Will Democrats’ Cynical Election Strategy Work? PLUS Sen. Dave McCormick Joins the Progrum

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast Summary

Episode: Will Democrats' Cynical Election Strategy Work? PLUS Sen. Dave McCormick Joins the Progrum
Release Date: November 4, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Guest: Senator Dave McCormick

Episode Overview

On Election Day 2025, the Ruthless crew delivers their trademark irreverent take on the Democratic Party’s current strategy, highlights the role of Barack Obama in election cycles, and brings in Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) for a candid and insightful discussion. The show covers the Virginia and New Jersey elections, the turmoil within the Democratic Party, issues such as government shutdowns as political leverage, and the cultural direction of both parties. The episode is packed with analysis, political satire, and the familiar chemistry of the Ruthless hosts.

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Table of Contents

1. Democratic Message Crisis & Obama's Role
2. J.B. Pritzker & School Choice Rhetoric
3. Obama’s Endorsements: Identity Politics or Power Play?
4. Democrats’ Structural Strategy: Government Shutdowns & Election Leverage
5. Election Day: Early Vote Breakdowns in NJ & VA
6. Guest: Senator Dave McCormick’s Interview
7. Variety Segment: Sheriff Cigarettes & Macaque Mayhem
8. Listener Interaction & Final Thoughts

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Demographic Message Crisis & Obama’s Role

• The crew kicks off by mocking the cyclical emergence of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s “closer” for tough elections.
• Michael Duncan (00:05): “Every time we get close to a consequential election, Barack Obama comes off the bench like Robert Horry. You know, like they gotta call him in to try to win a championship.”
• They critique that Democrats lack a positive national message, falling back on anti-Trump rhetoric.
• Josh Holmes (00:30): “They don’t have a message.”
• The disconnect is highlighted between Democratic leaders and their core constituencies, especially federal workers frustrated over pay and shutdown threats.

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J.B. Pritzker & School Choice Rhetoric

• The hosts lampoon Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s attempt at using edgy language to connect with voters, especially on school choice.
• Notable Moment (03:42):
  • Pritzker’s punchline: “Donald Trump and his cronies can fuck—”
  • Senator McCormick: “All the way off.”
• Smug (04:20): “Well, it’s important to remember that the JB and JB Pritzker stands for Jelly Belly. So you’ve got the fat man over here talking about, like, we don’t want to allow cronies of Donald Trump to turn classrooms into a cultural battleground. What do you think the left has done to them?”
• The hosts argue that unions and progressive policy have made schools “cultural battlegrounds” already, especially during COVID-19.

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Obama’s Endorsements: Identity Politics or Power Play?

• The episode compares Obama’s different approaches to endorsing Black and White candidates, calling out the perceived hypocrisy.
• Clip play (06:35): Obama endorses Abigail Spanberger (VA).
• Smug (08:08): “Now you’ve got an affluent suburban White woman who happens to have a Democratic Party label. And that is going to supersede the African American, by the way, who served our country honorably that he is now... It matters not.”
• They assert that Obama’s intervention is not about principle, but about partisan advantage, even if it contrasts with previous identity-based appeals.
• Smug (08:38): “It’s almost like Barack Obama has no principles.”

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Democrats’ Structural Strategy: Government Shutdowns & Election Leverage

• Discussion around the strategic timing of government shutdowns to activate the Democrat base, especially federal workers in Northern Virginia.
• John Ashbrook (17:47): “They [Dems] know that if those people are pissed off and if they are not going into work every day, they are more likely to be a pissed off Democrat who goes and votes early and that’s what they wanted.”
• Ashbrook’s shutdown theory receives validation from Ted Cruz and real-time election impact.

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Election Day: Early Vote Breakdowns in NJ & VA

• Detailed early voting numbers and registration analysis for New Jersey and Virginia.
• Michael Duncan (21:42): “In [NJ] 2025, so far, the advanced votes: Democratic 51%. So an improvement of five points. Republicans still exactly where they are.”
• Discussion on the challenges of Republican turnout in off-year and midterm elections, despite strong candidates.
• Josh Holmes (24:47): “It looks to me like you got your high propensity Republicans exactly where you imagine them to be.”
• Virginia’s data shows increased early vote participation for both parties, raising concerns about “cannibalization” (pulling potential election day voters into early ballots).

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Guest: Senator Dave McCormick’s Interview

On Government Shutdown and Collaboration with Democrats

• Senator McCormick (51:00): “To try to get our way, we’re gonna hurt the people we’re supposed to be serving, many of whom are people that vote for us, like the Teamsters and people like that… It’s absolutely nonsense.”
• Shares about his functional working relationship with Senator Fetterman:
  • McCormick (52:12): “We have found a lot of ways to work together. And I trust him. He’s fun. My wife and I like him.”

On Democratic Party’s Leftward Shift

• He warns of the risk the Democrats face by capitulating to the “radical fringe,” citing endorsements for extreme candidates as evidence of party hijack:
  • McCormick (57:34): “The great thing about Fetterman is he says it publicly… You have this radical fringe left element becoming the core of the Democratic Party.”
• On party health:
  • McCormick (58:30): “We want a healthy Democratic Party because you want an opponent that’s gonna keep you sharp and make you defend your ideas.”

On Anti-Semitism and Political Violence

• Raises alarm about the uptick of anti-Semitism on the left and cautions the right not to ignore similar elements within its ranks:
  • McCormick (66:07): “We… do agree on some fundamental values. And they’re basic things like, you know, Hitler is not a good guy. Seems like the Holocaust did happen.”
  • He implores confronting and refusing to platform these views.

On the Economy & Trump Era Policies

• Praises Trump trade and economic policy, including deregulation and pro-business tax regimes (~70:53):
  • “It is the most pro-business tax regime… the biggest bout of deregulation since Reagan in ’81… The president's policies are working, and I’m very optimistic about that.”

On PA Culture & Political Anecdotes

• Shares cultural stories about Eagles games and the Pennsylvania-Ohio rivalry, maintaining the show’s light-hearted tone.

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Variety Segment: Sheriff Cigarettes & Macaque Mayhem

Pill-popping Sheriff Story

• Smug summarizes (40:42): “A South Carolina sheriff faces decades in prison after he was caught blowing thousands in taxpayer funds on cigarettes, fast food, Internet games and paying pills. I had a simple take on this, which is you gotta hear both sides, okay?”
• The hosts joke about “backing the blue” and whether such misdeeds really warrant prison time compared to other, larger-scale political scandals.

Macaque Monkey Incident

• Wild narrative about an escaped hepatitis-carrying monkey in Mississippi, shot by a protective mom.
• John Ashbrook (47:47): Reads about the homeowner hero: “She saw the monkey about 60ft away…So she fired her gun… She stopped this rabid monkey from harming her Family. This is an American hero.”
• Smug suggests taxidermy is the only appropriate solution, as is his custom.

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Listener Interaction & Final Thoughts

• The hosts read listener responses to the question: “What is a question simple enough for a Democrat to actually answer?”

  1. (38:13) “What color is the sky?” – “Well, that depends on how the sky chooses to identify.”
  2. “What is the powerhouse of the cell?” – “The mitochondria.”
  3. “Who is enemy number one in the world?” – “Donald Trump.”

• The show ends with a rally to vote in competitive races and teases future election result analysis:

  • Josh Holmes (26:38): “I don’t want to hear a single complaint from anybody about anything that happens over the next three years if you didn’t find the time to go vote at this point...”

• Closing thoughts from the hosts on the risks of radical politics, the necessity of cross-party persuasion, and the importance of economic messaging for Republicans.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (With Timestamps)

• Michael Duncan (00:05): “Barack Obama comes off the bench like Robert Horry.”
• Sen. McCormick (51:00): “To try to get our way, we’re gonna hurt the people we’re supposed to be serving… It’s absolutely nonsense.”
• Smug (08:38): “It’s almost like Barack Obama has no principles. Is anyone surprised by this?”
• John Ashbrook (36:41): “What is a question simple enough for a Democrat to actually answer?”
• Sen. McCormick (57:34): “The great thing about Fetterman is he says it publicly. You have this radical fringe left element is becoming the core of the Democratic Party.”
• Sen. McCormick (66:07): “Hitler is not a good guy. Seems like the Holocaust did happen. So we also have to be, as conservatives and Republicans, don’t give voice to these ideas.”

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Recap & Takeaways

• The Ruthless team delivers a blend of sharp political analysis and unfiltered humor, homing in on the weaknesses of current Democratic electoral strategy and the implications for both national and local races.
• The episode is marked by a consistent skepticism of Democratic leaders’ authenticity and an emphatic call for turnout in key states.
• Senator McCormick stands out as a pragmatic, cross-partisan problem solver, warning against political violence, radicalism, and rising anti-Semitism.
• As always, the podcast balances substance with tongue-in-cheek banter and tales of Midwestern culinary eccentricity.

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For those who missed the episode:
This detailed breakdown covers the major threads—the Democratic Party's identity crisis, Barack Obama’s perennial role as campaigner, the calculated use of shutdown threats, the intricacies of early voting data, and Senator McCormick’s perspective on bipartisanship and party direction—with plenty of quotable barbs along the way.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

But at least it is competitive to a point where like Democrats are sweating this one.

[Michael Duncan]

Every time we get close to a consequential election, Barack Obama comes off the bench like Robert Horry.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, totally.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like they gotta call him in to try to win a championship.

[John Ashbrook]

And it was like, oh, they're obviously waiting for this election to happen because they know that these federal workers are pissed off.

[Josh Holmes]

The reason we're bringing this up, this is the disconnect of the Democratic Party.

