The Mamdani Facade Begins to Crack

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary
Episode Title: The Mamdani Facade Begins to Crack
Air Date: July 23, 2026
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Senator Dan Sullivan

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Overview

This episode centers on the rise and influence of Zoran Mamdani, the controversial New York City mayor, whose radical stances and focus on international issues—particularly regarding Israel and Gaza—are dissected as emblematic of the shift in the Democratic Party. The hosts argue that Mamdani represents a new, far-left movement that prioritizes performative, foreign policy-driven politics over urban governance, with implications for the direction of the Democratic Party and the 2028 election. The episode also explores Democratic voter fraud allegations, election trickery, and includes a wide-ranging interview with Senator Dan Sullivan, touching on Alaska politics, energy policy, and classic Ruthless banter.

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Main Segments & Timestamps

1. The Mamdani Problem: NYC’s Left-Wing Mayor (02:12–32:00)

Key Discussion Points

• Mamdani's Election: Hosts are incredulous that Mamdani, whom they describe as radical and un-American, could become mayor of NYC ("I can't believe this guy's American, let alone the mayor of the largest city in this country." – Holmes, 00:00).
• Focus on Gaza Over Local Issues: Mamdani fixates on international issues, e.g. supporting Gaza and calling for Netanyahu's arrest, while neglecting NYC’s basic governance (e.g. crime, subway, homelessness).
• Jurisdictional Overreach: Mamdani takes stances on international law (ICC) far outside mayoral purview ("You're a municipal employee... worry about maybe the subways running on time, maybe people not getting stabbed" – Duncan, 07:20).
• Publicity Stunts & Radicalism: Mamdani's actions are seen as "governing by publicity stunt," and he backs candidates that openly advocate for the eradication of America (10:12–10:51).
• Family Ties to Radicalism: Discussion of Mamdani's father, an academic who sympathized with dictators like Idi Amin.
• Pattern Across Democratic Primaries: The hosts see Mamdani's rise as illustrative of a wider radicalization in Democratic primaries ("What he's selling works in a Democratic primary right now." – Ashbrook, 05:35).
• Double Standards on International Law: Mamdani's selective outrage (Netanyahu/Israel vs. Maduro/Venezuela) is challenged (13:06–14:24).
• Hamas Hospital Bombing Propaganda: Mamdani blamed Israel for the Gaza hospital bombing before facts were established, and never retracted his position (19:42–22:48).

Notable Quotes

• "He has no jurisdiction whatsoever when he's talking about the ICC... I mean, it'd be like me calling into the NFL and being like, hey, we're gonna check out the rules amendments this year." – Holmes, 05:52
• "This is a guy who becomes elected mayor of New York City, and every single statement... is fundamentally against America." – Duncan, 15:04
• "They're selling an image of America that is not based in reality." – Eddie, 12:34

Memorable Moments

• Hosts mock Mamdani’s performative “straight to camera” videos (07:19).
• Recap of how left-wing Democrats move on quickly from disproven claims (22:48–23:14).
• Satire about sending Smug to the UK and risking arrest for tweets (14:49–15:03).

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2. Democratic Party Radicalization & 2028 Warnings (32:00–34:54)

Key Discussion Points

• Rise of the ‘Hamas Caucus’: The hosts reference a so-called “Hamas caucus,” warning it's not fringe but increasingly central within the Democratic Party.
• Squad Are the New Moderates: Compared to newer radicals, even AOC is now considered "the weakling" (32:28–33:11).
• 2028 Election Concerns: If this movement expands, the hosts fear a “Hamas led House of Representatives.”
• Oaths and Dismissal from Office: The panel argues future radical House members—should they violate their oath—should be removed immediately (34:10–34:54).

Notable Quotes

• "[If] they make the inroads here to have a Hamas led House of Representatives, what do you think that means for 2028?" – Holmes, 32:28
• "Chevalier gets elected. Grand opening, grand closing. Like just make an example." – Eddie, 34:34

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3. Voter Fraud Allegations in New Jersey (36:30–46:47)

Key Discussion Points

• Mickey Sherrill’s Software Glitch: New Jersey’s governor admits a software error led to some 6,600 improper voter registrations (37:10–39:02).
• Dem Response & Election Integrity: The demographic and technical mechanics of “auto-registering” voters are explored; the hosts allege this is a deliberate vulnerability.
• Lack of Accountability: The hosts critique lack of prosecutions, labeling the Democratic approach as systemic and intentional (41:42–43:26).
• Hypocrisy of Fraud Denial: Contrast between Democrats’ rhetoric denying election fraud and their “hijinks” in practice (44:56–46:47).

Notable Quotes

• "They were not sending their best." – Holmes, 17:47
• "The left has to keep their captive audience believing in this insane worldview..." – Duncan, 45:58

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4. King of the Hill – Bill Kristol vs Adam Kinzinger (47:10–56:05)

Key Discussion Points

• Signature Ruthless Game: Hosts compare recent social media absurdities from Kristol and Kinzinger.
• Notable Moments: Kinzinger’s self-delusion about “never losing a race”; Bill Kristol’s pivoting foreign policy stances.

Notable Quotes / Memorable Moments

• “They literally just changed his district... No more district for you, friend, and retire.” – Duncan, 50:35
• “If I had all those children, I’d molest the shit out of them.” – Holmes (mocking an unhinged accusation, 53:29)
• "How can I say it? Compete against accusing people of being pedophiles." – Ashbrook, 55:41

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5. Interview: Senator Dan Sullivan (56:05–88:37)

Segment Highlights

• Democratic Election Gimmicks in Alaska: Detailed breakdown of “trick candidate” scheme—someone with the same name (Dan Sullivan) on the ballot to confuse voters (59:42–64:07).
  • “They’re trying to trick people into throwing away their vote... so the Democrat can win.” – Sen. Dan Sullivan, 62:37
• Alaska Energy & Infrastructure: Sullivan touts accomplishments unlocking Alaska’s resources, battling Biden’s executive orders, and securing long-term lease sales for oil and gas (65:31–69:33).
• Life & Death Over “the Road”: Sullivan’s passion for building a crucial road for an isolated native village, impeded for decades by federal environmental regulations (83:31–88:20).
• Alaska Anecdotes: Bear hunting, fishing, suggestion that the Ruthless crew visit Alaska for a live show.

Notable Quotes

• “He’s not in it to win it. He’s in it to rig it. But here’s the broader issue. It shows contempt for the Alaskan people.” – Sen. Dan Sullivan, 62:37
• “You are sanctioning the oil and gas sector of Alaska more than sanctioning Iran and Venezuela. And they’re terrorists and we’re Americans.” – Sen. Dan Sullivan, 66:25

Memorable Moments

• Sullivan gifting the crew Bristol Bay salmon and Denali Brewing beer live on air (56:55–58:11).
• Bear rug story—Sullivan’s near-miss hunting a Kodiak bear (75:00–76:25).

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6. Listener Comments & Wrap-Up (91:13–94:57)

Key Discussion Points

• Listener Mailbag: Reviews funniest comments from previous episode's question ("worst fake accent in politics").
• Humor and Satire:
  • Neil Young look-alike as a Maine Senate candidate.
  • Kamala Harris’ “coconut tree” union member quip (92:51–93:17).
  • Howard Dean’s infamous “crow” scream as a political accent gone awry.
• Serious Underpinning: Even as the episode ends with laughs, the hosts reiterate warnings about party radicalization and implications for the future.

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Tone and Style

• The show blends biting political satire and conservative analysis with humor and irreverence (“Nobody else would ask that question... The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.” – Duncan/Holmes, 02:08–02:12).
• Language is raw and direct, especially when discussing Mamdani, Democratic election strategies, or leftist positions (“These are, like, amoral... a crew that seeks to undermine the very fabric... of the United States of America.” – Holmes, 27:11–28:42).
• The live, combative banter between hosts, as well as the recurring in-jokes (e.g., sending Smug to the UK to get arrested, King of the Hill absurdities), keeps the episode energetic.

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Selected Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Holmes: "I can't believe this guy's American, let alone the mayor of the largest city in this country." (00:00)
• Duncan: "You're a municipal employee. Worry about maybe the subways running on time, maybe people not getting stabbed" (07:20)
• Holmes: "This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It's time that our actions are also." (referencing Mamdani, 05:35)
• Ashbrook: "What he's selling works in a Democratic primary right now." (05:28)
• Eddie: "He's governing by publicity stunt... His favorite candidate... started an organization to, quote, eradicate America." (10:12–10:51)
• Duncan: "This is a guy who becomes elected mayor of New York City... undermining America." (15:04)
• Senator Dan Sullivan: "They’re trying to trick people into throwing away their vote when they think they're voting for me so the Democrat can win. And I'll tell you this, guys, I think it's going to backfire because people are mad." (62:37–63:01)
• Senator Dan Sullivan: "You are sanctioning the oil and gas sector of Alaska more than you're sanctioning Iran and Venezuela and they're terrorists and we're Americans." (66:25)

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Key Takeaways

• Mamdani as Symbolic: Hosts present Mamdani as not just an outlier, but a symbol of a deeper leftward, anti-establishment tilt in Democratic politics—one they claim could have serious consequences at every level of government.
• Election Integrity Worries: Accusations of Democratic election maneuvering (from New Jersey’s “software glitch” to Alaska’s “trick candidate” for vote-splitting) are a major theme.
• Party Infighting/Leadership Vacuum: Chuck Schumer and other traditional Democratic leaders are mocked for their perceived silence or capitulation to the party’s radical wing.
• Alaska as Battleground: Senator Sullivan’s interview details both practical GOP governance and pointed criticism of Democratic tactics—while underlining Alaska’s strategic and economic importance.
• Entertainment and Satire: The show maintains a mix of pointed political commentary and humor, with recurring games and listener engagement providing levity between segments.

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For First-Time Listeners

This episode encapsulates the Ruthless Podcast’s blend of sharp conservative critique and comedic talk radio. If you’re following headlines about intra-Democratic Party conflicts, the New York mayor’s global activism, or potential election shenanigans, you’ll find both the talking points—and the punchlines—here.

Next Episode’s Question (Listener Engagement):
What’s the next promise Mamdani will break?
(Add your comments—hosts will read the best on air!)

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End of episode summary.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

Zoran Mamdani. Guys, I can't believe this guy's American, let alone the mayor of the largest city in this country.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested and tried for his crimes. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.

[Michael Duncan]

You just told everyone why you're an idiot. Well, let's hear you're a municipal employee. Worry about maybe the subways running on time, maybe people not getting stabbed when they're riding the subways in your town.

[John Ashbrook]

What he's selling works in a Democratic primary right now.

[Josh Holmes]

They make the inroads here to have a Hamas led House of Representatives. What do you think that means for 2028?

