UFO Secrets Revealed w/ Rep. Tim Burchett

Summary

RUTHLESS PODCAST EPISODE SUMMARY

Episode Title: UFO Secrets Revealed w/ Rep. Tim Burchett
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Guest: Rep. Tim Burchett
Release Date: May 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this lively and humorous episode of the Ruthless Podcast, the cast invites Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN)—now a leading voice on UFO transparency in Congress—to discuss last week’s government UAP/UFO file releases, accounts of unexplained phenomena, and efforts at disclosure in the US and abroad. The conversation darts between UFO talk (from skepticism to wild intrigue), Congressional bureaucracy, the psychology of secrecy, and Burchett’s insider anecdotes about America's UFO investigations. The back half of the episode pivots back to U.S. politics, media, and classic Ruthless banter, with their signature irreverence and pop culture humor woven throughout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. How Tim Burchett Became "UFO Guy" in Congress

• Burchett never intended to be the UFO Congressman: Growing up with science-minded parents and an early fascination with UFOs, Burchett fell into this role after a casual (and honest) answer to TMZ years ago. Since then he’s been fielding calls, appearing on documentaries, and getting briefed in classified "skiffs" about anomalous phenomena.
  • Notable: Briefed on UFOs alongside Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna but was told, “You don’t have the clearance” ([11:33]).
• On government transparency: Burchett is vocal about the irony of millions spent on subjects the government claims don’t exist. He is openly critical of renaming UFOs as UAPs: “I don’t like the term UAP. I think that’s just… a term to mix you up. UFO—what’s wrong with UFO?” ([08:10]).

II. The Recent UFO File Releases: What's Actually New?

• Disappointed, but some interesting content: The recent releases included compelling Apollo mission photos and info about Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Still, Burchett highlights that many “much clearer” videos (30-40) remain withheld by agencies ([15:11]).
• Military and pilot testimonies: Burchett recounts reports of craft making impossible maneuvers, such as moving seamlessly from air to water and shutting down nuclear facilities.
  • “We would not risk our people’s lives… So it can’t be ours” ([12:13]).

III. The Government—and Deep State—Obsession with Secrecy

• Why so secretive? Burchett blames arrogance and bureaucratic self-preservation, connecting it to the way classified info is handled with contractors to dodge FOIA requests ([21:36]).
  • “If anything is out there… they’ve handed them off to some scientific group and I think that they don’t… know what they’re looking at. The science is so advanced…” ([21:38]).
• The Deep State dynamic:
  • Refers to entrenched intelligence agencies stymieing release from even the White House:
    “It is the deep state. It’s a sewer up here.” ([26:30]).
  • “Both parties… it’s a crooked deal, man.” ([26:52]).

IV. The International Angle: America Isn’t Alone

• Burchett reveals that Japan is now releasing files—and Russia may soon follow.
  • “They’ve said now they’re going to start releasing their files.” ([28:30])
  • “Turns out we might all be on the same side of one thing. … We don’t want the aliens to win.” ([29:11])

V. Why Would Aliens Be Here? Are They Studying Us?

• Burchett responds to speculation:
  • “Are they walking by an anthill and saying, ‘Look at all that going on there and let’s check it out?’” ([24:58])
  • Quotes from military sources: “This is not ours. This is not of human origin. We do not have the capability. The human body would not be able to exist [in those craft].” ([15:16])

VI. Congressional Culture, Cover-ups, and Calls for Real Oversight

• Skepticism about future disclosures:
  • “What I really would hope is… they pulled something out—‘Hey, this is a flying saucer.’ …But I just don't have a lot of faith in all that.” ([25:42])
• Critique of Congressional attitude:
  • “They just want to get the call when they're at the golf course… come vote… be at this fundraiser and get your check. And then that's what they do.” ([26:18])
• On being “the guy”:
  • “I didn’t choose this issue. It chose me.” ([27:15])
  • “Even if you’re just a complete skeptic, what are we spending the dadgum money on? And why do they have files of something they say doesn’t exist?” ([19:19] and [27:51])

VII. Notable UFO Sightings and International Evidence

• Apollo mission oddities:
  • “Several of those Apollo astronauts have spotted things that were unusual and were never discussed.” ([29:39])
• Tic Tac video and pilot repercussions:
  • “When they see it, they get pulled in… a psych eval, …eight hours of interrogation.” ([31:12])
  • “One guy… busted the [cockpit recorder] so he wouldn't have a recording of it… when he got back, he would be pulled in…” ([31:48])
• Deep-sea bases and mystery craft:
  • “An admiral… talked about these deep-sea bases… clocked stuff on sonar doing close to 200 mph, big as a football field.”
    “No fish, mammal, whatever, that can—that’s that big or goes that fast… And as he’s leaving: ‘Tim, the real…’ and that’s the last thing he said.” ([23:18])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (w/ Timestamps)

• Burchett on Congressional UFO Briefings:
  “You go in there, and then these cats come in and start telling you stuff… And then occasionally you'll have somebody…and then they’ll show you photos.” ([10:07])
• Burchett on skepticism:
  “Even if you hate, if you’re just a complete skeptic—what are we spending the dadgum money on? And why do they have files of something they say doesn’t exist?” ([00:19]/[27:51])
• Holmes quips on politics:
  “I’m skeptical that aliens are here because the Democrats haven’t given them amnesty yet.” ([00:10])
• Burchett on the “deep state”:
  “It is the deep state. It’s a sewer up here.” ([26:30])
• Burchett on UFO stigma for pilots:
  “They’re not a bunch of bonehead cowboys… and they get a psych eval, they get eight hours of interrogation.” ([31:12])
• On the Apollo photos:
  “The lights always take the edge. I can’t imagine something flying a thousand light years that has our light sequence. …I think it shows a reflection… picks up the outline…” ([29:39])
• On international efforts:
  “They’ve said now they’re going to start releasing their [UFO] files. …I spoke to a Soviet Union leader over there… urging their folks to start releasing their stuff too.” ([28:30])
• Burchett, on whether aliens are a threat:
  “If they had this much technology around us, they would have toasted us a long time ago… I’m not worried about it. I’m more worried about the world we’re bringing [my daughter] up in.” ([35:01])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:05] – Burchett joins; hosts lay out their UFO beliefs, from skepticism to open-minded
• [05:32] – Burchett’s thoughts on the UFO files just released
• [06:16] – Burchett’s background: family, science, and early UFO interest
• [07:30] – How he became a go-to guy on UFOs in Congress
• [09:27] – Briefings in the skiff, efforts to get access to files
• [11:35] – Stories from pilot and military briefings on unexplained craft
• [15:11] – What’s still being withheld: “30 or 40 videos that we need to see…”
• [19:11] – Holmes challenges the rationale for continued government secrecy
• [21:36] – How the government avoids FOIA on UFOs: privatization & secrecy tricks
• [23:18] – The “big as a football field” deep-sea sonar objects
• [28:30] – International UFO file releases: Japan, Russia
• [29:39] – Apollo mission “lights” and astronaut sightings discussion
• [31:12] – The pilot stigma & “don’t report it” culture in the armed forces
• [37:27] – Burchett on bipartisan relations, humor, and candor in Congress

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Other Episode Highlights

• Classic Ruthless banter & games:
  The UFO portion gives way around [40:00] to the show’s comedic political games (“King of the Hill”: Sherry Jacobus vs Bill Kristol), topical media discussion (Javier/Xavier Becerra vs. a tough reporter), and ridicule of Beltway faux-scandals (texts sent to a spouse on police chief’s government phone).
• Media & Political Culture:
  The hosts lampoon the media’s double standard toward Democrats, the insular clubbiness of D.C., and champion outsider, grassroots, “knock-on-doors” politics (a Burchett specialty).
• Memorable humor:
  Jokes about “no intelligent life in D.C.,” “the children yearn for the mines,” and the infamous “drunk deer” of rural France.

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Tone & Style

Maintaining their signature irreverent, “variety show for conservatives” vibe, the episode is candid, skeptical, and often self-deprecating. Burchett fits right in with a blend of dad-jokes, aw-shucks Tennessean wisdom, and iconoclastic pokes at both parties and the D.C. “deep state.” The hosts seamlessly pivot from serious (calls for transparency, questioning bureaucratic power) to parody and friendly roasting—retaining their audience’s engagement throughout.

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Quick Reference Guide

• Skeptics’ Arguments: Why hide “nonexistent” phenomena? It’s money, bureaucracy, secrecy.
• Insiders’ Accounts: Numerous credible pilots have seen crafts defying explanation, including experienced astronauts.
• International Movement: Japan and Russia now looking at disclosure—global transparency may be coming.
• Burchett’s Stance: Not focused on “little green men,” but on what taxpayers are funding and what’s being hidden—from all sides.

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Summary Takeaway:
Rep. Tim Burchett and the Ruthless crew highlight a cultural and bureaucratic clash over U.S. UFO disclosure—combining serious demands for government transparency with the podcast’s famously sharp wit. Even for the skeptical, the episode raises real, bipartisan questions: If UFOs don’t exist, why all the secrecy… and spending? And what happens when even the most reluctant members of Congress start seeing compelling, official evidence?

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For more, check out the episode for Burchett’s stories, Congressional UFO intrigue, and the Ruthless team’s unmatched humor.

