The REAL Story Behind The Signal Controversy

Summary

Ruthless Podcast: The REAL Story Behind The Signal Controversy
Release Date: March 27, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook

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1. Unveiling the Signal Controversy

The episode delves into the recent uproar surrounding the use of the encrypted messaging app, Signal, by members of the Biden administration. The controversy ignited when journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was inadvertently included in a private Signal group chat used by national security officials to coordinate U.S. strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Josh Holmes opens the discussion by contrasting the media's portrayal of the scandal with what he views as the administration's effective actions:

[00:00] Josh Holmes: "DC Chattering class like, oh, my God, this is a scandal. Yeah, get out of here, dude. The story is America got the job done, bro."

2. Administration's Response and Operational Success

The hosts commend the Trump administration's decisive military action in Yemen, which effectively dismantled the Houthi network, restoring secure commerce through the Suez Canal—a region marred by 175 attacks on U.S. Navy ships during the previous year.

Michael Duncan highlights the efficiency of the strikes:

[00:08] Michael Duncan: "If the biggest scandal out of this administration is that a journalist found out in real time that we were killing terrorists, I think we're doing a pretty good job."

3. Media Bias and Story Selection

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on media bias, particularly the selective reporting that favors narratives detrimental to Democratic leadership while downplaying substantial military achievements.

John Ashbrook criticizes the media’s prioritization:

[02:38] John Ashbrook: "It is. And we'll also have some great updates for you on the Hack Madness tournament."

The hosts argue that mainstream media outlets are more interested in creating and perpetuating scandals that harm the Trump administration rather than reporting on successful military operations that benefit national security.

4. The Role of Journalists and National Security

The inadvertent inclusion of Jeffrey Goldberg in the Signal chat is scrutinized, with the hosts questioning the implications for national security and journalistic integrity.

John Ashbrook sarcastically remarks on Signal usage:

[00:31] John Ashbrook: "So when Republicans are using Signal, they're trying to talk to each other. When Democrats use Signal, they talk to lobbyists for Russian oligarchs."

They assert that such lapses are minor compared to the administration's previous inaction, emphasizing that the main issue lies in the media's failure to highlight significant security threats.

5. The Hack Madness Tournament

Interwoven with the main discussion is the "Hack Madness" tournament, an annual feature where the hosts rate and rank journalists they deem the "worst" in Washington, D.C. This segment serves as both a critique of journalistic standards and a satirical take on media accountability.

Comfortably Smug introduces the tournament:

[02:35] Comfortably Smug: "Some Variety. Give you an update on hack madness."

6. Comparing Media Reactions to Scandals

The hosts compare the media's intense scrutiny of the Signal controversy with its relatively muted response to the loss of 13 American service members in Afghanistan under the Biden administration. They argue that media outlets are heavily biased towards damaging Democrats while neglecting significant military setbacks.

Michael Duncan underscores this disparity:

[15:41] Michael Duncan: "But when it comes to the scandal meter, this is pretty low."

7. Critique of Democratic Leadership and Media Alignment

Further criticism is directed towards Democratic leaders like Senator Dick Durbin and media personalities, suggesting a coordinated effort to undermine the Trump administration through minor scandals rather than addressing substantial governance issues.

John Ashbrook condemns Durbin’s actions:

[08:50] John Ashbrook: "Tell Republican senators, stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late."

8. The Impact of Media Choices on Public Perception

The podcast emphasizes how media choices in story coverage shape public perception, arguing that by focusing on minor infractions like the Signal chat, the media distracts from more pressing national security concerns that directly affect American lives.

Josh Holmes reflects on media priorities:

[23:01] Josh Holmes: "You would think you would put out a statement on the successful mission in Yemen of a problem that has plagued this country for 15 months. Nope. They didn't say a fucking word about it."

9. Conclusion: Media Accountability and Listener Engagement

In wrapping up, the hosts call for greater media accountability and encourage listeners to engage critically with news sources. They advocate for sharing their analyses to counteract what they perceive as biased mainstream reporting.

Josh Holmes concludes with a call to action:

[60:41] Josh Holmes: "Gentlemen, again, thank you so much to the Minions. Remember, like and subscribe and share. Share the show. We love seeing our numbers go up. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Josh Holmes, 00:00: "DC Chattering class like, oh, my God, this is a scandal. Yeah, get out of here, dude. The story is America got the job done, bro."

• Michael Duncan, 00:08: "If the biggest scandal out of this administration is that a journalist found out in real time that we were killing terrorists, I think we're doing a pretty good job."

• John Ashbrook, 00:31: "So when Republicans are using Signal, they're trying to talk to each other. When Democrats use Signal, they talk to lobbyists for Russian oligarchs."

• Josh Holmes, 23:01: "You would think you would put out a statement on the successful mission in Yemen of a problem that has plagued this country for 15 months. Nope. They didn't say a fucking word about it."

• Michael Duncan, 15:41: "But when it comes to the scandal meter, this is pretty low."

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Key Takeaways

• Military Success vs. Media Scandals: The hosts argue that the administration's successful military operations receive insufficient media coverage compared to minor scandals that harm political adversaries.

• Media Bias and Story Selection: Emphasis is placed on how mainstream media prioritizes stories that align with their biases, neglecting more impactful national security issues.

• Journalistic Integrity: The inadvertent inclusion of a journalist in a secure communication channel is critiqued, highlighting potential vulnerabilities and questioning the media's role in national security matters.

• Audience Engagement: The podcast encourages listeners to critically assess mainstream media narratives and participate in their "Hack Madness" tournament to identify and challenge perceived journalistic failings.

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the "Ruthless Podcast" episode, providing an in-depth overview for those who haven't tuned in.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

DC Chattering class like, oh, my God, this is a scandal. Yeah, get out of here, dude. The story is America got the job done, bro.

[Michael Duncan]

If the biggest scandal out of this administration is that a journalist found out in real time that we were killing terrorists, I think we're doing a pretty good job.

[John Ashbrook]

Caroline Levitt revealed to everybody that Senator Warner himself used SIGNAL to work with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch to connect with this disgraced Steele dossier author who started the Russia hoax.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wow, dude. That is very important to have encrypted.

[John Ashbrook]

So when Republicans are using Signal, they're trying to talk to each other. When Democrats use signal, they talk to lobbyists for Russian oligarchs.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[John Ashbrook]

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[Comfortably Smug]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[Josh Holmes]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good Thursday to all of you, and welcome to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan. John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dial. A treacherous scandal is afoot. If you listen to the punditry class here in Washington, D.C. we're going to break down all of that for you in great detail. And we're going to have some fun. That's the one thing you may have heard about some of this. We're gonna start the beginning. For those of you who haven't followed every nook and cranny of this discussion. But there's fun to be had, involved in some hypocrisy, how media is treating it. You're gonna love every second of the next hour that we spend doing this. Some Variety. Give you an update on hack madness.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Got a little Jasmine Crockett in there, the new spokesperson for the Democratic Party. We got it all, fellas.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, this one's action packed. The media's tried their best to create this, like, fake scandal, fake narrative. And all our listeners are lucky because we're about to give it to them straight. And actually, what's going on?

