Why Now? Joe Pardons Hunter

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Why Now? Joe Pardons Hunter"

Release Date: December 3, 2024 Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook

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Introduction

In this episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook delve deep into the controversial decision by President Joe Biden to pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Released amid a turbulent political climate, the episode dissects the implications of the pardon, the perceived hypocrisy within the Biden administration, and the broader ramifications for American institutions and the justice system.

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Main Discussion: Hunter Biden's Pardon

a. Hypocrisy and Integrity of Biden

Josh Holmes opens the discussion by highlighting the perceived hypocrisy in President Biden’s actions. He criticizes Biden for previously asserting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was not politicized, only to pardon his son Hunter after years of such statements.

"[00:00] Josh Holmes: ...by pardoning his son after years of saying, oh, the Department of Justice is not weaponized... It shows he doesn't believe in any of these institutions."

The hosts argue that this act undermines Biden's credibility and raises questions about his commitment to upholding the rule of law.

b. Comparison with Trump

Michael Duncan draws parallels between Biden's actions and former President Donald Trump's approach to political prosecutions. He emphasizes Biden's perceived lack of integrity compared to Trump, who he claims respects the law and maintains a stance against politicizing justice.

"[03:08] Michael Duncan: ...this is the same guy who told us that inflation was transitory... I would have expected nothing less."

John Ashbrook reinforces this sentiment by pointing out the disparities in how both presidents handle legal issues within their families.

"[04:08] John Ashbrook: ...Joe Biden, Hunter Biden example is like, here is a man who does the right thing."

c. Media Reactions

The hosts critique the media’s handling of the pardon, suggesting that outlets like Politico and Axios have manipulated narratives to favor Biden’s actions. They mock the media’s focus on the reaction rather than scrutinizing the decision itself.

"[28:28] Josh Holmes: They really are that lacking of self awareness..."

Comfortably Smug highlights the media’s bias and the tactical misrepresentation of Biden’s motives behind the pardon.

"[29:07] Comfortably Smug: ...they really are that lacking of self awareness and that much of partisans."

d. Implications on Rule of Law

The discussion underscores how the pardon erodes public trust in the justice system. The hosts argue that Biden’s actions signal a departure from established norms and institutional respect, feeding into a broader narrative of government overreach and corruption.

"[10:43] Michael Duncan: ...the Democrat protection racket does not stop with the mainstream media..."

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Institutional Knowledge and the Deep State

a. Biden Administration's Control of DOJ

Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook express concerns about the Biden administration’s influence over the DOJ and the broader bureaucracy. They argue that the Deep State, populated by career Democrats, poses a threat to effective governance and the rule of law.

"[24:27] Comfortably Smug: ...if the American people actually don't have faith in the administration of justice in this country problem."

b. Nomination of Cash Patel

The hosts discuss President Trump’s nomination of Cash Patel as FBI Director, portraying it as a strategic move to counter the entrenched Deep State. They laud Patel’s credentials and anticipate significant changes under his leadership.

"[53:37] Comfortably Smug: ...if simply by nominating somebody who scared the shit out of everybody..."

c. Career Staff's Reactions

There is notable concern about the morale and future of DOJ staffers amid political turmoil. The podcast critiques Attorney General Merrick Garland’s efforts to retain institutional knowledge, viewing it as a futile attempt to maintain the status quo.

"[49:37] Michael Duncan: ...if President Trump clear cuts that bureaucracy, we're going to continue to have the same problem."

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Audience Engagement: Family Gatherings and Political Confrontation

Shifting gears, the podcast engages with listener comments about navigating political discussions during family gatherings, especially around Thanksgiving. Strategies include using humor, subtle cues, and psychological tactics to "own the libs" without overt confrontation.

"[44:25] John Ashbrook: It's incredible. I've been. I was reading them before we started..."

Notable Listener Strategies:

• Changing Ringtones to patriotic songs to signal underlying political sentiments.
• Using Humor such as performing a dance when notified by hidden texts.
• Psychological Warfare by implying political shifts without direct confrontation.

"[45:15] Josh Holmes: Now that's how you do it."

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Additional Content

a. Art and Cultural Critique

The hosts explore a bizarre art sale where a banana taped to a wall, originally sold for $6.2 million, was subsequently eaten by the buyer. They critique the high art market as a facade for money laundering and cultural degradation.

"[59:07] Comfortably Smug: ...the ultimate FDU to these."

b. Merchandise and Listener Interaction

The podcast promotes its merchandise, including napkins and golf balls featuring the Ruthless logo. They emphasize humor and satire in their promotional strategies, encouraging listeners to engage and identify with the show's ethos.

"[63:12] John Ashbrook: We have sold, like, 10,000 packets of these napkins."

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Conclusion: Implications and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reiterate their disdain for the Biden administration's actions and the perceived corruption within governmental institutions. They express hope for future political shifts that will restore integrity and accountability in American governance.

"[66:05] Josh Holmes: ...we’re going to have to watch cuz the Deep state, how they, how they respond."

The episode concludes with a mix of political commentary and light-hearted banter, reinforcing the show's commitment to delivering unabashed conservative perspectives.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Josh Holmes [00:00]: "Being like, well, I guess the Department of Justice was politicized... It shows he doesn't believe in any of these institutions."

• Michael Duncan [03:08]: "Because the Democrat Party is now empty... Lie after lie after lie from this administration."

• John Ashbrook [04:08]: "Joe Biden, Hunter Biden example is like, here is a man who does the right thing."

• Comfortably Smug [10:43]: "The Democrat protection racket does not stop with the mainstream media..."

• Josh Holmes [21:11]: "To me, it speaks so much to his selfishness..."

• Michael Duncan [37:06]: "They equate institutional knowledge with an understanding of the priorities of George Soros."

• Comfortably Smug [40:35]: "And Trump has repeatedly pledged to use his second term to investigate and prosecute members of the Biden family."

• John Ashbrook [52:03]: "They make our job so easy, dude."

• Josh Holmes [58:55]: "There isn't."

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This episode of the Ruthless Podcast provides an unfiltered and critical examination of President Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden, interwoven with broader critiques of the current political landscape, media bias, and institutional integrity. The hosts blend serious political analysis with humor and audience interaction, maintaining an engaging and provocative discourse for their listeners.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

You know, to me, what's really also interesting and showing the level of hypocrisy and how this administration, this party, this president has no integrity, is by pardoning his son after years of saying, oh, the Department of Justice is not weaponized. It's not politicized. There's no lawfare in this country. He's undoing all that. Being like, well, I guess the Department of Justice was politicized. Can be politicized or they don't have, you know, law is not absolute in this country. I have to step in and protect my son. It shows he doesn't believe in any of these institutions.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[John Ashbrook]

Just a catching strays over here.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[Josh Holmes]

Keep the faith, hold the wine, and own the libs.

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, good. Good Tuesday to you. We are well into the holiday season. Welcome back to the ruthless Variety Program. Josh Holmes, comfortably smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, left, right across your radio dial. As always, I trust, I trust that everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It seems as though tens of thousands of you took some advice from the Variety program.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, everyone had a lot to be thankful for, a lot to spike the football about. I'm sure everyone just had an absolute ball with that. I know I did.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I. I did too. I guess my only regret is I didn't have any libs in my house to dunk on.

[Comfortably Smug]

I didn't have a single lib to dunk on.

[John Ashbrook]

No consternation at all in the Duncan home.

