Team Trump Dominates Democrats + ANOTHER Platner Scandal

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Summary

Episode: Team Trump Dominates Democrats + ANOTHER Platner Scandal
Date: June 5, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook

---

Episode Overview

This episode takes on the political happenings of the week, focusing on high-profile congressional hearings where Trump administration officials outperformed their Democratic challengers, and the ongoing, escalating scandal surrounding Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. The gang brings their trademark biting humor and pointed analysis, with cuts at partisan hypocrisy, media ineptitude, and performative politics. The show also features a lively interview with Rep. Brandon Gill, who discusses health care fraud, immigration, and GOP momentum.

---

Key Topics & Insights

1. Recap of Congressional Hearings: "A Tale of Two Parties"

• Trump Cabinet members, notably Marco Rubio and Scott Bessant, were highlighted for their sharp performances against Democrats during Capitol Hill oversight hearings.
• Democrats, especially Rep. Sarah Jacobs, were mocked for wasting opportunities to ask substantive questions, instead focusing on performative moments for social media, illustrated by the infamous "shoes" exchange.
• The panel derides Democrats' apparent lack of preparation and seriousness, contrasting it with the focused and pointed approaches of Rubio and Bessant.

Quote:
“She’s hoping to get some quip in that could get clipped, maybe go viral because they think that’s all that matters. Unfortunately, he just destroyed her.” – Comfortably Smug (00:19)

• Discussion about the current political landscape and the prevalence of "town kooks" now amplified by digital media, affecting Democratic primaries and the party’s public face (12:00).

---

2. The Graham Platner Scandal: Breaking Developments

• The group dives into the mounting scandals surrounding Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, including allegations of toxic, abusive relationships and a Nazi tattoo he denied understanding.
• Live reaction to breaking New York Times reporting that further documented Platner’s concerning personal conduct and dishonesty about his past.

Quote:
“He called it my totenkopf. This says, in fact, there’s a whole section of this article called my totenkopf. The eyewitness here says he had taught her the word for it years earlier.” – Bill Kristol (36:27)

• The hosts highlight the Democratic leadership’s transparent discomfort, while noting the party seems resigned to sticking by Platner due to political calculation.

Quote:
“If Jeff Epstein himself had a D in front of his name … they’d be more than happy to drop full endorsement behind him.” – Josh Holmes (33:47)

• Discussion about the hypocrisy of the "Believe All Women" mantra, which the Dems now seem to abandon as the severity of allegations against Platner grows (41:10–44:55).

---

3. Media, Politics, and Performative Outrage

• Critique of Democrats using hearings for viral social media moments rather than genuine inquiry, with multiple references to committee soundbites about the 2020 election and footwear (07:58; 09:02).
• The Sacramento Bee’s AI-assisted, mistimed gubernatorial endorsement becomes a punchline for declining standards and automation in journalism (50:08).
• Wolf, a team associate, shares an anecdote about still receiving a valid California election ballot despite living in Virginia for ten years, sparking a broader conversation about election security (54:12–57:00).

---

4. Interview: Rep. Brandon Gill Unpacks Healthcare Fraud Scandal

• Gill briefs the hosts on the Medicaid home health care fraud perpetrated predominantly by Somali and Bhutanese communities across multiple states.
• The story is positioned as symbolic of broader problems: insufficient oversight, lack of assimilation, and apathy from Democratic officials, particularly at the state level (71:00–74:49).

Quote:
“They will just instinctively take the other side, no matter what. … Instead of being serious about the fact that we’re losing like a billion dollars just in Ohio alone, they’re going to go the other way and focus on the fact that it’s Somalis doing it, and they want to protect the Somalis.” – Brandon Gill (68:53)

• Gill emphasizes that his approach is about simplicity and clarity—ask direct questions, don’t get distracted by accusations of racism or other left-wing deflections.
• He shares that he's been in touch with JD Vance and Trump about anti-fraud efforts and states that the Republican Party is now the voice for ordinary Americans fed up with fraud and uncontrolled migration (83:04).

---

5. Democratic Messaging Meltdowns

• Clips of Democratic officials reciting stilted, staff-written talking points about Graham Platner ("We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate") illustrate their discomfort and lack of conviction (24:43).
• Michael Bennett is roasted for fumbling basic questions about Platner and his “leadership” (“He’s just so inspiring.” – Smug, 29:56).
• Progressives attempt to dodge Platner questions, falling back on non-answers about “not having weighed in” (30:34).

---

6. Segment: King of the Hill

• Humorous competitive segment comparing the most outlandish tweets and statements from public figures like Adam Kinzinger and Bill Kristol (57:21–64:15).
• Notable for the in-group banter and parody of political posturing.

---

7. Running Gags & Podcast Culture

• Frequent ribbing about “Fun Time Friday,” parenthood, and school graduations as a lens on changing cultural values (03:08–05:21).
• Running jokes about Smug’s travel woes and Ashbrook’s family life.
• Extended banter about the hosts’ participation in a fundraising stair race (64:39), with plenty of self-deprecating humor and competitive trash talk.

---

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |---------------|--------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:19 | Comfortably Smug | “She’s hoping to get some quip in that could get clipped, maybe go viral because they think that’s all that matters. Unfortunately, he just destroyed her.” | | 09:29 | Representative Burchett | "Mr. Secretary, it seems like you have an issue admitting facts. You can't say that the president lost the 2020 election..." | | 24:40 | Senate Democrats | “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” (multiple, rehearsed times) | | 36:27 | Bill Kristol | “He called it my totenkopf ... he had taught her the word for it years earlier.” | | 41:10 | Josh Holmes | “So here is a woman in the Believe all women party where she's got allegations that she was abused... The first reaction... is to impugn the character of the woman.” | | 68:53 | Brandon Gill | “They will just instinctively take the other side, no matter what. ... Instead of being serious about the fact that we’re losing like a billion dollars just in Ohio alone, they’re going to focus on the fact that it’s Somalis doing it, and they want to protect the Somalis.” | | 81:21 | Brandon Gill | “It’s a debate about what America truly is and who is an American. … I think even a lot of moderate Democrats are gonna be with Republicans on fraud because they realize that this is a problem.” |

---

Important Segments & Timestamps

• Congressional Hearings Highlights & Rubio’s Takedowns: (07:06–17:37)
• Platner Scandal & Party Reactions: (24:40–44:55)
• LIVE Reaction to NYT Platner Abuse Report: (34:46–38:33)
• Brandon Gill Interview: (67:44–91:23)
• King of the Hill Segment: (57:21–64:36)
• Media & Election Commentary: (50:07–57:00)

---

Tone & Language

• Highly irreverent, sarcastic, and combative.
• Heavy use of in-group, online, and conservative movement references.
• Content frequently punctuated by cutting jokes and mocking impressions of political adversaries.

---

Memorable Moments

• The collective groan at “graduation for every grade” (03:00–04:45)
• The group’s live, on-air read and reaction to the breaking NYT Platner exposé (34:46)
• Smug’s repeated takedowns of Democratic hypocrisy on “Believe All Women” (41:10–44:55)
• Brandon Gill’s breakdown of the mechanics and politics of Medicaid fraud (68:53–76:29)
• The jokes at Katie Porter’s expense about the Sacramento Bee’s delayed, AI-written endorsement (50:08–52:57)

---

Conclusion

This energetic, wide-ranging episode skewers Democratic leadership for their handling of candidate scandals, mocks performative politics and failed messaging, and celebrates what the hosts see as resounding conservative victories in recent congressional hearings. Brandon Gill’s interview gives substantive depth to the GOP’s anti-fraud message, anchoring the podcast’s blend of barbed humor and hard-hitting analysis.

Listener Prompt:
What’s the Democrats’ biggest weakness? (Submit answers – hosts will read favorites on Tuesday’s episode)

---

Subscribe on YouTube for video and additional content.
Stay ruthless.

Transcript

[Representative Burchett]

Mr. Secretary, it seems like you have an issue admitting facts. You can't say that the president lost the 2020 election, just like you won't admit President Trump is losing this reckless war of choice. And just like you couldn't admit that the shoes the president bought you were too big.

[Secretary of State]

We're talking about shoes? Are you guys kidding me? I mean, is this the Foreign Affairs Committee or is this like a circus? What is this?

[Comfortably Smug]

She's hoping to get some quip in that could get clipped, maybe go viral because they think that's all that matters. Unfortunately, he just destroyed her. Dude, you're right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all for the gram and it's all for these brain dead.

[Comfortably Smug]

As someone who's supposed to represent your constituents and concerns, and you now have the opportunity to speak to America's chief diplomat and you're talking about shoes?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Get out of that office. Go find another job.

[Bill Kristol]

Breaking news. Everything we were just talking about, about Graham Platner, there is a brand new story from the New York Times. In extensive conversations over the past two months, three other women who had been romantically involved with Mr. Plattner offered a far more complicated assessment, describing volatile and toxic relationships that were unsettling and at times, emotionally retching. Okay, it goes on. Let me just tell you, in at least one case, even physically threatening.

[Michael Duncan]

Fox News recently reported that the 340B federal health care program designed to provide discounted drugs to low income patients at hospitals is facing, quote, allegations of widespread health care fraud and abuse. According to reports, the program has morphed into a windfall for hospitals and outpatient clinics, leaving behind those who can least afford it. A federal judge recently blocked a state law that sought to exploit the 340B program to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from drug makers to hospitals and pharmacies, noting that the program is, quote, being abused to provide a windfall for hospitals. The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in, calling abuse of 340B grift at its worst and a scam on taxpayers. According to reporting from Fox News, the 340B program cost taxpayers billions. Noting that the 340B program quote, raises the cost of other major health programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which lost a combined $20 billion last year due to lost rebates in this program. Learn [e-mail]

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Representative Burchett]

This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

[Michael Duncan]

I love the personality.

[Brandon Gill]

You guys are killing it.

[Michael Duncan]

I just saw your number one, so congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity. Guys, I you congratulations on all your success.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is why you listen to the

[Josh Holmes]

Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Comfortably Smug]

The only political podcast worth listening to

[Josh Holmes]

is the Ruthless Podcast.

