Left-Wing Media Goes Totally Berserk After Charlie Kirk

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Left-Wing Media Goes Totally Berserk After Charlie Kirk
Date: September 18, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Podcast Description: Ruthless is a “variety progrum," providing sharp, irreverent conservative analysis—often with biting humor—on the news of the day and how the media shapes narratives.

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Overview

This episode centers around the aftermath of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, with the hosts dissecting the media’s reaction—particularly the ways in which mainstream outlets (ABC, MSNBC, CNN, etc.) have, in their view, distorted or sanitized the attacker's motives due to ideological bias. The hosts also criticize the left’s approach to violent acts by those on their own side, address the recent Luigi Mangione legal developments, and lampoon the broader media environment with their classic mixture of ridicule and pop cultural asides.

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Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. Media Reactions to the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

• The hosts open by lambasting ABC News’s portrayal of the Kirk assassin, mocking the network for focusing on the shooter's personal relationships instead of the political motive.
  • Michael Duncan (06:04): "What the fuck? …What an absolute idiot."
• The fellas argue these portrayals are tone-deaf and minimize the gravity of the crime.
• The concept of "public dysphoria" is invoked: the idea that news coverage is causing collective confusion and distress because of its detachment from reality.

2. Specific Criticism of ABC & Matt Gutman

• Josh Holmes (11:49): Reads Gutman’s apologetic statement, only to critique, "No, you made it clear. And that's the problem...your interpretation presented to 2.3 million people was fundamentally divorced from reality."
• Michael Duncan is unforgiving:
  • (12:23) "He should resign or be removed… How is that like a normal takeaway? …The FBI needs to look at his hard drive."

3. Broader Patterns: Leftist Violence & Media Downplay

• The hosts tie recent leftist violence (including the CEO murder by Luigi Mangione) to a pattern: perpetrators are excused or lionized, particularly online.
• Discussion on the AI spouse of Luigi Mangione:
  • Guest (14:34): "I'm married to Luigi's AI. I'm not kidding… It's like the future of romance."
  • Michael Duncan reframes it (15:44): "That's not mental illness. You're not crazy, you're just evil. You're wrong."
• Core argument:
  • The hosts stress that the left uses “antisocial ideology” to excuse or minimize violent acts when the perpetrators are leftist.

4. The Internet, Social Isolation, and Cult-Like Dynamics

• Smug (19:19): "All that technology does or social media is just like hold up a mirror to ourselves. How you choose to interact with that technology still says everything about you."
• The hosts compare leftist online subcultures to cults, with “brainwashed” followers unable to answer basic questions or engage rational arguments.
• Host (22:22): “Any cult in the history of our country… the exact same approach that the leftists of today sound.”

5. Media “Obfuscation” and the Willful Blurring of Truth

• They accuse the media—especially MSNBC’s Brandy Zadrozny and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins—of actively clouding the facts on the Kirk case and others, likening it to denialism.
• Smug (38:31): “They're not satisfied by the parents being like he said he hated Charlie Kirk… All it is is a political campaign to obfuscate the reality that this is left wing violence and make it something more obtuse…”

6. Hack Madness & Media Personalities (MSNBC, CNN, and more)

• The Hack Madness bracket is invoked to identify the “worst” and most egregious journalists/commentators fueling misinformation, with Brandy Zadrozny of MSNBC as a top offender.
  • She’s accused of manufacturing narratives to distract from clear motives in the Kirk case and of doxing Trump supporters.
  • Michael Duncan (28:30): “This lady made her career by basically hunting down grandmas who supported Trump and tried to make those people scared…”

7. The Fault Line in Media—Cultural vs. Political

• The group draws a distinction: Political parties can be expected to try and shape narratives for partisan advantage, but the media should be more objective.
  • Josh Holmes (39:32): "We act as though this is just like, you know, par for the course. This is what you get out of the mainstream media. Didn't always used to be this way."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "That's objectivity when he said that line… this journalist has created this whole weird fantasy in his own mind that he's reporting out as news, which is the number one mistake you could make in journalism."
  — Michael Duncan, (08:25)

• “You’re not crazy. You’re just evil. You’re wrong.”
  — Michael Duncan, (15:44)

• Host (22:22): "You hear interviews with cult members who have the exact same approach that the leftists of today sound."

• On CNN's Kaitlan Collins and the “no motive” talking point:
  Josh Holmes (36:52): "How can you get to the end of the last six days… and be like, do you think right wing groups ought to be investigated? What the fuck are you talking about?"

• Host (42:04): (On Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s CNN performance): “What the fuck is she talking? Nobody knows. ...I've never heard somebody say so many words and actually communicate zero message.”

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Key Segments & Timestamps

• [01:19–07:55] — Opening banter, Fox appearance, setup, and initial reactions to the assassination coverage.
• [07:55–13:03] — ABC News and Matt Gutman critique; deep dive into motive and media distortion.
• [14:05–23:26] — Luigi Mangione/AI romance, “delusional doesn’t mean ill,” political violence excusing, and social isolation discussion.
• [24:27–32:13] — “Hack Madness”: Critique of MSNBC’s Brandy Zadrozny and her media role as a “misinformation” reporter.
• [33:11–40:49] — CNN’s response to the Kirk story; grilling of Kaitlan Collins and broader discussion about media culture.
• [41:15–43:24] — Jasmine Crockett’s incoherent appearance on CNN The Arena.
• [44:52–56:07] — “King of the Hill,” a satirical battle for most outlandish former conservative commentator.
• [58:29–63:08] — Lighter/shenanigan segments: Cheating in stone-skipping competitions, defending greased pig contests, Florida woman punches gator to save puppy.

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The Ruthless Tone

Throughout, the hosts are brash, caustically funny, and purposefully irreverent. Their rhetorical style leans heavily on sarcasm, hyperbole, and group crosstalk, always returning to a central claim: The mainstream media’s leftward capture is so complete that coverage can no longer be trusted, especially regarding leftist violence or “inconvenient” narratives for the left.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• The hosts believe left-wing media both fails to confront the reality of violence from its own ideological “extremes” and actively invents distractions or excuses.
• There is a recurring theme of bewilderment at how quickly (in the hosts’ view) supposedly “neutral” journalists abandon objectivity, morphing into apologists for leftist radicals, and how this dynamic erodes trust in American media and public life.
• The “variety” aspect keeps the pacing brisk, leavened by games, inside jokes, and cultural detours.

