The Rise and Fall of a Democrat Superstar

Summary

Ruthless Podcast – Episode Summary: “The Rise and Fall of a Democrat Superstar”

Date: April 10, 2026
Hosts: Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug, John Ashbrook (Josh Holmes absent)
Special Guest: Dr. John Fleming (Louisiana Senate candidate)

---

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the spectacular fall from grace of the once-heralded Democratic “centrist” Governor of Virginia, Abigail Spamberger. The hosts dissect her unraveling popularity, the backlash against her policies, and the party’s pain over their failed moderate branding. They also touch on another brewing Democratic scandal around Maryland Governor Wes Moore, discuss the culture of the Masters golf tournament, and feature an interview with Dr. John Fleming, candidate for U.S. Senate in Louisiana. The panel delivers their signature ruthless, sarcastic, and unapologetically conservative commentary throughout.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Abigail Spamberger Collapse

• Opening Theme: Abigail Spamberger, once touted as a model “centrist” Democrat, has seen her approval ratings plummet just six months into her governorship.
• Labeling as a Trojan Horse:
  • Smug: “The consequences of Abigail Spamberger being a Trojan horse is starting to catch up with her.” [00:11]
• The "Centrist" Farce:
  • Duncan: “Convince voters is a moderate and we all know that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat.” [00:15]
  • Ashbrook: “They want to trick you. They want to get you in the door and then raise your taxes... this is exactly who they are. She’s showing you who they are. It’s why she’s unpopular.” [00:22]

Timestamps & Highlights:

• [03:03] Issue framed as the rise and fall of a Democratic superstar, with a preview of other segments (“absolute banger of a show”).
• [08:03] Euphonic recap of how Spamberger’s “moderate” campaign in a purple, closely watched state rapidly gave way to a laundry list of left-wing policy moves as soon as she took office.
  • Duncan: “How does it all unravel so quickly for Abigail Spamberger? … Elected just six months ago and now in hot water under false pretenses, many say.” [03:33]
• [10:59] Approval Ratings Crash:
  • Smug: “She has the highest disapproval at 47%. Not even Ralph Northam [wore blackface]…”
• [13:08] Her record since taking office:
  • Law enforcement noncooperation with ICE
  • Radical tax and environmental proposals
  • Bizarre proposals like “taxing dog walkers” (Ashbrook: “Who would ever think of that? But a liberal Democrat who wants to steal your money and give it to the Somalis.”)
  • Aggressive redistricting/gerrymandering, despite previous campaign opposition.
• [15:19] Press pushbacks and Spamberger’s weak explanations:
  • “If everybody hated me, why is everybody putting my face on their mailers for the referendum?” [15:37]
  • Smug: “She can’t look anybody in the eye… This woman’s entire career is based on fiction.” [16:22]
• [18:00] Republicans use Spamberger’s own prior anti-gerrymandering quotes against her in flyers.

Notable Quotes

• Ashbrook on Democrats:
  • “They want to get you in the door and then… make sure that every criminal, violent, illegal alien is wandering the streets free.” [00:22]
• Smug on her switch:
  • “Her ratings have dipped. Her favorability is sinking by the minute.” [04:10]
• Duncan on the phony moderate:
  • “They need someone they can trick you with.” [12:35]

---

2. Masters Tournament – Gatekeeping and Old School Values

• [05:06] Ashbrook voices affection for tradition at the Masters vs. influencer “clout chasing.”
  • “This tournament is sacrosanct… it’s a unique cultural experience, sort of a throwback to what life was like before the Internet took over.” [06:11]
• Discussion on appropriate conduct at public events – “basic social cues” about phone use.

---

3. Gerrymandering and Racial Politics

• [18:35] The hosts examine the inner-Democratic conflict over gerrymandering and Black Caucus resistance to losing minority-majority districts.
  • Ashbrook: “There are two districts… represented by predominantly like African American areas that are going to be consolidated into one… Historically, [the Black Caucus] have been very happy with the way these districts are drawn because it maximizes black representation…”
• [20:54] On media silence:
  • “In the mainstream media, you won’t read about the statements and press releases from the Black Caucus... They just run right over.” – Ashbrook

---

4. The West Moore Scandal Tease

• [28:14] Breaking: Baltimore Sun investigation into Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s military service.
  • Wes Moore (on air): “It’s a very sad day because the Baltimore Sun used to be our paper of record. It’s now become the paper of the right wing.” [29:20]
• The panel ridicules Moore for attacking the credibility of a legacy liberal newspaper and for “pre-butting” a negative story—often a sign that the story is damning.
• Sinclair journalist Candy Woodall (quoted):
  • “Democrats sure are putting a lot of work to discredit a series before it even started running. That alone should raise questions why?” [31:10]
• Hosts note Moore is backed by influential Obama alumni—his candidacy is a 2028 talking point.

---

5. Cultural Commentary: Expanding LGBTQ “Alphabet”

• [34:25] The team mocks a Canadian MP’s usage of “MMIWG2SLGBTQIA+” to illustrate the ever-expanding list of marginalized identities.
  • Comfortably Smug: “Bro, this is like a password you set for your bank account so no one can hack into that shit.” [35:45]
• [37:27] Comedy bit: Listeners challenged to invent new letters/symbols to add to the LGBTQ+ acronym.

---

6. Hack Madness Champion

• [43:07] Don Lemon crowned as 2026’s “Hack Madness” champion (beating Stephen Colbert by a large margin).
  • Comfortably Smug: “Don Lemon… it was like, 66–33, crushed Colbert.” [43:12]
• Clips highlight Lemon’s self-important and controversial behavior, including storming a church and lecturing attendees.

---

7. Midterm Interview Series: Dr. John Fleming

[48:56–72:55]

• Background: Physician, entrepreneur, former Congressman, ex-Trump Deputy Chief of Staff, now running for U.S. Senate (Louisiana).
• Key Louisiana Race Issues:
  • Sen. Bill Cassidy – attacked over impeachment vote against Trump and for being too liberal for the state.
  • Carbon Capture and Sequestration – Fleming is the sole major GOP candidate opposed to it (labels rivals as insufficiently conservative).
  • Immigration & Stock Trades – Disputes misleading attack ads and comments on Letlow’s delayed stock trade disclosures and DEI advocacy.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Fleming: “If you’re not failing at something, you’re not ambitious enough, you’re not posing your goals high enough.” [70:34]
• On favorite last meal: “That’s easy. A ribeye steak… with baked or smashed potatoes and salad with Thousand Island dressing.” [67:12]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|---------|-----------------| | [00:15] | Duncan | “Convince voters is a moderate and we all know that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat.” | | [06:11] | Ashbrook| “This tournament is sacrosanct. You get to turn on the television and the grass is perfect… It’s a unique cultural experience, a throwback to before the Internet.” | | [12:18] | Smug | “When you come in as a moderate and then openly Trojan horse, you don’t even wait to get inside the gate.” | | [16:22] | Smug | “She can’t look anybody in the eye. This woman’s entire career is based on fiction.” | | [20:02] | Smug | “They have stopped trying to address anything voters actually want. They’ll say anything. At this point, they just want to get elected and just do that shit.” | | [35:45] | Smug | “Bro, this is like a password you set for your bank account so no one can hack into that shit.” | | [43:12] | Smug | “Don Lemon… it was like, 66–33, crushed Colbert.” | | [70:34] | Fleming | “If you’re not failing at something, you’re not ambitious enough, you’re not posing your goals high enough.” |

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–03:33: Abigail Spamberger’s “moderate” façade and rapid fall
• 05:06–07:54: Masters tournament as a metaphor for tradition, gatekeeping, and influencer culture
• 08:03–18:00: Deep dive: Spamberger’s campaign-vs-governing, taxes, ICE, redistricting, and the Republican response
• 18:35–21:07: Gerrymandering tensions and the Black Caucus
• 28:14–33:56: Breaking down the burgeoning Wes Moore scandal
• 34:25–37:56: Comedy bit – expanding LGBT-plus acronym, listener challenge
• 43:07–47:47: Hack Madness results, Don Lemon crowned
• 48:56–72:55: Dr. John Fleming: Interview covering policy, campaign attacks, and fun personal questions

---

Callbacks & Recurring Ruthless Themes

• “There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat.”
• Use of “Trojan Horse” imagery for moderate-posing Dems
• Ridicule of legacy media and influencer culture
• Celebrating political conflict and anti-establishment swipes
• Challenging listeners to participate and interact

---

Conclusion

The episode offers a fast-paced, sardonic, and deeply skeptical look at Democratic politics, using Spamberger’s woes as a national object lesson. The panel skewers media narratives, Democratic internal fractures, and satirizes cultural trends, all while giving listeners practical “red meat” takeaways for election messaging. The Fleming interview provides a bridge from current scandals to hands-on campaign trench warfare.