Transcript

[Tim Burchett]

And so all of a sudden people started calling me, asking me about UFO stuff. There's 30 or 40 videos that we need to see, that we know, that

[Michael Duncan]

they have, that we have not seen,

[Tim Burchett]

that we have not seen.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm skeptical that aliens are here because. Because the Democrats haven't given them amnesty yet.

[Tim Burchett]

Even if you hate, if you're just a complete skeptic, what are we spending the dadgum money on? And why do they have files of something they say doesn't exist?

[John Ashbrook]

If we can all agree on something, it's that, you know, we don't want the aliens to win.

[Michael Duncan]

Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet. Now they're messing with your credit card. Your credit card and the security it offers are under attack. The Durbin Marshall credit card bill would change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. That means higher risk of fraud, greater chance of stolen personal data, and the loss of rewards programs just so corporate megastores can pocket billions of dollars in higher profits. To tell Congress to guard your card, visit guardyourcard.com to take action and learn more.

[NetChoice Representative]

In America, parents call the shots for their families, not bureaucrats. But the so called App Store Accountability act puts your child at risk. This bill requires app stores to collect children's sensitive personal data while taking away power from parents over how their child's data is handled by tech companies. Parents should get to decide if their child's age is shared with apps, not politicians. Parents should attest to their kids ages, not turn over birth certificates to tech companies. Congress don't put kids at greater risk online and box parents out of making decisions for their families. Tell your lawmaker to put parents first. There are better ways to keep kids safe. NetChoice is dedicated to making the Internet safe for free expression and free enterprise. Learn [e-mail] keepappstores safe.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

[John Ashbrook]

I love the personality. You guys are killing it. I just saw your number one. So congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

[Tim Burchett]

Guys, I love you. Congratulations on all your success.

[Josh Holmes]

This is why you listen to the

[John Ashbrook]

Ruthless podcast, because nobody else would Ask that question.

[Tim Burchett]

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event, the Ruthless Podcast. Good Thursday to you.

[Josh Holmes]

Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along along with Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left her right across the radio dial. We're joined by a fourth here because you know, when you get into matters of the unknown, you need to find an expert in such matters, so to speak. Noted UFO and extraterrestrial expert Tim Burchett has joined us here on the program. How are you, sir?

[Tim Burchett]

I'm doing a lot better since you got my name right. That's really good. First shot out of the. First shot over the bow man. Boom. Tim Burchett. You got it right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean we're not new. We know we've been following you for quite some time. And a fan of an awful lot of what you've been up to. I'm glad you could finally join us on the program. And we hit the barrel of the bat in terms of stuff that you're following now. I have to warn you, there are various degrees of acceptability that we have about the whole UFO situation. I think Duncan is probably our most noteworthy subscriber to where you sort of land.

[John Ashbrook]

I want to believe.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

To quote X Files.

[Tim Burchett]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

He wants to Ashbrook someone. I'm a skeptic. I am a skeptic. And so when this stuff comes up, I kind of think it's like nerd stuff.

[Tim Burchett]

You have glue as a youth.

[John Ashbrook]

See, that's what I always tell them.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, you just. You're not cerebral enough to understand this sort of stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Very smooth brained about ufos. No question about it. So I find myself sitting at some level and I listened to your. Your interview with Rogan and like great job on all that stuff.

[Tim Burchett]

Sex sales. You know, Joe told me before went on you're an incredibly attractive man. I said, I know that, but thank you. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, at least he didn't make you take his shirt off as he does with some. But listen, our. I find myself like you remember that meme of the dude who's just sat out some of the college campus which like I don't believe changed my mind type thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Then the Crowder thing. Crowder meme. I love that meme.

[Josh Holmes]

I kind of feel like that. So for. And I think we probably have a mixture in our audience. They're probably like us. So give us. Give us the case. This is all newsworthy obviously because the administration released a whole bunch of files Last week, of which I think you were skeptical about whether we would get any real new information. Am I accurately describing that?

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah, it's accurate, some of it. But it was mostly new stuff. It was some good stuff. The Apollo photos and things like that were pretty cool. And there's some information about Oak Ridge, which is in my backyard. Yeah, I don't represent oak Ridge. About 6,000 people that work there live in the district I represent and it's home to Big Ed's Pizza. Had a lot of first dates there. Never second dates, just first dates. But I would encourage you to go to Big Ed sometime. It's a cool place. It's a great place.

[Josh Holmes]

So look, did you always. Were you always sort of into the.

[Tim Burchett]

No, man. Pretty cool parents, you know, you've heard me talk about them before, but my parents, they were just cool people. Depression era. Daddy fought in the Pacific, Second World War. My mama flew an airplane. Dad was a dean at ut and mama taught school. And you know, it was the classic look it up, you know. And daddy was a combat engineer and he brought home a microscope from a cave. They blew. It was actually a German microscope. I've still got it. But in a Japanese cave. They blew. And he. You know where I was looking at paramecium and stuff. And he was a science. He had a science background anyway. And you know, you ride your bike over to the library or the library, whichever part of the country you're from.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[Tim Burchett]

And they have those books set up for kids, you know, what is. I guess maybe young adults, whatever. And there was this book on UFOs. And I picked it up and read it and it just fascinated me. And I looked up at those stars in the sky and I still do. The light that left those stars, some of them left there before the time of Christ. And some of those stars don't even exist anymore. The light we're seeing, I can't really comprehend that in my brain.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Because they're so far away.

[Tim Burchett]

Exactly. That's where the term light years means how the amount of time it'd take light to travel from there to us. And so I started seeing things and then I'm. I'm out on the street corner. I think it was Trump's first term, end of his first term. And the center of all media, tmz, comes up and interviews me with that, a black fellow named Colin. Turned out we became really good friends. And he was from tmz and you know, nobody's would talked to him. And I was like. And he said, hey, Congressman, you anything about this UFO thing? And I said, I said, ah, that stupid report. He said, oh man, it's supposed to be a good one. I said, no, man, I've been following this thing my whole life. I said, dude, it's. They're going to put that report out and then they'll pull it back and then you'll get it and it'll be all redacted. Looked like somebody shot it with 12 gauge. And sure enough, that's what it was. It's just big whited out deal, you know. And, and so all of a sudden people started calling me, asking me about UFO stuff. I don't like the term uap. I think that's just. Yeah, just a term to mix you up. Ufo. What's wrong with ufo? I don't give a rip. Anyway, so just started talking about it and all of a sudden I get interviewed on one of those History Channel things, you know, uf, whatever. Ancient aliens.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[Tim Burchett]

And they interviewed me like, you know, because I was like a freshman or in there second year, like he'll say anything. Yeah, there's nobody. I'm the 435th most powerful member of Congress. You nobody care what I got to say. So I just sat there and talked to the guy. For me, must have been 30, 45 minutes. I mean, it's like, I don't know, six years and they're still using clips of me. I've got a beard and I don't, haven't grown that in a while. And you know, it just, you just became the guy. I just became the guy. And then I went to Chairman Comer and people started calling me, said, hey, there's files, we need to get to them. And I started asking about the files and you can't see the files. You can't have the files. I said, the heck I can't.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Tim Burchett]

And you know, and then I started getting briefed in the skiff and a lot of the biggest critics that we had in Congress are now some of the biggest advocates.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[Tim Burchett]

Absolutely.

[Josh Holmes]

So you've seen your colleague's mind changed.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah. You get in there with leadership. It's funny, you go into these things in the skiff. It's like James Bond, you know, you walk in there with a freaking cell phone and they come in, oh, somebody's got a cell phone, somebody's got a Fitbit, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Tim Burchett]

And I can't even spell Fitbit. I don't know what to take you to have one for. But anyway, it looks trendy. And hot, I guess. And so. But you gotta stick it in one of those little Faraday boxes, cubby holes, like, you know, like they found the cocaine in the White House.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Tim Burchett]

You know the deal. Except these cubbyholes don't travel around all over the White House. They just stay right there in the basement of the Capitol. And so you go in there, and then these cats come in and start telling you stuff, and you start asking questions, and then you real. And then occasionally you'll have somebody in there that'll tell you something that'll just kind of like. Just like, whoa, say that again. And then they'll tell you. And then they'll show you photos. And myself, Matt Gaetz, when he was in Congress, and Luna, we go down to. I think it was Eglin down in Florida. And we get down there and. And Matt was told that they had some photos and some good information. So we got. I told Matt, I said, matt, we're going to go down there and they're going to pull back on us. They're not. He goes, no, man, no, this is going to happen. So I go down there and sure enough, it's in the skiff down there, and it's a long rectangular thing, and all the officers are there with all the stuff. And then you look over in the corner and there's a couple of spooks. You know, that's the CIA, nsa, something, because they're in the suits and they're just not. They're not doing anything. And they start telling us all this stuff, and it's pretty fascinating information, but it has nothing to do with UFOs. And so Matt says, hey, this isn't what we came down here for. And the guy said, well, you don't. You don't have the clearance. You don't have the clearance. And that's the wrong thing to tell.

[John Ashbrook]

So how do they. But how did they explain the stuff that has become public? You know, I watched that documentary, the Age of Disclosure, and you see these videos of crafts that we don't know what they are with propulsion.

