Journos Are Worse Than You Think - Terror in NYC + Deputy AG Todd Blanche

Summary

---

Ruthless Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title

Journos Are Worse Than You Think – Terror in NYC + Deputy AG Todd Blanche

Release Date

March 10, 2026

Hosts

Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the recent attempted terrorist attack in New York City, the liberal media’s response, and broader concerns regarding the progressive coalition in America. The hosts lambaste the press for their alleged downplaying and reframing of terrorist incidents and discuss the vulnerabilities created by current immigration and border policies. The episode also features an in-depth conversation with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on DOJ priorities, including terrorism prosecutions and government fraud.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Media Coverage of NYC Terror Attack

Setting the Stage: What Happened in NYC?

• There was an attempted terrorist attack at Gracie Mansion, New York City: a man yelled "Allahu Akbar" while throwing bombs at protestors.
• The bombers were identified as self-radicalized ISIS sympathizers, both young men from wealthy backgrounds in Pennsylvania.

Hosts’ Main Critique: Media Framing

• The hosts argue that mainstream media outlets (NYT, NBC, ABC) obfuscated the reality of the attack by:
  • Downplaying that it was an IED used by ISIS radicals
  • Describing the event in terms that suggested right-wing activists were to blame
  • Omitting the clearly jihadist motivations despite video evidence
  • Suggesting the “victims” were actually the cause due to their “Islamophobia”

The Progressive "Coalition" and “Suicidal Empathy”

• Michael Duncan [00:04, 09:49, 10:45]: “The whole problem is the suicidal empathy of the left... They would literally rather that guy's bomb go off than have to change their opinion.”
• The hosts argue that left-wing virtue signaling leads to dangerous, “mad” posturing—even after narrowly surviving attacks, progressives double down on their inclusivity stance.

News Coverage Breakdown:

• NYT Headline Example [13:33]:

  • “Smoking jars of metal-infused thrown at protests near mayor's house. Six people were arrested after an anti-Islamic protest led by right-wing activist Jake Lang clashed with counter-protesters near Gracie Mansion.”
  • Hosts: This falsely implies right-wing violence and obfuscates the jihadist role.

• NBC/ABC Headlines [15:27, 18:21]:

  • "A device ignited outside of Zoran Mamdani's mayoral residence yesterday during an anti Islam protest…device confirmed to be an improvised explosive."
  • Hosts argue these headlines mislead readers into thinking right-wing protesters targeted the mayor.

Notable Quotes:

• Josh Holmes [19:39]: “Remember that video was available to every single one of these writers. Almost immediately, every one... You saw a guy yell ‘Allahu Akbar’ and throw a bomb. What do you think his motivation was? We may never know.”
• Michael Duncan [20:43]: “Yeah, these things happen. When you do inflammatory things like that. Maybe things like this happen.”

---

2. Political Responses and Implications

Critique of Democratic Officials in NYC

• Mayor Zoran Mamdani's statement focused on condemning “white supremacy” and bigotry at the protest, with little acknowledgment of the jihadi motivation.

  • Hosts view: This is deliberate, misleading, makes the actual victims into villains, and does little to keep New Yorkers informed or safe.

• Brooklyn’s Brad Lander released a similarly framed statement, lamenting “vile displays of Islamophobia” with no mention of the actual terrorist act.

• Ashbrook sums up: “New Yorkers would rather have Islamic extremists...throwing bombs on their street, as long as they can be like, well, you know, at least I'm not an Islamophobic bigot.” [30:34]

Wealthy Backgrounds of Suspects

• Outrage that the suspects grew up privileged; hosts argue this undercuts narratives about radicalization being only about poverty.
  • John Ashbrook [34:47]: “You find a class of these people to be your useful idiots.”

---

3. Homeland Security and Border Issues

The Context of Border Security & DHS Shutdown

• Democrats had recently defunded the Department of Homeland Security amid international terror threats and high influx of migrants.

  • Host [37:53]: “Imagine that set of facts and then being so committed to this weird progressive: like, anybody who's enforcing the laws...is evil.”

• Hosts fear progressive political priorities have made America less safe and more vulnerable to terrorism, arguing the media and Democrats would blame Republicans if/when an attack happens, despite policy decisions.

---

4. Key Interview: Deputy AG Todd Blanche

(Starts ~1:00:21)

Takeaways from Deputy AG Blanche

• DOJ was quick to identify, charge, and prosecute the NYC attackers—a testament to law enforcement coordination.

• Blanche criticizes the Biden administration for shifting resources away from homeland terrorism focus, prioritizing overseas investigations and political prosecutions.

  • Blanche [64:52]: “They did not focus on what we're focused on when it comes to protecting the homeland. And I don't know why that's even a Republican or Democrat issue. It's irrational.”

• Administration is launching a new DOJ division to target fraud, especially government benefit fraud (e.g., Medicaid, school lunch scams). No fraud is too small to prosecute.

  • Blanche [74:15]: “If you steal $1,001, that's a felony in this country. And so if you steal $1,001, you are going to go to prison...it's a massive deterrent.”

• On support for law enforcement: The Trump administration “backs the blue,” a strong contrast with previous attitudes post-George Floyd.

• DOJ is seeing major progress in violent crime reduction nationwide, attributed to refocused law enforcement priorities.

Notable Quotes

• Todd Blanche [68:40]: “The very basic way we make our streets safe is by making sure law enforcement know that we have their back.”
• Blanche [79:11]: “Every prosecutor will say that there's not a boring criminal trial.”
• Blanche on learning from Trump [83:08]: “Maybe I learned it from President Trump, but he's the same way. Like, he's like, we will win. Don't worry...And he's, you know, he's right.”

---

5. Lightning Round and Miscellaneous Segments

Trans Kids & Texas Politics [46:27-49:52]

• Hosts ridicule Democratic candidate James Talarico’s answer that the thing he loves most (outside family/friends) is “trans kids.”
  • Duncan [47:25]: “It’s like, input question, last campaign event – trans kids. ...Not really ready for the bright lights.”
  • General argument: Dems are out of touch with mainstream America on trans issues.

Staged Political Media Collusion

• Hosts discuss a "staged outrage" involving Colbert and Texas Dem James Talarico, who used a manufactured censorship controversy to generate political donations and press.
  • Duncan [54:10]: “It’s like they got away with the crime and now they want everyone to know that they did it on purpose.”

Homelessness, Crime, and Urban Decline [55:25]

• Case in LA where a man was stabbed by a homeless man, and then the ambulance was stolen by another homeless person—used to illustrate host critique of progressive crime policy.

Political Endorsement Humor

• Quick segment on GA-14 candidate Clay Fuller using “Ruthless” branding in his campaign ad.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (w/ Timestamps)

• Josh Holmes [00:20]: “Another example of the liberal media trying to downplay the significance of this. Like this bomb.”
• Michael Duncan [09:49]: “The whole problem is the suicidal empathy of the left.”
• John Ashbrook [30:34]: “New Yorkers would rather have Islamic extremists...throwing bombs on their street, as long as they can be like, well, you know, at least I'm not an Islamophobic bigot.”
• Michael Duncan [10:45]: “They would literally rather that guy's bomb go off than have to change their opinion.”
• Todd Blanche [66:38]: "We are reducing violent crime in this country – ways that have been seen for years and years and years."
• Josh Holmes [19:39]: “Remember that video was available...You saw a guy yell ‘Allahu Akbar’ and throw a bomb. What do you think his motivation was? We may never know.”

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |----------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00–02:36 | Cold open, overview: Media, empathy, and leftist responses | | 02:36–07:06 | NYC terror attack: Play-by-play breakdown, video analysis | | 07:06–13:33 | Media coverage, headlines, initial host reactions | | 13:33–20:07 | Dissecting NYT, NBC, ABC coverage and subtexts | | 20:07–26:13 | Political official responses: Mamdani, Lander, etc. | | 26:13–35:53 | Suspect backgrounds, “luxury beliefs,” KGB reference | | 35:53–41:48 | Border security, DHS shutdown, terror vulnerabilities | | 41:48–44:11 | Calls for Republican response, importance of messaging | | 46:27–49:52 | Trans kids in Texas politics – Talarico's remark | | 50:04–54:15 | Colbert–Talarico media collusion, staged outrage | | 55:25–58:50 | LA: Homelessness, violent crime, ambulance theft | | 59:01–59:45 | Ruthless reference in GA-14 campaign ad | | 60:21–85:22 | Interview: Deputy AG Todd Blanche | | 85:22–End | Closing remarks, listener engagement, question of the day |

---

Tone & Style

• Language: Blunt, irreverent, humorous, and deeply critical of the left, progressive politics, and mainstream media.
• Style: Conversational, combative, confident, occasionally hyperbolic; very much in the “lads at the bar” tradition of podcast political talk.

---

Conclusion

This episode delivers a sweeping (and scathing) critique of both the media and political establishment’s handling of the NYC terror incident, decrying what the hosts see as a pattern of denial, obfuscation, and misplaced priorities in progressive circles. The interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanche highlights administrative efforts to refocus DOJ priorities on terrorism and large-scale fraud, aiming to reassure conservative listeners that “adults are back in charge.” Throughout, the Ruthless crew's tone remains caustic, sarcastic, and unapologetically partisan.

---

For Listeners Who Missed It:

• The podcast skewers media coverage after an ISIS-inspired bomb attack in NYC, charging that leftist outlets and Democratic officials consistently minimize or misattribute such events.
• They assert that progressive empathy and coalition politics have crossed into “suicidal” territory, endangering public safety.
• Deputy AG Blanche’s interview offers details on how DOJ is addressing terror threats and systemic fraud, contrasting the Trump and Biden approaches.
• For a wild, unfiltered conservative take on the week's events, this episode is signature Ruthless: acerbic, punchy, and provocative.

---

Question of the Day:

• The hosts invite creative “lib journo” headlines from listeners for comedic effect.

---

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

The left wing media has very many masters to serve.

[Michael Duncan]

The whole problem is the suicidal empathy of the left.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

And how it's just infected our discourse in this country.

