Massive Democrat Fraud Exposed + Rep. Ashley Hinson

Summary

Ruthless Podcast

Episode: Massive Democrat Fraud Exposed + Rep. Ashley Hinson

Date: December 2, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Guest: Rep. Ashley Hinson

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on the recent exposure of large-scale welfare fraud in Minnesota, centering on the Feeding Our Future scandal, which led to the theft of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars—and broader implications for political corruption, the vulnerabilities in American governance, media coverage, and the Democratic Party’s relationship with identity politics. The discussion includes spirited commentary on accountability, the reaction from Minnesota’s Democratic leadership, and societal changes in the Midwest. Later, the team interviews Congresswoman and Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, showcasing her policy priorities, personality, and musical talents.

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Main Theme

Exposing Massive Welfare Fraud in Minnesota:

• The podcast dissects the Feeding Our Future fraud, its political implications, and how it was enabled by both state and federal failures—tying the scandal to broader criticisms of Democratic governance, identity politics, and the media's handling of corruption.
• The episode also features a detailed interview with Rep. Ashley Hinson, highlighting her legislative work, community connections, and even her surprise musical abilities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Minnesota Fraud Scandal: Scope and Political Context

Introduction to the Scandal

• [02:52–05:17] The hosts discuss pride in their home states, but Holmes admits Minnesota’s recent troubles—including the massive fraud uncovered within the state’s social services.
  • Quote (Holmes, 02:57): “It is a lean time in the land of 10,000 lakes... what they're doing in Minnesota... is the impetus for change because I don't think you can ignore this.”

Details from the New York Times & Scale of the Fraud

• [06:16–12:18] The New York Times’ rare critical coverage of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s administration is unpacked.
• Prosecutors have charged 59 people (primarily from the Somali diaspora) in schemes that netted over $1 billion from programs meant to feed children during the pandemic.
  • Quote (Reading NYT): “Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the COVID 19 pandemic.” (Holmes, 10:28)
• Reaction (Ashbrook, 10:40): “The Grinch would be like, this is a bit much, gentlemen.”

Corruption, Accountability, and Political Incentives

• [19:09–21:11] The hosts delve into state agency complicity and the perception that authorities knew about, tolerated, or tacitly encouraged fraud for political gain.
  • Quote (Holmes, 19:42): “The people who are giving them the money know damn well what [is happening].”
  • Quote (Ashbrook, 20:40): “Perhaps the most critical part... Democrats perhaps knew about this and engaged with it because they felt it helps get them elected and that this is a constituency that they should appeal to. And it's just like they saw taxpayers being robbed as business as usual for them.”

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2. Identity Politics, Media Response, and Special Vulnerabilities

Weaponization of Racism Accusations and NGO Tactics

• [26:22–31:51] The Feeding Our Future group threatened state officials with race-based lawsuits if they didn’t approve more minority-led applicants—a tactic the hosts equate to mafia racketeering.
  • Quote (Holmes, reading, 26:22): "Failing to promptly approve new applicants from 'minority owned businesses' would result in a lawsuit with accusations of racism..."
  • Quote (Ashbrook, 26:22): “That is the most cynical shit I have heard in a long time. The left has essentially weaponized accusations of racism to the point that it means nothing.”

Why Minnesota Was Especially Susceptible

• [27:25–29:37] Holmes explains Minnesota’s mainly white, post-racial self-concept made its institutions especially vulnerable to these tactics—residents are deeply averse to accusations of racism, which political actors exploit.
  • Quote (Holmes, 27:25): “I grew up in a post-racial society in Minnesota... They hate [accusations of racism]... The mere threat... is enough for them to take the eye off the ball.”

Nonpartisan Oversight, Political Block-Building, and Importation of Corruption

• [30:04–34:25] Reports showed state officials refrained from oversight to avoid “negative press.” Somali-American whistleblowers noted a reluctance to act against fraud in a key Democrat voting bloc.
  • Quote (Holmes, 31:10): “There’s a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc for Democrats.”
  • Quote (Michael Duncan, 32:47): “...we’ve now imported these people into our country and they’ve brought the same corrupt politics that ruined their homeland to our shores.”

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3. Impact, National Consequences, and Broader Political Implications

Money Flowing to Terrorist Groups

• [38:21–41:24] Minnesota tax money, through remittance networks, likely ended up funding Al Shabaab in Somalia—a Sunni Islamist group linked to al Qaeda.
  • Quote (Holmes, 38:45): “Minnesota’s tax money almost certainly ends up in the hands of Somali terror group Al Shabaab.”
  • Quote (Michael Duncan, 39:20): “You thought you were feeding kids and you were buying Toyota Hiluxes for a bunch of terrorists.”

Effect on State and National Politics

• [42:02–44:36] The hosts lament Minnesota’s political transformation and the inability of the state’s electorate to respond adequately to such a scandal; they analogize the Democratic Party to a coast-to-coast Tammany Hall, focused solely on transactional politics.
  • Quote (Holmes, 42:47): “The Minnesota that I grew up with is gone. This shit would never fly.”
  • Quote (Ashbrook, 44:08): “The Democrat Party is now essentially just Tammany Hall coast to coast... it's all based on who's paying who. Give me my share.”

Challenge for the GOP and the 2026 Elections

• [44:36–46:41] Holmes and Ashbrook argue that GOP messaging must move Minnesotans past social issues like abortion to focus on bread-and-butter corruption and security—suggesting recent Republican wins may not be enough unless these persuasion challenges are overcome.

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4. Memorable & Notable Quotes

• “[On the fraud] That's more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections.” (Holmes, 12:18)
• “To demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy.” (Gov. Tim Walz responding to the fraud, 22:09)
• “Where's the billion dollars, Tim Walls?... It’s in f***ing Mogadishu because you didn’t do a goddamn thing to stop it.” (Holmes, 22:46)
• “That is... a shakedown racket.” (Holmes, 30:24)
• “They have created a voting bloc of people who are downstream of Black Hawk Down.” (Holmes, 32:29)
• “They believe in nothing but the money. When the wire hits, that's what they believe in.” (Ashbrook & Holmes, 44:45)

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5. Guest Segment: Rep. Ashley Hinson (Interview)

Background & Personality

• [67:01–68:39] Hinson shares stories about raising two boys, surviving a snowy Iowa Thanksgiving, and laughs about Iowa “training” for Congress.
• [69:40–70:25] Discusses California’s “foreign exchange” of Iowa politicians Swalwell and Porter.

Education and Parental Rights

• [70:53–72:36] Hinson recounts parental activism against gender and sexuality policy in her kids' schools, highlighting bipartisan parent opposition and the principle that “schools should be educating, not indoctrinating our kids.”

Public Service, Bipartisanship, and “Mom on a Mission”

• [74:29–75:48] Hinson explains her approach: competitive elections, coalition-building, and legislation that supports moms, students, and bipartisanship—especially on issues like affordable education and China policy.

Immigration and Public Safety

• [76:58–78:49] Emphasizes safety, support for law enforcement/ICE, and balancing Iowa’s unique immigration-related needs. Cites a local case where ICE enforcement was critical.

Economic Policy & Trade

• [79:31–84:28] Hinson touts trade deal progress under the current (fictional) President, advocates energy policy reform to lower consumer costs, and describes her approach to tariffs—with a focus on results for Iowa farmers and U.S. competitiveness.

Personal Touch: The Musician-Politician

• [85:22–87:18, 88:00–89:06] The hosts discover Hinson is a skilled violinist/fiddle player who jams with her family at holidays and even gives live performances of “Jingle Bells” and fiddle tunes on air.
  • Quote (Hinson, 88:42): “It is great. It’s fun. And then I can serenade people.”

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6. Lighter Segments

Comment Reviews & Listener Questions:

• [48:42–50:33] Hosts review humorous listener suggestions for dealing with liberal relatives at Thanksgiving, showcasing the show’s irreverent tone.
• Quote (Michael Duncan, 49:15): “They compress the best of the best...super cuts [of MSNBC meltdown videos].”

Tennessee Special Election

• [51:07–58:29] Quick analysis of the TN special election, warning of Democratic advances in deep-red districts, and mocking the left-wing Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn’s anti-Nashville-tourism comments.
  • Quote (Afton Behn, 55:56): “I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the pedal taverns, I hate country music...”

Comedy & Variety

• [58:37–66:13] Bear-on-a-powerline video: banter about handling wildlife; “Guido on a Ledge” holiday jokes; running gags about Italian stereotypes.
• [66:13–67:01] Transition to the Ashley Hinson interview.

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Notable Moments and Quotes with Timestamps

• On the scale of fraud:
  • “Federal prosecutors say that 59 people...have been convicted...more than $1 billion...has been stolen in three plots they’re investigating.” (12:18)
• On Democratic response:
  • “To demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy.” — Gov. Tim Walz (22:09)
  • “You are a f***ing piece of shit.” — Josh Holmes reacting to Walz (22:11)
• On race and shakedown tactics:
  • “If you don't let us, we're going to call you racist in the paper.” (26:22–27:25)
  • “That is, ladies and gentlemen, a shakedown racket.” (30:24)
• Whistleblower on Democrat priorities:
  • “There’s a perception that tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting bloc for Democrats.” (31:10)
• Money to terrorism:
  • “A decent amount of Minnesota's tax money almost certainly ended up in Al Shabab.” (41:24)
• On wider meaning:
  • "The Democrat Party is now essentially just Tammany Hall coast to coast. It's a money [game]...who's paying who." (44:08)
• Ashley Hinson live music:
  • Performs “Jingle Bells” on violin/fiddle (86:45–87:18 & 88:00–88:19)

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Guest Interview: Rep. Ashley Hinson [67:01–94:19]

Key Points:

• Background as a working mom, experience with activist school policies
• Emphasizes coalition-building and bipartisan solutions
• Focuses on affordability, energy, and trade for Iowa constituents
• Legislative priorities: parental rights, public safety, trade, and economic opportunity
• Demonstrates personal connection through accessible, constituent-first campaigning
• Showcases fiddle/violin skills (music segment)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:52] – Minnesota’s troubles and fraud intro
• [10:28] – New York Times article on fraud, breakdown of the Feeding Our Future scheme
• [20:17] – Discussion of state agency complicity & defense strategies
• [22:09–22:41] – Gov. Walz’s response to the scandal (audio clip and hosts’ reaction)
• [26:22] – Exposé of race-based legal threats by NGOs
• [38:45] – Discussion of fraud money funding Al Shabaab terrorism
• [55:56–56:34] – Audio of TN special election Dem candidate’s anti-Nashville comments
• [67:01–94:19] – In-depth interview with Ashley Hinson, including her musical performance

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Conclusion / Takeaways

• The Feeding Our Future scandal in Minnesota is, for the hosts, emblematic of deeper systemic problems with modern Democratic Party governance, especially where identity politics and lack of meaningful oversight intersect.
• The episode offers a mix of serious investigative critique, dark humor, and lighter elements such as listener mail and a live violin performance from Ashley Hinson.
• The hosts challenge listeners (especially from Minnesota) to hold state politicians accountable and warn about the national consequences of local corruption.
• The guest segment with Ashley Hinson underlines the value of authenticity, direct engagement with voters, and traditional American values in contemporary politics.

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For First-Time Listeners

This summary covers all major themes, arguments, and lighter moments from the episode, and features direct quotes and timestamps for easy navigation. For those interested in:

• Scandal breakdowns and political analysis → [02:52–46:41]
• Lighter banter, listener feedback, and variety clips → [48:42–66:13]
• In-depth, positive political candidate interview → [67:01–94:19]

Memorable Quote:
“You are Mogadishu, Minnesota. My people, it’s gone. You have turned into Mogadishu.” — Josh Holmes (46:37)

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

What they're doing in Minnesota, though, I think is the impetus for change because I don't think you can ignore this.

