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- [00:00]
A
It's now day 40. Something into a department of Homeland Security shutdown which Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have insisted upon because of weeks old news that came out of Minnesota in January.
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B
Every one of these lines that you see across the TSAs is all because of Chuck Schumer terrified for his job.
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C
Why did, why do Democrats care about this? The reason is intimidation to stop deportations at all costs. It doesn't matter how violent the person may be. It doesn't matter what their intentions inside of this country may be. It doesn't matter if they are a part of like a sleeper cell inside of our country. Democrats do not want them deported. If Mohammed Atta himself were available for deportation, Democrats would say no, he should stay here.
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B
Why don't you just throw Schumer out? This is getting ridiculous. Stand up. Do something.
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D
The unearned confidence of a moron.
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B
Yeah, dude, that's her in space.
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D
Yeah.
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A
The unearned confidence of a mor is such a good way to put it.
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C
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. Tell Congress to guard your card. Visit guardyourcard.com to take action and learn more.
- [02:04]
A
I've worked at Coca Cola for 21 years.
- [02:07]
E
We're delivering Dr. Pepper from our brand
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C
new facility in Dallas, Texas.
- [02:10]
B
We're really proud to still make Pepsi products in America.
- [02:13]
A
You don't need a college degree to work here, but I put four kids through college by working here.
- [02:17]
D
This is a great place to work with great people and great American brands.
- [02:22]
B
Grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, they all depend on us. We deliver great paying jobs.
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E
We deliver beverages people love.
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A
We deliver for our community.
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F
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.
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B
Keep the faith, hold the line and own the lids.
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C
It's time for our main event.
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A
Well, if it isn't a good Thursday to all of you, welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with Comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook left to write across your radio dial. So listen, you've undoubtedly seen the news and you'd rather take a cargo ship out of Guyana than you would take your kids on spring break, have to go through the TSA line at your local airport. And it turns out all this was very, very foreseeable. It's now day 40. Something into a department of Homeland Security shutdown, which Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have insisted upon because of weeks old news that came out of Minnesota in January, essentially, and their objections to ICE enforcement and the deportation of criminal illegal aliens from our country. Now that is something, and believe me, I can sympathize if you're thinking about that and you're saying, well, I thought we had a national referendum on the issue of deportation of criminal illegals in 2024, November, where there was one party that sort of stood for that and the other one that let 25 million people into our country and we pretty decisively came down on the side of deportation. Well, Democrats have blown through all of that and they've gotten right back to their roots where they don't want enforcement of the border, they don't want enforcement, interior enforcement, and certainly not the deportation of any criminal law illegals, the Maryland man and like that.
- [04:26]
D
Well, I think it's important, you know, everyone has to make a sacrifice in these trying times. And just know when you're in those long lines on spring break with your screaming children, it's a small price to pay so Trenda Aragua can run human trafficking operations in our country. Everyone has to make a sacrifice.
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C
No, it's very clear that every 22 year old Uzbek who walked across the Mexican border during the Biden administration is just well meaning. Yeah, they're just looking for a 401k and a dental plan.
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A
Why won't somebody think about the trials and tribulations of the fentanyl traffickers who are operating?
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D
They wait in long lines all the time.
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A
That's exactly right. Sometimes overnight, if it must be. So here we are, where all of this has been well laid out, the arguments have been well laid out, and you just won't believe where they've landed on this whole thing. If you're confused about why this has come to fruition, we're going to clarify all of that here in the top of this segment. But don't be. Let me start with the premise of if there is anyone that you know who is confused about why this is happening to you, you need to be indignant about it because there is no confusion about why this has happened. I know there's a lot of people who don't follow the ins and outs in government. You don't listen to the ruthless variety program. You look at Republican majorities in the House and the Senate Republican administration. You have some inconvenience that's given to you by the federal government and you're like, well, these throw the bums out. I get it, believe me. But because of the way that our government is structured, there is a narrow minority in the United States Senate that can stop all of that. And it turns out because of the situation that we explained to you on Tuesday with Chuck Schumer's failing political standing amongst a progressive base, he's unwilling to do just the basics for government because he's afraid he's going to lose his job if he keeps the lights on in the Capitol. That's basically the sum and substance of it. And I will say, just as a preview, remember where we were last October? We had the longest government shutdown in American history. Think about that. You can go through the 60s, you can go through fricking slavery. We're talking about crazy times in American history. The longest government shutdown.
- [06:58]
C
Why? Because Democrats weren't satisfied that health insurance stock prices were good enough. They wanted to further subsidize health insurance companies in this country. The shutdown is over and not a single Democrat talks about health insurance anymore.
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A
No. We tried to sew this together for you a little bit on Tuesday where you had Bill Cassidy, who's the chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, Health, Education, labor and Pensions, where he's got oversight over health care. And Democrats were so insistent that we had a health care crisis back in October that they had to shut the government down for 43 days. They got nothing out of it. In the end, they just reopened the thing after destroying the paychecks of an enormous number of impeding upon our economic growth and everything else. And in the end that went away. We asked Bill Cassidy, how many Democrats have come up to you since that government shutdown was over and said, hey, this was a crisis. It's still a crisis. Let's do something about it. His answer on Tuesday that you all heard, nobody. Not a single Democrat, which is wild. Not a single Democrat. That crisis, they shut the government down for the longest period in American history and it didn't matter. They just gave away the game because they never followed up on any of it. All of a sudden it's not a crisis. And there you get the Theater of what it is that we're up to now. They decided at some point after the chaos in Minneapolis that there was enough public concern about the issue of ICE that they could listen to that 8 to 10% progressive pro Hamas base that they've got over in the Democratic Party and say that, like, despite the fact the American people want to deport criminal illegal aliens and like border security and all these things, we can now jump back in on that and make this the issue because we think we've got enough support of the American people to reopen borders and stop deporting people and whatever anybody else is doing. So it's worth the risk for us. We can placate that because there's enough people who are confused about who's doing what and therefore we're not concerned about the ramifications. Now, you would think as a well adjusted human being that when you go to a war with the largest state sponsor of terrorism that something like funding Homeland Security would be sort of important. Turns out that's why we founded the thing in the first place. After the 2001 terrorist attacks on 9, 11, not the case. That didn't move them an inch. All of a sudden you get people in like four and a half hour TSA lines and it's like, oh, now we just need to start pointing fingers. They don't even want to negotiate. They were not even concerned about whether that place was operating at all. Right up until their constituents were like, man, I can't take my kids to spring break. And now they're like, yeah, look what Trump's doing. It's really a shame. See, think about that. Like, these people are absolutely insane. So where does this thing, how has it gotten to the point where it's at right now? One of the most articulate voices on the Democratic side, Maxine Waters, was going to explain the opening offer from Democrats and clips out, we're after ice, we want ICE not to be funded, and
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G
if we can fund everybody else, that's
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A
the fair thing to do.
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B
Straight up.
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A
Now, this dumb fuck didn't realize something that fits your job to realize sensibly it is, but apparently she doesn't have any competent staff that they funded ICE at $75 billion level last year. Big, big increase because of the mandate the American people gave this president and an incoming Republican majority to do the things that they're doing. Out of that, I'm told by people in the administration and within Congress, they spent 9 or 10 of it. So there's $65 billion that are still operating budget of ICE. So the idea that you were defunding ICE is insane. That's just dumb. It's all political show right from the jump. They were never defunding ICE is funded, but it's the only thing in Homeland Security that's actually funded. Now, the administration's objections to what Democrats were talking about are not, like, in the funding component of this so much as it is they just don't want to have border security at all. So they don't want riders that are going along in appropriations bills that fund the rest of the government that say that you can't do things like, I don't know, take the rapist off the corner street. Like, yes, we want to be able to do that. We don't want you to tell us we can't do that. So they've, of course, thrown up walls to any negotiation about whether we're going to pin riders to this kind of thing. But all of that just showed up until the Democratic Party came to the conclusion that I just laid out for you, which is reality to anybody who's in government.
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C
Also, I think it's kind of wild that Maxine Waters is still out there making statements. I mean, I remember riding around in the car with my dad when I was a kid, listening to Rush Limbaugh play quotes from her.
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B
She's been dumb for a long time. I'm being serious. The financial crisis. She was weighing in with the dumb, dumbest takes. And I remember we'd be, like, watching news reports where they'd cut her, and she, like, does not understand the fundamental basics of anything.
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D
There is. There is something to be said, because I find it hilarious. The unearned confidence of a. Yeah, dude, that's her. And stage.
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A
The unearned confidence of a moron is such a good way to put it.
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C
It is.
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A
It is so true. Sadly true. If you're too dumb to understand how dumb you are. Yeah, man, you got a lot of arrogance about you.
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D
Yeah.
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C
But, fellas, if Democrats take the majority, she is in line to chair the House Financial Services.
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D
That's so funny.
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A
She's in charge of our nation's banking system. If you vote Democrats.
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D
I wouldn't give her a debit card.
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A
Oh, my God. You wouldn't hire this person to look after your kids. Piggy bank. Yeah, no, I mean, this is this. But I mean, she's like, defund ice. Defund, Defund. Like, she doesn't know that. They just pass the shit. That didn't. They can't.
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B
And she's Already funded.
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C
She's getting up there. I mean, the only thing silent about this woman is the generation she came from.
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B
That's pretty good.
