The Truth About the Epstein Files

Summary

Ruthless Podcast: "The Truth About the Epstein Files"

Airdate: November 20, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Rep. Brandon Gill

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Episode Overview

This episode of Ruthless dives into the recent surge of media and political attention on the Jeffrey Epstein files. The hosts analyze why Epstein’s crimes were underreported for years, scrutinize both Democratic and Republican handling of the fallout, and expose what they see as the partisan exploitation of the case against Donald Trump. The show also points out contradictions in media coverage, questions surrounding justice for victims, and the dangers of making investigatory files public. Later, they welcome Rep. Brandon Gill, discussing his approach to governance and current legislative efforts.

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Main Discussion Themes

1. Media and Political Cynicism Around the Epstein Files

• Delayed Attention: The mainstream media only started reporting on Epstein when it served a political purpose.
  • Holmes: "You wonder why it is that for 20 long years Jeffrey Epstein has never been a national topic of conversation... but never really broken through the national media" [01:48]
• Partisanship Over Justice: The hosts argue that partisan maneuvering, not victim advocacy, drives the current push for disclosure.
  • Ashbrook: "It’s not even about justice for these poor women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein." [00:14, 09:30]
• ‘Shirts and Skins’ Mentality: The debate around Epstein has transformed into a political team sport, with facts and victims sidelined.
  • Ashbrook: "This has become a shirts and skins exercise, a political partisanship thing." [00:14, 09:30]
• Selective Outrage: Democrats allegedly only care about the files when they can be used as ammo against Trump.
  • Holmes: "It wasn’t until Democrats collectively thought, well, he was a neighbor of Donald Trump... Maybe we should pursue this kind of thing." [03:00]

2. The Risks of Releasing Investigatory Documents

• Witness Safety and Legal Recklessness: The Trump administration’s reluctance to release all files stemmed from concerns about exposing witnesses to public scrutiny and possible danger.
  • Holmes: "From a justice standpoint is unbelievably reckless. The idea that you have investigatory documents that people assemble with anonymous witnesses... you either bring those in the court of law or you don’t." [04:54]
• Political Fuel, Not Justice: Calls to release files morph into partisan witch hunts, not a quest for justice.
  • Holmes: "If you’re looking for justice for victims, they’re now like 45 years old. The justice for them would have been under Barack Obama..." [18:47]
• Collateral Damage: Ordinary people could be smeared if their names appear in released documents without context.
  • Holmes: "What happens when there’s just an average Joe Blow who fixes Epstein’s tires and overhears a conversation?... Now he’s a part of the Epstein file. Is he a pedophile?" [23:36]

3. Congressional (and Democrat) Involvement With Epstein

• The Plaskett Connection: Delegate Stacey Plaskett’s communications with Epstein during congressional proceedings are highlighted.
  • Plaskett: "I got a text from Jeffrey Epstein, who at the time was my constituent..." [11:18]
  • Holmes: "She had him in her contact book, no question about that." [11:08]
• Defensive Maneuvers: Plaskett and her defenders claim it was routine constituent service, which the hosts mock.
  • Plaskett: "Having a friendship with him is not something I would deem to have... I’m moving forward." [14:58]
  • Holmes: "That doesn’t seem like a worthwhile source to try to..." [13:50]
• Attempt to Weaponize Info Against Trump: Evidence suggests Plaskett asked Epstein for dirt on Trump to use during congressional impeachment hearings.
  • Holmes: "She’s texting with Epstein to try to figure out if there’s something fresh... something that they didn’t otherwise know." [17:19]
• Democratic Leadership Also Implicated: Hakeem Jeffries received fundraising solicitations from Epstein after his conviction.
  • Smug: "He said after the date. It’s after 2008. He knew – he’d already been convicted." [38:19]

4. Media Bias and Narrative Control

• Selective Coverage: The story’s coverage is presented as dependent on whether Democrats or Republicans stand to benefit.
  • Holmes: "All of a sudden, Jeffrey Epstein is a topic of interest for the mainstream media. Right." [09:39]
  • Ashbrook: "Weird how that works." [28:11]
• Redactions and Deceptive Leaks: Democrats, after finally releasing documents, redact key exculpatory details and use leaks to imply Trump’s guilt.
  • Smug: "They did it to weaponize it in such a cynical way of essentially using a victim’s suffering as a political weapon..." [45:46]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Nothing is reported unless it is in service of another Democrat."
  — John Ashbrook [03:16]
• "Democrats working with Jeffrey Epstein to try to go after Donald Trump."
  — Smug [18:38]
• "The New York Times had a live counter of the vote, the House vote, on releasing the Epstein files. The New York Times did. Think about how insane that is."
  — John Ashbrook [27:50]
• "If Clinton's name is in here, so what? That's one less barrier for AOC to get the nomination... The younger Dems are motivated to get the older ones out."
  — Michael Duncan [21:57]
• "We are in a scary era right now with a united Democratic Party over anything that's like a meme, anything that's an Internet narrative where the public demands it..."
  — Josh Holmes [50:00]
• "I'm not sure it ends with more justice. In fact, no less justice. It may end up with less justice in the future..."
  — John Ashbrook [51:31]
• "This isn't a defense of Jeffrey Epstein. Fucking fuck that guy. I'm glad he's in hell forever."
  — John Ashbrook [52:19]

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Key Segment Timestamps

• 00:14 - Origins of political partisanship around the Epstein case
• 01:48 - Overview of why the media ignored Epstein until it was politically relevant
• 03:16 - The "only report if it helps Democrats" media criticism
• 04:54 - Risks and responsibilities in releasing investigation files
• 11:18 - Stacey Plaskett admits to texting Epstein as "constituent service"
• 14:58 - Plaskett's deflection and claim of "moving forward" from the scandal
• 18:38 - Evidence of Democrats actively seeking Epstein’s help against Trump
• 21:57 - Theory: Younger Dems using Epstein scandal to push out party elders
• 23:36 - Collateral damage of publicizing sensitive investigatory files
• 27:50 - Media double-standards in covering the Epstein files
• 38:19 - Evidence of Hakeem Jeffries’ ties to Epstein post-conviction
• 45:46 - Democrats’ weaponization of redacted documents to target Trump
• 51:31 - John Ashbrook's argument that releasing all files won’t mean more justice

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Interview: Congressman Brandon Gill

[From 68:00 onward]

Background & Style

• West Texas native, former financier, and conservative media entrepreneur
• Known for viral congressional hearing moments where he directly confronts progressive witnesses
  • Gill: "You have them under oath. They can't lie to you. So you can just ask them very directly..." [68:34]
• Sees teamwork within the party as essential: "You’ve got to figure out how to work as a team and get to that end goal." [74:35]
• Takes pride in representing a true conservative district authentically and focusing on policy delivery

Legislative Focus

• Expedited Removal for Criminal Illegal Aliens: Expands crimes (especially sexual and violent crimes) that allow for easier, faster deportation.
  • Gill: "If you're involved in any kind of sexual crime and you're an illegal alien, like, you need to go." [76:36]
• The "Bow Wow Act": Bill to deport illegal immigrants who abuse animals (beagle Freddie attends the hearing).
  • Gill: "If you’re a Democrat and you can’t vote to deport illegals who are literally kicking beagles..." [78:23]

On Party Dynamics & Policy

• Emphasizes the need to reach disaffected, working-class voters while exposing left-wing excesses.
• On media: "Why would we use tax dollars to basically pay for earned media for left wing ads? That’s basically what NPR is." [83:57]

Three Big Questions

• Last Meal: New York strip steak, bourbon, cigar, potatoes, and spinach [87:28]
• Other Career: Would enjoy founding a cigar company [88:52]
• Motivation: Hates losing—more driven by the agony of defeat than the thrill of victory [89:56]

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Closing Thoughts

• The hosts challenge listeners to consider: "Is the Epstein thing the new Russia hoax?" [53:49]
• The episode ends with a commitment to reading and responding to listener feedback and a spirited “King of the Hill” segment lampooning partisan hot takes and social media warriors.

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Tone & Style

• Sarcastic, irreverent, and often profane
• Combines sharp, skeptical political analysis with humor and insider anecdotes
• Frequently breaks into jokes, analogies, and asides
• Highly critical of mainstream media, Democratic politicians, and occasionally their own party’s shortsighted moves

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Bottom Line

This episode frames the renewed focus on Epstein not as a reckoning with elite abuse, but as a cynical political “weaponization” designed to damage Trump while protecting or disposing of older Democratic leaders. The hosts are dubious that justice for victims will result. They warn of dangerous precedents in transparency and privacy, and skewer the media and Democrats for hypocrisy and opportunism. The episode also highlights rising GOP voices like Rep. Brandon Gill, emphasizing direct, unapologetic conservatism and humor as tools for both winning votes and fighting the ongoing culture wars.

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

To our larger point about the media, they literally are pushing this now because there is a host of Democrats in 2028 who stand to benefit from the old Democrats falling off the charts.

[John Ashbrook]

Because this has become a shirts and skins exercise, a political partisanship thing. It's not even about justice for these poor women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

[Smug]

Democrats working with Jeffrey Epstein to try to go after Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, think about it.

[John Ashbrook]

And now, seven years later, doing the same thing.

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[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Smug]

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

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the ruthless variety program Epstein Edition. I'm Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial. Fellas, it's occurred to me that we might be in the dumbest era of American politics that I ever remember for a whole variety of reasons. We're going to contextualize that for all of you and give you a good indication of how we see the world based on a debate that has overcome the national media. And you wonder, you wonder why it is that for 20 long years Jeffrey Epstein has never been a national topic of conversation. Lots of discussion online, lots of discussion about COVID ups and who was involved and all these things, but never really broken through the national media. You remember ABC shelved a full segment back in the day, a full expose. At some point, I think it was like 2, 20, 15, 16.

[Smug]

And that reporter, she was like on the hot mic, she was like, I can't believe it's finally getting out.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

She's like, I can't believe it's getting out. They've kept me from being able to tell this story. And we had it all.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, she had it all, but they shelved all of that. And then she went on to allegedly sleep with her co host and that ended all of that particular vignette in American history.

[Michael Duncan]

What a wonderful business in edf.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just a wonderful place to be. But as John Ashbrook's mantra goes, nothing is reported unless it is in service of another Democrat.

[Michael Duncan]

Bingo.

[Smug]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

Which of course, Jeffrey Epstein, a well known liberal financier for all of his lifetime, really, and well known in those circles. And I remember, fellas, I was a young staffer when his first indictment came out. And there was this thing, I don't even know if it's still around, it's called the smoking gun. Remember the smoking gun?

[Michael Duncan]

Yep, yep.