[Michael Duncan]

Whenever you have a failure of liberal governance. They use these crises to put a band aid over the bullet hole of.

[John Ashbrook]

Their failed policies because it's outrage that the taxpayer money was stolen. But to me, and what we're gonna get into. But what's more outrageous is that Democrats perhaps knew about this and engaged with it because they felt it helps get them elected and that this is a constituency that they should appeal to. And it's just like they saw taxpayers being robbed as business as usual for them.

[Josh Holmes]

I've worked at Coca Cola for 21 years.

[Michael Duncan]

We're delivering Dr. Pepper from our brand.

[Smug]

New facility in Dallas, Texas.

[John Ashbrook]

We're really proud to still make Pepsi products in America. You don't need a college degree to.

[Josh Holmes]

Work here, but I put four kids through college by working here.

[Michael Duncan]

This is a great place to work with great people and great American brands.

[John Ashbrook]

Grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, they all depend on us. We deliver great paying jobs.

[Michael Duncan]

We deliver beverages people love.

[John Ashbrook]

We deliver for our community.

[Josh Holmes]

Some things stand the test of time, like America's farmers. And they deserve high quality, built to last machines with. With technology that reduces inputs and saves them money and time. That's why John Deere is investing billions in American factories and launching new tools to help customers repair their machines to keep building for their future, Empowering our customers, building America. Because our nation counts on our farmers. And John Deere is proud. They can count on us. Paid for by John Deere.

[Smug]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[John Ashbrook]

Keep the faith, the line and own the lids.

[Smug]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. We Trust everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and you enjoyed a little bit of the Ruthless Friday programmer on the way. We had a terrific time doing it. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dial. It was a great weekend.

[John Ashbrook]

The best.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

But now we're right, like right back in it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And there's a lot to discuss. And the thing is, all of us take great pride in the areas that we're from. And you can hear it on both the audio and the video as we have civil discourse about the relative merits and demerits of the states that we grew up in.

[Michael Duncan]

Unfortunately, when it comes to Minnesota, the demerits are stacking up. Josh.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, it's a tough time for Minnesota, boy.

[Josh Holmes]

It is a lean time. In the land of 10,000 lakes, it is. It's tougher than tough. We, you know, it was bad enough we had Max Brosmer starting for the Minnesota Vikings. You get blanked in Seattle, like, this is what the basement feels like. I'm not, you know, particularly accustomed to being a basement dwelling. NFL football team. NFL football. We live and die with this stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, aren't the Bengals, like two games from first in the division? Like, even the bungles aren't as bad as.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we stacked like 40 something on the Bengals and they still got a better record than we do.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not good, but that's not the limit.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's actually the least of our. So we're gonna do. We're gonna. Look, there's some tough love for my peeps here in this top segment. A lot of you've heard about this massive fraud that has been exposed in Minnesota, part of the Somali population. Surprise, surprise. But we're gonna put a fine point on it because there's a lot of stuff out there and you've probably seen it. But when you delve into this, it is actually a nationwide conundrum and you have to figure out how to get this right. Because when you have corrupt leaders in a state that are basically being used to try to perpetuate a fraud against the American taxpayer, which is what this is. It's both a Minnesota taxpayer, it's also a federal taxpayer. You gotta talk about it. Because my sense is this has been going on in California forever in different. They talk about medical and things like that. Greatest fraud anywhere in the country. But a bunch of libs do this in a bunch of different places. What they're doing in Minnesota, though, I think is the impetus for change because I don't think you can ignore this, hopefully. And Governor Tim Walls is at the very center of it. We're gonna get into that. We've got a great guest, fellas. Great guest. Ashley Hinson joins the program OG Friend of the program. OG I mean, when we had USB mics into the side of the computer and we were traveling where nobody even cared if we showed up or not. She always did.

[John Ashbrook]

Our first trip to Iowa.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, she was always fun. And so we followed our career very closely. It's been incredibly successful. She's now running for Senate. She is right here today. And she's a bit of an artiste.

[Michael Duncan]

She is, yeah. She can play the violin or the fiddle, if you will.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, a musical genius.

[Smug]

Real talent.

[Josh Holmes]

I didn't even know that existed.

[Michael Duncan]

And we Tested her chops a little bit. Before we started recording, we were just like calling out from the crowd, hey, can you play this? Can you play that? And she can play it all. She can play it just off the top of her head.

[Josh Holmes]

So we're gonna get into that. And then we've got some analysis on the special election that's happening in Tennessee that's getting a lot of national attention. We've got some variety. And when the program has variety, you know you're going to have fun with it. But first, boys, the New York Times, the old gray lady. You know, it's bad shape when the New York Times, right, is like digging in on a progressive lib thing.

[Smug]

Very rare.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, they got to get out from underneath this at some way. Because you remember back in the day when we were talking about all the stimmy funds and all the stuff that was happening around Covid, right. The whole state and local. Well, we got to make sure we flood states and localities with a whole bunch of funding. They were like, how dare you not do that? Just send federal money to these states and localities. They know what to do.

[Michael Duncan]

And at the time it was, it was places like the New York Times who said that Republicans were so cold hearted, they wanted states and localities to go bankrupt. Yes, they were going to go bankrupt if not for all these stimmy funds from COVID that were going to replenish the coffers of the state government. And now we found out, of course subsequent to that, that this became a fucking slush fund for these people to rob taxpayers.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Which was so predictable. And Republican leaders at the time had talked about the fact that this was going to end up in this. It's ripe for fraud. It's the worst possible scenario. And remember, there was a couple like filibusters, a whole bunch of different things that happened during the course of the COVID era where Republicans objected to the state and local funding the Democrats wanted to push into the system. I think ultimately during Republican leadership at the end of the Trump 1 era resisted the attempt to send just billions of dollars there.

[Michael Duncan]

And of course, because always whenever you have a failure of liberal governance, they use these crises to put a band aid over the bullet hole of their failed policies. We've seen that with the enhanced subsidies on Obamacare, for example.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And we saw all this with COVID You got states like California where their entire public pension system is bankrupting the state. And so they wanted all this money out of COVID so they could paper over all the malfeasance that had happened over with these public sector unions.

[Josh Holmes]

Where's the money go? Yeah, it doesn't matter when you have a billion coming in. Yeah. You know, crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

[Michael Duncan]

Rahm Emanuel.

[Josh Holmes]

Rahm made famous. So anyway, New York Times put up graphic one, how fraud swamped Minnesota's social service system on Tim Walls. Watch.

[John Ashbrook]

No, again, shocking from the New York Times. Just shocking.

[Josh Holmes]

Whoa. It's shocking in a couple of different ways. One is that he was the previous vice presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. A national brand in some ways. But two, he's up for reelection as a Democratic governor in the state of Minnesota. For them to get that side of this, like, I don't think you guys understand. New York Times doesn't work this way. Right. You can be a Republican candidate with some skill and look like you have some upward mobility in a sleepy race anywhere across this country. New York Times will demand a profile piece.

[Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they will want to dig in to every time you peed on the toilet seat. They will. That's what they do. But for the Democratic side, either they write like a. Oh, everybody's excited about this person.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, this is why this Democrat candidate is the next generation of leadership. Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

The future. Or they just ignore it altogether if it's kind of a hairy story. And that's basically the way that they operate for them to get in this when this man's on a ballot in what, 13 short months. Something else. Well, we found out why prosecutors say members of the Somali diaspora, a group with growing political power. Interesting. Were largely responsible. President Trump has drawn national attention to the scandal amid a crackdown on immigration. The fraud scandal that rattled Minnesota was staggering in its scale and brazenness. This is the New York Times. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies, accusing them of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a government program meant to keep children fed during the COVID 19 pandemic.

[Smug]

Can I stop you there?

[John Ashbrook]

Again, each word of that sentence just gets more diabolical. Like hundreds of millions are showing.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

From a government program. What? Meant to keep children fed. What? During the pandemic.

[Josh Holmes]

I know every three words.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Let me say the Grinch would be like, this is a bit much, gentlemen.

[Smug]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, yeah, I hate the who's, but not that much.

[John Ashbrook]

We gotta have some ethics around here.

[Smug]

Let me just go back to the first two words of that line. Federal prosecutors, you know that the New York Times is trying to stick it to Tim Walls because they didn't Say the Trump administration is charging.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, that's a great point.

[Smug]

If they were taken a little something off the fastball, they would have labeled the federal prosecutors as Trump staff.

[Josh Holmes]

But there was three long years for a Biden administration to bring these kind of charges. Wonder why. It begs the question why? Anyway, going on over the last five years, law enforcement officials say fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota's Somali diaspora. Right. Diaspora.

[Smug]

Yeah, that's.

[Josh Holmes]

Give me, give me, give me a diaspora. Yeah, Diaspora. Diaspora. So it's like die Aspira.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I did well on my verbal sat. I'd say it's diaspora.

[Josh Holmes]

He's acting like he's the only one who knows how to speak around here. I'm just asking.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you're the one who asked.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I've never, I've just never heard. I, I, as scores of individuals, made small fortunes by setting up companies that build state agencies for millions of dollars worth of social services that were never provided. Interesting. So federal Prosecutors say that 59 people. Jesus Christ.

[Smug]

That's a lot of people.

[Josh Holmes]

59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far. And that more than $1 billion of taxpayers money, B billion dollars has been stolen in three plots. They're investigating. That's just what they're investigating. Folks like you only imagine what happens underneath this. Anyway, that is more than the Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections. Minnesota's fraud scandal stood out even in context of the rampant theft during the pandemic when Americans stole tens of billions of dollars through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors. Can I pause this on this? It was a weird time, Covid, and there was a lot of fear and there were a lot of businesses that the federal government and state governments basically prohibited from doing business.

[Smug]

That's right. Restaurants shut people down.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Churches as we came to find it, retail stores, things like that.

[Smug]

This is livelihoods that people built up over generations immediately shut down and closed.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's insane.

[Josh Holmes]

And so one of the reasons why, and we were on the air at this time, we were talking about this, that one of the reasons why some of this made sense is when you have a federal government and state governments that are telling you literally can't do business, you have a liability there.

[Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

If you are giving a directive to those businesses that people can't have any commerce whatsoever, you have to do something about reimbursing.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the same concept as, like eminent domain. Like if the federal government demands land, they gotta pay. They have to Pay you the market value for that. And in this case, the government's ordering you to shut operations. They need to compensate you.

[Michael Duncan]

And the whole point of those programs, the PPP program, for example, was that you could pay all of those workers at your restaurant, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

That the government is forcing.

[Josh Holmes]

As long as you kept them employed.

[Michael Duncan]

You keep them employed. You keep them on the payroll. This PPP loan helps you pay all those employees who'd otherwise be in there working. The government won't let them work.