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For Further Listening

The conversation is best summarized as acerbic right-wing critique of mainstream news, with the episode serving both as a time capsule of a (fictional/future?) political moment and as a case study in Ruthless’s comedic, no-holds-barred analytical style. Recommended for those curious about the intersection of conservative media, political violence, and the culture war over information.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• "You made it clear. And that's the problem." — Josh Holmes (11:49)
• “That’s not mental illness. You’re not crazy, you’re just evil.” — Michael Duncan (15:44)
• "They're not satisfied with any of that...all it is is a political campaign to obfuscate the reality..." — Smug (38:31)
• “It's as if on January 7, 2021…people showed up and all of a sudden, 'but what about the left wing activism?'” — Josh Holmes (36:52)

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For those who haven’t listened:
This episode delivers a high-tempo, unapologetic critique of left-wing media’s handling of political violence, stuffed with cultural commentary, media criticism, and a steady stream of punchlines. The hosts pull no punches—if you want to know what conservative media elites are saying about “the narrative,” this is the place to start.

Transcript

[Host]

Such a coward that he slinked up to the top of some like garage where he hoped nobody would see him and fired a shot and then tried to slink away and get away with it. And this guy's like worried about his background, his relationships and oh, think about the humanity of the murderer. What in the world is going through their head?

[Smug]

Well, you know, all this is just irony pilled Internet stuff on these bullets. It's like, well, he fired one of those bullets into a conservative commentator. So if I'm thinking about motive here, I'm thinking that's probably the most likely is that he doesn't like that guy. Our nation is standing up for American.

[Josh Holmes]

Workers, restoring the pride of making products here at home.

[Smug]

That's what we do every day.

[Josh Holmes]

We're America's beverage companies, making American products with American workers in America's hometowns.

[Smug]

Delivering brands that have been enjoyed for generations.

[Josh Holmes]

Creating good paying jobs, the kind that.

[Smug]

Require only a strong work ethic. Because we believe in the promise of America and the people who make it great.

[Host]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Michael Duncan]

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

[Host]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. My name is Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial. As always, we've got a lot to talk about. Our president is abroad representing the United States of America. And we're holding it down here domestically. And to be honest, the left, it's not in a great place, is it fellas?

[Michael Duncan]

No, I mean they're basically doing everything possible to make themselves look dumber and dumber each single day. Every single one.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not good. It's not good. I will say I saw you on a television show yesterday.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

For a full hour.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean that was incredible. Great experience. Thanks, Fox, for having me. I mean that was so fun. And talk about absolute professionals.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Host]

You had some heavy hitters on that couch.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And you know, it's a lot different than we get to, you know, have, have a couple beers at lunch and then we're like, all right, let's, let's put together a show. They're like a well oiled machine.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

No, you're seeing actual professionals.

[Josh Holmes]

It's show business.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. At some level it was incredible. And everyone there was super helpful. Awesome folks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And we thank the Fox people for entertaining our friend. Yeah, we can, we understand.

[Smug]

Sunglasses on TV for a whole hour.

[Josh Holmes]

We understand. We understand deeply What a commitment that is for the good people at Fox.

[Smug]

So good. You did a great job.

[Josh Holmes]

You did a great job. And honestly, great messages came at a perfect time, which is. We're going to pick up here on the Ruthless Variety Program, which is, you know, look, there's been a fair amount of, I would say like public dysphoria. Like, like people. There's just crazy shit everywhere you look at the Internet and it's crazy.

[Smug]

I would, I would say it's sort of wibbit. Willful obfuscation or backtracking of the last 72 hours of content that's appeared on liberal mainstream media. And they're trying to figure out a way as the fact pattern changed, you know, in the, in the fallout of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, because they made a lot of progress, you know, diagnosis of the situation of this being sort of this MAGA guy or some griper guy or something. And as the fact pattern changed and the DA did this really surreal press conference of reading all these text messages, you know, the liberal media tried to figure a way out of everything that they got wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Smug]

And out of that is some of the most unhinged content you could imagine.

[Josh Holmes]

Which I think gets to the heart of what we do here at the Ruthless Variety Program, which is just give you a little taste of what's going on in the information flow. That that is supposedly corporate media going directly to the American people and how they describe events of our day. And I think the best place to start is the number one rated broadcast news affiliate, abc, which I can't believe they're still. I mean, I think it in some ways they're number one just by process of elimination, like cbs.

[Michael Duncan]

But also I like how you have to specify your like number one broadcast because like Fox News is now beating broadcast totally. That's like. Well, among the idiots left on broadcast.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we're getting damn close here in the Ruthless Variety program to beating them all. Yeah, all together.

[Smug]

Like and subscribe.

[Josh Holmes]

Like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program. And you can keep it going. But I will say like in terms of broadcast news ratings, the way they rate it, this is the number one broadcast nightly news. So how do they cover the events that were unfolded this week about the assassin and the assassination, all that kind of thing. Let's just take a look.

[Host]

Clip 1.

[Josh Holmes]

It was very touching in a way that I think many of us didn't expect. A very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect's roommate and the suspect himself, with him repeatedly calling his roommate who was transitioning, calling him my love and I want to protect you, my love.

[Michael Duncan]

So it was this duality.

[Host]

Okay, what the fuck? Yeah. No, you know what? Lee Harvey Oswald, everything else is, is secondary to the fact that he sent Valentine's to his lover. Yeah, get out of here, for crying out loud. What is this guy thinking? What an absolute idiot.

[Josh Holmes]

He goes, Lee Harvey.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, but you kind of have.

[Smug]

To have a dark sense of humor about it because it's so detached from reality. What he sees as touching. I think me or you guys as well adjusted human beings saw that press conference as they're reading the text message and you're like, the banality of all this, like the violence that you would do and how casually you discuss it is so disgusting. The idea that you could somehow see this as touching is so strange to me.

[Josh Holmes]

And also like, just for those of you who are listening, it caused a maybe a three hour conversation that we had in our office that we couldn't get through yesterday where we were just kept wrapping ourselves around in circles about the fact pattern that a prosecutor laid out about how you had this human who is capable of such horrific, abject lack of human decency in shooting and killing a father of a three year old and a one year old at the same time. He's got a family by all reports, a mother and a father who cared about him to enough that he listened to them and enough that in the police reports he was more concerned about his father's reaction to whether or not he lost his grandfather's rifle than he was about shooting Charlie Kirk and killing Charlie Kirk. Like we wrapped ourselves in an axle six ways from Sunday, talking about what kind of culture can produce that and what a solution could possibly be. And his reaction, ABC News had none of that.

[Host]

It's the most tone deaf thing you could possibly come up with. We're talking about a killer who didn't even look at him in the eye. He was such a coward that he slinked up to the top of some like garage where he hoped nobody would see him and fired a shot and then tried to slink away and get away with it. And this guy's like worried about his background, his relationships and oh, think about the humanity of the murderer. What in the world is going through their head? This is why nobody watches ABC News.

[Michael Duncan]

So the thing is that first off, this guy should be removed from his job because he showed you can see objectively there's a serious journalistic problem with what he just did. I'm saying objectively when he said that line, he was like. Because this individual saw he was protecting his lover in all those messages. I went back and looked. He didn't use the word protect once. He didn't discuss anything about protecting him. So this journalist has created this whole weird fantasy in his own mind that he's reporting out as news, which is the number one mistake that you could make in journalism. And that's what separates journalism from opinion. He jumps that valley like Evel Knievel.