[Michael Duncan]

It's a Real embarrassment of riches.

[Josh Holmes]

It is.

[John Ashbrook]

It is. And we'll also have some great updates for you on the Hack Madness tournament. That's something that I am looking forward to.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Including where we all rank in our internal bracket, us four hosts, which I think is really important.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, of course. This is the Hack Madness tournament that we do annually here in Ruthless to crown the worst journalist in all of Washington, D.C. now, there has been an element of timing to this. Where had Jeffrey Goldberg done what he did a week earlier? No question he's in this field. He's not. But there are so many winners. We're going to break down all of that for you. I think we should start with just setting the table. Look, if you consume mainstream media, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry if you do, but if you do, you're inundated with this horrible thing that has happened. And what they're talking about is a breach of information, a signal chat in which all of the national security apparatus were a part of discussing the details of a plan, a U.S. strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Now, why does any of this sort of thing matter? Just to start with, what happened was the Trump administration coming in on the heels of a Biden administration that for one calendar year, allowed 175 unanswered strikes against the US Navy by Houthi rebels in the Suez Canal. Now, you might ask, what are our ships doing in the Suez Canal? Well, it turns out it's a point of a massive amount of commerce. And if you can't go through the Suez Canal, you have to reroute around Africa. And the gas and the manpower that takes to do that costs you, the consumer of any goods that are imported through that region, an extraordinarily more amount of money. Inflation is a problem that makes it worse, makes it worse for us and makes it worse for our allies across the world. And by the way, are you just letting terrorists tell you where you can and cannot go? Because that's what they are. These are terrorists. So the Biden administration did nothing about it?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm surprised.

[Comfortably Smug]

Absolutely nothing about it. Meanwhile, 75% of all US flagged ships were forced around Africa during that.

[John Ashbrook]

Just crazy.

[Comfortably Smug]

So the Trump administration, much like they approached the issue in Panama, which you didn't hear anything about during the Biden administration, because they didn't particularly care that China had taken over our port of passage there for U.S. commerce, decided to do something about it. Well, what did they do? They ordered airstrikes. They had incredible plans put in place to Basically dismantle the Houthi network so you could once again have commerce in the Suez Canal. They executed it flawlessly, flawlessly disabled the Houthi network, took out every target that they wanted to. It was a perfectly well executed plan by the US Military, our men and women in uniform. The kind of thing that all of us Americans would be extremely proud to do. And by the way, something that you didn't see a lot of during the Biden administration, certainly no fault of our US Military. They can only do as the Commander in Chief orders them to do. And Biden ordered them to basically sit on their hands and take fire from Houthi rebels for a year and a half. Amazing. This president sees it differently, takes action. Okay, so where this thing gets hairy is that the administration obviously has to communicate with one another about the strikes. They want to make sure that the heads of all the various intel agencies, state, National Security Council, everybody was all involved, Pentagon, the Vice President, everybody. And in doing so, they got on this app, signal. Now signal is used and was encouraged, in use by the Biden administration, actually, because it's one of the very few publicly available end to end encrypted apps. And what that means, basically, it's sort of, at least to this point, unhackable. And there's an element of security that's provided in something that's easy to use, whereas all of the other DoD approved sort of communications that are not you sitting in the Situation Room. Cumbersome, hard to use, not easily accessible. So this is a workaround. In the course of doing that, though, they got put on a chain with 19 members. And in those 19 members, this was, you know, according to the Atlantic and Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to the list of all of these people. Now, there's a lot of conjecture about how he got added. I always find that when it comes to government, the simplest answer is usually exactly what happened. Grand conspiracies. Although sometimes true, most likely it's just a error. At some point.

[John Ashbrook]

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[Comfortably Smug]

Starts, it got 19 people on it and includes this journalist who's probably the foremost critic of President Donald Trump and foreign policy and Trump's view of defense. I mean, it's just like the list goes on and on. He's a purveyor of Russiagate nonsense. I mean, literally everything that you could.

[Michael Duncan]

Have said, yeah, it'd be like adding Sherry Jacobus to our Slack channel.

[Comfortably Smug]

It would not be good.

[Michael Duncan]

Not good.

[Comfortably Smug]

It would not be good. But anyway, so this guy's on it and because he is who he is, he says nothing, right? And they start going through the plans. They start talking about the one refreshing and really remarkable part of what you are reading, if you've read any of this, is it's a debate. And it's a debate. They, that they are all having positions that are very consistent with the public comments that they've had to all of you. You would expect Mike Waltz to be someone who is very operationally focused. This was his job in the military. This is the approach that he took as a congressperson. There's nobody that knows more about operations and defense and that kind of thing than he does. And he's articulating exactly what needs to happen in order to execute something. Vice President Vance presses pause on the whole thing and says like, hold on, I'm not sure that we're not making a mistake here and lays out how there could be inconsistent messaging. Again, very consistent with super smart too. Great breakdown with whatever he says in public. Like, this is the position you imagine him to take. What was also super refreshing is how you could see these people working together in that nobody got in a dick measuring contest here. Every single person, whether it was Ratcliffe at the CIA or Tulsi or State or whomever says, we're all in on this, we're ready to go. If you'd like to delay, that's fine. We'll make sure that that works too. And the conversation is like a very collaborative one, which I was like, this is pretty amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, the kind of thing you don't normally see. And that's, you know, the problems that they get into because you shouldn't normally see these kinds of discussions anyway. They go about authorizing this deal and then Secretary Hegseth puts in a line by line about 20 minutes before the strike was to happen about the sequence of events in order to accomplish the goal that they've all at that point, mutually agreed upon, including Authorized by the President, United States. It happens exactly line by line as outlined by Hagseth. And the mission is a huge success. All we know is that there's like a eight story in the newspaper and in fact, ruthless variety program. Probably wouldn't know it if it wasn't the White House's direct communication that this happened. And it was a success. And because we've been following this a little bit, in fact, we talked about this on the program before, about how this was a serious problem. I can't believe nobody's doing anything about it. And they finally did something. So we were sort of relieved. I think we, all of us were on X saying, like, yeah, nice. We finally have somebody doing something about this. Anyway, days go by after that, nobody talks about it relatively unreported in the media at all. And all of a sudden, Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic says, I was on the chain. I got all of this in real time. There were war plans and they were confidential information. And. And these guys screwed up in a huge way because it was publicly available through me as a journalist. Okay, well, that's where you get into a problem. Now. There's no question in my mind that him being on that chain is a real problem. Right. And I think if you looked at the initial response from President Trump in that meeting that he held on Tuesday, where you got the chance to hear from Mike Waltz and others about it, there's a collective, yeah, that's not going to happen again. And if you heard President Trump, he said, here's my preference of going forward. And he said, I'd like to be in a, you know, a room with lead, lead ceiling, lead walls and lead. I didn't know it was lead, but I assume that's what the Situation Room.