[Michael Duncan]

We didn't have any libs either. But I did look at Twitter and there was one account who sent us a video of the entire family doing the Trump dance around the Thanksgiving table. Yeah, I mean, like, our audience is the absolute, the best.

[Josh Holmes]

They really are the best.

[Comfortably Smug]

You guys took it seriously. For those OGs that have been around since day one, I. I think we can all admit this is one of the best things that we do. I mean, it's just funny. You just, you provide a little bit of an outline how you can handle people who maybe don't see the world your way and have encroached on your territory over the world. And you can push back a little bit, and it seems like everybody did.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's extra special when we had just a resounding victory to celebrate.

[Comfortably Smug]

So no question about it. Well, we're not without news here on the Variety Program. We're gonna cover this with the Hunter Biden pardon. Clearly, it's just the Best we have things to say. We're gonna cover a little bit. There's a Little Deep State 2.0 situation going on that we're going to take a look at. We've got some variety here. So sit back, relax and enjoy yourselves. And let's get into this. Right off the bat, we're going to be talking about the Hunter Biden pardon. Fellas, were any of you surprised by this?

[Michael Duncan]

No, not. I mean, not even the least bit. Because this is the same guy who told us that inflation was transitory, that the border was secure, that Afghanistan was no problem, and his staff was like, yeah, this guy actually has it all together. No, it's just a stutter. No, it's just he's just a little bit tired. No, the Robert her thing was a lie. No, he's going to be our nominee. We are not going to switch him out. Lie after lie after lie from this administration. I would have expected nothing less.

[Josh Holmes]

Damn.

[Michael Duncan]

Hunter Biden.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that's about right. Yeah, but look. According to the news. This is from Semaphore. President Joe Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter, who is due to be sentenced next week on federal gun and tax convictions. The elder Biden, who had previously insisted he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence, said that Hunter had been singled out only because he was his son. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. So that's my favorite part in all this, is like, basically, Joe Biden, after saying nobody's above the law, a political prosecution, right. Is now talking about how this was all a witch hunt. This was a witch hunt. This was lawfare. This was a targeted prosecution against my son. And I mean, like, like, not only is he a liar, right. But while the Democrats were indicting Donald Trump, what, 60 times or whatever, here in multiple jurisdictions over the last year and a half, it was always held up. The Joe Biden, Hunter Biden example is like, here is a man who does the right thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Integrity, loving father.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. He would never.

[Comfortably Smug]

Statesman.

[John Ashbrook]

He would never abuse his office to commute or nay, pardon his son. Because no one is above the law.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ah, nobody. Nobody. Especially when we're running to preserve democracy.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I think, to me, this was such a great example, so soon after the election, of exactly why so many American people voted for Republicans, voted for Donald Trump. Because the Democrat Party is now empty. They believe in nothing. Americans were sick of them for so long preaching, oh, here's pronouns. You're allowed to say. You're not allowed to say that. They would Police, what Americans are able to say, are able to think. And then when it comes to them, it's like, oh, no rules for thee, not for me.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, there's no. Yeah, there's no rules.

[Josh Holmes]

Americans were done with it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, no, unquestionably. I've got a lot to say about this particular. As do all of us. We're gonna do this in terms of just a general reaction. Why now? Why. Why would you do this on this Sunday of Thanksgiving?

[John Ashbrook]

And like, I have so much to say about that.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then, of course, the media reactions, which you're going to love. You're going to love every minute of it. We're going to get to it right after this. I don't have to tell you, Americans are ready for what's next. Moving beyond the hardships of inflation and economic anxiety towards building a future, a better future for our families. Ensuring greater access to more affordable energy that powers daily lives, reliable energy that fuels innovation and economic growth, and the abundant energy that keeps our nation safer and more secure. It's all within our grasp. We'll do this together, building a brighter future for us, powered by America's oil and natural gas resources. You can learn more about all of [e-mail] Listen, the Hunter Biden pardon in and of itself to me is completely hilarious in that you've got a president who ran as being sort of a law and order, preserving democracy, upholding our.

[Michael Duncan]

Institutions, return to normalcy, you know, and.

[Comfortably Smug]

He insisted through himself, through spokespeople, you would never, ever do. We need to check out some of these clips just so you get a full context of all of this and then we'll get right into it. Can we play clip one, please? Spaghetts.

[Josh Holmes]

But from a presidential perspective, is there any possibility that the President would end up pardoning his son? No.

[Comfortably Smug]

I just said no. I just answered. So I've answered this question question before. It was asked of me not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago, and I was very clear, and I said no. I've been very clear.

[Josh Holmes]

The President's not going to pardon me.

[Comfortably Smug]

We've been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no. It's still a no.

[Josh Holmes]

It will always be a no.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don't have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, let's just take the no thing for starters before we get into the second clip. So whatever you think about the George H. Or George W. Bush administration, I recall because it's kind of my nascent experience into politics. There was a press secretary named Scott McClellan who was behind the podium and gave an answer about the Iraq war. I forget exactly if it was about like the intel that led to it or whatever it was. There was an out and out law lie and they knew it was a lie. Like it became a lie. And the press made a very substantial case, one of which I tend to agree with, which is it's one thing when you're defending your point of view and providing a spin for it. It's quite another when you just bald face straight to the camera, an absolute lie from a spokesperson behind a podium. Because if you're doing that, there's no purpose of doing a press conference at all. It's all a show. Once you are a liar, you're always a liar. Now, I will make my arguments about this administration in a moment, but from a spokesperson standpoint, if I'm Karine Jean Pierre and like, listen, this lady does not have a ton of integrity coming into this, doing all of the lying that she's already been culpable of.

[Michael Duncan]

You don't say.

[Comfortably Smug]

But this particular thing, having those clips, I'd resign on the spot. I'd resign on the spot. Out of principle.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because you're not going to tell me something is never going to happen and I represent that something is never going to happen with my own credibility. Only to do that if I'm not taking myself immediately out of it. If she doesn't resign. This is the absolute most lack of integrity of anybody I've ever met in politics.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a lack of integrity, Holmes. And it's also a really disrespectful thing for a principal to do to a subordinate. Right. To put her in that position.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it's only disrespectful if that person has integrity in the first place. Right. If you think that you're putting somebody in a position who cares anything about what the American people learn as their truth from this administration, then that's disrespectful. Clearly that's not the case. She's still there.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's take it a step further. There's the principal, there's a subordinate, and then there's the press who chew up everything that Karine Jean Bear tells them. And they say, no, this has been settled. Joe Biden and his spokesperson say that he will not pardon Hunter Biden. End of story.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, can we play that clip?

[Comfortably Smug]

So this is credit of Grabian, who pulled all this down clip 2, if you might was asked directly and he has said he wouldn't pardon his son if he gets convicted.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's wait to see what happens if he loses.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, but I mean, he's going to.

[John Ashbrook]

Get pardoned by his dad.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's no question about that. The President has ruled out pardoning his son.

[Josh Holmes]

The challenge for him is really to continue to live up to his values when it was really personal.

[Comfortably Smug]

And he did that today. It seems like a pretty normal, straightforward.

[Josh Holmes]

Answer, but it, it takes new weight when we see what Trump is saying.

[Michael Duncan]

A current President of the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

Has so much respect for the law.