[Josh Holmes]

And it was a brand new thing of its time in that it posted indictments in their entirety. Now you get them, you know, press releases and everything, you can see them anywhere you want. But at the time, this was the only location where you could get like racy, you know, public interest primary source documents. Primary source documents. And I remember reading this thing as I was a young staffer, and it was just rife with problems for the Democratic Party, right? It was like, this guy's an absolute dirtbag. The indictment, as I recall, was horrible. I mean, the worst possible allegations against this guy. And so like, immediately, the whole universe in politics, not Republican politics, mostly Democratic politics, but all of the news media knew about this thing all the way back from 2005. And we know the history with the plea deal and all that nonsense. But there was, you know, roughly 20, 15 years where everybody was like, oh, yeah, it was a nice moment in time, a nice moment in time. And it wasn't until Democrats collectively thought, well, he was a neighbor of Donald Trump's. We know we have a picture of him with Donald Trump. Maybe we should pursue this kind of thing. And so all of a sudden this becomes a discussion. And of course, we now know that the Trump administration in its early stages mishandled this thing. Right? They made a bunch of promises to people about what they were going to do. And handing over the primary source documents, which from a justice standpoint is unbelievably reckless. The idea that you have investigatory documents that people assemble with anonymous witnesses and people who are corroborating different things, you either bring those in the court of law or you don't. But when you don't, you certainly don't just throw all those people wide open into a court of, of public opinion.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, because it comes down to the responsibility of actually having the job. Right? Like as, as somebody on the outside, when you told Me, there is this Epstein list. I'm like, sweet, let's find out what that is. Is it a list of pedophiles we can put in prison? Because I'm all about that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And so it's, it's easier to have that as the opinion when, like, you don't run the FBI, you know, or whatever. Right. Like, my opinion on the outside being like, yeah, you're telling me there's a list of these people that need to be served some justice, who did terrible things. We gotta, we gotta expose this list.

[Josh Holmes]

And of course, that sentiment was the one that was predominant on the right. Of course.

[John Ashbrook]

But, like, the list isn't the list. Just like Russiagate isn't really a conspiracy about Russiagate, it becomes this catchall terminal for the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. And like, well, you're suppressing something because you won't release all of this investigatorial information. Which of course, as somebody who wants these people to face justice, like, wasn't the thing that I was sold on in let's release the Epstein files.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, but the reason, the primary reason why this became such a cause celeb on the right was because they knew what we all know in that he was a liberal financier, his connections with the Clintons, Larry Summers, everything on the left were replete. I mean, this was these guys. Yeah, Billy Gates, that was this guy's politics. And these are the people that he hung out with. But, like, they never wanted to talk about it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I mean, you know, Joe Biden was president for the last four years. Did you hear these Democrats talking about how he had to release the Epstein files and now Donald Trump becomes president, and now suddenly it's like, you know what? I think this is actually a cover up by Donald Trump. You know, Donald Trump is the person who's gonna be implicated in all of this. Not all the people who fund our political party that we had been running cover for behind all the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein for 20 years, it's actually Donald Trump. He's the bad guy.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

To our larger point about the media, they literally are pushing this now because there is a host of Democrats in 2028 who stand to benefit from the old Democrats falling off the charts.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and I don't even think it's that far. Like, Democrats, as you've seen over the last year since Donald Trump has been president, have nothing to argue. Right. The big beauty comes in. They're arguing people are gonna die. They shut down the government for 42 days about a healthcare thing that isn't actually ripe until next year.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, they're just making it up as they go along and they think that they have a little bit of traction here because of the PR handling of this entire thing. On the way into the administration, he declassified the Kennedy assassination. Declassified RFK assassination. The goal of the Trump administration was to go open kimono. And then there came a calculation when it came to Epstein is like, I don't know, from jurisprudence standpoint, does it make sense that you just throw out a whole bunch of investigation that is not pertinent to prosecutorial cases that we're bringing? Like, maybe that doesn't make some sense. I know this is hard to believe, but like, from a responsibility standpoint, people who inhabit the White House and the Department of Justice, they think about those things from time to time.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And it's not like the guy who's right out there right now as we're taping this with the sign being like, stop defending the pedophile protector President. Like, if I went to that guy with a camera and a microphone right now and I said, can you name the victims of Jeffrey Epstein that you'd like to get justice for? Yeah, that person could never give me those names.

[Josh Holmes]

No. Fuck.

[John Ashbrook]

They have no fucking clue. Cuz this has become a shirts and skins exercise, a political partisanship thing. It's not even about justice for these poor women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

[Josh Holmes]

It wasn't until it became evident that the Trump administration was pretty uncomfortable with the idea of opening grand jury testimony in anonymous witnesses and investigatory documents that would expose a whole bunch of people to accusations of pedophilia where it didn't exist. That they saw an opening and they were like, well, he won't give it all up. Maybe he's involved. And then they selectively leak out little pieces like, oh, maybe Donald Trump is the pedophile here. Oh, so then they got interested and you have a united Democratic Party. Well, lo and behold, the mainstream media shows up for the first time in 20 years. All of a sudden, Jeffrey Epstein is a topic of interest for the mainstream media. Right. And to give you some context for this to just to tell you how cynical these people are, there is a perfect moment in time that I think encapsulates just how cynical this thing is. And it has everything to do with Stacy Plaskin.

[Smug]

This is good.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Representative, where is she from again? Is it like Missouri?

[John Ashbrook]

No, it's the Virgin Islands delegate, which.

[Smug]

Is, we give those people seats and.

[John Ashbrook]

Even better, she connected where his island was. Huh?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh yeah, that represents his island.

[John Ashbrook]

Why do you think she knows this guy?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, because she helped Jeffrey Epstein.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right, Jeff Epstein, the New York financier.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Jeff J. J. Well, she had him in her contact book, no question about that. Because as you see in clip one.

[Stacey Plaskett]

And I got a text from Jeffrey Epstein, who at the time was my constituent, who was not public knowledge at that time that he was under federal.

[Josh Holmes]

Investigation, he'd already been in jail and.

[Stacey Plaskett]

Who was sharing information with me.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, just sharing information.

[Michael Duncan]

What kind of information? Oh, you know what, it's just he was convicted like a senator from Nebraska getting an email from Warren Buffett. Yeah, you know, it's the same thing. It's just a high profile constituent reaching out to their lawmaker.

[Josh Holmes]

So she said she was texting with him in 2019. He killed himself like shortly thereafter. Right. Or he was indicted and then I don't remember the timeline in terms of when.

[Smug]

Well, he'd been convicted of child prostitution. Well, but that's in 08. So she's texted him in 2019, way after that.

[Josh Holmes]

The point is, if you were involved in any real way in politics. I was a 23 year old staff assistant and I knew everything there was to know about that indictment. It was horrific. I mean, really horrific. Like hard to read type stuff. Like you couldn't imagine that people would be involved in this kind of thing and then be like, you know, celebrity glitterati types that have the galvanizing capability of getting actually famous people around, like crazy stuff. I knew it like it was the back of my hand. And I was a young kid. It wasn't my job to do it. It was just part of being around.

[John Ashbrook]

Politics, just situational awareness of being involved in politics.

[Josh Holmes]

And then everybody knew how outrageous it was that he had this plea deal. And then he was actually convicted of child prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008, served time and some 10 years later, she acts like this all just showed up.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm just doing constituent services.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm just talk, I'm just talking to this.

[Michael Duncan]

He just emailed me. He wanted to have a flag flown over the Capitol. He wanted his cousin to get an internship. And then he was hoping I would help him with a Medicare problem. I mean, get out of town.

[Josh Holmes]

Like he's a constituent Social Security concern, you know, so. All right, so his, her most partisan colleague comes rushing to her defense, obviously, because most people would ask the question, like, why are you corresponding with a convicted pedophile? Even for the most partisan of purposes.

[Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That doesn't seem like a worthwhile source to try to. How did.

[Michael Duncan]

How does he have the email address? You know what I mean? It's not like texting.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

It's not like her phone number is just not like you just Google Plaskett phone number.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

And then he's like, oh, well, here's the number. I text.

[Josh Holmes]

No, there were Virgin Islands.

[Michael Duncan]

Virgin Island.

[Josh Holmes]

That was. That was the thing. All right, so clip two. This is Raskin.

[John Ashbrook]

Now, they want to take a former United States prosecutor, the representative of the people of the Virgin Islands, and without even going to the ethics committee, much less a court, they want to arraign her on some charges based on a newspaper article that she did something lawful, however ill advised it may have been. She took a phone call from one of her constituents.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it was a constituent.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm sorry. That's like being a senator from Wisconsin Be like what? Jeffrey Dahmer is a serious constituent. He's a voting member of the Wisconsin delegation.

[Smug]

There's a lot of problematic. Jeffries, you got a call from Jeffrey. Don't tell me the last name. The answer is no. Not taking it.

[Josh Holmes]

So Plaskett herself has to deal with this at some level.

[Stacey Plaskett]

In clip 3, I believe that Jeffrey Epstein had information and I was going to get information to get at the truth. Having a friendship with him is not something that I would deem to have. And so I'm moving forward. I'm moving forward.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, she's moving forward.

[Stacey Plaskett]

That's what we as American people should do.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Interesting.

[Stacey Plaskett]

Individuals are not involved in illegal activity, extending his criminal enterprise or his financial enterprise or all of those things. I think that we need to look at what people are doing moving forward.

[John Ashbrook]

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

I just better understand that. What is that point? Because at the time sex offender and it had been detailed all the sexual abuse.

[Stacey Plaskett]

There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes. And as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can.

[Smug]

Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

So I'm moving forward. I'd like to move forward.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we have to move forward.

[John Ashbrook]

Of course. We're talking about this dead pedophile who did crimes 20 years ago who I was apparently texting during a hearing where. Where people in the House were talking with Michael Cohen about how to impeach Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is the context that is important for this interaction. They Democrats with the majority. We're gonna impeach the hell out of Donald Trump and everything about him. In that process. They bring Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen, of course, the disgrace now himself. I think he's a felon, right?

[Smug]

He done time.

[John Ashbrook]

I think he is.

[Josh Holmes]

It was a felon or I don't know exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

He might have had a plea deal or something, I'm not sure. But you'll recall, not exactly a fan of Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

He became the utmost critic. He was the insider sort of attorney who as soon as he had to face justice turn states and basically he's.

[John Ashbrook]

On that Mount Rushmore of Resistance 1.0 of like Mueller and Avenatti and Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen is probably their Mount Rushmore.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right. It was the initial phase, shall we say. Well anyway they brought him to that committee hearing and she on the dais of like I think every time House of Representatives has a hearing they have like 147 fucking members that ask questions about it. And she's like 144 in line.

[John Ashbrook]

Nice.