[John Ashbrook]

Is, you know, and he walked through a similar situation where he was like, they had lines. I cut the lines.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, he talked about how he's going to great lengths to make sure things are kept secret.

[Michael Duncan]

A human Faraday Bo.

[Comfortably Smug]

But that is. So he's doing two things in that press conference. One, he was reaffirming his support because immediately the media is like, well, he's gonna fire Waltz or he's gonna fire Pete or he's gonna fire all these people because of this gross negligence and all this stuff. He's coming in there saying, not like, these guys did their job. It was a successful mission going forward. I would prefer if we did it this way. And that's in public. All you're gonna get out of a president, United States that has any sort of responsibility whatsoever, Bro.

[Michael Duncan]

If the biggest scandal out of this admin journalist found out in real time that we were killing terrorists, I think we're doing a pretty good job.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's like, the overarching of this is like, so this problem, this group who has been shooting at US Warships, causing so many problems for America throughout the entire Biden administration, that the Biden administration then takes off the terror list, and then the Trump administration comes in and kicks the shit out of him. And the scandal that, like, all these journals and the, like, D.C. chattering class, like, my God, this is a scandal. Yeah, get out of here, dude. The story is America got the job done, and some journal showed up in this chat, and it wasn't even like, journal. Can you tell us if we should do this strike in real time? Are you weighing in on this? Like, what is this?

[Michael Duncan]

What a scandal. All of these people are in private. Exactly who they are in public. And that President Trump has hired a fantastic team of rivals that debate outcomes and then come to a conclusion that is consistent with Donald Trump's American first vision of this country. Like, what he did on the campaign, what he sells in this administration, is what all of these advisors are doing on a private signal channel when they think they're behind closed doors. Like, I mean, you as a taxpayer should be thrilled that these people operate this way. Should you be thrilled that there was a reporter who was on there who found out we were killing terrorists in real time? Yeah, probably not, no. But all in all, if this is the biggest scandal, I mean, I think 13 marines getting killed at Abbey Gate, that's a fucking scandal, I think. I don't know, drone striking a cargo van of kids trying to get retribution for that murder. And the Biden administration did that. That's a fucking scandal.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think this is.

[Michael Duncan]

But when it comes to the scandal meter, this is pretty low.

[John Ashbrook]

But Democrats don't have much to work with. And my Democrats, I'm of course referring to Jeffrey Goldberg and his wife who worked for Hillary Clinton. They don't have much to go on. They've taken the 20% side of every 80, 20 issue. We've talked about that ad nauseum on this show. And so they're grasping at straws to try to find something. And the best they've got is a process foul here.

[Comfortably Smug]

We're gonna get into the specifics and the hypocrisy and then have some laughs about how this whole thing has played out. But before we do, I also just think that this has a huge commentary on the state of journalism in America today. Because Jeffrey Goldberg, noted critic, Democrat, liberal, he's got a foreign policy, kind of a neocon foreign policy point of view, unmitigated critic of this administration. But he's still a journalist and his beat is national security stuff. Right? Think about 20, 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, if one of the noteworthy national security reporters was put on a chain like this, the sequence of events that would have happened immediately afterwards, what they would have done is immediately notify the Secretary of Defense or the National Security Council or somebody that they are on this and they shouldn't be, and then leverage, they would say. So here's the deal.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

The deal is I'm going to report this. I will make sure that American assets are saved before I do. I will, I will do that because I'm an American. But you are going to give me the exclusive on all and not just today. You're going to do that on every single mission, Right? Or if you don't want to do that, I'll tell them how I got it. And you would be the best reporter in national security over a long period of time. That's the reporters leverage. That's what they have done for generations of how you get a scoop. The problem is for Jeffrey Goldberg and for many mainstream media outlets, the news is not what sells.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. That's not what their audience wants. That's ultimately the problem with the Atlantic is if he did four years of good reporting, accurate reporting, exclusive reporting of the Trump administration, his audience wouldn't care. But like embarrassing the Trump administration one time on a process foul. They love him now.

[Comfortably Smug]

He is the toast of the town.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

He can walk into any Georgetown cocktail party and be the man of the hour.

[Josh Holmes]

Rash Brook will hand him a martini at the door. Like, welcome, Jeffrey.

[Comfortably Smug]

They have built their audiences exclusively upon people who want to hear nothing but negative shit.

[Michael Duncan]

It's proof that the incentive, the incentive structure of media in this country is broken for mainstream media.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because you could very easily leverage that into an exclusive on the only news that matters to the American people when it comes to national security in perpetuity with this administration. He chose not to. He chose to run with a one week story that embarrassed them and forever alienated him and probably his publication from any scoop at any point in the future. And I'm not saying that what. There's no news value in what happened here. There is like this should, this should not have happened. There should not have been a situation where anyone, let alone a reporter was on any chain with all the heads of the national security apparatus of this country. That much we know. But that much they've already acknowledged. And that much Donald Trump told you was never going to happen again, right? Every administration makes mistakes. Some kill 13 marines. This one killed terrorists and reopened a main center of commerce that had been closed for 15 months because of a negligence of the Biden administration. It seems to me in terms of errors, this one pales in comparison. But we're going to break down exactly where this goes from here and some hilarious react that we've got out of the media that we will contextualize within the framework we've just provided right after this.

[John Ashbrook]

Hey, aren't you that PBM middleman?

[Comfortably Smug]

At your service, Doctor.

[John Ashbrook]

Don't you get rebates that save money on medicines? Oh, PBMs like me get big rebates. So why do patients tell me they're.

[Comfortably Smug]

Worried about their costs?

[John Ashbrook]

No one says we have to share.

[Comfortably Smug]

The savings with patients. Congress should make sure medicine savings go directly to patients, not middlemen. Visit phrma.org middlemen to learn more. Paid for by Pharma. All right, welcome back. So we laid out exactly what happened. One of the reasons why this is a quote unquote scandal is because of the value that corporate media, traditional media, puts on what constitutes news. And we discussed about who their constituency is and they feed their constituency. And news break. It's not you. It's not you. You may care about your members of the military. They do not. They have made it extremely clear the only thing they care about is anything that embarrasses Donald Trump. So we took a look back in time to the day of all of this, where a very successful strike on the Houthis was executed by the U.S. american military with incredible precision. Again, something that was 15 months in the making that was incredibly important to U.S. national security. What did the news lead with? Clip three, please. Welcome to CBS Evening News Plus. I'm John Dickerson. Did administration officials ignore a judge who asked them to delay depositing dozens of Venezuelan nationals until he could review the 18th century law being used to do so? Good evening, everyone. I'm Stephanie Ramos in for Lindsay Davis. Thank you so much for streaming with us. We begin with the scenes of utter devastation after a massive tornado outbreak. Damaging storm.

