Trump Triggers Libs on DC Crime

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Trump Triggers Libs on DC Crime"

Introduction to DC Crime and Trump's Policies The episode opens with Michael Duncan labeling Donald Trump as a "racist authoritarian" for his attempts to reduce crime in Washington D.C. Josh Holmes counters by attributing the increasing violence to climate change, humorously stating, "every time someone is shot in Navy Yard, each of those bullets says climate change on the side of it" (00:06). This sets the stage for a heated discussion about the underlying causes of crime in the capital.

Overturning Home Rule and Federal Intervention John Ashbrook delves into the complexities of the Home Rule Act of 1972, signed by President Nixon, which grants self-governance to D.C. His analysis suggests that while overturning Home Rule is filibusterable, Congress should monitor D.C.'s actions closely. Ashbrook emphasizes, "If the D.C. government erects barriers to the federal government cleaning up the streets of D.C., make them vote. Make them vote time and time and time again" (00:21). He argues that D.C. serves as a blueprint for other cities struggling with similar issues.

Critique of Democratic Narratives on Crime The hosts critique the Democratic Party's handling of crime, inflation, and illegal immigration. Comfortably Smug highlights the low favorability ratings of the Democratic Party, citing, "their party's favorability according to Gallup this week is at 34%" (12:12). They argue that Democrats have shifted from focusing on tangible issues to promoting narratives centered around racism and climate change, distracting from the real crime problems plaguing cities.

Liberals’ Disconnect from Urban Crime Realities Michael Duncan points out that liberal analysts often live in areas unaffected by high crime rates, leading to a disconnect in their perspectives. He states, "Don't you feel like the liberal analyst lives a very different life than most people and that sort of informs all these opinions they have on things" (05:36). This sentiment is echoed by John Ashbrook, who criticizes liberals for defending crime and portraying police as the enemy, undermining public safety.

Paid Protests and Democratic Strategies A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the phenomenon of paid protesters. John Ashbrook introduces the concept by revealing that protest inquiries in D.C. have surged by 400% amidst Trump's crackdown on crime. Comfortably Smug sarcastically labels it as a "crowd rental company" effort, suggesting that these protests are orchestrated rather than spontaneous. They further allege that dark money, including contributions from George Soros, funds these orchestrated demonstrations to maintain Democratic agendas (28:55).

Comparisons to Other Liberal Cities The hosts draw parallels between D.C. and other Democratic-controlled cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and Charlotte. Sally Harper from Chicago criticizes local Progressive leaders, stating, "Decades of Democrat control and recent progressive idiocy from the likes of Brandon Johnson and Lori Lightfoot have run our world-class city to the ground" (43:40). Similar frustrations are expressed about Minneapolis and Denver, where progressive policies are blamed for escalating crime and urban decay.

Challenges of Charging Minors as Adults Michael Duncan addresses the issue of juvenile crime in D.C., advocating for charging minors as adults to curb violent offenses. He remarks, "There is a huge problem in this town of kids who are 14, 15, 16. ... If you can't start charging these kids as adults, then we're pissing in the wind" (41:17). This stance is presented as a necessary measure to effectively address the increasing crime rates among youth.

Late-Night Hosts and Media Criticism Transitioning to media critique, the hosts mock late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert for their perceived liberal bias. Comfortably Smug jokes about Kimmel obtaining Italian citizenship, insinuating his disapproval of Trump’s policies (56:29). They praise Greg Gutfeld for successfully increasing his show’s audience by 57%, attributing his success to delivering jokes rather than political talking points (57:46).

British Police Undercover Operations In a unique segment, the hosts discuss a New York Post report about British female officers dressing as joggers to catch men engaging in catcalling and sexual harassment. Comfortably Smug humorously critiques the tactic, suggesting it’s an inefficient use of police resources and humorously attributing cooperation among female officers to internal conflicts (60:18).

Interactive Segment: King of the Hill The episode features an interactive game called "King of the Hill," where the hosts challenge their peers with political statements and rebuttals. Comfortably Smug successfully counters Jennifer Rubin's critique of Trump’s crime policies, reinforcing their stance against Democratic narratives on urban crime (51:25). This segment serves to engage listeners and demonstrate the hosts' debating prowess.

Conclusion and Upcoming Content The hosts wrap up the episode by previewing future discussions, including a segment on the whistleblower issue involving Adam Schiff. They reiterate their commitment to providing unique perspectives, distancing themselves from mainstream media reporting (65:00).

Notable Quotes:

• Michael Duncan: "Donald Trump's number one enemy in Congress. Chicago Senator Dick Durbin." (00:21)
• John Ashbrook: "If the D.C. government erects barriers to the federal government cleaning up the streets of D.C., make them vote time and time and time again." (00:21)
• Comfortably Smug: "They didn't learn their lesson from how much of a failure the defund the police movement was because the number one group who opposed it was black Americans." (14:11)
• Josh Holmes: "Maybe ensure that that money is spent on keeping people safe." (40:33)
• Michael Duncan: "If you have any pushback from the government of D.C. about adolescents committing violent crimes and charging them as adults, do it." (41:17)

Timestamp Reference Guide:

• Timestamps like [00:06] correspond to the time in the transcript where the quote or segment occurs.

Conclusion This episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers a critical examination of Democratic policies and narratives surrounding crime in Washington D.C., highlighting perceived hypocrisies and inefficiencies. The hosts argue that Trump's interventions could serve as a model for other struggling cities, while also criticizing liberal strategies and media portrayals of urban crime. Engaging through humor, interactive segments, and pointed critiques, the podcast aims to resonate with listeners who seek alternative conservative viewpoints on contemporary political issues.

Transcript

[Michael Duncan]

But Donald Trump is the racist authoritarian for trying to reduce crime in D.C. think about how whacked that is.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, Michael, what you don't understand is every time someone is shot in Navy Yard, each of those bullets says climate change on the side of it. Okay?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't understand. That's why they're doing it. They're doing it because of climate change.

[John Ashbrook]

The overturning of home rule in and of itself appears to be filibusterable, which, you know, Democrats will stand up and say it's a civil rights issue and everything else, so you can't get rid of it entirely, at least not in the current iteration. But I would suggest the Congress do this. Take a close look at what's happening over the next couple of months. If the D.C. government erects barriers to the federal government cleaning up the streets of D.C. make them vote. Make them vote time and time and time again. Because the rest of the country, if we're ever gonna have cities back from west to east, is going to look at what happened here in D.C. as an example of what can be done. He's Donald Trump's number one enemy in Congress. Chicago Senator Dick Durbin. And now Dick Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, consumers have thousands of choices in credit cards, all with equal strong security. But Durbin's plan is less competition and less security, and that means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republicans in Congress, stop Dick Durbin's takeover of your credit card before it's too late.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event.

[John Ashbrook]

Good Thursday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I am Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, left to right, across your radio dial. Typically speaking, August is a time of not a lot of political news and not a lot of yucks and fun making.

[Michael Duncan]

But not here on the Ruthless Variety Program.

[John Ashbrook]

It is not here on the Ruthless Variety Program. We have done well, we've done better over the last couple weeks than maybe in our history. I think it's because all of you appreciate what we appreciate. If there's content every day, lawmakers don't need to be in town in order to have political news. And when they do, they show up at cable television and everything else, and it's hilarious.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's the thing, you know, I think it's probably the number one story is in between President Trump, you know, mobilizing the police and the National Guard. Between that and Congress on recess, criminals have pretty much cleared out of D.C. i mean, things are looking pretty good.

