.” – Holmes (43:21)

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[Timestamps for Key Segments]

Mamdani & NYC Results (00:00–12:29)

• Open and main topic intro, Mamdani’s victory breakdown, speech, and implications.

Election Analysis & GOTV strategies (16:01–37:05)

• Macro view of Virginia/NJ/Georgia races, turnout differentials, Trump’s coalition, and Democrat energy.

Special Guest Interview: Rep. Tom Emmer (45:06–71:47)

Highlights:

• On Schumer & the government shutdown:
  “This is a scared old man. ...Desperately afraid of losing his leadership position before he announces he is not running in another election.” (48:01)
• On Minnesota’s SNAP fraud scandals and state problems:
  “Tim Walls is a very corrupt, fraudulent human being. ...Feeding Our Future scandal was the largest. $250 million. It was the largest pandemic scam in the country.” (55:14)
• On House GOP 2026 prospects:
  “Donald Trump did something that no one has ever done in our party...He broke the unholy alliance between Democrats and labor...He moved the needle with traditional Democrat voters…” (68:28)
• On candidate quality and redistricting’s impact:
  “A swing seat in the House is defined as something that can move five points either way every two years. Well, now we've got a whole bunch, depending on a charismatic candidate, a local issue.” (70:49)

Special Guest Interview: AG Mike Hilgers (84:17–96:51)

• Nebraska AG explains lawsuit against foreign funding in state ballot initiatives; Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss spotlighted; dangers of loopholes in 501(c)4 funding, and the need for more states to pass explicit bans.
  “We have a bipartisan law in the state of Nebraska that says foreign actors, foreign nationals, cannot fund ballot initiatives directly or indirectly. And we've got a guy in Switzerland...driving hundreds of millions of dollars into elections in the United States.” (85:20)

King of the Hill Game (73:36–83:50)

• Hosts compete with outlandish tweets (“ammo” for mocking former Republicans and deranged left-wing takes).

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Tone and Language

• Entertaining, irreverent, fast-paced.
• Mocks both progressives and the GOP's failures in highly sarcastic and playful language.
• Emphasizes authenticity, skepticism of easy answers and talking points.
• Not shy with explicit language and personal/profane asides.

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Conclusion & Call to Action

• Call for audience input: Encourages listeners to share what lessons Republicans should draw from Tuesday’s results.
• Reminder to join for the next live show at the Patriot Awards.

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Lessons & Takeaways for Those Who Missed the Episode

• Big urban socialist wins split Dems and provide GOP with a “foil”—but only if the GOP learns how to capitalize.
• The Dem shift to protest-based activism and coalition with highly educated urbanites has changed the turnout game.
• Trump’s turnout (and appeal) is non-transferable: thinking other Republicans can “hold” the same coalition is wishful.
• Republicans must devise clear, resonant messages and find truly compelling candidates to compete, especially in midterms/off-years.
• Foreign funding in elections is a real and growing threat—vigilance and legislative action is needed at the state level.
• Never trust anyone (media or pundit) who claims to know “the one reason” for an electoral outcome right after Election Night.

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Transcript

[A]

A bunch of national Democrats were like, the lesson here is across the country, our candidates must be like, mamdani, please run a Mamdani candidate for Congress in every one of these, like, Rust Belt states. Run them through the South. Let's see that.

[B]

I also just think that's a larger discussion about the now historic trouble that Republicans have had with this new coalition when Trump's not on the ballot. It has to be discussed. It just simply has to be discussed.

[A]

You can tell this is such a, like, theater kid communist revolution where, like, during his speech, he was like, this is for all those people who come home with their hands calloused because, like, this guy's never had a real job in his life.

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[D]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[A]

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

[D]

It's time for our main event.

[B]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I am Josh Holmes, along with, comfortably, Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left, right across your radio dial, there is good news. Believe it or not, what comes to mind immediately is that the first time in a long time that nobody on this particular panel is responsible for the election results. So silver linings, folks. Silver linings. Obviously, Tuesday didn't go as well as some had hoped, but I hope if you've been listening to the Ruthless Variety Program, we gave you a pretty good roadmap into what was about to happen. Subtly, of course. I don't want to depress anybody before they cast their ballots, but some of this was very, very predictable. And we're going to get into that. There are a few things off the top that we need to talk about. Mom. Donnie. It turns out he surprised a few people and that he was this crazy.

[E]

Get out of here.

[B]

As everybody has said, said.

[F]

Right.

[B]

Let's start with a clip of this guy clip 1.

[D]

But as Eugene Debs once said.

[A]

Eugene Debs, Dude.

[D]

I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity. For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well connected that power does not belong in their hands.

[B]

Eugene Debs. Michael. Interesting choice.

[G]

Yeah. I mean, president, historian.

[A]

I love how everyone knows Duncan's the guy who knows things.

[G]

Yeah, well, I mean, Eugene Debs, like the most radical socialist you could possibly name drop.

[A]

Wasn't he like the American Communist Party?

[G]

Yeah, right. It'd be like just as Joseph Stalin used to say.

[B]

Everybody's like, what?

[E]

Huh?

[G]

No, they cheer for that too.

[B]

Did you hear that crowd?

[H]

Yeah.

[B]

It's like it was Bob Barker saying a new car.

[A]

Well, I mean, it's essentially the same thing. Like, you know, when you're just promising people that, listen, this isn't the real world. It's a game show. We're gonna make all this stuff happen. You know, people buy into that. And that's what happened last night in New York. I gotta say, personally, I'm incredibly thrilled by this. Not just. Not just in the cynical way of like, Yes, I think that the voters of New York City have made clear they will vote for the worst possible option again and again. Like, they voted de Blasio in and then they reelected him. And like, that's a city that does not want to learn any lessons. It will continue doing it. So, like, I want them to feel consequences. I think consequences are the only thing that keeps a civilization going. But also, and I hope no Democrats are listening, even though I'm sure media matters and everyone is. Results weren't great for Mohamdani. The Democrat Party was straight up split. You know, he cleared 50% by a whisker, which means that that's an 8 to 1 registration town. Democrats, Republicans. So the fact that Democrats were so split that Maidani skates by with like 50.1% or whatever. And the lesson that I saw a bunch of like, Ben Rhodes, we're talking about a clown ass guy who worked for Obama and a bunch of national Democrats were like, the lesson here is across the country, our candidates must be like, mamdani, please run a Mamdani candidate for Congress in every one of these, like Rust belt states. Run them through the South. Let's see.

[B]

That wasn't it Rhodes, whose nickname was Hamas in the White House.

[G]

He was super.

[H]

This is a guy who's not gonna be happy until they're selling burkas and every JC Penney's in the country.

[B]

So one of the interesting metrics. And I want to get to more of what Mamdani said in that speech in a second. But one of the interesting metrics that I saw was a breakout of voters by education.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Right. And the case was made that people with high school or below or associates, some college and things like that, anything other than a bachelor's degree and below tried desperately to save their city.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

They all voted Cuomo to a certain extent. Sliwa did not vote for Mamdani. And then you had, like, the PhDs.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Who were like. And first of all, an enormous number. So, like, let's. I love the characterization of New York City is that it's always like, oh, it's all these downtrodden pores. It never ends. All of a sudden, you look at it, it's like 31% of the electorate has, like, a doctorate. It's like 31% isn't.

[A]

Like what?

[G]

Like, how did the Maoist revolution come to China? It wasn't the downtrodden. It wasn't farmers in the R. It was the intellectuals at the universities. It was the young people. The zeal of those people is what drove the communist revolution. And we're seeing that here in New York.

[A]

Bingo.

[B]

And the babes.

[G]

Babes.

[B]

Women. Had a real tough time in this election in terms of their culpability for it.

[A]

And the thing is that you can tell this is such a theater kid communist revolution, where during his speech, he was like, this is for all those people who come home with their hands calloused. Cause, like, this guy's never had a real job in his life.

[B]

You know, the people who do were like, nah, we don't. They don't want that.

[A]

The people who actually do work those warehouse jobs. I've worked a warehouse job. It sucks ass. I've got burns on my arm from fucking spinning plastic thing. It sucks. It's a horrible job. So when I hear this kind of a kid who's just been this pampered little boy, being like, I speak for the. For those with calluses in their hands and who've worked in warehouses. No, you don't. Those people all voted for Cuomo, dude.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To live with the consequences of your mismanagement.

[B]

But he did provide a little glimpse into how he views his new role. Clip two, please.

[D]

We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.

[G]

Oh, awesome.

[B]

So that. That's the thing, right? The thing is, it's Just a government answer, which is really, if you just boil it all down, let's take all of the socialist communists, Islamic extremists, they take all the brands out of it. What it's really about is a guy who thinks that the government can solve all of your problems. And if there's anything left outside of just government and government controlling how much money you have, how much rent you pay, what your groceries cost, or anything else, they just need to run that shit out of town. Because if you have a concern, well, the government is here for you. And that, that really, like, gets to the heart of the matter of what his pitch is. And my surprise was that that took some people by surprise. Look at Van Jones, of all people on CNN. Clip 3.

[I]

I think the Mamdani that we saw on the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech. And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me? Is he going to be more of a class warrior, even in office? I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent.

[E]

Come on.

[I]

I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that's not the mom thie that we've seen on TikTok and the great 80s. I felt like there's a little bit of a character switch here where the warm, open, embracing guy that's close to working people was not on stage tonight. And there was some other voice on stage.

[A]

So here's the thing. Number one, you just outed yourself as not knowing what you're talking about when your job is to be an analyst. You're like, listen, I saw a couple of his TikTok videos. He seemed like a nice guy. And then he comes on stage and talks about how he's Karl Marx reborn. That's kind of tough. I mean, dude, do the basics. That guy who walked on stage, that old guy, his dad is the one who said that suicide bombers are courageous.

[H]

He said Abraham Lincoln was Adolf Hitler.

[A]

So do your homework before you think you should be allowed to have any kind of like a platform. Van Jones. But Dan is putting that out there of like, you know what? I was hoping that this guy who's the son of a guy who supports suicide bombers and called Abraham Lincoln worse than Adolf Hitler, maybe he should have been more cuddly, like when I saw him on TikTok. Get out of here. But do you.

[G]

I mean, I think Van Jones is actually a pretty smart guy. I think he actually knows all of this. And this is just sort of like a feigned, you think so naivete you have to do for election night. Like, you think he's like, you should.

[B]

Have kept a bit going a little bit more.

