Jail Time? Democrat Scandals Explode + How to Stop the VA Gerrymander

Summary

Ruthless Podcast – Episode Summary
April 16, 2026
Episode: Jail Time? Democrat Scandals Explode + How to Stop the VA Gerrymander
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Guest: Rep. Ben Klein

---

Episode Overview

In this lively installment of the Ruthless Podcast, the crew tears into the explosive series of Democratic scandals rocking Capitol Hill—including the allegations against Eric Swalwell and Ruben Gallego, and a barely-covered ethics case involving Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. They also break down the Democratic machine’s media protection racket and explore what happens when the party turns on its own. The second half features a deep-dive, with Rep. Ben Klein, into Virginia's high-stakes, controversial gerrymandering effort and its broader implications for political representation across the US. The show closes with the signature “King of the Hill” media hack showdown, a look at Biden gaffes, and a humorous sidebar about Polish boar-chasing robots.

---

Key Topics & Timestamps

1. Democrat Scandals: The Pelosi Protection Racket

[03:30 – 10:30]

• The hosts take aim at the Democratic response to sexual misconduct and corruption allegations, comparing media coverage with historical Republican scandals.
• Focus on Eric Swalwell as an example of how prominent Democrats have evaded scrutiny thanks to party leadership and friendly press.
• Satirical comparison to the “Mark Foley” scandal and how Republican leadership handled their own scandals much more swiftly.

“Swalwell and the likes...lived in this fantasy land where you can get away with absolutely anything because they lived in a Pelosi protection racket” – Josh Holmes [07:35]

[10:35 – 16:40]

• Discussion shifts to Ruben Gallego, his ties with Swalwell, and recent press questions exposing inconsistencies in Gallego’s knowledge of his friend’s behavior.
• Audio clips of uncomfortable press exchanges with Gallego are reviewed, as hosts analyze his nervous responses.
• The crew skewers media double standards and Democratic excuses.

“If you’re a Republican that poses any threat whatsoever to liberalism...you better have a bleached asshole before you run for political office. If you're a Democrat, you can get away with murder right up until the point that you become some kind of a threat to the Democratic establishment.” – Holmes [20:49]

[24:22 – 28:46]

• Introduction of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s ethics scandal—allegations of laundering disaster relief money into her campaign, met with near-total media silence.
• Hosts draw lines between use of power, party protection, and media complicity.

“She’s wearing a ring purchased with stolen funds in the congressional portrait. Wow. I mean, it's so brazen. It's unbelievable.” – Holmes [27:38]

2. Media Double Standards & The “Shut It Down” Doctrine

[29:45 – 32:14]

• Explosive observation: Democrats and their press allies only turn on party members when they threaten party control. Otherwise, even the most serious misconduct is ignored or rationalized.
• Analysis of media coverage differences: GOP figures are exiled for much less, while Democrat scandals are buried.
• Hosts posit two Dem strategies: actively shut down scandal stories, or pollute the conversation by “kick all the bums out” narratives, which ultimately protect incumbents.

3. The Virginia Gerrymander: Ben Klein Interview

[33:44 – 59:00]

• Rep. Klein outlines the “most outrageous gerrymander ever,” a Virginia redistricting effort to give Democrats a 10:1 congressional advantage in a purple state.
  • Explains how district lines would splice rural zones to dilute rural voices and pack districts in favor of Democrats.
  • Klein connects local redistricting to a national strategy: suppressing conservative representation via technical manipulation.
• Discussion of Virginia’s “spam-burglar” (Gov. Spanberger) and condescending Democratic ad blitz.
• Klein and hosts exchange anecdotes about grassroots outrage and local opposition.

“Anytime you have to resort to naming an animal to represent a drawn congressional district, that's where the term gerrymander came from.” – Ben Klein [38:57]

• Hosts express concern that establishment Republicans seem outmaneuvered by Democratic strategy and call for renewed grassroots engagement, citing the “don’t Fairfax me” barn sign as a symbol of rural frustration.
• Klein on Spanberger: “She seems to have taken that skill set and started to lie for herself.” [46:54]
• Takeaway: Virginia’s case is a warning for the national conservative movement—shifts in rules enable long-term, systemic advantages.

4. Biden’s Public Struggles & Scandal Parallels

[59:34 – 66:46]

• Crew reviews Biden’s latest public gaffes, recalling awkward interactions and mental decline (“his brain is applesauce at this point” – B [61:37]).
• Draws parallels: Dem leadership only addresses Biden’s incapacity and other scandals when their power is threatened (“Swalwell and Biden both only became a problem when Democrats thought they’d lose an election” – F [66:07]).

5. Hard Left Influence: Hasan Piker Segment

[67:54 – 73:03]

• Hasan Piker, described as “the thought leader” of today’s left, is played advocating that the fall of the USSR was a catastrophe.
• Hosts lampoon the left’s embrace of socialist and anti-American rhetoric, raise alarms about the mainstreaming of these views (Yale speech, Dem candidates’ podcasts).

“He is that. That is what he just said, was that one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century was the fall of communist Russia.” – Holmes [69:09]

6. Signature Segments: King of the Hill & Variety

King of the Hill Media Hack Showdown
[74:08 – 85:51]

• Max Boot vs. George Conway in a “media hack-off,” with each side presented as the epitome of post-conservative flip-flopping.
• Memorable Conway quote: “I want to get in and get out after a couple terms. One, to get rid of the moth...and the next term to help with the legal reconstruction.” [79:04]
• Holmes (with Max Boot) wins after fierce deliberation and mock court drama.

Comic Relief: Polish Boar-Chasing Robot
[86:30 – 89:49]

• The hosts review a viral video of a Polish “humanoid robot” chasing wild boars, riffing on Europe’s quirky solutions and escalating to a gonzo riff about arming robots with AR-15s.

---

Notable Quotes

• “This guy [Swalwell] was the tip of the spear...unbelievable. Women too, by the way.” – C [08:39]
• “It’s like, if you're in a building and, like, there's a bomb that's planned, you're like, well, I'm not in the bomb reporting line of work!” – B [06:53]
• “You can get away with murder right up until the point you become some kind of a threat to the Democratic establishment.” – Holmes [20:49]
• “She’s wearing a ring purchased with stolen funds in the congressional portrait.” – Holmes [27:38]
• “Anytime you have to resort to naming an animal to represent a drawn congressional district, that's where the term gerrymander came from.” – Klein [38:57]
• “Swalwell and Biden both only became a problem when Democrats thought they’d lose an election.” – F [66:07]
• “He is that...That is what he just said was that one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century was the fall of communist Russia.” – Holmes (on Hasan Piker) [69:09]

---

Key Takeaways

• Democratic Scandals Suppressed: Democratic misdeeds—from sexual misconduct to financial crimes—are largely shielded from scrutiny by friendly media and party leadership until their political cost outweighs the protection racket.
• GOP Double Standard: The hosts argue that, unlike Democrats, Republicans are swiftly punished and driven out by both media and their own party for similar or even lesser infractions.
• Virginia’s Gerrymander Is a Warning: The Democratic bid to gerrymander Virginia to a 10:1 advantage is presented as a case study in systemic manipulation that threatens republican representation nationwide.
• Media Narratives as Political Tools: Both press silence and deliberate “scandal pollution” serve establishment interests, insulating those in power at the expense of accountability.
• The Left’s Intellectual Drift: The rise of far-left voices like Hasan Piker is used to underscore a perceived departure from American values within the Democratic Party.
• Comic Relief & Pop-Culture Anchors: The crew’s irreverent tone, through mock “court” segments and the robotic boar-chase video, sustains the show’s signature blend of political frustration and humor.

---

Important Timestamps/Segments

• [03:30] – Introduction to Swalwell and Pelosi’s “protection”
• [10:35] – Gallego’s press scrum, denials, & video
• [24:22] – Cherfilus-McCormick scandal breakdown
• [33:44] – Ben Klein interview begins (Virginia gerrymander)
• [46:54] – Discussion on Spanberger’s record
• [59:34] – Biden gaffes and “only a problem when…”
• [67:54] – Hasan Piker and the left’s new “thought leadership”
• [74:08] – King of the Hill (Boot vs. Conway)
• [86:30] – Polish boar-chasing robot video

---

Closing Thoughts

This episode encapsulates Ruthless at its sharpest: acerbic, irreverent, and scathing in critique—not just of Democratic misbehavior, but also of enabling institutions and the culture of unaccountability. The Virginia redistricting fight stands as a metaphor for the stakes of party gamesmanship, and the show reminds its audience to stay vigilant, engaged, and, above all, “ruthless.”

Transcript

[A]

Dude, there's a story in the Gallego office about a woman who was felt threatened. She went to the chief of staff to talk about how she felt threatened by the congressman and that she was fired.

[B]

How can you tell someone lying like, you don't have to be James Bond to be like, oh, I know the I've got the train to tell. He's looking to the top left or whatever. This guy's sweating bullets. You know, his eyes are darting. The guy is nervous.

[A]

This is the very first time he was pressed by reporters on an uncomfortable topic because he's a Democrat. That is true. Never had to deal with this before.

[C]

She first won her election to Congress in 2021 and is accused of stealing more than $5 million in disaster relief funds that were improperly paid to her family's health care company.

[A]

Washington Politicians are always getting in your wallet. Now they're messing with your credit card. Your credit card and the security it offers are under attack. The Durbin Marshall credit card bill would change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. That means higher risk of fraud, greater chance of stolen personal data and the loss of rewards programs just so corporate megastores can pocket billions of dollars in higher profits. Tell Congress to guard your card. Visit guardyourcard.com to take action and learn more.

[D]

In America, parents call the shots for their families, not bureaucrats. But the so called App Store Accountability act puts your child at risk. This bill requires app stores to collect children's sensitive personal data while taking away power from parents over how their child's data is handled by tech companies. Parents should get to decide if their child's age is shared with apps, not politicians. Parents should attest to their kids ages, not turn over birth certificates to tech companies. Congress should don't put kids at greater risk online and box parents out of making decisions for their families. Tell your lawmaker to put parents first. There are better ways to keep kids safe. NetChoice is dedicated to making the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise. Learn [e-mail] keepappstores safe.

[E]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[B]

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

[A]

Time for our main event.