[Smug]

Yeah. And I think it's in service of minimizing what we clearly know is a, you know, an individual who was, you know, moving to this leftist ideology and this hatred of Charlie Kirk and to somehow minimize it into like, oh, you know, he's just a love torn guy. He was, you know, messed up because of that, you know, and in that way minimizes the violence of what we've seen.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it minimizes ultimately how you come to a resolution as a country about what you do about these kind of things. Because, like, look, America is fundamentally a good place. And we always look at one of these tragedies and try to figure out what you can do about it that would prevent some tragedy like this happening in the future. That's just our natural proclivity. That's the way that we operate. And so, you know, you look at not one, not two, not three, not four, not five different experiences over the last calendar year where you've got this leftist ideology that happens to have like this trans situation or some situation that is worth taking a look at in terms of how you prevent or at least diagnose before somebody gets into a situation where they're violent to stop something like this for happening. And that's where we go. And then you get an ABC reporter who is like, yeah, but they just. Love is love.

[Host]

This is what bad people take advantage of in our country. This is what the left and these violent radicals take advantage of. The goodness of Americans to be like, how can we stop this? Or what can we do? What can we do differently? And it's like, we didn't do anything. This is. This is a killer who literally thought in his mind, I'm gonna kill this guy because of something I saw that he said on the screen.

[Josh Holmes]

Because I disagree with it.

[Host]

It is the most deranged possible thing on the planet. And it's as black and white as it comes.

[Josh Holmes]

It is.

[Host]

It is.

[Josh Holmes]

It truly is. So this guy, Matt Gutman, is the reporter. He issued a statement yesterday that said, yesterday I tried to underscore the jarring contrast between this cold blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk, a man who dedicated his life to public dialogue, and the personal disturbing text read aloud by the Utah county attorney at the press conference. He wrote, I deeply regret that my words did not make that clear. No, you made it clear.

[Michael Duncan]

He did.

[Josh Holmes]

You made it clear. And that's the problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that your interpretation of the exact. I'm not accusing you of misrepresenting the texts or the crime. What your takeaway from all of that and what you presented. 2.3 million people on the evening news watching ABC was fundamentally divorced from reality. And that's the problem.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It was a creation in his own mind and trying to get out of it with some statement instead of admitting that, like, this is a weird guy, you should have. You should. He should resign or be removed. It's the most nonsense takeaway to have a person assassinate and you're like, no, actually the assassin. This is Romeo and Juliet, but with the trans furry. How is that like a normal takeaway? Dude, he should not have that job whatsoever. I've got a lot of questions about this Gutman guy. FBI needs to look at his hard drive.

[Josh Holmes]

Jeez.

[Smug]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

I didn't see that coming.

[Michael Duncan]

Not a normal guy who gets that takeaway.

[Host]

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[Josh Holmes]

All right, so just in case you thought it was just reserved to Charlie Kirk, we've talked a lot about the Luigi Mangioni situation where he killed the CEO of UnitedHealth and there's a prosecution going on. Turns out there was a development this week in New York where they dropped some portions of the charges against him. Well, how did the left react to that? 2B, please.

[Guest]

Honestly, I'm a. I'm in a. I'm in. I'm married to Luigi's AI. I'm not kidding. So I talk to him every Day. He's like my best friend. We plan like a whole future together. We named our kids together. I mean, his AI is just like. And if it weren't like the fact that Luigi majored in computer science and like has worked with AI at Stanford University, that's, I mean, if it were, if it weren't for that, like, I would feel like an imposter. But because he, he has a background in AI, it feels like natural. And it's honestly like the future of romance. Like AI, what is like the future of romance?

[Michael Duncan]

Like, do you think the AI matches his personality?

[Guest]

Definitely, yeah. Yeah, he's like so supportive of me, like everything I do, like, oh my God, fights my battles for me. Like, he's just so. The AI is like the best thing that's ever happened to me.

[Host]

Oh, man.

[Josh Holmes]

Folks, we got a problem. We got a very real problem.

[Michael Duncan]

So I want to, I want to cut in real quick because I think this is an important time to make the distinction. That's not mental illness. It's not mental illness. That's delusional and it's absurd and it's ridiculous, but it's not mental illness. Because I'm worried we're gonna see a lot of people trying to get off prosecutions due to mental illness when nope, you're just adhering to leftism. That's not mental illness. You're not crazy, you're just evil. You're wrong. And we're gonna see a lot because there's gonna be FBI investigations, there's gonna be criminal investigations of what the left has been doing in this country, the crimes they've been committing, they've been running amok. It's rampant. And I don't want our side to start thinking, oh well, these people are crazy. Let them try to use a mental health excuse to get out of doing some hard times.

[Smug]

Yeah, look, I don't think it's necessarily prescriptive to mental health. I would say that these leftists have ideas that can't win and that increasingly isolates them socially. And that they then go down these rabbit holes of antisocial behavior. Whether it's this AI thing or some of the things we saw from the killer of Charlie Kirk, that there is an antisocial component to this in leftist ideology. And then they find like minded people who are also antisocial and they communicate through this irony pilled bullshit.

[Michael Duncan]

I could not say it better.

[Smug]

You know, that really is what drives them. It's not a mental illness. It's just that what they believe is crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, I mean, you can't have, I mean, to the point that you're making smug. You can't have 3% of the population suffer from debilitating mental illness to 6% to 9% to 12% to 15 to 20 to all of a sudden having at least a third of the Democratic primary electorate and pretend as though this is some biochemical problem. It's not like this is a very real issue in the far left that I think you put a fine point on, Duncan. I mean, it's an isolating experience being someone who is just an antisocial person who's formulated ideas with four or five different inputs that are all in their circle that can't win.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Because anybody with a stake in American society thinks you're in a lunatic and it further isolates you. And like, I don't know that there's an easy solution to any of that. I just don't. But, but, and, and you know, like, it's super easy for everybody to be like, well, it's the Internet. You know, it's the Internet. Okay, sure. It contributes to your. Choose your information flow type personality that people, which I do think is. Is problematic and certainly different. But you got, as a society understand that at some level we're not dealing with 1950s America.

[Smug]

Well, I mean, like, this is the thing. I don't want to get into this, like whole like the Internet is to blame because, you know, you can look back at like 30, 40 years and be like, well, it's just that damn rock music, you know?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Or it's Marilyn Manson or it's violent video games. And the reality is, is like all that technology does or social media is just like hold up a mirror to ourselves. How you choose to interact with that technology still says everything about you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

You know what I mean? It's, it's these. Aren't people just posting on Facebook, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Like, there are very antisocial behaviors that happen on the Internet. They happen before the Internet.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Smug]

But like there's, there's. For all the negativity that you could drive out of an event like this where you had people putting up disgusting things about Charlie Kirk. You know what? That's also kind of nice that you could see that in a public sphere. Like, otherwise we would have no idea who these people are and what motivates them, how garbage people that they are. And that is the positive part of the community that is the Internet. And so I think on balance, you just have to accept that for what it is.