Key Lesson: For the Ruthless crew, never take a Democrat’s “centrist” branding at face value—watch actions over words, and always prepare for the rug pull.

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

We have the rise and fall of a Democratic superstar, Abigail Spamberger.

[Comfortably Smug]

Her favorability is sinking by the minute.

[Michael Duncan]

How does it all unravel so quickly for Abigail Spamberger?

[Comfortably Smug]

The consequences of Abigail Spamberger being a Trojan horse is starting to catch up with her.

[Michael Duncan]

Convince voters is a moderate and we all know that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. But they need someone they can trick you with.

[John Ashbrook]

They want to trick you. They want to get you in the door and then they want to say, now I'm going to raise your taxes. Now I'm going to take away every gun in your house. Now I'm going to make sure that every criminal, violent, illegal alien is wandering the streets free. We're not going to put any of them in jail. Like this is exactly who they are. She's showing you who they are. It's why she's unpopular.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, this is a rug pull. Yeah, this was. She had lied straight up about being a centrist and day one opening seconds of her governorship was to go as far left as possible.

[John Ashbrook]

This woman's entire career is based on fiction.

[Michael Duncan]

According to a report from Senator Grassley's office, UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest insurer, appears to be gaming the Medicare Advantage system, siphoning off taxpayer money to turn a steep profit. Experts say practices like these are increasing overall Medicare spending, which in turn raises Part B premiums for everyone on Medicare. That means millions of seniors, many living on fixed incomes, are paying hundreds of dollars more each year for the Medicare they need, adding up to billions in higher costs for seniors. And that's in addition to the trillions of dollars that taxpayers have already paid. Big insurance. It's a clear example of big insurance putting profits ahead of patients, taxpayers and seniors. Learn more about how Congress needs to rein in big insurance at Americans for Open Government.

[NetChoice Representative]

Congress must not take away parents control over their kids personal information. The App Store Accountability act forces you to upload your child's sensitive documents like a birth certificate, and it would share that information too broadly. A calculator doesn't need to know how old your child is. A better approach puts parents in control while keeping kids safe online. Parents should decide what of their children's information is shared with an app developer. Tell prioritize parents and keep them in control. There are better solutions to keep kids safe online. This is America. Parents should be in control of what's best for our children. NetChoice is dedicated to making the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise. Learn [e-mail] keepappstores safe.

[Announcer]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Fun Time Friday returns here on the Ruthless Variety Program. I am Michael Duncan, along with Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. Still know Josh Holmes. I believe he was last spotted trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz, but he'll be back with us next week. We have a banger, an absolute banger of a show. For you today. We have the rise and fall of a Democratic superstar, Abigail Spamberger. Oh, boy. Elected just six months ago and now

[John Ashbrook]

in hot water under false pretenses, many say.

[Michael Duncan]

Many people are saying. We also are hearing inklings of a explosive investigation into another Democratic governor and potential 2028 candidate, Wes Moore. We're going to get into that here as well on the show. We also have a special guest. Continuing our midterm interview series, we have Dr. John Fleming from Louisiana, which rounds out the three candidates in that Republican primary here for you on the Ruthless Variety Program. Fellas, how we. How we feeling about today?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, this show is going to be amazing. I think a lot of the fun time, like the variety, everything's gonna be hilarious. The fun time is going to be holding these people accountable. Like the consequences of Abigail Spamberger being a Trojan horse is starting to catch up with her. Like her ratings have dipped. Like her favorability is sinking by the minute. And Wes Moore is in some hot water. And people have been talking in whispers

[Michael Duncan]

about a lot of rumors.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's a lot of problems with him,

[Michael Duncan]

and they're starting to fight back a little, which tells you everything you need to know about how damning some of this stuff is going to be. I think smug. We have to hold one more person accountable here, and that is John Ashbrook.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, boy.

[Michael Duncan]

It is Funtime Friday, and I'm expecting good board usage out of you today. Okay, can you give me a little liar? Okay, okay.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what you deserve for blood.

[Michael Duncan]

Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I just tell you something? We talked about a lot about all the politics and these lunatic Dems and everything, but this is really one of my favorite weekends of the year because this is the weekend of the Masters tournament.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

And I don't know if you guys caught this out of the gate, but there's been a lot of controversy about these influencers showing up at the Masters, like Travis Kelce and someone named the Miz or the Mix or something. All these people who are just trying to, like, use the Augusta National Golf course and all the pageantry and tradition for their own, like, you know, clout chasing.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And the patrons aren't having it.

[Michael Duncan]

The patrons, because the purists in the game want to. Gatekeepers. The institution of Augusta and the Masters as a tournament is something apart and special, basically.

[John Ashbrook]

I think gatekeeping is good in some cases.

[Comfortably Smug]

I support gatekeeping.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like the last thing they have. And like, I saw some guy tweet last night, of course, because you can't have a cell phone on. On property during the tournament, there was. There were two ladies with blue hair and leg tats and.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are you serious?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Well, actually, there was a guy, Mark Calcio, one of the former golfer was kicked out because he had his cell phone out and he tried to sneak it in. I think that this tournament is sacrosanct. You know, it's just. It's just one weekend a year when you get to turn on the television and the grass is perfect, the sky is usually perfect, the flowers are in bloom, and the golf is incredible. Every single one of these people is on the top of their game, and every person in the crowd is there without their cell phones. It's special, you know, you got the $2 sandwiches, the three do beers or whatever. And it's a unique cultural experience. It's sort of a throwback to what life was like before the Internet took over. And there are a lot of good things about the Internet, but there are also a lot of good things about Augusta. I hope to God that they learn from the criticism that they're hearing right now and they try to wipe it out.

[Michael Duncan]

I am against the influencers at the Masters up and until the moment we're invited and then I'm all for it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, we're not going to have our cell phones. We're going to be watching golf like all the other people.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is, like, you know, there's nothing inherently bad. You know, these media types who will show up to event, but, like, it's the same thing as, like, movie theaters. People have lost the, like, common sense of. I mean, it's like when someone's putting everyone shut the hell up. Like, you should have this kind of like, basic social cues. Understood. Don't pull out your phone in a movie theater. Don't talk during the movies. Don't pull your phone out during the mountain. Like, why would you need your phone? You know what I mean? Like, if you're there to try to be like, I gotta sneak in a selfie to let everyone know I'm here. You're in the wrong place. You're in the wrong place.

[John Ashbrook]

You missed the point. The entire purpose is to escape from temporarily, like escape from your reality. And they're like, no, no, no, no. Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, we'll all be watching this week. And speaking of common sense, smug someone who's lost their common sense is our first story here on the ruthless reality program Abigail Spamberger. Now, you know we live in Virginia, so we obviously followed this election very closely last November. And now she's of course blown up on the national scene. Just by way of context here, let's put up graphic 6. This was election night. Abigail Spamberger winning that election by 15 points. Now these elections in liberal media take on special import. The off year elections in places like New Jersey and Virginia. People want to read the tea leaves about what the political future of the United States looks like. It's also a proving ground for the candidates of the future, a launching pad to national recognition. Of course, this led to a lot of people talking about Abigail Spamberger maybe being more than governor of Virginia. Let's put up that graphic from the Hill. The headline here is Forget Crockett and AOC Spamberger and Cheryl are Democrats faces for 2028. And what you see in here I think is interesting. Number one, elevating Spamberger.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also that's Mickey Sheryl, the New Jersey governor who won. And this article came out like the day after the election day.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. But it's also the liberal media trying to do the job of the Democrat Party. And that is minimize the squad and these lunatics that get us in trouble all the time. And let's usher in a more palatable face for the future of the Democrat Party.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the whole thing is the way that they modeled the way even Spamberger ran her campaign as being like, I'm a centrist. I'm just a middle of the road. I speak for you. And that's why you got those numbers of she put up 57.8 is she painted her opponent, Winsome Sears, as being like too extreme for Virginia. Right. Of being like, I'm the centrist. And newspapers, all the mainstream media went with this whole message after the election of, you know, she's just a centrist. That's the kind of candidate we're looking for, folks. We want centrists. It's not aoc. You don't have to worry.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and the other thing that's interesting is in Virginia, the candidates, they get one term you know, so you walk in the door and you're suddenly a lame duck in some instances. Right. And so it's a perfect launching pad for people with higher ambitions for maybe being President of the United States someday. So how does it all unravel so quickly for Abigail Spamberger? Graphic number one, please. Spamberger currently has a 47% approval mark. This is the lowest, making her the least popular governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 1993 when this data was collected.