[John Ashbrook]

Can we talk just for a second before we get into this? Because we're going to talk about the DC thing and everything else and all the reaction to it, but I find it truly incredible that Trump, and really we've talked about it a lot, superpower, is always picking issues in which Democrats at the lean end of 60, 40.

[Michael Duncan]

Always more like 80, 20.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, but, but it goes to 80, 20. We're talking about like men and women's sports and things like that. Right, but it's always 60, 40.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Automatically, you know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

And so now he's, he's forced the opposition now to have a full week of discussion about how much crime is tolerable.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

To the American people. Like when you spend an arm and a leg to put your family on an airplane to visit the nation's capital, is it okay that you're at what the mayor calls historically low crime levels when the likelihood of you being pickpocketed or mugged or robbed or worse is pretty high if you venture off the beaten path? Like, of course not. But that's the position that these people are in. And you see person after person on the liberal side trying to defend crime. That's a hell of a thing. They were in a position where they were defending illegal immigration, they were in a position where they were defending inflation, they were in a position where they were defending higher taxes, they were in a position where they were defending other countries taking advantage of the American worker. And they all go full throated into any of it. Cuz they can't take a damn pitch.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean that's. So they find themselves at historic lows when it comes to favorability for the Democrat party where last year they spent saying the border is secure. Remember that? They were just saying, listen, the border's secure. I don't know why Trump keeps coming up with these lies. Right. And everyone knew they're like, wait a minute, that's clearly a lie. Now they're saying no crime is, crime is gone in D.C. there's no crime in D.C. and then anybody with your own, if you visit D.C. if you're unfortunate enough, it's sad. If you visit, you will see this city has fallen apart. Where anyone who's a resident knows somebody who's been carjacked or robbed. Yeah, everybody knows.

[Michael Duncan]

But don't you feel like, like the liberal analyst lives a very different life than most people and that sort of informs all these opinions they have on things. When they say like the border is secure, but they live in the acelic corridor, obviously doesn't impact them in the same way as somebody living in a border town in Texas. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

It feels good to have a talking point when you have absolutely no interaction.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, when you say DC is safe, but like you work from home In Montgomery County, Maryland, you know, your opinion of D.C. crime might be different. Like all of it is, is very, very different.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then I can't remember who it was that pointed this out the other day on Twitter where Simone Sanders goes on CNN and she's tweeting that like.

[John Ashbrook]

Buddy, we got a clip.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is insane.

[John Ashbrook]

Buddy, we have, we have a clip. You don't need to summarize all the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Talking heads, just look, lying to people, everyone is sick of it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, everyone is sick of it. Let's start with this clip and then we'll use that as a jumping off point. Let's clip one, please. I think it's really important to be clear about what is going on here. And a relatively small crime problem is being used for specific authoritarian purposes that we know and understand. So let's be clear about. D.C. does have a really one really big crime problem, which was the January 6th insurrection incited by the current President United States. And his first act in coming back was pardoning all the people who tried to overturn constitutional republic order in Washington dc. When I go to dc, I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid of losing my vote. I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid that my children's freedom to breathe will be stolen. And in a world where climate change policy is non existent, I'm afraid that the future of middle class people will be stolen by the very things you were talking about. Cutting the safety net, cutting Medicaid, cutting rural hospitals. I mean, this dude, this fucking guy, I mean, I don't know where to get started. First of all, it looks like he put his finger in a goddamn light socket, right? I mean, this cat, this cat's got like straight up silver hair, wants us to take him seriously, tells us that climate change is a bigger threat than the guy who's trying to cart Jack. I don't know, like anybody who ventures off the beaten path, he talks about how January 6th was the issue.

[Comfortably Smug]

More people get killed on a given weekend in D.C. in a shooting outside of a Walgreens than got killed on January 6th. Let's be honest about this. First of all, they've played that boogeyman for a while. Voters didn't buy it. You got to move on. Now he's like, when I show up to dc, I'm scared my vote's going to be taken away. As we all know, you could be walking down the street and someone says, haha, your vote is now mine. What is he talking about?

[John Ashbrook]

Like, without any justification whatsoever. Right. I mean, it used to be the case that when you had these left wing lunatics that would come in and say something like that, they'd at least have to point to something to say like, well, this is how they're doing it. This guy, he doesn't even, he doesn't even reference anything about what his concerns are. It was the most bizarre. I would encourage people. There's a full clip which by the way, ends with Joe Scarborough being like, well, everything that the Trump administration is doing is seen through the lens of Epstein. And it's like, dude, I don't know how to tell you, like how your cylinder of information is perverted and disgusted, but this is, this is what you're arguing against. Like, these people are the most insane people on the face of the planet. And Donald Trump, of course this week decided that it was within his purview to try to crack down on a very real crime epidemic, one that has peaked and valid several times over the last four years, all during the Biden administration. 23 was so bad that there were like inner city left wing lunatics that were calling to revoke the home rule because they couldn't believe that the city council was decriminalizing crime and the mayor was more interested in repainting Black Lives Matter Boulevard than they were at actually enforcing the law.

[Michael Duncan]

Sort of ironic really when you think about it, that she would be more interested in painting Black Lives matter Boulevard when 96% of the perpetrators and victims of homicides in the District of Columbia are black. Yeah, the mayor is black.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

The majority of the city council black. But Donald Trump is the racist authoritarian for trying to reduce crime in dc. Think about how whacked that is.

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, Michael, what you don't understand is every time someone is shot in Navy Yard, each of those bullets says climate change on the side of it. Okay, yeah, Understand that's why they're doing it. They're doing it because of climate change. They're doing it because of votes. Just listen to the msnbc.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a real threat.

[Comfortably Smug]

And a lot of those carjackers, I guarantee, were inspired by Donald Trump. To try and steal votes. Like, I'm guessing that must be what is inspiring all the carjackings of why no one wants to drive through Navy Yard is they're like, well, you know, I could lose my vote. Like, how do you people think you can try and convince anyone to believe you anymore? There's zero, zero support for this. For 10 years we went through this. We woke ideology being pushed on everyone of being like, oh well, you know, Greta here says that the world's gonna end in 10 years. Ten years later, the world is still here, but the crime has increased. You're like telling people who walk through D.C. and see homeless people who are clearly on Fentanyl on every corner that, well, you know, you should be worrying about climate change. The public has had enough and thank God, President Trump has had enough.

[Josh Holmes]

No, what you don't understand, the Fentanyl is a Jan6 issue. Whenever they shoot up fentanyl, they're Jan6. Jan6, 100%.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what I find very funny about all this? Like Morning Joe, which is where this whole thing went down. Like completely divorced from reality or whatever. Like, we have more people who listen to this show before 9am when it releases on audio than watch that thing. It's something on a, on a day to day basis, but it still has gravitas within the Democratic movement. It still has gravitas in the progressive atmosphere. To the point like they've got like all big show lights and a lot of cameras and you know, we're very important me, we're here talking about all this stuff. Nobody's listening. The only people are listening are the same people that are setting Democratic agendas in Washington D.C. in New York City with Mamdani, with, you know, the situation, Minneapolis, with that fucking pirate. Like, I mean it's like, like the pirate. But you know what I mean, I.

