Is the Dem Shutdown Coalition Fracturing? + Chairman Brett Guthrie Makes Gambling News

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast Summary

Episode: Is the Dem Shutdown Coalition Fracturing? + Chairman Brett Guthrie Makes Gambling News
Date: October 31, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY)

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Overview

This "Fun Time Friday" episode of Ruthless breaks down the emerging cracks in the Democratic coalition over the ongoing government shutdown. With their signature sarcastic, irreverent banter, the panel explores Democratic disarray, scrutinizes the party's messaging under pressure, highlights surprising pushback from labor and rank-and-file members, and unpacks major political coverage shifts in the media. In the latter half, they feature an in-depth interview with Rep. Brett Guthrie, covering government shutdown mechanics, government spending, energy, healthcare, and the NCAA's move on gambling.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Are Democrats Fracturing Over the Shutdown?

(Starts ~01:32)

• Hosts dissect Hakeem Jeffries’ repeated public insistence that there are “zero cracks on the Democratic side” regarding government funding.
• Sarcastic praise for Jeffries’ “brilliance,” while highlighting Pelosi’s enduring influence and AOC’s competing leadership shadow.
• Quote:
  • “Zero cracks on the Democratic side. He hasn't talked to Hunter Biden.” – Michael Duncan [03:31]
• Hosts point to frustrations among key Democratic constituencies—namely, government employees and their unions—who are speaking out publicly against the ongoing shutdown.
• Clip analysis of Democratic union reps and lawmakers openly calling for the government to reopen, challenging party leadership’s narrative.
• Quote:
  • “It turns out there’s a touch of a crack. Touch of a crack.” – Josh Holmes [05:36]
• Josh Holmes and Michael Duncan: Explore how cracks are visible both in public statements and behind the scenes, as more Dems reportedly grow nervous.

Timestamps / Notable Segments

• [03:20]: Hakeem Jeffries’ “zero cracks” audio clip analysis.
• [04:53]: Democratic union rep urges reopening government.
• [06:54]: Rep. Gottheimer’s cable news comments revealing intra-party disagreements.

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2. Senate Democrats and the “Extreme Left”

(Starts ~09:52)

• Clip and reaction from a Senate Democrat criticizing colleagues’ fear of the far left, particularly referencing Chuck Schumer’s leadership.
• The group jokes about John Fetterman borrowing Ruthless talking points.
• Analysis of the Democrats’ shifting (and often inconsistent) shutdown messaging: from blaming Republicans, to arguing over health insurance premiums, to claiming it’s about seeking “leverage.”
• Quote:
  • “Him raising it in a public conversation, that is not a crack. That is like the San Andreas fault.” – Josh Holmes [11:16]
• Hosts lampoon Schumer’s repeated press appearances and inability to answer tough media questions, showcasing a clip where Schumer appears flustered and pivots to off-topic attacks on Republican spending.

Timestamps / Notable Segments

• [10:11]: Senate Democrat admits party divisions.
• [13:14]: Host commentary on Dems' shifting message.
• [15:03]: Schumer's SNAP benefits press conference blooper.

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3. Democratic Disarray in the Spotlight—Media Vibe Shift

(Starts ~14:16)

• Hosts note a dramatic change: journalists are finally pressing Democrats with real questions after decades of “stenographer” coverage.
• Examples include confrontational interviews with Kamala Harris and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who visibly struggle to answer or pivot from basic shutdown questions.
• Media is finally holding Democrats accountable, suggesting a "vibe shift" prompted by declining ratings and credibility.
• Quote:
  • “You could only spend so long sucking down falsehoods... before all of a sudden people are like, I’m not tuning in to that shit.” – Josh Holmes [28:04]
• The hosts joke about Democrats needing a “boot camp” just to handle basic press scrutiny.

Timestamps / Notable Segments

• [21:05]: Kamala Harris’ awkward overseas interview.
• [26:10]: Crockett fumbles question, blamed the “ballroom” renovation.
• [28:32]: Media’s pivot to tougher Dem coverage.

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4. Notable Laughter and Side Segments

(Starts ~35:08)

• The “Wrong Bill de Blasio” Saga: A British reporter accidentally interviews a Long Island wine importer named Bill De Blasio instead of the ex-NYC mayor. The hosts die laughing over the Italian-on-Italian “violence” and the wine importer’s deadpan responses.
• Zoom Fails: Discussion of a Detroit police officer called to a virtual court hearing pantsless, sending the hosts into more fits of laughter.
• Question of the Day Recap: Listeners respond to whether Dems are “dumb or crazy” – best answers are read aloud and analyzed.
  • Quote:
    • “The Dems aren’t dumb or crazy. They are desperate... There’s no changing their behavior until they get someone who has sense.” – Listener comment [34:06]

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Featured Interview: Chairman Brett Guthrie

(Starts ~45:03)

Bio & Tone

Guthrie, Republican chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is a respected policy craftsman. Interview is warm, collegial, and free-ranging.

Key Discussion Points:

a. Shutdown Mechanics and Messaging

• Guthrie confirms House passed a “clean CR” based on Biden’s own requested numbers; Democratic Senate is holding out for leverage despite growing human and political costs.
• Shares constituent story about military spouses unable to fill prescriptions due to the shutdown, illustrating unexpected real-life impacts.
• Critiques Dems for first holding rallies about “no kings,” then demanding the president spend unappropriated money—calls out hypocrisy and constitutional contradictions.
  • Quote:
    • “A week ago, they’re having no kings rally. And now you’re having the leading Democrat appropriator telling the president he should spend money that’s not been appropriated. It just—it’s nonsensical.” – Brett Guthrie [52:08]

b. Entitlement Reform and Health Policy

• Defends House-passed work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, debunking opposition ads as inaccurate.
• Points to public support for work requirements (e.g., 70% in Wisconsin ballot measure).
• Blames Biden-era legislation for exploding premiums and “throwing cash at the problem” instead of substantive reform.

c. Energy and AI

• Argues that energy cost/regulatory environments are the key U.S. vulnerabilities in maintaining global leadership on AI and tech.
• Illustrates permitting problems: e.g., years-long delays to lay broadband or build infrastructure.
• Warns U.S. could lose tech supremacy (and power, like dollar’s reserve currency status) if bureaucracy blocks projects—relays an “at the gate” metaphor from Elon Musk.

d. NCAA and Gambling/Integrity in Sports

• Guthrie scrutinizes the NCAA’s proposed rule allowing student-athletes to bet on pro sports, especially concerning in the wake of NBA scandals.
• Expresses concern about athlete communications and prop bets, backs a congressional inquiry into NCAA’s decision-making.
• Hosts urge Congress to target blackmarket, offshore books to protect sports integrity. Guthrie agrees the issue needs investigation.

e. Local Color & Personality

• Whimsical exchange about Kentucky food traditions (Moonlight Barbecue, Ski soda, bourbon balls), football loyalty, and Guthrie’s years in Kentucky Republican activism, with a nod to McConnell mentorship.

Timestamps

• [45:03]: Interview starts
• [49:38]: Guthrie on real-life impact of shutdown on military families
• [53:33]: Guthrie calls out Democratic policy contradictions
• [56:27]: Energy and broadband permitting issues
• [61:26]: On risk of government “just subsidizing forever” without reform
• [61:32]: NCAA gambling and sports integrity segment

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He is like the Schrodinger’s cat of presidents. He is both capable and incapacitated.” – Michael Duncan on Kamala’s Biden book tour messaging [23:50]
• “It wasn’t like the question was, do you think members of your party are beholden to this activist base. He just offers that willingly—as the reason we’re here.” –Michael Duncan on Senate Democratic criticism [11:46]
• “The old saying was, the most dangerous place in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and a camera… except now, it’s not going well.” – Josh Holmes [18:38]
• “You could only spend so long sucking down falsehoods like a Tijuana hooker before all of a sudden people are like, I’m not tuning in to that shit.” – Josh Holmes on mainstream media shift [28:04]
• “Low class Italians use a little D.” – Wine-importer Bill de Blasio on the (former mayor’s) surname spelling [39:41]

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Additional Highlights

• Media Turnaround: Hosts analyze how declining trust and election results have forced journalists to ask real questions—leaving Democrats exposed and awkwardly floundering in public.
• Interactive Audience: They read and riff on top listener comments from a previous poll/QOTD, adding lively engagement.
• Signature Banter: Classic Ruthless sarcasm, in-jokes, and regional humor (Italian “violence”, Coke-vs-Pepsi-level soda wars, quirky Kentucky references).

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|--------------------------------------------| | 01:32 | Main episode start / cracks in Dems | | 03:20 | Analysis of Jeffries’ “zero cracks” claim | | 04:53 | Union pressure on Democrats | | 06:54 | Rep. Gottheimer’s public dissent | | 10:11 | Senate Dem criticizes party’s far-left fear| | 15:03 | Schumer flustered over SNAP questions | | 21:05 | Kamala fumbles interview | | 26:10 | Jasmine Crockett’s fact-checked dodge | | 35:08 | Bill de Blasio “imposter” comic saga | | 42:24 | Court appearance: cop without pants | | 45:03 | Brett Guthrie interview begins | | 53:33 | Guthrie on Dems’ constitutional confusion | | 56:27 | Energy/AI regulation and broadband delays | | 61:32 | NCAA gambling, sports integrity segment |

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Conclusion & Takeaways

The episode paints a vivid picture of a once-unified Democratic bloc now beset by open dissent, mixed messaging, and a rare bout of journalistic scrutiny. The squad lampoons party leadership for failing to contain internal fractures and being unaccustomed to tough questioning, while sounding the alarm about dangerous precedents being set during the shutdown. The Guthrie interview delivers real policy depth, especially around the mechanics and impacts of the shutdown, congressional leadership vs. opportunism, and the increasing intersection of tech, sports, and regulatory challenges.

