Trump Trolls the UN

Summary

Ruthless Podcast: "Trump Trolls the UN"

Episode Date: September 25, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Special Guest: Brent Gardner (AFP)
Episode Theme:
A fast-paced, razor-sharp conservative roundtable tackling rising leftist violence, Democratic messaging on ICE and immigration, and a detailed, uniquely irreverent analysis of Trump’s headline-grabbing performance at the United Nations. Plus, a takedown of the UN, a scorched-earth review of Kamala Harris’ latest adventures, and a lively “King of the Hill” tournament of the worst blue-check Twitter takes.

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Episode Overview

The hosts open with a deep dive into a spate of attacks targeting ICE agents and facilities, arguing the left and mainstream media both enable and minimize this violence. They explore the rhetoric from Democratic leaders and left media that, in their view, emboldens extremists, as well as the copycat phenomenon around anti-ICE messaging. The team then pivots to a play-by-play of Trump’s appearance at the United Nations—a showcase for his confrontational, showman style—and closes with a series of comedic but pointed cultural critiques, reader feedback, and a fresh “King of the Hill” Twitter takedown. Brent Gardner of AFP joins for a policy-rich discussion about the looming government shutdown.

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Key Topics and Insights

1. Pattern of Leftist Violence against ICE (00:00–13:00)

• Discussion of Recent Attacks:

  • The team highlights an attack at a Dallas ICE facility, noting the shooter had bullets engraved with “anti-ICE” and citing at least 14 attacks on ICE agents/facilities since January 1st.
  • Copycat phenomenon: attack trends influenced by previous high-profile incidents, with shooters engraving messages on bullets and being turned into heroes in some left circles.
  • Media obfuscation: The hosts argue outlets like the Associated Press and left-wing commentators deflect or spin such incidents, blaming other sources or downplaying the leftist ideological link.

• Media Response Critique:

  • Ashbrook draws attention to mainstream outlets softening coverage or blaming insurers or other tangential targets, referencing AP coverage of Luigi Mangione (05:16).
  • Notable quote – Ashbrook (05:16):
    "So this is not only a pattern of a leftist lunatic carving into bullets, but the media trying to obfuscate and cover for them."
  • Rick Wilson rails against what he sees as “disgusting” online responses and left-wing deflection:
    • (06:04) “The obfuscation that there are prominent Democrats, these never Trump fuck faces... talking about. They’re just trying to obfuscate the reality that this is a targeted attack on ICE officers.”

• Political Weakness & Moral Leadership:

  • Michael Duncan notes the lack of backbone among Republicans to call this out as a left-wing problem, praising The Atlantic’s shift to acknowledging “left-wing terrorism” (07:37).
  • Holmes stresses the attack trends are not random or isolated, but organized and thematic (08:15).

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2. Democratic Rhetoric, Media Misinformation, and Radicalization (13:00–32:00)

• Democratic Leaders’ Statements:
  Multiple audio clips (with timestamps) are cited where Democratic leaders compare ICE to slave patrols or Nazis, or make unsubstantiated claims of ICE targeting children.

  • Gavin Newsom claims ICE is the "largest private domestic army" swearing loyalty "to him [Trump]" (17:47).

  • Jasmine Crockett and Kamala Harris draw slavery and Gestapo analogies (19:07, 20:54).

  • JB Pritzker compares ICE practices to Nazi Germany's demand for citizenship papers (22:09).

  • Pramila Jayapal pushes a debunked hoax about ICE agents kidnapping a 5-year-old girl (25:06–26:55).

  • Quotes:

    • Josh Holmes (20:25):
      “You can understand if there’s an audience for that show... conceptualizing ICE as slave patrol, like, if you’re a bona fide Jasmine Crockett fan, god help you.”
    • Michael Duncan (23:04):
      “They all describe the van... Well, what was shot on Wednesday morning?”
    • Rick Wilson (24:33):
      “You want to know why all these young people who are leftists, who have no leadership…are on discord servers, feeling nihilistic and trying to shoot people? It’s because they feel like they don’t have a voice.”

• Overton Window Shift:

  • The hosts trace the radicalization of discourse back to the acceptance of “concentration camp” language about ICE (28:12).
  • Emphasis on how this language and Overton window shift paved the way for escalation and justifies, in the minds of radical actors, violent action.

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3. Trump at the United Nations: A Ruthless Breakdown (32:42–51:52)

• Trump’s “Showtime” at the UN:

  • Hosts compare Trump’s arrival to Michael Jordan playing in Madison Square Garden—high stakes, hostile crowd, and peak performance (32:42–33:35).
  • Macron literally blocked by Trump’s motorcade, forced to walk to the UN (34:31).
  • Trump’s showmanship highlighted by his teleprompter failing and quick improvisation:
    • Trump (37:06):
      “Whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
    • Trump pokes fun at the UN’s logistics: “A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. These are the two things I got from the United Nations.” (38:14)

• Dissing the UN:

  • General frustration with the UN’s location, tax exemptions, and frequent gridlock in New York is vented (35:49–36:55).
  • Holmes and Ashbrook question continued American largesse toward an institution they argue achieves nothing.

• Trump’s Speech Highlights:

  • Trump slams the UN for inertia, positions himself as the world’s real peacemaker (43:45):
    • Trump:
      “In a period of just 7 months, I have ended 7 unendable wars… It’s too bad I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help.”
  • Mocks renewables, exposes UN hypocrisy on energy (45:10):
    • Trump on wind power:
      “Those big windmills are so pathetic and so bad... Most expensive energy ever conceived.”
  • Calls out the UN for enabling uncontrolled migration (47:25):
    • “The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.”
  • Predicts European leaders will eventually admit he was right on energy and migration.

• Endgame—Should Trump “Deport the UN?”

  • The crew proposes evicting the UN, turning its HQ into a VA hospital or an ICE facility (49:52–51:27).

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4. Kamala Harris Roast & Lightning Round (54:05–69:57)

• Kamala’s Book Tour and Dem Party Issues:

  • Hosts mock Kamala for blaming her veep selection (over Buttigieg or other “diverse” picks) on American bigotry rather than her own campaign’s cynicism:
    • Holmes (57:19):
      “It’s not that I’m a homophobe or anti-Semite, it’s that the American people are.”
    • Ashbrook (58:06):
      “It’s so insulting to have the DEI pick be like, oh this country’s too bigoted…you got that job because of DEI.”
  • The panel critiques modern Democratic politics as “meritless” and overly focused on identity over leadership.

• Election Prospects & Internal Critique:

  • Harris remains deeply unpopular (-13 net favorable nationally, -37 with independents), failing to recover even in defeat (68:20). Panel contrasts to positive post-defeat rebounds of past politicians.
    • Michael Duncan: “Do you know how hard that is to do, to be the candidate who loses…and make it demonstrably worse?” (69:01).

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5. King of the Hill: Twitter’s Most Unhinged (70:00–78:56)

• A tournament of “cringe” between Rick Wilson and Matt Dowd.
  • Dowd’s winning lowlight: attempting to sell T-shirts using the controversial phrase that led to his firing after the Charlie Kirk assassination, showing “the depths of depravity” (75:12–78:47).
  • Commentary on the line between online “truth-telling” and tasteless, exploitative self-promotion.

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6. Government Shutdown—What’s Really Going On (79:01–92:44)

• Guest Segment with Brent Gardner (AFP):

  • Explains the current government shutdown standoff is the result of Democrats making “unworkable demands” from a position of weakness.

  • Describes the politics of ACA subsidy extensions, NPR/PBS funding, and the “blame game.”

  • Importance of government functionality for the American public, both practically and politically.

  • Voters, especially seniors, demand accountability above all and overwhelmingly hate shutdowns (87:44).

  • Quotes:

    • Brent Gardner (87:49):
      “Democrats, by and large, oppose government shutdowns and always have at a higher rate than Republicans…this is bad politics for Chuck Schumer, but it’s bad for the country.”
    • Gardner (89:00):
      “Our grassroots are up in arms over this…The American people are demanding that their government actually function.”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On media obfuscation:
  Ashbrook (05:16): “Pattern of a leftist lunatic carving into bullets, but the media trying to... cover for them.”
• On Democratic rhetoric:
  Holmes (20:25): “She’s turning it on because that slavery...you’d be like, I’ll do. That’s why we had the Civil War, folks.”
• On Trump at the UN:
  Holmes (33:45): “Trump gets better in that situation. He’s like more comfortable with the uncomfortability of it than anyone I’ve ever seen on an international stage.”
• On Kamala Harris:
  Holmes (58:38): “It’s just a meritless political party.”
• On the UN’s value:
  Michael Duncan (42:19): “What is the difference between the real UN and the model UN that all the nerds did in high school? ...Those nerds’ parents pay taxes and the UN doesn't.”
• On government shutdown politics:
  Brent Gardner (87:03): “There’s political accountability that comes with it…and it’s going to be whoever wins the media war, not the policy one.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–13:00 – Analysis: ICE attacks, media responses, “left-wing violence”
• 13:00–32:00 – Dem leaders’ rhetoric, ICE/immigration narrative, Overton window
• 32:42–51:52 – Trump’s UN visit: performance, speech, UN critique
• 54:05–69:57 – Kamala Harris book tour and Dems’ political troubles
• 70:00–78:56 – King of the Hill: Worst Twitter Takes
• 79:01–92:44 – Brent Gardner (AFP) on government shutdown dynamics

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Summary Tone & Style

Irreverent, combative, and darkly humorous—laced with inside jokes, references to pop culture, and sharp-tongued political analysis. The hosts provide an exaggerated but laser-focused conservative critique of both recent news and broader trends, with a clear intent to entertain as much as to persuade.

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For New Listeners

This episode is packed with references to current and recent news, pop-culture analogies, and a rotating cast of political targets. The structure alternates between serious news breakdowns, pointed audio segments, satirical roasts, and crowd-sourced audience Q&A. If you want a blend of conservative media critique, Republican “locker room” analysis, and a relentless takedown of Democratic messaging, this episode is for you. Key takeaways include skepticism of media narratives, a call for GOP assertiveness, and the enduring appeal (or controversy) of Trump’s theatrical political style.

Transcript

[Ashbrook]

Immediately before and even after these attacks, you've seen the left and their politicians, the Democrats saying that like ICE is Gestapo, ICE is, you know, fascist. They're not going to back down. They have to be held accountable. The only thing that stops behavior is consequence.

[Rick Wilson]

That this is somehow creeping fascism in this country. Like we didn't have an election where everyone voted for this to happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Rick Wilson]

That we, that we decided as a country that, I don't know, just letting 20 million people walk across the southern border was bad public policy. From Joe Biden. We had an election on that.