[Comfortably Smug]

That he has said he would not pardon. Attack has been that Joe Biden has politicized and weaponized the doj. Right. That was the whole argument around Donald Trump's conviction. And this week, of course, Hunter Biden was found guilty. And Joe Biden has very clearly said he would not pardon his son, he would not commute his sentence. He is not pardoning his son, which he could do.

[Michael Duncan]

These are federal charges.

[Comfortably Smug]

He is not doing it because he is living what it means to have a rule of law.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah, the living rule of law.

[John Ashbrook]

They make our job so easy, dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, I can't believe that guy pulled the pocket protector out.

[Josh Holmes]

What an amazing deal. You know, to me, what's really also interesting and showing the level of hypocrisy and how this administration, this party, this president, has no integrity is by pardoning his son after years of saying, oh, the Department of Justice is not weaponized. It's not politicized. There's no lawfare in this country. He's undoing all of that. Being like, well, I guess the Department of Justice was politicized. Can be politicized or they don't have, you know, law is not absolute in this country. I have to step in and protect my son. It shows he doesn't believe in any of these institutions. He's not like a return to norms guy. This is strictly personal. And it's not a family thing either. He refuses to acknowledge one of his grandchildren. This is a saving his own ass and his business partner. Because Hunter, among many things, being a crackhead, a horrible human being, philanderer, I mean, you name it, he's done every terrible thing possible. On top of all of those things, he's also Joe Biden's business partner. That's what this is all about.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, I didn't know if I was gonna get into it right away, but I'm gonna get into it. I'M gonna get into it. So look, I mean, the first clip, the lie. I'm not enthused by the lie in large part because I've sat next to you for four years and done this. And you've said that hypocrisy is not a great argument against Democrats because they don't give a shit.

[Josh Holmes]

None.

[Comfortably Smug]

They don't. And you know, when you run as a caretaker and someone who is capable of restoring norms, calming things down, somebody's gonna be there four years just to try to chill out the country a little bit. And then in your first quarter of being a president, you try to implement the New Deal 2.0 and you lie bald faced to the American people about what it is that you intend to do here. You try to do green New Deal. You try to do everything you can do on a partisan basis. You endorse, like eliminating filibusters. You endorse trying to add D.C. and Puerto Rico as states. You get to the line where their administration actually endorsed packing the courts.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

When you do all that stuff, you're already a liar. And I think the American people were way ahead of all of this in terms of determining that Joe Biden is in fact a fucking liar.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And so the lie doesn't bother me. What bothers me, and this is like, look, I still hold, unlike you, smug. I still hold a little bit of reverence for American institutions of government, in large part because I love the Constitution. I think forefathers had it right and we really executed well, certainly in comparison to everybody else across the world on how we're supposed to run a country. So I still have a little bit of reverence for this idea that every, you know, every once in a while, even fallible people can see a moment where things have gotten off the tracks and they can rein it back in. Is it self serving? In some ways, sure. But when it gets to a point where there's your own skin in the game, you can really speak to it in a way that makes a lot of sense. So here we're talking about Hunter Biden, talking about his son. I don't have any question that he loves his son. Obviously, the fact that he's had to carry that luggage as long as he has in this administrator clearly loves his son. I'm not disputing that. Is he his business partner?

[John Ashbrook]

Sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think there's probably a monetary component involved with that too. Although, you know, who knows? But the idea that you can issue a statement like he did on Sunday night.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Saying that it was a very unique set of circumstances that led to his prosecution. That had everything to do with the fact that there were politics involved, and he would never have been prosecuted or at least not convicted under the. All the pieces of it that he was, if he wasn't the President of the United States. Without acknowledging that Donald Trump has gone through 47 different indictments for precisely the same reason, without all of, you know, and I would say all because, look, January 6th was horrible, but there's a whole bunch of people who were prosecuted, which the Supreme Court ruled on on fair basis, given sentences that were much longer than would typically be done because of the fact that they were Donald Trump supporters. Steve Bannon. I mean, I don't remember any of the intel people going to jail.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[Comfortably Smug]

For. For any of the testimony before Congress that was proven to be.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Why isn't Eric Holder in prison?

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't remember any of that stuff. Like, all of these things happened, and they happened under his watch.

[Michael Duncan]

You know the answer to these things, and it's very unsettling. But the reality is that the Democrat protection racket does not stop with the mainstream media. It spreads into the entire bureaucracy. And that's why it's so important for Trump to take out as much as he possibly can and replace them with people who care about the voters, who are interested in doing what the voters want them to do. These bureaucrats think they're in charge. They think that they run the country, not the elected leaders who the voters decide on. So I think the answer to your question is that there are way too many Democrats running our country in positions of power that are not elected positions. And I think until President Trump clear cuts that bureaucracy, we're going to continue to have the same problem.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm not going to disagree with that. And, Duncan, I want to go to you, but I'm getting at a slightly different point, which is, every once in a while, a leader in this country has an opportunity to disarm a potentially combustible problem that threatens our union writ large. And you've seen generation after generation of American leaders do just that, even when it's not in their best interest. It's one of the reasons why we're the greatest country in the world, where people do selfless acts even when it doesn't benefit them. This one would have benefit them. But if he would have either granted pardons on the other side, or he would have at least spoken to the dangers of weaponizing justice, and that he, too, his administration, too, could be culpable of such an act, it does something to lower the temperature in this country, right? Where, like, I understand how smug comes at this. I get it. I've sat next to him, I've listened to his arguments. I can't disagree with a lot of them. I disagree with pieces of it because I just want it to keep working. And I don't want this right prosecutes the left, left prosecutes the right. Interminable deal. But when you look at somebody who's situated here, nobody can disagree with the fact that this man wants to protect his kid. Right? You can disagree why he wants to protect his kid. You can't disagree with the fact that any dad would want to protect their child. But not to use that moment as a opportunity to talk to the American people about the dangers of weaponizing the justice system for partisan purposes is a fucking unforgivable offense in my view. This is what makes this guy amongst the worst presidents in the history of American republic. I can't even fathom the idea. Do you look out about what's happening, what just happened to his party in these elections and not come to the conclusion that we've got a real problem here and we need some real healing?

[Josh Holmes]

And that's the thing is, I came to the same conclusion as you, and I think you absolutely nailed the heart of this issue. To me, it speaks so much to his selfishness. Yes, to the selfishness of that whole crew that you are right. There was an opportunity, I mean, you would think they would begin through their thick skulls to get somewhat of a message of what happened on election day and how mad Americans are seeing this. Like you'd mentioned, Democrats don't care if you point out hypocrisy. They don't believe hypocrisy. They see hierarchy. They see, oh, you know, we get to do whatever we want. It's the little people who have to worry about this kind of stuff.

[Comfortably Smug]

It just solidifies it totally.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what it does.

[John Ashbrook]

I think at the end of the day, I don't think Democrats believe in institutions. I don't think they believe in any of these principles. I think they believe in all of them. At least pretend to. As long as they're working for them.

[Josh Holmes]

That'S all they believe.

[John Ashbrook]

Not for us. That's the reality. Back to your point, Holmes, on like, why didn't he use this moment to defuse the bomb? To be like, yes, prosecutions in this country are getting too political. And, and this is a problem within our entire law enforcement apparatus. And it hurt Donald Trump and it hurt my son. And for that reason, X, Y, Z. But he won't do that. He's selfish, obviously, but. But it's like, it's the same dude. They used to like the Supreme Court. Democrats used to love the Supreme Court. Now they want to pack the court because it's not working for them. They don't actually believe in anything.