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Final Host Banter:

• “Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Chairman Guthrie. And thank you, dear listener… until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs.” – Comfortably Smug [72:33]

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For Listeners:

• If you want a hilarious but substantive breakdown of the government shutdown, Democratic disunity, and the strange state of sports/gambling policy, this is an unmissable episode of Ruthless.
• Big moments are not just in what’s said, but in the way the hosts gleefully roast, riff, and wrangle a cast of political characters seldom confronted with real opposition.
• For policy nerds, Brett Guthrie’s interview packs rare insight into how Congress actually works behind the grandstanding.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

And I just want to say something for the record. I've seen a lot of people online call Hakeem Jeffries, Temu, Barack Obama. I don't think that's accurate. He's so eloquent and so smart and brilliant. I hope he's leading them forever.

[Josh Holmes]

I think I agree with you, Michael. It seems to me that they would really be in a bad place if this individual didn't continue to lead Democrats.

[John Ashbrook]

And how in the world could Hakeem Jeffries not know that one of his own members has a different point of view than him?

[Josh Holmes]

As it turns out that it's getting hotter in the kitchen and there is huge cracks. And part of what has happened with all of that is that there are journalists doing journalism and Democrats are unfamiliar with this territory.

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[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left, right across your radio dial. As always, thank you to the hundreds of thousands of people who listened to us yesterday, where we went through a couple of different narratives. One, that there are a lot of cracks in the armor, which is the Democratic Party as it relates to a government shutdown and then just mental cracks.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I mean, well, that's pretty apparent. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Where it's, I mean, it's, it's starting to get alarming at some level. But we're going to examine that as it, as the government shutdown continues and sort of ballpark out where that's at. A lot of yucks.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right. It's Fun Time Friday.

[Josh Holmes]

It's Fun Time Friday. So a lot of yucks on that. Also, it just occurred to us, and we talked about this yesterday, the Democrats very, very unaccustomed to having any discussion with a reporter where they're not just being the stenographer. And if they actually ask a question about, like what you're doing, does it make sense?

[Michael Duncan]

Ill equipped and heaven forbid there'd be a follow up where they're asked to clarify their position.

[Comfortably Smug]

We're talking like basic things they just absolutely can't handle.

[Josh Holmes]

They stare at you like one of those people from the uninhabited island that has never encountered life outside of itself. They're like raising and then raising. Like the stick.

[Michael Duncan]

The spear.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, the spear. Like, they're just so upset they can't get enough. So we're going to jump right into it. And it seems to me like the leader of Democrats in the House is a good place to start because one, the House has done its job. I have no idea why it's a microphone at all, but he insists upon it. And so when he does, we like to take a look at what he has to say.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

CLIP 1 Let me explain something to you. There are zero cracks on the Democratic side.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, let me explain something to you, good sir.

[Michael Duncan]

Zero cracks on the Democratic side. He hasn't talked to Hunter Biden.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh.

[Michael Duncan]

And I just want to say something for the record. I've seen a lot of people online call Hakeem Jeffries, Timu Barack Obama. I don't think that's accurate. He is so eloquent and so smart and brilliant. I hope he's leading them forever.

[Josh Holmes]

I think I agree with you, Michael. It seems to me that they would really be in a bad place if this individual didn't continue to lead Democrats.

[Comfortably Smug]

And you can tell that he's capable and good at his job because it's not like you have a lady running around being like, I'm speaker emeritus. Yeah, I've created this title.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he's got two things right. He's got the former Speaker Pelosi, who everybody just goes to to get the answers around him. And then he's got AOC on the other side. He's actually running stuff.

[Comfortably Smug]

Come to my office. We can see.

[Josh Holmes]

Let me be.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

He's trying to do the T moo Barack Obama, but he's getting shortchanged on.

[Comfortably Smug]

Both ends and there are definitely zero cracks. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So, yeah, so we're like, okay, zero cracks. So that's the one thing that he's assured us. Nothing else. No strategy, nothing. But there's zero cracks. Like, no, no. Democrats are breaking with their blockade of government funding despite the fact that it's now getting painful on the American people. We're like, okay, that's interesting. So what about their largest constituency, which is, of course, government employees and the union that represents them. Clip 2 so is your message right now to Democrats in the Senate open.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

To reopen the government and Then get back to work.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that what you're saying?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Absolutely. I'm saying that the American workforce should be at work providing the services for the American people. And in the process, they should get paid because they are just like the rest of America. 65% of America live from paycheck to paycheck. And when these employees are providing the services for the American people, they should get paid so that they can make sure that they're single mom that I've talked to over the course of the last few weeks that need to make sure that they have child care taken care of, they need medication, you know, mortgages are due, you know, they need gas to put in a car to go to work. So, sure, I'm saying that it needs to be resolved and need to be resolved.

[John Ashbrook]

Now, that sounds a little bit different.

[Josh Holmes]

From what Hakeem Jeffries said, an eloquent spokesperson on behalf of the government employees across the federal government. It turns out there's a touch of a crack. Touch of a crack. I mean, look, this is the biggest constituency that Democrats have in their party. It's government and growth of government, and the government employees that it represents in a union, by the way, they negotiate against you, the taxpayer. They take that money, then they throw it into Democratic politics. So it is kind of a symbiotic relationship. You'd think you'd listen to all of that. And they throw a lot of weight within the Democratic Party. But you've got this guy now, he's choosing to go out on cnn. They issued somewhat of, like, a bland Friday statement last week that had all the hallmarks to me of, like, a union, a key constituency that's like, look, I mean, none of this makes any sense, but I'm a partisan, so I just want to, like, float this out there and hope nobody pays attention to it. Well, of course people paid attention to it because they're looking for the cracks, and we've been assured there are no cracks. And so. But this week, the guy's like, nope, I'm gonna go to cable news with this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

So it's out there, right? So we're like, okay, well, does that have any impact on the people who are actually voting on that? Because once again, Nagim has told us there are no cracks whatsoever.

[Ad]

Clip 3 Please, would you call on Senate Democrats to just go ahead, pass the CR so that that won't happen and that you can continue to negotiate?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I think we actually.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I mean, it doesn't solve the health insurance problem, the premium problem.

[Josh Holmes]

I think what's a very fair deal and is open the government. And let's just vote on extending these.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Premiums for a year or more. Well, I don't understand what's so hard about that.

[Josh Holmes]

And by the way, Senator Thune has offered that.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I believe he said we'll have a.

[Josh Holmes]

He offered up a vote.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

That we can actually have a vote on extending these premiums.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm wondering if Leader Thune's press office had him as a surrogate. Yeah, I wouldn't have changed a word of that if I was in his office. Recall, that was the deal that was offered two weeks before the government shutdown. Have a vote on your Obamacare tax subsidies. We'll do that. Just keep the government open. And they all, like, acted as though. Yeah, but we're doing this for the government subsidies, Obamacare or whatever. And pretended like that wasn't a deal that was offered weeks before this guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

And for our audio listeners, first off, you should go to YouTube and hit subscribe. So you see the video. That is a Democrat House member.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. That's gottheimer straight up saying that, like.

[Comfortably Smug]

Listen, let's just reopen the government and let's negotiate. And he even said he'd put it up for vote. So, like, let's just do this, guys.

[Michael Duncan]

And like, the DSA left of the Democratic Party hates his guts. Oh, yeah. You know, so when he's eventually removed from office in some terrible primary challenge from Mom Dani or whatever, you know, just rest assured, Representative Gottheimer, you have a great future as a regional press secretary for the rnc.

[Josh Holmes]

That's well said. It seems like a touch of crack there, though.

[John Ashbrook]

Sure does. Sure does. And how in the world could Hakeem Jeffries not know that one of his own members has a different point of view than him? One from New York, which is where, Hakeem, you would think that you would pay attention. Part of a state delegation. Well, he might actually be in New Jersey.

[Michael Duncan]

He might be Saint Jersey.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the same thing, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a tri state.

[John Ashbrook]

Same thing. But I mean, you've got their most influential group, government employees. You have a member of your own caucus who is just one state away. And of course, we have another one here. Well, I mean, this is the paid attention.

[Josh Holmes]

There's cracks.

[Michael Duncan]

You think he.

[John Ashbrook]

I think it goes back to our question of the day from yesterday. Are they dumb or are they crazy?

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Is he not able to understand that Gotheimer and the federal employees want the government to open, or is he Just so crazy that he doesn't care.