[Josh Holmes]

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 complicated 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.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Ashbrook]

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

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of the ruthless variety program. My name is Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook left right across your radio dial. We're going to talk to you a little bit more about the. Well, hard to ignore leftist violence. Another episode again yesterday at a Dallas facility. This is according to Fox News, fair balance, not afraid over there at Fox. And they tell us at least three people were shot, one of whom was killed in a shooting at the ICE facility in Dallas, Texas. A shooter opened fire in an un marked van as it entered the facility. So the shooter also died from a self inflicted gunshot wound. The most cowardly way out from these leftists perspective. A federal source close to the investigation identified the gunman as Joshua John, 29. Now we don't know at this very moment an awful lot more than that other than to say that there was a graphic that was put out that had some anti ICE messages found on the shooter's bullets. If you have a look at that this morning, just. And this is again, I think this is a Fox thing, but it's just before 7am local time.

[Ashbrook]

This is some of the Cash Patel tweet on it, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh yeah, this is from Cash. Okay. Yeah, this is from Cash. This morning, just before 7am local time, an individual fired multiple rounds at Dallas, Texas ICE facility, killing one, wounding several others before taking his own life. FBI dhs, ATF on the ground with Dallas PD and state authorities while the investigation is ongoing. The initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack. Surprise, surprise. And this is the photo, if you can pop that up one more time. One of the unspent shell casings recovered was engraved with the phrase anti ice. So there's gonna be more updates on all of that. But again, this is something we've been talking about way too often, fellas. There is a leftist violent streak that has now an unmistakable repetition over a period of time that honestly, something needs to be done here.

[Ashbrook]

And that's the thing, is there is an absolute pattern that's happening here. This is more than the general concept of like, well, it seems like there's a lot of leftist violence. Like you've been hearing the discussion happening online and you've seen the media try to like obfuscate and act like it doesn't exist or put up some like left wing Soros funded think tank of being like, well actually there's 5 million 300 examples of right wing violence every single day and it's because they're counting like two people in a jail cell getting you to fight. Oh, that's right wing. But this is even further than the general concept of leftist violence because this is a very specific pattern that's starting to emerge, not just tied by ideology, but also in the behavior exhibited by these leftists. So could I get graphic 1A up please? This is the AP headline about Luigi Mangione. You might remember the idiot who murdered the CEO on the streets of New York City on his bullets. They were engraved with delay, deny, defend. The AP headline says words on ammo and CEO shooting echo common phrase on insurer tactics. So they're trying to blame the insurer. So this is not only a pattern of a leftist lunatic carving into bullets, but the media trying to like obfuscate and cover for them.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, I think it's important to note that in all of this conversation, not just in this ice shooting, but in the Charlie Kirk assassination or this Luigi Mangione thing is we have to solve this problem. The Trump administration has to solve this problem. The FBI has to solve this problem because we do not have good, good faith arbiters of truth on the other side to stop the violence on their side. No, I mean I saw some of this stuff on social media here on this ice shooting and I was just so disgusted by it. The obfuscation that there are prominent Democrats, these never Trump fuck faces. All of these people who are horrible Human beings talking about. They're just trying to obfuscate the reality that this is a targeted attack on ice officers. That the sort of stuff that they cheered on.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

You know, since Donald Trump was inaugurated.

[Josh Holmes]

And motivated to be.

[Rick Wilson]

And motivated this sort of, these sort of attacks. And they're like, well, you know, he shot into a truck and I believe a detainee was killed. So who are we to know what the motivations of this were? And then I also saw a ton of traffic on Blue sky and on. On Twitter from all these leftists being like, oh, the bullets at anti ice. Little too convenient.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Rick Wilson]

Like now we're in conspiratorial.

[Ashbrook]

Was putting that there. And it's like.

[Rick Wilson]

Which is the same thing they did on Charlie Kirk's assassination where they're like, oh, well actually I think it might be one of maga's own.

[Ashbrook]

And that's the thing is Johnny Kimmel.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

The horrific murder of Charlie Kirk, that murderer also carved left phrases into the bullets. You see this again in this attack on ice. And here's the thing, is that Luigi example, I wanted to highlight it specifically because what was the response from the left and a lot of folks in the media, Taylor Lorenz especially, they celebrated that they turned this guy into a hero.

[Josh Holmes]

They made him famous.

[Ashbrook]

They made him famous. And just the other week when there was that hearing happening in New York City, outside of it, you had people dressed up like Luigi, like the Mario Luigi characters. We played the clip of the lady who was like, I'm married to an AEI of Luigi. They turned him into a folk hero. So now you're seeing copycats because they saw that, huh? This guy did this horrific act. He carved into bullets and they turned them into heroes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty obvious that left wing violence is right in our face every single day. But the truth is, it has been for quite some time. And it's not only the left wing media who's been trying to cover for them. You have had weak Republicans who've been out there saying this is a both sides problem. And so now is the time when Republicans need to show some backbone and have some moral authority to say that the left is a problem in this country. Even the Atlantic this week ran a headline that said left wing terrorism is out of control in this country. So if the Atlantic can write it, surely elected Republicans can find it within themselves to say that the left is a problem and we need to get to the bottom of it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, such a good point. I think there's Three items to just quickly highlight. One, the casings piece, the engraving of the cases, the writing on the casings. Very much a copycat situation nobody's really talking about. That started with Luigi Mangioni, obviously the Charlie Kirk case. Now we see it with this ICE situation. It is a common thematic. So even if you're unclear about who this cat is who pulled the trigger on this murdered people, you can't be unclear about that. In terms of a pattern, what else can you not be unclear about? Well, to date there have been at least 14 attacks on ICE agents and ICE facilities since January 1st of this year.

[Ashbrook]

Think about that.

[Josh Holmes]

Crazy 14, right? So the backdrop of this is this is not a one off event. This is not the random act of violence, this isn't some crazy individual, this is a pattern. 14 separate times suspects have used gunfire, Molotov cocktails, vehicles, fireworks and knives to attack agents over the course of this calendar year. We're not even done with September yet. Here we are. I don't know if you guys remember the 4th of July in Portland where the White House said deranged rioters viciously assaulted federal agents at an ICE facility. Officers were kicked, punched and targeted with an incendiary device. That happened in Portland. We all kind of brush it off, cuz we're like, yeah, that's what happens in Portland.

[Michael Duncan]

And again, these are agent, these are guys who are trying to keep us safe.

[Josh Holmes]

They're just doing their job.

[Michael Duncan]

They're doing their job, they're putting in their time. And you have these deranged leftists coming after them. And there's so much money. And we can get into this another time. The amount of money that's coming in from Soros and other foreign entities into these left wing groups around the country, I think we'll probably get into that in another show. But think about it. These are foreign entities pushing against regular Americans working for ice, trying to do a job.

[Josh Holmes]

And the point is we need answers on that, right? You need answers on not just the organization, if there is one of left wing violence and I think there are probably multiple. But you also need answers on the motivations of what gets people to where they're at. And we're gonna get into that here shortly. But I will say just as a secondary piece that's just happened here in the last two months, ICE agents in Texas, in Texas, in Texas, targeted in two ambush attacks on July 4th and July 8th. Notice the coincidence with the July 4th of the Portland attack. And this is according to Fox News, U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been targeted at least in two ambushes in Texas back in July. The complaint charges each of them with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and three counts of discharging a firearm during, in relation to and in furtherance of a violent crime. This one was particularly sinister, fellas. Immediately after the officer got out of his vehicle, one defendant positioned in a nearby woods allegedly shot the officer in the neck.

[Ashbrook]

This is.

[Michael Duncan]

This is terrorism on American soil happening before our very eyes. I mean, if you think back to the early 2000s, there was no Twitter, there was no spread of tweet. I just saw some guy walk in to get flying lessons so that he could figure out how to fly into a tower. You know what I mean? We are watching this play out in real time, and, like, if the government doesn't do something about it, it's gonna get worse for attacks, right?

[Ashbrook]

You're 100% right, Ash. This is terrorism. And we are seeing it happen again and again and again and again. And what's it gonna take? Because this, the message that's sent each time something like this happens, and that there's no leadership from the Democrats, they're.

[Josh Holmes]

Not going to be quite the opposite.

[Ashbrook]

They're not willing to even go as far as the Atlantic and be like, well, there's a little bit of left wing. You saw immediately before and even after these attacks. You've seen the left and their politicians, the Democrats, saying that, like, ICE is fascist. They're not going to back down. They have to be held accountable. The only thing that stops behavior is consequences.

[Rick Wilson]

So we were talking earlier about the obfuscation that's happening in the fallout of this shooting at the ICE facility and sort of the Democrats that are running interference for what's clearly a targeted attack on ice. One of the luminaries of the Democratic, you know, journo world, Matt Iglesias. I don't know if you guys saw this, this tweet that he. He put out. And. And he's supposed to be like the brave guy who. Who counters, you know, liberal, you know, conventional wisdom, right? Like, he's the guy who's going to be the hard truth teller to the Democratic Party. Now with the fallout of Kamala Harris.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got a high check this.

[Rick Wilson]

This is outrageous. You shouldn't shoot an ICE agent at ICE agents while brave, which didn't happen here, or at immigrants in detention, which did happen here.

[Ashbrook]

Oh, my God.

[Rick Wilson]

But it's also fair to have a robust debate about all aspects of immigration policy. Imagine, like, how Hard. Your ass must hurt from sitting on that fence post, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, it was just both sides, just, you know, it's just.

[Josh Holmes]

Not very clear who can tell.

[Ashbrook]

And here's the thing, when we go back to that, the instance that Holmes just mentioned about the ice agent who was shot in the neck. And this point I think is very, this is very important to highlight. It says law enforcement also found spray paint, magazines containing ammunition and flyers stating fight ICE terror with class war and free all political prisoners. A flag was found that read, resist fascism, Fight oligarchy.

[Josh Holmes]

This was the July attack. Where have we heard that? That's right, this was the July attack. And it just sounds pretty familiar.

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[Josh Holmes]

We have talked for a long time on this program about how because Democratic leadership is so weak, because they are just fundamentally out of touch with the base of the Democratic Party, there is nobody within the Democratic Party that has any sort of bravery whatsoever. They have no ability to lead a movement to a more productive standpoint. And what it leaves by omission is this growth in terrorism. And they have to get it from somewhere. Look, anytime you live in a free society, at some level there's a way to provoke people to unproductive means or a way to provoke people into productive means. And part of being an elected leader is to do the productive thing. Try to get people around the idea that you're trying to make progress and you're doing it civilly and you're doing all of the other things. But there are certain things that happen. And look, the left made a big push on Republicans in the wake of the 2020 election to suggest that Jan6 and all those things could have been prevented by a different set of rhetoric about stolen elections or whatever. Okay, let's just take you at your Word on that, right? We differ a whole bunch about the sequence of events and ultimately what happened, whatever. But if you were right, if that's what your case is about, what motivates masses of people who are angry or frustrated, who do not like the direction of the country into an unproductive, violent, mean, if that's what their point was, what do we think of stuff like this? Just from this week from Gavin Newsom on clip 1A. And the ice issue is alarming beyond words. It is the private, largest private domestic army of its type police force anywhere in the world. He'll have 30,000 people that increasingly appear to be swearing an oath of office to him.