[C]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the ruthless variety program, a full cast and crew. Welcome back Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial. As always, fellas, it's nice to have you all here.

[B]

Good, good to have the whole crew. This is going to be a good one. And the content's amazing for all of us.

[F]

It's just not the same unless it's all of us.

[A]

I know this is true.

[F]

It's like the band is missing the baseline or something.

[C]

You know, somebody always knows when to get into the ball busting if the others generally agree because it's just sort of an obligation at that point. So I feel like we're back in action. There's plenty to talk about. Democrats, kind of tough week. Start with Swalwell stuff, which you know immediately I find completely hilarious in that they, you know, this guy is basically not just self appointed, appointed by Democratic leadership to be the tip of the spear, basically the spokesperson on behalf of House Democrats to attack a Trump administration for eight long years. Longer than that really. I mean Russia gate goes back to that impeachment hearings. I mean he's been everywhere all the time, which is how he sort of.

[B]

It's funny how like you never heard any of this stuff back when he's east.

[C]

Well, to them, yeah. Oh, completely. But, but I think now you, you self situate it and you see reporters doing their job at some level under the dome and asking some of these people what it is that they think about this whole situation and they're like, who? What are you talking about? Yeah. Oh, you know, I think he had an office maybe on the second floor.

[F]

Nice guy, kept to himself.

[B]

Yeah, yeah,

[A]

totally.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's like he's a serial killer that lives down the street. They pretend like they have absolutely no idea what this guy was up. Nonsense. Yep, Absolute nonsense. We know. I mean, look, Johnny and I worked in Senate Republican leadership at a particularly difficult time to do so. And perhaps we were overindexed on being sensitive to this kind of thing because it came on the wave of an 06 election in which House leadership just dramatically fucked things up by not keeping an eye on things like Mark Foley, who was a congressman from Florida who ultimately was like molesting pages. I mean, just the worst stuff that you could think of. And that whole cycle was indicative of that in larger ill intent by a conference that was not representing their constituents very well. So when we came in, we had to keep an eye on that thing. And if there was ever like two or more people that Mentioned something. You got to the bottom of it pretty quick. And the first year we there was Larry Craig.

[F]

Yeah. Wide stance.

[C]

Yeah. So, like. Yeah. Oh, do you remember that?

[F]

I remember. Wide stance.

[C]

Hey, Matt, I'm a wide guy. This is the cat that was in a Minneapolis airport who was, like, trying to solicit gay sex under this doll by, like, widening out his stance and tapping the ground. I mean, not good, but anyway, we were pretty sensitive to that as a result of all of it. But, you know, based on your perch, how aware or unaware that you are of allegations regarding your membership, particularly membership that you have appointed to be spokespeople for the entire conference because you know that anything that can go wrong with that person washes up on your shore immediately. Well, what we've come to find out From California operatives, California media people, D.C. media people, Hill Media people, they. They knew, some people, hilariously, were like, yeah, it's not my beat. I knew it all, but I didn't, you know, it's not my beat. I cover, you know, whatever the fuck.

[B]

Like, it was molesting women. That was one of the wildest takes. Is that one reporter on X being like, oh, you know, I knew all about this, but here's the thing. It's like, I was not assigned to Capitol Hill. Sexual harassment. It's like if you're in a building and, like, there's a bomb that's planned, you're like, well, I'm not. I'm not in the bomb reporting line of work. Like, it's an insane take. But the thing is that, like, the

[C]

Slack Channel with the counterterrorism people and see what they can say. It's.

[B]

It's unbelievable because, like, you have to worry about living in glass houses if you're a Republican because you don't have that layer of protection that Democrats do from the media.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So they, you know, it's.

[C]

Well, it doesn't even matter. Even if allegations are false, if you're a Republican, you're gonna get the allegation no matter what. Swalwell and the likes and now we're seeing playing out over Capitol Hill. And we're gonna give you some great clips about all of this. Lived in this fantasy land where you can get away with absolutely anything because they lived in a Pelosi protection racket where Democrats knew that as long as they never corroborated anything in the media, it would never come to light how many victims, by the way, of Swalwell, alleged victims. It's like every time would have been

[B]

saved Every time you look at your phone there's another notification of like another woman has come forward. This woman like filed a report with the sheriff like 10 years ago. Like this is not only that. Reporters and Democrats knew this guy was like so out of control. There's like a paper trail now of what all he was up to. But because yeah, he's useful to the Democrats. He's got that Pelosi protection.

[C]

Yeah, that's it. It's truly. But they care so deeply about women. Oh yeah, they care so deep.

[B]

I mean they're fighting the war on women.

[C]

This guy was tip, tip of the spear. Unbelievable. Women too, by the way.

[A]

It's.

[B]

I think that's always a sign.

[F]

It's a tell.

[B]

Like, you know, it's like nature's predators use camouflage. Like it's the same. Like you find the male feminist out there who's like, yes, I stand with all women.

[C]

I believe in all women grabbing asses.

[B]

Check this guy's hard drive.

[F]

Yeah. Like every guy who showed up to the Women's march, they should be on a list.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Everybody knows, right? Everybody is sort of like, keep an eye on that guy. Well, I mean, look, that's Democratic politics. But we made a passing reference on Tuesday's episode to his best friend, self proclaimed best friend, and the man who chaired his presidential campaign. Unbelievably enough, this guy ran for president. None of it came out, by the way. Democratic primary didn't pose a threat. Never came out. Gallegos. Senator Gallegos from Arizona. Now this cat is quite literally his best friend. Somebody he's travels with who's a family friend. They were exceedingly close when they were both members of the House of Representatives. And the press, to our great surprise and enjoyment, decided to do their job. When they all came back into town and started asking him some pretty significant questions on Tuesday, we suggested maybe a good place to start was whether or not he was in the video. He denied that he was in the video, but then he was asked some follow up questions about what he knew. I mean, this is a guy that he has said he spent more time around than anybody else. And I'd like to think if one of you guys were raping people, I would have a pretty good idea and I would be pretty concerned about it. You know what I mean? Like you just, you just know people, you spend a lot of time around what they're capable of or not. Either that or you're the worst judge of character in the world and you probably shouldn't be in The United States Senate. Fair assessment.

[F]

Fair.

[C]

Fair assessment. Anyway, so this cat gets called out for some inconsistency in the story that he's got about representing when he knew or how he knew that ultimately Swalwell was in fact capable of this and allegations existed. Clip one. What were the.

[G]

It was. It was flirty. That was flirty.

[C]

And that was when.

[G]

About what year? I mean, that was.

[A]

We've.

[G]

We've heard that. We've heard that throughout the beginning. You said when you first heard these rumors a few weeks ago, that's when you call them. Then you said you've heard these rumor for years. So which one is it, Senator? So I heard rumors of him being flirty. And that wasn't an issue enough for you to not trust him to watch your kids or be close with him? Because, you know, you hear this, and then when you're close to somebody and you, you know, you know, his wife, you see this, you see that relationship, you know that, like, it maybe just isn't true. I asked him about it a few weeks ago when it, when it started coming up online.

[C]

Yes.

[G]

If you're running his campaign, sir, dude,

[C]

why would you ask him if you're running his campaign? So the flirty. First of all, what dude says that about another dude?

[A]

Right?

[C]

Flirty.

[A]

None. And, and also, I mean, if you're watching this on video and you see what Ruben Gallego's face looks like, you see him reacting to these questions, and it appears to you he's nervous.

[B]

Dude, it looks like you're classic. Like, how can you tell someone's fucking lying? Like, you don't have to be James Bond to be like, oh, I know the. I've got the train to tell. He's looking to the top left or whatever. This guy's sweating bullets, wondering if someone's gonna ask him a question about his shit. You know, his eyes are darting. The guy is nervous. Why is he doing this in the first place?

[A]

And he's a politician. The other thing I noticed, he's a politician at least 10 years into his career in national politics. He was a congressman before he was a senator. This is the very first time he was pressed by reporters on an uncomfortable topic because he's a Democrat. It is true, he never had to deal with this before.

[F]

A Democrat so rarely faces this sort inquiry that Gallego looks like a kid in the principal's office.

[H]

Yeah.

[C]

He's like, oh, my gosh, how do I handle this sort of thing?

[A]

No clue.

[C]

Which he has. Look, this guy's got his own set of issues. I mean, it's not great. But he's never had to answer for anything, despite the fact that he himself has inherited the role that Swalwell once had as being the tip of the spear of the argument against the Trump administration. Recall this is the guy who had the microphone and all the TV time in the first government shutdown last fall. Then he showed up in the DHS thing with the ICE stuff and everything else. He again is the spokesperson who would say the most incendiary possible thing that you could say about an administration. Now he just so happens to be the guy who held that role previously, his best friend, who now is under allegations of all kinds of different sexual assaults and claiming he knew nothing. Absolutely not. That seems like there's some similarities there. But he was asked very specifically about the question that we raised on Tuesday. Is that you in this mysterious video? We've got a little clip of the video on the side, just to refresh your memory.

[H]

Was that you sitting next to him?

[G]

This is an example of the lies. No, I was not sitting next to him. I was not in the room. I was nowhere. I don't even know where it happened. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Chris Lacyda and a bunch of other right wing political operatives are pushing this narrative that somehow was in that room with Eric Swallow and that is an absolute lie.

[B]

Congressman, you have also like huge shout out La Civita. Like you hear something like that, you know you're doing a good job. If you're now the boogeyman, yeah, you're the guy. Like, this has to be La Civita doing this shit.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Our man Chris, shout outs from United States senators for being, you know, opposition researchers. But I mean, look, the question was worthy of being asked and he has now denied that on the record. And it is what it is. But his friendship is not something that you can ultimately draw a question with. I mean, he is self admitted, his best friend. Self admitted, his best friend. And he, like Nancy Pelosi are showing up this week pretending like never knew. I don't know this guy at all. Yeah, I don't know.

[A]

Never met him. Eric who?

[C]

I don't know. So here. Clip three One more. Gallego.

[G]

How did you not know about the allegations though?

[C]

Considering you chaired his presidential campaign, wouldn't

[G]

some of this have come up? Some of those allegations predated when he ran for office. Again, this man led a double life. He lied to us, he lied to his family, lied to his constituents. Some most powerful people in this Country. You know, even before he ran, he was trusted with some. Some, you know, positions that normally we would never think someone like this could do if they're leading that double life. And again, I was manipulated. I was lied to, and everyone else was, too.