[Josh Holmes]

And so she's texting with Epstein to try to figure out if there's something fresh.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Is there something fresh that I can ask? And at one point she's like hurry, text me because I'm next in line. I need to know, I need the fresh hot goss, I need the fresh stuff. And he's texting back and forth and then he says like well this name Rona. And she doesn't recognize the name. Well it was President Trump's then assistant in his private career, woman at the organization of Rona, but it was in all caps and she didn't recognize the name so she came back and was like is that an acronym? Is that like. And he's like no, that's his assistant Rona. And immediately they. You've seen people put the tape together with the timeline of the texts and her question and answer within like a five minute period of time of receiving that she starts asking about Ms. Rona. So Jeffrey Epstein was participating in a prosecution against Donald Trump through Plaskett and giving them information that they didn't otherwise know to give to Cohen to repeat back whatever the claims were that Epstein had.

[Smug]

This is critical and is worth repeating. What Holmes just said is, and we now have documented Democrats working with Jeffrey Epstein to try to go after Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, think about it.

[John Ashbrook]

And now seven years later doing the same thing.

[Josh Holmes]

So but again if you wanted to know and like there's a lot of good listener feedback as this thing has come out. Cuz I know a lot of people have been concerned about the Epstein files and everything else not wasn't particularly partisan up until this moment in time. But you wonder why it is that we're not dealing with it. Because it's fucking not serious. This is the underlying stuff that we're talking about. Very, very serious. No question about it. But if you're looking for justice for victims, they're now like 45 years old. The justice for them would have been under Barack Obama. The justice for them would have been certainly sometime in the last 15. This isn't about Plaskett doesn't give a shit about what happened to anybody as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein. What she cares about is whether or not you can get an angle on her political enemy, Donald Trump. And that is worth actually interacting with the devil himself, Jeffrey Epstein. Think about that for a second. These are people who have convinced half this country that they're in this for the right reasons. They just want to get to the bottom of it, guys. They just want. They want full transparency on all of this.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just become like Russiagate, right? Like it's this thing where it's still looking for the smoking gun in Prague about how Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the election in 2016. And that's what the Epstein files has felt like to me, is that it's become like Russiagate in that they don't actually care about the outcome of this thing. It just becomes a political football for them to attack Donald Trump. Yep. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What are you saying?

[Michael Duncan]

It's not as thoughtful as what you guys are saying, but I can't get over the fact that Plaskett literally leaves paradise, the Virgin Islands, once a week for a job where she doesn't even actually have a vote so she can sit on a committee, one of 187 people, and ask the questions that Jeffrey Epstein tells her to ask. What kind of life is that? She literally leaves paradise every single week. Something that everyone in America would dream every day about. Spending their lives in the Virgin Islands. Maybe they get one week in their life to spend time in the Virgin Islands. She leaves there for a shit job so she can say what Jeffrey Epstein tells her to say. Cuz she thinks that helps her against Donald Trump. What a terrible life. Terrible life.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, partisanship's a hell of a drug.

[Michael Duncan]

It sure is.

[Josh Holmes]

As we are finding out on all of this now. I think it's important to know that the PR rollout notwithstanding, which has given rise the Democrat interest in all of this, because they think he's got something to hide, has conveniently forgot all of the skeletons in the closet that was the reason that the Epstein case wasn't a national media story for 15 years. And that is that Democrats are the ones that are culpable and the ones that are associated with Jeffrey Epstein, the ones that associated with him and were the primary beneficiaries of his largesse.

[Michael Duncan]

Here is where I think, I think they're ready to throw the old timers overboard. I think that they're like, okay, if Clinton's name is in here, so what? That's just one less barrier for AOC to get the nomination. If Larry Summers name is in here, so what? That's one less barrier for a younger Dem who is rising up like Ro Khanna to take over the party. And so I think that the younger Dems are motivated to get the older ones out. And that's why you see the push from the left.

[Josh Holmes]

So there's a lot more to this. But also like, you need to contextualize the larger component of how unprecedented this situation is when it comes to law order, prosecution, jurisprudence, the justice system, everything else. And I think it's been overshadowed on media, on social media and everything else because nobody's really focused on those things. But we are. We're in a, this is sort of a dangerous place where the Democratic Party en masse, by themselves can fundamentally change the way that federal prosecutors have to do their job and that grand juries are considered and the voluntary efforts of corroborating witnesses are considered because they just all decided they think they can get Donald Trump. Yeah, it's not unlike they broke the Internet in 2016 because they think that Russia bought Facebook and that's why Donald Trump won the election. It's all bullshit.

[Smug]

Bullshit.

[Josh Holmes]

But they're willing to run through that door. Now this has become much larger because it started on the right, rightfully so. It was a left wing cover up right from the very beginning. But once you got to a point where you've got somebody like Cash Patel in charge and Donald Trump is President of the United States, if they're telling you it's a bad idea, it's a bad idea. And not because Donald Trump's name is associated with, with it. I'll remind you there were three emails that came out that they leaked out. The Democrats leaked out and they said, well, smoking gun, smoking gun. He is. Now Jeffrey Epstein himself has acknowledged that Donald Trump knew about the girls. Context of which is the girl that he's talking about was one who in her book discussed this very thing that Donald Trump had nothing to do with. And that Donald Trump, according To like nine different witnesses, has said threw him out of Mar A Lago because he was trying to take underage waitstaff out of Mar A Lago to try to groom them. And he was angry about it. He's talked about it directly, Epstein's talked about it directly, many other corroborating witnesses, but they used that and they redacted the name and they all pretended as though this was the witness. So you can see how this becomes a larger issue when you're talking about investigatory files. They're gonna do what they're gonna do with Donald Trump. We saw it with Russiagate. They're just gonna make shit up. And if something sticks, great. We don't care whether it ruins families, ruins careers, ruins victims, ruins anything. It's all about putting political mud on the tires of Donald Trump. But what happens when there's just an average Joe Blow who like fixes Epstein's tires and overhears a conversation of him trying to solicit what he thinks is an underage person and he's in there, his name's in there. What's he gonna say to his employer now that you threw that out in the open, that now he's a part of the Epstein file? Is he a pedophile? Cuz the context isn't there as to why it is that he's talking. And that's what I think the predominant concern of serious people within the Justice Department were looking at when it came to this case. It was never about hiding what Donald Trump did or did not. All evidence, by the way, points to the fact that he might have been an original whistleblower.

[John Ashbrook]

He might have been the guy being like, this guy's trying to groom women from my club.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, there is a way of those three emails that they released, the Democrats released. Looking at it and knowing a fact pattern that led up to it. There is a very good interpretation of that, that Jeffrey Epstein fucking hated Donald Trump because he's convinced he's the guy who blew the whistle on him.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's a really good point, you.

[Josh Holmes]

Know, but we don't know. But now you're just going to get a bunch of case source documents because Democrats wanted them. And you have a bunch of Republicans who are too fucking dumb to see around the corner to figure out how to protect our country. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You think all these Democrats who want to have you on their cable shows to talk about the Epstein files want to do it out of love of country or seeking the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes? No, they want to get at Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

And I think this is.

[John Ashbrook]

And so if you're Donald Trump and you're like, man, I blew the whistle on this fucking guy 25 years ago when they were trying to groom women out of my club in Florida. And now you're going to come at me and talk about how I have to release all of this, you know, evidence of this dead pedophile.

[Josh Holmes]

I need to break the criminal justice system.

[John Ashbrook]

Fuck do you think you are?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

For the same exact parallel track as you said.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Of Russiagate.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

I need to destroy the Internet.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I need to disavow people who had nothing to do with a conspiracy that never happened. I need to do all of these things. Just because you said it.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Just because you have a united Democratic party when it was a united Republican party, by the way, asking for the Epstein files, what happened?

[John Ashbrook]

Nothing happened.

[Josh Holmes]

Could you ever fucking hear. Did you ever see a story on it?

[John Ashbrook]

The New York Times had a live counter of the vote, the House vote, on releasing the Epstein files. The New York Times did. Think about how insane that is. New York Times have a single story about the Democrats and Joe Biden refusing to release the Epstein files.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

That ever exist.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't remember.

[John Ashbrook]

On the front page of the New York Times.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't remember.

[John Ashbrook]

Weird how that works.

[Josh Holmes]

It gets a lot deeper. We're gonna get to after the break. Are Democrats closer to Epstein than they've ever admitted? We're about to show you when we come back. Hakeem Jeffries. What do we call him?

[Michael Duncan]

Timu Obama.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well, he might have something to say about all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, no.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got a hard time condemning the Plasket thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe there's a reason why he has.

[John Ashbrook]

A hard time doing a lot of things.

[Josh Holmes]

And there's some media evidence to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the mainstream corporate media was in cahoots all along.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't say.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. Yep. But before we go, a note. Our November 13 episode had been edited to remove a reference to Jacqueline Oliver Arthur. The earlier version of this podcast contained a segment that incorrectly identified Ms. Arthur as an escort with a page on escortbook.com we regret the error. And when we come back. You want some yucks? We're going to have some yucks after this.

[Michael Duncan]

Only 58% of Americans today say they're proud to be American, the lowest number ever recorded. That's not just sad, it is very dangerous. Because if we forget what makes America special, we risk losing it. That's why Americans for Prosperity is launching the One Small Step Campaign, a bold, nationwide initiative to reconnect Americans with our founding principles that sparked unparalleled innovation and prosperity. It's not just a celebration, it's a call to action. Through the 250,000 steps for freedom Challenge, AFP is partnering with the grassroots in all 50 states to take meaningful steps that defend freedom and advance opportunity. Call your representative, attend a local event, knock on a door, talk to your neighbors. Every single step counts. And every step moves us closer to a more perfect Union. Go to takeonesmallstep.com to learn more. Then join the [e-mail].

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so the first segment obviously leads us into the second in that there's a new Democratic leadership. And I think you made a very wise point, Johnny, in that the new guard in the Democratic Party is more than happy to throw the old guard out, whether it's Bill Clinton or anybody else. So if you break a couple of eggs to make an omelet when it comes to releasing all the Epstein stuff, none of them have anything to do with it. Maybe not the case. First, look at the way that Hakeem Jeffries tries to defend the Plasket situation in clip 4.

[Interviewer]

Thanks.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

Why should Americans trust you and House Democrats on the Jeffrey Epstein files when one of your own Congresswoman Plaskett was found to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein during a hearing, getting information from him using that in her questioning during a congressional hearing and at one point he tells her good job.

[Interviewer]

This is a bipartisan effort to be sure that consistent with what but the survivors have requested.

[John Ashbrook]

Come on.

[Interviewer]

That there's full and complete transparency and every single predator who may be in those Justice Department files doesn't escape accountability.