[Tim Burchett]

We can't find scientists for the CIA. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And you have these crafts that, you know, US Air Force pilots are looking at that go from air to water, and the dynamics of it don't really change. The physics don't really change. What are those things? Right. Like, do they have an answer to that? And, like, they don't? No, if you had to ballpark it, you know, because there's only a couple explanations for this. Right. It's our military it's an adversary's military or it's aliens. All right, if you had to ballpark

[Tim Burchett]

it, let's go there. Let's say who are adversaries. It had to be either China or Russia. Russia. They wouldn't be bogged down in Ukraine. You know, Putin's such an egomaniac.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Tim Burchett]

He'd fly UFO into Pennsylvania Avenue, landed on the front yard of the White House.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's right.

[Tim Burchett]

A unicorn out bare chested and, you know, hang on to the horn and just, hey, where are the women? And then probably wrestle Trump or something on the front lawn, you know, and then get back and head back to the Kremlin, you know, or if it's China, they would own us more than they do now. I mean, they own us. You know, they got K Street lobbyists wrapped up. Just, you know, all they gotta do is run a roll of $100 bills down from the Capitol and every congressman just about to be out there pitching their garbage. But the. So then, is it ours? Is it ours? Well, if it's ours, why are we scrapping missions? Why are we putting our men in harm's, Men and women in harm's way? Why are these things flying around the cockpits of, of half, a, half a billion dollar aircraft? And we're risking their lives. You know, they're calling off missions. They're doing all this stuff because of these things. And we have testimony to, sworn testimony that says that why are they flying around nuclear facilities? And the nuclear facilities have shut down. These are documented cases. So it can't be ours. We would not risk ours. And I'll tell you in case in point, there's my legal, which I'm not a lawyer, but case in point, we wouldn't risk our people's lives because Trump just spent untold millions for this pilot that, that, that was out there in Iran. In Iran. Yeah. And he should, and he should have, because that sends a message to our enemies and also sends a message to our fighting men and women that we're not going to leave you behind. Which most presidents just look at the dollars and say it's not worth it and let them go. And, and Trump's different. And, you know, he made a commitment to me personally. He promised me, he said, we're going to, we'll put it out there. I don't know what's in it. I don't know. You know, and he said that repeatedly. He doesn't know what's in it. But what you're seeing now, though, is they've kept their word, but these Alphabet agencies were fighting them tooth and nail.

[Michael Duncan]

That's, it's very interesting to me and that's actually what I wanted to ask you about because they did have that release last Friday and it was interesting to see the pictures from Apollo 12, Apollo 17, and see some quotes from the astronauts who were there looking at it with their own eyes. And I just wonder, what do you think is the next iteration of release? Do you think that we could expect more coming out this summer? And what could that be? And what sort of timeline are you?

[Tim Burchett]

There's 30 or 40 videos that we need to see that we know that

[Michael Duncan]

they have, that we have not seen

[Tim Burchett]

yet, we have not seen that are much clearer. And there's also. And of course, we don't know what we don't know. I've been told by some pretty high ranking people that there are some. You can Google the story about. Oh, what's his name? He's a, he was an Apollo astronaut. Very Gordo Cooper. There's a case where he talks about one that landed and then they called, they sent the video of it, sent it to Wright Patterson, or they say Wright Pat, all the hipsters sent it to Wright Pat Stayton, Ohio. Yeah, exactly. And then they called down there the next day and he said, we know what the heck you're talking about. And I've had that, I've heard that more than once. And I've talked to so many dad gun pilots and they'll come up to me and they'll say, you know, and after we go to one of these, not in a skiff, but in another setting maybe. And this guy said one time, he said, I remember at the Capitol Hill Club, he was speaking on something and one of the guys, sort of smart alec, he said, oh, tell us about those little green men and flying saucers that Bert, she talks about all the time, you know, and everybody's like, they're all snickering. And then he said, okay, I will. And he started telling stories about his interactions and he said, this is not ours. This is not of human origin. We do not have the capability. The human body would not be able to exist. And he also, as I remember, he was walking out of the Capitol Hill Club and he said to me, he turned to me, he goes, tim, that thing was 14ft from my canopy. Now what did that tell you? 14ft, that's kind of, it's an even number. But why wouldn't you say 15 or 20, you know, everybody. Because these guys are not like the cowboys they show on television, these guys are super intelligent. They're flying a half a billion dollar piece of aircraft. No telling how much training they've been involved in. And we rely on them for our national security. They're not a bunch of bonehead cowboys out there. And they are the real deal. And they've, you know, they don't just put up a sign down at Toddy's Backdoor Tavern in Knoxville Roosters and say, hey, we need some people to fly a half a billion dollar aircraft through, you know, around the world. No. And 14ft. Yeah, that was, made me specific. Very specific. Or as we say in East Tennessee, very Pacific. But anyway, it's, you get a lot of that. And it all just kind of runs together for me because these stories just go on and on and on. And I talked to, talked to friends, I've talked to members of Congress, says, hey man, I don't want to come forward, talk about this, but, you know, and I was in this branch of the service or whatever, I was on night watch. And this thing he said, it was just, it was just unbelievable. And I hear that over and over and over again.

[Michael Duncan]

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[Tim Burchett]

what

[Josh Holmes]

I have a hard time with, with the entire topic is just the motive. And I understand, you know, if you're talking about, from a government standpoint, anything that you can't explain is probably not great for the psychology of the population that you're there to sort of protect. But at this point, it seems to me, in the age that we're in, if you see something and You've. You know, you still can't explain it, right? What is the motive to just bury it for a period of time? Like, even if you're working at something that's under the radar or whatever, it just doesn't seem to me like we live in a population like we did in the 1950s or 1960s.

[Tim Burchett]

We don't. We don't. It's arrogance. It's control. And here's how it could work, okay? I knock on doors to get elected. I don't come from money. There's not a lot of Tim Burchins. There's quite a few guys and gals that work very hard. But I do about it at a very grassroots kind of level. So I'm knocking on doors and this guy, he's older man, he's putting his flag up when I come by Saturday morning.

[Josh Holmes]

Love to see it.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah. And I said, what branch were you in? He kind of said, well, I wasn't really in the service. And he said. He was kind of almost apologetic. He said, I worked at Oak Ridge. And I said, brother, I said, my daddy was on Okinawa when they dropped the bomb on Japan. He was. They were. They were issuing him gear. They were getting ready to invade me, Japan. I had a life because of what you did. And he said. And he was talking, and he really kind of opened up to me and said, you know, funny thing, Tim. He said, my wife worked there, too. And I said, really? What'd she do? Well, that's the funny thing. She said, we never. I never knew what she did.

[Michael Duncan]

What.

[Tim Burchett]

And she never knew what I did. And he, like, worked on the fuse, and she. She worked on some circuitry or something. And that was back then. Now everybody's got a freaking book deal. And so what they did say roswell, whatever you think, just say it happened 1947. So y' all are from it. You're members of the media. You know what a FOIA is. Freedom of Information Request. So imagine that you were. They would hand that off to a government contractor who's not a government entity. Like if it was the Department of Agriculture and I wanted to get a crop report, and they wouldn't give it to me. Well, dad, come. I'm going to foil you. It. And I'd get it. But if Ford Motor Company had it.

[Josh Holmes]

Can't get it.

[Tim Burchett]

Can't get it. So here, I think if anything is out there that's, you know, these craft or whatever or beings that they preserved, that they've handed them off to some scientific group and I think that they don't. Some of the people that are looking at whatever they're looking at don't know what they're looking at. And the science is so advanced. I'm a motorcycle guy, so I got an old Indian chief, 1947, and say I took that back in time to the people that came over here on the Mayflower. They might get it started, but they're not gonna be able to adjust the spark plugs. They're not going to do the valves. They're not even going to be able to make a high enough octane fuel to run the dadgum thing. And they'll just have a bright. They'll have a polished object that they can roll around on and try to figure out what the heck it is. But that's just where they're at. And I think that's sort of where we're at. And when you see historical writings like Ezekiel in the Bible, Ezekiel saw the wheel. And it's a wheel within a wheel. And all these people have drawn up these elaborate things, but to me, a wheel within a wheel, because it's translated from Aramaic into King James. So a wheel within a wheel, to me is just the classic saucer. It's got a wheel and then there's a wheel within it. And at the time, because that was the most scientific advanced thing they had, was just a dadgum wheel, you know. And so that's kind of where we're at in the whole thing.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm skeptical that aliens are here because the Democrats haven't given them amnesty yet.

[Tim Burchett]

I'm sure if they do, well, they're not coming to Washington because there is no intelligent life. Can I tell you one more quick story? So this guy was an admiral, was in my office. He wanted to talk to me. And I get that a lot. Some people don't want to talk in the office. And, you know, you know, I've had a group come to my house, very prestigious group, actually, and show me some stuff on my television. They hooked up the computer to it. This admiral want to talk to me, and he talked about these deep sea bases. He said there's deep sea areas, there's five or six of them. He said, we've clocked stuff on sonar. They're doing close to 200 miles an hour, big as a football field. Now, there is no fish, mammal, whatever, that can. That's that big. And also, there's nothing that goes that fast. Even our best subs probably don't do 40. I need to check it out, but it was a little around 40 miles an hour underwater. So and the last thing, and it's always weird to me, he didn't go out the door. He came in. He went out my side door, which nobody uses, and he said to me, pulled me up close, he said, tim, the real. And that's the last thing he said. He talked to me about deep water areas because that's where the sightings usually occur in the air, over, around these four or five deep water areas. And does that mean they're bases? I don't know. Does that mean something's been here? That is here.