[Eddie]

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[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Josh Holmes]

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

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I love the personality.

[Michael Duncan]

You guys are killing it.

[John Ashbrook]

I just saw your number one, so congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the Sean Hannity guys. I love you.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Congratulations on all your success.

[Michael Duncan]

This is why you listen to the

[Josh Holmes]

Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

[Michael Duncan]

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast. Good Thursday to you. Boy, oh, boy, do we have a show for you here on the Ruthless Friday program. Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial. As always, a full cast and cre ready to give you some content here that you're not going to believe. I felt like we went through a couple of weeks where, you know, there was stuff, but we were. We were having to really put our back into make things.

[Eddie]

Making things entertaining doldrums, if you will.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it was kind of that summer thing. You're like oh man, I hope that's not going to be the case all summer. Well, it's not. I mean, Monday morning, you out of the rack and there's like a, a sheet Wolf and Eddie P. Put together and it's like, I don't think we can get out, get to all of this. And then every day it's stacking on top of each other. Zoran Mamdani, guys, I can't believe this guy's American, let alone the mayor of the largest city in this country. The beacon of freedom for the world. In New York City, 25 years after 9, 11, you've got basically a terrorist running the financial capital of the globe. It is, it's stunning. We're going to get to an awful lot that he talks about. We got a special guest dance, Senator Dan Sullivan, and he's going to give you a real eye opener into what Democrats are doing.

[Michael Duncan]

It's completely, I mean like, you know, the topic of election fraud being perpetrated by Democrats is hot in the news. This is exactly that.

[Josh Holmes]

This is exactly that. And then you've got examples in New Jersey with that new kind of spam burger routine that Mickey Sherrill is doing there. The governor, she's got some voter fraud that she does not want to call voter fraud. And you need to dig into that a little bit. We've got some lightning round fun, some variety and a king of the hill. It's going to be a big Thursday here on the program. So let's just kick things off and get right into. Mom. Donnie. Now you've probably seen the news that he's like the fucking, the two camera situation. The mayor of New York who like everybody's wondering if they're going to clean the dead homeless person off the street. And he's like, no, I'm more focused on Gaza than anything else.

[John Ashbrook]

He watched the World cup at Rikers Island.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, you know, a sympathetic population, as we all know, standing next to, I think, a sexual predator.

[Michael Duncan]

But honestly, where he should be operating out of.

[Josh Holmes]

Fair point. Yeah, a fair point.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Smug.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm so glad you're back, Mum.

[Michael Duncan]

Donnie. To Rikers.

[Josh Holmes]

Now, I'm with you. But recall what brought him into office is this very weird dynamic that I think most Americans can't really understand why somebody would be more interested in like preserving the rights of terrorists over basic functions of city government here in the United States of America. But that is something that all Democrats at this point have been running with in primaries, whether they're federal State, local, what have you. Seems like their thing just a reminder of where Mamdani started during the campaign.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

In clip one, as mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It's time that our actions are also.

[Josh Holmes]

Even though the US Is not a

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

signature to the icc, no, it's time that we actually step up and make clear what we are willing to do to showcase the leadership that is sorely missing in the federal administration.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, all right. Guy's mayor. He was elected mayor. Apparently that was, you know, something that people responded to in New York City. He has no jurisdiction whatsoever when he's talking about the ICC's. The International Criminal Court. Never once been a institution the United States of America has recognized with any sort of jurisdiction over us, any of our residents, for good reason. It is a clown court. And, you know, they indicted Netanyahu or whatever. And so this is what he's hung his hat on for his call for Netanyahu to be arrested. Now he re upped that call as mayor, saying, like, it's time for him to be arrested. And everybody's like, dude, you're not like the Secretary of State. You're not the president. You don't even have a federal office. You have no jurisdiction over this whatsoever. I mean, it'd be like, you know, me calling into the NFL and being like, hey, we're gonna check out the rules amend amendments this year. I watch a lot of football.

[Michael Duncan]

Honestly, it's like, bro, don't you have a meeting with the city council to like, fund some shit? Like, what are you talking about?

[Josh Holmes]

How about the shitty grocery stores?

[Michael Duncan]

And even in that conversation, he's like, yeah, but what do you say about that? This isn't under your purview. It's a federal thing. He's like, yeah, well, you see, this is a federal thing, which is why we should act on. It's like, what you just told everyone. Why you're an idiot.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, let's.

[Michael Duncan]

You're a municipal employee. Worry about maybe the subways running on time, maybe people not getting stabbed when they're riding the subways in your town. Why are you trying to wade in on global foreign policy affairs? It's the weirdest thing, is that so much of his campaign was predicated on this. Like, oh, well, it's time for me to be the representative from Gaza. It's like, I thought you were running for New York City. What does that have to do with any of this shit? First of all, and Then for him to be like, here's the thing, he has a straight to camera video of like, turns out I can't do anything about it. The same way he did his little like, I'm a kid playing model UN sitting backwards at George Washington's desk, being like, like my fourth of July address. Dude, you're the mayor of New York City. Give the people some fireworks, you know, like, that's what your job is here.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

No one thinks you're doing anything by having like tired, angry foreigners holding up flags surrounding you, sitting at George Washington's desk. To me, that's the case. To send him to Rikers, right there, that video, he should have done it then.

[Josh Holmes]

You adequately previewed all that in his own words. Clip 2.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. Anyone with their eyes, with their heart, with their conscience should recognize the devastation he has wrought and understand, let's say, the background music, he belongs before a court of law.

[Michael Duncan]

Did he grow up?

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Netanyahu tried for his crimes. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does. And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. And I want to be equally clear. Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, you got it, badass.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, really good work. So the reason, like, honestly, New York could sink into the sea for all I care. I don't give a shit about it, anybody in IT or anybody who voted for this guy or, you know, I mean, if you're not smart enough to figure out how to relocate your finances at this stage, after watching what that guy was campaigning on, you get what you bought, right? It is what it is. But this guy has absolutely no business being in the United States of America whatsoever, let alone being the mayor and the figurehead of the financial current financial capital. Well, I think Miami, or basically the state of Texas is working on taking that whole thing over for him. And his ahistorical misunderstanding of what his role is is not just indicative of New York, which again, I don't care about it, is what the Democratic Party is. And he has become a de facto spokesperson for the movement that is now going to be on the ballot in 100 days.

[Eddie]

It is pretty clear that this guy is governing by publicity stunt. He always has. What's so disturbing is that it doesn't really stop with publicity stunts. Case in point, his favorite candidate for Congress, Chevalier. Okay, this woman who won a Democrat nomination in the state of New York to be a member of Congress, started an organization to, quote, eradicate America. That's his favorite candidate for Congress. Yeah. So what he wants to do is destroy our country. How is it that people don't take that seriously?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and it's because. Because it's become more pervasive and Democratic Party has now embraced this radicalism here.

[Eddie]

Like, it is like, to your point about, like, fix the roads, make the subways run on time, do the normal things that any normal person who is elected to an office is supposed to do. But like, eradicate America. It's like everybody just sort of glosses over that. They're like, well, they're pretty radical on the socialists.

[Michael Duncan]

I think actually those two ideas are tied is for this. Like, you see every example across the world. Whenever there's been this socialist uprising, they've needed conditions to get really bad. Because if they can get conditions really bad, that's how you can convince people to be like, I don't care. Take all the power. Just give me bread. You know what I mean? And this isn't just like Mamdani trying to surf on what he's seeing as a nascent movement. His father was a college professor who essentially taught a class. Teaches class on why America is bad and wrote a book on why Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator who killed over 300,000 people, was actually the good guy. So when he's talking about war criminals, your dad wrote a book on how idio means the good guy. And that's what this guy grew up on.

[John Ashbrook]

Now is that insanity now? Smug. His father, you know, obviously hates America and he's against colonialism of the Imperial Empire. America. I'm sure he's a professor in Uganda, right? Like, I'm sure he's. Oh, no. Oh, he's in the Ivy League making money in the United States, of course. Place that he thinks of the Great Satan.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, there was more.

[John Ashbrook]

It's weird how that works, right?

[Eddie]

Yeah, dude, it is such a good point because they always go back to colonialism, buddy. I played Little league baseball growing up. I'm not a colonialist. Nobody's sitting at this table as a colonialist. You, you grew up, you played soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring, and you did what your parents told you to do until you became a teenager and wanted to go out on your own. But the point is, they are selling an image of America that is not based in reality.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's not only not based in reality, their whole construction of the talking points that he was doing there with Netanyahu. Ran into an enterprising reporter in clip three, why Netanyahu specifically is often targeted in some of your comments. For example, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he was arrested for a warrant that was

[Production/Interjection Voice]

here in the US and you were very against that.

[Josh Holmes]

So I guess, how do you. Do you place more emphasis on the warrants that were issued by the International Criminal Court than here in the US how do you reconcile those two?

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

I would say that the International Criminal Court is a body that seeks to hold those across the world accountable for. For crimes against humanity, for war crimes, for things of that nature. And I think that the United States should not only be a party to that court, but should also execute the warrants that that court issues. And what I have spoken up about Nicolas Maduro, who I've also described appropriately as a dictator, is that the violation of international law is one that has to also be taken very seriously. It stems from the same belief in the International Criminal Court. And now he is here in New York City on that day when the United States did violate international law. I made clear that I was in opposition to that.

[Josh Holmes]

And who.

[John Ashbrook]

Who exactly is shocked that the Ugandan socialist thinks America should subordinate its laws to the international community?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, just, you know, I mean, like a quick reminder, we're talking about with ICC and international law in Europe. I mean, a bad tweet could put an American in danger of being indicted and extradited.

[John Ashbrook]

I still think Smug should go over to the UK and talk.

[Michael Duncan]

That's why I will never go.

[John Ashbrook]

He needs to go.

[Michael Duncan]

That's why.

[John Ashbrook]

Think of the content. Smug.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, this is the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

If we got you arrested in the UK for your tweets, the show would be so funny.

[Michael Duncan]

This is the whole.

[Josh Holmes]

You'd really do us a lot of good on the charts.

[John Ashbrook]

You'd be our Nelson Mandela.

[Michael Duncan]

This is the fundamental joke of Mamdani's existence is this is a guy who becomes elected mayor of New York City, and every single statement he releases, every single action that he does as mayor, is fundamentally against America, undermining America. He's. How many times does he have to explain himself? He's like, it was not a stutter. I am anti American.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, yeah, but the efficacy of what he's calling for or the practicality of it are really irrelevant to his political project. Like, what he's selling works in a democratic primary right now.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's the reason why we're talking about.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, look at Abdul Syed. Like, look at Graham Platner. I Mean, none of this is actually obviously tied to his function as mayor, but maybe he wants to be more than mayor.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the movement certainly does.