[Bill Kristol]

It's time for our main event, the

[Representative Burchett]

Ruthless Podcast

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I am Josh Holmes along with Comfortably Smug and Michael Duncan. John Ashwick will be joining us. But he's a family man. He's got family obligations, as we all do this time of year. If you're a parent. Sports season, we're starting to get into championship stuff, playoff stuff. And then you got graduations, which by the way, when do we start celebrating each grade graduations? I asked my wife this this morning because our kindergartner got done with kindergarten and there was a kindergarten graduation. And, and at some level I kind of understand it because it's like before you get into grade school. So the kindergarten component I get. But then I'm hearing about all these friends and folks around there like, hey, I'm going to a second grade graduation or a third grade. What?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Does that happen? I mean, do people, do we celebrate like the graduation of another year? Like congratulations for going to school? I guess. Do we, I guess we do that, Josh.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it's snowflake culture run amok. You know, everybody needs a parti participation trophy or something. No, I, I agree. Like, I, I get kindergarten. I get eighth grade.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Junior high. You get done with junior high before you go to high school and then,

[Michael Duncan]

you know, high school and then high school. I think you should get, you get three.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it should be just high school. Honestly, it's just high school graduation.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, why are we, you're going to be throwing ticker tape parades for your son. If like a loss of a first tooth, that's going to be like, he's

[Comfortably Smug]

going to go on the front stage.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

In the backyard like a spartan. He's going to have to go like live with wolves or something. He's not going to get any graduation part. But I do. It is something that's like, oh, congrats. They graduated second grade, third grade. Honestly. Like, and, and as many parents learned during COVID it's like, what are the teachers even teaching? Like, is it a big deal?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I just, I, I don't know. But you're obligated as a parent. Like, what are you gonna do? Blow off your kids graduation? Like, of course not.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, then you're the parent who didn't you're the asshole.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And you don't want to be that because, you know, you do your level best to be there when all important moments. And I guess that's now consensus that we do this each and every year.

[Comfortably Smug]

But Ash Brook's got good kids, so I support him spending time with them, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, he's got all kinds of stuff and he's got businesses. I mean, he's doing all kinds of stuff, as I did earlier this week. Fellas, thank you for filling in with Ken Paxton yesterday. Great episode. You haven't listened to that. You should go back and do it. Quality stuff. I was traveling, which is just a mess. Two plane delays and 1am arrivals. And I know how you feel about it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, it was, it was horrific because. But I, I want to congratulate you because you are still working. He's in the slack, still grinding, while American Airlines has given him his, like, 19th delay for a flight stuck in among the worst airports in the country.

[Josh Holmes]

O'. Hare. Yeah, it ain't great. It ain't great. But anyway, enough about all that. We have what I would call a tale of two parties this week in that you are seeing the demonstration on Capitol Hill of President Trump's cabinet, namely Marco Rubio again and namely Besant again, who are just showing you that they're just smarter than their opposition in Technicolor. And we got some clips we want to react to. On the other side of the break, we're going to examine what Democrats did this week and particularly Graham Platner, who showed up in D.C. because he's trying to, like, make sure that you keep this thing together. Right. Like, they have real high hopes in the Democrat Party of a clean sweep in November's elections, and they're starting all nervy about the Nazi tattoo. It wasn't the Nazi tattoo, by the way, that made them nervy. It was the fact that each and every day since the Nazi tattoo, we've learned a little bit more about Mr. Platner. The old.

[Comfortably Smug]

A little more than we would like. And it's like, I would say that this is an ongoing situation. It's a fluid situation. News could break at any moment, but that's basically been what it's been with this campaign every day. Like, numerous times he's told journeys, nah, there's, there's, there's nothing else left. And then something else drops. It's like you could set your watch to it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you can set your watch to it. So let's start with the the positive Rubio did a House and Senate committee hearing, oversight hearing, and you don't. The reason we highlight this stuff is you don't actually get to see the mano a mano stuff all that often, like in the same room. But these committee hearings provide that opportunity. And I'll be damned if every single time they give these guys the opportunity. These Democrats just like they look horrible.

[Representative Burchett]

CLIP 1 I have one last question for you, Mr. Secretary. Who won the 2020 presidential election?

[Secretary of State]

I'm not here to answer a question about 2020. This is a Foreign Affairs Committee.

[Representative Burchett]

Okay, great. You can't answer the question even though

[Secretary of State]

we all know that President because the Secretary of State. I do not participate in domestic.

[Representative Burchett]

This is not about domestic political issues. This is about our democracy.

[Secretary of State]

You're asking me to opine. Just like I don't do campaign.

[Representative Burchett]

It seems like I don't do.

[Secretary of State]

Because as Secretary of State, we're not supposed to. That's been the long tradition of the department. And you should know that if you've been on this committee for any period

[Representative Burchett]

of time, Mr. Secretary, it seems like you have an issue admitting facts. You can't say that the president lost the 2020 election, just like you won't admit President Trump is losing this reckless war of choice. And just like you couldn't admit that the shoes the president bought you were too big. You clearly don't know what winning means, and not because the facts are unclear to you. It's because telling the truth would cost you your job. And the American people are entitled to a secretary of State who tells them the truth, even when the President doesn't want to hear it. And my constituents, our service members, deserve better. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

[Secretary of State]

I don't know what shoes she's talking about. What is she talking about?

[Josh Holmes]

Representative Burchett, you're.

[Bill Kristol]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Brandon Gill]

If you'd like to answer any of that.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know about the shoes.

[Secretary of State]

I mean, he gave me some Florsheim shoes. They're actually pretty good. They fit fine. I don't know. I don't know what she's talking about. And maybe that's what she's referring to.

[Representative Burchett]

Your shoes look very nice today, Mr. Secretary.

[Secretary of State]

How can you see them? They're way down here. Are you guys kidding me? I mean, is this the Foreign Affairs Committee, or is this like a circus?

[Josh Holmes]

What is this,

[Bill Kristol]

dude?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, I'll say. Like, everyone knows that Rubio has been extremely impressive. And it's again, kind of like that Voltaire quote where he was like, I pray to God for what? One thing is to make my opponents ridiculous.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And like, Rubio is gifted that constantly Sarah Jacobs makes herself look like a complete idiot. And when he just, he does a great job of pulling everyone back, he's like, what are you talking? What is he doing? This is a Foreign Affairs Committee meeting. Like, what is wrong with you people? Because the Democrats don't have any kind of a substantive argument to make. They don't even know where they stand on the issues because half their party is like trying to firebomb an ICE detention center. The other half of the party is trying to get money to like, illegal Somalis in Minnesota so they can't talk about issues because the American people disagree with them on that. She's trying to get. She's hoping to get some quip in that could get clipped and maybe go viral because they think that's all that matters. Unfortunately, he just destroyed her.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, well, it's especially a stark contrast when you're talking about something as important as, I don't know, a war.

[Josh Holmes]

A war.

[Michael Duncan]

And you're like, here's my opportunity. I have the main stage. I'm going to grill the Secretary of State and I'm going to. What year is it? Talk about the 2020 election, dude. I'm going to talk about shoes.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like every time for the gram.

[Michael Duncan]

Every time I see it though, I'm expecting that era of politics to be over. And Democrats just can't help themselves.

[Josh Holmes]

They can't. But everything is for the gram. I mean, this loser, I've never heard, even heard of this lady. I don't know what she does. Is she California? So I assume that she's one of

[Comfortably Smug]

those, like, honestly, I think we're probably going to have stories on her. Oh, really? She's in a very messy situation. Oh, really? Yeah. Her significant other, who her family has partially funded his multiple runs for Congress, is a very messy. Oh, that's the one. The one. Oh, that's the one.

[Josh Holmes]

She does have a story.

[Comfortably Smug]

Things get worse and worse.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. All of a sudden that makes more sense.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude, do you think she, like, halfway through that stem winder, she was reading off a piece of paper. Do you think she realized that this was sort of beneath the moment of the question?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think they even for the gram. And it's all for these brain dead people. You know, the one thing that I took away from our conversation was sass on Tuesday's episode, and it may have even been off camera, but we were talking about the digital age or whatever. So forgive me if this wasn't on the tape that you, that you listened to, but he was talking about how, you know, 15, 20 years ago, every town in America, if you got 2,000 people, there's like five people that nobody talks to because they're fucking crazy and they can't get along with people. They're constantly just angry, irritated, countervailing known facts.

[Comfortably Smug]

Straight up antisocial.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, just straight up anti social. But, but like for, you know, a generate generations of American 250 years, 240 years of that. That's just, this is the town kook. And then in the digital age, like all of a sudden these people take over and they all have a voice that you have to listen to, but then they collect together. And I think that's what the Democratic Party has going on in that if you look at the direction of their primaries, there is not a single person that I have ever known grown up with, I don't care how liberal, who would be like, yeah, 911 is not a big deal, you know. Yeah. You know, I think like Al Qaeda made a good point. But they got candidates everywhere who say that kind of thing. Their biggest media personalities are people who share that sort of sentiment and their primaries reflect that. You got this lsiad guy in Michigan,

[Michael Duncan]

you got Habawi, the guy who testified for.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. That you guys talked about.

[Senator Michael Bennet]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And like the 25th anniversary of 9 11, you got like an Islamic extremist who's mayor of New York. And, and like I don't know where that comes from except from what Sass sort of explained in that they've congregated in this unique primary electorate and Democratic Party politics that has given it an outsized voice in their therefore like a mobilization into kind of the main of the Democratic Party. And you see this with somebody like Sarah Jacobs who's like using a moment of war where we have an enormous number of men and women in uniform in harm's way currently. And is anything we'll hear about this later anything but like a cold situation? I mean, it's still kind of a hot war situation. They're still firing missiles. And you use that opportunity to rewind the clock six years and talk about an election rather than asking the sitting Secretary of state who's currently conducting conversations with Iranians about what peace looks like.

[Michael Duncan]

And she went back to her office and all of her staff were high fiving.

[Josh Holmes]

Put them in a body bag.

[Michael Duncan]

It's such a good job.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's great for the Gram Yeah, I think about the lights. Think about the light.

[Comfortably Smug]

The thing is, I mean, you guys bring up such a good point, because it's like if you're an elected member of Congress at that point and you're on that committee, and now you have the opportunity to speak with the Secretary of State of the United States, which is an incredibly important and powerful position. And as someone who's supposed to represent your constituents and concerns, and you now have the opportunity to speak to America's chief diplomat. And you're talking about shoes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Get out of that office. Go find another job.

[Michael Duncan]

Like contrast.

[Comfortably Smug]

Find a job that you want.

[Michael Duncan]

Contrast her with, say, our guest today, Brandon Gill.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah. And I mean, that's an all star,

[Michael Duncan]

the way he handles hearing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes, that's a great.

[Josh Holmes]

Prepares, thinks about things, asks plain language questions, demands answers. Yeah. And then you get this shit. Well, he's not done. Clip 3. You were at a party with President

[Comfortably Smug]

Trump in Miami instead of accompanying Vice President Vance to Pakistan for negotiations.

[Secretary of State]

What party was I at?

[Josh Holmes]

Secretary Rubio.

[Secretary of State]

You're 100% inaccurate and 100% wrong. Here's why. Number one, the vice president of the United States was there, and he wasn't confirmed by this then he was elected by the American people.

[Bill Kristol]

Okay?