[Josh Holmes]

Now, quite literally, the program kept America's economy working. And you didn't have civil unrest across this country of people who are not only out of a job, but no way to make a living over a period of months when the government told them they couldn't show up for work. Where this thing slid sideways was the breadth of it. And like, I know in D.C. and you guys all experience this too, all of a sudden you see, like, K Street lobbying firms and PR agencies who are like, yep, ppp. And they're taking PPP money. And of course, the line at the time was like, there's no. There's no discriminating against a PPP claim. Everybody's. If everybody's in, like, you know, there's no. Nobody looks down on people who take PPV money. So everybody's got a little bit, like the argument around tarp.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And it kind of worked in that there was no discriminating. But all of us were looking at this like, dude, business was never larger in Washington, D.C. than when it was during COVID when all this money came sloshing out of the federal government. There was no lobbying firm or PR agency or anywhere that had a lack of work at the time. I mean, it was massive because people were trying to influence the federal government. So we saw this. We're like, oof, this thing is going to get, like, ugly. And what happens, like, five years down the road is going to be troublesome. Little did we know the problems at the state level were twice as bad as what we were dealing with at the federal level. State agencies reimbursed. This is the Feeding Our Future situation. Let me just read this first. The prosecutors focused on Minneapolis nonprofit organization called Feeding Our Future, which became partner to dozens of local businesses that enrolled in feeding sites. Very noble cause. With a record of doing the job. State agencies reimbursed the group and its partners invoicing, claiming to have fed thousands of children.

[Smug]

You know, I can. Can I just stop you right there? I can think of another model of feeding centers that Was developed over generations in this country. It's called restaurants that families started that were shut down by the government. Yeah. And then it goes to some NGO so that they can be the feeding centers. And people aren't allowed to go to Olive Garden or they're not allowed to go to Shoney's or wherever they're going to go to eat something. They have to go to some government group. Anyhow, Sorry, just my rant for a second.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I mean, listen to the people who are involved. Anyway, in reality, federal prosecutors said that most of the meals were non existent. The business owners spent the funds on luxury cars, houses, and even real estate projects abroad.

[John Ashbrook]

Again, the Grinch would be like, this is a bit much.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't do it.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, we have some ethics here. You're really going to buy a Lexus in this money you took to feed kids?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, come on, I just wanted to.

[Michael Duncan]

Live on the mountaintop.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. So the program's annual cost ballooned to more than $104 million last year, the authorities said, from a budget projection of 2.6 million when it began in 2020. Two of the eight people charged in the scenario have pled guilty. Six others have pleaded not guilty and aren't awaiting trial. Prosecutors so far have charged one provider, asha Farhan Hassan, 29, with wire fraud. This guy's 29 years old. Wire fraud. They say that she. Or she. They say that she and business partner stole 14. Just straight up stole $14 million.

[Smug]

A lot of million dollars allegedly. Do you think they pay tax on that?

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

They're like, I'm not a sucker. I know what our government does with the money. They give it to people like me.

[Michael Duncan]

But does it. Don't waste it.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm not paying taxes.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, back to the top of this article, the way that they described it was brazen. And I mean, I don't think there's a better word for it. If you think about the fact that it was budgeted initially at 2.6 million DOL. Like during COVID in 2020 and last year, the cost ballooned to more than $104 million. Like, that is incredibly brazen. If you.

[Josh Holmes]

What are you doing?

[Michael Duncan]

Like, like, how is it that you thought you'd get away with this? I don't know that. In the height of the pandemic, the budget was $2.6 million and it was $104 million last year. Like, how did you think you were going to get away with this?

[John Ashbrook]

Because they, they did.

[Smug]

That's why they do it. In secret.

[Michael Duncan]

They've done it deliberate.

[Josh Holmes]

They do it in secret. They've done it deliberate. So Mr. Pacquia, who represented other defendants in the fraud cases, said that some involved became convinced that state agencies were tolerating, if not tacitly allowing the fraud. Right. So the defense of the people who are just stealing all of this money are that the people who are giving them the money know damn well what.

[Michael Duncan]

Were to be stolen from. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're like, they know we're not doing the job, but they're still sending this money. Who amongst us wouldn't take billions of dollars?

[Smug]

You're always gonna have a couple of Lexuses, maybe some foreign properties. That's just part of the thing of feeding people.

[Josh Holmes]

So listen to this. No one was doing anything. This is quote, unquote, no one was doing anything about the red flags. He said it was like someone was stealing money from the cookie jar and they kept refilling it.

[John Ashbrook]

It's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

What an amazing quote to have about an agency under Governor Tim Walls direction that people are scamming tens of millions, maybe even a billion dollars. And they're like, no, they knew. They just didn't do anything about it. We were stealing all the shit. And they were like.

[John Ashbrook]

And you know, I think that is perhaps the most critical part of this story is not just because it's outrage that the taxpayer money was stolen, but to me, and what we're gonna get into. But what's more outrageous is that Democrats perhaps knew about this and engaged with it because they felt it helps get them elected and that this is a constituency that they should appeal to. And it's just like they saw taxpayers being robbed as business as usual for them. Unreal.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unreal. So I want to play for you a quote from Jazz Hands himself, Tim Walls on all of this before we go to the break. And then we're going to react to all of it. Clip one, please.

[Smug]

Dozens of people of East African descent.

[Ashley Hinson]

Have been charged, convicted and sentenced for.

[Smug]

Stealing more than a billion dollars in.

[Josh Holmes]

Taxpayer money from government programs during COVID.

[Ashley Hinson]

As you know, Governor, that is more than Minnesota spends each year to run.

[Josh Holmes]

Its Department of Corrections. So I want to give you a chance to respond to this.

[Ashley Hinson]

Do you take responsibility for failing to.

[Smug]

Stop this fraud in your state? Well, certainly I take responsibility for putting people in jail. Governors don't get to just talk. Theoretically, we have to solve problems. And I will note, it's not just Somalis.

[Josh Holmes]

Minnesota is a generous state.

[Smug]

Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well run state.

[Josh Holmes]

AAA bond rating.

[Smug]

But that attracts criminals. Those people are going to jail. We're doing everything we can, but to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few, it's lazy.

[Josh Holmes]

You are a fucking piece of shit.

[John Ashbrook]

Can you believe that?

[Josh Holmes]

I literally. Dude, listen, I made me take this a little harder because this is where I'm from and this is not how I grew up. I mean, you had Democrats ruling the state.

[John Ashbrook]

I wish you felt about that state the way you do.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unbelievable to me that you would try to deflect this question, right? I mean. Cause that's what the New York Times is reporting, that a billion dollars of taxpayer money has been stolen on his watch. And he's like, well, people are going to jail. Where's the billion dollars, Tim Walls?

[John Ashbrook]

Where is it?

[Josh Holmes]

Where is it? I'll tell you where it is. It's in fucking Mogadishu because you didn't do a goddamn thing to stop it. And it is unreal to me that there isn't like a civil uprising in Minnesota with the people that I grew up with at this point. Not to just throw these absolute assholes out of office.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, for him to be like, she's like, so all this like fraud and shit happened on your watch? Do you take responsibility for this? For him to be like, I understand taxpayers are robbed, but here's the thing, folks talking about this is racist. Like, are you for real, dude? Well, so wait. Are you for real?

[Josh Holmes]

Wait until we get into that because after the break we are going to get into the mafia style tactics that were used against government employees trying to keep a look at the purse strings. And they just went along with all of it, including Governor Tim Walz, right after this.

[Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

Why was the government shut down? Because big insurance greed knows no limits. The same insurance Companies pocketing billions in profits. We're demanding billions more in taxpayer funded subsidies again, putting millions of families at risk. Shutting down our government now, unless they get their billions. The big insurance companies are threatening to raise your premiums even more, putting greed and profit before patients. It's time to hold them accountable. Okay, so how did this happen? I mean, we know that there are politicians who operate in a less than forthright way. We know there are crooks. We know. I mean, the story is old as time. But this level, to get the New York Times involved to say this is a different level is a fundamentally different picture and how bad this actually is, like, this is incredible. So they go on feeding our future. The nonprofit group that was the largest provider of the in the pandemic program responded with a warning. In an email, the group told the state agency that failing to promptly approve new applicants from quote, minority owned businesses, unquote, would result in a lawsuit featuring accusations of racism that would be, quote, sprawled across the news, unquote.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the most cynical shit I have heard in a long time. But that is what this country has endured for almost a decade. The left has essentially been, do what we say or we will call you racist and we will scream it from the rooftops. The left is essentially just weaponized accusations of racism to the point that it means nothing.

[Michael Duncan]

And we've talked about this on the show for years now. But what the left has done is they've outsourced this whole, all these mafia tactics to these NGOs, these non government organizations to go ahead and pressure people into doing what they want. Right? It's like it might be a small minority of the overall country that wants this thing to happen, but if you don't do what we want, well, it's gonna be a story about what a terrible person you are, what a racist you are.

[John Ashbrook]

It's so lazy because that's how they.

[Michael Duncan]

Captured corporate America, folks.

[John Ashbrook]

It is like honest, hard working Italian Americans used to have to break kneecaps and shit. And now, now these NGOs are just saying that, like we'll call you racist in the papers. Like if they had any heart, they'd be out in the streets breaking kneecaps like our Italian Americans have to do.

[Josh Holmes]

But you also have to know a little bit of something about the Minnesotans that are involved, right? Why is this so effective amongst these people? I grew up in a post racial society in Minnesota. My heroes were Kirby Puckett, Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey Jr. Like I never even thought about it. And that is the way the entire generation that I grew up with within 10 years start to back handled things. And once we got into this, like, Obama era, everybody's a racist type stuff, they're particularly concerned with that. It's one of the reasons why, like, the western suburbs of Minneapolis, which is a huge population base there that was held since the 70s by Republicans, has been Democrat since the Obama era, is because those people, they hate this. They hate it. And the mere threat of them being labeled as a racist is enough for them to take the eye off the ball. And it's not because they're just like, giving up their proprietorship over or ownership of the tax dollars, is that they really have real fear. But they're not racist. These are not racist people. But they are concerned about. They don't live in New York, right. They're not dealing with 18 different dialects and all kinds of shit. They don't live in New Jersey where you've got a multicultural situation. They don't live in the deep south where you've had, you know, racial strife that you've had to work through over a long period of time. These are people that, like, fundamentally believe that all people are created equal. And if you accuse them of racism, they're like, they don't know what to do with it.

[Smug]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

They're concerned. I think this is changing because of the overreach of things like this. But you can see how this is a uniquely vulnerable population to this kind of thing. And when you sit on top of it, a governor who is interested only in the political receipts that you get from saying, oh, I'm supportive of a minority population.

[John Ashbrook]

Again, so cynical because like we just said, like, when Obama came in and it became the whole, like, everyone is a racist. And it's the left's divide and conquer tactic. And for Tim Walsh to be so cynical, to adopt that and then be like, I want to make clear when he's asked, you know, you were governor, so you're responsible. What are your thoughts on that? He's like, I want to be clear. This is racist against the moles. It's like, dude. And he's the guy in charge. This is pathetic, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

It's crazy. All right, so a report by Minnesota's nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor about the lapses that enabled the Meals fraud later found that the threat of litigation and of negative press affected how state officials used their regulatory power.

[John Ashbrook]

Pathetic.

[Josh Holmes]

Think about that. That is, ladies and gentlemen, a shakedown racket.

[John Ashbrook]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what DEI was born.

[John Ashbrook]

And just Like Duncan said, it was done to corporate America.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. This is what the play is of the progressive left and what they have done for Genera. It's how they held hostage this country.

[John Ashbrook]

BLM was the same thing during COVID They rioted in the streets. And then he heard all the leaders of that nonprofit were like buying mansions in LA with them money.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, you're going to invest all this money into quote, unquote, minority businesses. We're going to go out and we're going to pick it in front of your corporate headquarters.

[Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You can stop that by paying the, the, the money to us.

[Josh Holmes]

Pay the toll.

[Michael Duncan]

The toll. If you can pay that toll, the protection money, we'll leave you alone.