[Michael Duncan]

I here's what I will say. You mentioned my point about younger Dems want to get the olds out of the way. There is a full scale civil war happening among Democrats right now and it is not just the olds that the upstart progressives want to move out of the way. Ro Khanna would to like love to be the Dem Majority leader and if he can get Hakeem Jeffries out of the way, he'd be happy to do it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I guess that makes sense. I mean Hakeem Jeffries is like notorious on Capitol Hill for being a pretty stupid person. I mean he's not wrong dude. I mean this seriously. I've heard this from multiple Democrats they.

[Smug]

Cannot believe and there's a reason he.

[John Ashbrook]

Was anointed as Nancy Pelosi's that's The.

[Smug]

Thing is, the reason Nancy Pelosi walks around with her fake little title of, like, Speaker Emeritus, is to be like, okay, for the serious people out there, there's someone whose office you can still contact because this guy's dumb as hell.

[Josh Holmes]

It's also not particularly complicated in Democratic politics in terms of strategic maneuvering. It's like, what do you want? Okay. We want the opposite thing. You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

Right. And you can disagree with Ro Khanna all day, but you can also tell the guy is an operator. You can tell he's moving behind the scenes. Of course, increase his influence on their side 100%.

[John Ashbrook]

I would say, like, two things on this. Number one hilarious box canyon to walk your party into. On the Jeffrey Epstein. So when you're this exposed on the entire issue.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

The other thing. And this is the reason why you got to subscribe to the YouTube and watch it in video. What a weird whole presentation he had during a discussion of, like, our culpability and an investigation into a serial pedophile.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, his whole demeanor there seemed a little too ginger.

[Stacey Plaskett]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

A little too smiley.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

It did not. It looked sociopathic, if I'm being honest.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, because if you look back.

[John Ashbrook]

Cause it's fucking fake. The whole thing that's so fake is.

[Smug]

Because it's so cynical.

[John Ashbrook]

It's cynical and fake.

[Josh Holmes]

That's it.

[John Ashbrook]

But if you. You cannot seriously look at that press conference we just played and be like, this guy is serious about figuring out who this pedophile is.

[Josh Holmes]

And first of all, it's not the role of Congress to prosecute anyone. Right. What you're trying to do is uncover why it is that you believe something has been covered up.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

By a Bush administration, an Obama administration, a Trump administration, a Biden administration, and now a Trump administration. It defies reality at some level that you're talking about people who were willing to put Donald Trump in jail for crimes that no one committed. They invented the crime.

[John Ashbrook]

They took one misdemeanor and they turned it into 40 felonies. And you're telling me that Joe Biden's Justice Department wouldn't have found a way to put Donald Trump in prison for what Jeffrey Epstein did if they could?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, somewhere.

[John Ashbrook]

Are you fucking kidding me?

[Josh Holmes]

Like somewhere deep in the files of the same FBI that raided fucking Melania Trump's panty drawer.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Were pictures of him with. With young women. And they never looked.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if you're willing to take the unprecedented approach of raiding your political opponent in the former president of the United States home, his wife's stuff, in order to try to prosecute him for crimes that were not committed. You made it up on the way in three different jurisdictions, but you didn't look at the thing that was right in front of you that was in the dossier like. Of course not. Of course they did. Of course they did. The pictures of Trump and Epstein in the early 2000s when they were fucking neighbors are everywhere. They've been everywhere for 15 years. Everybody's known that.

[Michael Duncan]

Also, it wouldn't take a congressional investigation. I mean, one of the things that we've learned from these files that have been released is there was a relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Wolff. The note, like the writer. And he's written multiple books about Donald Trump. You're telling me Michael Wolf wouldn't have written a book about Donald Trump and Jeff Epstein if he didn't have.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's salacious stuff that he has written is incredible. If he had any. There, there. But again, one of the emails that spilled out is Epstein basically exonerating Trump to Michael Wolf on this very thing. Of course this is all nonsense, but he's not done. Hakeem Jeffries is still having problems. I don't know why. Let's take a look at clip five.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

And you heard Stacy Plaskett there. She was arguing her texts with Jeffrey Epstein were not illegal. But in your view, were they appropriate?

[Interviewer]

Well, Stacey Plaskett is not accused of violating any house rule, any law, any statute, and she's clearly and unequivocally denounced Jeffrey Epstein.

[Smug]

Really?

[Interviewer]

And I think what the survivors fought for today.

[John Ashbrook]

Come on.

[Interviewer]

Is the type of transparency that came out of the House, went through the Senate, and is now on its way to Donald Trump's desk where hopefully he'll sign it into law. Because at the end of the day, all the American people are asking for is just the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth that Donald Trump and his administration has been hiding for months need to be released.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, we take it day to day.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

But do you think it was appropriate for her to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein 11 years after he pleaded guilty to.

[Interviewer]

I mean, I have not had a conversation with Stacey Plasket to discuss this issue because we've been focused today on making sure that there was a decisive vote.

[Smug]

Roe was doing everything but answer the question.

[Interviewer]

The Epstein files in the release. I'm thankful for the work of Representative Massey of Ro Khanna, but most importantly, the survivors.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

Do you plan to talk to her about it?

[Interviewer]

I think that we successfully defeated.

[John Ashbrook]

So stupid.

[Josh Holmes]

This guy is unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

Credible.

[Interviewer]

And was being brought by an individual who was trying to weaponize this issue to reinvigorate his own failed gubernatorial campaign in South Carolina. It was rejected on a bipartisan basis on the floor today.

[Smug]

Dude, he's doing everything but answer the question. But here's the thing. Why is he not willing to condemn someone for talking to Jeffrey Epstein?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you know what? It's a good question. It's a good question. Maybe graphic. One would have to sort that out. Oh, here it is. Congressman Hakeem Jeffrey solicited money from Pedo Jeffrey Epstein in 2013.

[Smug]

Can we get the graphic? He said after the date. It's after 2008. He knew he'd already been convicted. This is a direct. This is an email graphic right here for the folks who are just on the.

[Josh Holmes]

Want to give it a read. Smug.

[Smug]

Sure. The letter reads.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait, will you start with the subject line?

[Smug]

Sure.

[Michael Duncan]

Subject line. Rising Star.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Rising Star.

[Smug]

You know what? Read it in the Voice. Read it in the Voice. Because it's got a quote.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, let's get it again.

[Smug]

That you'll nail.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's get it again.

[Michael Duncan]

Dear Jeffrey, we are thrilled to announce that we are working with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, one of the rising stars in New York Congressional delegations, sometimes referred to as Brooklyn's Barack.

[Smug]

And who. Ashbrook's titled, of course, Timo Obama.

[Josh Holmes]

What a pitch. Something you would only make to a progressive.

[Michael Duncan]

By the way, they continue. He's a staunch supporter of President Obama and a progressive voice for the people of New York City. NY1 did a profile piece about his work on the vitally important budget and Judiciary committees in Washington. You can watch the video here or read the text below. Hakeem is committed to electing Democratic majority in 2014 and is encouraging friends to participate in the DCCC DSCC fundraising dinner with Obama this coming Monday night. So shoot us an email or give us a call if you would like to get involved with the dinner or would like to get an opportunity to get to know Hakeem a little bit better.

[Josh Holmes]

Get to know him a little better.

[Michael Duncan]

He's an impressive guy. He is an impressive guy and who will be a progressive voice in New York politics for years to come. Thanks. So so and so and so the fundraisers.

[Josh Holmes]

Just to do the math for you folks, that email is sent in 2013, preparation for the 2014 midterm elections. Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 of unspeakable crimes. This is not a mystery at this point. Again, as a staff assistant in 2005, reading those indictments, I knew it. These fundraisers knew it. Hakeem Jeffries knew it. Everyone knew who this guy was at this time and he's actively soliciting. So. Oh, maybe, just maybe, that's the reason why we're a little hesitant to condemn Plaskett for ongoing conversations with Jeffrey Epstein.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. You know what? The other thing that's not a mystery after watching that give and take with Hakeem Jeffries on cnn, why they're having an internal civil war among House Democrats. Because every single Democrat, Ro Khanna included, and all of the younger ones watch that interview and all they see is a sign on Hakeem Jeffries door that says, this office is free for the taking. Because that guy's responses to every single one of her questions. It wasn't like a disingenuous politician response. It wasn't a dishonest politician response. It was a terrible response to any question. And like, this is supposed to be the greatest Dem politician that the House of Representatives has to offer if you're somebody like Barack. Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we put up the video of him one more time? Whatever the last video was, just where you've got a still shot. And then just pause it as he's talking. Just if we can get that going, like, here he is. And just throw that back on for a minute so we can see him talking. This is an aside, fellas, but it's one that. It can't go on.

[Michael Duncan]

It can't.

[Josh Holmes]

So like you mentioned that he's widely known as one of the dumber members, which I think is really. Press. There it is. Press pause. No, keep it going. We gotta get the. There it is. He would do from some dental evening.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, wow.

[Josh Holmes]

The right side of his teeth are like an inch longer than his left side of his teeth.

[John Ashbrook]

What a specific complaint.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you notice this? You didn't notice that?

[Smug]

I just noticed when he's talking, it's like absolutely vacant. Like, you can tell his staff has tried to prep him. I bet they've thrown in the towel. They're like, dumb is dumb, right? Like, the guy can't even stick to. They clearly had given him some talkers and he doesn't even know how to deliver that. No, it's not that he's only dumb, but he has no talent because there's talented dumb people. He's got neither.

[Michael Duncan]

That's my point. There's a lot of Democrats out there and this is the standard bearer. They're embarrassed by him.

[Smug]

They Are.

[Michael Duncan]

And they won't say it, but they're oper. Like, the way they're operating behind the scenes proves that they're embarrassed.

[Smug]

Dude, that's the truth.

[Michael Duncan]

They want somebody.

[Smug]

That's the truth.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the good Lord was missing his leveler when he made his mouth, I'll tell you that much, because that thing needs to be sanded down. I can't get over it. It's the only thing I stare at is the right side of his mouth.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm worried he's going to pet the rabbits too hard.

[Smug]

So.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so we talked about. Look, the other important part that we touched on in the first segment that I think we have to go through is like, why is the Justice Department concerned about releasing this kind of thing and giving it over to a very partisan media in a very partisan Democratic Party that is going to try to do the Russiagate thing with the Epstein files? Well, part of it is in what you've already seen leak out from this in the first place. There's a redaction that is involved in the first three emails that were released by Democrats as it relates to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. Word search. Donald Trump. Here's where he's mentioned. They picked three to leak out to the media as evidence as to why the whole thing needs to be uncovered. Well, the first one in graphic two, is something that is the real email. Right. This is the real thing that says, I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump. This is from Jeffrey Epstein. Redacted, Spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned. Police chief, et cetera. I'm 75% there. We made reference to this. Right. The actual email that has now come to light was that is Virginia Giuffre.