[Smug]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't have a message.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Our nation is standing up for American workers. Restoring the pride of making products here at home. That's what we do every day. We're America's beverage companies. Making American products with American workers in America's hometowns. Delivering brands that have been enjoyed for generations. Creating good paying jobs, the kind that require only a strong work ethic. Because we believe in the promise of America and the people who make it great.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Tuesday to you. Election Day 2025. I am Josh Holmes along with comfortably SM Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, Left to right across your radio dial. Welcome back to Ruthless. We're gonna get into an awful lot of this if you are voting today, particularly if you are in Virginia or New Jersey or in Manhattan somewhere where you expect to have an Islamic extremist Congress.

[Smug]

All five boroughs.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you've got something to listen to here. And if you don't, we're gonna tell you why you give a shit because there's an awful lot to watch on all of that. Obama has also entered the fray. We've got some hysterical stuff as it relates to his interaction with this particular election. Unbelievable. Senator Dave McCormick with us, one of our absolute favorites from Pennsylvania here on the program. And then we got a lot of variety and just good times to have by all here in the next. Well, however long it takes us. So thank you for joining us.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

That's a great lineup.

[Smug]

This is gonna be a great show.

[Josh Holmes]

It is gonna be great. So one of the things that Democrats have done because they have basically no national message as to how it is that they are going to help anyone and they've tried to capitalize just on like the anti Trump stuff, is that they've tried to be edgy, you know, like it was a podcast election and they're like, oh dude. Well, we're just too focused on controlling mainstream media distribution over the last 30 years, so we need to be edgy. And fun and whatever, but they, like, missed the fun part. And so now they're just, like, randomly swearing into a microphone. And I just don't feel like it's going great for them, but it's perfect. Encapsulation by the old fat man in Illinois, J.B. pritzker. Have a look at this clip. Clip one.

[John Ashbrook]

Republicans want to take billions away from public schools and pump it into private institutions.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

They want to punish teachers for telling the truth.

[Josh Holmes]

They want to criminalize educators for supporting LGBTQ students.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

They want to turn classrooms into cultural war battlegrounds.

[John Ashbrook]

And I'm sorry to be vulgar, but.

[Josh Holmes]

Donald Trump and his cronies can fuck.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

All the way off.

[Josh Holmes]

Ooh, look at the fat man. You can fuck all the way off. Amazing. So, of course he's talking about school choice, which is like, heaven forbid people who spend all of their taxpayer dollars supporting a whole bunch of schools that aren't educating their kids could take the money that they're supposed to allocate for their kids and choose a school that actually does educate them, which. Well, that's offensive in Chicago. But then he's got a lot of other pieces to it. The most important part was the punchline, fellas.

[Smug]

Well, it's important to remember that the JB and JB Pritzker stands for jelly belly. So you've got the fat man over here talking about, like, we don't want to allow cronies of Donald Trump to turn classrooms into a cultural battleground. What do you think the left has done to them? What do you think has happened to students?

[Josh Holmes]

That's what it is.

[Smug]

During COVID parents got to see firsthand what has happen to public education in this country. And it's horrible. But none more so than in the city of Chicago, where something like 90% of students can't even leave high school reading. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

In fact, like, the only thing that teachers unions in Chicago have done successfully is turn the schools into a cultural battleground.

[Smug]

That's the only thing they've accomplished.

[Michael Duncan]

Sure as shit isn't educating students.

[Josh Holmes]

Their math scores are like this. And it wasn't until Covid that everybody was like, you're teaching them what?

[Smug]

Yeah, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

That they became aware of what it is that's going on. But, J, you can fuck them all the way off for questioning.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, that's what the fat man wants people to think, that he is somehow this brand new figure for Democrats and he's going to somehow be better than Gavin Newsome or Zoran Momdani. And media, you should pay attention to Me, because I say the word in front of a bunch of teachers like that, like that's, that's going to get.

[Smug]

Like, we hear this every day in our classrooms from our students attacking us. It's not novelty.

[Josh Holmes]

We teach them.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, we teach them.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's just, it's unbelievable. So, like, look, these are the contenders. We covered Gavin Newsom last week and that just insane bout of hypocrisy where he was like, he was like, he.

[Smug]

Grew up on 8 mile and like Wonder Bread. Wonder Bread.

[Michael Duncan]

And the basketball was fraying in the backyard.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Cause he's such a sports star. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So, but this is like a battle that they're having internally. So, like, at some level, even your most sort of like, dyed in the wool establishment Democrat has to look around and be like, we need a touch of leadership here. We've got none of that. And so maybe the former President Barack Obama still can hold all of that. So he shows up, as he does for every dog catcher's race, with a partisan affiliation, one way or another. I mean, it's amazing to me how he's just like, personally invested in degrading the office of President of the United States. And he shows up in Virginia because he's got a big thing here.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Clip 2 so at a time when our politics feels broken, we need desperately leaders like Abigail, public servants who are in it for the right reasons and are focused on the future.

[Smug]

I mean.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so that's where he's at with Abigail Spanberger, who's running for governor in Virginia. We're gonna get into breaking down all of these races so you can have an understanding of where this whole thing sits. Not surprising that Barack Obama is endorsing.

[Smug]

The Democrats over Winston Sears, but it.

[Josh Holmes]

Is sort of interesting and notable that this endorsement is one that he's shown up at in Virginia because I think he felt pretty strongly about a couple of characteristics about candidates and the not too distant past.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Clip 3 Someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person. And you're thinking about sitting out and you're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I've got a problem with that.

[Smug]

So that was President Obama campaigning for Kamala Harris, telling a room full of black men that they need to go vote for Kamala Harris. He's like, you black guys, why aren't you supporting a black woman in this race? And now he shows up and he's like, you gotta vote for Abigail.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. So now you've got an affluent suburban White woman who happens to have a Democratic Party label. And that is going to supersede the African American, by the way, who served our country honorably that he is now. You know, it matters not. They don't vote Democrats. So I'm going to get personally involved. Sort of an interesting juxtaposition, isn't it?

[Smug]

It's crazy. It's almost like Barack Obama has no principles. Is anyone surprised by this?

[Michael Duncan]

You know, what is it?

[Smug]

I'm so sick of this guy. Just real quick. I'm so sick of Barack Obama because he built this fake image of himself as being, oh, I'm above partisan politics. I'm a statesman. I care deeply about my country. I'm a historical figure. I'm above the fray of politics. And then he shows up when it's like, you could set your watch. Whenever it's campaign time, he shows up and just toes the line for the left, no matter where they are. He has no principles. He has no guiding beliefs in anything. He even called Zoran Mumdani this past weekend. He was like, I want to be a sounding board for you, you know, but on that, I can understand if you're an African Muslim, you gotta stick together.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Oh, my Lord.

[Smug]

That's digressing.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm sorry.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Back to you, Duncan.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I was gonna say. I mean, how do you follow that? But I was gonna say, you know, what does it tell you about the state of Democratic politics that, like, the guy who was president 10 years ago is still the main draw.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And they've had a Democratic president since then. His name was Joe Biden. He's nowhere to be seen.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know that every time we get close to a consequential election, Barack Obama comes off the bench like Robert Horry.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, totally.

[Michael Duncan]

You know?

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They gotta call him in to try to win a championship.

[Josh Holmes]

He's, like, the only one that can get two people in a stadium.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Together. But what I find so fascinating about this, first of all, the guy weighs in on, like, redistricting fights.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. No, it's crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean? Like, there's no level low enough in politics where he doesn't put the partisan cap on and go to work.

[Smug]

Well, if it's redistricting, he sends his bag man, Eric Holder, on the ground like, there's money to be made. There's the Netflix deal. You got Eric Holder. The guy's just looking for ways.

[Michael Duncan]

And all of these things, all the way down to the redistricting stuff, is all funded by the same 10 billionaires that are best friends with Barack Obama. Like, he wants a nice picture with Alex Soros. That overlooks midtown Manhattan, right?

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

So he's got to weigh in because he's controlled by literally, like, five people.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's fair. But just so you're following the line here, he told all of us in 2024, Black men in particular, you have to vote for Kamala because she's one of us. Shows up in Virginia to say, you need to vote for Abigail Spanberger, the one of us argument notwithstanding, because of her opponent. So we won't talk about that. But he did get to something similar. Look at the next clip. Clip 4.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

They put on a big show of deporting people and targeting transgender folks. They never miss a chance to scapegoat minorities in dei. For every problem under the sun, you got a flat tire. Dei.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, no.

[Smug]

Oh.

[Josh Holmes]

But we're still worried about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

[Smug]

Oh, that was a punchline. I was, like, waiting for it.

[Josh Holmes]

No, that's it.

[Smug]

It's not Netflix comedy Special, clearly. That they signed in with also.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, just in that.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Can we.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we play. You don't need to play the audio, but can we play that. That clip again? If you guys noticed, like, look, Spanberger sitting here just bobble heading along like she's got something profound that she's reacting to. Obama's like, D. And.

[Smug]

And the audience doesn't seem super. Like, he's not. He doesn't have the same aura he did.

[John Ashbrook]

No, he doesn't.

[Smug]

He. I mean, he. A lot of the whole, like, Obama mystique has clearly faded. That audience was not really into it.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you can't keep the same sheen on a penny when you are the back to back elected president of the United States. You've ushered in these big Democratic majorities. You've done all the things that Barack Obama did during his career, and then you spent the last 10 years campaigning for literally every douchebag in America that has a D party label like you. There's this isn't special, is not a special candidate.