[Josh Holmes]

Nice house.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Shame if something happens, right?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So Kayasa Magan, a Somali American who formerly worked as a fraud investigator for the Minnesota Attorney General's office and said elected officials in the state, and particularly those who are part of the state's Democratic led administration, were reluctant to take more assertive action in response to allegations in the Somali community. That's interesting. He's a Somali of saying this. There's a perception that forcefully tackling this issue might cause political backlash among the Somali community, which is a core voting party. Debt, a block for Democrats. So here you go.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Smug]

Wild.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it. Right now.

[Josh Holmes]

You've knit together a whole bunch of things. There is a fraud that took a billion dollars out of your pocket. You may be wondering why you send half your shit to the federal government and another 12% to Minnesota and never seem to get any service other than the fact that you can drive to work on a road that's not like.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, even then, it's fucked up even then.

[Josh Holmes]

But ultimately what this is, is they have created a voting bloc of people who are downstream of Black Hawk Down.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the thing is like you look at some of these countries in Africa that are failed states that the United States has given billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid to over a generation. And people wonder to themselves, oh, why can't they figure it out? Why can't these countries turn it around? It's because these are places that are fundamentally corrupt.

[Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And then we've been trying to fix them for, for all of this time and send all this money and it's failed. And then on top of that, in that failure, we've now imported these people into our country and they've brought the same corrupt politics that ruined their homeland to our shores. And then, and now they're part of the government. And so the graft is coming from inside. And now you've got Somalis in the government who are okay with the corruption outside of the government.

[Josh Holmes]

100%.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, it's just bonkers.

[Josh Holmes]

It's absolutely bonkers. This Magan guy is one of the few, according to New York Times, prominent figures in the Somali community willing to speak about the fraud. Because most people are just.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that's the thing is not interested. Just like Duncan described is that we saw with, you know, USAID and all this expense that the America gave to these countries and they end up being run by corrupt individuals. And it just becomes basically, let's, let's take this cash and let's give it to my supporters. It's just a graft system, right? Like Tammany hall, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, but this look makes Tammany hall look like fucking boys, right? And we talked about in a recent episode, this Death by Lightning miniseries, James Garfield. Garfield. There used to be a spoil system that was very corrupt in the United States, but we solved for that 150 years ago.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, patronage, 1800s following the assassination of a president.

[Michael Duncan]

But there's many places in the world that still operate entirely on that system.

[Josh Holmes]

And we're importing.

[John Ashbrook]

And we're importing is you've now seen the Democrat Party wholly embrace that this failed system of corruption they have wholly embraced.

[Michael Duncan]

That's how Stacey Abrams gets a billion dollars into a bank account for something she's never done before.

[Smug]

This is.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the same way that you saw like with left wing dark money or whether it was Beyonce doing a show for Kamala Harris after the wire clears. You know what I mean? Like whole thoughts.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the way they operate.

[John Ashbrook]

They are just a completely corruption.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't actually believe in shit.

[John Ashbrook]

Nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like pay the Man.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what they believe in.

[Josh Holmes]

Then I'll believe in it.

[John Ashbrook]

They believe in the money. When the wire hits, that's what they.

[Josh Holmes]

Believe in because that is the fundamental base of their party. So as the trial in the Meals fraud case was coming to a close last summer, an attempt to bribe a juror included an explicit insinuation about racism. Prosecutors said several defendants in the trial were found to have arranged to send a bag containing $120,000 to a juror, along with a note that read, why?

[Smug]

Why?

[Josh Holmes]

Why is it always people of color and immigrants prosecuted for the fault of other people?

[Smug]

Oh, my God.

[John Ashbrook]

Amazing. That is. This is.

[Smug]

We have a problem, but this is.

[Josh Holmes]

The reason That I tried.

[John Ashbrook]

Why didn't I get that back? I'd be asking that question, Won't someone speak out for these people?

[Josh Holmes]

Mr. Mogadishu, if you're listening. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Unmarked bills, non sequential. I'm smart enough, but the reason that.

[Josh Holmes]

I wanted to provide a little bit of a primer on Minnesota and its culture is because this is where this makes sense. Only in a place like that would something that read like the sentence I just did make any sense. Right. If you're trying to do that in Atlanta, Georgia, people are like, what the fuck are you talking about? We've dealt with this shit forever. You try to do that in a multicultural New York, anywhere in the east coast or whatever, they'd be like, huh.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I say, I think it's. I'm shocked they think it would work. I think the days of it working, maybe outside of deeply blue states is over. I think one of the reasons Trump was reelected is because people are done with it. Like, I remember feeling like there was this almost like nationwide exhale after Trump won last year, that they're like, thank God, because everyone is so tired of this shit.

[Josh Holmes]

No question. But I think my point is, is that this runs much deeper than you think.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe Minnesota's a weaker state with weaker people who they're scared of this shit. Trump told us, we don't have to be scared anymore. We don't have to be scared anymore.

[Josh Holmes]

It's definitely not a place of weaker people. What it is, is uniquely vulnerable to the situations that the left has built. And what they have built runs much deeper than the national dei, the affirmative action at colleges, in particular Ivy League schools. It runs much deeper than all that stuff that Trump solved in the first 30 days of his presidency that we've all celebrated and talked about. It is endemic in cultures around this country of people who are uniquely vulnerable to the argument that, like, no, dude, I just want everyone to figure out how to live together. When you import a whole bunch of people who don't believe that fundamentally.

[Michael Duncan]

So what you mean in that is, like, places in the Midwest that are majority white, for example, and then some immigrants, you know, are brought in from a third world country.

[Josh Holmes]

The reason they're there is because they were accepting in the first place and that all men are created equal.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? And they believe that these are not racist people. They don't have a racist bone on their body. They grew up in an entire society where they were taught to be colorblind. And these are good, honest people. And suddenly there's people who are Brought in here from a foreign land and now they're being called racist. And so they. They over.

[Josh Holmes]

Correct.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, in a sense. And I. And as somebody from the Midwest too, from Indiana.

[Josh Holmes]

But it allows.

[Michael Duncan]

I can see this.

[Josh Holmes]

It allows nefarious operators. The room. Yeah, because the argument provides the room for fraud at a scale that we're talking about here. So where did the money end up, fellas? This is where this story takes an extremely dark turn. Minnesota's tax money almost certainly ends up in the hands of Somali terror group Al Shabaab.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow, Great.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is. According to Yahoo, Minnesota Somali community has sent millions of tax funds to Somalia via hawala networks, much of which has ended up in the hands of Al Shabaab. A decent amount of Minnesota's tax money almost certainly ended up in Al Shab. A Source from the U.S. attorney's office told state outlet KSTP. KSTP is a great local station, but they asked the question. The U.S. attorney's office is like, yeah, there's. It absolutely did.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a terrorist group. You thought you were feeding kids and you were buying Toyota Hiluxes for a bunch of terrorists.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, that truck, that good truck. Durable. Nice for mounting machine guns in the back. This follows a collection of reports, including an explosive investigation by the Manhattan Institute City Journal, which revealed the Minnesota Somali community has sent millions of tax funds to Somalia via the Halwala networks, which much of which have ended up in the hands of Al Shawab. Al Shabaab is a Sunni Islamist militant movement based in Somalia. It has been allied with al Qaeda since 2012. The US attorney added that Al Shabaab controls much of Somalia and imposes a tax on all financial activity in the areas it controls. That's how they fund their terror. According to reports, Somalia's economy is heavily reliant on money from its citizens in the diaspora, Meaning people who are not living in that hellhole somehow immigrated somewhere else, are garnering money. In this case, tax, taxpayer money, working Americans money. In 2023 alone, Somalis abroad sent 1.7 million billion more than Somali government's budget for that year.

[John Ashbrook]

Incredible.

[Smug]

So when you think about that is wild.

[Josh Holmes]

The wild stuff that we've reported on the ruthless Variety program with clips about Ilhan Omar, for example, going in front of Somali nationals and talking about her loyalty to Somali despite the fact that she is an elected representative to the United States Congress, all of a sudden this starts to make more sense.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm the captain now.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm the captain now. And like, look, I'm not. We didn't break this down entirely, but that mayor's race was a pretty good example. Jacob Fry, the sitting mayor, is absolutely horrible. He was the crybaby that was sitting outside of George Floyd's coffin, you know, pretending as though he was, like, the most aggrieved member of the Minneapolis community by this death of George Floyd. And we know all the circumstances involved in that, but it was a huge uprising in the community. Like, this is a guy who was running against a Somalian for mayor.

[John Ashbrook]

And the only reason that the Somalian guy lost is because he was a member of one clan, the Darun.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And then the, like, rival Somali clan.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Didn't want that Klan to be in power. It's like, again, dude, I love that the state of Minnesota is now decided by, like, the Klan rivalries from Somalia.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the other thing.

[John Ashbrook]

The state deserves it. Listen, here's the thing. When you're like, you know, these are nice people that were preyed upon. No, they're not. No, they're not. I hope all the federal taxpayer money is clawed back and people who did that are locked up. But when it comes to the state level, I want those Minnesotans to start policing their state.

[Smug]

I'm with.

[John Ashbrook]

You know that song that. Try that in a small town. Try that shit in North Carolina.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I'm with you, dude. I mean, the Minnesota that I grew up with is gone. This shit would never fly.

[John Ashbrook]

They allowed it to happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, this shit would never fly. There would be riots.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, real were there. Real were there. There were riots. And Minnesota and Minneapolis burned, and it was the summer of 2020, so. So where are the riots that would stop this?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, I don't care if you work for United Healthcare, Medtronic or Target company or whatever, and you just are hanging out in Lake Minnetonka or Dinah or whatever, and somehow, like, Trump's rhetoric is off putting to you. Look at what you're doing to your state by voting the way that you are. You are allowing fucking Mogadishu to control the purse strings on Minneapolis and St. Paul. That is unbelievable to me. If any state in the union had this going on, I would say the same thing. The fact that it's my home state makes me furious. Absolutely furious. I don't know. I don't understand how you can have a political. How is it that you still have partisan allegiances after you've seen what they've done?

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

How is it possible?

[John Ashbrook]

If I had to bet. If I had to bet, I bet Minnesota gets bluer I bet it gets bluer and bluer.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, how would it not? Because you're importing. Yep. Because it's, it's Islamic extremists by the dozen.

[John Ashbrook]

And dude, the Democrat Party is now essentially just Tammany hall coast to coast. It's a money, just like it's all based on who's paying who give me my share. And that's what they've done to Minnesota. It's what's happened to New York City. And it's gonna continue as long as Democrats have any say in it. The only system, the only thing they believe in is getting money, everybody getting paid. That's why you see sources, boy, collecting all these elected Democrat officials. It's from the top down, it's coast to coast. This is just a microcosm of what the Democrat Party is.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a failure of argument at some level too, in that I think Republicans under Trump have won the argument nationwide in terms of what is acceptable and what's not. For states like Minnesota and there's a bunch of purple Colorado would fit into this same.

[John Ashbrook]

It's been taken over and destroyed.

[Josh Holmes]

Where like I understand you're concerned about abortion, but you have state laws that are dealing with all of that stuff. Does your concern with something that's never going to change outweigh the fact that a billion dollars is being stolen out of your pocket to send to terrorist networks in Somalia, does that outweigh that? And if you can make the case, if you can't make the case to reasonable individuals that are enough to make up a majority to elect a Republican senator. And this doesn't need to be Ted Cruz, you know, this doesn't need to be the conservative. Like I'd love it if it was, but it doesn't need to be the most conservative person, somebody who's represented, like Norm Coleman, the first campaign I ever worked on, perfect example. Like this guy, I guarantee three years ago would have been all over this had he represented Minnesota in the United States Senate. Well, we're just finding out now because you have a Trump administration that cares enough to look at where the dollars and cents are. Cuz Tim Walsh didn't give a fuck. He was like ushering it in. The Biden administration had three years to prosecute all of this. They didn't give a fuck because it's part of the base mobilization of what they do. As long as they vote Democrat, who gives a shit? That's why they talk about a Michigan problem.

