Why the left is going crazy over Sydney Sweeney, plus EPA admin Zeldin joins the Progrum with breaking news!

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Why the Left is Going Crazy Over Sydney Sweeney, Plus EPA Admin Zeldin Joins the Progrum with Breaking News!"

Release Date: July 29, 2025

---

1. Introduction

In this compelling episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan (Comfortably Smug), and John Ashbrook delve into the intense backlash from the left against Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney. Additionally, they welcome Lee Zeldin, the newly appointed Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who shares groundbreaking updates on deregulatory actions aimed at dismantling the previous administration's climate agenda. The episode seamlessly blends serious political discourse with lighter segments, including tributes to Hulk Hogan and a humorous tale involving a seagull.

---

2. The Sydney Sweeney Controversy

The episode kicks off with a heated discussion about the left-wing critique of Sydney Sweeney, a prominent A-list actress. The hosts argue that the left's opposition isn't rooted in ideology but stems from personal dissatisfaction and projection.

• Josh Holmes [00:00]:

  "That is so much of left wing politics isn't actually an ideology. It's just people who are just miserable... That woman's probably depressed."

• Michael Duncan [00:21]:

  "Yeah, no, I think that's... it's the politics of projection."

The hosts contend that accusations labeling Sweeney as a fascist or as part of fascist propaganda are unfounded, suggesting instead that critics are dealing with their own issues by targeting her.

---

3. Interview with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin

A significant portion of the episode features an exclusive interview with Lee Zeldin, the EPA Administrator, who discusses the administration's aggressive rollback of the Obama-era endangerment finding—a regulation declaring carbon dioxide as a pollutant and justifying extensive climate change measures.

• Lee Zeldin [19:00]:

  "We are choosing to protect the environment and grow the economy. Repealing the endangerment finding will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America."

Zeldin criticizes the previous administration's approach, arguing that it prioritized environmental justice over actual remediation, leading to economic strain. He highlights the $20 billion parked funds mismanaged by the Biden EPA and details efforts to redirect these funds more effectively.

• Josh Holmes [13:06]:

  "Congress Isn't... [left-wing] is ruining it by putting a lot of money into passing regulations that hurt the economy."

Zeldin emphasizes the dual focus on maintaining environmental standards while fostering economic growth, opposing the notion that stringent regulations are inherently detrimental to both.

• Lee Zeldin [24:48]:

  "We care about protecting the environment without strangulating our economy. Americans want to afford heating their homes, buying cars, and having jobs."

He also recounts his confrontation with Senator Jeff Merkley regarding the misuse of EPA funds, underscoring the administration's commitment to transparency and accountability.

---

4. Republican Strategies and Senate Races

The conversation transitions to the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Senate races, featuring an interview with RNC Chair Michael Whatley. The focus is on the crucial Senate race in North Carolina, where a Republican candidate is needed to secure a majority post-midterms.

• Michael Whatley [69:58]:

  "North Carolina is a red state through and through. We need to save the Senate seat from Roy Cooper because he's going to lie."

Whatley discusses strategies to mobilize the Trump coalition, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a strong Republican presence to support President Trump's agenda. The hosts and Whatley highlight voter shifts across demographics, noting significant moves towards the Republican Party among white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters since 2018.

• John Ashbrook [58:15]:

  "Black voters have gone from D + 76 to D + 52. That's a 24-point move towards the Republican Party."

This realignment is attributed to effective party messaging and addressing economic concerns, positioning the Republicans as champions of both environmental stewardship and economic prosperity.

---

5. Lighter Segments and Cultural Commentary

Balancing the intense political discourse, the podcast incorporates lighter moments, including tributes to wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and a humorous segment about a woman who inadvertently brought a seagull infected with bird flu into her home.

• John Ashbrook [53:14]:

  "The most iconic Hulk Hogan moment was body slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania. Absolute legend."

In the seagull story, the hosts humorously speculate on the woman's intentions and the bird's predicament, showcasing the podcast's ability to blend humor with current events.

• Josh Holmes [93:53]:

  "Something from Lord of the Rings."

These segments provide a respite from the heavy political content, engaging listeners with relatable and entertaining anecdotes.

---

6. Conclusion

The Ruthless Podcast wraps up by emphasizing the importance of sustained Republican efforts in upcoming elections to maintain and expand their political gains. The hosts reaffirm their commitment to tackling both significant policy issues and cultural battles, urging listeners to stay engaged and support their initiatives.

• Michael Duncan [87:10]:

  "Stay ruthless."

The episode underscores the podcast's dedication to providing unfiltered conservative analysis, celebrating victories against left-wing policies, and fostering a sense of community among its listeners.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Josh Holmes [00:00]:

  "That is so much of left wing politics isn't actually an ideology. It's just people who are just miserable."

• Lee Zeldin [19:00]:

  "We are choosing to protect the environment and grow the economy."

• Michael Whatley [69:58]:

  "North Carolina is a red state through and through. We need to save the Senate seat from Roy Cooper because he's going to lie."

• John Ashbrook [53:14]:

  "The most iconic Hulk Hogan moment was body slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania."

---

This episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers a thorough examination of current conservative battles against left-wing policies, significant policy changes under the new EPA administration, strategic political maneuvers within the Republican Party, and engaging cultural commentary, all delivered with the podcast's signature blend of passion and humor.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

That is so much of left wing politics isn't actually an ideology. It's just people who are just miserable. Yeah, they're just miserable. And they look, they look at something like that and they have to find a way to oppose it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so then they retrofit this thing that, oh, well, Sydney Sweeney is a fascist, is fascist propaganda. And it's really just. That woman's probably depressed. That woman's probably depressed.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, she probably doesn't like the way she looks and so she's going to take it out on Sydney Sweeney.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, I think that's, I think.

[Josh Holmes]

That'S a lot of their politics, politics of projection.

[Lee Zeldin]

So this has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion. Like there are people who, I mean, most Americans, we care about the environment. We want clean air, land and water. Conservatives love the environment, want to be good stewards of the environment. There are people who then, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country in the name of environmental justice. They will get tens of billions of dollars appropriated to their friends rather than actually remediating environmental issues.

[Michael Duncan]

Hardworking Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done.

[John Ashbrook]

Now is the time to unleash our.

[Michael Duncan]

Nation'S energy, to create jobs, secure our future and make life better, more affordable and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[Unknown]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. You come to us for a few yucks and to get some news you won't get anywhere else. You are in for an absolute treat here at the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook left right across your radio dial to say they were going to break some news here this week. It's an understatement. We are going to do some incredible stuff and it starts today. We have Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protective Protection Agency, which there are things that you can do under the Trump agenda to try to rein in what the left has done. I'm not sure there's anybody they could do more than what it is that he's doing, what he's about to announce on our show here today, fellas.

[Unknown]

I mean, there's a difference between trying to, like, stop the march of the left and take a chainsaw to their agenda and fight back for America. I mean, I was so thrilled to hear the news he's gonna break and what he's doing there. It is truly like the stuff dreams are made of. It's been too long that we've had to deal with this left wing BS and he's just cutting right through it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that, like, the climate agenda is the heart of their socialist agenda. Yeah, it's like the way that they want to undo the American dream, undo capitalism, all of it requires this climate justice agenda that makes America poorer, gives them less energy and less things in our economy.

[John Ashbrook]

And, fellas, I don't think it's immodest to assert that we, as the hottest, most influential podcast in Washington, D.C. have news that the Associated Press and Reuters and the New York Times and the Washington Post would kill for. We have it right here on the Ruthless Friday program. If you stick with us. Wait till you hear what he's got to say.

[Michael Duncan]

The most significant economic impact that has happened in Washington, D.C. on the regulatory front is about to be announced before you when Lee Zeldin shows up here in a few minutes. We also have the RNC chair, Michael Whatley. Now, if you've been following along and you know that we have an interest in Senate races, you'll know that there's a retirement in North Carolina, a seat that Republicans absolutely have to have in order to have a majority after the midterms in 15 short, 14 short months. And the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has got an opinion about who should fill that role, just so happens to be the RNC chair. He's a good friend of the program. He's gonna be joining us about his plans, which is like, what a show, what a show, what a show.

[John Ashbrook]

Your home state of North Carolina, Smug.

[Unknown]

I could not be more thrilled than this. My home state's North Carolina. I spent a lot of time in New York. This is like my dream team is what we're bringing on this episode.

[Michael Duncan]

So we're breaking some news here. We're breaking some news, but you also tune in for some yucks. And I gotta be honest, fellas, there's a lot that's been going on in popular culture. Some things that I've been watching that's happening, it hasn't quite made the program. And we took notice of this thing about a week ago, 10 days ago, and, and didn't want to Talk about it right up until the fact that the left just lost their minds. Sydney Sweeney. Oh, yeah, Sydney Sweeney. So it started. She's an actress, a huge A list actress. Done an incredible amount of things, including a signature film, Duncan, in which she was featured alongside of a guy that your wife used to date.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Glenn. Yeah, Glenn Powell. Glen Powell.

[Michael Duncan]

Which, if you're an OG to the Ruthless Variety program, you can appreciate that joke.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, look, Glenn's a great guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he is a great guy.

[Josh Holmes]

But she chose me. I'm just kidding.

[Michael Duncan]

And why. And why shouldn't she? And why should.

[Josh Holmes]

That's exactly right.

[Michael Duncan]

A man of your stature.

[Josh Holmes]

Just as handsome.

[Michael Duncan]

Just as handsome. But anyway, if you've noticed what's happening in advertising, marketing, just sort of like the culture that we now reside in. Four short years ago, we were being subjected to a bunch of discussion from corporate media about, like, you should appreciate the following. And it was just like, all nonsense. Yep. Like, nobody. Everybody was like, ugh, for real. And then all of a sudden, people started figuring out that where culture was was not, as is advertised by our political elites.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

They were actually just meeting us where we are, which is what marketing used to be. And a person like Sydney Sweeney, who's right at center, like, I mean, she's not, like, particularly outspoken politically, but she's made it known that she's a Republican.

[Unknown]

She got attacked a couple of years ago because, like, you know, as the left does, they try to ruin people's lives for disagreeing with them. It came out that her mother was, like, you know, wearing like, a MAGA hat. Her mom, like, openly, like, supported Trump. And they're like, we should ruin this.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, to put a finer point on it, what it actually was was her 60th birthday party. This is Sydney Sweeney's mom. And they made up some, like, hats and shirts that said make 60 great again.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so, like, the left freaked out and was like, are these. Is this. Matt is a MAGA party?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, because they. They're like, maga party. They're like, we own Hollywood.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

We own your whole distribution. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm not sure she's actually a Republican, but she's from Idaho.

[Unknown]

You can tell she's a Republican man. 100%. You can see it.

[Michael Duncan]

So she signs on with American Apparel.

[Unknown]

No, it was. It's American Eagle.

[Michael Duncan]

American Eagle. American Eagle, which is a brand, frankly, that was big at one point. Stick stuck around, so it must have had some staying power. But it wasn't one that was like, in the top of the News.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the kind of store you walked past when you were forced to go to the mall on a routine basis. And today you might not want to. You're not going to do that so quickly.