[John Ashbrook]

You look at that video with like the punch in shot.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, where they zoom in on him. It's a well produced spot. This is a political ad.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They're trying to make him at least the figurehead of a movement that they hope not only takes over the Democratic Party, which I think it has, but then can compete and win in general elections and be a majority party within the United States Congress and then hopefully build on that and take a presidency in 2028.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thing, is he's no idiot. He doesn't think that he could magically start deciding international affairs, but he has been shown it's a proven model. He has the ability to affect federal races, to inspire Democrats across this country. This is not a New York City only problem. To vote out incumbent Democrats for his hand picked far left radicals. And it's working. That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's working amongst these brain dead folks. I mean, he has no more jurisdiction than the mayor of Peoria over international affairs, but he's weighing in and it's working. So just like, look, I think it's worth level setting on just how insignificant this guy's rise to power is in the grand scheme of calling for Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested and indicted and detained. This guy got 18% of registered voters in New York to vote for him. 18. This is not somebody who is like a wave of support across the nation. 18% in one city voted for him. He was running against the sex pest and a sitting mayor who is embroiled in all kinds of corruption scandals.

[Michael Duncan]

That's.

[Josh Holmes]

That, that, that's.

[Eddie]

They weren't sending their best.

[Josh Holmes]

They were not sending their best. It has nothing to do, we have nothing to do with the, the International Criminal Court. All of this is, is totally irrelevant. But you look back on his rise and then you look back on these similarly situated Democratic primaries, whether it's Graham, Platner or Syed or all these House ones. I mean, the Colorado one's a pretty good indication, right?

[Eddie]

Lunatic.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's been this run up, you'll recall in the Variety program when we started talking about the Hamas caucus three years ago, where we started talking, it was pretty like people thought it was. We were being edgy, provocative when we. But we're like, no, this is a thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Turns out we were just right again, a growing thing.

[Josh Holmes]

But just as A reminder graphic one. Toss it up. This is mom Donnie. 12 days after October 7th, in what we have now at the time knew very well, which is like the beheading of babies and the raping of women and the burning of grandmothers and things like that. He, at that point said, we are on the verge of genocide of Palestinians.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Ah.

[Josh Holmes]

Now, Netanyahu hadn't done anything at that point, but we're on the verge of a genocide of Palestinians. Never mind the fact you had thousands of Jewish people killed at the hands of terrorists in an indiscriminate manner against totally innocent people. And this was his first reaction. First reaction right out of the gates. Well, it's going to be the Palestinians that are the victims here, really. I don't think anybody really believed that at the time, except for this niche constituency that has now taken hold. And he saw this thing coming, and he's been working on it ever since. If you look at graphic two, Mamdani pushed out Hamas propaganda.

[John Ashbrook]

I remember this.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So a completely false deal. Kathy Hochul, the governor, acknowledged a strike that reportedly killed 500 people at the Gaza hospital. That was a report that showed up in the New York Times and the Washington Post. And of course, Hamas just completely fabricated what had happened. And she said, israel has a right to defend itself. And he, quote, tweeted this and says, this is absolutely disgusting from our governor. Where is your moral compass when you cannot even condemn the. The bombing of a hospital? Now, what we came to find out, it was Hamas who bombed the hospital.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And this isn't even debated at this point. In fact, there's a lot of Democrats who are forced to retract their statements on that. I haven't heard Mamdani do.

[Eddie]

So.

[Josh Holmes]

Didn't touch it. Didn't touch it. Right.

[Eddie]

But he tweets this while the little houses in these kibbutzes were still smoldering. Yeah. You know, while they still had blood all over the walls from where these guys came in in the early morning on the Sabbath, and they just murdered people. What the hell is wrong with him? You know what I mean? Like, this is. Like there is. There's a. There's a deep, deep character flaw here that this guy, 10 days out from that, is already jumping on the talking points of the people who perpetrated this great atrocity.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. Right from the jump, which illustrates this larger issue.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know. I'm spitballing here, fellas. Maybe they just don't like Jews.

[Eddie]

You don't say it.

[Josh Holmes]

Just. There's nearly no I mean, let's. I'd love to have an argument with somebody about it. What else could you come up with? You have a band of terrorists that go in and kill thousands of people. They're beheading, they're taking people in their own homes, they're kidnapping, they're holding pillages,

[Michael Duncan]

filming and rejoicing in it. It was the most demented, horrific raping and pillaging.

[Josh Holmes]

And then within 10 days of all of those images becoming public, you're talking about how the real victims are the Palestinian people who elected the Hamas folks to go and perpetrate those acts. Like most people, reasonable people would take a step back at that point and be like, this is. Even if you were preconditioned to give a benefit of the doubt to Palestinians or, you know, people in Gaza, you'd be like, well, that was a bad look. Not him, not him. Right away, he's like, no, this is, you know, the Palestinians are the real problem. You have four separate intelligence. Associated Press, Human Rights Watch, multiple outlets, cnn, the Economist, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal. Everybody did analysis on what it was that that hospital attack was. All of them came to a definitive conclusion that it was Hamas that fired a rocket, a stray rocket, into their own hospital. Did you get an apology from Zoran Mamdani on that?

[John Ashbrook]

No, no, it just moves on to the next, Talking on to the next,

[Josh Holmes]

on to the next.

[John Ashbrook]

And. And that is a feature of most of these propaganda campaigns of the far left is they just feel like if they can overwhelm the system with false information, that that's how they win.

[Michael Duncan]

They're not interested in debate.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. They. They want you to spend all day having to knock down their. So they can just move on to the next thing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's what Hamas, I mean, it's done.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just sort of fundamental to the whole. Like, there's a genocide in Gaza. Has anybody checked out the population stats?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, of.

[John Ashbrook]

Of Gaza right now.

[Michael Duncan]

It continues to grow because if it's

[John Ashbrook]

a genocide, it is the worst executed genocide in history, you know.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah, but like, the.

[John Ashbrook]

The fact of that, the practicality of that is completely lost on them because it's not a argument in good faith. These people are just liars who will do anything for power. And right now they don't have any real leadership in Washington, certainly not Chuck Schumer who can guide this party. So they're out there in the desert right now with lunatics like this who are claiming that mantle, and they don't have any scruples at all.

[Josh Holmes]

None No, I mean look, you've got Chuck Schumer, minority leader of the Senate, been amongst the most high ranking Democrats for 30 years in Washington D.C. he's the first person to find a camera to complain about anything. The mayor of his hometown is basically saying we should kill the Jewish people and the Palestinians are the problem here. This guy can't find a camera. He can't talk about it. He won't talk about it.

[Eddie]

You've never ever seen this out of Chuck Schumer until this very moment. It's wild. This is a guy who held press conferences on Sundays. He would drive around the state with a podium in the back of his car and he would have a jersey for every local team so that he could get out, put on the jersey for the local team and hold a press conference for no apparent reason whatsoever other than to get on camera except in this one circumstance when you.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's because he's a coward. It's because he knows AOC is breathing down his neck and if she doesn't run for president she's going to go after his seat and he's scared she'll take it.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I think he's afraid of losing his leadership position this very year. I mean, what does that tell you? The Hamas caucus stuff that we were discussing three years ago is completely taken over. It has completely taken over the Democratic Party. So much so that a guy that made a living defending Israel and his people and New Yorkers won't say a word. Won't say a word. I mean, it's the ultimate cowardice. Just one more flashback in graphic 3. Mamdani was demanding a ceasefire before the war started. This is two weeks after October 7th. Last night I was proud to help lead thousands of New Yorkers and calling for on Senator Gillibrand to support an immediate ceasefire. There hadn't been any return fire at this point, only thousands of dead Jewish people at the hands of terrorists. As Americans, we are not simply observers of this genocide in Gaza.

[Michael Duncan]

See how it was already up there, almost like genocide going out, not actual facts.

[Josh Holmes]

We are actors in it. We must do everything we can to stop it.

[John Ashbrook]

And if you think it was just Mamdani, it was a organized disinformation effort from the far left in the days after October 7th to start calling for a ceasefire. You know, I mean there are dead people like Ashbrook was mentioning blood on the walls at kibbutz's. I saw video of a guy just like, he was like a worker at one of these kibbutzes. Be Decapitated with a gardening hoe.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And it wasn't just Mamdani, it was Ilhan Omar. It was all these other far left figures all calling for a ceasefire fire. And it's like, it's equated to, like, ace a child on the playground calling for a timeout right after he punched you in the face.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, it made no sense and it defied any logic of war, but it didn't stop them from saying it, even though it was entirely logical.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. All of this is to say, when you're having a look at your ballot this fall, I don't care where your Democratic leadership says they are to you and your little community. Bottom line is that the leader in both the House and the Senate live in New York. And both of them say, oh, yeah, no, no, we support all these things and whatever. And then Mamdani is like, no, we should probably kill all the Jews. And they're like crickets. Nothing. All these primaries have played out the exact same way. And, like, I don't really care where you're at on the issue of, like, Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. I'd like to think that you're all with us on that. If you're not. I think the bottom line is these are, like, amoral. We're dealing with an amoral population and a crew that seeks to undermine the very fabric and structure of the United States of America. These are the same people who had the audacity to call anybody else intolerant, who are rolling around excusing anti Semitism at every turn, having, as a 90% base of their party, representation of African Americans. They don't give a shit about talking about how Trump and whomever is doing whatever to Hispanics with ICE or whatever. Meanwhile, the Hispanic community, multi generational communities around this country are like, no, it'd be great if we didn't have criminals that lived here.

[John Ashbrook]

And after the 2024 election, those Liberal pundits called those Latino people the tools of white supremacy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And then you reel it all back in and they shut down the government last fall because of a health care problem. Haven't said a word about it since. Not one. Not one word. Not one proposal, not one discussion point. That was just a political tool to use in the toolbox. Shut down the government again over the fall or over the winter months because they had a problem with deporting people who are here illegally. Republicans had to go around that. Not another word about that. In a lot of different ways, they're on to the next and now you look into this fall. These people don't care about anything. They certainly don't haven't made an economic argument. They haven't made an argument about anything. They're all following this Zoram Mamdani lead into this crazy mix that is so hard to identify with. As an American. Why would you ever vote for any representative who cares more about what's happening 3,000 miles from here than what's happening on your block? If that's their job, I don't know. But somehow this has captivated the Democratic Party and this is what you're faced with. Like, I don't care if you're dissatisfied with the economy or you don't like what Trump said about this, or Republicans you don't feel like have done enough on the Save act or what have you. All that's frustrating, no question about it. But you are up against it right now. The choice that people are looking at is literally people who want the destruction of this country versus people who may not have the right tweet on a day to day basis, but they fundamentally have the same values that we used to vote about, that you could get at different ways, either bigger government or small government to solve the problems we all agreed were problems domestically in this country. We no longer have that choice. You look at what's happening in Michigan a week and a half from now, week and a half from right now, you're going to get El Sayed representing the Democratic Party in a swing state in Michigan. He Zoram Hamdani. It's the same thing. Like they're not pulling punches here is my point. They're telling you exactly. I don't know how you could be a swing voter in that circumstance. You know what I mean? Like, what does that look like to be on the fence?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. How do I not have enough information

[Michael Duncan]

to make a decision?