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G
Hell yeah.
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B
Hell yeah, that's pretty good.
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C
Isn't it funny, though, isn't it funny though, that Rush Limbaugh was playing clips from her banger after banger in the 90s, and here she is still doing the same thing for us here on this show. Talent reloaned from God.
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A
All right, so Republicans listened to all of that and they were like, you want to defund ice? I guess they haven't carried the one and done the math on that. No problem. We'll move all the rest of it and we'll set the ICE thing aside. Happy to call your bluff on all that. And when they do, this is what happens. Clip 3 yes.
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G
Nope.
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A
Yes, there are Democrats that have signaled
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G
funding all of dhs, but stripping out the ICE funding.
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A
And that appears that that's the current
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G
offer from Republicans right now.
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A
I've spoken to Senator King and a number of other Democrats that have signaled
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G
that that would be enough to open the government.
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B
Why not do that today?
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A
Every one of my colleagues, everyone, A, believes that we should be unified and B, we need reforms of ice. Every single one.
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G
Yes.
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C
Look, we need specifically has what the
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A
White House offered on body cams.
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G
Is that enough?
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A
Look, you know what we've called for all along. I'm not going to get into specifics. Strong, strong reforms. Strong reforms. Strong reforms. Because remember, they said body cams and then all of a sudden body cam footage came out in Minnesota and it was like, oh, it totally exonerates the agents involved. And they're like, well, not. Maybe not, not the body cams. And they're like, what we want is them to take the masks off and you're like three months removed from activists left doxing ICE agents and murdering them. Remember this? I mean, this happened.
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B
That's what they want is they want the masks gone. So that this is what the left has basically made their MO over the past decade. Plus, you see it online, you see it with ice, where if they don't get their way, they will try to get someone fired, they'll try to ruin their life. They'll do anything in their power to ruin an individual who disagrees with them. That was the whole mob that, the woke mob that people were terrified for years that they will. They'll call your employer, they'll hound you, they'll ruin you. And that was the promise that they had. Of course, if you go against us, we will do that to you. And they've taken a step further where now they wanna know who these ICE agents are so they can hunt them down and do them harm. That's the whole reason they made this mass thing part of it.
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C
Yeah.
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D
Why would we ever let the people who celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk know these ICE agents names and their faces?
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B
Exactly.
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A
Why would you ever do that?
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C
Why do Democrats care about this? The reason is intimidation to stop Democrats deportations at all costs. It doesn't matter how violent the person may be. It doesn't matter what their intentions inside of this country may be. It doesn't matter if they are part of like a sleeper cell inside of our country. Democrats do not want them deported. If Muhammad Atta himself were available for deportation, Democrats would say, no, he should stay here.
- [16:55]
D
Yeah, it's true.
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A
Simply a flight school engineer.
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D
One other thing I noticed from that Schumer clip. Clip, which I think is interesting and sort of buttresses the argument we made with the Wall Street Journal piece from the Tuesday show is there was a question put into him about an offer made by Republicans and it was relayed by Senator Kaine.
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A
Yeah.
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D
What is the first thing Schumer says? A, All Democrats are united in saying we need reforms to ICE because he knows that. That he's in a tenuous position as leader in the Senate. And so the idea that there's Democrats within his conference who are getting a little squirrely. That's the hard part about his position
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A
because it unveils what he's actually concerned about.
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D
Correct.
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A
Which is our whole subject of Tuesday's episode. It's not. Notice he did. A and B. Yeah. A, All Democrats are unified. B, we need reforms to eyes. A, I'm concerned about my fucking job. B. Yeah. There's some shit that people want to do.
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G
Yeah.
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A
You know what I mean? Like, it's. It's. He just shows you exactly the political transparency and negligent behavior within his leadership and operating style before he tries to try to play a different game. Now, look, it's also possible to just be smart about shit. Right. And like, you look around, the Minneapolis thing wasn't great. Like, we've made the argument on this program that there was a mandate for the administration to go out and try to remove criminal illegal immigrants. It was double the fact in that you had a governor and a state administration within Minnesota that not only chose to not do that, but then chose to spend $8 billion of your tax money on Somali fraud that shipped your money overseas. And they weren't going to do anything about any of it. And so therefore, the administration chose in a very aggressive response. Now, in retrospect, you look at the way that that whole thing played out and the idea that you've got people storming through streets and doing raids and stuff like that. I mean, look, our country was founded at some level at a real healthy fear of government. And so people, reasonable people, see that, and even when they get the intent, they're a little uncomfortable with that. So what happens in the interim before this funding fight sort of gets going? But the shutdown already happened. Kristi Noem gets fired. The head of Homeland Security.
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C
Democrats, they've got their scalp. Reopen the department she got.
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A
In any other political universe, when you raise an issue that you're concerned about, that the majority of the American people agree that this is of some concern, and you're like, you know what? I'm gonna fire that person. That's it. Okay, there's your scalp. Let's move on. We're gonna operate in a different way. Markway Mullen, who comes in to replace, has good relationships with an awful lot of these people. In fact, he got Democrat votes in his confirmation. They know that they're operating differently. That's not the issue. The issue is Chuck Schumer's political standing. It's whether or not he can hold onto this. The same thing that we dealt with in October, if they come to you whenever Homeland Security reopens, it is not going to be dictated by Black Lives Matter. It'll be something along the lines of what the Trump administration is willing to. To do to get things back in running order. And there's enough Democrats that say, okay, Chuck Schumer's gonna take a fucking bath. All he's doing right now is prolonging
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D
the inevitable, prolonging the pain. What a box canyon he's walked himself into.
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A
But that's why you gotta get rid of leadership when you have this problem. Because they can't do the thing of serving the American people if they don't have the trust of their colleagues and the respect of the base of their political party. And he's gotten to a point where he's got none of it. Colleagues don't trust him, Evidenced by the Wall Street Journal story. Right? The progressive base hates him. They hated him for doing just passing a Biden budget. There's nowhere for him to go. So he has to take everyone hostage as a result of his own political standing. That's a hell of a thing.
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B
It's cowardice, and it's selfishness. And every one of these lines that you see across the TSAs is all because of Chuck Schumer. Terrified for his job. And the thing is that, like, he's so furiously trying to hold on to this job that his base hates him for that. In the end, they're gonna throw him overboard.
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G
They are.
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B
You know what I mean? Like, he's just delaying the inevitable. He's accomplishing Nothing. This is 100% just an ego project that he's willing, as many Americans need to suffer. Let him suffer for his own ego
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A
also, you know, for your Republicans out there. Go to the airport, throw up some hats.
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C
Yeah.
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A
Tell people about what's going on. Because, you know, look, Chuck Schumer is the reason for all this. But, like, Jon Ossoff could vote to get him out of there.
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C
He could.
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A
Jon Ossoff could say, you know what? Enough's enough.
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G
He could.
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C
He won't do it at any time.
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A
He could, and he won't do it. Neither will any of the other Democrats. They're hoping you don't even bring up their name.
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B
And that's the other thing. So Delta announced that they will no longer allow members of Congress to have the like, courtesy, like, shuttle them past all the, like, checkpoints kind of thing. And speaking of Jon Ossoff, who is in cycle and Delta, which is based out of Atlanta.
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C
That's right.
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B
If you see us off there, you ask him, let him know, why are you making this happen? Why don't you just throw Schumer out? This is getting ridiculous. Stand up. Do something.
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A
Do something.
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D
You know what? And no free beverages at the lounge. If you're a bartender at the. At the Delta Lounge at the Atlanta Airport and he comes up for the free wine or beer, don't give it to him.
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A
Don't give it to him. That son of a.
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C
He doesn't deserve it.
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A
It's incredible. So, look, we previewed a little bit of what we're gonna get into. But there is a motivation that's beyond Chuck Schumer's just political standing. And it is what it is that the modern Democrat actually stands for. And if you listen carefully, they'll tell you exactly what it is that they're going for here, right after this.
- [23:42]
F
American energy is growing with a renewed focus on American oil and natural gas. We're rebuilding our industrial strength and driving investment. Energy demand is rising, and the United States has the resources to meet it. Here's the challenge. If we can't build the infrastructure to move that energy, pipelines, transmission, lines and power plants, Americans won't feel the benefits. And while projects stall, China moves faster, not because America lacks energy, but because Washington's permitting system is outdated and broken. Energy officials Affordability depends on getting energy where it's needed, when it's needed. Yet critical projects remain stuck for years in delays and endless litigation. We have the energy. We have the workforce. Now it's time to build. Let's secure American energy leadership for generations to come. When America builds, America wins. Pass permitting reform now. Learn more@ permittingreformnow.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.
- [24:42]
E
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 more@netchoice.org keepappstores safe
- [25:41]
A
okay, so remember on Tuesday's episode we said that Chuck Schumer is just deathly afraid of the progressive base, but in particular that it's manifested itself in the United States Senate. From Chris Murphy, an otherwise totally unimpressive individual who's a senator from Connecticut has been there forever, but he's got enough personal ambition to rise above what is otherwise just a mound of molding white bread that is the Democratic conference in the United States Senate. No, I don't think I'm wrong about that. Basically what it's well said, basically what it is. And so Murphy has begun to articulate in some ways exactly what it is the Democrats are after here. Because remember, he's meeting with the progressive activists at La Chamier in Georgetown. That's right.
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C
Of course.