[C]

Is that a defense?

[B]

No. And here's. And here's especially why it is not. Is because for years and years and years, Republicans have been hammering Swalwell because he's compromised with the fang Fang thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And Democrats were like, this man's not compromised. He's an upstanding member of Congress standing up to President Trump. That's why you're all mad at him.

[C]

And there was a big fight about whether or not somebody who had an alleged inappropriate relationship with a Chinese spy should sit on the Intelligence Committee. Democrats were outraged by the mere suspicion that this could be a problem. Of course, a man, the integrity of Swalwell, who should be on the. This is a partisan witch hunt of which guys like Ruben Gallego led the fight to try to insist that this man, they should have the nation secrets,

[B]

Democrats writ large, compromise the security of this country because of partisanship, trying to shield us from being like, Eric Swalwell's a family man. How dare you say that he could be led astray by some flooz. That was his thing. That's like the defining characteristic of Eric Swalwell that we now know.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

And Democrats for years lied to America and were willing to compromise security of this country.

[A]

Now I just have to say, okay, it is very gratifying to see Ruben Gallego, in particular, on the defense on this subject from the mainstream press corps. And I will tell you why. Because if you think back 10, not quite 10 years ago, okay, 2017, leading into 2018, there was a Senate race in the state of Arizona, and Kirsten Sinema was the candidate that most establishment Democrats agreed should be their candidate. I remember talking to a bunch of reporters at the time because I had heard rumors that Ruben Gallego, who was a House member from a part of the state that carried a significant number of Dem primary votes. I'd heard he was interested in that Senate primary. And so I would call around. I've heard Gallego's gonna run. I've heard Gallego's gonna run. And the response I got almost uniformly was that, you know, he's got issues on the home front, his wife is a mayor of Phoenix, and I just don't know. You know, there's an issue with women and everything. And so it might not be the right time for him. To challenge Cinema in a primary.

[C]

So this is what Democrats were saying to reporters about why he would not get into the race.

[A]

Yeah, because journalists in, in D.C. don't know that stuff. But they're hearing it from Dem press secretaries saying that, oh, no, no, Cinema is our candidate and Gallego can't do it because he's got these problems on the home front. This is 2017, 2018, when Gallego came from a part of the state where arguably he might have been able to beat Cinema in a down primary. At that, at that point, he was sort of a darling of the hard left. You know, the Bernie people loved him, but they saw cinema as a chance to. To clean up the left and try to get the middle of the road. You know, she. She ultimately won that Arizona senator race. There's a lot of reasons why she won.

[C]

Look, we're doing a lot of inferring here. But what it seems to me is, though, the idea that nobody knew anything about Swalwell also applies here to Ruben Gallego in a lot of different ways. The Democratic establishment, to the extent that they communicated to the press what is actual fact and not just rumor and innuendo and what they were threatening him with if he didn't run, if that was in fact fact, they were saying, this guy cannot ascend to a higher office because we've got the goods on him, essentially. And unless he wants all that to come out, he's going to let Kirsten Sinema be their candidate.

[A]

Exactly. And that is why she was their nominee and he didn't run against her.

[C]

It's an interesting way to end. By the way, they took Kyrsten Sinema.

[H]

They took her out too.

[F]

They're like, well, she took herself out too. If you read those divorce proceedings.

[C]

Do you think if she would have voted to abolish the filibuster, that we would have learned about the North Carolina situation with the ecstasy and the.

[B]

And that's how it works. That's how it works is because, like, unless Gallego gets primaried by some Democrat who's more beneficial to the establishment Democrats, I bet this all disappears. This all disappears. As long as he plays the part, he's good to go. As long as he's not useful. Dude, they dump Swala in a weekend. He was the leading Dem for governor in California and they body bagged him in a weekend.

[F]

It turns out it isn't just Russia. The Democratic Party is a compromise program.

[B]

That's the best thing.

[C]

Yeah, they're running against themselves.

[A]

But here's the difficult position Gallego finds himself in who is in charge in the Democrat Party because Schumer appears to be a little bit weakened.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, he's not the same thing that he once was. And there's a fight for who's the head of the party. Right. Pelosi's on the down.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So who? It's not Hakeem Jeffries. He doesn't have the strength that those. Those people had. So who does Gallego try to earn favor with? I mean, it's a. I think it's

[C]

still all barrio, to be honest with you.

[A]

It could be.

[C]

I mean, or his just larger operation, but it does. I mean, look, I think the point that we're trying to make here, that if we can iron in one thing about all of this, is if you're a Republican that poses any threat whatsoever to liberalism, the expansive Democratic majority, as a Democratic president, you better have a bleached asshole before you run for political office. If you're a Democrat, you can get away with murder right up until the point that you become some kind of a threat to the Democratic establishment. In this case, very clearly, he was becoming a threat in that California gubernatorial race and that he was about to box out several different candidates, spread the vote between four or five different Democrats. Put somebody like Steve Hilton, who's a leading Republican candidate, leading overall candidate, although, you know, we can talk California politics later, but put them in a position where ultimately they could lose their money train.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

The gravy train of California. The honey hole of NGOs, the fraud capital of the world, where every single shitty policy that's foisted upon you anywhere in this country incubates and gets put into action is California. They can't lose that. And he posed a real threat, which is now why you find yourself learning about all of this. Well, we have one more Just Swalwell thing. Let's throw up graphic, too.

[F]

Ah, the camel photo.

[C]

Okay, there he is.

[F]

Shirtless, shirtless.

[C]

Camel photo, I believe. Swalwell, Gallego.

[F]

This was on a junket in Qatar, is that right? I believe.

[A]

2021.

[C]

Yeah. It's an interesting takeaway. Right. These are.

[B]

Guys, Is this the first one or the one he left with the second one?

[C]

I think this is the second one.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

You know, in 2021, I think a lot of our kids were still kept out of school, and we were told we had to wear a mask or get arrested. I don't see any of them wearing it. A mask?

[C]

No.

[B]

That's the beauty of being a Dem. The rules don't apply.

[C]

They don't apply. You can take your shirt off, they let you do it.

[B]

That's a small.

[C]

But that is not all, folks. And the reason that we wanted to parlay this into a larger discussion is because I think Democrats have had an easy out here. And there's even been some Republicans that have sort of entertained this whole, like, culture of a problem under the dome and whatnot. And to the extent that it. Look, members of Congress are members of Congress, I'm not going to defend them as a group entirely. But the idea that each one of these guys is the pervert, the likes of which Eric Swalwell is, is not true. But two, you don't learn of any of this stuff until they become a problem for the Democratic Party. On the Republican side, the second that Tony Gonzalez has any sort of exposure to his problem with the woman he was having an affair on at tragic ends that met her, you have Republican leadership acting very quickly to say you shouldn't run. Members of the Republican conference saying that you should resign, and ultimately the entire Republican Congress saying, like, get the hell out of here. Democrats don't do that unless it poses a threat to them. And moreover, you don't know who the hell they are until that threat arrives. Have you heard of Sheila Sherfluis McCormick? Have you heard of this lady?

[F]

I just heard her name and I can't even remember it.

[C]

I don't even know how to say her fucking name. Sureflouis. Surefilis.

[A]

Close enough.

[C]

I don't know. Anyway, she is a Democratic lawmaker where a bipartisan panel of House lawmakers voted to kickstart a process that could lead to expulsion of a congressional Democrat accused of laundering millions of disaster relief funds into her campaign account. Now, you actually have to hear this to believe it, because you haven't heard it. It is nowhere in the news. You might ask yourself why. Well, I don't know. They don't want to lose a seat. They don't want to lose it. She's not threatening their rule. She's not threatening their problematic hold on power. So you don't hear about it. House Ethics Investigative Subcommittee approved a motion for summary judgment, effectively finding Sheila Sherfilis McCormick guilty of nearly all alleged violations outlined by the committee earlier this year. The verdict came after a rare public ethics hearing on Thursday, the first since 2010. I think that was Charlie Rangel, by the way. The Last one in 2010. Yeah, I believe a New York Democrat who is just like wildly horrible. That lasted, but he was a fun time for the press, everybody liked him. It's like, oh, he's a fun time.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

Stands up for left handed psycho stuff. It lasted more than six hours, and the parties grilled her council. The eight member committee announced their decision. But more importantly, the sub and substance of it, like this committee is what it is. She first won her election to Congress in 2021 and is accused of stealing more than $5 million in disaster relief funds that were improperly paid to her family's health care company. Among other criminal allegations, she and her siblings allegedly used illicit funds to jumpstart her congressional campaign for personal use, including the purchase of a large diamond ring that McCormick appeared to have worn in her official congressional portrait. Dude.

[F]

So brazen that.

[C]

But this is. So now you understand why we're tying these things together.

[B]

And the thing is, she's like, what

[C]

did I do wrong? Yeah.

[B]

She's like, this is how the party works. I thought she said we steal money. We use like nonprofits and nos, and then we get the money. And they're like, you're supposed to have someone in between you. Like, you dummies find a Somalian.

[F]

It reminds me, no one.

[B]

Did you not find some Somalian running a hospice or a daycare because you need what's called an intermediary.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

She like Google's money laundering. And she's like, I'll give this shit a shot. You know, she thinks she's gonna vertically integrate it, so I'll just do it one stop straight to my own campaign account. You know, it seemed like a great idea at the time. She was like, I'm just an innovator among Democrats.

[A]

We don't need to mess around with all those middlemen.

[B]

Yeah. Why do they get a cut? What? She did pay the cut. That's the damn rules.

[F]

Taking the. The disaster relief money reminded me during the Biden administration, remember Biden raided the kitty and all the disaster relief. So the FEMA money wasn't there when all of those tragic floods were happening in North Carolina because they were using it to house illegal immigrants. But here, this congresswoman just took out the middleman and put it in her pocket.