[Secretary of State]

He is the second in line to the presidency of the United States. He was present. Mr. Witkoff is the President's envoy for negotiation, for peace deals. Mr. Kushner is a private citizen that serves as an advisor on these functions. They were the team that we sent to Pakistan. I was not at a party. Where I was is next to the President because in the midst of those negotiations, I was in communications with them. And in fact, I think there is media reporting from that evening on how multiple occasions I went into a background room, I came back out and spoke to the President and was constantly updating him. On that evening, I spoke to Mr. Kushner and our negotiating team and Mr. Woodkoff on at least six occasions, including twice on a secure line from the phone they had access to over there. You don't know what you're talking about.

[Josh Holmes]

Senator Rosen, he has a floor.

[Secretary of State]

I know your staff wrote up this cute statement for your TikTok video, but it's not true and it's not real. That's not what happened. Okay? I'm the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. I was co located with the President in the midst of a high stakes negotiation so that I could immediately inform him about events occurring halfway around the world. I was where I needed to be at that moment. Because we had a very capable team on the ground in Pakistan. Led by the vice President. Led by the vice President of the United States.

[Bill Kristol]

Thank you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Seriously

[Josh Holmes]

good board work, Doug. Thank you.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's just. That's just straight up impressive. If that's how it's done.

[Josh Holmes]

If I'm Jackie Rosen, I pick up my paperwork, I neatly fold it, and then I crawl under the fucking dais.

[Bill Kristol]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That is as a humiliating a situation as you're ever going to see in your life. That's unbelievable. I can't. Who. But this was all day. There are four more clips that I have seen of Rubio doing this one lady. Like, it just did a speech and then got up and walked out. And he was like, where are you going?

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

I thought you. Do you want answers to your questions? Oh, thanks for coming. He thanks her for coming. I mean, it was just a master class. He's not alone, though. Scott Bessen also showed up. He was in the House in Senate. Clip four.

[Bill Kristol]

Mr. Chairman.

[Brandon Gill]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's be clear here.

[Bill Kristol]

Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history. We want to get some facts about this deal.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what we're here for.

[Bill Kristol]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, thank you. And I will ask my questions first today.

[Brandon Gill]

And we would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about.

[Josh Holmes]

Your son's largest investment position was Rick's Cabaret.

[Brandon Gill]

So did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money?

[Josh Holmes]

Using your limited credibility. You.

[Comfortably Smug]

Your limited credibility.

[Josh Holmes]

Just an absolute tap dance. You know, Bassin can cut a bitch.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, every time they come at him. And I think that. Why do they keep underestimating this cat?

[Comfortably Smug]

I think they should. How's the word not gotten out to every single person, at least in D.C. don't fuck with him.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't do it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like there's a lot of people you can try to fuck with. How much clearer he's not one of

[Josh Holmes]

them, I don't know. But, like, that dude's coming in guns punch blazing, no matter what.

[Michael Duncan]

He's done everything short of leave a horse head in people's.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unbelievable. Even within his own colleagues, in his own administration, as we find out in clip five. Did you actually tell Pulte you were going to punch him in the face?

[Bill Kristol]

No, sir. I actually said I was going to kick his ass.

[Josh Holmes]

I share the emotion. Thank you. And as I said, that was last summer.

[Brandon Gill]

Summer 25.

[Bill Kristol]

And many teams have fights in the locker room and then go out and win for the team on the table.

[Josh Holmes]

So what he's talking about is something we covered in the ruthless variety program, which is this famous dust up between Bill Pulte and Scott Bessant, at which point it looked like it was going to get physical. And Bessant told him, I'm going to kick your ass. That was one of the quotes. That was a tree. You also said something about punching in the face. He said that. That didn't. But the fight that he challenged him to, and it's not the only one. And by the way, Elon at some point showed up with a black eye and there was some conjecture about whether they had a run in. So like, this guy's going through him. I don't care what your partisan stripes are. Put your jersey on, butcher jersey off. This guy's going through.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, every hockey team needs an enforcer. You know, it's an important role on the ice.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unbelievable. Anyway, it was a good day. It was a good day this week for the Trump administration on Capitol Hill. Cuz they absolutely body bagged a whole bunch of people. Uh, coming up, Chuck Schumer and all of the Senate Democrats had a turn with Graham Platner, which was something else. And there's a whole bunch of embarrassment that comes later right after this. You know what's wild? There's a federal program called 3:40B designed to help low income patients afford medicine. And tax exempt hospital systems have exploited loopholes to turn it into a billion dollar cash machine. They collect massive drug discounts, but families still pay full price. And when anyone asks where the money actually goes, hospitals lawyer up and they go silent if they're helping patients. Prove it. Open the books. Learn [e-mail] American Energy is growing with

[Senator Michael Bennet]

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

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so we heard a little bit about the, the Trump administration side of the coin with Rubio and Besant. Besant is just like, he's just got a special place in my heart, really. I mean, it's just, I like, I just love the guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, and our friend this year now.

[Josh Holmes]

And now we are joined by our good friend John Ashbrook, who's back in action for the heart and the meat of the product. You know how much Wolf likes the meat.

[Bill Kristol]

He loves the meat. But man, I'm really disappointed I missed the Besant segment because that guy brought the heat.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Bill Kristol]

I mean, that was such a good clip.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. It's so good. Well, thank you, Johnny, for joining us. We're gonna do a great little tap dance on the Democrats here who have distinguished themselves themselves this week.

[Bill Kristol]

Always fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Graham Platner, under, has undergone, I think, each and every day a ritual humiliation that exposes what he said and what he's written and what he's done over the last 10, 15 years. And it's become uncomfortable for Senate Democrats. And so he had to retreat out of Maine quickly to come back to his base of support here in Washington, D.C. and try to convince Senate Democrats not to throw him overboard. Now, there was a breakdown and I think Burgess, our buddy Burgess Everett wrote up a thing, was like, here's basically where I see it. Democrats are very uncomfortable with this situation. They would like it to go away, but they're also pretty aware of the fact that this guy's not getting off the ballot no matter what. And in terms of progressive support, there's basically nothing that you can say about him that doesn't harden their position. So they got to work with him. And so it became very obvious before he even got down here. They were all going to figure out a way to be like, we love Graham Platner. Difficult to do in a public forum. This is what they came up with. Clip 7 on Graham Platner Are you satisfied with the explanations he's given for the controversies his campaign is faced right now? Are you concerned about what we've heard? I met with Graham Platler today. We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate. So you're saying that Janet Mills, your preferred candidate, there's been rattlings that she should get back in. You're standing behind Graham Platner. To be clear here, we're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.

[Comfortably Smug]

Is that perfect for ability in attacking.

[Josh Holmes]

We're going to take bat. We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate. Any other subject? You got any other subject? Yes, yes, you right there.

[Representative Burchett]

Do you believe that Janet Mill should unsuspend her campaign?

[Josh Holmes]

We're going to beat Susan Collins and

[Brandon Gill]

take back the Senate.

[Josh Holmes]

Last one. You have not said if you're still endorsing Graham Planner. Are you still supporting Graham Platter? As I said, I endorsed Graham Platner. We're going to take back. We're going to beat Suzanne Collins and can't even get that right. It's like, dude, if you're gonna try to be a smart ass, at least know how to pronounce the fucking words.

[Michael Duncan]

It's two lines.

[Brandon Gill]

Pretty basic.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so bad. But that gives you a good indication for those of you who've done this for a living. When you hear that kind of thing out of a politician, there's no more uncomfortable place to be. It means anything I say other than the two rehearsed lines that my staff and I conjured up before walking out to these microphones is problematic. And if I were Graham Platner, there was a bunch of reporting in D.C. where people were like, well, they're sticking with Platner. If I heard that and I'm Graham Platner, hey, well, what do you think about Janet Mills getting back in? We're going to beat Susan Collins. Yeah. It's like, huh. Well, that didn't sound.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's an insanely tough place to put like. Everyone knows that Schumer was trying to stop Grant Planner because he knew what a risk this guy was. But at the same time, it's the same place that he himself is stuck in. He's worried about AOC primarying him. The base of that party is all a bunch of nutjobs, and he's stuck with it. This is an example of what it's gonna be like for him going forward. The Democrat Party base is completely insane. There's nothing you're gonna. Folks, you're gonna hear a lot more about Graham Platner. This is not the end. And Schumer stuck with it.

[Michael Duncan]

They know that. They know that, which is why he has to. Just two lines, because that's this way of getting out from what's coming next. Right. It doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.

[Comfortably Smug]

The other thing they.

[Bill Kristol]

The other thing they got out because they know what's coming next is a story that popped, like, last night. Two nights ago. That is all sourced background inside the Democrat meeting at the DSCC where Democrats pressed Platner. Is there anything else that we need to be concerned about in your background? It's the classic movement that presets what you expect to happen. They all know that there's, like you pointed out, not just. Not just stories about him doing terrible things to people, but photos of him showing terrible things to everybody else. And it's only going to get worse. And they all know that and they're trying to wind that back. And when you see stories about them pressing Platner to come clean with the group, it's all about cya. We can't let them do a cya.

[Comfortably Smug]

It completely exposes the fact that Democrats believe in nothing, have no values, because this is now the 10th time they've had to ask him, is there anything else? And every time there has been something else and they're still there. So they don't like he can keep doing whatever he wants because they don't care. All they want is the power and smug.

[Michael Duncan]

I think Democrats are gonna have a different opinion of their previous stance of Believe all women. Oh, Believe all.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I think.

[Bill Kristol]

I think so.

[Josh Holmes]

I think they might. Two parter for you guys. First, do you think he's got a Totenkoff on that thing?

[Bill Kristol]

I don't want to find out.

[Josh Holmes]

And second, I don't want to know. If he does, does that break the dam?

[Comfortably Smug]

It's kind of.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a battle of the bulge.

[Bill Kristol]

You set me up with that one. It had to be said.

[Josh Holmes]

I did. All right. But Schumer wasn't the only one that was pressed by this, and this is a hilarious one. Michael Bennett always found to be somewhat of a lightweight in the United States Senate. He somehow got cornered and had to have to answer questions about this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Clip 8 I mean, you obviously don't think the President meets that high standard

[Representative Burchett]

that you're talking about.

[Comfortably Smug]

Does Graham Platner meet that high standard, in your view?

[Senator Michael Bennet]

Well, I definitely don't think the President meets that standard. He's proven since the day that he was elected to office that he.

[Josh Holmes]

I think, Graham, I think that's a fair question.

[Senator Michael Bennet]

That is what the election in Maine is going to partly be about. And he's going to have to withstand the scrutiny of the people of Maine.

[Michael Duncan]

But what do you think?

[Comfortably Smug]

Seriously, what's your view?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I'm busy running for governor.

[Bill Kristol]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

You haven't studied the issue.

[Bill Kristol]

What can I say?

[Josh Holmes]

It's not my job. Toots yeah.

[Bill Kristol]

He walked off the set and his press secretary is like, Josh, she used to work at Daily Caller.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if you're getting carved up by Caitlyn on something like this, like, just do a minimum prep. But just a minimum prep. He's got nothing. That cat ran for president, by the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Also, no one would care if Bennett canceled.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, there's no one.