[Brent Gardner]

Not the Constitution of the United States again.

[Josh Holmes]

Wake up. That's happening in the United States of America. Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing. No due process, no oversight, zero accountability. Happening in the United States of America today. People ask, well, is authoritarianism. You're being hyperbolic. Bull. We're being hyperbolic. If you're a black and brown community, it's here in this country. I mean, if some guy jumped out of an unmarked car in a van with a mask on, tried to grab me, I mean, by definition, you're going to push back. Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, boy.

[Josh Holmes]

All right. So by the way, that was on one of our late night comedy shows.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah. And I was laughing.

[Michael Duncan]

Lots of yucks.

[Josh Holmes]

Lots of yucks there. That's what our late night comedy. If you have any interest in revisiting that topic, that's what our late night.

[Ashbrook]

Comedy show, September 23rd. That's after numerous attacks had already happened. HE CONTINUES TO SLAM Dude.

[Josh Holmes]

It was Tuesday. It was the very next morning that the ICE agents were attacked by gunfire in Dallas. The very next morning. We're talking about less than 12 hours after that thing was aired. That happened. Okay, like, oh, that didn't seem like a very productive way to get people motivated. Maybe he's alone that. Nope. 2A, please.

[Kamala Harris]

But as somebody who understands history, when I see, I see slave patrols now.

[Josh Holmes]

I never lived through the slave patrol period, but if you know the history of policing in this country, then you understand that they were born out of slave patrols.

[Ashbrook]

That's such an insane take.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, you know, maybe Jasmine cry. Look, she's insane. We love her here on this show because everything she says is, like, legitimately and demonstrably false and worth making fun of. But you can understand if there's an audience for that show that she's on, there's an audience for that understanding and conceptualizing of ice that it is a slave patrol. Like, if you're a bona fide Jasmine Crockett fan, God help you. But if you are and she said something like that, I can understand where it's kind of a life or death situation. You understand that you're fighting for something maybe physically, maybe violently. She's turning it on because that slavery to a. I would say the vast majority of people in this country is something that you'd be like, I'll do. That's why we had the Civil War, folks. That's why we actually had the Civil War over. What she's suggesting is happening with a law enforcement arm that is just doing its job.

[Michael Duncan]

Understand how that gets whose entry level salaries, by the way, annual salaries are about the same price as her middle school tuition.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, no, you're right. All right, so, okay, maybe she's a crazy person. Maybe Gavin Newsom is just trying to get, you know, his arms wrapped around, like a Democratic nomination. Like just politics, folks. How about another leader within the Democratic Party? Clip 3A, please. Donald Trump's modern day Gestapo is scooping.

[Rick Wilson]

Folks up off the streets.

[Michael Duncan]

They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons.

[Josh Holmes]

No chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye. Just grabbed up by mass agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared.

[Ashbrook]

This is such insanity.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the vice presidential nomination for the 2024 election right there. That's somebody who you had close to 70 million people thinking was the right man to be number two in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know what's interesting to me is they all describe the van. They all talk about the van, the van, the van. Well, what was shot on Wednesday morning.

[Ashbrook]

You're not wrong, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so, all right, there's another guy, but we all know Walt is a little light on intellect and other things and, and other things. So maybe the. The next generation who is up and coming and has presidential ambitions, maybe they have a little something better for. Clip 4A, please. People are being grabbed and they're being thrown into vans, and that's different than questioning people. And oh, by the way, I want to ask a question to everybody who's listening and to you.

[Rick Wilson]

Do you carry with you citizenship papers?

[Josh Holmes]

How do you prove to somebody that you're a U.S. citizen? Your accent, the color of your skin. That's not the country we live in.

[Rick Wilson]

You know, you shouldn't have to walk.

[Josh Holmes]

Around with papers the way that they did in, in the early days of.

[Rick Wilson]

Nazi Germany to prove that you belong.

[Josh Holmes]

And that you're not one of them.

[Rick Wilson]

Them.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is essentially the kind of.

[Rick Wilson]

Country that we're becoming.

[Josh Holmes]

If you allow ICE to simply grab people after racial profile. Again.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep. Nothing light about Governor J.B. pritzker. Guy's probably the fattest governor on the.

[Josh Holmes]

Entire planet, but, like, listen to what he's saying.

[Ashbrook]

Dead on the van.

[Michael Duncan]

The van.

[Ashbrook]

They went back to the van and they said. Goes back to saying, these are Nazis in this van.

[Josh Holmes]

Nazis, the van. Grabbing people, pulling them off the street, having to prove that you're an American. None of which is in the remit of ice.

[Michael Duncan]

And by the way, he's talking about whether we want people being stopped. I mean, I think Lake and Riley's family would have liked somebody to stop and kick that guy the hell out of our country.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, after they arrested him for other crimes, it would have been nice to actually prosecute him for sure. Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

And also, I, like, I just got to go into this little tirade on the whole thing because it's just so patently absurd to suggest that this is somehow creeping fascism in this country. Like, we didn't have an election where everyone voted for this to happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Rick Wilson]

That we. That we decided as a country.

[Josh Holmes]

Conversation that.

[Rick Wilson]

I don't know, just letting 20 million people walk across the southern border was bad public policy from Joe Biden. We had an election on that. And for the Democrats, of course, all people. You know, a party that let a geriatric guy with dementia pretend to be president, United States and then ushered in the side, didn't have a primary, and made Kamala Harris the candidate, and then she got her ass handed to her. For those people to lecture us on democracy like they are the beacon of democracy. You want to know why all of these young people who are leftists, who have no leadership in the Democratic Party to look to, are on discord servers, feeling nihilistic and trying to shoot people. It's because they feel like they don't have a voice. And the Democratic Party has not been a Democrat party. They have not done democracy in a while. We're the only ones who did democracy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

It's as simple as that. You want to know why they look disaffected? Why now they're turning to things like violence. The Democratic Party is to blame for that.

[Josh Holmes]

It is a rudderless ship, and they can provide no direction. And what has happened is abject violence that all of them duck, all of them pretend like it's not happening. All of them find excuses or try to shape media pieces like this is happening.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, it's crazy, man.

[Josh Holmes]

So wait till you get to this last one. This is Kamiya Jayapal.

[Rick Wilson]

Oh, yeah, real.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean this one.

[Rick Wilson]

Real cerebral, this one.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. She pushes an anti ICE hoax just hours before shooting in Texas. The Jayapal tweet reads, if you want to put this one. ICE agents grabbed a five year old girl outside of her home and held her, screaming to coerce her father, who has been in the US for 22 years, to be detained. This is cruel, disgusting, and must end. Trump is tearing families apart. Okay, so that's the take that she puts out to. I don't know how many thousands of followers, but it's covered in a very meaningful way.

[Ashbrook]

NBC News ran with that even.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, NBC News runs with it. Well, it's not true. Not even a lick of it is true. Not even a lick of it is true. If you look at the DHS response, what they say is these smears are sick. Obviously they are. Our ICE agents never used a 5 year old girl as bait, as has been suggested. The criminal alien target of the operation with previous arrest for domestic abuse, strangulation and vandalizing property abandoned that child that we're talking about. That child abandoned the child in a car. Edwards Hip Meja, a criminal alien from Guatemala ignored law enforcement emergency lights and darted inside his house, abandoning his five year old daughter in the car. Officers helped rescue the child and called local police to report an abandonment. Stop the smear. Stop the lies. Okay, so I mean, look again. What is your reaction if Jayapal is somebody who you look to for moral leadership and guidance?

[Rick Wilson]

Well, I don't think anyone looks to her, but what ends up happening is NBC reports this hoax or Jayapal puts up that tweet and it gets chopped up six ways from Sunday by Occupy Democrats and 10 other meme accounts on Facebook. And they feed this to a bunch of brain dead leftists who never look for context.

[Josh Holmes]

They think they're at work.

[Rick Wilson]

They're not clicking an article and reading for all the information. They see this and they get outrage and outrage and outrage and that's.

[Josh Holmes]

They think they're at war.

[Michael Duncan]

It all flows out there. Before they learn that NBC retracted the claim and posted a correction to the article.

[Josh Holmes]

They had to because it was just false. But a million eyeballs saw it. Yeah, and a million people were convinced that they are in a very real war with ice, that they are likely to use children to try to incarcerate people. I mean, it's a wild thing. So rewind the tape on all of this. Obviously this has become a problem for a long period of time. But as it relates just to ICE and immigration, it did start in one place, folks. It did start one place. Clip 5a. The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border. I mean, and that is exactly what they are.

[Ashbrook]

They are concentration camps. The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing.

[Josh Holmes]

And we need to do something about it.

[Ashbrook]

Here it is.

[Josh Holmes]

That conversation fundamentally changed the Democratic Party in 2019.

[Ashbrook]

AOC goes out there and she puts that out, and some folks on the left are like, I don't know if this. Some Democrats are like, I don't know if this is a good idea. They didn't stand up. They didn't stop it then. And that became, okay, that's what we're rolling with. That's the Overton window shifting in real time for the left, where they're like, I guess we're gonna call them concentration camps. And then the way that she closes it, she's two pieces of information. She conveys, these are concentration camps. Number two, we have to do something.

[Rick Wilson]

Oh, what should we do?

[Ashbrook]

Hmm.

[Josh Holmes]

What immediately follows is every one of that cavalcade of idiots on the Democratic primary stage in 2020 that included Joe Biden, were asked simple questions about securing the border. All of them kept their hands down on securing the border. All of them put their hands up on free health care, free government benefits.

[Rick Wilson]

Decriminalizing border crosses, decriminalizing and making sure.

[Josh Holmes]

That, like, people felt welcome, and all of those kind of things. It's the Overton window that you talked about that completely shifted. And for those of us who are, like, not steeped in progressive politics, we look at that, we're like, my God, what are you talking about? Turns out the American people were kind of in that, by and large, in that same place, too. But the progressive left had now had codification at the highest level of the Democratic Party that this is what's happening and we need to do something about it. So then you layer on all the stuff that we just talked about, from Gavin Newsom to Jasmine Crockett to Tim Walls to JB Pritzker to Jayapal, basically calling him Nazis, saying that they're stealing people, kidnapping him off the street, all the vans, using children, try to bait people out of their house. Like, if you are in that constituency, and albeit it's a small one, but if you're in that constituency through a social media and through a choice of information flow, you think you're at war. You think this is a time for. You think maybe this is a civil war. Remember, we've started the civil war for something similar to something like this. Right? A government has a fundamentally different point of view than what's right. And you fight. And they've done this. And now you have the obligation of people like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and the leaders of the Democratic Party to speak to it. And they refuse. They abjectly refuse. Instead, they work with headline writers at the Associated Press to ensure that they're not blamed for the neglect that they have put upon the American people.

[Michael Duncan]

Well said.