[G]

When everybody's watching us, it feels like the Donald Trump. Like, I didn't hear that. You're telling me for the first time.

[H]

Yeah.

[G]

You know, like it doesn't. That doesn't seem real. I don't think it's real. And Van Jones, I think, is a smart guy, but he knows he has to play this part of how this guy is going to be this great conciliator.

[A]

So it's not stupidity, it's malice.

[B]

No, he's disappointed that Mom Donnie wasn't keeping up the bit.

[G]

Yeah, you gave away the game, right?

[B]

I mean, because it's like, to paraphrase the late great Denny Green, they are who we thought they were.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

We have to trick the people into doing communism.

[E]

Right?

[A]

Dude, that's crazy.

[E]

I mean that.

[B]

So that's where this whole thing boils down. And listen, we're gonna get into way beyond New York because honestly, I don't give a shit. And I think you did a nice job of conditioning my mind on how much of a shit that I give, which is none, to wake. Whatever happens to New York, they will.

[A]

Get what they deserve. Yeah, like they voted for.

[B]

I don't care at all.

[G]

Well, I do like it for one reason, and that is it is an incredible foil for Republicans ahead of the midterms.

[A]

Dude, it's gonna be a gift.

[B]

It is that. I mean, there is some education in the uncomfortability that Democratic leaders have with this entire situation. I mean, Chuck Schumer, who famously didn't endorse Mamdani, even despite the fact that he was going to win, was asked on election day who he voted for.

[E]

Yeah.

[F]

Walks away.

[A]

That's it.

[B]

So that uncomfortability in and of itself is funny. And it's a pretty good wedge and a pretty good foil. But, like, honestly, I don't give a shit.

[G]

Well, I mean, periodically we do have to go up to New York. And I think it's important that we mock it. I think it is important that we fund the moderate Italians on the ground.

[B]

And figure out a way out. We fund the moderate Italians.

[A]

You know, things are dire when you're willing to help the Italians.

[B]

Fuck the moderate. Okay, okay, well, it's fair. But we're gonna get into. Look, there was a big one in New Jersey.

[A]

We're like airdropping. Gabagool. Rise up, my paisan.

[G]

Just saying, feel bad for it.

[B]

You gotta find allies where you can. Yeah, there's a New Jersey election, which, I mean, may play into the same situation that we're talking about. There was a Virginia election. There was some stuff in Georgia. There was some stuff in Pennsylvania. None of it was good. If you believe in America, like, it all was. It all was pretty bad. We're gonna break all of that down here in our next segment. But I do have a big announcement to make. Huge tomorrow. Tomorrow the fellas are going to be at the Patriot Awards doing something that we. Well, we haven't done.

[H]

No, it's actually today.

[B]

Oh, yeah, it's today.

[H]

Later today.

[B]

It's today. We're going to be doing it. So at noon Eastern, we are going to be live on our Ruthless page for a live show. We haven't done this since the convention back in July of 24, where we're gonna be at the Patriot Awards with all the Fox folks, a bunch of special guests having a lot of fun. Will Kane's gonna be with us on an awful lot of it. We're gonna be having a ton of fun. You gotta tune into this thing like. And subscribe to the Ruthless variety program. You're gonna have fun. Trust me. We can have fun no matter what. But particularly, I mean, they're gonna throw smug on a red carpet somewhere. I always thought he needed to be.

[A]

And also, I. Cause it's true. It's the only award show that matters. Yeah, it's the only one that matters because this isn't about. You're not gonna have some asshole like Robert De Niro get up there and be like, trump is a Nazi. We're gonna be honoring people who serve first responders, people who make this country great and deserve to be recognized.

[G]

It's the Oscars. But for people who care about America.

[B]

Yeah, it's just the actual America part of it that's important to us. So we're gonna be there tomorrow, noon Eastern. You gotta tune in to all today.

[H]

Noon Eastern.

[G]

Today, as this is going out.

[F]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So noon Eastern? Yeah, noon Eastern.

[G]

You said tomorrow, like.

[B]

And subscribe noon Eastern today. Make sure you do that because I'm an idiot. Mom. Donnie's got me thinking so much, I don't know what I'm doing. Anyway, when we come back, we're going to break down the rest of the elections right after this.

[F]

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[G]

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[J]

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[E]

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[J]

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[B]

All right, welcome back. Just remember tomorrow. Well, that's today.

[G]

Today, Today.

[B]

No, it's today that you need to tune in, go to the YouTube like and subscribe and watch the live show. It's gonna be great. But here's a little context of what we experienced on Tuesday. That recall we said all along here on the ruthless variety program, it is a almost impossibility for Democrats out of power to lose two blue states, two states that Donald Trump had never won in Virginia and New Jersey, to somehow lose, that would have been cataclysmic. For Democrats, they had a huge advantage. Part of that is just the nature of what off year elections look like for a party out of power versus in power. I mean, we saw in 2021, Joe Biden Democrats sweep in Glenn Youngkin's the new governor of Virginia. I mean, it almost always works that way, right? The last time Republicans had success in Virginia and New Jersey, 2009, after a historically huge Barack Obama victory and historically huge majorities in the House and the Senate, like, it's always a kind of a reactive force. So that's part of it that Republicans needed to try to figure out how to overcome. The other piece of this, which, you know, look, if you're being honest about it, Republicans have not been great in the last 10 years. If Donald J. Trump's name is not on the ballot, just haven't been. Every midterm has been a struggle. Now, Senate Republicans overcame that in 2018, held a majority, but other than that, you lost the house in 2018, 2020, we all know what happened. 2022, historic underperformance based on where the metrics are for where you should be. Now, I thought House Republicans in that particular election did a terrific job of holding on to a point where they could get majorities. But again, these are all just sort of around the margins type things.

[G]

And just for context, for a lot of our new listeners and viewers who haven't heard this sermon from us.

[H]

Right.

[G]

But it is important. Context is that there's a demographic thing here in that we traded out moderate suburban, high propensity midterm voters in the Republican coalition for a more working class, rural coalition that has a lower propensity to turn out for things like midterms or special elections or off year elections. And that's been part of the Trump coalition and God bless it, it got him home on election day in 2024. But it's hard to mobilize those people when his name's not on the ballot.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, with the exception of the 2006 election, as I got started in politics and many of you guys, Republicans outperformed in midterms relative to where they were in presidentials by a historic number. And it's because they're most susceptible voter. The voter that was going to show up no matter what in a midterm or off year, about 76% turnout rate was the core voter in the Republican Party that got traded out, as you suggested, Duncan, for a rural working class voter that has less susceptibility, in this case, 57% likely to show up in off year and midterm elections. What happens is it looks great during a presidential year because it's kind of a one to one trade in off years. This has happened each and every year. It is not some anomaly. You know, I mean you can make all the arguments in the world about candidates and campaigns. That is important. No question about it. We saw Virginia a pretty good example of how a better candidate and better campaign did not win on the AG's race because the top of the ticket and how they underperformed relative to the Democratic side. But those fundamentals don't change. The fact of the matter is you're having a whole bunch of people turn out on the Democratic side in these off year and midterm elections. Something that Republicans need to look to next November that you can't match with a 57% turnout rate of this new base of Trump voters. So it raises a bunch of questions about what it is that you're trying to do and how do you. If you want Republican majorities, some things probably need to change on all of that. Right fellas? What are your reactions to it?

[H]

No, listen, I think you're exactly right, but I don't think you can discount the energy on the Dem side right now and especially in the state of Virginia. I think it applies to New Jersey too. Democrats knew that the shutdown was energizing their base and that's why they kept it going. If you look at the number of votes that winsome Sears got in the state of Virginia on Tuesday night, it was actually more votes than Ralph Northam got in 2017. Ralph Northam, the Democrat who won in 2017. And so what I think that means is that Democrats are energized. And what our takeaway from that should be. We have to figure out how to get Republicans energized without Trump on the ballot.

[B]

Yeah. Can I just, like, let me break this down for a minute because we spent an awful lot of time in campaigns and elections, and one of the things when you are out of power that you need in order to win is to ensure that you don't have a malaise amongst your core demographic. And the best way, like congressional leaders and party leaders think of when you get to. Towards a fall election, you gotta pick partisan fights. You need to energize even the controversial stuff, but stuff that your core demo is on board with. In this case, Democrats are the party of government. They're party of big government. Even if you don't work for the federal government, just federal government is a core constituency of the Democratic Party. In this case, they had a malaise going on. I mean, they got their asses kicked in 2024 by all the polling metrics. And you look up everything up to basically Labor Day or mid September, Democrats were like, yeah, we hate Trump. But like, I don't know. No, we're not that excited about anything. And the ballot separations weren't where they needed them to be. They shut the government down. All of a sudden there's a partisan fight. There's a national discussion that pits Republicans versus Democrats. They have something to be energized about. They have something to show up. And of course, when that hits home, meaning your actual paycheck in Northern Virginia for a whole bunch of government workers, it does provide a lot of motivation. Now, we'd heard from like, Hugh Hewitt and some of the friends were like, yeah, federal government workers sort of get this. They understand government better than most, and so they understand who's doing it. They don't. They're also higher propensity to be Democrats in and of themselves. Why? Because government is a constituency of the Democratic Party. They're more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on all of those things. They just need a reason. They didn't have a reason in 2021, which is why Glenn Youngkin sailed to victory. This gave them the reason. You flagged this very, very Early Ashbrook.

[H]

Yeah, yeah. Weeks ago, right here on the Ruthless Variety program, we told you that Democrats the shutdown specifically for their election in Virginia, in New Jersey and everywhere else. And I think we've been proven right along those lines.

[A]

I want to say that there has been kind of, in terms of tactics, a shift that Democrats have taken during the age of Trump where protests, riots, this kind of like the shutdown is essentially just like over a month long no Kings protest.

[H]

Right.

[B]

National division.

[A]

This is their gotv.

[H]

Yep.

[A]

Their GEO TV now is protests, riots, this stuff. Because all these no Kings protests that we went through, all the funding on this show, all of it is like, hey, you go out there and then there's all these people with QR codes of have you registered to vote here? Here's where you early vote. I can show up and I can take your ballot. I'll take it for you. You don't have to worry about it. It's all easy, it's all done here. All this. The reason that all this left wing dark money is put towards these things is because this is their GOTV operation.

[H]

That's exactly right. What you see on television is a lunatic holding a sign or dressed like a chicken. What you do not see on television are the people with the QR codes and the clipboards who are signing people up to vote and collecting those votes.