[Michael Duncan]

There's no one at cnn. And being like, we gotta book him.

[Bill Kristol]

We.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's.

[Michael Duncan]

He's just. He's so inspiring.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he's such a newsmaker.

[Comfortably Smug]

The actual question is, who canceled that? Then they brought Bennett on.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, that's the thing. He's like a podcast that you have

[Michael Duncan]

to put on 3X.

[Josh Holmes]

All you have to do is take another loaf of Wonder Bread shelf and put it back into the system. Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

So.

[Josh Holmes]

But then you go to the progressive side, right? Which is the base of the platner support. Clip 8. A Democrat abandoned Graham Platner after these messages came out, these sexually explicit messages they sent to women. You know, I haven't waded into that primary. I don't believe the primary is. Has occurred yet. So I. I would kind of, you know, again, I don't weighed in on that.

[Comfortably Smug]

I haven't weighed in on that race.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, oh, no, no, no. Because that movement hasn't been behind Platner at all.

[Bill Kristol]

What should I say about Platner if I'm asked, ma', am? The primary hasn't occurred. Just tell him the primary hasn't occurred. It's next week.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure, his opponent dropped out, but.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also to be like, I haven't weighed in on that. What do you think's happening now? Weigh in on it. That's what the question's for, stupid.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what the question is. I mean, so it' this like, conglomeration of stuff. Meanwhile, Platners here, every member of the press, big tat tip to Manu, by the way, for doing his thing. And this, it's like, you know, he gets grief on the program for running down Republicans.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's a jerk.

[Michael Duncan]

He did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

He blocked me on Twitter. He's a coward.

[Josh Holmes]

He knows he's a good guy. He's doing his job. And in clip nine, though, Platner himself is confronted with some of this. How old were the girls?

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, man.

[Josh Holmes]

Gotta get out of there. Gotta get out of there. Right? And here is a guy who has been on the political scene for all of about six months, who has a big moment in the Sun. Every publication in America is writing about him and his campaign and questions. And he's got United States senators all the way from a minority leader of the Senate all through the rank and file who are talking about him. He shows up. This man can't do. I mean, he could have done like a full shuttle run to the DSCC and back to the car. He could not have taken a second to look a single media person in the eye. And like, if you were a leader, this is a good opportunity. Like, everybody's listening to you. You'd stand and be like, here, this is what this is about. Bing, bang, boom. Try to wrap it up in a bow. Push your message. It's going to be printed everywhere. Whatever your message is, he can't do it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Again, this goes to the heart of who Graham Plattner is. He's not an oyster farmer. Again, as has been discussed and widely reported now, the only person, the only client he had for his oyster farming was his mom's restaurant.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Comfortably Smug]

This is a 70,000 a year, you know, boarding school mama's boy who's never faced any responsibility, has never faced any hardship where he has had to be held accountable. And so he always runs. He always has other people having to answer questions for him. And Democrats are stuck with it. Their entire party now is a bunch of spoiled little rich kids who think they're gonna have a communist revolution. No, this is what you're gonna get. And it's gonna get worse for them.

[Bill Kristol]

Yeah. You mentioned two words in there that caught my attention. Responsibility and accountability. And as much shit as we give Democrats here on the Variety Program, this is the United States of America. They are leading their caucus in the Senate. They're not dumb. They know absolutely everything in Graham Platner's vet file. They know his background, and they have since day one.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're comfortable with it if he

[Bill Kristol]

posts a W. They sure are.

[Josh Holmes]

It doesn't matter.

[Bill Kristol]

They sure are. And so they are just as culpable at anything in terms of the politics here as their candidate, Grant Platner.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, look, if Jeff Epstein himself had a D in front of his name and they were convinced they could beat a Republican and take over the Senate, they'd be more than happy to drop full endorsement behind him, and that's the kind of vacancy they've got. But I think smug. You were right in making the observation that Schumer is powerless to stop this. His own primary problems, own problems within the. The Democratic Party is essentially a piece of driftwood in the Democratic sea that is just. It's gonna Go wherever the wave takes them. There's no leadership whatsoever. I think that's the primary problem. But it leads us to our question of the day. And when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we ask you a question, give you your responses, and read you all of them the next episode. And this question is, what's the Democrats biggest weaknesses?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a terrific question.

[Bill Kristol]

Sure is.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what it all comes down to. That's what it boils down to.

[Josh Holmes]

I think it's a rudderless ship that has given a lot of opportunity for literally the people who hate.

[Bill Kristol]

Okay, fellas, breaking news. Everything we were just talking about about Graham Platner. There is a brand new story from the New York Times.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm literally just seeing this in Miami. We're getting this live react here on the Ruthless Variety program.

[Bill Kristol]

That's right. Let me read you a little bit of this. In extensive conversations over the past two months, three other women who had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner offered a. A far more complicated assessment, describing volatile and toxic relationships that were unsettling and at times emotionally retching. Okay, it goes on. Let me just tell you, in at least one case, even physically threatening.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is what we were talking about. I think smug. You might have even flagged this on last episode in that one of the reasons why you listen to the Ruthless Friday program is because we catch the Scuttlebot, we can hear what people are talking about. And there has been a rumor. Not just a rumor, it's been pretty substantiated. The New York Times was working on a story where they were talking to multiple women from Graham Platner's past. We knew it. Democrats knew it. It's part of the reason why he was in the Senate Democratic Conference and why they were asking him about. What else is going to drop here is because of this very story that is now apparently it's is we're live.

[Bill Kristol]

You know what, here's another thing. Some of the women also raised questions about his trustworthiness. Mr. Platner's insistence that he did not know that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol until it became a campaign issue last fall was simply not true.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hmm.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, wow. That calls it.

[Josh Holmes]

He called it my toten cough. This says, in fact, there's a whole section of this article called my toten cough.

[Bill Kristol]

The eyewitness here says he had taught her the word for it years earlier.

[Michael Duncan]

And I mean, that.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

That would track with a guy who's a redditor who, you know is commenting on all of this military history stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

It.

[Michael Duncan]

It defies credulity.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

That this guy who's commenting about a Finnish Nazi aligned soldier with a bar fighting in World War II doesn't know what a totem cough is.

[Josh Holmes]

Well. And he just recall for the audience just to rewind the tape. If you didn't listen to the episod. We were covering this initially. His initial excuse for all of this is he had no idea what the tattoo that was on his chest actually meant. He revised it a touch, but not totally. And that he didn't understand the symbolism. Specifically what is in this article is not only did he understand specifically what it was, he called it my totem cough.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Which told his girlfriend that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Which. Which would imply that he not only knew what the thing was that he was being is tattooed on his chest, but that he knew it was a Nazi symbol and was comfortable enough inking it permanently into his skin.

[Bill Kristol]

Here's another thing. The girlfriend says Mr. Platner could be rough with her. She said, particularly when they were drinking, leaving her shaken and sometimes afraid. She said he regularly grabbed her by the shoulder, sometimes hard enough to leave marks, and on one occasion yanked her out of a cab by her wrist after an argument when she wanted to stay in the car. During one argument, she recalled, he twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out.

[Josh Holmes]

There's some. That's pretty dark.

[Michael Duncan]

Some volatility there.

[Josh Holmes]

That's pretty dark because we had heard allegations that were going to come to light of things in the domestic abuse arena, which again would track with a lot of the volatility that this guy's displayed online and elsewhere. And I guess this, this is, this is it. I mean, I, you know, it might be it. There could be more throwing, throwing somebody around, grabbing somebody by the shoulders, locking them in a door and not allowing them to get out. I mean, there is actual statutes that govern that specific act. That's. That sucks for this guy. I mean, that, that is, that's pretty rough. That's pretty rough stuff.

[Bill Kristol]

The story goes on to say. Oh, go ahead.

[Comfortably Smug]

I just want to say as, as all this news is breaking, I want to remind folks of something that Senator Ruben Gallego, one of Eric Swalwell's best friends, said on Monday. He said, we know that Graham has not lived your typical political experience. He's been very clear and open with his wife and they work through whatever they Worked through. At the end of the day, this man has had 60 more town halls than Susan Collins has.

[Brandon Gill]

Come on.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think you guys are all in a bottle here right now.

[Josh Holmes]

Town halls.

[Comfortably Smug]

He said this on Monday. He said this drip, drip, drip is not going to hurt Graham's campaign. Every journo in D.C. needs to follow up with Ruben Gallega, who is already. I mean, what happened? Like, when Eric Swalwell.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, we pretended like Ruben's like,

[Comfortably Smug]

oh, don't know that guy. Yeah, he skated out of that real fast.

[Josh Holmes]

Here's you shirtless with him. Oh, I didn't know him that well, I guess.

[Comfortably Smug]

And he's like, on Monday, he's like, listen, the American people don't care about this drip, drip, drip that's going to come out on Planet Some. Follow up with him.

[Josh Holmes]

This feels like something you care about.

[Comfortably Smug]

It seems like something you should follow up on.

[Bill Kristol]

So here's another line from the New York Times. The impact of the relationship on the woman. She says it lingered for years. She said she referred to him in a diary entry in June 2016 as, quote, the most toxic, literally abusive man on the earth who destroyed my life. Those close to her encouraged her to move on. In all caps, quote, do not call Graham. A friend messaged her that year. And so how is the Graham Platner team responding to this? They're attacking her because she worked for, like, a conservative organization. They're attacking the message.

[Josh Holmes]

No, this is. This is the best thing.

[Bill Kristol]

Don't believe her.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is the great paradox of Democratic politics where it unmasks everything that we talk about on the Ruthless Variety program when it comes to the Democratic Party and that they believe in absolutely nothing. It what they have said and what they present as a platform, whether it's believe all women or that they are champions of women in some way goes as far as the water's edge when it comes to threatening our political prospects. Right? So here is a woman in the Believe all women party where she's got allegations that she was abused, essentially. And when it comes to light, the first reaction from not only the Platner campaign, but Democrats around the party centrally, is to impugn the character of the woman. There's no other play because there's no way to defend the behavior. So they're literally attacking when they have learned that their candidate, who holds the keys to a Senate majority, could have physically abused a woman. Now it's okay to not believe all women. Now it's okay to question the motives of the woman. Why Are we even talking about this? She's probably a Republican anyway. I mean, think about how vacant. It's insane these people are.

[Bill Kristol]

It's insane. But after the Graham campaign's attack on this girl, the Graham Platner campaign attack on this girl, the New York Times follows up with, quote, records show no evidence of any relationship with the woman. And the Susan Collins campaign, it's not political.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, this is obvious when Democrats knew what they were signing up for here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And the thing is, is that the deal was, all that matters is the Senate majority. That's all that matters. Everything that they say, every slogan that they push, everything they believe in nothing. They don't believe in any of that shit. All of it is designed for two things. Money for their campaigns, money for their supporters, and to secure power for themselves. They don't believe in any of the shit that they try to sell.