[C]

She's like, you know what? The hell with the ideology. The ideology is what my bank account looks like and therefore a diamond ring that I will unbelievably wear in my own portrait. She's wearing a ring purchased with stolen funds in the congressional portrait. Wow. I mean, it's just. It's so brazen. It's unbelievable. So she's also in federal court by the way, this isn't just a House of Representatives thing. She's. If convicted in federal court, she faces up to 53 years in prison. So I mean this is like very, very serious shit. The point is this is going on in Democratic pot. We've talked a lot about the NGOs, the filtration of money, the, the political backslapping class and the 501C4s and everything else that filter special projects in. The money comes back in the form of small dollars to Democrats, some of which, you know, I mean, this fucking asshole Swalwell was living in a billionaire's

[F]

house, by the way.

[C]

Right. I mean everything is just as corrupt as it possibly could be. But did you know about it before Monday? Nope.

[B]

Did journos? Yeah, but you know, it wasn't their beat.

[F]

It wasn't their beat.

[C]

No, no. It was more important to cover four women entirely making up allegations about like the biggest boy scout in all of Washington D.C. brett Kavanaugh. Yep. And just surfacing that in broad mainstream media as if it had any like that was to focus on. Meanwhile, the people who are actually doing the alleging against Kavanaugh were literally doing what they were alleging happened with Kavanaugh. I mean this is, it's incredible to me, dude.

[A]

There's a story in the Gallego office about a woman who was felt threatened. She went to the chief of staff to talk about how she felt threatened by the Congressman and then she was fired. This story has just sort of floated around online. So there is not a ton of official confirmation about this, but something to watch in the days ahead.

[B]

Can I say one thing is that I think, and this is me maybe a little bit black pilled on how the press works is I think Democrats are going to put the word out that like, listen, we've secured what we wanted to have happen. Yeah, California Governor Turtle thing. All you journals, shut the fuck up now. You're done here.

[C]

Well, or to the extent that they can't get.

[B]

They don't want contagion because like if, if Gallego gets caught up in this, then who's next? They do not want this to turn into the dem MeToo. If they're like, oh shit, like because, because, because if journals actually cared and we're like, we're going to start chasing down those stories because everyone hears rumors about all these Democrats doing corrupt shit, doing shit with women. If it turns into a thing of like journo starts seeing a benefit to actually reporting on this, that's a problem for the Democrats. So they're gonna be like, shut this shit down. We don't need this. They're like, leave Gallego alone. As long as he toes the line, he's not a thorn in our side.

[C]

You're entirely right. I mean, there's two pathways for it. The first is to just shut it down. The second is what I've seen happen this week, which is to try to pollute the entire environment. And you've seen this even from conservative outlets that have been like, yep, they all need to go kick the bums out. Well, you know who is advantaged most?

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

I kick the bums out. The people doing the corruption.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

Because the incumbent majorities are both Republican. So it kicked the bums out. Everything is broken, Congress sucks type expression by the media and everything else, only advantages. The same people who've kept this shit secret. And that's what I think the larger

[A]

parlay, I think you could be right about.

[C]

And they're trying to say Tony Gonzalez. Yeah, Tony Gonzalez. Except for the fact for the last three months, you have every Republican in the world saying, get the fuck out of here. And by the way, we'll probably lose a seat. We'll probably lose your seat, Tony Gonzalez. And we don't give a shit because we don't think you should be a part of our conference. Meanwhile, on the Democrat side, if they thought like Sheila Sherf, Lewis McCormick, or whatever she's been. We've known that she's been in federal indictment for a long time. Nobody said shit. Nobody said anything. And this guy Swalwell, well, he's flirty. We heard he was flirty.

[B]

Insane.

[C]

What is this? Grinder? Flirty? What are you talking about? Flirty? Who talks like that? No. No dude would ever talk like that.

[B]

Grinder Count. What?

[C]

No, I heard they were. I heard he was super flirty.

[B]

Insane. Take.

[C]

All right, when we come back, we want to get something on your radar that we've talked about a little bit. But it is a imminent issue, one of the most outrageous ever, and that is the gerrymandering attempt in Virginia to make a 6, 5 congressional breakdown, meaning 6 Democrats, 5 Republicans in a very purple state. A 10:1 proposition in that election is next Tuesday. Ben Klein, Congressman from Republic, Virginia, explains it all right after this.

[E]

American energy is growing with a renewed focus on American oil and natural gas. We're rebuilding our industrial strength and driving investment. Energy demand is rising, and the United States has the resources to meet it. Here's the challenge. If we can't build the infrastructure to move that energy, pipelines, transmission, lines and power plants. Amen. Americans won't feel the benefits. And while projects stall, China moves faster. Not because America lacks energy, but because Washington's permitting system is outdated and broken. Energy affordability depends on getting energy where it's needed, when it's needed. Yet critical projects remain stuck for years in delays and endless litigation. We have the energy. We have the workforce. Now it's time to build. Let's secure American energy leadership for generations to come. When America builds, America wins. Pass permitting reform now. Learn more@ permittingreformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[C]

What a welcome to the program. An interesting guy who's in the middle of a big fight. Not only everything going on in Capitol Hill, but Virginia in particular. And you've heard us talk about this before, one of the most outrageous gerrymandering attempts ever, even conceptualized, is happening in Virginia. And the vote's coming up next Tuesday to talk about all that. We want to welcome in Ben Klein. How are you, sir?

[H]

Hey, we're great. We got less than a week to go. And we're optimistic that we are driving turnout and get out the vote operation and election Day, we're going to show up in force to reject this unconstitutional, illegal gerrymandering. It's a scam being put forward by some of the most liberal members of the Virginia General assembly down in Richmond. Our leaders in Richmond are trying to mislead and push through this power grab, and voters are fed up with it, and they're going to say, no.

[C]

I mean, your lips to God's ears. I got to tell you, you're in Congress. So you see some wild stuff, right?

[H]

I served with Matt Gaetz. I served with Eric Swalwell. I heard of some crazy, crazy stuff.

[C]

And like blind partisanship, right? I mean, just adhesion to issue sets and everything else without any intellect, without any logic whatsoever.

[H]

This picture of Maxine Waters here.

[C]

Yeah, listen, he's named, he's got them all murderers Row. This to me, of course, it's not getting any of the attention, any of the attention like Texas or California got, because that's the Republicans bad. And then Democrats respond, respond with integrity in California. But meanwhile, what's happened in Virginia is they've taken a map that was 6, 5, which is very representative of a purple state that is Virginia. One in which our previous governor of Virginia, a Republican, now a Democrat. That would make sense. And they've tried to turn it not into somewhere 7, 8 territory. 10, 1 is what they want to do. And they want to splice it up in the most unbelievable way possible. And that you've got folks in the rural part of Virginia that are going to, if this went through, would have congressmen from Northern Virginia suburbs, essentially all

[H]

the way from Rosslyn, The Potomac, the GW Bridge or the 14th Street Bridge, all the way out to the West Virginia border, the Shenandoah Valley, all the way down to the Richmond suburbs. Like spaghetti strands going out from Northern Virginia. And they'd be Democrat heavy because they go through Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William counties. Those would all be split five ways. So if you're living in those places, you probably don't like it either. And then you get out to our neck of the woods where these representatives running for the seats. Dorothy McAuliffe, who's married to former governor Terry McAuliffe, Dan Helmer, who wrote the gun control legislation that's on the governor's desk, that would take away our Second Amendment rights, which are very important to a lot of my constituents. It's why I'm so involved in those issues on the Judiciary Committee, on a member of the Second Amendment Caucus with Boebert and Massie, and fighting hard for bills like the Hearing Protection act, which would ensure that you're not. Don't have to participate in a federal registry in order to buy a silencer.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, it's wild. You're from Roanoke.

[H]

I'm from Lexington, Rockbridge County. But Roanoke is the biggest city in the district, and we live near there now. But I grew up in the country in Rockbridge county. And the rural values that are important out there are the values that we don't want to go away. I want my daughters. I have twins, teenage daughter. So say a prayer for me. Actually say a prayer for my wife. That's more.

[C]

Well, that guy can identify.

[H]

But no, I want them to be able to grow up in the Shenandoah Valley, raised with the same values, and have those values be the predominant values of the area. It's a community of interest. And in the statute, in Virginia statute, it says you can't split up communities of interest. Shenandoah Valley is one, Roanoke Valley is one. It gets split. South side, Richmond suburbs. I mean, these are all areas that are united now that would be split under these new maps.

[A]

Go ahead. That's the thing that really sticks out to me, is that how in the world could rural people from the middle of Virginia be adequately represented to their government in Washington by an NGO consultant from Northern Virginia? It just can't happen. Not only could you argue they don't even care what rural people in Virginia care about. They would never even pay attention to it. They might not ever go there.

[H]

Yeah, right, right. And as I said, I didn't think that Dan Helmer could find the Shenandoah Valley on a map, but yet he's going to be campaigning and asking for the votes of.

[C]

We'll be sending some mailers. It's not like he bothered to go down.

[H]

He'll perish. Shoot in. But we're optimistic that these crazy districts, one of them we call the Lobster, another we call the salamander, but they're spaghetti strands, all of them. And the joke is, anytime you have to resort to naming an animal to represent a drawn congressional district, that's where the term gerrymander came from. And it was Eldridge Jerry in Massachusetts had a district that looked like a salamander, so they called it a gerrymander, and that was the first example of that. But we're optimistic we're going to be able to stop the governor in her tracks. They pulled her ad from even running because she's so unpopular now.

[C]

It turns out that things slid south.

[H]

They slid south for her. And that's what happens when you play bait and switch with the voters. Glenn Youngkin, who did a great job and was a very consistent conservative governor, called her governor bait and switch when he was out in the Harrisonburg last week. And we, we call her, you know, I, I call her a scam burger, but when you, when you call her Spam burglar, it. It evokes purple dinosaur pictures and people get confused.

[C]

Well, in burglar, you can't be prosecuted.

[H]

In Fairfax county, they won't, they won't pursue it anyway. Depends on which side of the aisle you're on.

[C]

One of the things we've been talking about, because we live in Northern Virginia, that has been so omnipresent in our sports world, we're now kind of reduced our live television experiences. Live sports, essentially. And we've talked a lot, Duncan, about just the number of ads as early as they could possibly go, about fairness.

[F]

Yeah, right. I mean, this is Abigail Spanberger, who opposed this when she was running for governor, and now she's in all those ads. And then you got Barack Obama in the ads as well. And then you got a guy from the commission that wants to do the nonpartisan.