[Host/Moderator]

You saw a guy yell Al Akbar and throw a bomb. What do you think his motivation was?

[Josh Holmes]

Another example of the liberal media trying to downplay the significance of this. Like this bomb.

[Michael Duncan]

You're going to Virtue Signal on behalf of the Islamic terrorists.

[Physician Guest]

I have been a physician for 35 years and sadly have had a front seat to witness the decay and decline of the health insurance industry. There has been systematic denial and delay of care. There's been abuse with the Medicare Advantage plans, deceiving and extorting taxpayer dollars. You guys own PBMs, you own pharmacies, you own health agencies, physician groups. Good God, you own a. I have had patients cry in my room. I have had physicians cry to me, throw up their hands in disgust and quit because of actions of our health insurance industry. You are killing people who are trying to get health care. You have put profits above patients and you put profits above those who care for patients.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Learn [e-mail].

[John Ashbrook]

Well, folks, it's March, which means it's tax time. But this year, the rules are different. As part of the working families tax cuts made law by Congressional Republicans and President Trump, taxpayers will see a deduction for tips, a deduction for overtime, a new deduction for seniors, expanded tax provisions for small businesses. And these are in addition to the standard deduction most Americans already take. That means bigger refunds and more money staying with the people who earned it. Taxpayers are expected to see an increase of up to $1,000 in refunds. Of course, when the law changes this much, you want to be sure you're filing the right way. That's where Intuit TurboTax comes in. TurboTax is up to date with the new laws and their experts can help make sure you claim every deduction and credit you're eligible for and every dollar you deserve. Intuit turbotax. Now this is taxes.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event.

[Host/Moderator]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial. As always, war, peace, crime, punishment. Lot on the table here, including the Democrats refusing to fund homeland security here in the United States of America. But a lot going on overseas that we're going to get into. President Trump Everything else, it's crazy. But you would be completely objectively, without eyes and ears if you didn't take note of the development that happened over the weekend in New York City for a bunch of different reasons. So we had, if you missed the news, there was attempted terrorist attack in New York City. We've since come to find out ISIS inspired an Islamic extremist. A lot of sensitivity to that, obviously, when we've got Iran and Middle east problems, although there's a little bit of a divorce between ISIS and Iran. So it's just Islamic extremism, I guess. But the way the journos have dealt with this is, I think, our role in this space. If we can get into just right off the top and then I'm going to get your commentary on all this, fellas. Just the event itself, just a level set with the audience about what it is that happened that is publicly available for all journos, all. Anybody has social media. These are the things that happened in real time that everybody could see. Clip one, please. He threw a bomb. Yeah. Did he throw a bomb? Okay, so for our audio only listeners, that was a gentleman who sprinted up to the gates around Gracie Mansion essentially and threw a bomb, yelling, alu Akbar.

[John Ashbrook]

There had been a group who is protesting Mamdani. And this guy runs up, screams Al Akbar and throws a bomb at that group. Does protesting Mumdani.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, yeah. And so seems to me we can probably cut to the chase on the motivation of the said terrorist who throws a bomb at people he evidently disagreed with. There's another angle at all of this, though. Clip 2.

[John Ashbrook]

We Were Born and raised in New York and we want everyone here to stay in New York.

[Todd Blanche]

You don't get to come from outside

[Host/Moderator]

and then tell everyone, look at this guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

So you got, you got a guy with a bullhorn saying, everybody's welcome here in New York.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is like, there are also libs who showed up to like counter protest, to be like, oh, they're basically just shouting what's on the yard signs. No one is illegal on stolen earth in this house, we believe. And he's like, oh, I'm born in New York. Everyone is welcome here in New York. And then right then, a dude yells Akbar and throws a bomb. And it's like, maybe you got very too open with who you allow into New York.

[Michael Duncan]

And the sweet, sweet irony of it all is in the investigation of these two men who are involved in this attempted terrorist attacked, they're not even from New York. No, they're From Pennsylvania.

[Host/Moderator]

They're from Pennsylvania. And we're gonna get into that in a second. But it's what we've been talking about all along. When it comes to the progressive left, you have somebody that shows up and is like, down with oil. Another one who's like, yeah, we don't, you know, we want immigration unfettered. And somebody else is like, we hate the Jews.

[Physician Guest]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

And then if somebody is like, al Akbar, here's a bomb. You know what I mean? Like, this is what you get with the progressive left and the coalition that they've built, that they somehow have convinced themselves this is sustainable democratic coalition. But because it is, I mean, this is what they rely on. It's why they had a Michigan problem. It's stuff like this is that they are openly inviting this as a counter protest to some folks who are protesting. The mayor evidently. So he wasn't done with the one bomb, he's got another bomb, this guy. All on video.

[John Ashbrook]

This is so insane.

[Host/Moderator]

All on video.

[John Ashbrook]

All this video's out there.

[Host/Moderator]

It was all out there immediately for all of the press for everybody to see. Clip 3. Jerry is lighting it now. He's running from the cops.

[John Ashbrook]

He tosses it at cops and the

[Host/Moderator]

cops are chasing him. But I mean, you can see like what he's intending to do and how he's intending to do it. And like, look, these aren't good terrorists, you know, I mean, I don't mean good.

[John Ashbrook]

The only good one's a dead one, in my opinion. But yeah, no, no. Proficient maybe.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, proficient is a better word. They weren't very good at their terroristic jobs as they see it in that they didn't hurt anybody with all of those bombs, but they certainly attempted to. And the way that these things were constructed, they were intended to do grave damage.

[John Ashbrook]

So to give a little more background real quick, I just want to read this little bit that the New York Post had. They said self radicalized ISIS protesters used explosive called quot Mother of Satan. And this is the same kind of explosives that were used in IEDs. This is essentially, it is an IED. Two of them were used. It said in the New York Post a pair of ISIS trained extremists were charged with hurling an IED during a rowdy weekend protest, allegedly packing the homemade bomb with, quote, mother of Satan, a volatile explosive favored by international terrorists. The two pro Muslim fanatics, Ibrahim Kayoumi and Emir Balat, 18, both self radicalized in recent years and traveled to Turkey and other terror training hotspots. Law enforcement sources Close to the case told the Post. So this wasn't just like rando idiots. These are people who had clearly become radicalized and were using the same type of explosives that's used in IEDs overseas here in the U.S. here's the thing

[Josh Holmes]

that occurs to me watching that video. Okay. And I'm not second guessing any of the brave men and women on our law enforcement who are there protecting people. But what is it about the rules of engagement that prevent them from shooting a guy.

[Host/Moderator]

That's what I'm saying.

[Josh Holmes]

Who is lighting a bomb and running towards a crowd to throw it?

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. Why are they running after him? I mean, what. You can't, you can't just open fire on somebody like that.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if ever there was a candidate for a guy where you use lethal force, I would think it's a terrorist with a bomb.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, but, you know, then you get into a Minnesota discussion. Right. Is whether or not what he had was lethal. I don't know. If you try to run over an ICE agent, does that constitute a lethal act? We don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

I guarantee if something like that happened, there'd be videos instantly online. They'd be like, we were here protesting Donald Trump's authoritarian attack when police shot this guy in the back. You can see a one second clip of the guy running after throwing the bomb being shot.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, the whole problem is the suicidal empathy of the left.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes, that's it.

[Michael Duncan]

And how it's just infected our discourse in this country. And I think it's epitomized by that guy with the bullhorn, who's basically the walking version of the in the house, we believe sign. Right. Like this guy who's like, all immigrants are welcome. We believe New York is for all New Yorkers. He was asked, hey, you have any second thoughts about that, considering this guy came behind you and threw a bomb,

[Host/Moderator]

used you as a springboard to throw his bomb.

[Michael Duncan]

Put up graphic 3A, please. He, he, quote, tweets that question and says, I'm the guy who didn't run when a bomb was thrown over his head. I also didn't become a xenophobic bigot. What's your excuse?

[John Ashbrook]

Incredible.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like you're gonna, you're gonna virtue signal on behalf of the Islamic terrorist.

[Josh Holmes]

It did.

[Michael Duncan]

That didn't make you like maybe question your entire worldview. It makes you double down.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's just, it just goes to show that it is suicidal empathy. They would literally rather that guy's bomb go off than have to change their opinion.

[Josh Holmes]

It's true. Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind that you tweet and not like, thank God that this bomb didn't kill anybody. Thank God we had people protecting us. Thank God all of these like, well,

[Host/Moderator]

it's just not a jet talking point.

[Josh Holmes]

It's. They're not, they're not. I mean, this is straight to the talking point.

[Host/Moderator]

These are people who have clinical defects, clinical mental defects. And I think that is true. I mean, this is going to be controversial, but I think that is true of much of the weird progressive left that you see on the streets. Like, these are people who had maybe traumatic childhoods, maybe traumatic life events one way or another. But you can't actually have somebody use you as a springboard to throw a bomb at other human beings and be like, that was a good thing. The people you threw the bomb at are not good people. You're all supposedly Americans here and not think first about somebody trying to kill someone. You have to have a maladjusted psychology at some level in order to have that point of view.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's the thing. It is 100% like Duncan says, the suicidal empathy and the importance that is stressed by them of when you say virtue, it's completely virtue signaling. They feel trying to look like I'm the good guy because I embody the slogans on the yard sign of in this house is more important to me than. Than the realization that someone tried to have a terrorist attack, but I need to get my good boy points.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's the same thing with all of their demonstrations against ICE in Minneapolis where ICE is there to round up pedophiles, drug traffickers, rapists, murderers. And they're like, they're targeting our neighbors. These are our neighbors. Your neighbors are pedophiles and you're protecting them. What the fuck's that say about you?

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, totally, totally. I mean, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

In previous years they might have said like, you know, I disagree with the actions of this one person, however, we should all come together.

[John Ashbrook]

You're right. They don't even do that.

[Todd Blanche]

They don't even do that.