[Michael Duncan]

Am the captain now.

[John Ashbrook]

They're only listening to each other and they keep taking the lean end of, well staked out majority positions over and over and over.

[Josh Holmes]

You know where that's led them by the way. And Chris Soliza tweeted this out. Chris Culiza of all people tweeted this out. The Democrats are at an all time low of favorability. Their party's favorability according to Gallup this week is at 34%. It's gotten them nothing.

[John Ashbrook]

It's gotten them nothing. But I think it like it begin. Look, this is where you put the pedal down. Yep. If you're a conservative, if you believe in Donald Trump, Donald Trump has done better job in my view, than any president of my lifetime of consistently choosing a topic of conversation that puts Democrats in a position to having to argue the lean end of a very well litigated public discussion. Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, so much of this is because for so long, Republicans have been scared to have these conversations because for so long, the left learned that if I say the word racist, I can win any argument. If they say, oh, you want police racist. They said police are racist. Oh, we went through a summer of endless riots and the city's burning down across this country. But that was okay. That was okay. And if you didn't support it, you're racist. That's, that's done. The public doesn't buy that anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

And I think it's important because, like, in this new Trump era, we've seen the end of DEI policies in corporate America. You know, we've seen, I think, an understanding that, like, I don't know, men playing in women's sports is an insane thing that we should stop. And like, those were, I think, easier wins than this because, like, when you have liberal politicians who control the infrastructure in these huge urban areas, well, they're entrenched. They're entrenched. And so that's why I think this is so important. It's like what Donald, and we've talked about this previously on the show, but if Donald Trump is able to succeed in Washington D.C. and break the liberal lawlessness in urban areas, it is a blueprint for the rest of the country.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's so important.

[Michael Duncan]

It's the death knell of woke in this country that they can't, they can't get out of.

[John Ashbrook]

They can't, you know, they can't get it. You watch that Chicago mayors situation a couple of years ago. They have like, more killings than Bogota and Baghdad.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And yet they vote for the guy who's like, no everything, absolute moron school board. You know, you got this Minneapolis situation with his own Mark cat who's like in the same category, and they're gonna vote him in. They're gonna do like, they can't take care of themselves. It's not like there is anybody who has thought that external facts matter to a progressive electorate is out of their goddamn minds. Like, they just aren't. They're not going to change it on their own. What may change their mind is whether or not you can actually increase the viability of a city, make it great again, make tourism great, make it what it was supposed to be. And the only way you can do that in any municipality of Any consequence across this country right now is in D.C. where the president, United States actually.

[Michael Duncan]

Has some authority and it should matter to you. And Ashbrook has pointed this out numerous times on the program. But, like, you pay for it. Like, you may not live here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

This is your city. You should be able to travel here with your family. You should be able to visit the monument. You'd be safe in this city because it is the federal city. It's supposed to be the jewel of our country.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. And it goes beyond just the fact that it is the capital of your country. If you pay federal tax, taxes every single year, your money goes to Washington D.C. to the tune of $1 billion on an annual basis.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's true. So how's the Democrat left react? We're not done with MSNBC quite yet. This is the one you were referencing. Smug clip 2.

[Comfortably Smug]

You don't think more police make streets safer?

[John Ashbrook]

No, Joe, I'm a black woman in America. I do not always think that more police make streets safer.

[Comfortably Smug]

When you walk down the streets of.

[John Ashbrook]

Georgetown, you don't see a police officer on every corner, but you don't feel unsaf safe. So what is it about talking about places like Southeast D.C. right. Ward 8, if you will, that people say, well, we need more officers to make us safe. I think we have to rethink what safety means in America.

[Comfortably Smug]

Did he say did? Was that Morning Joe who said no to more police officers in Southeast would make it safer?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. So a couple of things. Number one, I would say these people, I would say when anytime somebody on television starts a sentence with a dependent clause, that is Their gender and race, they're about to tell you a line of bullshit.

[John Ashbrook]

100%.

[Michael Duncan]

100%. The other thing I would point out, also, it.

[John Ashbrook]

Also it cuts our way when people are like, as a father of.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Ex husband.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Like. Like whatever comes after that is just like Spinsville.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, the other thing I would point out to Simone Sanders, because apparently she knows nothing about Washington, D.C. but if you look at the Washington Post poll of crime opinions of the residents of dc, I can tell you the number one cohort, the number one demographic most concerned about violent crime in DC is black women. Black women are more concerned about violent crime than anybody else in Washington, D.C. because they have to live it.

[Josh Holmes]

They just want to live their lives. They don't want to have to look over their shoulders every single day.

[John Ashbrook]

They're just like everybody else. It's what happens. Like what you just said is what happens when you stop thinking of People in cylinders. And you start thinking of people as people. The way we grew up.

[Comfortably Smug]

And they didn't learn their lesson from how much of a failure the defund the police movement was because the number one group who opposed it was black Americans.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

And like you said, Simone Sanders, you would think would know more about this because there was a tweet that came out of her husband owns a restaurant and showed up to one of the community board meetings saying that outside of my restaurant the streets of D.C. are unsafe. And we're fed up with this. People are getting shot, people are getting robbed. Maybe she should talk to her husband if she wants to know what it's like. I mean, stop going on TV and lying to people, Simone.

[John Ashbrook]

No, it's a fair point. So there's a lot more that goes into the whole crime epidemic that goes well beyond D.C. you're going to get a little flavor for that and you're going to get into some protest discussions.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

The local media loves to cover a good protest. We're going to tell you all about where that comes from right after this. Hard working Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy, to create jobs, secure our future and make life better, more affordable and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. Okay, so look, we've had a problem with DC that is not unique to DC it is basically what we see across the country. We've lamented it for a number of years here on the Variety program about their inability to help themselves at some level. But it is a perfect encapsulation. So the police chief, folks. The police chief.

[Michael Duncan]

I love this clip.

[John Ashbrook]

The police chief of Washington D.C. was the chief equity officer.

[Michael Duncan]

No way.

[John Ashbrook]

Leading the departments in DEI efforts.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm shocked.

[John Ashbrook]

And she's now become the police Chief of Washington D.C. this used to be a thing. Like it wasn't just when I grew up. I've lived here since then in the last 20 years. It was like a pinnacle achievement for any law enforcement officer to be a police chief in a major city, metropolitan city across this country, right? If you were like the police chief of New York, DC, LA, Miami, like you were a thing, right? It was a crowning achievement that you earned your law enforcement bona fides to a point where people were like, man, hats off. Like you really know how to Enforce the law. This, this is what happened. This lady, not so much. Do we have any graphic or anything of anything of who this lady is? She's wearing a four star rank, but she doesn't know.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think we do have a clip, right? Clip, Right.

[John Ashbrook]

What chain of command means. And that just became apparent this week when she was asked a question in relation to everything that the Trump administration is doing. Do we have this clip? What the chain of command is now? What does that mean? Well, is it. Pam, Bobby speaking to the mayor, how does this work? So the executive order is clear. The President has requested MPD services in our home rule charter. I want that to sit.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't know what that is.

[John Ashbrook]

I want that to sit for a minute. For those of you who've been involved in the military or law enforcement or anything else, the idea that the chief of police for the capital of the United States of America doesn't know what quote, unquote, chain of command means.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Has to step away from the microphone. Miriam Bowser has to jump in and do the same. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Pathetic. I mean, like, if you ever wanted an example that DI Means didn't earn it, there it is.