[C]

That's my favorite.

[F]

Hilarious. They're leading a lot with that in the closing stretch here.

[H]

You haven't seen Kinzinger's. Adam Kinzinger is their newest.

[C]

Are you serious?

[H]

Who lost his seat because of gerrymandering in Illinois, is now doing an ad saying you have to gerrymander Virginia.

[C]

Man, that money must be good.

[F]

Well, I have to say, I feel like their whole media strategy has backfired because my wife is outraged every time she sees him. And it's because it's so condescending. Yeah, it's like, it's in fairness, Michael, it's, it's. They think you're stupid.

[H]

Bobby Scott was running an ad saying, don't think, just vote yes or something like that.

[F]

Right. But I, I noticed this.

[B]

We.

[F]

So my wife and I took the kids out to Luray to go to the Caverns, like a few weeks ago. We had spring break like that. And. And we spent a few days out there. And what I noticed, and I noticed this. Sometimes in politics when you can tell something really has grassroots support or opposition. In this case, you don't just see some yard signs from an organized campaign. You see people writing on the side of a bar making their own saying vote no and stuff like. So you can tell that, really people out there in the rural area of Virginia are outraged.

[H]

The side of the barn you're thinking of a big sign says, don't Fairfax me.

[F]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, I saw this. I saw this on the way driving

[H]

down next to the Ben Klein sign. You don't really notice the Ben Klein sign right now, but this fall you should. When I'm running for reelection in my current district, which includes that barn, I need my, my sign to be visible.

[C]

Yeah, Ben's having that guy over for dinner.

[F]

Yeah, we could redo that sign.

[A]

So what happens to your district if this spam burger plan goes through?

[H]

Well, they recognize that the votes to elect a conservative are in the valley, and that's what they can reach from Northern Virginia. They can't reach all the way to southwest Virginia, so they reach to mine and they give a fifth to each of five districts. It's about. Yeah, it's split into about five different districts.

[C]

So what you now represent. They are attempting to split into five different districts to minimize a rural vote that they can overcome with Northern Virginia suburban NGO defense contractors, essentially.

[H]

That's right. And all but one of them ends up being more of a toss up. They tried to create a district which combined most of the big universities. They call it University District. It's got the youngest average age of any district in the country. So it connects Virginia Tech with Radford, Roanoke College, Hollins College, I think, not Washington, Lee, but Liberty, you got to make sure.

[C]

Well, you Got to make sure you got some liberal arts in there.

[H]

That's right.

[C]

Like Liberty can be a real toss

[H]

up Liberty and then UVA is the big one. And then they have an arm going over to jmu. So it's jmu, UVA and Tech all in the same district. But we got turning point chapters in all three and they are active, they are on the phones, they are working hard. And I think you're going to be surprised on Tuesday to see the vote totals in those areas are going to skew a little bit better.

[C]

So how much of it? Because listen, anytime you get an election like Virginia had in this last off year, election in 25, which is sort of dispiriting in a lot of different ways. Right. I mean, you get somebody like Abigail Spamberger, we cover almost every show about. She's the model for the new Democratic Party, which is to try to pretend like you're a reasonable human being. And then you become, you get the oath of office and you become Mamdani.

[H]

She made a great pitch to the voters. We didn't. I knew, but the voters didn't know, just that she was lying to their faces.

[C]

Yeah. But it becomes a little bit dispiriting from an electorate standpoint. Like we're out of here. And so the challenge, particularly we're not voting in November. This is April. Get everybody all ginned up. And I'm heartened by what you saw on your trip, but can we win this thing and what message do you think it would send not only Virginia, but the rest of the country if you did?

[H]

Yeah, I think it would speak to the frustration that voters, hardworking men and women across not just the Commonwealth but across the country, are feeling they want and are feeling the benefits of the big beautiful bill and the tax breaks that are as people are doing their taxes right now, but they see in states like ours where their legislature is pushing through gun control and Abigail Spanberger is saying, I'm going to make this, I'm going to lean in on this. I'm going to lean in on tax taxes, not on affordability, but on government authority and make your life harder. And I think if the people speak loudly enough, maybe it'll give them pause. Maybe it'll give pause to those who are advocating for a heavier hand of government across the country. And we're going to keep control of the House in November. Mike Johnson is still going to be the speaker next year, but I think it will give hope to those who are feeling frustrated that Republicans may not be able to Win in certain places. So places like Virginia, we can.

[A]

You mentioned Spamberger's dishonesty, and obviously she has a professional background in that sort of thing. She was.

[H]

It was her tradecraft.

[A]

Well, I mean, in a lot of ways it is. There was a time she was working for the CIA agent years. We'd all like to think that the CIA employees are lying on our behalf.

[H]

She wasn't a short timer.

[F]

Right.

[A]

But she seems to have taken that skill set and started to lie for herself, to help herself instead of helping everybody else. I wonder, I mean, you surely have noticed that change in her career.

[H]

I have noticed it. I worked with her for six years and so I know how liberal she was. I watched her vote with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time or 99% of the time, whatever the ratings are going to tell you. But it was overwhelmingly. And she would. Every once in a while, you know, there'd be a Politico story about how she cursed on a. On a call with the leadership.

[F]

Real independent voice.

[C]

That was all. That's always their thing, by the way. It was like, oh, darn it.

[B]

Right.

[F]

You should see her behind the scenes.

[C]

So passionate.

[F]

She's giving it to him.

[C]

Such a firecracker, standing up for us.

[A]

Yeah.

[H]

That's like her campaign last fall. That's about right. And we see what it got us. Yeah. And really, it is just as much being controlled by the powers in Richmond as it is pushing a more liberal agenda. Yes. She's going along with. I mean, Richmond is a whole nother circus unto itself.

[C]

Oh, yeah, we've noticed.

[H]

And yeah. And so you think D.C. is.

[C]

You should spend a day down there. That looks like absolute mayhem. It is. I have no idea how anybody does that.

[H]

I mean, what's interesting is not only are they pushing the most liberal positions possible. Virginia Military Institute, for example, is a state run military school, very historic in my hometown. And they wanted to dissolve the board and put it under a totally different university halfway across the state, just because they didn't like the way that the last superintendent left. They thought he was run out because he was pushing DEI Woke politics. He was pushing DEI woke politics. And VMI is restoring that tradition of excellence that they have had for hundreds of years. But now Richmond is showing Spanberger and teaching her lessons right now. In fact, there was a tweet today from Louise Lucas, who's the Senate president. Oh, my gosh.

[C]

This lady.

[F]

Infamous.

[H]

She is. And she's tweeting Spanberger today. So it's a little dem On Dem violence going on here. Twitter violence, ex violence, where she says, it looks like your poll numbers have taken a hit. Mine are fine. The only reason that you seem to have gone down in the polls is because you promised something you couldn't deliver back during the campaign.

[C]

She was the lady. When Youngkin managed to convince people that he could get the caps, maybe even the commanders in Virginia, huge economic boon territory, she's like, no, no, let's make sure to sabotage Virginia. We don't want any of that. We don't want to be just complete lunatic. But because you have a national perspective on a lot of this being in Congress, our contention on an awful lot of this is it's a microcosm of the larger Democratic Party and what's happening across the country. And I wonder, as you look at your colleagues and you look at the agenda, which is basically just opposition to anything that Donald Trump has to say, their convictions aside, whether they believe in something or not, irrelevant to the conversation. The only thing that matters is he wants it. I don't.

[H]

Right. FISA is a good example. Today we're doing, we're debating FISA about whether we need a warrant requirement, about whether these are things is an important tool for intelligence, for intelligence on foreign individuals. But when you get American citizens caught up in it, you need a warrant. But Democrats were voting for it. And now that it's Trump and his White House asking for an extension, they're saying, oh, no, no, good thing we're

[F]

not in the middle of a war.

[H]

Can't vote for anything like that because

[C]

between that Trump Homeland Security boy, we're really heading in the right direction. So part of it is the Abigail Spamberger routine and trying to pretend like you're something you're not and then changing to become Mamdani the day that you take the oath of office. The other part of it is just knee jerk opposition to anything that Donald Trump wants to do. And so as you look at Virginia and the experience that you're having in this, turning a 6, 5 map into a 10 one map, I imagine that this to you is a message to the rest of the country. You just got to keep energized here because they're attempting to just completely run down any conservative movement across this country by just demoralizing you through all of it.

[H]

Yep, they are definitely wanting to turn us into New England. What they did in New England. Massachusetts used to have Republican members of Congress much more, more balanced delegation. Now it's five zero. But Republicans vote, what, 40% of the population there. They do it in Illinois. They do it most of the states where they control. They're trying to just draw Republicans completely out. So they do demoralize. And then the only voice you have speaking for you or your representative in government in the Shenandoah Valley, for example, would be a Democrat who, who believes in gun control. And that's who you've got. Even if you might believe differently, there are people who aren't paying attention to politics, who aren't paying attention to the issues, who are just absorbing what they read in the paper and see on TV locally. And they see their congressman in there talking about fairness, talking about how reasonable gun control is and arguing that way. And it seeps into, into the culture. And that's their goal. Their goal is the long game, not the short. It is the short game of the next election, but it's also the long game of trying to turn rural Virginia into either a non impact on politics or convert a battle not worth fighting. I say they're the Borg, Star Trek, the Next Generation. They are the Borg. You either assimilate or you're destroyed. And that's the Democrats.

[C]

I mean, it's well said. I think, look, if we're looking in this next Tuesday, I think the most important election that we've seen since maybe 24, and you can argue 25, although that didn't go our way, is what's going to happen here because it really is about whether or not they can get away with the absolute most egregious partisan power grab that I. In 25 years of redistricting, I've never seen anything Right. Nobody's even attempted it.

[H]

It's been, you know, the degree of gerrymandering has been quantified by those who do that kind of thing. And they say that this map is more partisan in its gerrymander than Illinois, than California, just think about it, than any other state. Virginia would be the most. And I know some Democrats in Richmond would like that title, but we're out to deny them that title and keep it in Illinois. They want the belt, Pritzker can have it.

[C]

All right, last thing currently, just to get everybody updated on what you guys are. I know you've had a lot of conversations as Congress has come back in about what to do with dhs, ICE funding, reconciliation. Where do you think all that stands?