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A
He's the one that's meeting. Yeah, French toast. He's the one that's meeting with these people. That's really what it is that they're after. So occasionally he goes on TV and people ask him the question. Occasionally. And this is what he has to say. Clip 1 the negotiation didn't have a path to citizenship.
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G
It was entirely on their terms in
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A
order to get Ukraine fund.
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G
Right? Well, I Mean, Chris, that's been a failed play for 20 years. So you are right that that has been the democratic strategy for 30 years, maybe, and it has failed to deliver for the people we care about most to the undocumented, documented Americans that are in this country.
- [27:23]
C
Oh, whoa.
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A
Can we run that back? I felt like maybe I didn't catch the whole thing because there was a transition. He was talking about a failed strategy, which is, by the way, what happens in progressive politics when you're trying to oust people who you think are like your establishment. They've run failed strategy for 30, 40 years. Nothing's worked. We haven't gotten our way. So what we actually want and care about is, can we play that one more time?
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G
And it has failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country.
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C
Just straight up.
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D
That's so cool, man. You like. You, like, throw Democratic leadership under the bus and you're like, they get all the priorities wrong. If I was in charge, undocumented immigrants.
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A
But straight up.
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B
And to, like, not even fake it or muddle it. What we care about most is illegal aliens.
- [28:26]
A
Straight up.
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B
Just what we care about most in this country are illegals.
- [28:29]
A
Most.
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B
Straight up.
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A
But then, you know, you're like. Again, you know, sometimes you hear these clips, as in tv, sometimes you can fuck these things up. But you. You look and you rewind the tape on what it is that they've been up to. Their number one stance, other than this DHS thing, is to try to ensure that there aren't limitations on only Americans voting in American elections.
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D
Yeah. Yeah. Whether local law enforcement cooperates with ICE making heroes out of Abrego. Garcia is a Maryland man.
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A
Right.
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D
You know, like, it's a thematic across
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A
all of their policies.
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C
It's just a coincidence.
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A
Rewind the tape a little further. And remember the big census fight, Boy, they were up in arms with the idea that only American citizens were counted, not American census. And then it turns out you have a glance through the Constitution. It turns out like, you're an elected representative of the American people. You do take an oath to do that against powers foreign and domestic. And yet they see their job, primary function of their job to represent people who are not you. And I'm not. Dude. I'm not being. I'm not making that. He just told you.
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B
That's. It's complete insanity to say what is most important to us is illegals, not the safety of Americans, not the prosperity of Americans. He's laid it all out. Bear they care more about illegals than anything else. It's stunning and it's hard to believe, but that's the fact pattern we've seen.
- [30:06]
A
I feel like we're getting, I feel like we're getting lazy. Like we're not getting lazy on the ruthless variety program because we're bringing you these nuggets day after day of stuff that we're just seeing and we think are game changing type revelations when it comes to the motives of the Democratic Party. How hollow and vacant they are, how politically tenuous their leadership is perched amongst their own base and the impact that it's having on you on a day to day basis. Where the fuck is the echo chamber? What are we talking about? If you're a Republican anywhere in this country, how are you not talking about that? There should be an ad on every television across this country marrying up the three things that we just talked about in this show. You got Maxine, wanna defund ice? Well now we don't wanna defund ice, we wanna do stuff with, oh, here are your TSA lines. We're totally comfortable with that. We'll maybe negotiate a little bit more and we'll give like no urgency whatsoever. And then you get to the chase and it's this guy Chris Murphy saying actually what we care about the most. I'm not saying it. He said it. That's the quote. The most is undocumented immigrants. Why aren't you having a national discussion about that? I realize we've got Iran going on, but it is possible to chew gum and walk at the same time.
- [31:29]
C
Time.
- [31:30]
A
Where is the echo chamber on this shit? Like let's get aggressive about this because otherwise people are just going to come cave in the Republican doors. They're just going to come in and say I'm dissatisfied. Because honestly the whole goal of Democrats here is to make life as unlivable as possible. To try to show that Republicans can't govern effectively despite the fact that they're the ones responsible for it. And, and in the end, if you don't tell a countervailing story along the way, you're gonna get your doors beat in.
- [32:03]
B
That's it. So all of the Democrats behavior is basically geared towards, like Holmes said, making things as miserable for Americans. They want to cause as many problems, especially ahead of the midterms. So your average Joe voter walking into the voting booth, who hasn't seen the clip of Murphy being like, the people we care about most is illegal aliens. We decided where we stand on that when Trump won. Okay, so we know this is a winning issue. We need to talk about that. That should be blasted out there. We should make sure that there's no voter going into the midterms being like, you know, I voted for Trump and I've had to wait in TSA lines and all this crazy shit's happening. It's all 100% democrat obstruction trying to cause problems because they want voters to think Republicans can't govern.
- [32:56]
C
And we talked about earlier how Maxine Waters, if Democrats take the majority in the House as the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, Democrats after this election just might replace Chuck Schumer with Chris Murphy. So if you think things can't get worse out of Democrats in the Senate, buckle up, fellas.
- [33:15]
A
It can get worse.
- [33:16]
C
It can get much, much worse with a guy in his own words saying the most important people in this country are the illegals.
- [33:24]
A
I got news.
- [33:25]
C
Get the hell out of here.
- [33:26]
A
There ain't no white knight coming down that Democratic.
- [33:29]
C
There just isn't.
- [33:30]
A
They're just not. They're all insane. There is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. No, they're just not. They're all on board for the big win with that. And it wasn't so long ago that everybody had a very, very different view. Timu Obama, back in the Obama administration, similar situation came up with DHS and a funding mechanism and concerns about a potential shutdown at that time. Here's what he had to say.
- [33:55]
E
I thank the distinguished gentlelady from New York. We are here today to do a single job and that should be to fund fully the Department of Homeland Security. Anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. Anything else is an act of legislative malpractice simply because of the inability of my friends on the other side of the aisle to satisfy the thirst of the extreme right wing anti immigration base of the party. And so we're playing political games at a time when the safety and the security of the American people is being threatened.
- [34:36]
A
2015 and that was if the funding of the Department of Homeland Security didn't pass because Republicans at that point were concerned that the administration wasn't doing enough to enforce the borders. Now what a novel concept. Barack Obama looked like frickin Benito Mussolini compared to Joe. Joe Biden. Yeah, on the border. I mean, this guy, he drew a hard line. But Republicans understandably were concerned that the, they weren't doing enough at that point. And he was like, never mind all that. What's really important is the safety and security of the American people. He's literally wearing the identical shoes Remind
- [35:10]
C
me, were we at war with Iran in 2015?
- [35:13]
A
We were handing them pallets of cash. Yeah, we were handing them pallets of cash.
- [35:18]
C
It was important to fund the Department of Homeland Security when we were paying off the terrorists. And yet they want to shut it down when we're at war with them.
- [35:25]
A
Yeah. Which is also a little short sighted in that you use the pallets of cash to buy missiles that they then fired into Israel.
- [35:35]
G
Right.
- [35:36]
A
And attacked more Americans who were living abroad.
- [35:40]
D
Yeah.
- [35:40]
A
Which, you know, I don't.
- [35:42]
D
Well, I do have to say, though, Hakeem Jeffries seems a little more articulate in that clip than he does today. I have to think maybe being in leadership gives you some sort of CTE that could be the only explanation for his current state.
- [35:55]
A
He's got a little tighter haircut back then than he did does now. And I do feel like whatever the jaw mechanism that he's got, it's become more pronounced.
- [36:07]
D
Okay.
- [36:07]
A
You know, back then, you know, if you looked at his teeth, they're kind of like that. And now it's a little bit more like that where it's, it's more, it's more difficult to focus on the words coming out of his mouth because it kind of looks like, like a hypotenuse that's chomping down on a bottom jaw, which is, which is difficult to concentrate. I find it difficult.
- [36:29]
C
My guess is at that point in his career, he had no reason to have to talk to Eric Swalwell and Jasmine Crockett and people like that. And now they're in his office all the time complaining every single day. And that is probably the tick.
- [36:41]
A
The more Swalwell time, the greater the hypotenuse.
- [36:44]
C
That's right. I think that's it. It sort of presents like a stroke. Even if maybe he hasn't had a stroke, he sort of looks like the dad from Legends of the Fall all of a sudden.
- [37:04]
A
It's tough.
- [37:04]
C
I can't.
- [37:05]
A
I find it hard to concentrate. Yeah, I always have. Anyway, we got to get to your question. So when you're this week and basically all of Hack Madness, what we would like you to do. And we're going to break down where we're at with Hack Madness for our listeners who are just tuning in who haven't talked to in the last couple of weeks. Hack Madness, our big tournament, the biggest journalistic hacks in all of politics. And we run a big tournament and we'll get more into that, but we'd like you to continue to break down Your brackets, bracketology is a key point of March and ours in particular, I think brings the best out of our audience. And so when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we'd like you to break down your own bracket, give us the matchups that you're looking for, give us some predictions about what your final four would look like and be funny about it. Because in this one, we get back to you on Funtime Friday. So, you know, you got really, got to be kind of funny. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta be kind of funny to get it in there. And when we come back, we're gonna get your comments from last episode right after this. Okay. When you like and subscribe, and I mean, I'm not just saying that to be rhetorical about, like, this is the intro, like subscribe. That's how you get our stuff at the top of the sheet. Subscribe to this bad boy. But when you do and you leave a comment, we read absolutely all of them. Get back to the very next episode to do that. We always start with a voice.