[John Ashbrook]

There it is.

[Comfortably Smug]

You have the chief of police who doesn't know what chain of command is, but they were the chief of equity officer and now they're the chief of police. Pathetic.

[John Ashbrook]

The fact that equity officer ever existed in law enforcement is bonanzas to me. Like, I can't even imagine. Like, you either do your job or you don't. But the fact that then they're promoted to the chief of police for Washington D.C. i mean, come on. You see. But you, again, all of you throughout the country, as you're listening to this, you look at your city that you're right next door to and you see this. This is not unique to D.C. this is why this is an important conversation. You keep thinking that the media is trying to make this a local discussion about crime in D.C. and even you put these Democrats out there, like, yeah, I was robbed. Yeah, my friend was robbed. Yeah, my windows get broken every once in a while, whatever. But I mean, this is a civil rights issue primarily, but outside of that, it's a local issue or whatever. It's not. It is. I don't care if you live in Cincinnati or Indy or Denver or Minneapolis, like it's happening in your neighborhood. And the reason this is an important discussion is because you're going to see it dismantled in Washington D.C. in a way that is going to send a message to the rest of the country that you can have it one of two ways. You can have it the way that you've had it and have an uninhabitable pinnacle of your state. Right. I mean, I'm from Minneapolis. You got this guy Omar or whatever he looks like the guy from Captain Phillips. Phillips, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, he's the captain now.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he's the captain now. And like he's going to win mayor of that, of that city. And like his whole thing is like defunding cops and, you know, doing what you would imagine them to do. And they're gonna elect him and he's gonna do what he's doing. Except for the fact that you have the twins, the Vikings, the Timberwolves, all the theater productions across the river. You've got the Minnesota Wild. You've got all kinds of. The entirety of the attractions that bring a state together are within the jurisdiction of this person. They don't give a shit. They don't give a shit. No revenue. They don't care if they shut out all the revenue that makes a city inhabitable and good and fun and whatever. What they care about is just like servicing this tiny little constituency that continues to get them elected. Except now, hopefully at some point you're gonna get a window of evidence.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good. Minnesota deserves it. Have you seen their cheerleader?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, listen, Denver's no better dog.

[Comfortably Smug]

Denver's a mess.

[John Ashbrook]

It's no better.

[Comfortably Smug]

Denver's a mess. You know, Colorado used to be a red state and then the same thing happened.

[John Ashbrook]

And don't get started.

[Comfortably Smug]

You got Californians who moved in and then he legalized pot.

[John Ashbrook]

And now look at it.

[Comfortably Smug]

You've got apartment buildings getting taken over by illegals.

[John Ashbrook]

And don't get me started on Cincinnati. What was it this yesterday? All of a sudden you have a whole bunch of community leaders that were saying that the guy that got his ass kicked deserves charges.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a terrible situation in Cincinnati. I mean, honestly.

[Comfortably Smug]

And their chief of police is just like this. They find like a woke middle aged lady. Just like in D.C. this became a template across the country where they find. All right, are you a middle aged lady willing to put DEI in practice?

[John Ashbrook]

Look at.

[Comfortably Smug]

And since she came out first and was like, listen, we first need to find out what the white guy said.

[Michael Duncan]

He literally, that was the quote, was this white guy instigated six felonies. How short was his skirt? You know, that's the thing. And then back to this police chief who was the equity officer. Think about how like insane and perverse it is that this person is an equity officer. And as I said earlier, 96% of the homicide victims in the district are black. Yeah, that woman is black. What sort of fucking equity is she doing? What is the point of any of this?

[John Ashbrook]

I think it unmasks the whole thing.

[Michael Duncan]

It unmasks it. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

It's never been about protecting black people or white people or Hispanic people or anything else. It's all about sort of a power to just sort of shift back and forth with each other and hire.

[Comfortably Smug]

What all of this is, is, let's be honest, is now, we've seen the results of this. This has not improved outcome. Anybody? They wanted to take your eyes off the issue. It's not crime, it's racism. It's not. It's not about ending homelessness or stopping murders or muggings or car. It's about equity and inclusion. When they were able to shift that away, then people stopped paying attention to the money. Because it's always about the money. It's about the equity programs that are now being funded by taxpayers and all the grants that are being given to. Because it's a money game.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. In the same way that Doge exposed the USAID grift, Like, I think that exactly. That same thing happens in our inner cities where there's this huge cottage industry about, oh, what we really need is this new program that's actually gonna stop all these kids for putting guns to the heads of people and carjacking them when you're outta school in the summer. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Or they pay community leaders.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bingo.

[John Ashbrook]

Who ultimately end up organizing votes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bingo.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And that. And that's. Look, it's a disgusting. I like, it's unbelievable, but it's absolutely true.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what it is.

[John Ashbrook]

That is what has happened. That is what these people believe in. It is a money grift. It is a. It's the worst, you know, you think of, like, the worst political scandalous towns where there was, like, New Orleans with Huey Long or Tam Neo or, you know, whatever, like Tammany Hall. This is what's happening in city after city across this country. And how does it get bootstrapped? Like, where does it go from here? Well, turns out there's some paid protests involved.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, I'm shocked.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who could have guessed?

[John Ashbrook]

Who could have guessed? So it turns out the DC paid protesters is, according to FoxNews.com, request, a surge of 400% amid Trump's federal takeover of the city, according to Economy, a crowd rental company.

[Comfortably Smug]

Crowd rental company.

[John Ashbrook]

That's a hell of a Line of work, by the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Hilarious.

[John Ashbrook]

Crowd rental.

[Josh Holmes]

We need more transparency into that.

[John Ashbrook]

What do you think the 401k program is on that job, huh? A crowd rental company. Anyway, they've seen a massive uptick in inquiries regarding services in Washington, D.C. among Trump's move to federalized police force now in the nation's capital right now, DC inquiries are up 400% compared to the same period in 2024. Crowds on demand CEO. I give him credit for speaking out. Like, I don't like his line of work.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

But I give him credit for going.

[Comfortably Smug]

On the record if I'm him. I bet this is advertising. I bet this is advertising. And good for him to do this because he's like, listen, requests are up 400%. My company can deliver them. I've seen the polling. Dems are pulling at 34%. It's tough for them to get a crowd, but they can pay me.

[Michael Duncan]

And I also love get your name out there, bro. I love how direct the name of it is. It's Crowds on Demand. Like, there isn't some innocuous name he uses for this non.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's not trying to be like, you know, he's like, nobody. Investment partner. No, dude, it's straight up.

[Michael Duncan]

I will, I will pretend your thing is popular.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that's what they do. And you see it, you know, like even, you know, everyone has been covering like town halls or whatever.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[John Ashbrook]

This is what this is.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And. And I'll tell you who's funding it. There's another story out there. Left wing, dark money, mega donors, including George Soros.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, no, I'm shocked.

[John Ashbrook]

Contribute 20 million to groups funding protests against Trump's D.C. crime crackdown.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, that's so interesting, guys. You know what? I find it as a breath of fresh air that they stopped harassing Jewish students on university campuses to protest here in the inner city at some point. Right. It's nice to take just a touch off the antisemitism for maybe only a month.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it's.