[John Ashbrook]

When I had the exact same reaction to that audience as smug. I mean, they did not seem animated. They did not seem like the type of people who were ready to reach for their wallets to fund his $850 million library. So I'm guessing that money didn't come from the grassroots. It probably came from Soros and others.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I'm wondering if maybe Barack Obama has seen the ad. Abigail Spamberger is running against Winsome Sears. Yeah, Right now, I Mean like it's election day, but if you live in Virginia, you've definitely seen it. This is, I'm talking about the I am speaking ad on. Yeah, Winsome Earl Sears. It's the sort of ad that if a Republican ran that ad, you'd have to. It would be a racist dog whistle. Would be on MSNBC every single night.

[Josh Holmes]

It would have been rejected by the network.

[Michael Duncan]

Right, because. Because it portrays her as an angry black woman, but she's a Republican so they're allowed to do it.

[John Ashbrook]

That's a great point, man.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, it is so true. And the fact that he can skate through as late as September of last year saying black men, you gotta support one of your own transition into the whitest of white bread candidates of Abigail Spanberger running against a self made African American woman and say like, like forget all that that I said. But then in the same speech say like, oh, and they're just trying to demonize minorities and dei. It's like, what?

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What is the calculation? This is the reason we're bringing this up. This is the disconnect of the Democratic Party.

[Smug]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't have a message. They have.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

They know that historically speaking, they've been able to squeeze as much blood out of the stone at trying to ensure that any opponents are racist or they're sexist, or they're in one cylinder where I'm talking to this person and they all hate you. And that's the only thing they can do because they certainly can't say like, oh, our economic policies work great. People are like, yeah, the 13% inflation was awesome. Thank you so much. So they can't talk about that. They have to talk about things entirely as an identity. But as they're transitioning here from Barack Obama's Democratic Party to Zoran Mandani's, which is what we're watching in New York City, they still have to go through the motions even when it doesn't fit. When you have more African American support of the Republican Party, more Hispanic support of the Republican Party, more women coming to the Republican Party, they still have to play all those. Cuz they don't know how to do it any other way.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, no, they really.

[Josh Holmes]

And they can't say like, nah, we're just communists. We hope you are too.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Which is what they're saying without saying.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is the theory that you authored about why it is that the government shutdown was overlaid on top of in particular this Virginia election, which was a novel concept at the time. We got some pushback. People were like, I don't know. Government. Hugh, I think great friend of the program Hugh Hewitt was like, I don't know. I feel like government workers know more about how government works and they're going to know who's stopping funding. And like, we disagree with that in that we thought and you primarily, Ashbrooke thought that Democrats were attempting to cut paychecks off from people in Northern Virginia because they wanted them animated for today's election. Well, it turns out that that has taken, that has taken hold and now there are, you see, cracks in the armor that we've built up over the last couple of weeks that people have been talking about. And Teddy Ball Game Ted Cruz has talked about your very theory on the air. Can we play the next clip? Clip 5 Will the government open this upcoming week?

[John Ashbrook]

This is getting seriously impacting the US Economy. What's your take?

[Smug]

I think it's likely to open Wednesday or Thursday of this week. The Democrats will wait until after Election Day because they think a shutdown is good for energizing the crazies in their party. But I think it'll be either late this week or early next week.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, there it is.

[Josh Holmes]

So that's what you said.

[John Ashbrook]

That's exactly right. We started talking about this, you guys will remember, right around the no Kings rallies that happened on October 18th. To the most people, it looked like just angry libs out there holding signs. But to people who worked in campaigns, it looked an awful lot like a Jewish GOTV effort to turn out early vote and to make sure that people in Northern Virginia who weren't signed up to vote and weren't ready to vote were basically signed up. And so it started there and it was like, oh, they're obviously waiting for this election to happen because they know that these federal workers are pissed off. I mean, they've been going to work without paychecks or they've been furloughed waiting home. Like, these are people who are providing for families. You know what I mean? It's easy to just sort of like dunk on the bureaucrats. But I mean, if you break it down, there are people who are providing for their families and Democrats know that. They generally align with the Democrat Party.

[Josh Holmes]

And they expansion of government. I mean, that's the party that expands government. So it's good for them.

[John Ashbrook]

They know that if those people are pissed off and if they are not going into work every day, they are more likely to be a pissed off Democrat who goes and votes early and that's what they wanted. And if you look at the early vote totals in Northern Virginia, Fairfax, Prince William, Arlington, it shows big numbers for turnout. And so they got what they wanted.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, we're going to get into all of that as we break down these early vote numbers and what you can expect today. We're going to get to all of that and a little bit more analysis right after this.

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[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so into election day here, 2025. Let me just preface this by saying Virginia and New Jersey, two blue states. Two states Donald Trump has never carried. Two states that over the last 10 to 15 years has been very blue. New Jersey is one that has been a little bit more competitive under Trump. Virginia is one that has been a lot less competitive under Trump. They go two different directions on all of this. All that being said, in off year election, when you've got a party out of power, there would be something just short of a cataclysmic event to the Democratic Party. Not saying this to like hedge expectations, but if Democrats were to lose one of those top ticket items in New Jersey or Virginia, while they're trying to show momentum and energy and all these nonsensical no Kings rallies and government shutdowns and everything else, it would be catastrophic for the Democratic Party if somehow a governor's mansion that but for Chris Christie in two terms has been owned and operated by Democrats for at least two thirds of the last 30 years. That would be like, they would have to reconsider a whole bunch of different things. Virginia, they feel great. They think that it's just like in an off year election where you get low propensity Republican voters to basically sit it out. They think like we're cakewalking. That's why they didn't walk away from Jay Jones, by the way.

[Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Guy says he wants to murder his political Opponents and kill the children and watch all that. And like everybody is just sort of like, well, we're not walking away from our candidate for Attorney General. Like, of course, normally in a competitive election you'd be like, my God, that's abhorrent. Getting us out of here.

[Smug]

They're grassroots and mainstream Democrats are of that opinion. We discussed that last week.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but some of this sort of breaks itself down in the context of early vote. What we're looking at and some of the things that we wanted to give you an idea of what it is that you're gonna see tonight. And the first was this New York Times, I think you are the one that flagged the graphics in the Times, Duncan, where they're tracking the early vote in New York, New Jersey and Virginia. Can you give us an idea of what it is that we're looking at?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think the important thing whenever you get into an election day is to see where we currently see stand. Right. Because so much of the vote now, especially in the era after Covid, is not just in person early vote, but also vote by mail. Can we put up that first graphic, please? All right, so this is New Jersey governor's race, early in mail vote through 11-1-1, almost 1.2 million. At the same time in 2024 is 1.767.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, so what you're seeing is obviously, to your point, earlier homes, a lower turnout affair. Whenever you have one of these off year elections, like in a ranking of.

[Josh Holmes]

Turnouts, just I think this is self explanatory for most people. But presidential elections are number one. Midterms are number two. Anything off year, even if in a state that votes off year every time, it's still lower than a midterm.

[Smug]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And so the important thing to look at a place like New Jersey, because back from the Secretary of State's office, you actually get party reg, party registration for, you know, the in person early vote and the vote by mail. Let's put up that next graphic. All right, so what you see is that back in 2024, again, a high turnout election, presidential election year. Of all ballots, Democrats had 46% of the advance votes. Those being male and early in person, Republicans had 29. The unaffiliated voters represented 25% of the electorate in 2024. Before Election Day in 2025, so far, the advanced votes, Democratic 51%. So an improvement of five points. Republicans still exactly where they are. But again, in a low turnout environment, you're going to get less of those low Propensity, unaffiliated votes who make up only 20% of the electorate heading into election.

[Josh Holmes]

So this is the big fear, right? I don't think there's anybody who can disagree that Jack Cittarel is a better candidate than Mickey Sherrill. He just is. And by the way, I don't know if you guys saw the video of his son coming home from Kuwait.

[Smug]

Awesome.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Awesome.

[Josh Holmes]

Just so cool. His son fully expected to be deployed. He was deployed, came back day before the election, gave his dad a big hug. I mean, that's what it's all about, right? He's a great candidate. But in the era over the last 10 years, what we've had in the Republican Party is a retraction in off year and midterm turnout in a very significant way in a way that can't be ignored. It's not that we've lost everything, but in states where you're like on a razor's edge, you're dealing with a turnout that you see on behalf of Donald Trump in presidential elections that there is somewhere between a quarter and larger that just don't show up on these off year elections. And this is the kind of thing that would make you nervous about all of that because my guess is, and we didn't dig in anything beyond what the New York Times has done, but it looks to me like you got your high propensity Republicans exactly where you imagine them to be.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

They're going to show up, they're going to vote.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And Cittarelli has run an outstanding race and Sheryl is a terrible candidate and has run a terrible race. And I think we're going to see the evidence of that tonight when the, when the votes come in. One of the great friends of the program, Adam Geller, he is a great pollster. He is Cittarelli's pollster and he has told us that this race is much, much closer than the mainstream media will have you to believe and that if they can hit their election day turnout numbers, then they can get home tonight. So we'll see. It's a lot of big ifs.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a lot of big ifs. But there is a track record of this for Cittarelli in 2000.

[Josh Holmes]

Did the same thing, right?

[Smug]

21.

[Michael Duncan]

He did the same thing. I remember he went into election day, I think trailing at least on registration by over 200,000 votes.

[John Ashbrook]

And then he crushed election day against an incumbent governor.