[Josh Holmes]

It is scary. It's sad, it's scary. It's true. When we come back, I couldn't help but notice that Trump pretty much dominated the Euros in the international community this week. We've got a lot of fun to be had over that. Some clips, some analysis, what it all means right 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 the 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]

You'Ve all been aware of the fact that the president of the United States, as well as much of the administration went up to New York, the UN United nations, big General assembly this week. And I don't know about you guys, but it seems to me like Trump going to the UN and I just like, sort of thought of this on the way. Walking into here, it's like Jordan in the garden, dude. That is good, because it's like there's a hugely confrontational crowd. Everyone hates them going in. It's the largest stage internationally. It's the only place where you know everyone is watching and that he just deals out hard truths. And it seems like Trump gets better in that situation. Yes, he's like more comfortable with the uncomfortability of it than anyone I've ever seen on international stage.

[Rick Wilson]

It's so funny you say that. I think it's also why he loves having these, like, open press sprays where he answers every question, because I think he enjoys an adversarial environment.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

Seems like, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's when he has his best stuff. It's like a comedian who does crowd work and just wants to ask questions, you know, like, that's when he gives you his best stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

It's true. And he just seems to get stronger and welcome. Welcome the hate. Yeah, in a lot of ways. So the whole thing started off, kicked off before they even walked into the joint. In clip one, Sean Bethyle. I'm sorry, I'm the President. I'm really sorry. As the President of France Macron. For our audio only listeners. He can't get in because the presidential motorcade has blocked him. Guess what? I'm waiting in the street because everything is present for you.

[Ashbrook]

And he's called President Trump on the phone.

[Rick Wilson]

He's walking. Hilarious.

[Josh Holmes]

You got Papi Le Pew working his way through New York, taking pictures, walking through. So what happened was he couldn't actually get to the United nations building because the streets were shut down from Trump, and he had to get out of his car and start walking. And he calls Trump and asks Trump basically like, hey, can you do something about this? I'm stuck, I can't get out. And he's like, you're gonna have to walk.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ashbrook]

I mean, what did he think America first meant?

[Josh Holmes]

Right? I mean, so he's on terra firma there in the United States, but as soon as you go to the un, it's international soil. It's a hard concept for me to wrap my mind around in the same ways that, like, embassies. I don't know how many of you guys know this, but embassies in Washington D.C. and there's a million of them, every shitty country you've ever thought of has got some palatial building. But those are actually not American territory.

[Ashbrook]

Not my book.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. I agree with you.

[Ashbrook]

All ours. Even the ones overseas, they're all ours.

[Josh Holmes]

I totally agree with this. But. But they are, from a diplomatic standpoint, the territory of the country that they represent, the UN in the smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, is not American territory.

[Michael Duncan]

Because it's just wild. I mean, nothing talks about the magnanimity of the American people quite like the idea that we give Some of the most important real estate in Manhattan, of all places, taxes. Right over to the Euros and the UN and everybody else who does nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

And you did some research on this. Turns out they don't pay taxes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It doesn't appear that they pay property taxes. They don't seem to pay sales tax. The only people who pay tax are the Americans who have regular jobs at the UN Building. So if you're there cleaning, not to.

[Ashbrook]

Mention the traffic jams, dude. Like the east side highways right where they are just makes a whole town.

[Josh Holmes]

I was in Manhattan, that's what I'm telling you, on Tuesday, and it was a parking lot. We couldn't get anywhere.

[Ashbrook]

Every time they do this to us.

[Josh Holmes]

Terrible. But all of that leads to this lead up to clip two, which you've probably seen, but I think marks an important distinction about what we're talking about.

[Donald Trump]

And I don't mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working. I feel very happy to be up here with you, nevertheless. And that way you speak more from the heart. I can only say that whoever's operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.

[Rick Wilson]

Think about that, dude. Think about coming into this building in New York and you're Donald Trump, President of the United States, and this whole place exists under your good graces.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Rick Wilson]

Right. And you show up and the teleprompter doesn't even work.

[Josh Holmes]

You're the guy that they are choosing not to have the A team on.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible. Right? And we're going to get into the second component of this clip to be.

[Donald Trump]

All I got from the United nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle. If the first lady wasn't in great shape, she would have fallen. But she's in great shape. We're both in good shape.

[Michael Duncan]

We both stood, then they're all laughing.

[Donald Trump]

And then a teleprompter that didn't work. These are the two things I got from the United Nations. A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.

[Josh Holmes]

So, I mean, look, we've all seen the video by now of the escalator situation, which ranges from a security concern, which is probably very real, to what Carolyn Levitt pointed out in that there were UN employees that were joking in a. I think it was a London publication about how they would perhaps stop the escalators just to kind of prove that they needed more funding for the.

[Michael Duncan]

UN US Gives more money to the UN than any other country in the world.

[Ashbrook]

I'm so done with them. I'm so done with them. Like, it is an absolute security risk, especially for President Trump, who has had. I mean, I think just the day that happened, one of his assassins was found guilty, convicted, and tried to stick a pen in their own neck. Like, they need to get their act together. They need to get their act together. President Trump needs to at all times be extremely safe and secure with a full appreciation and understanding of the number of times there have been attempts on his life. Number two, the UN needs to get their act together. Like, what a dump. What a clown show that gets all this money from around the world, accomplishes nothing. Gets all this money from America, accomplishes nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

I totally agree.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah. I mean, put Donald Trump's record of peace up against the un.

[Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Rick Wilson]

You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and he proceeded to go through that.

[Ashbrook]

He rightfully did.

[Josh Holmes]

Proceeded to go through that. Right. And so he just makes a scathing case to the UN of like, you guys don't do shit. First of all, your building sucks. My experience today has been terrible. Second of all, I'm the one that's doing the peacekeeping around here. What are you people up to? I've seven different occasions, solved global conflicts on my own, and I didn't even get so much as a call from you people. I love this about Trump.

[Rick Wilson]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like, for the most part, every American president at some level, has gone into that venue and had a point that they wanted people to follow. But it's like, basically one point that is a. A major priority internationally that he's trying to drive the UN towards. And then they make nice and they talk about common goals. They do whatever. Not Trump. Trump walks into that thing and he's like, I've got a lot to say here. I've got a listing of grievances to start with. Second of all, I got a lot of things that you guys are doing shitty that I think I'm gonna tell you about and make you super uncomfortable, because nobody else in this room or this shitty compilation of United nations are going to discuss if I don't. And you all recall the first time around when he went in, in 2017. Oh, he's so confrontational. Oh, what is he doing? Oh, my gosh, we're gonna lose so much respect in the world. And what he was talking about is ponying up for their mutual security. And they all laughed him out of the room. And they're like, oh, God, he's just an idiot. He doesn't Know what he's talking about. And five years later, they're all racing to double the commitment that he asked them to make, because they knew he was right. And then the second thing that he talked about is, does it make a lot of sense that you people are buying energy from somebody? That you formed an entire alliance.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah. The whole NATO alliance to try to prevent.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, like, you got an entire security thing that you want us to be a part of here, except for you're the one that are funding the primary reason its formation was caused in the first place.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. This is the greatest thing thing about Trump. He will say the thing that everybody knows is true, but everybody in the UN is afraid to say. He exposes them in a way they've never been exposed before. And he did it in 45 minutes. He walked up. He walked up the escalator. He had no teleprompter, and he exposed them in a way that, like, if, you know, one of the things that drives me nuts, if you talk to anybody who's going up there or doing anything around the UN General assembly, they call it unga. You guys ever notice this?

[Josh Holmes]

I know that, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They're like, oh, yeah, he's going up to Unga. And it's like. It's like, come on, man, nobody cares. Nobody cares about the un. We send them money. They don't do shit. And it's like, what is the difference between the real UN and the model UN that all the nerds did in high school? Literally, the only difference is that those nerds parents pay taxes and the UN doesn't pay taxes.

[Rick Wilson]

There's no difference.

[Josh Holmes]

There's no difference. Such a great take. It's all kayfabe.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like, oh, the cables and transmissions and discussions and. And they don't ever do shit.

[Rick Wilson]

But I think it kind of speaks to a larger point, whether it's the UN or. Or the State Department or this sort of foreign policy blob as it exists in the United States. We saw this pushback when Elon was trying to do the Doge cuts on everything, you know, from the Institute to peace to the training, you know, you know, surgeries in Tanzania or whatever. But it's like, these are august bodies beyond reproach.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, Right.

[Rick Wilson]

Cannot speak this way in our media. And everyone has just sort of like, I don't know, given these people a pass to just do nothing totally and exist to sniff their own farts.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, it's so true. It's like if you have a white tablecloth with 57 forks. All of a sudden, we got to take that shit seriously. No, we don't. Fuck you. Right? We don't have to take any of that seriously. Especially when you're relying on our taxes dollars in our building. And by the way, we're the ones that are solving your fucking conflicts.

[Rick Wilson]

Right?

[Ashbrook]

Along those lines. Could we get clip 5 real quick?

[Donald Trump]

Likewise. In a period of just 7 months, I have ended 7 unendable wars. They said they were unending. You're never going to get them solved. No president or prime minister, and for that matter, no other country has ever done anything close to that. And I did it in just seven months. It's never happened before. There's never been anything like that. Very honored to have done it. It's too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United nations doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the United nations did not even try to help in any of them.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. It's so good, dude. It's just him at his best. It's Jordan at the Garden.

[Rick Wilson]

My favorite line there is, it's too bad. It's really too bad that the UN didn't even help.

[Josh Holmes]

That's so good.

[Rick Wilson]

He's trolling them in real time.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Ashbrook]

And it's huge because, like, there's silence from the crowd because they're like, wait, what is this? Accountability? Is this guy giving facts of how, like, we don't accomplish shit? And he had to, and he did it without us. And. And it seems like we're pretty useless.

[Michael Duncan]

There's a clip. Thank God there's a clip. I think we do have a windmills clip.

[Rick Wilson]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want to get too far ahead, but I don't know what he's going to play.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes. Clip four.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, clip four.

[Donald Trump]

We're getting rid of the falsely named renewables, by the way. They're a joke in New York. They're too expensive. They're not strong enough to fire up the plants that you need to make your country great. The wind doesn't blow. Those big windmills are so pathetic and so bad. So expensive to operate. And they have to be rebuilt all the time, and they start to rust and rot.

[Josh Holmes]

Off script.

[Donald Trump]

Most expensive energy ever conceived. And it's actually energy. You're supposed to make money with energy, not lose money. You lose money. The governments have to subsidize. You can't put them out without massive subsidies.

[Josh Holmes]

He's so.

[Ashbrook]

He's.

[Michael Duncan]

He's 100% right. And he goes on in that. In that segment to say, you know, the Chinese, they're building the windmills and they sell them all over the world. Yeah, they don't use windmills in China. It cuts to the Chinese ambassadors. And they're just sitting there kind of like, yeah.

[Brent Gardner]

They're like, yeah.