[Michael Duncan]

You're not going to do that. And so they did this ad campaign. Do we have an ad, by the way, Wolf, can we put that up? I'm not here to tell you to buy American Eagle jeans. And I definitely won't say that they're the most comfortable jeans I've ever worn or that they make your butt look amazing. Why would I need to do that? But if you said that you want to buy the jeans, I'm not gonna stop you. But just so we're clear, this is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans. Sydney Sweeney has for canes. You see what I did there, right?

[Unknown]

This is what I voted for.

[Michael Duncan]

So we're back. So America is back. And there was another little vignette that they put on social media about her walking up to an old Mustang or something like that and getting inside.

[Unknown]

And folks, this is why you subscribe on YouTube, man. I mean, like, I love listening to the episodes, but that's one you want to be on YouTube for.

But the point.

[Michael Duncan]

The point is, is it's gotten back to marketing.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

In a 101 type way, you know what people are looking for. Every woman wants to look like she does in a pair of jeans.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, yeah, because we went through this period of time, you know, when the wokes were in charge. The wokes were in charge, where it was like, let's find a 380 pound woman and put her in spandex.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And we'll talk about body positive.

[Michael Duncan]

We'll tell you how like that.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, we're gonna talk about how often she works out. You should buy this because she works out so much.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, she's. She. Well, she's a hero.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just being. It just becomes sort of delusional. And like, advertising, I think at its core is really more aspirational. It's like you want to buy into what the product is selling. That's selling somebody who's healthy and fit. And that sort of thing like that used to be table stakes for making an ad in the United States of America. Then we got to this weird place where it was like, actually this person who's super unhealthy is the athlete.

[Unknown]

And on the COVID of, like, Women's Health.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It didn't make any sense.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, you think back to like, Juicy Fruit or like, Big Red or any beer commercial.

[John Ashbrook]

Double mint gum.

[Josh Holmes]

Gum.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. We just went through the gum. The whole gum of the 80s and 90s. How did they get on the gum? Even easier. Gum stuff.

[Unknown]

Even easier. Remember the, like Marlboro? Yeah. The cowboy is cool as hell.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Would you want a marble rat? That's like, actually the Cowboy is about £400 and diabetic and the horse is croaking, trying to haul him around. You know, welcome to flavor country. That doesn't work.

[Michael Duncan]

But I mean, the point is that marketing reached its apex at that point. There was creative stuff, you know, like the where's the beef stuff or the Smith Barney. Yeah, right. Grey Poupon. There was like a. Like, it sort of struck at the chord of what people were sort of interested in. It didn't always have to be sex with which. That sells. Like, let's be frank. That sells.

[John Ashbrook]

But the left is losing their mind because of this ad.

[Michael Duncan]

They are losing their mind.

[Unknown]

They're so crazy to me.

[Michael Duncan]

They're losing their mind. And this is. It's not just about the fact that marketing, Madison Avenue and all of that have been like, oh, wait a minute, like, maybe we can actually do what appeals to consumers. It's like we broke the genre that they created for themselves in this little box where they were like, no, this is what's cool. And like a generation of Americans were like, yes, the 450 pound fat ass that was like, you know, like, this is what's cool.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I want to buy the athletic equipment they wear because it works.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Oh, no, it's crazy.

[Unknown]

I don't want a pair of Air Jordans because Jordan can dunk in them. I want to buy the spandex that the, you know, you have to get a forklift to fit this lady.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't want to buy her Jordan.

[Unknown]

Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a fix. My Jordan is cool.

[Unknown]

But, you know, I mean, like, it's insane. They got away with it for so long.

[John Ashbrook]

They ruined it.

[Unknown]

They ruined it.

[Michael Duncan]

We managed to wedge in forklift in the first 10 minutes, but look at the left. All right, so this is the left. Clip one, please. Should we be surprised that a company whose name is literally American Eagle is making fascist propaganda like this? Probably not, but it's still really shocking. Like a blonde haired, blue eyed white woman is talking about her good genes. Like, that is Nazi propaganda. Oh, it's Nazi propaganda. There's a white lady on there, guys, and she happens to be attractive. That's Nazi propaganda.

[John Ashbrook]

She's not allowed to talk. Let's get this straight. If she doesn't have a trans flag behind her, she's not 750 pounds. She is not allowed to say anything.

[Unknown]

Yeah, no, I think this is another one of those examples of an 8020 issue where Americans try to vocalize as loud as possible. Last November. They're tired of this. They're tired of this stupidity of being like anything that doesn't go with what Hollywood and the left is telling me is Nazi propaganda. Like, stop trying to call regular Americans Nazis, because you know what? Pretty girl in jeans that sells.

[Josh Holmes]

I think there's something even more at the root that is the cause of this and that is so much of left wing politics isn't actually an ideology. It's just people who are just miserable. They're just miserable. And they look, they look at something like that and they have to find a way to oppose it. And so then they retrofit this thing that, oh, well, Sydney Sweeney is a fascist is fascist propaganda. And it's really just. That woman's probably depressed. That woman's probably depressed. Yeah, you know, she probably doesn't like the way she looks. And so she's going to take it out on Sydney Sweeney.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, I think that's.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's a lot of their politics, the politics of projection.

[Michael Duncan]

It's probably right. And like, it's sad at some level.

[Josh Holmes]

It definitely is.

[Michael Duncan]

That we've enabled a society where, like, you're anything less than supermodel hot. You need to attack something that's great, something that's beautiful, something that's patriotic, something that's anything because you feel like that's your only recourse.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but dude, like so much of our social media now is that it's just tearing down other people who are successful and like making excuses for your own life. It's one of the most pathetic things about America in this.

[Michael Duncan]

It's truly disgusting. Yeah, it really is.

[Unknown]

And I mean like, on, in terms of like social media, we have seen on a measurable level, you look at the difference between TikTok here in America, which, like the Chinese Communist Party tries to push out anything that divides the country. It's like, no, actually I like this like, Marxist idea of how Sydney Sweeney is like a Nazi as opposed to in China, it's like, here's a bridge we just built. Here's farmers with a, like banger crop.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at their yield.

[Unknown]

And meanwhile in America, it's like the algorithm's like, no, actually it's everyone else's fault that you're miserable. And you need SSRIs. And yes, Sidney Sweeney is the reason for it.

[Michael Duncan]

So we're here to defend Sydney Sweeney's.

[Unknown]

Someone has to. Someone has to.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, this lady has done nothing but great stuff. Provided great content, by the way. She knows. She's well aware of the leftist attacks that she's been getting just simply by existing and doing a media campaign. She's, like, blowing that off. The perfect way to handle all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

True.

[Michael Duncan]

God bless her.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

I mean, that's like American greatness in action. And again, like, when that lady in the video is, like, by the name American Eagle, like, we're supposed to think those two things are bad.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

No, American Eagle's bass line. Like, American Eagle's a bad thing. Like, those are two of the best things.

[Michael Duncan]

She should check out Gaza. That's a great, good spot for her.

[Unknown]

Hang out there. That'd be good.

[Michael Duncan]

I imagine that knows that they'd enjoy your flag. They would love it. They'd love every minute about it. So. All right, so we have a question of the day right off the top before we get it to our interviews. The question of the day is what 80s advertising needs to make a comeback.

[Unknown]

Such a great question.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, we mentioned all the gum, but there's a lot more out there for you all to work with in their eclipse. Like, respond with that. Put that stuff in there. Give us the whole rundown. I mean, it's all nostalgia. It's all hilarious stuff.

[Unknown]

I'll weigh in. Marble rats everywhere, all across the country. Let's just get cowboy smoking cigarettes in.

[John Ashbrook]

The country in like, tap the Rockies. Tap the Rockies. Go outside the Rockies.

[Josh Holmes]

The Coors and Twins.

[Michael Duncan]

I love you, too.

[Unknown]

This is what I mean.

[Josh Holmes]

That was, that was more 90s than 80s. Nobody should broaden it. Broaden it.

[Michael Duncan]

Broaden it out. Make it the 90s. But even if you weren't, like, didn't grow up with it, you've seen the stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, what do you think appeals to you? I guarantee you'd be buying more products if you saw somebody advertising to you in a real and meaningful way. So leave that in the comments when you like and subscribe. We read them all. We cultivate and we get back to you. We. We're going to do that on next week's episode after our guest. When we come back, you're going to hear from Lee Zeldin. He's the administrator of the epa. He's breaking news that I just want to tell you. You're going to think like, environmental policy like, oh, it's for the left or whatever. What he's about to talk about is the most meaningful and significant thing the federal government has done in my lifetime. And I mean that sincerely. This is something for those of us of a certain age who watched all of this come into fruition from the left and what they had done to sort of insulate themselves from any sort of scrutiny by creating rules and regulations that acted as a hub and spoke for all the things that they did to try to destroy industry in this country. Nobody ever thought that anybody would have the balls to do it. President Donald Trump is elected. Lee Zeldin's the EPA administrator. He's going to announce to you what just happened right after this.

[Unknown]

America is back thanks to President Trump and Leader John Thune's working family tax cuts. We stopped the biggest tax hike in history, but that's only the beginning. The big beautiful bill also cuts taxes on tips and overtime, secures the border, finishes the wall and protects Medicaid for Americans, not illegals. Leader Thune and Senate Republicans got President Trump's conservative agenda done, providing real relief for every hard working American that's up early and home late. We're bringing manufacturing jobs back home and making America great again. Tell Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans thank you for delivering President Trump's agenda. Learn more@onenationamer America.org.

[Michael Duncan]

We'Re really excited about this next interview. There are departments that outweigh one another when it comes to undoing the reckless behavior of the left. And I can just say firsthand, watching what the EPA administrator Lee Zeldin is doing is incredible. He's going to tell us about all of this stuff. Administrator, welcome.

[Lee Zeldin]

It's great to be with you guys.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, this is, I guess your second time here on the program, first time as a head honcho over at epa. Turns out you've got some big things in the works.

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah, actually later today we're going to be making a big announcement in Indiana. And something that happened back in the Obama administration, 2009 was that they put forward this regulation called the endangerment finding. Now, a lot of people are out there listening. They might not know what the endangerment finding is. If you were asked congressional Democrats to describe what it is, the left would say that it means that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is an endangerment to human health. They might say methane is a pollutant. Methane is an endangerment to human health. And that's an oversimplified, I would say inaccurate Way to describe it, the way they did this was following a Supreme Court case in Massachusetts. First EPA and the Obama administration said that carbon dioxide when mixed with a bunch of other well mixed gases, the greenhouse gases that it contributes to climate change. How much? They don't say it's more than zero and they say that climate change endangers human health. So because of these different mental leaps, and by the way, when it's carbon dioxide mixed with all these well mixed gases, they were only looking at mobile sources like vehicles. But a bunch of those greenhouse gases aren't even emitted from vehicles. Now why does all this matter? Like right out of the gate here we're getting very wonky on like what this regulation means. Well then there were all sorts of different vehicle regulations that followed.

[Michael Duncan]

So this is like the endangerment finding in and of itself is the hub to the spoke of the left's environmental agenda essentially.