[John Ashbrook]

But if they are here and these are just interactions that we've had, but no real interaction directly with an alien being, why. Why are they here? Is it to study? Are they studying us like the paramecium you studied with the microscope?

[Tim Burchett]

I don't know. Are they walking by an ant hill and say, look at all that going on there and let's check it out. And then, you know, get out of micro, get out of, get out, you know, a match and start burning us up? I don't know.

[John Ashbrook]

In this next round of disclosure you were referencing earlier, do you have any insight into what the materials are?

[Tim Burchett]

Possibly. But I don't want to say because.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, no.

[Michael Duncan]

Say it.

[Tim Burchett]

I'm going to shoot for the moon. No pun intended. It's kind of odd. I'm going to shoot, aim for the fence and hope that it's. It's some other stuff. But there's. We have some agencies that have, that have filmed stuff that we've been privileged to and I would hope that they would bring some of that out.

[Michael Duncan]

Huh.

[Tim Burchett]

And what I really would hope is, I mean, honestly, I'd be really cool if they pulled something out. Hey, this is a flying saucer. I was like, wow, it is a flying saucer, you know, But I just don't have a lot of faith in all that because I also don't have a lot of faith in. I don't know if you saw today where the, you know, we Luna chairs this committee and we're trying to get these MK Ultra files and they just seized them from Tulsi Gabbard's office.

[Josh Holmes]

Saw that.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What do you make of that?

[Tim Burchett]

It makes, to me it's overstepping of the bounds and it's, it's like I was told by the White House, you know, they're getting a little lot of blowback from, from a lot of these agencies and they don't like it, which is amazing. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, the White House. White House. Getting blowback from agencies is not.

[Tim Burchett]

I mean, they work for the president, you know.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. That's like the definition of the deep state, right?

[Tim Burchett]

It is the deep state. It's a sewer up here. And people are so naive and are. And these guys and gals on the floor, you know, they all, you know, they're happy and, you know, they just. They just want to get the call when they're at the golf course, hey, come vote. And here's your voter record. We need you to vote this way and be at this fundraiser and get your check. And then that's what they do. You know, it's Pavlov's dog. You ring the bell and they come in both parties. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a crooked deal, man. You know, if Peyton Manning was, You know, if the NFL was Congress, Peyton Manning would still be waiting to get in. You know, it's not put the best player in. I know you think there's a lot of intellectual superiority.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, no, we've talked quite a bit about that.

[Tim Burchett]

But this is just, you know, I didn't choose this issue. I didn't.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's what I.

[Tim Burchett]

It chose me. It chose me, man. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I watch these UFO shows and they say, we were shut down by Congress. And I thought, well, that gum. I am a congressman, and I've always been about open records and transparency. And I think. And I keep telling people, you know, even the critics, I said, dad, Gamut. It's not about little green men are flying saucers. It's what are we spending tens of millions, millions, possibly billions of dollars on an object or a subject they say does not exist. So even if you. If you're just a complete skeptic, what are we spending the dadgum money on? And why do they have files of something they say doesn't exist?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. I mean, ultimately, you not only elect representatives in a president of the United States, but you fund a government and you'd like to know what it is that they know about issues that could be.

[Tim Burchett]

Well, you pay for it. It's yours. It's like people come up to the Capitol and they. I hate it when they have gates up and all that. I say, dad, come. But you own that capital.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. So look, I want to get your reaction.

[Tim Burchett]

Go ahead.

[Josh Holmes]

These. Graphic one, if you won't mind tossing this bad boy up. So this was a US Indo Pacific Command reported the UAP ufo, in other words, resembled A football shaped body near Japan in 2024. This is relatively recently.

[Tim Burchett]

This is Japan's coming into play. I don't know if you caught it or not. It's kind of been on the fringe. But they've, they've said now they're going to start releasing their files.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that right?

[Tim Burchett]

And I spoke to a.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm a

[Tim Burchett]

Christian, I'm not a very good one, but I spoke to a. And I won't say exactly, but it was in Soviet Union leader over there not long ago who said that they were kind of urging their folks to start releasing their stuff too.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is an international effort, you

[Tim Burchett]

think it is now? It is now. It wasn't before, but people are saying, wow, they're doing it in America. Who else has it? And you know, they might be helpful

[John Ashbrook]

to compare notes here.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It turns out we might all be on the same side of one thing, you know. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Like if we can all agree on something, it's that, you know, we don't want the aliens to win. Yeah, I saw Independence Day.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, tough stuff there.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That what you referred to earlier, the Apollo 17 mission in graphic three. Pop that up. That's the mission to the moon. The yellow box contains an enlarged area of the original photo in which three lights are visible from lunar terrain.

[Tim Burchett]

If I could cut in right there. I don't know if the. And the lights always take the edge. I can't imagine something flying, you know, thousand light years that has our light sequence. But what I think it shows is a reflection actually maybe from the moon's surface or off the capsule or something that picks up the outline of whatever that object is. And there's some verbiage that goes along with that. That was pretty interesting. But several of those Apollo astronauts have spotted things that were unusual and were never discussed. And why they didn't let them bring it up, I don't know.

[Michael Duncan]

But again, those Apollo astronauts you mentioned, the admiral who said something to you, you mentioned how skilled these pilots are that say, you know, the Guy had said, 14ft from my cockpit canopy. Yeah, from the canopy. These Apollo astronauts were the best of the best, the smartest people in our society at the time. They were scientists who were also tremendous athletes.

[Tim Burchett]

The Tic Tac video, for instance, that's the one that got out. And I know probably who got it out. But they said didn't exist. And then they said, well, it does exist. And then they said, that's it. And then we don't know what it is. That was one of the top guys in the world. In the world. I've talked to other pilots who've said he's the man. He's a legend.

[Michael Duncan]

If a smart guy like that sees something that he can't explain.

[Tim Burchett]

But the problem is, when they do see it, they get pulled in. They get a psych eval, they get eight hours of interrogation. Not.

[Josh Holmes]

So you don't want to be the guy that blows the whistle and missing.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah, I mean, they can't because it hurts their career. I had one guy tell me, literally, and he said, the old timey, it was. I forget what kind of aircraft it was. It was a jet. You know, it could be, I don't know, a Cessna for all I know. But he said he took his knee and he busted the thing so he wouldn't have to. The recorder. So it wouldn't. He would not have a. A recording of it because when he got back, he would be pulled in

[Josh Holmes]

and it was just. More problems for you.

[Tim Burchett]

Just wants to fly. He just wants to be a patriot, not a intergalactic fighter.

[John Ashbrook]

So is this next one here, Is this the Tic Tac you're talking about?

[Tim Burchett]

Graphic.

[John Ashbrook]

Can we put that graphic up? No, it's a different 1.

[Josh Holmes]

Graphic 2 is.

[Tim Burchett]

No, that is a. That is actually a sworn testimony of.

[Josh Holmes]

This is like an artistic depiction.

[Tim Burchett]

I wish they wouldn't even put that.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what I. Kind of hurts the credibility.

[Tim Burchett]

It hurts it. Other than the people that I believe. The people that. That. That gave that. I believe it, but it doesn't do it do us any good.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you never like to see that when you're trying to. I mean, it's like, you know.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah, that's the kind of thing that.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's.

[Tim Burchett]

The photo of an alien was hanging out and he was waving to me, man, I swear.

[Josh Holmes]

And then.

[Tim Burchett]

And then I spilled my bong water.

[Josh Holmes]

There is some of that, too. But listen, we talked a lot about Apollo. I don't know if sometimes. Because you've become the UFO guy, which is hilarious. And your story now makes so much more sense to me than it did before because I was trying to like, how's Burchett? And, like, how'd this get together? Now you think you've adequately explained.

[Tim Burchett]

It took me six years to get out of ut and I didn't drink or smoke pot. My dad was Dean of Student Conduct. It still took me six years.

[Michael Duncan]

But.

[Josh Holmes]

But, you know, like, a part of that is. Look, you look at all of these. These different things and these different sightings, and you're sort of like the guy that's starting to put that together.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And, you know, there's no, like, big alien lobby out there that's helping you

[Tim Burchett]

in one way or another. No, but I'll tell you what I would worry about is. Is now that all the Alphabet agencies. I was just say, I was briefed in one setting. We asked, why don't you do more of this? Somebody asked. I said, well, we just don't have the money to do it. Come on. And I thought, yeah, that's what it. 55% of the population of this great country believes that we're not alone. And they're gonna. You're gonna start seeing people demanding stuff, and they're gonna say, well, we gotta pay for it. You know, every time they turn a sheet of paper, you know, gotta pay for that. Gotta pay for it, you know, and so I'm afraid that's what we're gonna get into. I just want to know what we got. Just turn it loose. Let me decide. I'm a big boy. I can make my own decision. It doesn't hurt my religious beliefs. I do not think we're the best that God can do. And honestly, if you look at the stars at night, we are one grain of sand in a billion beaches, dude. And I don't have any way to comprehend any of that. I'm 61 years old and I just scratch my head sometimes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, listen, I think you've explained all that. Sometimes I can't tell because when he is UFO guy, whether you just sort of lean in and make it part of a bit because you got, like, a great sense of humor. Anybody who's been around this guy.