[Josh Holmes]

And we're getting a lot of reports. We talked to a lot of people on Capitol Hill. These are just the people who've chosen to go on cable news. There's a lot more Democrats who are getting very, very nervous about this thing. But ultimately, this whole thing rests in the Senate.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, the House. It's fun just from a comedic standpoint. It's fun to talk about because they provide endless clues how's gonna House is gonna house all the time. But ultimately it's up to, like, you know, a handful of Democratic senators to do the right thing. So how are things going for the cracks in the Senate? Let's check out clip four.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

As a Democrat, I am incredibly, you know, I've been disappointed, and I refuse to have a political gamble that's gonna put those kinds of food security for 42 millions at risk on this. Now, some people might be afraid of the extreme left, but I am not one. I am not one of those dams.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, okay. So what he's saying is that there are some people within the Senate Democratic Conference who are afraid of the extreme left. Do you think one of those is maybe the leader of the Democrats in the Senate?

[Michael Duncan]

Do you think Fetterman listens to Ruthless?

[Josh Holmes]

He might.

[Michael Duncan]

He might. Because it feels like he's just saying the last five episodes we've done on the shutdown 100%.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's also, he's just shading Schumer on that. Like, there are some who are afraid. And we got into this whole mess because we knew. And you've been listening for the last, like six months where we've talked about, hey, now, Chuck Schumer so afraid of AOC and Mamdani and that whole situation about being primary both from the Senate seat and getting kicked out of his leadership office, that he's going to shut the government down without any strategy whatsoever. We've told you this over and over again because he's afraid of the extreme left. Him raising it in a public conversation, that is not a crack. That is like the San Andreas fault.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right. It wasn't like the question was, do you think there's some members of your party who are beholden to this grassroots activist base? He offers that willingly as the reason why we're in this position.

[Comfortably Smug]

We are.

[Josh Holmes]

He has adequately and properly diagnosed what is the problem?

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Which it runs far afield from what the Democratic messaging is, which is hard to decipher honestly, at this point. It was initially Republicans did it and it was like, no, we just really don't want premiums to go up, which has no affiliation with the government opening whatsoever. It's at the end of the year that all that takes place. And then it was like some deal about, like, well, Republicans are doing things. And then they got in the ballroom.

[Michael Duncan]

For a while, and now they're like, sorry, you can't eat, but we need leverage.

[Josh Holmes]

We need the leverage. What does Sheldon say about that against Smash? What is it that he's.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Leverage.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. It's leverage. Is they're looking for.

[John Ashbrook]

It's our only lever. Remember when he said that elevator yesterday?

[Josh Holmes]

It's our only lever. So they're looking for the levers. And when you have levers, you get leverage. Lich. Leverage.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Leverage.

[Josh Holmes]

I just can't get enough of it.

[John Ashbrook]

There's no ch in that word.

[Josh Holmes]

There isn't.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what it just gets me every time.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, even if you're gonna be the effete New England spokesperson, you should know that it's a G, right at the end of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. A G has a definitive sound, as Michael will tell you. Michael is very, very. He knows these things. His dictionary, elocution, linguistics.

[Josh Holmes]

So anyway, as it turns out that it's getting hotter in the kitchen and there is huge cracks. And part of what has happened with all of that is that there are journalists doing journalism, and Democrats are unfamiliar with this territory. They don't know how to deal with it. And it has come as a, I think, a surprise to many of them. We're going to get to all of the best of that right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so a number of Democrats are getting increasingly uncomfortable by the fact that the fourth estate, the esteemed fourth estate that hasn't done its job in, I don't know, roughly 50 years since the passing of Walter Cronkite, that they're starting to ask real questions about the strategy here. The inevitable again. We talked about this for months. Like, it doesn't end well for Chuck Schumer at some level in that he just pushed the entire Democratic Party into what was a box canyon. There's no way out. They're just gonna have to do what they should have done 30 some odd days ago. But he's like now having to face a little bit of the music with the press, and he doesn't care for it. Clip 5. Irrespective of the dispute on whether USDA continues to grant him to use for.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Scott Benning, it is not. Wait a minute, excuse me. It is not a dispute. It is fact. They can use it. And the Republicans say it.

[Ad]

Okay, but there's only 5 or 6 billion. And it's not cost 8 billion monthly just to administer.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if anything, it does not.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Cost 5 or 6 billion to administer. There's enough money to start feeding people right away. Six billion is a lot of money. And they're using it for other things. 20 billion for Argentina, hundreds of millions on Kristi Noem's plane. Who are we kidding here? Yes.

[Ad]

What happens once it runs out?

[Josh Holmes]

If it only lasts two, three weeks?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

The bottom line is they can fund it, just as in 2019, just as in other shutdowns for a long period of time.

[Josh Holmes]

So what is that issue on? This is SNAP benefits, which I think came as a shock to us at some level. What did they say, 40 million people?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, 12% of the population.

[Josh Holmes]

It gets SNAP benefits, which is a court of food assist program that's administered through the Department of Agriculture. But when you choose to shut the government down, well, that money goes away. And what they're saying is that Trump can just find the money. Like, they have no obligation, by the way, to vote for a clean CR that they authored. They authored. Chuck Schumer, the guy that you're listening to, authored the piece of legislation that he's refusing to get through and voted for as late as last March, but has voted 13, 13 times over the last couple of years on the same or similar CRS in order to prevent this kind of situation that he's dealing with. So now he's saying, like, Trump should have unilateral authority over the spending power of the American government.

[Comfortably Smug]

So to me, there were a couple interesting things right there in that clip. It's that Chuck Schumer is in such a bind and doesn't know what he's doing to the point where he's willing to, like, abdicate any authority he has as a legislator, being like, why can't Trump just do this? Like, his party is in such disarray. He is so scared of getting primaried by AOC that he's just like, trump, could you just do me a solid and just take care of this?

[Josh Holmes]

Just please let this off my back.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. This job of Congress, you just do it, dude. Please.

[Michael Duncan]

This guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

I can't get these people.

[Michael Duncan]

This guy we call a fascist every single day. He needs to just take control of the situation and do it himself. It's amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a real.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then also for it to go so badly that then, like, you got rank and file centers behind who are just gonna start answering the question.

[John Ashbrook]

Mm, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I mean, anytime the. The comb salad gal.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Feels the need to walk up and ab Klobuchar, when you're like, hey, this isn't going well. Give me the comb.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, do you think you have control over your squad when you've got Klobuchar who just rolls up and starts answering the question like, bro, Schumer, you're in a bad situation.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, I'm not sure they keep stats on this sort of thing in Congress, but I would be willing to bet that if you looked at the member of Congress who has held the most press conferences over the course of their career, Schumer's name would be at the top for sure. Over the course of his career. I mean, this is a guy who every single weekend on Sundays, he's got, like, a podium in the back of his true story, pulls them out. He pulls out a different jersey from somewhere else in New York, and he's like, here's what I'm saying. Here's what I'm saying. And he can't come up with an answer to the question. There is no answer. There's no answer other than, I'm gonna open the government. Did you hear how he was trying to change his subject? He's like, oh, Kristi, noem. Oh, Argentina.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What the hell's he talking. Is it trade deal is what he's talking about? Argentina? What does that have to do with anything?

[John Ashbrook]

Nothing. It's just like, hey, why don't you vote to open the government?

[Josh Holmes]

It is completely hilarious. I mean, the old saying was, the most dangerous place in Washington is between Chuck Schumer and a camera.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

And that holds true, except for now, it's not going well. He doesn't know what to do.

[John Ashbrook]

Sure.

[Josh Holmes]

Isn't it used to just be the last. Yes, Chuck, that's exactly what happened.

[Comfortably Smug]

Times have changed. Times have changed.

[Josh Holmes]

When he was like, yeah, Obamacare, it's gonna take everybody's prices down. It's gonna Give everybody access to healthcare. You can keep your doctor if you like it. They were like, yes, Chuck. Front page Chuck. Right away, Chuck. And then, you know, 15 years later we show up and they're like, none of that shit was true.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

What do you have to say about it? And he's like, duh, duh, duh, duh, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

It's pathetic.

[John Ashbrook]

Argentina. Christie Noem.

[Michael Duncan]

It's all Kristi Noem's fault.

[Josh Holmes]

Christy Gnome. What does that have to do with anything?

[Comfortably Smug]

AOC sees the weakness, and that's what.

[John Ashbrook]

She does, see the weakness.

[Michael Duncan]

You're right, she does.

[Josh Holmes]

But. But it's not limited just to the people under the dome. Like, Kamala is still trying to sell this shitty book.

[Michael Duncan]

It's amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's amazing because, like, she's run out of Americans that want to hear the story. Like, we've beaten her about the head and face long enough. She's got to go overseas to try to sell this bad boy. Perhaps somebody has some generosity and to hear her story without question.

[Ad]

Clip 6 Wasn't Joe Biden then, to put it on him, wasn't his refusal to recognize his own frailties the reason that you faced a nearly impossible task? I ran against Donald Trump for president, and Donald Trump ran on a platform that was in large part, I believe, misrepresenting his intentions to the American people. I do believe that there were a voice, there were a fair number of people that voted for Donald Trump who believed him when he told them that his first priority on day one is going to be to bring down prices. And he didn't. And you combine that misrepresentation of intention with also what was at play in terms of massive amounts of mis and disinformation. Now, forgive me, and a diluted calendar in terms of the clock. I want to interrupt you because it's a world class pivot, but it is not the question that I asked you, which is about Joe Biden's failure to recognize his own frailties and what that did to you. The question is about Joe Biden. Are you still reluctant to criticize the former president? In what regard, please? Well, question.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's not a thing that comes to mind.