[John Ashbrook]

People are horrible.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's almost like every single time there is someone who's on the wrong side of an issue. Whether it's like when Trump showed up in LA and started arresting illegals and it's like, where are these groups coming? Like, how do they all have the same T shirts and the same signs within like six hours? And you saw the same thing happen in D.C. where, like, they had the same shirts, same branding. And like, every time, it's like a Soros funded group.

[Michael Duncan]

Every time Therein lies the cottage industry. And what I find so fascinating about this whole thing is every leftist in an inner city will tell you, okay, well, this crime is actually originating because of economic hardships, and that is the reason why kids who are out of school for the summer have to, you know, put guns to the heads of Uber drivers. Right?

[John Ashbrook]

Mm.

[Michael Duncan]

But, like, George Soros isn't giving $20 million to Anacostia in southeast Washington, D.C. to improve their lives. He's gonna put $20 million in the hands of paid protesters to advocate why Donald Trump is a racist.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, it's a really good point.

[Michael Duncan]

And it makes you wonder if they actually think that they want to solve the problem or maybe just perpetuate the thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's. Dude, that's it. That's it. Because they turned it into a business.

[John Ashbrook]

It doesn't make me wonder. I know. I mean, in 20 years in this line of work, I know exactly what it is that they're up to. They don't want to help anybody's life. They probably spent $4 billion over the last 20 years that I've been in this line of work doing exactly this. What do you think they could have done with that money? And helping to educate inner city youth, helping people to get into the workforce, helping people with families and single mothers and that kind of thing? Like, they could do all that stuff. They don't.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's always funny how they're willing to fund, like, clean needles and, like, places to shoot up that are safe and never, like, a rehab clinic. Almost like there's more money in keeping it going.

[John Ashbrook]

It is because it perpetuates the industry of the left, and that is what perpetuates the left. It is not like, look, if there's.

[Comfortably Smug]

No victims, they can't make money off of claiming that they're victims. Like, that's the problem. If a problem is solved, we can't be the victim anymore, and we can't make money off of it.

[John Ashbrook]

In a country of people who are born into communities that have a reasonable shot, that get a good education, that are safe, that have the ability to consume information, can learn in a reasonably safe environment, that will perpetuate a society the left can't actually exist in. They can't. They can't exist in. Because at that point, you will see the benefits of being able to fundamentally change your life from one thing to another, and they can't have it. You need to be reliant on the government. There are people who have to be in control over everything in your Life. And you'll be nothing. You'll be destitute without us, the government trying to.

[Comfortably Smug]

You'll owe nothing and you'll be happy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

They literally will say that.

[John Ashbrook]

And it makes for more predictable marketplaces, by the way, for people like George Soros, where they can bet for and against certain institutions in America. Makes them richer, makes everybody else poorer. Like I always thought that the whole idea, and then Trump has laid to rest the idea that the Republican Party is the party of the rich. That is obviously the Axit polls alone will tell you that that is gone.

[Comfortably Smug]

Feel free to, I wouldn't recommend it. Watch the Oscars. Every single person there is a Democrat hates Trump totally.

[John Ashbrook]

But you do have to think about a lot about who is the party of the poor. And I don't mean like advocating for the poor. I mean keeping them poor. Yeah, keeping people poor, keeping people destitute, keeping people concerned about safety, keeping people without education, keeping people without any sort of outside observance of how life can be lived in America to raise the expectations of your family and provide for the next generation. Who's the party of that? It seems pretty clear to me.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's what really bugs me. So you've got Soros, who's funding these left wing groups. And then we had right here an example, this group in Washington, D.C. free D.C. a quote, fiscally sponsored special project of progressive nonprofits Community Change and Community Change Action brought 150 demonstrators near the White House Monday to protest Trump's plan to deploy the National Guard a few blocks away from them. When they started, there was a shooting and the guy ended up dying. So already it seems like Trump's help is needed for this. It says Free DC has scheduled multiple events since Monday's anti Trump protest, including a couple, quote, cop Watch training. This is the other thing that just makes me so angry, is these people have spent so many years trying to poison the minds of Americans into thinking the enemy is cops, not the criminals, the enemy is cops. And like you saw Simone Sanders being like, as a black woman, I feel less safe when there's a police officer, what damage they've done to this country. Brainwashing people into believing that cops are the enemies and not the solution to crime is insane.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's people like, look, I'm not picking specifically on Simone, but I think this is part of the Democratic Party orthodoxy. That's the safest thing to say if you're a Democrat that doesn't know what to say. They don't know how to Defend it. That's where you lean on. Imagine the corrosion that you've done with at least half of the electorate that listens to what you have to say when you say the police are the enemy.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, but what they say, what Democrats say privately, what they won't say on television, what they say privately is, I really hope somebody solves this crime issue so that we can continue doing what we've been doing. They all want somebody to fix, somebody else to fix it, which I think is a part of the great genius of what Trump is doing, because he knows that it takes a leader to actually say we have to get on top of crime. Because Democrats who are in charge do not want to be seen as helping to stop the crime problem. They just don't.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's like the biggest Achilles heel for Dems, other than being on the wrong side of crime and especially for elected Dems like, you notice Gavin Newsom doesn't want to bring up the fact that he actually did know how to solve the homeless problems. You've said, because he did it for one day. When Xi came and visited San Francisco, he was like, okay, Emperor, she, I will make sure this place looks great for you. And there was a day in San Francisco like all the people were texting me photos from there. All my buddies, they were like, I've never seen this since I've gotten to San Francisco. There's no homeless people on the streets. There's no needles anywhere. I can take my kids to the park. And we're not worried about. If they sit on a bench, they'll have a needle that sticks in them. They can believe it. But he only did it for she. But Gavin's not talking about that.

[John Ashbrook]

No, don't want to talk. They didn't go on Bannon to talk about that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's like.

[John Ashbrook]

That's interesting.

[Comfortably Smug]

He'll try.

[John Ashbrook]

Wasn't asked about it either, by the way.

[Comfortably Smug]

He'll try any stunt in the book other than admit the fact that, yeah, it can be solved and decline is a choice.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it really is. So listen, we've thought a lot about this, and there's a home rule component to all of this was passed in 1972, signed in a law by Richard Nixon that allowed the city council and the mayor to have self governance.

[Josh Holmes]

And so, man, Nixon, I know you love him. Smug. But EPA, home rule for D.C. well.

[Comfortably Smug]

The EPA that he envisioned is like the one, one that we have right now where they're actually worried about keeping parks and rivers clean, not the woke garbage that's what you got to cleave out. And that's what's happening right now in this epa.

[John Ashbrook]

I appreciate your defense on the EPA from Lee Zeldin.

[Comfortably Smug]

Look at Lee Zeldin. Lee Zeldin knows what to do with the epa.

[John Ashbrook]

Autonomous. I don't think there is. It was a huge mistake. The truth is, we looked into it. So part of that Home Rule act allows for the federal government to actually revoke any law that the D.C. city Council and the mayor sign into law or whatever. They can vote on a simple majority basis and just overturn it. This happened several years ago. Remember, they tried to, like, decriminalize crime. This happened. Republican Congress actually did it. But I will say the overturning of home rule in and of itself appears to be filibusterable, which, you know, Democrats will. Will stand up and say it's a civil rights issue and everything else. So you can't get rid of it entirely, at least not in the current iteration. But I would suggest the Congress do this. Take a close look at what's happening over the next couple of months. If the D.C. government erects barriers to the federal government cleaning up the streets of D.C. make them vote. Make them vote time and time and time again. Because the rest of the country, if we're ever going to have cities back from west to east, is going to look at what happened here in D.C. as an example of what can be done.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And when you appropriate money to go to D.C. as happens every single year, maybe ensure that that money is spent on keeping people safe. Okay. Because it comes from everybody listening to this show who pays federal taxes every April, maybe ensure that that money does something productive.