[John Ashbrook]

They believe in nothing but the money.

[Josh Holmes]

They believe in nothing but the money. So, like, whatever your predisposition is and how you think Trump's rhetoric is or this, that whatever, like, at some level, this is insanity.

[John Ashbrook]

This is.

[Josh Holmes]

You are Mogadishu, Minnesota.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

My people, it's gone. You have turned into Mogadishu. And for God's sakes, Max Brosmer is your starting quarterback. We haven't been shut out since 2007.

[John Ashbrook]

Fuck you. It's over. It's all over for Minnesota.

[Josh Holmes]

Leads us to our question of the day. What do you think Al Shabab did with the money that's going to be golden of your taxpayer dollar? You know, you're just hanging out. You send a federal withholding to the irs. IRS transfers to Treasury. Treasury sends it out to the great state of Minnesota. You pocket it into the Feeding Our Future fund. It goes to some Somali militant who sends it to Al Shabaab. How do you think they spent it?

[Michael Duncan]

I think Al Shabaab is probably spending it on unders. On the Minnesota Vikings. Amazing coin.

[John Ashbrook]

Total amazing.

[Smug]

I don't know, old man. Maybe after last weekend, they're going to do the same thing to the Colts.

[Michael Duncan]

They might. They might. If the refs have.

[John Ashbrook]

That's out of control.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

It's unbelievable. This guy, this unreal.

[Smug]

I bet on him. I lost on them.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, yo, you bet on them?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh. Part of my 16 parlay. They literally let me down.

[John Ashbrook]

I can't believe you'd go into that.

[Michael Duncan]

That's unbelievable. Ashbrook is unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

He's out of pocket.

[Smug]

Out of pocket. Well, anyway, Daniel Jones blew it for me in Fantasy.

[Josh Holmes]

When we come back, we're gonna get to your comments from last week. It was the Thanksgiving episode, so I know that you all had a lot of good things to say. We're gonna get to all of that right after this. Okay? When you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we invite you to leave your comments on our question of the day. When you do, we read every single one of them. We cultivate them and get back to you the very next episode. To do that, we always start with a voice. But let me read the question. Question was, what's the best way to deal with your liberal family members on Thanksgiving?

[Smug]

Such a wonderful question. And Nicholas Grandinetti came with our first comment. Nicholas wrote, I put on YouTube, I type in MSNBC election night 24, and it's three and a half hours of liberal meltdown.

[John Ashbrook]

It's so good.

[Michael Duncan]

This is Smug's burner account.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. Hello, Mr. Grand. And Eddie, I've said it to the guys.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, whenever I want to pick me up, I literally Google that on YouTube and it's always a good time.

[Michael Duncan]

And you can find a couple of YouTube channels that have the super cuts where, oh yeah, they compress the best of the best. The best of the best.

[John Ashbrook]

And they say, like in the hall of the mountain Lord, it's like it's building up to Trump being announced his winner. It's so good.

[Smug]

What a king Nicholas, thank you for that.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, comment 2 dunks run from naughtiest Maximus. Nadias writes, you guys already nailed it. Walk in the door wearing a Trump 2028 hat and don't take it off except for the prayer. Find the most distressed looking family member and with a bold grin, point at your hat and smile like you know something they don't.

[Josh Holmes]

That's it, dude. He got. That's the gist of what we did Thursday. Yeah, just fucking scare him. All right.

[John Ashbrook]

Comment three, Smugs, Comment three from Hypercoach. Hypercoach writes, you must make fun of their sacred cows. Do a turkey acknowledgement before carving it up. Everyone absolutely must have a slice of dark meat to make sure their plate reflects equity. And finally, right after they sit down with a full plate, walk right up, take 20% of the food off of it and offer it to a random person outside. Perfect.

[Josh Holmes]

That's so good, Hyper coach. Great stuff. Listen, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we get a lot out of your comments. We read every single one. That's a perfect representative of what we do on Thanksgiving. I hope everybody enjoyed. I know we enjoyed doing it.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I had a friend, by the way.

[Smug]

Who.

[Josh Holmes]

Had an adaptation of this where he was like with a handful of in laws who are libs. And all he did is press play on our episode, but kept it on speaker. He just sat next to him watching football.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And they were sitting there too. And so they had to hear what it was that was going on. And he said it took no more than seven minutes before everybody excused themselves.

[John Ashbrook]

Mission accomplished.

[Josh Holmes]

Perfect Deal. Perfect Deal. All right. When we come back, Tennessee. Tennessee has got a special election. Is it close? Is it not close? We're going to talk about all of that right after this. Okay. Welcome back to the Ruthless variety program. Tennessee Special election. Of course, this is a seat that has been vacated. Special elections, you know, they happen when seats are vacated. They typically, when a party's in power, get a little hairy just because Democrats in this case don't have a lot of opportunity. Opportunity to try to change the score. So they put a lot of money into it, try to ramp up all the anxiety and make things seem like they're super close. Not sure this is close or not, but. Smashed, you've been following this closer than most.

[Smug]

Yeah. So this is a district just outside of Nashville. It's west of Nashville and formerly Marsha Blackburn's district. It actually hasn't been represented by Democrats since Ronald Reagan came to town. So this has been a. A hard red district. And a poll came out recently showing that this race is very closely. If you could pop that up, this is from Emerson, and it shows that the Republican, Matt Van Epps, is leading the Democrat, this lunatic Afton Ben, by only two points. Now, I will caveat this by saying that there are two Dem polls that have been released in the last few days that show the race at eight points. They think they're down more than this Emerson poll shows. And there are some Republicans who say it's probably closer to five points, maybe a little bit better. But this is going to be a close race. And what you need to keep in mind is that the Republican who held this seat and left it, Mark Greene, he won by 22, or, I'm sorry, Trump, won this district by 22 points in the most recent election. So the move from 22 points in a solid Republican district to potentially 5 points in this special election is noteworthy. I mean, I think that happens when Democrats spend millions of dollars. That happens when there is low turnout. But based on the early vote, based on where Republicans think this is, we could be looking at a very close race. But there's. There's some optimism from Republicans that we will pull it out. The election is today. We'll probably know tonight who actually wins it. But one thing I think is important to keep in mind, even if Republicans do win it by five points, which some are predicting, I think we need to remember 2006 when there was.

[John Ashbrook]

What was that? Like, Grandpa? 2006. Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

In 2006, Woodrow Wilson told me.

[John Ashbrook]

A.

[Smug]

Lot of our listeners lived through 2006. It was a nightmare year for Republicans, and it was a horrible midterm experience. During Bush's second term, there was a guy named Brian Bill Bray, who won California 50 by five points.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. In a state in a. In a district that was like 20.

[Smug]

Duke Cunningham, the previous cycle won it by 22.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

So if. If Republicans are out there thinking that, okay, we won this district, we got by, everything's going to be fine, I got news for you. We are headed for rocky waters. There's no way around it. And we need to be ready with good candidates. We need to make sure that we have turnout operations that are consistent with winning strategies because this cycle is going to be very, very difficult for us. And if you believe otherwise, you're diluting.

[Michael Duncan]

But we don't really even have to go back to 2006 to, I think make that argument. You could just go back to 2018, the first midterm of the first Trump term, and that we've had this as a structural disadvantage as we've shed, you know, more moderate suburban Republican voters and picked up more rural working class voters who have a lower turnout propensity in midterms and special elections of things like this. And when you're at the party in power, the people that are most animated to turn out and vote in a low turnout election, special election, on a random day rather than a regularly scheduled election are going to be the opposition. It's going to be these people. So yeah, no, I say that to say like there are structural disadvantages, but I don't want to overlook what Ashbrook's talking about and that is there are other questions that we have to answer in the minds of the electorate in this next year. And we talk about this a little bit with Ashley Henson and stuff and talks about affordability and trade and all of these things that there are anxieties in the electorate and pocketbook issues that we have to address that we are not doing the best job of doing thus far, but hopefully we can.

[Josh Holmes]

It helps when you have a candidate like Afton Ben Lunatic Clip 2 Please.

[Ashley Hinson]

Things I've been heavily involved with the Nashville mayoral race because I hate the city. I hate the bachelorettes, I hate the Pedal taverns, I hate country music. I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently and its city to the rest of the country that I hate it. Yeah, I'm that girl at the airport that all these bachelorettes are giddy, walking.

[Josh Holmes]

Out in their two toned colored pantone.

[Ashley Hinson]

Pink shirts and they walk out and.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm like, oh my God, Nashville, so foul, so loud. I mean that's what we need, another angry broad like this. For those of you people are leaping to have more of that on the menu.

[Smug]

For those of you on audio only who could not see the look on her face in that image, she is clearly a lunatic. But to Duncan's point about turnout, this is part of the Dem strategy. This sort of lunacy is what the hardest left people and Democrats are motivated to vote for. And so this is the type of Candidate they're gonna have across the map next year.

[John Ashbrook]

And also, Nashville is, like, one of my favorite cities on earth. Wonderful people there. The food is great there, and, like, the history of music there, and it's a great place to.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's what's most outrageous to this is, like, if you own a small business in Nashville, you're relying on tourism. You're relying on all those people coming to visit, you know, the grand old opry and stuff like that.

[Josh Holmes]

Think it works? Yeah, sweetheart.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, it's just. Look, these people are horrible. And first of all, their name's Afton.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

A, F, T, Y, N. Thank you for that. I'm very, very representative of the good people of Tennessee.

[Michael Duncan]

I think Afton is off putting.

[John Ashbrook]

There you go.

[Michael Duncan]

How about that?

[Josh Holmes]

How about that?

[John Ashbrook]

Is there no, like, drum roll, But I'm just on there.

[Smug]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Anyway, he's not even working the board.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, if you're in the good state of Tennessee and this is slipped over your radar and you're in this district, get out and vote today. Go out and make your voice heard, because this is one of those things that if somehow this crazy person gets over the top and wins this election, it will forever color what it is that the midterms are all about. It just will. And we have an uphill battle. No question about it.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you folks in Nashville, do you want your city to become the next Minneapolis?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Jesus. I mean, you suck.

[John Ashbrook]

That's why you gotta vote.

[Josh Holmes]

I have so little.

[Michael Duncan]

Hold them accountable. Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

Smuggler. Oh, God bless it. Okay. All right, so listen, we gotta get.

[John Ashbrook]

To variety, and we've got really good variety.

[Josh Holmes]

We got some good variety. Power struggle. Can we do clip four, please? What you're looking at for our YouTube listeners is a person alignment who is.

[John Ashbrook]

He's fighting a black bear.

[Josh Holmes]

He's fighting a black bear. Bear who has worked his way up to the power lines. But what. He's trying to rope him, and then.

[John Ashbrook]

The bear's climbing down.

[Josh Holmes]

He's coaxed and got a black bear is getting down. But watch, watch. Comes at him. Oh, boy. He's got to get out of there. And then he goes up another line. Right?

[Smug]

Guy's shown a lot of bravery here, but he's clearly using his might and not his mind. What they needed was a jar of honey 100 yards away from the tower. The bear would have run away, taken the honey, and gone off.

[John Ashbrook]

That's a bit much. So for anyone who would.