[Ad]

Would you like to ask, be more specific, if you don't mind Biden's decision, his failure to recognize the frailties in that position that put you in the position that made it almost impossible to win that race. He was not frail as president of Canada. We all saw the debate.

[Josh Holmes]

We all saw the debate.

[Ad]

I do believe that Joe Biden had the capacity to be president of the United States.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my goodness.

[Josh Holmes]

I had the capacity.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the first time I've seen that clip. It is mind blowing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. She's like, she's so dumb.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's like, you know, on a spelling bee when. When the kids trying to buy some time while they're spelling her, they can't. Can you use it in a sentence?

[Josh Holmes]

And then, yeah, country for origin.

[Comfortably Smug]

Country forge. She's like, could you be more specific? The lady asked the same question word for word. And she was like, wait, what do you mean by that? The lady asked the exact same question again, word for word. And then she's like, joe Biden wasn't frail.

[Michael Duncan]

What I love about it, in her initial answer, she does this stem winder on all the reasons why she lost and why none of this was her fault. And she was like, well, and then you had the flurry of mis and disinformation.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yes.

[Michael Duncan]

And then comes back on the other side with the follow up question is like, Joe Biden was not frail. He was perfectly capable of being president United States. And it's like, how can at this point, like, what do you have left to lose? Just acknowledge the thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

And of all the people to try to push that. It's like, Kamala, you were running because he was like, yeah. The only reason you're a thing, like, everyone will believe, you know, someone could be so blind that they're like, yeah, well, he wasn't frail. But if you're the candidate who has to jump in because he was too frail, then you can't be like, he wasn't frail.

[John Ashbrook]

What? Also, it's like, did you learn the first lesson of dealing with an Englishman? You know, first of all, never get into a fight with a drunk Irishman. Never get into a verbal altercation with an English person. They are raised to talk, okay? That's just the way their society works. Somebody didn't tell Kamala that you're not gonna be able to work your way around this British person who can talk circles around you.

[Michael Duncan]

And I think fundamentally the problem is the absurdity of the argument that she makes in the selling of this book. Right? And in that answer, she's actually contradicting previous answers she's given where she's like, well, you know, I saw him in the White House and he was in command of that White House. I was concerned about his limited ability to actually campaign for the office of president of the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

AKA he was too frail to run a campaign. And then she gets into here and she's, like, not frail at all. And the whole. I mean, this gives away the game of the book, is that she needs to criticize Biden because, you know, Team Biden threw her under the bus.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

We know that they actually hate each other. But what she can't do is have the liability of not being in the White House and seeing the thing. So she has to create this fiction that's like, he is like the Schrodinger's cat of presidents. He is both capable and incapacitating.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's true. And you see the same thing from Karine Jean Pierre where they try to do the both ways things. You gotta sell a book. So you have to give somebody some information that they hadn't heard before, which is critical in her case of the Democratic Party, but then tries to have it both ways in terms of, like, yes, he was a very great. He was the best president we've ever had. Everything was great. He was totally capable of being president. But I was, you know, maybe a little bit concerned about the fact that nobody else thought that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's like their whole framework is they want it both ways. But if you notice the sliding scale that Kamala's had during this book tour, where it's like, he was a great president. He was treated unfairly. And then now the last line of that clip is, I do think he was capable of being president.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You see that, like, the new formulation is like, I guess it's okay to say that he was good to be president, but too frail to campaign is the thing where it's like, that's even more crazy to say, like, well, the auto pen. The auto pen's good at its job.

[Michael Duncan]

I will. I will attest to the fact that he woke up every day with a pulse.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

No. Capable of being president is where we've landed.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And now that we're in Great Britain, you know this thing. I can't wait till the Australians have a shot.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, it's gonna be good. I think that was actually an Australian.

[John Ashbrook]

No, it wasn't.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it was an Australian. I don't think it was British.

[John Ashbrook]

Got a hard time.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you're American. You don't have to know. Whatever.

[John Ashbrook]

Foreign to us.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not from here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Anyway, we're not done. So Jasmine Crockett, who's one of our favorites here on the program, she has this thing where she does versions of the first two clips which are not answering the question, then just sort of like going on attack and saying a Whole bunch of things, yes, I love her so much that are just not relevant, applicable to the question itself. But you just expect a compliant press corps to just allow it.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's check out clip 7.

[Ad]

Believe this will be the week that Congress comes to an agreement here? I have no idea. I mean, you started off.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Thanks for your expertise.

[Ad]

The president is in Japan. The president has time to do everything but what he needs to focus on. In fact, we heard the press secretary say that his main priority is the ballroom. The ballroom that no one asked for. The ballroom that requires him to destroy historic pieces of the White House. And so it doesn't seem like he's interested. And that context of the comment from Caroline Levitt. She was asked if the president was working on any other renovations when it came to the White House, and she was saying his focus was the ballroom.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing that she fact checked her on that.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And she could tell. I mean, first of all, she got her hair did, and she was, like, all ready to go and psyched up, and she's like, I'm just gonna drop utter, like, defamatory cun. Like, everything about the ball. Like, what did that have to do with opening up the government? Absolutely nothing. But she just throws it in there and then, like, somehow criticizes the president for meeting with world leaders. Yeah, like, all going abroad.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, dude, I am still shocked that Kaitlan Collins was, like, clarified. Like, no, you're wrong. That was an answer to a question of, are there any other renovations going on?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm flower.

[Michael Duncan]

Guess so. I think, you know, this whole segment we're doing here on the show really represents the sort of vibe shift that's going on in media. Right. Like, their approval rating is in the toilet. They saw what happened. The referendum of not just the Democrats, but also the liberal media on Election Day. These are people who spent the better part of a year before Election day talking about Donald Trump and putting him in prison.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Michael Duncan]

And then he becomes President, United States. And so they've recalibrated in a way which I think is obviously helpful for the American media to, like, I don't know, follow up and ask questions.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you could only spend so long sucking down falsehoods like a Tijuana hooker before all of a sudden people are like, I'm not tuning into that shit. I mean, it's only so long. And so there is a course correction. Like, I don't. I am fully, fully skeptical about whether that continues. But they've now forced the media because of the illogical argument that they're making currently to do the basics of the job.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And they're not comfortable with it because they're not used to doing it. It's not the first time the media has pressed Democrats. Fellas, you remember last summer, I'm talking summer 2024, when Joe Biden was falling off so badly that the media had to ask Democrats to answer for it, and Democrats didn't know what to do. It was a similar situation. Do you know what the ruthless variety program did? We put our heads together and we offered a boot camp for Democrats on how you answer questions from the press. Because they're not used to doing it.

[Josh Holmes]

They can't.

[John Ashbrook]

And so I would like to refer back to that boot camp episode. I think this weekend I'm gonna go back and listen to it, maybe pull out some of the ideas.

[Josh Holmes]

They could use some.

[John Ashbrook]

And maybe next week we'll offer him some.

[Josh Holmes]

A refresher course. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Because, look, we are. We're magnanimous here. We care about our fellow Americans. We want Democrats to do their best.

[Josh Holmes]

We just want what's best.

[John Ashbrook]

We do.

[Josh Holmes]

But it does lead to a pretty valid question of the day. And that question is, they're having a hard time talking to journalists at all. What's a question that you think is simple enough for your average Democrat to actually answer?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's so good. That is so good.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they're like, hey, you shut down the government, but now you're complaining about the fact that people are having a problem because of that action. Like, do you think you should just open up the government?

[Michael Duncan]

They're like, that's way too complicated. It's too complicated to ask them, what is a woman?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

So, like, really, when you write these, you really got to take it to a remedial level.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, give us, Senator Schumer, tell us why you are such a man of action. What is it that makes you such a leader?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think you could come up with something. It's not grilling burgers.

[Michael Duncan]

No, no.

[Josh Holmes]

My goodness. All right, we gotta tell you a little about our favorite product here in Zbiotics. I'm gonna have a big weekend. It's Friday. I'm gonna have a big weekend. Halloween, I wanna celebrate. You know, we got. My wife's birthday's coming up. I'm ready to go. It's Halloween. Kids are gonna have a good time. I'm gonna have a good time, too. It's not just for kids. I'm gonna Have a good time. And before I do that, I always turn to Zbiotics. Cause what do we say about Zbiotics?

[John Ashbrook]

There's no tomorrow without Zebiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. And if you're unfamiliar with this product, it's a game changing product. It's a pre alcohol drink.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

That was made, I think by scientists, dunks, PhD scientists.

[Michael Duncan]

And everybody thinks that when you've had a big night and you feel not so good the next day, oh, I'm just dehydrated. But the reality is that your body, whereas it breaks down alcohol, turns it into a toxic byproduct in the gut and Zbiotics knocks that right out. When I am delivering candy at the door, you know, I'm gonna have the candy, my wife is gonna take out the kids, I'm in charge of the kids who come to our house. I'm gonna have the candy basket in one hand and Zbiotics in the other.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

That is well done and well said. You gotta remember to make it your first drink of the night. You gotta order this stuff and when you do it, you gotta go to ZBionics.com Ruthless and use Ruthless at the checkout counter for 15% off. Trust me on this. I've had so much feedback from friends, from colleagues. It works. Folks, this is not some potion and lotion that you get on Instagram served to you like this is real stuff. And it, and we swear by it here at the Ruthless variety program. So you gotta go to zbiotics.com Ruthless use the code Ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. We should probably do our question of the day from last Thursday.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is a really, really good one. Are Democrats dumb or crazy? We thought it was a fair question. I mean, I don't know how else to.