[Host/Moderator]

It's not even part of their thing. So with all of the abundance of video evidence available, seeing exactly what happened in this situation, how does the media cover this situation? Well, how do you think? Check it out. Graphic four, please. Is the New York Times smoking jars of metal infuses thrown at protests near mayor's house. Six people were arrested after an anti Islamic protesters led by right wing activist Jake Lang clashed with counter protesters near Gracie Mansion.

[John Ashbrook]

That is. That's almost criminal because. Can we get that graphic back up? First off, the absurdity of them trying to downplay that this was an ied, as confirmed now by like the FBI, they said that these are the same materials, bomb making stuff that ISIS uses that goes into IEDs. So the new York Times first off is like smoking jars of metal infused. It's trying to downplay that. But then they try to give the context of like thrown at a protest near mayor's house. Also there was a right wing activist there. They are trying to make it sound like this was a bunch of right wing lunatics throwing bombs near the mayor's house because they're a bunch of.

[Host/Moderator]

It didn't make it sound like that's what they said.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's like they're purposely trying to obfuscate the reality. The fact that the right wing activist of the anti Mamdani protest gets written up in the.

[Host/Moderator]

How is he a part of this?

[Michael Duncan]

He's part of the subhead. And the word Islamic terrorist tries to light bomb is not.

[Host/Moderator]

It's not. It's not like just so you have the facts, there was a protest that was led that these people claim is Islamophobic, which then presented a crowd of counter protesters, at which point a couple of ISIS inspired idiots terrorists show up and try to bomb people involved in what they would say was the Islamic Islamophobic protest. The story is about the people who are trying to kill people. The story is not about the nuts and bolts of why everybody showed up. You know what I mean? It's beyond absurd that that could even be a part of the story. I mean, think about all the.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just lying.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, what if the terrorists had a press secretary and they put out a rapid response press release? I'm not sure it would say anything different from that headline.

[Host/Moderator]

I just don't think so. You know, and you. But you see it so often. It's not. They're not alone. You know, NBC is going to rush to the fire here too. Graphic 5 Breaking a device ignited outside of Zoran Mamdani's mayoral residence yesterday during an anti Islam protest. And counter protest was confirmed to be an improvised explosive. New York City police. Say again?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

The tweet would make you think that this bombing was targeting the mayor Mamdani.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. They're like, okay, let me get this straight. One of the primary critiques of Zoram Mamdani is that he is somehow way more sympathetic and it is to Islamic extremism than he is to New Yorkers.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Remember his wife put out those tweets in support of the terrorists who killed peaceful people on October 7th.

[Host/Moderator]

Right. And then they name check a protest that they, you know, call anti Islam protest. So you're like, okay, well, that sounds like kind of an explosive situation. There's an anti Islam thing with a guy that they think is more sympathetic. And then a counter protest.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

And then they just go on to say, also there's an improvised explosive device involved. If you read that, you think that a bunch of right wing lunatics firebombed Zoran Momdani's house.

[John Ashbrook]

And that again, is the intent. And also it is. It just occurred to me, the contrast when you saw the mayor of Pennsylvania, or the mayor, the governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro. Shapiro had that mansion firebombed by. What were they like, the pro Palestinian radicals? And the reporting that you saw on that, first off, you didn't see reporting on it.

[Host/Moderator]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

At all. But now you're seeing, okay, so a guy yells Allahu Akbar, throws multiple bombs. How are we gonna make this. How are we gonna take a left wing look at this? And for them to 100% decide what we're going to do is make it look like the people protesting Zoron are trying to kill him. It's so insane.

[Josh Holmes]

It is.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's almost criminal.

[Host/Moderator]

It's deliberately manipulative.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what it is.

[Todd Blanche]

What it is.

[Josh Holmes]

And you know something else that occurs when reading these two headlines is that the left wing media has very many masters to serve. And they have. They try to choose which one is the most important because you only have a certain number of words in the first one. The master they serve at the New York Times is downplaying the violence that ensued by these terrorists. They just, they want it. They want people to think that it maybe isn't as bad as you're seeing online.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

The second one, the master they serve, Zoran Momdani. Actually, Mom, Donnie was the target of this and he's the victim.

[Host/Moderator]

Right. And then we've got a third.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, okay, we got a third.

[Host/Moderator]

Let's. Let's toss up ABC News. They want to get into it. Graphic 6 Police arrested several people after a smoke generating suspicious device. Smoke generating was thrown during a protest at Gracie Mansion.

[Josh Holmes]

Another example of the liberal media trying to downplay the significance of this. Like this bomb. Right. So they're serving. They're serving the master to make seem

[Michael Duncan]

like, who's their master here?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you know what? I don't know, but you know who isn't their master? You know who they never serve as their reader. And that's why nobody ever clicks on

[John Ashbrook]

their stupid story here in the ABC News. When can we get that graphic on six again? It says thrown during a protest at Gracie Mansion. They're trying to frame this again as, oh, it was thrown at a protest at Gracie Mansion to make the audience be like, oh, must have been an anti Madani kind of a thing.

[Michael Duncan]

I also think the subtext here we haven't really talked about yet. I think these left wing radicals, I think part of them thinks you deserve it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I think that if you do an anti Islam protest, these are the things that happen.

[Host/Moderator]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, when you're targeting a community like this, maybe somebody throws a Molotov cocktail or an improvised explosive device at your event, so maybe don't do it.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, nothing that they wrote would disabuse you of that opinion. But I also think what we played to begin this segment should be dispositive about the sequence of events. Remember that video was available to every single one of these writers. Almost immediately, every one of these publications almost immediately, you saw a guy yell alu Akbar and throw a bomb. What do you think his motivation was? We may never know.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, puzzling.

[Host/Moderator]

We may never know.

[John Ashbrook]

What could he mean by this?

[Host/Moderator]

Whose side do you think he was on and why it is that the target, the intent victim is a part of the story at all is unbelievable to me. Like why would it be that whoever they were targeting, in this case, some right wing group that, that was protesting and got a bomb throw. Can you imagine reversing that?

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing. I think Duncan has such a good point because it feels like they threw in that this was an anti Islam protest to kind of be like, oh, they deserve it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, these things happen. When you do inflammatory things like that. Maybe things like this happen.

[John Ashbrook]

Like if the, you know, it makes you deserved it.

[Michael Duncan]

How short was your skirt?

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, it is the lib version of how short was it the skirt.

[John Ashbrook]

And it feels like if that Charlie Hebdo attack had happened today, the libs

[Michael Duncan]

would be like, good, yeah, you shouldn't drop Muhammad.

[John Ashbrook]

And the thing is that, like, it doesn't matter what this original group believed that was protesting. I mean, you saw libs going ham celebrating the murder Charlie. Like they were happy that Charlie was murdered. So basically, if you take the opposite side, they think you are deserving of violence. That's how extreme the left is.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, they're certainly gonna obfuscate it at the very least. But again, whatever brought everybody to the yard here is a footnote.

[Michael Duncan]

It means nothing.

[Host/Moderator]

It means nothing. What happened was someone tried to kill a lot of people. That's the story. And you look at, like, the way that they covered the Minneapolis protests, which were just fucking meaningless and stupid. They were trying to follow around ice cars and trying to prevent federal law enforcement from doing their job. And a couple of them got into physical confrontations, one with a vehicle, one literally hand to hand, and mayhem ensued, and people got killed. But it was all the federal government. That was the problem with this. It wasn't the existence of a protest. Now take that off. Six weeks later, the existence of the protest, very, very similar in terms of it was there. And like, I don't know what the intent of the protesters were. We never found out because somebody threw a fucking IED at them. And when they did that, it was the problem of the protester, right? Not the problem of the person who intended to kill people. Just break that down just from a media perspective and look at that and say, like, dude, these people at very least, are attempting to obfuscate the truth from their readership. You could make a very clear argument that they are basically siding with any means necessary at trying to attack a conservative point of view, whether it be through threat of grave violence or protesting in general. I mean, that's really what the summation of the coverage for the last eight weeks has told you. As a reader of these publications. If you show up to protest of Donald Trump's federal government, absolute sanctity, like, you should not. It's the most important thing that you can possibly do. Right. If you show up to protest, and I don't know what they were protest, they say it's Islamophobic or whatever. I don't know. But if you show up for that, then you get firebombed. Well, I don't know. We just needed to know all the facts.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right. It's wild.

[Host/Moderator]

It's just a wild. It's a wild thing. So listen how the Democrats tried to frame this thing. All of a sudden you can see how these blanks get filled in and how it is that the media operates the way that they do. We're gonna get to all that in a little bit of the DHS shutdown. Whole bunch more, including interview with Todd Blanche, who is going to be. It's fantastic. And you guys will love it right after. This

[Sponsor/Announcer]

energy is all around us. It's how we move, how we build, and how we make Every day a little easier. We're all around America's oil and natural gas, supporting 11 million good paying American jobs across the country and powering our way of life. But energy demand is growing and fast. That's why we need to overhaul our broken permitting process to unleash America's abundant natural resources, strengthen national security and create a future where American energy leads the world. What America builds today will help secure a more affordable, more reliable future with enough energy to go around for for generations to come. Our country can't wait. We must pass permitting reform now to help secure American energy dominance. Because when America builds, America wins. America's oil and natural gas paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[NetChoice Representative]

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 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

[Host/Moderator]

okay, so look, the way that the media framed this whole thing in New York would lead you to believe that the intended victim of the Al Akbar terrorist throwing an improvised explosive device was Zoran Mamdani. So it's interesting to get his perspective on this sort of thing. Here is Zoran Mamdani in graphic seven. It's a long thing, but what he says is yesterday. White supremacist Jake Lang again.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

I'd never heard of that guy.