[Lee Zeldin]

So this has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion. Like there are people who, I mean most Americans, we care about the environment. We want clean air, land and water. Conservatives love the environment, want to be good stewards of the environment. There are people who then in the name of climate change are willing to bankrupt the country in the name of environmental justice. They will get tens of billions of dollars appropriated to their friends rather than actually remediating environmental issues. So they created this endangerment finding and then they're able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources to basically regulate out of existence in many cases a lot of forms of segments of our economy and it costs Americans a lot of money. What's the significance? How big is the endangerment finding? While repealing it will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America. So it's kind of a big deal.

[John Ashbrook]

It's, it's incredible. And like you said, it goes beyond just cars. There was a huge rip, triple effects in manufacturing in this country. And if we're going to rebuild our manufacturing base, we have to let people actually do their jobs and build their companies and power their machines.

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah. So we announced on March 12th it was over 30 different deregulatory actions. We put out press releases once every five minutes. Apologies, not really, to the environmental reporters here in D.C. who had their inbox flooded.

[Michael Duncan]

They seem like a well adjusted bunch.

[Lee Zeldin]

So that night this guy Bill Weir or whatever, he's like the chief climate correspondent on cnn. He's on a, he's on like Keaton Collins show and, and he was criticizing us saying that we, that we didn't proofread our press releases, that we put out our press releases so quickly that we didn't proofread it. And he says as an example, he puts a press release of this regulation which is. It's oh, oh, B, C. So quad obc. It's an actual, it's an actual thing. It's an actual rule and it's regard to the oil and gas industry. And so he puts it up and say, you know, look, this is the Chief Climate Correspondent. CNN says, look at his proofreading edit as the example says. 0000B C. It's not even a thing. It's a placeholder. No, it's an actual rule. You know, and like, you know, Caitlin Collins is like, whoops, like making like we really didn't know what we were doing in proofreading it.

[Michael Duncan]

I certainly did a segment after that explaining how they had misled their audience.

[Lee Zeldin]

The next. Well, actually the next day he ended up going back on air admitting that.

[Unknown]

Oh, he did.

[Lee Zeldin]

But like, you can't be like the person in charge of educating your entire audience on all things environment, energy policy if you don't even know what these rules and regulations even are.

[Unknown]

I think that's critical is because the reality is when this was passed, this was the left's like tent pole to begin the whole climate grift that we've seen. This is the birth of people like gluing themselves to museums and sitting in the middle of highways. This was the first step in opening up the Pandora's box of insanity, of trying to shut down manufacturing in this country, of trying to shut down letting people decide what kind of car you want to drive. This was the start of it. And when I first heard about this, I was thrilled. Like, I hope everyone appreciates this is a true game changer. Like it's projected to save Americans over a trillion dollars. This is a huge victory for the American people.

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah. That means more jobs. It's more affordable to be able to purchase a car. And all the actions added up amount into the trillions. And, and it's one agency in one year doing more deregulation than entire federal governments across all agencies, across entire presidencies. Yes. When you look back in history, that's how much of a mess it is that we inherited now with regards to the endangerment finding, they'll say carbon dioxide is a pollutant and like that's the end of it. They'll never acknowledge any type of benefit or need for carbon dioxide.

[Michael Duncan]

Stop breathing. Right?

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah. Like right now as we're doing this interview, I mean there's, it's important to note and they don't how important it is for the planet. And when I say that, like what I just said, like the left, their minds will explode just pulling that clip, like, oh my gosh. And they'll say, well, let me lock you in a tank of just carbon dioxide. Well, it's like you lock me in a tank of just water and see what happens. I guess bad things would, would happen if I was just stuck in that tank filled with water. They didn't actually study carbon dioxide individually and they made assumptions on the science that actually turned out not to be true. And they didn't go out for public comment and they didn't weigh the economic impacts of the regulations that would follow if they did the endangerment. We're going to go out to public comment. We're not afraid of allowing the public to weigh in. We are going to consider all the advancements in technology over the course of the last 20 years. We shouldn't shy away from all of the innovation in the way that we tap into an energy supply here in the United States better than so many other countries, countries around the world. We aren't going to ignore the fact that emissions are down in this country over the course of the last 20 years.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm glad you met, I'm glad you mentioned that because look, even first of all, far left, this is always a religion. It's become like you mentioned, their scientific mistakes and all that. I kind of think it was all on purpose. Right. I think the whole agenda was, as you said, smug. Shutting down American manufacturing and all of the domestic.

[Unknown]

You mentioned methane. They were literally saying, let's start killing all the cows in this country. No ranchers allowed because the cow farts. It's a deranged religion.

[Michael Duncan]

It is. But I think the one place where the center of the electorate gets hung up on this stuff is it's, as you said, everybody wants clean water, everybody wants trees and grass and national parks and things like that. None of the things that you are doing are endangering that component even for a second. I mean, this is, from my perspective, a better environmental policy. If your goal is cleaner air, fresh water, you know, all of those things. That's the component where I think we have to divorce the talking points that you see in the New York Times, Washington post now for 10 plus years creating this climate change religion from the ultimate goal that all of us want. Right.

[Lee Zeldin]

Yeah. One of the biggest differences between conservatives and liberals, the right and left, Republicans and Democrats on this, because we all care about protecting the environment. On the left, they say that in order to protect the environment, we have to put all these regulations in that will strangulate out of existence entire segments of our of energy sectors and other aspects of our economy. On the right, conservatives believe that we can both protect the environment and grow the economy. It's not a conservative choice. We are choosing to do both. And on top of it, that's what the American public wants, right? So when you get elected into government or you're here serving in the President's cabinet and running one of these agencies, why are we here? Because the American public made a choice last November to send Donald Trump to back to the White House to be the President of the United States. When they were exercising that voice, they were saying that they want agencies to apply common sense. They want agencies to be cognizant of economic pain. That if you run an agency like the EPA where the core mission is protecting human health and the environment, you should do so in a way that can allow them to afford to heat their home and have prescription, get the prescription drugs they need and be able to put the groceries that they need to inside of their fridge. They should be able to afford to purchase a car. They should have a job. And it's a big difference between the right and left. I'll tell you one other big difference between the right and the left that I've noticed since coming in. I've heard this term environmental justice. And the best definition that somebody can give in favor of it, that you get a lot of support. Even conservatives would say, okay, I agree with that definition, is you would say that there are, that there are communities in America that have been left behind that need help dealing with remediating environmental issues. Okay, we all agree with that definition. So what are you going to do about it now on the left, in the name of environmental justice, they then will get tens of billions of dollars appropriated that instead of spending the money directly on remediating environmental issues, they want to give it to left wing activist NGOs. They want to pay off, you know, former Obama and Biden officials and Democratic donors and give it through pass throughs. We have some examples of grants where the grant will go through four pass throughs and each of the passers will take 15 to 25% for administering it. Think how much a dollar gets diluted in order to get it to the recipient. We say, well, why don't you just put it right to the recipient or if you have, if you're sending it to a state and the state is going to give it to the recipient, then you have in theory one pastor or administrator. So the federal government can advance cooperative federalism and we're not doing everything ourselves. Here's the difference on the right not only do we disagree with the idea of giving all of this money to left wing activist NGOs, we don't advocate for taking the money and giving it to right wing activist NGOs. We say that if a dollar is going to be spent in the name of remediating an environmental concern in some community that needs help, the dollar should get spent on directly remediating the environmental issue. We don't want to take the money from a left wing NGO and give it to a right wing ngo. It should go directly towards the purpose or the money should just get saved for the taxpayer.

[Josh Holmes]

So administrator, I think this is really, really important. So I want to put a finer point on it because I think some people read some articles about this with Stacey Abrams and everything and I think what you walked through is critical here. And that is when the left puts in all of these rules, it just becomes a spoil system for their activist base. And I know that there was some bank that they had sent all this money to and you guys were clawing back all of this through the, the grantmaking process. Can you go into the specifics there of how much money you were able to find and where it was all going?

[Lee Zeldin]

They parked 20 the Biden EPA towards the end of 2024 parked $20 billion in an outside bank. Billion because 20 billion because it was, it was so much money that they didn't even know how to spend it. And they had a deadline that they had to get the money out so they just released it to, to this bank.

[Michael Duncan]

It's never shady at all. When a lame duck president shipping, I.

[Unknown]

Mean that is legit. Take the money and run.

[Lee Zeldin]

So 20 billion do dollars end up going to 8 pass through entities? In many cases brand new entities. In the, in the case of the Stacey Abrams Connect NGO In 2023 they received $100. In 2024 they got $2 billion. The Biden EPA was expressing concern that they were not going to be able to spend this money wisely like the people who are processing the grants. It's documented over emails their, their concerns. They put in a grant agreement that that NGO had to within 90 days complete training called how to develop a budget.

[Michael Duncan]

Come on.

[Unknown]

Oh my God.

[Lee Zeldin]

So if they don't know. But get this, even though they have 90 days to complete training called how to develop a budget, within the first 21 days they're able to start spending the money. So they can start spending the money before they even not only develop a budget, but like get training on how to develop a budget. And they were all of a sudden out of nowhere the CEO. The CEO was getting paid 800,000 plus they're paying someone else 450,000. 22 people over 150,000. It was a pass through entity, all eight of them. Now once it goes through the pass through entities, you might ask me well where's the money go next? Here's the problem. I don't know. As administrator of epa, you can ask me all sorts of questions that I should have the answer to that I don't. EPA is a party to the account control agreement for those eight. We are not party to the agreements with regards to all of the subgrades.

[Michael Duncan]

They can do whatever they want once it hits their bank account.

[Lee Zeldin]

Essentially what they say, essentially I can't even tell you where the money goes. So reduced agency oversight where EPA in many respects have our hands tied behind our backs. Deliberately, the Biden EPA tied the hands of the EPA's. Their hands get tied behind their back. The self dealing and conflicts of interest. The unqualified recipients. We were all alerted to this issue, which is even more than just the $20 billion because this video comes out in December. It was actually a Project Veritas video where a Biden EPA official is talking about how they're rushing to get billions of dollars out before inauguration day. Tossing gold bars off the Titanic. Gold bars, that's tax dollars off the Titanic. Means they know that they're wasting it.

[Josh Holmes]

Brewster's Millions Roosters.

[Lee Zeldin]

Billions.

[Michael Duncan]

Billions. That's. That's unbelievable. I mean I'm just trying to fathom how you as the previous administration is looking at, trying to throw all this out the door that they're like, hey, by the way, we need a little like a short training on a my first bank account. It's like, like mom and dad need to sign the ledger.

[Unknown]

It's like the perfect encapsulation of. It's like step one, get taxpayer money. Step two, spend it. Step three, learn how to budget. That works.

[Lee Zeldin]

And by the way, and don't ask any questions. Yeah, yeah, we've started, we started digging into it and I was at a Senate Appropriations. It was. The Interior is the Interior subcommittee. It was back in May and Jeff Merkley who's a senator from Oregon, was, was grit, was trying to grill me.

[Michael Duncan]

On Oregon didn't send its finest.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Lee Zeldin]

On, you know, criticizing me, looking to it, criticizing me, trying to figure out like what. Where all this money is going and develop accountability.