[Michael Duncan]

Mm.

[Josh Holmes]

Virginia is somebody who is a victim of horrible, unspeakable crimes who sadly took her own life as a result of all of that. Before she did so, she penned a biography about all of this where she talked about how Donald Trump certainly was not somebody that abused her. Right. And then corroborating evidence would suggest that she is, in fact, the person who worked at Mar A Lago that he was concerned about and banished Epstein from coming to as a result of trying to recruit her out of Mar A Lago and ultimately groom her. That is all substantiated, and we've known it for 10 years. We've known all of this for a long time. There's been a lot of reporting on it. And the one person that she exonerates from this entire conversation is Donald Trump. So if you're a Democrat, she's deceased, by the way. And I understand redacting victims, but somebody who's written a book about their experience and is now deceased, the redaction is unnecessary.

[Smug]

They did it to weaponize it in such a cynical way of essentially using a victim's suffering as a political weapon to try to suggest that Donald Trump had been involved in these heinous crimes. It's the most cynical, disgusting thing possible. It's in a nutshell, the entire politics surrounding this Epstein thing where Democrats who would have loved to convict, look at how hard they tried. They kicked down the doors of his house, went through his whole family stuff to try to send him to jail, charged him in multiple jurisdictions with anything that they could find. They were trumping up misdemeanors into felonies. If there was anything there, they would have used it on him. There was nothing there. And the fact that then they tried to repackage this, a victim's horrible experience as a way to attack him is just how cynical the Democrat Party is and how they have nothing to stand on and how frustrated they are that they can't get anything on Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

They can't explain it. Look@clip6.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

This is an email from April 2, 2011. Republicans were saying that that victim is Virginia Giuffre. As you know, she died by suicide. She's been very outspoken, a very outspoken victim of Jeffrey Epstein. Here's the email right here on your screen. She wrote a book, as you know, and she did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. What do you make of that? And can you confirm that?

[Stacey Plaskett]

Yeah, I don't know. Obviously it's redacted who the victim is, so I won't necessarily take the Republicans.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Word on who it is.

[Smug]

Amazing.

[Stacey Plaskett]

And I don't know why they would necessarily redact someone's name who is deceased at this point.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

The Democrats did that, though. The Democrats were definitely.

[Stacey Plaskett]

No, no, I understand, but I'm just saying, like, our biggest concern is to actually make sure that we are protecting victims. And obviously she wrote a book, she told her truth.

[Smug]

Oh, it's amazing how she was like. It was to protect the victims. I don't know why you do that for someone who's deceased and they're like, no, but the Democrats did it.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, she told her truth.

[Smug]

Yeah, that's the thing. It's amazing. She told the truth within a second. She's, like, been completely exposed as a fraud and she has no answer for that.

[Josh Holmes]

So just like to contextualize this for people just in how fucking we said this is like the dumbest era of American politics of all time. She's a guest on cnn, national cable news outlet as an expert in talking about the Epstein files and why those need to be released. They ask her about the one of three emails, right, that they released. They, the Democrats, of which she is a member of that party in the member of the House, about why they redacted a name. She doesn't know. Yeah, I don't know why they would do it.

[John Ashbrook]

And then she's also not going to take the Republicans characterization of what that redaction is, even though she obviously, if she is the expert to be on television to be discussing this, knows it's Virginia, knows it, obviously knows it.

[Josh Holmes]

Right? So again, look, the horses left the stable here. This was, what is it, 427 to 1 in terms of opening up the full kimono in the House and it's unanimous consent in the Senate. And this is going to happen. Clay Higgins put out a statement that I deeply the one guy who voted against this whole thing and I deeply resonates with me. And they're like, you have no idea what kind of unintended consequences you have brought to the justice system based upon what it is that you've done here. But we are in an era, particularly when you have a united Democrat front, where the media all of a sudden decides it's okay to cover it for the first time in 20 years and they think that Donald Trump has something to hide, where you have a whole bunch of Republicans who think like, well, we can't get in front of that bus.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, yeah, because I mean, who wants the politics of that? But you should always be nervous, listener and viewer. You should always be nervous about when the politics of something become so compelling that the New York Times is pushing for it, always that it's unanimous. But. And that should tell you a lot you need to know about where we actually are on this thing, where it's not actually about the justice of the thing, it's the politics of the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's a larger conversation that makes me nervous about. Look, I think you listen to the ruthless Friday program because we have a lot of yucks, but we also try to give you some insight and information that you're not going to get anywhere else because we've done the job and we've been there and we've seen this stuff. And you also have a longer term outlook on how this affects the next debate. And the debate after that. We are in a scary era right now with the United Democratic Party over anything that is like a meme, anything that's an Internet narrative where the public demands it, Right? Anybody that's on X or Blue sky or whatever it is that those psychos hang out on. And the left like Blue sky is the one I'm thinking of, but I know there's others.

[John Ashbrook]

There's like Mastodon. Is that still around?

[Smug]

I don't know. I think they made Blue sky the new hangout.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, but that is the context by which these people make public policy and they're perfectly comfortable with it. You still have responsible parties within the Republican Party who think around the corner and try to get in front of these things. And that's why this argument's happened over the last couple months about, you know, Speaker Johnson being like, dude, this is a really bad idea. But like the politics has overwhelmed him at this point. He's got a full united Democratic Party Republicans who have been calling this for 15 years, years to open up the kimono, to give us a bunch of names are already on record for a long time. And the two unite. And here we are. The consequences of which I'm not sure that anybody actually appreciates.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, cuz the thing is, is like, look, dude, I'm fine. Release it. Release the entire thing, the entire Epstein files, all of the investigations, all this sort of thing. I'm not sure it ends with more justice. In fact, no less justice. It may end up with less justice in the future if you have somebody who's going to be a confidential witness or an informant into investigation with the FBI and they think that sometime, maybe 5, 10, 15 years down the road, a Congress is gonna decide, you know what, we have to release all that person's testimony, their confidential testimony in a case in which that person did nothing wrong. Like that's the problem, is it chills the ability to do some investigations. This is not a defense of Jeffrey Epstein. Fucking fuck that guy. I'm glad he's in hell forever. He should burn for all of eternity. If there's any other pedophile out there we can somehow find through these documents, put them in prison forever. But the problem is, is like, that's not what we are doing here.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And if you're a billionaire, wow.

[Smug]

Duncan just said that pedos shouldn't get the death penalty. He said put him in jail instead.

[Josh Holmes]

Soft on it.

[Smug]

I'm a woodchipper guy for him.

[Josh Holmes]

Soft on it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep, I'm soft.

[Josh Holmes]

He's soft on It. No, but I mean, look, the point remains, then we'll transition. The point remains that I'm not worried about a billionaire. Everybody's talking about all the billionaires getting away with this. Billionaires. Look, if you're in the appsteam files, does anybody worry about their ability to represent themselves?

[Stacey Plaskett]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

They get all the money in the world.

[Josh Holmes]

You got all the money and resources in the world, and the truth will come out on them. I'm more worried about the just drive by person either involved in Epstein or not involved in Epstein in something like five years down the road where you compel all of the investigatory documents on all this, and all of a sudden you can say like, hey, look, he's in the Epstein files. He's a pedophile now he's fired from work.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, look at what happened to Donald Trump. This guy's blowing the whistle. And that's the thing on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell grooming a girl out of Mar? A Lago. Donald Trump blows the whistle on this thing and now suddenly he's a part of it.

[Josh Holmes]

He's the one that they're going after.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So you can see like it's in evidence what the danger is.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the danger we're identifying here. The same danger that impacted Donald Trump can impact tons of people.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. Yep. All right, so that's it. Our question of the day. When you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we ask you one question and we get back to the very next episode. Is the Epstein thing the new Russia hoax?

[John Ashbrook]

Of course it is. It's gotta be.

[Josh Holmes]

And you give us your thoughts. Look, there are strong feelings on this, and I understand that people who've spent 10 years demanding this have strong feelings and don't care about the partisanship. They just wanna see the stuff. I get it.

[Michael Duncan]

It.

[Josh Holmes]

Believe me, I get it. We've identified our concerns about all of that, but it's all coming out now anyway. So the question is, what is done with it? Do you think they're gonna handle it differently than the first three emails where they redacted the name of the person that exonerated Donald Trump and tried to pretend that this was a smoking gun as to how Donald Trump spent time with underage girls? Do you think it's gonna be different than that? Because I got a first four years.

[Michael Duncan]

To sell you, right?

[Josh Holmes]

I do.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

We impeached him twice. You know what I mean? First shit that never happened.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Anyway, so that's all that coming up Next, your comments from last episode on the question of how do Republicans win in the midterms. That was a great episode, by the way, fellas. We'll get to it right after. Okay, so our comments from Tuesday, and the question was, how do Republicans win the midterms? To do that, we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

First comment comes from Bright Hawk, who writes, authenticity wins. Find candidates that are authentic, have a message to demonstrate they are authentic and expose the inauthenticity of the lying, mendacious Dems. Do not play to the legacy media. Play through them, play around them, play over them. That's from Brighthawk with a very, very good point about authenticity.

[Smug]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

On comment two. Dunks rocks.

[John Ashbrook]

This one's from Big Yo. Enact voter id.

[Smug]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

Ramp up deportations. Ensure ballot counting accuracy. Enact voting day. Can voting month.

[Josh Holmes]

I love that. I love it.

[John Ashbrook]

But here's the problem is like, I mean, all the shit's controlled at the state level. Like we have voting month. Some places we have ev. We've got, We've got mail.

[Josh Holmes]

You got to beat them.

[John Ashbrook]

We know this.

[Josh Holmes]

Until we can find the way, because you can't do it at the federal level, you have to do it state by state. And until we can get there on changing these things, at least in swing states, this is going to be an ongoing issue. You just have to figure out how to beat them at their game, which.

[John Ashbrook]

We did in 2024. I'd point out with the leadership of Donald Trump and J.D.

[Josh Holmes]

Vance, completely dominated.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, we wouldn't have won a place like Arizona if they didn't have the courage to lead on this issue that we obviously lost in 2020. And so, like, they have to get a lot of credit for that. And you, listener and viewer, need to know that, like, we can win. Even when the mechanics of the election do not favor us, we can still win.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. Just got to be engaged. All right. Comment three.

[Smug]

Comment three is from Scott Thompson. Scott writes, Rush Limbaugh famously opined that Newt and the boys won in 1994 because they nationalized the midterms with the Contract with America. We need to nationalize this election, which allows Trump to be front and center. Thank you for the attention to this matter. Perfect closing. And along those lines, the idea that Trump had of having like the midterm convention, I fully agree with.