- [38:34]
C
Okay, this first comment from lmb, and it's very good. And I just want to set the table and remind people of the Jake Tapper setup where he surrounded himself with all the different paper wings and bobbleheads and everything.
- [38:48]
B
And it was specifically like former failed presidential candidates.
- [38:51]
C
Yes, exactly right. Smug.
- [38:53]
B
He covered his entire office in former failed.
- [38:56]
G
The hall of Losers.
- [38:57]
C
So eagle eyed. LMB notes. I don't see Hillary anywhere on that ball, Jake. Oh, eagle eyed, eagle eyed. Very, very, very good. Good comment. And I'll tell you, LMB, I didn't see Joe Biden 2020 on the wall either.
- [39:13]
B
Nice, Nice. I like that.
- [39:17]
D
I can tell you why Hillary just
- [39:18]
A
out here jetted it up.
- [39:19]
D
I can tell you why Hillary's not on the wall. And it's because neither Jake nor Hillary herself could admit that she lost.
- [39:26]
A
Yep. No, that is true.
- [39:28]
D
The existential wound on our body politics
- [39:31]
A
we're still dealing with, with the ramifications.
- [39:36]
C
I will also add that Hillary's husband and Jake do share.
- [39:40]
B
My God, you're going to bring that up?
- [39:42]
C
Yeah.
- [39:42]
B
That's insane.
- [39:43]
C
They do. But we can move on to comment too.
- [39:45]
B
That's a bit much.
- [39:46]
A
Go on.
- [39:46]
B
It's a family program.
- [39:48]
D
Hold on. You can't just leave it.
- [39:49]
B
You don't know where this is going.
- [39:51]
A
I've got time.
- [39:51]
D
Oh, I know where it's going.
- [39:52]
B
Okay.
- [39:52]
A
Yeah, we've got all the time.
- [39:54]
B
It's a bit much.
- [39:54]
D
It's a bit, A little exposition for the audience.
- [39:56]
C
Are you familiar with a woman named Monica Lewinsky?
- [39:59]
D
Yes.
- [39:59]
C
Okay, well, President Clinton had some sort of a relationship with her.
- [40:04]
B
Depends on what your definition of is is. That's right.
- [40:07]
A
It does. It does. Well documented by the Star Report.
- [40:10]
C
And Jake Tapper has publicly revealed over many years that he also once was friends with Monica Lewinsky.
- [40:18]
A
Now that's a bit much. I do know what you're talking about. Did he ever reveal whether or not he had a similar experience?
- [40:27]
B
That's a bit much.
- [40:28]
C
I don't recall the specifics. He didn't, but I do know that,
- [40:33]
A
I mean, it's baseball season. He didn't reveal a base that he had.
- [40:36]
B
There's, there's families listening to this. And this is where you've taken the show.
- [40:40]
C
I do know that they, that their paths crossed at one point or another according to what he said.
- [40:46]
A
Was it around second base? Third?
- [40:49]
C
You know, again, we're going to have difficult. Yeah, we're going to have to go to the. We're going to have to go to the old politics reference.com manual to.
- [41:00]
B
You're gonna get an angry DM from Jake Tapper. Now that's what you've done here.
- [41:03]
A
Oh, for sure. But you already obtained that with the Tuesday episode. You're already, you're already halfway there. Not a lot. I mean, the Hack Madness tournament alone, the seating, I'm sure that somebody over here has heard about it.
- [41:15]
C
So Hillary may not like Jake.
- [41:18]
D
Okay.
- [41:19]
C
She might like him. I don't know.
- [41:20]
A
I just like a diversion. I mean, to be honest with you, he might have been helping out the cause.
- [41:25]
B
My God.
- [41:25]
C
Yeah, take it one for the team, you know.
- [41:28]
A
Well, the kind of gal that is interested in doing something like that with the President of the United States doesn't strike me as particularly shy about performing.
- [41:38]
D
Well, as you may recall, it was a, well, you know, publicized secret that they were getting awfully close. That's why they had to ship Monica Lewinsky over to dod.
- [41:46]
A
Oh, that was part of the reason. Vernon Jordan, if I recall, was the gentleman who took it upon himself to make such a move.
- [41:55]
D
What a great trip down memory lane.
- [41:57]
C
God rest his soul.
- [42:00]
A
What an incredible thing.
- [42:01]
B
He was right handed, right? Vernon Jordan.
- [42:03]
G
Oh, boy.
- [42:04]
A
We're going back to the Vince Foster.
- [42:07]
G
Vince Foster.
- [42:08]
A
Okay, okay, okay. I'm taking this. I'm taking control.
- [42:11]
D
I'm al haging this situation. Comment number 2. Comment number 2 is, is from Not Today, Not Today writes. When Jake said where we do actual journalism, I realized his office was a fictional place.
- [42:33]
A
That's good. That's good. Coming three smuggles from Dan James.
- [42:38]
B
It's just simply quote, hello, my fellow podcasters.
- [42:43]
C
Probably beautiful.
- [42:46]
A
Got to imagine that's Buscemi Gif.
- [42:48]
D
Yeah.
- [42:48]
C
Yeah.
- [42:49]
A
With the skateboard in high school.
- [42:51]
D
Yeah.
- [42:52]
A
Oh, my God, that's great. Our listeners are the absolute best. Remember, you get a like and subscribe. And when you do, we read absolutely all of them. Get back to you in the next episode. So we have to do an update on Hack Madness and where this whole thing stands, folks. If you're not into this and you haven't gotten into it anytime over the last six years, you just need to take five minutes to get your mind wrapped around it. Like, you hear it, you're like, hack madness. I don't know. Everybody makes a big deal out of it, but I don't know exactly what it is. So, like, I don't know. I got to move on because I'm just trying to get the news and have some yucks. You'll never get more yucks than you will at Hack Madness. I mean, this is the most fantastic thing of all time. Take 5 minutes of your day, look at, go back to that episode where we announced the seating, and we'll give you the reasons why it is that all these people are in this tournament. And then just watch the voting and how it unfolds on Smug's X account. I promise you it's enough entertainment for an entire month.
- [43:47]
D
And we take this incredibly serious here at the Ruthless Variety Program. The process of this entire thing is sacrosanct.
- [43:53]
G
It is.
- [43:53]
D
It's why we don't play King of the Hill during Hack Madness, because we don't want to put thumbs on the scale.
- [44:00]
A
You could tip the balance.
- [44:01]
D
We don't want to influence the voting.
- [44:03]
A
And we have found over the years that people who are just sort of reoccurring topics on the Ruthless Variety program tend to go a little further because it's deep lore.
- [44:12]
D
There's a lot of deep lore.
- [44:14]
A
So you have to be particularly careful at this excruciating moment in time for each of these huge teams to try to get through the bracket. Not to put your thumb on this, right?
- [44:27]
C
By the same token, I don't think we're shy about providing our own observations. For example, in the way to online bracket, there's a Cinderella story I've been watching ever since the playing game, and that's Olivia. But in this round of 32 in the early voting, it appears maybe the slipper does not fit. Keith Olbermann Is out to a very, very early lead and it could be the end for her.
- [44:52]
G
Hold on, I just wanna.
- [44:53]
A
I just wanna. I just wanna stop and compliment the genius.
- [44:57]
D
Yeah, we got Jay Bilas over here
- [44:59]
A
of the bracketeers and the people who put the seatings together.
- [45:03]
C
Yeah, the committee knew what they were doing.
- [45:04]
A
What you're telling me and I didn't realize until this very moment is that the play in game in which Olivia Nuzi played against Ryan Lizzo.
- [45:13]
C
That's correct.
- [45:14]
A
Which we've covered extensively on this program she won. She then had to face the number one seed SV date she handily defeated. You're telling me her next matchup is the ex boyfriend before Ryan Lizzo, round of 32. So she's had to go through a lover's lineup.
- [45:32]
C
She sure has.
- [45:32]
A
In order to get to the switziest sweet spot.
- [45:34]
C
But it appears that Olbermann is just dominating her right now.
- [45:37]
A
Is that right?
- [45:39]
C
Maybe it doesn't hold. You know, maybe she's got votes coming in at the end that she's sort of pulling together. But she may not advance this week.
- [45:47]
A
Before the rest of us get into the matchups that we're watching, I do want to bring up the history of this in graphic two. These are the former champions of Hack Madness. 2020 was just a banner year for the potato. Brian Stelter. He was a force to be reckoned with. He was a champ. Being a fake news. He was the one that was an arbiter of what is real and what is not. Of course, whatever he said was real was not and whatever he said was not was real. But that's why he was the 2021 champion. Jen Rubin then went back to back. She was at the Washington Post at the time and that's why she's the queen. That's why I don't think that there has been a singular figure that has had as much force in this tournament as she has had now. Of course she's not a part of this year's field.
- [46:34]
C
Yeah, she hasn't been back and. And she sort of looks like the Indiana Hoosiers under Bobby Knight. Those were the big days when they won all the time. Bob Knight leaves, of course she leaves the Washington Post all of a sudden she's not in the tournament anymore. And I think that those banners will stay, but her name may not return.