[Michael Duncan]

Here we go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Sweeping across the country. Leads and leads, baby. Hearing late today, the Trump administration accused of ignoring a deportation in what?

[John Ashbrook]

No Houthis.

[Comfortably Smug]

The most significant constitutional showdown of this term.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, so the most significant military operation that we've taken in quite some time. American service members, skin in the game, flying F18s, US Navy people, personnel in harm's way, executed flawlessly on behalf of the world. Doesn't lead the news. Right. This is a 15, 16 month problem that's been going on there. Something that they haven't paid a lot of attention to because it didn't hurt Republicans.

[Josh Holmes]

And again, I mean, it's like you guys, you've been saying so perfectly that the only thing that matters to corporate press right now is can we make. How does this story make Trump look bad? Or how can we attack Trump with this? And the opposite converse of that is if they talk about the problem that the Houthis have been, then they have to discuss things about how like, the Biden administration took them off the terrorist and let them run amok. So they are incentivized to not talk about it because they want to protect Democrats.

[Michael Duncan]

And I truly didn't understand this phenomena until, you know, Ashbrook really explained it to me the best. It's like you think, you know, bias in media because you see the bias, the liberal bias and what they, you know, how they characterize things in their stories or like in the segments. But the, like, the insidious form of bias is story selection. And that's what you're seeing there.

[John Ashbrook]

And you get that from all three major broadcast networks who are all licensed at the pleasure of the American taxpayer.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. Cc. Brendan Carr.

[Michael Duncan]

Our spectrum, cc.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, our spectrum. That's exactly right. They use the American airwaves in order to promote these kind of things. Those kind of things can go away.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, they could. I'm not saying they should. I'm just saying I'm making an observation.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

About that. Anyway, so you fast forward to now. You found out, holy smokes. There was a journo that was on a chat discussing the execution of this mission that was successful, unqualified success. No American personnel hurt, terrorists killed. A US Mission accomplished. But there was a journal that was on that. Let's go to clip four. President Trump stands by his national security team. He says no classified information was shared in the war planning chat, which inadvertently included a U.S. journalist. CBS's National Security contributor Sam Vinograd is here to assess the damage.

[Josh Holmes]

Good evening, everyone. I'm Lindsey Davis.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you so much for streaming with us.

[Josh Holmes]

We do begin with the fallout after.

[Comfortably Smug]

That bombshell revolution of a major national security breach. Tonight, the Trump war cabinet under fire. After that, under fire, detailing airstrike plans that went public. Okay, bro, now you get it?

[Michael Duncan]

You would think that we cc'd some fucking Chinese spy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like the fallout, the devastation, the destruction, it's not devastating.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, except for when you can embarrass the Trump administration.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just like, it's so dead on. They're like the bombshell revelation. They didn't talk about the actual bombshell.

[Comfortably Smug]

That fell these heads.

[Josh Holmes]

The bombshell is when it fell on the heads of terrorists, man. Like, who are you people? You are deeply unserious.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, recall 175 different attacks on US naval personnel in the region over a 15 month period prior to taking action here. You might sort of ask yourself, okay, so given where the media is on all of this stuff and they didn't really tell us a whole, like, you're probably, many of you are learning this for the first time as I'm saying it. What was the Biden administration? What were they doing? Let's put up graphic one, if you don't mind. In foreign policy shift, Biden lifts terrorist. Terrorist designation for Houthis in Yemen.

[Michael Duncan]

Whoa.

[Josh Holmes]

They're not terrorists. They're just having fun firing weapons at, you know, U.S. service.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. What's a rocket or two into a U.S. navy ship?

[John Ashbrook]

You know, that's not terrorism.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just, you know, clean fun for the Biden's friends.

[Comfortably Smug]

Now just remember, because we've been talking an awful lot about Israel, Palestinians, we've been talking an awful lot about all the terrorism involved with that. And the fact that Iran independently funds these operations. Well, they also fund the Houthis. This is, it's just a different area. You know, they got a little something. It's like, you know, we got an army, every little army everywhere that we can sort of disconnect, but we just, we give them the weaponry. And so you can understand, in addition to the Suez Canal, why this has some global significance, why this is important.

[Josh Holmes]

That'S critical to bring up. Because, you know, when you talk about how Iran has all these proxies like the Houthis, like Hamas, that they're able to fund in the first Trump administration, they put these sanctions on Iran, they basically bankrupted that country, the leadership of that country, these people who hate America to the point that they couldn't afford to do any of this shit, they couldn't afford to do these attacks on Americans, it's crazy.

[Michael Duncan]

It's crazy because Iran is like the shark tank for terrorists. It's like they're a VC firm and they're like, all right, well, we'll give you Some seed money. You Houthis, you Hezbollah, you Hamas. And we're gonna let a thousand flowers bloom, and we'll see who does the most terror.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're up there. But wait, there's more.

[Josh Holmes]

We've had Senator Hagerty on, because when he was ambassador to Japan during President Trump's first administration, they worked on this plan to just, like, cut off Iran's oil from the world and bankrupt them. And like, that was such effective foreign policy that you have the Biden administration take the opposite tack. Take the Houthis off the terror list. Let Iran have, like, they brought back the Brigham Pallets of Cash playbook that the Obama administration had. Let Iran run amok. And now President Trump is left having to clean up all these messes that the Biden administration left. But you don't hear that from the journals. They're like Bombshell news. There was a chat about the successful strike on Houthis that you didn't hear about because we didn't talk about it.

[John Ashbrook]

They were using Signal. How dare they use Signal. You know what was interesting? I don't know if you guys caught this, but in Caroline Levitt's press briefing, she brought receipts on this, and she often does. And let me just read you one of the things that she raised which was very, very, very, very good. It was about Mark Warner, who was.

[Comfortably Smug]

The co chairman of the Senate Intel.

[John Ashbrook]

Committee, and he's a Democrat. And Carol Ann Levitt revealed to everybody that Senator Warner himself used SIGNAL to work with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch to connect with this disgraced Steele dossier author who started the Russia hoax.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, that is very important to have encrypted.

[John Ashbrook]

So when Republicans are using Signal, they're trying to talk to each other. When Democrats use Signal, they talk to lobbyists for Russian oligarchs.

[Josh Holmes]

She's so good at it.

[John Ashbrook]

She is so good.

[Michael Duncan]

I love her.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like, oh, how about a ride in that impounded yacht that you've got down in St. Martin?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, can we do that?