[Michael Duncan]

Against an incumbent governor. The one difference obviously being who's the party in power in 2021. It was Joe Biden and now it's Donald Trump. And so the atmospherics are a little bit different, but he's certainly capable of it.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And atmospherics do matter a hell of a lot. And the other thing about New Jersey is that there are 850,000 more registered Democrats, and that's state than Republicans. All of that means that Republicans have fought an uphill battle throughout this campaign. But the fact that we're close, given all of that, I mean, that's a win.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, you got to hit a key keyhole at 50 yards in order to win a state, like, for New Jersey on an off year when your party's in power. But at least it is competitive to a point where, like, Democrats are sweating this one. And if you talk to Democrats, they don't want the story the next day if somehow they come up short in New Jersey. So if you're in New Jersey and you haven't voted, buddy, it's your job, man. You gotta get out.

[Smug]

Family or friends in Jersey, you give them a call and make sure they vote for Chip.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta get out. There is not. I don't want to hear a single complaint from anybody about anything that happens over the next three years if you didn't find the time to go vote at this point, and you have the opportunity, because it is narrative building. And trust me when I say the national Democrats will go one way or another depending upon how these things sort of sort out. Let's get to the next one in Virginia. This is going to be Duncan.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. The next graphic. Let's show the turnout in Virginia. So this is the governor's race in Virginia back in 2024. They had turnout at this point of 2,010,000 votes. We're at 1.45 million votes. That seems in here to election Day. Yeah, it does. It does seem high. And what you're going to see smug here in the breakdown. The next graphic. Let's put it up. All right, so this is, you know, how Virginians are voting by party. Just one caveat to this whole thing is that it's not as clean of data as it is in New Jersey because of the way that they do the registration. The registration in Virginia is the Secretary of State releases it for EV and vote by mail, but in advance votes. In 2024, Democrats were modeled at 35%, Republicans at 27. Now in 2025, Democrats at 42%. So a 7% improvement, Republicans upticking to 30%.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're seeing two things there. One is an adoption of early vote by both parties. Right. Which is very, very much in question all throughout the last five years. And you see an uptick both in 2024 from 2022 and 2021. But you also see now the next step where both parties have a larger piece of the pie. The concerning part there is that you've got 42% of Democrats. The question is whether you're cannibalizing your vote, meaning all of your potential voters, 42% of them have already voted and therefore obviously are out of play on election day, or whether or not that is indicative of a larger turnout model that can boost those top line numbers for Democrats to get higher. And that's concerning obviously, not only for the top of the ticket with Winsome Sears and Abigail Spamberger, but Jason Meare's race against this Jones character. And if you talk to people in Virginia, they think that, that the separation of the ballot, like I think Abigail Spamberger at this point, people think she's going to win. Now you can change that if you're in Virginia and you get all your people out to vote and everybody shows up in record number on election day. But like the experts are all saying, like they think that Spamberger's had this thing put away for a long time, which is why she didn't walk away from Jones and why she doesn't answer questions and why she doesn't do all these things. But the real question for them has always been in that AG race with Miyares, with a deeply flawed candidate that is emblematic of today's Democratic Party, who is violent, who is moralist.

[Smug]

He's a straight up violent psychopath. Yeah, he's a horrible person. And that's just, that's not opinion, folks. He's broken laws and they've seen him. He gets away with it by volunteering essentially his own campaign. Like this is unbelievable to make such a lawless psychopath. The AG, I think would be such an indictment on where Democrats are today. I think they celebrate the horrible things he said and I think the vast majority of Democrats agree with it. And I think that party has become so bankrupt.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, smug said, morally, so smug. Like, you know, I live in Northern Virginia, Holmes. You do, Ashbrook, you do. I don't know what your experience is, but I haven't seen a lot of J. Jones signs come down.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

And, and, and that is the most voter rich area for the Democratic base when it comes to a statewide election in Virginia. I certainly anticipate there'll be atrophy downstate for Democratic voters who are like less brain dead. Yeah. And committed to political violence. Yeah. And that, you know, they're, they, they might if not vote for Miyares, they might just leave that one blank. But I have no illusions about the Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria Democrats finding religion and deciding that this guy is beyond the pale. I think they are going to vote for J. Jones.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

The ends justify the means with much of that crew. But it is indicative and sort of a microcosm of today's Democratic Party in that you have the Zoran Mandan, you have the violence, you have the mayor of Chicago and JB Pritzker and all these people who are sort of like inciting ICE attacks and all these things. And then you have a Democratic establishment that sees the energy of that and they're like, just everybody shut up. Let it grow, let it fester, let it maybe.

[Smug]

I mean, Abigail Spammer Wish they let the rage consume you like they're running on it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, so that it's a microcosm of the whole. And you know, when I. Makes me nervous and look, I, I think that the long term strategy of that is catastrophic for Democrats. No question about it. But what makes me nervous about the next, you know, 12 months until we get to the midterms is that Democrats, if they were to win that Jay Jones race, if they win Abigail Spamberger and they win Jay Jones and somehow New Jersey is closer than they want and Zoran Mandani wins by a landslide. The message is the crazier, the fucking better.

[Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody gets excited about anybody who doesn't threaten violence upon their political opponents.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

And what we will have in turn is a more dangerous America, regardless of where your politics are. Like that's a recipe for third world countries. Like that's a bad omen for at least the next 12 months into what Democrat lessons they will take from this election.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it is a terrifying thought, especially when you consider the number of terrorists who walked across the border in this country during the four years of the Biden administration. And then all of a sudden, America, Manhattan imports a Ugandan to install Uganda like policies on the greatest city in the planet. It is a problem. I don't care where you live. You might be thinking, and we talk about this amongst ourselves, we're like, why should everybody care about Manhattan? It's just, it's just a city. I mean it's just a mayor's race. But the fact that Democrats are moving toward this radical, radical side that nobody in this country has seen for a very long time without a leader who's like, wait a minute, we need to figure out how to get the normies.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody's speaking to it.

[John Ashbrook]

Nobody is.

[Smug]

It's more than Manhattan. Staten Island. Even though they're Italian, they're.

[Michael Duncan]

Our New York guy, he's gonna tell us about the.

[Smug]

Even though Staten island is full of Italians, they still don't deserve a bondani. But I think he's gonna win because New York is gonna get what they deserve and what they vote for.

[Michael Duncan]

So one other thing I want us to quickly address here. You know, I do think there's a chance that Miares wins this thing. I think if it's inside seven at the top of the ticket, he has a chance to win the AG's race. But we know. And if you're watching this on YouTube or listening to this and you. You're a new listener, you don't know that we, you know, run political campaigns for 15 years. So this might be a shock to you. This segment that we're talking about, we're not.

[Josh Holmes]

This isn't like goat fuckerville. Like, we're actually.

[Michael Duncan]

We're not just doing yucks.

[Josh Holmes]

We actually know what we're talking.

[John Ashbrook]

We're sm.

[Josh Holmes]

What's smart.

[Michael Duncan]

Smart, smart, not dumb like they say. But I think the other side of this that we should briefly touch on here is like, what is the media gonna say coming out of this? If it's a clean sweep for the Democrats, they're gonna obviously read the tea leaves ahead of the midterm and all those sorts of things. You know, how do Republicans get ahead of that? What's our message and what do we do to change that?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think that's right. And look, there's a lot of. We'll get into a grander understanding post election that will lay some things out where you guys understand where things are at. From a right track, wrong track, from a Trump approval, from a congressional Republican approval. I will say this. If Democrats lose the state of New Jersey, it will be a grand pronouncement that somehow the brand of Democrats is so toxic that even in the most reliably blue place in this country, they can't overcome that. That they are just. Everyone sees through the rudderlessness of that party and any leadership at all, even if you've never voted Republican, is better than the leadership that they're providing.

[Smug]

But do you think.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you think the media will say that? Because I feel like they'll just.

[Josh Holmes]

No, but that's going to be the.

[Michael Duncan]

Fact, it'll be a fact. But the media is going to like put her on, you know, the, wait till they, wait till you see what they'd be like. You know, Mickey, she ran a really terrible campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

She's dumb.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

She's terrible.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. You know how it is.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But, but the, the fact that that's a possibility is the reason why Barack Obama himself called Zora Momdani and he said, I'm invested in your future beyond election Day because he's leaving himself a trap door so that if Mickey Sheryl comes up short, he's still in cahoots with the rising side of the Democratic Party.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep, I think that's right. So our question of the day this week is will the Democrats cynical election strategy work? It's a good day for that question. You'll have at least some of you that consume the program will have some inside knowledge on election results, but encourage you to get in there when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program. We read every single one of them and you always provide insight that you know, you don't get in this neck of the woods. So we appreciate it. Coming up, we're going to get to your comments from last episode. It's a question that's so simple, even a Democrat can answer it. And you're going to love your responses right after this.

[Smug]

All right, folks, this one's big open banking. It's about freedom, choice, and making sure you control your money, not the big Wall street banks. Open banking lets you securely connect your bank accounts to the apps and services you choose, whether that's a budgeting app, a mortgage tool, or your crypto wallet. It's what keeps our financial system innovative and competitive and is protected by section 1033, a rule that started under President Trump. It guarantees your right to access and share your own financial data without paying extra fees or being locked into your bank's products. Thousands of Americans just told the CFPB in Congress protect open banking. They spoke up for freedom and choice. Meanwhile, big Wall street banks want to roll it back, wall off competition and charge you to use your own money. That's not freedom, that's gatekeeping. Open banking keeps America leading more competition, smarter tools, and real innovation. And you may have seen me post about this. The Washington examiner had a great piece showing how open banking even protects religious freedom. Some banks have been debanking people over their beliefs. This rule helps stop that. So here's the bottom the CFPB and Congress need to act now, keep open banking strong. And keep America competitive.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Paid for by Americans for financial freedom.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, when you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we ask you a question of the day. And you always answer it in a way that is fantastic. This question was, what is a question simple enough for a Democrat to actually answer? A confounding question that many of you one for the agents have weighed in on. And to do that, we always start with a voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, first one comes from drunk engineer. And he writes, reporter. This is what the reporter says. What color is the sky? The Democrat replies, well, that depends on how the sky chooses to identify.