[A]

100%.

[B]

Yeah, it's true. I also just think that's a larger discussion about the now historic trouble that Republicans have had with this new coalition when Trump's not on the ballot. It has to be discussed. It just simply has to be discussed. And I don't know if it's issue selection, but I do know this. Donald Trump is a one of one. He's a one of one. He's the only guy who can get out there and talk about the things that he talks about and set an agenda in the way that he wants to set the agenda. Where people who even disagree with him are like, he's funny, he's engaging, he gets it, he understands people like me. 1 of 1. There is nobody else in the Republican Party. That's all due respect to a lot of really solid communicators in the Republican Party that can carry the issue matrix that Donald Trump does into an election and execute it in a way that makes those middle of the road, center left, center right voters either comfortable or enthusiastic about voting for them.

[A]

So I also, I talked to a very smart person who I trust their judgment on campaigns issues very much so. They've had Tremendous record of success. I got to chat with them this morning, and then over the past day, I saw Posobek online. He was like, you know, we should really work on engaging with the Maha people ahead of elections. You got to get them involved. You got to do outreach to them. And I didn't understand really how that's done. What's the purpose? What's the thinking behind that? What's the outcome that you're looking to have? And then this intelligent individual, I'll call him a professor, he's just like a genius on this stuff. He was like, so here's the thing is, last night, we saw in every one of these elections, Democrats were basically just running up the scoreboard on women, regardless of age, especially young women, women in the 30s. They're running up the scoreboard on that. He was like, what you saw last year with Trump is when he brought Maha as part of this coalition is we peeled off a huge number, mitigated.

[G]

That a little huge.

[A]

If you make that an issue, especially on the state level, especially next year, if you're running for Congress and you're able to effect change to help people's health and give people more autonomy with their health, especially when we're in an environment where everyone's talking about how government, health care and these exchanges have proven to be a complete disaster, if you come with a message and bring in those coalition of Maha voters, you start making a huge difference.

[G]

Okay, so I don't disagree with you, but I guess I open up the question of. Because I think that's very interesting. But doesn't it also highlight the inherent disadvantage when you are in power of, like, how do I bumper sticker this thing? Right? Like, for the Democrats, it's no kings, it's shut down. It's that. And that's simple. That is easy to run in opposition to the thing that is happening. But, like, you know, do we have to just do a better job actually communicating what that bumper sticker is?

[A]

You know, I think it's not just.

[G]

Communicating, you know what I mean?

[A]

But I think you should 100% as part of your platform. A key part of it is address those issues. Because, listen, our food we've already seen RFK Jr has made moves. You're seeing dyes being removed out of kids food. Like, that video he had was the most compelling video I think I've seen on YouTube talking about, like, Europe has outlawed all these things. Why are they allowed to be fed to children here in America? If you give these people concrete examples of what you will do how you will be an advocate for them to make sure that their kids food is safe and that our food supply is not essentially just highly processed poison. And you show that you care. That's how you do it. You gotta show them that you care. And you gotta have something to dress their clothes, or else they'll stay home.

[B]

It's an astute point. There's no question in my mind that that was a key demo in the 2024 election that was summarily abandoned in this particular campaign. I think the other challenge is that you have a record to defend at this point as well.

[E]

Right?

[B]

So what you're talking about, no question, that is an open field for candidates to run in and discuss the past. It also opens up the failures of COVID policy and a whole bunch of things that you can rope in that your suburban mom was like, yeah, that sucks, let's not do that again. But you also have things like, you know, national announcements about Tylenol where, you know, it says in the bottle, don't give it to kids. And like all of a sudden we're like, hey, that's. That causes autism. Like, ask your, your average suburban mom about that question. They're not going to be in love with it. Like, they're crazy. They think that's crazy stuff. Like they're dealing with an element of crazy over the last seven months when they're saying, like, hey, I, I cured autism. It turns out it's Tylenol. And of course all of that is bumper stickered and not true and not the basis of the Maha movement. But there are components that have come out as a part of the Maha agenda that your average suburban mom has been served Instagram ads on for the last like seven months. They're like, look at this. What do you think about that? I mean, it's not good. Let me just tell you, it's not good. They don't feel like, I want RFK in my doctor's office. They don't feel the same way that they did in November about an awful lot of that. The larger argument that you're making, I believe is 100% true. But when you're in power, you have to defend everything. And so if you open that Pandora's box, all of a sudden you get a whole bunch of cross references, places where you're uncomfortable. And it just, it envelops a problem that ultimately you're leaning on. Either people who've already made up their mind, suburban wine moms, or somehow these low propensity voters who have Never once since 2016 showed up in a midterm or an off year election. Never once. Never once. They just don't. And that's how you get these huge demo shifts in the election results. And like, you gotta look at that stuff as a political practitioner. You look at it and you're like, I don't know, man. There's not much about this agenda that I disagree with. It's great conservative stuff. Is there anyone else other than Donald Trump who can actually win with it? It's a good question.

[G]

It's a good question. And I also don't wanna overread the tea leaves on this stuff. You see big demographic shifts, not just with women, but then also Hispanics, right? And is that, is that signal or is that noise? Is it, is it that low propensity Hispanic voters don't show up for this off year election? Or do we read into that like maybe we have to do a better job on messaging to those people on economic issues or whatever? Like, I don't know the answer. We really don't know yet.

[B]

You get, you get incomplete data and even when you get full access and you get full polling and all of that, it is not definitive about that question. But that question is a really important one, right? Democrats will maintain that ICE raids in particular have offended not only the Hispanic communities because they are dealing with all that, but then the suburban moms and everybody else who have, you know, their favorite waitress just got sent to El Salvador. Like they maintain that that is a critical issue. Or it could be what you just said, which is the people who were in the Hispanic community who are die hard. MAGA also have a 57% turnout rate and they didn't show. It could be one of the two, you don't know.

[H]

And we're talking about two blue states. New Jersey, 850,000 more Democrats than Republicans. Virginia, like 1.3 million more Democrats than Republicans. And the feds turned out in droves. In Arlington, Prince William, Fairfax, they turned out in droves. So. So you can't discount that. You can't discount the underlying atmosphere that always happens in a midterm when the other party is in power in the White House, it always happens. It always happens. If you look down ballot at some of these House of Delegates races in Virginia, the races where Republicans there was like a Trump 5 to 10 point plus advantage district, those guys held on the races where it was like a zero to five Trump advantage district, those were a little bit more suspect, which is consistent with a typical midterm environment where the party in power struggles. And so you have to win these races by the ones on individual issues, on, on the strength of the candidate. Candidates matter, dude. I mean, we've preached this until the day is long. Day is long, you know, like we have preached this. Candidates matter. Trump is a great, great candidate. And to your point, can anybody else be Trump? Nobody else can be Trump. You have to be your own person. You have to have a message that is consistent with the strength of the message that Trump is putting out there, but is also unique and authentic to yourself. You know, Democrats aren't going to be authentic. So a good candidate can beat a bad candidate every single time in the right district.

[B]

Yeah, I think that's right. Although I will have one caveat to all of this. I don't think Jack Cittarelli was a bad candidate. No, he. And I think Mickey Sherrill is like, I mean, Democrats got in Virginia and New Jersey the most milquetoast, wonder bread, wine mom of all time to lead their ticket to historic fiction.

[H]

But it's a blue state.

[A]

That's key in the sense of seeing all these like national Democrats being like, it's clear now, the future's momdani. And like, you look at New Jersey and Virginia and they're like, we tried to run. Essentially a moderate. Yeah, you've got a moderate in Vir who's like, if this AG guy wants to kill children in their sleep, I'm okay with it, cuz I just wanna win.

[B]

Yeah, well, I just. But I guess the point, it's less about like what their strategic choices were. And I don't think that they're particularly moderate. I think they'll do whatever the hell the left party wants to do.

[A]

Their image is not like Zoramdani of like, I've got a Molotov who's got a match.

[B]

Yeah, totally. No, that's totally right. But I guess my point is, can we stop talking about New Jersey? Like, I understand. So much of the media complex is focused on like these media epicenters of like, what's happening in New York and fuck Mondani and fuck New York, like, I don't care. But also, but also it applies to New Jersey every single time we have this like, national discussion. Well, the Republican is making moves in New Jersey. Oh, well, okay. Just look at what happened, right? I mean, you got Jack Cittarelli. He's not a bad guy, not a bad candidate. Pretty experienced campaigner, didn't make any real errors. He's running against a piece of wonder Bread. It's soaked in chardonnay and like, he loses by fucking 15 points.

[G]

Okay, like, let's not.

[A]

Let's.

[B]

We're done with this.

[H]

It's like pretending to be surprised that a Republican wins in Idaho.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[H]

It's like, oh, they had a chance.

[B]

Oh, I can't believe it.

[G]

Well, I think it's instructive in one way here. And Holmes, you often say this and said this in 2024 during the Republican primary. It's like nobody became president surfing somebody else's waves. And I think, you know, people looked at what Donald Trump did in New Jersey and the margin that got much smaller in 2024 and thought Republicans are our ascendant in the state. And maybe that tells us something about this race, but it really tells us the one thing, the main thing, the thing we keep saying, which is that this is Trump. He is one of one.

[B]

Yep.

[G]

And I think it should be instructive for anybody who thinks they're going to be president in 2028 that, like, you got to do your own thing.

[B]

You just throw your arm around MAGA and pretend you can lead it. You're gonna get your ass kicked 100%. You're gonna get your ass kicked in a primary. And if you ever got to a general, it would be a blowout, like a 300 electoral vote blowout. You can't. There is one guy who can lead that whole thing. You need uniqueness. And certainly in all of the structural disadvantages of an off year election, you gotta be something extremely unique. We saw that with Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie in 2009, who had these structural advantages, still running in those same states, but were very, very different than anything that you saw in the Republican Party. And the narrative about the Republican Party, I just think that this thing is like, look, I don't wanna overread tea leaves, but those lessons are things that people need to think about.

[G]

You know, what I like most about our show is, and this is important, listener and viewer. You know, listen closely, is in the aftermath of an election day, you're gonna hear from a lot of people on YouTube or on your podcast with a definitive answer. Like, the one thing, this is the reason the thing happened. And I'm gonna tell you everything about why this thing is the problem or the solution. And as political practitioners, people who've did this our entire career, we don't do that.

[B]

No.