[Smug]

You just shot it?

[John Ashbrook]

Bingo. Anyone in that situation.

[Smug]

Okay, shoot the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

But don't aim for the head. And if you do shoot a black bear.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you want.

[John Ashbrook]

So here's the thing is. No, no, no, no. Shoot it a few times, let it bleed out fast.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the rug.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is, I want a bear rug, folks. And I don't want it to have, like, its skull caved in. Because you gotta have the head of the thing. You know, when it's laid out and it looks so nice.

[Josh Holmes]

It'S always about the rock.

[John Ashbrook]

Cause it would be so nice. It would have a wonderful place in my home. And I'd always be grateful to whoever said that.

[Josh Holmes]

I will say, though, like, the whole. I read the articles that dealt with this thing. So what they were trying to do is that this bear, because it got itself up on the top of the power line, they were trying to prevent it from being electrocuted. Who gives a shit?

[Michael Duncan]

That's what I'm saying. If you want a perfectly preserved pelt. Yeah, an electrocuted bear works just fine.

[John Ashbrook]

Wouldn't that make all his hairs, like, stand out? Freezes it out. You might get.

[Josh Holmes]

Right, you might get some Looney Tunes, dude. You might have to brush it out.

[John Ashbrook]

A little bit, you know, I don't want like a cooked and smelt like burnt hair rug. I don't know about that either. You know, imagine just shoot it. It's a lot easier. America's full of guns, people. If you see a bear, shoot the.

[Josh Holmes]

Hell out of it.

[John Ashbrook]

But don't hit it in the face and send it my way.

[Michael Duncan]

Parody, parody, parody.

[Josh Holmes]

I think only if you have a license.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

And a bear. And a bear tag. People.

[Michael Duncan]

People are going to be violating state laws on hunting. They're gonna be like the roots.

[John Ashbrook]

That would be my dream. Christmas morning. Our studio's got like seven or eight bear pelts sent our way because we have the best listeners in the world. Go forth illegally, kill as many bears and send the rugs to My way.

[Josh Holmes]

You thought this last story provided an opportunity for Smokey? Wait till you get a load of this. According to the New York Post, a new holiday gift idea. Guido on a Ledge. Let's post that. Put that up there. There he is. Okay, Guido on a Ledge is an Italian American's fist pumping over Staten Island. Mom's Elf on a Shelf makeover. You've heard of Elf on the Shelf? And now there's Guido on a Ledge. A plush doll decked out in a wife beater tank, shade slides supporting facial chest hair, and wearing a good Luck horn. Where do you want to take this?

[John Ashbrook]

You knew first off, you knew it was Staten Island. You knew it was Staten island the second you saw this. And also like Guido on a ledge. It's not a rhyming term. It's not like elf on the shelf. Any of you gents have any better suggestions here?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm really afraid that smug is gonna do an Italian slur.

[John Ashbrook]

Is it, Is it a slur? I think it's a thing, you know, I think they said in Godfather. Did they say in Godfather or No, I think if they said in Godfather, I'll say it, but if not, I.

[Josh Holmes]

Don'T think we get true. No, no, it was definitely said in Godfather.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. So I thought instead of having, you know, like an elf on a shelf or a guido on a ledge, you put it on top of the tree and you get the whop on the top.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

Can we bleep that?

[Josh Holmes]

No. Our Italian friends are going to be so upset. But, you know, I mean, look, this.

[John Ashbrook]

Doesn'T seem, I mean, they're calling it a guido, right? It's this. I, I, I think the term is the same guido.

[Josh Holmes]

It feels like a guido might be worse.

[John Ashbrook]

And the thing is that Italians, you know, Jersey Shore, they're friends to all, dude, they're friends to all. But they don't get mad.

[Michael Duncan]

They say guido is not like they're.

[John Ashbrook]

In waste management and make bodies disappear. Like that's not an Italian Americana thing to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Hold on. Creator Christine Fiscaro Lintanello, a Red Hook, Brooklyn native who now lives in Staten island, said Goombas get a kick out of Guido.

[John Ashbrook]

See, they say Goombas.

[Josh Holmes]

Goombas, they get Goombas.

[John Ashbrook]

Guidos. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I mean, they're doing it. Although it's a.

[Michael Duncan]

They're doing the slurs.

[Josh Holmes]

I feel like Nicky Spaghetti is gonna give a call.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, although it's a play on Ale for the Shelf, the doll their parents put out each morning after. I mean, dude, this is the bane of my existence, by the way.

[Smug]

Is it?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, I mean, when you get kids in the mid single digit range, like any time between three and like eight, the whole elf on the shelf thing is a problem because it becomes incumbent upon the parents. You have to like, put it in some somewhere. It's got to hide somewhere in your house. I never had this growing up. Do you guys have this?

[Smug]

I didn't have it.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

No. I mean, this didn't exist, but apparently it exists everywhere now. So I'm like, every night, right about the time I'm about to pull the covers back and get in, my wife is like, hey, did you put out the elf on the shelf? And I'm like, no. Like, what do I. And it's got to be something exotic, right? That takes, like, 15 minutes for me to do. I gotta set it up somewhere to make it look like it's. That's doing something. I got to put it in stripper poses. And having elf on the shelf, like, throw dollars at the situation. I mean, I'm going to make this thing graphic this year, because I can't. I literally.

[Smug]

You got to get creative.

[Josh Holmes]

I got to have some. Honestly, get.

[John Ashbrook]

Get this guido, too. So maybe throw them in the mix.

[Josh Holmes]

Guido on a ledge.

[Michael Duncan]

Here's my objection to this entire thing. Italian Americans have incredible history, and they have great traditions, and we love their food and all of these things. Why isn't that enough? Like, why is it that you now have to take a tradition that is. It's fine in and of itself.

[Josh Holmes]

It's supposed to be Santa's elf.

[Michael Duncan]

It's Santa's elf, and you're gonna go ahead and make it Italian. There's not enough Italian things, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Chris Columbus have to be. Here's the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

So a place that has a lot of Italians is Philadelphia.

[Smug]

Right?

[John Ashbrook]

So you should get the guido. You put a little eagle's helmet on him, and then your kids are gonna love this.

[Michael Duncan]

They'll love it.

[John Ashbrook]

They're huge Eagles fans.

[Josh Holmes]

We have dedicated an entire episode to savaging my home state.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

It's not enough to destroy Minnesota. We must support Philadelphia.

[Josh Holmes]

Unbelievable. God bless. I'm just like, I need to go home and cry.

[Michael Duncan]

I think the Italians could straighten up the Somalis.

[John Ashbrook]

That's. We have to pit them against them.

[Michael Duncan]

We gotta support the moderate Italians on the ground.

[Josh Holmes]

We just don't have enough Italians in Minnesota. I think the New Jersey. Like, if you can get maybe like in the Biden. Remember the Biden planes that were just flying people across the country. If we could do the little bit of that from Staten island into. I feel like it would be a good idea, actually. That is it. Mr. President, if you're. Listen, this might be the right way.

[Michael Duncan]

Send the Italians to Minnesota in their leather jackets.

[Josh Holmes]

I just. I feel like I've got a lot of faith in the Italians on that front. Anyway. Through no fault of her own, Ashley Hinson, who has nothing to do with any of this commentary, but is a wonderful human being. I just. I can't get enough of this lady, she's running for Senate in Iowa. She's a congresswoman who's done all the right things is there for all the right reasons. Check it out. I want to welcome back to the program one of our first friends here on the Ruthless Variety Program. Such a great host in the great state of Iowa. She's a congresswoman and you will know her all. She is running for Senate. She's a big deal. Ashley Hinson.

[Ashley Hinson]

Fellas, good to be with you. Thanks so much for having me.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my gosh, it's such a pleasure. It's been too long.

[Ashley Hinson]

It has. I was thinking back, it was like Iowa State Fair days. And I was. Was eating bacon out of a fanny pack pouch.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Ashley Hinson]

Like a million degrees.

[Michael Duncan]

We're coming sort of full circle here in so many ways. In the early days of the Ruthless Variety Program, one of our first live events was at the Iowa State Fair. And you were with us.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Eating that bacon out of the fanny pack.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, we ate a lot of bacon at the Fanny fair. We did, yeah. A lot of meat products. And I remember following you guys kind of around as you were working your way through the. Eating your way through the Iowa State Fair. And Yeah. I don't know how many different foods you tried that.

[Josh Holmes]

There was some humiliation involved. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

In that a lot of meat sweats.

[Josh Holmes]

And I remember you pointing us in several directions that are regrettable in retrospect, but at the time tasted terrific.

[Ashley Hinson]

But a good Iowa tradition. So you are always welcome back at the Iowa State Fair. Although we did get a foot of snow this weekend. So looking forward to the 90s again, I think.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, tell me about that. I mean, it's. Look, I grew up in Minnesota. We always see our Iowan Southern sort of brethren to our Minnesota people. It turns out there's snow this time of year.

[Ashley Hinson]

Kind of Minnesota south. Minnesota South. I gotta get the poll on there. Right. With better politics, our hot dishes and we did our sledding and no, we had a foot of snow. So it was great to be home for Thanksgiving with the boys. And my boys are 14 and 12 now, so lots of hijinks and fun were had over the weekend. And yeah, we went through all of our Thanksgiving leftovers already. Max, you know, he's the 14 year old, just puts away mashed potatoes. I cannot keep up. So, no, it was great. But yeah, a foot of snow. So Saturday was just, you know, we just were outside sledding and shoveling and having a great time.

[Josh Holmes]

Your boys have basically the same age gap that my boys do a couple years ahead. And it appears as though I'm gonna get into a situation where grocery bills are significant.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, you might need to consider selling a kidney, because it does. You need a second mortgage to afford it. But. But turns out actually dealing with two boys has been the best training for working in Congress that I could have ever imagined, because it's like the best skill set. You know, you're negotiating with terrorists every day, and you come to D.C. and you have to do the same thing, so.

[John Ashbrook]

Good.

[Josh Holmes]

One thing that I was surprised to find out. I didn't know this, but Minnesotans, you know, in Iowans, we kind of. We all get along in some form or fashion. Minnesota's got bad politics. You guys have great politics. California is not something we relate to at all. But I saw that both Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter are from the state of Iowa. Is that true?

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And we don't really claim them in Iowa, but I will say that good riddance to get out to California now. And I say that as someone who went to school in Southern California. I went to US that's where I got my undergrad degree. And I loved being out there for a few years. But, yeah, beautiful state. Crazy politics. And they just keep getting crazier.

[Josh Holmes]

So it feels like a foreign exchange program where you guys just, like in a few of you, stay out there. Apparently, Swalwell and Porter.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, well, neither of them seem to be making very good political decisions these days. So. Yeah, I saw Swalwell, his announcement for governor, that he shot probably, what, in his D.C. townhouse. And then Katie Porter having her total fit on the media. I mean, they. They're making wise political decisions out there. Something's in the water, I guess, in California. So good riddance. They can have them.

[Smug]

Yeah, it's. It's wild. You know, I. I want to ask you about something that I think is near and dear to your heart. So your. You mentioned your. Your sons, and I know that you have been, as a mom, very involved in their school district. Kids go to a public school and their school, you know, a lot of people think, oh, in the Midwest. Whoa. Doesn't touch the Midwest. We're past woke. We're not necessarily past woke in the Midwest. There are still pockets of it that are worth fighting against. And I know you've done a lot of that in their school district.