[Host/Moderator]

Nobody has ever heard of him. And we have no idea like what this is all about. But now he is the target of the mayor's discussion. He was apparently the target of the improvised explosive device.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Host/Moderator]

Organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion. Rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It's a front to our city's values and the unity that defines who we are. What followed is even more disturbing. Violence at the protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it's reprehensible and in the antithesis of who we are. I Want to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD who acted quickly to keep New Yorkers safe. Our officers ran towards the danger without hesitation, demonstrating once again the courage and dedication it takes to protect our city every single day. My administration is monitoring the situation. It's monitoring the city. They do a lot of monitoring over there. They monitor the situation. And I remain in close contact with our police commissioner. Again, the mayor, of all people. Now, he wasn't getting all of the Iranian intelligence and all the things that he was, or the Minneapolis situation, all the things that he's been monitoring the situation about over the last since he's become mayor. But he should have a pretty close hold on what happened outside his house. And if you have any idea whatsoever, those are the first two clips that we played somebody yelling Alu Akbar and throwing something at a bunch of protesters that turns out is an improvised explosive device. The target of his statement is the person who is intended recipient of improvised explosive device. He is the problem, according to Zoramdani. What are we doing here?

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing. So what is critical is if you're like the mayor of a city, there's a lot of chaos, especially for a town which has been targeted for terrorism so many times. And the information he puts out as he says this is the takeaway he wants you to get is white supremacists are protesting outside of his house. What followed was even more disturbing. It was violence at the protest. He doesn't name who did the protest or who did the violence.

[Physician Guest]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Who is causing this danger to New Yorkers. He's not giving any information that might be useful to the millions of people of New York City. He's not like, at that time, video is already out of a guy yelling Allah Akbar, throwing a bomb. He's not letting New Yorkers know anything except, so I'm the victim of bigotry. There's no place for that in New York City. I'm monitoring the situation. Unbelievable.

[Host/Moderator]

Wouldn't you be if somebody threw an IED at your house and they yelled Alu Akbar as they did it? Wouldn't you be like, you know, Islamic extremism seems like it's a real problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Or just imagine. Imagine the surreal situation if you were just your average New Yorker participating in a protest that is saying radical Islam is a problem. Somebody throws an IED at you, and then the mayor, in which the city you live says, oh, this was a protest of white supremacy and bigotry. Like, if you become the problem, like, get out of that city. I'm sorry, New Yorkers, I love you. Get the hell out of there. Those people hate you.

[Host/Moderator]

They do. I mean, but he's not alone. There's another former New York City Brad

[John Ashbrook]

Lander who is a menace from Brooklyn.

[Host/Moderator]

So this guy is well known in New York politics, right? I mean, this is somebody that you're probably not going to know.

[John Ashbrook]

He's my former councilman. An absolute maniac.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, so is his post in graphic 8. Happy to know that our mayor and first lady are safe. They were never the targets, by the way. But horrified that there was such a disturbing threat of violence outside their residence, vile displays of Islamophobia will never be tolerated in our city. End of statement.

[Michael Duncan]

End of statement.

[John Ashbrook]

He is the Norm MacDonald joke. That's it right there. I mean, he's like, so a guy shouts Allah Akbar, throws a bomb. There's no place for Islamophobia in this. Are you for real New Yorkers? They never will wake up to it. I'm so glad I left that place. New Yorkers would rather have Islamic extremists. It's gonna be the 25th anniversary of 911 throwing bombs on their street. As long as they can be like, well, you know, at least I'm not an Islamophobic bigot. Yeah, I may be killed by an ied, but goodness, I don't want anyone to ever think I'm a bigot.

[Host/Moderator]

Think of the brain damage you have to have in order to formulate that logic. It's not enough to just say it out loud. Like, saying it out loud takes it to another level. But if your first iteration of like, all right, here are the facts. Yeah, somebody. Ellahalu Akbar. They threw an IED at a protest. It thankfully didn't go off and kill thousands of people. But you know that it all happened out of Mamdani's house. And he's like, oh, thank God for Mom. Donnie, what was the protest? And they're like, well, these people had a problem with radical Islam. Well, who? The victim or the perpetrator? The victim. Okay, well, they're. They're clearly the. That there's your problem.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like an SNL skit.

[NetChoice Representative]

It is.

[John Ashbrook]

It's ridiculous, and I'll still do comedy, but.

[Michael Duncan]

But, like, the reality is we're attributing much more than what it simply is, which is just lying on purpose, obfuscating reality to serve their political agenda, which is just. It's so sad and pathetic. And that's the reason why every new worker who's A common sense person needs to get out of that city.

[Host/Moderator]

See, I, that's the truth. I totally agree.

[Michael Duncan]

It's suicidal empathy. You can't do anything about it.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the embodiment of suicidal empathy. This is. You are seeing. It's one thing for the media to do this because we know they've been lying bastards, the American people. You look at the American people's opinion of the media, they don't trust them for shit. And it's because of reasons like this. But you see public officials, Zoram Hamdani, you see this clown Brad Lander, who ostensibly your job is to serve the public and to do everything in your power to essentially lie to them and misdirect them. And very clearly what this is doing is making them less safe if they don't even know the threat that they're facing. It's unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you know, Mamdani was the son of wealthy, successful parents. I mean, maybe these terrorists were, you know, maybe they grew up in poor circumstances.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, you would think. So you do a little investigation. And by the way, we're going to have the deputy AG Top Blanche talk about this later in the show. But they've done immediate investigation into all of this. You might think, well, we get a couple of terrorists in here, maybe like downtrodden poor, the, you know, they're just down on their luck. They have no choice. They've turned to radical Islam. Graphic 9 is the home of one of the alleged terrorists, Ibrahim Koumi. Yeah, it's a house and it's his parents house.

[John Ashbrook]

Does it still qualify as just a house when it's 6,000 square feet?

[Host/Moderator]

6,000 square feet.

[John Ashbrook]

What point does it become a mansion?

[Host/Moderator]

It's in suburban Philadelphia and over a $2 million residence where they apparently, I mean, look, this guy went and radicalized himself and did all this other stuff. You're telling me that somebody that grew up in that neighborhood, nobody is like, hey, maybe we should keep an eye on this cat that's just like flown to the Middle east two or three times and talked about Alu Akbar and all that stuff. Like, no, we're too PC to do that.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I say something? So it really seems like there was a lot of discussion. So there was a video this past weekend that kind of went viral on X where it was an interview with a former KGB official who was discussing the useful idiots that they worked to foster around the world. He was like, you'd look for like professors, the highly educated, the wealthy, because you find a class of these people to Be your useful idiots.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, contrarian morons essentially.

[John Ashbrook]

And what you do is you get these people to think that oh, you know, I want to be a Marxist revolutionary like you're seeing at these college campuses. And how much of Zoram Dani's administration is all just like Ivy League people from wealthy families who are like, it's time for the working class to rise up and seize the means of production. And you see this terrorist kid from a two and a half million dollar house and it's these people who feel like they have to be the vanguard of the uprising and revolutionaries.

[Michael Duncan]

It's the same as it ever was, you know, from side Khudab to Ayman Al Zawahiri to Osama bin Laden, all of them extremely wealthy. Terrorism, like far left wing radicalism are luxury beliefs. It is never the working class and the downtrodden who are the vanguard. It's these lunatics in their ivory towers and academia or people who are very, very, very wealthy who have time all day to talk about how they want to remake the world.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep, that's really good point, bud.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. Well look, it's particularly interesting to an awful lot of Americans who are extremely concerned that the conflicts in the Middle East, Iran foremost amongst them. There was some news about sleeper cells from Iran being activated. And when you have 20 million people that just walked over our border in the last four years, you can get a little sensitive about something like that. Well, how do Democrats respond? We haven't covered this enough on the program in large part because it's been sort of scripted in and wrote and there's not a lot of news. But a couple of weeks ago, Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security. This is the, the post 911 agency created out of the 911 report, a suggestion that would help sort of integrate all the various agencies that are supposed to keep you safe in this country, whether it's from immigration related issues, terrorist related issues, all these things. That's their primary job. Well, of course because of ICE in Minnesota, Democrats decided we're going to shut this thing down. Shut it, like shut it down? No, no. Government funding, which is an unbelievable thing at any point, it is incredibly striking to do it at a moment of war where there's a hot or going on in the Middle east of which American service members are involved and some have lost their lives. And then you have articles about sleeper cells being ignited and you have the data knowing that there are 20 million people who came in here who, we don't know exactly who they are or where they are. Imagine that set of facts and then being so committed to this weird progressive. Like, anybody who's enforcing the laws that have been on the books for four generations in America is evil. And if you don't stop enforcing that law, I'm gonna shut all of it down to make American people that much more vulnerable. That is the take that they have.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I tell you, there was video that came out after those terrorists tried throwing those bombs in New York City of the libs who are out there shouting at the nypd.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Be like, get out of here. After they had just saved them from a. Literally just saved them from a terrorist attack. You had lips shouting at the nypd, telling them to get out of there.

[Michael Duncan]

Zoram Mandani, in his statement, calls him the brave men and women of our nypd. He wants to defund the nypd.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. Well, he said it like.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like everything that they do is a fucking lie.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, it's. But it's. Look, I don't want to be hyperbolic about this, but if you've got a bunch of people who know better, and I know that Chuck Schumer, who is an absolute idiot, who is not long for the political world, in that he's being run out by a progressive left. I know he knows that defunding Homeland Security at a time of war has grave implications for the safety and security of the American people and people of New York, frankly, the people he represents. I know he knows that. And I know two thirds of the United States Senate Democrats know that. And they're uncomfortable with it. But they're being led around by the tie by progressive leftists who have a guy use his shoulders as a fricking pole vault to throw an IED at people to try to explode them that immediately apologize for only the fact that the people who were the intended victims existed. Right. I mean, how can you not come to the conclusion that if they're not inviting terrorist attacks on the United States, they're at least complicit?

[John Ashbrook]

And can I tell you my greatest fear, which ties all. Everything what we've discussed together, is that in this time, our country is so vulnerable to a horrific terrorist attack. And you talk about how the Department of Homeland Security, all this sprung from the things that we Learned from the 911 Commission of How we should have an agency that works with, like, the FBI, dni, all these people to make sure that actionable intel is being actioned

[Michael Duncan]

upon, shared and shared.