[H]

Progress is being made because we recognize that Democrats can't be be allowed to keep this part of government in the middle of a war, in the middle of a terrorist threat, when we have A lot of stuff going on this summer, like the World cup, people coming in from all over the world. We have got to have this important agency, dhs, operating. We've got to have ICE fully funded. We've got to have CPB fully funded and not just shifting money from one agency over to another. So I think Democrats, we have to go around them through reconciliation. That's fine. We can do that. And we just need the okay from all Republicans, including the senators, who are afraid of losing some of their sway swagger. You know, appropriators won't be calling the shots. They do. So, you know, the Senate appropriators like their ability to control. And when you take that and you move it to authority authorizing committees, which is what reconciliation does. Kind of getting in the weeds a little bit. But when the authorizing committees call the shots for reconciliation, you take power away from appropriators. But this is their fault because appropriators should be able to overcome the filibuster. They should never have the filibuster for appropriations. That's my view.

[C]

This is the best argument that I've heard, by the way, for a House guy taking shots at the Senate.

[H]

You know, that's where I'm being respectful. It's like Godfather, with all respect, but, yeah, we. We definitely need to get reconciliation through the Senate. I like to get it done first before you ask us to vote for a bill to fund DHS minus ICE and cpb, because all that. The message that sends is we're not funding these two agencies. Let's get their funding first, and then we'll follow through with the bill that the Senate passed in the dead of night and demanded that we take up. And then they went on recess.

[A]

Right, right.

[H]

And jammed us.

[F]

So many such cases, you know, there's

[H]

a lot of examples of that. We have a few of our own. We've jammed them right back, but, you know, let's fix it and get these important agencies funded.

[C]

I love it. Ben Klein, let our listeners know. Oh, what do you have here?

[H]

You know, I come bearing gifts. Oh, wow.

[F]

I didn't even know.

[C]

Here's a red bag down here, fellas.

[H]

I caught eyes. One of the other things I'm doing is the Republican Study Committee is the largest caucus in the Republican conference. It's about 190 members. It's the conservative conscience of the House. It's currently chaired by August Pfluger. Great American tall guy. Yeah. And tall guy Howie.

[C]

Jammed in an airplane, by the way, for so many years. I Have no idea.

[H]

But he's the chair and I'm the vice chair. I'm running for chairman and unopposed at this point. So hopefully next cycle, I'm going to be the chairman. But, you know, when you campaign, you've got to have some swag. And so another thing we've got are cigar cases. A few, yes.

[C]

And you know what? Feels like they're in with a nice gauge.

[H]

You know what we can do is why don't we save those for Tuesday?

[B]

Yeah, right.

[C]

Let's do it. Let's do it. If people want to help you out, where do they go?

[H]

Well, the Stop the Gerrymander is the group that I set up to battle this. And for the next six days, they can go to stopthegerymander.com they can go to benklein.com that's my campaign page. And on Twitter on X, it's Klein, the number four in Virginia. Klein for Virginia. And then it's just Ben Klein on Twitter, on Facebook.

[C]

I love it. Listen, you're doing a great job.

[H]

Thanks.

[C]

We really all hope you're successful on Tuesday.

[H]

We do, too. Got to spread the word. And we're optimistic. We think that we've sent the message and the cavalry's coming.

[B]

I love it.

[C]

Let's smoke some cigars on wins.

[H]

Hope so.

[F]

Thank you.

[B]

Thanks, guys.

[A]

Thank you. I mean, look, this is a very interesting conversation. We're obviously going to be watching the vote tally on Tuesday extremely closely, except especially for those of us who are living in Virginia. But there is something that occurs to me about this whole damn effort to redraw the districts in Virginia. And it was when he was talking about how his district is split up and how these rural voters are going to be represented by people from Fairfax county in Northern Virginia, former bureaucrats or NGO consultants or whatever. And that's when you think about how the framers set up our country and the idea of representation. The entire purpose of the House of Representatives, the entire purpose of representation is to carry the ideas and the views and the wants of people who live in this country to Washington. You know, I'm in a rural district. Nobody's thinking about me except for the person I'm voting for, hoping to God that they represent my views to Washington.

[C]

What?

[A]

Democrats? Specifically Democrats like Abigail Spamberger, who worked their entire career in the bureaucracy and think they know better than you. Their idea of representation is representing Washington back to the districts. They want to tell people in these rural districts how they're supposed to think. It's the exact opposite of how our government was set up in the first place. And I hope to God that this thing fails on Tuesday.

[C]

God, I can't improve on that at all. Very, very well said, buddy. When we come back, we're going to get to our lightning round. Joe Biden, he showed up. He got out of the basement this week. You're going to love all of it right after this. Okay, so like you, I just assumed that Joe Biden was like, we wouldn't see him again until there was a state funeral.

[H]

Funeral.

[C]

I'm not trying to be dark. I'm just saying, like, you saw, we all saw.

[A]

Listen, in fairness, I don't think you're alone. I think most of the people in this country probably thought the exact same thing.

[C]

I just assumed that was the way that this whole thing was gonna go down. No offense to the old man, but

[A]

that's just what it is.

[C]

Yeah, well, he keeps showing up every once in a while and like, maybe it's like an old mess. Muscle memory from the ruthless variety program that anytime he does, it's like, oh, but we just have to use it.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what I mean?

[G]

You just.

[C]

Oh, you just got to do it because it just. It's like an old pair of jeans.

[F]

There's a reason why people. Rubber neck car crashes.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Just like, you know, a month ago when it was Jesse Jackson's funeral. I can't remember. It was. It was mainstream Journal who sent out this tweet who was like. Because there are video clips of Biden speaking at that. And he's like, in tough shape. Like, his brain is applesauce at this point. And like, the Journal was like, Joe Biden was, like, known for the eulogy. Like, there was one thing he did is he showed up and he dropped a great speech when someone passed away. And like, that was just. And like, he could not pull that off. He couldn't do that. And he was like, I'm wondering, you know, why he is being put out there to do this stuff. And I've told folks like, the Biden, Inc. Situation is dire because, like, nobody wants to be giving money to the Biden family anymore because they're gone. They can't. They can't offer you anything. Which was the whole scheme of why they were getting so much money is their access to power. Now they're out there, they're done for. And they were bad with their money. That's what you expect from the Bidens. You know, they got 2 cents. They're gonna spend 2 cents, pay for itself.

[C]

But.

[B]

And that's why they got to put this guy out there. They're like, you know, we get him together, we sew them up, we put them up for 10 minutes. Maybe we can find a check. There's got to be a check in this somewhere.

[C]

Got to be a check. Well, so there is. Evidently, he showed up, I think, in Syracuse University is where he was. And first of all, he had this clip 5 in skinned ass after my first year in law school. School. What a huge reception thrown by the Hunter family.

[F]

I think he was trying to say, Syracuse.

[B]

Can I run that? Can we run that back?

[C]

Let's hit that one more time. Neil and I got married in skin

[B]

ass after my first year in law

[C]

school with a huge reception thrown by the Hunter family.

[B]

Still didn't work.

[C]

I don't have it.

[A]

I don't think anybody had it.

[C]

I don't. I don't know where it was going. But what got, I think maybe even more than that was when he made an observation from the stage, and he was talking about a Syracuse University trustee, this gentleman by the name of Jeffrey Scruggs, who was there apparently in support of Joe Biden. And this is what he had to say. In clip six.

[B]

I'm turn around one guy and say,

[C]

barack, what are you doing? Come here, come here, come here, come here, come here.

[F]

Oh, man, he doesn't want to come up.

[B]

I feel like he should be standing

[C]

on the right and I should be

[B]

standing on the left. Hey, did that Just look at Brock. Anyway, for our audio listeners, he brought a black dude on stage who looks nothing like Barack. This guy looks like Barack.

[F]

See, I disagree. I. I mean, his complexion is darker, but I think he kind of looks like Obama. Do you think he's also from Kenya?

[A]

I don't think he looks. I don't think he looks like Obama. All I could think of was the Biden stand up, Chuck speech. When he's like, oh, stand up, Chuck. He always tries to get the audience.

[C]

He had the paraplegic.

[H]

Exactly.

[A]

And the guy's in the wheelchair, and he's like, oh, God.

[B]

Oh. And he's like, where's Jackie?

[C]

Oh, and Jackie Walorski, who had passed away two weeks previously, and he's like, where's Jackie? That's the thing is God did she said, that's why you're here.

[B]

Never forget. Every Democrat, for Christ's sakes, every Democrat was telling you he's good for another four years.

[C]

Oh, yeah, he's good to go.

[B]

Like, this is the same people wanted him in The White House right now. This dude would be out there like, you know, trying to deal on the world stage and be like, can't get this black guy up here. Yeah, you look like Barack Obama.

[C]

You look like Barack Obama.

[A]

Here's Obama would be like, I am Barack Obama.

[C]

Hey, you get out of here, Jack.

[F]

Here's the thing. Before Biden's brain went to applesauce, he used to do stuff like this all the time when he was coherent.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[F]

You remember when he was like, you know, articulate, clean, articulate black man on Obama. Like, he always has this in him or.

[C]

Yeah, the Indians in 7 11.

[B]

Yeah. The problem is he remembers the good old days of what he used to. You know what I mean? He's like. He's like the washed up QB who will not hang up the cleats. He's like, I remember. I remember when I had the fastball, I used to go up there, I'd speak. If it was at a funeral, everyone would get into it. I'd call people to the stage. Everyone's having a good time, and he's lost that. And the thing is, is that, like, if you care about someone, you would have told them, right? You'd have been like, grandpa, we got to take the key. It's not safe for you to drive anymore. Because you cared.

[F]

When he said, good old days, I thought a banjo was getting ready to play.

[C]

Hey, Barack, come up here.

[B]

Shame about the busing. I mean, dude, it.

[C]

No, it's, it's. Listen, it just is what it is. And it's like, just. But remember to tie first segment into this segment, right? These people didn't know that Joe Biden couldn't speak or process things or act accordingly in public as the head of state for the most powerful country in the world. They didn't know that Eric Swalwell, despite the myriad of allegations against him, was capable of being a sexual. They didn't know until you found out.

[F]

And Swalwell and Biden both only became a problem.

[C]

There it is.