[Ashbrook]

They're like, bro, you're messing with our business.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't tell these people.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, they're making the money.

[Josh Holmes]

Don't go into the batteries. Don't go into the batteries. Don't go to the batteries.

[Donald Trump]

Don't go into the batteries.

[Rick Wilson]

They've got hundreds of coal fire power plants.

[Josh Holmes]

It's incredible because I'm masking all of this stuff. And really, we talked about it on the show on Tuesday about the energy whole component, which is something he revisited back from the first administration. Everybody reluctantly agreed it makes no sense to power your adversary. So they're like, I know we'll follow Greta Thunberg down the road of shutting off every way of producing power except for windmills and water. And like, well, that's not working either. Maybe China can help us out. And it's the same fucking thing that they just did with Russia.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And like, he's the only one that's having this discussion. Meanwhile, the rest of them are thinking about, like, trying to figure out what the fourth antipasta is fork that they're working on. And they're trying to figure out, like, how it is that they can name a third Palestinian state. Fuck you.

[Rick Wilson]

Pro dropped. Antipasti.

[Josh Holmes]

Antipasti. I mean, it's. Dude, it's true. So, all right, so then he gets into the other hard truth that nobody else is talking about. Let's play clip three.

[Donald Trump]

Not only is the UN not solving the problems it should too often, it's actually creating new problems for us to solve. The best example is the number one political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration. It's uncontrolled. Your countries are being ruined. The United nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.

[Josh Holmes]

So important. Yeah.

[Ashbrook]

Why did no clap? Why did no.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they don't want to hear it. They're busy trying to cater to. If you're wondering why it is that the UK is recognizing a Palestinian state when they know that it's not in their interest and when they know Israel's been the only ally in the region to their particular country, it's because they have so many Palestinian people in their country that it's now a voting demographic issue. And they're making domestic policy based on the electoral Politics of political parties within the uk. This is happening in Germany. This is happening all through Scandinavia, by the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, it's happening throughout. And this is the thing in my mind that I go Back to in 2017, when you went there, and it was like, don't do your energy thing the way you're doing it. Maybe pay for your mutual defense. And then like, five years later, they all show up and they're like, you were right. We're gonna do all that. This is the thing. Either by the will of the voters in those countries or by necessity, through God knows what, they're gonna come back five years from now and be like, yeah, he was right, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

And for so long, the left has been attacking us as conspiracy theorists. Oh, it's replacement theory. The globalists trying to do migration engineering. Can I just tell you that in the year 2000, the UN printed 177 page white paper. Would you like to know the title of this paper, please? Replacement Migration. That was literally the title of an official UN document. And here we are in 2025, 25 years later, and Trump's like, eh, it's a problem. And the left is like, no, you.

[Josh Holmes]

Can'T talk about that. Just imagine the amount of tie adjusting that goes into writing a paper like that. Fifth fork, please. I mean, it's totally nuts. So it leads us to our question of the day. Should Trump deport the un?

[Ashbrook]

Excellent question.

[Josh Holmes]

Should he deport?

[Ashbrook]

Excellent question.

[Josh Holmes]

I say, hell yes. Get them the hell out of here. You've got prime real estate in New York City, none of which, apparently, they pay taxes upon, all it does is clog the streets. And then when our President of the United States, and this alone, I don't care if it's Barack Obama or Donald Trump. I loathe Barack Obama. But if they stop his ass in an escalator and try to embarrass him on a world stage that happens to be in our country by not putting on a teleprompter. And by the way, Katie Pavlich, who was in the venue, also said they turned down the audio so nobody could actually hear him. Yeah, right. Like, if you're doing that to an American president. You know what? Get the fuck out of here. Let's see how the Gaza Riviera treats you. Yeah, like go headquarter that thing in Shanghai. Let's see how that works. Yeah, yeah, like, get them out.

[Rick Wilson]

UN has a really good track record of colluding with Hamas terrorists to build terror tunnels, so maybe they could put the Headquarters down there.

[Ashbrook]

Honestly, you know, it would.

[Rick Wilson]

That great infrastructure space, just get, get UNRA on that, that famil with the.

[Ashbrook]

Territory, the building of that space that they have would be ideal for an ice facility. I mean, the number of illegals you have in New York City, you can get them right there on the east side highway.

[Rick Wilson]

That's solving two problems.

[Ashbrook]

You could even ferry them in. It's got access to the water.

[Rick Wilson]

Perfect.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you can start with detaining those diplomats.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

First, I mean, it's. I've hated the UN for as long as I could breathe. They've always been a problem. They've always been terrible. But what they just did to the president and their lack of understanding of real world stuff in their own country.

[Ashbrook]

Enough's enough.

[Josh Holmes]

Him having to explain this is happening in your country that you were elected to lead, and they're like, that's give me the fifth fork. And then they come back five years later inevitably. Yeah, you're right.

[Rick Wilson]

For all our younger listeners and viewers, do yourself a favor and Google the oil for food scandal out of the un That'll really illuminate all the peace they're providing.

[Josh Holmes]

It'll give you a good inclination as to what motivates that outfit. So when you like and subscribe to the ruthless Friday program, just leave your comments. Should Trump deport the UN we read them all. We're gonna get back to you on free Friday. Yeah, fun time Friday.

[Rick Wilson]

Fun time about all of that.

[Josh Holmes]

But we also asked a question on Tuesday which was, what should Trump say at the un and you guys provided an awful lot of content on that to do it. We start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, first comment from Amber Panuto. And Amber writes in the spirit of one of our most treasured American icons, Eric Cartman. Quote, screw you guys, I'm going home. Amber, it's really funny.

[Josh Holmes]

Very well. I would just want an adaptation. You're going home, right? Comment two, please. Haruncks.

[Rick Wilson]

This is from Tosh Faratu. They write, I think it would be amazing if President Trump had aides pass out candles and matches to the UN members and then have the power shut off to the building before they have their meeting. That would make the point. I feel that. Or a 30 day eviction notice would do the trick.

[Josh Holmes]

This is clairvoyant. There it is. And it also shows that by them doing the equivalent of the power shut off to our own president, the kind of like arrogance that these people have.

[Rick Wilson]

It'S really tough to read the menu of antipasti by candlelight.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. It's difficult. You should do it in Gaza.

[Michael Duncan]

A 30 day eviction timeframe is very generous.

[Josh Holmes]

I agree.

[Michael Duncan]

I would say I think it speaks to the American spirit.

[Josh Holmes]

No, that is, it's the kind of thoughtfulness that we provide on the international stage. No question. Smug. What do we got? Comment 3.

[Ashbrook]

Comment 3 is from Pat Forrest. Pat writes, since the United nations is completely corrupt and useless, I am signing an executive order to give all of this property to our great Veterans affairs department to renovate into housing for veterans. You have 90 days to evacuate. You're fired, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

People get it.

[Rick Wilson]

Hell yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

This is a great idea. This is before this disaster unfolded.

[Ashbrook]

Great ideas.

[Josh Holmes]

Really good stuff. Our listeners are the absolute best. Remember, when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, you leave your comments. We read all of them where we get back to the very next episode and read them back to you. You guys ready for a lightning round?

[Rick Wilson]

Yes, always.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so we got some stuff here in this one we've been saving up. You've seen a little bit from a lot of places, but not like you get on Ruthless. Kamala's book tour.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh boy.

[Josh Holmes]

Boys. It's not going well.

[Ashbrook]

I think it's going great.

[Josh Holmes]

Content for.

[Ashbrook]

Content for. Oh, it's phenomenal.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's going great for us, but it's not so much for Kamala. I don't know what the whole hope of this was, but clearly they weren't selling a lot of books and they had to just get rid of a whole bunch of excerpts on the front end. Like they basically read out every good piece of this pre orders must not have been great garbage book to every news outlet. And they all reported on it. And then they sent her out on a bunch of interviews. And like the first interview, you were immediately reminded why she's an author and not not the president. Like, she was just fucking terrible. Anyway, the first one is so good.

[Kamala Harris]

Clip 6 It made me very sad, but I also realized it would be a real risk.

[Josh Holmes]

She's talking about Buttigieg. She said she would be.

[Kamala Harris]

You know, I've been an advocate and an ally of the LGBT community my entire life. So it wasn't about. It wasn't about. Yeah, right. So it wasn't about any prejudice on my part.

[Josh Holmes]

But.

[Kamala Harris]

We had such a short period of time and the stakes were so high. I think Pete is a phenomenal, phenomenal public servant and I think America is and would be ready for that.

[Josh Holmes]

For that.

[Kamala Harris]

But when I had to make that decision with two weeks to go.

[Josh Holmes]

You.

[Kamala Harris]

Know, and maybe I was being too cautious. You know, I'll let our friends. We should all talk about that. Maybe I was, but that's the decision I made. And I'm. And I, as with everything else in the book, I'm being very candid about that with a great deal of sadness about.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, a great deal of sadness.

[Rick Wilson]

Seems pretty sad.

[Josh Holmes]

There's a great deal of it. That's so cool.

[Michael Duncan]

All I heard was her saying, mayor Pete, he speaks so well. He's so well spoken. And I'm not prejudiced, but I didn't pick him because he's gay.

[Ashbrook]

The best part is, so she's on the Rachel Maddow show explaining to the gay lady like, so here's why the gay guy was a problem.

[Rick Wilson]

I only had 107 days. How could I teach them to know a gay guy?

[Josh Holmes]

He was my first pick, but he was gay.

[Ashbrook]

And then she's like, I'm not the bigot here. It's just that the American people are the bigots here.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. And then I had this really popular Jewish guy at a state that I needed to win, but he's a Jew. Yeah, couldn't pick him either.

[Rick Wilson]

We can only expect so much from the American people, and it's their fault.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not that I'm a homophobe or an anti Semite. It's that the American people are.

[Rick Wilson]

You know, I gotta say, dude, like, when this book got announced, I was like, I think it's gonna be entirely written in dull crayon. And it isn't. It's written with sharp knives for basically everyone in the Democratic Party she can blame instead of herself.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. I mean, can you imagine coming up with a construct where you have said out loud that the American people. It's not you. We're so busy doing the racisms and the sexisms and the homophobias and the homophobias that you just. You couldn't quite take on the homophobias because the racisms and the sexism. And by the way, the anti Semitisms were out there too. And so. But we're just replete. There's so many voters with it. In order to compete to lead this great country of ours and get the kind of strong leadership that she desires, she certainly cannot have a black woman with a gay guy on the ticket. I mean, that's a fucking confounding statement.

[Ashbrook]

Also less funny. It's so insulting to have the DEI pick be like, oh, this country's too bigoted to accept it's like, you got that job because the dei.

[Josh Holmes]

Not a single person voted for it.

[Rick Wilson]

No. No one voted for it.

[Josh Holmes]

Not a single person voted for this woman.

[Rick Wilson]

In fact, she called Joe Biden a racist in that debate. And her reward for that was being vice president, United States. And now she is going to judge America.