[John Ashbrook]

Like at this point, right.

[Josh Holmes]

He's not dynamic enough.

[Michael Duncan]

Who gives a shit?

[John Ashbrook]

They're being pretty clear with what they support the Democratic Party right now. And all of it is against Western civilization.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all against Western civilization. And there isn't a dime's worth of difference between Chuck Schumer, who's made a career out of defending Israel, who's dead silent now when you're talking about literally like Holocaust level rhetoric against Jewish people dead silent to try to maintain his position in power, and the people who are using the Holocaust type rhetoric in Mamdani. There's no difference. They're all the same and they're on the ballot in every one of your elections, Congress, Senate, mayor, they're on it. And like, you gotta pay attention to this, get people organized and get people revved up. And there's a tendency when you're in power to have some malaise about that kind of thing. Fuck that. Like, this is really an important deal. And I, like, I'm hesitant to say that because, you know, when we were involved in the election business, we'd always say, like, oh, most important election, never really was. This one feels like it might be. I mean, you have the protection of a Trump administration for two more years, no question about that. And that's great. But if they make the inroads here to have a Hamas led House of Representatives, what do you think that means for 2028?

[Michael Duncan]

The squad got in. That was like the first phase of this. And the thing is that the squad are the moderates now. Now, the candidate that won in New York, that Dar Eliza Chevalier, has straight up said the purpose is to destroy America. Like, AOC is the weakling to them. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're going to go way further. And if they get that proof of concept, if the Mudani support which is getting incumbent Democrats knocked off in Colorado, it can happen in the middle of the country. This is not like just a New York problem. It can happen across this country, and it is happening across this country. If they can make that proof of concept work here. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's what they want.

[Eddie]

Yeah. And if you think about what would happen in a Democrat led House of Representatives, and if they say, whoa, Hakeem Jeffries is the leader, he's not the leader. Even if he's the figurehead, their party will be drug around by the chevaliers of the world who want to destroy our country. They've said that. This is not hyperbole from the conservative podcast. That is what they've said. And they're very strategic. And all you have to do is look at how all of these famous Democrats are being led around on a leash by Zoran Mamdani right now to understand what would happen in the House of Representatives if the Democrats get the majority, they will be led around on a leash by these Hamas sympathists who will be in the House of Representatives. Now, we've made the argument, and I think it's a compelling one, that if they're elected, it is incumbent on every single member of the House of Representatives who takes their oath seriously to protect America, to fight all enemies, foreign and domestic, it is incumbent upon them to dismiss Some of those people from the House enforce the oath. They need to enforce the oath. Chevalier gets elected. Grand opening, grand closing. Like just make an example.

[Josh Holmes]

What's the point of an oath?

[Eddie]

What's the point?

[Josh Holmes]

If your oath that you're taking is to uphold the laws and the constitution of this country and you are a pledged adversary for those very stated truths, you've already broken the oath before you even serve a day. So throw their asses out.

[Eddie]

Day one.

[Josh Holmes]

Day one. Yeah, no, I totally agree. So a whole bunch of this is about just not being able to do what it is that you say you're doing. You know, I mean like Mom Donnie saying I'm gonna arrest Netanyahu and then reluctantly putting out a video being like, yeah, I can't actually do that, but I'd like to.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So our question of the day, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments and invite you to respond to this. Which is what' the next promise Mom Donnie will break. I got a feeling it's around the grocery store.

[Michael Duncan]

So the free grocery stores. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Did they ever figure out the conundrum about the trash they could remember they did like a multi year study with some huge consulting firm to learn about putting them inside trash bins.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't think they're going to be able to figure that one out.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, that seemed like a lot. Well, you had Mrs. Matt steal all those things that are in the nicks deal.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh that's right.

[Josh Holmes]

That tub, that lady that weighed like 400 pounds is dragging off Nick's trash cans. That's what you got going on in New York. I don't feel bad for you at all, honestly. This is what you've voted for, this is what you get. We come back, a prominent Democrat finally admits the voter fraud that's happening in her state. Probably trying to get in front of a few things. You should hear all about it right after this.

[Eddie]

And now from Chevron. Since 1879, their people have been more than a source of energy. They've been a source of progress, helping deliver record US energy production and fueling the breakthroughs that move America forward. Learn [e-mail] USA250

[Josh Holmes]

okay, so you heard us on many occasions talk about the Abigail Spamberger routine. And the secondary figure in that was New Jersey candidate representative who ultimately became governor Mickey Sherrill, who is the same exact same plan. Oh, I work with Republicans and I am a business friendly Democrat and I do that. And then you show up and they're like, well, we're going to socialize everything and, you know, let everybody out of prison and whatever. Well, she has stumbled across a few things that she wants to get in front of, namely in the voter integrity bucket that has become such a cause celeb for very good reason.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Clip for In June of 2023, nearly three years before I became governor, a serious software error in New Jersey's motor vehicle system led to the improper voter registration of what we believe to be roughly 6,600 people in our state. When New Jerseyans applied for a driver's license or identification at the mvc, they were asked if they wanted to register to vote. In the case of this error, some individuals indicated that they weren't citizens and weren't eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, it was the software's fault. The software, it was just a bug, just a glitch. I'm old enough to remember what didn't they call that motor voter as a part of like, hava. They wanted to be like, okay, we got to get them at the dmv, because the Dems love anything that's government run. They sink their claws into. They get the people there, they want to take it over. That's a vector of attack for them to do whatever kind of fishy stuff they want to do. And then I want to. Let's say we give this crazy lady the benefit of the doubt. Just say it was a small little software bug that caused about 6,600. Now think about how many Democrats are pushing the idea of like, universal enrollment.

[Josh Holmes]

Doesn't it make auto rage?

[Michael Duncan]

We auto regular everybody. And let's say there's a little software glitch and it just registers every illegal alien. Yeah, well, it was just like a little glitch, just so hacking. Multiply that by the entire population of the entire state, not just the folks who showed up at the dmv. And now you're cooking with gas. And that's what Dems are actually trying to do. That's the reason for it.

[Josh Holmes]

It goes hand in hand with the open borders. It goes hand in hand with their refusal to do photo ID at the polls. It goes hand in hand with the entire thing. And they're now, Mickey, Cheryl is pretending like this is a real, you know, this is a problem. It's a software problem.

[Michael Duncan]

This happened before I arrived or else I'd 10x the numbers.

[Josh Holmes]

And also, like,

[Michael Duncan]

she's like, I apologize. They're low. We'll get them up. This is really embarrassing for Me, I

[Josh Holmes]

think you said, smash, you talked to a couple of people in New Jersey after this announcement and you said, well, if they're saying 6600, it's probably a hell of a lot more than that.

[Eddie]

Yeah, that's what, you know, we have a lot of friends out there, especially in New Jersey. And we, we were talking to a number of pollsters in that state who were watching this election very, very closely. Jack Ciatarelli, you know, New Jersey guy, great candidate, but he's a Republican running in that off year cycle after a Republican just won the White House. Nobody really expects the Republican to win there, although he really made a good try at it. And what they said is they were watching the polling and it showed that she had a lead. You know, her lead was inside and outside of the margin. And they also know Democrat pollsters in the state they've worked with for 30 years. Right. So they, they, they, these guys talk amongst each other. The Democrats had the number in the same spot. And then all of a sudden, lo and behold, Election day comes. Cheryl wins by a landslide. So it's like, what, what, what accounts for, what accounts for a Democrat victory under normal circumstances to a Democrat victory with inexplicable margin other than what she's talking about?

[John Ashbrook]

I would also like to know what accounts for this illegal immigrant knowing that they can now vote? If it's a software glitch.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's a software glitch.

[John Ashbrook]

And they send their side as the dmv. How does this illegal immigrant know? Maybe you mail them a ballot to an illegal immigrant.

[Josh Holmes]

Perhaps those are GOTV efforts. So let's talk about accountability for a minute. And the reason they're talking about this as a software error is twofold. One is that it negates intent. Right? This is a system wide thing. Because somebody who's here illegally, who votes in an election is a criminal. That is a criminal penalty in the United States of America, and certainly in New Jersey, every state in this union. If you knowingly vote in an election that you're not supposed to be voting in, that is a criminal activity. Why, if 6,600 people were eligible and how many of them actually voted, would you not prosecute such a thing? Well, it was a software.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it was a software error.

[John Ashbrook]

Look, they only thought they were eligible because we mailed them a ballot and told them they were eligible. Yeah, that's not their fault and it's not ours because again, system glitch.

[Josh Holmes]

And then you gotta ask yourself out of The Mickey Sherrill campaign, the DNC, the Democratic Governors Association. How many of those? 6,600 wound up on text messages and push notifications and ballot requesting and harvesting and all of those other things to try to get them to vote? Well, there's culpability. Trying to get somebody to vote who's an illegal who's not eligible to vote in the election, but you're trying to solicit their vote anyway. Well, that's a crime too. Well, you can't really punish if it's just a software error.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, look, I'm just following my walk sheet.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Says this is a voter.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's all criminal. Let's be clear, it's all criminal.

[Michael Duncan]

And also, this has been a project that Dems openly take part in. You'll see in the City of New York, you'll see in Washington D.C. they have allowed illegals to vote in municipal elections under the guise of. Well, look, it's just a municipal election, it's not a federal. When has a Democrat ever drawn the line at what they want to push something towards? It's always they like to nibble at it, say it's just municipality.

[John Ashbrook]

Once they get their nose under the tent. This is the long game of the left on everything.

[Josh Holmes]

At the same time, they're saying that, well, it's racist and prejudice if you show a photo ID to vote. Well, that certainly raises some eyebrows. If you're just like, I don't know, a 70 IQ, you're like, okay, well, so they're registering people who shouldn't be able to vote. They don't want to identify them at the polls. You know, maybe I don't. Maybe they just don't really care if the integrity of the vote is correct. Like, maybe it's about gaming the system.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the thing is you think you could go back to them and be like, so maybe having an ID to vote would help prevent situations where there may have been a software glitch. Oh, come on, are you crazy?