[Josh Holmes]

And right after election day, they asked Democrat senators, do you still want to pack the court? And they said, well, no, not. Not now.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, they're so blatant.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you want to eliminate the filibuster? Because remember, it was Jim Crow, it was racist. The filibuster was created by slave owners. Now suddenly they're the biggest champions of it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Why is that weird?

[John Ashbrook]

Why is it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because it benefits.

[Josh Holmes]

My political thing is like, all this. American people got so tired of being called racist for not going along with whatever crazy shit. The Democrats, they believed in free speech.

[John Ashbrook]

When it was Twitter. And then the second Elon Musk bought it, they went to cry in the fucking corner to blue sky.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

None of these people believe in a single thing. They believe my body, my choice. And then they're like, no, you have to take this vaccine or you're going to lose your job. You're going to get kicked out of the military. I swear to God. These people believe in nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

Nothing.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They're nihilists.

[Michael Duncan]

And back to the subject at hand. These people believed in someone who said, I will not pardon my son. I will not pardon my son. Yes, I will pardon my son. They only believe in power. And what they did under the Obama administration that nobody wrote about because the Washington Post is bought and paid for by Democrats. Nobody wrote about is that they filled all of these civil appointments in the Department of Justice and the EPA and everywhere in the government with Democrats who are partisan as the day is long. And they don't work for you. They work for their party, they work for their ideology. They work for their billion dollar donors. And so that's why I get at this point that one of the things that's so important that Trump can do, everybody talks about the deep state and, oh, and it's this and it's that. What it is is too many Democrats working for the government and nobody's allowed to vote them out. Yeah, the administrative state, you vote. It's the administrative state. You vote for a president, you think that that person comes in and sets the tone and the Democrats are like, we're still in charge. We know we're Gonna get to this later in the show. Right, but it's a problem.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, it's a good point. No, no, it's a good point because it does feed all of this. But, like, just in terms of the justice system, we've gone off the rails.

[Michael Duncan]

We have.

[Comfortably Smug]

We've gone off the. If the American people actually don't have faith in the administration of justice in this country problem. I don't understand what else you're concerned about.

[Josh Holmes]

And here's the thing is it has been so viciously undermined, and the undermining of the justice system has been mainstreamed. We saw a perfect example of this in 2020 when, listen, rioting is now, okay? According to doctors, they're saying you can burn your city down. You don't get Covid. If you burn your city in a church, you'll get Covid.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

If you're burning down buildings. No Covid, that's fine. So the. And then you have major corporations who backed this and paid protection money to these groups.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that's the most important thing. I think smug is illuminating here, is it really didn't, like, things didn't get off the rails just when Donald Trump was indicted for things like this seed was planted a long time ago on the left, where they have undermined, like, the sense of reality that Americans live in every single day. So I'm not surprised that they smelled right out all that bullshit.

[Michael Duncan]

And you know something, that we had Vivek Ramaswamy on the show a couple of months ago, and he was getting at the point that Josh is making right now, which is like, are you. Do you want to trade a bunch of leftist lunatics who are ideological in these decisions in these positions of power in our government for people who are on the other side and are ideological? No, you want people who are doing their jobs the way they're supposed to do them. You don't want to trade one dictator for the next. And I really think that his vision on this is so smart.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, yeah. I mean, look, I got news for the fucking dorks out there on the left and right. The vast majority of people want to be left alone. Yeah, they want to be left alone. They want to make sure that their streets are paved, their schools operate, that they can operate in safety in their communities, that the global issues that affect them don't affect their pocketbooks and don't affect their security. And that's why you have a federal government. That's the little convenient compact that we came into when we started a republic, public that's it. And it remains true today. I'm not interested in like servicing one side or another every four years and flipping back and forth like insane in people and then prosecuting our enemies. This guy had an opportunity to speak to that and he chose not to.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's why I actually maintain my position given this opportunity.

[Comfortably Smug]

I get it.

[Josh Holmes]

The only thing Democrats understand is mutually assured destruction. You have to do what they've been doing to us to the point that they cry uncle and knock that shit off. Because for so long we've tried giving them the whole, here's what the Federalist paper said about this. And we've tried being like, okay, we will debate you on your position. And all that's happened is they've been throwing our people in jails. They've turned this government which like you said, the framers of the Constitution were geniuses. And it's worked better here than anywhere else because we did believe in it and we lived in what we believed in. But they've turned this government, like Ashbrook's saying, into their like personal piggy bank. Filled it up with their people who answer to left wing donors, not to taxpayers. When they're working at a government agency. You gotta make the left cry uncle.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. I gotta tell you, I don't disagree. And if you've got me to the point.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, good luck. Great move, Biden.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good fucking luck.

[Josh Holmes]

You thought Trump was unchained before.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good luck. So here's how the media reacts. Graphic one, please. Spaghetti Republicans pounce.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh boy.

[Comfortably Smug]

On Biden pardoning his son like clockwork. So can we do a dissection of the pounce thing? They do it because it's like a clicky thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like they know that we're going to just lose our minds.

[Michael Duncan]

I think they really now they do it that way.

[Comfortably Smug]

So I because nobody could actually be like, oh I know what we truly lack self awareness.

[Josh Holmes]

To that I truly believe.

[Comfortably Smug]

So you think it's just a self.

[Josh Holmes]

I thought it might be a clicky thing. And so what I've been doing a lot lately, I say it on the show Name and shame. Right. I'll find out who wrote that article. And then right below the tweet I say this was written by and an ad so people can instantly start holding them accountable.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it's really there.

[Josh Holmes]

They really are that lacking of self awareness and that much of partisans.

[John Ashbrook]

So Steve Guest, great friend of the program, also put this tweet up on X so good last night and he.

[Comfortably Smug]

In three parts.

[John Ashbrook]

In three parts. And the first one was the Politico tweet that said president says he. He won't pardon Hunter Biden.

[Michael Duncan]

Stated as a fact, right? Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it is a fact. The president said it. Obviously, he's not gonna pardon him.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's a fact.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it's over. And then the next one is Biden issues pardon for son Hunter. And then the third one is the Republicans bounce. And it's like, that is the sleight of hand that the media does. It's like him being a fucking hypocrite and a liar who's degrading justice in this country isn't the story. The story is how we react to it.

[Comfortably Smug]

How we react. So. And this one's even better. My view graphic 2. This is from Axios. House Republicans rage at Biden's pardon of Hunter. How are House Republicans this story?

[Josh Holmes]

Andrew Solender Ashbrooke, he's a buddy of yours. Andrew Solander at Axios wrote that.

[John Ashbrook]

I gotta be honest. Like, that was not my reaction to it. I was having a ball. I don't know if you guys had fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I had a drive.

[John Ashbrook]

Just digging up everybody's old tweets that are all wrong. I went over to Blue Scott. I saw how they were spinning the thing, which is hilarious. It's like walking into an insane asylum.

[Michael Duncan]

Here's the thing. Like, you sort of assume that they write for their Dem audience.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But not even Democrats were wondering how House Republicans reacted. Nobody was wondering. Hunter Biden.

[John Ashbrook]

No. The only people who were mad at Joe Biden were never Trump Republicans. It's like, Democrats. Democrats were like, good, he should do that. And also, this is Trump's fault. And the never Trump Republicans were like, I believed in you, Joe. I thought you were a man of principle. To me.