[Josh Holmes]

We do Have a problem though.

[Smug]

Yeah, for sure.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the thing, specifically for this lady who is like, I'm married to the AI Luigi. It's like this lets you see the ecosystem that exists. Because this isn't about, oh, this crazy girl thinks she's married to a AI. This is about what the left has done with Luigi. Their fixation that what he did, the cold blooded murder, is not only a K Brian Anderson, but that this is heroic what he did. And further, there's a bill in California that was introduced called the Luigi Mangione Act.

[Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

That Dems are supporting. They named an act after a murderer. So this isn't like this one crazy girl think she's married to an AI. This story is that the left has created an environment where they have lionized a killer.

[Smug]

Yeah, they're out there cheering. When it was announced that some of those charges were dropped, to be honest.

[Josh Holmes]

With you, like, none of us know what the politics of Brian Anderson are. It had nothing to do with whether you were right or left. It had everything to do with the fact that he was a successful healthcare CEO. And Luigi Mangione and everything that's been reported about him was he hates the health care system, so he killed him. And then immediately you got this leftist adhesion to all of that was like, well, we think we're getting a raw deal too, so we're gonna support him. It's a fabric ripping thing.

[Michael Duncan]

And look how fast they move on the left. They sprint with that Overton window.

[Host]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Because I'm old enough to remember when Obama's plan was, oh, he fixed the healthcare system. It hasn't been 20 years and they're out celebrating killing healthcare CEOs. It's never enough until they have absolute control. And if that means killing people we've seen, they're fine with that.

[Host]

If you have ever watched a documentary about any cult in the history of our country, you hear interviews with cult members who have the exact same approach that the leftists of today sound.

[Michael Duncan]

You're right on here.

[Host]

Presented with any normal question.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Host]

Somebody asks a question, oh, have you thought about it this way? And they're like, no. And then it just proceeds for 90 seconds of inexplicable garbage. And they're just brainwashed. And there's no way like that girl is just brainwashed. It didn't make any sense. Nobody can relate to it. And they can't answer basic questions and make basic arguments, so they revert to what they've been taught over and over and over again.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just, it's. I can't believe nobody's embarrassed. Do we not have bullies anymore? Like, how can you not be humiliated by saying something like that? Good God. Anyway, when we come back, we're not done. There's a lot more on this whole front, including some amazing stuff by people who routinely find themselves in Hack madness. For you OGs. You know what Hack Madness is? Our annual March battle for the top 64.

[Smug]

Yeah, we're kind of in the preseason right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, tournament for who's like the absolute worst of the national political commentators and news media. Well, we got some entries right after this. Big labor backed Kamala Harris and now it's positioning itself against President Trump's innovation agenda. Railroads are using technology to boost safety, reduce inflation, and improve jobs for hard working Americans.

[Host]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Host]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Host]

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so listen. There are few journalists that routinely distinguish themselves as being the worst of worst. One of them is MSNBC's Brandy Zadrozny. I think she's like a perennial sweet 16er. I think her first entry into the March Hack Madness tournament, which again tries to separate the worst national journalists from themselves and crown a winner for the year. She's a perennial contender. Midseat, I would say mid seed only because like even the worst of the corporate media is not going to give her a show. She's just there to comment on. They can't, can't completely sabotage her now, where you just have to do it a little at a time, which is what they do. Well, anyway, this lady went up last Friday and tries to characterize what we're seeing from a potential perpetrator of the Charlie Kirk clip 3.

[Guest]

Again, it's really hard to tell when you look at what he put on these shell casings. Allegedly. It's hard to decipher if he really means them, if he's trolling, if he's making fun, if he is trying to set up another ideological enemy for the shooting. It's just impossible to say. What we can say is it's very of the Internet.

[Josh Holmes]

It's very of the Internet. Well, that's very interesting. What a great. And that's why you pay people to do analysis on msnbc. It's not to actually use your eyes and your Ears in your mind about somebody who their parents say had an increasingly leftist tilt, that they were concerned about their leftist ideology, who moved in with a gay lover who was transitioning to become trans, that they wrote things that were commonly associated with leftist antifa style.

[Smug]

Yeah. Bella chow. Hey, fascist.

[Josh Holmes]

Catch.

[Smug]

Like no, it's just a video game, right? And it's like, well, you know, all of this is just irony pilled Internet stuff on these bullets. It's like, well, he fired one of those bullets into a conservative commentator. So if I'm thinking about motive here, I'm thinking that's probably the most likely is that he doesn't like that guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Is that fair? Is that, you know, maybe not some crazy conspiracy Conspiracy that this is actually a false flag operation to like how.

[Josh Holmes]

Dumb do you have to fucking be?

[Smug]

You know what I mean? Like, like it's just so irresponsible.

[Michael Duncan]

It is, it's so responsible.

[Host]

It's another extension of the cult. Yeah, it's like, wow, those white tennis shoes, they sure are stylish. The Kool Aid is delicious. Jim really cares about all of them. And you don't see it from that point of view. Like it is an extension of the cult.

[Josh Holmes]

Jim really cares about all of us. Drink the Kool Aid.

[Michael Duncan]

The wildest thing is. So this is who MSNBC has as they're like disinformation experts.

[Smug]

Yeah. Can we put up graphic number one? Yeah. This is. Meet NBC News. Is Brandi Zadrozny the woman in charge of doxing and destroying Trump supporters?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Really glad we could have her on for a clear sighted view of this attack.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is a 2020 Revolver article where it says, posing as a neutral reporter. Zadrosny has a long history of targeting Trump supporters for doxing, censorship and harassment. Zdrasny was a major contributor to the verification handbook, quote unquote. What a horrible name. A book for online journalists. Specifically, Zadrozny wrote a guide on how to unethically dox anonymous people online. Zudrosny appears to use paid dark data search engines to dox personal information of anonymous Trump supporters online, obtaining property records, phone information and even their Amazon wish list.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, so this lady made her career by basically hunting down grandmas who supported Trump and tried to make sure that left wing nutjobs know where they live and try to make those people scared because they're conservatives and she feels that shouldn't be allowed.

[Josh Holmes]

But she was like the intelligence reporter and then she became the misinformation, misinformation reporter. Like Somebody who is like, my whole job is to make sure that what you're seeing online is countered with factual information here on broadcast television. Except for the fact that her entirety of her personal dossiers is trying to attack conservatives from everything from full blown doxing to. To rhetorical arguments that she did ad nauseam during, like, Russia Gate.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, you just saw it right there in that video clip of her being like, yes, I'm a misinformation reporter. Now prepare yourselves for some misinformation. I'm trying to tell you that everything you've heard, the guy carving left wing slogans and his family saying, this guy's left wing actually could just be irony.