[John Ashbrook]

Pretty simple.

[Josh Holmes]

We think a lot about these questions because we know, we read all of them and we know what you guys interact with, but I don't know how else you can react to what we've heard on the airwaves this week. It has been just a unbelievable cacophony of nonsense. And so it really does boil down to dumber crazy. So we read them all. And when we do that and you like and subscribe, we always come back to you with the voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, first one from Ken Haney. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Ken. He says the Dems are not crazy, they're calculating. But they haven't calibrated since the November election. I'm looking forward to seeing a red wave next year. But as the precursor, the wholesale rejection of the Democrats wish list, the shutdown is going to cost Dems dearly. There's no squirming out of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, your lips to God's ears, Ken. We hope that's true. Comment to Dunks or Uncs.

[Michael Duncan]

This is from Bruce Montgomery. Bruce writes, dumb or crazy? It's impossible to tell for the same reason Schrodinger couldn't tell if his cat was dead or alive. Alternative answer? Both.

[Comfortably Smug]

Excellent reference. Excellent reference.

[Michael Duncan]

I had no idea. I had not pre read this.

[Josh Holmes]

That's good. That's good. Well, you know, like minds.

[Michael Duncan]

Like minds.

[Josh Holmes]

Very smart people working and listening here.

[Michael Duncan]

That's how we know Variety program. It's a good community.

[Josh Holmes]

And if you are unaware of Schrodinger's cat, that's okay too. We will explain it to you right here on the Ruthless Friday. Well, Dunks will. Yeah, the old man will.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. Smuggles.

[Comfortably Smug]

Polyglot comment 3 comes from Mary Claire Bretz. Mary writes the Dems aren't dumb or crazy. They are desperate. When you are desperate, you become reckless and violent because of despair. They have lost all hope. There's no changing their behavior until they get someone who has sense. So basically they are toast. That's down.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow, that is Mary Claire, very good comment. I, I can actually, I can see that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, dead on.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they went through that thing at the end of the, you know, after the election last year where they're like, we're clearly doing something wrong. And then they had about a 30 day deal where they were like, yeah, maybe we should not let men play women's sports. Like maybe it doesn't make sense to be outside the mainstream of every like 80, 20 issue in this country. And they kind of like then it drifted and drifted and it drifted. And if you were to take a time machine right to today back from November, what a whiplash. Because now they're like further out than they all were in September of 24.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

It's wild.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh man, it's incredible. So next, the British newspaper made a catastrophic and hilarious mistake when they reached out to a former mayor of New York for comment on a heated race for mayor. You're not going to want to miss this. It's hilarious for many, many, many reasons.

[Michael Duncan]

There's some Italian content in there that Smug's gonna love.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, we got that and a whole lot more right after this. Okay, so welcome back. We had teased at the end of last segment that there was a British newspaper who was attempting to try to interview a former New York mayor. It didn't go that great. Duncan, I think you're the one that found all the. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

So this British reporter reaches out to Bill de Blasio. Everyone remembers Bill de Blasio.

[Josh Holmes]

Horrible mayor.

[Michael Duncan]

Horrible mayor of New York. Reporter wants to reach out to Bill to get comment on Mamdani and the upcoming mayoral race in the great city of New York. He reaches out to the wrong Bill de Blasio, not the former mayor. A wine importer in Long island also named Bill de Blasio.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, how does it work? They're like. They just, like, press zero on the phone, like the old school thing. Connect me to Bill de Blasio, please. And they were like, yeah, no problem. The guy's like, yo, hello, Bill. Mayor Bill.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and the greatest part of this whole story, and this is where the comedy begins. At no point during this interview did the wine importer Bill de Blasio point out the fact he was not the former mayor.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, you gotta love it.

[Josh Holmes]

So this cat, if I'm catching this correctly, answered the phone from a British reporter asking for his opinion on the upcoming New York mayor's race, and knowing that his name is Bill de Blasio, at no point recognized that perhaps this was a goof. He was like, no, this woman who's calling me is calling me because they just want my opinion on the New York.

[Comfortably Smug]

So this is even more interesting. I'm looking at this right now.

[Michael Duncan]

Mm.

[Comfortably Smug]

So apparently, it wasn't even a phone call. It was an email.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, an email.

[Comfortably Smug]

And so the. Also this reveals that the Times of London was wrong and the New York Times was wrong when they claimed that this was a Bill de Blasio impersonator.

[Michael Duncan]

No, because they're impersonator.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's. That's the thing. It's not impersonator.

[Josh Holmes]

No, he just called the runner.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just answered the email.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

An email was sent asking him that's his name, that he was like, you know, it's an email for Bill de Blasio. We want your thoughts. Bill de Blasio, the wine importer, was like, I have some thoughts on this. You know, he's.

[Josh Holmes]

Mom, Dani's a communist.

[Michael Duncan]

He's an Italian on Long Island. This guy has tons of thoughts.

[Josh Holmes]

So how does this go?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, first of all, he had previously met Bill de Blasio. The real Bill de Blasio. This is wine importer Bill de Blasio. I Want to tell this part first because de Blasio had said he had met the other de Blasio once at a 2016 New York Mets playoff game. He said he was asked by security guards who couldn't believe the coincidence. Real Bill de Blasio, former mayor, asks, how bad is it having the same last name as me? De Blasio recalls the mayor asking him. He responded, dude, you're killing me. And I tell. I tell that vignette to reinforce how crazy it is that he got this email from the reporter. And he wasn't like, the alarm bells didn't go out.

[Josh Holmes]

No. He was like, he knows they want my opinion.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I think he was being willfully obtuse.

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, I got it.

[John Ashbrook]

Are you kidding me?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

What I would love to see is, I mean, I'm not.

[Josh Holmes]

We gotta have this guy on.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe he took a screen cap of the email and he texted it to his buddies.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And he was like, wait till you see what I'm about to do.

[Josh Holmes]

I would love to see the email. It would kill on a text chain.

[Michael Duncan]

So. So hilarity of all that aside, I think there's one more level of hilarity, and that is the Italian on Italian violence.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who could have seen that?

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, that's Smugs music.

[Michael Duncan]

So that's why it's in the show. More from the article in Semaphore. The episode began earlier this week when a reporter for the Quality British newspaper, Bevan Hurley, sent a polite email to an email address containing the full name belonging both to the wine cellar and the two term New York mayor, who spells D E with a lowercase d and inserts a space between the two parts of his surname. De Blasio. The parenthetical here is in de Blasio's view.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is the winemaker.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Is the capital D. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

The other way that it's spelled in the case of the former mayor is, quote, low class Italians use a little D.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's funny.

[Josh Holmes]

What a treasure. That is so good. No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. It's the low class Italians that use that.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not enough that he allegedly is impersonating the former mayor, he then shits on the way the guy spells his name.

[Josh Holmes]

Smuggit, you think? Is there any truth to that? You spent time in New York?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's this story and it's like I'm looking over the highlights from this and it is mind blowing because I remember seeing alerts from the New York Times when they were sending out pieces of this thinking it was former Mayor Bill de Blasio. They're like. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio attacks Mamdani's proposal. It says right here that the Times reporter Hurley was researching, quote, an article looking at Zoran Mamdani's policy plans and their estimated cost. He wrote, I would greatly appreciate your insights on Mr. Mandani's ambitious agenda, potential obstacles, and whether the sums add up. This is wine cellar. De Blasio understood the situation. Quote, I could have corrected him, he said. Instead, he played along. He used ChatGPT to compose a response criticizing Memdani's tax plans in particular as unlikely to raise the requisite revenue. It was all in good fun. I never thought it would make it to print. He forgets that journos are that bad at their job.

[Michael Duncan]

He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing.

[Comfortably Smug]

That says the Times deleted the article from its website, issued a statement claiming that, quote, our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York. Like, this is the other thing. Like, the press is so bad at their job, they're so reviled, and they throw someone else, an innocent man, even though he's Italian. In this case, he was innocent. They throw him under the bus rather than admit they were wrong.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like the Trump. And I'm sure many of them are good people.

[John Ashbrook]

In this case, he was innocent.

[Josh Holmes]

Unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

The rare, rare innocent Italian.

[Josh Holmes]

It is a fantastic story. This cat is just minding his own business. He gets a reporter inquiry, chooses to answer it. Now he's the asshole.

[Comfortably Smug]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just amazing.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the guy you'd like to meet.

[Josh Holmes]

If we can find that guy, I'd.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Love to have him.

[Michael Duncan]

And if you're listening, send us some of that wine.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, a little bit of wine. Mr. De Blasio. Big dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Big D. High class.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the high class Italian. Big D is where you go.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right.

[Josh Holmes]

There is another story here in the Variety of the Variety program about a cop that appeared in court virtually. Well, he was missing a few things. Can we play clip eight, please?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Good morning to you. Can you put your appearance on the record, please?

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, Officer Jackson, number 39. 19.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

What?

[Michael Duncan]

He doesn't have pants on.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at the judge.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

He got. You got some pants on, Zurda.

[Comfortably Smug]

And the.

[Josh Holmes]

No, sir. Poor guy. So a Detroit police officer appeared pantsless in a virtual court hearing, leaving Judge Sean Perkins visibly stunned. And you can see that on the clip that he was like, What, What? Called him as a witness that all of a sudden he's like, my God, I'm getting a 50 yard line shot, dude.