- [46:51]
A
Let's pop it back up because you recall Taylor Lorenz had a real run in 2023. She was also at the Washington Post at the time. Had worked over from the New York Times, where she was fashioning herself as a sort of a young Gen Z type person who is of course a Gen Xer herself. But she would go to parties, wear a mask, tell everybody that they were incredibly irresponsible for passing on Covid two and a half years after we'd proven that all the things that she's talking about didn't work. And then promptly forced into the public domain this progressive nonsense that was completely just shy of something you would institutionalize a family member for in the pages of the Washington Post. And people were onto that. So she just sailed through the brackets. She did. What's interesting about the matchup that you showed with Olivia Newsy and Keith Olbermann is that Keith Olbermann has long been gone from mainstream media, long fired from msnbc, long fired from. From espn. But he maintains, what a substack or something like that. And occasionally there are people like Megan Kelly or whatever, like read the things that he's writing and like surface. So as a name that you hear and you see some of his stuff on X, but he's largely irrelevant and Queen Pop.
- [48:10]
B
So the graphic again, if you look at it, it also tells a story of the media landscape. Where you see 2020, 2021, 2022, that's Stelter. And then back to back, Ruben, that was pretty much. And then even Taylor Lorenz, who was at the Washington Post in 2023 when she won. That was pretty much like the peak of the mainstream media.
- [48:30]
A
Cnn Post, Post, Post.
- [48:32]
B
And then they started to have their downfall where like you could have a sub stack and pop up like Keith Olbermann in 2024. So Jen Rubin, part of her problem is she kind of like peaked too early. Like a substack now would get you more notoriety. You're working for these like made up kind of like publications that are out there. Like that bald guy. What's his. The former Daily Caller guy who's now lost his mind. Darcy. Darcy. What's the name of his rag? Statue.
- [49:03]
A
Nobody knows Stats.
- [49:04]
B
So they all make up their publications
- [49:05]
A
before you know that.
- [49:06]
B
Yeah, well, so I'm a learned man. I'm the guy who has to hold journals accountable. Ashbrook doesn't know how to do that one bit. But anyway, so the story is. Then you have. In 2025, it was essentially Margaret Brennan because, I mean, she made a name for her show. She distinguished herself by just being deranged on the morning show and getting dunked on in the process. Like everyone remembers the J.D. vance dunked on.
- [49:28]
A
She also had a high profile debate. I mean, there were many occasions for her to be in the center of the media universe where everybody could see with their own eyes how insane this is. She is right.
- [49:40]
C
But I think you make a good point about the advent of substack. It's sort of like the advent of nil. And if you look back at some of the players from yesteryear, like Len Bias would have been paid millions of dollars. Shaquille o', Neal, millions of dollars by today's standards. However, today's standards pay guys who are not quite as good as them, money that those guys couldn't have ever earned. And so it's a little bit of a different dynamic. I'm telling you that you are exactly right. If Jen Rubin had a substack and grew in today's standards, she probably would still be in the tournament.
- [50:14]
A
All right, let's get some breakdowns because we're now through the first round and we're into the second round. Fellas, what are you looking at?
- [50:21]
B
Can we get the bracket up on screen? There it is. One match I want to highlight early was you had Nicole Wallace versus Jen Psaki. And of course you go to my ex account at comfortably Smug. I have it pinned right at the top to vote. But you look at the Nicole Wallace, Jen Psaki that came down. Yeah, Nicole Wallace won that one with 50.4% of the vote. Jen Psaki lost with 49.6.
- [50:48]
A
Well, it's like less than 100 votes.
- [50:50]
B
Yeah, every single vote matters, folks. Yeah, every single vote matters.
- [50:54]
A
Yeah.
- [50:55]
G
Yeah.
- [50:55]
D
I mean, the one that I want to highlight here in this second round is Anderson Cooper against Natasha Bertrand.
- [51:02]
A
Also looks like a real nail biter. You're talking about a household name, right? Versus somebody who's a proven beyond your wildest dreams hack.
- [51:11]
D
Right.
- [51:12]
A
And this is where the balance comes.
- [51:13]
D
Well, you just took what I was going to say, but.
- [51:16]
A
Yes, but isn't this. I mean, I mean, but this is what we. This is what we try to talk about when we talk about, like, the Aaron Blakes.
- [51:23]
G
Yeah, right.
- [51:24]
D
I mean, it's. You see here a constant thematic of like, people with long runs in television careers and then people who actually put out insane no stuff all the time but just are not that well known.
- [51:36]
F
Yeah.
- [51:37]
C
You know, one of the things I'm watching develop is in the establishment bracket and it is not the round of 32. It's the potential Sweet 16 face off between Stephen Colbert and Bill Kristol, who is the biggest clown who can actually win that. I. Dude, I think that there is such a bias in our audience toward the contestants for King of the Hill that I think Crystal has a shot against Colbert. However, Colbert has played this season not dissimilar to how Margaret Brennan played in 2023.
- [52:10]
A
I agree with you.
- [52:11]
C
And so I think that that is the matchup of this next round.
- [52:14]
A
To put an adaptation that is not dissimilar from the. From the observation that you were making. Duncan is the one that I'm looking at is Abby Phillip and Jim Acosta. Right. Where there's not necessarily a huge discrepancy in overall notoriety. But OGs have a special reverence for Jim Acosta and he is now doing nothing.
- [52:36]
B
He's doing nothing.
- [52:36]
D
And I think it's so much of our media landscape now isn't actually watching these failed shows that get no ratings. It's the clips they produce.
- [52:45]
A
Yeah.
- [52:45]
D
And so in that context, somebody like Abby Phillip is going to be a rock star in this tournament.
- [52:50]
B
And it's. That's a hilarious thing is like Abby Phillip is insanely dumb and terrible, but Scott, dunking on her non stop has given her a name like she would not exist were it not for Scott.
- [53:02]
C
But she's.
- [53:03]
A
She's got it.
- [53:03]
C
She's got a difficult road to the final four. I mean, if she gets past Jim Acosta, she's probably facing off against Brian Stelter in the next round.
- [53:11]
A
You got to go through a murderer. I mean, I'm just saying. Acosta, for the. Our audience special reference.
- [53:19]
C
Right.
- [53:20]
A
You know, it's like going against a blue blood. A Notre Dame or a.
- [53:25]
C
Right. That's right.
- [53:25]
A
Alabama.
- [53:26]
C
That's right.
- [53:26]
A
That kind of thing. Costa, by the way, I think was in one of the fine two of the finals.
- [53:31]
B
Yeah.
- [53:32]
A
Of our.
- [53:32]
B
Yep. He's never been able to close it out.
- [53:34]
A
Never been able to close it.
- [53:35]
C
Never bride.
- [53:37]
A
Yeah, that's right. So tell us, remind us of the schedule here on Thursday. What are we looking at? You posted up.
- [53:45]
B
It has been posted. And as you are listening to this, voting is underway. You want to go to X? Go to my profile at Comfortably Smug. And it is pinned right at the top. You just start voting. They're all lined up one after the other.
- [53:59]
A
You know what I'd like in addition to your just prognostications when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program, some ideas of championship merch. Just throw it in there because nobody needs a championship T shirt. We haven't done that in the Ruthless Friday program. We'll have to consult our attorneys to make sure. That name, image, likeness are all, you know, in coordination for what we can do. But throw out some ideas because I feel like we should do that.
- [54:26]
C
Maybe like a video that goes up right afterwards. Abby Phillip fans, she has won the championship. Now get your Sports Illustrated video.
- [54:36]
D
Remember, we're gonna have to produce that.
- [54:38]
A
The sources tipped we do a one shining moment rip off.
- [54:46]
D
Dude, that would be electric.
- [54:48]
A
It would be electric. We should maybe think about that.
- [54:50]
D
Yeah.
- [54:51]
G
Okay.
- [54:51]
A
So we're very excited about this interview. Good friend of the program, Senator Pete Ricketts. The great state of Nebraska.
- [54:58]
F
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- [55:27]
A
Let's go. I want to welcome the program, a good friend of the program. You've heard him here at least a couple of times. Senator Pete Ricketts. How are you, sir?
- [55:36]
G
I'm doing great. Thanks very much for having me on.
- [55:38]
A
The first time you were on, you were a governor.
- [55:40]
G
Governor. Yeah.
- [55:41]
C
Yeah.
- [55:41]
A
And now you're senator. And I just have to ask you before we get into all the other stuff, is it a lot of fun up there?
- [55:49]
G
It is a lot more fun being in the majority than the minority.
- [55:52]
A
That's right.
- [55:52]
G
I'll tell you that.
- [55:53]
A
That's fair.
- [55:53]
G
Minority kind of sucks. And majority is a lot of fun. Except for the Democrats. That's just going to say, you know,
- [55:58]
A
like, just looking around the level of insanity that you guys have to deal with on the Democratic side because, you know, I mean, look, the Senate has to work at some level in a bipartisan function in order to do anything. But you're dealing with folks who are like, yeah, no, I'm totally comfortable with people standing in six hour TSA lines because if headlines that happened six weeks ago. And my progressive base, which is like 8% of the American public, feel strongly that I do this or else I get thrown out of office. And is there an ability to reason at all with these folks?
- [56:34]
G
It feels like they've kind of lost their minds.
- [56:36]
A
It has.
- [56:36]
G
Right. And I think it's more driven by their leadership. Yeah, I agree, Schumer. Than maybe people like Chris Coons or Peter Welch.