[Comfortably Smug]

To me, that was the West Wing when we need it.

[Josh Holmes]

To me, that was the most awesome part of all of this. It's like, yes, we were all having a dunk a thon on Twitter. We were going in and pulling up all the old tweets where Democrats were like, look, Joe will never do it. The never Trump crew got it so bad. And they were having this crisis of confidence. But the best part is then the morning arrives and the Bulwark puts out the case for pardoning Hunter Biden.

[John Ashbrook]

Of course.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait, they got the same. Is that this Monday morning? Kidding me.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the thing is because they know they don't have a constituency.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, they don't have a constituency.

[Josh Holmes]

And even the Democrats know they're fucking worthless.

[John Ashbrook]

Just useful idiots.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, we gave so much to Lincoln Project and we let all these idiots have unlimited time on CNN and msnbc and we got smoked. The Democrats know there is no use for them. So the only game that they have, these never Trump Republicans. Like maybe if we try groveling and just agreeing with them, they won't kick us out and they'll keep the money running.

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't think I've ever met anyone as out of touch with reality than these people really are. It's like, I mean, it really is like finding one of those Sub Saharan tribes that have never ever had contact with the outside world and you just kind of drop in and you're. And they're like throwing spears or whatever.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're like, that is them. There's 10 of them in Northern Virginia. They're like in McLean. Yeah, they all hang out and they're the only tribe that buys into this shit.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you know how good King of the Hill is gonna be on their all timer?

[Comfortably Smug]

Can't wait. All right, so this is from Ken Vogel, who's done some really good reporting in the past on the Hunter Biden situation. A whole bunch of stuff. Is he still with the New York Times?

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, and he always gets ratioed for it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I only say, is he still with. Because he writes a lot of factual issues and that becomes troublesome when you work for a place that is dedicated.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

To. To not.

[Josh Holmes]

That's. He's like uncovered all this stuff that like the Biden administration has done wrong. Left wing, dark money groups. And he always gets ratioed on Twitter. All these libs are open like, stop doing that. Trump's going to win.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, yeah, no, totally. All right, so here's what he says. The date range listed on Hunter Biden's pardon is also a tell that it intended to preclude Trump's DOJ from bringing a Farah charge. So far, for those of you who are unaware of the federal law, it's about when you register to represent a foreign country in the United States when you're lobbying for them. Right. So obviously we have laws that when an American citizen is representing a non American state actor, you have to register and say, this is what I'm doing. For obvious reasons. But they were concerned about that apparently enough to make this retroactive to 2014. It grants immunity for crimes Hunter Biden, quote, may have committed, unquote, starting January 1, 2014. He joined the board of Burisma a few months later.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, and you know the biggest kick out of this? Specifically that they made at those dates is President Trump was impeached for trying to find the truth about this. They impeached him for trying to figure out if there was any wrongdoing. And they're like, listen, just for safety reasons, we're gonna issue a pardon for all this stuff.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it was the thinnest gruel of impeachments. The first impeachment of Donald Trump. It was completely ridiculous. And you're entirely right in that they were. The essence of the charge was that he was withholding American aid that had been approved by Congress in order to get some kind of a commitment by Zelensky and his government to investigate something that had happened in Ukraine based on an investigation of Burisma.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Joe Biden bragged about firing the prosecutor that was investigating Burisma in Ukraine. I mean, like, that's. That. That is the grand irony in this whole thing is they spent four years of Donald Trump's first term calling everyone who worked for him a foreign agent, a Russian plant, all of this sort of stuff. And then Joe Biden, in pardoning his son, retroactively sets it to 2014 so that he can skip out on a Farah charge. I mean, like, you couldn't write it into a movie. It would be too unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

But he issued the pardon at like 6 o'clock on Sunday night.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And it went through midnight on Sunday night. So technically, Hunter Biden could have gone on a killing spree.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do you guys.

[Michael Duncan]

In Washington, D.C. did you guys see.

[Comfortably Smug]

The X thing about Elmo?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I didn't.

[Comfortably Smug]

Elmo thing of, like, Elmo snorting cocaine and, like, putting guns to heads and stuff?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was very funny.

[Comfortably Smug]

It was very funny. It was very. But I mean, look, this is. This guy has been a meddlesome, troublesome individual. And again, I. Actually, this is the piece of it that I. I don't know if I agree. Look, I think if the Burisma stuff is true and the China stuff is true, it's far more significant than him being a drug addict. And him. Yeah, of course, like, the crimes he was committed, was convicted of, were like a gun crime that was all a smokescreen and a tax evasion crime, both of which on its face. Yeah, I mean, I think Joe Biden may have a point about whether or not that would have been elevated to the level that it was because they weren't typically very important thing. The problem is, is that those were held out as holding the Bidens accountable in lieu of this much larger, much more serious. Allegation about him basically selling access to the vice president's office while he was a vice president for Obama.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. And it makes Democrats crying partisanship so much more offensive because this was a part of Biden's calculus when he was deciding whether to run in 2020. Man, Hunter has a lot of shady business dealings overseas. Is that gonna come back to Biden?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Nobody worried about his gun purchases. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Everybody on the Democrat side was worried about that. And now it's like, no, that's just.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and it's just really ballsy for Biden to call out the partisanship, you know, in the Justice Department.

[Comfortably Smug]

I felt like I hit my head.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, prosecuting his son on the gun charges and everything. And then make the pardon retroactive to the Burisma deal.

[Josh Holmes]

It's why I'm so pissed off.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just so. It's so incredibly craven and selfish. Back to Smug's point.

[Josh Holmes]

And can I say something specifically about this topic of, you know, it made me sick to my stomach reading that statement and Joe Biden being like, my son was singled out for this. Your son's been singled out his entire life.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

He's been singled out by you. Protecting him from consequences his entire life. That's how you get to this point where you've got a guy now making millions of dollars with overseas government selling access to you. We're talking. This would have been a very serious federal corruption issue. And he's gotten away with it because Joe Biden enabled him to be able to get away with all this protection.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, he gets away with everything. Banging his dead brothers, his wife.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, like, seriously, like, imagine Thanksgiving in that house. You'd have to give him a pardon. You would have to give him a part.

[Comfortably Smug]

But he's important.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, to the question.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

To the question of, like, why now? Why not wait to the 11th hour of your presidency, you know, right before you give the reins back to Donald Trump? You issue this thing and then hopefully it's swept under the rug. Nobody's going to talk about a new administration. Do you think Joe Biden wants to go through another holiday? Celebrate Christmas with Joe Biden breathing down his neck, being like, dad, just give me one more. Just one more pass. One more free pass.

[Comfortably Smug]

But he had to get it. I mean, that Thanksgiving table, they decided some things.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, but the. But the media.

[Comfortably Smug]

Jill signatures on that one.

[Michael Duncan]

The media writes it up like it's a loving father and a troubled kid. The guy's in his 50s and the media acts like, you know, he's just having a hard time. He's going through a lot. Meanwhile, they attacked Barron Trump. You know what I mean? Like, they're freewheeling on Barron Trump and they're just letting Hunter Biden have the pass. It's just another example of how biased our media really.