[Tim Burchett]

Well, people make fun of me. You know, there's bullies in Congress and they like to make fun of me.

[Josh Holmes]

But, like, the moon. The moon tweet.

[Tim Burchett]

Oh, yeah, you're just. Blackburn yesterday said, and when we go back to the. When we return to the moon. And I just said, return, and you know, it's like 300,000 on my. Tim Burchett account on X and boom. They just jump all over, man. Burchett, I know you were cool, man. I knew you didn't believe in them. And then other people go purchase it. You're an idiot, man. We went to the moon.

[John Ashbrook]

You enjoy it.

[Tim Burchett]

I enjoyed that. I just have a little fun.

[Josh Holmes]

You lean in and have a sense

[Tim Burchett]

of humor about it. Humor about it, but I'm not. Honestly, if they had this much technology around us, they would have toasted us a long Time ago, You know, I'm just not, I'm not worried about it. I am, that is, I'm more. I got an 18 year old daughter, dude. I'm just worried about the world we're bringing her up in.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, like it makes total sense.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you know what I mean. We've spent a lot of time talking about UFOs and it's very, very interesting. But I do believe that you're a man with a political future. You know, you look at the state of Tennessee and you think to yourself, man, there might be some senate seats open down the road. You know, who knows what else is open down the road. I just wonder if that's something that's ever crossed your mind. I mean, statewide, something you're interested in. Maybe it's time for east Tennessee to have a voice.

[Tim Burchett]

I would not, I will not. Yes. And I will not be the guy that says, well, I'm going to form a study committee and we're going to talk about it down at the Chamber of Commerce and I'm going to have a round table. Heck no. I would love to be. I would love to fight it out in the United States Senate. I would love that. And I would, I relish that. Fight. Fight. There's not a lot of folks like me in politics, really. And that is for sure. And you know, and I dig it. And. But I don't. The big boys are never for me. They're always for me. The day after the election, call me in and say, hey man, we got this check for you. We were with you all along. I go, I know, guys, I felt

[Michael Duncan]

it right there towards the end.

[Tim Burchett]

And most of my contributions, I say this all the time, but it's the truth. They're $25 and half a little lady will wrap a Bible verse around it, you know, And I was, when I was my first election, I ran. They weren't for me, of course, but we won. It was a big upset in the state. I was the only person to beat a 99 house race, the only person to beat an incumbent. And I think I spent $6,000. I raised. And I thought, how in the world am I going to spend all that money? And I knocked on 6,000 doors. And you know, nobody does that kind of stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Boy, we got all this extra cash, maybe a T shirt, more or two or something like that. Six grand.

[Tim Burchett]

Boy, oh boy. I was like, I'm from a family of public educators, man. That's righteous bucks.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. I love it. Listen, we enjoy a. Your sense of humor two, your interest in just the idea of exploring things. Things, regardless where the politics lead.

[Tim Burchett]

And I'm not too hung up on the, you know, some of my best friend. Actually, there's a couple Republicans that don't even speak to me. But I'm friends. Actually, I'm friends with everybody. I don't. I don't. I don't give a rip. I don't care. I. I fight them out. It's like I told aoc, I said, I'm going be friends with you here. I said, because I'm not going to be spending eternity with you, so don't

[John Ashbrook]

have to worry about it.

[Tim Burchett]

Wow. And she just like, you can't say that.

[Michael Duncan]

You can't say that.

[Tim Burchett]

And I said, I don't care. Have fun with it, Cortez.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, a good sense of humor. Well, thank you for joining us and enlighten us on some of these topics. I hope you'll stay in touch. Let us know.

[Tim Burchett]

It's a big honor for me to come on with y'. All. It really is. Y' all are the top of the game, and I appreciate it. I. I saw a report the other day that something like 55% of Americans do not get their news from traditional sources. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And thank God.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah. I was. I remembered one quick political story. I remembered I was at Buddy's Banquet hall, and Marsha Blackburn, who's our U.S. senator now, who's going to run for governor if wins, that would be the seat that I would hopefully have a shot at. And a guy named Ward Baker was her guy. And Ward's a Marine. My dad's a Marine. He got up there, and I remember he said, we're going to go. We're not going to buy radio. We're not buying television. We're going, you know, on the Internet and all the Facebook and everything. And I thought, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I said, what's going on?

[John Ashbrook]

We know Ward. Was he. Was he screaming this?

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Somebody was crying, too, I can tell you that. But. But anyway, and I thought. And then, you know, and Marshall won, and she beat a very popular former Democrat governor of Tennessee. And, yeah, and I think they were outspent, but she just outworked, outsmarted, and did everything else.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, run race.

[Tim Burchett]

She's a great candidate. But. And so I always thought about that. And I think about guys like y' all and this stuff like this, because this is where it's at.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll.

[Tim Burchett]

I swear I'll get on the airplane and somebody will send you. Say me and, you know, and said, I seen you on the Ruthless, you know. Yeah, I saw you at the Walmart, you know, same kind of deal. And it's amazing to me, just a following that folks like y' all have now. And it's. And I love it.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it.

[Tim Burchett]

Because you're not beholden to the big boys.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly.

[Tim Burchett]

And it's, it's. And it's a market driven deal. It's a market driven deal.

[Josh Holmes]

People want to listen or they don't.

[Tim Burchett]

Your dad gum. Right. And I dig it. So thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, thanks. Really appreciate. Tim Burchett, everybody. Okay, boys, are we ready for a little variety?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, always.

[Josh Holmes]

So we've talked a lot about how Democrats don't know how to deal with the media that aren't completely compliant in every form or facet. And occasionally you'll get a demonstration project on that where they're just utterly aghast that someone might actually report.

[John Ashbrook]

In particular, politicians in California, you know, not only a compliant media, but a media instinct state that just doesn't do its job to hold them accountable. So they've never been in the crucible that most Republican candidates have to go through.

[Josh Holmes]

100%.

[Michael Duncan]

They look at reporters as if they are their own staff.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they do. I think that's right. Basically a transcription artist.

[Michael Duncan]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Of some sense. Well, Javier Becerra, which by the way, I was reliably told for years that Javier is a J. You know, you're talking about Hispanic and, and, and the way he spells it, Xavier.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's a school, right?

[Michael Duncan]

It is, yeah. You know, in a lot of cities around the country.

[John Ashbrook]

I think you are our Spanish language correspondent here in the Ruthless Variety program. But like, you know, it's why we put you in for the World cup watcher.

[Josh Holmes]

The worst friends. Unbelievable. Well, anyway, Javier Becerra decided to tell Annie Rose Ramos, a reporter for KTLA's station, how to do her job. In clip two, this is the start

[Michael Duncan]

of our interview with Javier Becerra in Highland Park.

[Tim Burchett]

By the way, this is a profile piece.

[Josh Holmes]

This is not a gotcha piece.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, well, look, I think these questions are fair. It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.

[Tim Burchett]

So long as about the profile.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like to begin the interview.

[Tim Burchett]

The way I describe profile is you talk about all the things that I've done, things I want to do, how great I am, along with some tough questions. But not only Tough questions.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my goodness, what an amazing thing. Like, for those of us who've worked on the other side of the ropes here for politicians and whatnot. Like, it would never occur to a Republican to begin an interview like that, be like, oh, this is a profile. You talk about all the good things that I've done.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, you can certainly imagine a conversation like that, whether it was Republican or Democrat. A press secretary, a communications director, having some conversation with reporter before booking the interview, being like, what are the contours of this story? What are you working on? Just so that you have that background for when you pitch it to your boss.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Candidate doesn't generally do that, which.

[John Ashbrook]

Which tells you really everything you need to know. You don't even have to, like, listen to a question or read an article. The brazenness with which him, as the candidate is trying to shape the story while he's on camera.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a profile piece.

[Tim Burchett]

You're gonna talk about how great I am.

[Michael Duncan]

Let me tell you, Annie, your questions to me should start with something like, how hard Scrabble was your upbringing? How difficult was your path to success?

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Talk Rise to power and everything that that came.

[Michael Duncan]

Tell me about your leadership style and why you get so much done. Javier, California needs you. I guess a campaign ad.

[Josh Holmes]

So anyway, Annie Rose Ramos decided that that was not going to be the case. Here's the clip. 4.

[Michael Duncan]

During your time as HHS Secretary, a new York Times investigation found the Health Department couldn't find some 85,000 children it had released.

[Josh Holmes]

That's not accurate.

[Tim Burchett]

What you just read is not accurate. First, that's what I'll say. Because it was never the case that we could not find kids. You're essentially. I don't know if you got those talking points from Donald Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

It's from a New York Times article.

[Tim Burchett]

I thought the New York Times article said. The New York Times said that individuals, the children and their sponsors did not respond to calls. They didn't say, we couldn't find kids

[Michael Duncan]

working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing rooms, operating machinery factories. Children as young as 14 years old.

[Tim Burchett]

That part occurred after these children had left the care of Department of Health and Human Services.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you let these children go into those individual sponsors in their responsibility?

[Tim Burchett]

Some of these keys kids, probably because they needed to earn some money, started working in places that were very exploitive.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, probably. Why?

[Josh Holmes]

Because they needed to earn some money.

[John Ashbrook]

The children yearn for the mines.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you got. Dude, you can't make it up. Annie Rose wasn't having it.

[Tim Burchett]

Mm, mm.