[Michael Duncan]

I have one specific call out on this, and we talked about this in the right before the Martha hit that we did Ashbrook, because she was asking about this. One of the impediments to solving some of these issues, even with the national guard in D.C. and the federalizing of the police department, is the issue of minors, minor crime.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

My recommendation is if you have any pushback from the government of D.C. about adolescents committing violent crimes and charging them as adults, do it. Yeah, that'll. So I'm serious. I mean, like, there is a huge problem in this town of kids who are 14, 15, 16. And I saw a clip on, on Twitter about these kids arguing of whether armed robbery or murder one would carry more years in prison. Yeah, you know, that's, that's, that's where we are. And if you can't start charging these kids as adults, Then we're pissing in the wind.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's every city in America. Yeah. Don't think this is a DC Problem, folks. This is happening in your backyard. And what happens here under the leadership of President Trump is gonna be carried throughout the entire country. That's why we're so serious about it. So our question was it relates to the protesters. Our question of the day, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read every single one of your comments. Some I like better than others, but most of them I find truly endearing. A lot of really smart stuff out there. But the question today is, what are these protesters, the paid protesters? Because I know this is like a gotta be a foreign concept to an awful lot of our audience that you're a paid protester like that. You just, like, you got nothing else going on during the day. Somebody's gonna fork over a hundred bucks and you're gonna go hold a sign for something. You have no idea what it is. Like, what do you think? Like, what else? What else happens in their day? Like, what do they do for the rest of the day?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a great question.

[John Ashbrook]

What do they do? Like, who are these people?

[Michael Duncan]

Moderate on Blue Sky.

[Josh Holmes]

So good work for Nancy Pelosi, probably.

[John Ashbrook]

It's so good. All right, so for last Tuesday's question, what's the worst Democrat controlled city in the country? We had an awesome amount of submissions on this. Really appreciate what everybody had to say to do that. We always start with the boys.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, first comment comes from Roche Banyak, and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, but Roche writes San Francisco. With all the rivers of crap running through that place, it's. It's the poo pool loophole capital of the country.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm not sure I can still.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Rush, what a legend. Older Raj, as much as it pains me to say this, being retired army, send in the marines. Oh, Lee, that's for you, buddy. They can get that city cleaned up in no time, but make sure they have crayons. Wolf can attest to this. Rash is going in on.

[Comfortably Smug]

On old Wolf.

[John Ashbrook]

Wolf, I don't know if you know Rash, do you? No. He seems like he knows you pretty well. It feels like that guy's got you pegged. Very good comment. Appreciate that. Duncan, what else?

[Michael Duncan]

We have this from Andrew Matheson. Andrew writes Charlotte's Nate, Charlotte's nave native here. And apparently we are now the Chicago of the South. We've had too many liberal mayors and counselors. Now a liberal owner of The Panther running us into the ground. Enough is enough. We are not a liberal city. Trump and Whatley need to show the rest of the state what Roy Pooper feel like.

[John Ashbrook]

There's a common theme here.

[Michael Duncan]

Has allowed to happen in our strongest city. Let them know. Smug. It's your fault. Nope, it's because you're the North Carolina guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're absolutely right. It is Cooper. And I look forward to Walley.

[Michael Duncan]

No, it's not Cooper. It's Pooper Pooper.

[Comfortably Smug]

I look forward to Whatley holding him accountable because that guy was the Attorney General and that guy under his purview as governor allowed Charlotte to fall apart. It's an absolute shame. It's a wonderful town and he is the prime reason Roy Cooper problems have happened. Roy Cooper. I mean, I want Whatley to just wipe the floor with that guy. We can't have him in the Senate.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, there's some added emphasis there from a North Carolinian. Smug. What else we got?

[Comfortably Smug]

Comment 3 comes from Sally Harper. And Sally writes, fellas, the worst run Blue City is by far Chicago. My husband and I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. In high school, early 2000s, it was safe to take the train down to the city in the summer to go to the beach or the taste of Chicago without parents now, we would never send our kids to do that. Decades of Democrat control and recent progressive idiocy from the likes of Brandon Johnson and Lori Lightfoot have run our world class city to the ground. If you question their progressive policies like no cash bail, you're called a racist. That's, that's what they do. I guarantee you the residents of the south side of Chicago would welcome the help of President Trump and the National Guard. That's it. I mean, that's what I think you should call it.

[John Ashbrook]

It was a Beetlejuice.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Lori Lightfoot.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean that lady looked like, with the bug eyes. Yeah, she looked like a corpse.

[John Ashbrook]

I can't believe somebody like trotted into the ballot box and felt good about that ballot.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, the wild thing is they're.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, yeah, she's got it figured out.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then immediately afterwards they elected someone to her left. It's insane.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it's just Cuban. I'm always surprised, you know, been around politics for a long time and like they send all kinds up here and you figure they reflect some component of the electorate. But every once in a while somebody shows up and you look at them and you're like, come on. Like, this is like you've all collectively at Least half of you, more than half of you, have collectively decided this is the best you can do.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's the thing is like Lori Lightfoot, they're like, let's stop electing a progressive activist who deals with the teachers union. Let's just hire someone from the teachers union. Let's rob ourselves even harder.

[Michael Duncan]

There is a guy on the D.C. city Council who's, like, been indicted for bribery. He has a trial in 2026. So he got reelected.

[John Ashbrook]

He's like, going to the brig, and people are like, yeah, that's our guy. But you know what I mean? It doesn't even extend just to city councils and stuff. You see it in Congress. Occasionally you look at somebody and you're like, that guy has literally no ability to persuade anyone of their point of view, which is the whole point of being a legislator. Like, you can be a president, a governor, a mayor, or whatever, make decisions, but, like, ultimately, you. You elect everybody else to try to come up with ideas and then persuade everyone else. And, like, you see their personality and their look, it's like, come on, man. Like, there's no way that's the best you can do. This is the most, like, charismatic person you're sending us up here. It's embarrassing.

[Josh Holmes]

It is, it is. And the cities are suffering because of it.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like you guys are holding back on that.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm not holding back.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, you see happens everywhere. We see it all the time. People are just like, I don't understand. You got to pay some attention to this sort of thing if you're a voter. Like, don't send. Don't send the worst. Don't send the worst.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I think the problem is Democrats are built on machine politics. There is no individual excellence that goes into being a Democrat like Maxine Waters.

[John Ashbrook]

Who the hell is she going to persuade to do anything she wants to do?

[Josh Holmes]

Product of the machine. Yeah, over and over and over again. That's all they are.

[John Ashbrook]

I guess that's right. All right, couple of things we're gonna get more into. There's a bunch of news this week that dealt with the whistleblower thing with Schiff, FBI or whatever. We're gonna hopefully book some interviews and have a larger discussion of all that. You've probably seen an awful lot of news about it. We have strong opinions, but you've heard them. I mean, if you're a listener of the Ruthless Variety program, I feel like we bird dogged this real early, before the evidence all came out. We're not going to bore you With a whole bunch of that today. But know that we're coming back to it with some additional points. You're not going to get anywhere else either later this week or next week. That will help amplify that. Is that fair, fellas?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I do think that the Lightning round is in order.