[Comfortably Smug]

I wanna get to just two quick things. And then in the segment, Politico unbelievably wrote, we haven't seen a pardon as sweeping as Hunter Biden's in generations. One quote that stood out to me, even the broadest Trump pardons were specific to what was being pardoned. This was not. It put a broad date range for any crimes that may have been committed 10 years ago. 10 years ago, right. I mean, that's a boy. You wanna talk about, like, a pass? Go and collect $200.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a hell of a Christmas present.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, wow, what a deal, huh? So Joe Biden's full and unconditional pardon of his son is deliberately vague. Donald Trump and his allies have long. This is as Politico writes it. You guys ready?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Donald Trump and his allies have long fixated on the president's son.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God.

[Comfortably Smug]

And Trump has repeatedly pledged to use his second term to investigate and prosecute members of the Biden family.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my goodness.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay, so.

[Josh Holmes]

So it's Trump's fault. Biden has.

[Michael Duncan]

She had to do it.

[Comfortably Smug]

But also, did I have a fever dream where I saw Donald Trump saying he would consider a pardon for Hunter Biden.

[Josh Holmes]

He said that?

[Comfortably Smug]

He said that. What the hell are they talking about? It's Trump's fault. Like, he's the only one here that's, like, been a victim personally of political prosecutions. Understands it uniquely. And his first reaction when someone asked was, yeah, I'd consider a pardon.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this guy's been prosecuted. He's been attempted assassinated multiple times. He's seen a lot of shit. Yeah, a lot of shit.

[John Ashbrook]

If I'm him, I, like, preemptively pardon Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and just throw it out there, you know, just like any potential crimes they may have done here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just throw it out.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

So, again, I'm the opposite tack. I hope.

[Comfortably Smug]

I know you are.

[Josh Holmes]

As soon as Trump finishes his inauguration speech, he says, okay, Cash. Cash Patel gets up and just handcuffs every Biden and Clinton on that stage. Every one of them.

[Comfortably Smug]

We'll talk more about Cash in the. In the upcoming weeks. I know that's a nomination. Cash Patel as FBI director. That has gotten a lot of people. He's been on the program. We've talked to him. He's a very smart guy. We'll talk more about all of that and the nominations in days ahead. Glad you raised it because it is what it is. But we do have a question of the day.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a good one.

[Comfortably Smug]

We do have a question of the day. Why did Joe Biden pardon Hunter now? Why wouldn't he wait till the waning days as is typically customary for a president to do it? Now, the obvious is what we covered. He's being sentenced 12 days for from now. Right.

[John Ashbrook]

So, yeah, but he wouldn't be going into the brig in 12 days. Right. Like, my theory is Thanksgiving was just rough.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that might be right. You know, I didn't have. I mean, look, I'm interested to hear from you all. You may have some insight into that because it is a unique time. Like, Thanksgiving is not a time where you just drop bombshell pardons from an outgoing administration.

[Josh Holmes]

So unless you're the Biden crime family, then it's like, okay, that's what we do on Thanksgiving.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, you tell us. You tell us. So coming up is outgoing Attorney General planning for a Deep State 2.0, plus your comments from last week. And we'll get to all of it right after this.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, so I just gotta point out that my friends at Americans for Prosperity made a huge difference this year. AFP volunteers made millions of voter contacts, which is absolutely mind blowing. They are the largest, most effective ground game operation in the country to defend and advance the conservative movement. But now that the election is behind us, the hard work of turning electoral victory into policy wins begins. And the grassroots army with Americans for Prosperity will again be in the thick of it. We have an incredible opportunity next year to get the country back on track. But it means we're all going to have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. If you're ready to join a winning team making a difference across the country, check out my friends at AFP and you can learn more at americansforprosperity.org.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right, so where we left you last week was a just a simple question, which is, are you subtle or are you overt in your battle against family libs at family gatherings like Thanksgiving? Yeah, we've given you some suggestions, but really the gold is in these comments.

[John Ashbrook]

It's incredible. I've been. I was reading them before we started. These are great.

[Comfortably Smug]

I just. So good. You gotta like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. That's how you get your comments. Read Here on this particular variety program, it's also how your friends can see the show. So you gotta get involved in that. But we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you, friend. This first One comes from Jeffrey969. And Jeffrey writes, I'm going to my son's for Thanksgiving dinner this Saturday. His mother in law requested there be no talk of politics, and she's going to be the only liberal there. So I changed my ringtone on my phone to Lee Greenwood. Oh, yeah, God bless the usa. And I changed my text tone to ymca. Then I've arranged for friends to call and text me at certain points of the evening.

[Josh Holmes]

Now that's how you do it.

[Michael Duncan]

Jeffrey has it right.

[Josh Holmes]

That's how you do it.

[John Ashbrook]

That is so great. Every time the text tone went off, I would have stood up and did the little dance.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think this is so smart.

[John Ashbrook]

It's smart.

[Comfortably Smug]

So great. I also just have to pay homage to the power of Donald Trump in transforming YMCA from a gay anthem to like, just a. Like, dudes deal like that. I mean, you got to be pretty talented to do something.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, in fairness, it was always about dudes.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's an excellent point. That's an excellent point. What do we have, Duncan?

[John Ashbrook]

This comment too, from Bobby Warren. I appreciate our production team giving us a comment here from a Patriots fan. My Indianapolis Colts defeated them this last weekend by a punto. Yes. We had the balls to go for two at the end of the game on the road. You know, not every team's cut out for that. But today was an away game. I wore my New England Patriots jacket, shirt, and hat to send the message that the Patriots had arrived to celebrate America. When a family member talked about a potential third marriage, I said, that is good. One marriage for every Trump term.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, we need a third term.

[John Ashbrook]

He will have two terms, and he just needs one more. He does just really what I love of this is, like, the theme in both of these is just rattling their cages.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, that's what it is, you know.

[John Ashbrook]

Just rattling their cages.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think as we just referred to it on Thursday, it was whatever provokes the maximum response. And only, you know, in your own family, like what. What is it that, like, your blood pressure, it goes to like, 400.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just psychological warfare. It is.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's what you're doing here. All right, Smuggler, what do we got?

[Josh Holmes]

This comment comes from Lisa Marie, terrific friend of the program. Lisa Marie writes, I'll be subtle, not even saying his name, just implying things are changing soon and letting the dread of his name linger. Def. Dropping the names of converts to Team Trump, such as Rogan Musk, RFK and Dulcie. My brother likes to gloat when he wins, so he expects the same. He'll hear what I'm not saying loud and clear. That's an interesting approach. Letting the dread linger again.

[Michael Duncan]

Psychological.

[Comfortably Smug]

Understands the family. Sometimes what's left unsaid is the real dagger.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

We have the smartest listeners on our show. Just absolute brilliant people. And we actually got a bottle of Jack Daniels from a guy named Eric Liu. I showed it to you guys.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

This guy, Eric Liu is one of the smartest guys I've ever met. And if guys like him are listening to the show, you know we're onto something.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, I love it.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you, Eric.

[Michael Duncan]

Very special. Thank you, Eric.