[Ashbrook]

Bingo.

[Rick Wilson]

For America's failings.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

Which is just such an arrogant thing to do.

[Ashbrook]

So arrogant.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just a meritless political party.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

They claim to be on the side of, like, gay rights and then don't put somebody on the ticket because he's gay. They claim to be on the side of black people, but they're worried about the black component of what it is that they do. Like, it never occurs to them that just, like, governing the country is what people are interested in. Right. Like, maybe secure our borders, you dumb fuck.

[Rick Wilson]

That's the thing.

[Ashbrook]

It's like their heads are so tied up to this idea of, like, checking this box, and everything's based on this identity, and everything is based on this social. It's like, you know what? At the end of the day, what the American people want is a competent leader to make this country better. Like, how is it that difficult for.

[Michael Duncan]

You to understand they really are meritless? I think that that is such an important point, because if you look at what Democrats were 20 years ago, agree with them or not, you had a Southern governor who could talk really well, and he was kind of presenting as a moderate, and he was their candidate. And then there was a woman who would stop at absolutely nothing for power, and she was their candidate. And then there was Obama, like, one of the greatest salesmen in American history. He was their candidate, and now they've got nothing.

[Rick Wilson]

The other thing that's fascinating to me is, like, the Democrats in this autopsy are having a lot of discussions about how none of this is Kamala Harris's fault. We couldn't have the Jewish governor from Pennsylvania. We couldn't have the gay guy, Pete Buttigieg, on the ticket. That would be a bridge too far. But at no point is it an introspection why a black woman did the worst with the black vote for the Democratic Party.

[Michael Duncan]

That's a good point.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody.

[Rick Wilson]

Nobody talks about that.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody talks about it.

[Rick Wilson]

Isn't that just bizarre?

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, well, because nobody. You were capable of doing the job, lady. That's so funny. That's why it's so true, dude. I mean, nobody does that. Introspection. Sorry, but she's not done. Of course she's got thoughts on the current president, Cliff seven. Yes.

[Kamala Harris]

Right now we are dealing with, as I called him at my speech on the Ellipse, a tyrant strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That's what we're dealing with, with right now, Donald Trump. And these are not speaking up. And perhaps it is because his threats and the way he has used the weight of the federal government to take out vengeance on his critics is something that they fear. And I get that.

[Josh Holmes]

That's a Kimmel reference, I think. My goodness.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude, her speech on the Ellipse. Brandenburg.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Nobody. Nobody even watched it.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody cared. I swear to God, I don't know what she's talking.

[Rick Wilson]

Okay, do you remember. Okay, so I do remember this. I remember this. So she was going to have this big speech on the Ellipse to sort of like, frame the election as like an authoritarian Donald Trump stretch.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

Democracy's at stake and all that sort of stuff. Because remember, this is when they were going out on the road with Liz Cheney.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

Appealing to the never Trump fictional movement that exists. That's five people in a think tank. Yeah, right. And they thought that was gonna be their governing majority, these idiots. But she did that whole lips and. And she thought she was gonna like, have like a thousand articles written about how great she was and what a great speech it was.

[Josh Holmes]

Transformation.

[Rick Wilson]

And then Joe. And Joe Biden stomps on the whole thing being like, listen here, Jack. Trump voters are garbage.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what.

[Donald Trump]

Dude, you're right.

[Josh Holmes]

Remember?

[Ashbrook]

Dude, that's it.

[Josh Holmes]

That was enough. Dude.

[Ashbrook]

That was it. Oh, my God, dude, you're so.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, dude.

[Ashbrook]

Duncan, that is so clutch. Because we're all like, why do none of us remember it?

[Josh Holmes]

And, like, here's why. Garbage. That's why.

[Ashbrook]

And then Trump jumped in the garbage truck and it was like, dude, I.

[Josh Holmes]

Forgot all about that. That is such a good poll, dude.

[Rick Wilson]

I have this, like, weird tism in my brain that makes me the Library of Alexandria for all of this shit that happens.

[Josh Holmes]

But also just the idea that he's like, the communist dict. Like, they literally didn't again have a single American vote for her. She got within a dick hair of the fucking presidency without anyone ever casting a ballot for her. Like, think about that. In two elections and he's the communist dictator. I thought I understood what the definition of a dictator was. I thought it was preventing people to vote for things. And she's got a different definition. Anyway. She's not done. Clip 9. Will you consider running in 2028?

[Kamala Harris]

That's not my focus. Right now it's not my focus at all.

[Josh Holmes]

I know. You know, I'm just gonna.

[Kamala Harris]

Yeah, well, let me.

[Josh Holmes]

I know you're not considering it now, but are you. Are you saying when you decided you're not going to run for governor of California, Correct.

[Rick Wilson]

Were you saying you are never going.

[Josh Holmes]

To run for anything ever again? Or were you just saying, I'm not going to run for that office right now?

[Kamala Harris]

That was the decision before me, and I made the decision not to run for governor of California.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just a classic Kamala Harris. It's like, no, it's a very simple question. Are you gonna run for something or not?

[Ashbrook]

There's a specific moment in that clip that we just showed. This is also why you should be on YouTube to see the video clip of where, like, her and Rachel, like, nodding to each other and she likes, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz like, very clearly they knew that they would be asked that question and her staff coached her for it. Because you can see in that second that, like, Rachel was kind of like, this is. Did you. Didn't you rehearse this?

[Josh Holmes]

You stupid.

[Rick Wilson]

Like, how do you not have an answer?

[Josh Holmes]

I do not know. It's the one that the msnbc, the producer is like, hey, just so you know, just so you know, Rachel's gonna ask you if you're gonna run for president in 2028. And they're like, no problem.

[Ashbrook]

And like, we got it. I know. And like, really, like.

[Josh Holmes]

And they thought, that is not my focus at the time. Yeah, not. That is not my focus at the time.

[Rick Wilson]

I didn't run for governor because that was a decision before me.

[Michael Duncan]

There is not a thing that comes to mind.

[Ashbrook]

She's going to.

[Josh Holmes]

Things are gay or black.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, she's going to run in 2020.

[Rick Wilson]

I mean, do you really think she's going to run in 2028?

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, she's.

[Josh Holmes]

I think she's going to put something together.

[Rick Wilson]

Who is going to work that?

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody. Dude, it'll.

[Ashbrook]

It's the same clowns.

[Rick Wilson]

No way.

[Ashbrook]

I guarantee it's the same clowns. Like, I don't know, like, what's his name? The Ian Sams or Sims.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Sims.

[Ashbrook]

That guy's got no other job. No one is gonna hire him.

[Michael Duncan]

I've seen some excerpts from her book. She shit all over everybody who worked.

[Ashbrook]

For her, and that's gonna.

[Josh Holmes]

She's gonna have a whole new crowd.

[Ashbrook]

She famously treated her staff like trash. But when you have zero talent and nothing. Cause, like, the problem with this generation of Democrat operatives is they saw all the Obama people, they got jobs at like Amazon, Coca Cola, and they all cashed in hard off Obama's name. And so the whole reason they signed up for the job is they're like, listen, when we get out of here, we're all gonna be just like set with these jobs. None of the Biden people can get jobs. They're all getting subpoenaed by Jamie Comer. Yeah, Kamala people, you think they're getting jobs like zero. There's nothing out there for them. These are talentless losers.

[Josh Holmes]

Let me just tell you.

[Ashbrook]

Nothing else.

[Josh Holmes]

One thing you're over looking on that though, is the way that this generation of Democratic operatives has processed small dollar giving in the multitudes and billions, quite literally that that has the possibility of raising, that they take a skim off of is not insignificant. So when you look at somebody who raised, albeit unique circumstances, a couple of billion dollars, it's insane. You gotta think that if Kamala even dabbles a foot in it, it's probably a 500 million dollar operation no matter what. And for like, you know, half dozen dozen different operatives, that's worth it.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Can you imagine that? Fundraising email copy. We're trying again.

[Josh Holmes]

Here we go.

[Michael Duncan]

We're going to give it. I know you gave me $100 last time and I blew it. This time. I'll spend it wisely, but you can write the copy.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like there's a war on women.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He's trying to keep women in the kitchen. And then the next one is like a. They're coming for blacks and gays.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, they want to outlaw interracial marriages.

[Ashbrook]

That'll be Kamala too. This time. I will run with the gay dude.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, he's allowed this time. He's allowed, dude. But that's. But literally, just think about how cynical and shitty everything that is that they're talking insanely cynical. And contrast that with the Trump administration. I don't even care if you really like Donald Trump or not, but if you look at his administration, it's filled with women. It's filled with, filled with a whole bunch of people from a variety of different ideological standpoints, backgrounds, whatever. There's two Democrats that are in the cabinet. There's a real diversity of opinion and background and where everybody comes from. And then you look at her situation and they are basically pigeonholing their entire political prognosis on your identity. Can't have the Jewish guy. We got a Michigan problem. Can't have the gay while we have a black woman. Because they don't like all three, which is a hilarious. Like, how do you. That's like. Well, that's going to be the tipper's edge right there. We can't have that.

[Michael Duncan]

To your point, Trump has gays and Jews in leadership positions in his administration. The opposite of Kamala.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. So it's like if you just open your fucking eyes to anybody who's rational, of course the media won't do this. This the contrast to where she is, what she is and what she's talking about, it hasn't stopped. Like, they still think that. They still live in that. Her whole explanation was that it's unbelievable. They've never learned anything.

[Michael Duncan]

Never.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, one last thing on this before we get to King of the Hill. It's a rundown from Harry Antman at CNN about where she stands with the electorate. And clip 9B.

[Michael Duncan]

I would just say that if you want a messenger to go against Donald Trump, you can do far better as Democrats than Kamala Harris.

[Josh Holmes]

What are we talking about here?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, let's take a look at her net favorable ratings nationwide. You know, back In October of 2024.

[Josh Holmes]

She was at minus five points. Not exactly great, but pretty close to.

[Michael Duncan]

The zero mark, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Pretty close to even. But now down under she goes, she's at minus 13 points. That's an 8 point drop since the general election among the overall electorate. She is not well liked at this particular point. The American people, they don't want this. They don't want her. And get this, she's 37 points underwater with independence. If you can't win independence, you can't win the election.

[Rick Wilson]

Do you know how hard that, like, just level set for our audience? You know how hard that is to do, to be the candidate who loses in the presidential election and then is out of power, out of the limelight and make it demonstrably worse. That's a very hard thing to do. Typically you have a little bit of a rebound. People feel sorry for you. You have this magnanimous, you know, concession speech, and they're like, you know what? He or she, they were a good guy. Maybe in their heart. Maybe all those ads were wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

Even like, you know, Mitt Romney was a perfect example. People were like taking a second look at him being like, well, God, you know, he did kind of get my.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, it might have been a nice guy after all, you know, and like, you would expect that with, with Kamala, but you're seeing the opposite.