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Eddie]

You know, another thing that's interesting is in 2021, okay, the Democrat candidate for governor of New Jersey got like 1.3 million votes. 2025, Mikey Sherrill got 1.8 million votes. So somehow 500,000 votes there. Now, maybe people in New Jersey weren't paying attention in 2021. Maybe the Democrats weren' turn voters out in 2021. Yeah, maybe all of a sudden in 2025, they were able to do it. But state of New Jersey Democrats have a very bad reputation for Doing things you're not supposed to do. Just look at their senators throughout history. Bob Menendez.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Torres.

[Eddie]

Ellie.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

You know, they have, they have a very, very bad reputation for playing ball the way you're not supposed to play it. So I feel like this could be ground zero in a brand new road toward.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, she's going open kimono on something that Democrats normally don't, but she's trying to get ahead of something. Right. You find this kind of thing out after you've said these words that I'm about to show you, it becomes problematic. So you go with those. You know, the whole. Yeah, we found some problems. It's a software glitch. It's no problem. But clip five.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Let me be clear. Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity. For the past 10 years, he's cried wolf and peddled bizarre conspiracy theories about fraud with no evidence. I saw the consequences of Trump's lies. On January 6th, I was in the Capitol when he and his followers tried to steal the election and put the lives of hundreds of members of our law enforcement at risk.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, I gotta hand it to her. Revealing that you have registered illegals to vote and then bringing up Jan6 is the best hard pivot I've ever seen. That is the best hard pivot.

[Josh Holmes]

But also to say it is a conspiracy to suggest that there is any fraud in these elections. Never mind. The reason I called you here all today to discuss the fraud that was in our elections.

[Eddie]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly like she literally said, 6,600 people have been registered fraudulently and voted in these elections. And then she's like, but there is no evidence of fraud.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thing is like they have. The left has to keep their captive audience believing in this insane worldview that America is inherently evil, that the reason we can't allow voter ID is because black people don't know how to get an id. Like, it's insane that all this which has been disproven, defund the police. Every black community wants more police. It doesn't matter. They do not want to deal with any debate. They have to keep their followers believing the lie. So after she tells you point blank. So, yeah, maybe 6,600 people illegally voted. They were registered to vote. They were illegals. This happened to a software. Here's the thing. Believing that illegals are being registered is a conspiracy theory by Donald Trump and he did J6. Oh, my God. I mean, that's incredible.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

It's incredible.

[Michael Duncan]

You have to tell people to their Face that. Listen, I think you're so dumb, you're gonna forget about what I said. You got a goldfish brain. Forget about 30 seconds ago where I said, damn, we got caught. I want you to think about Donald Trump's a bad guy here. It's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

I just think we're so dumb. It's incredible. We gotta play a game, fellas. We gotta lighten things up here. What do we have?

[John Ashbrook]

King of the Hill today, our signature game. Okay, yeah, I'm judge this week. I'm very much looking forward to that. I believe Smug is our defending champion. Who's our defending champion?

[Eddie]

Bill Crystal.

[John Ashbrook]

Bill Crystal. War. Now or forever. And our challenger, Holmes.

[Josh Holmes]

I've got Kinzinger.

[John Ashbrook]

Kinzinger.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow. Let's go ringside.

[Eddie]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from who knows where, Adam Kinsinger. And now, in the blue corner, fighting once again, from Pierre Omadiah's checkbook, and current champion of the world, Bill War now. War forever.

[John Ashbrook]

Beautiful.

[Michael Duncan]

It's live every time, folks. Like, it's just that good.

[Josh Holmes]

It's that good. It's that good.

[John Ashbrook]

All right, round one. Our defending champion, the play is yours.

[Eddie]

Okay, let me just pull up.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, he's not ready.

[Eddie]

Well, I. I just did the intro, your honor, I. But I appreciate your patience, as you always are so patient.

[John Ashbrook]

I am.

[Eddie]

Okay, exhibit five, please. Bill Kristol tweeting out an article, spain wins, Trump is losing, written in the bulwark. Of course, the right way to honor our service members now is to prevent more of them from being killed. The way to honor our troops is by ending, not escalating, Trump's war. Congress is in session this week. It should do everything it can to end Trump's war. This is a guy who built his entire career on war in the Middle East. Hmm.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude, the money is that good. That getting Bill Kristol to be like, actually, no more war.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

How.

[Michael Duncan]

How much money did it take?

[Eddie]

Dude, you're exactly right, Bailiff. And he wedged that into an article about Spain winning the World Cup.

[John Ashbrook]

Insane, dude. There are a lot of liberals and, you know, former conservatives who lost their mind during the Trump era. I don't think I've ever seen somebody pirouette from sports into for a foreign policy discussion before. That's. It's pretty remarkable.

[Michael Duncan]

That is something.

[Josh Holmes]

It's pretty remarkable.

[Michael Duncan]

And now from the challenger.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, I'm just going to do exhibit 10. We'll come up with Kinzinger here. Where he is, quote, tweeting somebody who has. Pointing out that he knows a little something about losing. And he said, never lost a race ever.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, that is such a coat that for. For folks who are not familiar with the lore, Adam Kinzinger, who. Who. Who basically neutered himself hoping Democrats would save completely turning his side on the Republican Party conservative movement, got redistricted out of his seat by the Democrats he was serving.

[Josh Holmes]

They literally just changed his district.

[Michael Duncan]

They're like, no more district for you, friend, and retire.

[John Ashbrook]

And he went on to defend the Democrats. Redistricting, redistricting in Virginia, which is an amazing thing. I was a victim of this, and yet I support it.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, that's tough. Do you have any additional context, Ash Brook, of you? You know, you can't read it, obviously, that violate the rules of the game. The context of that article in the bulwark that he's linking to, it started

[Eddie]

out with a mention of the World cup and ended with him doing a 180 degree turn on his view about war in the Middle East. Wow.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Hmm.

[John Ashbrook]

This is a tough one. It's good. I gotta say, though, Bill Crystal, he kept it pretty facts oriented in the actual tweet itself. If he would have had more of the color from the article, I would have enjoyed it more. And for that reason, Holmes wins round one.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, that's understandable.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, it wasn't funny.

[Michael Duncan]

He didn't feel like he really cared. Yeah, it's kind of like dry usually. Crystal's, like, obsessed with hearing his own voice and will, like, throw in some like.

[John Ashbrook]

It was like a. It was like a very lazy copy paste from the article. And it wasn't his best.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't his best. He didn't put his back into it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

In the way that it requires here on King of the Hill.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and the hypocrisy ultimately is. Is what got me there with the Kinzinger one.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna go with exhibit eight. And Sam Stein has put together a tweet where he talks about an effort that he calls conspiracists that are gonna buy a prison.

[Michael Duncan]

This is deranged.

[Josh Holmes]

To rescue children of traffickers. Right. I mean, the big problem at the border, obviously there are children being trafficked. They're not with parents or whatever. And it's been a thing for 15 years that we've dealt with and, like, how you take care of these kids. And these people were gonna purchase a facility. Kinzinger's hot take is this will become an actual molestation Center.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the most insane take.

[Josh Holmes]

Like you're. You're buying a facility just for the molestation of these trafficked children. Now, I'm sure that was the intent

[Michael Duncan]

behind all of this. You fucking asshole.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

Also, that's just like such a. Like, where does that come from? That's a weird. That's a weird thing to say. That's a very odd thing to say.

[Josh Holmes]

Very odd thing to say.

[Michael Duncan]

Cash Patel, maybe like check that guy's heart. That's like a very crazy take to have.

[Josh Holmes]

He just did an immediate beyond unhinged.

[John Ashbrook]

Clearly they're telling on themselves.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, if I had all those children, I'd molest the shit out of them.

[Michael Duncan]

Insane. O take.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's just like, it's a bozo thing. And also it's like it's not a part of the news cycle. It's not like anybody was talking.

[Michael Duncan]

No, it's out of nowhere.

[Josh Holmes]

He just like pulls it from the dearth of the Internet and he's like, yeah, they're gonna molest kids there.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

Where's your head at?

[Michael Duncan]

Security needs to be jailed. Ashbrook may or may not win king of the hill. He should be going to jail.

[Josh Holmes]

Why not get a death today? But you should be in prison.

[Eddie]

Exhibit one, please. Eddie. And Bill Kristol is quoting from a description of what appears to be remarks he gave at something called Libcon 2026. This is a former conservative pundit and it was featured in a newsletter called theunpopulist.net he thought that it was important to tweet that himself and highlight what they highlighted about him and what he wrote. Crystal, no. Or what he tweeted. Kristol noted Trump's authoritarianism was worse than he imagined it would be, but resistance to it was also stronger than he had imagined it, especially from ordinary Americans elites who have easily bent the knee. Or a different story again, it appears maybe he gave remarks at something called Libcon 2026. America's darkest hour might yet be its finest. And the remarks.

[Michael Duncan]

How is this the first we're hearing of libcon describe?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know, but we need to send somebody.

[Michael Duncan]

Eddie. Yeah. Next time there's another libcon, you got

[Josh Holmes]

to bring that beautiful mustache to libcon next year. I'm sorry, buddy. It just needs to happen.

[Michael Duncan]

And then also like Bill Crystal, right, Speaking live at libcon. Who gets a ticket to that?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, man.

[Eddie]

Shot her. To think as written up in the unpopulous dot net.

[John Ashbrook]

I think Ashbrook a Valiant effort to shine that turd. But once again, Bill Kristol is basically just copy pasting from some article.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what he think.

[John Ashbrook]

This is extremely low effort. I'm disappointed in him this week.

[Josh Holmes]

He didn't bring it.

[John Ashbrook]

How can I say it? Compete against accusing people of being pedophiles.

[Michael Duncan]

This is outstanding work by the judge identifying the problem. They're like, the entire tweet was just a quote from another article. So it's not like, yeah, he still

[John Ashbrook]

gets credit for anything. He's posting his clips. He's posting his clips about himself. That's weird.

[Eddie]

This is. This was a fair ruling.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not. To be clear, it's not Ashwick's fault. It's just very low effort, dude. Chris has gotten comfortable with those Omadia checks.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Dude.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, you gotta.

[Michael Duncan]

You gotta pick it up, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

You need. You need hot takes.