[Comfortably Smug]

Really appreciate that. All the little deep state thing, we'll get through this. So amid worry about Trump calls for career Justice Department staff to stay. This is according to the Washington Post. All right, so this is not going to surprise you at all. This is what they've done, although now they need to make it vocal. This used to just happen. It didn't happen in public airwaves like this was. This was just, like, understood by the left. But now they're having to advocate for it, which I think in and of itself is progress. Attorney General Merrick Garland and top Justice Department officials are encouraging career staffers to remain in their jobs through the next administration, stressing that an institutional knowledge is important as a new leaders take hold, according to people familiar with these conversations, the weeks since President Elect Donald Trump's victory have been filled with uncertainty and tumult for many of the more than 100,000 individuals who work for the nation's largest law enforcement agency, according to people familiar with the situation, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that has not been made public. Trump's initial announcement that he would nominate the attorney general, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, an outspoken loyalist loyalist with limited legal experience, was met with angst and shock throughout the department. The people familiar with the internal conversation, these were just people familiar with, you know, I mean, you can work. You just got to be familiar with stuff, Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Right. Just your typical staffer having phone calls with the Washington Post attacking the incoming administration. That's what. That's what normal people do when they're on a job.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I wouldn't say I know anything. I'm just familiar with. With the conversations.

[John Ashbrook]

I just think, like, then I think, like, this idea of Institutional knowledge is a failed experiment. Yeah, like I get in a perfect world. Yeah, institutional knowledge would be a good thing. Some people have been in a place where you're, you come into work and they can tell you where the paperclips are, you know, all that sort of stuff. No, but like what, what's not what? What's the value of institutional knowledge at a CDC that puts says put masks on 2 year olds? Like what? Like what's the institutional knowled of a Department of Defense where no one gets fired after that withdrawal from Afghanistan, maybe refund. I mean fuck all of these places. I don't give a shit about their institutional knowledge. It's time to gut them and get some people in there that want to shake things up. I mean like everything has been a failure this last four years and no one has been held accountable. If people were held accountable and people went before Congress and said, you know what, we did fuck up. That was wrong, then I would believe that institutional knowledge was a valuable thing that people learn from their experience. But I have no evidence of anyone learning anything in this bureaucracy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, that's exactly right. They equate institutional knowledge with an understanding of the priorities of George Soros. Yeah, that's what they think institutional knowledge actually is.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you just become. And they become just an antiquated, like not even a resemblance of the mission of the job.

[Josh Holmes]

None.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like they just, it is what they did before and they'll do again. And it has nothing to do with the priorities of a new administration, particularly for a Department of Justice. Like look, I understand wanting to have, if you have to hire 100,000 people, which seems a little steep to me.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it takes a lot of people to investigate those moms showing up to school board meetings.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

A lot of manpower.

[Comfortably Smug]

But that's a good point. Right. If you have to hire 100,000 people, smart lawyers, like some of the smartest people who are willing to do the public service, because I'm sure they can all get paid more on the public sector by doing some. Something else you gotta really look to. I mean that's a hard, you gotta fill that out in some way. So it's always been a career driven thing where you have some people who just know, like I'm a cybercrime guy and I just do cyber crime.

[John Ashbrook]

I get it.

[Comfortably Smug]

And you're like, that's great. But your point, Duncan, is a great one, which is if you fucked it up for forced long years, what is the institutional knowledge that I'm Relying upon.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And we saw a perfect example of this as soon as the Hunter Biden pardon dropped where Eric Holder goes on X and he says, this is a very good pardon.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Hunter did nothing wrong. It's like, this guy was the Attorney general.

[Comfortably Smug]

I know. That guy's the worst. That guy. I don't care who you know, like Bondi, she's gonna get confirmed with flying colors. Everybody gonna support her. But, like, I don't care who you put up. Better than that guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Better than that guy. I mean, he was the absolute worst. So then on Saturday night, according to the Post, Trump announced that he wanted to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray with Cash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has dismissed the Bureau's investigations around Trump as political and vowed to dismantle the FBI. Many career employees who worked for justice during the first Trump administration and are waiting to see who is appointed head of different divisions before deciding how to proceed.

[Michael Duncan]

Interesting that the Washington Post described Kash Patel as a Trump loyalist. And obviously he supports President Trump, but he was also a decorated member of Barack Obama's administration. He received an award for investigating and prosecuting terrorists when Barack Obama was President of the United States.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. I do think it's really. His whole thing is interesting to me, and part of it is not. Part of the reason for the outrage around him is nothing to do with him. If you look at his. His resume is nuts resume. It's insane.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it's success at every level. But he was one of the very few that questioned the legitimacy of the Russia Gate stuff and started to provide some lead on the target as to these guys not being who we thought that they were. And all of a sudden, like, he became Persona non grata in that world that he now that they're now talking.

[John Ashbrook]

About, because he investigated the investigators, and you're not allowed to do that. That is the culture of silence that. That has been in our entire institution for too long.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's like, that. That is the root of the problem. And that's why somebody like Cash is so important.

[Josh Holmes]

And further, it paints a target on his back when he's revealing how all this Russia nonsense is made up. Because every journal at that time was putting out a book about how, oh, Russia's taking over America.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

He was standing right in the way of their gravy train by being like, oh, this is.

[John Ashbrook]

And none of those people had to return their Pulitzer Prizes.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, they all got book deals. They all got on television. None of them Got on the air and said, you know what, we're sorry, we were wrong. We were hoodwinked by these people with institutional knowledge. Yeah, institutional knowledge. Go fuck yourself.

[Josh Holmes]

All of them signing on, being like, hunter's laptop's fake.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So I heard a conspiracy theory that's worth sharing because it's from somebody who would know that part of the reason that Trump ultimately nominated Matt Gaetz, who had a very, very minimal, if any, window to be ultimately confirmed by the United States Senate and ultimately withdrew his nomination, was this exact thing that what they were seeking was for these people that Merrick Garland is trying to encourage to stick in there and hold down the line. For them to be so outraged that they would just simply submit a resignation. Now, I don't know if any of that's true, but it makes a lot of sense.

[John Ashbrook]

If it is, it'd be awesome.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's the best. You know, I mean, everybody's talked about like the 40 chess of, you know, you could put him up there. Everybody gravitates all the concern to him and lets his other nominees sort of skate or, you know, whoever he puts up after that is going to seem great and they're going to be confirmed like, that's all. I just, having been around Trump for a long time, I just don't think that that's, that's ultimately what he would ever decide. But this piece of it actually makes some sense to me.

[Josh Holmes]

That is pretty interesting because he has.

[Comfortably Smug]

A commitment to the deep state situation. He knows very well what that Justice Department filled with these career types did to his first four years. If simply by nominating somebody who scared the shit out of everybody, claimed some resignation, even if it claimed to worth it.

[John Ashbrook]

Definitely worth it.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally worth it.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, some of these clowns made their whole career on refusing to resign. The first time Trump. Well, remember that pre Bahara guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Serves at the pleasure of the President. Oh, Donald Trump gets elected. I refuse to resign.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's your MSNBC contract. Yeah. Like, like these people are such clowns.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, no, I know, I know. Well, it's interesting. I mean, the whole story is interesting, but this is something we're gonna have to watch cuz the Deep state, how they, how they respond. And I'm talking about the careers at all these various departments. How they respond to all of this is fascinating because there are the actual, the Brennan acolytes in the intel agencies. If they were to go for fear of a Tulsi or for fear of a, you know, however many nominees we get down that stretch, Ratcliffe or whomever. Great news, Great news. But I just wonder whether or not they're ultimately just gonna have to gut internally. And if that's the case, like, if these people aren't gonna leave by the nominees, like, much of this first quarter that we're gonna deal with in 2025 is gonna be nothing but New York Times and Washington Post stories about, like, very concerned justice officials, very concerned intelligence professionals.