[Smug]

Excellent.

[John Ashbrook]

And then drunk engineer finishes it off with the reporter's reply. Oh, for fucking sake.

[Josh Holmes]

Very, very good comment too. Dunks, runks.

[Michael Duncan]

This is from Sarah Ferrando. Ferrando?

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I thought it was Fernando, like the Appa song.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

What is the powerhouse of the cell?

[Smug]

Excellent.

[Michael Duncan]

What do you do when you are on fire? You know, all the valuable information their useless education system taught us all. Well, I do remember from the education system, the powerhouse of the cells, the mitochondria.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Very well done.

[John Ashbrook]

And what about the fire? Stop, drop and roll.

[Michael Duncan]

Stop, drop and roll.

[Josh Holmes]

Stop, drop and roll. Yeah, we got that. That's good. All right, Smug, what do we got for comment 3?

[Smug]

Comment 3 is from M. Fundy. M. Fundy writes, change my mind. The one question all Dems can answer is if you ask them who is enemy number one in the entire world, they will answer Donald Trump. That pretty much is the only thing that they say.

[Josh Holmes]

That's it. It's the only thing they can agree on. It's incredible. A lot of great comments to that. And I think we just. Well, we were somewhat flummoxed ourselves as to what it is that they can answer. You've provided some guidance on that.

[Michael Duncan]

And the listeners and viewers always lighten our spirits.

[Josh Holmes]

They do.

[Michael Duncan]

And I appreciate that.

[Josh Holmes]

They always do. Coming up, when we come back, we're gonna get into variety, fellas. Couple of big things happen. And there's a pill popping sheriff that, well, he had some issues that he's now apologizing for. He's begging for forgiveness, actually. And then an update on Macaque, which everybody tunes in for. So you're gonna have to wait for that right after this. Okay, now for some variety smock. I think you flagged this one. There's a pill popping sheriff the New York Post was interested in.

[Smug]

That's right. So the headline from the New York Post reads, pill popping chef who spent tax money on 100 packs of cigarettes and Chick fil a begs for forgiveness. The story from the New York Post says a South Carolina sheriff faces decades in prison after he was caught blowing thousands in taxpayer funds on cigarettes, fast food, Internet games and paying pills. I had a simple take on this, which is you gotta hear both sides, okay?

[Josh Holmes]

Mm. He might have a valuable.

[Smug]

I mean, this is a sheriff. It's not an easy job. The guy just wanted 100 packs of cigarettes and some Chick fil a. I mean, if he's locking him up, let the man eat.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, do we back the blue or not?

[Smug]

That's what I'm saying. Like, if there was ever a case.

[Michael Duncan]

To back the blue, he's buying the Lord's chicken.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's exactly right.

[Smug]

He's hoarding Chick fil a and he's just trying to smoke a couple cigs. You know, you'd lock people up all day. The kind of criminals we're dealing with in this country after Joe Biden opened the border.

[Josh Holmes]

That's right.

[Smug]

The man wants some chick fil a and he wants to spark a heater. Let the man live.

[Josh Holmes]

He's ripping some darts. He's from Spartanburg County. Chuck Wright, he's 60. Admitted Thursday to using county provided credit card to fund a depressing years long spending spree that included buying nearly 100 packs of cigarettes at Dollar General.

[Michael Duncan]

And that's the other thing.

[Smug]

This isn't a guy who's like living in the lap of luxury. He's just pulling up to a Dollar General and buying a pack of smokes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Just wants to get off some darts.

[Smug]

Can we get off this man's back? We're talking decades in prison. Why are we locking this guy up?

[Josh Holmes]

It's actually like, are these the people.

[Smug]

We'Re putting in jail? Cuz I can think of like, you know, half the senators who are Democrats should probably be in there before this guy. Half of.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's true. What is worse for this country? Sending 20B to a roundabout accounting scheme that funnels a couple of B into a nonprofit controlled by Stacey Abrams that has $100 in their bank account never demonstrated any value? Or this Spartanburg sheriff who just wants to rip some darts and hang out with the fellas?

[Smug]

I mean, if we have this sheriff buying packs of cigs and some Chick fil a seeing the inside of a jail cell for Alex Soros, what's going on in this case?

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, but breaking news. I have something I think is disqualifying for.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, all right.

[Michael Duncan]

It wasn't just Sigs and Chick Fil A, which is awesome. He also spent nearly $1,300 in the app store on games like ramp car jumping. Hunt wise, he was probably out.

[Josh Holmes]

He was probably out in the beat. He was probably staking out some terrorist. And it's like, you know, the guy doesn't come out of his house and it's 3 o' clock in the morning. You got to play hunt wise.

[Michael Duncan]

You got to play Candy Crush.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, something on my dime. I don't know.

[Smug]

Also, he blew 5,000 at restaurants like Fuddruckers.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, they make a good cheeseburger.

[Michael Duncan]

They'll let you do it yourself.

[Smug]

This dude's killing it. Brokers and cigarettes.

[Josh Holmes]

He also.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm not mad they let you choose your toppings.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, okay, a quick aside here on John Ashbrook and cheeseburgers. I gotta tell this story because it just flummoxed me. Last time we were at. We were at a restaurant recently and we were getting lunch and Ashbrook asked for a cheeseburger. Like he was at a five star steakhouse.

[Smug]

Oh, he does have a ridiculous cheeseburger order.

[Michael Duncan]

He asked for it. Medium plus.

[Smug]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I want to.

[Michael Duncan]

Not medium, not medium well, medium plus.

[Josh Holmes]

We're a dive bar.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, there is some chef back there who's like cutting up the wagyu to go and do his hamburger.

[Smug]

This bar we're at, by the way, has like a million mosquitoes in there. It's like a pit of hell. Right. It's not the finest establishment. You know, this is like a down on your luck kind of place.

[John Ashbrook]

But it's a great cheeseburger. It's an outstanding cheeseburger. And they did it cooked throughout. Great crust on the top and bottom. Highly recommend that order.

[Josh Holmes]

He also butterflies a filet.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is when you go to a.

[Michael Duncan]

Steakhouse, he gets a filet and he butterflies it and turns it into two sirloins.

[Josh Holmes]

But the best part is delicious. It's the pageantry of the order. Where if you go to a steakhouse.

[Smug]

This is what happens. You let these people out of Ohio. You know what I mean?

[John Ashbrook]

I apologize for nothing. I want crust on a steak and I want it to be crust.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, now that I think about it, John Ashbrook has so many eccentricities about how he orders things. There's one more I have, which is that he will randomly go to a restaurant without looking at the menu and be like, I'll have your blt.

[Smug]

Yeah, dude. We never should have let these people out of Ohio.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't Even have a BLT on the menu. He's like, you have the ingredients, but.

[John Ashbrook]

It'S not like I'm ordering pheasant under glass, buddy. They have the ingredients.

[Josh Holmes]

It's bread.

[John Ashbrook]

It's bread and bacon, tomato and lettuce.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Everything's in the back.

[Josh Holmes]

He's got, I would say 80% of the time it's totally off menu.

[Smug]

Custom.

[Michael Duncan]

Totally custom.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Smug]

That's how you get. I'm telling you, these Ohio people are such a problem. Order off the menu and shit. Like, who do you think you are, bro? Get out of here.

[Josh Holmes]

This poor sheriff segment just got completely ransacked by.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it was worth it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it was probably great. Do you guys want to hear about macaque?

[Smug]

No one said yes.

[Michael Duncan]

I said yes.

[Josh Holmes]

So, as you know, we have somewhat of a monkey fetish here in the ruthless variety program. And they seem to be a big problem. Cock is always in trouble of some form or fashion. And so there's an update on some of this. This was, according to the Associated Press, venerable publication, the Associated Press, one of the monkeys that escaped last week. Remember we covered this too.

[Smug]

Yeah. Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

The overturned truck.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. After a truck overturned in Mississippi roadway was shot and killed early Sunday by a homeowner who says she feared for the safety of her children.

[Smug]

Can we get that image back up? And not like, you know, a mini size. Can computer enhance.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the overturned truck. Yeah.

[Smug]

And in theory, there's a little monkey there sitting on the box.

[John Ashbrook]

The rabid monkey.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So that monkey right there, there was.

[Smug]

Folks watching on like a hundred inch tv. Congrats. You're the only people who could see that. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, there's like six or seven of these monkeys that were immediately returned and recall, I think these are the same monkeys that had like hepatitis. Covid.

[John Ashbrook]

Wait, were they.

[Smug]

They were caught or they were killed? I can't remember.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they were caught the first. Well, they.

[Smug]

Look at that. Computer enhanced. There it is.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Smug]

Nicely done.

[Josh Holmes]

I think they said eliminated.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, when they were caught, you know what happened?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, they were no longer there and.

[John Ashbrook]

Then there was one left and it was roaming around Mississippi. And thank God for Jessica Bond Ferguson, who's the woman who took action. She saw the like. Can I just read from this?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cell phone, stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60ft away. Bob Ferguson, she said, had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases. So she fired her gun, she took action. She stopped this rabid monkey from harming her Family. This is an American hero.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, when you see macaque coming at.

[John Ashbrook]

You.

[Josh Holmes]

You have to take action.

[John Ashbrook]

And she.