[Michael Duncan]

And we've said it before, and Smug was talking about it earlier. They knew this was out there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

They knew all this was, was out there. If we knew, they knew more from the article talking about this anonymous Facebook user that put up a private page, are we dating the same guy? And it's a picture of Mr. Platner. And it's just messages from people being like, he ghosted me and then sharing, you know, their experience with him. I mean, not all of them were negative. Some of them were. Obviously felt like he, you know, abused them and all these sorts.

[Brandon Gill]

Like, I'm just, I'm quickly reading this

[Josh Holmes]

thing, but it looks like New York Times, not surprisingly, it's thrown some balance right. This.

[Michael Duncan]

But then one of the people that commented on that Facebook post, they reached the New York Times, reached out to her, and I'll just read here from the article. She was not shocked. She said when she saw the incendiary comments he had made about women that have surfaced during the campaign, quote, I was like, that makes sense. This person does not respect women.

[Bill Kristol]

Well, here's the thing. You talked, Josh, you talked about their believe all women bullshit that they do not believe. Like, it was. It was all a farce. Yeah, okay. It was all a farce. At least half of the Democrats currently serving in the United States Senate are there because of campaigns funded in part by Harvey Weinstein.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Bill Kristol]

They are the biggest hypocrites on the planet. You shouldn't believe a single word they say. And when you hear stories like this, you should think, huh, Well, I knew it. These people are terrible.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, their believe all women thing was just like an infantry bugle for suburban white drunken wine moms who needed a reason to vote Democrat because you can't come up with a logical reason to do so at your particular lot in life. And they, they have proven time and time again that when it's advantageous in a political situation. Kavanaugh, good example. Believe all women. What's her name? Blowies, Blow, Ford, whatever. Hell. Right. They make up like she had absolutely zero evidence that she was doing anything other than making it up. Including, like the life experience of pretty much everybody was.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, the description of the door was not even existing in the House. Like it was extremely clearly made up. And then they still try to make a spectacle. Spectacle out of it. For power.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what matters.

[Josh Holmes]

But then you put the shoe on the other foot here is you've got three women who are saying that he is, like, abusive, doesn't respect women, he's problematic. There's looks like there's more stuff in there that's very problematic. And they're like, wow, this woman, she's a crazy person. It's probably a Republican, probably working for Susan Collins. Violence, huh? Like that's. That's some whiplash.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's especially hard to square that circle with all the evidence supporting this that we've already seen.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing.

[Michael Duncan]

And there still might be more to come.

[Josh Holmes]

There might be. I did catch this just as we were talking.

[Bill Kristol]

Oh.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, there's more in the middle of this thing. Just a casual crime that one of the women said that he kept an AR15 line around his apartment on Capitol

[Michael Duncan]

Hill in D.C. that's you.

[Bill Kristol]

You can't. You're not allowed to have a gun.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Here. Just for those of you who are unfamiliar, Washington, D.C. is one of the places that decided to completely eliminate your Second Amendment rights. And unless you register this thing, which is, I'm told, a very arduous.

[Michael Duncan]

They fingerprint you. You have to go in. They take a ballistics test of the gun. You're registered with the police department. Yeah. I mean, it's a violation of your Second Amendment.

[Josh Holmes]

Something tells me that Graham Platner did not go through that process. So, like, stuck in the middle of a story about domestic. Is it just your casual felony laying around?

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

He does accidental liabilities. Like, it's unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

If I was a Democrat, I'd do a lot of drinking, but if I did, I would have Zbiotics first. It is a game changing product that we use here in the Ruthless Variety program before a big Night out. It's a pre alcohol drink and I gotta tell you, it works, doesn't it fellas?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, that's the thing is, so for so long, folks have thought, oh, you know, if I go out, have a bunch of drinks, I'm gonna probably feel terrible unless I go home and I chug some Gatorade or I have eight glasses of water before bed or whatever. But you wake up and you still feel awful. And it's because it's not about the dehydration. What happens is when you drink, your stomach breaks it down and then that alcohol has these toxic byproducts. That's what makes you feel bad. But Zbiotics knocks all that right out.

[Michael Duncan]

And we got a lot of big holidays upcoming here. The weather's nice. 254th of July, we got a lot of great stuff. And so you're going to be in vibing, you got to bring Zebiotics with you.

[Bill Kristol]

And that's why we always say there is no tomorrow without Zbiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly right, Johnny. Exactly right. So go to zbiotics.com ruthless to learn more. Get 15% off of your first order when you use Ruthless at the checkout. Zebiotics is backed by 100 money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason at all, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com ruthless and use the code ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. All right, are we ready for a lightning before we play a game?

[Bill Kristol]

Let's do it.

[Josh Holmes]

So Trump, Trump. We haven't done one of these in a couple of days, but almost every time he's got the mic there's a kind of a funny moment, but this is kind of a jumping off point for a number of different things. They're talking about the Iran war and the observation that there is although in a ceasefire it seems to be like

[Bill Kristol]

some firing going on, a little shooting happening.

[Josh Holmes]

This is his characterization. Clip 6 How do you define ceasefire?

[Brandon Gill]

How do you define ceasefire?

[Josh Holmes]

Pretty much the way it is. It's a different part of the world. You know, I'd say in that part of the world, ceasefires when you're shooting in a more moderate manner. Dude, he's not wrong. Yeah, he's not wrong. I mean that is basically what they've got going on. The whole Iran topic is a subject for another day that we'll do here on the Ruthless variety program because we all have thoughts on it. But I just like when you get good stuff like that.

[Michael Duncan]

I just love the way he's talking about the Middle east. Like it's a gun free zone in Chicago.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Michael Duncan]

Might be some shooting still.

[Josh Holmes]

This is one that you flagged. And I find this to be one of the funniest things that we have seen in a long time. The SAC B.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Duncan, you want to jump off on this one?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So a lot of people noticed this on X the other night that the SAC B put out their endorsement.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Sacramento Bee newspaper put out its endorsement

[Bill Kristol]

of Katie Porter in the California Governor's race.

[Michael Duncan]

California governor's race. Unfortunately for the Sacramento Bee and for Katie Porter. And for Katie Porter, they posted it on Wednesday.

[Josh Holmes]

So the Sacramento Bee used to be one of the most preeminent political publications in the country. Even after the advent of the Internet, when all of the local news publications went south, the SAC B still had a reporter on the plane. In all of the presidential elections. They still had moment by moment updates from presidential campaigns. It was a place to go when you were a young political communications professional that you had to follow along and you frequently got requested for quotes because it had become sort of a national publication. Yeah, you fast forward 15 years, this outfit can't even get their endorsement out before an election.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's just a shell of its former self. If you go and click on the endorsement, you see the byline or whatever, the op ed, you know, board. But then it says assisted by AI in parentheses and it's like, you know, if you want to understand how a state that's like the fifth largest economy can count ballots for three weeks without us getting election results and not be held to account for a up third world system. And it's because we don't have a real media in the state anymore that can do anything about it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

So nobody knows like we could maybe fix these problems because you got zombie

[Josh Holmes]

publications that are run by AI didn't ask that question.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Bill Kristol]

Those are all very good points. And I just have to say that my favorite aspect to it is just the thought of how pissed off Katie Porter got when she found out it didn't release until. I mean, she must have been texting her staff like fuck you.

[Josh Holmes]

Where is the endorsement? How dare you. You're fucking fire. Well, think about this. Graphic 3 There she is at the bottom.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, that is bad.

[Josh Holmes]

Casey Porter.

[Bill Kristol]

She's yelling at him right now. If only you would have gotten that endorsement out sooner, I would have maybe get a little bit better for our

[Josh Holmes]

audio Only listeners as of right now, because remember, they count ballots for 150,000 days in California, which you guys covered well, by the way, as of right now, she's got 4.6%.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Real contender. Brutal, embarrassing.

[Bill Kristol]

You know, California does things differently. Maybe that she's thinking about the people who vote after election day.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, she's getting crushed by Chad Bianco, the Republican guy who. Who nobody heard of because Steve Hilton was kind of consolidated the Republican vote there. Just incredible. All right, so moving on. This is California based too, of course, because Wolf puts the sheet together in this case. He's highlighted something that is fantastic. And Ron DeSantis was making the observation that you guys made on Thursday, which is like, how do we live in the year of our Lord 2026 and California still can't count ballots? Like, how are we into this situation? And Aaron Blake, a perennial contender for Hack madness, one of the worst reporters in all of Washington, D.C. where does he even work now? He used to be at the Washington Post, but they laid all those people off.

[Bill Kristol]

I haven't kept.

[Josh Holmes]

None of us know anyway, Aaron Blake jumping on Ronnie D's statement to say, not sure I will ever get used to how casually powerful people baselessly cede suspicion about our elections like this. Call California ridiculously slow, by all means. But this goes well beyond that sort of castigating him, trying to make him

[Michael Duncan]

like an election denier, policing the discourse around why it takes 17 days to count ballots.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, it turns out one of our own here, wol, has got some personal experience with all of this. And so he has responded with graphic 5B where he says, if it's a baseless suspicion, why do I, a longtime Virginia resident, have a live ballot for the California primary? This despite repeatedly informing the state that I have left over 10 years ago and that he posts the picture of his ballot.

[Michael Duncan]

I bet if Wolf mailed it in tonight, there's no chance it would be counted.

[Josh Holmes]

In a way, no chance they would not count it.

[Bill Kristol]

Yeah, he could put a note on the top. I just saw the endorsement from the Sacramento Bee.

[Josh Holmes]

And therefore I must vote for Katie Porter. Maybe I think this feeds onto something.

[Michael Duncan]

So late returns, they're trying to influence the count.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it's something worth looking into. I invite, you know, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel to take a look into Wolf. Has he been voting remotely? He's getting these live ballots now he's trying to put Wolf in jail. I think it's worth looking into is that we have to investigate, make sure that we have fair elections in this country. It's the least we could do.

[Josh Holmes]

He wants Wolf investigated.

[Comfortably Smug]

He wants Wolf investigated.

[Bill Kristol]

It's so funny.

[Josh Holmes]

I do find it absolutely hilarious though. Everybody's like, oh, I mean, these guys, anytime they question election, they're all election deniers. Whatever. Wolf's like, yeah, I haven't lived in for 10 years. Here's my.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I wouldn't be surprised if this episode on YouTube doesn't get one of those flags on it for discussing election disinformation.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, that's probably right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, and it's like we just showed to the ev. Evidence that a guy who lives in Virginia gets a California ballot for the primary. So, like, we're operating in truth. And all these people who like, look down their noses at people that question a process that takes multiple weeks to count ballots, they have unregulated dropboxes, they have ballot harvesting, they have mail out to people that live in Virginia. It's like, it's common sense. It's not saying there's fraud happening. It's saying you've created the entire environment to create it.