[F]

When Democrats thought they'd lose an election.

[C]

There it is. And that is the tie that binds. In June of 2024, you found out he was losing by 10 points to Donald J. Trump, the most unimaginable pain that any Democrat could deal with at the time. And so all of a sudden, we became pretty clued into the mental problems that Joe Biden might have, and maybe we need to replace him. Do you think we'd have a lot of investigative reporting about all of that? No, you didn't you had four years on stage. This is nothing new. I mean, for three years we've saw that speech.

[A]

That is such a good point. I mean, that's the through line of Democrat politics. That is the thesis that damns their party.

[B]

And that's it. There's. There's. It's never. There's no friendship. There's none of that. Because Obama told him not to run. He was like, Hillary. It's Hillary's go. He knew. He was like, you're old as shit, Joe. Your brain's gone.

[C]

Yeah, right, right.

[B]

Where does Hillary's go? We can't. We can't. We can't risk that shit on you. He was out that early in 2016.

[C]

His brain was shot until Bernie showed up and started to win. And they're like, shit, we can't win with that.

[B]

Yeah. Like, oh, man, are we gonna rig this shit in the South Carolina. Just like, rigged it overnight.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Pull this corpse out.

[B]

Unbelievable.

[C]

I mean it.

[B]

So don't feel bad for him because he's a crook. That's the thing. You don't have to feel bad for him.

[C]

Right.

[B]

He gets what he gets because of what he did.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't have a lot of sympathy for that situation. But you might ask yourself, you know, who is running things? Who's at least the thought leader then if they're just so willing to part with the leaders of the Democratic Party once they become problematic for their rule? Let me show you. He showed up at Yale university in clip 7. The fall of the USSR was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century. Just wait, Listen, listen.

[F]

Maybe you'll agree not only was there

[C]

incalculable harm done to every single country under its banner. Child prostitution skyrocketing, suicide rates, life expectancy plummeting, but America was no longer contested around the globe. And it is precisely because of the end to that multipolarity that we saw accelerated neoliberalism that is devastating every Western nation right now. Unlimited and unchecked greed.

[A]

Hmm.

[C]

That's Hasan Piker. We've covered him a lot here in the last couple of weeks, more than we probably should. But the reason we're doing it is because this is the thought leader. And I'm not being hyperbolic about it. I know that, like, in partisan politics, you always try. They're like, oh, everybody follows Nick Fuentes on the writer. Or everybody does the Tucker Carlson thing. Or everybody does. Like, no, really, if you look at the way that Democrats have behaved and the way that Democratic candidates particularly People who are challenging incumbents in primaries around this country are what they're welcoming in. It's not if him in body, it certainly is him in spirit.

[B]

Well, if he's campaigning with Dems running for Senate, if he's appearing on Barack Obama's podcast Pod Save.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

If he's speaking at Yale University, which, I mean, there's a lot to be said about that whole situation, beginning that whole Yale thing. There's an issue there.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

Many people are saying.

[A]

But to your point, if he is doing all of those things, at some point, you've got to be like, wait a minute, maybe this guy is actually the voice of.

[C]

Yeah, because there's something to be said about provocative thought, and I'm all for that. On a college campus, presuming that you do it on both sides, which there's no evidence that Yale does. But this is a provocative thought leader on the Democratic side, which we thought leader should not be glossed over. He is that. That is what he just said was that one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century was the fall of communist Russia. And all that comes with that, in large part because it enabled America alone to be the leader of the free world. Think about that.

[B]

Yeah, dude.

[A]

And think about how wildly Democrats have careened, because last fall they were like, the most important thing is the advanced premium tax credit for Obamacare. And now all of a sudden they're like, no, the USSR is the most important thing for world peace.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What the hell's going on over there? Is there nobody unmoored?

[F]

Well, and it should raise a flag for you, listener and viewer, as you hear these other conversations in the political discourse about how well America has to accept the rise of China, or that we are probably going to live again in a multipolar world in which China is a rival, and we're going to have to figure out how to work together with them, our adversaries. And just know that if you scratch behind that argument for a second, you'll find the Hasan pikers who long for the Soviet Union.

[B]

Yeah, that's exactly right.

[C]

And even more importantly, like, ideologically, be a communist if you want. That's fine. You live in the United States of America, though, right? And, like, where I come from, when your jersey goes on, it stays on. Like, it doesn't matter what your ideology is underneath. You think you're a passing team or a running team or whatever. When the jersey goes on, you're part of the team. What this guy is arguing is not that you should be running Passing plays or running plays. It's that the mere existence of your team itself is the problem with the world today.

[B]

You know what? Think about that.

[A]

That's right. That's a conscience of their party.

[B]

If I'm being honest. Maybe I'm a little extreme on this. We used to have a good thing in this country where it was like, you know, the only good communist is a dead communist. And we accepted the fact that socialists are evil people and we don't want them around. And we've seen examples of, like, Secretary Rubio expelling people in this country. Like, you know, what was his name?

[F]

The Ahmadinejad.

[B]

Yeah. The Michigan Ayatollah's.

[F]

The former president.

[B]

It was Soleimani's Instagram granddaughter, who would have been, like, stoned in the streets of Tehran, but was out here in the US partying and supporting the Iranian regime. He kicked her out. And I think it's time we kick a lot of these people out, because there's a lot to be said about someone who has a house in la, a mansion in la, which is a Porsche, wearing Gucci, showing up to Yale, being like, here's why America must fall. That's the message he's giving. That's the message that he's giving, is America must fall. We must defeat America. We must destroy this country from within. That's the prime example of a person I want deported immediately, like, super fast on one of the scary flights. Like the ones that don't even go to that supermax. Like, the ones that are, like, going to Ghana. You know what I mean? Like, you're out in the Bush now, amigo.

[A]

A touch and go.

[F]

Hell, yeah.

[B]

Like you said, you want America to fall on the plane, you go, you know, goodbye. We have to start doing that.

[C]

I mean, it's. Dude, listen. But this is the heart and soul of the Democratic Party when we tell you there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. Now, this week, Ruben Gallego had to talk about his own problems. Next week, when they all move on, he will be talking about a more sanitized version of what you just heard out of Hasan Piker. Because it is the same ideology. He's the darling of that same iteration of the party. They have basically appointed him as a spokesperson to take on the Trump administration. That is the tie here. And not until we find out more about Ruben Gallego will that stop. But as soon as he becomes a problem for the Democrats, I imagine he will join his buddy Eric Swalwell somewhere and God knows where. All right, so Listen, we always take a break for King of the Hill during Hack Madness. Great tournament, great tournament. But we come back when it's over. And this is the triumphant return. It's Thursday.

[F]

It's Thursday.

[C]

So we play our signature game.

[F]

That's right. And I'm going to be judge on this. So it's. It's OG King of the Hill. Holmes, you're our defending champion.

[C]

Yeah, I'm a defending champion. I always like it when I have a holdover like that because it technically it retains my belt for a series of like six weeks.

[F]

We got to talk to the commission about that.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Well, I've got it. And I'm bringing Max Boot.

[F]

Max Boot?

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

And Smug, your challenger this week. And you're bringing who?

[B]

George Conway.

[C]

George Conway now, congressional candidate.

[H]

Yeah, that's right.

[F]

Yeah, that's right. Well, let's go ringside.

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from a congressional district that's new to him, clean shaven and on the market, Joe, George Conway. And now in the blue corner, fighting from his own Twitter account, and current champion of the world, Maximum Boots.

[H]

I love it.

[F]

I missed this game.

[C]

I do, too. I do too. So as the champion, I will. I will go first. And I'm going to bring up exhibit four, please, if you don't mind, Eddie. Of course. I gotta get into Iran. Uh, I am alarmed by the assumption that Trump supporters make that he can impose a blockade and bring Iran to its economic knees and that Iran will therefore surrender in negotiations. Maybe. But isn't it possible that Iran will lash out? As I note, they will have lots of firepower.

[B]

That's incredible, Jake.

[C]

This is a regime that has lashed out for 47 years. Something he wrote about almost weekly while he was a conservative. I mean, genuinely, that is one of the most amazing takes given if you know the breadth of history of this guy's writings.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

I also love this whole liberal framework of American foreign policy. And that is we're not allowed to do anything.

[C]

What if they do something else?

[F]

The bad guys might do bad things.

[C]

What if they do bad things? Yeah, not that that's why we're doing the thing in the first place. Yeah, got it.

[F]

Okay, Smug, what do you got?

[B]

Exhibit 10 from George Conway, please. This is George Conway on Molly Zhang Fast's show. It's basically just brain damage for brain damaged people. He's saying we have to get rid of this guy. We have to impeach and remove him this criminal regime that acts only in his best interest instead of the interest of the people that spends money on ICE instead of on health care. We're not going to survive 33 more months of what we've seen in the past 15. So this is amazing because you have to remember this is a guy who was a lifelong Republican who pushed his then wife, Kellyanne Conway to get him the gig of what, like Solicitor General is what he was gunning for the first Trump administration.

[C]

Didn't get it.

[B]

He didn't get it. And it just like broke him and he spiraled out.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Lost his marriage. Now he's just like extremely divorced, running for Congress and he's like, you know, a supposed lifelong conservative being like, we have to fund government health care instead of deporting illegals. Like, clearly he stood for nothing. Maybe it was a good thing that Trump didn't appoint him a Solicitor General. If this guy doesn't believe in anything.

[F]

It's an interesting first round and I do appreciate in this game a guilt by association that Conway is on Molly Jong Fast's podcast because I can only imagine the brain worms on that.

[B]

It's gotta be tough.

[F]

I do wonder, however, that maybe Conway running for public office has cost him his fastball. Because reading that whole statement, oh, we must impeach and remove him. They're funding ICE and not healthcare. It feels kind of rote. It feels a little bit like Democrat primary candidate. It's Democrat AI.

[A]

Maybe written by somebody the D trip.

[F]

Yeah, I just don't think it's his best stuff. For that reason, Holmes wins were not round one.

[C]

I'll take it. What do you got in round two?

[B]

Well, I'm going to actually try to lean into candidate Conway here.

[F]

Okay.