[John Ashbrook]

And my greatest fear is that we do have a terrorist attack in this country. And what will end up happening is then the Democrats and the media, who's

[Host/Moderator]

they'll try to blame them.

[John Ashbrook]

They'll be like, under Trump administration, wait, it's already happening. A terrorist attack has occurred. And the media would write it up as, wow, look at Donald Trump not keeping the homeland safe. There will be not a word about how Democrats have shut down DHS and any of that because they want Americans to see their viewpoint and to go with the left wing talking points. And that's why people like Schumer have to go along with the radical left.

[Michael Duncan]

We already had that shooting in Austin, Texas. The Senegalese immigrant who was wearing the property of a law shirt and underneath that, a shirt with the Iranian flag. We had the bomb scare on the southwest side. Kansas City. Kansas City. And now we have this. So, like it's right here. It's at our doorstep. And the fact that the media isn't holding the Democrats accountable, I'm not exactly shocked. But how is DHS still defunded?

[Host/Moderator]

That's why it's also, you just have to come to as a listener, look, a lot of these are partisan fights and you just, that's what happens in federal politics. But you have to just sort of grapple with the idea that these people hate the President United States more than they want to do their jobs to keep you safe. And they're only there as a representative or a senator representing you in the United States Senate because of that. Like their fundamental job is to keep you safe. The secondary is to provide services in a array of issues. All of that in the current context of today's politics has taken a distant second place to opposing Donald Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

And in a time of war, you can defund the Department of Homeland Security. If you can do that, you will basically say no to anything that could help the American people at any curve. It doesn't matter where it's elections related, immigration related, environmentally related. You know, all of these things are to be opposed if Donald Trump wants it, regardless of whether it makes you and your family and your community and your state a better place. And that is a hell of a place to be. That is a midterm message that I think Republicans need to drive here and God hope that we don't have anything tragic that puts an exclamation point on it. Because these people, this is what they're dedicated to, political opposition. As if we're all playing games here. I don't think it's a game for the people in Austin. Doesn't seem like it to Me, the people that were killed by an Islamic extremist. It's certainly not a game to all the people who had to rush out of the Kansas City airport or the people who got improvised explosive devices exploded within their proximity. These things are real life things. And yet the highest echelons of the Democratic party are treating it as though it's a debate in the town square.

[John Ashbrook]

You're right, dude. Right on.

[Host/Moderator]

It's wild. Anyway, all that is pretty dark stuff, but it is what it leads to. Our question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we read all of your comments and we get back to the very next episode. This question is give us your best lib journo headline about the attack in New York City. We missed some. We just did three. But also like, if you want to put your creative hat on.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

If you were just like a stand up comic and you had the editorial sort of say that the New York Times, how would you have framed what they're going to do if you want a total leftist take?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I miss Norm MacDonald because man, he'd have a lot of material to work with.

[Host/Moderator]

He would.

[Josh Holmes]

We have a lot of funny people in our audience and I think that we're gonna some real bangers in response to this question. But I do not think that anybody will submit a headline that the left will not take and write themselves.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, we know that they defy the comedic standards.

[Host/Moderator]

They do, they really do. All right, well, it is enough to drive you to drink. And when you do, you always want to take a zbiotics first. I got to tell you about the game changing product that I use before a big night out. It's a pre alcohol drink called Zbiotics. And the fellas here, we've all tested it out a lot. It's based on science, right? Smoke.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, that's the thing is I've gone. Whenever we have a show on the road, I always pack some zbiotics because it's not only good to not have to deal with feeling awful after a big night, it's even better to let all your friends know you're the reason they're not having a bad morning after going out. So I hand out zebiotics before we go out to everybody who hasn't tried it. Will Kate remember that when we were at the Patriot Awards, I hand it to everybody and I'm like, now when you go out and you have drinks, you first drink the Zbiotics and you're gonna feel amazing. In the morning.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, because everybody thinks, you know, you feel bad the next day because you're dehydrated. Oh, I didn't eat enough. I didn't drink enough. No, it's because the alcohol, once metabolized into your gut, produces this toxic byproduct, Zebiotics. Knocks it right out.

[Josh Holmes]

That's why we always say there's no tomorrow without ZBiotics today.

[Host/Moderator]

Exactly right. Smash Masherton. So you go to ZBiotics.com ruthless and you learn more, and you get 15% off of your first order. When you use Ruthless at the checkout, Zebiotics is back with 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, the refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com ruthless and use the code ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. All right, you boys ready for a lightning round? I love this so much. So if you've been online at all since the Texas primary, there's something for everything out of this Tal Rico character. Democrats nominated this guy because they're like, oh, man, he's so talented. And it continues. Like, there was a New York Times profile over the weekend, all this stuff. It was like, oh, he's just so talented. He's so good. He's the. And like, nobody has actually done a little research to see what it is that this guy.

[John Ashbrook]

I tried. I tried telling everyone. I said, if you. I told. Try telling Jasmine Crockett on the show. And I was like, if someone actually digs into this, there's so many skeletons in this guy's closet. We got a hell of a skeleton today.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, this one's pretty good. Clip six, please.

[John Ashbrook]

Something that you love that's not family or friends, I love. I'm just saying this because it's on my mind. The trans children who showed up yesterday

[Host/Moderator]

at the state capitol to advocate for their humanity, they shouldn't have to. But it was an inspiration to watch. Dude, just think. Just think about this. Something you love that's not your family. Ah, you know, get sunsets, you love fishing, pizza, football. Love your dog. You love football, you love pizza. This cat came up with trans kids. Trans kids is the top of my Anything in the world. Anything in the world.

[John Ashbrook]

And remember Schumer tried to tell everyone, this is Joe Six Pack. This is the everyday. I know Democrats have lost election after election because rerun weirdos. We're have someone that everybody can relate to, and they're like, what do you like? He says, Trans kids.

[Michael Duncan]

So the two. There's two ways to read this, right? Like, number one, super fucking weird that you would just say trans kids is the thing you love. But what I find also very interesting is that he can't, to your point, Holmes, like, name a single hobby. Like, name something normal. And like a robot. He's like, input question, last campaign event, trans kids. And, like, that's the thing he says that he loves. It's like, I don't think he's really ready for the bright lights.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I don't think so either. Because it would be so easy for a politician running in Texas to say something like barbecue or football, like, the obvious thing. But, like, I think Duncan hit on the reason why this guy went straight to the top of Dem preferences in a primary, because not only is he on the trans kids thing, but he has been lockstep on abortion in every pot for years. And, I mean, you can see, I've seen it on Twitter, there's like 10 years of footage of him sticking up for. On for the abortion issue and, like, wedging it into every conversation. So he is a doctrinaire, hardened leftist, and they know that he's already sent the signals and they're like, okay, well, you can act however you want in this campaign. We know you're with us.

[Host/Moderator]

Which again, it goes back to our first segment. I mean, this is what these people do. They're doctrinaire. It doesn't matter how they sound or how they look or where they're from. The way the Democrats look at it is that, hey, it's a young white guy who speaks about the Bible. End of story. He's gonna have to be a good sale.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[Host/Moderator]

Right. Never mind the fact that the only thing that comes to mind when he's asked what he loves is trans kids. Are you kidding me? Like, I would say 70 plus percent of the American people would think the idea of trans kids is like, what are you doing here? Our whole argument that conservatives have fundamentally won over the last couple of years is the idea that politicians and doctors trying to take the confusion of prepubescent children and medically alter them for the rest of their lives is not something that society is interested in doing. Yeah, we have fundamentally answered that question.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's just so macabre. It's like, the thing I love most is all those mutilated children.

[Host/Moderator]

That's what I love.

[Michael Duncan]

Who we exploited for our political agenda. Yeah, that's a sick thing. He's a sick guy.

[Host/Moderator]

That's a sick thing.

[John Ashbrook]

And He's a dishonest guy. Which is what we should also.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So we also are going to bring.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, listen, this is a big, you know, we never hesitate on the ruthless variety program to pat ourselves on the back.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Host/Moderator]

And we were early on this one. The whole Colbert thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep. We called it and we told everyone this way before told it.

[Host/Moderator]

We were on this stuff, we're on this stuff. So if you listen, you knew this beforehand, but now it is out there. And there have been many pieces. Mediaite has done one where Talarico knew his interview with Stephen Colbert would never air on TV before he flew to New York City last month. But the Texas Democrat and Senate candidate and his team were betting the late show host would complain that the Trump administration had censored his appearance.

[Josh Holmes]

So it was just a bet.

[Michael Duncan]

It was a bet.

[Host/Moderator]

They were betting.

[Michael Duncan]

He didn't know that for sure. 100%.

[Host/Moderator]

They were just. It's a. Why, you know, put your chips some red or black and we'll see how they. They were correct. And it spurred a ton of liberals to donate to his campaign. According to report from the New York Times. The Times actually did some good reporting on this. The report stated started off by talking about the days leading up to Tel Rico's much publicized appearance on Colbert. They said days before the trip, Colbert's producers told them the network, nervous about federal regulators, would only post the interview online. And the Talarico campaign had a choice. Cancel the trip and crow about how the Trump administration was trying to muzzle them of which by the way, the Trump administration had no interaction. This was internal lawyers at CBS concerned that they would not comply with regulations that have been on the books for generations.

[John Ashbrook]

They said that like if the CBS people were like, if we do this, we also have to find equal time for Jasmine Crockett because that's the law.

[Host/Moderator]

It had nothing to do with the Trump administration. Had everything to do with not wanting to put jazzy jazz on the thing which we are all told you about. And nobody wanted to talk about or say nothing and film the segment and hope Mr. Colbert would tell his audience the story of federal interference. Well, turns out he got both. He got both. When he showed up, they both, they did a three day run up about how he was disenfranchised by the Trump administration. Then Colbert did the thing on air about how you weren't gonna see him because the Trump administration and then they posted online and used it as a fundraising vehicle for their preferred Democratic candidate who beat out Jazzy jazz, I believe

[Michael Duncan]

at the time we said it was like drawing a foul better than LeBron James or rolling around like one of those European soccer players.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And it says here in the New York Times, it says the YouTube clip gained more than 9 million viewers. Donations poured in. Internal campaign polling by his opponent showed the ground shift in Mr. Talarico's direction.