- [56:45]
C
Right.
- [56:47]
G
And just this funny of DHS. Let's just talk about this. Right. Like, for over 30 days, they would not even meet face to face. To talk to us. Because Schumer just wanted the chaos. Yeah, right. Like, and he doesn't care about the TSA agents. He says he does, but doesn't really care, or else he would have met with us face to face right before a month was out.
- [57:06]
C
Right.
- [57:07]
A
Totally.
- [57:08]
G
So he's just totally hypocritical when he talks about these things because he's like, I just had to listen to on the floor today going on and like, well, you know, the Democrats are trying to pay tsa. I'm like, no, you're not. No, you're not. If you had been trying. And we're willing to meet at a moment's notice. No, you weren't. You went 30 days, more than 30 days before you even would sit down and talk to us. Right. We're on day 40 now. And the first time they met with us was last Thursday, face to face. I mean, they refused to take meetings. And it just like. And then we actually had a deal that Schumer agreed to. We took it to the White House. Wasn't me, it was my colleagues. Like, Kitty Britt took the White House. President signed off on it, brought it back, and Schumer said, no, I changed my mind. Change my mind. Not going to do it. Geez, they're moving the goalposts. How can you deal with somebody like that whose whole negotiating strategy is not to agree to anything again? It just gets back to. Do you just want chaos? And think about this. Homeland Security, this is the department supposed to keep us safe, set up after 9, 11. We've got a conflict in the Middle east right now. Totally right.
- [58:13]
A
Against the largest state sponsor of terrorism.
- [58:15]
G
Exactly. And think about this. They've already launched a cyber attack on us. The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency that is supposed to protect us from these kind of Things has 2,000 people, except 1,200 of them are laid off right now. They're furloughed because of the shutdown. So we're undermanned. Like, what does Schumer want? Does he want to, like, what's it going to take? A terrorist attack, TSA walking off the job. And we've lost, I think, over 300 TSA agents because they can't afford this. They live paycheck to paycheck. I mean, he's putting Americans at risk. He's putting people in my state of Nebraska at risk, all for his Political chaos for his political gain.
- [58:53]
D
So, Senator, I'm curious, because we saw some recent reporting out of the Wall Street Journal about this sort of infighting within Schumer's conference. A lot of people doubting his ability to lead Senate Democrats. I'm curious, you know, because you're inside, do you sense some discontent within their ranks with how he's prosecuted this whole shutdown?
- [59:14]
G
The Democrats are very good at presenting a public face of unity. They are way better at it than we are. So I don't see it so much directly. Right.
- [59:24]
E
Yeah.
- [59:25]
G
That's why I'm talking to some of the other members. You get the feeling, first of all, that Schumer doesn't even really share anything with them. That's the first thing. And. But they are very good about just keeping all their members in lockstep. And frankly, part of it is I think Schumer can punish them more. And frankly, they also punish their own members more. There's a social thing goes on in the Democrats caucus that they just, you know, this is why Manchin's not there. It's why Cinnamon's not there.
- [59:46]
A
Yeah, they endorse against each other. Like, just. I mean, they.
- [59:49]
G
Yeah, they go after them. They go after their own. Right now, we need to do a better job on our side of being more unified. Certainly, we've got opportunities to do a better job, but I think the Democrats. One thing they do do is they stick together and present that united front, even if they're fighting internally.
- [60:04]
C
I want to ask you how all this is translating into Nebraska, and this is a state that you have traveled year after year for a very long time. And are people more interested in talking about the economy, more interested in safety? Are they concerned about this DHS shutdown? What are you hearing mostly from people that you're talking about?
- [60:24]
G
Well, I would say that one, you know, the whole rule, if you're explaining you're losing, and people look at it and just say, well, you guys got the White House, the House and Senate. How come you can't fix this?
- [60:33]
A
Yeah, that's a problem.
- [60:34]
G
So that's a problem. So I think we actually get our fair amount of blame for this, which is kind of a problem, especially among.
- [60:39]
A
It might be the whole intent.
- [60:40]
G
Well, that's exactly what Schumer's intent. This is why he wants the chaos. I think if Schumer could take this all the way through the election, he would totally do it. So that's part of it. What people really are concerned about, though, is, hey, we had 40 year high inflation under Joe Biden. Right. And prices went up 20%. And it's still no fun to go to the grocery store. That's what Nebraskans are talking to me about is like, you know, inflation went up and it still, like, sucks to go and, you know, go to the grocery store. And, you know, we saw some progress. Gas prices came down from there. High. You know, it was like almost 5 bucks a gallon or Joe Biden average. Now it came down and, you know, what's going on around right now, it's going back up again. But people saw some relief there. They saw some relief from housing prices, but rent mostly right. Coming down because frankly, illegal immigrants were deporting themselves. So that was actually relieving some pressure on rents. But they were still going. It still sucks to go to the grocery store. And that's what really most people are talking to me about is those pocketbook issues.
- [61:37]
A
Yeah, I want to get to that because, look, I'm not laying blame on anybody's feet because there's a dynamic atmosphere. Obviously, we're dealing with all kinds of different.
- [61:46]
G
I'll blame it on the Democrats.
- [61:48]
A
No, I feel like that's Right. But look, when you were governor, you laid out a very clear mission of the things that you wanted to accomplish, efficiencies in government, making the economy in Nebraska work for everybody, that kind of thing. And then you would just systematically just beat that in, not only from a policy perspective, but from a messaging perspective. Everybody knew what you were up to. Right. You get into the Senate, obviously you're one voice amongst a Republican conference and a larger Republican Congress, and then you've got the White House. How much of that economic argument do you feel like is sort of being lost and that you have a story to tell? Just not everybody's got the same bumper sticker to tell the story at this point.
- [62:33]
G
I would say one of the other issues is the national media's refusal.
- [62:37]
A
Good point.
- [62:38]
G
To cover a lot of this stuff. Right. It really is. Like, again, one of the things I've been trying to break through the clutter with is the fact that, again, just what I told you. Schumer wouldn't even meet face to face for over a month.
- [62:49]
A
Yeah.
- [62:49]
G
Have you seen that covered anywhere? No, no, no, of course not. Right. No.
- [62:53]
A
I feel like he broke.
- [62:54]
G
It doesn't fit in the narrative of the national media to say, oh, gosh, the Democrats must somehow be a. Like they're. They totally don't even want to say that. He was unwilling to even have a conversation about a negotiation.
- [63:04]
A
There was also, hilariously, I just saw on Fox last night, a juxtaposition of somebody who had been in line in Houston airport for six hours and he's standing there doing an interview and he's just like fit to be tied, obviously, as everybody would be. And then they flash to Chuck Schumer who's like, they submitted a proposal. We'll take a look at it. We'll probably send them a counter proposal. Like no sense of urgency whatsoever.
- [63:32]
G
Right.
- [63:32]
A
And I feel like if we were to do something like that with somebody standing in a six hour line, hard to believe it wouldn't be the front page of every newspaper in the English speaking world.
- [63:43]
G
Absolutely. Again, the bias in the national media is incredible. Terrible. It's absolutely terrible.
- [63:49]
A
It kind of doesn't matter where you're from. I mean, we all have our local parochial arguments with our newspapers and whatnot. But you get up here, I mean, it's just. It's on steroids.
- [63:57]
G
Yeah, it's very different. Yeah. I do a weekly press call with Nebraska media and it's a much different kind of conversation.
- [64:04]
A
They want to know what you're doing.
- [64:05]
G
Yeah, we talk. I mean, we hit some of the national topic issues too, but I'm talking about like I introduced a bill to help protect American farmland from Chinese communists buying it. So that's how I let off my press call this week.
- [64:17]
A
Yeah.
- [64:17]
G
About. So I'm talking about some of this, you know, I start off my calls talking about the stuff that I'm introducing that's going to. The Nebraskans are going to care about.
- [64:23]
A
Yeah.
- [64:24]
G
You know, that kind of thing.
- [64:25]
D
So. So tell me more about this in the campaign itself. I know you've got an opponent here, this independent.
- [64:31]
A
Oh, he's a fake independent fan.
- [64:32]
G
Osborne.
- [64:33]
D
Yeah.
- [64:33]
G
Fake independent, Right. Yeah.
- [64:34]
D
So tell me a little bit about this cat.
- [64:36]
G
Okay, so this is another thing. The Democrats are better at us than us. They think about states like Nebraska, these red states, and say, don't just say, hey, we're gonna exceed that one. They're like, well, how can we maybe change the rules to win this one? They've done this. So they started actually in 2024 with running these fake independents and they started with Deb Fisher. So they were very smart about it. First of all, there's a marijuana party in Nebraska. And so they knew that if there was a marijuana party candidate on the ballot, it would only draw away from their independent and not from Deb Fisher.
- [65:06]
D
I gotta say, I'm shocked. The potheads are that Organized.
- [65:10]
A
Well, when the Democrats are doing it for you, all you gotta do is sign a piece of paper, right? Sure.
- [65:16]
G
Well, like I said. Well, I was gonna say they're kind of libertarians who like to smoke marijuana. Anyway, so there's a marijuana party and there's the real candidate. And then the Democrats run this fake marijuana party candidate who they spend like, I don't know, $30,000 on something. I mean, there's like a thousand people voting in the marijuana party primary. I think it's a low number. So they don't have to spend a lot of money. They get their candidate elected and then he drops out before ballots are printed.