[Michael Duncan]

How dare you, sir?

[Lee Zeldin]

As if, as if it's a, an insulting or maybe crime to ask questions as to where the money goes. And that's, it's shocking. Like is that the basic job is that if I'm appearing before Congress that I'm as prepared as possible to answer their questions as to where their appropriated money goes.

[Unknown]

The level of corruption, this money, the impact it's had on corrupting the left, you know, cannot be overstated. I think it was two years ago now investigation found that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode island who pushes all these like climate bills and things like this to limit American manufacturing in the name of climate justice, his wife actually runs a left wing climate group that gets grants from the government.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean it's why they just.

[Unknown]

Turn it into a business.

[Michael Duncan]

It's why they're so committed to this. I mean this is, this is just one of those things. I'm not even sure that they believe in it, but it certainly pays the bills and then they convert and brainwash a whole bunch of people.

[Lee Zeldin]

I would encourage people to watch the video of my exchange with White House during these hearings. It tells you a lot about, about him because we separately than $20 billion, I canceled over $2 billion and of that over $2 billion pot of money, he was so fixated on one employee at EPA who worked on the grant this one day in particular. And I'm trying to explain to White House the concept that there was more than one person working on this more than one day and he just wouldn't accept it. Accept it. And the back and forth is something that you just have to watch. You wouldn't believe it. Ed Markey, who's also on that committee, this is the Senate EPW Committee, is asking me what evidence do you have of wrongdoing? And I, and I was prepared to go through a massive, massive list. I'm glad you asked, Senator. I am happy to go through the entire list right now. Let's see how far through this list you will let me go before you cut me off. And then I go down and I start reading the first few words of the first example. And he immediately comes reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. Exactly. He was making the point as if I wasn't sitting there. Yeah, he was just saying that there was no evidence of anything being wrong with any of the money. And. And just in insisting that I would. My only option is to sit there and just accept that. And then I was like, oh, hey, great news, Senator. Now that we're at this public hearing and I'm under oath and the cameras are rolling, allow me to go through this massive list of all the wrongdoing.

[Michael Duncan]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please don't do that.

[Lee Zeldin]

I mean, you open the door like, let's. Let's do this.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

That's the most powerful thing, is because for so long, the left has counted on being able to silence and push out any dissent, saying, oh, trust the science. All right, you open it up for common talk. No, no, no, not like that. Please don't give us any evidence. It's unbelievable. Thank God you're doing this.

[Lee Zeldin]

Right. So to that point, they'll say, carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Carbon dioxide is an endangerment to human health. They never studied carbon dioxide specifically. They only studied it when mixed with all sorts of other, well, mixed gases. But when they do their regulations, they start regulating the heck out of just carbon dioxide. And then they ignore the fact that the carbon dioxide numbers in the United States go down. Like they. They went for so long pushing this narrative, the acquiring power, and conservatives didn't push back on it. Maybe they didn't know how to. You know, there are a lot of conservatives that might prioritize other very important issues related to the economy and the border and more, but this is an economic issue, and we've hit everything else. We've hit a point where there was this story that came out just a few weeks ago. I think it was in Politico or something like that, where the headline said, we lost the culture war on climate. And that was the headline, and it was quoting, like a former Obama official. And it's amazing how quickly, in just a few months of conservatives leaning into this conversation, we're not ignoring it anymore. We're confronting it head on. Now all of a sudden, the left is saying that they're not losing. They're saying that they lost. And I've been hearing these different conversations, especially when the cameras aren't rolling, where now they're talking about how they have to figure out how to update their messaging to start being more aware of the economic impacts and.

[Michael Duncan]

Or just aware, maybe not more of what? Just aware.

[Lee Zeldin]

And it's a message to conservatives on all issues across. Across the board. It's just important to. To confront, Meet, meet these Issues head on. Have these debates.

[Michael Duncan]

Don't be afraid.

[Lee Zeldin]

Win these debates on the merit. Because the left went so far overboard. I mean, it was six years ago that AOC was saying, we're 12 years away from extinction.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Lee Zeldin]

And in the name of that argument, the thought is that we should have tens of trillions of dollars that should have. That should go into this Green New Deal getting implemented, that it would essentially forget about raising taxes on the wealthy. You can confiscate 100% of the assets of the wealthiest Americans and still not have enough to do what they're saying. So, like, we'll pay for it by increasing taxes on the wealthy. We'll pay for it by increasing taxes on the wealthy. And it sounds good, but even if you confiscate all of their assets, you still do not have enough money.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course not. No. I mean, it's incredible. It takes competent, thoughtful, smart leadership, the kind that you're providing over at EPA right now. Can't tell you how thankful I am. There's one more vignette that I wanted to get to you mentioned before we got on. You were in Mexico, and one of the things that we've talked about here on the program is how everything with the Trump administration is connected to everything. It's why you see these trade deals starting to work out. We're getting pieces of the puzzle that are all kind of coming together when, like, four months ago, everybody was saying, like, oh, they don't know what they're doing. You were in Mexico with a really significant effort to try to clean up. Well, I'll let you tell the story.

[Lee Zeldin]

There's a big announcement that we made the end of last week in Mexico City. I signed on behalf of the United States government, on behalf of the Trump administration, this memorandum of understanding, a very substantive, permanent 100% solution to the raw sewage that is coming across from Tijuana into the San Diego area. Millions of people in Southern California have been impacted. Foul smells, Tijuana river valley degradation, beaches closed. You have Navy SEALs in Coronado unable to train in the water because of water quality. It was an environmental issue. It was a national security issue as a border issue. I went in April to San Diego. I met with my counterparts in the Mexican government. I toured all these different. All the different sites that I just described, including a helicopter tour above, to get a line of sight from. From a different perspective. And in just 90 days, we were able to get Mexico to obligate the remaining money of a prior commitment. It was significant. $93 million to go towards all sorts of Mexican side projects. We have condensed the timeline for completion of all different kinds of Mexican side projects and on top of that we added many more Mexican side projects where collectively finally this issue that's been around for decades, we have this 100% permanent solution to urgently implement and we're excited to be able to sign the deal. And now we just have to have total follow through. And by the way, I'll give you one other example. The same day that we were signing that agreement, I put something out on social media of a letter that I sent to gas can manufacturers. And it's just a small example. There are so many issues in this country that could seem so insignificant it's not even worth mentioning. Well, there was this regulation that came out decade and a half ago that changed how gas cans were manufactured. Now there's a few things that happen at once, but from an EPA perspective, they got rid of these vents. But they would, that they. But, but what happened was these manufacturers wouldn't allow, they wouldn't even make it with the self closing vents. The consequence of not including, including those vents is that it takes, you know, feels like it takes three hands to pour gas. That it takes five minutes instead of 45 seconds. And people complain about these basic quality of life issues. Well, we're telling the gas can manufacturers vent the darn can, allow the gas to flow. When President Trump is talking about gas cans and light bulbs and faucets and toilets and showerheads and all these quality of life issues, refrigerants and more, each of these issues individually, there are people out there on the left saying really this is what you're focused on. This is, this is the most important thing. Well, here's a concept. We could do all of it at once. We inherited a big mess. We are going to fix everything at once. Large issues. For the people in Southern California, there's nothing bigger, small issues. But for those who operate the gas cans or some of these other issues, it's, it's really big for quality of life. When I announced that the EPA is going to do our part to get rid of that stupid start stop feature on vehicles, the reaction from across America, thank God. Yeah, you should really call it like instead of a start stop feature, it should be called a start stop start stop start stop start stop speed feature.

[Michael Duncan]

How to ruin my engine in six months or less.

[Lee Zeldin]

So we are going to tackle big stuff like this announcement that we're making later today. We're going to tackle the small stuff. And collectively I made A joke to our vice president saying that, you know, when the Vance administration comes in, there's going to be nothing left for him to fix.

[Michael Duncan]

That's so good. Listen, we're all so appreciative of all of this and you know, look, this guy's going to get beat up this week because this is a religion on the left and there is no truth when it comes to printing. I mean, every environmental reporter that I've ever encountered only sees the world through the left hand way. So all your TV on some stations and newspapers are gonna reflect what an evil guy this guy is. I just have to ask you the endangerment finding that is a hook for $22 billion going out the door and direct payments to the Democratic Party or the trillion dollars that he's saving American taxpayers and everything else, is that better for the environment? Somebody who gets literally poop out of your water in Southern California, like that's the true issues, the way that you're tackling it. I cannot thank you enough for coming in here and sharing it with us. It does not get enough discussion on the right and we're going to change that.

[Lee Zeldin]

Well, listen, we. That's our man. That's the Trump mandate. That's what the American public voted for. Don't just fix a few things. Do our best to fix everything and do it fast.

[Michael Duncan]

Lee Zeldin. Thank you, sir.

[Lee Zeldin]

Good to see you.

[Unknown]

Thanks so much.

[Lee Zeldin]

Thanks, guys.

[John Ashbrook]

Only 58% of Americans today say they're popping proud to be American, the lowest number ever recorded. That's not just sad, it is very dangerous. Because if we forget what makes America special, we risk losing it. That's why Americans for Prosperity is launching the One Small Step Campaign, a bold nationwide initiative to reconnect Americans with our founding principles that sparked unparalleled innovation and prosperity. It's not just a celebration, it's a call to action. Through the 250,000 Steps for Freedom challenge, AFP is partnering with the grassroots in all 50 states to take meaningful steps that defend freedom and advance opportunity. Call your representative, attend a local event, knock on a door, talk to your neighbors. Every single step counts. And every step moves us closer to a more perfect Union. Go to takeonesmallstep.com to learn more. Then join the [e-mail].

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, fellas, so look, a little program that could. We obviously have carved ourselves a little niche here in terms of breaking big news. There isn't any bigger news other than like war and peace than what just happened on the it's exclusive to the Ruthless Variety program. We have this thing first, which is important, but I hope you got from that interview the significance of this endangerment finding piece that what just happened. I'm just telling you there is nothing that has changed the American economy over the last. I GUESS it was an 09 ruling. So you're talking 15, 16 years of, of what's happened. There's nothing that's done more than the left's hooks into that component that he was now getting rid of.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's the thing, man. It doesn't just help consumers who are buying cars. It doesn't just help the people who are working for companies that make cars for the companies whose names you're familiar with. It helps all of the people who, you know, who work for manufacturing companies who have names you're not familiar with. These are people who put parts together for a living, people who make paper for a living, people who do jobs that are not on TikTok every single day. And they rely on an economy that allows them to go to work and make something so that people can buy it. And what he did was what he's doing and what President Trump is doing is tearing down the tyranny of the left to stop small time manufacturers all over this country who are just trying to earn an honest day's pay.

[Michael Duncan]

It's such a good point because, I mean, look, we talked a lot about this during the 24 election and Donald Trump tapped into the ethos of the angst that Americans had about their federal government. And it's multifold, right? They're doing things that you don't agree with, that is environmental policy that bankrupts the middle of this country, that outsources our energy to China, that does all these things that make us poorer, weaker, all of those things. And then there's a secondary component which is like the swamp aspect to it, which is this very real and immediate concern that the people in charge of your federal government are basically just sloshing money to themselves. Right? Your money, I mean, you're paying your tax dollar, it goes into the federal government and they're basically taking it and paying they're friends.