[Ashley Hinson]

Right. And this is not just a Republican issue. I want to point out, too, because a couple of years ago, the school district decided that kids over the age of 12 could change their gender without telling parents about it. And so the governor and I did like a little parents meeting where we invited people who were upset about that policy change. And it was full of Republicans and Democrats in the room and parents, grandparents, you name it. They were just upset that, you know, their daughters or granddaughters were going to have to change their clothes or share a bathroom with a boy. And that goes not even for the competing in sports part, but just the bathroom part. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Jesus Christ.

[Ashley Hinson]

So then fast forward to this year. We thought we had that all handled. And then this year they had a whole week where they did a bisexual plus awareness week in the morning announcements at the school. Actually, it wasn't. My, my son, he's 14, he ignores a lot of this stuff. He's like, okay, whatever, mom. He's a solid conservative, might even be more conservative than I am. So I think I've done something right there. But you know, I actually had a parent who works in the school district who flagged it for me and she's like, this is all on YouTube. And I pulled it up and I was like, is this a joke? Like, it was really, really explicit content about monosexual identities and what it means to be bisexual. And they had a whole week of these themes. So I sent a letter to the department of Ed. It was right before the shutdown. So we're kind of waiting for a response back from them now. But I threw a fit about this because ultimately this, this is about parents having these conversations with our kids. I mean, I, I had to look up what a monosexual identity was and let alone my 14 year old kid coming to me. Now again, they're in public school. I'm sure they've heard some things, but it should be my job as their parent to have that conversation with, with them. And so, yeah, we'll see what Department of Ed says about that. But I think, you know, their directives have been very, very clear. Our schools should be educating, not indoctrinating our kids.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, well said. I think one of the things that we appreciated most about you in getting to know you because we spent a fair amount of time in Iowa, as we've mentioned, is that anytime nominations or seats or campaigns are worth half thing, it's when Republicans become competitive, right? I mean, anytime it's like all blue or all red state, when it's an all red state, which you guys have now figured out, like how to do, it becomes competitive and internally competitive.

[Michael Duncan]

And there's always, I mean Heck of a farm system there in Iowa. Pun intended. Right. Like, you guys have an incredible delegation, which I think is, like, makes it all the more compelling that when you announced this United States Senate run, it felt like you came out with a head of steam and everybody was on board immediately. And it sort of shocked us, like, how easy it was for you with that momentum to basically clear the field. And everybody was like, no, we're all in for Ashley.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well.

[Ashley Hinson]

And we worked for years to be in a place where I was ready to go if this presented itself. Right. I was. I'm very happy serving in the House. I really love my work and what we've been able to accomplish, but I think this is an incredible opportunity. Opportunity to continue to serve Iowans. And I. I think about being a mom on a mission. Right. Because that's really what I am. And I think about the last four years, and I think struggling under the Biden regime, and that's really the Biden auto pen regime. These last four years, it made me more of the mama bear. Right. And so I've got the right team in place. I've got the right people around the state to support me, and I've worked hard to build those relationships and the credibility as a legislator. Right. And I think that's ultimately what. What I was able to kind of flex in that first couple weeks as we launched our campaign. But. But this has been a campaign based on getting out and hearing directly from Iowans. You saw what it's like at the Iowa State Fair. We're all out there just wandering around the Iowa State Fair, meeting with our people and talking with them. And.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, there's no red room. People are just coming up and talking to you and you're doing. Listening, and then taking that to D.C. yeah.

[Ashley Hinson]

Some of my best town halls are actually just at the Hy Vee meat counter, because I can just, you know, I'm up there ordering my ground beef that my kids go through in bulk. Right. And. And I can stand there, and people will just come up to me and say, hey, Ash, I saw this ad on tv. Tell me about it. Right. So I think that accessibility has helped me to be successful, not only serving in Congress, but I hope, you know, serving in the Senate in the future as well.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I think that that is the bottom line, is that you've been able to not only navigate the internal sort of Republican pressures to be somebody that everybody turns to. To say, no, you should do this. Which is. I gotta tell you, it's pretty rare in a hyper competitive situation like this. But you also have ability to build coalitions and legislate. And I think that's something that has been lost over the last few years. Like the core of the job of a United States senator is somebody who people can get along with. You can have common ground figure out, because there's nothing that you're gonna be able to just ideologically push through unless you can build a coalition of people who are willing to do it. You've done this like, literally since the jump.

[Ashley Hinson]

Well, I've had to.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Ashley Hinson]

I've always been in a very competitive seat. And so my seat, when I flipped it from a Democrat seat to a Republican seat, was a D plus one. Right. So it was a very, very competitive seat. Now it's an R +4. I've always worked with anyone who will work with me, whether it's a Republican, a Democrat or whatever else, who will work with me to get our priorities done. And so that's been. Even on some divisive issues, I've been able to find some common ground there. And, you know, I think about what we're pushing toward this week, which we've got a bunch of legislation that's going to help support moms and pregnant women and students. We have Pregnant Students Rights act, which passed the House last year or last Congress. And, you know, that's designed to make sure students have every option available to them on campus if they find out they're expecting. So we can make sure they're choosing life. But guess what? That should be a bipartisan issue. Right. That's not a super divisive. You know, just because you're pro life doesn't mean it's just about being anti abortion. It's about the whole slew of pro life policies. So I've been able to find some. Some good common ground there to help support moms and. And China policy. That's another place where you talk about a bipartisan working space. You know, there's a lot of consensus that we can build around our policy as Americans toward China.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. A couple of issues that have arisen. Immigration policy. It's an issue obviously, in Iowa, Farm workers, everything else. I know you have staked out some legislation on the ICE side for sure with some of the violent attacks that we've been seeing. But this is sort of a balance issue. I'm wondering how Iowans, the feedback that you're getting and then if you could see, speak about what you're trying to do with the ICE side.

[Ashley Hinson]

Well, and obviously we've seen those attacks on ICE agents increase and the attacks on law enforcement. Clearly, with what happened in the last couple weeks, it's been so sad to see that. That violent rhetoric continue. And so I think our job is to make sure that we get people out of their way so they can do their job and keep us safe. If there was one thing I heard loud and clear, it's that Iowans want a safe and secure country, and they want the government to stay out of their lives.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Ashley Hinson]

They don't want the overregulation. Farmers want to be able to farm and do what they do, feed and fuel the world. And mama bears like me want to be able to put our kids on the bus stop at the end of our street and be safe. So, yeah, protect and defend ice. That is basically. It's a bill I'm working on with Senator Schmidt right now that will basically double the penalties for anyone who is getting in the way or attacking an ICE agent. We need to make sure there is an actual accountability measure in place. And then you talk about what's happened in Iowa. People with think, oh, yeah, illegal immigration is rampant in Iowa. Well, we have a case out of Des Moines that made national news and kind of made Iowa a little bit of a laughing stock when it came to education. But, you know, we had a con man who had weaseled his way up into the highest ranks of education in Iowa. He was an illegal immigrant. Right. So I think that that's why ICE needs to be able to do its job. They conduct these investigations. They tried to pull him over, and he fled the car, you know, went on a chase, had a gun in the car. So I think it speaks to the fact that their job is very dangerous, and we need to make sure we're doing everything we can to protect them so they can keep doing their job.

[Smug]

Yeah. I think one of the keys to effective representation is being able to relate to the people who you represent. And as a mom, I mean, basically everybody has had a mom, or you are a mom or you're married to a mom.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, that's how that works. Turns out two genders.

[Josh Holmes]

Moms are around.

[John Ashbrook]

That's how it works.

[Smug]

And I feel like, especially in the Midwest, especially in a place like Iowa, that is so key. And I know you're talking to people in Hy vee, and I know, you know, you're talking about safety and you're talking about immigration, and you're dealing with so many other things. I know that prices and the economy are also a huge issue. And I wonder what you're hearing from folks and what you sort of see over the next year on that issue.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, Well, I think at least we have a president who is focused on actually getting these trade deals done finally. Right. Iowans sat by and watched for four years, not a single new trade deal. And now we're seeing it's, you know, I think we're at over a dozen now of these trade deals that have moved forward. That's really good for Iowa producers because we, again, we grow a lot of things in Iowa. A lot of corn, a lot of pigs, a lot of bacon. But we need to export that. We, we overproduce. Right. And we're kind of victims of our own success there because we've gotten so good at what we do in Iowa. So we need to have those markets. And so seeing an administration that's prioritizing that, again, I think Iowans are very happy to see that. I'm certainly aware of what's going on at the grocery store. And Democrats love to talk about affordability. They've spent a lot of time talking about that. Right. I think about what they did to drive up prices for consumers. Energy is the number one driver of costs. And they had such anti energy policy, anti American energy policy, whether it was someone filling up their gas tank, like me at the pump, or a farmer putting it in their tank.

[Smug]

Right.

[Ashley Hinson]

We are big consumers of energy. So guess what? That food's getting to the grocery store by using a truck. And so you talk about driving up those prices. I think this Thanksgiving was the lowest price we'd seen for gas in a long time, maybe 10 years. So that's good. I think that's a good step in the right direction. But we have to do more. And so starts by reeling in the federal government. Also, I think my first term in Congress, I tallied up, I voted against $6 trillion in spending. So now both parties are why we're here. And I agree with that. But I think that we do need to be turning that around. And it's. We're finally seeing some of that movement in the right direction.

[Michael Duncan]

What else do we have to do on the affordability issue to make sure voters know ahead of this midterm, you know, that Republicans are standing with them on the kitchen table issues about making things more affordable for them.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah. Well, I think it comes down, we got to get out and make sure we're telling the story of, again, the things that we're doing to lower those fuel prices, making sure that Iowans know that hey, we passed the working families tax cut bill in July, and that puts more money in your pocket. Waitstaff who are tipped workers, hourly workers, they're going to have more of their own money. And they may not be seeing that right now, but they're certainly going to see it when their tax bill comes due. So we're focused on making sure that they are growing the economy, not through government spending. And so I think we've just got to get out and really tell that story over the next year. Again, energy affordability, and then we need to hold people accountable. If they are not reflecting the savings that we've been able to achieve through policy, if they're continuing to elevate their prices and they can't explain why, I think that deserves some answers as well, because ultimately, this is about protecting consumers, making sure that if you're going to the grocery store, your bill isn't going up, even though we've done everything possible as a government to lower those prices.

[Josh Holmes]

You mentioned Iowa overproduction in a lot of ways, like just good, solid American food products coming out of where you represent. And a big part of that is access to markets to try to figure that out. And like, look, tariffs have become a national discussion. Clearly, President has a point of view on that. I think that's working its way through the system. But you and the Iowa delegation, I think, have done an incredible job at advocating for your people in terms of ensuring that tariffs aren't just a blanket issue. You have to understand who it is that things are affecting and making sure that we have access to markets. Where do you think we are in all of that? Because I think there's been a lot of progress back from April when this whole thing started, to where it is today. We're clearly not home yet in terms of ensuring that everybody's got, you know, access to the markets that they want at in imports, too. On the tariff side, like, where do you. Where do you find all that?

[Ashley Hinson]

Well, I'll give you a prime example. You know, when the tariffs were announced on Switzerland in early August, I was on a joint CODEL there. So I was literally there meeting with their vice president that had been comfortable. It was a little awkward, not going to lie. But what I think they. They clearly realized at the time. And he came and spoke with our group, again, a bipartisan group of us that were there. He was like, clearly we need to go back with a better offer. And they knew that. So, again, the tariff went into place as a negotiating tactic to level the playing field, not to Be, you know, a punishment. But to say, hey, you need to give us a better deal here. You've been screwing us for years. And that's true for Switzerland, that's true for China, which is our biggest, you know, end goal here is to get a good trade deal with China that they're actually going to follow through with. And the accountability is there. So the trade deal is one part of this. The other part that I'm really focused on, I'm on the China Select Committee. I'm focused on the accountability and enabling DOJ to be able to go after these bad guys who are. You know, it's one thing if we have the tariffs and the duties in place, but another if they're not actually paying them as they should. And so the transnational shipment, all the malign tactics that they use to get around our laws and our duties, we should hold them accountable for that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, so it's both of those things. So ultimately, it's a dual purpose. Right. You want to make sure that consumers of Iowa have access to products that aren't charged through the moon, but you also have marketplaces for uniquely Iowa products like soybeans.