[Comfortably Smug]

Can we do that? All right, so look, I'm gonna invert these two spaghetti. So I'm gonna actually call for three first. But what I'm gonna do to set this up is how are the Democrats reacting to this? And in elevations of scandal, in elevations, you may ask yourself, dear listeners, is it a bigger scandal when you lose 13 service members over a botched withdrawal in Afghanistan? Or whether you add a journalist to a list that he shouldn't be on? Okay, well, here's what Chuck Schumer had to say about that. Graphic three, please. What I'm talking about is initially his reaction to this scandal. Right? And you'll note at the end, he says every single senator must demand accountability. The Senate must investigate. He's very says, every single American is at risk. Every single American. This is the operation that happened 10 days ago, by the way. It's already done.

[Michael Duncan]

It's already done.

[Comfortably Smug]

Every single American is at risk.

[Michael Duncan]

We're at risk.

[Comfortably Smug]

At risk.

[Michael Duncan]

From this successful operation.

[Comfortably Smug]

From this successful operation. But, you know, you go back in time, and Senator Schumer was the majority leader at the time. He could actually control investigations now. He can call for things, but he has no real power to do anything. So he's just calling away. Call, call, call.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, he has to.

[Comfortably Smug]

But when he was in charge and he could actually do the investigations, Afghanistan happened. The withdrawal happened. We lost 13 Marines. There was chaos everywhere.

[Michael Duncan]

Remember?

[Comfortably Smug]

People hanging off airplanes. The images were just absolutely horrific. What did he have to say about that? Let's put up graphic two. Well, it condemns the terrorism. Yeah, condemns the terrorism. Dude.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude. More than condemning the terrorism. And this is a classic giveaway in politics, and I love doing this for our listeners and viewers, whenever a politician has to put up a tweet, they don't want to have to put up, they always do a screenshot of a statement, and that statement will always include these words. I will continue to monitor the situation.

[Comfortably Smug]

As if the people of Afghanistan or our troops in the field are at all satisfied or comforted.

[Michael Duncan]

Chuck's monitoring it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, Chuck's on it.

[Michael Duncan]

He's monitoring.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, I didn't know that Chuck was on it.

[Michael Duncan]

It's being monitored.

[Josh Holmes]

And notice zero call for him for any investigation.

[Comfortably Smug]

Zero has happened when he's zero, the.

[Josh Holmes]

Majority leader in a position to actually execute that zero call for it.

[Comfortably Smug]

So we thought, like, okay, maybe that was just day one. He wanted to find out more. More facts about it. Do you realize in his entire ex timeline, this is the one and only time that he has ever addressed Afghanistan?

[Josh Holmes]

Are you serious?

[John Ashbrook]

So maybe he didn't continue monitoring for you.

[Comfortably Smug]

There was no monitoring. Yeah, but think about that. You lost 13American service people. You can make a strong argument, as we have on the Variety program, that the void of leadership internationally was created that day and that the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, the Chinese alliance with Russia, the threat to Taiwan, the Iranian emboldened pressure on the region that funded Hezbollah and Hamas, all of that was related to that day.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

How many times did he ask to Investigate that. Zippo, folks. Zippo. So ask yourself, is he concerned about the safety of the American people or is this all politics?

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it's just him getting out from under the fact that he did that whole Schumer shutdown bullshit and the whole left hates him now, and this is his way of getting back with them.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think you're wrong, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

It's as simple as that.

[John Ashbrook]

And they don't know what to do because Trump's right track number is higher today than it's ever been in 20 years. They don't know what to do.

[Michael Duncan]

And the left solution to this is to, like, fund the Houthis, you know what I mean? His base wants that. They're like Houthis firing rockets at us. Good. We shouldn't be there ever. We shouldn't do commerce in the world.

[John Ashbrook]

They had an Iranian operative working in the Biden State Department, one of the sharks themselves.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait, did they call for an investigation of that?

[Josh Holmes]

Nope.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I don't remember them doing that. They actually had a Republican Guard in the White House and they're like, no, that's a. But you put somebody on the wrong text chain and holy shit. Every American's at risk.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unreal.

[Comfortably Smug]

Every American's at risk. Do you think it's for a second a little bit more dangerous for the American people to have a Republican Guard guy that's sitting in the middle of an administration or somebody on the run text message chain of operation that happened 10 days ago, which, by the way, was a total success. I mean, it's just. It blows the mind. I can't even believe we're having this conversation. So. But, but maybe Chuck Schumer. Everybody knows that Chuck Schumer is a total hack. Even the left at this point knows that he's a total. He's like, just wears the blue jersey and he's just going to. He doesn't believe in anything. He's just going to do it. They know it, we know it, everyone knows. It's why the guy's garbage approval rating. It's just like, it couldn't. I don't know what the floor is, but we're going to find it. We're going to find it shortly. Maybe other Democrats have a more, you know, resolute. How would somebody like, served in Afghanistan, albeit not in a combat role, but he served. Let's put up Pete buttigieg. Let's go. Graphic 4 First, this is what he has to say about the scandal, quote, unquote, that he's talking about. Now, from an operational security perspective, this is the highest level fuck up imaginable.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, thanks, Pete.

[John Ashbrook]

He's very serious.

[Comfortably Smug]

These people cannot keep Americans safe. Okay, well, that's one perspective. He obviously has a national security background. Somebody who actually served in Afghanistan, believe it or not. It's hard to believe that was ever in Afghanistan.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm sure he was cloistered, never went outside the wire.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Wore a lot of. Wore a lot of equipment to take pictures and never went outside the wire.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, he documented his service very well. Yeah, no question about that.

[Michael Duncan]

Almost like all of that was really calculated.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Yeah. This is a guy who's by the way, said he's going to forego a run for the United States Senator for Governor because he's going to run for president in 2018. Just keep that in mind. This is the kind of, this is the kind of delusion, this is the kind of like judgment that we're dealing with. So. But he served in Afghanistan, so what did he have to say about that? Let's get graphic five. Not a goddamn thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Nothing about 00:13 service members.

[Comfortably Smug]

His entire X account does not include the word Afghanistan. Yeah, think about that. Are you concerned with keeping the American people safe? He says it's the highest fuck up imaginable. You know what I think is a little bit more fucked up? Losing 13 Marines. I think it's a little bit more fucked up again than a text scandal of an operation that was entirely successful. Ten days.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the thing. You have a successful operation and then you have the administration that he was a part of, that their absolute horrific mismanagement of a situation led to over a dozen Americans losing their lives. And he thinks that a text is a fuck up. He should be ashamed of himself. That's just unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is the, this is all a commentary on. For those of you who joined us over the last couple of years, the case that we have made to you, which is you've got one party in Washington D.C. where their entirety of their constituency is the punditry class and the kind of fat cattery around the coasts of both sides of this country where they sip champagne, they talk about manorums, but they could give two shits about anything. Working class, military, whatever, it doesn't matter to them at all. But they want to make sure that those people are pleased. So their case is entirely made to them. That's what's happening right now. Right? You would think you would put out a statement on the successful mission in Yemen of a problem that has plagued this country for 15 months. Nope. They didn't say a fucking word about it. Nothing. But when there's a tech scandal, holy crap. The entirety of the American people is in jeopardy, Grave jeopardy. And it's happening today.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I mean, it's absolute pundit brain. It is so punt brain. They're stuck in their own world of, of what they value and what's important, and it's just like gossipy bullshit.