[G]

Because we actually don't know yet. And we need to learn more and we need to look at everything. And anybody who's telling you that right now is actually kind of lying to you.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

We respect our audience enough to be like, we're not going to be like one of these talking heads who's like, I'll say anything to get three minutes of airtime.

[G]

Right. And that's just not fair to you. And it's not honest with you. And we respect you a lot. And so, like, this isn't the end of the conversation. This is obviously a conversation we're gonna have over the next year, right?

[A]

Yeah. Ongoing in the midterms. That's the story.

[F]

Yeah.

[E]

So.

[B]

But we'd also open it up to you when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless variety program. We give you the opportunity to comment on our question of the day. Today's is, what lesson for Republicans ahead of the midterms did you learn on Tuesday? You know, we've given you a fair amount of things to think about, but be very interested in you because there's a lot of local races and things that we're having. We mentioned Georgia, Pennsylvania, a lot of your states and localities. Minneapolis mayor. They didn't elect the Somali pirate, by the way. That's a shame they didn't elect Minneapolis.

[A]

Deserves it smug.

[G]

Says it's a shame.

[A]

They were gonna. I wanted the Vikings to be named the Pirates, dude.

[F]

Almost there.

[A]

We'll get there.

[B]

We'll get there. So our question of the day, what's the lesson that you think everybody needs to learn before the midterms? Because Lord knows there are lessons to be applied and products to be improved. But we are going to be at the Patriot Awards today.

[H]

Yes.

[B]

At noon. Again, while you're liking and subscribing, go.

[G]

To the youtubes noon Eastern.

[B]

You need to be a part of that. When we come back. We're about to tell you about the zbiotic thing, but later in the show we got two great interviews for you. A.G. hilgers of Nebraska. Very important foreign money in domestic election update. He's making news on stuff because we.

[G]

Had previously talked to Caitlin Sutherland about this.

[B]

Exactly.

[G]

And now, like things are actually moving and happening and it's great.

[H]

And there's so much news about the foreign flow into the Mamdani aligned groups in Manhattan. And I know that Mamdani's not everything, but it's very, very interesting to see where the foreign money's coming.

[B]

Very interesting. And then one of our old favorites, Tom Emmer from the great state of Minnesota, I might add. Yeah, he's got a lot to say. He's making news on things. But he's also like, I mean, if you want to hear people get absolutely dragged.

[A]

He doesn't mix his words entirely unfiltered.

[B]

He's got some thoughts. So we're about to get to that later on in the show. But first, Zebiotics. Fellas, we are going to the Patriot Awards. And by the time you're listening to all this, we're probably maybe even already arrived. But before we do, we take our Zebiotics. It's a pre alcohol drink and it has been a lifesaver for the Ruthless Variety program. And many of you who have been texting me about this particular product, I think it's like what, designed by PhDs.

[G]

It is designed by PhD scientists and everybody thinks that like when you had a big night and you don't feel so good the next day, it's just dehydration. I didn't drink enough water before bed. No, not true. Is that when your body breaks down, that alcohol turns into a toxic byproduct. But Zbiotics knocks that right out. And it's very important. Especially when the Ruthless Variety broke program goes on the road.

[B]

When we're on the road, that's what we do.

[G]

I mean it is. We pack it in our suitcases, we take it with us. In fact, when we are in New York and we are mobilizing the moderate Italians on the ground against bandani, we're going to hand out some Zbiotics.

[B]

I'm sure Zionics appreciates that. So go to zbiotics.com ruthless to learn more. And get 15% off your first order. When you use Ruthless at the checkout, that's, that's Zebiotics. It's backed by 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, and you won't be, they'll refund their money, no question asked. Remember, you gotta go to zebiotics.com ruthless and use the code Ruthless at the checkout to get 15% off.

[A]

And Wolf, could you pack some extra Zbiotics for the road? I wanna give them to Will Cain. He's probably drinking his sorrows after I smoked them in fantasy football. I'm gonna give him some of these.

[E]

Very good point.

[B]

Yep, an artful point.

[A]

That's how you be a friend. Because it works.

[B]

Yep. Thoughtful. So our question of the day from Tuesday was, will the Democrats cynical election strategy work? Somewhat prophetic. You provided your answers. To do that, we always start with a voice first.

[H]

One comes from Brent Schaffner and Brent writes. Yes, unfortunately, this strategy will likely work. Let's be honest, the Republicans have lost every election since 2016 without Trump on the ballot. DJT is done being on the ballot, so we better get something figured out quickly.

[B]

Gee, sounds like he was a part of our first.

[H]

Exactly. That's good.

[B]

All right, comment two. Dunks, runks.

[G]

This is from Lord of the Dreadwood.

[A]

Outstanding.

[G]

They write it wouldn't work in a fair environment, but the media is carrying so much water for them right now that it could work. They have the media going full on to propagandize in their favor.

[A]

I mean, we saw that in the opening with Van Jones being like, huh? Who could have thought? This guy's a radical.

[B]

Geez. Wow. I mean, there was no signs.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

Comment 3. Smug.

[A]

Comment 3 is from Javablanca. They write work. If by work you mean turn out the burn America down crowd, it will work. I do hope they still lose, though. And again, our audience nails it. This is riots and protests are the GOTV for the Democrat Party now. It's pretty clear to me.

[B]

Yeah, so it's true.

[G]

Yeah, but, you know, that's the thing. Bumper stickers work.

[B]

Yeah.

[G]

As cynical as it is, bumper stickers work. What's our bumper sticker? We gotta figure that out next year.

[B]

Rewind the tape. 2022. Abortion.

[A]

Mm.

[B]

2020. George Floyd. It really is the modern day turnout mechanism that Democrats use to amp up enthusiasm for these elections. Keep an eye on all that. You don't want to miss this interview that we've got coming up. By the way, this is Tom Emmer. You're gonna love every minute of it. He gets Tim Walls.

[A]

That's amazing.

[B]

Oh, he's got a lot to say about Tim Wallace. It turns out he doesn't like him. We're gonna play game two later in the show. Right after that.

[F]

This.

[H]

Only 58% of Americans today say they're proud to be American, the lowest number ever recorded. That's not just sad, it is very dangerous. Because if we forget what makes America special, we risk losing it. That's why Americans for Prosperity is launching the One Small Step Campaign, a bold nationwide initiative to reconnect Americans with our founding principles that sparked unparalleled innovation and prosperity. It's not just a celebration, it's a call to action. Through the 250,000 Steps for Freedom challenge, AFP is partnering with the grassroots in all 50 states to take meaningful steps that defend freedom and advance opportunity. Call your representative, attend a local event, knock on a door, talk to your neighbors. Every Single step counts, and every step moves us closer to a more perfect Union. Go to takeonesmallstep.com to learn more, then join the challenge at afpvolunteer.com.

[B]

Well, we always have a lot of fun with this guy. And it is a perverse incentive for a guy like me to give my co hosts a little bit of a Minnesota education with the majority whip. Tom Emmer. How are you, sir?

[E]

I'm doing great.

[B]

Listen, we were talking just before the show, before we get into the serious stuff. It's hockey season ramping up, and you obviously have played a big role in a whole bunch of different levels of hockey, as one does in Minnesota. You were telling me a little bit about the referees, the way you're handling all these things. What's happening these days?

[E]

These days? I mean, first, when it comes to hockey, you know, we come from a state where this is like a religion almost. Yes. And I have to explain to my colleagues from Louisiana in particular that you guys don't seem to understand. There is only one sport that has actually been delivered to us straight from God above, and that is the sport of hockey. And they'll start to complain, you know, it's football. This I don't have any problem with football. But remember, ice only exists in heaven. It can't exist in hell. So we are the only ones.

[D]

So there it is.

[E]

We are the chosen ones.

[B]

Logical deduction.

[E]

It really is. If you just. You got to think a little bit.

[B]

You got to think a little bit.

[F]

Well, that's what you.

[E]

Or as we say where we come from, you got to tink a little bit.

[B]

Well, there's a lot of tinking going.

[E]

On in Congress these days.

[B]

Maybe not so much tinkling, maybe not tinking. Yeah, government shutdown. It's still going on. Listen, you all did your job so long ago, I barely even remember it. I mean, you guys gave the Senate several weeks of preparation to try to figure out how to keep the government open, get benefits to people, do all the basics of government. And then somewhere along the line, Chuck Schumer figured out that he could maybe wedge some electoral advantage, particularly in Virginia, if he creates a partisan fight, disassociates federal workers, creates problems for people. It's good for them. And so we've spent a month arguing about nothing in particular. I mean, a CR that they refused to pass that, you know, basically was authored initially by Democrats, which they refused to pass. And now you found yourself in a situation today after election day where they're like, oh, let's Talk about.

[E]

Yeah, I think they're full of. You know what? First off, you're right. We passed a clean CR on September 19th, well in advance of the midnight on September 30th funding deadline. And it's the same CR that Chuck and company voted for last March. More importantly, it's the same one they voted for 13 times under Joe Biden, which is why I make the argument Chuck Schumer wrote the damn cr. All right.

[G]

Right.

[E]

Why did he do it? Well, it's very clear why he did it. I think you're giving him too much credit by suggesting that he actually has the intellectual capability of saying, oh, this is an electoral strike. No, you're a moron. It is not. This is a scared old man. This is an aging athlete past his prime who is desperately afraid of losing his leadership position before he announces he is not running in another election. That's what you're dealing with.

[B]

There's news.

[E]

And here we go Now. Yes, they couldn't open it before yesterday because if they did, the violent, virulent, pro terrorist wing of their party. Remember, 50% of Democrats polled in one poll didn't have a problem with Donald Trump being assassinated. A third of their party now supports terrorists, Hamas. Right. This is real. So they could not open the government because they would become the object of their anger. Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

So they keep it open through yesterday, and you just know it's coming where they're gonna say, we won. What? You won in Virginia. Oh, we kind of expected that Abigail Spanberger was gonna win. By the way, Abigail Spanberger, very good at campaigning. Is someone that she is not. She is literally Tim Walls in a dress. Okay, get ready. She is just as whacked as that guy, and she lies about everything. Because you're gonna find out in Virginia. You know, the sad part of Virginia is. And they're celebrating this, the attorney general who called for the murder of his opponent and his family in texts. You actually voted for him?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

That's sick. And then New Jersey, they win. New Jersey. Okay, Big deal. All right. Why don't we look at the island? Because this is. People don't do this. Let's talk about congressional races. You realize there are two districts, the third district, that used to be represented by a fabulist and is now represented by a Tom Suozzi character. And there's a fourth district that was represented by Anthony d', Esposito, a good friend who fought a really good fight last time, but it was way too close. And the Democrats got both of Those seats. Do you know that the county executive in Nassau county, which has 75% of the 4th district, I believe it is, and 100% of the 3rd district, it was an 11 point increase between the last election and this one. Those are two in these Democrats. And the left wing media want to tell us who this is? A big bellwether.