[Josh Holmes]

We want in on that.

[Smug]

Brilliant idea. Brilliant idea.

[Josh Holmes]

We should talk to the rnc. We want in on that.

[John Ashbrook]

I think it's a great idea. Cuz one of the things we've struggled with in the Trump era is like getting this Trump coalition to show up when he's not on the ballot. People have to understand that his agenda's on the ballot. He's on the ballot, they're gonna impeach him. And if we lose.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

And so doing something like this, I think helps crystallize that thing for the voter.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. Turn up the volume all the way to 11. No question about it. All right, so coming up, we've got our signature game here in the ruthless variety program King of the Hill returns right after this. Our signature game. That's right. I was defeated last week, I think by smoking Joe Walsh.

[John Ashbrook]

No, by Jen Rubin.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, by Jen. Oh, that's right. The queen. It was queen on queen.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep, it was queen on queen. Violence.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But, you know, I'm glad you mentioned smokin Joe Walsh because I'm bringing him as a challenger.

[Josh Holmes]

Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, so then our judge, I think, is smug.

[Smug]

I'm the judge.

[John Ashbrook]

And you're. You're bailiff.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I'm a run at tight court.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, obviously I've got the defending champion, Jen Rubin. Let's go ringside.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention. Attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from an empty campaign office, smokin Jo Walsh. And now in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, and current champion of the world, Jennifer Bahrain.

[John Ashbrook]

Worms are Ruben.

[Josh Holmes]

It's good every time. As the bailiff, I'll instruct the champion to go first.

[John Ashbrook]

So I think something interesting is happening. We obviously covered it for the first, you know, 45 minutes of this show with the sort of the way they've reframed the Epstein stuff. The Democrats.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Jen Rubin's done her own in this area, which I find fascinating. Can we put up exhibit number one, please? The headline of this article that she's put on her sub stack is words and phrase. We could do without the Epstein scandal or Trump cover up scandal. And this is her. I don't know what you call it when you post on on Blue Sky. It's not a tweet. Yeah, we'll call it a tweet.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[John Ashbrook]

We should stop using the euphemism for an unspeakable crime in its vile, corrupt cover up. This is the Trump pedophile document. Cover up with a link to her sub stack account.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a good start.

[John Ashbrook]

It's not about the pedophile. It's not about Jeffrey Epstein.

[Josh Holmes]

It's Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

It's Trump. Trump did all this.

[Smug]

At the end of this, I hope he sues the shit out of all these people.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally do.

[Smug]

I hope he sues the shit out.

[Josh Holmes]

They're gonna build the library in the backs of these people.

[Smug]

That's the thing. Like all people who've been just doing these spreading lies about him. And the most insidious part about these lies is that they stick around with the whole Russia thing. Half this country's brains are so broken, they still believe.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it still shows up.

[Smug]

The king of the hill shit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

So, like, people still believe that. Sarah Palin said, I can see Russia from my backyard. Like they say, a lie so long.

[Smug]

And the only way these bastards learn, like, all these networks that lost cases to Trump is if he sues the shadow. I hope when it's all said and done, he sues the shadow.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Smug]

All right, ashwook.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. Exhibit 12, please. Smokin Joe Walsh. And I will note the no Kings banner in his name.

[Josh Holmes]

That is noteworthy.

[Michael Duncan]

Joe Walsh, former Republican member of the House, writes, I will repeat this every single day for the next three years. Any Democrat running for president in 2028 must pledge to immediately tear down, bulldoze, demolish Trump's ballroom and fully restore the east wing and any other piece of the people's house Trump has or will destroy.

[Smug]

Incredible.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Incredible.

[Smug]

I love that the no Kings logo is there. I love his. Take that, like, if you're gonna run for president, you must pledge to just destroy this ballroom. That, again, is probably the most altruistic thing Trump has done because he won't get to enjoy it. Whoever is the next president's the one who's gonna be able to safely hold state dinners and stuff there. It's incredible. Love the take. First round goes to Smokin Joe.

[John Ashbrook]

All right, all right.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, the challenger is up next.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. If it please the court, your honor. Exhibit number 13, please.

[John Ashbrook]

Wolf, hold on, hold on.

[Michael Duncan]

What's.

[Smug]

Get this guy under control.

[Josh Holmes]

What's happening?

[John Ashbrook]

I just want to point out one other thing. I agree with him winning the round, but I think it's worth noting Joe Walsh has actually done this. He mentions it there in the tweet. He has tweeted this out every single week since the ballroom story happened. I'm not.

[Josh Holmes]

That would have been something that would have been. Been appropriate to raise the verdict. Wouldn't have changed my mind.

[Smug]

The timestamp on it. No, it's within the parameters. You're wasting the court's time. And my bailiff isn't acting to define no no, no.

[Michael Duncan]

I apologize on behalf of. Of opposing counsel.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I just. I just calmly reminded.

[Smug]

Cut Duncan's mic.

[Josh Holmes]

That although it's a very good point is one that has come in after the verdict was rendered and therefore moot.

[Smug]

Yeah. Yeah. If we could get to Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

I guess I'm just here for.

[Smug]

That is my.

[Josh Holmes]

Gentry.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes, that's my.

[Josh Holmes]

Just here for the.

[John Ashbrook]

My complaint here isn't. I agree with the decision of this court.

[Smug]

How many times have to say. Wolf cut his mic.

[John Ashbrook]

All I'm saying is we missed an opportunity to point out the fact.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, I'll take that up with my paralegal.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Following the case Exhibit number 13, please. Wolf.

[Smug]

It just makes me angry the more you talk about it.

[Michael Duncan]

Once again, former Republican congressman Joe Wolf or Joe Walsh writing under the no Kings banner. Just a reminder, the coward who refused to accept an election loss in 2020 and then committed crimes trying to overthrow that election will certainly cheat, abuse his powers and break the law to try to win in 2026 and the 2028 election. He's a real threat to democracy. Believe it. Period. That's Joe Walsh. As a reminder, he was once a Republican warmed over.

[Smug]

Yeah, it is. I should never give a tip to Democrats. But the whole line of threat to democracy is so stale. That dog ain't no one cares.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah.

[Smug]

On to you, Duncan.

[Michael Duncan]

Hmm.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's do exhibit number six, please. This is about the. The vote to reopen the government during the shutdown. All six D's who voted for this God awful thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Cr.

[John Ashbrook]

Including the corrupt giveaway to senators need to be primary. Jen Rubin is now calling for Democrats to be primaried for opening the government.

[Smug]

Incredible. I love that take. I love it. She's showing her conservative bonafide. She's trying to be like take these Dems out.

[Michael Duncan]

Love it.

[Smug]

Round two to Ruben. We're going to round three.

[Michael Duncan]

Three.

[Josh Holmes]

And the champion begins.

[John Ashbrook]

What to play here?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he looks like he's got some options, folks. He's sorting through different variations of insanity that he'd like to present to this court.

[John Ashbrook]

There's a lot. Okay.

[Interviewer]

All right.

[John Ashbrook]

We're just gonna do another shutdown take. Just because it's so fucking sure.

[Smug]

Real quick. Can I just say to folks on YouTube. Get. Go back to those. A shot with them. There it is. That's what it looks like. Hanging out with them too.

[John Ashbrook]

Your honor. Your honor, I'm just looking.

[Michael Duncan]

Your honor, that is a brilliant observation.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm looking at the.

[Smug]

Continue to take out a self deprecating.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean that's incredible. Try to suck up to the court like that.

[Michael Duncan]

No need to suck up when the court is quite perfect.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah, there you go.

[John Ashbrook]

Opposing counsel should be disbarred. Exhibit number five, please. So this is again, another take on the shutdown itself. Okay, first of all, an abuse of the Internet here at the top.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

She puts out the blue sky tweet, or whatever you call it, and she links to her substack off the top. Don't see that often before the text, typically people write a sentence or a paragraph and then they put the link right. Not done often what normal people do. She has instead put the link to the thing first and then decided to start writing. What she writes is even more incredible. Let them eat cake. Parenthetical. If they had SNAP benefits. I mean, I don't.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

New paragraph. While Rome burns, Nero Trump fiddles and naps, deteriorating physically and mentally before our eyes.

[Smug]

Oh, my God.

[John Ashbrook]

He shamelessly reiterates he does not give a damn about the American people.

[Smug]

Incredible.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

What a take.

[Smug]

That's good stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

Good luck.

[Smug]

All right, Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, man.

[Michael Duncan]

Your Honor, I'm gonna do my best, but I'm not quite sure I can compete with that. Exhibit number seven, please. Wolf. Joe Walsh, referring to the incident with a reporter on Air Force One. He writes, if I was on Air Force One and heard Trump address a female reporter as Piggy, I'd have gotten in his face and demanded he apologize to her.

[Josh Holmes]

That's actually pretty good.

[Michael Duncan]

Why did no one say anything to Trump? I'm pissed off about this.

[John Ashbrook]

Have a watch seem like if I was there.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I love that.

[Josh Holmes]

My favorite part about this guy, just as an aside, is he's got this, like, hardo routine where he's coming across the Internet like he's bench pressing, like, even walk and talk. And he's such a pussy. It's unbelievable. Like, this guy has lived his entire life just dodging anything remotely close to, like.

[Smug]

I mean, he flip flopped on everything and literally now has jumped to the other party and he's like, oh, I'm gonna stand tall and take a principled stand.

[Josh Holmes]

His cat showed up in my DMs this week. It's a good on Epstein.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a good take. It's a good take. But at least he put the link at the end of the tweet. Jen Rubin put it in the beginning.

[Smug]

So, like, on the merits, I think you would have it. But the style and the hilarity of thinking of, like, Hardo Walsh, like, thinking he's gonna stand up and do something is just way too funny to me. And sadly, that's why I'd give Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

The W. Walsh gets the victory on Hardo.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

On Hardo alone. I actually think that's a new genre here. It is, and it's something that I appreciate.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

It's very new.

[Smug]

It's very fresh.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so this. You know him. You love him. We've been waiting for a long time for this interview. Congressman Brandon Gill. Well, I am very happy to welcome a guy we've been waiting for here on the program. Been big fans for a long time. He's doing great work under the dome. Brandon Gill. How are you, sir?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

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

[Josh Holmes]

You know, we're great. Listen, I feel like Rising Star gets thrown around too much, but in this case, it's warranted.