[Comfortably Smug]

So as long as they've had this data, I mean, you got at this point in the governorship of a Virginia governor, she has the Highest disapproval at 47%. Not even Ralph Northam.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook made this point in the production meeting. He's like, ralph Northam wore blackface. And he was still more popular than Abigail Spamberger.

[John Ashbrook]

What does that say about her?

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the thing, is it did not take long. And huge credit to a lot of Republican operatives, a lot of Republicans online, some media organizations who started pointing out these things that Abigail Spamberger started doing. Like day one when she proclaims that Virginia will no longer cooperate with isof. This was. This was a rug pull. Yeah, this was. She had lied straight up about being a centrist. And day one opening seconds of her governorship was to go as far left as possible. And the fact that, you know, folks online, some media organizations, Fox did reporting on this, made it known, is what has driven her disapproval this high. Because if you, the Dems thought this could be the playbook, you saw that they were like, oh, they're the future, not the squad. It's Mickey Sherrell and, and Abigail Spamberger. When you come in as a moderate and then openly Trojan horse, you don't even wait to get inside the gate.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

You just straight off the bat go full left wing, nut job. People don't like that kind of thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, that bait and switch is what convinces me this Hill columnist is actually correct, that AOC and Crockett aren't the face of Democrats. It's Spamberger who's the face of Democrats. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

They need to put somebody and elevate them that they can convince voters is a moderate. And we all know that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. But they need someone they can trick you with.

[John Ashbrook]

They want to trick you. They want to get you in the door. And then they want to say, now I'm going to raise your taxes. Now I'm going to take away every gun in your house. Now I'm Going to make sure that every criminal, violent, illegal alien is wandering the streets free. We're not going to put any of them in jail. This is exactly who they are. She's showing you who they are. It's why she's unpopular.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And so all of those things that she rolled out to Smug's point on day one, what Abigail Spamberger was going to do as governor of Virginia was a laundry list, complete laundry list of liberal fantasies. It was raising your taxes. It's environmental radicalism. It's stopping law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. A lot of things that are 80,

[John Ashbrook]

20 issues and things you wouldn't even think of. Like taxing dog walkers.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, right. Just crazy.

[John Ashbrook]

Who would ever think of that? But a liberal Democrat who wants to steal your money and give it to the Somalis.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It's unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Kids who are trying to walk dogs.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And then we come to this gerrymandering issue, but really redrawing the Virginia map. I would remind everybody listening and watching to this that Abigail Spamberger opposed this partisan plan to redraw the Virginia map, which was historically a 6, 5 Democrat Republican district map state, into a 101 map for Democrats. She did not support it when she was running for governor. Lo and behold, she becomes governor, and now she's the face of this very unpopular redistricting plan that is before the voters a few weeks from today, or not from today, from this week in Virginia. And so she's gotten a lot of flack for that. And so reporters have been asking her.

[Comfortably Smug]

Important also for the folks who have been following us, hopefully you heard on our previous episodes where we discussed this, Virginia. Is it fair to say Virginia is like a 55 Dem, 45 Republican state?

[Michael Duncan]

Depends on the year, midterm or presidential and stuff. It's closer in presidentials, but yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So it's pretty middle of the road. Purple state, for sure.

[Michael Duncan]

Glenn Youngkin was just governor and he's Republican.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. And then Abigail Spamberger's redistricting plan essentially just wipes every Republican member of Congress out.

[Michael Duncan]

And it does hilarious stuff. Like it divides up Arlington into five different.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep. Because there's an extremely high concentration of Democrats here. So she wants to, like, spread those into as many districts as possible to turn them all blue.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So you could be a farmer in the middle the state represented by an NGO consultant from Arlington.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly. So she's getting a lot of flack for this. She's asked by reporters, you know, why aren't you so Popular anymore.

[Comfortably Smug]

Clip number two, Ma', am, earlier this week, there was a pull up that had your numbers a little unfavorable. And then your predecessor, Glenn, was making a podcast run earlier to taking a couple jabs at you, I guess, overall on your numbers, what do you attribute that to? And then what would you say back to Glenn?

[Michael Duncan]

I would say, if everybody hated me,

[Comfortably Smug]

why is everybody putting my face on

[Dr. John Fleming]

their mailers for the referendum?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, she's on all the flyers for the referendum, therefore, very popular.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Dr. John Fleming]

She sure is.

[John Ashbrook]

And I know you guys have a lot of really good stuff on this, but something just occurred to me watching her respond to that question. I noticed her glance at the person she was talking to for a split second, but then she looked down and to the left. You know, lots of rumors that she's like some kind of CIA plant. Aren't they taught that if you look down and to the left, that's how the person interviewing you knows you're lying? Or is it down and to the right? Or is it just not making eye contact because you have nothing truthful to say? And this woman's entire career is based on fiction.

[Comfortably Smug]

Of course.

[John Ashbrook]

She can't look anybody in the eye.

[Michael Duncan]

It also kind of feels like small ball. You're the governor of the state and you're like, my face is on the mailers.

[John Ashbrook]

Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

People love me, right? You really like me. I'm on the mailers, you know, and so, I mean, it's also interesting because obviously she's. She's only alluding to half the state, the Democrats. So the Democrats still like me because I'm on all their mailers. But it's not the only mailers that she's on.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, boy.

[Michael Duncan]

Because as I pointed out earlier, she opposed this partisan gerrymandering plan when she was running for governor. And some Republicans have decided to point that out to the voters of Virginia. Let's put up graphic number two. I love this. There she is, smiling. Abby.

[John Ashbrook]

Full eye contact. It's a rarity for her.

[Michael Duncan]

And this is a vote by mail, direct mail piece that says, say no to gerrymandering. And then it's got a nice convenient quote from Abigail Spamberger. Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electors.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Huh?

[Michael Duncan]

Very popular. They don't take too kindly to that.

[John Ashbrook]

They sure don't. They don't like hearing what they said before.

[Michael Duncan]

They put up a whole article about these Republican uses of quotes by Abigail Spamberger. And the Spamberger campaign has called this a shady tactic. Not running for governor and saying you oppose the thing and then endorsing it. That's not shady, apparently. But Republicans using your quotes is apparently shady.

[Comfortably Smug]

Incredible.

[Michael Duncan]

But not only Abigail Spambergers being used by Republicans to try to defeat this ballot measure. Let's put up graphic number three. There's Obama, quote, let's let voters decide, not politicians. Vote no today. Now return your ballot. Vote early in person. Vote no on gerrymandering, which I absolutely love. And this guy's also to camera on TV screens across Virginia talking about why we have to pass a gerrymandering plan.