[Host/Moderator]

Oh, so weird. So it's almost like Colbert used his platform on federally regulated broadcast airwaves in conjunction with Chuck Schumer and the DSCC and the Tel Rico campaign to provide an edge for a particular candidate.

[Josh Holmes]

Never would have expected that from Colbert. I mean, that video of him dancing with Chuck Schumer, I just never did. Nobody saw it coming.

[Host/Moderator]

Nobody saw it coming. I mean, it is exactly what you think it is.

[John Ashbrook]

And folks were making this point this last weekend of. It used to be like 10 years or 20 years where we find out that, oh, the public, it turns out, was played and lied to. And now it was just like two weeks after. Two weeks after we found out that essentially Talarico's campaign, Chuck Schumer, Colbert, all work together to just pull the wool over the public's eyes and create this fake life. Like, oh, it's the Trump administration. They're willing to spike the football two weeks later.

[Host/Moderator]

Amazing how the New York Times always comes to these conclusions three weeks after it matters.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, this is an invitation. They're telling every other candidate, hey, if you want an opportunity such as the one we provided James Tallarico, just do and say what James does.

[Host/Moderator]

It reminds me of all of them saying, like, you know what, that Hunter Biden, that was the laptop.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Host/Moderator]

Three months after the election.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's like that move with the one about the subprime.

[Michael Duncan]

Big short, big short. He goes like, they're not bragging. They're not confessing. They're bragging.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it. That's what this is.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like they got away with the crime and now they want everyone to know that they did it on purpose.

[Host/Moderator]

We did it.

[Michael Duncan]

We did it on purpose.

[Host/Moderator]

We done it deliberate. Yeah, we done it deliberate. All right, old man, listen. You are a resident expert at beating politicians and beer chugging contest. You do it every time we do some kind of a live event. I think we got somebody who's gonna provide a show that is comparable to what it is that you do. Clip 7. No way.

[John Ashbrook]

No way. So for our audio only, folks, he's chugging a beer through his nose. No way. He had a pretty good clip.

[Josh Holmes]

How do you do that at A pretty good clip.

[Host/Moderator]

Like we're talking about a smaller orifice there than a mouth. And he took it down fairly quickly, but took it down through his nose, which I'm not sure.

[John Ashbrook]

Physiologically it seems so extremely painful.

[Michael Duncan]

It checks out biologically because. Yeah, because your nasal cavity is connected to your throat. I mean, that's how you breathe.

[Josh Holmes]

I guess he wouldn't get a sinus infection from that because of the alcohol. I think it sterilizes.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice.

[Host/Moderator]

Give it a couple of squirts of Afrin afterwards just to wash things through.

[Michael Duncan]

I think you might want to.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, so this is a tragic story, but it just represented the liberal left in their jurisdiction within cities so perfectly that we had to bring it to you. This is from ktla. Man stabbed to death by a homeless man while charging an EV at an LA library. Responding ambulance stolen by another homeless man.

[John Ashbrook]

Like this. So this is a horrific, horrific, tragic event that happened in Los Angeles, but it basically is like Los Angeles in a nutshell. You had a guy, just a normal guy, who's charging his Tesla next to a library. Well, a homeless guy jumps out, stabs him up, right? So now the guy is laying on the ground bleeding.

[Host/Moderator]

Somebody calls 911. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

An ambulance shows up. EMTs start working on him, are like, okay, let's put him in the ambulance. We gotta get him to the hospital soon. Another, a separate homeless guy has jumped in the ambulance, stolen and driven away. The guy dies right there. And now his family, I think, rightfully is suing the city of LA for 40 million in damages.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen to something that I just noticed in this story. And it goes to liberal Democrats passing the blame to something else. They are never at fault. Prosecutors said the ambulance was not equipped with the Tremco anti theft system, which is typically installed in many police and emergency responder vehicles that will lock the gear shifter when the vehicle is left running. How about you just clean up the homeless problem? How many billions of dollars has California spent on homeless people? And can't they just hire more police? I mean, this is what. When Democrats say defund police, when Democrats ruined cities, this is the consequence.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, because when you think you.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not because they didn't get the right tech on the ambulance.

[Michael Duncan]

You think you move to a liberal jurisdiction in a major metropolitan area, but the reality is you have just moved to Grand Theft Auto.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, the video game, it's a PvP server.

[Host/Moderator]

It's literally unbelievable. The paramedics themselves said that every moment mattered and that his only realistic chance of Survival was a quick transport. Couldn't happen because another homeless person stole their ambulance. I. Dude, where is never.

[John Ashbrook]

It's never. LA will never be fixed, I guess,

[Josh Holmes]

because Democrats will literally never take the blame on themselves. They will never take responsibility for anything. This is why all these cities fall apart, because they don't actually have leaders who want to solve problems. I mean, this is. This is true. Not just of Karen Bass in LA and not just of Gavin Newsom statewide in California, but in every single city in that state. It seems like they have problems just

[Michael Duncan]

like this because the paramedic didn't use the lojack on the ambulance.

[Josh Holmes]

Remember when Democrats blamed Kias for stealing themselves? It's the same thing. And then you tweet about it and all the libs are like, no, it really was Kia's problem because it was so easy to break into. It's never like, what about the people stealing the car?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, of course, you don't jail them.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. At one point, I think the mayor in the city council of D.C. before Trump was in office, provided advice on how not to get carjacked, rather than trying to crack down on the carjacking.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Host/Moderator]

You know, I mean, it's just. It's what they do. Listen, we're in a political ad, fellas. Do you know this?

[Josh Holmes]

I did not know this.

[John Ashbrook]

I saw it this weekend. I saw a screenshot of it.

[Michael Duncan]

I saw it on Twitter.

[Host/Moderator]

So this is a guy running in Georgia congressional district 14 named Clay Fuller. Clip 8.

[Todd Blanche]

A big development and a big race. President Donald Trump, he has weighed in with his endorsement.

[Josh Holmes]

Republican Clay Ford, MAGA prosecutor and Air

[Host/Moderator]

Force veteran Clay Fuller will fight tirelessly, keep our borders secure and defend our Second Amendment.

[Todd Blanche]

Hell, yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

This March 10th vote for the only

[Josh Holmes]

candidate with President Trump's complete and total endorsement.

[Host/Moderator]

Clay Fuller for Congress, Conservatives for American Excellence. I mean, Fuller tossing in the Ruthless. For those of you who are audio only, there was a picture of him holding up a. A sign next to his R on his shirt that just said Ruthless. We didn't miss it. Hell, yeah, we didn't miss it. Fantastic stuff. Look at that. Look at that.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't want to be biased, but he seems like the right guy for the job.

[Host/Moderator]

Seems like the right guy for the job. And all you have to do is give us a name check or two, and we'll take you under advisement for full and complete endorsement for the Ruthless variety program. So thank you to Fuller. You have it. All right, when we come back, we're going to get to our Big interview with the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanch. We're very excited about this interview. It's not often you get the number two over at the Department of Justice to stroll on in. We're excited to get to know him a little bit. Todd. Blanche. How are you, sir?

[Todd Blanche]

I'm great. Thank you for having me on. It's good to be here.

[Host/Moderator]

Seems like you're busy.

[Todd Blanche]

This is my first podcast, so. Yeah, yeah, we are busy.

[John Ashbrook]

Finally.

[Host/Moderator]

Finally getting the opportunity to come out and tell some stories.

[Todd Blanche]

Yes.

[Host/Moderator]

Well, we're not going to make Butch get you in trouble, but a little bit about the latest news that's come out. The, you know, attempted terror attacks in New York. I understand the Attorney General on Monday had some things to discuss regarding indictments of two individuals involved. What can you tell us about all that?

[Todd Blanche]

Just that. So, look, it's. It's a great. It's an example of law enforcement working together quickly to identify now, now two guys who have been arrested, charged federally for. For what they did over the weekend. And it's a sad but real place of where we are right now. And so we. We learned about it as it was happening. The Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York is really the best in the business. They work with the nypd, work with state and locals, and very quickly identify. I mean, if you saw over the weekend, there was a lot of reports of search warrants, which doesn't look, that's a lot of work, happens quickly, and judges are involved to try to keep us safe. And those two guys were arrested, and we'll see what happens.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, Johnny, I know you've focused an awful lot of this with open borders for years. It's not directly applicable in this case, but the threat of terrorism based on not knowing who's all in your country has been something you've talked about.

[Josh Holmes]

One of the things that the Biden administration did is they let people flow over the border. Everybody knows about that. Another thing they did is spend their time at the Department of Justice focused on political prosecutions and not on taking down some of these terror cells that have sort of flourished. I think. I mean, this is just my own opinion, but, you know, we talked to Tom Homan, we've talked to others who've said there are terror cells within the United States, some of whom came over during the Biden administration. So I wonder if, you know, all of the work that you've done to clean up the messes from the Biden administration, if you got, you know, how are you guys tackling these Prosecutions and going after some of these, like high propensity. Right.

[Host/Moderator]

Problematic potential terrorism.

[Todd Blanche]

Look, you're totally right that, that the obvious risk as a country we have, when you have open borders is, is men will come in who want to kill us. And they came in unchecked for four years. And there's a lot of undocumented illegal aliens in this country. Not every one of them is a terrorist and none of them can be here. But how do you focus and make sure that you're prioritizing the ones that are going to harm, potentially try to harm us? And the way that you do it is old fashioned law enforcement. And you're right, the Biden administration was not focused on that. And so it's working with state and locals. It's knowing, hey, there's a guy that's. Tips come in all the time. That's how many of our cases that ultimately result in terrorism charges. We get those through tips. Whether it's intelligence or whether it's just people that see suspicious people doing, acting, acting something that doesn't make sense. And it's a priority. Keeping the homeland safe is the most important thing to President Trump. Always has been, always will be. And so that's what we. Our number one priority, no matter what anybody says, no matter what anybody talks about with what we're doing at the Department of Justice is keeping Americans safe. And so terrorism and stopping terrorists is a big part of that. And can I dive into that just for a second?