[Josh Holmes]

Just look at this. It's so amazing. Wolf was telling me, expounded upon this, I think you said your family lives, has lived in that house since the 60s, since the 1960s. And about 10 years ago, they started getting somebody else's ballot.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, great.

[Bill Kristol]

Oh, man.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. So, you know, typically when that happens, it's somebody who's moved, who has registered to that address and moved and then they've are now sending the ballot. Whether that's the case of somebody who lived in the 50s, who's surely passed, passed on by now, or whether that's somebody who's just like, I don't know, put his address down and has the ballot, I don't know. But he still gets another live ballot.

[Bill Kristol]

You said that was 10 years ago.

[Josh Holmes]

No, for the last 10 years he's been, they've been getting this.

[Comfortably Smug]

So Wolf's just collecting a bunch of these live ballots. You know what's been done with them?

[Bill Kristol]

It's been about 10 or 15 years since a Republican was elected governor in that state.

[Josh Holmes]

Smoke's gonna fuck around and Brendan Gill is gonna end up having testimony for Lee Wolf. But before we get to Brendan, we've got to play King of the Hill, our signature game here in the Ruthless variety program. And who are our contestants today? I think I am a jurist.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah? You are judge, I'm bailiff today. I look forward to it. I'm gonna be active Tycoon Court gonna be active. Ashbrook is defending champion.

[Bill Kristol]

No, no, no. Smug is.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, smug is. That's right.

[Bill Kristol]

You were.

[Michael Duncan]

You were judged.

[Bill Kristol]

Tight court.

[Michael Duncan]

And you are. Okay,

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm bringing Adam Kinzinger, the defending champ.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay? And Ashbrook's playing, too. I don't care. Let's go ringside.

[Bill Kristol]

I have Bill Crystal. Wait a minute.

[Josh Holmes]

Hold on, hold on, hold on. No. Run it.

[Bill Kristol]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Josh Holmes]

It is the one one party always controls. He's exercising some authority.

[Bill Kristol]

Michael Duncan wants to take charge of this game because he thinks that he invented it.

[Josh Holmes]

Have you noticed?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I did invent it.

[Josh Holmes]

Have you noticed?

[Comfortably Smug]

I created this game.

[Josh Holmes]

And everyone knows, if you notice that there has become an intense rivalry.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a bit much. It's a bit much. And you know what I think? I think they're taking for granted the time of our audience. Like, this is to entertain them.

[Brandon Gill]

Great point.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is not for your little petty baker ring.

[Michael Duncan]

Be somebody.

[Comfortably Smug]

Be professional, for God's sake.

[Josh Holmes]

Great point, Bill.

[Michael Duncan]

Christopher, you're the one who stopped the music, you know.

[Bill Kristol]

Let's go ringside. Tight court. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from Pierre Oma Dyer's checkbook, Bill.

[Josh Holmes]

War now. War forever. Correct, Crystal.

[Bill Kristol]

And now, in the blue corner, fighting from a sad office that's empty and current champion of the world, Adam Kinger.

[Josh Holmes]

Well done. Well done. Under duress, no less. I would instruct councils to begin, and

[Comfortably Smug]

we start with the champion, Adam Kinzinger. Exhibit eight, please. There's a tweet that he's referencing which says, like, oh, no, imagine if a woman president crashed the economy and started a war. And the standard playbook that they ever always go to, and Adam Kisser's like, this is so true. And the best part is, like, shortly after he drops this tweet, we get a job number that beat expectations. So I don't know what he's considering.

[Josh Holmes]

Crash the economy.

[Comfortably Smug]

A crashed economy. But Adam Kinzinger trying to be one of these, like, I stand with women. Ultra feminist.

[Bill Kristol]

He's an ally.

[Josh Holmes]

Just like he's an ally.

[Comfortably Smug]

What year is it, dude? Are we still trying to do this shit? Like, come on.

[Josh Holmes]

Imagine that dude's info flowing these days. It must be so just absolute Titanic. Just absolute mess.

[Michael Duncan]

Terrific.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, what do we got?

[Bill Kristol]

Okay, exhibit 16, please. Bill Kristol writes, we can refuse to allow Trump's desecration of our 250th to be our Desecration. All we have to do is celebrate the 4th as we usually do. July 4th has never been about big presidential spectacle. It's always been about family, local and community events. And he links to a post on the Bulwark from which he's quoting.

[Josh Holmes]

Can I. Can I ask a question of counsel? And I don't know if you've done the requisite research on this, but in 1776 or 1976, when we had the bicentennial, were there events?

[Bill Kristol]

It was a gigantic spectacle, a big deal. 200 years in American history.

[Comfortably Smug]

What all did you do for.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, what did you do?

[Bill Kristol]

Well, that was.

[Josh Holmes]

He was a guest speaker. He filed for Social Security a few years ago.

[Comfortably Smug]

The parade.

[Brandon Gill]

You know what?

[Bill Kristol]

I saw it with my own eyes. And it was a presidential spectacle the likes of which Bill Crystal is trying to. There we go. Cancel today.

[Michael Duncan]

It is funny because the left hates

[Comfortably Smug]

the Fourth of July.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, they hate Trump so much, they're going to pretend they love this country.

[Josh Holmes]

They're going to pretend they love it. But also just the denial of, like, that we celebrate centennial. I. I give it to him. Smash. You win round one.

[Bill Kristol]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. That means you're up.

[Bill Kristol]

Okay. Exhibit 10, please. Bill Crystal. Once again, Trump's power grab over the executive branch is intensifying.

[Josh Holmes]

Runs the executive branch, power grab will be executive.

[Comfortably Smug]

How dare he steal power from the executive?

[Josh Holmes]

That's literally the way it works.

[Bill Kristol]

Bill Crystal continues. Trump seems no longer to care much about electoral consequences. It's almost as if he doesn't expect elections to matter because he's going to do everything he can to make them not matter. Linking once again to the bulwark.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, God, this is good in so many ways. For one, it's like being like, how dare the mailman deliver my mail in the executive branch authority. I mean, we do have three branches. It turns out he does run that one. The executive. That's we.

[Michael Duncan]

So Bill Kristol believes there should be a permanent, unaccountable bureaucratic class that runs

[Bill Kristol]

our country, I think.

[Josh Holmes]

But like. Or just a total.

[Michael Duncan]

It feels like he's kind of saying the quiet part out loud with that.

[Josh Holmes]

I feel like that might be right. But then to wrap it up there at the end, basically, with saying he's going to steal the election without staying steal. That's good stuff. All right, smug, what do we got?

[Comfortably Smug]

Exhibit two, please. So, as you folks may be aware, libs are crying about 60 minutes losing.

[Josh Holmes]

Scott Pali, who is just your judge and jury, is particularly susceptible.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. And so Adam Kinzinger's take on this is one less show to watch. CBS just killed. It's one profitable show. All to impress Trump. Hope it pays off. As many people have noted, 60 Minutes ratings have been dwindling. The network had been losing money and they lost essentially the faith of the viewership when they became so openly partisan. It's amazing that someone who literally got cut out of his congressional seat is mad about someone actually trying to win. You know,

[Josh Holmes]

can we pop it up one more time? I just. One less show to watch. I feel like that's just. Look, I am susceptible to this. I love the Scott Pelley CBS content. I got a lot to say. I was sorry that I missed that opportunity yesterday, but I don't feel like that goes above and beyond the middle of the road Democrat take, which is where Adam Kinzinger finds himself. And I do feel like predicting that Trump steals the election with also a misunderstanding of the three branches of government is enough to win this one. So smashed you got.

[Comfortably Smug]

It was a tough week, dude. Kinzinger didn't bring it. He was trash this week, but he's a trash guy.

[Bill Kristol]

You know, I'd be, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the bailiff for his amicus. He offered. I feel like we have a little bit of an armistice or at least a moderate.

[Michael Duncan]

Just wait till I'm judged next week.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what he think he's doing right now.

[Bill Kristol]

Oh, he said he's setting me up.

[Josh Holmes]

He's buttering the bread. Yeah, yeah, he's butter in the bread.

[Michael Duncan]

Don't miss the next installment of King of the Hill.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they got a big competition not only with King of the Hill, but they're going to tunnel to towers this very weekend on Sunday, gentlemen are going to race each other up the steps of our beloved Freedom Tower. And well, I know you've been training quite a bit for this dunks.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Yeah. I actually asked Grock, like how to prepare, like do steps or whatever, you know, on like a bike. And it gave me a whole conversion thing with resistance. I've been pretty scientific about the whole thing, so I feel very good about my chances.

[Josh Holmes]

He's been AI Yeah. Simulations of the steps.

[Bill Kristol]

I've been walking up steps my whole life. I didn't feel the need to go to AI for advice. I'm going to tell you right now that Michael Duncan will probably finish ahead of me. He's running a one man race.

[Josh Holmes]

But who's going to win the donation race? Because this is Donate to ashbrook donate to duncan.com two respective domains. And I know that our listeners have participated quite a bit in this.

[Bill Kristol]

I'm glad you asked that question. Because Tunnel the Towers wins the donation race, despite what Michael Duncan set up for these vanity URLs. His own vanity. Donate. Donate to Ashbrook. The money goes to Tunnels the Towers. So it doesn't. Once again, a competition.

[Michael Duncan]

Regardless of who wins, the real winner is Tunnel the Towers and all of the people that they help, which is fantastic.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

Go to donateto ashbrook.com donate to Duncan. You can pick which horse in the race you want to support. I would say support the person who's trying to win rather than the person that wants to wallow in mediocrity. But who am I? You know, I'm sure there's some people out there who are like, you know, I don't care about winning. I like to lose.

[Comfortably Smug]

To be clear, this is. You're climbing 104 stories worth of stairs.

[Bill Kristol]

Yes, yes, that's right. That's right. In honor of Tunnel to Towers. And Michael is giving me a hard time for wallowing my mediocrity. There are physical limitations that when you get to be in your 40s, 40s. Sometime.

[Michael Duncan]

Sometime 1940s.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what I'm saying, dude. This guy. Well, that is terrible.

[Bill Kristol]

I'm glad you brought that up.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can I take an insurance policy out on Ashbrook?

[Brandon Gill]

I'm glad.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what?

[Josh Holmes]

He man's coming.

[Bill Kristol]

I'm glad you brought that up. I want to show you an item that I have on order just to make sure that I am fully ready for this competition. Wolf, can you pop up graphic number one? So I have ordered two brand new knees from Nike and they will be delivered to my house today. And I'm going to try them out Saturday before the race, and hopefully they get me to the top.

[Josh Holmes]

You think Eddie P. Can install those?

[Michael Duncan]

I'll bring the WD40.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's really good stuff. All right, so we got to get to one of our absolute favorite guests, Brandon Gill. Want to welcome back one of our absolute favorites here in the Ruthless Variety program. You know him, you love them. Brandon Gill. How are you, sir?

[Brandon Gill]

I'm doing excellent. How are y' all doing?