[John Ashbrook]

There it is.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is why he subscribed to the YouTube.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at the face of the judge while you're on the YouTube. Like, and subscribe, because you're going to get this content all the time here on the ruthless variety program. The incident which took place during a drag racing case on October 27, seems to be a real problem these days, the drag racing and all that. Anyway, I saw the officer calmly admit. No, sir. What he was wearing. Not wearing pants.

[Comfortably Smug]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it feels like something you would think about, right?

[John Ashbrook]

But he was under oath and he took that very serious.

[Josh Holmes]

But not only that, dude, I actually appreciate the fact he just. He puts a crisp shirt, uniform, cop, uniform on, just ironed it, gets the badge perfectly placed, he's got the, you know, the collar stays in play, everything's good. No drawers, no drawers. Good morning, judge. Like, my God, guys, got.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are you wearing.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you have pants on?

[Michael Duncan]

No, sir. No, sir.

[Josh Holmes]

Excuse me, is there a Pringles can that you have? Anyway, listen, we gotta get to a good interview. We brought Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky in here. He's got a lot of things on his plate. He's going to talk a little shutdown, but his committee operates in commerce generally, and there's some things that deal with sports betting that we're interested in, leagues that we're interested in. All things that he's been discussing in addition to the shutdown and the day to day stuff with energy that he deals with on a daily basis. Check it. I want to welcome to the program somebody I've known for a very long time. He's a very, very good man. Somebody who I think best exemplifies what you want in a congressman. And I've known him for a long time, so I know that to be true. Chairman Brett Guthrie.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

How are you, sir? Hey, thanks for that. Thanks for those kind words. We've known each other since you were working for Leader McConnell.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I was kind of an honorary Kentuckian. Yeah, I know, I know. I was a. A half pint. I guess at that point, many years.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Ago, it feels like long enough for me to be Chairman of Energy and Commerce. That's been a while. Has it? Yeah. That's what I tell my friends back home. I say, you know, if you let me be here long enough, then eventually it would be tough for somebody from Kentucky to rise to a chairmanship. Yeah, I'll be From. And I love Texans and Californians and New Yorkers and so forth. But most of the Democrats would be from New York like they are California anyway. And then Florida and Texas would dominate the Republican side. And so it has been a blessing to be here and be chair. We have Al Rogers, we've had.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

My predecessor, William Natural Chair probes.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right. That's right. It's always nice when you have people from the center of the country in leadership positions. They tend to understand things better than the coastal.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Remember leader McConnell was saying it was true that he was the only leader.

[Josh Holmes]

It was true.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

That wasn't from New York or California. Yeah. When we had Kevin as speaker.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I know Kevin loved that. Yeah, I'm sure he loved that. But I think the first time that I met you was probably the first time you were running for Congress on a bus tour.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

That wasn't when I got asked to leave the car for talking too much.

[Josh Holmes]

Wait, hold on. So I definitely wasn't involved in that. You have to tell.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Well, we were in Owensboro and I was running in 2008. The leader was. I don't know if he might have been whip at the time, but he had a security detail.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And so they said, hey, you're going to be in Owensboro, we're going to Ohio County, Edmondson county and Bowling Green. And so you need to ride with the leader. You show up in the entourage and so forth. So I thought, that's great. Well, I got in the car and it's 40 minute drive. And if I was flying on an airplane, I'd take something to read or something like that, but I wasn't ready. So I sit there and it's the leader and I and just started talking and we go to Hartford, we go to then Brownsville in Edmondson County. And so finally it was Liam Bowling who worked in his field office, came to me. She goes, do you have a way to get from here to Bowling Green? The boss needs to work. Now, Leader McConnell says that's not accurate, but that is. I don't know why he needed to work. I think it was from me talking, but I was asked to find a different route, a different mode of transportation from Brownsville to.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, that rings true. He was leader at the time and I was on the bus. I'd already been kicked out the of the car at that point. So he lasted longer than I did.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But look at him. He's been a great mentor to me. I say that in Jess because. Because he's been a great mentor to me. And if you look at where he is and what he did in just in Kentucky. Yeah, I. A lot of we've had. Most of the counties that I represent when I got elected were Democrat. Now they're almost all Republican. And so there were a lot of. We love having everybody, but. But when Leader McConnell first started, it was a very small percentage, and I think very few people later saw where we were, where he brought us from, where we are. So a lot of people don't appreciate those early days.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

He was really trying to build the party. I ran for the state Senate. He was interested in what I was doing. And now if you look at where we are today, a leader has to be able to make tough decisions and be in a. And be willing to spend political capital.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Which is not what Chuck Schumer is doing. No, it is. But Leader McConnell, and there's some ads in Kentucky, if you're home, people running to fulfill a seat, not talking in the most positive light about him is because he was willing to spend the political capital to not shut the government down. You know, that started the process that took Kevin out. That started. I don't know if that was the actual reason, but started the process when we didn't shut the government down when Kevin was speaker. And so, you know, leaders have to be leaders and they have to be statesmen. And unfortunately, Chuck Schumer's chosen to be a politician.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right. That's a good transition for us to talk a little bit about the shutdown. Obviously, you all did your job, which seems like. I mean, I can hardly remember when you did your job because it was so long.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Because we gave them days. So it was. I think it was maybe September 19th or 20th. Yeah. Which we gave them another weekend.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Another 10 days to try to figure it out. And it's a clean cr.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

It's a clean. It's the. It's the CR Negotiated with Chuck Schumer, I think maybe Kevin or Mike Johnson before, but it's a Joe Biden error. Cr. It's the money they're spending. And so I don't know when this is going to end. People say that. That they. Now they want to break a record.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And there's some records you don't want to break.

[Josh Holmes]

That is one of them.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I mean, Northwestern lost 34 games in a row. We're approaching 34 days of this. I don't want to sound funny, but there are records. You just don't Want to break it. And I understand this. I got to speak longer than you did on the floor. That's all kind of. I think it's plain to social media.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But I'll tell you, I was in home this yesterday and I did a roundtable with, with the spouses club at Fort Knox. And people are being really affected by it. It's not just. It's not. I mean, a lady told me, you don't need stuff. You don't even. I remember when there was a group of our on our side that tried to do this a few years ago. And Boehner says, you're going to affect people in ways you can't even imagine.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

So ladies has a sick child. I get my drugs at Fort Knox. My pharmaceuticals, they can't replenish them because they can't pay their suppliers. And so now they said you have to go to CVS or a place off post, which means I gotta transfer everything. Sits there and takes all of her insurance goes to another and she has to pay a copay cause it's not on post.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it takes your debt.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

She goes, I know we're gonna get paid and we'll get some back pay, but it's never gonna take replace all the CO pays and things that I've had. I'm not gonna get the $46 back. I just had to pay is the number she gave me. And so people just don't think of what and when Chris Coons is supposed to be the great moderate senator. I heard Katherine Clark when they said, well, this is leverage.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, leverage. Y' all use that word, leverage as Sheldon using.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And Mark Kelly for some reason become the face of this. And I saw him, maybe he's running for president, I don't know. But I saw him talking about the Caribbean and why should we put our soldiers in this harm's way with the Caribbean? And what the president was doing. Well, that's exactly what he's doing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And so the leverage, as you want to say that they're using as a lady of Fort Knox who has to transfer every prescription she has off post, pay all the CO pays and then transform back when they finally decide to open in the government. That's. That's what. When they say that that's what they're doing.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you detecting any uncomfortability from your Democratic colleagues? I mean, it seems to me like everything's moving, starting with Federal Employees Union saying like, all right, you made your point, enough is enough. And then all of a sudden you get this thing with SNAP benefits and everything else where there's a whole bunch of Senate Democrats are like, well, what if we just did that?

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Because that's what they want to do. Of course. That's like, makes no sense. It's a clean cr. Just open up the government.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Open up the government. Yeah, they have. I haven't sensed it yet. I mean, I heard Rosa Delario, who's the leading appropriator, Senate, House Democrat, appropriator, on the radio yesterday, talking. I was listening to the radio. I guess it was on tv. But talking about the president should just spend the money on snap, even though he doesn't have the authority to do that. But he should. He can do this. He can do it. And I don't know if she went to a no Kings rally. I certainly believe that she supports. Supports that. My guess is she probably did go to no Kings rally. So think of what we're saying. We're having a. A week ago, they're having no Kings rally.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And now you're having the leading Democrat appropriator telling the president he should spend money that's not been appropriate. It just, it's nonsensical.

[Josh Holmes]

No Kings. Which one is it?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

It's nonsensical. Well, we, I don't think he should spend unless we appropriate it. That's clearly in the Constitution. Right now, his commander in chief, he has some flexibility. That's a, That's a unique. That's what people were asking me yesterday. How can you pay the military and not pay all these others? And one, there's just more flexible.

[Josh Holmes]

Money also helps when A guy strokes $130 million check to do it.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right. I mean, but he, but he's. As the commander in chief, he has a lot. That's a, That's a different role over the military than he is over the rest of them. We appropriate. Line item appropriate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And he just can't move money around just because he wants to. And they had a rally to try to say that he couldn't do that. Now they want him to do it. It doesn't make sense.