[John Ashbrook]

One of the uncomfortable complications that Democrats today trying to pass this brand new map are not acknowledging is the internal fight that they have as a party on the issue of gerrymandering. There are two districts represented by predominantly. You're representing predominantly, like African American areas that are going to be consolidated into one. And so something that has been like an issue standing in the way of Dem or like the Democrats have had to deal with in gerrymandering for a very long time is the Congressional Black Caucus caucus. In a lot of ways. Historically, they have been very happy with the way these districts are drawn because it maximizes black representation for black communities in this country. And so if you're asking why is the state of Maryland not interested in gerrymandering their state? And even with all the pressure they're getting from national Democrats, it's because they're like, wait a minute. We've really worked hard to make sure that black neighborhoods are represented by a black representative. And then these national Democrats, like Abigail Spamberger and her ilk come in and they're like, no, no, no. We know better than you. We're gonna take your decision.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like, shut up. We say we stand with black voters as a fucking. That's a talking point. We don't actually mean or care about that shit.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. It comes down to exactly what Spamberger, she is the future of the Democrat Party. They have stopped trying to address anything voters actually want. They'll say anything. At this point, they just want to get elected and just do that shit. And they don't know why. Like, they get like, in that interview, you could see she's like, why are you asking me questions? Yeah, leave me alone. Don't you know, it's like, my turn to do whatever I want. We're going to gerrymander the shit out of this place.

[Michael Duncan]

It is interesting, though, to your point Ash, Brooke, like when different power structures within the Democrat Party establishment go mano e mano here because obviously the Black Caucus is a major power center in Democrat politics. But then you have the national Democratic Party establishment that has other ambitions for people like Abigail Spamberger.

[John Ashbrook]

And of course, in the mainstream media, you won't read about the statements and press releases from the Black Caucus because what the mainstream media cares about is what the Dem establishment once it's the only thing they care about. So they just run right over.

[Michael Duncan]

And if a Republican was doing this in this in the state of Virginia, they would cry racism.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely.

[John Ashbrook]

But you know what Republicans did? We put up a historic candidate, the first black woman nominee for the, for the office of governor. And what did Democrats do? They ran right over. Oh, would have been history.

[Michael Duncan]

Weird how that works.

[John Ashbrook]

But Abigail Spamberger wanted it for herself.

[Michael Duncan]

More here from the New York Post. The headline reads, former top Biden aide urges Virginia Governor Abigail Spamberger to stop using his playbook quote, come out of her Biden bunker.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

A former top official in the Biden administration slammed Abigail Spamberger as wrongly following Joe Biden's playbook, squandering goodwill and allowing the GOP to define her, demanding she come out of her Biden bunker. Apparently former governor George Allen had offered her a debate on this issue of redistricting. Okay, you know, let's have a public airing of grievances on this whole thing and, you know, try to come to some sort of resolution. And she ran away from it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also it says, and Spamberger briskly avoided a runaway from a Fox News Digital reporter who confronted the tight lipped governor in Richmond this week. Like, this is she is 100% seeing this is becoming a problem for her is word has gotten out. Congratulations again to all the Republicans who have been correct in trying to inform people about how terrible this gerrymandering process is. And it's getting to her. It's hurting her numbers. She's freaking out about it and apparently she's even trying to distance herself from it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, there's this article in the Virginia Mercury. The headline is, as referendum near, Spamberger balances governing and campaigning.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a great way to put it.

[Michael Duncan]

I love this. I love the way they frame this up. So Spamberger on Wednesday pushed back against criticism from some fellow Democrats who say she has not done enough publicly to rally support for Virginia's April 21 redistricting referendum. Spamberger argued that she has Been clear in her support while prioritizing governing in the early months of her administration. Prioritize governing, telling law enforcement they can't work with ice. Really governing. It's going really well.

[John Ashbrook]

Let that kill her out of jail, raise their taxes.

[Michael Duncan]

Here's the quote. I have made it very clear, very clear that I support a yes vote and I think Virginians should vote yes. She told reporters outside the executive mansion in Richmond. But she added, my priority and my responsibility is on governance.

[John Ashbrook]

Ridiculous.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also that they let her get away with. In the headline, they even say that she's balancing governing and campaigning. Like, oh, you know, she's just trying to do so many things. In the headlines of Virginia, it's been like a war zone in Northern Virginia. They had a 19 year old illegal alien who they put into a school. He's too old to be in school, right? But he's been in there sexually assaulting girls who go to that school non stop. They're letting him run amok because Abigail Spamberger doesn't want police working with ice. He's not getting deported. He's getting put back in schools again and again and again. And then you hear something like 70% of the murders that have been committed in Northern Virginia since the start of the new year have been committed by illegal aliens. If that's her governing, I'd rather her campaign because her governing is killing people.

[Michael Duncan]

So I have a question here for the group. The rise and fall of Abigail Spamberger is hopefully an instructive case to Republicans because Republicans are going to face dozens of Abigail Spambergers here in this midterm election across this country, in Senate races, in House races, all across the country. What do Republicans have to do to use this test case of unmasking a fake moderate Democrat and keep the House and the Senate?

[John Ashbrook]

You know, dude, I think this is the challenge for every Republican because you're exactly right. The Democrats are going to put up a bunch of candidates just like her and they are all going to sound like they're saying the right things. The ads are gonna paint a picture of somebody who is a moderate. You have to remember as a candidate, there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. And that is your guiding star. Do not accept this Democrat. Yeah, your opponent is a little bit more of a centrist. Don't ever accept that premise. When a reporter asks you about it or when somebody asks you about your opponent, never accept it. This person that you're running against, who is a Democrat, is likely a wolf in sheep's clothing. And you have, you know, you've got an object lesson in what's happened here in the state of Virginia. And I think you could just drive it and drive it and drive it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, I think like we've said on the show a bunch, there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. That needs to be a huge part of the midterm message. Because you're right, there are going to, there's gonna be an army of Abigail Spambergers. But the thing is, Abigail actually wasn't the first Trojan horse. The first Trojan horse was Joe Biden because he ran as like, oh, you know, just a middle of the road caretaker guy. He went, he opened the border and let in all these illegal criminals. Tens of millions made a mess of this country that we're crawling back from. That needs to be. The midterm message is, yeah, we love having the border shut down. It's unprecedented. Like zero illegals going on, like almost a year. That's unbelievable progress.

[John Ashbrook]

What were the words of George W. Bush? Fool me twice, can't get fooled again. Yeah, remember those words.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can't get fooled again.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right. Spamberger isn't the only once promising Democrat looking at the prospect of Dash 2028 dreams. Just across the river in Maryland, there are early reports of a forthcoming and damning investigation by the Baltimore sun about Wes Moore's military service. We have the details right after this.

[Announcer]

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

[Michael Duncan]

And we're back and we're giving you this story a little bit early. We don't have all of the details, but as we often do here on the Ruthless Variety program, we'd like to get you a peek at news before it's news. And this is going to be a big story. And the reason why we know it's going to be a big story is because Wes Moore, the subject of this Baltimore sun investigation, is pre budding the forthcoming investigation, a rare thing to see in politics when you're trying to get ahead of what you know or anticipate will be a terrible story. So let's just start the tape there. Here's Wes Moore on Ms. Now with Jen Psaki. Explain for our viewers what is happening here. Well, it's actually a very sad day because the Baltimore sun used to be our paper of record. It's now become the paper of the right wing. And I think we've seen how their leadership has continued to decline. But it's happened because you've had a MAGA billionaire who is now currying favor for the President of the United States.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, dude, calling the Baltimore sun right wing is insane.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, really, where to start? Right there, probably. Baltimore sun is right wing. It's now a Maga publication. This paper's been around for what, 200 years? But what they are doing is a very serious investigation into Wes Moore.

[Comfortably Smug]

Real quick, before we get to that, I just want to say when Jen Psaki brings West Moore on and she was like, so what's the story? She's essential. She's not asking a question. She's not doing a journalism.

[Michael Duncan]

She's outsourcing herself.

[Comfortably Smug]

She's not like, these are the faults. These are accusations are being leveled against you. She's like, Wes Moore, have my TV show.

[Michael Duncan]

Have my TV show. Do whatever you need to do to attack this newspaper.