[John Ashbrook]

Congratulations, Holmes.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I appreciate it. It's nice to have a w. We gotta get to a big interview. Fellas, this is Senator Dan Sullivan. All right. I'm really excited for this interview for a variety of reasons. The first is I was sort of there at the onset of this guy's career trying to get him to run for Senate because everybody told us he was the smartest guy, cared deeply about his state, and he was beloved. And, like, you know, it just couldn't get him to run eventually. And, you know, eventually he got to a point where he's like, yeah, you know what? The time in my life where I can give back and I can do stuff. And I was so thankful because it was part of a huge class that he was sort of a key cog in. Senator Dan Sullivan. How are you, Josh?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Great to be on the show. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm so excited to have you. For a variety of reasons, I couldn't help but notice that you have some things.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Oh, no, I come bearing gifts. Right. I mean, look, I go to Alaska every. I go home every weekend. Right. No matter what, we're in session or on session. I get on a plane Thursday night, you know, 512 hours, and then come back on Sunday. So I was just home, and it's the summer in Alaska, so I brought you guys some Bristol Bay salmon. Okay. Come on. Right. And then to be in the spirit, you know, the salmon are running, you guys gotta get. If you haven't been, I'm gonna ask each of you if you've up. Been to our great state. And then this is the Denali Brewing Company in Honor of the summer. This is Bristol Bay Red Ale. Now these are sockeye salmon or red salmon made with real salmon. This is. I don't think so, but it's part of the season, so I figure Denali Brewing Company. I love this.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's get this party started.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

We just oughta. I mean, what time? It's five o'.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Clock.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Let's do it. What do you think? Should we crack? Let's get one of these. This is just Alaska. Alaska Canna, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Cheers.

[Josh Holmes]

Cheers.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Cheers. All right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like a one man chamber of commerce here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Look at that.

[John Ashbrook]

I love the color.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

They're beautiful, right?

[Eddie]

A little taste of heaven.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm definitely gonna steal one of those when you guys aren't looking.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

I'm sorry.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And I'll bring more. Right? We got plenty in my office. We're always selling, stocked with. Oh, it's good with salmon. And you know, when Democrats every now and then make the right votes, I have been known to deliver a salmon.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

You're like, here's a salmon.

[Eddie]

All right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

If you're. If you continue to work for the good guys, you might get a few salmon.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So you know how they are on.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

On Pay to Play and some. I think what I just mentioned is legal. If not, you better delete that part of it. That's just part of the podcast.

[Josh Holmes]

That's just good old fashioned Senate collegiality.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Collegiality is what we call it. You've been doing a whale of a job. One of the things that we've covered a lot on the program is that Democrats at this particular stage in their party's maturation, or alternatively immaturation in a lot of different ways, have decided that they can't actually run as Democrats and win in states as well situated as Alaska who have great representation or, you know, a center. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Community.

[Josh Holmes]

And so they do a lot of funny business. And some of it is what we call the Abigail Spanberger routine. Yeah. Which is what your. Your initial opponent, Palota, that's her routine. It's like, oh, I'm a moderate, except I'm a career politician who's never done

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

a damn thing, never gotten one bill signed into law. Right. And then this is a heck of a lot of votes.

[John Ashbrook]

You'd think it would happen by accident at this point. You know, can't figure it out.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. The Peltola story is not a good one for anybody. But then it's not enough to just have the Abigail Spamberger routine in Alaska. They've decided to sign somebody up with your actual name.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And put that person on a ballot who's a potola donor.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Donor twice. And the guy working for her, for him is a Pelt. New York Times called her one of the big Peltola supporters. Like, I mean, it's all coordinated. Right. There's no, there's no doubt about it. Everybody involved in this scheme, including the sham candidate who's on the ballot now, is a Peltola supporter, is cheating out in the open.

[Josh Holmes]

So, you know, for those of you who haven't followed the story, basically what they're trying to do, they know they can't beat Sullivan straight out.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Can't do it. And so what they've tried to do is get somebody with a Dan Sullivan on the ballot line that they confuse enough people, even if it's like, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5% on the ballot to get them into the margin where they can be competitive in a general election. You took it to court. Initially successful. Ultimately, this person's still on the ballot.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Correct. So look, I mean, I think in some ways it's a sign of desperation. Right. Schumer and the far left groups, you know, they've been saying, hey, Schumer's pathway, he says, to the majorities through Alaska. So they started going up with negative far left money attack ads against me last June. They've been up. This is a new thing in politics. They're up 18 months before the general election. And just if you were in Alaska, you'd see just pummeling me with negative ads and for over a year. And I think they were like, dang, it's not crushing them the way we thought, so let's cheat. So they recruit this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Everybody in Alaska has seen him in the airport in the last 12 months, by the way. They're like, yeah, I don't think he's that.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

So they recruit this guy. He's a far left progressive. Far left, right. He's got a list of donors. ActBlue, as I mentioned, Paltola twice, just in the last six months, he tried to take my middle initially. He actually signed up with the division of elections with my middle initial. The division of elections was like, wait, you can't do that. That's not even your middle initial. Then he tried to steal my middle initial. Then he stole my website and my logo. This is my logo versus his logo. I mean, if you can just like, it's kind of a joke. And then he's coordinating with my Democrat opponent. And look, this guy's not in it to rig it. He's not in it to win it. He's in it to rig it. But here's the broader issue. It's an annoyance to us. Right. We've been having to deal with the litigation, everything. But what this really shows from the Democrat Party in Alaska is it shows contempt for the Alaskan people.

[Eddie]

Totally.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I mean, it shows disrespect. Think about what they're trying to do. They're trying to trick people into throwing away their vote when they think they're voting for me so the Democrat can win. And I'll tell you this, guys, I think it's going to backfire because when I've been out and I'm home every weekend working at parades, nobody works harder than me and my team. People are mad.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And they've been telling us for years, they've been telling us for years that they are the guardians of our democracy. They're safeguarding it against Donald Trump and they get an opportunity to subvert democracy and they're happy to do it.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Happy to do it. And you know, one of the big issues, and you guys know it because you've been involved in a lot of elections getting good voter turnout. Our base to turn out in these midterms is going to be important.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, guess what? I just think they put fuel on the fire.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. This is the kind of thing that

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

does turnout because my voters are ticked.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And they're ticked at the Democrats because they're literally trying to steal election up in Alaska. They are caught red handed and dirty tricks. You know, some people are saying, hey, Senator, you know, it's tough, elections are tough. Doesn't everybody kind of play this way? And I said, look, I would never do this. I would never insult my voters and my fellow Alaskans by like trying to trick someone. And by the way, could you imagine if this were flipped around?

[Eddie]

Oh my God.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

If it were a Republican doing, you guys just play it out, the national media would be going crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

It would be, it would be, it

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

would be every day. It would be a story. And the New York Times and Washington Post, this, they're kind of yawning. Hey, isn't that kind of funny?

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

But I don't think people in Alaska think it's funny. And I think it's going to backfire.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the, the middle initial gives away the game, right? It's not even the guy's middle initial.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

No, he filed, he filed with my middle initial.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's why.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And they told him, you can't do that. That's your, that's not even your middle initial. So look, it's just blatant. It's just blatant attempt dirty tricks. And, you know, they got caught. But look, I'm going to run on my record. I'm going to run on my vision for the state, for the country. And it's just for my fellow Alaskans, it's just much stronger than my opponent. And, you know, I can get into details of it, but we're feeling confident. But it's, you know, I always have tough races. You guys know, 2014, it was a tough race. 2020 was a tough race, but we're always ready. And you know, I'm a Marine. I know how to fight.

[Eddie]

Yeah, I know you're home every weekend, you're traveling around the state. It sounds like people are a little bit pissed off that Democrats are trying to pull the wool over their eyes. But I know there's an awful lot more on their mind. And I just wonder, what do you hear in the most about from people in Alaska when you're traveling? I mean, just a gigantic state. Basically heaven on earth.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, look, it is heaven on earth, but it's also a national asset. Right. For the country.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And this again is a huge difference between where the national Democratic Party is and the Republican Party is we want to unleash Alaska's energy resources, critical minerals, oil and gas. And the Dems, whenever they get in power, they want to shut it down. Right. I have charts that I brought for you guys. I won't bore you with them, but I have this chart. It's called the Last Frontier Lockup. It was the 77. Zero executive orders that Biden took that were exclusively and singularly focused on shutting down Alaska. These weren't like executive orders that hurt, you know, West Virginia and Alaska, North Dakota exclusively, singularly focused on shutting down my state during the Biden administration with Schumer, his majority leader, trying to do this. I was in an Oval Office meeting three years ago with Biden. I handed this to him.

[Eddie]

Right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And it was Podest and all these other anti far left resource development guys. And I said, Mr. President, like, what are you doing? Why are you crushing my state? You are sanctioning the oil and gas sector of Alaska more than you're sanctioning Iran and Venezuela and they're terrorists and we're Americans. So you know that it's about jobs, it's about American energy. And we have a really big military and Coast Guard buildup going on in Alaska right now because of our strategic location. And, you know, the Chinese and Russians are in our airspace, in our waters a lot. It doesn't make news. Doesn't make news down here, but it makes news back home. And so these are some of the big issues that I'm working on. And, you know, we're putting huge points on the board on them.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I'm not just blowing sunshine up. You're scared here. You've had more success on unleashing Alaska's natural resources than any of your predecessors. And you come from a line of giants in Alaska. When I first started Ted Stevens, I remember I worked for Norm Coleman, who'd campaigned as sort of a green Republican in Minnesota. And like, one of his things was like, no, Anwar. Right. And we didn't know anything about it at the time. We were in Minnesota. Like, it's not our thing. We got there and like, one of the first big debates we had was like, anwar and I remember Ted Stevens rolling into our office unannounced and being like, I will shut down every iron ore mine in Minnesota. But it was like that kind of confrontation, and it still kind of didn't get done. You show up and working with colleagues and having the legislative prowess and the relationship with the administration to get an awful lot of this stuff done. Like, you can see the whole promise of Alaska coming in to benefit the entire country. It's just an incredible feat of accomplishment.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, thank you. And look, I'm running on that. We got ANWR open. We got what's called the National Petroleum Reserve open. It's set aside by Congress for oil and gas development. But Biden came in to shut it down with regulatory. So it was crazy. That's now the hottest oil and gas basin probably in the world.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

That's amazing.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And we got in the Working Families Tax Cuts act, which I like to call the Alaska Opportunity act, because there's so much good stuff in that bill from last summer for Alaska.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Democrats are giving you a hard time.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Even Schumer held a press conference, called it the Polar Payoff. Hey, thank you for the compliment. Right? There's so much in there for Alaska, but we got mandatory lease sales in all the federal lands in Alaska for oil and gas in that bill for the next 10 years. So that way there's certainty for energy developers to come. And they're like, hey, if there's a Democrat administration that comes two years from now, they're going to try and shut down Alaska again. Now we got into law for the next 10 years. So NPRA National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska just had the biggest lease sale in the history of that region ever. Right. And that is all the big guys came back, all the smaller energy companies and we're cranking.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, they're attacking Sullivan on all this stuff. He's like, yeah, well, somebody's doing their job. That you must be the other guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, see, that's right. That's the funny thing is if you listen to like beltway pundits or just sort of the media writ large, they fundamentally, fundamentally misunderstand a situation like Alaska or Maine comes to mind or places like that, that like in states like that, they expect the representation to deliver for them. It's very important.