[Michael Duncan]

I love doing this show twice a week with you guys. I think I love it the most on stuff like this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Me too.

[Michael Duncan]

I love laughing. I love having fun. We have so much fun on this show. And it's great for you, the listener and the viewer, But I think the most value we add to the discourse when it comes to politics. For you guys, everybody watching, everybody listening is help you sift through the. On a story like this and help you understand that the, the establishment media gets it wrong. And there's too many people in our line of work who feed into that. And you can take it apart very easily just like that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Totally.

[John Ashbrook]

That's exactly right. And you get a little bit of vegetables before you get the dessert. That's sort of like what we've had in the last two administrations. We had a vegetable and now we have.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

So it leads to our question of the day, by the way, if you like the breakdown here. And this happens to go coincide with the question of the day, like, and subscribe what you hear. Make sure you send this along to your friends. That's how we can communicate to more people. Otherwise people are going to watch that evening news shit you just saw. And like, the more people that see that, you can see how much brain damage that could cause.

[Michael Duncan]

Yuck.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, holy smokes. Like, you could literally just live in another planet. Watch when the Yemen strike happened. And they're like, judges. Judges have ordered Venezuela gang members. And they don't say that migrants back to. They say migrants back to California.

[Michael Duncan]

Just people moving around.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's just guy.

[Josh Holmes]

There's just people.

[John Ashbrook]

Do we think that people are actively watching broadcast news at 6 and 6:30 days? Shockingly, shockingly on at nursing homes where people have no ability to change the channel. I mean, like, that's the saddest thing I've heard.

[Comfortably Smug]

People are just sitting there like, I really wish I could stand up. I really wish I could change this channel.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like the only place outside of an airport that like, people are forced to watch something. Jesus, you just depressed the shit out of me.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, that is Sad. But anyway, our question of the day, if you like and subscribe, feel free to opine. Our question of the day today is, you know, is this a real story? Is this something that digs in deeper than a D.C. palace intrigue story? You've heard our contention that these guys are all talking to themselves about my norms. And like, look, I don't want to downplay the national security. You don't want to communicate anything that's even close to sensitive, let alone classify. And I think that's an entirely separate issue. But. But you don't want to do that. I mean, it's a wisdom stake and they know that. And they've said, they have said as much. The press is all waiting for them to be like, oh, my God, we fucked up so bad. And like, here we're throwing ourselves on top of a flaming, you know, bunch of spikes, like, that's what they want. But they've already said as much and they did basically with President Trump saying, here, here's the way we're gonna work going forward. It's not gonna be that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

So it actually settled the question that they're all worried about, but yet the whole thing continues. And our contention, it looks a lot like palace intrigue, where there's a whole bunch of people in Washington D.C. and in Manhattan and in the outskirts of LA that give them an argument to solidify their view that none of these people are qualified for what they do. Right. Because they're outside the norms. They didn't work for a 501c4 fail, sun funded thing by George Soros. So therefore we don't know them.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, like, look, I think the most important thing of our show is that we don't do this show just for people who care about D.C. or the media. Like, we do it for our buddies back home.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, when I think of whether a story is real or whether it's palace intrigue, I'm like, do my buddies back in Indiana care about this? Or like, is my wife going to text me about this? And they're not. No, no, they're just not. No, they're just fucking not. Oh, this signal channel. No, I don't care. We killed terrorists. Great, great. Okay. End of story.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I did get text messages on when we lost 13 Marines in Afghanistan.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Bingo.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that wasn't worth the time of day for any Democrats or anybody in the media to critically discuss whether that should be investigated. It took it, it took until the House Republicans literally Took over the chamber for anybody to ask the question of anybody in charge. Nobody got fired. They're talking about a text message chain and they're demanding heads.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, think about it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Think about the discrepancy in that. Right? I mean, what a disaster. Anyway, when we come back, we're gonna get to your comments from last week or from Tuesday I guess, which is a good one. About the activist judges right after this. Hard working Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy to create jobs, secure our future and make life better, more affordable and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. So your comments from Tuesday's episode, recall that that was an episode about the activist judges. The decision making that these guys had made in radical fashion to try to eliminate this administration's ability to deport a Venezuelan gang from the United States. Right. I mean the initiation of this outfit is murdering somebody on the street. And we're like, no. Well, but did they get due process? Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Turn the plane around, we need him back.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are we, are we sure that they didn't? Were they afforded a court appointed attorney?

[Michael Duncan]

How many, how many teardrop tattoos do they have?

[Comfortably Smug]

Do they have a legitimate asylum claim? Yeah, because if they are under duress in any way, turn that plane round and get them back here immediately. Anyway, we asked you what should be done about all of that. You had some great answers to do that. We always start with the voice first.

[John Ashbrook]

Comment comes from Frank Patee and Frank writes among many fundamental problems this is partly addressed to Andy McCarthy is how does one address the condition which the normal process is inadequate? For instance, assume that post 911 protections are enforced for trend individuals a couple years person removal procedure. We can't get rid of them at that pace. Ignoring Ms. 13 suspicious Chinese, Middle Eastern, etc. Nationals. This is cloud Piven on steroids.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, stuff. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

American society needs to develop a theory of the case that allows us to protect ourselves. Recognize that CP stated that they wanted to destroy the existing society by using its process against itself as dangerous as rules for radicals. I saw these MF's on campus in the late 60s, early 70s. They're not necessarily communists, they're totalitarian progressive.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean there's just like dude, our.

[Michael Duncan]

Listeners are the smartest.

[Comfortably Smug]

The intelligence of that comment is so good. By the way, I saw Smug look up when you got to the cloud piven thing, he was like, what's flowered penis?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, if you have flowered penis, you gotta go to a doctor.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just put it between two boards. Everything should work out.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Sorry, sorry. All right. Sorry.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm sorry, mom. I'm really sorry.

[Comfortably Smug]

Mrs. Duncan, our profuse apologies. I probably started that comment to dunks runks.

[Michael Duncan]

This is from John Lucas. Trump should keep doing exactly what he has been doing following the letter of the ruling while avoiding the obvious goal of the judges. A little known fact of the airplane ruling was that the order to turn around was verbal and not in the written decision. That gave Trump some wiggle room and he took it. Don't break the rules, but don't give an inch. Only Trump can do that effectively.