[Unknown]

Stacey Abrams gave $2 billion. This is obscene.

[Michael Duncan]

It's obscene, right? But what he's talking about is all in the same bucket. And like, what this is, you have no idea. You're listening to this right now and you're like, wow, that's an interesting story. Wait till the end of the week when you find every single left wing rag in this country that is completely setting themselves on fire over what they call, like, Nazi stuff. Or they say it's like, you know.

[Unknown]

I mean, whatever the money, hit dogs holler.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

They've all been grifting off of this.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But they're all going to claim that this is the worst thing in the world. And what they're going to, at the basis of the critique, is that somehow they don't think. The Trump administration doesn't think that Americans need clean air, clean water, all these things. It has nothing to do with it. They're two separate tasks. What they're talking about that he is undone is under the guise of all of that shit. But it was never meant to be that. What it was meant to be is a cottage industry for Democratic loyalists. And the way that, like, the CCP works, where they pay off their friends and allies through a new appropriated religion.

[John Ashbrook]

That they've created, I will tell you, like, like the 22 billion that goes to the left and they're getting all their money that pisses people off because they pay their tax dollars and the money goes to the left, blah, blah, blah. I get that. That pisses people off. What Democrats did to Americans in 2009 with the endangerment finding ruined people's lives. We talk about COVID and how the COVID regulations closed restaurants and closed small businesses. The endangerment finding and what the Obama administration did to small manufacturers across this country ruined people's lives before COVID was ever even thought of. And so they are the real victims of this. People who had small companies that were just shit on. I mean, there are these boiler. I don't know. I mean, we didn't get into all this, but there are these boiler regulations that the Obama administration enforced that shut down paper mills all across this country. Yep. And the Obama people are like, oh, well, who needs paper anyway? We just do our iPads.

[Unknown]

They're like, learn to code.

[Michael Duncan]

But the hook to all of that, the reason they were able to do it, is what he's talking about with the endangerment finding. That's it. In the false science and all the nonsense. The reason they were able to do that regulatory experiment within the American public is because they created something that allowed them to do it. They're getting rid of that.

[John Ashbrook]

They are. And it's not like the need for paper went away. Obama, Obama. The Obama guys just bought it from China. So the difference is now Americans can make it and we can reinvigorate American manufacturing in a way that Obama and his people took away. From us.

[Michael Duncan]

It's really, really good. It's great stuff. So your question of the day, last Friday's episode, a little bit of a solemn occasion. And we marked the passing of Hulk Hogan, who was a generational icon. We asked the question, what is the most iconic Hulk Hogan moment to you? And to do that, we always start with a voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, first comment comes from US Marine 2001, who writes directly from the halls of Montezuma. And he writes, the most iconic Hulk Hogan clip was body slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania. There is an interview Hogan did where he talked about all the injuries he sustained after that performance. No surprise because Andre the Giant was. He was like very, very big.

[Michael Duncan]

500, 600 pounds.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he continues, you wouldn't have known it after the slam, but he tore his lat off the bone and had the adrenaline to finish the match for his fans. Absolute legend. Rest in peace, Hulk Hogan.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, man, that was absolute legend.

[John Ashbrook]

Incredible. And if you watch the documentary with Vince McMahon, you know that Andre the Giant also had a back problem and he went to Vince and he went to Hulk and he was like, you know what?

[Josh Holmes]

Do it.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm gonna do it.

[Michael Duncan]

Do it.

[Unknown]

What a legend.

[John Ashbrook]

Andre the Giant.

[Michael Duncan]

So good showmanship. Comment two, please.

[Josh Holmes]

This is from Ken. Ken writes, I met Hulk Hogan in 1996 at a backstage auto signing before Halloween havoc. I was a nine year old boy and saw the action figure come to life before my eyes. He taught my dad and I how to do the bullhorns and then did the NWO salute with us for a Polaroid. Quite literally one of my favorite memories.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what we were talking about. The guy was always there for the people. Just awesome stuff. Smug.

[Unknown]

Coming three, coming through some Will Olson. And Will writes, I love seeing Hulk's cameos in Rocky 3 Muppets from Space. But my favorite Hulk moment was seeing him and my man Dennis Rodman wrestling together with nwo. Two of my childhood heroes in the ultimate tag team. Rodzilla put up a very sweet tribute to the Hulkster on his Instagram. Two things about this. So folks who saw the Bulls documentary. Oh yeah, a couple years ago, Last dance. Last dance they loved. Even, even Jordan got in and being like Rodzilla, where were you for practice? But also the Rocky 3 thing. Yeah, I saw a video clip of Hulk discussing that. And Sylvester Stallone was 160 pounds, basically pure muscle when he lifted Hulk Hogan, who said he was over 300 at the time of again, pure muscle when Sylvester stallone lifted Hulk 300 pounds, threw him over the top rope. That's some strength.

[John Ashbrook]

So good.

[Unknown]

That's the strength. He was like, yeah, his legs are shaking, but he's like £160.

[Josh Holmes]

The Italian Stallion.

[Michael Duncan]

We used to have an entertainment culture we did, you know.

[Unknown]

That's incredible.

[Michael Duncan]

Sweeney's bringing it back. Sweeney's bringing it back.

[Unknown]

She'll save this country.

[Michael Duncan]

She'll save it. Fantastic comments. Remember, when you like and subscribe and you leave your comment, we read them all and we put them back into use the very next episode. So thank you for doing that. When we come back, we've got a lightning round and then an excellent, excellent interview with the chairman of the rnc, Michael Whatley, who may have a different future in mind right after this. America's beverage companies are investing in America. We're American companies making American products with American workers in America's hometowns. We're local bottlers and manufacturers operating in all 50 states, employing more than 275,000Americans in good paying jobs, delivering for the.

[John Ashbrook]

Nation because we believe in the promise.

[Michael Duncan]

Of America and the people who make it great. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Beverage Association. Okay, so I think this was flagged by smug. First, our noted polling observer.

[Unknown]

I mean, this is dynamite news.

[Michael Duncan]

Incredible, incredible polling that was released that shows Democrats losing voters across all ages and demographics. I think this was Pew. It was Pew at some level, but they did affiliation changes between 2018 and 2025. They take a deeper dive than your media organizations that do flash polls at any given moment. But they look into party registration in all kinds of things and turns out things have changed.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I mean, it's very clear. Wolf, could you start pulling up some of these graphics for our folks on YouTube by race, white voters have gone from R plus 8 in 2018 to R plus 19. That's a change of 11 points. Black voters have gone from D 76 to D 52. That's 24 points point move towards the Republican Party. Hispanic voters have gone from D35 to D19. That's a 16 point move towards Republicans. And Asian voters. This is something have gone from 38 to 18. That's losing half your support. That's our plus 20 movement from 2018 to 2025.

[John Ashbrook]

Like seems like mayday territory for Democrats.

[Michael Duncan]

It gets even more acute when you're talking about multi generational and the Hispanic side multi generational communities where it's, it's doubled that.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. In some of these swing states where people have just sort of Locked in. They're building communities. Like, it's changing a lot. And the middle class poll of the Republican Party is very for real. And you can take these media polls and, like, the snapshot stuff, but they're doing the long range. You know, what is six, eight years look like? And that's what it looks like.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I mean, all of that is really good news, but I won't. I don't want us to rest on our laurels on any of that, because ultimately it's irrelevant with regards to the midterm. The only thing that matters in the midterm is what is the makeup of the midterm election.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, like, that's the most important thing. All of this shifts and atmospherics is fantastic. What does the actual electorate that shows up in the midterm look like in the Trump era? Republicans have struggled in these midterms and mobilizing that Trump coalition to turn up when he's not on the ballot. It still concerns me, and I know we're gonna talk to a lot of people who are gonna try to solve for that problem. And I think part of that is going out there and explaining what the Trump administration has done for you as an American and the wins that Donald Trump has racked up in this first six months. We gotta go out there and sell it so we can convince those voters they gotta show up in this midterm so we can keep winning.

[Unknown]

Great point.

[Michael Duncan]

Really important, no question.

[Unknown]

Very important.

[Michael Duncan]

Let's take a look at gender here. Pop that sucker up, Ashbrook. What are we looking at here?

[John Ashbrook]

We're looking at men who have moved from Republican plus 4 to Republican plus 14, and then women who have moved from Democrat plus 19 to Democrat plus 10. Even women have moved by 9 points toward Republicans.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. It's an interesting component. Right. Because you're always conditioned to hear about a gender gap of which there is a significant one. No question about it. The movement towards men is much more significant than movement of Democrat towards women. And now it's coming back towards Republicans in the first place. But that's all you read about, right? Is like this huge. What, women are abandoning the Republican Party.

[John Ashbrook]

It doesn't look so, you know, it's the opposite. It's true.

[Michael Duncan]

It doesn't look like it from here. Now. There's still a gap to be made up, but that's a significant thing. Duncan, what do you think of that?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I think it's great. I just. I would reiterate. I mean, you're looking at 2018 which was basically the nadir of Republican support in the Trump era. That was like the worst election we had in the Trump era. So all of these gains are fantastic gains, don't get me wrong. But there is some regression to the mean here in some of these numbers. The 2018 numbers I don't think were ever sustainable, you know, with an election.

[Unknown]

That's pretty good context.

[Michael Duncan]

That's a really good context to have, no question.

[Josh Holmes]

I hate to be the wet blanket.

[Unknown]

But no, that's important.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it's right. And like, for those of you who are interested in the nuts and bolts of this, as we get through the legislative session into the fall and we start, we're going to do a big candidate thing, you're going to hear from everybody and then we'll break down a little bit of this in greater detail. We haven't done it yet because we think it's a little bit too early. We're still dealing with a whole bunch of different things that make up an environment that ultimately you all are going to cast a ballot on. So we're going to, we're gonna get to that in the fall. But this last piece I also think is important because it shatters an awful lot of the preconceived narrative that a mainstream media is putting on. What's the makeup of the Republican Party? Education. Pop that one up for us. Smuggle. What are you looking at?

[Unknown]

So this is the movement again. From 2018 to 2025, high school or less educated voters have gone R + 2 to R + 7. Some college has gone from D + 2 to R + 10. That's a straight up flip 12 point move. College grads have gone from D + 15 to D + 7. That's a move 8 points to the Republican Party. And post grad has gone D +32. I mean D +32, good God. To D +24. That's an eight point move towards the Republicans.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what's interesting to me is that this is on the heels of Democrats telling every post grad and every college grad that we, we will pay off your student loans out of the taxpayer till all of these people are like, yeah, thanks for the student loan help, but what are you going to do about helping me to build a career? And Democrats have no answer to that question.

[Michael Duncan]

Totally right. So you look at all of this and you wonder the slip. Obviously there's a whole bunch of things that deal with Donald Trump himself. The message that he had, the 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris herself Joe Biden himself, all that are not irrelevant to the shift that we're seeing. But what's like the discernible change and what is it that are the lasting images within the two parties that are contributing to these changes? Well, let's take a look at clip two, please. There's Eric Swallow.