[Michael Duncan]

Especially when children are concerned.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, this is something that, honestly, we've talked about a banana pool. We've talked about different ways to sort of out strategize this particular breed of monkey. And what we've landed on here is a woman just pick up her gun and shot it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep. Well, that's. I mean, I like her quote here. She said, I shot at it, and it just stood there, and I shot again. And he backed up, and that's when he fell.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh.

[John Ashbrook]

Matter of fact, she's like the John Wayne of Mississippi.

[Josh Holmes]

I think the only bad.

[Michael Duncan]

The only bad news out of this is the other criminal monkeys weren't around to witness this and get the message.

[Josh Holmes]

Message. You know, couldn't send a message.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they had been dealt with previously.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe this macaque knew it was coming.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Either way.

[Michael Duncan]

Last of the Mohicans.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. The search. The search comes about one year after 43 macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound. That was the story that I remembered last time when we talked about the overturned truck, that there had been a bunch of these things that were like, you know, they're giving them diseases and stuff, and these things get out, and they just worry around.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a little unsettling.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

It doesn't.

[Smug]

So it says nothing about what happened to the monkey after she killed it. Like, the rule should be, you're allowed to keep it. Like, I'd keep that thing. Stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Put it in the living room. You don't want to touch this.

[Smug]

No. After it's dead. After it's dead, dude. Disease dies when the animal dies.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you think the corporate scientist showed up and just 100% cleaned it out?

[Smug]

Disease is gone. You give it to the taxidermy guy, he's gonna drain the blood out of it. He's gonna give it back to you. Stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

He wants a rug.

[Smug]

And so, like, I'd have a pose, like climbing on a tree and put that in the living room. Everyone's like, why do you have a stuffed monkey?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Let's shut that motherfucker, dude.

[John Ashbrook]

The best.

[Smug]

Why don't you have a monkey in your living room?

[Josh Holmes]

The best.

[Smug]

I got to get the monkey off my back, Dude. There's a million jokes.

[Josh Holmes]

Every single animal segment we do ends in smug with a taxidermy component.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's something.

[Smug]

We have so many listeners, and not a single one has killed a bear. And sent me the road.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I'm sure Senator McCormick is going to be happy to chime in on all that. Listen, this is one of the guiding lights that we have in Washington, D.C. this. This guy is so smart on so many different issues. Also, just a terrific moral compass. You've seen what he's done in terms of a bipartisan relationship with Senator Fetterman, one of the very few partnerships that anybody can have any sort of, like, optimism about with today's Democratic Party, and this guy's been in the middle of it. I want to welcome the program, one of our absolute favorites. I think, gosh, you gotta be earning a jacket at this point. I think it's four or five times that this guy's been on. Senator Dave McCormick. How are you?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I'm great. Good to be with you guys. Thank you for having me here.

[Josh Holmes]

It's great to have you. Interesting times, to say the least. Government shutdown. I'm sure that's not something you signed up for when you decided to run for the United States Senate, but you get here, and it turns out there's a whole Democratic agenda here that. Well, it's indecipherable, logically. But one thing I wanted to start with you is Fetterman. I have noticed that you and your relationship with him, at least externally, as we can consume it, seems genuine. You do joint events. You talk about, you know, in this case, the stupidity of a government shutdown. He comes at it from a different angle than you come at it, but you have a similar sense of messaging. Is that relationship. Is it as of authentic.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, it really is. You know, first of all, I'm a business guy. I came to Washington like this government shutdown stuff is the craziest thing I've ever seen.

[Smug]

So we.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

To try to get our way, we're gonna hurt the people we're supposed to be serving, many of whom are people that vote for us, like the Teamsters and people like that. And we're gonna try to use this to get political leverage. And every day that goes by, more people are hurt by it. I mean, it's a. It's absolutely nonsense. But, you know, Senator Fetterman campaigned against me.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

With Bob.

[Josh Holmes]

I can remember it well.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, he was pretty good at it.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, many people were saying, had that primary worked a different way. Maybe Fetterman's never here at all. But you had this confrontational relationship, and it's just sort of surprising.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Well, I sat down with him soon after winning, and we had a conversation. We agreed, Listen, we Both serve the people of Pennsylvania. Ironically, a lot of the same people that voted for him voted for me. And we're going to work together any way we can. And we disagree on more things than we agree on. Where we disagree. We're going to be respectful, civil. Whatever we say to one another, we do it with complete trust. We talk about everything that's going on, and we try to find ways to work together. So it's not just Israel and anti Semitism and the government shutdown. It's fentanyl. It's fracking. We have found a lot of ways to work together. And I trust him. And, you know, he's.

[Josh Holmes]

He's.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

He's fun. My wife and I like him.

[Josh Holmes]

So you get along socially?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, we went out. We went out to dinner. This is a classic. We went out to dinner in Pittsburgh so soon after the election, and we're at a restaurant, and people are lined up to get selfies with him.

[John Ashbrook]

Well.

[Josh Holmes]

Cause he's pretty recognizable.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

He's pretty recognizable. And at one point, he sort of felt awkward about. He said, hey, he's a senator, too. I said, it's fine, you know, but there's been lots of benefits in addition to being a good guy. Like, there used to be a constant criticism from Dena about what I wear. Yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

No, no.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I mean, I'm pretty much open. Whatever I want to wear, I wear. So it's been good.

[Smug]

Yeah. I mean, you haven't adopted the uniform of a Pennsylvania senator.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a hoodie, I think, and gym shorts.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

People have tried to get us to move me in the hoodie direction. But I'll tell you a nice story about him. You know, he votes. He sticks his thumb in and votes. He doesn't wear a suit. So he's.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Cause you can't go on the floor with.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

So I gave my maiden voyage speech, which you guys. Which you guys recognize. And I'm in the middle of giving the speech, and I look over, and they're seated in the chamber is John Fetterman in a suit as a show of respect. And he came over and, you know, said, congratulations.

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, what do I have to do to get out of this thing?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I haven't seen him since, but good man.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, totally. So, I mean, look, on the shutdown in particular, we have theorized, in fact, SMASH is, I think, the person who sort of authored this line of thinking here about a month ago, that a component to what it is the Democrats are doing relates to this election that's coming up and, you know, I think a lot of people are sort of skeptical about that because of government workers, their level of sophistication about who's shutting the government down or whatnot. But now that this whole thing is played out, it clearly appears to be at least a component to what Democrats are trying to do. Have you detected any of that on the floor of the Senate?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Oh, sure. I think anybody who's sort of honest on their side recognizes this is very bad policy for a political objective to be able to show that they're fighting back against President Trump. It reminds me of that Blazing Saddle scene where he has the gun to his head. Stop or I'll shoot. That is what is going on here, where every day that goes by, it just is putting more and more pressure and damaging people. And that's why Senator Fetterman and I have been able to stand together in this. And I've said publicly, listen, if roles were reversed and I was in the minority and there was a Democrat in White House, I wouldn't vote to shutting down the government. I'd vote to continue to have the government operate while we're negotiating, whatever we're going to negotiate. Because to do otherwise, I think really hurts the people that your primary responsibility is to serve. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Now you have the Federal Employees Union and so many others coming out against the shutdown saying that Democrats should pass a clean cr. And I just wonder, do you think, I mean, given the number of federal employees who live in Virginia and Maryland, do you think that's going to move Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Angela, also Brooks and Chris Van Hollen off of their no vote on a clean cr, do you think that changes their mind?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I think the pressure's growing. But at least in Pennsylvania, SNAP is a really big deal. SNAP is a really big deal. We have 2 million people that are literally, by not opening the government, the Democrats are taking food out of the mouths of people who are living paycheck to paycheck. Now, I understand just today an announcement, there's some temporary bridge on that for the, for the next couple weeks, but that is the big one. And that pressure is really growing. And if you're a Democrat and you're saying, listen, we're here to serve, serve the poor people, we're here to serve working families. This is just disastrous and getting worse.

[Smug]

And also, on one thing, I'm happy to be able to say this, you have not seen any division among Republicans in the Senate. One team, one dream. Meanwhile, you've seen cracks forming among the Democrats. That's gotta be making it more difficult for Schumer to try to hold this coalition together. He's already basically doing this so he doesn't get primaried by aoc. But you're starting to see pressure, especially among the senators in Georgia of like if you're in cycle, you can't allow this to go on.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Right. Well, and there's no doubt that we are on the side of right as Republicans on the logic. Democrats and Republicans have passed clean CRS in the past. This is clearly purely political. Now. The risk was that we would lose the messaging battle even though we were right on substance. I think what's happened is because we've hammered a consistent message to your point that this is Chuck Schumer's shutdown. He is making the choice we want to do standard business. We're open by the way to talking about the extension of what those Obamacare subsidies should look like. I have my own opinions on that. I think there's a lot of problems with what they are, but there's also some real risk for working people in Pennsylvania. We're ready to have that discussion, but we got to open up the government to do it. And that alignment from the White House, the House and the Senate been pretty great.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm curious Fetterman and other, you know, Democrats that you talk to in the United States Senate, in seeing what's happening in New York with Mamdani, would they admit more than they'd say publicly on that, that they're worried about the future direction of the Democratic Party?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Well, the great thing about Fetterman is he says it publicly. Yeah, he said, but I think you get too two dynamics going on in the Democratic Party. The first is this radical fringe left element is becoming the core of the Democratic Party. When you have mainstream Democrats endorsing Mamdani, you know that we're in a unique situation and he is advocating a set of ideas that are truly socialism and are going to cut against everything that's right for the future of New York. So you have this radical hijacking. Socialism has been tried again and again and has ended up in the dustbin of history. And yet we had this 30 something year old guy making the case and people are getting behind him. Shocking. The second thing here is an outbreak and inauthenticity. Right. And I caught this from you guys where you did the Gavin Newsom thing. Yeah, I mean, what's the world. That was unbelievable. And while I got you, I want to talk about my origin story. We used to eat Wonder Bread too. You know, sometimes times are so tough, we had to use the smooth peanut butter instead of the chunky peanut butter Mac and cheese. I mean, are you kidding me? I mean, are you kidding me, right? So this is just emblematic of a party that's lost its way, and you have these people thrashing around trying to find something they can get their hooks into that's gonna be politically viable. I think it's. And I think it's sad in the following sense. Big picture. I know my friends, some of my friends who are Republicans won't agree. We want a healthy Democratic Party because you want an opponent that's gonna keep you sharp and make you defend your ideas. I think what's happening now is a lurch to the left.