[Ashbrook]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so true. Anyway, so that's our Kamala thing. It was a long time coming. We've been waiting, gearing up for a while. Glad we could do it for you. Now we got to get to our signature game. It's King of the Hill. Believe I'm a judge this week.

[Ashbrook]

That's right. I'm the bailiff.

[Josh Holmes]

You're the bailiff. And so we have two competitors.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah. And I'm the defending champion with Rick Wilson. Had a long run on a tear. Yeah. And Ashbrook, you are bringing the challenger.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm bringing the challenger today. And this is a guy that we talked about retiring his jersey, but he wears a jersey that I don't think belongs anywhere near the rafters. It's Matt Dow.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God.

[Rick Wilson]

Bring him back.

[Josh Holmes]

Matt Dow. Unbelievable. Okay. Okay.

[Rick Wilson]

Let's go ringside.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting from his own Blue sky account, Matthew mail pattern Dowd. And now, in the blue corner, fighting formally from the Daily Beast and the Lincoln Project, Rick Wilson.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, okay. I'll instruct the participants that we go in alternating order. We always start with the champion. So, Rick Wilson, you're up.

[Rick Wilson]

Okay, what to play first? I have so many interesting exhibits here. Okay, can I get a lot of quote tweets? That's what makes this sort of tough is because you have to reread the quote tweets to figure out what you.

[Josh Holmes]

Can appeal to the bailiff.

[Ashbrook]

I mean, this tick tock.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he know. He's already. You've angered the bailiff.

[Rick Wilson]

Well, I'm sorry, bailiff. I'm just. I'm trying to be.

[Michael Duncan]

Would you like the challenger to go first?

[Rick Wilson]

Oh, my God, no. I want exhibit number seven, please.

[Josh Holmes]

Nearly number unprecedented.

[Rick Wilson]

So this is a quote tweet of Aaron Rupar. I'll just summarize it to say it's. It's a video of. Of Trump with Zelensky talking about the war and Putin got it. And you know, Putin's a real keyword for these never Trump people. They're on it.

[Josh Holmes]

They love it.

[Rick Wilson]

You know, like moths to flame. He quote tweets it and he says, whatever Trump has on those tapes must be amazing. This is, of course, a reference to the debunked pee tapes from the Dawson.

[Josh Holmes]

Whatever Putin.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, whatever Putin has on those tapes must be amazing.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, Whatever Putin has on those tapes. So it's a throwback to the P tapes.

[Rick Wilson]

To the P tapes, which has been debunked. And the Steele dossier was debunked. And we had the three year investigation about that thing. And Mueller, you know, went to Congress and said none of that was real. And he's still talking about it.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure. Okay. All right.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Challenger.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, sir. Okay. Exhibit number 17, please. And there is no quote tweet here. It's Matthew Dowd posting to Blue Sky. I was sitting at the truth bar last week, sipping a drink by myself. And now so many more have joined the gathering. Welcome Jimmy Kimmel and Karen Atia. Now it's a party.

[Rick Wilson]

Oh, is this like the.

[Ashbrook]

The unemployed bar?

[Josh Holmes]

Is that amazing to insinuate that he led the way of truth tellers being canceled.

[Rick Wilson]

Oh.

[Ashbrook]

Holy shit, that's something.

[Rick Wilson]

It's interesting.

[Ashbrook]

What a piece of garbage.

[Josh Holmes]

The amount of arrogance.

[Ashbrook]

There's so much. And also he's like, super proud of being an absolute piece of garbage.

[Josh Holmes]

I also think that it's so funny that this guy puts himself consistently like he's washed up. Right? He's a political consultant who lost every job he could ever hold in the mid-2000s. So he became a Democrat, tried to make his way in the news media and got fired from ABC because he was no good at that. Like, tinkered around with politics, although he had to pull his run off because nobody would support him, and then worked his way back on MSNBC because it's a nice gathering ground for crazy people. He got fired from that too. And so now Jimmy Kimmel has followed his lead for that reason. He wins.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible.

[Rick Wilson]

You know, I hate to lose the round, but I must say that was. That was wise to call it a.

[Ashbrook]

Truth bar instead of just like the unemployed office is a whole lot.

[Rick Wilson]

You should have started the tweet being like, I'm going to do stolen valor right now. All this Jimmy Kimmel business really reminds me of how unfair my life is.

[Josh Holmes]

That's so funny. Look what you've done to me. Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

Okay, Challenger, you got to go first.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. Exhibit number 18, please. And we'll point out for the judge here that he appears to be trying to post an image of a picture of a shirt he's selling that includes a quote on it. But in an Internet foul, the picture does not show up on the tweet. However, you will notice in his caption he writes, shirts available in both pink and black, quote, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words lead to hateful actions.

[Josh Holmes]

That is the line for those of you who are unfamiliar, that he said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Charlie Kirk that got him fired.

[Michael Duncan]

And those are the shirts he's selling he's selling shirts in pink and black.

[Josh Holmes]

He's selling shirts off of it.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what it looks like.

[Josh Holmes]

Holy shit.

[Ashbrook]

This guy is a fan of.

[Josh Holmes]

No, no, no, that menace that, that. We're talking about the depths of depravity. You better have a fucking rocket ship lined up, Duncan, because I, I, it's been a long time since I've been this affected.

[Ashbrook]

Disgusting.

[Rick Wilson]

Can I get exhibit? Exhibit.

[Ashbrook]

Look at Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

Smile, bro.

[Rick Wilson]

Can I get exhibit number five, please? So this is an interview from the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Rick Wilson]

And, and, and just to summarize, you know, this, this young man is talking to a reporter, talking about, you know, Trump and God, and, you know, Trump is working for God.

[Josh Holmes]

Can I ask, because of the short.

[Rick Wilson]

Term, he wants to help us.

[Josh Holmes]

Because of the short nature of this tweet, I think it is important that the court know what the retweet is. We don't do this all the time, but in this one there is a depiction of an image.

[Ashbrook]

I think it's fair, especially given our audio listeners.

[Josh Holmes]

I need to know what that quote, tweet says.

[Rick Wilson]

And this is just a Trump supporter at a, again, a funeral service.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Rick Wilson]

Saying that Trump is a godly man. He's working for God. He really cares about us. He cares about what happens to us. And not for nothing, but if you follow politics for the last 10 years, you know that all of Trump's voters feel this way, that he sees them like no other politician has, and that's why they've been so loyal to him. These are obvious things. He didn't come in there because he wanted money. He's actually working for God and wants to help us, and God is on his side. It's a nice sentiment.

[Josh Holmes]

A nice sentiment.

[Rick Wilson]

Also, this guy's been targeted for assassination twice. You have to think that maybe the Heavenly Father had a plan for Donald Trump. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So Rick Wilson responds to this wrong.

[Rick Wilson]

Guy and puts up a photo of Satan.

[Ashbrook]

My God. I mean, these people.

[Rick Wilson]

Yeah, these people.

[Michael Duncan]

Former Republican consultant.

[Rick Wilson]

Former Republican consultant.

[Josh Holmes]

Ordinarily, this is a blowout victory for that.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Because I also ask, I have a question, like, I assume he's talking about wrong guy. Like, Trump is the devil.

[Rick Wilson]

Trump's working for the devil. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Trump's working for the devil, which is horribly, horribly offensive. But the idea that Matt Dowd was fired, rightly, for trying to suggest that Charlie Kirk had it coming, that's what he's, that's basically what it was. I mean, that's, that's I don't think I'm, I'm like mischaracterizing it. He was like ugly. I forget the exact quote, but that's what he said and that's what MSNBC objected to. Do you have any idea what the bar, the level is to get fired from msnbc? Like, do you have like Joy Reid had the, had the fake aliens abductor account?

[Rick Wilson]

The time traveling hackers who changed her.

[Josh Holmes]

Blogs with the antisemitism and all that stuff in there? And like that, that one, she had a show on PrimeTime for like 10 years after that. Yeah, the Time traveling Hackers.

[Rick Wilson]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

She didn't get fired to cross that lexicon and to take what it is that you do did to try to monetize T shirt sales in pink and black. Holy shit. There is been a, it's been a long time since I've seen that level of depravity.

[Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

In this, in this. I mean, we get crazy shit. We like Sherry.

[Ashbrook]

We get crazy shit. Dude. But that is like, I, I'm like.

[Josh Holmes]

Almost out of, out of breath. It's that bad. It's a two round knockout.

[Rick Wilson]

It's unbelievable. You know Rick Wilson. Rick had a good run. He had a nice run, like mid mid 90s cowboys.

[Ashbrook]

I mean, it took a, an absolute monster.

[Josh Holmes]

It took a monster. It took in. Those takes are just hotter than blazing fire. Okay, well, I'm sorry we played that wrong. I just feel like I'm 30% less as a result of it. But it is what it is and we have a new champion. Anyway, we got to get to. There's a big thing that's happening this week with a government shutdown. It's all getting kind of organized. Rather than put you through a full segment, brought in an expert, AFP's Brent Gardner, who spends all his time on Capitol Hill. It's going to tell you exactly what's going to happen. Well, when there are notable events under the dome in Congress, we always like to turn to our friend Brent Gardner of afp. He keeps a monitor on these sorts of things. And it turns out there's some developments. People may want to shut down our government.

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's a development or a lack of development, but the American people are thinking that government's going to be remaining open, but not a lot of proof of that these days.

[Josh Holmes]

It's wild. I mean, we went back in June and we talked to Thune about this and he predicted almost down to the minute what was going to happen. Based upon Chuck Schumer's reaction to the March CR and his base and almost getting thrown out of the job. And he kind of predicted that he would come with an unreasonable grouping of things that he required in order to keep the government open. Of course, Republicans and the President of the United States have laughed that out the door. But where it leaves us here at the end of September with the September 30 deadline is not a lot of answers for keeping the lights on in the Capitol.

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, no, look, I think the American people expect them to get this done, but we're not seeing it. And look, I think the one thing that is also predictable was that exactly as Thune said, Democrats were going to come with something unreasonable and unworkable, which I think is what? A $400 billion permanent extension of ACA credits that, by the way, they established, extended and chose the end date to. Democrats own all of this. And that's why the American people are going to look at this and say these guys own the whole thing.

[Josh Holmes]

So hold on, Brent. I just want to make sure that I get this sequence of events correct. What they did is created Obamacare. Right. Democrats did that.

[Brent Gardner]

Number one, step one, okay.

[Josh Holmes]

And they told us that that was going to make affordable health care. Right. That was the more people could afford health care. And then looking at that, they decided that the taxpayer actually just needed to subsidize that so it could be affordable because the construct that came up for affordability didn't actually work. Work that we needed to give money to it to bring down the prices.

[Rick Wilson]

Nothing makes stuff more affordable when the government has a blank check. Yeah, that's how it works.

[Josh Holmes]

It's amazing how that works. And so, okay, so they did that and then they extended the tax credits. Extended it again. Until now, lo and behold, the market portion of Obamacare, it didn't really do what it was designed to do.