- [65:44]
A
Ah.
- [65:45]
G
And so the marijuana party can't get a new person on. And they did that on purpose because they knew it would hamper them. Then their independent cavity, this fake Dan Osborne guy, he waits until pretty much the last moment to file his signatures and runs like a 10 week race and the Democrats dump $38 million holy gas into his campaign. Okay, so I was up for a special election in 2024. I spent a little over five, which is kind of what you expect to spend race in Nebraska in a normal year. So just think about how much more money that was.38. $38 million.
- [66:17]
A
I don't even know how you figured it out.
- [66:18]
G
Schumer maxed out to him from the Democrat Senatorial Committee and then gave him nearly $4 million more to a PAC supporting him. And then Dan Osborne goes, well, I don't know who Chuck Schumer is like really. You know, you don't know who your largest donor is.
- [66:30]
A
Stroked a pretty big check for somebody.
- [66:32]
G
You don't have another guy because he gave a lot of money.
- [66:35]
A
I want more friends like that.
- [66:38]
G
I'm sure he never asked you for anything. 95% of Osborne's voters came from outside the state of Nebraska. There are places like Washington, dc, New York, California, that sort of thing.
- [66:49]
A
Yeah.
- [66:50]
G
And one of the things that was really, that really helped Deb out was the fact that Trump was on the ballot.
- [66:54]
A
Yeah.
- [66:54]
G
And there's a number of Trump voters, and this is what we have to crack as Republicans is get those people out in non presidential years. But there's a bunch of Trump voters that only show up in presidential years and Deb benefited from that. So that's one of the things that helped her. She ended up winning by about 60,000 votes. So. Which in Nebraska is only not that much compared to what it probably ought to have been.
- [67:13]
A
Yeah.
- [67:14]
G
So now we come to my election cycle here in 20, 26 midterm, and they're doing the same thing. So they've got a real marijuana party candidate and a union guy who happens to be the state employee union head when I was governor for a couple years. And but by the way, he's always been pro marijuana and he gets on and then the marijuana party calls him a Dan Osborne plant. So they're onto it. They know that this guy is a fake marijuana party guy that is going to probably drop out. And then the Democrats are, they endorsed Dan Osborne last year and try to keep the field clear. So some pastor from western Nebraska files on the last day. And so the Democrats run a party person down there to file as well so they can have again make sure that there's not just one Democrat that would automatically get through the primary. And then she says the quiet part out loud. She says, well, I'll drop out if the pastor drops out and if I win, then I'm going to drop out and support Dan Osborne. So she's just acknowledging it's all a setup, it's all a fake.
- [68:22]
A
Imagine having to go through all that jiu jitsu in a democracy to just sort of try to win.
- [68:28]
C
Well, it's because they know their ideas don't sell.
- [68:30]
A
They're terrible.
- [68:31]
G
Not Nebraska, they don't.
- [68:32]
D
Yeah.
- [68:33]
C
Nobody in the Midwest believes a single thing that these Democrats are saying. Especially now. I mean, maybe 20 years ago they had some points when every, both parties were trying to do different, you know, take different paths to the same goal. Yeah, not today.
- [68:47]
A
Not today.
- [68:48]
C
They are, it's unrecognizable their party right now. I just, I really wonder, Senator, if you think, and I know that you watch the map, you're laser focused on Nebraska, but I know you watch the rest of the country. I. Do you think that there's any hope for to real Democrats back into sanity
- [69:09]
G
or until they start losing on a consistent basis? I don't believe so because their far left wing is so loud and drives so much of the narrative on their side. I know there's lots of normal Democrats that don't feel the way that they're extreme.
- [69:24]
A
You're running into Nebraska and everywhere.
- [69:26]
G
Yeah, but you're running to Nebraska. Like, you know, for crying out loud, I'm gonna show you a couple stories. So like we have a county attorney in Douglas county who was a Democrat. And then we had the George Floyd riots. Sadly, we had a writer who was killed by a business owner who was defending his property. I'm not gonna excuse the business owner. For what he did. But the county attorney said, I don't have enough evidence to prosecute. Yeah, but I'm open to a grand jury. Well, the Democrats went and protested this guy for 30 days in a row out front of his house.
- [69:58]
A
Of course.
- [69:59]
G
Yeah. And so. And so he's like, okay, I'm becoming a Republican. So he switched parties and then won the county as a Republican. Right. In our biggest city, Omaha.
- [70:08]
A
Yeah.
- [70:08]
G
We had the head of the police union, president of the police union, was a Democrat. And then the Democrats cut up a pig, put a police hat on the head of the pig, dropped all the body parts in front of the police union's headquarters.
- [70:23]
D
Jeez.
- [70:24]
G
Yeah, like, just crazy stuff. And of course, that police union head said by one of our county parties, like, I'm re registering as a Republican. Yeah, right. Because it's like they're driving. Like they're driving their own people out.
- [70:36]
A
Totally.
- [70:37]
G
So at some point, when they lose enough, hopefully they'll realize that actions like that, that are driven by a small minority of the Democrats really don't represent, certainly not Nebraska, the vast majority of Democrats. And then if you keep losing, doing those sort of things, you have to change what you're doing.
- [70:54]
A
What has struck me about in particular, your story about all the filing jiu jitsu that was done to try to make your race competitive when it otherwise.
- [71:05]
G
And by the way, again, so with Dan Osborne run, this is fake independent. It's a competitive race. Yeah, I mean, it's competitive. It's just me and him.
- [71:12]
B
Yeah.
- [71:12]
G
That's why they're trying to keep these other people out.
- [71:13]
A
Yeah. But what struck me about that is if you're willing to go through, like, five layers of filing and removing your name from a ballot and then tossing 38 million in and then moving the chess pieces, one thing or another, like, you're obviously trying to game the system. You know, you can't win a model, a manual race, so you've got to, like, kind of work that. Which again, I think brings me back to the SAVE act, which I know you guys have been working on, but Again, you got 83% of the American public who believe that voter ID is
- [71:45]
G
a darn good idea passed in Nebraska. 65. 35.
- [71:48]
A
Right, 65. 35. And undoubtedly was heavily lobbied against on both sides by your progressive left.
- [71:58]
G
He's not done anything to hurt voter turnout, by the way, in any of these states. Of course not. Turns out just about everybody has to get an ID anyway.
- [72:06]
A
Yeah, it turns out. I mean, how can we be More concerned about underage drinking than we are about the sanctity the ballot in the American.
- [72:13]
G
Yeah. So on this, let me just tell you. So we obviously have been trying to get this passed. We've been trying to do what we call unanimous consent. Right. And so we put it up for unanimous consent. The Democrats object. You know what they put up as a counter? A unanimous consent motion to ban voter ID all across the country. Oh, are you kidding me? 36 states have voter ID, including 21 that have Democrat representatives to ban, and they want to ban it. So their alternatives, like, not like, well, let's find a more reasonable. No, we want to ban the whole darn thing. Yes.
- [72:45]
A
Congressional staff. You used to spend, like your. All your days and nights trying to figure out a way to mitigate the pain on something. They're like, now just go
- [72:55]
G
Schumer again. Schumer went on the floor, and this is what he's so disingenuous said, well, we're not against voter id. So what was their other proposal for voter id? Well, it was allowing for types of id, like a utility bill, any piece of mail just had your name on it.
- [73:11]
A
Maybe a library card.
- [73:13]
G
Well, at least a library card would verify your residence. Right. But there's no picture on it.
- [73:17]
D
Right, Right.
- [73:18]
G
So, like, it was all sorts of things like that. It was like, library card. I mean, that library card would actually be a higher end of what they were proposing.
- [73:25]
A
It's like, how about we get a form of verification in which the 25 million people we let into the country could immediately qualify for debit card was
- [73:34]
G
one of the things, right? Debit card. Photocopies of a debit card. Let me ask you this. Why don't you try to get on a plane with a photocopy of your debit card? Yeah, let's let you on with that. I don't think so.
- [73:43]
D
Do you ever think to yourself, like, a lease.
- [73:45]
G
That was another thing, too. If you got a lease, you can do that lease that's got your address on it.
- [73:48]
D
Do you ever think to yourself, man, what a line of work. Because we had your brother in here.
- [73:54]
A
You're like, hey, bud, we had your brother in here.
- [73:55]
G
We just got to talk basics.
- [73:57]
A
Ball.
- [73:57]
G
There's a reason why. There's a reason why I don't have any hair. And he does.
- [74:02]
A
It's such a good point. I've thought this for years that you guys sit around like the Thanksgiving table, and you're like, you son of a. He's like, yeah, you know, we're Working with pitchers and catchers, and you're like, I gotta work with Chuck Schumer. I mean, it has to be something.
- [74:21]
G
Well, I just hope there's a. A better place for me in heaven that God's got to work a little harder.
- [74:26]
D
There we go.
- [74:27]
A
Maybe there's a hierarchy of figs of, you know, you've produced for the public good in some way.
- [74:33]
G
Although the Cubs, you can make an
- [74:34]
C
argument, depends on how Boyd pitches on.
- [74:37]
A
That's exactly right. I mean, you've had a heck of an experience in politics. I feel like we've been talking about this a little bit in that it's a little bit more divorced from reality than any time that I remember. You know, we used to have horrible partisan arguments. And you can trace back all the way to 60s, obviously before that, where there's just elements of just chaos in our political debate. But never before do you just have no acceptance of the same level of facts about things.