[Josh Holmes]

It seems rudderless in a lot of ways. Like, I mean, nobody can make any kind of substantial argument to me that Chuck Schumer's leading anything. No, I mean, what he's doing is he's afraid of Madani. He's afraid of aoc he's afraid of keeping his own job. Doesn't want to get run out and embarrassed. But he also is afraid of trying to lead in a different direction for fear that all that accelerates the end of his career. And then you got a whole bunch of people underneath it, the Fettermans notwithstanding, that are basically like, yeah, we don't want that either. So let's just, like, perpetuate bad policy and not actually call a spade a spade on any of this stuff.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, well, listen, how that plays out nationally, I can't speak to with any authority, but I can see it in Pennsylvania, and that's essentially why the Democrats lost in the 2024 cycle. Was that Kamala Harris and Bob Casey couldn't say, listen, we're gonna embrace fracking. Yeah, Right, right. We don't want crime in our cities. We're not opposed to transgender transitions for kids. We want boys and girls. Like, these are basic things that mainstream Republicans and Democrats agree on.

[Josh Holmes]

They're all 70, 30s.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

And so again, and I can't speak to New York City. I know in Pennsylvania, that is a path to disaster for the Democrats. And if they don't find a way to serve the needs of working people in Pennsylvania, that traditional coalition that has been Democrat that now went with President Trump and me in 2024, that's going to. Those are going to be red voters into perpetuity if the Democratic Party is supporting guys like Mamdani. Yeah.

[Smug]

I think. Do you find it surprising, especially, you know, after that 2024 election? Where it seemed like the entire center and rational part of the country spoke resoundingly that they don't want to deal with these crazy left wing ideas. But now you see the lessons that the Democratic Party's taken is I guess we didn't go far left enough.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, I really do find it shocking. I do find it shocking. And again, New York politics, I don't think we should take New York City and sort of extrapolate. But I know in Pennsylvania that is foreign to the large majority of people who just want inflation to be in check, want to stop the flow of fentanyl, want to be able to walk down the streets.

[Josh Holmes]

Look, I do think it's connected. I understand like your modesty and sort of pretending like you don't understand the grand thing. And I'm just a Pennsylvania guy. This is one of the smartest guys in the Senate. I could assure you he knows exactly what this is. I mean, the issue with the lack of leadership and having somebody like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries at the top of the Democratic Party is the Mamani thing does matter to Pennsylvania and everywhere else the Democrats have their name on the ballot. Because if you were afraid to say, hey, it turns out that like Islamic extremism isn't great, I don't really want to do a fundraiser with a terrorist. And I'm like sort of upset about the idea that you're just in full confiscatory communism in the major city in the United States. But you can't speak to to it at any level. That just invites more of it within.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

The Democratic Party, 100%, both the anti Semitism and the embrace of radical economic ideas. So now the good or the bad of this is we're going to have a, if he wins, which I suspect he will, we're going to have a real life experiment that's going to play out.

[Josh Holmes]

They're going to have to confront this.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

12 to 24 months. Right. So what happens when there's a billionaires tax? What happens when you start to try to privatize or take control of grocery stores? What happens when you don't have police on the streets? I mean, it doesn't take long. It takes a long time to build something great, whether it's a company or a city. It doesn't take long to tear it down. And we're going to have a real world experiment that's been tried over and over again in Europe and other places and we have a pretty good record and it's going to fail. And now, what's different on this guy is not only are the ideas deeply flowed, he's never done anything in his life before. This is a true experiment. It's like you're picking a guy out of the phone book and saying, hey, let's give it a shot. Why don't you run the great, you know, one of the greatest cities in the world and one of the biggest. So it's going to be a real experiment, but it's going to, I suspect, be a disaster. And when it's a disaster, the question will be, does the pendulum swing back?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, it is a good question. Listen, the other thing that we listen to, everything that you have to say on issues of the Middle east, obviously, you've got a career, you served, you've paid attention to this your entire career. Huge developments here in the last month with the Trump administration. You know, a peace deal that, you know, it's still work in progress that we're. But way more progress than we've had in the last 30 years. Where do you think all that stands? And I know you've spent a lot of time thinking about this, visiting the region, talking to people. Where do you think all of that is?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Well, I'm modest. I mean, I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic. But, you know, you got to go back to October 7th. What happened on October 7th was really there were two surprise attacks. What happened with Hamas coming across the border, killing 1200 innocent Israelis, but also this rise of anti Semitism around the world, much of it funded by Iran and other places here in the United States, but also around the world. And if you had imagined then on that day, that two plus years later, Iran's nuclear capability would have been dramatically impeded, that Hezbollah would have been, for the most part, you know, incapacitated, that Hamas would have been dramatically reduced and that President Trump, and you got to give President Trump the credit. I don't think there's another president that could have possibly brought together Israel and the Gulf Arabs, Egypt, Turkey, to stand behind a 21 point plan and to say, we're going to get in, we're going to do this together, and we're going to have a ceasefire and then a path to peace and a path to economic prosperity, that would have been unthinkable on October 7th, just unthinkable. And I think it's a chessboard that President Trump has played well. I think those personal relationships with, with the Arab countries have been a big part of it. I think his deep commitment to Israel, but also his willingness to put pressure on Israel and to put pressure on Bibi, Prime Minister Netanyahu. These things have all led to an extraordinary moment. Now we got to capitalize on it. We've got to get to Abraham Accords, too. But I think that is remarkable. I think on the second war, we still have a lot of work to do. And it goes to New York City. What you saw, there's clearly this enormous move to the left and the left, on the left of anti Semitism, it's on the rise. It's on our nation's campuses. We have elements of that on the right that we have to. We're a party. Conservatives are. We're brought together by values. That doesn't mean we agree on everything. We don't agree on tariffs, we don't always agree on America's role in the world, but we do agree on some fundamental values. And they're basic things like, you know, Hitler is not a good guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Seems like the Holocaust did happen. Right. So we also have to be, as conservatives and Republicans, don't give voice to these ideas. That's not a First Amendment issue. The First Amendment people can speak their mind, but we shouldn't platform them and amplify those views that are antithetical to what we believe is conservative. So we got work to do on both fronts.

[Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

How much do you concern. Are you concerned about that? Like, I. Look, I've gone through different iterations of this over the years where one, it was just like, sort of incomprehensible to me at any level to have, like, even the idea of anti Semitism is taking root in any point in America. I mean, it turns out we fought a pretty significant war in part over this deal. And it's sort of been rooted in American culture, at least in my life. And you've watched the Democratic Party talk about their Michigan problem.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Which was just an anti Semitism issue, which is why the governor of your state didn't find himself in the VP slot in all likelihood. So we knew which way the Democrat Party was going. And then you see this stuff start to bubble up on the right. And sometimes I think it's just sort of like a flash in the pan type, we're trying to be provocative type stuff. But then over the last couple of weeks, doesn't feel like that. It feels like there is some component, however it's motivated and it does need to be confronted.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah. I mean, I think part of the problem on the left is they didn't confront it, to your point. And so it's like anything else. If it's not confronted, it grows. If there's not a counterbalance, it grows. And I think it's a real problem on the left. I think we have elements of that on the right, and it depends on what we do, and we have to confront it. And I think it's really important that we as Republicans and conservatives say, hey, we stand for the First Amendment. Don't get that confused with this. This is about having a common set of values, things that we agree are true and that we deeply believe in. And we're not going to give platform to those voices that are completely inconsistent with our values. And we're certainly not going to let those views that we disagree with go unchecked.

[Smug]

And I think also there's something to be said of the fact that you look at someone like, who's now a national figure, Zoram Doni, who said he wants to globalize Intifada, then you get news this weekend that former President Barack Obama gave him a phone call this weekend and was like, listen, let me be a sounding board for you. And then people dig up old tweets from Zoram Donnie where he's like, barack Obama's a war criminal who killed people in the Middle east. And they are now completely surrendering to that.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, yeah, but he's got the.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Votes, so we gotta be in on that now. He's now invited to Thanksgiving dinner. He's at the table.

[Smug]

Right.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

That's not. We. We've gotta not do that. Yeah, we've got. So you're.

[Josh Holmes]

So it's important you see that. I think similarly to the way I see it, which is, I don't wanna go chasing what everybody. Is that what they say, what they're like. That's not. I know what we say. I know what we believe. I know what the party believes. But you have to at least some level.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, well, two things. We gotta be a party, I think, that welcomes different divisions, disagreement. We gotta debate and hammer those differences out. Like, we're now in many ways reinventing what the Republican Party, it's a much more populous party. I ran on a set of policies to support working people. We have to be able to reconcile that with Reaganism or whatever it is to have an intellectual framework where we can win elections and change the direction of the country. That's happening. That's different than giving voice to something that we all, by and large fundamentally disagree with. And by inviting those views into the conversation, like they're legitimate views that The Holocaust didn't happen as an example, then you're delegitimizing the entire party. And you're also giving some oxygen to those views so people can say what they want to say. I wore the uniform. I fought to make sure that First Amendment is something every American has. So it's not a First Amendment issue. It's a who do we. Who do we want to have at. Who do we want to have at the Thanksgiving table? Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Listen, it's really well said. The economy, again, I'm not sure there's anybody we trust more on these issues than you.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I don't know if you see my real estate history, it's buy high, sell low. So I would. Don't listen to me on this mug.