[Rick Wilson]

Crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Now just the taxpayer is there to.

[Rick Wilson]

Try to backstop the whole thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Backstop their whole thing, which is now the crux the of of their policy. But now Republicans are doing something like they're responsible for this.

[Brent Gardner]

I wish someone would have warned about this.

[Josh Holmes]

It's almost like somebody should have imposed that from the very beginning.

[Brent Gardner]

You know, it's crazy. So, you know, they start off with the American rescue plan, they create these subsidies, they extend them in the inflation Reduction act, and now here we sit today and Democrats are actually advocating on the side of insuring insurers profit margins.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Brent Gardner]

And Republicans are out there fighting for the working people of America. And that story's just not getting told enough. But look, at the end of the day, this is still a secondary thing. These things don't end until the end of the year. But ultimately these are the kinds of demands that Democrats are bringing because they're not serious about ensuring that the government remains open.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, insurance, profit margins aren't the only thing on the Democrats list of demands. I also notice that they want money from taxpayers, for NPR and for PBS so that they can keep their media cheerleading outfit alive.

[Josh Holmes]

A taxpayer funded propaganda outlet, if you will.

[Brent Gardner]

Open the coffers, guys. Everyone's here, you know, order off the menu. But like, I think Republicans have done a good job, certainly the House did, in saying we're not ready to do these crazy ideas. They sent it over there and hopefully the Senate, we know they'll have an opportunity to take a vote on it. But the American people are not on the side of this stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Rick Wilson]

So could you explain sort of the politics of that before we get into the polling, which I think is pretty dire for Democrats, but like, what is the end game here for Chuck Schumer and these Democrats? Because they're coming with a laundry list of things that they want to have happen. They control nothing. And Republicans demand is let's just fund the government. And so like, how does the politics of that work out? How long can they actually hold out if this government shuts down?

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, I think it's been fun to watch that question get asked in places that aren't ruthless. I think it's been fun to watch people try and figure out what is Chuck Schumer's endgame here. He's in a really tough spot. I wouldn't want to be in that spot because I know he's claimed that it's important that you keep the government open just a few times.

[Josh Holmes]

Great, great.

[Brent Gardner]

Super cuts on YouTube, you got to look 30 years.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Brent Gardner]

And look, Democrats, Democrats don't want to see the government shut down. So what's the end game? I think it's trying to find a walk down. I think it's trying to find a way to do this. And you know, frankly, I think Republicans have given a very reasonable expectation that, hey, we should keep the government open, but we don't need to take on these additional liabilities as we continue to drive our economy into the ground a la what Joe Biden did.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Brent Gardner]

For four years.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, exactly right. So look, you're up there, you're talking to folks. I mean, is it your expectation that the government shuts down?

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, I Hate to be the guy to say this, but I do think we're going to shut down. Hopefully it's a short one and that we can get, you know, America back to work on this. But the prognosis isn't long term. I mean, ultimately, it's very clear the Democrats are dedicated to finding a way to shut it down to try and accomplish some of these policy goals. And I think the American people are going to hold them accountable for it.

[Josh Holmes]

Talk me off the ledge of why I'd care. Like, because I look at this now and I mean, this was sort of my job for a lot of years, is like, we can't have a government shutdown. And there was this big, like, post Newt Gingrich era of politics where Republicans are just blamed for government shutdowns over and over again. But now we went through this era where you get Democrats making demands in a triple minority position, which is unusual, honestly. It's that that is when you're just, when you don't have the White House, you don't have the House and you don't have the Senate. It's an unusual position to be in to try to force a shutdown. So there's no, like, I think, confusion about who's doing this. And I just, I've kind of gotten to the point where I'm like, okay, like, do it. So you can't go to the national parks and you can call Chuck Schumer for a while. I know there's a lot of ancillary things about that, but, I mean, you have a better view on this than I do.

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, it's really bad for America. It's really bad for us on the world stage. It's bad for us domestically because when we see the government shut down, there is a large portion of our economy that closes now. Are there a lot of reforms that we'd love to see to some of the places that receive that funding? You betcha. But the challenge is the American people have faith in their government to exist, to provide services. And I think it's a bad look. It's a bad look for everybody. And even though we talk about who's to blame and there's a winner and a loser declared every time of who ultimately is going to take it, the American people want to hold everyone accountable. They look at this across the board and think that government shutdowns are a bad thing. And so there's political accountability that comes with it. And the question of who takes it is kind of an open question. And it's going to be whoever wins the media war, not the policy one. And so I think from our perspective, it's important for Republicans to remain consistent. I think they've done a great job messaging so far and saying, look, we can't take these things that you guys want to do to do this and move it forward because it's bad for America. But we should keep the government open, and we should have an opportunity to do that. And I think that's. I think that's why we should care about it. We should care about it because we've lowered our expectations so far.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Brent Gardner]

That we look at failure and say, is this the kind of failure that's okay to make it better? Yeah, you're right. And it's not. And we should hold people to higher expectations in both parties.

[Rick Wilson]

So. So to your point on accountability, here, this from the AFP poll y' all did with, with YouGov on, on a potential shutdown. 61% of Americans say shutdowns are bad. Only 16% view them as positive. 45% oppose a wholesale government shutdown. Just 26 support overwhelmingly their support for accountability reform. 76% support legislation requiring Congress to remain in session until a budget is finished.

[Brent Gardner]

76%. What is 76%? You know, that's a lot.

[Rick Wilson]

And in particular, there's a vulnerability among seniors in this country for whoever is to blame for that shutdown. Because, you know, of course, seniors typically get more services from the government and reliably vote. Right, Reliably vote, especially in a midterm.

[Brent Gardner]

In a midterm, in primaries, they are your voters. And, you know, they're also the ones that are, you know, oftentimes they're the recipients of a lot of the benefits of government services. They're going to be disproportionately impacted. The other thing is, Democrats, by and large, oppose government shutdowns and always have at a higher rate than Republicans. And so at the end of the day, this is bad politics for Chuck Schumer, but it's bad for the country. I mean, we should get this right and go back to the type of policy discussions where I think Republicans have got winning issues that they care about on this. Unfortunately, this stands in the way of everything.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What's up? Oh, go ahead.

[Michael Duncan]

I want to ask you. You know, we go through polling a lot on this show, but we go through our comments individually because what our audience says drives what we talk about on this show. And I know you guys at AFP take a similar approach, hitting the doors. You got thousands of people fanning out across the country. So I wonder what they're hearing that sort of supports what these polls are saying.

[Brent Gardner]

Yeah, I mean, look, these polls were confirmation for us. You're right. We have conversations in driveways and on doorsteps across this country all the time. Our grassroots are up in arms over this, like you. We don't have to go to the comments. The comments come to us in a lot of these ways and they're very consistent with what the polling has shown us. The American people are demanding that their government actually function, that it do the right thing. They've been excited. They love one big beautiful bill. They think it gave us a great opportunity to be able to have the kind of tax relief and the type of tax care that they believe the American people need to continue based on the first Trump tax cuts. I think ultimately they look at this and say, we're not going back to the, to the type of government failure that we saw for four years. We need to press forward. And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you have an expectation of a member of Congress and the President of the United States that you deliver a functioning government. That's what we're hearing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a fair point. I do just generally agree people don't like abject dysfunction in government. They see enough of that on a day to day basis on cable news and everything else. But I wonder, in a perfect world, I guess in a perfect world, what you'd like to have happen is Chuck Schumer to say, you're right, I'm wrong, we're gonna throw the CR through and keep working on this other stuff.

[Brent Gardner]

Announces retirement and move on.

[Rick Wilson]

Be careful what you wish for.

[Josh Holmes]

I know. I feel like if he did that, that would be the next step. I think that's why we're here in the first place.

[Rick Wilson]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

So like, realistically, how does this thing get worked out, you think?

[Brent Gardner]

I think that's a great question. I think hopefully Democrats will have to realize that there's a political consequence that comes with shutting the government down. And the issues that they're going to have to defend on this are going to be substantial and there'll be political consequences for it. And so I'm hopeful that on this first one, which is a relatively short extension, the way it's talked about right now, getting us closer to Thanksgiving, you know, we can get the government reopened quickly and start getting to the real discussions of what we need to be able to have. And they're going to have to come with more reasonable proposals. I Mean, you guys saw the president had invited Democrats to come and talk, but the proposals were so unreasonable that there was no room to be able to have a discussion. They need to come with something real. They need to be able to represent the district that they're from, whether that's Republicans that live in that district, Democrats that live in that district. They need to come with solutions.

[Josh Holmes]

And if you doubt how unreasonable they are for a minute, think about the level of unreasonability that you would take for Donald Trump not to invite cameras in to have a discussion with those two. Yeah, right. I mean, this is like, he lives for this stuff. And even he was like, this is. This is not going to be productive.

[Michael Duncan]

The things they're throwing out on their face, like, hey, Republicans, we want hundreds of millions of dollars for NPR and pbs.

[Josh Holmes]

Come on. Yeah, you just eliminated waste, fraud and abuse in illegal immigrants from taking advantage of, of the Medicaid deal, something that people have been working on for 15 years. We'd like you to reverse all of that as a triple minority situation. Like, just take our word for it. That's good for the country. It's ridiculous.

[Brent Gardner]

I mean, no more tantrum proposals. We need to have stuff that gives us an opportunity to discuss real issues that people want to see included in legislation. But it can't be the kind of thing where you come into it knowing this is never going to happen.

[Rick Wilson]

Do you think we get out of this without a Cory Booker fake filibuster?

[Josh Holmes]

No. No.

[Rick Wilson]

Maybe some sort of marathon speech on the floor. That's not sex. They love it.

[Josh Holmes]

They can't resist.

[Brent Gardner]

Theater's open, guys.

[Josh Holmes]

The theater's open. Chris Murphy's already putting a costume together.

[Brent Gardner]

I'm looking forward to the prop office really getting involved. That's where things get fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, man. Well, it's great. I love that you can give us these upshots because you spent an awful lot of time up there and all your people spend an awful lot of time fanned out through the country. So we get an inside, outside perspective from afb. Brent Gardner, thank you so much for joining us.

[Brent Gardner]

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

[Michael Duncan]

Guy's so smart. I love every time he comes on our show. I really, I. I mean, he is out there talking to regular people all the time, and he's bringing that straight into Washington. Huge, huge get for the show.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, he always provides this, like, critical insight into what is happening under the dome, too. So thanks for Brent for that. Remember, we got a question of the day for you, and our question is, should Trump deport the un. You've heard our take on it. We're interested in yours when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program. We read all of them and we get back to you in the very next show. In this case, Friday. And it's gonna be a fun time Friday. We're ready for it with that, fellas. I think we did it.

[Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thanks so much, Brent Gardiner, and thank you to the Minions. Remember, just like Home said, 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 Friday. Stay Ruthless.