[Comfortably Smug]

Another insightful, insightful. Thank you, John. All right, Smuggles, what do we got?

[Josh Holmes]

Comment 3 comes from Patrick Van Tassel. Patrick writes, here's what we need to do. We need to take a page from the lust playbook. Just keep doing the same thing, but call it something kind and marginally related.

[Michael Duncan]

I love that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Marginally related. That's so good. Like nothing really to have to do with anything. Just marginally related.

[Michael Duncan]

Marginally related.

[Comfortably Smug]

God, Great comments today. Good stuff. Remember you had to like and subscribe but when you do that we read all of your stuff and you, we.

[Michael Duncan]

Do read it all. And I would note in the last episode a lot of people were really mad at Mug for the, the dog segment.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, well, I think they don't get us. Yeah, like I, I, I welcome you and feel free to like blow us up. Yeah, be mad at us.

[Michael Duncan]

I, I actually love when people are mad.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it's hilarious. But because then there's a debate in the comments about like whatever. But like just know it doesn't matter how dark the topic, we will find a way to laugh at it. We will.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's part of our charm. You either love it or you hate it, but that's us. Okay, I'm going to get right into the self elected, self appointed new spokesperson for the Democratic Party. She says so herself. Jasmine Crockett probably. Well, one of the more offensive people that I've heard speak in a long time. I mean everything that she says is just off the frickin wall. Makes AOC look like Mike Mansfield. You know what I mean? Like this is somebody who is just truly off the reservation in every way. Well, she was at one of those, you know, gatherings of high minded folks. I think it was like the equal pride thing. Or what? I don't know.

[Michael Duncan]

High minded.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I'm being facetious.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

But I'm, you know, I mean, it was equal, you know, that whatever the thing with the equal sign is. It's, it's.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, Human Rights Campaign.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's where she was speaking. Anyway, she had some thoughts on the governor of her state in clip 5. Because we in these hot ass Texas streets, honey, y'all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now. And. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey. So.

[Michael Duncan]

So, yes, Human Rights Campaign. Human Rights Campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

Even the audience immediately knew. They're like, wow, what an idiot.

[Comfortably Smug]

The Human Rights. So it's Human Rights, right, that includes disabled people.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, the guy in the wheelchair.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. So what they're talking about is Governor Abbott. And Governor Abbott, as you well know, was paralyzed in a tragic accident, has been in a wheelchair. She calls him Hot Wheels. Obviously that provoked some kind of a response, including from her congressional colleagues who wanted to censure her basically for it. But people across Texas were just like, completely pissed. Remember, this guy's super popular, very popular Texas. He's a great governor, and everybody knows he's a great governor. So this, like, met some resistance. Well, she was concerned about that. I get. Even for Jasmine Crockett, this reached a level of which you have to kind of like distance yourself. Her apology is one of the funniest things you will read in a long time. Put up graphic six, please. I wasn't thinking about the governor's condition.

[Michael Duncan]

Come on.

[Comfortably Smug]

Condition, Condition. I was thinking about the planes, trains and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by black mayors.

[Josh Holmes]

Here we go. Here we go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable. Literally in the next line, I said was a hot ass mess, referencing his terrible policies. I could read the rest of it, but it'd be a waste of your time and mine. You got the gist of it. Okay, so nobody, you know, colloquially calls somebody in a wheelchair Hot Wheels without knowing exactly what it is that they're doing. And so everybody, she's like, no, I.

[Josh Holmes]

Was talking about planes. You know, the ones that just fly on wheels. Like, you know, Hot Wheels. Like, her excuse is such garbage. And an obvious lie.

[Comfortably Smug]

An obvious lie. So some good people, I think the people at Free Beacon. Free Beacon did a little dig in on the old social medias about her and Hot Wheels and all these things. And so graphic six we have here, this is on Her Facebook page.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

And a reply. A reply to one of the things that she said about Abbott years ago. Years ago in 2021. So this is four full years ago. Somebody called him Hot Wheels is something else. Who liked it? Jasmine Crockett.

[John Ashbrook]

One like, so it can't be about one like, one like it was from.

[Josh Holmes]

It can't be about Abbott in her excuse of, you know, sending migrants. It's. Her lie is now completely apparent.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And she is, you know, I'm guessing too much to, like, schumer Chagrin. Probably AOCs because AOC misses the spotlight. She's the head of the Dems.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. It's just like her preamble where she's like, I'm out in these streets at $1,000 a plate dinner at the Human Rights Convention.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, get out of here.

[Josh Holmes]

She's just phony.

[Comfortably Smug]

I for one person, I for one, encourage it. I think this is terrific. I think she should be the voice of the Democratic Party at very least. She is speaking horribly offensive things in totally authentic terms. Or the American people, whether you're in Texas or the Midwest or everything else, know exactly what it is that she thinks of you. She says it right. She doesn't think that you deserve to keep any of your own money. She thinks that you ought to have DEI policies through the moon that have no merit based hiring or academics or anything else. Like, she just tells you she's trying.

[Josh Holmes]

To drive that, like, you know, 80% higher and higher for Republicans. So.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. But like, to be honest with you, there's not a dime's worth of difference between her view and Chuck Schumer's. He just won't tell you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right. Until he has to. He gets boxed in. And then he's like, I don't believe in all that stuff. And then the left's like, oh, my God, you told us you did believe in all that stuff. And like, she just says it transparent. I kind of like it.

[Michael Duncan]

I do, too. I mean, I like that she embraces that she's a bad person. You know what I mean?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And like, I like that her apology. Fake apology. I know I'm lying apology.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Is I'm going to use this fake apology, I know I'm lying apology to also get a lot more messaging points in about Greg Abbott. I'm going to expound upon my thoughts upon it. I'm a liar. I'm a terrible person. But also, you know, it's like, you are such a piece of shit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, it's so good. Keep it coming, Jasmine. You're doing a hell of a job.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hack Madness. Yeah. There we are.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Great music.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a good mood.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. We're through round one of the most escape esteemed tournament in all of journalism to crown the biggest hack in all of politics. Well, it's not been a terrible surprise. The one seeds doing extremely well. A lot of margins there. First round blowouts, you know, much like the NCAA first round blowouts. Couple of really intriguing matchups, some of which we talked about on the show, but smug. What do we got here? Like what's happening?

[Josh Holmes]

So first off, folks, Hack Madness, if you are new here, it's our annual tournament of who's the wor in journalism. Go to my X account fortablysmug to vote. I have it pinned right at the top. And we appreciate the hundreds of thousands of votes that have already come through in the first round. But one of the more notable ones. Can I get graphic 8? This was a matchup between married couple Susan Glasser and Peter Baker of the New York Times. 49.5%, 50.5%. Peter Baker took that one.

[Comfortably Smug]

The house divided. You can only imagine what the dinner table looks like with a neck and neck battle like that now. So Baker ultimately took the deal, huh?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, by.