[John Ashbrook]

Let me point something out about Wes Moore that's a little bit obvious. Not every Democrat running in 2028 has as few social skills as Abigail Spamberger. I mean, Abigail Spamberger has all the social abilities of Napoleon Dynamite's brother from that movie. Right. Wes Moore will look you in the eye. He is very smooth. He's very friendly. I've talked to Republicans who are like, man, this guy is a lot of fun to hang out with.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I saw him chugging a beer in the parking lot at the Ravens Stadium.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly. And he's a guy who. There are a lot of Obama, former Obama guys who are kind of behind him and pushing him along. So this is a name. I think you could see Spamberger sort of falling off in the 2028 conversation. This is a name you're going to hear over and over again.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Again.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But there's always been questions about his military service. He explained he had. He had earned this Bronze Star. There's been reporting out there questioning all of that and some of the other parts of his biography that people believe he's sort of, you know, fibbed about. So here is a After that, that Mississippi now appearance came out. There was a, quote, tweet from a Sinclair, Baltimore sun producer, Candy Woodall. She wrote, democrats sure are putting a lot of work to discredit a series before it even started running. That alone should raise questions why? In January, I was warned directly that if Spotlight, that's the series here that they're doing, continued its investigations into Governor Westmore's military records and one of his superiors that his office would send files to every media reporter to try and discredit us. We saw the same playbook in 2022 when a Fox 49 reporter asked why Moore allowed claims that he had received a Bronze Star that he did not have at the time. His team accused the reporter in the media outlet of bias in a smear campaign. Two years later, after the New York Times wrote about the Bronze Star Moore hadn't received, the narrative changed, and the governor said it was an honest mistake. In an August 2024 statement on his military record, Moore acknowledged he knew before leaving Afghanistan that he had not received the award. Spotlight's reporting digs deeper into Moore's military records and more. And our investigative series will begin to publish soon. So, as they say in journalism, watch this space.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. I know I'm going to, because I

[Michael Duncan]

imagine it's going to be explosive.

[Comfortably Smug]

And the thing is, you know, not everyone may know this. If you're not like an east coaster, if you're not very tight in the Cellar corridor crowd. But Wes Moore has been heralded as being like, ooh, he is going to.

[Michael Duncan]

Especially, as Ash Brook said, with the Obama crew.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. And they made it known that they're like, you know, some Obama folks are starting to rally around Wes Moore trying to build up the hype this guy has. So, like, you know, at a bunch of, like, these tech conferences and stuff, I would go to, he'd show up and they'd be like, oh, now you know, the bipartisan voice of reason. And he served, and everyone likes this guy. It's Western. I was like, this guy seems like he's more marketing campaign than real person.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I do have to say, you know, for all of Ms. Now's faults and all of Jen Psaki's faults, I do think that we should tip the cap to her and to that network for drawing our attention to this particular issue. Because I thought that the Bronze Star conversation was reported and buried like a year ago, but now, thanks to them, they have really shined a light and echoed what the sun is about to report. I'm telling you, I'm interested. I'm going to click now. I'm going to look for it and I think a lot of other people will too.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely. One other piece of news that we have to get to you because I saw it all across of X. Yeah. Yesterday. And that is, I guess they put out a new budget in Canada and there's a Member of Parliament who's very upset about that as it relates to the LGBT community. But however, they've added a few characters to the. The lgbt when we got to check that out.

[Comfortably Smug]

Deal with the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQIA plus this is abhorren. Can you run that back?

[Michael Duncan]

Run it back.

[Comfortably Smug]

Run it back. With the ongoing Genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQIA this is abhorrent.

[Michael Duncan]

Bro.

[Comfortably Smug]

That sounds like, I mean, Alexa having a stroke or something. You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

I'm shocked she could do it without taking a breath. Absolutely nail. You know what? One more time.

[Comfortably Smug]

Deal with the ongoing Genocide of MMIWG 2 SLGBTQIA plus oh my God, this is abhorrent.

[John Ashbrook]

What's the MMIW?

[Comfortably Smug]

Murderers in women's clothing. No, it's not.

[Michael Duncan]

I believe it's like missing and murdered indigenous women.

[Comfortably Smug]

My God.

[Michael Duncan]

Because there, there, there is a lot of violence that happens on these reservations. I don't know what G2. Wait, 2s is two spirits. I think I know that one. I don't know what QQ. I think one is question.

[Comfortably Smug]

They even got a plus now the plus. So it's, you know the fact that it's gone beyond just like letters because used to be like, oh, here's the Alphabet. Now they got numbers and symbols.

[Michael Duncan]

What letters are gonna be left?

[Comfortably Smug]

Bro, this is like a password. This is like a password you set for your bank account so no one can hack into that shit. They're like, did you use a special character? Did you use an uppercase letter? Did you use a number?

[John Ashbrook]

If you're talking about women who were murdered, that's wild. And like the killers haven't been brought to justice.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it's. I think it's an admission that Democrats count on dead people to be their voters. Cuz this is 100% them. Just like rallying to the deadpool. You know, rallying to their voters so they're like, we admit dead people are voting Democrats. We need to make sure we acknowledge these people.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what? I think it really is, and we talked about this on the last episode. It's just like all of these liberals parties, whether in the United States or elsewhere, are all controlled by dark money NGOs and all these things that need funding from the government. The only reason she's upset is that the budget in Canada cut funding to some program that claimed to do something to help these women that I guarantee it was not doing. Just like how Gavin Newsom was gonna solve homelessness in California. Never did. Or build all that light rail, high speed rail that doesn't lay track. It's all this network of nonprofits that suck at the teat of government. And that's why she's pissed. Not cause cares about indigenous women.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's exactly right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, this brings us to our question of the day, and this is a good one. I believe Wolf cooked this one up. All right, can we actually play it one more time? Because I want to give all of our listeners and viewers the context one more time before they think about adding letters or characters. You got to make sure you write this down before you submit your comment.

[Comfortably Smug]

Deal with the ongoing Genocide of MMIWG 2 SLGBTQIA plus.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. So if you want to add to the Oppression Olympics a new character to that long list, we want you to submit that as a comment on YouTube, like, and subscribe.

[Comfortably Smug]

What letter for what group? F for furries.

[Michael Duncan]

Is it for furries? Yours would be furries.

[John Ashbrook]

B for Beto.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, same thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Or I guess it doesn't even have to be a letter. It could be a number. It could be, you know, a character ampersand.

[Michael Duncan]

Just a money sign.

[John Ashbrook]

Just think about your passwords.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And what's suggested?

[Michael Duncan]

Be creative. Please be creative and explain the letter or special character you're adding. I want to see that. That brings us to our wonderful partner on today's episode one that we talk about here often on the Ruthless Variety program. And that is Zbiotics, a prebiotic drink that you take before you have a big night out. And we have many here on the Ruthless Variety program.

[Comfortably Smug]

And the reason we love ZBiotics is because ZBiotics works like, I will not have a single drink unless I have ZBiotics first. Wolf hoards it here in the office. He makes it difficult for us to get our hands on, but I know I need my zebiotics. Here's how it works, folks. You know how after you have a big night out, have a few drinks with your friends, you can feel, you can feel it in the morning. Well, you drink Zebiotics first and you don't have to worry about that because here's the thing is you think you have to chug Gatorade when you get home or drink three glasses of water, but you still feel awful. It's because it's not about dehydration. When you have alcohol, your stomach breaks it down. There's these toxic byproducts. That's what's making you feel terrible. You have Zbiotics first and it knocks that stuff right out.

[John Ashbrook]

And it was all developed by PhD scientists. So you know it works. I mean, we know it works because we've tried it and we have experience. But it's one of the reasons why always we it like, like to say there is no tomorrow without ZBiotics today.

[Michael Duncan]

No one has pressure tested this more than the Ruthless Variety Program. So just remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Go to zbiotics.com ruthless to learn more and get 50% off your first order when you use Ruthless at checkout. Zebiotics is backed by 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, head to ZBiotics.com Ruthless and use the code Ruthless at checkout for 15% off. Well, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program, we read all of your comments and get back to you on the next episode. Our last question of the day on the previous episode was, is the Iran conflict over? Is this a temporary pause ceasefire going to last? And to get your comments on that, we always start with the voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, first one comes from James Corns. James writes, I wish it was over. I really do. However, I have watched these lunatics for 50 years. Their ideology is that death is better than life. I pray I'm wrong. The USS Boxer will be in theater soon and if Iran doesn't agree with the President's ultimatums, it's going to be game on like nobody has ever seen before. God bless our troops and the United States of America. That's James Corns with a very important comment.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, love that one. Smug. What do we got for number two?