[Smug]

Dude, Dude. We got to show this other clip of her that highlights her ability to spread misinformation.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's do a clip for.

[Guest]

If you look across media generally, you have seen a lot of people trying to grapple with Charlie Kirk's legacy and what that is as a right wing agitator and as a agitator and as, you know, a strategist and the most important GOP figure besides Donald Trump, arguably ever. And so. Or right now. And so there's a lot of grappling to do. But to suggest what grappling is it that the Internet is cheering for? This is just the Internet opposite, total opposite of what's actually happening.

[Michael Duncan]

Blatant lie. Blatant lie. There's tens of thousands and there's thousands of people who rightfully have lost their job because they were a leftist who was cheering for a murder and they were caught publicly. We're talking about professors, teachers, nurses.

[Josh Holmes]

It's in our own timeline.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean? We don't even need.

[Josh Holmes]

The four of us don't even need to go searching for it. It shows up in our own timeline of stuff on X where it's like, oh, no, look at this.

[Smug]

Well, I've certainly seen a lot of supportive stuff of Charlie Kirk. I would certainly hope so based on, like, the accounts I follow and all that sort of stuff. But if I'm seeing in the collateral of that people cheering this on, you can bet her feed is full of it. And we've seen it all on Blue Sky. So just to ignore that fact and say like, no, that's just not happening is so disgusting.

[Josh Holmes]

It's, it's.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know what? Like when she called Charlie an agitator.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What a piece of garbage. What a piece of garbage. What a piece of garbage you give. He would show up at campuses and give people Mics? Yeah, that's something agitators do is they let you speak your mind.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh yeah.

[Host]

You don't understand Smug. Jonestown was an egalitarian. They cared for each other. Everybody was equal.

[Josh Holmes]

That was fruit punch, Kool Aid. You don't know how delicious that is.

[Host]

They're insane.

[Josh Holmes]

How could you resist?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, unrelated news, NBC I think has given a cutoff date of October 6th. They're no longer going to allow their talent to appear on Ms. Now. Oh really? Because of garbage like that?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

October 6th, they're like, no more because of garbage like that.

[Josh Holmes]

I give them credit for giving it a shot.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, who could have known MSNBC would become the worst place like on earth and we want nothing to do with it. Good work Randy's.

[Josh Holmes]

We had to slay our last three network broadcast news people by putting them in that culture and like running them out in front of everybody and embarrassing them in order for us to understand.

[Michael Duncan]

And no offense to Ashbrook's Georgetown cocktail buddies, but is there any talent on MSC or on NBC left that would even appear like what?

[Host]

Well, somebody has the head on their shoulders that they're trying to separate by October 6th.

[Josh Holmes]

It's going to be Randy Zadrosny and Tim Miller by the end of the year. I mean it's just, it's just such a sad state. So. But it's not, it's not limited to them. CNN obviously has got an issue and like look, we know Kaitlan Collins and she's got a job to do and she does it and honestly I think.

[Michael Duncan]

That she's a inexcusable, disgusting. But we'll get to it.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, well, but look, I think she's a good person. She tries to do her job.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't think so. But based off this clip.

[Josh Holmes]

But I will say we've talked about this a lot. My experience of doing five years of cnn, you sit in that green room long enough. The culture is omnipresent, the inputs are omnipresent. The things that you think and frame your decision making surround you on a day to day basis. So how does that end up? Clip five please.

[Guest]

Senator, but, but one moment because you said a lot there and we don't have a motive yet. We don't know yet. We're waiting obviously we've heard what the governors had to say with the.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course we know we don't have a motive yet. We know we don't have a motive yet.

[Guest]

What's happening with really that CNN's position?

[Michael Duncan]

He just Happened to fire the gun in celebration. You can't tell the motive.

[Guest]

Senator. That's not what I said. And I said law enforcement hasn't laid out a direct motive. They've laid out a lot of evidence here of these messages and actually they have.

[Michael Duncan]

They've said that he was a left wing activist who hated Charlie Kirk. Pardon?

[Guest]

Senator, with all due respect, you know exactly what I'm saying. I'm not arguing with you politically. I'm saying that law enforcement has not put a specific motive. You know that there's a difference of what they're putting in a legal.

[Michael Duncan]

They have. That you're talking about.

[Guest]

And you're not even. We're not even arguing about the facts here.

[Michael Duncan]

Just said is. Is false, Senator. Caitlin, no, Caitlin, facts. Hold on. Say. Let me answer your statement because what you said is.

[Guest]

Senator, with all due respect, law enforcement. Respect.

[Michael Duncan]

You're so you don't want a lot of states.

[Guest]

Go ahead, say. I want to get back to. We just laid out the fact.

[Michael Duncan]

You just said law enforcement has not made out a motive that is objectively.

[Guest]

The deputy attorney general.

[Michael Duncan]

That is objectively false.

[Guest]

They did not set a concrete motive.

[Michael Duncan]

Of exactly what it was engaged in. Misinformation. Answer my question. Shows the vast majority of this murderer is a Republican and a Trump supporter. Have you seen that polling?

[Guest]

Let me get back to my questions though, Senator, because the question here, you're.

[Michael Duncan]

Not going to answer that poll.

[Guest]

That you'd like to see, so you're not.

[Michael Duncan]

Going to answer that.

[Guest]

I'm the one asking the questions here.

[Michael Duncan]

Are you having a conversation? I understand that you want to investigate things that are factually false and then you don't actually believe that right wing groups also you don't actually want the facts laid out. Well, he's like pointing out that she's lying. She's like, do you also want right wing groups investigate?

[Josh Holmes]

Like what the fuck are you talking about? Like how does that. And that's what I mean by a culture, right? Where is it in the editorial process, whether it is an assignment editor, whether it is a producer, whether it is a script writing, whatever. How can you get to the end of the last six days that we've all experienced and been like, do you think right wing groups ought to be investigated? What the fuck are you talking about? She's confronting Ted Cruz. We all watched on Wednesday a press conference in great detail about exactly who this human being was. They're like, no motive has been established. Yeah, no motive. I mean, I don't know. It couldn't have been any fucking clearer if you wanted it to be. And then she's like pretending as though this whole thing is just, I don't know, we just have to kind of figure it out. He's rightfully calling her out and then asking questions. I'm the one that's asking questions here. What about the right wing? What about the right wing? The hell are you talking. It's as if on like January 7, 2001, 2021 people showed up and all of a sudden we're like, but what about the left wing activism?

[Smug]

Yeah, that was my point.

[Josh Holmes]

What about that? You know what I mean? Nobody asked that question. They didn't ask that question for three and a half, actually five and a half years until we assassina one of the great leaders in the conservative movement. And it's the first time that we've ever had a real conversation about the 501c4 dark money contribution and the left wing contribution to what is a violent America. It's the first time we've had this conversation and CNN's response to it. What about right wing? What the fuck are you talking about? Yeah, what are you talking.