[Josh Holmes]

It makes absolutely no sense. But one of the things that I appreciate, it's made government shut down a little bit strange in some ways because Trump is doing what he can to keep everything as close to normal as possible until funds are exhausted. But also in Congress, you're still doing stuff like you guys decide, you know, you're going to continue to work. You obviously have a very powerful chairmanship. I noticed there's a bunch of things that you guys have been working on lately. Like what are you up to?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Well, our big thing we're still, we've. We did the one big beautiful bill this summer and so we. Our big task, it was the biggest entitlement reform at least since the 1990s, the biggest monetarily in history. And it was. And we're seeing all these ads pop up against some of our vulnerable members. We had a lady in a wheelchair who was talking about losing her Medicaid because of the bill. That's not true. That just inaccurate if you are. We exempted anybody with a disability from being affected by. The only people affected by what we did are people that are in illegal to be here. So when they say that undoing the big beautiful bill doesn't help illegal people here illegally, it's not true. Literally not true. Illegal people are ineligible and the people that are able so illegal and eligible and able.

[Josh Holmes]

A work requirement for able bodied people.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And so the people in the ads are saying they're negatively affected by what we did is just not accurate. That's just not true.

[Josh Holmes]

Michael. It sounds like the Democrats found people to be in ads that aren't telling the whole truth.

[Michael Duncan]

I am shocked.

[Josh Holmes]

Aren't you shocked?

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely shocked.

[Josh Holmes]

It's, it's crazy. No, I mean listen, you've talked about this a lot. Dunks with the able bodied, the whole work requirements and all that stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean there was a referendum on the ballot in Wisconsin and that off year election for the state supreme Court, you know, which is a highly contested race and unfortunately the candidate who was sort of aligned with the Republicans lost BY I think 10 points. But the work requirement passed on a different referenda by like 70%. Yeah, you know, and I mean clearly something people want.

[Josh Holmes]

So you can't talk about it in terms of truth, I guess.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Well, we exempt anybody that's disabled. It's 19 to 64 and so I'm 61. Say next year people decide I need to go find a new job. And who's going to hire a 62 year old? That'll be next year, not now. Then you can volunteer. You can volunteer at your church or synagogue or go back to school. Volunteer for an office that you go back to school. You just need to if you're going to get free health care at taxpayers expense. The question is as you said in Wisconsin, 70% of the people say if you're going to get our money to do this, you need to work for it. And so that's, that's what we did. So what we're working on now, though, I think the big issue of the day, and I think the President was talking about minerals and so forth, is AI and who's going to win the battle for AI. It's a global struggle. Europe is taking them. We know what not to do. Europe has decided not to compete. I don't know if they consciously made that choice, but, you know, if you're going to make your energy prices three times higher than the rest of the world, if you're going to put the regulatory side on. So that's what we have to get the reg. So people will come to our office and say, we got a battle for AI. We're in the struggle. We believe we have the brain power in America and we have the money. But what we don't have is the right regulatory framework yet is patchwork state by state. So we need a federal patchwork for that. But the number one issue is energy. Access to energy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Bill Gates said a Microsoft data center can use a gigawatt of power. And I was kind of neo on the energy side of this. I said, that sounds like a lot.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that seems a lot.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

How much is a gigawatt? The city of Seattle uses a gigawatt. So put that in. You take a data center and put it somewhere, it's going to use the same amount of power as the city of Seattle. And so we have to be able to do these things in Permian. So my hope. Hope springs eternals. We can actually do it bipartisan. You hear a lot of people in the progressive side talk about abundance and. And, you know, they spent $42 billion or they appropriated $42 billion for broadband deployment. In three and a half years, when Biden left office, not one inch of fiber had been laid because of all the permit process.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy, their whole view of energy. I hope you can do it on a bipartisan basis too, because it is.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

The future of our economy. They're saying you can't. Housing prices have gone up because you can't build a house. All the housing codes and so forth. I don't know if there's a path for. But they realize if they're going to, they want to spend on big projects and you can't get anything permitted, then you can't build.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, wait, you're checking to see if this thing actually happened that wasn't in there.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

How many. How much per. Per charging station did we spend? Yeah, it had 11 billion and got 7. Or got 7 billion got 11. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah. Oh, another thing in terms of spending, if you want to talk about this, so the ACA tax credits, which is the big hold up, you know, they extend expire. Because they made them expire in the inflation reduction.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they did it unilaterally.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

It was in, it was in the Inflation Reduction Act.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And the reason they made them expire, they'll say, well, we thought insurance was going to come down, we wouldn't need them in five years. I've heard people say that, but I think the more real answer is they took that money and spent it on the Green New Deal. So when they're standing up today saying we're here fighting for health care, well, you wanted to spend money on the Green New Deal. So anything in the Green New Deal, and one of my least favorite things in the Green New Deal was Stacey Abrams created a nonprofit.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

In December of 24, had $100 in her checking. $100. I'm not leaving out any zeros. Yeah, $100. And right before Biden left office in January of 2025, she got a $2 billion grant.

[Josh Holmes]

I. It's just, it's wild.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And the. Her CEO makes $800,000 a year. I don't know how we couldn't trace what she makes, but maybe, I don't know, maybe she didn't take a salary off.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I didn't know that.

[Michael Duncan]

The end of The Biden makes 800,000. The end of the Biden administration was a real bre situation where they're trying to shovel cash out of the door.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's what it was.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But that's where they say tax credit. So anybody that wants to look at us and say, you tried to. We tried to reform them, actually, in the, in the one big beautiful bill. And it was estimated, well, there's about $70 billion of fraud that we believe in there. And then the other thing is, then there's another thing we did that deals with the tax, the marketplace. I can get into the details if you want, but it's. It was estimated by CBO to lower the premiums by 12%. So now they're saying premiums going up 18%. We want to subsidize them in these tax rates by 5.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it seems like 1.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

We just loan for everybody.

[Josh Holmes]

It seems like a disconnect on all of it.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Because, I mean, we've personally experienced, I think every American has experienced the premium increase since they've done Obamacare.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Fifteen years later. Look where we are.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. But also like now, apparently we're at this critical juncture where we need to shovel more taxpayer dollars into it. And I was happened. I mentioned this on the last show. I'm, I'm just scrolling through Twitter and I see an earnings call from UnitedHealth. And they're like, banner year, guys. Everything's been great. And so that like the disconnect between the marketplace in and of itself and the, the just this fervor of attempting to throw more cash, cash tax dollars here, of course, that, like that is inflate like that. You were going to get an inflated revenue number when you do that.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And we want to work out. We want, we want it to be cheaper for everyone and people are hurt, hurting. And so if you just pull these away overnight, then people could be affected by it. And what I've been telling people, I mean, the speaker got a letter from 13 Republicans saying we want some version of this to continue. We've worked on some version of it to continue by lowering premiums for everyone, not just the ACA tax credits. And here's the issue. I got asked this yesterday after I talked to the military families. I said, do you think we should negotiate? I said, we can't negotiate with the government closed. I said, we need to fix the big problem with health insurance. There is a big problem with the cost of health insurance, health care in the country, but we're not going to fix it by Friday. By Friday, they're going to miss another paycheck. This tomorrow, actually 31st, they're going to miss a paycheck. They're going to have to go get their prescriptions off. You just go through the whole list of everything that's going to happen. Just make it on the next payday. So I don't know if they're wanting to hold the government shut down till we get health insurance figured out. If they do that, it's going to be shut down for a lot for quite a while. But I can tell you they have a willing partner on our side of the aisle to have it. It can't be you just prices keep going up and you subsidize it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you can't do that.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

You can't do that. And then it'll go up again. We tried that with college tuition, didn't we? Right. Speaking of Northwestern, they have very expensive college about this. And, and so all you're doing is chasing a higher number.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And what we want to do is bring the number down for everybody.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It turns out when you know the backstop is the American taxpayer. Things don't suddenly get cheaper, prices go up.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

There's another issue that you're working on I've heard about, which is near and dear to our hearts here at the ruthless program.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like basically there's three things that, that keep us motivated.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's politics, which we've talked about. It's sports and then it's gambling.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. You're hitting two of these from what I hear in this new letter that you're sending to Charlie Baker, the president of the ncaa. In the backdrop of all of this, of course, is this recent scandal that came out of the NBA, you know, with former players involved in this, you know, poker scheme apparently involved the mafia and also maybe some betting about games or prop bets and things like that. And the NCAA was, is, is considering, I guess letting NCAA athletes bet in.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

These acts and that, that. So you're right. And so you have just what broke with the NBA last year? You had Ohtani's last year, the year before Ohtani's interpreter, betting on games. Wild story, just a wild story there. And so we, the integrity of the game is in question. And, and my understanding with the NBA, a lot of these gambling houses are the people that apps, I guess is what flagged it because they saw, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