[Host/Moderator]

Because I think, look, there are a lot of good people at the Department of Justice, FBI career folks who've been doing a lot of good work for a lot of different years, but the administration's priorities obviously change, and this one in particular obviously change. Do you feel like the zeal by which a Biden administration, for example, was focused on trying to keep our homeland safe with some, you know, prosecutions or at least investigations into people who came over our border that are highly likely to be problematic. We're sort of shelved at any level because it feels like it does from the outside. We never heard anything about any of this for years. And now all of a sudden we're getting a whole new ration for reasons

[Todd Blanche]

that are only that administration's. They did not focus on what we're focused on when it comes to protecting the homeland. And I don't know why that's even a Republican or Democrat issue. It's irrational. Like, you can fight with us on budget. If you want to fight the way we're enforcing immigration laws, go for it. But why we would ever complain or object to protecting the homeland is insane. And you're talking about money, you're talking about resources, actual money devoted to joint terrorism task forces and to the FBI and to DHS into the U.S. attorney's offices. You're talking about priorities. And so the Biden administration prioritized all kinds of investigations overseas that had nothing to do with the homeland, had nothing to do with America. And those investigations cost money. They cost agents, they cost prosecutors. And every time a prosecutor is working on that, he's not or she's not working on what we're talking about here. And we've come 180 that and just made it a priority. We have cases going on constantly. I mean, last year we charged more defendants with terrorism related charges than the Biden administration did in two years. We did that between, in 11 months. And that's not because all of a sudden it got less safe. To the contrary.

[Host/Moderator]

You're just doing it.

[Todd Blanche]

We just did it. Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So just to broaden it out beyond terrorism charges, there's been a huge crime reduction effort under President Trump. And you see a lot of the stats on violent crime and stuff, and it seems like all that's working. What can you tell us about the efforts of DOJ as part of that process?

[Todd Blanche]

Listen, it's not talked about enough. It's not talked about every day like it should be, that we are reducing violent crime in this country. Ways that have been seen for years and years and years. And it comes from everything from D.C. where we all live, where we are right now, to where it's just, you know, it used to, it's called, whatever you want to call it, broken windows policing. It's just being on the streets, letting law enforcement be there, doing their jobs. To Memphis, where we've, we've saw massive reductions in murders and people who have illegal guns and rapes. And that's in just a very short period of time. And then, then you have the FBI, dea, Marshals, atf, dhs, every single day arresting bad guys, arresting robbers, drug dealers. And again, I don't want to sit here and knock the last four years because we're a year in, so this is our game now. But we did come into a situation where there was not the focus on stopping illegal drugs, stopping the distributor, stopping the drug dealers on the street corners, stopping the, the small arm robberies. So a jewelry store gets robbed, that's a federal crime, it's not a state crime, it's a federal crime. And no attention paid to that, or very little attention paid to that. And so we're seeing extraordinary results in blue states, red states, rural communities, Indian country, big cities. And it's. You know, we yell it from the rooftops. But it's much easier to complain about, oh, you're being really mean on immigration than to actually say, look what we're doing to stop to bring the murder rate down.

[Host/Moderator]

How much do you think is psychological with state and local police knowing that they have a federal government who has their back on doing their jobs? Because I think we got to a point over the last. During the Biden administration, certainly everything after George Floyd, where it was unclear about whether or not the federal government was more interested in prosecuting the police officer or the criminal.

[Todd Blanche]

Listen, the vice president said on your show, said something that I think is totally true. The very basic way we make our streets safe is by making sure law enforcement know that we have their back. And, you know, it's everything from me going and talking to a sheriff's association, and afterwards they say, you know what? Thank you for showing up. Nobody showed up for the past four years from the federal. From the Department of Justice. Oh, thank you for saying you have our backs. So that's where we are in this country. The mere fact that the deputy attorney general says, guys, we have your backs. They're gonna just say, thank, thank, thank you. That's so generous. That's not generous.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Todd Blanche]

That's not nice. So I don't think. Anyway, yes, there is. It is. It is every day, the attorney general, myself, all of our leadership, scream from the top of our lungs that we love. We back the blue, that we support local law enforcement, that we support our feds. Yeah. It's not just locals. It's all of our 1811 federal agencies putting their lives on the line every day. And I think it's true that if you're. It's just like your job or my job, if everywhere you go people say they don't like you, it's gonna wear on you. Like, you can't say, it doesn't bother me. Yes, it does. It does bother you. Okay. As opposed to the opposite, where you have cops who go through a community and they're appreciated, and the kids come up to them and say, I want to be you when I grow up. That's what we should be striving for in this country. And that's dumb thing to say, because. Of course it is. But I have to say that because that's not what we did for many years.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we're into reiterating the plain and obvious.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, let's just state the obvious over and over again. Cops are good. Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Speaking of the plain and obvious, you mentioned a lot of things that the Biden administration was doing wrong where you have have turned 180 degrees. One of the things that they overlooked for all four years was fraud. And we always joke with our dear friend from Minnesota.

[Host/Moderator]

This has been a fun topic conversation for the last.

[Todd Blanche]

Never stop noticeably absent today.

[Josh Holmes]

His home state has been center stage in a lot of the conversation about fraud. But we all know that this is going on all over the place. And you were saying right before we started that you guys are launching a brand new division or a new office inside of DOJ to go after this.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, you're totally right. That it's a massive problem that nobody wants to talk about because it's not fun to talk about. Fraud, Medicaid fraud. All right. If you bring that up at a cocktail party, everybody's going to walk away.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Host/Moderator]

Okay. You know what I mean?

[Todd Blanche]

But you know, spreadsheet.

[Host/Moderator]

Right?

[Todd Blanche]

Exactly. But the vice president has been talking about a. For months. The President's been talking about it and certainly we have been as well. And so.

[Host/Moderator]

Right.

[Todd Blanche]

We're setting up an entire new division. We're making a new assistant Attorney General to focus completely on the fraud problem. The fraud problem is insane. So imagine how fraud takes place in the federal system. It's mostly Medicaid, Medicare, some other program fraud. But there's a recent case that is a perfect example of how fraud takes place. Two guys from Pennsylvania sign up for benefits to run homeless shelters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They don't live there. Okay. They dub themselves as like the housing guys. Housing dudes, I think. And they register for all these programs. They then go to Minneapolis and they find people who are homeless, get them to sign some paperwork, apply, saying that they're giving these guys all kinds of benefits. All kinds of programs at the end get, I think, six, $4 million. Now a $4 million fraud. That's not Bernie Madoff. Okay. But that's just two dudes.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Todd Blanche]

Just driving from Philly to Minneapolis ripping us off. Your money, my money. Ripping us off. And nobody cared.

[Host/Moderator]

And you compounded a thousand times.

[Todd Blanche]

Nobody cares like this. The fraud is extraordinary. There's all kinds of fraud. For example, school lunch program fraud. We just give money away like candy, as we should, to the most deserving, to the kids who need it to make sure they can eat when they go to school. And you have these daycare centers and you have these schools that do not exist and there is no check on them. So we get a. The feds get a bill, hey, can you send us 2.9 million this month? Because we have this many thousand kids that we paid for for their lunches. Turns out it's mostly made up.

[Host/Moderator]

That's unbelievable.

[Todd Blanche]

It's crazy.

[Host/Moderator]

It's so disheartening too. I mean, you consider taxes and where people think their money is going. And I would agree with you that the most deserving have been well articulated at this point. And I think there's large agreement that there are people who deserve federal assistance. But when you have at least a third of it, as it appears to me, going to people who just sort of made it up because the government's not checking on it. Yeah, that is so. So we're going to get to a point where you think this new deputy. We're going to get a fuller scope of what it is that we're doing.

[Todd Blanche]

So the goal is the feds, we prosecute fraud, but these cases take resources. They take a lot of time. So to discover the fraud, I just, I just talked about, think about the amount of work that has to go into the, you know, a handful of FBI agents or DHS agents working the case, sending grand jury subpoenas, putting it in grand jury.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, because you got to prove it in the court of law.

[Todd Blanche]

You got to prove it, you know, just to get a complaint. You have to, you have to prove

[Host/Moderator]

it in some dicey jurisdictions and some

[Todd Blanche]

dicey jurisdictions and some local governments that do not want to cooperate, they don't want to volunteer. They know that something fish is going on. And so, so anyway, so what, what the new fraud, what we're going to be focused on is no fraud too small and no fraud too large. So what. What we've seen is that the middle frauds. So the multimillion dollar frauds. U.S. attorney's offices are fr. DOJ focuses a lot on those and there's a lot of it. So there's no days off. But what we want to do is say if you steal $1,001, that's a felony in this country. And so if you steal $1,001, you are going to go to prison and you are going to have a felony. And if people actually believe that.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, it's a deterrent.

[Todd Blanche]

It's a massive deterrent.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, you're not going to go sign up in another state for some program if you think you're gonna go spend hard Time.

[Michael Duncan]

Because it's so brazen.

[Todd Blanche]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's like the fact people read these stories of how brazen it is. And you have to think, okay, if these two guys in Pennsylvania brazen enough to do this scheme, they must have heard from somebody else that this would work.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, we've all, you know, we've joked internally that the Mafia is like, wait a minute, it's that easy. We're making this complicated.

[Todd Blanche]

That's right.

[Host/Moderator]

We shake down. We don't have to break knees. This is great.

[Todd Blanche]

So, my God, just fill out. Well, the best thing is not to just stay on these two guys, but when they finally get some inquiries from, from the feds, hey, we have some questions about what you're putting in. They use chat, Chat GP to. To actually figure out how to answer them. So they then use just AI to answer the questions and be like, oh, yeah, we have, you know, and so

[Host/Moderator]

then think prompt is how do I answer this and not be guilty?