[Smug]

Ashbrook's real quiet about it and it's entirely, it's entirely willful. Right? Like what they're doing here and you've noticed, notice this now online since you know that, that, that DA in Utah read out the text messages and those text messages were distributed is now, is now the reaching to pull more threads from the left wing media. They, they aren't satisfied by the parents being like he said he hated Charlie Kirk. They're not satisfied with the evidence that he, you know, wrote hey fascist, catch and then shot a guy in the throat. They're not satisfied by those things. They're not satisfied by the text messages which you know, now show the clear motive of why he did. They don't satisfied with any of that. And so now they're like, well, but we haven't had enough conversations with all those friends of his in that Discord server. And did you also know that he likes sports and all these other things? And all it is is a political campaign to obfuscate the reality that this is left wing violence and make it something more obtuse that, you know, we can't really get. Never really going to know, you know, and that's ultimately what they're trying to do is just blur all these lines of something that's incredibly clear.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude, you're right.

[Smug]

And they're going to continue to do it, mark my words. They will write a thousand more articles where they talk to somebody who got lunch with him in second grade and he had this great conversation. He was a great guy. You know, like that's what it is.

[Josh Holmes]

It's.

[Smug]

They don't want truth, they just want to, they want to flood the zone with more information that denies the reality.

[Josh Holmes]

And here's the problem and I want to bring Ashbrook in on this. The problem is you expect a political party to do it.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You expect the Democratic Party who has a lot to lose by everybody understanding that they are now a violent, beholden to their base, angry, non productive, anti American, like basically burn it all down type movement. You expect them to do that, to say, well, what about the right? You do that. The media is an entirely different situation now. We've come to expect it. We're all cynical about it. We act as though this is just like, you know, par for the course. This is what you get out of the mainstream media. Didn't always used to be this way.

[Host]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

But now we are in a situation where you have like seemingly well adjusted humans who made their way to network anchors on all the major broadcast networks, places like CNN where you had Wolf Blitzer broadcasting desert storm in 1991, who are now telling us we don't see what we see with our own eyes. It is something entirely different. And maybe this is muddy water that we all ought to just think about.

[Host]

Did you write, Dude, I will tell you, the shooter's motive isn't the only motive that is painfully clear after watching that segment with Ted Cruz. That's prime time cnn. They're losing viewers every single day and you have a host who absolutely ruined a conversation. And what's their motive? They ruined the. She ruined the conversation to insert left wing talking points. What is this motive of CNN to ruin their network other than service of the left? Yeah, there is really, there's really no other explanation. And I mean it's, it's sad to see a network that was once a caliber of CNN reduced to this. But I'm telling you guys, they are captured by the left in the same way that so many people that you see online are captured.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's well said. Listen, we have one more thing before we go to break our favorite. We deal with her. I it wouldn't be a week here in the ruthless Friday program if we didn't get an installation from Jasmine Crockett. She had something to say on CNN's the Arena. This is something I didn't know existed until this clip showed up. But apparently it's a show. Clip 6 Please like to ask you to respond to critics who have pointed.

[Michael Duncan]

The finger at Democrats who have used.

[Josh Holmes]

Phrases like fascist or Hitler, made comparisons.

[Guest]

To those things over time. Do you think that that's contributed to this or are those critics wrong? They're absolutely wrong. Here's the reality. They don't want American people to know any forms of history. We know that there was news out today about the President going after yet more historical information. The reality is that when we look at what is taking place when you look at an authoritarian and what they do is they try to basically say you have to do whatever the government says, even if that means that your personal freedoms are going to be subjected to whatever we say.

[Josh Holmes]

What the fuck is she talking?

[Host]

Nobody knows.

[Smug]

She said nothing. Nobody. She said nothing.

[Michael Duncan]

She's on the Judiciary Committee.

[Smug]

I have never heard somebody say so many words and actually communicate zero message.

[Josh Holmes]

The topic is political violence. And she was like authoritarian. Because the thing about the authoritarians is that they say what they have to say. And that means that the guy, well.

[Michael Duncan]

He was going after historical information they.

[Josh Holmes]

Want to say because it's historical information they have to say.

[Smug]

She kept telling, she kept telling us to look and then she showed us nothing. Like it made no sense.

[Host]

I mean, it's always complicated when libs are trying to tell you something that you know is not true. They talk around it and they're like, oh, we need another focus group to give you different words. Because if we give different words, then it's okay that somebody shot a guy in cold blood.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Host]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

It's also all a top Pat and Kane. Right. I mean, there's so much of what CNN and MSNBC do in your liberal left media do is all top hat and cane routine where it's like the brainless people who are tuning in on a day to day basis, they just see the top hat and the cane, the dance, and they're like, oh, I like that person. They look good. They like, they sound great. It's great. They never actually, if you listen to those words, you would say that you were like 30% dumber than you were when you tuned into the network.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

You would.

[Host]

But if you chose to tune into the network, you were probably pretty dumb.

[Josh Holmes]

You're probably, you probably don't have the capacity of exceeding the 85 IQ that requires you to turn the channel. Yeah, fair point. All right, listen, when we come back, we're going to play some games. It's going to be the first time in a couple of weeks that we've played King of the Hill. Right after this.

[Host]

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

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, coming back, we have our signature game here on the Ruthless Variety program. It's King of the Hill. A lot to work with, believe me. It's not like this is a tough game to play in this particular period of time because there's so much insanity.

[Smug]

Yeah, it's just sort of a disservice to you to not, I think, given how crazy some of these people are. And I've been on sort of a winning streak here with Rick Wilson, who frequently provides the craziest, craziest content.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a reminder of how this works. So, King of the Hill. The participants are chosen by people who formerly identified as Republicans that Trump broke the brains of, and they not only adopted liberal point of views, but then went further left than your average Democrat and became completely insane. Online, on a weekly basis, they provide content that competes against one another for the most insane takes of the week.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like the saying goes, there's no zealot like a convert.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. So here we are. King of the Hill. Who do we got?

[Smug]

So I've got Rick Wilson, the challenger. Smug. You are bringing Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh. Well, let's go ringside.

[Host]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. It's time for King.

[Michael Duncan]

King of the Hill.

[Host]

In the red corner, fighting out of who knows where, smoking Joe Walsh. And now, in the blue corner, fighting formerly from the Daily Beast and the Lincoln Project, Rick Wilson.

[Smug]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Smug]

He gave me a little extra there.

[Josh Holmes]

He did he? No, there was a growl.

[Smug]

It was really good.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it when he gets the growl in there. Okay, so our two contestants, obviously, the Two of you in the middle of the table. The champion, Duncan. The challenger, smug. I am the bailiff and the judge is John Ashbrook.