[Unknown]

I should be working right now.

[Michael Duncan]

I should be at the Capitol.

[Lee Zeldin]

I should be in a suit.

[Michael Duncan]

For audio only listeners, he is bench pressing, what, £135? I'm probably at the gym.

[Unknown]

He's bench pressing at a squat rack.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know. Like, when I was in eighth grade, it was a really big deal when your buddies got on the bench and put two plates on, like one plate on one side, one on the other. In an eighth grade when you could do that thing, man, we were like, man, you're tough, you're strong. That was. I was 13.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe he's going for reps. Maybe he's trying to tone.

[John Ashbrook]

It didn't look like it from the side.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe he needs to tone and elongate because he has Pilates after this.

[Michael Duncan]

But isn't it classic? Because you're watching all of this stuff, you've noticed, if you're a scholar of these sort of things, that Democrats are now swearing every other word. None of it's authentic. None of them know how to use fucks and shits like we do. They just sort of like insert them for emphasis.

[Josh Holmes]

We come about it naturally.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. This is like the way humans talk to each other. Yeah. And then the. All of a sudden you get like, the dudes who aren't gonna drop the barbells and aren't gonna like, drop the full weight set on their chest doing stuff like this. And they're acting like, super tough. They're trying to, like, regain this masculinity that is long since passed. But it's like telling on yourself 100%.

[Unknown]

I mean, it's the fakest thing. And that's the problem is, I mean, we've discussed this so many times is Democrats keep thinking their problem is a communications problem. So they have these, like, get togethers at, like, luxury hotels and they meet in the conference centers and they pay $10 million to consultants and they have focus groups and they're like, here's how you talk to young men. Young men, like barbells. So why don't we have a barbell in a video? Let's do a TikTok with. And it's just like, this is not a communications issue. You spent decades telling every Male. That they're toxic and doing everything you can to make life miserable for Americans. And you think this guy looking like an idiot's gonna save you? No.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what? I would bet you that Sydney Sweeney could put up 135 on a bench.

[Unknown]

I bet she could.

[Josh Holmes]

I bet she could. In fact, you know, the left has done to working out what they've done to Sydney Sweeney. They say that working out is like, alt, right?

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Caring about your physique is alt, right.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What Nazis like to do. Working out, going to the gym. I mean, they're just weird people.

[Michael Duncan]

I love to see so miserable Sweeney and Swalwell in a squat contest. I guarantee I know where that one's gonna pan out.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I watched the same commercial you did.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. This Zum down or Mom Donnie. Yeah, Zoran, Mom Donnie. Cat. This guy won't leave the news.

[Josh Holmes]

No, they love it.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, it's just all over the place.

[Josh Holmes]

They love the attention.

[Michael Duncan]

These are a resident socialist communist.

[Unknown]

He's a straight up communist who won.

[Michael Duncan]

The Democratic nomination to be mayor of New York City. And like, everybody's just unfit because they think he's going to win. And I'll be honest, like, looks like he's got a pretty good pathway. Anyway, he should be campaigning. He's not. He's getting married. Which, you know, good for him. So where does he do that? It's a. It's a. A posh wedding bash at a secluded Uganda compound.

[Josh Holmes]

That's where he's from, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's. They have a phone jamming system.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that was installed so people can't like, send texts from his wedding.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you wouldn't want the New Yorkers to know what it is that's going on at this outfit.

[John Ashbrook]

You're kidding.

[Unknown]

And they have. And they had armed guards when this guy tweeted out that like, no one should own a gun. Except for it's. Every communist is like, no one should have guns except for us. So we can put you at the wall and shoot you.

[Michael Duncan]

Totally. So this is according to New York Post Socialist New York City mayoral frontrunner Zoran Mamdani celebrated his recent nuptials with a lavish three day affair at his family's ritzy secluded Ugandan compound, complete with masked security. Masked?

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, the left says security is not.

[Unknown]

Allowed to be masked.

[Michael Duncan]

Masked security guards in a cell phone jamming system. The learned the gates of a bustling private compound which sits at the wealthy Booziga Hill area. That must be a really. I mean, if you're in Uganda. There's probably only a few places that are described as ritzy clearly, I imagine, but this is one of them. Outside the capital city of Zampala were heavily guarded, military style masked men this week with guests streaming in and partying until midnight, according to sources in the town, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons because they are trying beyond trying to make sure that one of their own becomes mayor of the largest city in the United States of America.

[Unknown]

What this just reminded me of is this very interesting fact I had learned just recently about, like, why Ilhan Omar's family flee to America and how she's like a socialist here is because the socialist government that her father was a part of got pushed out of power and so they had to flee because the socialist government her father ran was like out executing their enemies and they got pushed out of party and she's like, I guess we gotta run in America. Let's try to run the same play here.

[Michael Duncan]

Our aristocracy has expired. We need to create a new one.

[John Ashbrook]

And that was during the Clinton administration. I will tell you that I think Mamdani is very lucky that he wasn't married over there during the Obama administration because we all know what Obama did to weddings overseas.

[Michael Duncan]

My God. Oh, my Lord.

[Unknown]

I love that.

[Michael Duncan]

Excellent take.

[Josh Holmes]

No one quite lives high in the hog like an African communist. I mean, think about IDI Amin or Diabete, you know, I mean, like that's like par for the course when, like you are a dictator in Africa and you're a communist. Like, you get that stuff when you're a communist, they let you do it.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, it's so true.

[Unknown]

Obama drone strike Zorin is a great take though. Like, that's an original.

[Michael Duncan]

That is really good. You heard it here first here on the Relief variety program. We want to get to our next interview. This good friend of the program, RNC Chair Michael Whatley. Well, if you listen to the fellows for a while, we take a particular interest in the makeup of the United States Senate. And we'd be remiss if we didn't at least acknowledge there was a retirement announcement a few weeks ago in a state that Republicans absolutely need in order to have a majority, but also to do anything about it, get Trump's nominees through, get his agenda through all these things. And so look, Democrats, they think they have an opening and they take this fraud, this Governor Roy Cooper, try to recruit the guy and they think they're going to steal one for Republicans. Well, President Trump obviously has a different view of some of that and it turns out he has a preferred candidate. And it just so happens that the preferred candidate is a good friend of the, the program and the chairman of the rnc, Michael Whatley. How are you, sir?

[Unknown]

I'm doing great. I'm doing great.

[Michael Duncan]

You're doing great, buddy. There's a lot of water under the bridge in the course of a week.

[Unknown]

It is, it is exciting though. You know, we've got Governor Cooper out there, you know, talking right down the middle of the road and you know, don't, don't worry about the record, don't worry about where we've been over the last, you know, 25 years as a career politician. So we're going to be right there for North Carolina this time. You know, it's not going to work because, you know, North Carolina, they're pretty clear on what they want. They voted for Donald Trump three times in a row. They have had a Republican Senate win every time for decades. You know, what they want, you know, is a strong, robust economy. They want safe communities and they really want to make sure that America is the strongest country on the face of the earth. Roy Cooper is against every single one of them.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep. Sounds kind of like somebody's maybe running for that kind of thing.

[Unknown]

I mean, I'll say. I hope so.

[Michael Duncan]

I know, I hope so.

[Unknown]

You know, Chairman Whatley, as a resident of North Carolina, first off, thank you for saving that NC GOP when you ran it. It went from being a mess to a well oiled machine. We have super majorities in the state House, state Senate. I mean it's a red state through and through. We just need to make sure that we save the Senate seat from Roy Cooper because he's going to try lying. And it infuriates me how the media paints him as like a moderate. And then you see on all the child gender surgeries, he supported all of that. On all of the, you know, prescribing the child medication for hormones, he supported all of that. Men and women's sport, he supported that. Every one of these like radical leftist things, he's been fully supported down the line liberal.

[Michael Duncan]

He's gonna try to run for it. Just what Chuck Schumer wants, right? What he wants is somebody who's got some kind of a, an aura of centrism, but also just expropriates their vote to him essentially, which is, will be horrible for North Carolina. But that's like the plan that they have put into place. The good news for us is we got a guy who knows a little Something about politics and knows how to win in states like North Carolina.

[Unknown]

Yeah, we're excited. I mean, I think that the opportunity that you have down there right now is to, is to look at where President Trump is. You know, he's running plus six in terms of favorability right now because he's delivered on everything that he said he was going to do. Promises made, promises kept. Right. You know, going to rebuild the economy. Well, we got the tax cuts through the regulatory relief is happening. Every marker in the economy, state, you know, going the right direction. You know, grocery prices are down, gasoline prices are down, inflation is down. Check, check, check.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, totally.

[Unknown]

You know, and you look at what's happening on the trade, you know, deals right now that are being made massive news this week, last week, the week before, you know, where we're seeing all of the different trade deals that are starting to come in and what that's going to mean for investments in the United States overall. This economy is getting ready to absolutely take off. And you think about what he meant when he said he was going to make America the strongest country on the face of the earth. You know, the big beautiful bill certainly had a lot of great provisions in it. You know, like pay raises for our troops and new equipment and making sure that the Golden Dome, you know, program is going to be in place. The rest of the world calls it Iron Dome. Us Notre Dame guys call it the Golden Dome.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, Johnny and I worked on an awful lot of Senate races over the years, and there's one sort of thing as I was talking about with the Schumer strategy, is they try to find these guys who, from a state level, figured out how to keep an approval rating. I think of Phil Bredesen. What was it? Bulldog from Montana? It seems like this Cooper cat is falling into a long line of Democratic governors in red states that dip a toe in thinking nobody's going to talk about what they actually believe in in a federal race. And it hasn't worked out very well for him.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, and it matters a lot with this guy because not only is he a left wing lunatic like Smug was talking about, he mismanaged the state when people needed him the most. I know you're from the western part of the state and what happened with that hurricane last fall was just devastating. And what Joe Biden did not do and what Roy Cooper did not do was help people when they needed help. And I know you've done a ton of stuff in your own capacity to just to provide a little bit of support. Now, working with the president to try to come into these communities and help them out.

[Unknown]

Yeah, they abandoned western North Carolina. I mean, it was absolutely appalling, you know, when you saw the. The level of devastation that hit western North Carolina and the state government and FEMA were nowhere to be found, you know, and I went up and I volunteered, you know, with Samaritan's purse. And we were going in and, you know, mucking out houses and trying to help, you know, these homeowners, you know, these families kind of get back on their feet. It really was remarkable. Never saw FEMA truck, never saw the government, the state government there whatsoever. And, you know, the stories that I continue to hear are about the hurricanes that hit the east six, eight, ten years ago. You know, there are still people living in hotels and still living in, you know, rental trailers, you know, because they have not gotten, you know, the reimbursements where the federal government gave the state money, and the state has not turned around and put that money to good use, you know, so his record on hurricanes right now is absolutely a vulnerability for him. You know, when President Trump took his very first trip during this term down to North Carolina, asked me to go with him, you know, and we had a conversation about what needs to happen, you know, what we've seen since that day, you know, and he basically said, michael, I need your help. Down here is a whole of government report response. You know, we've got billions of dollars that are going through HUD to be able to help homeowners. And with loans and grants, we've got billions of dollars that are going in through the Small Business Administration. The Department of Transportation opened up i40, has rebuilt hundreds of bridges and roads, and of course, FEMA now is actually working with the Corps of Engineers and cleaning up all the debris, you know, for those storms. So we're getting North Carolina back up on its feet. But none of that was present, you know, in September. October, November, December, you know, after that storm, until President Trump showed up on, you know, on his first trip after being sworn in.