[Ashley Hinson]

We grow a lot of those. We grow a lot of corn. I think hogs, we outnumber people. Hogs outnumber people. I think it's like 8 to 1 in Iowa or something like that. So, yeah, it's pretty significant. So.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, that's my favorite part.

[Ashley Hinson]

Bacon, I guess, is what I would.

[Michael Duncan]

Say my favorite part of the fair is, is meet your meat. You know, I think that's my favorite part of the whole thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's.

[Ashley Hinson]

We'll make sure to get you guys some matching T shirts for next year, next time you come to the fair, so you can walk around with that, and I'm sure you'll be a big hit.

[Josh Holmes]

Meat for meat would be good. Meet your meat, meet your meat.

[Ashley Hinson]

You can have them all displayed on one shirt.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Ashley Hinson]

Equal opportunity Meter.

[Josh Holmes]

One thing that we didn't appreciate. We understand you're a musician.

[Ashley Hinson]

I am, yes.

[Josh Holmes]

I had no idea.

[Smug]

I had no idea.

[Josh Holmes]

Did you guys know this?

[Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

No, we had no idea.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, we've known you for years.

[Josh Holmes]

We had no idea you were an accomplished musician.

[Ashley Hinson]

Well, if this doesn't work out for me, then you'll find me busking on the streets of D.C. but, no, I. I love to play. I grew up. I started piano when I was five, violin when I was seven. And I was on track to be a classical musician. A performance artist, I guess you'd call them. And quickly pivoted to journalism. And I think it worked out okay, mom and dad. I'm feeling pretty good about things these days, But I did play all through high school. Played in the Des Moines Symphony for a couple of years. My brother's in the New York Phil, so very musical family. And we jammed at the holidays, you know, so always a great time.

[Smug]

Did you really?

[Ashley Hinson]

My dad still brings his guitar over on Christmas Eve, and we always.

[Josh Holmes]

Really.

[Ashley Hinson]

So, yeah, now we're engaging the kids because my son plays cello and my other son plays trumpet. So we've got musical family for the whole family. Yeah. So it'll be fun. We'll send you the videos when we get this year's tapes.

[Josh Holmes]

A full band.

[Ashley Hinson]

That's right. The Hints family band.

[Josh Holmes]

I can only imagine.

[Ashley Hinson]

All right, so just like the Von Traps, we have.

[Josh Holmes]

We have your fiddle.

[Ashley Hinson]

Okay. Yeah. Here we go.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is. Which is something else maybe. You know, look, we're post Thanksgiving here. A little Christmas number to. To. To start things out.

[Ashley Hinson]

You know, I wore my nutcracker earrings for you guys today.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, look at that.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's pull that out a little bit so we don't blow out the. The speaker there.

[Ashley Hinson]

There we go.

[Josh Holmes]

Here we go.

[Ashley Hinson]

Okay. Let's do. How about a little Jingle Bells?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's go.

[Smug]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it.

[Michael Duncan]

This is amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

This is so good.

[Smug]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm in the spirit if we do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. A Christmas spectacular. Yeah. She's got to be center stage.

[Michael Duncan]

We've always talked about putting out a Christmas album of the fellas.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Because we have such great voices.

[Ashley Hinson]

I'll accompany. I'll fit in where I need to.

[Smug]

Well, he.

[Michael Duncan]

He.

[Josh Holmes]

So he caroled on Fox News the other night.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Which was. Was something.

[Michael Duncan]

Hark, hear the bell Sweet silver bells all seem to say Throw cares away Ding dong ding. There we go.

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah, that's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

All the bells. Can you give us something country?

[Ashley Hinson]

Country. Let's see.

[Josh Holmes]

Just something.

[Ashley Hinson]

How about. How about some fiddle music? So.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. Yeah.

[Smug]

Wow. Love.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Smug]

So good.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. And you've got to be at a point, given the fact that we just, like, threw a couple of things at you and you can play it. Were you just like a request, lady? What a party trick.

[Ashley Hinson]

It is great. It's fun. And then I can serenade people, so.

[Josh Holmes]

What a talent.

[Smug]

You know? And you know, Davy Crockett was in the House of Representatives and played the fiddle. He never made it to the Senate. It's time for A fiddle player in the Senate.

[Ashley Hinson]

That's right. We need to bring the bipartisan band playing back in the Senate. It was a couple years ago, wasn't it? There was someone in the rotunda that played, like, piano and harps. Not harmonica maybe or something. I remember that a couple years. It went viral, but it was around Christmas time. So maybe this is our time to all come together and we can solve all the world's problems over a little song.

[Josh Holmes]

Little song?

[Ashley Hinson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I want to end this with, listen, you're known for your relationship with your constituents, and now you're traveling the whole state, obviously the Senate in mind. She's going to be the next senator from the great state of Iowa. No question about it. But you've gotten to know a whole bunch of people outside of your district. I imagine, like, for you, knowing you the way we do, that's fulfilling. Like, this has got to be the best part of the job.

[Ashley Hinson]

Campaigning actually fills my cup up, is.

[Josh Holmes]

What I would say.

[Ashley Hinson]

You know, I think about. I've done 42 stops on the 99 county tour. So thanks to Chuck Grassley, we're doing the full Grassley in Iowa. And I look forward to serving with the great senator. And I love Joanie. You know, I was so sad when she said she wasn't going to run again. And I have some big combat boots to fill in, stepping up to replace her in the United States Senate. There will be never, never replace Joanie, but, you know, obviously fill this very important seat for Iowans. But, yeah, campaigning. I love hearing Iowans stories. I consider myself kind of the. Yeah, I'm the mama bear on a mission out here, but I'm also the chief storyteller for Iowans. And I think that's really important. If you can put something in context as to why we need to make a policy change here, that's what we should be doing. Because ultimately it's about how does this actually trickle down and affect somebody on the ground in Iowa. And so that's what I try to do. And whether it's grilling somebody in a hearing or just hearing their story and saying, okay, instead of putting together a story like I used to on the news, I'm going to just put together a great piece of legislation that's going to solve a problem. I love solving people problems. It's fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, in terms of ruthless, we are very loyal to the people who are with us all along, even before. I mean, nobody took us seriously, but we had a ton of fun with you in the very early years. And you've been back year after year talking to us, giving us an education and a whole bunch of things that you're working on. Can't thank you enough. If people want to help you out, where do they go?

[Ashley Hinson]

So best is just to engage with our website, AshleyHinson.com, you talk about the coalitions that we've been able to, to build, whether it's moms, veterans, police and fire. You know, we've got everybody, farmers for Ashley. There's lots of ways where people can engage with our campaign and help be a grassroots fueled campaign. That's how we win in states like Iowa. You know, when I think everybody again likes to say Iowa was a safe state because we're all Republican now. But in 2018, three out of four of our congressional seats were held by Democrats and now we're all Republican delegations. So.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it turns out you can find a place to show you're down 15 no matter what.

[Ashley Hinson]

She got fired, didn't she?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Ashley Hinson]

No, that's great. No. And you know what? I always do run like I'm 10 behind. But that poll was bunk and we all knew it. So it was a really, it made for a lot of great campaign fodder leading up to the election. I'll take a look.

[Josh Holmes]

I can only imagine. Listen, this is one of the very good people that are running for the right reasons, who you would invite over for cocktails to hang out or even provide the entertainment. But I mean that sincerely because I think in politics, too often, often all of us, you know, you see politicians, right, and it's like, oh, they're going to give you the thing to gin you up and get you pissed off, go cable news, talk radio or whatever. And they're not actually doing the work, they're just trying to gin up. This is one of those people who is one of us who deals with things that you deal with and that honestly takes your voice to D.C. and I'm sorry. So grateful that you're running for the United States Senate. We're going to help you.

[Ashley Hinson]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Any possible way we can, we're going to go to that website, AshleyHanson.com we're going to help out everything we can. And you let us know along the way, we're going to help out however we can.

[Ashley Hinson]

Thank you. We're going to make sure we hold this seat and we can keep going with the President's agenda. There's a lot more work to do.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you. Ashley Hinson.

[Smug]

Who knew she was so talented. I mean, she hit multiple songs.

[John Ashbrook]

I heard that Ashokan Farewell, I was like, whoa.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like a Ken Burns documentary in here. That's impressive.

[Smug]

Yeah. She is there for all the right reasons. I mean, she's a mom, you know, she is fighting for all the things that basically every other mom out there in Iowa and everywhere else is fighting for. And that message, I think, resonates.

[Josh Holmes]

It reminds me a lot of the moms that I grew up with. Right. Yeah. They're not, like, hung up on weird sort of, like, niche issues. It's like, dude, I got to raise my kid. I got to make sure they're safe. I got to make sure I can afford groceries. Shut the fuck up.

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And, like, she just gets that. And then she also moves around the state, gets to know people, and people get to know her. Yeah. Which is like, what you want.

[John Ashbrook]

That's how you do it.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what she wants.

[Michael Duncan]

She can play anything on that violin I made her play. I made her play adagio for strings.

[Josh Holmes]

I know.

[Michael Duncan]

And then I started doing the helicopter noise, and she starts doing, like, It's Apocalypse Now.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, she could play.

[Josh Holmes]

Anything when she gave it a little staccato.

[Michael Duncan]

The whole thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And, like, ramped up the whole. Yeah, dude. It's just. She's good. She's good. So thank you for Ashley Hansen for coming in. Always a pleasure. Remember, question of the day. What did Al Shabab do with the money? What'd they do with your money? What do you think? I bet your ideas are better than most here as listeners to the Ruthless Variety Program, you gotta like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program and leave your comments. And when you do, we read every single one of them. You gotta check out some merch while you're there. It's Christmas season, for crying out loud. And we have a small window where we can ship stuff. Check out that sweater.

[Michael Duncan]

I survived the war on Christmas.

[Josh Holmes]

Isn't that great?

[Michael Duncan]

We also have some wrapping paper of Smug's face and stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

You want to go to store. Ruthless podcast.com.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

While it's in stock. You want to get it? It's gonna sell out.

[Josh Holmes]

And there's some napkins there, too.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. We have our Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, which is the 2024 election map.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

Napkins. Go check those out. They're fantastic.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. We got some more merch coming online, so thank you all for supporting us over the holidays. We attempt to give you a little something to work with under the tree.

[Michael Duncan]

And apologies to the Italian American community for what Smug did to them today.

[Josh Holmes]

It just happens, and it seems like a monthly event here that we're apologizing to you all. The Italian death.

[Michael Duncan]

We love you. We only attack you because we love you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's exactly right. So with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Michael Duncan]

I feel like it's the beginning of Ken Burns.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Ashley Hinson]

I know that song.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Civil War.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, Shoka's Shokin's Farewell.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, man, I love this song.

[Smug]

Civil War was fought in 10,000 places Valverde knew me Mexico to Tullahoma, Tennessee, St. Albans, Vermont and Fernandina on the Florida coast.

[Ashley Hinson]

Sam.

[Josh Holmes]

Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Unbelievable.