[B]

Okay, good.

[E]

It's bellwether. We're going to win.

[I]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I mean, from a House perspective, you're, you're entirely right. I mean, look, I don't think any Republican anywhere in the country likes to see a Republican lose anywhere. But the idea that somehow off year elections with a party out of power in very blue states, two states, that Donald Trump's number one is somehow a bellwether is crazy. Except when you dig into the numbers as it affects your particular House.

[E]

Yeah, and. Except it's not crazy, I guess, if you write for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

[B]

Well, that's his problem. He's the guy that talks. He's the only one that talks to all those people.

[H]

It is, and I just want to.

[E]

Ask, is there a special language?

[H]

There is super secret language and it's.

[B]

It'S usually a chilled Chablis.

[G]

You need a decoder ring.

[H]

Yeah. It all comes out as bullshit one.

[G]

Way or the other.

[H]

But I do want to ask you, because you mentioned the shutdown and I gotta think that in the negotiations, if Democrats ever decide to come back to the table, there's gonna be a new date set for extending the current funding in the federal government. Right now, under the current CR that the Democrats have rejected 13 times in the Senate, even though they supported it 13 times in the past, it was set for November 21st. I'm guessing that date is probably going to change. Yes.

[B]

Rather than do it twice in a week.

[H]

Yeah, yeah.

[E]

Well, it's right now, it is the date. And unless the Senate does something with the CR that we sent over, it will be the date. At some point, I'm sure our speaker will sit back and say, all right, you've exhausted. You run the clock out. Which, if we think about it, they should be ending it immediately. I mean, first, it's been needless, but after your last night, you got your off ramp, do it and then get back to the negotiating table. But if they don't, what's the next big inflection point? It's probably Thanksgiving, the busiest travel day of the year. Yeah, Right, right. So November 21, at some point the speaker has to say, all right, we got to do another clean cr. This is what it's gonna go to. Whatever. We're not there yet. We're at a place where the Senate has the ball. We still have time on the clock. Even though they burned the first five weeks of it, Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

So while there's time on the clock, do something with it. The thing that's really interesting is Chuck Schumer, who you can probably tell I'm.

[B]

Not a fan of it turns out not in his fan club.

[E]

Didn't. Found it. He's done. It's over, Chuck. It's over. Just get it up. He didn't have a way out. He has a way out now. So you would expect him to take that way out now and then move on? I don't know that he can. And until, until you run out of time. The House has done its job. Yeah, there's, there's not. Oh, that's what I was going to tell you is Chucky, I'm sure, was trying to show them, show them polling. Oh, look, we're winning the shutdown. Well, you know what? Up till last week, the vast majority of Americans didn't notice and hadn't been impacted. It started literally last week. I mean, we can talk about the 65,500 small businesses across the country, the contract with the federal government that the chamber says lost like $12 billion in the first month of the shutdown. But that's not 300 million people. Right. When you start shutting down the airspace, when you have major flight delays, when you get at 42 million low income Americans that depend on a certain benefit to survive, people are gonna notice. And by the way, when they notice, this is my belief, I don't have any proof of it. We'll see as the time goes on. But when it starts to impact them, then they get serious and they will figure out very quickly who is causing this. And it's not the Republicans.

[H]

Yeah. So I got another question for you that's shut down, related. Chuck Schumer, who you've talked about last year voted for the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, to be Vice President of the United States. And there has been a lot of reporting about the SNAP program that Tim Walls is running with federal funds in the state of Minnesota and a $77 million fraud that took place. And I'm wondering if, you know, I'm sure you know all about this. I'm wondering what sort of steps you, you know, in leadership position in the federal government can take to investigate and get to the bottom of how this happened. And how to stop it from happening again.

[E]

It's a great question. So obviously I am a Minnesotan and I love my state. Tim Walls is a very corrupt, fraudulent human being. He. There seems to be a theme.

[G]

No, don't sugarcoat it.

[E]

No, listen, he's lied about everything. He's lied about his military career. He lied about something as dumb as when he was at Tiananmen Square and got caught on national TV telling the lie. But here's the bigger thing to your question. Do you realize that According to the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota, the fraud that has occurred under the Walls administration. So this is not, not just Snap. Snap is $77 million last year. They overpaid it and we better find out why. $2 billion is the estimate in fraud. I mean, they are shutting down the daycare program, the housing program. If you read anything about Minnesota, the Feeding Our Future scandal was the largest. $250 million. It was the largest pandemic scam in the country. This is all under this guy's watch. The guy was a gym teacher. I don't care what he tells you. He's never run anything in his life to put him in charge of the state of Minnesota. He hasn't run that. Instead, when the RNC was going on last summer or a year ago, he was protesting outside the rnc. Right. Pam Bondi, God bless her, she has gone into Minnesota. She is starting to look under the hood. It's not just our U.S. attorney's office that has done phenomenal work even under A Biden appointed U.S. attorney, and now under a Trump appointed U.S. attorney, they are continuing to look into this stuff. But Pam Bondi has gone in asking for voting records, for instance. We want all of you. And by the way, the federal government's entitled to that because you have a presidential race, you have congressional races, you have Senate races. So even though it's a state based system, the federal government is entitled to have those records. You know, Minnesota has refused to provide them. I wonder why. I wonder why. Do you think there's any fraud in Minneapolis? Do you think there's any fraud in St. Paul? I don't know.

[B]

I heard about a local hearing where they, you know, they basically concluded that you could get a driver's license without any citizenship whatsoever. And that same driver's license can be used to not only register to vote, but actually cast a ballot. And they looked at everybody in the government in Minnesota who was arguing the other side of this and they were basically like, yeah, no, that's the law.

[E]

Josh?

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Three years ago, two years ago, they passed a law that illegals can have driver's licenses in Minnesota. And they were celebrating it. Well, and by the way, anecdotally, you know how many, as a member of Congress, people who see things call you, you know how it's anecdotal, our US Attorney and others are US Justice Department need to investigate this stuff.

[H]

Stuff.

[E]

But literally, people were have been telling me that when you went in to apply for your driver's license as an illegal, nobody asks you whether you're legal or not. They also give you a voter registration card. Minnesota's got other problems, though. It's, you know, I might have been in a race back about a decade ago that was decided by 8,100 ballots. Everybody remembers Norm Coleman's in mine. There were stacks of ballots in Hennepin county, which is Minneapolis, that literally had one person's name checked and it wasn't mine. So it's. You ask the question, what can we do? Keep encouraging the U.S. department of justice to investigate whether it's the handling of the Minnesota Housing Development Program, whether it's the program that delivered all these daycare funds to different, different immigrant communities who literally were bilking the Minnesota taxpayers out of all this money. You gotta have a tandem approach. The other problem we have, we got one of the most worthless. It calls itself a newspaper. It's basically a blog now. It's called the Minneapolis Tribune. They report nothing. Yeah, nothing. I mean, it's laughable, you guys. The week after Tim Walls embarrassed himself on national tv telling a lie.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

Two headlines in that, that fish wrap the following week. The first, the first one was, wait.

[G]

Is this the paper your friends call the Red Star?

[B]

Yeah.

[H]

Yeah.

[E]

I don't even give it that credit anymore. I mean, it really is something that there'd probably be a better use and it'd probably be toilet paper. The first headline was, Governor Walz vows to own his misstatements. They're lies. The next one, two days later, America's Sweetheart goes on Kimmel. You do not have investigative reporting on all the fraud. You don't have investigative reporting on the voter stuff. Nothing. They just look the other way.

[H]

It's no wonder how it happens.

[B]

Is there a role of congressional oversight for the House as we get beyond the government shutdown to look at. Look, Minnesota, we can all talk till we're blue in the face about everything that Tim Walz has done. I got to imagine that California and whole bunch of other blue states have similar problems. Is it role for the House to provide some investigatory action on this, you think?

[E]

Absolutely. I mean, Jim Jordan already had a hearing. He had a hearing where he called in Governor Hochul, J.B. pritzker.

[B]

There's another winner. The old fat man.

[H]

He's ready for winter.

[E]

Yeah. I don't know why. I don't know why the word buffet came to my mind. And then they called in Governor Walz, and that was the hearing where the question was, why have you created sanctuary states? Because Tim Walls has put illegals and criminals ahead of all Minnesotans. Again, the worthless media doesn't report any of it, but it's actual fact. So, yes, I mean, Jim Jordan does have a oversight responsibility. Jamie Comer has an oversight responsibility. Their counterparts on the Senate side have an oversight responsibility. This is something that needs to happen, and it's long overdue.

[B]

It's long overdue. Can we talk sports for a little bit?

[G]

Yeah, let's do it.

[B]

I mean, first of all, I don't.

[E]

Know if I know anything. How about.

[B]

How about JJ Last Sunday against.

[E]

I gotta tell.

[G]

Okay.

[E]

Come on, Josh. We got a winner. We got a winner.

[B]

Guy figures it out, right?

[E]

We got a winner. I love that they tried to criticize at the end with. Well, you know, some throws were really good and some were a little off. You know, he kind of slid back into. Yeah, he won.

[B]

Yeah, he won.

[E]

He won.

[A]

He won.

[E]

And he finds a way to win.

[B]

That's the only thing we ask now.

[E]

We just got to see if he can stay healthy.

[B]

Yeah, no kidding.

[E]

It's our year.

[B]

It's. It's just happening.

[E]

Feels like it again.

[B]

It's happening, fellas.

[G]

Kind of feels like it's my Colts year, but, you know, it's okay. We can just talk Ohio, Minnesota all the time.

[H]

It'd be a great super bowl matchup. Vikings, Colts.

[G]

Can you imagine that?

[B]

No, I can't. I can't.

[E]

We can go.

[B]

Yeah, it would be.

[G]

We'd bring the boys.

[B]

We would.

[G]

We'd argue.

[B]

Can you give me a little insight? Give these guys a little insight. What a. It's hockey season. People are starting to do it. When you grow up in Minnesota, like, everybody's involved. Even if you don't play, you're involved in the hockey season at some level.