Actually a pretty good example of like a well regulated marketplace actually finds this stuff.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And so my understanding is the NBA has went, found it. They weren't sure they had enough evidence. The apps came and said, hey, this is going on. And so now it's in the FBI, I guess has figured it out and working on it. So we're going to get a briefing from the NBA and make sure that we understand what's going with that. And then in the midst of this, the ncaa, I guess still trying to look for relevance, has said that their ATH student athletes can gamble on professional sports. The timing of that, the timing terrible. And the question is, should they. So we're going to, we want the NCAA to come in and who made the decision? How did you make the decision? How are you going to control it? I mean these young people play with each other. So you're a junior one year and your friend from Alabama goes to, goes to the pros next year and you're texting back. They text each other back and forth.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe pull a hamstring in the second quarter.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Yeah. You don't know that. Hopefully they wouldn't do that, but it certainly sets that situation up. And now we just started with These young athletes getting paid a lot of some of them, significant amount of money. We just need to. We want to really delve into athletic. I'm a Reds fan. I grew up, you know, Kentucky. One time, Leader McConnell was talking to a bunch of baseball owners and they talked about sports game. It's just when the Supreme Court made the decision and he got up and he was. So I was there. He's talking to all the owners. It's like Jerry Reinsdorf, Bob Castellini from the Reds. I mean, it wasn't the general managers, it was, you know, House Einbrenner. It was those guys. So he's talking to him and he said that we're going to have to deal with sports gambling, but it can't just be professional sports gaming. It's got to be include college, because that's my constituency. But what he said was, he goes, we have to look at all of it. Because the closest thing he says, now, if people don't know geography, Cincinnati borders Kentucky. I mean, the river is Kentucky. So it's. If you can hit a home run out of the stadium, it lands in Kentucky. It's the river. So he goes, so Leader McConnell says, We don't have professional sports in Kentucky. What he said was, this is a couple of years ago, Reds were not playoff team. Then he goes, the closest thing we have to a professional team is the Cincinnati Reds.

[Josh Holmes]

Closest thing.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And Bobcast, come on, give me a break. Because everybody took it the way we took it. But the leader didn't take it that he knew what he was trying to say. But it was. Closest thing we have to a professional team is a Cincinnati race.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, I'm glad you. I'm glad you're talking about this and thinking about it. I know there's also, you know, the whole Nil thing and everything else that you guys have been involved in. We watch this stuff really closely. We're huge sports fans. We like to use the apps to the ruthless parlay, for example. They're very, very important on all of our NFL teams. Yeah, exactly.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Who's your NFL team?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Vikings and Colts. Smug is a Broncos guy and Smash Ashbrook is the Cincinnati Bengals guy. So, you know, been a rough year. It's. Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

We also have the Titans. I'm gonna. I'm Southern Kentucky, so we're an hour from Nashville. So we're.

[Josh Holmes]

You got a Titan? Yeah, yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

We're struggling.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, Mike, Colts crushed you last week.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Absolutely. Everybody has. I wouldn't walk away and go, wow, we beat the Titans.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, we've also beat everyone else.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, here we go. That's not. Let's just turn.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

If they put a bad product on the field, it's like they're not even saw a lot of three and outs, which is frustrating. But then they're going to build a $2 billion stadium right now. So hopefully Nashville is a great city, though.

[Michael Duncan]

It is.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I'm an hour from Nashville. I'm in Kentucky, but an hour from now, Nashville is kind of our city that we go to if we're going to go down. Well, I don't go downtown Nashville anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

About 40 years too old for that.

[Josh Holmes]

But you never know.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But when I fly home on a Friday afternoon from D.C. it's full of people going to Nashville East, a fun time. It's amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

But the point I was getting to is I do think this question that you're raising with the NCAA is a good one. And I think there's a reason why there aren't player prop bets on college players because of the obvious problems that you have there. The thing, and I know this isn't your jurisdiction, but the thing that I would urge as you talk to colleagues that are looking at this particular problem is the illegal gaming markets, the bovadas, the international stuff.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That do offer. I mean, you can, you can get a player prop bet on a high school game.

[Michael Duncan]

Really? I didn't even know that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, it's like really insidious stuff.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

And because this is all sort of new, we have not gotten to a point where they're enforcing that kind of thing. And I think what it does is actually reduce the perception of sports. The integrity of sports.

[Michael Duncan]

Gaming.

[Josh Holmes]

The integrity of gaming. Because I, I think they kind of got it right in terms of how the leagues are dealing with this with their partners.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

But anytime you see somebody doing, you know, an illegal gaming app on player prop bets, this is where the problem is. Right. Next thing you know, you got the Gambinos involved. And, and, and it's, it's, it's that. That I think Congress really needs to look.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

When I did the. I started on the Reds and went off on Leader McConnell. So I got off the thing. But I remember Pete Rose, the only bet on his team to win.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

I mean, that only means he's going to play.

[Josh Holmes]

This is a Cincinnati.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

He's only got. That was my argument I used to make. And God rest his soul.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like Ashbrook's here and.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But if you bet on your team to win, aren't you going to try harder. I mean, have you play harder. But. But I learned from people who gamble on. Is that what he didn't bet on, what he didn't bet on?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

So if he's betting $10,000 on this game, but nothing on the next game.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

He knows there's a pitch or not pitching. Well, as a player got a sore foot. You know, that's what you don't know. And. And so I agree that you. So you can't have athletes, particularly people that communicate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

As they do. Even though, you know, a college player is not on a pro team, but if his best friends on the pro team.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. You never know.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Listen to him betting. Then you're going, well, maybe we should bet.

[Josh Holmes]

If there's one guy that I trust to look into, it is you, because you're a sports fan. You. Tons of integrity. And you actually try to find the facts, but not just get your name next to the league letters in the newspaper.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Which we want to do a briefing with staff with the NBA and see what they did and what they knew and. Yeah. And then see where that goes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's great. Before we leave.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Oh, yeah. You want to see all. We got moonlight barbecue from Owensboro, which you've. I'm sure you've.

[Josh Holmes]

Of course. Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Ski from Green County. Ball of ski. Get a Sloburger. We couldn't transfer slo burgers up here.

[Josh Holmes]

This is like for those of you who are not Kentuckians. There's something about this particular brand of soda. It's Ski. And then there's one out East. Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Late over in. And then you got. So I'm a kind of fundamentalist Christian. So I don't drink my bourbon. I eat it. So we have. We have Pappy Van Winkle bourbon balls instead of a ball of bourbon. Bourbon candy. So you can eat it because it cooks out.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But we'll do the drinking.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

But let me let you know for bourbon balls, actually don't cook them. So I learned that before I learned that. Yeah. You gotta be learned that one the hard way. Yeah. I didn't need to. Well, the sugar got me before the bourbon. And then we have our energy commerce cups for you. So. Yeah. So we got a great barbecue tradition. No ones bros, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

Wonderful barbecue restaurant. This one is actually from the Moonlight. And then we got. Oh, we have mint juleps. Oh, nice bourbon balls. Ah, this is. You'll enjoy them with your shot of bourbon.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you're a gentle bourbon. Thank you for. Thank you for all this. And and, you know, keep up the good work. I hope everything's opened up and you can guide.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

We do, too. Because, I mean, what the President's doing. We're in a colossal battle of China on AI. We have to generate the energy. We have to win this battle. And whoever controls AI is like the dollar. I'll just leave you with one. It's like the dollar being the world currency. It's like, who does AI?

[Michael Duncan]

Who controls the future?

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And I remember talking to Elon right before he was no longer coming to D.C. as much, and he said. I said, this is kind of like losing the Soviet. I mean, the Russian Europe to the Soviet Union or Western Europe. And he says, well, I look at it, it's like we're. We're in Rome and the barbarians are at the gate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And Caesar hollers to his military, I need my army. And they go, we'll be there in three to five years. We've got to go get some permits. That's what we have to fight. And it is that serious. And it's something that I'm dedicated to doing, and my team is like wonderful committee members.

[Josh Holmes]

You do.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

And we have some people across the aisle we think we can work with, and we'll make that happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, fantastic. If you're looking for somebody who's actually getting things done and focused on the right things, Chairman Guthrie's your man. Thanks so much for joining us.

[Guest or Interviewee (e.g., Congressman Brett Guthrie or other political figures)]

What a pleasure. Yeah, thank you.

[John Ashbrook]

Fellas. What a great interview. And I mean, the guests and the quality of the guests just continue to roll right here on the Ruthless Variety Program.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, look, not everybody knows who Brett Guthrie is probably that you're listening to this, but it's one of the people who actually make policy. There are an awful lot of people in Congress, Republican and Democrat, where it's like, hey, look at me. Tick tock video. Or I'm, like, trying to sell a book. Or like, here's me saying something controversial on prime time or, like, radio. This guy actually puts in the work, and he spends an awful lot of time trying to get it right. So I respect that. His staff does, too. I mean, they really. They really dig in, which is why we wanted to ask him about this stuff. We saw a letter that went out to the NBA, letter that went out to the ncaa. And he was pretty candid, I thought. I mean, he was like, look, I just want to hear. I want to hear how they're justifying the decisions that were made, which I think is imminently fair. We obviously have our opinions on that as expressed in the interview. But look, he's just a good dude and I'm very glad that he came in here. Our endeavor here on Ruthless is to not just get you the most entertainment value, but a little bit of information that you can't get anywhere else. I think we did that here today. So remember our question of the day. Now that Democrats can't answer any questions from journalists, what is a question that's simple enough for a Democrat to actually answer? You're going to have some good ideas on that when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless variety program. We read every single one of them. Get back to you the very next episode, which in this case is on Tuesday. And we look forward to joining you then. Your reminder, you got to go to zbiotics.com ruthless and get 15% off of your checkout when you use the code Ruthless. With that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Chairman Guthrie. And thank you, dear listener. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Tuesday. Stay Ruthless.