[Josh Holmes]

I've seen the rest of your history.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

It doesn't look like that.

[Josh Holmes]

But listen, the president had a big.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

By the way, I said this when I was coming in. I want to meet. You guys look prosperous to me right now after this Fox deal. You're looking very prosperous.

[Josh Holmes]

We try to exude that. No, but listen, you followed very closely the president's trip to Asia. Tariffs, big deal to your state, to the country where we're at from our economy. Just give us your thumbnail about all that.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I mean, I feel good. I really feel good. So first of all, just think of the economy as like a sailboat. And here's the wind you got at your back, certainly on the tax cuts, the accelerated depreciation. It is the most pro business tax regime. We've had two. You've got deregulation. This is going to be the biggest bout of deregulation since Reagan in 81. That is a huge lift on GDP, streamlines business, gets capital into the markets. Third thing, we've got this huge splurge of foreign direct investment coming into the country. I want to talk about Pennsylvania at some point. We've got billions of dollars coming into Pennsylvania. That wasn't happening under the Biden administration. That's happening under the Trump administration. And that's a huge driver.

[Josh Holmes]

Turns out he thinks that, like selling America abroad is an important thing.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Yeah, right. Like a business guy. Who would have thought telling people that America is where you should be investing. Right. And then the tariffs, which have been a source of uncertainty. Like when you talk to CEOs in Pennsylvania, like, man, I don't know where to allocate my capital. I'm worried about all that uncertainty is starting to get squeezed out of the system. You see these deals in Japan. Japan, $100 billion in Westinghouse in Pennsylvania.

[Smug]

That nuclear deal is amazing.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Amazing, right? Hanwha. In South Korea, they bought The Philadelphia shipyard. $5 billion of new investment in the shipyard. 5,000 new jobs. These are welders and pipe fitters and steam fitters. Huge, huge opportunity. So you're seeing that all of the. And you're saying the energy dominance, the commitment to unlocking energy and being the energy dominant, which is the thing, which is.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the undergird.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Those are all wins at your back. Right? Inflation has not. Despite all these protests. You know, the, the. The. The clutching of pearls of all the economists. No, it hasn't happened. Hasn't happened. We watch it, but hasn't happened. 3.8 GDP growth in the second quarter beat everybody's expectations. So, listen, we gotta be very careful. The interest rate cut's gonna give more stimulus. We gotta monitor this very carefully. But the president's policies are working, and I'm very optimistic about that.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm so glad to hear that.

[John Ashbrook]

Me, too.

[Josh Holmes]

Doesn't that make you feel great? What's this thing down here?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

This is Woodburn Farms. This is a whiskey from Pennsylvania as a gift. It's easier to pronounce than Yingling. And I brought it.

[Smug]

We nearly.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Oh, my God. And the great thing about this, which I've not had this. So I'm bringing it to you as a gift that we can taste together at some point. But this is the found. It was founded in 1850, this distillery. It's on a farm outside of Carlisle. And the wife of the founder in 1850 was the great, great granddaughter of William Penn.

[Smug]

Wow.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Who was the founder of Pennsylvania.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

And so this has something knits it all together with a bottle of bourbon. I mean, who would have thought? Who would have thought? This is the history lesson. And by the way, I want you to pay attention to what's happening the next year. 250th.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Huge thing for Pennsylvania. I mean, the country conceived in Pennsylvania.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, every Pennsylvania, they're a little bit like our people from Ohio, but.

[Smug]

They actually accomplish things in Pennsylvania. Thank you.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Thank you, Spike. That. That actually took the words. The words out of my mouth. I mean, what did the Ohio thing.

[Smug]

I mean, I mean, even try stealing first and flight from North Carolina. These people are thieving.

[Josh Holmes]

At least you're not from Philadelphia.

[Michael Duncan]

I get.

[Josh Holmes]

In fact, last time. One of the last times I saw you was at that Eagles super bowl party. And I walked in and I had my kids in Eagles jerseys, like, much to my dismay. And I turn around, McCormick's looking at me. He's like, what the hell are you doing here?

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Do I have time to tell you a quick Eagle story? I'm a Steelers fan, right? I am a Steelers fan. Tried and true, but if the Steelers are out and the Eagles are in, then I'll cheer for the Eagles, obviously. But the toughest day is Eagles, Steelers. So after the election, last time, I go to this Eagle Steelers game, it's in Philadelphia. And we go down on the field. It's cold, and Dean's like, we gotta go upstairs. We gotta go back up. So we're going back up, and it's like 175ft. Walking through the Philadelphia stands. Yeah, right. These are the people that threw snowballs at Santa Claus. This is not. And batteries. This is not an easy crowd. They're not a crowd. So I'm walking up now, mind you, $500 million of advertising in Pennsylvania. Everybody knows my face. 300 million of it, negative. So at least half don't like me, right? So we're walking up, and I'm like, ooh, this is. And they couldn't be nicer. Like, high fives. You did it. Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Great.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

And we get about two thirds of the way up, and there's this kind of drunken guy on the left side. And he looks at me. Dean and I are walking together, and he says, f you. And I'm like, wow. And Dean is like, oh, my God. He seems aggressive. He says, and I had heard f you before on the campaign show. That was not my.

[Josh Holmes]

That was brand new to you.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

That was not my campaign was an education. But I said to Dean, and this is the way I think about it, we'll put him down as undecided. And that. That's the way you gotta deal with this. Right? He's undecided. He just hasn't had a chance to learn about the efforts we're taking to save America.

[Josh Holmes]

And he just knew you were a Steelers fan.

[Smug]

He didn't know you.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

That he knew who I was.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. Listen, you are the absolute best. Thank you so much for joining us. We should figure out how to have.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

A little bit of that.

[Josh Holmes]

Cause I'm curious.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

I mean, I don't want to get. I don't want to get in the way of all the productivity happening.

[Josh Holmes]

Why is everybody laughing? Very productive. Listen, you are doing the best work, and I'm so proud to have you in the United States Senate. It's like one of those people, every once in a while, the stars align that you're just like, yes, thank goodness.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

People are here.

[Smug]

Right. People are there.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Privileged to be there, really, and always good to be on your show. Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

You bet.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Thanks for having me. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I just love when that guy comes by. He is so smart on so many different things. Businessman coming to the Senate, bringing common sense, and then the relationship he's built with John Fetterman is something that I feel like we're gonna need to watch because that's sort of a path forward for how Republicans and Democrats can maybe get back together.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, people, you know, people forget the goal. When you're elected to a legislative body isn't just sitting there and saying, like, I believe in this, like that that's fine. Principle stands, they're fine, and they do have value. But you don't ever really succeed unless you persuade other people to adopt your point of view that may not be ordinarily inclined to do so. So, I mean, this is one of the reasons why we love this guy, is that. And it's like Sheehy is another one that showed up. Everybody thought, well, he's just like ideological warrior or whatever. And he said the first thing he did is go talk to like 10 Democratic colleagues to help them understand what he already knew about wildfires out west and how you could reform the system. And then he put a package together that sailed through the United States Senate. Like, that's why you elect people. It's not. So you show up and you're like, I believe. Well, that fucking gets you nowhere. You gotta have that component to believe in something. But then do you have the ability to go talk to somebody who's ideologically different and help them understand what you already understand?

[Smug]

It's like I always say, you either want to make a point or you.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Want to make a difference.

[Smug]

You know, are you going to show up and try to give a nice speech or are you going to try to move the ball?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, you coined that.

[Smug]

And then what McCormick does is he's moving the ball.

[Josh Holmes]

You coined that.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and the one other thing I would say about McCormick, more than most of the people in Congress, is he fundamentally understands the economy. Yes. Like, at such a high level. And what he was going through with the success of the Trump administration, everything they're doing to reshore jobs and improve the economy and fight inflation, all these sorts of things like his voice. And that message is going to be incredibly important. Important, yes. Over the next year.

[Josh Holmes]

The most important.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

It is.

[Michael Duncan]

It is the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, I love winning the culture war and all of those things are important. Fighting crime and showing how inept the Democrats are, fantastic and important. But ultimately, at the end of the day, the kitchen table issues for your average voter is what's gonna decide the midterms. And a guy like that gets it.

[Josh Holmes]

All those working class people who took a personal risk in supporting what President Trump and Republicans were talking about, that's what it's measured against on the economic side of things. And I agree with him. I mean, look, in fact, I could be this just a spokesperson for that along with the president and the vice President. I'd feel very good about our messaging. It's not that easy all the time. But we're gonna see what happens tonight and look forward to getting back to you on Thursday about the results of all that and what it means. Thank you for tuning in. When you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program, we ask you a question. This one is will the Democrats cynical election strategy work? You tell us what you think, we get back to the very next episode. Check out some merch while you're there like and subscribe. Enjoy the stuff. We enjoy having you. I think we did it.

[Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode.

[Senator Dave McCormick]

Gentlemen.

[Smug]

Thank you so much, Senator McCormick. And thank you to the minions. Just like Holmes said, if you have not yet go to the YouTube hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.