[Comfortably Smug]

Number two is from Parsley Palace. They write, I hope it's not the end. We need to completely stop Iran from being in control. Of the strait. That is international water. They have no right to do that. We also need to take Carg Island.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow, that's interesting.

[John Ashbrook]

Of course, that's the island right off the coast that has. I mean, I guess it's got so much Iranian military infrastructure sitting there. Well, a lot of the infrastructure got bombed.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it's oil.

[Michael Duncan]

It's the oil infrastructure too. And yeah, I mean, Iran controlling the strait is something that obviously we don't want to be going on. We don't want them charging a $2 million toll for every ship that passes through there, rights of free navigation and all.

[Comfortably Smug]

Unless we get half.

[Michael Duncan]

Unless maybe we get half.

[John Ashbrook]

We take half right here at the ruthless variety program.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a peace deal. We take half.

[Michael Duncan]

Comment number 3 here from Toshvaratu. I believe Tosh Faratu has had another comment. Sounds familiar. Toshvaratu writes, I believe the question of if this Iran conflict is over or not fully depends on who in Iran currently has the influence and power. That's something we don't know, but we'll find out soon enough. A free Iranian people who can choose for themselves how they want to move forward without being in danger from their own leaders is the best result in my mind. I think in everyone's mind. It remains to be seen if that's possible. There is some sense, both from the President of the United States and from the fact we got this ceasefire done, that the posture of this new Iranian leadership is a little bit different. Because in the past, they had said that they weren't going to agree to any sort of ceasefire at all. And then suddenly they came to the table. There was a little bit of reporting that maybe this new Ayatollah stepped in and allowed the leadership to negotiate this with Pakistan acting as the mediator. But only time really will tell. Okay, you ready for a special Variety segment, fellas? It's time to crown the champion of hack madness. Well, he survived. Survived a gauntlet. Our new champion for 2026, Don Lemon.

[Comfortably Smug]

Huge.

[John Ashbrook]

Huge.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, this is a guy. Look at that. There it is. Defeats Stephen Colbert.

[Michael Duncan]

Can we get some applause out of the board? Ashbrook, what the heck?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, this was. This was a hard fought victory if we're all being honest. You see there in the final four, you had Hasan Piker, you had Don Lemon and Stephen Colbert, Bobby Phillip. And then it ended up being between, between Don Lemon and Stephen Colbert. Don Lemon wins it. And not just like, there it is, there it is. And it wasn't just like close even like, Don Lemon. It was like, 66, 33 crushed Colbert. And I think there's a lot to be said about how Don Lemon even got here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And I think, you know, when he went into that church and disrupted the service, we all thought he was focused on the clicks, but he may have sent up a request for something else. And I think that he was asking. It could be. Nobody's confirmed this. I think he may have been asking for an opportunity to win this tournament.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think that's right. I think it's also only appropriate that we take a look back on all of the horrible takes that led us to this moment where Don Lemon was crowned as champion. Let's go to clip number six.

[Tom]

No, no. You guys are doing. I watch you. You guys. Ms. Now is doing the best job out of any network, I think.

[Comfortably Smug]

So.

[Tom]

It's not you not to knock. We're not knocking you guys, because you guys are standing in the place where journalists should be standing now. And I said, you guys are under pressure that I can't even imagine right now. I used to be under, but even it's worse now. And you're doing a great job.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you for that, Tom. This is a reminder. Ms. Now is no longer MSNBC for a reason. It was so unpopular with NBC execs, they spun it off and didn't let him keep the name.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like, just get away from us, please.

[Michael Duncan]

And Don Lemon's like, you guys are leading the way.

[Comfortably Smug]

But that wasn't his worst take of the year.

[John Ashbrook]

Could we get clip one if I wanted to?

[Tom]

I know people are gonna think I'm crazy. This is gonna be the headline, and people are gonna laugh about it. I think I could be president of the United States. I could definitely run this country better than. Than Donald Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

He's right about one thing. We are gonna laugh at that.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's how delusional this guy really is. I mean, like, even while he was still on tv, all these stories were coming out about how he's just an absolute maniac. No one wanted to work with him. He had all these, like, cases going on, and they were happy to get rid of him. But of course, we know the real reason he won, in my opinion. Clip seven. How are you?

[Michael Duncan]

Good.

[Tom]

They're getting the operation together again. This is the operation that is a secret. Storming a church invited folks out. Can't tell you what is going to happen, but you're going to watch it live unfold here on the Don Lemon Show. There are this for this Reason looks that for this reason, it may look like maga.

[Comfortably Smug]

See, that's the thing, is he stormed a church, which is the most insane. I can't even understand the mind of someone who thought, like, this is a good idea. You saw kids that were horrified in there with their parents not knowing if. I mean, there had been a shooting at a church. Not like a couple months earlier when that transgender shooter was. Came and attacked a church. They don't know what's going on. All these weirdos and wackos run up in a church, start attacking people, start telling people that you're all racist worse than Hitler, while kids are at church and Don Lemon's in their face being like, do you feel ashamed of what you're allowing to happen? Like a church? He was like, there's a MAGA crowd here. And that's why he won. I mean, here's the thing is it'll be debated if he's the biggest hacked journo, because that's gonna be adjudicated by the law, apparently.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, well, it's well deserved. It may have an asterisk on it in a court of law.

[Comfortably Smug]

We'll.

[Michael Duncan]

We'll see. But he is not the only champion. We also have a champion out of the listeners and viewers. We had over 1500 people submit brackets for Hack Madness. Our champion. We actually have a tie at the top there with most points. So we both have hammer 2977. And then, Shannon, congratulations to the two of you. We're going to be sending some merch your way. Champions of our prediction bracket of Hack Madness.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a real achievement. You know, it takes an understanding of the media landscape, an understanding of what people perceive about who is the worst out of journalism. And, you know, hats off, you know, a tie. I don't think we've ever had a tie.

[Michael Duncan]

No, I don't think we have. But if you send an email to hello, Ruthless podcast dot com, we're going to get you your merch post haste. And that brings us back to our interview that we alluded to at the top of the show, continuing our midterm interview series. Can we put up that graphic? Starting to fill it out here, folks. We obviously had all three candidates from that Texas primary, which is now in a runoff. We've been filling them up across the rest of the country in a lot of battlegrounds states, and this one is our third and final interview in the Louisiana primary, Dr. John Fleming. Well, I want to welcome to the program the treasurer of the great state of Louisiana and also a Candidate for United States Senate, John Fleming. How are you?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Hey. I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me on today.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course. So. So you're not only a doctor, a veteran, an entrepreneur, but now a candidate for the United States Senate. I gotta ask you, why do you keep adding bullet points to your cv?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Well, my wife says I haven't decided what I'm gonna be when I grow up. Maybe that gives you some idea.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