[G]

Yeah.

[B]

Like what's happening with the ranks across the state. Give us a story or two.

[E]

You know, it's. Unfortunately, this job has taken me away from that. I spent the better part of my childhood, all of my childhood, my college years, and then when I started raising a Family. Actually, I started coaching before I started raising a family.

[B]

And it's a real coach, too, by the way. Not like Tim Walls. Oh, yeah, he actually did coach it.

[E]

Yeah. And I. I don't need to pay actors to come in and stand up for me or whoever. Whoever. Those relatives. Oh, yeah, the relatives don't like him either. So they're in Omaha and they're starting.

[G]

To think you don't like this guy.

[E]

Actually. Actually, I don't. I can work. I. I can work with anybody. No, I'm going to make it very clear because that's not Minnesota nights.

[B]

No, there it is.

[E]

I was wondering where you going to.

[B]

Get that in there?

[E]

Well, here's the reality is this. I don't care who you are. I don't care what your political views are. I can work with anyone and find a way to work with them until you lie. The second you start lying to me, we're done. And no, I don't like him. He lies like the devil and people need to hold him accountable. And he thinks that they're just going to look the other way. And unfortunately, Minnesotans have been doing that for far too long. Perhaps this will be it. You know, it's funny. He's running for governor again.

[B]

I know.

[E]

Well, you realize. Cause he did the little victory tour. Oh, that's right.

[F]

He lost.

[E]

But he went to, like, Illinois and South Carolina. He's gonna be the next voice. And it fell. I mean, it was about as. What? Exciting? As a fart in church. It went nowhere. Matter of fact, it was more like my friend Jon Cacko would have said, said with the sh instead of the.

[B]

Yeah, well, you're being polite because you're here on the ruthless variety.

[F]

That's right.

[E]

And I'm from Minnesota, and it doesn't sound like it, but the. The. Look, at the end of the day, the guy has lied through his teeth to Minnesotans. And I. No, I don't like that. And I'm just not going to be the Minnesotan that says, oh, gosh, golly, gee whiz, great to see you, and then walk down the sidewalk and go, God, I hate that son of a bitch. I'll just tell him, yeah, yeah, I like it.

[B]

Last thing. Repackaging everything that you guys have going on. Hopefully Democrats come to their senses. They reopen the government. A lot of national media is going to misconstrue everything that happened on Tuesday as some sort of harbinger of things to come. I think you've done a good job of recognizing immediately how it affects the House in terms of the results that came back in New York in particular. But as you look out here over the next year, you like your chances. This is going to be a tough fight. Obviously, any party in power, tough fight in the first midterm to try to get over the hump and retain a majority. But where do you think things stand and do we have a good shot at retaining the House?

[E]

So I will talk about the mechanics, which I think are really good, versus where we might be in June, July, August, going into September. Before I do, the one caveat is redistricting. Yeah, right.

[B]

A lot of that going on.

[E]

Very unfortunate in California last night. They're going to do something in Virginia. It's one of those things where when that's all over, if you look across the map, it still looks more favorable for Republicans than it does for Democrats. But we have to acknowledge today that until we see the final maps. And by the way, the Voting Rights act, which is long past its validity, I mean, you can't just favor one race over all the other races. I think our Supreme Court ultimately will do the right thing, but we'll see if they do it by the end of the year, that might have an impact on next year. If they don't, that's probably for future races. But now, the mechanics. As you know, in the last four House elections, we only won net seats in two of them. And we were running the NRCC when we did that.

[B]

Yeah, you did a hell of a job.

[E]

We held it last time with a net minus one, but we held it. So now people look and go, well, you know that cartoon character, Hakeem Jeffries? He says, well, he is.

[B]

Yeah, fair enough.

[E]

Done it to himself, actually. No, the president. What do you call him?

[B]

Temu Obama.

[G]

Yeah, Temu Barack Obama.

[E]

I should spend some time with you guys after I'm all done with this. It kind of actually fits.

[B]

My happy hour starts at noon, Ammer.

[E]

Yeah, well, for Pete Stauber, apparently it starts at 10:00am that, of course, is northern Minnesota.

[B]

He's not a big goalie guy. It comes with a culture.

[E]

The difference Mechanically, is this 2018, Trump's first midterm, when we lost 40 seats, which, by the way, I think the gross vote total across the country, it was about the difference between being in the majority and being in the minority, was about 120,000 gross votes, if I remember right. It was that closely divided. The thing people don't remember is we were defending 21 of our members who were in seats that Hillary Clinton had won in 2016. Completely different map this time.

[G]

Yeah. Lives matter.

[E]

Yeah. We've got three members in seats that Kamala Harris won. Lawlor in the Hudson Valley, New York, Fitzpatrick and Bucks County, Pennsy in the Omaha, Nebraska scene.

[G]

Don Bacon.

[E]

Yeah. Yeah. You gotta ask yourself, what do those people see in common anyway? That's a different one. They have 13 of their members in seats that Donald Trump won.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

And Donald Trump did something that no one has ever done in our party, in my opinion, certainly not during my lifetime. He moved the needle with traditional Democrat voters more than. Than anyone has ever done it. He broke the unholy alliance between Democrats and labor because Democrats left labor long ago. Labor just didn't realize it. At least labor leadership. Now the labor movement has literally moved towards Trump. Working men and women in this country, young people. He got more young people to vote for a Republican president, which is a great sign for the future. And by the way, it's a message to these communists and Marxists who literally are going to try and be the type of ruler that, that they don't have a problem with pandemics where they lock people in their dorm room and they tell them who they can see and when they can see them.

[B]

Long history of success for those people.

[E]

But they've created that group, that is the new group of libertarians. That's the next generation that is coming. And they voted for them. More black voters, more Asian voters, more Hispanic voters, even more liberal Jews. Right. There were. I think the president had 77 million, and I think we were around 74 somewhere in there. So I'm either rounding it up or down on either side. So there are a bunch of Trump voters. This is where I disagree with some of my Republican colleagues who say they're coming to the Republican Party. No, they're not. They're Trump voters. But what Donald Trump has done for us is he has made them more comfortable with looking at a Republican candidate. It used to be he's opened the door. Yeah. Democrat good, Republican bad. Now that Donald Trump has done this, that 3 million Trump voting block is more apt to look at a Republican who is talking their language, who looks and sounds more like the district they're seeking to represent and actually is talking about the issues that matter most to them in the language that they understand. I like our prospects based on the mechanics, because there's another 20 plus seats on the left that he didn't just move the needle on. These 13, those seats are five points or less. And, you know, a swing seat in The House is defined as something that can move five points either way every two years. Well, now we've got a whole bunch depending on a charismatic candidate, a local issue. You could have other. I mean, I just gave you one on The Island, New York 4. It shouldn't be in play, but after last night.

[F]

What.

[B]

Why wouldn't it?

[E]

Trump not on the ballot. And it popped up 11 points from the last time. It could be in play if you had the right candidate. So I like where we're at mechanically. We just won't know until next summer. You know, the working families tax cut that we call it now, or the big beautiful bill, if we were calling it that. Permanent tax policy, according to the economic experts, of which I am not. These guys tell me that it's going to take a full two years for the. The full impact of that to hit Main Street. But they're very confident that it will be hitting by spring and it will be gaining momentum as we go through the summer. Yeah. If that's accurate, this is where it's at. People make a decision on emotion and how they feel about where their life is at and where the future.

[B]

Listen, he's the absolute best. Thank you so much for coming by here. Welcome. Anytime. Next time we should do this thing around five o'.

[E]

Clock.

[H]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, figure out how to have a cocktail or two and you're gonna get full Minnesota at that point. You only got. Who know, we got a little bit.

[F]

Maybe.

[E]

Maybe I'll take the gloves off.

[B]

Tom. Ever everybody.

[H]

I mean, what a personality on that guy.

[A]

He.

[H]

He didn't spare a single person in politics. And I mean, just. We gotta have him back on again. I love the Minnesota thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's very, very funny to hear a couple of Minnesotans going back and forth in their natives.

[G]

Also like poor Pete Stauber getting the drive by. You know what I also love about Emmer is he somehow suggested this was the filtered version of him.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[G]

That we could somehow get a more unfiltered version at happy hour.

[B]

Yeah, next time I'm coming back at happy hour. So that was like just a 30%.

[G]

He's the man.

[B]

He is the man. I'm glad he came on. He's welcome anytime. Good Minnesotan. Fellas, I think it's time to play a game. Yes, it is Thursday.

[G]

It's Thursday. Which means the signature game of the ruthless Variety program. And might I mention Also for the OGs, the original listeners of the Variety program, this is gonna feel very OG because I am Judge.

[A]

Oh, yeah, the original.

[G]

When we started playing this game, I was always judge.

[B]

Yes.

[G]

Because of my genius. Genius.

[B]

Yep.

[E]

Obviously.

[B]

Yep.

[G]

And our. Our champion is Smug with David Frum.

[A]

That's right.

[G]

Holmes, who are you bringing in as challenger? You always. Cherry, you always do this. It's your cheat code.

[B]

Well, I mean, look, it's hard to ignore the content that she provides.

[G]

I know, but do you feel bad about it?

[B]

I'm a challenger. I want to topple the king.

[G]

Coming with no kings.

[B]

No kings.

[G]

Let's go ringside.

[D]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for king of the hill. In the red corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, Commie Cherry Jacobas. And now, in the blue corner, fighting from a blinking cursor in an empty page, and current champion of the world, David. Where did you come from?

[A]

That's excellent. Excellent intro. Best in the business.

[G]

I also love the blinking cursor thing.

[H]

Yes.

[G]

I mean, it's poetry writer block. It's really good. That's good, dude.

[H]

It is.

[A]

So as champion, Ice Start. And I'm gonna start with exhibit number six because. Because remember, folks, David Frum used to be a conservative. So when you see this exhibit number six, he has a quote from the New York Times and he puts a screenshot says, Mr. Obama spoke admiringly about how Mr. Mamdani has run his campaign, making light of his own political missteps. And from took that screenshot and said, missteps.

[G]

That's what he took away.

[A]

Obama never had any mischief missteps.

[G]

His takeaway isn't that Barack Obama is endorsing an actual socialist. He's like, missteps.

[A]

He's like, obama's perfect. What are you talking about?

[G]

He'd be like, barack Obama, I will defend you harder than you defend yourself.