[Michael Duncan]

I know you've had an incredible relationship with President Trump, first asked you to run the rnc, which of course you did incredibly well, I think beyond any of our wildest dreams. A huge success last November. But you guys speak often and, you know, we took notice of end of last week where he's all of a sudden decided he. He knows who he wants to run percent I got to imagine you had some conversation. You didn't get just blindsided by that. Right. He called you and said, hey, I'M going to say this.

[Unknown]

Well, look, we talk, right?

[Michael Duncan]

I think that's the best way to put it.

[Unknown]

And, you know, I think that, you know, I'm honored. Right. I mean, how could you not be right? You know, for the president to say, hey, I want you to be the chair of the rnc, and then for, you know, him to say, I want you to stay at the rnc, you know, for another term, really high praise. And when we, when, you know, we're looking at this race right now for him to put out a truth the way that he did, extraordinarily, you know, humbling, honestly.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You know, and really neat.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

I think, you know, to kind of be able to say, okay, we're going to, we're going to put this together. And.

[Michael Duncan]

Because I got to imagine, I mean, look, at an operative level, there's nothing in politics that you haven't been a part of in one side or another. And, you know, you've worked through with candidates or whatnot in the hopes that at some point they can get a truth from the president saying, yes, we're all in and we're trying to avoid any sort of messy primaries and this is the guy who can do the job. When it's your name that's in the truth, that's got to feel different.

[Unknown]

It definitely feels a lot different. And, you know, when the phone blows up, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's pretty telling. You know, look, I think as we look at North Carolina, though.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You know, the simple truth is for you to win in a battleground state, you know, you need a great candidate who runs a great race, you need to get out the vote, you need to protect the ballot. And we have spent really the last decade, you know, perfecting how do you do that in North Carolina? And I feel that if Laura Trump had decided that she was going to run and she, she decided she's not, you know, she would have stepped in on day one and we would have had an apparatus there that is ready to go, you know. And so, so I feel really good about our opportunities, you know, in North Carolina, just based on the track record, record we've been able to put together over the last several years for both the president and the Senate races.

[Josh Holmes]

So, Chairman, I'm curious, more on the brass tax of that, because you are a guy who's a party builder guy, you know, about all this sort of stuff. You ran the party in North Carolina. You know, these midterms are a dog fight. Right. And we need to reconstitute the winning coalition that Donald Trump had that won him the state in 2024. How do you go about doing that in a midterm environment in a place like North Carolina?

[Unknown]

Yeah. Just remind people of what happened in 2018, you know, because, you know, President Trump came in in 2016, shocked the world, Right. He takes over, we start moving the agenda forward, and in 2018, we lose the House. The next thing, you know, the legislative agenda completely off the tracks. We've got, you know, investigations, we've got hoaxes, we've got impeachments. Not one, two impeachments. That. That really had an effect in terms of his ability to move the agenda forward, and it really affected 2020. You know, we cannot go down that road again, you know, and so, you know, we need to remind the voters that the President has delivered, you know, and frankly, Congress has delivered. Right. You know, we got the big, beautiful bill done because the president drug them kicking and screaming over the line in both the House and the Senate to be able to get there. But, you know, he's going to fight every single day, you know, to make sure that the economy is on track, to make sure that the southern border is secure, to make sure that we are the strongest country on the face of the earth, and that is what the people want. We can't let that agenda go off the rails, you know, and so when we're looking at other Senate races around the country, whether it's Georgia or Kentucky or Maine, you know, we know that this is the formula we're going to have to run with, and we're going to have to make sure that President Trump is absolutely on that ballot.

[Michael Duncan]

I got to imagine you're pretty pumped about spending all day, every day in North Carolina, too.

[Unknown]

You know, I will say this. I will enjoy spending a few more nights at home.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You know, which will be very good. Of course, I'll probably end up, you know, throughout the course of any given cycle, you know, when. When you're on the road, you know, you're on the road. Right. And so, you know, I'm excited just because we. We really do have an opportunity, you know, to keep that seat where it needs to be and to the Senate.

[Michael Duncan]

Where it needs to be. I mean, there literally is no other pathway. Right. I mean, people look at maps, Senate maps, midterms, you know, past success, things like that. People don't understand how difficult this is going to be. And if Senate Republicans don't have a majority, I mean, it's even worse than 2018, because then you get none of the president's cabinet, you get none of the judges, you get. The whole administration is kind of thrown off in addition to the investigative capacity and everything else. So you're not even just not moving the ball forward like it goes backwards. There's an attrition that goes to it if you lose the Senate. And so this is. There is no other way to get there without North Carolina. And I mean, I would just urge.

[Unknown]

Everybody who's listening, the majority goes through North Carolina. Any way you slice it, this is going to be a very critical Senate.

[John Ashbrook]

And, you know, you know, who knew North Carolina was important? Kamala Harris. And who did she pick for her vice president? Tim Walls. Complete idiot. And she thought Tim Walls gave her a better shot of winning North Carolina than picking Roy Cooper. And I wonder what that says about Roy Cooper, that he was her second choice.

[Unknown]

Well, I think it says a lot, you know, and I think that, you know, he certainly embraced Joe Biden and told everybody, oh, yeah, he's fit to be president, no problem, put his arm around him, you know, and then immediately after he fell off the stage, he was right there for Kamala Harris and.

[Josh Holmes]

Real profile and courage.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely.

[Unknown]

You know, very valuable, too. You know, even just this last week, they had their big unity dinner with J.B. pritzker. I mean, you know, this guy's going to put his arm around Zoram Mandani. He's there with Jasmine Crockett and AOC and Chuck Schumer and everybody in that left wing constellation. That's his world, and that is not North Carolina's world. I mean, that party has been moving to the left. You know, the ncdp, you know, they. They have, you know, resolution after resolution that are just as crazy and as kooky as you can imagine. And this guy just says, yeah, well, okay, that's. That's the party I'm in.

[Michael Duncan]

It's so funny. That's absolutely true. I mean, you talk to Republican governors and they all go to this, you know, National Governors association deal where they interact with all their colleagues. And they say when they meet this guy, they think, well, his reputation is he's a centrist. And you can kind of work with them to a person, to a governor. Every single one of them is like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. This guy. This guy's down the line, left. You can't do business.

[Unknown]

No sky.

[Michael Duncan]

And that. I mean, that's telling.

[Unknown]

It really is. You know, you think about it as a state senator like he supported every single tax hike that put North Carolina in the least competitive, you know, status in the Southeast. And then as governor, he, like, opposed every single tax cut that the Republicans in the legislature were passing. You know, he said basically, you know, the Trump tax cuts being extended, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Adamantly opposed. Would never have voted for it. And we'll, we'll work hard to kind of dismantle that as he's going forward.

[Michael Duncan]

There's not even an inch of centrism. None in any of.

[Unknown]

None.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, it's just, it's just dogmatic left wing.

[Unknown]

It's. The most frustrating thing is because he's gotten away with this lie.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, to the media.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's it.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the media. It's the hype.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. What. You're gonna have to punch through all that.

[Unknown]

Well, we will. Right. And I think that when you think about North Carolina, it's a very expensive state. You know, Georgia, it's going to be a $500 million Senate race. North Carolina is going to be a 5, $600 million Senate race. You know, Maine, you know, it's a cheap date. It's only going to be 100 million bucks. But, but you do have, you know, eight media markets and you've got, you know, a very big diverse state. And it is a true purple state. I mean, it is a 50, 50 state. And we have seen that in election after election after election. But Donald Trump won three times in a row, you know, and he won by 3.5 points in this last election cycle. You know, so. So there's a comfort level there, you know, particularly on the federal side of having a Republican there. And you're right. That nobody has ever really shown Roy Cooper in his voting record. True. You know, to the, to the voters of North Carolina, the way that we're going to have to do that this year.

[Michael Duncan]

No, no question about it. You know, it's funny. I mean, I used to do for a line of work, recruit Senate candidates for a number of years, and you kind of look for a handful of things is, you know, do they know the state, they live there? Do they know. They say, well, I don't know. We got a guy who was the chairman of the state Republican Party. So, yeah, I think that's fair. Are they politically adept to the. Yep. RNC chairman. How do they. How's their relationship with the president? Talk several times a day, he checks that box and then, you know, are they a good messenger? Are they somebody who can work beyond the traditional base. Here is a guy whose job description in many ways has been about trying to find those 51% majority makers, whether it was in North Carolina or across the country last cycle. Go, buddy. That's a chick check.

[Unknown]

We got the thing, the fifth one. Invite smug to the chairman's box. Oh, yeah, that's right.

100%.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the check that one. And you check that box too. Yeah. No, it's really the grand slam of things here. So, I mean, look, you're solving problems here.

[Unknown]

Yeah, an announcement's coming soon and we're pretty excited about that. And you know, I think that North Carolina is going to be the marquee race in the entire country. I mean, it really is. And you know, Georgia is going to be right up there and we've got a number of others that are going to matter. You know, we can't forget the House. Right. I mean, you know, we have a five seat majority going into this election cycle. You know, that's the narrowest that either party has ever had taking into an election cycle. So we need to expand that majority.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, even a guy whose name is likely to be on a ballot soon. Still thinking about that.

[Josh Holmes]

He's thinking about the rest.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, if you get your way into the Senate, I'm going to see how long that that holds. There's a healthy House, Senate dynamic that you might be the only one who has an appreciation for their political prospects. I can't thank you enough for doing this. You've been a really good friend of the program for a long time. I mean, the real estate that he got us outside of the RNC convention, if that alone was the only way we knew you, we would fall in love with you immediately. But I know you're going to make for an incredible candidate. Gives me a lot of comfort to know there's somebody who knows how to win at all levels who's thinking about doing this because we need to. There's just no other way.

[Unknown]

We absolutely have to win. I'm very excited about it and great to be on with you guys and can't wait to have you guys down in North Carolina next year.

[Michael Duncan]

If you find your way to an announcement sometime in the near future, make sure you send all this stuff our way because I know all the listeners are going to want to figure out to how a way to help you 100% along the way.

[Unknown]

Stay tuned.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, Mr. Chairman.

[Unknown]

Thanks, guys.

[Michael Duncan]

Thank you. Thank you.

[John Ashbrook]

Man, he is going to run a fantastic campaign. He comes from the western part of the state, as you heard. And that part was, was just under the thumb of people like Roy Cooper and Joe Biden during that horrible, horrible hurricane that just rocked that part of the state. And I think that this guy has a message that's going to send also.