[John Ashbrook]

It feels warranted. I mean, if you check in on your Twitter feed, you'll. You'll know why.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. You'll know why. So if you recognize this guy, it's because he has a viral moment, at least quarterly, when there is some kind of congressional hearing where some lefty gets up and tries to disavow what it is that they've stood for during the entirety of their career. And you have a nice way of talking to people about that.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

No, I appreciate it. We've had way too much fun with it. But the reality is, you see the left who drove the country off of. Of a cliff for four years, and nobody's been able to call them on it, make them answer for it. And we have the opportunity in Congress to bring people in, and you have cameras rolling. You have them under oath. They can't lie to you. So you can just ask them very directly, like, do you believe X, Y, and Z that you've said multiple times in public forums, on social media. Just explain to me, do you believe that? Yes or no? It's really simple, and you just see them melt.

[Josh Holmes]

Is this something that, like, day one, you were like, there's a lot of hard work in this job, no question. But this is one thing that I've got going on that's gonna be a real perk?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

You know, it was kind of unexpected because goal is just to do a good job. Like, our goal as being in Congress is good governance and to win elections. Like, everything boils down to that. But part of good governance is being able to do our job well, do these committee hearings well, and you actually can move. Move the needle in public debate and get real legislation passed. So, like, the hearing whenever we had Kathryn Marr, CEO of npr, in for. It's one of our favorites, which was so much fun. And, you know, she was sitting there and she had this army of lawyers sitting behind her. And this is high stakes for her because we're thinking about defunding NPR at the time. Like, Republicans have talked about this for decades. We've never been able to do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Since big bird in 92.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

You know, they march out. Big Bird, they say, you know, this is. We need pbs because that's how young kids learn how to read or whatever. And, you know, people get scared and they don't want to vote for it, but you bring them in and you just ask them, you know, do you believe that America's addicted to white supremacy? And like, 90% of the country hears that, and they're like, that's crazy. There's no way, like, the head of a publicly funded broadcast company is spewing this kind of stuff. So you just ask them, yes or no. And she just totally melted, like, totally unprepared. Had no idea that was coming, which she should have. Cause she put this stuff all over social media.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they're not used to being held accountable.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Exactly. And, you know, people see that and they're like, wow, I don't want my tax dollars funding this stuff anymore. Like, this is very black and white for me. And it is.

[John Ashbrook]

So how did you end up here? Like, you know, what inspired you to be a part of this process and come up here to D.C. a crazy place.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah. So I grew up on a cattle ranch in West Texas outside of Abilene. So we raised Angus and Brangus beef cows. Thousand acre cattle ranch. Grew up driving tractors and backhoes, you know, pounding T posts into the ground, everything, you know, you'd expect to do on a cattle ranch. And ended up going to college in the Northeast. Met my wife there. We've been married for eight years now. We have two little kids at home. Two years old and six months old. So got the family back down to Texas, and I worked in finance for a few years. Left that started a conservative political media business that I ran for a couple years.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, we're familiar with that kind of brand.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yep. So loved it. It's a lot. It's a very fun world that you guys are in. And, you know, you get. You get to see and do a lot of interesting things. But my. My predecessor, who served Texas 26 for 22 years, great guy, Dr. Michael Burgess, kind of announced out of out of nowhere that he was retiring. And what I wanted to do is recognize that this is a conservative district. At the time, it was an R + 13. You know, so this is a district that a Republican is going to win in and wanted to make sure that we had conservative representation there. Like somebody who actually ideologically fits the makeup of the district.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They're not faking it.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right. You know, too often you have, like, red districts like that who are not represented by red congressmen. And that is a problem long term.

[Josh Holmes]

Did you grow up particularly political, or is this something that just sort of manifested as you got older and started looking around? I mean, plenty of stuff to hook onto an outrage, but, like, how did you grow up with.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, grew up. Like, I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have a job, you know, working on the ranch. You know, whenever I was, like, in kindergarten, was getting paid, like, six bucks an hour. Yeah. You realize, like, you gotta work hard to make money. And I don't want to deal with, like, this weird leftist, you know, LGBTQ trans nonsense. Like, this stuff is weird, and I don't. I don't want any part of it.

[Josh Holmes]

The social engineering doesn't work on the cattle ranch.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Exactly. No, seriously, though. And, you know, so grow up. Growing up like that. And then, you know, I grew up. You know, you drive tractors and, like, listen to audiobooks. Listen to, like, Rush Limbaugh.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I grew up on Rush Limbaugh talk radio, and I just hear that all the time. And it fits with, you know, a rural conservative lifestyle. And I think, you know, it just sort of natural. But then you develop real ideological convictions through that life experience. Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Things. You're like, wait a minute, what is. What is this?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

But there's a big leap, I mean, for most of us from the point where you're, you know, you're living your lives. You. You've got a conviction one way or another, you know, how you're gonna vote on certain things. And being like, I'm getting in the arena.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right, right. It's totally different once. Once you, you know, announce that you're running for office. Like, you're the. You're the one there who's, like, taking. I mean, political campaigns are brutal. I mean, you guys have experienced that. Like, you've been around the block. You get it. And it is a whole nother world to jump into. But ultimately, it's like, somebody's got to do this. Like, our country, especially during the Biden administration, was heading in a disastrous direction, really. A continuation of Obama. And we've got to turn the ship around and we've got to do it with Republicans, conservatives who are sharp, who are willing to fight, who can play as a team so that we can get legislation passed.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And you know, I think we've been able to execute on that this year. I mean, it's been an active Republican Congress, but wanted to make sure we had somebody who could be effective and actually get things done.

[Josh Holmes]

Did you play team sports growing up?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I played basketball and I ran track. I ran track in college for a year.

[Josh Holmes]

Seems like a guy understands team sports. Yeah, he knows some ball.

[John Ashbrook]

Important.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I do think what you just said is exactly right in that you've got to figure out how to work as a team and get to that end goal. Right. Because it's always so easy, as we found out in recent weeks and then just ancient history, that the easiest way to get on the front page of the New York Times is to disagree with any sort of conservative position whatsoever.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yep, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

But the hardest thing to do do is take the arrows to try to get something that you feel strongly about over the finish line.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Exactly. I mean, if you think of the Republican conference right now, I mean, we've got like a two seat majority or something. And you've got all these different ideological factions in our party. You know, you've got the libertarians and the neoconservatives and the paleo conservatives and like the Reaganite fusionists and like everything in between. And coalescing all these different groups whenever you have no Democrat's gonna vote for anything substantive. They do. And coalescing all these different groups, which I think the speaker's done a fantastic job of, to get real legislation passed is hard. I mean, we worked on like the tax bill this year. I mean, we spent six months on that. I know Congress was working on that before I even got here. Yeah, you know, I mean, major welfare reform, repealing half of the green New deal tax cuts, I mean, border security, like these are huge things that we were able to get done. But you gotta be smart. You gotta work smart on it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, so one thing I know that you've been working on is this expedited removal of criminal illegal aliens that I think just got out of Judiciary committee yesterday. Right. Tell us more about that.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah, so right now there are a few different ways that you can deport illegal aliens. And one of them is via what's called administrative removal. And that's kind of like a fast track removal so that you capture somebody. ICE gets Them they're convicted of some kind of violent felony or whatever. Yeah. And you can deport them within a couple weeks, maybe within a few days, depending on how the process works. But it's a fast track. It gets around having to have an illegal alien sit in line for a court hearing for years and years and.

[Josh Holmes]

Years in the honor system.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

We hope that they come back and if not, we're going to keep them in jail or whatever. So all this bill does is it simply just expands the categories, the crimes under which an illegal is eligible for administrative removal. So we're saying if you're involved in any kind of sexual crime and you're an illegal alien, like, you need to go. You're not.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I can't believe that's not current law.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just a wild.

[John Ashbrook]

That is the funniest thing about all of this is.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like basic stuff, 80, 20 issue stuff that we always talk about here on the show. Yeah. Where it's like, how is this not already a sex crime, illegal immigrant?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know. Let's just sit around. You know, you go do what you want to do.

[John Ashbrook]

Catch and release.

[Josh Holmes]

We hope you show up on noon on Thursday.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And we'll process all of that.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, and it's, you know, sex crimes, violent felon. I mean, all kinds of stuff that applies. I mean, I'll give you an example. You think of, like, where the Democrats are at. You're saying these are 80, 20 issues. And like most Americans agree with us. We had another bill yesterday that we marked up. It was called the Bow Wow Act. And we said that if it simply said if you're an illegal alien and you come into the United States and you abuse animals, dogs or horses, then you're gonna get kicked out. We're not gonna keep you here. We're not gonna wait years for a court date fair. And this came up because there was an illegal alien who kicked a police dog. Little Freddy, his little beagle. We had Freddie at the hearing yesterday and every Democrat voted against this. I mean, if you voted against Freddie, with Freddie right there.

[Josh Holmes]

See, you're seeing some inner genius from Gil here.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Cause like, you've got. It's not just about the Bow Wow Act. You've got the left. It's like, oh, God, we got the PETA thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, man. We just. We're supposed to be for the animals.

[John Ashbrook]

But there's a presentation. There's a presentation component to the thing. That's what we appreciate about you.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

But it's like, if you're a Democrat and you can't vote to deport illegals who are literally kicking beagles. I mean, they kick this beagle. Like, beagle was thrown into the air. I mean, poor little dog.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, how is the bow wow now?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

The dog's happy and healthy, like, thriving. He went out there was chewing dog toys throughout the entire hearing. I mean, this is nice. We're the party of animals.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got a friend in Brandon Gill's office.

[John Ashbrook]

I know that.

[Josh Holmes]

That's awesome. So, like, a few minutes ago, you mentioned all the various factions within the Republican Party. One of the things that I find so fascinating about you is that when you arrive after election, everybody's like, oh, this is who? This is who?

[Michael Duncan]

This.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a firebrand, like, new, like, tear it all down type conservative. And then you see him operate and they're like, well, no, he's not quite that. He's. He's. Well, he's got kind of a prosecutorial type tech. Maybe he's an intellectual tyke. And then all of a sudden they're like, well, I don't know. He's got sort of a broad range of understanding of, like, foreign affairs and things like that. And they can't put you in a box, which I find, like, that's the greatest compliment I can provide to anyone in your line of work.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Well, I mean, thank you. I mean, we've got a ton of different work to do. I mean, your goal, whenever you're in Congress and you're trying to get legislation passed, we vote on legislation on a million different things, you know, like you said, from foreign policy to immigration to tax policy. And sometimes it can get pretty. Pretty in the weeds with things we've got to have, you know, we've got to have members of Congress who can do. Who understand all of it. I mean, that's the goal. I'm not saying I do, but I'm saying that's sort of the goal. But the goal is to get legislation done. And there are multiple components of that. And a lot of that media is a big part of that. It's shifting public opinion, it's shifting the window of debate to make sure that we can sell good conservative policy. And it's actually easy to sell because it's good. It is good policy. And most people agree with us.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, totally.