[B]

Exhibit 13. This is pretty bad. Conway writes me I never ever wanted to run for Congress or anything. And I can't be a 30 year congressman. I'm not a career guy. It's not what I'm about. I want to get in and get out after a couple terms. One, to get rid of the moth. Like he's too scared to type out motherfucker on the Internet.

[F]

Got it.

[B]

And the next term to help with the legal reconstruction. Basically a second American reconstruction.

[C]

State reconstruction, bro.

[B]

This guy thinks he's link in part two to make sure these abuses never happen again. I want to be Jamie Raskin's wingman. I really, really admire Errol Lewis. Got it. Unusual times call for an unusual candidate Conway.

[C]

Exactly. Shameless.

[F]

I'm going to withhold my comments until Holmes plays.

[A]

Oh my dude.

[C]

I got to switch my. I'm going to switch my strategy based on that. I've never heard anything like that. I gotta. I get a switch. Shameless. I get to switch my strategy.

[B]

I mean, I think after you lose your gig at wlrk, the top law firm, if you go to law school, you want to work at wlk. He lost his gig there. He lost his marriage, his kid. This guy's like, now he wants to

[C]

be an unusual candidate. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

This is a tough place.

[C]

Success. Success. All right, exhibit three, Max Boot. He is retweeting a tweet from the U.S. central Command in which they are announcing the blockade that they have formed in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM is supporting freedom of navigation by impeding freedom of navigation.

[F]

I mean, come on.

[C]

Therefore, you know, inferring, in fact, that freedom is in of itself, whatever Iran wants to do.

[F]

It's insane. They laid mines in the Strait of

[C]

Hormuz and by the way, bombed civilian tankers while they were at it. Droned and missiled.

[A]

Okay, that's tough.

[F]

Can we put the Conway one back up? So this does something for me on multiple levels.

[C]

Yeah, me too.

[F]

Okay, so number one, posting your own media appearance.

[C]

Okay, I get it.

[F]

You're a candidate. You got to post your own media appearance appearance. Could you bridge it a little more? The guy, he must be paying for the extra long tweets because he's basically. He's quoting his whole interview. Number one, it's a transcript. It's a transcript of the whole fucking thing, which is really brazen when you think of the fact he included the video in the tweet. You could just tell people to watch a misuse. It's a misuse of the Internet. It's exquisite. I cannot believe you didn't play it in round one. Smug. You win round two.

[B]

Can we just. Can I get one check, Wolf? Did he type all that out or did you transcript it?

[C]

Oh, no, we can't. We.

[B]

He did.

[C]

You almost blew a flag on yourself there.

[B]

Well, I believe in a fair game.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

How does.

[A]

How do you go from the second reconstruction to I'm going to be Jamie Raskin's wingman?

[C]

Yeah, the second reconstruction is where I would have hung my hat on. That is the wildest thing I have heard in a very long time. All right, so one of the things that I appreciate the most about Boot is that he went from a self fashioned intellectual internationalist, a head of the neocons, but he really spent a lot of time with the intellectual case for intervention around the world. And he knew the case that he always made was knowing a little bit more about the parliamentary systems of all the countries that he's dealing with and economic flow and trade and that kind of thing. So with that backdrop, you gotta pull up exhibit two, which is him tweeting out an article that says Russian oil revenues nearly doubled in March. His tweet, this is Trump's fault.

[A]

Now,

[C]

the hilarity of this is of course, that what we found out is that 80 plus percent of the oil fuel that goes through the Strait of Hormuz goes and goes to China, of which they have no other allies than Russia. And so they'll tap out an ally as well as they possibly can. In this case, the short term answer for them is Russia. Now, what we found out over the last week is they're actually having to buy American lng, American gas, and they're in the Gulf of America right now picking up the shit.

[B]

There's 113 tankers headed for the United States right now. Right?

[C]

Because it turns out you can't get it all from Russia.

[B]

And Russian production is actually down significantly.

[C]

His take. It's all his fault we're making him rich. Yeah. What an incredibly flat earth take from a guy who sells fashions as an intellectual of international commerce.

[F]

Smug. What do you got?

[B]

Oh, boy, that's tough because, I mean, Conway doesn't have the best of material ever. But let's give a shot with exhibit 12, please. Here in this thread is why I think political conditions are starting to ripen for the impeachment and removal of real Donald Trump. As I explained on Saturday morning on at msnow News at the. Hell yeah.

[A]

Oh, one of 10.

[B]

One of 10.

[C]

Just as a quick reminder, you need 66 senators to vote for the removal of something. They're currently 53 Republicans. Even if they had the wildest good election day, you're talking 50 or maybe 49. And that seems implausible in a lot of different ways, but you would need somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 Republicans to be like, get out of here, Donald Trump.

[F]

Right? In the year of our Lord 20, 26, you're still doing 10 tweet threads on how real impeachment is one of

[C]

10, you know, one of them.

[F]

And that is sort of the funny part here in round three is all roads lead back to impeachment and Russia. So a decade later, we're where we began. Still doing it. We're where we began. That's a good point, which is fascinating. It Tells you everything you need to

[C]

know about the intellectual capacity of the left Democratic Party.

[B]

Right.

[F]

It feels like a tie goes to the runner situation. And so I think ultimately being like, this is good for Russia during a time of war and getting back to Russiagate nonsense. I think for that reason, boot wins by a nose.

[C]

By a nose, by a nose.

[B]

It's tough, but like, boot, Boot having to. Like, there's all the. All the contestants are like flip flopping liars. But from boot being like, no, Iran is doing a good job.

[F]

The most insane. Insane.

[C]

For you, dear listener, to truly appreciate how insane that is, it's to have a little bit of background on what this guy wrote for, like 20 years of his professional career, which is basically the exact opposite.

[B]

It's incredible.

[F]

It'd be like Derek Jeter rooting for the Red Sox.

[B]

Seriously.

[A]

I think it's a garbage ruling because what you did was rob the listener of what George Conway will be tweeting over the next week. You robbed everyone of that.

[C]

Robbed.

[B]

Thank you, Bailiff Bill finally showed up.

[F]

Yeah, to attack me. Not to make the court function correctly. He made the bailiff just wanted to attack me.

[B]

Judge, a little explanation.

[C]

Thank you, bailiff. Appreciate that.

[A]

Garbage ruler moving up.

[C]

All right, you guys want one? Variety? Oh, sure. I think you flagged this bad boy. A humanoid robot chases wild boars in Poland. Yeah. Clip eight.

[B]

Look at this. No, dude, it's legit. No, this is why you have to subscribe to the YouTube to see this.

[C]

What? It's a robot with a blue face that sprinting after literally huge hogs.

[A]

Sprinting is a generous term. I mean, the sporty time here is

[F]

probably a rich man.

[B]

Watch this. Watch the end. It's like shaking his fist.

[C]

Wait, so, okay, I'm gonna read a little bit about this because I need the context, and I hadn't seen that before. Humanoid robot. Edward Wurchocki. Yeah, the polls named it, so it's a pu. Maybe that explains its slow 40 time. I don't know what's more captured public attention after driving away from a group of wild boars in Warsaw. The Unitree G1 robot chased the animals across an empty parking lot. And footage published Sunday, April 12. Edward ran after the borers for a few meters before stopping as the animals disappeared down the streets. I'm herding the wild boars into the forest. The robot's X account posted alongside the video. The wild boar encounter is not Edward's first time in the spotlight. He previously met with the Poland Prime Minister of Finance and Economy. Finance and Economy, featured on television programs and regularly engages with the people in the streets of Warsaw. Is it like their fucking mascot? What is this?

[B]

He's the hardest working Pollock. Like, you see this guy, he's like doing it all. The guy's not only getting rid of these like wild boars. And the thing is that for years we've been told, you know, the lives are like, oh, wild boars aren't a menace. These things are a menace to begin with.

[A]

They are.

[B]

And they, they will hurt people like they will eat children. Look at him. He's going to town, he's taking care of that. He'll meet with the Minister of Finance, he'll get the economy going.

[F]

I mean, I'm sure the robot's doing a good job, but I'm sure he's more expensive than an AR15 that could handle this job.

[B]

Real quick, can you find a Polok who's good at that kind of thing? Like, I don't. They're not really known for tough situations.

[F]

I just, I thought that term was a slur.

[B]

I think it's like the official one. If it's not the nice hit a beep on every time I drop that make the audience wonder what's happening here. I thought it was the official one.

[C]

I don't know, but I'm kind of with you and I'm, I'm, I'm not like blown away by the. I'm not.

[A]

And I think there are limits to its ability to round up animals. Like some animals are not going to be as easy for a robot to round up.

[B]

Which is why you give them ars.

[F]

Wait, now we're giving the robots ars?

[C]

There's no way you do that.

[B]

I say, why not?

[C]

There's no way. A Pollock. A Pollock robot.

[F]

That's the thing is like, you know, you've seen Terminator.

[B]

Do you want, do you want a person to get, you know, eaten by one of those boars? You going to risk that?

[A]

Let me tell you what, Hasan Piker is going to be disappointed because the USSR will not start over again if the Polish robots are armed with ars.

[C]

Fair enough. Counterpoint, counterpoint. Good callback. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe [e-mail] I love it. All right, well fellas, a Great show. We've got a question of the day. What's your predictions on this Virginia situation? And a lot has been made about how significant it is into the message that it sends. And if you live in and around Virginia, you've seen nothing but ads with Barack Obama with the whole Democratic establishment attempting to get this bizarre 10:1 redistricting through. And if they can do that, there's basically unchecked power, right? I mean, if you can do something as brazen as that and get it through in a purple state, you can do pretty much. Absolutely. And so, you know, a lot of big questions as it looks forward to the midterm elections, both in terms of the control of the House, but then also just what's the electorate look like? Our question of the day when you like and subscribe is what's the final vote on this gerrymander? Do you think we win this bad boy or not? Your thoughts when you like and subscribe. We read absolutely all of them. Get back to the very next episode and this one, Funtime Fridays. I try to make them a little bit humorous. We always appreciate that on the variety program. And with that fellows, I think we did it.

[B]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to our guest Ben Klein and thank you to the listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in videos. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Friday. Stay ruthless.

[C]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the Same premium wireless for 15amonth Plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail]

[B]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month

[H]

required intro rate first 3 months only,

[B]

then full price plan options available, taxes

[C]

and fees, extra fee, full [e-mail].