[Todd Blanche]

Yes, yes. Oh, that's, that's a pretty good answer. Let's see if the feds buy that. And it was so unchecked, they were, they weren't even sophisticated enough to have like a backup plan. They literally used AI to answer questions.

[Host/Moderator]

Todd, I gotta ask you because, I mean, look, this is a big job. You guys are busy as heck. You've got all kinds of jurisdictions and all kinds of things that you're worried about on a day to day basis. Did you ever think you're gonna be in this line of work?

[Todd Blanche]

No, man, I was just a president's lawyer, man. No, I mean, you clearly had a

[Host/Moderator]

love for the law very early on, pursued that all the way through.

[Todd Blanche]

Yes, yes.

[Host/Moderator]

But you know, at some point, probably early on, you knew you wanted to be a lawyer.

[Todd Blanche]

Yes, yes. Yeah. My first job out of college was a DOJ as a paralegal. I was a paralegal for a long time. I was a federal prosecutor in New York for a decade. And I love the Department of Justice. I love this job. I love the work. I love feeling like we're making a difference in our communities. And so this is the greatest job in the world. I mean, I love President Trump. I love working with the Attorney General. We get along great. We're working every single day together. But did I ever think. I didn't. When I was in night law school of Brooklyn with two little kids, I was like, someday I'll be the Deputy Attorney General. You just wait. You know, life is a way working out.

[Host/Moderator]

You put your head down right yeah,

[Todd Blanche]

you just got to keep your head down and, you know, you know, represent a guy charged with a bunch of crimes and you never know.

[Michael Duncan]

Federal prosecutor in New York. I have to imagine you saw some pretty wild stuff. What's the craziest case you prosecuted?

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Todd Blanche]

It's a great question. So the. The case that I think was the. The most insane, that I've said a few times before is when we solved a cold. A cold case murder. We had a guy come in and say that he had been part of a drug robbery, and he wanted to cooperate. And we said, well, what happened? Prove it. And he said that we committed the robbery, it went wrong, we shot the kid, and then we drove up to the Bronx and we threw these guns in the river, right? We went over this bridge. And so the FBI took him out, got a takeout order, take him out of prison, drove him up there. And the case agent happened to be on the FBI dive squad randomly. He just happened to be on the dive squad. And they said to the guy, all right, they gave him a brick and they kind of broke it in half. And they said, throw this bout where you guys threw the guns. And so he did. And the dive team went in and within like, 15 minutes, found two.

[Michael Duncan]

No way.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, true. And. And so then we arrested the participants, they went to trial, and the guy that actually, the guy that threw the guns didn't know that we had found the guns because we never told him because he was in jail, he was a witness. So he testifies. And the defense counsel was crossed him and was like, by the way you took him to find the guns? And, you know, they found the guns. And he was like, no, I didn't know that. That's crazy. And it's like the perfect kind of corroboration because, you know, he's a murderer, he's a bad guy. So how do you prove that someone like that is telling the truth? Right? You have to do, like, completely independent corroboration. And so anyway, those. So it was great. It was a hot case.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. Three points for the good guys.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, three points for the good guys. Every family man, I'll tell you, people talk about being a prosecutor. There's no bad case. Whether it's a very basic case, like a guy with a gun who's not allowed to have one, or a murder or a big fraud case. That's why I think the work that the department does is so meaningful, because every case is pretty cool in its own way. And I think every prosecutor will say that there's not a boring criminal trial. And so I'm not really a trial lawyer anymore. I'm just a manager. But the work that those men and women do around the country is not only rewarding and fun, but also really important.

[Host/Moderator]

All right, so three quick questions that we ask everybody who comes on for the first time. Your last meal on earth. If you can plan it, what would it be?

[Todd Blanche]

Because I know my wife's gonna watch anything she cooks.

[Host/Moderator]

You can't do that.

[Todd Blanche]

Come on. So it's fair question. I did think about it. I think at the end of the day, it's a cliche, but I would want a filet, medium rare with like a black peppercorn with some kind of like smashed potatoes. Yeah. And Brussels sprouts with probably honey on it.

[John Ashbrook]

There you go.

[Josh Holmes]

I like that.

[Host/Moderator]

Okay. All right, so second question is, you've accomplished a lot, clearly, all the way leading up to this. But at some point in somebody's life, if they encounter something that they're actually really good at, they just don't have the time to pursue. And in another life, they'd be like, I wanted to do that thing for you. What would that be?

[Todd Blanche]

So for me, it would definitely be playing hockey.

[Host/Moderator]

There you go. All right.

[Todd Blanche]

My father is from Hamilton, Ontario.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. All right.

[Todd Blanche]

Not Ohio.

[Host/Moderator]

And all of a sudden this guy lights up.

[Todd Blanche]

But. And he. He came to the United States to play hockey. He won two back to back national championships at University of Denver. Nice. And I was just going to be probably better than him, probably Gretzky level. And then when I was like 11, my dad moved to Louisiana and never played hockey again.

[Host/Moderator]

Are you serious? You just got the whole. You're like, well, I'm in the sec.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I guess I'm gonna.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Right?

[Todd Blanche]

I'm gonna play baseball. No way. Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

That's good.

[Todd Blanche]

But I love hockey. I love watching hockey. I think a hockey player's life like you, if you're playing for the Florida Panthers, you can golf in the morning.

[NetChoice Representative]

Yeah.

[Todd Blanche]

And then go play hockey at night. Like, it's just.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the dream.

[Todd Blanche]

It's really nice.

[Host/Moderator]

It's really nice. Really nice. It's really nice. That's great. All right, so question three. Our view is, in almost every buddy that's successful is motivated by one of two things. The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. And it's not that anybody doesn't like to win, not that anybody loves to lose. It's what motivates you to keep on going, right. To work a little bit harder Jordan is obviously the agony guy. We always say Phil Mickelson is kind of our thrill of victory type character. But knowing the sort of polls, where do you think you find yourself on that spectrum?

[Todd Blanche]

I'm definitely victory.

[Host/Moderator]

You're a victory guy.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, man. Definitely.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah. It's a 50. 50 split.

[Todd Blanche]

Totally. And there's a lot of, I think, motivational value in. In defeat. Right? I mean, of course. But yeah, I'm, I'm definitely.

[Host/Moderator]

I'm definitely, like, I think we can do that.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, we can. We're gonna do that.

[Michael Duncan]

That surprises me because I find most time we have lawyers in, they're usually agony and defeat guys. It's true, you know, because they got to plan out how they might lose a case.

[Host/Moderator]

Trial lawyers in particular are always like, no. When you look over across the dice, they're like, no way.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

That.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, no, no, that's. Listen, it is true. We're. It's built into our nature to be like, well, that might work, but it probably won't, you know, or like. Or when you're talking your job as a lawyer is to kind of give. You can't just say, don't worry, we're definitely going to win this. You. You have to say, like, well, we should win. But there's the following seven things could go wrong.

[Physician Guest]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

You kind of got to interrogate yourself.

[Todd Blanche]

You have to. You have to play devil's advocate every time you have a conversation with somebody. But I got. So, I mean, maybe I learned it from President Trump, but he's the same way. Like, he's like, we will win. Don't worry. I'm like, sure. It's. I don't know, it's not looking good. Like, no, no, no, we will win. And he's, you know, he's right. Like, I say to people all the time when I talk about representing the president and what it was like those two years and all the criminal cases and everything with the judges in New York and D.C. and then people will get, you know, you can. The mood of the room will get a little more solemn. But then I always say, but, you know, we won, so it's okay. Yeah, Everybody, everybody stand up. We won. You know, it's okay.

[Host/Moderator]

It had to be a wild experience.

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah.

[Host/Moderator]

I mean, just watching a full weaponized Department of Justice and State actors just coming full throat. It's crazy.

[Todd Blanche]

I mean, we don't have long enough to talk about it. Maybe I should come back. But they, it's when you talk, when somebody says today what President Trump is weaponizing doj, I look at them and I say, I mean, it's true. It wasn't one or two indictments or even three or four. They filed six indictments in four jurisdictions. So imagine there's not a criminal among us. El Chapo went to trial in one jurisdiction, and President Trump was flying from Palm beach to New York to D.C. back to Atlanta, and everybody was like, yeah, follow the facts. And then it's so obnoxious that people are now saying to us that we are weaponizing something. And, you know, you want to say to folks, just run over and look in the mirror for a minute.

[Host/Moderator]

Seriously, did everybody have amnesia?

[Todd Blanche]

Yeah, everybody has amnesia. I walk in the Oval sometimes, and half the people in there were either criminal defense attorneys because of the weaponization by the Department of Justice or were subjected to the folks that were doing it. And so, you know, we learned our lesson. Yeah. But, yeah, no, it was. It was the honor of my life, as I will always say. And, yeah, when you come back, we

[Host/Moderator]

don't want to dive deeper into that because I'm sure you've got a million incredible stories, but it's been a pleasure to get to know you. Todd Blanch, he's doing the Lord's work over at the Department of Justice. Thanks for joining us.

[Todd Blanche]

Thanks a lot, guys.

[Josh Holmes]

Appreciate it.

[Todd Blanche]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, some very interesting stuff there. Not just on how they're cracking down on terrorist sales within our country, but also the fraud that's rampant. And I'm really interested to see what comes out of this brand new department he's standing up.

[Host/Moderator]

Yeah, it seems significant to me in that they're doing something. I mean, it can't be easy within the confines of these big departments to do something unique and have a unique person in charge of a very specific task like fraud. But when you have the scale of the problem that Blanche was talking about here, you don't have any choices but to dedicate a lot of personnel and financing to try to crack down on it. It's really. Look, it's impressive. He's doing good work. Good dude. I'm glad he's there. I'm glad he's doing all of that stuff because it's. It's just super important. All right, so remember, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments and your commentary on our question of the day. It's what's your take? What's your best lib journo headline from the New York City deal? Be funny about this because we like that we do. And we tend to elevate those to the next program. So when you do that and you like and subscribe, good chance you get on the ruthless variety program on Thursday with that. Fellas, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Host/Moderator]

Sam.