- [75:09]
G
Actually, that is a great point. And that's a part of it, too, is that people listen to their own media. And so some of the stories that are out there, you know, my sister's a Democrat, and so I'll bring up something. And she's like, when did that happen?
- [75:21]
A
Never heard that.
- [75:22]
G
Never heard it.
- [75:22]
A
Yeah.
- [75:23]
G
Because, like, just one example, she's like, oh, you know, Trump is releasing oil from the strategic reserves.
- [75:30]
A
Yeah.
- [75:30]
G
I'm like, you mean like when Biden did it? And she's like, what do you mean Biden did it? I'm like, yeah, he did it, too.
- [75:35]
A
Like, they would do it every summer driving season. Yeah, you remember that? It was like, for the last 50 years, we've had the exact same bar graph about what happens during summer driving season. And they would be like, well, now is the time that we release the strategic reserve. And you're like, dude, you don't. The strategic part of the reserve is kind of an important element to why it was created in the first place. But again, like, everything just seems political, theatrical, not based in fact.
- [76:05]
G
Yeah. There's a. Again gets back to what news sources are you looking at? Yeah, what news sources are you looking at? And a lot of. Again. And actually, you know, my. Actually, my dad's got a news service called Straight Hour News, or san.
- [76:18]
A
Yeah.
- [76:18]
G
One of the things that. One of the features of that is they look at news stories and they say, what is the left covering? What is the right covering? And it's pretty interesting. You pick a story and, like, there'll be, like, depending on the story, like, Three left leaning news services are covering where seven conservative are and then a different story. It's like three conservative and seven.
- [76:37]
A
Yeah, lefty, whatever. Everybody's emphasizing.
- [76:40]
G
Well, again, think about it, right? What is that? What are those new services doing? They're catering to their audience.
- [76:44]
C
Yeah, right.
- [76:45]
G
So they're trying, they're going to show the stories they know that their audiences want to hear.
- [76:49]
A
It's.
- [76:50]
G
I don't have a really good solution for this, but we ought not to be surprised that when you've got for profit media, they're going to be looking to cater to their audience.
- [76:59]
A
Can I ask you one last question? Just the economy in general, successful businessman long before you got into this line of work. And I know you've got a pretty sophisticated look at what the Trump administration is doing, what's happening with international markets and how it affects wage growth and everything here, obviously with your farmers, I know you've been all over the tariff issue and making sure that people are taken care of. Your prognosis about where we are and where we're going here over the next year?
- [77:26]
G
Well, the wild card in all this is going to be what happens with Iran. Yeah, right. If we can get that wrapped up relatively quickly. And I'm not privy to the administration's specifics, but I know what they want to do is degrade the missile facilities, whether it's the stockpiles, the launchers, the production facilities, and by the way, the fact that Iran could launch a missile that it could hit Diego Garcia demonstrates that. Well, they were lying to us. They said they didn't totally told us they did not have a missile and frankly, we didn't think they had a missile that could reach that far either. But now they've got a missile that can reach London and Paris. The United States is not far behind. So it really goes to the imminent nature of the threat that they've got. Because a country that chants death to Iran and has a nuclear weapon and a missile can reach the United States and thinks that they go to heaven for triggering Armageddon. That's a problem for us. Right. That's really dangerous. So we got to degrade their missile facilities, you know, sink their navy, destroy their air force, degrade their nuclear facilities. At the point that the administration feels we've done that sufficiently, that's when they'll bring this to a close.
- [78:34]
A
And you think that has a global impact on, I mean, obviously it does with energy and everything else.
- [78:38]
G
For a lot of things, you know, it's like things like fertilizer it's not. A lot of farmers have already purchased a fertilizer for this year, but it's still going to drive up the prices. So if it's still high in the fall, that's going to be problematic. But also things that. Like helium. You know that a lot of the 30% of the world's helium goes through the Straits or Hormuz, and that goes into all sorts of things that we don't think about.
- [78:59]
A
Like, it's also. Yeah. This whole thing is also delayed talks between the Trump administration, the president himself, and perhaps Xi in China, which was.
- [79:08]
G
I think. Yeah, they were supposed to be in April, and the president asked to push back.
- [79:12]
A
Yeah. Because of all that. But we understand Besson met with some folks in Paris, and they're trying to work the. Imagine the. The ancillary benefit to farmers in Nebraska and across the. If you normalize some kind of a fair situation for American workers, that's got
- [79:29]
D
to be a good thing.
- [79:29]
C
Right?
- [79:30]
G
Well, we need to get back to that. Right. We need to get back to the pocketbook issues. That's going to be really important for this midterm election.
- [79:37]
A
Yeah, yeah. No question about it. People want to help you out. Where do they go?
- [79:41]
G
Go to Petericketts.com come and help me out. I got a tough race. So. Yeah, just that fake independent guy, Dan Osborne, so. He hates it when I say that, too, by the way.
- [79:50]
A
Well, let's keep saying.
- [79:51]
D
But before we let you go, I know you brought us something. Oh, right. We can't forget you're in dear to your heart. I want to make sure we get to that.
- [79:57]
G
All right. Can we bring those over, please? So, Todd, obviously, I had to listen. I had to listen.
- [80:06]
D
Yes.
- [80:08]
G
Josh, hand me that.
- [80:09]
A
Yeah.
- [80:10]
G
So Todd brought you these really nice baseball caps, right, that he had made for you.
- [80:15]
A
Yeah.
- [80:15]
D
Yeah.
- [80:15]
G
And so I'm listening to his podcast because Todd, of course, he was done. So he sent it to me. I'm like, hey, I'm really. Todd goes, I'm really funny. Listen to this. So I listened to it. He was really funny. He did a good job. So. But then I heard the baseball things like, oh, man, he really raised the bar here. What am I going to do? So I was thinking about it, and I was saying, well, maybe I'll get you, like, a bottle of scotch or something like that. You guys get a lot of bourbon already. So I'm like, well, duh. I'm from Nebraska. We are the Beef state. So this is. These are rib eyes from my favorite beef place. In Nebraska. So this is all 100% Nebraska beef, oak Barn Beef. It's got a great story behind it. So I met the young woman who started this. Her name at that time was Hannah Esch. She was in college, and she started this direct to consumer beef business off of her family's farm.
- [81:02]
A
Yeah.
- [81:03]
G
And now it's grown, and she's now married, got a couple of kids. But, like, when I send Todd, like, his birthday present, which is a bunch of beef, this is where I order it from. So this is fantastic. Nebraska Beef. It's a great startup company in Nebraska. You know, it's Nebraska Beef. So these. And these are. Look how thick they cut. Look at that. I can't wait to get your audience out there. Look how thick that is.
- [81:26]
A
For those of you who haven't been through Nebraska to have Nebraska beef before, I even take a bite of this bad boy after grilling it up, I can attest this is like 10 of 10 stuff. Every time I had to drive south, we always made a little U turn, figured out how to at least get over to Omaha where we could pick up one of these. I just can't thank you enough. That's, like, the best gift we've ever had.
- [81:48]
G
Oh, well, good, good. Thanks.
- [81:50]
A
Love that.
- [81:50]
G
So, yeah, and this will go great with, like, all that bourbon that you get, too.
- [81:54]
D
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [81:55]
G
Grill these up and
- [81:58]
A
I love it. Well, good luck out there and keep us updated on all this. I know you're working on a whole bunch of things we didn't even get to today, but.
- [82:05]
G
Yeah, we didn't get to the fact that Nebraska's in the sweet 16 for the first time ever, playing Iowa.
- [82:09]
A
The first W. The first W. Of the NCAA tournament.
- [82:13]
G
Yes. This has been a big year for the big year. Nebraska is now a basketball school, and Indiana is a football school. Who would have thunk that? Like, are cats and dogs gonna start living together or something? Like, is this the sign of the apocalypse or something? Like, that's just crazy.
- [82:29]
A
Different times, no question.
- [82:30]
G
And of course, baseball. Baseball's opening day tomorrow, too.
- [82:33]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [82:34]
D
Yeah.
- [82:34]
C
Pumped about that.
- [82:35]
G
Yeah. So all sorts of good stuff coming up.
- [82:37]
A
You're the man. Thank you.
- [82:38]
G
Appreciate it.
- [82:38]
A
Appreciate it.
- [82:39]
C
Thank you.
- [82:40]
G
Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
- [82:42]
A
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- [82:57]
C
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- [82:58]
A
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- [83:13]
C
Well, a lot of interesting stuff there about how Democrats are monkeying around with that race, and sounds like they've been doing it cycling cycle after cycle.
- [83:21]
A
It is incredible. I mean, it's just. It's unbelievable.
- [83:25]
C
But he's a great guy. You gotta love anybody from Nebraska. The stakes he brought and the idea that he's here on opening day. What a special treat.
- [83:33]
A
Steaks. We're gonna have to figure out a special way to prepare all of that.
- [83:37]
D
Absolutely.
- [83:37]
A
Very, very good. All right. Well, look, fellas. Looks good to me. I think we did it.
- [83:45]
B
I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Senator Pete Ricketts, and thank you to the Minions. Remember, remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Friday. Stay ruthless,
- [84:16]
G
Sam.