[Josh Holmes]

You got to punch above your weight.

[John Ashbrook]

You got to punch above your weight. And too much in the media dismiss that as a core function of the job.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they're like cable news hits.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

No, look, you know, I'm proud of my record. I'm usually top five, top ten in the Senate getting bills passed into law. Like I said, the working families tax cuts, no state did better than Alaska. And that bill last year, I had more bills signed in a law than any senator in the whole U.S. senate. My opponent. Two terms or your clone? No, the clone. We're not referring to Peltola, the Democrat. Two terms in the House, not one bill signed in the law. Now look amazing. She got fired by the Alaskan people in 2024 because of that. Also didn't show up a lot. She both in the House and in her state House job. You know, she was a state rep during both of Those. Missed about 20% of her votes each time, which is a really high number.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so funny how they roll. Johnny and I were talking about this earlier, how they roll these people, people out as if they didn't have a history. I mean, she's a career politician.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, she's got a long history. And we're going to make Alaskans very aware. You're going to do your look. I mean, people also want to talk about the vision. It's not just your record that's a little backward looking. It's like, what do you want to get done?

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And there's so many things that we're getting done now. Big things. I'll just give you one that really matters to Alaskans. So in the Working Families Tax Cuts act, we had the biggest capital investment in the Coast Guard's history. I chair the subcommittee in charge of the Coast Guard 25 billion dollar capital investment for the Coast Guard, which they needed. Right, right. Huge, Very great part of the bill. A ton of that's going to come to the state with the most coastline. We have more coastline than the rest of the lower 48 combined. And one thing we have that's already been announced, we're building 22 new cutters, 40 new helicopters, 16 new icebreakers. America, we have two icebreakers. One is broken. They've already been announced that we're going to homeport four of those icebreakers in Alaska.

[Josh Holmes]

Four.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

This is a huge issue in Alaska because our federal government, believe it or not, has never had the intelligence to homeport an icebreaker in the state with the ice. Right. And now we have four.

[Josh Holmes]

Now you got four.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And we've been trying to get this done for 50 years.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's such a good point.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I got it done and I'm excited about it. But Alaskans are excited about. It's great for our national security, but it's also really good for the communities that are going to get an icebreaker with 200 coasties.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And their families now as part of that community. It's just great stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

It also comes at an exciting time. I mean, we were up in Pennsylvania for this defense summit McCormick put together.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

McCormick is, you know, McCormick and I have been great buddies for. We served in the Bush administration together. So he and I, David and I have been. Been great buddies for over 20 years. And Dina, his wife, he was mentioning

[Josh Holmes]

a lot of your help, as were a lot of the attendees there in that. They had this class of senators who sort of understood that we can do a new level here, protecting our country. Defense industrial base, creating jobs here, like really revitalizing America 100%. And you're at the forefront of that.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, really, really big on the defense side and the defense tech side, which I know the McCormick, the Pennsylvania summit at the Army War College, which is really, really great and innovative. But the other thing, and Dave and I have this in common, American energy.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

In the. In the resurgence of American energy. Think about it, the Democrats, if they get into power, one of the core tenets of the far left, and you guys know the far left is where all the energy is, where all the power in the Democratic Party is. One of their core tenets is to shut down American energy.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

To shut down oil and gas, it

[John Ashbrook]

always starts with energy. Right. Because energy security is national security. And then energy is also going to be necessary to power all the technological changes that we want in both defense and other innovation in the economy, I mean, like, none of it will happen.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Unless we have energy.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And we are countries with such an abundance, especially my state.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

56 of the 65 critical minerals that the U.S. geological Survey says they need. We need to run the economy to run our defense industry.

[Josh Holmes]

Look, I know where that's at.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

56 are in Alaska.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And guess what? We outsource that over decades to China. The dumbest thing possible. But now we're back. And this is a huge difference between Democrats and Republicans is that we want to unleash American energy. They want to shut it down, particularly in Alaska.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

And that's importantly.

[Josh Holmes]

You're doing something about it, which is incredible. Huge asset for Alaska at this particular moment in time. I got a couple of things I want to get through first. Smug. Our co host, is obsessed with bear rugs.

[John Ashbrook]

He wants one.

[Josh Holmes]

Very obsessed with them. And we happen to.

[Eddie]

Really.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. We happened upon an interesting graphic four, if you don't mind. Eddie, that is you with an awfully big bear.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That's a big bear.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we get a backstory on this is a picture that we had of you and I. I'm like, now that's

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

on my wall now.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I got another picture of that. But like, there it is. There's the rug.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That takes up a lot of space.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah, that's a big. That's a Kodiak brown bear. So Kodiak island, you know, is one of our islands. It's about the size of New Jersey.

[Eddie]

Wow.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Right. And there's more brown bears per capita on Kodiak than any place in the world. And Kodiak brown bears are the biggest brown bears on the plant on the planet. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Not known to be cuddly.

[John Ashbrook]

No, these are.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

They're big. They're beautiful. But look at the paws there.

[John Ashbrook]

That is.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That's almost. Almost ten feet.

[Josh Holmes]

So you gotta be. You gotta kind of be within proximity.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah, I was. A long story. I won't bore you with it, but I was probably on that shot. I was a little too close. I was 44 yards.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, man.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

So in the Marine Corps, you know, we have a saying, one shot, one kill. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Had to be.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

There you had it. That had to be one shot, one kill or you were going to be a problem.

[John Ashbrook]

That would have been former center Dan Sullivan today.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That would have been problematic.

[John Ashbrook]

What a way to go, though.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That's true. It's not a bad way to go. But no, we have. We have a, you know, great hunting and fishing culture and you guys got to Come up.

[Eddie]

Yeah, man, I really would.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

You would love it. Now you got some of. Some of our finest beer fish. But I love it.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

I mean.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

No, we love it. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

We will make that commitment to you when you win reelection.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Should we. We should do a ruthless podcast in Alaska.

[Eddie]

Why not?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

You guys would love it. People would love it.

[Eddie]

I might not come back. That's what I'm a little bit worried about.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Especially in the summer or the winter, too. You know, I always tell people it's easy to come up in the summer, but come up in the winter, too. It's great sports, you know, outdoor sports.

[Josh Holmes]

Really prove your mettle.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, it's just beautiful. Year run.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's fantastic. All right, so I got three questions.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

This is your first time on the program, and our first question always is, if you could plan your last meal on Earth, what would it be?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah. Now, this is pretty easy for me. Those are Bristol Bay sockeye salmon right there. For me, it would be Yukon king salmon.

[Eddie]

Oh, really? Okay.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

So those are. Those are incredible. My wife's family and my wife. You've met my wife Julie, Right. She's Athabascan. She's indigenous Alaska native. In her family's head, what's called a fish camp, kind of traditional native Alaskan fish camp on the Yukon for, like, she says, you know, for, like, 10,000 years.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Wow.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Her family's been fishing in that area for, you know, generations.

[Eddie]

So they know the good spots.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

It's a really good spot.

[Josh Holmes]

When you go BC on it, you know, you've got. You know, you've got it scouted.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

So the. The Yukon King are iconic. There's been a challenge. Right. The runs have been weak. This summer, we started to see a good kind of resurgence. So the Yukon King runs, but it's probably the best salmon in the world. No offense to other salmon. I don't want to get in trouble. The Bristol Bay sockeyes are.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

But Yukon King are.

[John Ashbrook]

That's your thing.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Good as it gets. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Are we doing a side with any of that?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Good. Let's see. You know, I just, like. I. I grill a lot. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's why I wanted to ask this guy, because he kind of shot. Shares our.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I'm a big.

[Josh Holmes]

Our backyard guy.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I'm a big griller. Backyard grill. So I just like grilled asparagus.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's great.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Very simple.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you. Do you smoke the salmon or are you just going straight on the grill?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Smoke it on the. In the Yukon river or where my wife's Family is. We have a smoke house and everything. But. But this is just put on the grill.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

But, yeah, the, you know, grill in the asparagus, little olive oil, little lemon, a little garlic salt.

[Josh Holmes]

This guy gets it.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah. Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

And then just a gallon of wine or.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Or this very good beer. This is very good beer.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Very good.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Very good beer.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I love it. All right, so second question. Look, you've done an awful lot in your life, Successful in your own right before you ever got to the senate. And now you've had the opportunity to interact with people all over Alaska and all over this country with different things. The defense industry. You've seen a lot of.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Lot. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is there ever anything that you look back on that you're like, I was pretty good at that. In a different life, in a different place, I could have done that thing, and that would have been pretty fun.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Well, the one thing, you know, and it's been a. You know, I've been very blessed. Right. Beautiful, wonderful, brilliant wife, three wonderful daughters. You know, I always like to say I'm a. I'm Alaska's eighth U. S. Senator.

[Eddie]

Yeah, that's it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, that's eight total. Amazing.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Which is kind of.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Incredible when you think about it. But with the exception of husband and father, the pro, the title I'm most proud of is U.S. marine. So, you know, I did 30 years in the marines, active duty and reserves. I retired two years ago, so I've already kind of done that. I love being a marine.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I mean, I love. I miss. I miss the marine Corps big time.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Wolf and Eddie are just getting out of their seats back there. Both of our production guys, they're both marines.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Oh, good.

[Josh Holmes]

So they're, they're, they're all over, you know, one thing, special dust up, and

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I'm not, I'm not great at it, but I've done it a little bit. Like. Sportscaster.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Just like, for like high school football or college football. You know, I just think that would be.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

What a life. Every time I watch someone do that, I'm like, you get paid to do that. Yeah, Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think that would be really cool. A football, sports cast.

[Josh Holmes]

It would be great. Yeah. Johnny's dad did a little bit of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

Now, he said 30 years.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Did he do the high school games?

[Eddie]

He does the PA Announcing at the high school.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

That's so great. Did he love it?

[Eddie]

Oh, he loves it. He still does it. Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah. I like to go to the high school Games, you know, it's. Yeah, it's great.