[Josh Holmes]

She wasn't having it. And this guy, I mean, I think, what is it even odds now that he's gonna be the next governor?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it's possible. I think what I appreciate about this piece of journalism is that it is actually journalism. And it's like Ashbrook always says, you know, the media doesn't attack a Democrat unless it's gonna benefit another Democrat. And because this primary exists, the media decided to start doing its job. What I love also about that, and this is why you gotta check out the YouTube, you know, if you're audio only. This is really exquisite. And that is in the produced piece that they saw. It isn't enough that he's like, oh, I think you're getting your talking points from Donald Trump. They then cut into the New York Times article and zoom in and highlight.

[Michael Duncan]

There it is.

[Josh Holmes]

They zoom in, highlight and underline. Lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.

[Tim Burchett]

Hysterical.

[Michael Duncan]

His first point really struck me. Okay. He was expecting her to believe that he, Javier Becerra, is the Secretary of Health and Human Services, happened to know the location of every single immigrant child in this country at all times.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And she's just supposed to say, like, oh, yeah.

[Tim Burchett]

Oh, I knew.

[Michael Duncan]

I know. Yeah, you know, good point. What's she supposed to say? Like, you can't even. Nobody would ever believe that. And yet he thought he would get away with it.

[Josh Holmes]

It's truly remarkable. I mean, this is what they're used to anyway. It's a nice little vignette piece of journalism of what Democrats think of media and how media should be done. Hats off to Annie Rose Ramos for actually putting a piece together on that. I hope that continues once it's a binary choice for the Republican on the other side.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I don't think they will.

[Josh Holmes]

What do you think? You think that's gonna happen? No, it's in service of another Democrat currently. So color me skeptical about whether that continues. Another thing that happened that was completely hilarious.

[Michael Duncan]

Rubio

[Josh Holmes]

was on Air Force One. I think it was the case that he was going to China with the president and he decided he was going to. You know, one likes to be comfortable at all. A long trip like that. So, you know, often is the case what happens, Everybody, except it seems Donald Trump, who wears the suits, I mean, he's like, wakes up in the morning in that perfectly pressed and red tie and all that. But everybody else, you know, you gotta wear some comfortability, some stuff, maybe some athleisure, that kind of thing. Well, Rubio showed up in this graphic 4 the Maduro tracksuit. Yeah, the Maduro tracksuit. So you'll remember that when the former president of Venezuela was captured, it was somewhat of a thing in that his first public appearance that was able to be captured by the media was him in a Nike tracksuit, which was pretty unique, I would say, in terms of how it looked. Somehow Rubio gets a handle on this, puts himself in that thing and stands for a picture. Good humor.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I like the humor. It's also a sign of the times. This is how everyone dresses in the airport now. Nobody has any respect.

[Josh Holmes]

I kind of am with you on that.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, no shade on Rubio, because it's very, very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

It's very funny. But you're right. I mean, this is something we've talked about. And if Smug work here, he would double it.

[John Ashbrook]

I wanted to do it in his honor. Yeah, you got to point that out. There's some people walking around the airport in some real trash bags.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, we should just. Everybody should understand. There is no open toed shoes on airplanes or in an airport. When you show up to get on an airplane, you should wear clothes that, at very minimum, should be what you go to work in, frankly. But at very minimum is something that you're totally comfortable with. Full public, you know, viewing. This is not a time for you to just go tucked into bed.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, you should have something that's relatively presentable.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Like cover the skin. Right, Cover the skin.

[Josh Holmes]

And if Spirit Airlines, the demise of that wasn't enough of a message, that society is cutting against you and your open toed shoes and your athleisure and your sweatpants with no underwear. Let this be a message from the

[Michael Duncan]

right again, I thought it was very funny. Can we throw that graphic back up one more time? There's just one aspect to that outfit that Rubio did not pick up on. I think he should have swung by the ophthalmologist's office and picked up all those shades. A pair of those, like, pupil dilation glasses.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that what that is?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I can't. I mean, unless maybe it's a VR headset. Like, those are the biggest sunglasses I've ever seen in my entire life. And maybe he wasn't able to see a single thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I think that's what the CIA puts on you before they extraordinarily rendition you.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, that could be it.

[John Ashbrook]

So that you. You don't have. You can't here, obviously, because he also. Maduro also has those noise canceling.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the, you know, The Oakley renditions?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Sick, dude. I'd buy those if they came in. If they came in polarized, I'd buy those.

[Michael Duncan]

The Oakley renditions?

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

They'd be great for skiing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you should have those. Everybody should have a pair.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, man. Oh, that's very fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's Thursday, which means it's game day, and I understand that we played one on Tuesday, but we're gonna get back to the regular handle of this. I'm the champion, so I'd be more than happy to defend myself with Sherry Macheri, your favorite.

[John Ashbrook]

You love her.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're now the judge and jury.

[John Ashbrook]

Old school.

[Josh Holmes]

As it was in the beginning.

[John Ashbrook]

In the before time.

[Josh Holmes]

In the before time. And I just want your honor to know that I have found.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, come on. Don't even dare try to butter me.

[Josh Holmes]

He's been a man of integrity and justice.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, one of the things about the WWF that always left a little bit to be desired is that you would have to wait until WrestleMania to watch Hulk Hogan fight Andre the Giant. It wasn't happening every Saturday morning, but here on the ruthless variety program, you get an opportunity to see titans go at it on a weekly basis. And I can't let people down. That's why when Cherry, my Cherry is the champion, the only opt option I have to bring is worn out. War Forever. Bill. Crystal.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow. Wow.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, I'm looking forward to this as judge n jure. All right, let's go ringside.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for our main event. In the red corner, fighting from Piero Medire's checkbook, Bill. War Now. War Forever. Crystal. And now in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, and current champion of the world, Kami Cherry Jacobers.

[Josh Holmes]

Well done. Do you think from a ringside standpoint that Bill Warnow War forever. Crystal. Should maybe be Bill Warnow War Forever? Unless Donald Trump is doing it. Crystal.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, you know what?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, we might need to sunset that old name.

[Josh Holmes]

We might need to, because, I mean, he had four long year run where War Now, War forever was perfectly apropos. But now we found the limits.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is if Donald Trump is engaged in that conflict.

[John Ashbrook]

I still think, like, secretly. I think he still loves it, though.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you?

[John Ashbrook]

I think it's just all an act. It's all bit.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know. You got to keep the money train rolling, I guess, some level.

[John Ashbrook]

Anyway, he's not up first. You are with a defending champion, so quit stalling.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I'd be more than happy to take it upon myself to enter what is a very unique Sherry Jacobus in that it blends two of our favorite things here in the Variety program, Politics and sports. Oh, in exhibit five, please. What she's doing is tweeting out a graphic that is attributed to Ryan Clark of espn, one of the more notable leftists on espn, where he suggests that black athletes just stop going to Southern schools. Just stop. And that's like how you can protest, I guess.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, because of the Supreme Court decision. Yeah, vra.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Because you can protest Republican leadership that way.

[John Ashbrook]

Got it.

[Josh Holmes]

So she said, he says that black athletes shouldn't do it. So she says, so do white college athletes. And they all need publicly to say why. These are 18 year olds who are likely voting for their first time as sought after athletes. They have enormous power here. Imagine being able to have this level of impact at such a young age. So what she's suggesting is that any athlete, no matter what, set aside what they've worked their entire life to try to accomplish at Tier 1 institutions and compete and perhaps make a living if they become professionals, but certainly get a, a payday and be higher profile to accomplish their athletic speech, throw that aside because of redistricting.

[John Ashbrook]

I love that so much. Because this is, I mean, this is

[Josh Holmes]

so minute and small and ridiculous.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's also the logical extension of everything the libs do, which is they, you know, anyone with a platform, whether it's Taylor Swift or some actor, you know, whenever they have a following and they're hot in the news, the libs pressure them for their thing of the day. Yeah, like you're silent on Gaza or you're silent on this. You know what I mean? And like, they'll fly, buddy.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm a painter.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm just trying to get paid for a thing I love doing. That's not enough for them.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, no, no, boycott.

[John Ashbrook]

Love it.

[Michael Duncan]

Speaking about trying to get paid for a thing you love doing. Your Eminence, I present to you Exhibit 11, please. Offered by Bill Kristol at 12:23pm on May 12th. He says, For Trump, there is no contradiction between white supremacy and the unabashed celebration of American patriotism.

[John Ashbrook]

Come on.

[Michael Duncan]

It seems he's trying to validate the most recent radical versions of critical race theory, personifying past and present of white supremacy. Linking to, of course, a substack.

[Tim Burchett]

A substack.

[Michael Duncan]

1223, right after lunch.

[John Ashbrook]

It's kind of on genre and I, I think from a difficulty score, if we were judging figure skating, I would give Ashbrook, a 9 out of 10 there for managing to dovetail off of yours into a similar race focused piece of content. I just don't think it can compete with the, the sports tie in that is, that is playing well into the, the judge and jury's heart there. I love when people are ignorant about sports and try to talk about it almost as like when they're ignorant about

[Josh Holmes]

politics, especially when they're saddling 18 year olds with like grizzled partisan arguments and,

[John Ashbrook]

and people and like these athletes, these student athletes have finally gotten to the point where they can earn money in nil.

[Tim Burchett]

Throw it away.