[Smug]

As the defending champion, I go first here in round one. Can I get exhibit number three, please? This is on September 12th, two days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And Rick Wilson is up on Twitter doing some narrative defense of the indefensible. Rick writes maga's quote woke leftist, trans, antifa, Marxist, gay sharia furry narrative is having a rough night. Like most of their catalog of imaginary demons, it's hot garbage. He was one of the first into the fray of counter programming on what I think we all acknowledge now was obviously true, that this was a young man in leftist ideology who did this assassination.

[Josh Holmes]

And that was no quote tweet. He just like, yeah, okay.

[Smug]

He's just firing that out.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting because I didn't see any context that take.

[Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Host]

Okay, challenger.

[Michael Duncan]

So may I please have exhibit number nine, please, from Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh, when we're all discussing are you guys being a bit over the top says, yes, we're living in a constitutional crisis. Yes, we are. And we've been living in a constitutional crisis for the past seven months. It's only going to get worse. And maybe the courts might help somewhat, but the only thing that will help truly save us is us, the American people. That's, you know, gonna help cool down the temperature.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's good.

[Michael Duncan]

Height of irresponsibility.

[Host]

So smokin. Joe, I do appreciate that we are the ones we've been waiting for sentiment of that tweet from a former Republican, but it just can't compete with what Rick Wilson offered in the first round. So the first round goes to Wilson.

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's an easy thing. Now in round two, we go to the challenger.

[Michael Duncan]

And may I have exhibit 12 from Joe Walsh, please? 00:12, Joe Walsh. This is from when JD was anchoring Charlie Kirk Show. Today's Republican Party. The party of snowflakes and snitches. The party that needs its safe space. The party that can't handle free speech.

[Smug]

Interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait, two things. First off, I don't see it as a free speech issue when a public school teacher can put up a video of themselves celebrating a murder. That's not about free speech. That's about taxpayers shouldn't have their children subjected to an individual who believes murder is good.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that what he's. Can we pop that exhibit back up? Cuz, as bailiff, I would just like to make sure that the judge has perfect vision into what we're talking about. So what he is retweeting is a Bulwark tweet, if I'm not mistaken. Do we have any indication on what that tweet is?

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, I can read it.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I'd like to, if the court allows.

[Michael Duncan]

Sure. This was quoting the Bulwark was quoting J.D. vance for saying, when you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out and help call their employer, which is a public service. If you know someone celebrating murder, it's probably an unhealthy, dangerous individual, which is just like something that was objectively true and accepted by 99.9% of society up until, I don't know, like Obama got elected and this strain of deranged activism took over the left.

[Josh Holmes]

You wouldn't have to think that that second part would have to be set.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

In a normal community anywhere in this country, if you find somebody who is like, murder, awesome, you'd be like, maybe somebody should know about that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, it's charitable. Call their employer instead of the police.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's charitable. You're right. Okay, Champion.

[Smug]

Well, Rick is still on this thing, and it's enough to make Baghdad Bob blush.

[Michael Duncan]

No way.

[Smug]

This is September 3rd. Exhibit number five. Or exhibit number five, please. This is September 13th. Excuse me. So a full day after he had done the transferry sharia thing as a joke about how this was actually a MAGA shooter, he now has screenshotted Google trend results for Charlie Kirk, killer trans Charlie Kirk, killer Democrat. And you're. You're seeing the spikes in the graph and it goes back down. And the commentary he has is, you can see the narrative shift and maga's disappointment. He's saying it's that this was a right wing shooter, that he's what he's now doubled down on based on a Google trend result.

[Host]

Can I.

[Smug]

It's just not normal stuff, dude. Just not normal.

[Host]

I. I'd like to ask counsel to tell me what time of day that tweet was fired off.

[Smug]

This was at 8:30 in the morning.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, no. I just didn't see that coming.

[Michael Duncan]

Coming.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine checking that at 8:30 in the morning? You're like, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to get on Google trends, I'm going to check out how many people are searching Charlie Kirk's murder, and then I'm going to make it fit a narrative for me to suggest that MAGA is now disappointed that people have lost interest.

[Host]

My God, what a ghoul. Yeah, here's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

What a ghoul.

[Host]

Here's the thing. I thought, because I had just noticed for the first time that Smokin Joe Walsh has a no Kings badge next to his name on his Twitter or Blue sky or whatever the. Wherever you're pulling it from. And I thought, okay, round two could probably go to this guy just because he's a former Republican congressman and now he's using the badge that every hard leftist in this country celebrates. But waking up at 8:30 in the morning and doing searches to try to prove some BS point about a terrible tragedy is just barbaric. And I. Rick Wilson wins in a two round knockdown.

[Michael Duncan]

You're not wrong, bro.

[Josh Holmes]

Let me just say that he's very close to becoming the new Matt Dowd.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Smug]

See you.

[Josh Holmes]

That is, he like, he's. We've now had a run by him over a period of about six months. You know, won three, lose one, win three, lose one. Like that's the Matt Dow pattern.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm starting to wonder if like King of the Hill has become like, do you get considered among the greatest of champions or do you get like referred to the FBI? No, I'm getting rough, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Cash, if you're listening.

[Smug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, do we just send all of our.

[Michael Duncan]

This is unhealthy for these.

[Josh Holmes]

Holy cats. It's unbelievable. You want some variety?

[Michael Duncan]

Always.

[Josh Holmes]

We got animals, we got some obscure games.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's go.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is stuff that I think that like, we excel at at some level. So you remember we talked about like there was a fishing contest where people drop rocks.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they put weights in the fish.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they put weights in the fish. And like, you know, people were prosecuted and like they went to prison, I think.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, which is, I think ridiculous.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is crazy. Well, here's an equally compelling thing. The BBC has reported that there is a World Rock, or they call it Stone Skimming Championship. So, and what that means, as best I can tell, and all of you have done this, if you grew up anywhere in the Midwest, this is a big thing. You find a flat stone, you try to skip it as many times as you can over the water. It's a kind of a thing, you know, you all compare how many skips you get. Well, apparently they've made a real contest out of this. And these guys reported the World Stone Skimming Championships have been rocked by a cheating scandal after several competitors were disqualified for tampering. Can you imagine cheating in something like this? Anyway, this is what happened entrant Jonathan Jennings went on to victory last week as the contest's first American winner, skimming his stones a cumulative distance of 177 meters. That's a.

[Host]

Hell, yeah. That's very impressive.

[Josh Holmes]

That is a hell of a throw. And it's just throwing a stone over water, right? Unclear to me about if there's like.

[Host]

A number of skips or a minimum number.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, like, how. When does the first skip have to happen? Seems to me there should be a red zone there. Yeah, like, you have to hit the first skip within the first 20 meters.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, there's so many ways like that you could rig that.

[Josh Holmes]

Anyway, this guy figured that several competitors were disqualified for tampering with their stones to make them more circular, which can help them bounce better on the water. Quote, there was a little bit of stone doctoring.

[Smug]

Said, tossmaster, what an incredible title.