[Michael Duncan]

So.

[Josh Holmes]

But I think so much of that, in being unable to be defined in who you are, is representing your district, which clearly you do well. And that was the whole motive. Are you still on. Like, we talk about this all the time. Do you still have like text chains of high school buddies give feedback, Right? I mean, that's just kind of like the thing now, right?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

And you always know when you're into something when it escapes the political. And like, your buddies from back home are like, dude, what was that?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Oh, yeah, yeah, you get it. That's the best kind of feedback too, because those, like, those are our people.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

You know, my closest friends in high school, they're welders and they're out there in the military. You know, a lot of them enlisted right out of high school and they're doing, you know, blue collar jobs. And then they see. Well, yeah, you know, I don't think that my tax dollars, you know, if I'm going to spend 14 hours a day welding and breaking my back, I don't want my tax dollars funding, like transgender propaganda for a three year old. That's crazy. You know, I don't want illegal aliens coming into my communities. And those are the people that we need to be looking out for. And we are. I mean, the Republican Party is the party of the working class. I mean, we say it all the time, but we are totally.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you remember the first time that you were doing something up here? Maybe it was that PBS thing when all of a sudden your tax chain lit up and it was like, holy shit, Brandon.

[John Ashbrook]

Look what Brandon's up to.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

That was. That was probably the first big one.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

But we had another hearing that was a lot of fun, and it was with Governor Pritzker. And you know, Governor Pritzker, like, rising star in the Democrat party, think he's going to be a potential presidential candidate. And he was really big on bashing Trump over the transgender stuff. He's really into that for whatever reason. And we brought him in and he had tweeted that everybody, as a protest against President Trump, should use the opposite gender's bathroom today. So I just asked him, I was like, governor, you know, thank you for coming here, but should men be able to use women's restrooms? And he gets all red faced. He's pissed. And you know, you're turning this into a political circus or whatever. And I said, governor, it's just an easy question. I can answer pretty simply like, they shouldn't, but what do you think? And he finally, he's like, well, it wouldn't give a straight answer. I said, well, Governor, you tweeted that everybody should use the opposite genders bathrooms. Let me ask you, have you ever used the women's restroom.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, God.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And he just blew a gasket. Hated that. But I think that that's a straightforward, logical question with somebody. Like, if you're saying this stuff, do you live up to this or are you just telling everybody else to do it?

[Stacey Plaskett]

It's.

[Josh Holmes]

Cause so much of what they do is theater.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, it's all about trying to present something for political, you know, whatever is going on on the left, but.

[John Ashbrook]

Something that they, of course, themselves would never do because it'd be embarrassing and stupid.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right, right. No, exactly. And they realized that defies logic. It defies logic, and most people disagree with it. And there was a period of time from like maybe 2014 to the end of the Biden administration, whenever the left just went so far left on all of these crazy social issues, and they know that they were far to the left of the American people, they don't want to be straightforward about what they believed because a lot of what they were pushing was sort of under the table. It's like, let's weaponize tax dollars to give to left wing NGOs, for instance. And we don't have to actually, like, debate this or argue it. We can just kind of do it under the table.

[John Ashbrook]

No, we'll do it through funding and flow through higher education, academia, and then it's going to come downstream of that through the rest of society, and we're going to fund it through all these, you know, avenues that you control over.

[Josh Holmes]

We'll also just filter that right back into the old campaign.

[John Ashbrook]

The whole thing. Yeah, yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, it's true. It's totally true. I mean, there's a reason that they're. That they're pissed about that we defunded npr. I mean, think of NPR just as an example. Like, we work so hard to raise money for the Republican side. Democrats do the same thing. And why would we use tax dollars to basically pay for earned media for left wing ads? I mean, that's basically what NPR is.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, this is. I mean, we're.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an apparatus of the Democratic National Committee.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right. I mean, that. And they run cover for Democrats. They attack Republicans routinely. I mean, they're running like, transgender documentaries. I mean, trying to change, like, the social, social views and social makeup of the country. Like, why would we pay for that whenever most people disagree with it.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you have a way of making that argument in a way that just sort of planes it down and resonates with people. Because I think you're right. I mean, look, fundamentally, we're a center right country. And when people hear just a plain argument, we're not talking about legislative text here. We're not talking about, you know, filibusters and clotures and rules and all these. We're talking about just like, do you believe in that? Is that really where we're standing here? And they have to provide an answer, which is the genius of what you're doing. I'm interested because you're relatively new, you look across the aisle at Democrats, hard not to notice. There's a new penchant for socialism here.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that real?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, it's the direction, the party, I mean, they've been going in that direction for a long time. Time. But you see, I mean, you obviously, you see Mom, Donnie, you see the, the mayor in Seattle recently. I mean, that they are the party of communism right now.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And radical Islam as well.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And it's something we've got to come to terms with, which is we've got to be able to reach people who are drawn in, into some of these ideologies. Yeah. Because this, I mean, it will destroy the country. We know it. But we've got to be able to convince, you know, somebody who's having a hard time getting a job, having a hard time getting, getting a house, having a hard time paying for health insurance, you know, costs like we saw that in the last election cycle a couple weeks ago. We've got to be able to reach these voters.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

We have the solutions, but we've got to be able to execute on it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They call it a Michigan problem.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, they call it a Michigan problem.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Which we know what it is.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Well, I mean, you know, you import the third world and you become the third world. I mean, for a long time, American immigration policy was predicated on one. You can't come into the United States and just immediately get on the dole. You can't be a public burden. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It was best and brightest.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Exactly. It was the best and brightest. And you were expected to assimilate into American culture.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, because you were coming here because a lot of the places you were fleeing were broken.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And we didn't try to make America like the place you left.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

You came here because America was the best.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. Like New York City, for instance, like between 36 and 38% of New York City is foreign born. And there's, I mean, just walk down any street in New York and you realize very quickly that there's zero immigration in New York City. You know, Democrats want to brag about, you know, there's a hundred different languages spoken. Like, you know, I'd rather be able to communicate with my neighbor than hear them speaking, you know, Hindi or Swahili or whatever language that I can't understand.

[Josh Holmes]

With no motive to sort of assimilate into the larger culture at all.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, you can't have a long term cohesive society whenever there's no social cohesion to begin with.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And we're seeing the consequences of that.

[Josh Holmes]

Very well said. So we ask everybody who comes on for the first time three big questions. Okay. And these are the ones that people pay attention to. You're from Texas. I think I probably already know the answer to the first one, but I'm going to let you. If you could plan your last meal on earth, what would it be?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, I'd have a rare stay.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

With some bourbon. I'd have a cigar with it. To start off with bourbon and a cigar than a rare steak.

[Josh Holmes]

What kind of cut are we talking about here? It's the last meal.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I'd go with the New York strip. That's a little anti Texas, I guess, but that's what I.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I mean, look, they make t bones. You gotta cut one side off it anyway.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

That makes sense.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it. What sides are you a sides guy? You gonna do like a mashed potato?

[Josh Holmes]

Gotta be a potato.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah. I'd go with potatoes and spinach.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, green spinach.

[Josh Holmes]

A touch of health in there.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But the bourbon takes the bourbon and.

[John Ashbrook]

The cigar up front.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Balance it out a little bit.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. Your order is not dissimilar for many of ours. All right, so second question. Look, you're. You're a young guy, but you've had a lot of life experiences, and obviously you're serving in Congress. With the benefit of retrospect, if you didn't get into this line of work at all, but you know what you know and you've done what you've done. Is there anything else that you would have rather done? Not necessarily rather done, but that you think that would be fascinating and interesting to be a part. And I'll give you an example. Like, we had Ted Cruz on here, and he said he was going to be a power forward in the NBA. That was never going to happen. So it can be aspirational in nature, but all throat open.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I'd be in business. I think I'd. It'd be fun to like, start like a cigar company.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, wow.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, there you go.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

That'd be pretty cool.

[Josh Holmes]

It's your big cigar guy.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah, I like cigars.

[Josh Holmes]

You're a cigar guy.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Got the humidor in the office and. Yeah, yeah, that's what I do. That'd be pretty fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Hardly anything more relaxing than bourbon and a nice cigar. Yeah, I get it. It makes a ton of sense. All right, so the last question, and this one's a little esoteric, so you gotta. You gotta follow me on this. But our view is that most successful people in life are motivated by. I wanted two things. It's either the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Agony of defeat, the depiction of all. That's Michael Jordan, right? Where he just used to invent slights in order to bring him to the next level. But that's the whole point of this question, is what is it that motivates you to get to the next level, to work harder? The thrill of victory person is like a Phil Mickelson who looks at like, a 280 yard shot over water with a two iron, and he's. They're like, all you need to do is lay up and make a par and you win. And he's like, yeah, but I hit that shot before. Yeah, and that's the thrill of victory guy. Where do you find yourself?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

I mean, I hate losing.

[John Ashbrook]

Hate losing.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

And like, so much of politics is, like, at the end of the day, you look across the aisle and you say, we're running an election or whatever. It's, I win, you lose, and I hate losing. So I'd say more than anything, it's, I like to win. Winning's fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Everybody likes to win.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

But losing. Losing is pain.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, dude, Gil, I mean, you're amongst.

[John Ashbrook]

Friends in that regard.

[Josh Holmes]

I've never seen the world any differently than what you just explained. Listen, if people want to keep up with you, both on the official side and on the campaign side, where do they go?

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

We're all over social media. I've got my official Twitter, the campaign Twitter. It's there. Repbrandengill. We're on Instagram. You can see a lot of these hearing videos as well. There's. We're everywhere.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. Well, you're doing great work.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Appreciate it.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't be a stranger. Like, come in whenever you want. I'm sorry it's taken so long to do this for the first time because we've been huge fans and would love to keep up with you as you go along.

[Congressman Brandon Gill]

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, this guy is so smart. Every single video we've played and we've played a ton of them of him at these hearings where he is just dismantling every lib that no Democrat was would dare ask a cross question to this guy. Does it? And what a treat to have him here.

[Smug]

Human highlight reel, the guy. And he's just, just showed up. This is his first time he's been elected. Already an all star. I see tremendous things from him.

[Josh Holmes]

Humble, awesome, a genuine guy. What you see is what you get. He's going to be around for a long time. This guy's a star. Yeah, this guy's a star. Glad to have him in. It won't be the last time you see him here on the Ruthless Variety Program. Thank you very much for Congressman Brandon and Gil for coming in. Remember our question of the day is this the Epstein episode, the New Russian Hoax. Feels like it. Feels like it. But interested in your point of view on all that? When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program, we read all of your comments and get back to the very next episode, as we will with this one on Funtime Friday. With that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Smug]

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