So why did you go into public service in politics? You're treasurer now, but you were also in the House of Representatives. Can you tell us a little bit about your background? What led you to that?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Yeah, I grew up in a working class home. My dad died just before I left for college, and he died at age 43 of a heart attack. Left a disabled mom, two young siblings, and I just wasn't sure I was even going to get the opportunity to be what I wanted to be in my career, what my heart led me to do, and that is to serve God by serving his children, that is the people, as a physician. But fortunately, I found a way to work odd jobs and a few loans and everything, got through college and then went on, was accepted to medical school and ran out of money again. But the military, the United States Navy put me through medical school in terms of funding, and I served six years in the United States Navy. Although, frankly, even if they hadn't put me through, I would have been happy to do it anyway because I loved being in the military, loved all the icons in my life who had served in World War II. But after six years of military service as a physician, looked for a place to set up a private medical practice, did so. It flourished from the beginning. It still operates today. But after a few years, I became interested in entrepreneurship. So I opened up the first Subway sandwich store in North Louisiana back in 1986. We ultimately grew up to 32, which still operates today. I employ 350 Louisianans there. And I got into other franchise concepts and also real estate development and all that. So after a period of time, I began to realize I had two careers, one as a physician, one is an entrepreneur, a businessman. But I felt led to servant leadership when I had an opportunity to run for the United States House of Representatives. Was elected, served eight years, was one of the nine founders of the House Freedom Caucus that anchors conservatism in the Republican Party, at least in the House of Representatives. And then after those eight years, I went on to several appointments in the Trump administration, first at Health and Human Services, then at the Department of Commerce. And the last 10 months, I was detailed to the West Wing of the White House, where I served as President Trump's deputy chief of staff. This was the peak of the pandemic, and, you know, we had to deal with a lot of things, as you know, that went on during those days. After that period of time, President Trump, of course, was not reelected. So I came back to Louisiana and ran for treasurer. And I've served a little over two years now as a state treasurer of Louisiana, but then ultimately decided I'd like to return to Washington. There's some unfinished business, in my opinion. And 16 months ago, I announced I was running for the U.S. senate. The campaign has done well. I've led in the polls ever since. The people of Louisiana do not want to send Cassidy, Senator Cassidy, back to Washington. And we have a new entrant, of course, Congresswoman Letlow. But as it turns out, she's a bit too liberal for most people in Louisiana. And as a result, even today, I received notice of two independent polls out there that show me in the lead, even though we've only run our first TV ad just in the last 24 hours, whereas they've been running them for months. So we're in pretty good position at this point.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, Dr. Fleming, I mean, you've got an incredible resume, but one of the things I'm really interested in is, you know, you're a man who grew up in the small town south, and there are a lot of differences between small town south and where Michael and I grew up in the Midwest. But there are also a lot of similarities. People from Midwest maybe know about the small town south from Reading Walker Percy or reading John Grisham or something like that. But the reality is you have been traveling around the state of Louisiana for a very long time. And it's not just big cities. There are small towns where there are a lot of people who have a lot on their mind. And I wonder, what is the number one thing you're hearing the most about? I mean, is it the economy? Is it national security? Is it healthcare? Simply because they know you're a doctor, and they're like, hey, Doc, I got this problem. Can you. Can you help me out? You know, what are you hearing the most of?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Well, first of all, the biggest issue in this campaign by far is the fact that Senator Cassidy, after being endorsed for reelection back in 2020, turned around six weeks later, again, after being endorsed by President Trump for his reelection six weeks later, voted to convince President Trump in the second impeachment trial One of seven Republicans senators who did so, along with all the Democrats. Fortunately, they didn't have the requisite number to do it, but they came close. And the people of Louisiana have never forgotten that. I mean, that goes back six years ago. And they're just not happy with what Senator Cassidy did. So that makes him very, very vulnerable. That's number one. Number two is Senator Cassidy's voting record has been far too liberal for the people of Louisiana. We're a very conservative Red maga, America First State, and Senator Cassidy's voting record, if you look at the voting scores from Heritage Action, from Club for Growth, American Conservative Union Numbers usa, all of the major rating agencies, for tens of thousands of votes that he's taken both in the House of Representatives and also in the Senate. And I eight years in the House, and then of course, Letlow, five years in the House. There's no comparison. The two of them are very close together on a moderate, somewhat liberal scale. I'm way up in the 95% range, being highly conservative on the graph compared to them. So you got the lone conservative against two who are arguably liberal. And I can make more cases for Letlow in terms of being liberal. But the number one issue is Kansas City's vote to convict Trump. The number two issue is neither one of them are conservative enough. And then the third issue, which you may or may not know about because it's very local to Louisiana, is something that's, that was passed into law and it's beginning now, is carbon capture and sequestration, which is part of that green New Deal climate change ideology, spending hundreds of billions of dollars to pay companies to drill a hole and stuff carbon dioxide, a very toxic substance, when it's concentrated into the ground, capping it forever. It's totally theoretical, it's never been fully tested. And it's all to meet certain parameters when it comes to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere. And even the EPA has recently come out under President Trump and declared that CO2, unlike the EPA back under Obama, is no longer considered a pollutant in the atmosphere. So we're asking, why do this? Actually, it's more about eminent domain and property rights than anything, because these big companies, just for profiteering, they can actually take your land away to do this. So that's a third big issue. And again, I stand alone. I'm 100% opposed to carbon capture and sequestration. Both of the other candidates, Letlo and Cassidy, are fully for it. Again, I'm conservative conservative. They're not conservative. And then you've got Bill Cassidy who voted to convict Trump, and I'm somebody who was Trump's deputy chief of staff, and I would have never voted to convict Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

So, Doctor, you mentioned the carbon capture and sequestration issue. And I know that this is obviously a three way race. And, you know, when the stakes get high, the knives get long. I've heard that there are two groups out there attacking you right now. Number one, one group is attacking you on the sequestration issue and another one is attacking you on illegal immigration. I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to those.

[Dr. John Fleming]

All right, while we're on carbon capture, let's talk about that attack, Ed. Basically the governor, Jeff Landry, is the one who's really pushing all this carbon capture stuff. And he created an organization, it's a 501, three or four, I'm not sure which. But what it does is it tries to promote this technology. And he doesn't like the fact that I'm standing up against it. So he actually came out and said, both personally and in ads, that I voted six times for carbon capture and sequestration while I was in Congress. Unfortunately, there were no bills that contain the implementation or funding of carbon capture and sequestration. The only bills that we're talking about and the ones he lists were all either omnibus appropriation bills that have a lot of junk in them, but also major energy bills. And I'm pro energy, I'm pro oil and gas, I'm pro fossil fuels and traditional energy. And of course, all Republicans, or at least the conservative Republicans voted for those bills and Pelosi and the Democrats voted against him. So I voted with my colleagues. And he's trying to claim that somehow that that was a liberal Pelosi vote, which is a complete lie. And again, it's just simply not true that there was any. The whole concept of carbon capture and sequestration did not rise until about 2018. I'd been out of Congress for a year or two when that happened. Now, there is another technology, don't confuse this, called carbon capture, for EOR enhanced oil recovery. That's been around for 100 years where you take some CO2, you push it down into the well to get that last 15% residual oil, and then they redeposit that carbon dioxide into storage, not underground, but in storage to use again. That's perfectly safe and I have no problem with it. But permanently sequestering it deep, deep by the megatons deep, a mile or two down where it plumes out underneath homes and schools where it can seep back up into the water supply and into other things. No, I'm not for that at all. So the governor's trying to attack my credibility on this. And there's been a big backlash. The media, even the, the Advocate, which is mainstream media, it's a newspaper here. And that TIME speaking unit, even they are defending me and saying this is a lie, that, you know, Fleming has never voted for this stuff on the other thing. So I've been very vehemently for border security and I voted. My voting records impeccable when it comes to supporting the removal or the prevention of, of illegal immigrants. In fact, Numbers USA, my voting score for those eight years was 96%. Cassidy's was 50%, Letlo's was 65%. So why are they attacking me on that? Well, it's a strong point. Well, what they did is they dug up a video that's 18 years old. The first speech I gave at a forum when I was running for Congress in which I slipped. I had a slip of the tongue. I was talking about that the state needed more migrant farm workers and I accidentally said more illegal aliens. But I quickly changed that and corrected myself and said, no, I mean migrant workers. And it all created a good laugh. Well, what they did is they took that and they edited off the correction so that I would end up saying something I never meant to say. And people are just shaking their heads. They're going, this is ridiculous. Ridiculous. And what's really funny about all of this is all along, nobody's ever had a good attack against me in all the years that I've been in politics. And so someone said at the beginning of this race, they said, fleming, what are they going to hit you on? Because you got nothing in your background to be ashamed of or certainly even apologetic. And my answer was, they'll make something up. They made two things up.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, you know, good old politics for you. Actually, I got a question. You know, you mentioned both of your opponents, and Senator Cassidy has referenced Congresswoman Letlo's stock trading, and he said that there's some. Something to look into there. And of course, she pushes back very, like, vehemently that, no, no, no, no. Everything is above board. What's your take on this whole issue that sort of emerged in the last month?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Well, there have been a number of attacks that Cassidy has made on Letlow. And to be honest with you, all of them are solid. They are true. You may recall in 2012, because of the insider trading instances that we were seeing, in fact, Nancy Pelosi. Her return on investment has been so good that people actually follow her.