[John Ashbrook]

Just unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

Very concerned. I mean, that's what we're going to do.

[Michael Duncan]

If the people who are paid by taxpayers, the voters who chose Donald Trump, if those people are working against the vision set out by these voters, and Trump is stymied in his first hundred days, his first six months, first year, there is no better argument for a third term. There really isn't.

[Josh Holmes]

There isn't.

[Michael Duncan]

Because if they're standing in the way of voters for that long, Democrats got multiple terms with fdr. Republicans should get multiple terms with our President.

[Josh Holmes]

I completely agree.

[John Ashbrook]

He's rattling their cages.

[Josh Holmes]

I can play.

[Comfortably Smug]

I love that we've.

[Josh Holmes]

We've hit, you know, Project 2025 says that he has a right to a third term.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So I agree.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right, you guys ready for some variety?

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, always.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right, so it's Rich guy. I do. I love this story so much. Can we play clip three, please? Spaghetti. So there's a banana for audio only listeners. It's on a wall, and it's called art. This man purchased it. He simply pulled the banana off the wall, which was duct taped. He peeled the banana. He's looking at the banana, and then he eats the banana.

[Josh Holmes]

He paid 6.2 million at auction for this. It was art of, like, this artist put a banana on a wall and he'd, like, duct taped it. And then, like, you know, looking further into it, apparently, like every few weeks or whatever, he would change the banana also. It would be just like a rotten banana tape to his wall.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, it's the best thing ever. So crypt cryptocurrency entrepreneur who bought the banana for 6.2, as you said, ate the fruit in Hong Kong. It was duct taped to the wall, and they called it art. I mean, first of all, this is such a great cultural critique in so many ways. Like, I don't know this guy from Adam, but the idea that you pay $6.2 million to just completely degrade their marketplace of art is the funniest shit I've seen in a long time.

[Josh Holmes]

I initially had the same reaction, right? And then as I Frequently do. I dug deep. I read a little bit more.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, yeah, it's what you do.

[Josh Holmes]

It says here the Italian artist Maurizo Catalan was who made this. So here we have millions of dollars and we've got.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it paid that guy.

[Josh Holmes]

We've got an Italian who's for art getting paid 6 million. This is your classic money laundering. Like, Italian people have been doing this since God knows when. This isn't about art.

[John Ashbrook]

This is.

[Josh Holmes]

They're at it again in plain sight because they want everybody to see it. They want to be like, oh, it's because of the spaghetti.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are we going to take this? Are we going to take this? I mean, did that. First of all, did the turkey lasagna work out over Thanksgiving? Oh, it was great. Yeah, it is terrific. How do people feel about Smug's rhetoric?

[John Ashbrook]

They're not too pleased. I've noticed the comments.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm a truth teller. No one likes it when they hear the truth.

[Comfortably Smug]

Have they had some issues? Was it like, was that a dinner table discussion at any point? Yeah, no, it was. It was. So he's indicated. Yes, it was. And they were. They were displeased with your.

[Josh Holmes]

You give 6.2 mil to an Italian, it's money laundering.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, anyway, I like the cut of this guy's J because he just showed up.

[Michael Duncan]

It's very funny.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hey, what does that cost? And they're like, oh, it's this fine piece of art. It's like, well, it looks like a duct tape banana to the wall. What. What it can it cost? And they're like, oh, it's from the very famous Italian artist. And he's like, oh, what's the price? And they're like, six, two. And he's like, all right, well, here's the check. And then rips it off the wall and eats the banana. It's basically like. I mean, that's the ultimate FDU to these.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

He's like, I made 6 trillion on Bitcoin. Nothing to me but sand off a beach. Well, look, give me your art.

[John Ashbrook]

At the end of the day, it's better than all those dumbass climate activists ruining works of art, throwing soup on it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like actual works of art. Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's right. Well, listen, fellas, remember our question of the day? Our question of the day is, why did Joe Biden pardon Hunter? Now, now, like, what was it? You may have some thoughts on this. We have our own. We'll get to all of that on Thursday. I gotta tell you, we're gonna take you all the way through the holiday season. We are feeling festive, we're feeling good.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

There are many things to celebrate. I hope you all have your Christmas music on because that's, like, part of the deal.

[John Ashbrook]

And if you're looking for Christmas presents, we got some stuff in the merch store for you.

[Comfortably Smug]

That is an important point because we've got several items. You've all been aware now of the napkins.

[John Ashbrook]

We have sold, like, 10,000 packets of these napkins.

[Josh Holmes]

Have we really, seriously just got them right there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Take a look at Ashbrook here. He's got these things. These are the things that you just simply don't need to say anything. We've spoken a lot about what you would say to confront a lib at a family event.

[Josh Holmes]

This. And you'll have a smile like Ashbrook, say at Christmas party when you bust these out.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Just throw those down. Make sure everybody takes one.

[Michael Duncan]

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

It also provides you that uncomfortable moment. And I know you guys have all had this where you're at a family member's house, wherever for a cocktail party or a dinner, and you have a glass that they've given you, and you set it down somewhere and then someone.

[John Ashbrook]

Right on the wood.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then someone comes in, like, puts a coaster or something underneath it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because you're like, didn't see the coaster, but they act like somehow you up. Because it's, like, not readily available. You can be that guy now to rush behind. And I don't care where they said, that's really good. They could set it on, like, Corian, which makes, you know, make no. No difference. But, like, just make sure you set it on there and look at them like, oh, you.

[Josh Holmes]

Or just.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're trying to ruin my place.

[Josh Holmes]

Or just carry them with you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

When you go visit them, use as your own coaster.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just use it as your own coaster.

[Michael Duncan]

But it's not just napkins. We also have golf balls.

[John Ashbrook]

Look at Ashbrook's QVC over here.

[Michael Duncan]

We also have golf balls. Yeah. There you can see the Ruthless logo there on this pro v1 ball. So you too can lose this one in the woods. And when your friend behind you see it, they will know that you're a fan of the program.

[Comfortably Smug]

The difference is when you lose one and someone finds that one, it's almost automatically a hole in one.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So you're gonna be in good shape with all those. You can get all those. Do we have to go to the subdomain?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, you don't have to. You can go to store. Ruthlesspodcast.com or just go to ruthlesspodcast.com and click on the store icon.

[Comfortably Smug]

And if you're looking for other stuff, there's a lot of other stuff in there. We got some requests for some vests things and other things. Things have been kind of flying off the shelf a little bit. So we're trying to keep everything in stock.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's what it says here. It says, order by Saturday, December 7th, to get delivery by Christmas. Yeah, there you go.

[John Ashbrook]

December 7th, this week.

[Michael Duncan]

And Michael is back there working his ass off. He's painting the golf balls, he's printing the napkins, he's sewing the hoodies. And he's going to be working up until 11.59pm on December 6th.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm orchestrating an elaborate sweatshop in this office. You should see the. The rubber gloves, the stations, like Santa's little elf. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So like, and subscribe. And with that, we're gonna be with you. But for this episode, I think we did it. Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Means hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and looking forward to more winning. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hey, music fans, there are some great.

[Michael Duncan]

Concerts headed this way.

[Comfortably Smug]

Don't miss out on all the shows in your favorite venues, like Deftones at Madison Square Garden, Eagles at the Sphere, and Foster, the people at the Ryman Auditorium. Tickets are going fast, so don't wait. Head to livenation.com to get your tickets. Now that's livenation.com.