[Josh Holmes]

By a hair. But it's amazing.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's because his daily byline.

[Josh Holmes]

It's amazing. I don't.

[John Ashbrook]

I think he demonstrated that he's the head of that marriage. Oh, my God.

[Comfortably Smug]

You are creating a problem.

[John Ashbrook]

Once again, he's a winner.

[Comfortably Smug]

You are creating a huge problem.

[John Ashbrook]

So.

[Michael Duncan]

So also I, I would say that this bracket was pretty chalk. It was pretty chalk.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it was pretty chalk.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, pretty chalk. I mean, Katie Tur had an upset.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

Which was nice to see.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, the TV people always have a net advantage, but sometimes they're lower profile. Like Katie Turr. You heard a lot about her last year. Heard a ton about her the year before that. Not a lot this year. So she was seated a lot lower. But she still has a profile that the people don't forget.

[Michael Duncan]

But Jonathan Capehart had some issues with his seed at number two. It was actually a closer battle than I thought, but I thought the one that was really interesting. And we actually previewed this a little bit in our hack madness announcement show. Eugene Daniels, you know, he, he's got some issues too. Can we put up graphic number nine, please? Yeah. 64% for a number one seed.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the lowest number one seed performance. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Michael Duncan]

In that round you would expect a number one seed to just blow it out. Right. Like all of our other number one seeds blew it out. And. And he might be a little weak.

[Comfortably Smug]

It might be weak. You know, I mean, look, he's the number one seed because he richly earned it this year. He was the head of the White House Correspondents Association. He is a laughable communicator on msnbc, where he now owns his own show.

[Michael Duncan]

Because, as Smug said, he attacked him.

[Josh Holmes]

For a day with Joy Ann Reid and then he took a show on the net.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, he's got all the qualifications to be a number one seed, but he's not a household name.

[John Ashbrook]

I think that's exactly right. Here you have some contestants who come in and they're so focused on their inside game, they lose sight of everything else. And that's why somebody like Margaret Brennan, who is just running away with it and I think will be a tough competitor down to the end. I think that's why she's in a different place than Eugene.

[Comfortably Smug]

The network anchors are having a moment. Usually they get a little soft in the first and second round. First round, we're talking like 90s. Whether you're talking about Noro Donnell, you know, Stephanopoulos just. He had a big upset. I mean, there's a lot going on here.

[Michael Duncan]

I also. I gotta call out graphic number 10. This is Crystal. And enjoy. Behold.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is the one we knew was gonna be a huge battle.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, you don't really. I thought Behara 10 was a pretty low seed for her. I mean, she's done a lot of brain worm takes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Got a tough draw.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But I mean, Bill Kristol, a lot of our Never Trump folks went down. I mean, David French blew it out.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And Kristol's the other guy who got through.

[Comfortably Smug]

But, like, Tim Miller went down.

[Michael Duncan]

These guys, a lot of these other guys just went down.

[Josh Holmes]

And I think it's great for you to bring that up because I think it speaks to the whole, like, Never Trump thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is now they are basically just trying to call for any sort of relevance. For the most part, people don't know who they are. Yeah. They're gone.

[Comfortably Smug]

People don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

But they don't always play with the same enthusiasm that Krystal plays with. I mean, he's, quote, tweeting Bernie Sanders rallies, saying, yes, this is what our country needs. And this is a guy who was ostensibly a conservative magazine publisher. Yeah. And now he's a Bernie Sanders tweeter.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible.

[Comfortably Smug]

But listen, we had thousands of you submit brackets. We have hundreds of thousands of you who have voted in this tournament. Do not stop now.

[Michael Duncan]

Don't stop.

[Comfortably Smug]

It gets more intriguing as we go. These matchups are getting tighter.

[Michael Duncan]

I gotta call out who is currently leading our public bracket for Hack Madness.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

We have two people here. Curious. 250-19122 and Blair. Blair Lizer. Yeah. 64 points.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's not my wife.

[Michael Duncan]

No, just.

[Comfortably Smug]

I hope. I just wanted to click 64.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

64.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wait, so that's a perfect one.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So they have perfect brackets.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

We have an internal bracket among. Among us four.

[Comfortably Smug]

What are the results?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm in first place at 59.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

What?

[Comfortably Smug]

Why? He's the guy that reports results. He's like, oh, and I'm winning just because.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, thankless, Thankless job of putting in all the results for this whole bracket. Do you know this is hard?

[Comfortably Smug]

He did it. He did it all while sewing your merchandise.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. Unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm sorry.

[John Ashbrook]

My quarter in his back.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm sorry, Michael.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

I didn't mean to wind you up.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm in. I'm in the back end of Common Ninja, putting in the winner of all of these matchups.

[Comfortably Smug]

With his thimble on.

[John Ashbrook]

Is that why these merch deliveries aren't.

[Comfortably Smug]

Going out on time?

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so I'm. I'm in at 59. Ashbrook and Smug both have 55.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, I'm dragging.

[Michael Duncan]

You're at 51. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, wow. That's a big difference.

[Josh Holmes]

It always, you know, it will. It always flips and changes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, well, when you get to the, like, the Elite eight and the Final four, if you get that part right, you really are.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Because the playing game was worth one point. The first round was worth two. The next round's worth four, then six.

[Comfortably Smug]

Then, you know, it's the compounding effect.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

I have, I have a problem with this that I don't have with a March Madness bracket. In the March Madness, I try to go total dispassionate. Right. I like. If there's a team I like or whatever, I'm like, nah, they're probably going to lose, you know? And I, I, I like. I don't root with my heart. I have a problem with that. And madness. You know what I mean? Like, I really wanted S.V. dante to advance. Yeah, guys. It's just like a little engine that could down there.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, he was facing off big matchup, but he richly earned the right to get to the second round. No, didn't get there.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's Why?

[Comfortably Smug]

I. That's why I don't do as well.

[Michael Duncan]

He's your Drake.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

He's your Crichton. Yeah. It's like these boys can play.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Loyola Maramount, you know, I just wanted a little something to root for UMBC and. Nope. Nope. The big steamrolling Margaret Brennan comes on through.

[Josh Holmes]

Prussians.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, she is.

[Comfortably Smug]

She looks very tough this year.

[Josh Holmes]

And remember, it all comes down to you folks. Voting Round two is going to be up soon. By the time you're hearing this, it'll be up. So go to my profile on X and vote.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do it and do it now. Remember, like and subscribe. And while you're there, leave a comment to today's question of the day, which is, is this whole thing with Signal and the attack on the Huties, is that a real story that you think people actually care about or is that D.C. palace intrigue? You tell us. We'll read all of what you have to say on next Tuesday. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Josh Holmes]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, again, thank you so much to the Minions. Remember, like and subscribe and share. Share the show. We love seeing our numbers go up. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless.

[E]

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