[Josh Holmes]

Great idea.

[John Ashbrook]

But I also think we got to play a game. It's about time because it's Thursday, and Thursday we always play. King of the Hill.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep, King of the Hill.

[John Ashbrook]

The.

[Michael Duncan]

The signature game on the ruthless variety program, Smug, I think you're our defending champion.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right. With Jen Rubin.

[Michael Duncan]

Jen Rubin. And I'm Judge Holmes's bailiff, Ashbrook. Who are you bringing into the game?

[Josh Holmes]

Today's challenger is Cherry. My cherry.

[Michael Duncan]

No, this is gonna be a battle of titans. Battle of titans. These are, I think maybe, you know, if you look at the whole history of the game, the two most formidable.

[Josh Holmes]

Celebrated.

[Michael Duncan]

Celebrated.

[John Ashbrook]

I wish we still had T. Rex to actually tally that up because we had a couple of years there where, I mean, they're still making up ground, but this is, in recent years, one of the most formidable matchups we've ever had.

[Comfortably Smug]

100%.

[Michael Duncan]

I can't wait to get started. Let's go ringside.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, you're a. Attention, please. It's time for king of the hilt. In the red corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, Commie Cherry Jacobas. And now, in the blue corner, fighting formerly from the Washington Post and current champion of the world, Jennifer Brain Worms. Ruben.

[John Ashbrook]

Well done. Well done.

[Michael Duncan]

Fantastic. All right, Smug, you got to go first.

[John Ashbrook]

I will instruct the champion.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exhibit one, please. This is Jen Rubin going after Trump for trying to end crime. Basing such unprecedented action on the blatant lie that crime in D.C. is soaring underscores that our democracy is under assault.

[Michael Duncan]

Hell yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

To write this off as a distraction misses the danger of the moment. The potential for unbridled deployment of the military for domestic policing.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, very conservative take.

[Michael Duncan]

I love it.

[John Ashbrook]

That's good.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook. What do we got?

[Josh Holmes]

Jury Jacobus on a different type of crime. Exhibit 13, please. Wolf Ice agents are just disgusting fat schlubs trading their MAGA red hat for face mask masks and the chance to work out their mommy issues by beating the shit out of brown people just because Trump says it makes them real. Quote men.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, dude, she's just a cheat code, man.

[Comfortably Smug]

She really is.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, she. She. She looks at every narrative that the left is building on Blue sky or Twitter, and she looks at everything that's out there on the field of play. And she's like, how can I make make this worse? It really is a singular skill of hers and hers alone. And for that reason, Sherry wins round one.

[John Ashbrook]

It's hard, just hard to disagree.

[Comfortably Smug]

Insane. Take.

[John Ashbrook]

The challenger will rise and present Exhibit number two, please.

[Michael Duncan]

Will it be a two round knockout?

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, Cherry Jacobus, second round, exhibit 10, please. And she is quote, tweeting a story about the D.C. law enforcement. And she says Trump gets a few morons to sign on and then pressures them into committing small crimes for him, drawing them in so they are forced to commit bigger, more serious crimes for him. Right. Bongino and Cash, I see prison in your future. This is a former Republican consultant, Cherry Jacobus.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think I got this one covered.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like there's an opening.

[Comfortably Smug]

Let's see exhibit seven, please. Jen Rubin, why does Trump hate tax? From the Houston Chronicle. Trump orders new census that excludes immigrants and could cost Texas billions. Of course, like all libs, she excludes those immigrants are illegal because like obfuscating. That is the whole grift of the left right now being like, no, all immigrants. No, it's illegals. And this was the former conservative writer for the Washington Post being like, no count illegal immigrants in the census. What has happened?

[John Ashbrook]

I do love the Houston Chronicle. Weighs into immigrants without decisively talking.

[Comfortably Smug]

Isn't that necessary?

[John Ashbrook]

Illegal immigrants?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I also love that Jen Rubin thinks that like if maybe we have an accurate census in Texas, Texas is itself going to lose out on money. Like we aren't going to also be running the numbers in California.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, like 15 other states.

[Michael Duncan]

No, Texas is screwed.

[John Ashbrook]

No, it's just Texas.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, that's good. This is a tough one. Can I, can I get Sherry's up again real quick?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's exhibit 10.

[John Ashbrook]

A second look for the jurist.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm going back to my quarters.

[Josh Holmes]

Exhibit 10. There we go.

[John Ashbrook]

Approaching the bench. He's going to lay eyes on what we see and what is conclusion here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think the issue for me is that Cheri at the end of that tweet is prognosticating prison in the future for Bongino and Cash Patel.

[John Ashbrook]

Perhaps, perhaps I could enlighten the jurist who I see is struggling over this with a not often done but frequently allowed reading of the quote tweet. What is it that she's quote tweeting? Because it seems to me like there.

[Michael Duncan]

Could be some Epstein explanation for going to 11. I'm just trying to understand that component of it. I will. Let's Read it.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's read it. This is from someone named Dr. Jeff. Jeff Grammer, tweeting. Let's hope law enforcement gets to the root of the rot causing all that crime in D.C. starting with this place. Pointing to a picture of the White House.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

It's okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. See, I mean that for me, that's enough. I think it's a two round knockout for Sherry Jacobus. Sorry. Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

I wish I could have read some of the other submissions. I really do.

[John Ashbrook]

You were saving something.

[Josh Holmes]

I had some nukes.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's the thing is like, it felt like the second round he was just teasing out the like, least powerful thing. He had to come back with the third round. But like, I mean, Cherry is just. There's a reason she's an El.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it paves the way for her to have like three or four more weeks.

[Comfortably Smug]

The momentum off that first one, it's like, it's hard to fight back.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's tough.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well earned victory.

[John Ashbrook]

Good victory. All right, so a couple other things in a lightning round. Yes, you all saw that. Jimmy Kimmel said he's like getting Italian.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, he's got. He's Italian now.

[John Ashbrook]

So. Late night host. This is from Fox News Expo, the reverse veto Corleone. It's staunch Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel. I imagine the board probably has something to say about this.

[Michael Duncan]

Mamma mia.

[John Ashbrook]

Jimmy Kimmel has secured Italian citizenship.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, no.

[John Ashbrook]

And he might be packing his bags to move to Europe. What's going on is as bad. This is a quote from Jimmy. What is going on is as bad as you thought it was gonna be. It's so much worse.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's amazing.

[Michael Duncan]

Mamma mia. There it is.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, like, you know, he sees the writing on the wall. Like, late night has become an absolute failure as these people have just turned into a bunch of like, liberal advocates. Him. What's the glasses guy on cbs?

[Michael Duncan]

Colbert.

[Comfortably Smug]

Colbert. Colbert's already toast. I mean, they turned late night into just like lib crying hour. Meanwhile, Gutfeld, it says right here, we had. I wanted to pull up the stat. He's increased his show audience by 57%. Gut feels the king of late night because he actually tells jokes. Like, imagine that.