[Michael Duncan]

Big shout out to the Ruthless Variety program. You know, comes in here, he wants to talk a little shop about what may be his future before he even announces what his future is. When he does announce his future, we're going to send out a bunch of stuff how you can help him because we genuinely believe here on Ruthless, you can't have a Republican Senate unless a guy like Michael Watt, Lee's United States Senator from North Carolina and the majority.

[Unknown]

Runs through North Carolina. There's no other way around it.

[Michael Duncan]

It's 100% true. We'll do a bunch of different candidate interviews and I know there's going to be a lot fall and into early next year, so you're caught up on every state. But this one seems to be coming together a little bit more quickly than the rest. And obviously it's timely for him to come in and discuss all these things. So thank you very much, Chairman Watt, for coming on in for that. Do you guys want a little, little variety?

[John Ashbrook]

Always, Absolutely.

[Michael Duncan]

So we talked last week a lot about Colbert and out that whole situation. So there was an interview that was taped before all that went down with Jay Leno, which Jay Leno's from like the Johnny Carson, David Letterman, you know, that school of late night television comedy, singing, dancing, comedy.

[Unknown]

Can you imagine?

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like, have fun, make sure. Anyway, so Variety printed up what it was that this interview was about. Jane Leno says today's late night hosts, quote, unquote, alienate half the audience with political jokes, quote, cozying up to one side. I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture. Unquote.

[Unknown]

Yep, looks like Jay's right.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep. I mean, look, that's what we were talking about. And like the thing is this guy is not a part. I don't know how he votes. I don't have a single clue. He could be a mom, Donnie guy for all I know, but he understands entertainment and he understands the medium that he anchored for 25 years, which is about trying to provide a little laugh, a little entertainment.

[Unknown]

I mean, that's the thing is like when I read this quote from him when he was like, you know, here was always my thinking is people have like a long day of work and they want to come home, they want to close the night, have a couple of laughs and go to sleep. And he was like, why would I try to alienate half my audience? Instead of trying to alienate or instead of trying to entertain 100%. And it's just like, this is so logical. But it's been completely lost on the left. Who turned culture into just this, like, you have to be a political messenger. Yeah. Stephen Colbert, we're giving you the Late show and now your job is. I saw a statistic. He had 190 Democrats on his show and one Republican.

Yeah.

Is that a late night show or is that a super pac?

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's true. And it's ultimately what it became. I mean, it was a super pac and they just fueled all of the Democratic talking points one way or another. And Leno says, I love political humor, don't get me wrong. According to this article. But it just what happens when people wind up cozying up too much to one side or another.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

And he's talking about the downfall in ratings and only appealing to one half of an electorate and making that your business model. He did this before Colbert.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like what Michael Jordan said about why he doesn't talk about politics. Republicans buy sneakers, too.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

As simple as that. People are watching you to be entertained. They don't want to hear your sermon.

[Michael Duncan]

There's also this incredible Johnny Carson interview with Mike Wallace that he did for 60 Minutes that I've seen where Mike Wallace asks him, like, why don't you weigh into some of the issues that we're dealing with? He's basically, I'm summarizing here and paraphrasing, but it's basically like one, I'm a, I'm a comedian. I'm putting on a show. I don't. I'm no more qualified to tell you what to think than anybody. You roaming the streets. But secondly, because you have this audience, you have to be a custodian of it and understand that you have power that nobody else does. And if you want to shape it just from your own whim, that's an abuse of that power. It's an abuse of what they tuned in to you for because you don't know anything more than anybody else. It's not your line of work. It's about entertaining. That's why they hired me. That's what I'm doing. Doing. I'm not going to abuse the relationship that I have with my audience by giving them an opinion that it's not any more well informed than anybody else that reads the newspaper that was his take. And like, I listened to that in the, in the wake of the Colbert thing.

[Unknown]

And I said, Colbert called for people to come and protest outside his studio. Are you serious?

[Michael Duncan]

And there's like seven people.

[Unknown]

Yeah, there's like seven people.

[Michael Duncan]

Just a bunch of fats.

[Unknown]

It's pathetic. It's like, no, I'm not a political show. Also activists come outside my political show and protest. Get out of here.

[Michael Duncan]

Just incredible. Anyway, I thought that was important context for what it is that we were dealing with last week. The next one. This. This one. You guys are gonna love every second of this. So there's a woman, according to the. The Mirror in the uk, okay. Where a woman's. This is the title Woman's drunken night. It ends with taking home a seagull carrying the bird flu. Wait, okay, we need, we need to see the video and then react to this thing. Can we get the video on this thing? Wolf. Since I come on home, well, my body's been missed. Look at.

[Unknown]

Oh, man, he's a beauty.

[Michael Duncan]

He actually wants to strike out my room and everything.

[Unknown]

But I've got actually no Earth alone.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, my goodness.

[Michael Duncan]

So a tipsy decision to adopt a stray seagull ended in panic for one woman when it turned out to be infected with the bird flu. A night out took a bizarre turn for one woman when she woke to find a seagull flapping around her living room, only to be told later it had bird flu. Aaron Punton. I don't. I mean, it's English, so who knows how you pronounce it, but she's 22, she's from Northumberland. That seems like a very British place to be from.

[Josh Holmes]

Something from Lord of the Rings.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, she admitted that she had no idea why she scooped up the bird from outside. Wetherspoons pop.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, Right, exactly.

[Michael Duncan]

Witherspoons pop.

[John Ashbrook]

A chum. Johnnigan Wifflebottom told her, just. Just take that seagull home.

[Michael Duncan]

Why? That is a fine looking bird. Without even a thought. I don't even know what made me pick it up. I put him in my sitting room with a blanket. The following morning, she was stunned to discover that the gull was flying around her home. When I woke in the morning, I'd forgotten that he was just floating around the sitting room.

[John Ashbrook]

The sitting room.

[Michael Duncan]

The sitting room. If there's a city, there's a sitting room. After taking the seagull to the local vet, Ms. Punton was told it had tested positive for boot bird flu. The news left her feeling sick. Well, in more Ways than one. Probably prompting her to disinfect her home from top to bottom.

[Unknown]

Left her feeling sick. I. I don't want to say it. I'm gonna say it.

[Michael Duncan]

No, no. What do you got? Let it go. Let it go.

[Unknown]

I mean, left her feeling sick. I feel bad. You know, now you're in this age of everyone's got a camera. There's always that saying of like, you know, it's fun to ride a scooter, but you don't want to be seen riding it. That poor seagull is like, why you gotta put this on video? You're feeling sick about it. You think I can go back and hang out with the guys after they find out about this?

[Michael Duncan]

Do you think she banged to seagull?

[Unknown]

God knows where she goes, look at. He's like, why you gotta put this out there?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, it's a fat seagull. That thing is. That's one of the most formidable seagulls I've seen in a long time.

[Unknown]

I mean, the seagull shit.

[Michael Duncan]

It also doesn't appear to be flapping. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's pretty strange.

[John Ashbrook]

She's squeezing the wing.

[Josh Holmes]

I think it's traumatized.

[Michael Duncan]

But how?

[Unknown]

It's a night out at the pub. Like, why you gotta put that on video?

[Michael Duncan]

All of us have been to the beach. It's not like you walk up to one of those and put them under your arm.

[John Ashbrook]

But then also the neck. Morning, she wakes up and says she does it. I think she said she didn't remember what happened, but she. She takes it to the vet instead of opening the window and letting it fly away like. Like, you got it. Like, that vet is accustomed to treating seagulls. The vet who's looking at cats and dogs every single day is like, oh, thank you for bringing the seagull in here. I'm going to treat this bird.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, also, Sid Seagull.

[Unknown]

You gotta get out of there, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

There is a.

[Unknown]

Sun comes up, bro, You. You got to get out of there. You look over, It's a mess. Oh, yeah, Nightmare situation. It's time to walk, you know, knock a window open or something.

[Michael Duncan]

That's like a coyote situation. Chew your arm off. Try to get out of that situation. Apparently, she was also captured on video dancing to Valerie by the Zu Tons with the bird tucked under her arm at a club.

[John Ashbrook]

It's not a prop. It's a wild animal.

[Lee Zeldin]

Fly away.

[Unknown]

England is not a real country, man. They are.

[Josh Holmes]

We gotta lock her up.

[Unknown]

I think we gotta Lock her up.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta lock her up. This is how we get another Covid.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

100.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I think. I mean, look, I. I don't know, Duncan, with this woman. Her intentions were to such a formidable bird, but she took it home. And I'm just saying, like, that's how a lot of things get started here.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what I'm saying.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like, I mean, precisely my point.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, you can. You can go to jail for tweeting the wrong thing. In Great Britain, if you steal a bird and take it home, you should be locked up.

[Michael Duncan]

You should be locked 100%. Particularly because we don't know what kind of night that bird had. I'm sure there's laws against.

[Unknown]

I mean, he was too traumatized to fly away. So something happened in there.

[Michael Duncan]

If thing was stunned, he's like, in.

[Unknown]

A sense, stupor in the corner, crying. Time to take you to the vet. Let's keep you around here. Let's clip those wings. It's like misery. She's gonna hobble this bird.

[Lee Zeldin]

What do you think?

[Michael Duncan]

The bird, I mean, first of all, then she took it to the vet, right? So I don't even know if it returned the vet.

[Unknown]

The bird was like, just kill me. Hit me with the needle.

[Michael Duncan]

It can't go back to its bird transaction.

[Unknown]

Make it stop.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Unknown]

They're all gonna know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

They're gonna be like, we saw who took you home.

[Michael Duncan]

No, we saw that.

[Unknown]

Everyone remembers that conversation. You know, you're at the house in the morning. Yeah, saw the moosey you walked with, amigo.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe for that bird, it was a real slump buster.

[Michael Duncan]

Can you imagine? They walk ashamed that. That the flight of shame that that thing took back to the beach.

[Josh Holmes]

I. I think that seagull is getting a bunch of high wings.

[Michael Duncan]

You think so?

[Josh Holmes]

High wings.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I think the fellas are like, buddy, too far. Like, you might have a substance abuse problem. You know, maybe it's time for a seagull rehab or something. You went too far this time. You got. What's. What's her name? What's her name? Aaron Punton. Aaron Punt. You took Aaron Punting home, Seagull. You don't know what you're doing.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't know.

[Unknown]

There it is, bro. 30 minutes earlier, he was in the pub trying to give a high five to his boys who were like, what?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And all of a sudden, puntins got.

[Unknown]

Him by the goggles, hit hard, got.

[Michael Duncan]

Him by the beak. There's nothing you could do. Oh man, you poor seagull. I'm sorry. Anyway, I love that story though. It's so good. Remember our question of the day? The 80s marketing. You can bleed into 90s if you want because there's great stuff there too. 80s and 90s marketing. What do you want to see? Come back. We now have seen Sydney Sweeney re energize the gene industry single handedly. The left hates it. What else do we need to see? You tell us what ads you want to see recreated. We will read them all and get back to you on Thursday when you like. And subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program. Thank you for everybody who's been tuning in. Record numbers. Record numbers. We really appreciate it. Check out our merch while we're there. We're gonna add some new things here shortly. With that, fellas, I think we did it.

[Unknown]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Chairman Watley. And thank you so much, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you on Thursday. Stay ruthless.