[Josh Holmes]

That's great to see you, man. We're great in large part, as we were talking about before we started the program here, in large part because we're watching the works that you're doing in these hearings. I want to get to this specific hearing, and it was on fraud which is a hobby of ours here on the Ruthless Variety Program. But I just have to ask before we get into this. I know all of you that are listening and watching this have seen this gentleman performing magic tricks that it seemed like, you know, when you were yelling at your TV screen for, like, 10 years, like, why aren't they asking? Why aren't they pinning down?

[Comfortably Smug]

It's like, now you've got someone who asked that question.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't even get the words out of your mouth, and you're like, yep, he's doing in the thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, so I gotta ask. And we talked about this, I think, a little bit last time you were here. But, like, I imagine the prep that goes into this is you want to know the background, you want to know, you know, how it intersects with the issues that you're talking about. But you, like, present this in such a digestible way. Is there a trick, is there a magic trick that you can share with your colleagues?

[Brandon Gill]

You know, I think that politics is actually pretty simple. You know, it, like, it's really easy whenever you get into the weeds of all of this, to want to make everything a lot more complicated. But policy is really simple. It's like, should we end fraud or should we not? Like, is Somali immigration good for America or is it not? And it's a pretty. It should be a very easy question to answer. But the beauty of where we're at now is the left is so ideologically connected to really insane ideas like mass migration, like, as Trump says, transgender for everybody. You know, we start trying to stop fraud in Ohio, we start trying to expose it, and they will just instinctively take the other side, no matter what. I mean, we saw that yesterday, and they're, you know, instead of being serious about the fact that we're losing, like a billion dollars just in Ohio alone, just in this home health services sector alone, they're going to go the other way and, like, focus on the fact that it's Somalis doing it and they want to protect the Somalis. So it puts us in a really easy position, I think. Or it should be a very easy position.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it certainly seems like it is to you. I want to play a clip, and then we'll jump off from there. Clip two, please, fellas.

[Brandon Gill]

Your testimony is that there is a large interstate criminal enterprise of Somali fraudsters that are defrauding the federal government in multiple states of potentially billions of dollars. Is that your testimony?

[Michael Duncan]

Correct.

[Brandon Gill]

Can you give us a sense of the scale of this fraud?

[Josh Holmes]

There's Thousands of people involved, I would

[Michael Duncan]

say the majority, majority of Bhutanese people are either on Medicaid home health care or are providing Medicaid home health care services. They had 15,000 Bhutanese people come to

[Josh Holmes]

this party in Ohio and they build,

[Michael Duncan]

they bust in all the participants on

[Josh Holmes]

their Medicaid vans because everybody there has their own Medicaid company.

[Michael Duncan]

And so I think Bhutanese people are systematically using Medicaid not only in Ohio, but also in Pennsylvania and Kentucky and New York and in other states where

[Josh Holmes]

they perceive that they will pay the family member and they will pay for non nursing services.

[Brandon Gill]

So it's not just the Somalis, it's also Bhutanese. It's across multiple states. They're coordinating with each other. There's a network of foreigners running criminal fraud rings within our government, within our country, I should say, defrauding our federal government.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, but that's what I'm talking about. It's a really. You're right, it is. It should be simple. But like, I have not seen that. Have you fellas seen just the clarity of laying out what is happening in a meaningful way that can be consumed?

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah, I mean, I think it starts with not being afraid of the left. So they're gonna call you racist. They're gonna say that you're taking away people's healthcare. I mean, we're literally talking about people who are, like, finding people off of the street, working with fraudulent LLCs to funnel your tax dollars to people to provide services that are not being provided. I mean, this is really basic stuff, but I think the left for a long time had kind of a monopoly on the conversation because they would immediately frame us as racist or sexist or homo, whatever it is. And I mean, I don't like being called racist, but I dislike seeing our tax dollars burned every single day a whole lot more, a whole lot less.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and I think you have internalized that. It comes with the territory.

[Brandon Gill]

Oh, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

You start asking meaningful questions and, you know, the first response is to impugn your motives and your character and, you know, your ideology and everything else.

[Brandon Gill]

I mean, if the left isn't attacking you, then you're not doing your job. That's how I see it.

[Comfortably Smug]

So this is. I mean, it's a really upsetting thing to see something like this happen because essentially around the world the word has gotten out that if you can find a way in America, you can rob these people blind. You can take from them whatever you want. Get everyone you know involved in this, steal as much Money as you can. It's a smash and grab that's happening. And the Democrats are like, what's wrong with that? And you're right, because it's strange that they take that side. But they, you know, when we had that presidential primary years ago and every Democrat running for president on stage raised their hand and said that if someone illegally enters this country, they want to provide them with free education, free health care. So they've loud and clear delivered the message of like, come to America, rob us blind. And the American people spoke loud and clear and said, no, that's not what I want when they voted in 2024. But Democrats are stuck thinking that, no, we have to protect the fraudsters. We have to punish the American taxpayer. Thank God you're out there and giving a voice to. Because this is just robbery. Every taxpayer in this country is being robbed daily and it has to stop.

[Brandon Gill]

Well, that's what it is. It's giving a voice to so many people in the country who I think see this and are sick of it, who are sick of their communities being transformed through mass migration. They're sick of their tax dollars being robbed. And for a long time I think they felt like they didn't have anybody in Washington. And I'm not saying I'm the person, but who is standing up and fighting back. I think the party is fighting back now. Like the Republican Party is now your voice to end this kind of nonsense and the Democrat Party is, politically speaking, your enemy in this fight.

[Michael Duncan]

I think the thing that I find most pernicious about this type of fraud is it's a family business.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, you have these Somali immigrant communities that are being accessories to crimes. You've got old people who are like, I don't actually need these services, but sure, I'll sign this paper so you can get the money and I can get some free shit from the government.

[Josh Holmes]

And there has to be left wing accessories. Yeah. That got onboarded onto this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, having a point along the

[Michael Duncan]

way, but like having a whole community committed to the fraud, I find like just so un American.

[Bill Kristol]

Totally.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, and so like my question is, and I know there's a lot of investigations going on, but how the hell do we deport these people?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it, you know?

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah, yeah, well, and that's, that's going to be the biggest question for us going forward. I mean, the purpose of doing these hearings is not to just expose fraud, it's to stop it. I mean, Luke, Rosie, actually at the Daily Wire can Do a great job of exposing it. Our job is to take that work and build on it and either build a case, which we can do through the oversight committee, we have subpoena power we can bring. We can force people to come testify before us. We can request documents and information and communications from the Ohio Medicaid Agency, which we've done. But then it's to build a case that the DOJ can then take up and can throw these people in jail, can figure out ways to potentially denaturalize and deport people who. Who said things that were fraudulent in their immigration proceedings. But then, secondly, the case is. The goal is to create policy recommendations that the broader Republican conference can take up. And that could be. I think that's both an immigration one, which I think is one of the root problems here. I mean, this is predominantly specifically Somalis and Bhutanese who are engaged in this fraud in particular, but it's also strengthening these programs. I mean, you had.

[Josh Holmes]

Had.

[Brandon Gill]

You've got a problem where you've got states who are programs that are administered by the states but funded by the federal government. The states have very little incentive, oftentimes to make sure that they're run with integrity. And those are things that we can change at the end of the day.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, quite the opposite, right? States are incentivized not to find the fraud because they keep sending the same amount of dollars. If you found the fraud, they'd be like, oh, great, we can reduce what we send you.

[Brandon Gill]

And that's exactly what we saw in Minnesota, where I think that the Walt administration knew for a long time, and we know that for a fact. They've known about Somali fraud for a long time. But the Somali community there is a pretty insular community. It's a Democrat voting bloc, and they didn't want to rock the boat with these people. So they kind of made a Faustian bargain between the Somali community and the Democrat elected officials and basically said, you guys can defraud taxpayers. We're going to look the other way. Just make sure you vote for us.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, totally.

[Comfortably Smug]

One thing I will want to say along the lines of the Somali community and seeing their reaction to this happening among all the fraudsters, you saw them giving press conferences and they had learned from the Democrat Party. They're like, you all are racists. You say the magic word. If you say that someone's being a racist, it means you're free to do whatever you want. That's the lesson that they've internalized from the Democrat Party, which has been used as A cudgel. Anytime they want to get away with anything, they're like, oh, no, you don't understand. You're a racist. You're doing racism by finding that this money has been stolen, that this center doesn't have any children here leering a single thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But I think Gil is right on this in that they've now run into their first real pushback on it, maybe ever. Because if you pull up in a Bentley with a Rolex and call somebody a racist, like, I don't give a shit. Get your hand out of my pocket. And we've got guys like Gil and the Republican conference that are finally like, you can call me all the names you want. Let's get to this issue that we're talking about. And I think if most Americans understand what it is that we're talking about here, you're gonna be on the short end of the stick of that.

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, I don't really care what race you are. I really don't care what political party you are. I mean, Ohio. I mean, as a Republican legislature. Now, the difference between Ohio and between Minnesota is that Democrats in Minnesota basically covered up any kind of investigation into fraud, whereas Republicans in Ohio are doing everything they can to stop it. Democrats in Ohio, on the other hand, are the ones who are trying to use sort of the same playbook as calling. I mean, we saw this yesterday in the hearing. I asked this Democrat, she's a state senator, and just asked her, you know, after we've kind of established that this is Somalian, Bhutanese fraud, I just asked her, you know, is immigration from Somalia has it been good for Ohio? And her response was to pause for, like, 10 seconds and then start telling me about how my questions was making her tear up.

[Josh Holmes]

What.

[Brandon Gill]

And she was, you know, I can't believe the amount of hate that you're spewing towards these specific communities. That's not who we are as a people.

[Comfortably Smug]

And think.

[Brandon Gill]

I. I'm thinking, you know, who we are as a people are people who don't defraud the federal government.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Brandon Gill]

I mean, that's. That's what different. That's one of the many things that differentiates us from Somalia.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well. And it's also just at some point, if you represent Ohio, you like to think of everybody as Ohioans. And if you've got a particular group of people, like you said, I don't care where you come from, but if the whole name of the game is to Rob you of $5 billion feels

[Brandon Gill]

like that's blowing the whistle.

[Michael Duncan]

And there's. There's plenty of immigrant communities that do fantastic in America. America trying to live the American dream.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

The American dream isn't coming to America and defrauding the American taxpayer. And that's what the Democrats are doing is in calling you racist or saying you're targeting immigrants is they're trying to obfuscate that reality.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the thing, like when you said that it's UN American, it's 100% UN American. These communities committing this fraud and outright theft have no interest in being part of America. I mean, if you have interest in being an American, you care about your community. You're tied to the importance of this country. You don't see it as, hey, let's go raid this place.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like, can I steal from my neighbors?

[Comfortably Smug]

The barbarians had no interest in being Romans. They just wanted to burn and steal. And for Democrats to be protecting these. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of them trying to. With the tears. Like being sympathetic for the criminal is what enables the crime against the victim.