[John Ashbrook]

And throw, throw it away because of my politics for the Democratic Party. Throw away the thing you've worked your entire life for. Throw it away from me for my politics. Random person on blue sky.

[Josh Holmes]

I used to be somebody.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, well, round one goes to Sherry and that leaves Crystal in the critical round two to start.

[Michael Duncan]

Typically fair ruling from our judge, our esteemed jurors.

[Josh Holmes]

He stayed with it.

[John Ashbrook]

It's surprising, buttering me up.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, let's go to exhibit nine, please. And he's linking an article from the Bulwark titled A Civil Cold War is Considered. And Bill Kristol who I thought was a Republican for a long time now singing the praises of Jimmy Carter. The Soviets didn't fold from the start. Jimmy Carter came into office wanting a different dynamic. By the time he left, he understood that the only language the Soviets understood was deterrence. He's saying this about Jimmy Carter. Okay, Crystal continues. I propose that is the true or that this is true of all illiberal movements. I love that.

[John Ashbrook]

So now Donald Trump is just like

[Michael Duncan]

Stalin and Jimmy Carter is the reason that the Soviets began to fall. He understood, according to this guy who was a Republican. Now it's not enough to attack Donald Trump. It's not enough to attack conservative voters.

[Josh Holmes]

Ronald Reagan erasure.

[Michael Duncan]

He supports Trump. He is now saying that Jimmy Carter was the reason that the Soviets fell because of his deterrence.

[Josh Holmes]

A guy that has been masturbating to replays of Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall for the last 35 years is now all of a sudden saying that

[Tim Burchett]

Jimmy Carter did it.

[Josh Holmes]

That is. I'm going to change my play.

[Tim Burchett]

I'm going to change my.

[Josh Holmes]

If I know anything about this judge and jury, I have to go in a different direction on this than I had envisioned. Okay, I'm going to go with exhibit three. And it starts with something that we know and love about Sharon Macheri in that she retweets Herself. It's just going to quote, tweet herself because it's the what you do. You have a statement. Only has a little bit of engagement. So we're going to have to go ahead and give that re up with a topper. And her first was, it was stop grading Dem leadership on a curve. Basically her whole point is like Dem leadership is feckless. She knows how to fight here. Dems have been whiffing on Trump crimes for too long and we're paying a huge price. All caps. Starting with Pelosi. Not in. Not impeaching Trump for obstruction of justice in the Mueller report. Okay, so she impeached him twice. Not enough. According to Sherry. Tolerating Merrick Garland and not doing daily fact checking press briefings in the Capitol. It's surrender. Okay, so let's unpack this for a minute. One is Pelosi's the cuckoo.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

It was only two impeachments.

[John Ashbrook]

They don't know how to fight.

[Josh Holmes]

It was only in two. We only did two impeachments.

[John Ashbrook]

Not enough.

[Josh Holmes]

There had to have been three. But her solution to all of these high crimes and misdemeanors are that a daily fact check press briefing in the

[John Ashbrook]

Capitol would take care of all of that rapid response. It's just so funny. Right. Because it's very Sorkin esque. It's like I've got this plan for how we hold this man accountable.

[Josh Holmes]

What you do is you read the facts.

[Tim Burchett]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Go out there and you read the facts.

[John Ashbrook]

Impeaching him wasn't enough.

[Josh Holmes]

Not enough.

[John Ashbrook]

The problem was you didn't call a press gaggle and do rapid response every day daily. It's just such a child. Child. Childish conception of politics.

[Josh Holmes]

Very smooth brain.

[Tim Burchett]

Huh? Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

This is, this is actually a pretty easy one for me. Can we put Bill Krystals back up there? Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

There she is.

[John Ashbrook]

This, this has a, a special part in, in the judge's heart. Because if you know the history of Bill Crystal, like og neoconservative, you know, his father Irving Kristol and Leo Strauss, the people who are kind of the founders of this entire movement were disaffected Democrats who were disillusioned with the Great Society of lbj.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And the failures of Jimmy Carter's presidency.

[Josh Holmes]

I was just gonna say.

[Tim Burchett]

And Jimmy Carter.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's why they became Republicans.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And so in his new telling of the history, he's now a Democrat because of that.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Which is 180 degrees in the other direction.

[Josh Holmes]

This is why I had to change My play, because the true historians about Bill Kristol, his place in a movement and what he is today, it is as good as it possibly can get.

[John Ashbrook]

And for that reason, Ashbrook wins round two. Okay, round three. Back to the champ.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, I'm going to polish things off here. So she's retweeting a call to activism, which one does as a centrist out there, just fact checking, but this particular account is tweeting out a video of Zoron mom Donnie, who's extolling what he claims is a balanced budget.

[Tim Burchett]

Come on.

[Josh Holmes]

In New York City, he has balanced the budget. She tweets out in exhibit four. Please. If Republicans care about the things they claim to care about, they would be celebrating this man. Never mind the fact that this is like Marxism on steroids. The whole, if you dig in just beyond the surface on the battle, balanced budget. The reason that they claim to have a balanced budget, of which they don't, but the reason they claim to is because Kathy Hochul, who's in an election year, has decided to fork over $4 billion to the city of New York for their bookkeeping purposes in order to get it to a point where it looks like it's roughly $4 billion from the state directly to the city. They're over budget by 4 billion for starters. The state has to go backfill all of that. Look what he's done. He's a balanced budget guy, just like Newt Gingrich.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it. I love it. Cuz Sherry really is an excellent poster. Like not just a contestant on King of the Hill, not somebody who lost their mind because Donald Trump became president, became a liberal, but like, just posting about politics in such a facile way I think is very effective with the sort of audience she's looking for. Yeah, like, people would really like to RT that.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Knowing it's. But like. Got him.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Zinger body bag.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

What do you got, Ashbrook?

[Michael Duncan]

So when Bill Crystal woke up on the morning of May 13th at 6:57am he fired off. Exactly. Exhibit number seven. So Trump is off to China, accompanied by his billionaires, all of them going as supplicants to China's dictator, whom Trump admires as a leader of extraordinary distinction. It would be nice if the President would speak for America, but he will be kowtowing to communist China.

[Josh Holmes]

Mm. The communists bad again.

[John Ashbrook]

The communists are bad again. That's very interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course, he's firing that off as the President is in China, hoping that the libs will retweet him.

[John Ashbrook]

It really is. One of the worst parts about this era of politics is the inability of the Democrats to leave partisanship at our nation's shores when our president goes abroad. That really bothers me.

[Josh Holmes]

Me too.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, I mean, you could nitpick about things, you know, if. If. If there's something horribly embarrassing that happens, I understand.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, for example, when our previous president shat his pants when he was with the Pope, that something that unfortunate for

[John Ashbrook]

us here as Americans, but like preempting a foreign visit and being like, you're gonna kowtow to communist China, particularly are

[Michael Duncan]

we doing the morning that the guy is in the air.

[Tim Burchett]

Air.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

There's nothing weekly about Bill Crystal's standard. He is against our President.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a good tweet.

[Josh Holmes]

You might even call it a weekly standard.

[Tim Burchett]

W E A.

[John Ashbrook]

I. I just think it's kind of warmed over compared to. To Zora Mumdani balancing the budget.

[Josh Holmes]

Celebrate him.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I just. It wins. I hate Sherry so much, but she wins.

[Michael Duncan]

But it's. You know what? It's fair. Like when Holmes played that, I was like, I got nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I was gonna play it on two, but I saw what you brought and I was like, oh, I can't do that. Like, you had a stone cold winner. There was no way you could overcome Jimmy Carter being the savior from Bill Crystal.

[Michael Duncan]

She's a.

[Tim Burchett]

She's a.

[Michael Duncan]

Was a Republican. And it's not like she's saying, oh, we need to listen to Al Gore. We need to listen. Like, she's like, you know, more like mom. Donnie. Yeah.

[Tim Burchett]

Wait.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's ultimately the problem when you go against Sherry. My Sherry is like, no.

[Josh Holmes]

No bounds.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, she's such an idiot.

[Michael Duncan]

It's.

[John Ashbrook]

It's hard to compete with a dyed in the wool idiot like Bill Crystal has a little more self respect for himself.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, sort of. Except for that second. The second take, it's like you literally pictured this guy with Arado is asphyxiation with pictures of Reagan around him right. For 30 years. And then all of a sudden he's like, no, it's Jimmy Carter.

[John Ashbrook]

Jimmy Carter.

[Josh Holmes]

Jimmy Carter was the one, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

That was. It was a nuclear take.

[John Ashbrook]

It really was.

[Michael Duncan]

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. All right, you guys want some more fun stuff?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

According to ABC News, police in France are warning drivers in rural areas to be on the lookout for drunk deer and exhibiting erratic behavior caused by the consumption of fermented fruits. We've had this before in the animal Kingdom, or as police called it, a forest aperitif. That's very French of them. We have a clip of all this. In clip 3, there is a. There's a deer that's out doing circles in the middle of the field. If you're not a subscriber, you're an audio only person. This deer is fucked up. I don't know what they say. I mean, it's fallen down, it's running in circles. It's now looking around, paranoid by something. Here's something I don't know, but it's got one of those you stand outside of the bar at 4am Type looks there at the end. It doesn't know what. What it has coming at him anyway, it's a terrible menace. And French police are all over this.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, it's one of the first times the French police have gotten serious about this problem. You know, I can't remember last time we talked about them as sort of the standard bearers of taking on the animal kingdom.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And in France, you know, they routinely are run over and they've got a great history of that. You know, remember World War II, remember World War I, remember the Maginot line? Remember the French holding up a jar of mayonnaise and saying, I dare you to cross my border. And then everybody's like, what are you talking about? We're taking France. All of a sudden, the French police are sticking up for themselves.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And you like to see it.