[John Ashbrook]

No, no, dude, he increased Fallon's audience by 57 when he showed up on the one episode.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, so like, he's even doing charity cases for this.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, like, Fallon's the only one.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, good for Gutfeld.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's doing charity cases.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, Fallon's the only one. He's tied at the hip to the rest of these falling rocks.

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[John Ashbrook]

But he's trying to do a show and he recognizes that Gutfeld is like dominating the medium now. So he has him on the show as one would. As one used to. To do when you had late night comedies. Very funny. And his show went up 57% as a result of it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, I think the. The lesson here is you can't just do democrat talking points in late night and expect that your show's going to be good.

[Michael Duncan]

But, like, why Italy? Like, why does he want to go to Italy?

[John Ashbrook]

Seriously, Is he even Italian?

[Michael Duncan]

No, Kimmel.

[John Ashbrook]

It doesn't feel Italian.

[Michael Duncan]

Not enough vowels.

[John Ashbrook]

Jesus. Just like this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe he went to an Olive Garden and loved it. You know, maybe he just didn't want the breadsticks and salad to end. Maybe he literally wanted to go. Maybe he just likes it.

[John Ashbrook]

Does he have like family and waste removal? I don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

He could, he could.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it's all possible. Anyway, so that's our late night piece. This one, folks, I have a feeling is going to elicit some attention. There was a story in the New York Post about British cops. Okay. They wore jogging outfits. Do we have a visual? Let's pop this up. Okay. All right. So British cops wore jogging outfits to elicit catcalls and then arrested some men who hit on them, according to a report. This is from New York Post. All right. From catcalls to the doghouse, female cops in England went undercover as joggers wearing tight fitting clothes in a bid to elicit catcalls and then arrested some of the men who hit on him, according to a report. The Surrey Police Department created a trial task force which lasted about a month, led to 18 arrests, which offenses like sexual assault, harassment, theft. Interesting. I want to get to that in a second. The Telegraph reported female officers were sent during rush hour to hotspots where open sexual harassment of women is commonplace and pretend to be joggers. According to this report. We have some thoughts.

[Michael Duncan]

I just. I had no idea that British men were this horny. I thought their women were ugly.

[John Ashbrook]

Can we pop up this thing again? All right, so this is what they're doing. I mean, I wouldn't say that these are like dime pieces by any stretch of the imagination.

[Comfortably Smug]

I saw another image. I found another image. Can we get the other image that I found of a cop?

[Michael Duncan]

Hold on. Okay, okay. No, no, no, no, no.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is for the folks on YouTube.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, hold on. We have to get into a meta analysis of our production meeting here. At the ruthless variety program because Smug insisted.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't want that too in photo. We don't need the picture in picture here. Get rid of the picture and picture. There it is.

[Michael Duncan]

He wants to show the asset.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it's fair people to see. See what the news is.

[Michael Duncan]

They want to see the news. Okay, so in our production meeting, it became, it became very clear that while this was shown in the Twitter thread of this story about the catcalling and.

[John Ashbrook]

This was the New York Post, right? Threat.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, yeah, this was in the thread, I believe, but that this wasn't actually associated with the catcalling campaign. And clearly if you look on the upper right hand corner, you'll see a flag from, I believe, the Netherlands. Is that correct? Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, so this is a Dutch cop.

[Michael Duncan]

This is just a Dutch dime piece. Which by the way, said Smug is like, no, include it.

[John Ashbrook]

Everybody in the Netherlands would be in prison if that was the entrapment.

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's my thing is I want to imagine what the like discussions are like back at the police house after, like, you know, people have had their shifts and one lady's like, man, I got like 10 people who catcall. What are the other gals like, who are like, I didn't get anybody. You think it's like, what's happening there? Like, I mean, are some of the gals being like, listen, why, why is, why am I not getting any arrest?

[John Ashbrook]

We wondered here openly on the, on the variety program as we were talking about the story about what? Like, I mean, you understand when you go, like, if you're in New York, New Jersey or whatever, and you have this situation, you got Italians, you know, I mean, you know what that that sounds like? We all know. I mean, it's in every movie. You know what that sounds like? What does that sound like in Britain?

[Josh Holmes]

This is such a great question. Yeah, I mean, what do they I say, Quite scrumptious, huh? You know, like, oh, oh, you wouldn't be a constable, would you? I can't even do a British accent.

[John Ashbrook]

Excuse me, ma'.

[Michael Duncan]

Am.

[John Ashbrook]

That is a fine looking, well proportioned derri hair you have. Like, what, like, what's a cat call?

[Michael Duncan]

Hello, love.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a cockney attack.

[Michael Duncan]

But back to like what Smug was saying about like, maybe there's a little competition among the women in the police department to get catcalled. Because I look at that woman from the Dutch police department and I mean, she could be cat called in a burlap sack. I mean, she's absolutely beautiful. And you have to wonder if maybe this whole thing is a ruse from some of the women in the police department to be like, I think I can get cat called, too.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, you mean they're like.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, they're doing a whole entrapment scheme.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, this is entrapment scheme.

[Josh Holmes]

You think this is an extension of how much women hate each other? They're, like, setting the other women up.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know. All I'm suggesting perhaps is that these women who are complaining about it a lot, maybe kind of want it. Oh, no, I'm just saying maybe they just want to be able to arrest a couple of guys and be like, how dare you? You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it's a wild attack on free speech is what it is.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what I'm saying.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can I also say this is like a wild waste of resources. It's like, if you want to catch sex pests, there's something called grooming gangs in England.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it's a open and shut case. If you actually want to do something about this. This is the stupidest use of. You don't need to go undercover and do a sting. There's probably 50,000 people you could interview, get names, and start handcuffing people immediately. If you want to catch sex pests, you're trying to do your stupid bs. This is just women trying to fight each other in the police station.

[John Ashbrook]

Is that what this is?

[Michael Duncan]

100% of you smug.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like, I'm sick of Sarah's bullshit. Let's act like this is a sting. She's gonna get out there. No one's gonna catcall her, and we're all gonna make fun of her for it. We'll be like, beat Sarah. It's Beat Sarah. At it again. Not getting catcalled.

[Michael Duncan]

Not getting catcalled.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what this is about, you know?

[Josh Holmes]

This is women on women violence.

[Michael Duncan]

It is 100%. That's what it is.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what's happening here. I'm glad we got to the bottom of it here in the Ruthless Variety program.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you can always trust four men to figure out.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What's going on with women.

[John Ashbrook]

You can always count on the last third of the show to provide you with something you hadn't heard before.

[Michael Duncan]

We'll tell you the truth.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it. Okay, listen, fellas, I'm just looking through this. I think we've done a hell of a job on a Thursday. Yeah, it was a terrific one. I think we've gotten through in a whole bunch of. We are ready primed for a good Friday episode. We're gonna leave you with some laughs and hopefully something to think about. And then we got a bunch of stuff and guests and whatnot for next week. Hopefully can put a little bit of finer point on some of the things that we're talking about. We don't like to just give you what everybody else has been saying, you know, like, why re report the news? That's not what we do on the Ruthless Friday program. So there's some segments that people are talking about that we just. We're gonna get somebody who can give us a. Let's advance the story a little bit, and we'll do all of that in the coming days. I thank you for joining us with that, fellas. I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, remember we asked you, what are these protesters doing during the rest of the day? The paid protesters in D.C. looking forward to your thoughts. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Friday. Stay ruthless.