[Brandon Gill]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

But, Brandon, I think, like, one of the things that resonates so deeply about what it is that you're doing week in and week out, because I feel like every week we have a segment of you doing something that I'm hearing is that it reminds me a little bit of the America that I grew up in that we lost somewhere along the way, and that you just. There's a certain simplicity to a question and an answer that they are now, I think, over the last 10 years, incapable of answering.

[Brandon Gill]

Yep. Yep. Well, I mean, they've. The left has done everything they can to socially transform the US and it starts with immigration, I think. And, you know, we used to have an immigration policy that was predicated on two ideas. And one was that you can't come into the US and be a public burden. In other words, you can't come in and hop on welfare and expect us to pay for food and housing and education and everything else goes without saying that you shouldn't come into the United States and defraud our taxpayers and engage in criminal activity. But secondly, that if you come into the United States, you're supposed to assimilate, to become fully American, not to live in a parallel Somali or Bhutanese society within our own borders. And I think that's where so many people look at this. And we see this in the DFW area in particular, but see it in other areas where People are looking around and they're saying, the America that I grew up in just doesn't exist anymore. It's being transformed. And I'm watching it be transformed. I'm watching people come in here and steal my money or try to shove weird things down my kids throats in public schools, and they're sick of it. It's not a theoretical debate anymore. Tap it. It's a debate about what America truly is and who is an American. And that's something that I think. I think most people, even many more moderate Democrats, are gonna be with Republicans on. I mean, even a lot of moderate. Outside of this town at least, most moderate Democrats are with Republicans on fraud because they realize that this is a problem. But I think a lot of them are gonna be with us on other cultural issues as well.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, I think that's no question. Which brings us to this larger picture of elections. By the way, before I get to that, I know Trump's a huge fan of what you do in these things. Have you gotten any good calls about your hearings from the big man?

[Brandon Gill]

We got a text yesterday, a message from the President. He had seen some highlights of it on Fox News. We got a little feedback there.

[Josh Holmes]

Feedback.

[Brandon Gill]

It was pretty neat to hear the President that he's paying attention to this and he is. I mean, they're dialed in. I mean, he's been more of an anti fraud president than anybody we've had in American history.

[Josh Holmes]

No question.

[Brandon Gill]

I mean, that's like classic Trump, too. Whenever there's an issue that most people are supportive of, like stopping fraud, despite what the left is saying about us, you know, we're taking away health care or racist or whatever. Trump is going to be on the people side of that, and that's why people love it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Brandon Gill]

That's why. That's why they realize this guy's actually fighting for us.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. Very cool.

[Comfortably Smug]

Have you been in touch with JD Vance at all about this? Because he's really. I mean, he was appointed essentially as like the anti fraud czar, and it's his home state of Ohio.

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah. I mean, we've been in touch with the Vice President's anti fraud task force.

[Comfortably Smug]

Awesome.

[Brandon Gill]

We've got another meeting with them tomorrow. So we're actively working with them and they've been fantastic. And like I said, I mean, they're down in Ohio right now canceling contracts, many of which were initially identified by Rosiak that we highlighted in that hearing yesterday.

[Comfortably Smug]

And they're already shutting it down and

[Brandon Gill]

they're already shutting it down.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wonderful news.

[Brandon Gill]

I mean, it's really, really fast paced.

[Josh Holmes]

That's good. Good. That's really great to hear. All right, politics. So let's start in the great state of Texas. You were sort of first the fire, at least really early on, endorsed Ken Paxton, who was with us yesterday. And needless to say, this is a absolute must win for the Republican Party. How do you feel about that race?

[Brandon Gill]

I feel pretty good about it. I would put it this way. I think Paxton is somebody, you know. We're going into a midterm election cycle. Trump's name is not on the ballot. We're going to do everything we can to nationalize the election because the people are with the President. Paxton is somebody that the American people, the people of Texas, are really excited about. And that excitement factor, I think, matters a lot in a midterm cycle, whenever the President's name is not.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, your base turnout matters a lot in midterm.

[Brandon Gill]

Paxton can do wonders to turn the base out. I mean, he's got a really devoted following. They recognize him as being not only a phenomenal attorney general, but somebody who will just go through hell to fight for the people of Texas.

[Josh Holmes]

Clearly.

[Brandon Gill]

And that's what they're looking for.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I mean, you see it when you look at the runoff and he doesn't have any attrition versus the primary. It's like these people will crawl over broken glass to vote for the guy.

[Bill Kristol]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And then in a midterm where the party in power, you're always worried about enthusiasm gap. We always hear that on cable news. And so that's good to hear.

[Josh Holmes]

Plus, he's not running against the Almighty. He's running against a guy who thinks the Almighty is non binary.

[Brandon Gill]

The guy who spent the past several years going to a church that's handing out transgender books to little kids.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Brandon Gill]

More worried about transgender abortions than he is about really anything that benefits the American people. I mean, taller. I think of Talarico.

[Comfortably Smug]

I can't even understand the mechanics of that. How does that.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's very confusing. Excuse me.

[Brandon Gill]

I'd love to ask him about that.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like AP calculus. I don't even understand it.

[Brandon Gill]

This a guy who's talked about, you know, there's six different sexes, you know.

[Bill Kristol]

Yeah.

[Brandon Gill]

Lives usually talk about, you know, the difference between gender and sex, and it's. It's like some stupid differentiation that they make. He goes all in. There's six sexes. I'd love to ask him, you know, what are the other four? How do we Nail that down, please. Tell us about that.

[Josh Holmes]

I'd love to see a congressional hearing where Gil gets that bite at the. The apple.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Why. Why are we. Why are we eliminating. Eliminating other genders? Why only sex, specifically? Where do you draw the line?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, the other nine are feeling real left out here.

[Brandon Gill]

I. I think of Talarico as. He's. He's like a. A barely straight version of Pete Buttigieg, and he's, you know, the. The Dems will go to go to him, and they, you know, they'll. They'll frame him as, like, the next JFK and everybody else. Texas is just, like, deeply concerned at how much of a weirdo this guy is. And.

[Josh Holmes]

What. Well, that's the thing I was going to ask. I mean, you're from Texas. He's not an unknown figure in Texas politics. He's been around for a little bit, and you all have your impressions and takeaways of whatever you thought about him before. But it's got to be a little jarring to see this national makeover that they're doing of this cat that he's now like some. Yeah, like a JFK type figure. It's like, why. This is like the furthest left activist that we've known forever, and this is not who you're presenting.

[Brandon Gill]

Right. I mean, he's articulate. I mean, he's a smart guy in many ways. I mean, he was able to fool a lot of people. But I think my favorite part was we were all following the Democrat primary, Right. It was him or Jasmine Crockett. And everybody's talking about how crazy Jasmine Crockett is. And the second Talarico gets the nomination, there's this just deluge of past statements that he's made. The fact that he's embraced every single, like, weird.

[Josh Holmes]

Jazzy was moderate.

[Brandon Gill]

Yeah, she was the moderate. This guy's actually way crazier than Jasmine Crawford.

[Josh Holmes]

Kind of real, right? I mean, it kind of is true. All right, so take it a step out of Texas. You just look at the House of Representatives. Obviously imperative when you think of President Trump's last two years, that the House of Representatives is in Republican hands. A couple of good breaks at the end of the redistricting fight, where it looks like we're, you know, the floor starts in a little higher place than we started. And so that's a good thing. If you look out. What's your predictions here?

[Brandon Gill]

I think, you know, if you went back maybe a month from now, I think some Republicans were a bit worried. We were optimistic. We're feeling a whole lot better now where we're at. And if you think of who are like kind of the faces of the Democrat Party going into the midterms, it's going to be people like Tallarico and Platner, both in the Senate. But that's going to impact the House as well. I mean, that is the face of the party. And whenever you contrast that with kind of just common sense, normal people, I mean, we win that all day. So our goal, I think, is going to be to energize the base, to get them to turn out. And if we do that, I think we're going to be just fine.

[Josh Holmes]

And I know you met with an awful lot of the candidates out there that aren't your current colleagues and you feel good about the recruiting class.

[Brandon Gill]

It's been. I mean, we've got a phenomenal class of people coming in, really good candidates. I mean, I, I spent a lot of time with people in Texas. We just met with what will be almost the entire incoming class of congressmen from Texas just a couple days ago. And these are smart people. They're serious people. They're people who know how to articulate the conservative message in a way that I think really resonates with, with the majority of people. So we've got some good, good opportunities to pick up quite a few seats, even in Texas. You know, it's going to be, we're going to have to take it seriously. We're going to have to fight as you always do. But we've got a huge opportunity this cycle.

[Josh Holmes]

I bet you're going to hit the road. I bet your colleagues are interested in having Brandon Gill.

[Comfortably Smug]

You want him next to you on stage if you're running.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I imagine you're going to be a busy man.

[Brandon Gill]

We'll do everything we can to keep the House because, I mean, we know what's going to happen if we do, God forbid, lose the House. We're going to be doing nothing but impeachment defense. And the Democrats have already said that. I mean, so I'm on the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, which both are going to be like ground zero for investigations into the, into the administration, into Trump, everybody in his Cabinet. And I think we realize what the stakes are.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No question about it. Well, you're doing a hell of a job and you're welcome back here anytime. I feel like we have a Gil segment every week.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank God.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you for all the contest.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you for all the Ryan Reynolds

[Brandon Gill]

here from IT Mobile.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail]

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[Representative Burchett]

Required intro rate first 3 months only then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee full [e-mail] the

[Josh Holmes]

content but honestly, anytime you want to come on by, please do because we're huge fans.

[Brandon Gill]

Appreciate it. We got a lot more coming. Thank you guys.

[Josh Holmes]

Thanks for joining us

[Bill Kristol]

man. You guys did a terrific job with that interview. He is so interesting. Obviously a rising star in Congress and around our country and I just can't wait to see what's next out of him.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's the best. He's the best. And the thing is he's not out there getting attention for himself. It's always about the issue, the issue, the policies, the taxpayers. And that's exactly what you want in an elected leader.

[Josh Holmes]

Every time I sit here and talk with him, I'm more impressed than I was the previous time.

[Comfortably Smug]

Every time he just gets better and better.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean this dude's going to be a force. Yeah people. I mean he's new.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing man.

[Josh Holmes]

And he's already doing this. I mean he's listen, watch out. If you could buy futures on that guy's seriously. Yeah, I would go in hard on that deal because he is going to be a big deal for a very long time. Thanks again for him for joining us. Our question of the day when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, we ask you a question, read all your responses, select a few, read them back to you. The very next episode in this case it'll be on Tuesday and our question is what's the Democrats biggest weakness? What is it? Got a lot to choose from on that and I'm interested in how you formulate a response and we read it back to you on Tuesday. With that being said fellas, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much Congressman Gill and thank you to the listeners. Remember, if you have night yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.