[Michael Duncan]

I've seen the Twitter account.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Yeah, it's even better than Warren Buffett. So that's very disturbing to people. We had a bill in 2012 which I voted for called the Stock act, and it basically called for reporting on any stock trades you make within 90 days. I made zero trades in the whole eight years that I was in Congress. All my investments have been in diversified mutual funds. So I never even subjected myself to having to report anything because I didn't want to slip up and make a mistake. Well, in the case of Julia Letlow, there's over 200 counts that have been reported to Ethics, which they are investigating, in which she didn't report those trades. In some cases, over a year went by, and only when somebody complained did she actually report them. And Cassidy makes the case that she or her broker on her behalf made investments in defense stocks just prior to our attacking Iran and other things where she's made considerable money. So there is a lot to look at there. The other thing, of course, he's attacked her on is her liberal voting record, which is, you know, pot, coddle and kettle black, because his record is no better than hers, frankly. But the third thing, and the one that's most devastating that you was just revealed less than a week ago, was the fact that when Julia Letlow, and we think she may have actually been a registered Democrat at this point, when she was applying to be president of the University of Louisiana and Monroe, she was applying for the job. There's actually a video of her interview. And in her interview, she says she actually criticizes the university for not having a robust DEI program, a diversity, equity and inclusion program, which we all know is basically hiring and promoting and admissions purely based on who you are in life instead of what your merits are, what your, you know, what, what accomplishments you made, how you score on tests, your background or education. And she went on to say in this interview, and it's posted on my social media media, she went on to say that she wanted to create a division of DEI so not just stop at a program, but an entire division. And she actually made the statement it would benefit us, meaning herself. So you see, she was actually interviewing as a DEI hire and promotion for herself while she was being interviewed. And of course, now she says, you know, she doesn't know anything about that, but it's all on video and it's coming right out of her mouth, and it's been devastating. The state has really reacted to this.

[Michael Duncan]

Doctor, we have three questions here on the Ruthless Variety Program. We got to get to them because our listeners and viewers really like to hear the opinions and the takes of our guests on these three. They're a little outside the box, so bear with me. First one is, if you could plan your last meal on earth, and I know you're a doctor, you don't have to be healthy here. Okay, what would it be?

[Dr. John Fleming]

What would the meal be?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Oh, that's easy. A ribeye steak.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Are we doing any sides or are we just.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Oh, sure, of course. With baked potato or smashed potato? Potatoes, obviously. Salad with Thousand island dressing.

[Michael Duncan]

There we go. No sense in making the salad healthy. It's your last meal.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Let me just tell you this. That's my favorite. Even if it wasn't my last meal at least once a meal. Excuse me, once a week. So, so, so anyway, look, I try to compensate. I run three miles every other day.

[Michael Duncan]

There you go, go.

[Dr. John Fleming]

And I watch my cholesterol, my LDL cholesterol. So, but, but, but a direct answer to the question is obviously a nice juicy ribeye steak.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice. Question number two. You know, everybody gets to this point in their lives where you've obviously seen a lot. You know, you've been an entrepreneur, a doctor, a veteran, a politician, but you get to a point in your life where you're like, I was really good at something maybe when I was younger and I never got a chance to try it or out. And so our second question is like, with the benefit of that retrospect, if there was something else out there, Blue sky could be anything in the world that you could have done, what would it be?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Well, I came very close. When I was in college and preparing to go to medical school, I was approached. I was also in the Air Force rotc and I scored very high on their testing that they did. And they tried to recruit me to become a fighter pilot.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Dr. John Fleming]

And you know, I still think back to those days and I go, you know, I love being a doctor and I wanted to go to medical school, but boy, was that tempting. I would have loved to be in a high performance jet. And even now I have, you know, being in Congress, I had the opportunity to fly in a lot of, of high performance aircraft, but never a fighter jet. In fact, they let me fly a B52 for they may. They allowed me to do a 360 degree turn.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Dr. John Fleming]

But, but I, I would love to have been. So that would have been my alternative life and lifestyle. Would be a jet fighter pilot. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Who doesn't want to be Top Gun. I get that. All right, last question, and this one's a little esoteric. It's our theory that all successful people in life are motivated by one of two things. The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. And it isn't to say anybody likes losing or doesn't like winning, but it's what drives you to get to sort of the next step in your life. We like to think of Michael Jordan as the prototypical agony of defeat guy. He celebrated his wins for two seconds before he was trying to win again. And he'd invent slights by the opposition to motivate him to win. And we think of the, you know, the glass half full optimist, the thrill of victory person of being like Phil Mickelson, who wants to take a two iron over 280 yards of water because he knows he can hit that shot. And it's like, Phil, you're up by three strokes. You could just lay up and then win the tournament. But no, he knows he can hit that shot right on that spectrum. Thrill of victory, agony of defeat. Where do you find yourself?

[Dr. John Fleming]

Well, this is my philosophy. If you're not failing at something, you're not steady, you're not ambitious enough, you're not. You're not posing your goals high enough. For instance, I started taking karate lessons at age 43.

[Michael Duncan]

No way.

[Dr. John Fleming]

Yeah. And eventually got up to third degree black belt and was quite good at it. Did well. Also, I had never touched a piano except to move it until I was also age 43. And I took piano lessons for 14 years and became somewhat proficient in classical music and doing that. But, you know, I was never at, you know, any kind of level that would be professional at that. But even running for office, if you're not failing from time to time, you're not really setting your goals high enough. And so people should not feel bad having failed at something. I actually ran for the U.S. senate 10 years ago, and John Kennedy won that race. He's our current senator now. I'm much better now at this than I was then. I think I would make a much better senator today than I would then. But had I not tried, I don't think I would be here today. Pretty close level to success. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, Dr. Fleming, thank you so much for joining us. If people want to help your campaign or just follow along with everything you're doing across Louisiana, where do they go?

[Dr. John Fleming]

First of all, there's a plethora of information, a Lot of fun, real time information on Facebook. Fleming for Louisiana. And that crosses over into the other social media media like X. But also you can come to our website for flemingsynatecampaign.com and, or just put in Fleming for Louisiana. That'll take you there. And of course, if you come to our website, you can certainly contribute to our campaign, but you can also see a lot of our videos and things. So like I say, there's a lot of information. Things are moving fast in this race and a lot of people are saying they're really fascinated. They really find this to be one of the most interesting, interesting races they've ever seen.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's very interesting. Doctor, thanks for joining us. Good luck on the trail. Take care.

[Dr. John Fleming]

You too.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you. Okay. Very interesting guy. And he was very like, okay, let me just say this guy was ready to throw punches.

[Michael Duncan]

All right.

[John Ashbrook]

He, he threw punches at Cassidy, he threw punches at Let Low. This is, this is a candidate who is going to fight until the end, at least it seemed that way to me. And he is no stranger to the ballot box. His position in the polls I think may have something to do with the fact he has a base of support in that state. He represented a district in Congress for quite a while and it was actually the district where Mike Johnson represents right now.

[Michael Duncan]

Very conservative district.

[John Ashbrook]

Very conservative. Before Fleming, it was a guy named Jim McCreary who was a powerful Republican in the House of Representatives. So he comes from. His district's a big part of the state now. He's a statewide candidate. I just don't. I think this is a name you need to watch.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, he's going to have to throw a lot of punches because he's facing an incumbent United States Senator and a candidate in Julie Letlow who's endorsed by Donald Trump. So I mean, a lot of barbs going back and forth all here on the Ruthless Variety program for your enjoyment, listener and viewer. So enjoy that. Go back and scroll through there and watch the other interviews as well, especially Ruthless podcast.com map yeah, that's been a great week. We got a lot of golf this weekend. Somebody's going to get a green jacket at the end of this thing. I'm looking forward to it. I think if the weather's night nice, I might even grill out.

[John Ashbrook]

Great idea.

[Michael Duncan]

I wish everyone a fantastic weekend. And with that, folks, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Dr. John Fleming 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 Tuesday. Stay ruthless,

[Dr. John Fleming]

Sam.