[Josh Holmes]

It's great. All right, so our final question. This is a little esoteric, so you gotta hang with me for a minute. Our view is that most successful people in life are motivated by one of two things, either the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. And it's not that anybody likes to lose or he doesn't like to win. It's what motivates you to dig deep, to take that next step, to work a little bit harder to raise your game to that next level. And like the prototypical agony of defeat. Guys, Michael Jordan, right? Where he would invent slights upon himself in order to take his game to the next level. We always said it was like a Phil Mickelson type who was a thrill of victory, who was like, I don't know. I've hit that shot before. And they're like, phil, you just lay up and you win the tournament. He's like, yeah, but I'll go 240 over water with a four iron. I've done it before, so I'll do it. And that's like a mentality that different successful people have. If you look at that spectrum, where do you think you find yourself?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

You know, I think that it's a great question because they're both motivators. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I think I'm more in the thrill of victory.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a 50, 50 breakdown, by

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

the way, everybody on this, is that right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, everybody that comes in as a different.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

So. And I'll tell you why, you know, the Marine Corps is kind of all about winning. Right. And has a long history of that. But the one thing I really liked in this job, you know, I've talked about, you know, big accomplishments that we've tried to get done, but when you put your mind and your effort into something for the people you work for and you're finally getting it done,

[Production/Interjection Voice]

even

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

if it doesn't seem like it's a big deal nationally or anything, the satisfaction that you get watching the people that you represent kind of being like, yes, we've been working on this, and I'll give you an example. We're not there yet, but I think we're going to be there next month. Right. You guys may have heard about this through the years of Senate Republicans, because this is a Republican issue. The Democrats are horrible on this issue. There's a road in a native community called the King Cove Road.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

It's King Cove, Alaska. It's a fishing community. It's Alaska native people. They've been trying to build a 11 mile single lane gravel road to a big. Another community called Cold Bay that has a huge Runway. The reason they need it is King Cove is in an area where there's horrible weather, it's really hard to get out, and there's a very tiny Runway there. And they need a bigger Runway to fly out when people are sick or when they have kind of emergencies. There's been 19 people that have died.

[Josh Holmes]

Died because they couldn't get out.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Because they couldn't get out. And the Democrats and radical lower 48 environmental groups have blocked this road, an 11 mile single lane gravel road, for 45 years. One of Jimmy Carter's last op eds before he died, he's on this road, was to make sure Democrats never approve the rope.

[John Ashbrook]

What's their opposition to it

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

goes through a gravel, goes through a wilderness area called the Eisenbeck Wilderness area. And they say it will disrupt, you know, migration.

[Josh Holmes]

By the way, how dare humans say

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Sally Jewell, Obama's secretary of interior, was going to make a big decision on this road on, on Christmas Eve, I think it was 2014 or 2013. Obama sector interior said, we're disapproving the road. Someone's gotta look out for the birds.

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Come on.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Right? I swear to God, maybe she, maybe

[Eddie]

she's not aware that birds fly over the road.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I mean, you know, so here's the

[Eddie]

thing, here's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

I know about wings, though.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

We are this close to starting to build the road in August. And I was there just two weeks ago and we did a town hall there. Probably 70 people came out for this town hall. People, I'm not exaggerating, guys were crying because some of these families had lost people. Because Democrats and radical environmental groups would not allowed a single lane gravel road 11 miles. And they've made it their giant issue. Jimmy Carter, like I said. And you know who's been great on this? President Trump. Yeah, he has been. I talked to him about it just recently. He doesn't even call it the King Cove road. He just calls it the road. And we're gonna start building. We got all the permits. It's ready to go. Of course, there's some radical groups that are trying to stop. And these are the biggest environmental groups in the country with some of these big D.C. law firms. And they don't give a damn about my constituents who are Alaska native people who are trying to, you know, scratch out a living. And all they want is just, if they get sick to Be able to drive the road and have a giant Runway. This is actually a lend Lease era Runway from World War II. It's like a 10,000 foot Runway. You can land anything there. In 45 years, the Democratic party and the radical left has blocked my constituents from the safety of a road. And we're gonna get this done. And you know what? I'm gonna feel like this is the greatest thing that's ever happened.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, look, that's an authentic.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

It's really. And that's gonna be a victory. Right. And I was just. I was just there and this entire community is like, we're gonna do it, Senator. And I'm like, we're gonna do it. And shame on these radical enviros. Yeah. Whoever you are, I hope you're watching.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

For trying to block.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

For trying to block, you know, good Americans. By the way, Alaska Natives serve at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic group in the country. Right. So they're patriotic, they work hard, they love this country. And these guys have been trying to get a road built for almost a half century. Listen, we're going to get it done. And when you. That will be a victory. Then when you elect. Everybody should love that story.

[Josh Holmes]

When you elect, represent, presentation. That's what you look for, right? A guy who's got the President, United States, calling it the road because he's sitting his ante room all day being like, let me tell you about a gravel road.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got War and Peace on his mind. And Sullivan's in there like, here's one thing you need to be aware of.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I talked to the President about the road just two weeks ago. And he's like, get it done, Dan. And I'm like, Mr. President, we are going to get it done. And you know, he and his burgum, they've all been great. All the Democrat, you know, Sally Jewel, what's her name? Holland. They would come to this community, they listen to them. They'd pretend to listen and they'd fly away and they say, killer.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

Who's thinking about the dung beetle and the bird? It's ridiculous.

[Eddie]

Washington at its worst.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

19 people have died because there's no road.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you're doing something about it. Can't thank you enough for everything that you're doing up there. It's making a hell of a big difference. If people want to help you out, where do they go?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

They need to go to Dan Sullivan. You gotta make sure you get that. I want to make sure. Dan sullivanforalaska.com. yeah, dan sullivanforalaska dot com. Don't let this scam guy. You know we're gonna win, but we're gonna work hard and we're gonna win, but, you know, they're. They're trying to cheat. And I think, like I said, it's gonna backfire. Yeah, listen, get on board, Sullivan for Alaska.com. we'd love it. We're getting outspent outrage a gazillion to one. But as you know, I'm always outspent. Outraising.

[Josh Holmes]

But he never outworked.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Never outworked.

[Josh Holmes]

Never outworked. Thank you so much for what you're doing.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Thanks for coming to be on the program, guys. Keep it up. All right, thanks.

[Josh Holmes]

By the time I hit my 50s,

[Michael Duncan]

I'd learned a few things, like how family is precious.

[Josh Holmes]

Work can always wait.

[Michael Duncan]

And 90, 99% of people over 50

[Josh Holmes]

already have the virus that causes shingles. Not everyone at risk will develop it, but I did.

[Michael Duncan]

The painful, blistering rash disrupted my life for weeks.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't learn about your shingles risk the hard way. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

[Michael Duncan]

Sponsored by gsk.

[Eddie]

I mean, this guy has a compelling message. He has done a great job representing the state of Alaska, and I am super pumped about what he's going to

[John Ashbrook]

bring this November and the shenanigans that the Democrats are trying to pull on Alaska. And Ashbrook has mentioned it previously on the show, but there's a familiar model that these Dems have used, not just in Alaska, but also Nebraska and a few other places where, like, they don't have a chance to win fair.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And they will do anything.

[Josh Holmes]

A pretty good rule of thumb is when you're trying to eliminate any integrity of the vote itself and then you're trying to trick voters by putting people of the same name as the incumbent, or you're doing independence to run because you can't actually run as a Democrat. Like, they don't actually think they can win.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They're just trying to steal it.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's a reflection of how dogshit their brand is.

[Eddie]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then if you look at the way that the New York Times, Washington Post report it, they're like, oh, hi, Jinx. No, Democrats are pretty clever.

[John Ashbrook]

Just a good somebody.

[Eddie]

No, he just has the same name. No, no, nothing to see here.

[John Ashbrook]

The court said some might even say they're savvy.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's a savvy, thoughtful strategy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Strategy.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Because we strategize and I just. You Ridiculous. Anyway, great interview. Oh, we got to get to some comments from last episode. Our question of the day was who has the worst fake accent in politics. And jumping off on that was AOC and her little effort last weekend to be something in Tennessee and something entirely different in Michigan. Of course, we replayed the whole Hillary Clinton and everything else you got back when you liked and subscribed. We read every single one of you and got back to you. Right now we start with the voice.

[Eddie]

Okay, I just pre read this one and it's not an accent, but it might be one of the funniest comments we've ever received. Comes from Mark Williams. And Mark writes, damn, Neil Young really let himself go. I didn't know he lived in Maine. Haha. Okay, we put up graphic six with.

[Michael Duncan]

Neil Young.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude. Oh, for those on audio only. That's a picture of Ashley Webb, the dude in a dress.

[Josh Holmes]

The dude in a dress who reads books and songs, who is a primary candidate briefly for Senate in Maine. And he has a striking resemblance to the Canadian folk singer Neil Young.

[Eddie]

Each living through a harvest moon. In their own way,

[Josh Holmes]

I will say the southern man doesn't need him around anyhow. All right, comment two dunks run.

[John Ashbrook]

Two is from John Griffin. John writes work. Worst fake accent belongs to one Kamala Harris.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good.

[John Ashbrook]

Y' all better thank a union member you think you just fell out of the coconut tree.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Oh, man.

[John Ashbrook]

What makes it the worst is that it's blatantly inauthentic, as she herself is. Let's play that clip.

[Michael Duncan]

You better thank a union member.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you better thank a union member.

[Eddie]

You better thank a union member. You better thank a union member you

[Michael Duncan]

think you just fell out of a coconut tree.

[Josh Holmes]

God, you're just reminded of how bad that actually was, you know?

[Michael Duncan]

And the latest polling has her as the front runner still, dude, like, yeah, hell yeah. Tough times.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe this time around we'll find out if she ever worked at that McDonald's.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Although I'm not sure that she's for like, full Holocaust in Israel, which it seems to be. That's the.

[Michael Duncan]

I've heard rumors that she's moving towards it. There's a lot of talk happening there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, that's the primary.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what's happening.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what we're talking about in terms of litmus tests is like, yeah, but how many Jews do you want dead?

[Michael Duncan]

She's like, okay, let's be honest.

[Eddie]

It's horrific, but it's true.

[Josh Holmes]

It just is what it is right. They are saying it.

[John Ashbrook]

We were having fun.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Home.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm sorry. I just have such a hard time with this issue. It just makes me so mad that I can't stop.

[John Ashbrook]

Why are you taking us to the dark place?

[Production/Interjection Voice]

Hi. Sorry, sorry.

[Josh Holmes]

We'll move on. We got comment three smuggles.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment three from T1 rider. Quote of the day or question of the day. 2004. Howard Dean impersonating a crow. I was a corn growing state. Let's see the clips. That is good, man.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's such a great blast from the past. Absolutely love it. Remember our question of the day today when you like and subscribe is what's the next promise? Mom? Donnie will break? There's a lot to choose from, none of which he can best possibly execute upon. So, you know, give us your thoughts and we'll get back to the very next episode. Hell of a show. We got a. A big fun time Friday. There's a lot left on the cutting room floor. A lot of yucks.

[Benjamin Netanyahu (referenced) / Guest Speaker on ICC]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Coming tomorrow on fun time with that, fellas. I think we did it.

[Michael Duncan]

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

[Josh Holmes]

Stay ruthless, Sam.