[B]

Oh, God. I have so many different ways to play this, all of which I think are winners. So I'm just trying to figure out where the best. Best place to start. I think. I think I'm going to save nuclear weaponry and just simply start with what I find to be a completely unbelievable Exhibit 15. Exhibit 15 from Sheri Mashari says Trump's a pirate. His quote Nigeria is killing Christians claim is so he can steal natural resources.

[H]

Oh, my goodness.

[F]

This.

[B]

Now this, of course, she is tweeting out a YouTube link.

[G]

Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

[A]

Where, you know, I normally would. I. You should play it a new cuz. That was kind of weak. Bailiff.

[G]

Bailiff. Are you going to take action in this court?

[B]

I'd like to have a more strict.

[H]

Court if it sounded like a tactical nuke to me.

[B]

I mean, her. So obviously everybody knows what's going on here. It's been a time tested problem. Nigeria is killing Christians. There's just no doubt about that. Sherry Mushari didn't care about this at all. Right up until Trump uttered the words Nigeria is killing Christians. At which point it denies the existence of all of that and suggests that somehow this whole thing is nothing to do with a genocide, but everything to do with stealing Nigeria's natural. I mean, I don't even know if they have happening.

[A]

They're oil rich.

[G]

Are they?

[H]

They are. Wow.

[A]

Which makes it all the worse that they're out there killing Christians. It's like you have something that you could be doing instead of murdering Christians.

[B]

But yeah, appreciate the amicus.

[G]

It's what Islamic radicals do. I just, it's just way funnier to have a former Republican talking about how Obama didn't make missteps. That's just. Honestly, it's just funny. Or for that reason, smug wins round one.

[A]

Awesome.

[B]

Okay, wonderful judge, by the way.

[A]

Really good judge.

[B]

Well, we're about to turn all that right around. So this is just disgusting. And frankly, I didn't want to play it because I just, I'm so horrified by it and disgusted by it that I just didn't think it had any place in the Variety program. Oh my God, you forced my hand.

[G]

I love this run up in Exhibit.

[B]

11, she is, quote, tweeting a post.

[H]

Oh my God, oh my God.

[B]

About the widow of Charlie Kirk, where she says widow Kirk is merely being an old fashioned Christian widow wearing the traditional black pleather disco pants and KMDC FM stiletto pumps for a year now. In that I'll provide a little bit of context where she's provided pictures and AI that basically in subsequent posts, which I'm not playing here on the Variety program, but just to provide the source.

[G]

Oh, I saw, I saw, I saw them. The judge is aware.

[A]

These are the sickest people.

[B]

Suggested an affair by a vice president and the widow of Charlie Kirk. This is, from my perspective, about as basement as you can get. It's about as vacant and hollow and disgusting a thing as you can see on the Internet. And I'm talking about the Internet. Yeah, Is a pretty low bar.

[G]

It's a dark place.

[B]

But I'm not sure it can get worse than that.

[G]

Wow, what you got. Smug.

[A]

I mean, there's nothing more disgusting. So this is a throwaway exhibit one. I mean, like what? Yesterday afternoon, Trump threatened to launch a military attack on the most populous country in sub Saharan Africa. The fact that few expressed much upset at this bluster is a marker of how little respect this blowhard president commands at home.

[B]

Abroad.

[A]

Trump has had. I've lost count. How many peace deals are we? Over a dozen at this point so far this year.

[G]

But I mean, yeah, Holmes wins.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

I mean, like, how do you. How do you compete with that? Also awesome, dude. I just. I just love that J. Jones won that election in Virginia and that my neighbors want me murdered.

[E]

Yeah.

[G]

And that, you know, our political opponents on the Internet think that Erica Kirk, who's, like, suffering probably the worst nightmare you could have in your life, and they.

[A]

They've got young babies.

[G]

Yeah. And you're gonna do, like. Like, these people are so fucking sick, you know?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, now you understand why I didn't want to introduce this. It's like a very depressing.

[G]

Yeah, you've ruined my day.

[E]

I know.

[A]

I mean, we're having a great time. And now you gave you the victory.

[B]

I feel horrible. So I gotta pull you all down underneath the table.

[A]

Terrible thing to do.

[H]

I know we lost the round, but what is it with these former Republicans who, like, carpet bombed the entire Middle east and they're like, oh, I'm sorry, you're not allowed to talk tough to a Nigerian warlord. Like, that's where the line is drawn.

[A]

Because they were never. They were never conservatives. They just wanted power. So when they were like, we get to do what we want, they're happy. But now that people write bad ideas, they're mad about it.

[B]

Yeah, I want to. I think we need to, like, write a book or something on it. We got a lot of book ideas. But, like, how these people became what they are is interesting. It has never been about ideology. It is about what you suggested, Power. And once they presume to not have an inside track of. On all of that, they're willing to mortgage every single one of their ideological positions.

[H]

Maybe if Trump would have simply tweeted, we want to fight the Nigerians over there so we don't have to fight them over here, maybe that's where from. Would be like, oh, okay, I get it.

[G]

I mean, if you really want to go down a rabbit hole on a lot of these neoconservatives, I mean, these were liberal Democrats. Right. Like, and if you followed at all what Bill Kristol was tweeting as Mamdani was doing this whole thing, and he's talking about how much he loves Eugene Debs. Like, understand who these people are.

[B]

Yeah. Y.

[G]

Like, they are conservatives by convenience at a moment. They are not conservatives by conviction at all.

[B]

And that's why we play the game King of the Hill. It's all about them. I'm going to finish this thing off, fellas.

[G]

Wait, you don't have to go first.

[A]

He's welcome to.

[G]

Well, if the bailiff isn't going to enforce order in the court, you don't have to go first.

[E]

No, no.

[B]

I just want to finish this thing off.

[G]

Wow.

[A]

Go ahead. No, you said. Are you gonna read it or no?

[B]

No, a champion goes first. I'm gonna respect the court's rules.

[A]

Judge, you should let the guy do it.

[H]

Go ahead, champ.

[A]

For a long time, listeners, I used to get liquored up and just like go whenever I wanted. I was like, silver Holmes is here trying to pull an old school smug. I'll start with exhibit number seven from Frum. Please, David Frum. The Democrats who favor Mamdani are unafraid and outspoken. The Democrats who oppose him are abashed and fearful. Try it this way. I will work with the person chosen by the voters. But as a party, we Democrats believe in free enterprise and support the state of Israel. Bro. Kamala Harris was scared to say that because of the Michigan problem. You're out here trying to lecture somebody.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Quite astute. Exhibit 12. What Sherry Jacobus is doing is quote, tweeting a post truth social post by Donald Trump where he talks about how the nuclear arsenal is going to be updated under his watch. It hasn't been in many, many decades. And so he's gonna deal with all of that. Her surmising what the true intention of that update is as follows. He's rebuilding a bunker under the demolished east wing of the White House for a good reason. And it ain't good. Suggesting. Not even suggesting or inferring as outright stating. He's going to nuke his own country and he's going to be safe underneath his new east wing. That is, in my estimation, about as hilarious as it gets.

[G]

Oh, gosh.

[B]

This is such a good game.

[G]

This is such a great game.

[B]

Nukey is idolatry.

[G]

I don't like rewarding the lunacy of Sherry. My Sherry, you know, I find her so offensive.

[B]

Yeah.

[G]

But I gotta give her the round. God, I'm sorry. Smug. We have a new champion.

[A]

It was. It was a well played game.

[F]

Yep.

[A]

Outstanding work, team.

[B]

It was.

[G]

You saved your nukes.

[B]

I did.

[A]

Literally. You waited for it.

[B]

I did. I saved them. All right, we gotta get to a good interview here. This is the Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hill Hilgers, one of the more intriguing political figures that not everybody's talking about nationally, but certainly makes a huge difference nationally, not to mention his great state of Nebraska is the Attorney General, Mike Hilkers. How are you, sir?

[F]

I'm doing well. How are you guys doing?

[B]

We are terrific. We're terrific. Listen, there's some. We could spend 45 minutes talking about all the things that, that you and your office are up to. We've admired a whole bunch of the work that you've done on a range of issues. But the one thing that we're focused on here is foreign funding. And I know that you've taken a great interest in foreign funding of elections. And we couldn't help but notice there was a Fox News story in this regard. I saw this that was. Well, a Fox News exclusive. It's called the Mamdani Machine, which is how a two and a half million dollar network backed by Soros and Islamist activists helped engineer the rise of socialist candidate Zoran Mamdani. So it got us to thinking, what's going on with the foreign funding in American elections? Like that's a one piece of black letter law. I thought we all agreed on. Turns out you got some perspective on this.

[F]

This. Yeah, well, first I actually think we do agree on it, but we've got some bad actors outside the country who are exploit, either trying to exploit or just in Nebraska's case, directly violating our law. We have a bipartisan law in the state of Nebraska that says foreign actors, foreign nationals, cannot fund ballot initiatives directly or indirectly. And we've got a guy in Switzerland, foreign billionaire by the name of Hans Borg Weiss.

[B]

We've covered him a lot.

[G]

We are familiar leaders on this.

[F]

You know, people want to talk about George Soros, but we is not a, he's not a US citizen. So he's driving hundreds of millions of dollars into elections in the United States and in particular, by the way, through a web of dark money organizations. It's very difficult to track in particular in state ballot initiatives. So Nebraska, you know, I have no idea what the New York City race costs. I'm sure it's tens of millions of dollars, but in Nebraska, a million or two million dollars, you can change. You can actually change the Constitution. Yeah. Change major states, state policy issues. And so last cycle, the guys, they spent almost $10 million in the state of Nebraska, Toronto, radically, you impose their radical left wing views in the state. And we sued them today because that's not lawful under state law.

[B]

Okay, so you, who, who did you Sue.

[F]

We sued seven different dark money groups. Oh. Actually six different. Plus him himself. So we sued Mr. Weiss. We sued all of the major intermediaries that we could identify through which this money flowed. You know, it's not Swiss billion. You know, you don't pull up the local accountability disclosure. You're like, oh, Swiss billionaire gave you $5 million. You know, that's the tech. And in fact, he brags about that. He actually says, like, you'll never see my name. So we actually, we had a trace. It took a long time. We traced the money. So we sued the intermediary national funds through which his. His dollars are flowing.

[G]

So who, who, who are those funds? Is it like Arabella advisors in this whole web of people? Is it the Open Society Foundation? Like who, who are these intermediate intermediaries?