[Josh Holmes]

You draw the line. A drunken. I guess it's a deer.

[John Ashbrook]

I like to see that in France the animals are finally out drinking. The people.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, because the French, like, they take what, like four months off of every year to go drink and go to the south of France and do nothing. And they wonder why they have no GDP and, you know, I mean, animal life.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at that. Dude, look at this thing. It's so messed up. Yeah, it's just on its back, it's back up. It's doing circles. Like this is a fermented fruit problem, or as they call it, a forest aperitif.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, don't let them find the grapes now.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, maybe that's the issue then.

[John Ashbrook]

We're gonna have a supply chain problem.

[Josh Holmes]

Real international trade issue. Okay, so it's police week in Washington D.C. hell yeah. And we like to celebrate the blue, which is why this thing caught our eye. Because there are what we call, like city publications across this country that are basically dedicated to try to drag down our law enforcement community. And they do everything they can possibly do. To try to point at cops as the bad guys. And so they write stories and they. Whatever it is, it's the primary function is a defund the police type operation. So there was something that popped up. City cast, dc and the title of the story is downright scandalous. Inside the not safe for work text messages that got a top D.C. police official put on lead.

[Tim Burchett]

Oh, no.

[Josh Holmes]

So you're like, immediately, anything's possible.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

It's like, I think that's why you wanted to include this in today's episode.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it wasn't me, it was Wolf.

[John Ashbrook]

You saw not safe for Work. And you're like, yes, Wolf does it.

[Josh Holmes]

I simply acquiesce and give the people what they want.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't think that's a fair characterization.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, well, this is what happened. So days before Jeffrey Carroll was sworn in as interim D.C. police chief in January, is soon to be second in command, Andre Wright sent an AI generated video to his wife. The video, according to an internal report, showed Carol puffing on a cigar and laughing while crowing. Quote, the wicked witch is dead, bitches. There's a new sheriff in town.

[John Ashbrook]

Hell, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So I guess he's talking about his previous superior. And it goes on to say the message sent from Wright's department issued cell phone. Yeah, if I'm gonna find fault here, that might be in. That came amid the dramatic departure of former chief Pamela Smith, who elevated Wright through the ranks and put him in charge of all the department's patrol operations. Wright and his wife, Inspector Natasha Wright, were among the 13 officials served termination papers last week in connection to the crime statistics scandal. But they've already been put on administrative leave months earlier in March for inappropriate text messages found on Wright's work phone. Okay, I want to set two issues aside. There has been an issue in D.C. about under reporting of serious crime. Apparently this gentleman might be implicated in something like that. Might, you know, they'll find out one way or another. And that's a serious thing. It's been a problem that we've had in municipalities across the country where somebody shoots somebody or stabs somebody and they

[John Ashbrook]

get written up for like a jaywalking.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Or like, you know, disturbing the peace or something. Like to try to keep crime statistics down. And that's what's been alleged here. And who knows if this guy's got a part of it, but what he's gotten rung up for it is a series of messages, seemingly during a 9am meeting. Wright texted to his wife this big titty bitch can't read.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, God.

[Tim Burchett]

Oh, man.

[Josh Holmes]

And another, he appeared to reference a work trip as he wrote, I'm going out of town with that fat, ugly bitch. We'll be back tomorrow. Followed by, I'm taking two midgets with me, quote.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, let's go back to the first statement. You know, you'd like to think that reading is something that the superiors in law enforcement are capable of doing. And this guy, right, clearly is questioning.

[Josh Holmes]

He's calling balls and strikes on that one. There's no question about that. The secondarily comes up with the most frequently discussed topic in the messages from the report, by far more than crime classifications, colleagues, or Carol, was sex. But here's where it gets interesting, right? These are all messages to his wife. They're not alleging infidelity in any one way, but they have topped this whole article with the idea that this man, his sexual proclivities have extended into department matters and whatnot. But he's texting his wife. So Wright requests oral and anal sex, sends her old pictures of him and asks if she would have sex with a young and Andre, and tells her she owes him. I can't even do it.

[John Ashbrook]

Come on, don't do it.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't even do it.

[John Ashbrook]

This is a family show.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't. I can't. Wolf,

[Michael Duncan]

really,

[John Ashbrook]

Really, don't say it.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm not gonna.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, It's a lot.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a lot.

[John Ashbrook]

But he was texting his wife.

[Michael Duncan]

Man, texting his wife.

[Josh Holmes]

But he want. He was doing that in request for. In exchange for shoveling snow from some parking spaces and figured he was owed something that he is visually just described.

[John Ashbrook]

He wouldn't be the first husband to come to an arrangement with his wife. Okay,

[Josh Holmes]

Certainly not. Certainly not. One can ask whether all of that negotiation should take place on a government phone.

[John Ashbrook]

I feel like this whole story's bullshit. I feel like this is trying to undermine the new leadership at the D.C. metro.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, that's why I prefaced it the way.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, like, a lot of this stuff is very personal. And, yeah, he shouldn't have said some of this stuff, but, like, is he good at his job, you know?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, he. Locking up the perps. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

I more. I more care about. Have we solved the problem of hiding violent crime in the city? Yeah, because, like, I don't know, for years the liberal media was telling us how safe DC was and how safe these huge metropolitan areas were. And look at the crime statistics. It's really down everywhere. Which we all knew was A lie, to borrow a phrase from them, from our lived experience.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

But all they did was condescend to people who pointed out, I think it's getting more violent in our America cities. And then we find out that they've been hiding the fucking crime stats. And what I get is his text messages about a big titty bitch, you know, and it's like, it feels like an effort to minimize the actual problem and ghetto pee.

[Tim Burchett]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Which is what the left did the entire time that Joe Biden was president. I remember what you're talking about when somebody would get carjacked the night before, somebody would get shot. And then the next morning, a left wing reporter would take a picture of a park where nothing was happening. Like, I don't see anything wrong with this city. And it's like, bro, you were not the person carjacked or murdered last night. Maybe your point of view is motivated by your politics. And maybe the people who are under the gun of these criminals and just want to be able to walk their streets have a. Like, they have. They always. They have a point.

[Tim Burchett]

Like.

[Michael Duncan]

And they did have a point. And I think that things have changed in this city since the National Guard showed up. And so since, you know, leadership has sort of backed the blue in a way that they didn't when Biden was president. But you got to keep doing it, you know, like, there's always going to be somebody trying to undermine the cops. They have a very, very hard job. Very hard job.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And sometimes they need to make unusual requests to loved ones.

[Michael Duncan]

It's very stressful.

[John Ashbrook]

Stressful job.

[Josh Holmes]

Stressful job. Release is necessary.

[Michael Duncan]

It's his girl he's texting.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm gonna reserve judgment on Andre. Right. I want to know a little bit more about the classification, crime, classification stuff, because it seems like there's some implication there. I don't know if that reporting is accurate or not, but that's the stuff that I would be more concerned about than saying horrific things to his wife, which can't even you imagine what was in this text that I can't read it to you? Do you know what I've said on this program? Can you even imagine? To get me to pause?

[Michael Duncan]

But I'm with you. I'm gonna reserve judgment.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm reserve judgment. Okay. Well, that brings us to our question of the day from our previous conversation.

[Michael Duncan]

And she can't be happy with him right now. Can we just go back to this? She can't be happy with him. So on top of everything else, she is like, I'm reading this in some. What is this thing called?

[Josh Holmes]

She's not granting any of the quest.

[Michael Duncan]

The city cast. She's like, andre, I'm reading this in TheCityCast.com.

[Josh Holmes]

what are you doing?

[Michael Duncan]

And he's like, I know, I'm sorry. I'm done.

[Josh Holmes]

Suffice it to say, his record quests have been summarily declined for some period of time, probably.

[John Ashbrook]

So he's gonna have to shovel a lot of snow to get out of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, that's. Winter is coming. There's no question about that. All right, so when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program, we ask a question of the day and get back to the very next episode. In this one, we ask you, are we alone in the universe? You heard an awful lot about that. Some open questions from our standpoint, but be interested in your point of view. We read them all and get back to you when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program. Check out some merch while you're there. We got some nice offerings. And honestly, you've been working your fingers to the bone.

[Michael Duncan]

Bone. So there's all that I saw the old man, you know, I was walking out last night and it was dark, and the old man was sitting there at his sewing machine, just putting together hats and things for the audience.

[Josh Holmes]

Was it the one where they. The pedal. Did he have the pedal going?

[Michael Duncan]

He did, yeah, he did the pedal. He had everything. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you can't, like, Lee has very high def cameras in here, but they're not high def enough for you to be able to see all the needle sticks in the old man's fingers. Yeah, he doesn't wear a thimble.

[John Ashbrook]

My hands look like this. So your hat can look great.

[Josh Holmes]

I absolutely love it. All right, fellas, with that, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think we did an absolute banger of an episode. Let's go to Hollywood hen.

[Tim Burchett]

Another banger of an episode, folks. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. Sa.