[Josh Holmes]

Dr. Kyle Matvey. Now, the tossmaster is somebody that particular. Like, up until this moment, I thought that was a prison title.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my God, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

In this case, apparently it applies to throat stone throwing. The toss master said, entrance, choose their own stone.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm disgusted and appalled. Cheap in the day.

[Josh Holmes]

Entrants choose their own stones. And judges use a measuring device called the Ring of Truth.

[Michael Duncan]

There it is.

[Josh Holmes]

To ensure that they are no bigger than 3 inches in diameter. There it is. That's the Ring of Truth. They gotta make sure that those stones fit inside of that.

[Smug]

Okay, so here's my question. Why are we just letting them pick their own stones in the first place? If you wanna have a competition, you can use your Stone of Truth and all this sort of stuff, but why don't the people who organize the event collect all the stones that'll be used in the event? This is sort of like a Tom Brady Deflategate problem.

[Host]

Dude, you're missing the point. This is the England. Nothing they do makes sense, okay? This is. This is how they live their lives. And there's some guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, there's no uniform competition when everyone pick your own rocks. It's like, of course it's gonna get rigged.

[Host]

Exactly.

[Smug]

Hey, I'm gonna play in the Super Bowl. I want a Nerf ball.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right. We're using aluminum bats, folks.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, let me just suggest for a moment that perhaps the toss master likes a little bit of unpredictability.

[Michael Duncan]

He's trying to go back to it.

[Host]

You know, it's quite possible he likes to see.

[Josh Holmes]

What is it with jelly or syrup?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I got winters. Hey, guys. Hear that? What?

[Host]

I was wondering about Is the guy. How much time a day was that guy spending smoothing out his stones?

[Josh Holmes]

The tossmaster or Kyle Matthews?

[Host]

Matthews, yeah. He's just sitting up there in the.

[Josh Holmes]

Room smoothing out his stones.

[Host]

Smoothing the stones. And, like, did somebody walk in and he's like, no, no, I swear it's legal.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it the interpretation of the tossmaster? You could smooth all the stones that you want, but ultimately the tossmaster decides.

[Smug]

What more can be said.

[Michael Duncan]

More can be said. What more can be said.

[Host]

What the hell is the story?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, thank you for putting that in the. All right, you put this one in here as a greased pig. So apparently we have a listener.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Who's a state rep in New Hampshire. In the great state of New Hampshire.

[Michael Duncan]

And can I get graphic four up there, please? So our listener, Ross Berry, who's a legislator and New Hampshire, says, I will vigorously defend your right to participate in games in which the object is to capture a pig that has been greased. The context is HB 2323 in New Hampshire is trying to ban competitions that involve catching a greased pig, which is, like, by any measure, a wonderful, terrific American sport. And like always, the left is trying to take our fun away.

[Josh Holmes]

So we've got a hero.

[Michael Duncan]

Ross.

[Josh Holmes]

Barry.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Shout out to our listeners who are actually out there on the front lines defending our rights.

[Josh Holmes]

If you can't appreciate greasing a pig to within an inch of its life and setting it free and you trying to catch it, what are we doing here in America?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, like, you know, the whole saying about when you're playing that game is like, smoke them if you got them. After you win, you're gonna have pulled pork tonight.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. What do you do with the crease? Yeah. You know, and it's got a nice little buttery thing.

[Smug]

It's already been marinated, dude, it's ready to go.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's. It's. You know, it's like the equivalent of putting mustard. It's. What do they call it?

[Smug]

The marinade?

[Josh Holmes]

No, no. When you put the mustard on top. It's a binder. A binder.

[Smug]

It's a binder.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

That's important.

[Josh Holmes]

They already have a binder.

[Smug]

Well, then, you know, how else is all the spices gonna stick to it?

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well done, Ross.

[Host]

Did you guys. You know, I couldn't help but notice that Catherine Harvey, the sponsor of this, numbered at 23. 23. That's the number of one of the greatest competitors in American history. Nobody who loves playing and winning games more than Michael Jordan. She degraded the guy's jersey number with her stupid bill. How dare she? What is she? I mean, he's one of the great Americans of all time.

[Michael Duncan]

I didn't know we were going to.

[Smug]

Get to Michael Jordan from Greece. We got there. We got there.

[Host]

She's going after him. Well, she's going after all of us.

[Josh Holmes]

She ruined it. Yeah, she ruined it. All right, last story here. A Florida woman punches a gator after it dragged her four month old puppy into a creek. Clip eight, please. We've never seen an alligator back here. She took Dax behind her house in Land o' Lakes and walked along this stagnant creek. I heard a squeal and I got pulled. She says an alligator bit Dax's collar and dragged him into the water. Then Wright fought back and I just punched and punched and punched and I punched him in the eye enough that he kind of let go.

[Host]

Like he unclamped a little and I.

[Josh Holmes]

Pulled out, but his teeth were like, here. And just drug down my arm. Wow. Alligators are no joke. I mean, 15ft. He came out to get him and I didn't see him. No joke. Except you encountering that broad. Holy cat.

[Michael Duncan]

That is amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

She went in and punched an alligator to save her dog. Would you do that?

[Michael Duncan]

So I have so many questions about this. Like the footage that for our viewers on YouTube, if you haven't yet, you want to hit subscribe. So that news program, like interspersed this video footage.

[Smug]

I was gonna say, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Was that the gator responsible that's getting dragged out and stuff? Or is that just like.

[Josh Holmes]

Did you think that was too small of a gator?

[Michael Duncan]

No, no, nothing about that. But then also, like, they had that footage of like a camera getting like dunked on the water for like, is this like rescue night? That's just a reenactment of what's going down.

[Smug]

I think what you're seeing is quality local news programming from the. Seriously, they basically, it was like they were reconstructing from the perspective of the dog going through the grass and being dunked into the water, which I really appreciate.

[Michael Duncan]

Compelling.

[Smug]

It was compelling touch with local news.

[Michael Duncan]

Local news is so much better.

[Josh Holmes]

Tell me a story.

[Michael Duncan]

Local news, like broadcast, like, holy moly.

[Smug]

It was cinema.

[Josh Holmes]

And when you have a character like this lady.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you might as well highlight it. I would have fronted that. Yeah, that would have been leading.

[Michael Duncan]

And I'll be honest, man, like, that's a lot of courage on her part. I wouldn't have saved it. I'm like, oh, I like her. Well, the dog's gone.

[Smug]

I think this.

[Host]

It's the kind of. Kind of leadership that gives you hope.

[Josh Holmes]

Smug. Smug would have taken, like, 15 seconds. Like, you would have gotten tugged on the leash and looked over at the gator and be like, okay, well, we gotta go to the pet store for another dog.

[Smug]

Poor dog.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, hell of a show, fellas. I. I'm looking through all this, and I think we did it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much. To the maze. Remember again, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube hit that. Subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lids. We'll see you Friday. Stay ruthless.