[F]

Wasn't. That's a good question. It wasn't Arabella specifically. Okay. Although. Although I think there's probably some adjacencies to say the least. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, that's how we get. First got on to Hans Vor.

[G]

Yeah. Well, you know, when you're talking about billions, it's really just sand off the beach, you know.

[H]

Right. Yeah.

[B]

Right.

[F]

In Nebraska. That's a Boulder, though, you know.

[G]

Yeah.

[H]

Right.

[F]

The new venture fund, 1630 Burger Action. Names that you probably heard.

[B]

Yes.

[F]

Many of these you probably heard already, especially since you've been focused on this particular topic.

[H]

Yeah.

[B]

And we had Caitlin Sutherland last week that talked about a lot of this stuff. But it's interesting. Look, you're doing the job that I think all of us want an AG to focus on, which is if it impacts my community, let's hold these guys accountable. Make them show up at court. Make them try to defend what it is that they're doing.

[F]

Doing 100. 100%. This might. Look, I'm proud of my team. There's a lot of investigative work to uncover the various entities and the flow of cash. But this is what, this is what people want. This is what they're worried about. Influence of our election. When people talk about election integrity, there's a lot of things, you know, voter fraud, you know, swamping our communities with non citizens who are then voting in our elections because Biden gave them a Social Security number when they crossed the border. But it's also people outside of our country who are using their enormous amounts of wealth. I mean, this, the whis kid can. Has so much money compared to what Nebraska is, what our ability to fight these things. But they're, they're, they're using their sources of wealth to be able to change the constitution of the state of Nebraska. That's wild. Incredibly worrisome. And that's exactly what, what the AG should be doing, fight backing on those.

[G]

So I'm, I'm curious and, and thank you for leading this fight. I think it's, it's critical in talking to other AGs. And we talked about this ahead of the 2024 election as these, you know, foreign funded ballot initiatives in places like, I think Arizona was one of them. Have you Talked to other AGs about getting on the same page on this stuff and, and if there's, there's anything these other AGs are doing, could you speak to that?

[A]

Sure.

[F]

So we, we work with our sister AGs, sister states all the time. We share information all the time. This is the information in our suit's going to go to them. Certainly I would say the, the most cases there's a multi state element. This is really a Nebraska state specific issue. One worrisome thing is that only maybe 10 or 12 states guys have actually passed the specific law. So just to give you a little bit of legal background, everyone thought that foreign funding of local elections was not lawful under federal law for a long time. And then in 2021 the FEC issued a ruling that said, well, actually it doesn't apply.

[B]

It's up to states.

[G]

Yeah, y.

[F]

That's right. And so some states, and Nebraska is one of them, but not. And actually California, California is another one. About 10, 12 states by our count have actually passed laws, including Kansas, including Ohio. And in those states there you've started to see some backing off of foreign funding. And so what I've tried to tell my, my fellow, he's is get the law in the books, work with your legislature. Because if you don't have one of these state laws and most states don't, you actually don't have really the tools, tools to stop this foreign funding to come into your states.

[B]

Can I ask you kind of a technical question? Because I look, I worked in, in Senate leadership at the federal level, you know, 15 years ago where Barack Obama wanted to deny any sort of dissenting opinion whatsoever.

[G]

Right.

[B]

They tried to do a disclose act that dealt with nonprofits that tried to out people throughout the country, which by the way, he also had a backstop with the IRS that was following up on his demand to make sure that people couldn't speak. If you happen to be a conservative.

[G]

Thank you. Lois Lerner.

[B]

Lois Lerner and everything else. But it gets tricky territory when we're starting to deal with the world of 501C4s. And I think most of the foreign money that we're talking about here flows in through these political nonprofits where the rule, generally speaking, is that they spend 50% plus one.

[G]

The primary purpose test.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

On some kind of a issue advocacy test. And that issue is of issue in elections. And so that's what they do. And then 49, they can transfer money out. As you're looking at what the ultimate reforms might be as it affects Nebraska and presumably everywhere else. Like what do you hope to have happen here? Because I struggle with it. The foreign money thing, to me it's a no brainer. Let's just get it out. No problem at all. You're dealing with nonprofits that have become political. And it's a little bit trickier about adopting sort of a liberal point of view, which is just like now they all have to be disclosed or just prohibiting the foreign funding of these things. Like, what's your view?

[F]

So from a positive perspective, I think I'm a big defender of anonymous speech. Yeah. Especially in this day and age. I mean, we. You said Lois Lerner. I mean, it's been a move on the left for a long time. Go back to Prop 8 in California, the gay marriage law, where the Mozilla CFO, if I'm remembering my facts right, lost his job because he contributed $1,000 to the, to the, to the petition. And so these things can be used against people. I think people need to be able to speak freely, especially in this political environment, and not have the retribution of having everything disclosed. So. So what I would say first is we want to enforce the law that's already on the books, which is no foreign funding. Y. My guess is what my hope is, I should say maybe not my guess, but what we've seen in Kansas and Ohio is that this foreign funding will sort of received from Nebraska in light of the lawsuit, hopefully in light of whatever injunction we achieve in front of the court, that might be enough. I mean, I think there's one of the questions we got at the press conference is, you know, is there some more information that you could use, you know, a certification or something where that. Where nonprofits are essentially making it a little easier for regulators like me to be able to say, understand whether or not you've got a foreign funding source? Maybe there's something there. But I. Boy, when we start getting into the disclosure world, I start to get pretty nervous because that is a hammer. Totally historically been used against voices like ours, quite honestly.

[B]

Yeah. In recent years, totally the case. I mean, that's why I appreciate your point of view on this is it's not a blunt force hammer where it's like anything, you know that a partisan advantage and Democrats at this point have taken advantage of that. But you look back at like Alabama versus NAACP 100, right, where you're dealing with really nefarious stuff. And there's a reason that the law is the law, but it still doesn't change this new generation of Democrat of which according to Fox News Digital, somebody like Zoran Mandani is benefiting from, to have foreign influence in a very meaningful way in very big elections.

[F]

Yeah, I think it's, you know, if I, as we kind of talk this through, I think, I think the thing that would be helpful would be from my perspective is some mechanism and I can't tell you exactly what that would look like, but some mechanism that would make it a little bit more streamlined for my ability to regulate. You know, what they've done here is not so much. It's as I told you a second ago, it wasn't as if he just gate wrote the check. He funneled this through a number of entities that are not all Nebraska based. They're all over the country. It goes to this one, then to this one then.

[B]

Well, that tells you everything you need to know, right? I mean, I understand you have to prove these things in a court of law, but if you're funneling things through a hundred different LLCs and C4s and LO and behold it shows up in an election like the intent seems pretty.

[G]

Clear and an effort to conceal.

[B]

It's an effort to conceal.

[F]

Yeah. And especially I'll tell you what, where the money is flowing and we haven't done a comprehensive survey on this, but go. They're coming to small states and they're coming to small red states. So you go to Kansas, they're going to Nebraska. Guys, I've, I've six lawyers in my consumer protection group. On a good day, you know, soaking wet, I've got seven attorneys who are fighting these types of battles and they can swamp regulators just by making it overly complex. I mean, a lot of states don't have the resources, the ability to sort of do the detective work that we did in a case like this, which by, by the way, back to your original question, part of the reason we want to make sure all this is public and everyone understands, sees our homework so that they can replicate it in their own states. But it's a unlawful bet, but it's A bet that they're making. And if we can even the odds a little bit through some maybe policy tweaks on the disclosure side, not necessarily for the donors, but to make it a little easier to track the flow, that's something I think that would be worth considering.

[B]

Yeah. Well, big news on those lawsuits. No question about it. Thank you for doing it here on the Ruthless Variety Program. I gotta tell you, we've appreciated your leadership on a whole range of issues, electric vehicles and nonsense that the left has been trying to do environmentally and through the energy space. This is one of the good guys that you're going to have to watch nationwide because he's thoughtful, he thinks about these things. It's not just a partisan reaction. He thinks about the long term ramifications. Thank you so much for everything you do. And when you're in D.C. come join us.

[F]

I appreciate it guys. Thanks so much. Thanks for all that you do. Really appreciate it. Thanks guys.

[E]

Thank you.

[B]

Thanks m.

[G]

What a great dude.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean listen, he is amongst many young Republicans cast throughout this country very thoughtful and interested in getting results for their constituents. They take a problem, they see a problem, they see it affect their constituency. And rather than just like, you know, do a talk radio program, he actually investigated. Now he's got got news to be made on lawsuits and litigation that they are undergoing in Nebraska.

[G]

Well, I appreciate people who break news on the Ruthless Variety Program. I also appreciate Republicans who instead of looking at a situation and talking about how terrible it is, actually do something about it.

[F]

Totally.

[G]

You know what I mean? And like if we're going to put points on the board, we need people like this who actually do the hard work.

[B]

Yeah.

[G]

And that's just fantastic.

[B]

It's great guy. I can't wait to hear a lot more about him. Him and that issue going forward. So thanks to Attorney General Hilders for showing up on that.

[G]

Remember today, today at noon, noon Eastern.

[B]

We'Re going to be live, live streaming from the Patriot Awards where Smug gets to do a red carpet walk.

[G]

Yeah.

[B]

I feel like we've all waited for this our entire lives.

[A]

I've done a few my time but you guys can join me on this.

[B]

Such a big deal. Yeah. You red carpet all the time, dude.

[A]

It's more fun with my friends.

[B]

Oh, it's interesting. Okay. Well, I didn't know we had such a star on our hands. Appreciate all of that. When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program, we ask you a question of the day and that question is from this week. What's the lesson Republicans need to learn about Tuesday's election results that may affect the midterms. Your ideas are always the best and we always get back to you in the very next episode with a sorting out of your answers and some of the things that we think best represents you. Appreciate you all joining us. Look forward to seeing you all live tomorrow.

[G]

Today, today. He did it again.

[B]

It's Wolf's fault.

[F]

It is Wolf's fault.

[B]

He's about to say play us out. It's Wolf's fault. What does that mean, play us out? Does that mean in the show, little homage to O'Reilly there, the legend, a.

[G]

Cut from Sting out of this.

[B]

So good, fellas. I think we did it.

[A]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen. Thank you so much, Congressman Emmer, and thank you so much, Ag Hilgers. We always appreciate our guests and we appreciate you listeners. Remember, if you have not yet go to the YouTube channel, hit the subscribe, turn on the notification, catch our live stream today. So until next time, minions, keep the faith hold line and on the libs, we'll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless.